Western Canada

Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, The New Pornographers have been vocal on the music scene since their 2000 debut, Mass Romantic. Since then, the group, fronted and envisioned by A.C. Newman and with several others (including Neko Case, who is having a good run on the indie scene, both in Canada and in the States), have released Electric Version in 2003 and most recently Twin Cinema in 2005.
The music of the New Pornographer is based often on a pounding keyboard and rhythm section coupled with melodies dripping with pop. The songs on Twin Cinema are all instantly catchy, with vocal and synth melodies blazed into your head for days after the song was heard. Every song on the album is under five minutes and follows a verse-chorus-verse standard, so is the set in perfect pop fashion, just long enough for listeners to get into the song but still be aching for more.
Listening through Twin Cinema, you can hear the vocal harmonies and falsetto of the Beach Boys, the punk stylings of the Clash and enough shifting of time signatures to keep the listener engaged and distracted yet not seem pretentious. The music is incredibly clean and tight. The piano and keyboards drive the melody most often with perfect bouncing lines while in the background the drums pound in off beats and resounding fury. Then in the slower, laid-back tracks such as "These Are The Fables" and "Streets Of Fire", the vocals of Neko Case, gorgeous and hypnotizing, carry the song to another level.
What separates this album from the sometimes repetitive world of indie pop, is the hidden complexity. Every listen brings new melodies, new instruments. The songs are great for thumping dancing, but also for headphone listening. The eclectic array of instruments and rhythms catch new fans at every party where the record is slipped into a stereo somewhere.
Pic from www.i-see-sound.com

Western Canada is home to many accomplished writers. One of which being Eden Robinson the author of Monkey Beach. Another one being William Patrick Kinsella or more commonly known as W.P. Kinsella. This accomplished author has a connection with me that hits close to home, that being his connection with Iowa, where I grew up.

W.P. Kinsella was born on May 25, 1935 in Edmonton, Alberta. The majority of his books are based on Canadian issues and Canada's first nations. Kinsella was a very well educated man receiving his Bachelor of Arts with his concentration being in English in 1974. He continued his education by going on to earn his Master of Fine Arts in English from the famous Iowa Writers' Workshop which is held at the University of Iowa in 1978. Lastly, he received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree in 1991 from the university where he first started his education, the University of Victoria.

Kinsella's childhood was not exactly a common one. He grew up on a farm in northern Alberta and was an only child. He didn't attend school until fifth grade which made his childhood a pretty lonely one. Due to him not having any playmates he created imaginary friends to keep him company, this created a basis for many of his characters that he wrote about from age six on.

Aside from all of the Canadian topics that Kinsella explores in his works he also wrote a great deal about baseball. Most say that his most well known book would be Shoeless Joe. This was one of his books about baseball and the novel was made into a very accomplished film Field of Dreams which takes place in Iowa. Two of his other famous books about baseball are The Thrill of the Grass and The Iowa Baseball Confederacy.

W.P. Kinsella's list of accomplished works are very impressive. He published over 200 short stories and 16 books.

Below is a list of some of the works of one of the best western Canadian writers:
Dance Me Outside- 1977
Scars- 1978
Shoeless Joe Jackson Goes to Iowa-1980
Born Indian-1981
Moccasin Telegraph-1983
The Thrill of the Grass-1984
The Alligator Report-1985
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy-1986
The Fence Post Chronicles-1986
Five Stories-1985
Red Wolf, Red Wolf-1987
The Further Advantages of Slugger McBatt-1988
The Miss Hobbema Pageant-1989
Box Socials-1991
If Wishes Were Horses-1996
Magic Time-1998
The Secret of the Northern Lights-1998
Baseball Fantastic-2000
Japanese Baseball and Other Stories-2000

Sites Used:
http://www.lib.odu.edu/litfest/14th/kinsella.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._P._Kinsella
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/bios/Kinsella.html

The Canadian Parliament Building is the American equivalent to the White House, obviously, a very important building for Canadian history. Thus, the building is an important landmark that should be included in one's knowledge of Canadian History. The first building used for parliament was created after the Union Act of 1840 which brought Upper and Lower Canada to form one government. The decision of who would hold power over the government fluctuated often and finally in 1857 the Queen was asked to choose a town for the countries capital. Some of the obvious choices for a capital were Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, and Kingston due to their success and large size. Queen Victoria surprised most Canadians when she chose the unique city of Ottawa. Despite the unexpected decision this city was a good choice for Canada because the city is located further from the border with America and it was a political compromise as well.

The West, Centre, and East blocks were the first to go up for the new building of Parliament which was built between 1859 and 1866, although the Peace Tower and Library were not completed during those dates. In the year 1867 the Confederation in Canada was formed which included Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. These four states formed the new Dominion of Canada. Unfortunately the beginning years of the new Parliament building did have one major mishap. On February 3, 1916 in the Parliamentary Reading room in the Centre block, a small fire was ignited and the fire spread as stacks of newspapers and wood burst into flames as well. This tragedy took seven lives and only left the north-west wing and the library to be saved. Thankfully an employee had closed the Library's iron doors otherwise thousands of books that were irreplaceable would've been lost forever.

This fire was devastating to Canadians but they persevered because they had their hearts set on fixing what had been done. Despite the fact that Canada was fighting in World War I, it was very important to the Canadians to start rebuilding the home of their government. A new structure was designed by John Pearson and Jean Omer Marchand which kept up the original gothic architectural feel of the first Parliament building. The re-building was completed in 1922.

Today the Parliament building is extremely important as it is still the home of Canada's government. Architectural aspects of the building that it is known for are the vaulted ceilings, marble floors, and dramatic light. Another unique aspect to the building is the stone friezes where significant events of Canadian history are displayed. The House of Commons Chamber can also be found in the Parliament building at the west end of the Centre Block. Many important laws and discussions go on in those rooms that shape Canada's government in the past and present. Other special features of the Parliament buildings are the Senate Chamber, library of Parliament, and the Peace Tower. Many tourists and Canadians alike enjoy visiting this amazing landmark. Tours are given to all ages and much can be learned from witnessing where the Canadian government operates.

Image from:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.galenfrysinger.com/americas/ottawa01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.galenfrysinger.com/ottawa_canada.htm&h=468&w=648&sz=103&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=ip0dFqUMmpqrHM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3DParliament%2BBuilding%2Bin%2BOttawa%2B%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

Sites Used:
http://www.ottawakiosk.com/parliament/p_2.html
http://www.parliamenthill.gc.ca/text/home_e.html

An unconventional opera, Condemned: A Work in Progress, opens Friday at Vancouver’s Carnegie Community Centre. The show means to expose the plight of homeless people in Vancouver’s downtown east side. One writer, Patrick Foley, has firsthand experience living without a home. He told CBC News, “I can imagine some people who sleep on streets or under viaducts, some of my friends sleep that way. It's not a life. All you're concerned with is survival." The one act opera is meant to protest housing issues in the city, which seems to be a big concern for Vancouver. To add emotion to their efforts the planners cast the entire opera with homeless people from the area. Most of them had no experience on a stage, and this raises concern about the quality of the musical aspect of the performance. Nevertheless, it an interesting form of protest, and will probably be a great show. Tickets are already sold out. Claimed anyway- the show is predictably free.

“Opera tells tales of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside” CBCnews. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/10/27/opera-homeless.html

Photo from: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/CARNEGIECENTRE/

Newspapers are used across the world as means of distributing information. They are famous publications that document all of the most important events in history. Newspapers such as "The New York Times" and "The Chicago Tribune" are just two of America's prominent newspapers. In Canada "The Vancouver Sun" and "The Province" are the two most popular journals in British Columbia and Canada in general. "The Vancouver Sun" is printed daily and is distributed throughout all of British Columbia. This famous newspaper was started in British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The papers headquarters can be found in Vancouver, British Columbia one of the provinces largest cities. Surveys have been taken and the results prove that "The Vancouver Sun" has 499,800 readers per day (according to a NADbank survey.) This comes in a close second to "The Province," British Columbia’s most widely read newspaper. "The Vancouver Sun" is sometimes referred to as "The Sun." The owner of the newspaper is currently CanWest Global Communications Corp. with the publisher being Kevin D. Bent, and the editor Patricia Graham.

To keep up with technology "The Sun" has a great website that can be very useful. Some of the features to the website are the classifieds, "Inside the Sun," weekly sections, and photo galleries. Tons of other features can be found on the website such as sports, announcements, etc. Check out the site for yourself and learn about some of the current events occurring in Canada today:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/index.html

Below is an Image of an actual Vancouver Sun newspaper:

Sites Used:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~peet/media/vansunciar/VancouverSun1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~peet/media/vansunciar/index.html&h=1264&w=1740&sz=662&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=q4x2WwFqgxRcqM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3DVancouver%2BSun%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Sun