Archive for August, 2009

Hopefully they beat the frost, which could of course arrive any time at all.

Got an awesome dog? EMAIL in their name, breed, favorite treats, other information you want to include and pictures to have your pal featured on CalgaryisAwesome!

Today’s dog featured on BLOG YOUR DOG is Julia’s BFF’s- Waffles and Punkin! Here is what he has to say about them:

NAME: Waffles (the brown one) and Punkin (Not Pumpkin) BREED: Waffles is a male Lhasa Apso (the breed origin originated in Tibet) and Punkin is a femal half Haveanese half Lhasa Apso. FAVORITE SNACK: Dried lamb and the little bits of beef off the top of pizza OTHER INFO: Nick names: Waffles: Waffs, Ewok (from Star Wars), Wafflemeister. Punkin: Punky, both of them get tweedle dee and tweddle dumb. As much as Waffles won’t admit it he is whipped. yup Punkin rules the house. If anyone is getting any attention it is going to be her. These two are the best companions a person could ask for. .

Here’s what happens when a Calgarian ends up skating by himself in San Fransisco…an awesome guy makes an awesome video:

shade’s grey from reuben bullock on Vimeo.

Here’s a great opportunity to have a direct effect on what type of Calgary events and festivals are organized for your city in the next 5 years!!!

Festival Impact Study Introduction:

“Calgary Arts Development and Tourism Calgary have been asked by the City of Calgary to lead a team of community members, including festival and sporting event producers, members of business revitalization zones and independent consultants, to conduct an Event Impact Study.

The study’s extensive community consultation will inform the future direction of the Event Policy for the City of Calgary, providing direction on how the City will invest human and financial resources to events and festivals in Calgary over the next 5 years. They need the event community – both organizations and participants – to tell us how you think the City should be investing those resources.

They want to know what Calgarians value in events and festivals, which are your favourites, and what makes them of interest to your visitors.”

Help them out by heading over to the survey online, and having your voice heard:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=di7k1S16qdBRaomsnw_2brzg_3d_3d

Some good friends put me in contact with a new website taking over the way that Calgarians think about music and nightlife in our brilliant city…TheRinseOut.Com supports some of the finest selections of art, music and creativity.  A worldwide collective with one main focus; Good Vibes!   Check it out and support this new initiative!

Having just spent a couple of weeks south of the border and very close to Mexico, I was thrilled to check out this year’s Expo Latino at Prince’s Island Park. As a three-day event, the festival will still be in full swing Sunday and this is an excellent chance to sample and experience Calgary’s Latin Community.  The food, by the way, is amazing!

Jack Of Hearts Bistro in the historical Lorraine Building is one of the best bistros in the city. Amazing food, great coffee, and always a fun conversation. Here is an interview I did with Jack, owner of Jack of Hearts Bistro.

What’s up with Jack of Hearts Bistro? What makes it different then other bistros in Calgary?
We found an opportunity to open our restaurant when space became available in the Lorraine Heritage building in the Belt Line district. We really liked the space and the chance to form Jack of Hearts Bistro Inc. Jack of Hearts was a business on 4th street southwest Calgary in the 80s! I felt it was time to do something I had always wanted to do… re-open “the Jack”! It is a family operation offering real food made as much as possible fresh on site. We strive to offer quality single estate organic coffee, soups, salads, paninis, and roasted dinners at fair prices.

Why should someone come get their coffee from you? What makes a good coffee?
Jack of Hearts Bistro works directly with local roasters and has agency and distribution rights to all the coffees we sell, lowering customer cost. Good coffee is a very personal thing for all of us! Many folks like cream and sugar! If your going to have a good cup it needs to start fresh. You need to find this years crop, freshly roasted, it should be ground as needed and served quickly. That said, for Jack of Hearts we also insist that coffee is high grown in mixed farming on the shady side of the mountain and the beans are Organic, Song-Bird and Frog friendly and always have been, and that the coffee is more than fairly traded with the growers.

You are very passionate about food, what is your favorite thing to make?
I have passion for making long multi-course dinner parties… a French Press of coffees, the drink, the starters and appetizers, good soups, roasted and BBQ dinners and the sweet finishers like golden peaked Bombe Glacee with white chocolate and raspberry sauce at one in the morning.

Say I want to make a meal for a hot date, what would you suggest as something simple, easy, but makes me look like I know how to cook well?
I suggest something light and refreshing that screams where is the wine for hot date scenarios. A little coffee from “the Jack” could only help! Pick your favorite pasta I suggest keeping it simple like linguine, cook it al dente, so it still has some tooth, rinse it under cold water and toss with oil save till cooking time. For the sauce I suggest picking every veggie you can find 12 or 15 of them and some fresh herb. It could be corn on the cob cut in two inch rounds, zucchini cut on an angle, portabella mushroom slices, pepper rings you get the idea. Choose what you know your date likes, season and cook it to just mark it on the BBQ or colour it in the pan and arrange on a platter, save till cooking time. Set the table let the wine breath or chill make a basket of your favorite garlic toast with cheese. At cooking time you need two sauce pans or pots add one and a half cups vegetable stock to a pot and reduce it or use your favorite tomato sauce. Lay your veggies in a little olive oil and heat! add your pasta to your sauce and heat through. Place pasta on plate garnish with veggies and top with your Herbs, cheese and fresh pepper. Serve the pasta, galic toasts and pour the wine. If you have no time I will build you a dinner kit just stop in and see me!

You have had some pretty interesting jobs in the past, what were some of the more notable ones?
Always liking to try new things I have done many interesting jobs in my life from my first paying job which was as an auto detailer to my last which was as a director of a satellite communications company. The Most interesting job was one where we rebuilt old rock bars in hotels and turned them into discotheques, DJing and teaching the “Bus Stop” and the “Hustle”!

~Jack

Jack of Hearts Bistro Suite 101, 620 12 Avenue SW.

www.jofhearts.com

Tonight is the night you get to see the best hockey players on the planet under one roof. Canada’s National team is having their Red and White scrimmage at 7 pm at the Saddledome. A few tickets are still available, so go get them if you haven’t already!

Here are the lineups.

Team Red
Goaltenders:
Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks
Cam Ward, Carolina Hurricanes

Defence
Dan Boyle, San Jose Sharks
Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
Dan Hamhuis, Nashville Predators
Dion Phaneuf, Calgary Flames
Chris Pronger, Philadelphia Flyers
Robyn Regehr, Calgary Flames
Stéphane Robidas, Dallas Stars
Brent Seabrook, Chicago Blackhawks

Forwards
Jeff Carter, Philadelphia Flyers
Dan Cleary, Detroit Red Wings
Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Lightning
Milan Lucic, Boston Bruins
Patrick Marleau, San Jose Sharks
Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks
Derek Roy, Buffalo Sabres
Patrick Sharp, Chicago Blackhawks
Ryan Smyth, Los Angeles Kings
Jason Spezza, Ottawa Senators
Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes
Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks

Team White
Goaltenders
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils
Marc-André Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins
Steve Mason, Columbus Blue Jackets

Defence
François Beauchemin, Toronto Maple Leafs
Jay Bouwmeester, Calgary Flames
Brent Burns, Minnesota Wild
Mike Green, Washington Capitals
Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks
Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim Ducks
Marc Staal, New York Rangers
Shea Weber, Nashville Predators

Forward
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Shane Doan, Phoenix Coyotes
Simon Gagné, Philadelphia Flyers
Dany Heatley, Ottawa Senators
Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames
Andy McDonald, St. Louis Blues
Brenden Morrow, Dallas Stars
Rick Nash, Columbus Blue Jackets
Mike Richards, Philadelphia Flyers
Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning
Jordan Staal, Pittsburgh Penguins
Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks

Opening next Friday, September 4th, and showing for the weekend, is THIS traveling art show. Hope to see you all out at Livestock for it!

Photo: Lindsey Baker
Representing: Summertime on the pedestrian bridge.
http://www.flickr.com/people/drinkableyes/
http://www.myspace.com/drinkableyes

Be sure to check out Lindsey’s flickr page- she has some AWESOME multiple exposures posted!

Submit to our flickr pool for your chance to be featured on POTW!