Vintage sounds of Jamaica

Two weekends ago, we made the trek out to Koko Cocktails to get our groove on with some old vibes of Rock Steady, Ska and and that old 60's and 70's reggae. I enjoy my 80' and 90's dancehall, but this old stuff brings me back to my childhood.

It was the sounds that I would wake up to on Sunday as my father would blast the music in the early hours. And it was always the same- Ska and reggae, with calypso and soca. I would them make myself downstairs for some breakfast, which was all sorts but usually with some Jamaican twist in there- such as the dreaded porridge. But when it came to johnny cakes or saltfish fritters- I was all over that!

But two weekends ago, it wasn't on- there was no reggae! Instead, it was modern day house music. It was a misprint online and our excitement which got us there one week early!

But we returned last week and we had a nice time- and a nice surprise. Who knew that the music my family loves would be just minutes away from my house.

So here's to Paul and Mark and their spot as DJ's- and this is where you can follow them:

http://sfvintagereggaesociety.blogspot.com/

I only wish that our family DJ would have been able to know these bways as well.

Reinventing and the pencil crayons

I tried to make the blog about some of the things that I pick out as different between growing up in Canada and now living here in the US.

These are subtle things - but now I'll be here all day putting them out there.

Instead, I'm going to write about the random things that I do in my every day. Yeah, so like everyone else- just a lot of blah, blah, blah.

Hopefully mine won't be so dull- but no promises!

I'll leave with one last Canadianism that I grew up with from elementary school - that is our pencil crayons! Remember those?

Out here they are called- colored pencils. I dunno but sounds kinda racist to me. I mean the pencils are used by the masses from 8 to 3, when the kids are in school. And those poor colored pencils. They are only used when the teacher gives an assignment that could require them. Can you use the blue colored pencil to do print out your maths homework? No, they are segregated from the normal black pencils! Bad colored pencils, what were you thinking? Back in your case you go with the other colored pencils. While the regular pencils can hangout with the yellow highlighter and the eraser and the older set, the pens- the colored pencils must hang with their own often at times forgotten in the bottom of the bag.

So check out our Laurentian "Coloured" Pencils - and in Canada, the label says colored pencils- but at the least we'll call them by their name Pencil Crayons.