Dunaber music

A Cape Breton Love Story

mike — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:34:45 +0000

My friend, Thea (Gillis) Campbell, sent this to me this morning; as they say, I “LMAO”. I’m thinking you might like this:
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A Lot of Fun Thanks to youtube

mike — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:33:09 +0000

The band had a lot of fun this season, or I think they did. I know I did. Stretchy music and youtube.com - what a combo. Posts of our medley performances on the video site gave us waves of anonymous commentary; a sort of huge sputtering, spittley mouth-piece of amazingly passionate - and mostly vitriolic - comment. Entertaining in the extreme for us. I think of anonymous comment as entertainment and that with a bona fide signature as constructive.
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Hope for a New Premier Grade Event

mike — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:02:26 +0000

There was a time I was heavily involved in the administration of the Pipers’ & Pipe Band Society of Ontario. Bigtime involved. Vice-President of the Toronto Branch when I was 18, President at 19. Can you imagine! What a presumptuous little brat I must’ve been (or am, depending on who you ask).
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Practice Chanters: Size Matters (Thanks Ben Johnson)

mike — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:59:35 +0000

With competitions and general busyness most Saturdays I’ve come to be a chronic Sunday reader of Canada’s Saturday Globe & Mail - a favourite newspaper. Out on the back deck this afternoon, as the setting sun of the last day of summer sort of warmed (a 19 degree day today), I came across an article of interest: one that made me immediately think of a bagpiping parallel (not an entirely uncommon thing to happen - I’m slightly embarrassed to admit).
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Scott MacAulay

mike — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:48:57 +0000

What sad news that the dynamic force of nature known as Scott MacAulay has died. I’ve known him for pretty much as long as I have been piping, and, I guess, because of that, I’d expected him to be around for, at least, as long as I was. I hadn’t spent much time with Scott over the last number of years; like so many people we know, especially friends, we take them for granted: “I’ll call tomorrow”, “We’ll get together soon”.
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Trans-Atlantic Travel: 10 Years Ago Tonight

mike — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:28:56 +0000

Ten years ago this evening I had the worst flying experience of my life. I’m reminded of this because this week marks the tenth anniversary of the awful Swissair flight 111 tragedy and this sad fact has been in the news.
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Benbecula

mike — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:00:20 +0000

Labour Day marks the official end of summer for most people in this part of the world. School starts back tomorrow and there’s no more holidays in sight until mid-October and Thanksgiving.
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Rumours on the Internets

mike — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:32:18 +0000

You don’t have to be very old to remember the world before the Internet. I think my first foray was around 1996 using a workplace account (for business purposes only, of course). I imagine there’ll be loads of people in their late 20s who remember, even a little, a pre-Internet world.
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Summer Vacation

mike — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:17:58 +0000

In honour of the looming and long-awaited Canadian summer I post for your edification and enjoyment a truly archival Grey family photo - summer vacation a good few years ago, Lake Massawippi, Quebec.
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It Should Never Be a Chore to Play

mike — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:23:42 +0000

You sometimes make your luck and you sometimes chance on luck but however it comes I can tell you I’ve had a fair bit of it when it comes to tuition. The 20th century master, Captain John MacLellan, is one teacher who helped me a lot; he left a big impression. Of his many memorable pieces of advice one that stays close to the surface is this:
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