Have You Heard?!?!?!.... (Canada Rocks, Pops & Hip-Hops)

     Despite the exceptional access to more information than ever previously imagined, the world still perceive Canada as being sparsely populated, under-educated and uncultured. Yet, we continuously export some of the 'World's Best', such as chefs, musicians, artists, engineers, researchers and so on. This also is true in the realm of music.

     Whether at the beginning, such as song-writing and sheet music, to the final production of a vinyl record or stage production. Canada is producing some of the world's best future producers, photographers, engineers and musicians.

      Our first example shall be, Sir Bryan Adams. This man has represented Canada as a musician, photographer, humanitarian and animal rights. As some contemplated Sir. Adams's retirement, he has just gotten his second wind to Rock 'n' Roll again, with the release of his new album, Get Up (log in to listen, for free.)

     Moving on to  Sass Jordan. An accomplished singer, songwriter and actress, this gorgeous 'should-have-been-a-model' blonde may have been of English birth, she is most definitively 'Canadian Made'. She is currently rocking out with her band, S.U.N. (She was even made an honorary colonel in the Canadian Forces based in Cold Lake, Alberta, in 2012.)

     And of course, there's multi-talented, guitar virtuoso and always handsome, Ian Fletcher Thornley. He's weaved in and out of the charts since his debut with Big Wreck , then his solo era (which I personally thought was fantastic) and a period of near obscurity as he dabbled with this, that and other things. Including making a family and becoming a dad. The last 5 years has seen the return of Big Wreck in 2012 (They are performing across North America this year, too, so don't miss a show. , his solo revival and another album release, Secrets, in October, 2015. (Blown Wide Open redo. Not necessary, but still done right.)

     Still wearing the bejeweled crown of 'Queen of Punk', Vancouver's imported (born in India), beautiful, powerful, and contagious joy that is Bif Naked (Beth Torbert). If ever there was an example of a living warrior princess, its Bif Naked. She represents the strength, willpower, softness and determination that is woman, Canadian and human - thank you to Kickasscanadians.ca for the article link.  She sings, designs, draws, writes (some are songs, poems and a book or two) and is spokesperson for Cancer Survivors, Animal Rights and Humanitarian projects.  

     Representing Canada is the best ways, is Monster Truck, from Hamilton, Ontario. These beautiful beasts are rocking every country that will let them in! They participate in the national pastime every chance they get! Monster Truck even went as far as sponsoring a whole team! Can you tell that I'm very much a fan? 

     Also contributing the continued life of Rock 'n' Roll, Metal Rock and the reputation of being LOUD, The Wild, from Kelowna, B.C., Canada. They are touring somewhere near you this summer. And currently enjoying some earned success with this gem, What About You?. It's playing for the last few weeks on my local station. And I dare you to not appreciate after one listen.

      Let's not forget the ever-expanding world of Hip-Hop/Rap. It's not my area of knowledge, by any stretch of the imagination, but 'I likes what I likes', and so I learn and listen. And boy, am I learning. Such as there is a whole organization dedicated to the support, promotion and future of Hip-Hop and everything it can involve from lyrics, beats, soundtracks, videos, wardrobe and so much more. Not all things Rap in Canada involve Drake and some are quite connected to their own heroes of the American Music Scene, having collaborated or currently doing so. I'm speaking of SDK - Stompdown Killa. And if you check their facebook page for this weekend, I bet you can find a show with some of our country's best up-and-coming talent.

     Some of that talent includes Merkules and Prada West, both working out of B.C. Canada. They are both actively touring Canada every other week, so check their FB pages and their Twitter accounts to catch a live show before they get too big. (Not even close to being a joke. Seriously.) And if you can't catch a show, at least support by liking, downloading and especially sharing their videos with others who would appreciate some fresh lyrics and crazy twisted flows. Check out 'One Of Those Days' - 2013, 'Leave It Alone' - 2015,
'No Chances' and also 'Balaclava Boys' - 2013. 

     Hope there's something here for everybody (except Country and such. I don't do Country.) Rock on!!!

#CanadaRocks #RockNRoll #HipHopNation #SDK #Merkules #Pradawestmusic #SassJordan #MonsterTruck #SirBryanAdams #BigWreck #IanFletcherThornley #BifNaked

#FBF Homecooking... (Swore I would never do #FoodPorn)

Since it’s #FBF, I’ve decided to break a little rule and throw some #FoodPorn out there. I’ve taken up making my own bakery goods, including bread. For the last 8 weeks or so, I’ve only eaten my own homemade bread buns and really liking the experience. So last week, I went one step further… and made REAL bread.

I can’t help but flashback to my mom’s kitchen (no matter where that kitchen might have been or how small). I watched her so many times make her bread, yet when I tried her very own recipe, it was never quite the same. I missed the smell of the bread rising, then baking and cooling. Just knowing that there would be fresh, baked goodness with supper was a stomach-grumbling starter. Not ashamed to say I was a ‘Is it ready yet?’ kid as my mom was a good cook. Unfortunately for my mom but fortunately for my neighbours downstairs (unknowing yet welling testers), I tried a Betty Crocker White Bread Recipe (with a couple of tweaks for my taste).

For a first time try last week, the loaves turned out wonderful. I was scared to slice into the full-size loaves, as I wasn’t sure that the bread would withstand such a telltale test of good consistency. Hoorah, it was a perfect slice and so was the next one and so on. Each loaf, including my mini-loaves sliced perfectly, whether thick or thin.



Homemade Betty Crocker Classic White Bread

And the bread itself was excellent for soaking up au jus, gravy and anything you might want to dip it into.

“And how about toasted”, do you ask? Well, it’s some of the best toast I’ve had since grandma’s woodstove toast. The bread crisps nicely and yet the mead stays nice and soft without fall apart when spreading or adding toast toppings.

The healthy side of this bread is the basic ingredients and the fact that it’s made so fast. (I do it by hand, although you can check the website BettyCrocker.com for a machine recipe.) There are no eggs used to make the bread, although there is the basic flour, milk yeast and shortening. There is also a minimal amount of sugar and even less than a teaspoon of salt in the whole recipe. And this recipe makes a lot of dough, trust me.

I used aluminum pans and they worked great and I was inclined to purchase a rolling pin as spreading the dough by hand was just not working for me. The rolling pin is pretty nice for the low budget price and I got it at Walmart

Today, after I tried the same recipe twice, I have enough bread to last me the next 6 to 7 days and as stated before, brought a loaf to the neighbours, just so they know I’m not completely evil, (wink, wink). Hope they enjoyed as much as I did with my supper.



Medium-rare roast beef with mashed potatoes and Betty Crocker Classic White Bread Slices.

And I also hope that this gets you baking your own bread, maybe even this coming week.

As long as you’re breathing, you might as well learn something new every once in a while.

#FBF #Homecooking #BakingJoys #LearnOneThing #SelfTherapy #BasicBaking #OldSchoolCooking

©Dominique Clark 2016



I Really Didn't See You There...(Prosopagnosia, for real!)

     I have been aware of this impairment for many years and suffered many moments of embarrassment and confusion prior to self-discovery. It's seems that although there are not a massive amount of people with the same type of 'brain glitch', there are documented clinic cases and studies showing two types of face blindness: acquired (usually caused by brain injury) and congenital (unknown deficiency during the developmental stages of the brain, either during birth or early childhood). And the name of this wonderful impairment is: Prosopagnosia.

Polygon data were generated by Database Center for Life Science(DBCLS)[2]. - Polygon data are from BodyParts3D[1]…

 

   And this little 'brain glitch' comes with it's set of social and emotional issues. Your confidence takes a major hit, on a daily basis when you are misunderstood as you don't acknowledge people in public because you genuinely didn't see them. You walked past your own parents because you didn't recognize them and you just left their side around the corner not even two minutes before. You would look at pictures of your self several times over and compare them in the mirror because you just don't recognize yourself. Your now ex-husband would think you being 'dumb' because you couldn't find him in a crowd, ever.
     These kinds of misunderstandings and negative reactions to my misread actions were only amplified with a developing social anxiety that turned this "out-every-night-with-group-or-not" into "Hermit-Of-The-Year" candidate.
     Hence, the need to voice the experience that over 2% of the global population suffers from, either from the time they are born or due to some workplace accident, ski slope tumble, etc.
     This is not temporary amnesia, nor a curable affliction. The brain is a very curious instrument that we haven't even begun to understand, although we have made some progress in mapping it.
     I just wanted to have the knowledge out there on a more social platform so others know: I'm not a bitch because I didn't wave back, it's the fact that I don't recognize you; I avoid gatherings because I can't find anybody in a large crowd; I might have met you more than once, it won't change the fact that I don't remember who you are, even if you are famous.
     So there it is, it's real and it has made life very difficulty as this has cost me work, acceptance, social contact, and most of all, alienation from my own family as I've always been perceived as weird when in actuality, I just don't see things right, seriously.

#BrainInjury #Prosopagnosia #SocialAnxiety

©Dominique Clark 2016

Get The Love Back...(And why your cooking may taste like sh*t.)

       As a teenager, I LOVED to eat. So I enjoyed baking, too. The pleasure of making delicious pies, cream puffs, crepes and so many kinds of puddings. I made some fantastic apple pies from scratch, back then. And I got even more pleasure when my family would enjoy what I had made. I was still learning and more important, I wanted to keep trying even after a failure or two with some new recipe.

As I set off into repetitive, random chaos of choices and compromises that is Adulthood, the love of food became a battle against food and thus started my spiral descent into non-culinary care and fear of delectable exploration. I came to the sad resolve that nothing I would concoct would ever be edible so never presentable to others besides my family, who were also defeated to knowing the meaning of ‘Free-For-All’,  in the torture chamber that became any kitchen that I was standing in. Pizza (or other Take-Out menus) were handy when expecting company. Alcohol was helpful with the hosting or lack thereof.

Then Life shifted, as it does, presenting me with a re-do of opportunities and lots of time to think about all of everything. Since it wasn’t my first time at the rodeo, I had long decided that I would go into this new shift of circumstances using the knowledge of the past, without fear blinding my future possibilities.

I caught myself watching a cooking show now and then. Nothing ever lasted more than 15 mins (or the time of a recipe) and none of the hosts were my kind of teacher – sorry Mr. G. Ramsay. Until I came across Anna& Kristina’s Grocery Bag and I was hooked. I had previous caught some of their shows during their earlier show “The Grocery Bags” (good stuff), I just wasn’t able to appreciate what they were offering to me, at the time. During the first episode of Anna & Kristina’s Grocery Bag, I was enjoying watching them execute a random recipe for their first time and showing that mistakes happen to everybody (even you, Mr. G. Ramsay). And it was okay to try again, or find something else to create that you can accomplish.

The inspiration from Anna & Kristina’s Grocery Bag helped bring the love back for me. I cleaned out my kitchen and started making some bread. It was a re-do, of course. That is why I went for it. And I was rewarded with some pretty delicious dinner rolls. Then came the whole turkey (secret ingredient - Club House Montreal Steak Spice) and started the New Year with a Knock-Your-Socks-Off  Banana Bread, using a variation from the original Betty Crocker recipe.

And when I rocked the French Crepe recipe from King Arthur’s Flour, to the raves of my teenage son, I knew I had brought myself back to a level of contentment that was reflected in the love I infused while I was in the kitchen.

Get your ‘bake’ on, people. It might be the therapy you need.

©Dominique Clark 2016

Constant Reboot

       That’s how Life can feel for some of us. We describe our daily routine as a struggle, a battle, or some other term encompassing the random, yet consistent chaos that is your life. And the more your determination is communicated as anger, resentment, pain and such, the more the opposing forces will build against you to stop your constant attempt for change. Once you accept the theory of action, reaction and opposing balance, you will be able to find balance in the chaos that you don’t control.

       That about sums up what I have gotten out of my endless months of blog silence. The valleys have been very deep indeed and the ascensions that followed were just as breathtaking and arduous, and here I am…hitting the Reboot button on life, again. And during this mild hilltop moment, I’ve found myself writing, a lot. The love and interest in certain pastimes has returned over the last 24 months, in increments, including baking and the need to make some sweaters. All these things were lost to me during times of depressive valleys.

       I hope to make the most of this year’s opportunities, whether I create them or receive them for like-minded people. I have come to the conclusion that the struggle is more of a bumpy journey if you learn to understand and work through, around or with your situation to correct it to fit your current needs and wants. I’ve come to understand that Contentment is far easier to achieve than defined Happiness. You cannot expect respect for yourself if you don’t respect yourself.

       So I go into 2016 on another Reboot. With some unresolved situations that need to be finalized and some new ideas and hopes that may need to be realized. But the ultimate conclusion is: that I’m able to do any of what I do on a daily basis is awesome, to say the least. And I’m trying to make the most of this life as the highs and lows allow. And I’m going to use those same highs and lows to my advantage on this Reboot. 3, 2, 1…Click.

#depression, #socialanxiety, #therapy, #mentalwellness, #letstalkCanada

©DominiqueClark2016

Cut Off The Cable Today...(WTF!?!?!)

It’s done. I can’t believe I just did it. I cut off my own cable TV today. The decision did not come lightly as I’ve spent the better part of December 2015 and the start of January 2016 thinking about it. I’ve lived in some not so great places and in some not so great conditions but somehow, I don’t remember ever not having some kind of TV program, running in the background of whatever situation I was in. And after spending the last 3 years very much in solitude, I’ve found that the TV is constantly occupying my space, even when I’m doing something else, in another room. If that isn’t a sign of pure, unadulterated addiction, then I need to reread the definition of addiction.

I remember, now more than ever, all those hours spent reading books on all kinds of subjects. Women’s Romance Novels started the cycle when I was a young awkward, confused, angry teenager. Then I found pleasure of Science Fiction such as multi-dimensions worlds, time travel and other undiscovered possibilities. Once I fell in Fantasy fables and tales, I was awakened to ever flexible boundaries of creativity with words. I finally saw the connection between idea, development and actual creation.

I lost all those feelings through Life’s roller-coaster ride of poor choices, compromises and disappointments. I’ve come close, several times, to letting the desperation engulf me to total darkness. Those had to be the darkest of times for me. Yet, here I am, wanting to return the enjoyment of escape while finding balance in the reality of that surrounds me.

By losing the chain that cable TV has become in my life, I want to find the space to fill with more of what is around me personally and globally, without it being scheduled around a pre-scheduled timeline on a TV Guide screen. As almost every minute of TV seems to scream at me, all that I seek is available across the Internet. And I’m going to find out for myself if this true.

As I write this, the TV is running on its last hours of paid subscription and I’m feeling about as nervous as each time I attempt to quit smoking. Sure hope I’m more successful at quitting cable TV.

#cuttingoutcableTV ,#returntoreading, #simplfy, #returntosilence

©DominiqueClark2016