Just another Yankee with a Maple Leaf on her back-pack

While still engaged to mom, dad whisked off to the University of Washington to get a BA in theatre. Mom and dad corresponded faithfully until one day Dad mentioned working in a Sorority to supplement the GI bill paying his way. “You mean a Fraternity, don’t you” was mom’s reply.  Nope, dad replied, he was pretty sure it’s a Sorority cause men don’t look this good in satin.  My parents married that fall and my sister was born in Seattle the following year.

We always assumed because she lives in Canada, pays taxes in Canada and never declared U.S. citizenship after reaching the age of 21, she was a Canadian. Until, that is, she had to apply for her passport and was told she really wasn’t a Canadian…or American…or, well, anything. It took a signed declaration by my father, his birth certificate to prove his citizenship and the intervention of Rowe’s Member of Parliament to finally cut the red tape for the passport to be issued.

Never take life in this country for granted. It is a gift, a blessing and a jewel beyond price.

Visit Jowi Taylor and the amazing Voyageur at www.sixstringnation.ca , better yet, go to your local book store and buy his book. 

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:

Song of Assisi by -MARC GUNN - Celtic Songs, Sci Fi, and Cats

Maple Leaf Rag by Jeanne Backofen Craig

September Wind by  Hardwire Speers

O Canada by *Danny Fong* (Some Tracks Feat. A cappella quartet, 'Mixed Nuts' or other friends and family)

Noodling by Jay Moonah (Thanks to Daniele Rossi for the recording of the 6 String Nation guitar at PAB 2009)

To Michelangelo the process of his art was to look at a block of marble at dawn in order to see the figure it contained and then to take away all the pieces that didn't belong. I seem to be a work in progress with lots of pieces being removed but I'm pretty sure the final result won't exactly be an angel.  Maybe I'm just not ready to be one yet.

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” - Michelangelo

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:

Elegy for M by Ash Verjee

VoiceDance - Choir SATB by Danny The Multitracker

They Cant Take That Away From Me by Sylvia Bennett

Something good can be found in just about anything, I guess.

Sulfa drugs and penicillin came out of the First World War; RADAR, plastics and synthetic fuels from the 2nd.

The Vietnam War brought about a revolution in technological support for the disabled - I kid you not - and a healthy distrust of being told "this is for your own good." Maybe the current unpleasantness in the Middle East will lead to an end to dependence on Hydrocarbons.

But wouldn't it be great if we could cure cancer without starting a war to do it?

"You can't say civilization don't advance... in every war they kill you in a new way." Will Rogers

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:

Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the (Excellent) Motion Picture "Once"

When your child has Type 1 Diabetes, you become a family with diabetes.

Actually, you become part of a huge international family all dealing with the physical and emotional roller coaster of life with a chronic disease.

This is a YouTube presentation by the Vancouver Island JDRF teen council who are the teenagers in the Type 1 family. They're old enough to speak for themselves and get the word out. One of them is our daughter and she's decided to bring her friends to babasbeach in time for a family walk.

To donate, please click here

The two icons of 50's TV were Dragnet's Joe Friday and June Cleaver, domestic goddess on "Leave it To Beaver". He was all about the facts, while her thing was house, hearth and doting on her sons, especially the unfortunately nick-named youngest lad - to the eternal gratitude of junior high class clowns everywhere,  "Gosh, Ward, you were a bit hard on the Beaver last night". Snicker, snicker.

Joe Friday would not get that joke either. But his partner would.

Life for women has changed a lot since the 50's but media still show us as being impeccably dressed, wandering through a spotless house that never needs cleaning and waiting for a husband - doesn't matter whose husband - to come home and brighten the day or afternoon.

The modern reality is more like Law & Order: Tedious Daily Routine but it probably wouldn't make it in prime time: most women are too busy working the home shift to watch it.

I grew up in a house that was filled with music. Despite the budget considerations of raising four children on a printer's salary, there was never a problem finding money for a piano, a saxophone, and a clarinet for us to play or for the long years of tormenting teachers with our efforts to learn how to play them.  We still don't know how they managed to do this and feed us too. Music, love and wiener soup - could these be the ingredients of the glue that held our family together?

As a present to Dad for Father's Day 2007,  my brother, sisters and I have purchased a brick in memory of  Nicholas Blaseckie at the Forest Workers Memorial Park in Cowichan Lake BC.  

For information about the Memorial Park, visit the Cowichan Lake website at http://www.cowichanlake.ca/bus/forestcoop/fworkpark.html

Music in this episode was recorded live at the Greater Victoria Strings Orchestra  "Bach to the Beach" performance on June 7, 2007 at Willows Beach, Victoria BC.

An Irish Party In Third Class - Gaelic Storm

Entrance Of The Queen Of Sheba - Handel

For more information about the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) please visit www.jdrf.ca

To pledge our daughter in the 2007 Walk to Cure Diabetes, please click here.

If you're going to be in Kingston, Ontario for the Podcasters Across Boarders, please let us know...We'd love to meet you.

Music this week for the Podsafe Music Network:

Moonlight Piano Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2, mvt. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by Ajero, Mario

A few years ago while sitting in a coffee shop in Victoria's laid back equivalent of the Upper East Side, Gordon Head, I overheard two young moms, upwardly mobile, impeccably dressed, comparing pictures from a child's birthday party.

Every second comment, be it on the cake, the way the yard was decorated or what everyone was wearing was, "That's just sooo Martha". It took me a minute to clue into the fact they weren't referring to the hostess of the party but The Martha...Stewart.  How the mighty have fallen. The coffee shop is closed too.

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

If you're going to be in Kingston, Ontario for the Podcasters Across Borders, please let us know...we'd love to meet you.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:

Family by Rob Costlow

No, not those horse people from Gulliver's Travels or words that sound the same but smell different. It's trying to win an argument by pointing out your opponent is wearing white after Labour Day. A good debate is a wonderful thing - like a tango with words - and dips should be one of the dance steps, not the participants.

Lee Maddeford - The Soft Hate Song

But Granny, you don't have glaucoma.

I remember a Mad Magazine comic about how each generation rebels by turning into the opposite of it's parents. Hippie parents were shaking their 'fros and rattling love beads in worry over finding a three piece suit concealed in their son's closet.

If only the truth were that simple - it's not the differences between generations that causes  problems, it's that we are actually too much alike. 

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:


  Not Alone by Rob Costlow

When life hands you lemons...
fill in the blank with a greeting card one liner. One of my daughter's favorite cartoon character says,
"When life hands you lemons, dance:
dance like there's a muskrat in your pants."
Actually, life doesn't hand you anything but sometimes someone is there to hold your hand when it really counts.

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:

Rob Costlow - Goodbyes

AssertiveSound - Moments of joy

Bettye LaVette - Down To Zero

"Never Underestimate the Importance of Clean Underwear.

Some people find inspiration at the bottom of a bottle. Some find it on a mountain top. And every so often some find where they'd least expect it.

Many thanks to my back-up singer, Bob, a cockatiel who sings his own tune whenever the spirit moves him."

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:


Woods of Chaos by Rob Costlow

Thoth by Chub Creek Music. Thanks Dave and Gary! Be sure to visit them at www.chubcreek.com

We're all a bit like Blanche DuBois, forced to rely upon the kindness of strangers. Maybe there was a little magic left in the Mickey ears or maybe, after so many times across the border the statistics were on my side. I'd like to think that if you treat people like people, more often than not, you won't get strip searched for using creative math skills.

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:


Hide and Seek - Julia Nonet's - Woodwind - String Orchestra by Marty Buttwinick

Struck Down by Jacques Grant Rewired

Orchestral by maestross

Comments[1]

Some people may think this show constitutes cruelty to ferrets. Not that I think anyone will get close enough to a politician to try out the theory. And that Jehovah Witness friend of mine? She came back from France with a mission - to make the local grocer bring in decent chocolate croissants.

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:


Lost Times by Tom Byrne

Run time 5:26

My apologies if you visited this site and downloaded the file when it first went up. Technically difficulties were at play. Google search for PEBKAC to find the reason. Another lesson learned...always listen to the final mp3 before uploading the file

Take Steinbeck, a jammed impeller, add a white picket fence, Barney Rubble in fuzzy slippers and pearls then watch the magic happen. There are a lot of mysteries in life but what makes two people get together and stay together for this damn long is still the biggest mystery to me. Not complaining, mind you.

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:


New Beginning by Kparx

Run time 6:32

The way can be straight and narrow or broad and bumpy or even paved with gold but we all come to the same waiting room in the end.

Welcome to Baba's Beach Podcast # 10

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

How many Cro-Magnons does it take to change a light-bulb?

Welcome to Baba's Beach Podcast # 9

Please visit us at www.babasbeach.ca and send comments to babasbeach@gmail.com

In 1996 we gathered together to say goodbye to Baba and went for one last walk with her on the beach. Here are a few words from that day to complete the picture of Pearl Holub Blaseckie.

Thanks for visiting Baba's Beach today. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them.

Happy New Year and see you soon on the beach.



Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:


Auld Lang Syne by Friction Bailey

Christmas is only one day away now, and it's time to reflect on thoughts from Christmases past.

Here is a column that Maureen wrote a couple of years ago. Everyone at Baba's Beach wishes you a Merry Christmas and All the Best for 2006

Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:


Silent Night with It Came Upon A Midnight Clear by Doug Boldt

This is the last of four audio tapes recorded in 1980 by Therese Blaseckie.

The audio starts and stops quite abruptly, but I've left them just the way they were on the original tapes without any fade ins and outs.

Please enjoy and share the website with others who might too.

This is the third of four audio tapes recorded in 1980 by Therese Blaseckie.

The audio starts and stops quite abruptly, but I've left them just the way they were on the original tapes without any fade ins and outs.

Please enjoy and share the website with others who might too.

With Remembrance Day having just past, I often think of heros at this time of year. Not the Comic Book Heros, but the ones under our noses every day.
Music from the Podsafe Music Network this week:

Celebration by Mark Heimonen

elijah elijah by Melissa Cox

8EnV.5 by 2-RD

Taps by the United States Air Force Band

This is the second of four audio tapes recorded in 1980 by Therese Blaseckie.

The audio starts and stops quite abruptly, but I've left them just the way they were on the original tapes without any fade ins and outs.

Please enjoy and share the website with others who might too.

This is the first of four audio tapes recorded in 1980 by Therese Blaseckie.

The audio starts and stops quite abruptly, but I've left them just the way they were on the original tapes without any fade ins and outs.

Please enjoy and share the website with others who might too.

Welcome to the Baba's Beach Podcast. We'll be posting all sorts of interesting stuff here. To start with, here's a bit of background info about Baba Blaseckie and her beach.

Podsafe Music in this episode is:

Forest In The Morning by Fumitaka Anzai