btwinnipeg

Hi all!

Last night I checked out PTE’s “Lawrence and Holloman”.   I’ve never actually been to a play at PTE before, and I was blown away by last night’s performance.

Michael Spencer-Davis was genius at his portrayal of the pessimistic, slightly creepy “Holloman”, and Matthew Edison had me laughing out loud as he played the obnoxiously optimistic Lawrence with charming arrogance.

The play isn’t for the young’uns, a warning to you.  But the dark humour and deliciously twisted story-lines will keep a more mature audience well entertained!

This is the last weekend for it, and if you can take a break from your Olympic viewing for a couple hours, “Lawrence and Holloman” is very much worth checking out!

Heart.

We always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and with our very early schedules I think it’s especially important to start it off right.  Many people like to ask what time I wake up (no later than 3:45am) and what time I start work (5am).  At that hour, I want to save as much time as possible.  Conversations in studio often turn to food and for people who don’t eat breakfast I totally endorse having a breakfast smoothie. A coworker and I were talking about it the other day and she bought all the ingredients to make a smoothie only to have her blender breakdown so she was left with chunky slush. It’s important to have a good blender that will crush ice. Otherwise you may be eating your smoothie with a spoon. 

Here’s a look at my breakfast this morning. Recipe below if you want to make a great smoothie!

1 banana

1 cup frozen berries (don’t need ice if the berries are frozen)

1 cup milk (I drink Almond Milk because I don’t like regular milk)

1/2 cup yogurt

1/4 cup quick cook oats (keeps you full longer and it’s not chunky once you blend it up)

thin with water if you feel your smoothie is too thick.

Enjoy!

Hey all!

Just thought I’d let you know about an interesting little gem I discovered this weekend.  A friend of mine has started hosting a weekly showcase of young folk musicians at The Paragon Restaurant and Bar on Carlton.

I heard local musician Vince Adrushko close down the house with songs that had a few guests dancing, and ALL guests tapping their toes.

Also, my former classmate from good ole Steinbach, Brian Neufeld picked up the guitar to play a few new songs of his.

All in all, it’s a great space for young, local musicians to have their music heard!  Check it out if you’re a folk music fan, or check into it if you’re a folk musician!

Paragon O’Folk Nights every Saturday at the Paragon Restaurant and Bar on Carlton!

Heart, Jenna

Evan and I do! Especially if we get to read to a great group of students at St. Alphonsus School. As part of I Love to Read month, Evan and I visited this great group of kids. We each read a book and gave out some Citytv tattoos which the kids just loved (their parents may not have loved them as much.)

In case Evan cuts this out of his video – he asked the kids whose story they liked better and they overwhelmingly chose mine. We were happy to hear that many of the kids watched Breakfast Television and they sent us off with wonderful homemade Thank You cards.  Here are some pics. (P.S. Evan also has some photos on his blog.)

Today, Pay and I got the wonderful opportunity to go and read to a kindergarten class at St. Alphonsus School for I Love To Read Month.  It completely made my day.

A terrific group of youngins’ they were, who, might I add, were extremely well behaved!  The video we shot there will air Tuesday morning.  It should be a good one!

A few pictures from earlier today:

Only 10 days until March ! Spring training for major league baseball starts today in Florida, we had gardening on Breakfast television yesterday and the overnight parking ban on snow routes is over as of March 1st. It won’t be long folks until the snow is gone and the grass is green and it can’t come fast enough for me. I don’t mind winter weather but I am not a fan of the overnight snow route parking ban because my garage was built shortly after the “big bang”, it is an old one and it has a creeky door you have to lift because the garage is to unstable to hold a garage door opener. I really hope we have a nice spring and summer to make up for last years chilly and wet summer season, I’m a fan of the really hot weather and it would be nice to have that again. Are you ready for winter to leave us ? What are sure signs of spring for you ? I’m sitting at my desk here at CITYtv wrapping up this entry gazing out the window as it’s snowing so I guess we’ll all have to wait a little longer.

Hi all!

Just wanted to tell you about a great concert I was able to check out at the Winnipeg Art Gallery last weekend.  My valentine bought us tickets to see the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra at the WAG on Heart Day.

The concert featured guest  trombonist and bandleader,  Dave McMurdo and vocalist Anna-Lisa Kirby – whose husband you’ve seen on BT’s Sound and Words segment, musician Steve Kirby.

I was blown away by their arrangements of Funny Valentine,  You Can’t Go Home Again, and Thou Swell – just to name a few!

Our jazz orchestra is a very talented bunch of musicians, and the jazz scene in our city is alive and well!  Check them out if you get a chance!   They’ll be playing March 21st at the WAG, it’s “West Side Story” like you’ve never heard it before!

For details on WJO – visit their website at www.winnipegjazzorchestra.com

Heart.

Since I’ve moved to Winnipeg, people have been hyping Festival Du Voyageur. The snow sculptures! The tourists! The Voyageurs! I ventured out to this Festival over the long weekend to see what it was all about. First of all, I didn’t count on the huge crowds of people waiting to buy tickets! It would have been wise to purchase these in advance.  It was a great day to be outdoors on Louis Riel Day a.k.a Family Day…and the families were definitely out.

I saw something called “bannock” on the website and asked on Twitter what that was. I got lots of replies telling me how delicious this grilled flatbread is. I couldn’t wait to try it. Unfortunately, the bannock I tried wasn’t that authentic so I am now on the search for real bannock. Please let me know where I can try this tasty sounding snack.

The snow sculptures are indeed impressive and I tried on the warmed pair of mittens ever. Great musical entertainment too and some poutine kept me going.

Today on the show we talked a lot about comedy. What makes something funny? It would seem the more you break something down and analyze it, the less funny it certainly becomes.

The topic of classic comedy teams eventually came up in the conversation and Jon mentioned that he’s a big fan (and he most definitely is) of The Three Stooges. I have nothing against The Stooges, but I’ll always be an Abbott & Costello fan. So may I present to you a little bit of old meets new: The classic “Who’s On First?” presented with the aid of some fantastically well done typography. Enjoy!

I took a few days to visit some friends in Toronto and the best text message I received said, “do you want to come over to play with puppies and try on some jeans?” Yes and yes! I should note that my friend had some jeans that didn’t fit and thought I might like them. I’m all for recycling clothing! And the puppies. Oh the puppies are so adorable. One belonged to my friend, one to her mother and the other two to a friend of theirs.

Not only that! When I got there my friend said “I forgot to tell you I picked up some vanilla beans for you.” So I got to play with puppies, get some jeans AND vanilla beans for baking! What a great last day in the city! Here are some photos of my playmates from the weekend. Only the bulldog is actually a puppy. 8 weeks old.