Category Archives: Family

My experience looking for a bread machine

The PolyBlog
May 16 2020

We have decided to retire our existing bread machine that is at least 15 years old, after Andrea discovered that there was some light corrosion on the inside of the baking apparatus. It is underneath the structure that actually holds the baking pan, nowhere near the food, but it is still “in” the machine, so safer to jettison for health and safety reasons. I knew that everyone went crazy on bread early during the pandemic, and stores are still low on yeast. But I hadn’t anticipated a complete lack of any bread makers being left. Sure, I’d thought there would … Continue reading →

NAC Pops show – The Music of John Williams

The PolyBlog
October 19 2019

My wife and I enjoy the NAC Orchestra shows, particularly the Pops, and if it wasn’t for simple cost and logistics, we’d sign up for them every year. Instead, we pick and choose the shows we want along with some others. With 17 shows across multiple venues, this was outing #2 this year. The theme for the night? The music of John Williams, namely from all his soundtracks of the greatest hits of films. Up first was the Main Title from Star Wars (1977), and it’s a great blockbuster opening. From there, they slid into Superman March from Superman (1978). … Continue reading →

NAC Theatre – The Wedding Party

The PolyBlog
February 7 2019

My wife and I went to see the show called “The Wedding Party” at the National Arts Centre this past weekend, and I absolutely loved it. It made me fall in love with professional plays again. Now you may be thinking, what’s not to love? But I confess that I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with the NAC when it comes to plays. Almost every play that I have seen at the NAC, not a huge number admittedly, have been pretty damn good. And all of them were well-acted. The hate part comes from the fundamental … Continue reading →

NAC Pops – Women Rock

The PolyBlog
January 13 2019

My wife and I had tickets for the latest NAC Pops show this week, and unlike the odd one last time (NAC Pops – Holiday Swing), this was a bit more their style when it comes to non-orchestral “modern music”. They’ll do Broadway or rock or a host of other “pop” sources for music, stick the orchestra in the back playing the music, and throw some good singers up front. I confess, at times, they bury the orchestra. But it’s still fun. This one was along that line, with eighteen fantastic songs made popular by female artists. To handle vocals, … Continue reading →

NAC Pops – Holiday Swing

The PolyBlog
December 9 2018

Andrea and I went to see one of the National Arts Centre (NAC) Pops series last night entitled “Holiday Swing”. As the name suggests, it is a “swing” / big band version of Christmas music. While the series is almost always a good time, it is much improved when Jack Everly is conducting himself as opposed to designing the overall program for the year. Unfortunately, in that regard, it was not Jack, but Byron Stripling performing as conductor, trumpet, and vocals. I confess that I’m not a big band aficionado, nor a jazz specialist, and was not familiar with Byron … Continue reading →