“When firefighters arrived, the one-storey home was completely engulfed in flames. Officials say the home was so cluttered crews were unable to get inside to extinguish the blaze and could only pour water on the home from outside.” Source 1 Source 2

The next door neighbours were at one of the police lines and say that the wind was blowing the away from their house. That, and a 15ft/5m distance between structures protected themselves from a lot of grief.

Neighbours say Chalmers’s adult son was unemployed, had been sleeping in his van and had been instructed by his mother not to get rid of anything inside the home.

The City of Vancouver released details about the home on Monday afternoon, saying staff responded to four complaints about the home’s “untidy yard” between 1996 and 2004, and all complaints were addressed by the owner.

The city says the owner complied with all requests for maintenance over the years, including boarding up windows and securing the home’s doors, and there were no bylaw infractions.

The city says it has not received any complaints about the home since September 2010 and was “not aware of anyone living in or breaking into the building.

In no particular order:

"Linus and Lucy" from A Charlie Brown christmas.  Every time my phone rings people smile with this music as my ringtone

Anne Murray – Winter Wonderland.

Something isn’t right. I’m sure I played this when I worked at an Ontario radio station in the Fall of 1979 but this song wasn’t released on an album until 1981 when I had already moved to B.C. Regardless, the album I remember had Anne Murray singing a series of christmas carols in a medley format, moving into the next song seamlessly*. She has such a beautiful, warm voice:

Bing Crosby & David Bowie – The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth

In many cases it is the artist that makes the christmas carol what it is but there are some tunes I will never enjoy, such as "Do You Hear What I Hear?" no matter who sings them. "Little Drummer Boy" is another.  Stupid song. This is the only version I can stand without turning off the radio immediately, but I never listen all the way through:

Stevie Wonder – The Christmas Song (Vinyl Cut)

Canada’s first all jazz radio station started a few years before I moved to B.C. in the early 80′s. When the holiday season came around, hearing christmas carols in a jazz format was a wonderful experience. At one point it was snowing outside and this song was playing. I have a more intense memory of Stevie Wonder’s singing being more acapella than this, but I still love the way he does it here.

I don’t go out of my way to listen to this song but I like it and so do a lot of other people. Released in 1981, it has been "number 1 the VH1 greatest Christmas song chart three years running 2004, 2005, 2006" [UK]

John Lennon – Happy Christmas

This was the song I waited to hear on the radio.

CBC Radio 1 As it Happens has played Fredrick Forsyth’s The Shepherd since 1979

The Shepherd relates the story of a De Havilland Vampire pilot, going home on Christmas Eve 1957, whose aircraft suffers a complete electrical failure en route from RAF Celle in northern Germany to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Lost in fog and low on fuel, he is met and led (or shepherded) to a disused RAF dispersal field by the pilot of a De Havilland Mosquitofighter/bomber of World War II vintage, who has apparently been sent up to guide him in. Here it is: The Shepherd      Bonus version

And now for something completely different. Enjoy!

Stan Freburg – Green Christmas

* I was playing a lot of Harry Nilsson-A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night at the time

and lightning flashing in the clouds behind it.

Wonderful!

Photo by smccan

A man I know, an accountant by trade and excellent musician, has a very unique way of looking at the world and wrote this in an email:

Another fascinating aspect of the marketing of the games are the spiritual hooks in the [sloganeering]. The current games use "With glowing hearts…".  I thought "exploding hearts" would be more apt, considering McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are the official food providers.

Love it!

These videos were taken with my camera phone and the quality is very poor when you view them at any size larger than what is shown here.

This was the first time in dozens of years that I walked across a frozen lake.

Other observations: Snow appeared at roadside level exactly 100km [60 miles] from my starting point.

In Whistler there are tons Olympic volunteers in their spiffy blue uniforms. They look like smurfs.

I’m not sure how it happened but all of a sudden the name clicked and I realized who I was listening to and felt immense sadness. I remember reading a review of her first Vancouver appearance in the late 90′s and how the critics were blown away by the emotional depth of her singing for someone of such a young age [25]. This video is a song from that first album:

So what did Lhasa do after her first album? She went to France and joined a circus.

I had the privilege of seeing Lhasa perform at the Vancouver Jazz Fest in June 2004. It was a great performance even though I understood very few of the words she sang. This is a video from that time:

Lhasa talent is almost ineffable and she will be missed by many, including me.

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I can’t really explain the feeling of calmness that I had at that moment. While driving we are expected to go with the flow of traffic as the signals demand. That wasn’t going to happen, so I waited for him to pass me. I had no anger about his actions, only compassion and hoped he would have a good day.

[The driver behind me didn't honk either.]

He is dressed up the same way

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