IF IT'S SUNDAY, THIS MUST BE SNAEFELLSNES

Today we received the full itinerary for our Iceland trip and it's helping to put more of it into focus.

We fly out of Pearson at 9:15 pm our time and will arrive in Reykjavik Iceland at 6:25 am ... while actually only eating up about 5 hours time. Thank you very much time zones.

We'll spend that first day in Reykjavik. I considered looking up a local surgeon who could rewire my jaw so I could pronounce these Icelandic words but Collette suggested perhaps checking out the sights and sampling local cuisine. What a spoil sport eh.

Reykjavik sounds like a pretty cool town, with a population of around 200,000. That's less than the number of people in Yorkdale Mall on a saturday afternoon. I know that for a fact. I once counted them all. The magistrate suggested that it may be inappropriate to be touching that many strangers. Duly noted. But who knew?

Speaking of "cool" we knew that summer in Iceland would not be exactly balmy. As I right this post, the average temps for the country (and of course there will be a variety) are in the mid teens. We've been told that the climate should be very similar to New York City in the spring but without the smog .. and the crack ho's ...

Day three we're off to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula with glaciers, fishing villages and lava fields. The entire country of Iceland is roughly the size of Kentucky so our travel time will not be too long for most trips but I expect to see some great scenery during the voyages anyway.

I'll be spending my birthday in the north part of the island, visiting Hraunfossar where water comes running from the under the lava into a river, one of the biggest hot springs in Europe and a visit to Gooafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods.

The next day begins with a fairly normal breakfast experience; you know, some coffee, a croissant, some whale watching .. nothing special. In that area we'll also see puffins .. dude, puffins .. which I once associated with a British publishing company. Apparantly Icelandic people eat puffins. Sitting down to a holiday meal of a dozen roasted puffins .. yummy (I made that last part up, duh)

Another feature I'm looking forward to is visiting Vatnajokull .. no, not a villain from a Robert E Howard novel but the largest glacier in Europe. Cool ... like, for real

Iceland is one of the newest places on the planet so there will be volcanoes and geysers and lave fields .. oh my! Not to mention some huge waterfalls mountains and ... unexpectantly .. a sandy desert.

Day 9 we'll get introduced to the Icelandic horse, a unique breed and visit the Viking Parliment of bingveilir .. a Viking Parliment. Hold on, I may need a moment ...

We'll end up back at Reykjavik for a day. We can decide to explore more of the city or choose to take one of many day trips, we'll have to see how tired we are at the time

Our travel agent arranged our last day for us. While our baggage will be sent off to the airport, we'll take our bathing suits to the Blue Lagoon ... um, no not that blue lagoon, stop thinking dirty. It is the most famous geo thermal spa in Iceland, a country that is replete with such features and actually uses geo thermal energy to warm their house etc.

We'll loll around in the waters, get in some serious relaxation, then go to the airport for the flight home.

Yeh. That's living rough for you

EYJAFJALLAJOKULL HERE WE COME

In a goofy little post from last year, I paid unlikely tribute to an Icelandic volcano that was giving the world a bit of a fit.

Well I guess irony rules.

On the 22nd of this month, Collette and I will be leaving for an 11 day tour of the country of Iceland. They wanted to give us a three hour tour and I said no way, I remember what happened to Gilligan ..

Anyway, yes we're going to be off to Iceland. We've booked a trip that will take us around the Ring Road where we'll get to see a good chunk of the country. Ice bergs, glaciers, volcaones, hot springs, whale watching, Icelandic ponies, some Viking stuff .. may I have a hoo-rah?

Thank you

If anyone who stumbles across this blog (and I apologize up front) who has been to Iceland, I would love to hear from you, any tips or suggestions warnings etc

So we are well into our preparations, which for Collette and I means, firstly, getting our electronics gear together. This past Christmas Collette bought new lenses and I bought my little Sony HD Handycam. We have also bought a new laptop, a 13 inch screen, flatter and lighter than our 15 incher. We will not be camping or doing vigorous hiking but we will be travelling from lodge to lodge and walking a fair bit so something small will be essential. Something that we can store and edit images and from which, perhaps, I will blog.

My original intent was to bring not only the Sony but my beloved Canon XL1 3-chip mini DV cam. I love this camera. It has a real SLR style film lens and many manual options. The image quality is excellent and the amount of control it gives me quite versatile. But it's a big old beast, cumbersome and not at all indiscreet.

I've been quite pleased with the image quality of the Sony, especially when recording in HD. It does not have the lens of the Canon nor the amount of manual control but the images are quite good and it fits in the palm of my hand. So the X will be left behind for this trip.

The other concern we've had is making sure that the girls are going to be taken care of while we're away. Hayley is not feeling terribly well and I really was kind of dreading boarding her. Luckily, Theresa, Jeff's girlfriend, has agreed to look after the dogs right here at the house. She is very knowledgeable about dogs and particularly border collies. Being able to have the girls here is a definite plus and gives us some peace of mind.

We bought other kinds of gear as well, good walking shoes and a rain shell for me, hiking boots and shoes for Collette. I have good boots now but not a real good pair of shoes and with my wonky ankle, it will be worthwhile. Not to mention, as I've tested them out already, they are kick as ball kicking shoes ...

So, unless my buddy Eyjafjallajokull decides to kick our ass .. Iceland here we come

ARE YOU THERE

So I've finished the video for the Amplify Me film fest as I've been discussing on Idiot With A Camera

I think it's done at any rate

Still a few days to mull it over, feedback appreciated

Are You There

K.D. LANG AT LUMINATO: LET'S GET OUR COWPUNK ON

Last week saw the return of Luminato to Toronto. It is billed as an arts festival and features works of theatre, photography and music, some free and some not so free.

It's not a festival I really heavily attend but they were featuring a series of outdoor concerts downtown. Much of the acts held little interest to me but they closed off the week with K.D. Lang .. for free, on a warm summer evening? Yes sir, count me in.

K.D. is one of your artists that if you asked me who my fave singers are, she would not make the list. Yet I like most of the music I've ever heard from her and have kind of been tracking her career from her early "cowpunk" days to Canadian diva.

She is a singer who moves through styles and not all of those styles but there is one concrete truth: The woman can sing. Her voice is deep and skilled and emotive and that's what I desire from a singer.

Collette and I have never seen her, I know K.D. is reputed as an entertaining performer so we jumped at the opportunity.

She brought with her an opening act, The Belle Brigade out of L.A. A brother and sister act, they have a style that flirts with bluegrass without surrendering to the twang and high, clear voices that created really lovely harmonies. We thought they both looked like boys and sang like girls

Ms Lang did not disapoint. Her new band, The Siss Boom Bang is very skilled and capable of moving from one musical genre to the other. They allowed KD to do her goofy cowpunk dance moves, something that is wonderful and giddy to behold.

She displayed her remarkable range throughout her set, from jazz standards, to pop, to old school Canadian (Helpless) to a heart stopping heart breaking rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and of course, her signature song, Constant Craving.

She told the story of how at one show a woman requested K.D. sing that song "Instant Gravy" to which Ms Lang mused "and it's turned out to be just that"

Here's some video hightlights.

Blogger still seems to be messing with the video aspect ratio so you could follow this link to the video's original source

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Another month, another film festival looking for submissions on a tight deadline.

I'll be chronicling this new debacle on Idiot With A Camera for anyone interested

WOOFSTOCK TORONTO 2011: ONCE AGAIN THIS BLOG GOES TO THE DOGS

When does caring for your dog become over indulgence? Sometimes that determination is subjective; some people allow their pets on the furniture, we do. Some will tell you that permitting the dog on the couch puts you at their level instead of clearly demarking the ling between human and dog. Valid argument but I feel I do enough in that area to establish my dominance so to speak. Mostly, though, people just can't deal with the idea of sitting on dog hair. I'm used to sitting on hair, usually my own, it's not a problem.

This brings us to Woofstock. No, that is not the remembrance of the Woodstock Music Festival by an old hippie who's brain has been addled by overindulging in the smoking of red oger dogwood (it doesn't work .. or so I've heard)

Woofstock is a celebration of all things canine, held in several cities around the world and bi-annually here in Toronto. It has been running for several years and is quite popular be we've never before attended.

We did not take the girls. Held in the homey St Lawrence Market district, I knew that the festival would attract tens of thousands of people on a sunny Sunday (sunny Sunday, don't you love when that works out that way) in an area of closed off streets where they would have to be on leash ... not really an enjoyable past time for a pair of border collies who would much rather be off leash and running someplace, any place, fast.

But I had heard that were many vendors there, all in one location, selling their wares cheap and it was a nice day to and mingle with some dogs

There is a stage at Woofstock where people perform goofy dog tricks and display canine fashion. Now goofy dog tricks I can dig. I think all dog tricks are or should be goofy. That's what a trick is, just something silly, like a high five or playing dead or catching treats off their own nose. Tricks are different from discipline. Tricks are just for fun and to help develop a bond between you and your dog. Anytime I spend with the girls, giving them attention, is good for all of us

Doggie fashion is something else. I don't include warm jackets and boots in this; we live in Canada and some short haired breeds need a little help to enjoy the climate. Fashion is different. Fashion is putting angel wings on your dog, or dressing them in costumes.

I mentioned over indulgence. There you go.

Mostly we wandered around, picking up the doggie essentials; chuckit balls, poop bags, treats, some homeopathic meds for Hayley's arthritis and just having fun meeting the mutts and watching them play and interact.

I've gone to the dogs. How happy am I now.

NOTE: There is a video that goes with this blog but Blogger seems to be having a problem with my embed code and is garbling the video. Until I get things worked out follow this link to the video

MOTHER NATURE PUTS ON HER DOMINATRIX BOOTS

It is not a fetish of mine, but some people do enjoy being dominated. You know, Yes Mistress, no Mistress, may I have another spanking Mistress ..

To each their own

But it seems more and more we're all being dominated by the biggest oldest most hardcore Mistress of them all ... Mother Nature. Or perhaps Mistress Nature

We are definitely getting our asses spanked

The midwest US has been very cruelly dominated lately, that's a fact. Here in southern Ontario, we're getting more mildly schooled but schooled nonetheless. Sudden lightning and thunder storms that come out of nowhere, tornado style winds that slice through the city very quickly, leaving felled trees and blown Hydro transformers in their wake

And sudden hail storms that left me staring out the window and yelling "No! Not the new car!" Luckily, she suffered no damage.

Weather is weather. It is a thing that affects our life on a daily basis .. What do I wear, what routes are clear, is that tree really going to fall on the Subaru ...

We can't control it. The Chinese and the Russians seed clouds to make it not rain on the Olympics and Red Square respectively, but in the long run, Mother Nature is the one wearing the black leather knee high dominatrix boots

And gosh, those spike heels hurt

Here's some video evidence.