I felt a little guilty having a plate of poutine that wasn't made in Montreal. But when you come across a poutine shop in the city where you live, and it's Canada Day, and you're with a bunch of Canadians, you can't say no.
The poutine they serve is a substitution for the authentic version, but it would be like insisting on going to Mexico for tacos. You won't get it the same way you would have it in its home origin.
The Canada Day celebration also involved an impromptu poutine eating contest. Coming right after I finished a poutine lunch, I didn't fare so well. It was fun, though.
Being around Canadians on Canada Day made the celebration much more special, and made the poutine taste better, too. And if you think Americans don't care much about Canada, I'm never the only American at these events. Canada has support from people in the United States.
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Sarah McLachlan being in concert the night before Canada Day was a coincidence. I was hoping she would mention Canada or Canada Day during the concert, but she didn't. Otherwise, the evening was really cool. She has an amazing voice, "liquid silk" was the phrase I used on Twitter. McLachlan was charming, self-deprecating in between songs. She spoke of her children and pressure from the record execs to turn her dark depressing songs into more upbeat tunes.
Her haunting version of "Sweet Surrender" is one I will remember well for some time, in a positive fashion.
I probably couldn't name more than a handful of songs, but enjoyed every song I heard. That is the mark of a good concert.
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The CFL should know that in most situations, I am more likely to watch the video wrapups of a CFL game that watch a game on the computer. If the game is on my TV, I can 30-second fast-forward in between plays, and go quickly through commercial breaks.
The video highlights via the CFL Web site are in 16:9 ratio and look sharp on my screen. The ESPN3 feed is 4:3 and usually grainy. If it sounds like I'm complaining about the feed on my computer, at least I have a feed on the computer.
I mentioned the Watch ESPN app where you could watch the game on your smartphone. Even though Comcast/Xfinity told its subscribers that you can watch the app, well that was wrong. Unless you have an Apple product, you have to wait an undetermined amount of time. Why? Don't know. How long? Don't know.
I'd settle for watching the CFL video wrapups on my smartphone, though that hasn't been an option.
Let's hope for a U.S. TV contract solution soon.
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As a contrast, I was able to watch the Toronto FC soccer team on Saturday in beautiful HD on my TV set. Toronto tied the New York Red Bulls 1-1 at BMO Field. The catch was that the game was on Galavision, a Univision network. So the game and commentary was in Spanish. I barely speak some French, but at least I could see the action.
Seeing the game in a language I can't follow is better than seeing the game on a computer in English.
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After the Toronto Blue Jays blew out the Los Angeles Angels 11-2 on Saturday, I joked on Twitter about whether the Argonauts would get more points than the Blue Jays had runs. Toronto in the MLB scores a lot of runs; Toronto in the CFL doesn't score a lot of points.
Yes, the Argos did score 15 points, but lost 19-15 at Edmonton. Ricky Ray had a rough debut for his new team, especially playing in his long-time stadium. But it's only 1 game.
I never knew streaming feeds could look so sharp. For the last few years I connected a 10 year old Dell to my TV with a composite cable to watch CFL games via Comcast. The ESPN3 feed looked like trash which is why I'd wait a day to use watch.tsn.ca. The on-demand games are 16:9, far from HD, but watchable. Last Friday, I wanted to see a game live, so I tried ESPN3 on the Dell (same result). Borrowed my daughter's iPad, and was blown away! While still 4:3, it was a little sharper than an old tv with perfect analog reception. (I say analog because I think non-HD digital channels do not look as good as analog used to look.) Still much better than what I had been trying with ESPN3. Maybe Apple will be the king of all media.
Posted by: Tim | July 02, 2012 at 09:24 AM
I will have to try watch.tsn.ca. I'm even willing to wait a day to see the CFL in a better light. But I am looking forward to the (eventual) U.S. TV deal.
Posted by: Chad | July 02, 2012 at 11:20 PM