Wine in a Box? Wine 'ot

There is no money in blogging but there are riches.  Sort of.  Every now and then gifts just show up at the door.  A bottle of scotch, a netbook, Kraut juice (don't ask) and now this little gem.  It comes from an old hoodie who has embarked on a new business venture and it looks like a good one. 

No... This is not the waxed paper box with plastic spout that you see "some people" toting out of the LCBO.  These are eleganly crafted wood boxes with anything one might want embossed (actually carved) into the box.   A great gift idea with a nice touch.  Any occasion, or not.  Any quantity. 

Thats the plug.  This is a blog after all.  For the real meat please vist the Wine' ot's  web site here:

http://www.wineotboxit.com/index.htm 

Mark it a s a favourite.  It's got to prove handy sooner or later.

Roving Roadie Reporter Covers G-20

This just in!  The G-20 is proceeding as planned.  Back to you MOM.

Monmouth Road JAZZED by Belgraves - Big Tony's

Marcus Belgrave at Big Tony's First Annual Jazz Festival.  Perfect!

Monmouth roadies had back stage passes...Make that:  Monmouth Road was THE backstage to Big Tony's first annual Jazz Festival. What a treat, what a perfect venue! A whole weekend of top notch jazz performances by local and international musicians culminating with the headline act from non other than internationally renownd horn man, Marcus Belgrave. But wait...That's not all! Also sharing that stage was the sexy, soulful and powerful Joan Bow-Belgrave whos voice carried up tree-lined Monmouth with the sweet clarity and perfection that is her. Incredible!

How Did this Come to Be?

Would you believe with a phone call?  Tony from name sake restaurant "Big Tony's" decided to take a shot at making a phone call to Marcus Belgrave's home. After a couple of rings a voice answered "Hello". Tony asked if Mr. Belgrave was available and the voice replied:  "You got him" and that was that. Mr. Belgrave brought Tony's jazz festival out of the dream phase and gave Big Tony the horsepower needed to make it an annual event. After that it was Tony's turn to put wings on this thing. He quickly had posters made up, worked out the logistics with the city and with the neighbourhood (what another party?) and as the story goes...

The weekend's line-up looked like this:

Big Tony’s JazzFest Music Lineup

Friday, June 18

5:10 – 6:10 Acoustix Quartet

6:30 – 7:30 Black Orchid

7:50 – 8:50 Ian Smith & Friends

9:10 – 9:55 The Lucky Strike Trio

10 - 11 Soiree

Saturday, June 19

12:30 – 1:30 Walkerville High School Band

1:50 – 2:50 Black Orchid

3:10 – 4:10 Acoustix Quartet

4:30 – 5:30 Al Lukas Band

5:50 – 6:50 Clover Joy

7:10 – 8:10 Chimoca

8:30 – 9:10 Six Degrees

9:20 – 11 Marcus Belgrave

Sunday, June 20

12 – 1 Acoustix Quartet

1:20 – 2:20 Six Degrees

2:40 – 3:40 Soiree

4 – 5 Hula Dog

5:15 – 6 Max Marshall Trio

The show started early on Friday evening and went pretty as scheduled until about 10:30 P.M. when the show was stopped due to an ugly storm front moving in quickly from across the river.  Heavy winds touched down, toppling the stage lighting truss sending the Mars Media crew scrambling to secure and waterproof the the gear.   Saturdays weather was perfect.  Sunny all day with continued clear sky into the evening.  By ten P.M. Marcus Belgrave and company were on stage doing their sound check and from there went seamlessly into their set which lasted until midnight.  The sound was perfect and the the crowd (estimated at about 600 strong)  was in jazz heaven.   

Big Tony pulled it off.  Hopefully Windsor and indeed Old Walkerville will see this Jazzy event return next year.

Chimoca

Six Degrees

 Joan Bow-Belgrave along with Marcus Belgrave.  What a treat!

http://www.marcusbelgrave.net/

http://www.joanbowbelgrave.com/ 

Brought to Windsor by:

Posters, CDs, memorabelia still available at Big Tony's

How to Market Grass Roots or Please Pass the Beefsteaks

Downtown Farmer's Market from the Street

This past Saturday saw the seasonal opening of Downtown Windsor's fledgling Farmer's Market. Attendance for both vendors and the patrons was high as if last Winter and Spring did not happen. Business seemed brisk and by all accounts this new venue for Downtown Windsor seems to have wings. Hopefully it will see some critical mass with more vendors and attrractions to come. It was a lot of fun.  Here are some pics:                                              

Click on them to enlarge!

Love them Beefsteaks.

Arts and Crafts

Taloolamobile

Staawberries!....BloooBerries!

Tasty Beefsteaks.  Its tomato sandwich season!

Current Ward3 Councillor Valentinis Chatting it up with Patrons and Constituents 

Summerberry Fruit Dip Mix Anyone?

Organic Stuff

Brisk Business

Something for Everyone

Bring your family and friends next Saturday morning!

RED BULL OUCH!

An ex-Windsorite from Elliot Lake sent this in.   Courtesy of Break Media.  Watch it very carefully.  Enjoy.

Plane Nearly Crashes Into Water - Watch more Funny Videos

Wyandotte Open to Traffic on Wednesday

Temprary asphalt bridge at Wyandotte and Walker.

Click on Images to Enlarge

Wear sunglasses on Wednesday.  This street is brighter than the salt flats.

Devonshire approach will be paved today and tomorrow.

For Old Walkerville residents who have endured the the Wyandotte street traffic detour traffic over the past few weeks your frustration is about to end.  Wyandotte Street will be open to through traffic starting this Wednesday. 

Over the past couple of months Old Walkerville has been under siege by detour traffic at all hours of the day.  Traffic has been pouring through the neighbourhood side streets with Cataraqui, Devonshire, Argyle, Monmouth and Niagra getting the brunt of it.  There have been several near accidents as commuters, unfamiliar with the neighbourhood, frequently run through stop signs.  Speeding has also been a problem and neighbours are pretty frustrated with peeling tires and throaty mufflers. 

A temporary asphalt approach has been planted at Walker and the approach to Wyandotte at Devonshire will be layed today and tomorrow.  Wyandotte will be open to through traffic Wednesday.  Construction of the second phase (Walker Road North and South of Wyandotte) will begin on Wednesday as well.  Now lets see if everyone in Old Walkerville can get some sleep for a change.

Half of Monmouth Road Blacks Out. Area Population May see Growth.

Large bore Poplar tree snapped in higdh winds.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Hydro crew removing tree in front of Francis Bakery.

Brittle Poplar tree with ant damage snapped just above the fence.

Old Walkerville was hit hard by storms this past Friday and one funny thing happened.  High winds snapped a 150 foot Poplar tree that nearly crushed the Francis Pita Factory on Walker Road causing pita  production to go flat.  Fortunately the building was saved by high voltage power lines in the alley.  The tree instead, got caught up in this 16,000 volt line ripping feeds from Monmouth homes and the Francis Pita factory before the main line eventually snapped at Niagra.  Power was cut off to the entire East side of Monmouth from Niagra Street to Wyandotte Street for the next seventeen hours.

It seems that two parties broke out right after the power failure.  The west side of the street with power partied loudly into the wee hours while the east side of the block went unusually quiet with the only sign of life being the faint glow of candle light eminating from just about every home.  Nobody on the entire block had any clue about the downed tree in the alley or the 16,000 volt line lying on the ground and sparking away like Dr. Frankenstein's lab.

The supervisor for the Hydro crew said that poplar trees are notorius for causing damage because they are very brittle.  In this instance he said the problem was aggravated by a carpenter ant infestation.  The tree snapped at that weak point.  These trees are also notorious for crushing sewer pipes, forcing very costly repairs. 

As the next morning was heralded by the sound of cars and people heading towards Art in the Park the roadies on the west side of the street were still sleeping off hangovers while everyone on the east side were up and about with bratty, glowing smiles.  That glow eventually turned to angst as east side roadies started to realize that they couldn't brew coffee at home and that the old stand-by, Tim Hortons, was also without power.

By one P.M. on Saturday all of the homes on Monmouth were up and running again.  So too was the Francis Pita Factory as was evident by it's workers who showed up to charge Art in the Park patrons for parking in their lot. 

The actual effect of this power outage will be more accurately measured in about nine months.

Art in the Park a Wash for Windsor

There were tents here.

Hopefully this nice booth is not permanently damaged.

Mud Soup

Water everywhere.

A time to reflect

Packing it in.

Swampland

Even under the big tent.

This one usually has lines of people around it.

At 8:30 A.M. today (Sunday, June 06, 2010) all was eerily quiet save for the sound of feet sloshing through Willistead Park.  Vendors were already starting to pack up their soggy inventory and effects and making their way out of town.  By eleven thirty, Windsor's Art in the Park was officially cancelled.   Most vendors were quiet and resigned to the hand dealt by Mother Nature.  A couple of them were overheard talking about the curse of Windsor's Art in the Park.  Of coarse they were referring to the rainy weather that always seems to plague the event.

For over a week Windsor's festivity planners and patrons alike had their fingers crossed hoping that the long term forcast for this weekend would change.  It did not.  During Friday evening a massive wind and electrical storm tore its way through Windsor downing trees and hydro lines.   Art in the Park was stopped dead in its tracks.  Music fans were crammed into a festival tent for as long as they could wait but that evening was cut short.  Downed trees in the vicinity of Willistead Park cut power to much of that neighbourhood for the following seventeen hours.  One tree on Monmouth snapped in half taking  a 16,000 volt power line to the ground.  Even Tim Hortons was down for the count.  High winds tossed large temporary street signs from the Wyandotte Street construction project into parked cars while on Argyle a very mature tree missed a historical brownstone by inches.

 The following day Art in the Park showed signs of redemption.  Parking in Old Walkerville was near impossible to find and the streets were swarming with patrons.  All looked like it was going well.  Once again, as the evening rolled around it started to rain cancelling music events for that evening.  By 10:30 P.M. thunder showers brought more lightning and gusting wind.  Again the music venues were cancelled.  It poured rain all night.  As morning rolled around the festival's fate was obviously sealed.  Six to eight inches of water covered much of Willistead Park.  Even the  large festival tents had several inches of water under them. 

As vendors waded in bare feet to and from their vehicles a radio, tuned  to CKLW, was covering  the  news about the devastation from tornados that had spun Leamington into a state of emergency.  In a way that seemed to make everything at Willistead Park OK. 

If it Wasn't for Bad Luck...

This year Parks and Rec worked at a feverish pace for two weeks primping the Park for this year's event.  Gardens were cultivated and planted, weeds were wacked , garbage was picked up, trees were pruned and some even felled, and a section of wrought iron fence that was taken out by a drunk driver was repaired and re-set.  Fresh garbage barrels and new picnic tables were positioned throughout the park.  All for naught? Let's just say that the effort did not go unnoticed.  Thank you Green Dogs!

The Dirt on Art in the Park

Not that long ago the question was posed:  "What to do with all of the dirt from the retention basin at the riverfront?"  Could this be the lead-up to a marriage made in heaven?  Since Willistead Park is essentially a soup bowl why not bring some af that dirt over to fix this perennial problem?  Art in the Park aside, every resident and regular visitor to Willistead Park knows that even the slightest rain leaves the park pocked with puddles.  Why not do something good for this park and it patrons and how about those wonderful artisans who come here from all over Ontario, Canada and the U.S. to sell their wares.  How about simply doing a good turn for the Rotary Club?  Perhaps if we do, they will keep coming.  Perhaps if we don't they won't.  This may not be wild speculation as the Town of Tecumseh might attest.