Monthly Archives: February 2009

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Vintage Sound From the Prairie

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Growing up in Manitoba in the 60’s and 70’s, you could tell the guys who were into music by their Garnet Amplifier t-shirts.

Garnet Amps were local, and they were hot.

The t-shirts were the sign of someone who knew what real tube amps were supposed to sound like, someone who knew gear and who rocked out.

These amps weren’t sleek and sexy like a Fender Twin. These were working heads and bottoms – made to be stacked and made to be played loud. A working man’s amp with a signature sound.

Like the amps, Garnet T-shirts were working class clothes. They came in your basic t-shirt grey – all the better for crawling around setting up gear or pulling cable in some smoky hall. And perfect for wiping up a bit of spilled brew.

If you missed it, you can still grab a little piece of genuine Canadian music history. A big thanks to Pete Thiessen of Garnet Amplifiers for keeping it all alive.

And Peter – me and Little Garn love our new (old) T’s.

Garnet Amplifiers

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Valentine Day Bounty

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Vancouver got a glimpse of spring today, and it seemed like everyone was out trying to grab a piece of it.

It was clear and crisp today, not particularly warm at plus 6 – but could tell that the city is buzzing with the idea that winter may be behind us.

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Tibetan Fund Raiser

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My friend Luyen Dao is organizing a unique fund raiser later this month.

For five days, from Feb 24-28, a group of Tibetan monks will create a Sand Mandala at Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Gardens in Vancouver.

It’s incredibly intricate work, and this is a chance to see first hand how it is done by masters of the technique who are visiting Vancouver from the Dzongkar Choede Monastery.

I got Luyen to tell me a bit more about it when I visited with him at the gardens…

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A $10 tickets gets you admission to the gardens for the entire five days, and $2 from every ticket goes to help support the young monks, many of whom are orphaned or come from poor Tibetan families.

You can get more information and updates on the event on the fund raiser web site.

Here’s the link to the Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Gardens web site.

You can also grab this invitation and pass it along to a friend.

Here’s a YouTube video of a sand mandala being made.

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