Vocal Issues and RA
My voice is affected by Rheumatoid Arthritis. It just is. I can’t “take a lozenge” or realistically do anything to improve the strain on my voice due to inflammation and pain. Not exactly ideal when you’re meal ticket IS your voice, which it is for me.
I’ve been living with Arthritis virtually my entire life (diagnosed in 1988) and I talk about it more now in hopes of letting other kids know that they are ‘normal’ and can achieve what others think is ‘impossible’. It’s not a matter of ‘thinking positively’ either, though I’m sure that couldn’t hurt. It’s about finding the right medical team, appropriate treatments (which can take years and do more harm than good), surgery and other methods of accommodating the painful, draining disease which often causes other painful, draining diseases or infections. If the RA itself doesn’t, the medicine almost certainly will.
My voice is struggling this week. I feel okay, overall, but it’s grading - to be told that my product (my voice) isn’t cutting it and to try again, try again, try again. The truth is, the more that I re-record or re-attempt something: the worse it will get.
If you accept me for my personality, you must also accept me as I sound. Some days I sound smooth. Other days, I sound rough. It has been this way my whole life and awareness is appreciated. You don’t have to like me or accept me, we all have our preferences and there’s nothing wrong with that, but at 35 - this is how I sound.
30 Years of Road Apples with The Tragically Hip
The Tragically Hip’s Johnny Fay and Paul Langlois on 30 Years of Road Apples.
The Hip's sophomore album Road Apples is being celebrated with a 30th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue which includes the original album remastered, Hoof-Hearted (outtakes, demos and alt. versions) and Saskadelphia (Nov. 5) + Live at the Roxy and More (Nov. 12).
In this interview, Johnny Fay (drums) and Paul Langlois (guitar) of the Hip share how it feels for them to be individually revisiting that period in time (1990-1991), whether or not it's uncomfortable sharing such personal mementos for album reissues such as this, the decision to tour one last time with Gord, future plans and more. This interview was a powerful experience for me and I sincerely thank the Hip and Universal Music Canada for the privilege.
From Universal Music Canada:
Created to mark the 30th anniversary of the band’s second studio album which became their first record to hit #1, the Road Apples 30th Anniversary Deluxe editions were carefully crafted with input from each living member of the band. The outcome is a deep dive behind the scenes of what made this album one of the most beloved in The Tragically Hip’s vast catalogue. With all tracks completely remastered in 2021 by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in Nashville, for the first time, fans will hear music from the band with all the grit, vibrancy, and passion of their original recordings, second only to being in the recording studio with them.
The physical box set editions, (CD and Vinyl), of the release will contain special Dolby Atmos, 7.1, 5.1 and binaural mixes by Richard Chycki of Road Apples and 5 cuts from Saskadelphia, ensuring fans have a one-of-a-kind listening experience. Fans and collectors will also appreciate the brand-new artwork for each of the packages within the physical box sets.
The expansive deluxe editions the release are jam packed with rare and more previously unreleased and never heard before pieces of music chronicling The Tragically Hip’s Road Apples era, including:
Road Apples, the original album re-mastered in 2021 by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in Nashville.
Saskadelphia, as released earlier this year.
Live At The Roxy Los Angeles, May 3rd 1991, originally recorded for a Westwood One radio show, often bootlegged and sought after by fans for many years. It has been re-mastered and expanded and includes the rare “Killer Whale Tank '' version of New Orleans Is Sinking. This legendary Roxy show is now a double vinyl album.This album is available exclusively in physical product.
Hoof-Hearted, an album of previously unreleased demos, outtakes,and alternate versions. Fans new and old will appreciate the intimate and rare items from the band’s personal collection, as well as fan collections that are part of the physical deluxe box set editions. Included in a 36-page booklet are essays from Bruce Dickinson (who initially signed them to MCA Records in the U.S.), and from producer/engineer Mark Vreeken, both of whom played pivotal roles in The Tragically Hip’s career; reproductions of original handwritten lyrics from Gord Downie’s personal notebooks, never seen photos from Kingsway Studio recording sessions and the Road Apples era and a touching tribute to late producer Don Smith along with further commentary from the band.
Recorded in 1990 in New Orleans at Daniel Langlois’ The Kingsway Studio in an old mansion that looms over the French Quarter Neighbourhood by a group of young men from Kingston, Ontario, singer Gord Downie, guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay, Road Apples, was first released in 1991. Guided by producer Don Smith and engineer Bruce Barris, the band created an album that yielded an avalanche of gritty rock ‘n’ roll with a relentless quality to it, like a stream of blues that struggles to be contained. Road Apples contains some of their best-known songs including, 'Little Bones’, ‘Fiddler’s Green’, ‘Long Time Running’ and ‘Three Pistols.’ Road Apples is now approaching double diamond certified status in Canada.
About The Tragically Hip
Critically-acclaimed for more than three decades, The Tragically Hip has been at the heart of the Canadian musical zeitgeist, evoking a strong emotional connection between their music and their fans that remains unrivalled. A five-piece group of friends including Rob Baker (guitar), Gord Downie (vocals, guitar), Johnny Fay (drums), Paul Langlois (guitar) and Gord Sinclair (bass), who grew up in Kingston, Ontario, The Tragically Hip have achieved both mass popularity with more than 10 million albums in Canada and over 1.5 million sold in the U.S, as well as peer recognition through 15 Juno Awards – picking up their last two for Group of the Year and Rock Album of the Year for Man Machine Poem.
Their studio catalogue includes their self-titled debut album The Tragically Hip (1987), Up To Here (1989), Road Apples (1991), Fully Completely (1992), Day For Night (1994), Trouble At The Henhouse (1996), Phantom Power (1998), Music @ Work (2000), In Violet Light (2002), In Between Evolution (2004), World Container (2006), We Are The Same (2009), Now For Plan A (2012), Man Machine Poem (2016) and Saskadelphia (2021).
A National Celebration was the final show of The Tragically Hip’s Man Machine Poem Tour recorded on August 20th, 2016 at the K-Rock Centre in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, and is their last performance as a five-piece band.
Through their career the band became a cultural touchstone in Canada, who despite their accolades and numerous recognitions, will always be proudest of the humanitarian work they have done over the years through numerous charitable organizations and causes.
Follow The Tragically Hip:
Happy Halloween 2021: Yer Ghost Stories
A collection of spooky tales from the people who lived them. Ghost stories, UFO sightings, paranormal experiences… Things that cannot be explained but were certainly felt by those who’ve shared their stories with me this Halloween.
A few years back I was rushed to the hospital because I had a very bad allergic reaction to medication.
I was admitted overnight for observation and was hooked up to some IVs. While I was sleeping, I rolled over and my dad was sitting there reading the newspaper. He told me to “go back to bed, everything would be OK”, so that is what I did.
When I woke up in the morning I looked over where he was sitting and I saw the newspaper folded on the table.
My dad passed away in 1996… years prior… He, obviously, was watching over me that night and came back to visit.
- Lisa
A couple of weeks ago, my two year old kept saying “Papa! Papa!” while pointing to the corner of her room.
I let it go as my father in law had just come for a visit. Later, while I was rocking her to sleep with the lights off, she pointed to the corner again and said, “Hi Papa”, then she smiles and says, “Papa hiding!” At this point, I felt a breeze of cold on my arm and a sudden chill.
I decided to show her some pictures.
A picture of my father-in-law: no reaction. A picture of my grandfather: no reaction. A picture of my step-dad: no reaction. Then I showed her a picture of my biological father and she said, “Papa! Mommy’s daddy!”
I never refer to my biological dad. Ever. My kids know my step-dad as my dad. My biological dad passed in 1996.
To say the least, I bought white sage and am going to smudge the house.
- Heather
I was 11 years old when grandfather passed. About 2 weeks after his death, my father kept asking me who I was talking to. I answered, “Gug”, but dad says, “He passed away”. I said, “I know!”
What happened was, I woke up ‘cause there was a weight on my feet and there was my Gug! Sitting on the end of bed! So I said “Hi Gug”, and he said “Hi Karl. Don't be scared, I'm in a good place and doing fine. Don't worry, you will be here with me later”, and you know what? I think I will be with my Gug again, but not for a while I hope. I'm 62 and I will see my Gug again!
My mom loved tulips. Adored them. Especially the red ones. But she would only look at them in magazines or on other’s properties as she would joke she “couldn’t take care of flowers to save her life.” So she never planted anything.
She passed away on sept 1,2001. On sept 11th there were the attacks on the world trade center.
I was still at her house sorting out her things and I really needed to get some air with everything happening. I went outside into her backyard and in the corner, by the cedars, was a big beautiful red tulip.
Freaked me out. But then made me smile.
- Mike
When I was twelve years old, me and a bunch of girls played Ouija board. We ask for signs and the typical stuff! I was sitting with the bay window behind me and when I asked for my dead grandpa to give us a sign that bay window exploded behind me! He was an alcoholic and many years ago, on a drunken night, he broke the bay window in my dad’s childhood house! Never EVER played that game again!
- Marie
My mom used to work at this boutique in Mexico that was owned by a cousin. I used to drop by and help move things, and do things for my Mom that she couldn’t do. I came in one time and just before going to lunch, my Mom said, “There’s this one door at the back of the store that I cannot open, I was told to put extra boxes there; can you help?” So we go to the back and there’s the door, behind another door. So, I give the knob a twist and… it opens!
I said, “What are you taking about? It was unlocked!“
We open the door and find this room, which looked more like a corridor, and it’s really really long. Me being me, I want to go see how long it is. We start down the corridor and it goes on and on... We stop after a minute walking and turn around and the door where we came in looks really, really small, so we decided to head back. Fast. And, finally, we get out.
After that experience, I decided that that corridor seemed too long. I’m wondering if it’s even possible. So we go outside the building and count steps along the block to the street behind and determine it’s around 175 steps or so to the end of the street.
Armed with this new info, we go back inside and this time, with a flashlight just in case, we start walking into this corridor. We count up to 200 steps… and there’s more… that’s when we stop and literally run back to the entrance door and close it.
We still talk about it in our family. As for the door? The next day we summoned up some courage and decide we are walking to the end! Well, we could never open that door again and the landlord had no interest in investigating saying, “it didn’t matter because it was not part of the rented premises.”
I still get goosebumps thinking about it, and still look at old building entrances with apprehension.
- Pepe
About twenty three years ago I decided to go on a little trip across Canada with my best friend at the time. We were eighteen and had no plans but to hang out and party for a month straight.
We stayed at my friend's father's house which was in the middle of nowhere Alberta and very old .
My friends grandmother (at the time) was quite ill and my friend Mike was sad and worried that something bad would happen. On my third night there I decided to go to sleep before Mike. He was still in the living the room listening to the radio .
You know that point when you start to fall asleep and you’re kinda awake but kinda dreaming at the same time? Well, I was about there when I heard a strange voice say, "Don't worry Mike, she will be ok." I passed it off as my brain just running wild, until a second later… Mike came bolting into my room asking me, “Did you just hear that? Did you hear somebody tell me she was going to be ok? That came from the speakers!!!"
I sat up and realized that I was not dreaming. We both heard the same thing.
Needless to say, we were freaked out and we ended up crashing at the camp up the road. The next day, we spoke to Mike's dad and kinda mentioned what had happened and he said that most people who have slept there have had something odd happen.
The only other thing that happened to us while there was not half as scary but odd non the less. We could stay in the house for days straight and nothing would happen but the second we both left, we would always come back to all the breakers tripped in the fuse box. If we left together ten times in one hour, we would have to reset the breakers ten times. If we stayed in and didn't leave, there was never an issue.
I am not a true believer in this stuff but I can't explain it. Never happened before the trip and in the twenty years since, I have not seen anything else like it… that I could not explain.
- John
I had been working at a local community hockey rink; working hard shoveling and flooding the ice.
I was in the washroom and had just finished washing my hands. I had literally just turned off the water in the sink and still had my hands on the hot and cold water taps when the hand dryer behind me turned on.
Every hair on my body stood up with fear. I was covered in goosebumps.
This was an air dryer that you had to push the knob for it to work. My hands were still wet and in the sink.
Frozen, I said a loud "Thank you!" turned around and dried my hands.
That was a little frightening.
- Ben
We had just moved into a new house when my daughter was two and we were shopping in a store that gave out free samples. The sample lady told us that,
“Your daughter can see things. She can see THEM. If they bother you, tell them to Go Away".
Weird, right? So we left the store.
A couple nights later, I wake up at around 2 AM because I’d heard something. Turns out it was my daughter walking down the hallway (she just graduated out of the crib into the bigger bed).
I follow her down the hallway, say her name and she turns to look at me. I noticed that she looks totally out of it; eyes wide open, but not really looking at me and she says, in the creepiest voice I've ever heard,
"This child should not be here."
At this point I am obviously freaking out. I walk over to her, pick her up and bring her back to her room, put her in bed, turn around to leave and find that her door is closed behind me.
I walk over to the door and grab the handle when I hear this blood curdling scream coming from behind me. I turn around and my daughter is sitting up in her bed screaming and pointing at the door. I go over to console her for a few minutes and she finally calms down and I go back to bed.
When I get back to bed, my wife asked “What's going on?” I explain everything and she says, “Yeah, I heard a bunch of noise and I have to work in the morning so I came and closed the door behind you.”
Scared the living hell out of me. Only reasonable explanation is that my daughter was sleepwalking or, at least, I hope she was sleepwalking.
- Jaret
ANONYMOUS TEXTER: “I don't know if this is much of a ghost story. But when I was a child I was playing with a first choice play set. I remember so clearly, I was sitting down and look at the wall and my shadow stood up and waved at me. I freaked out and went to my parents but got shrugged off. I'll never forget that day.”
Ghost Stories 2021
Do you have a ghost story you’d like to share? As in previous years, I will be putting together a collection of true stories (as experienced by you) for the upcoming Halloween weekend.
If you have one to share, please comment below or send it to me via e-mail.
If you have a ghost story, please send it to me! It’s part of a Halloween thing I’m putting together. 👻 Amy@CHEZ106.com pic.twitter.com/2HWwXzB5M8
— Amy Volume (@amyvolume) October 13, 2021
Risky Business
Autoimmune diseases turn our bodies into self-destructive machines. It’s exhausting, having an immune system in overdrive FIGHTING ITSELF. I take medicine to stop the fight which lowers my ability to properly defend myself against actual threats: viruses, infections, etc.
If you have someone like me in your life and you want to keep them safe, you need to get vaccinated. If you don’t want to, stay away. I can only speak for myself when I say: If you aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19, I will actively avoid you.
You choose what you do with your body. I’ve been sick my whole life & it’s my choice to avoid a virus that would kill me. Thank you to all who’ve gotten the shot to keep people like me safe.
I spent 3 weeks in isolation at CHEO when I caught the chicken pox.
My immune system cannot defend itself because it’s suppressed. If it’s not suppressed, it will destroy all tissue (organs, bones, blood).
If you choose to not get vaccinated also choose to stay away from me.
What I’ve said might upset you. Heck, maybe you WANT to harm me/others. Maybe you don’t believe me and have your mind made up. If these tweets reach anyone whose uncertain about the shot: Please consider the young ones who have a hard enough time surviving.
Talk to your doctor or local public health nurse if you are hesitant. Make your own decision, for sure. Attempt empathy for others without immune systems. We exist. From small to tall.
Always do what’s right for you.
Everyone’s lived their own life & had their own experiences which help to form individual, personal opinions.
Having a different opinion is OK. Purposefully hurting others physically, verbally or spiritually because of an opinion is not OK.
Life’s all about risk; the ones you are and aren’t willing to take.
It’s been a calculated journey for me & my experiences have brought me to support vaccinations.
Your journey may be different.
I am hopeful that one day we can all be buds again, safely.