farewell gift.

This gorgeous clear crisp day is making me sad to leave Toronto, but oh! the west coast is calling. Dean and I are doing a pretty good job of crossing items off our TO to-do list (see update below).

We leave a week from today and will reach the North West one more week after that. We're making the move into a wee holiday/adventure, taking the drive a little slower, with exciting stops at Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone Park—two places I have always wanted to visit.

Normally the last week before a move is spent frantically tracking down boxes and stuffing them haphazardly to the gills. Instead I'm up to my ears in (really fun) work. One minute I'm trying to put beautiful folk music into words, the next I'm writing about the drizzle in Scotland, and still the next I'm describing one of coolest educational buildings I've ever seen. Freelancing was a great move. Not a minute of regret thus far! Also, we owe a HUGE debt of thanks to Dean's new employer, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, for arranging our move for us and taking all the stress/work out of it.

And because I'm in a generally happy state of mind, here's a little gift, in the form of First Aid Kit, from me to you!

Zaac wins the shore song search!

HUGE congrats to Zaac Pick! His song, My Century, just won the Shore 104.3's Sounds of Summer song search, judged by Vancouver music bigwigs Sam Feldman and Terry McBride and Bruce Allen. It's a well deserved victory and I can't wait to see where it takes him!

[image via Shore 104FM]

zaac pick in the surrey leader

A little promotional piece I wrote for uber-talented musician and friend, Zaac Pick, appeared in the Surrey Leader today. The Shore closed voting early for some reason, so while you can no longer vote for My Century in the Shore Song Search, you CAN still download his album from iTunes!

friday audio treat

I do love a good Flavorpill mix tape, but this one happens to include Antlers and Band of Horses, making it extra special.

Download it for yourself right here

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"I don't give a damn about your yellow buzzards"

In honour of the Man in Black's would-be 78th birthday, Flavorwire kindly shared 78 things you didn't know about Johnny Cash.

Some faves:

7. When he was a child working in the cotton fields, Cash used to eat young cotton buds, despite his mother’s warnings that they would give him bellyaches.

15. During his stint in the Air Force, Cash learned to translate Russian Morse code.

25. When Cash first moved to Memphis, he enrolled in a radio class at Keegan’s School of Industry, hoping to become a DJ.

32. After an oil leak from Jesse James set the Los Padres National Wildlife Refuge on fire, Cash became the only person ever successfully sued by the U.S. for starting a forest fire.

33. The blaze Cash’s camper started killed all but 9 of the endangered condors at the refuge. When questioned about the birds at the deposition, Cash replied: “I don’t give a damn about your yellow buzzards."

65. He used to carry around a jar of instant coffee and ladle spoonfuls of it into the coffee he ordered in restaurants.

Read 'em all here.