Category: ‘Canada’

2012 Grabby Awards Red Carpet part 1

June 2, 2012 Posted by suefairview

I took TONS of photos of the Red Carpet at the 2012 Grabby Awards, to which I had FREE access thanks to my press pass! YAY! So here is the first batch of 20:

1) I was pretty nervous getting ready because I usually don’t get up so glam, but not that nervous. Here I am checking out my look in the mirror at the Hard Rock Hotel before I left my room. I’ll do.

2) Uh, oh. Sister Roma got herself into some trouble! Notice how tall she is in her habit!

3) Her companion, BeBe Sweetbriar is also in the doghouse! Birds of a feather! What a knockout BeBe is! We all squeezed in to a cab; it is really an experience to see Roma call a cab! LOL! And headed North to the theater to the GRABBYS!!!

4) We were severely early on purpose; early enough to see Ryan Russell setting up his equipment to tape the Red Carpet interviews that Roma and others were going to hold out in front of the theater. Ryan turned out to be a really nice guy and breath of fresh air from North of our borders au Canada. His team was VERY organized and their end of the deal went off without a hitch! He is on the left with the bright blue sneaks and his assistant is holding the microphone.

5) Ryan was gracious enough to take some photos of me!

6) My dress is a Nicole Miller and I felt like Cinderella in it! The wind was busy devastating my hair!

7) Within minutes, limousines began to pull up to the curb and I had to take photos! The first limo to arrive was with the FabScout boys. I decided to determine how the boys handled limo exiting etiquette, where the goal is to get your photo taken. Here, we see Diego Vena making a perfect exit. Head and shoulders back, chest out, he is perfectly posed for the camera, he even has a huge toothy smile. But who is the boy who preceded him out of the limo? I can’t even tell, since he is facing away from the camera!

8) Uh! Now I see – it is Tony Hunter! He needs to learn how to work a limo exit!

9) Diego is still soaking up the limelight, while Tommy Defendi unwraps his tall body from the low limo.

10) Okay Diego, your moment is over, time to move aside for Tommy. But I agree, you are too hot! One could light a match on you!

11) Tommy still trying to exit the limo! Tommy is REALLY tall in person.

12) Here he comes – let’s see how he handles the limo exit exercise.

13) Hmm. Not that well. Fussing with your clothes does not look good on camera. I think that is Jake Steel getting out behind him.

14) Steven Ponce and his BF Brian Bonds. Tyler Sweet looking like he has this limo exit thing all in hand!

15) Steven, his bf, Tyler handling the limo exit just fine! We see Bryce Star has also exited the limo.

16) Diego can’t let a good photo opportunity go, so he grabs Tyler. I was telling them that I would adopt Tyler before I would date him [that is if I were available]. And Diego replied “Yeah, come back in a year or two, when you have some hair on that chest!”

17) They were too cute not to photograph!

18) Diesel Washington arrives bow-tied! You can just see his bf Donnie next to him.

19) Alexsander Freitas in his skin tight leather pants is filming the Ryan Russell Red Carpet interview area. Those pants were soft as butter and a minute later, Alex bent over to pick up something from the pavement and those babies ripped right up his ass! You can read about that here. It began as a small rip that was covered by his jacket, but over the course of the evening, grew to be huge! It prevented him from presenting at the show! What a mishap!

20) Austin Wilde and his bf Anthony Romero posed for me.

PART 2

Read full article |Comments Off
Tags: No tags
Categories: Alexsander Freitas, Austin Wilde, Awards, Bryce Star, Canada, Diesel Washington, Moi, Tommy Defendi

Mon Voyage À L’Acadie: Part 11: Moncton & Homeward

September 12, 2009 Posted by suefairview

Next, mom and I drove down to see our English Canadian relatives in Moncton. Mom took a photo of this floral arrangement in downtown because it is rare to see one that includes cattails. Nice, isn’t it?


We went to another seafood restaurant for dinner and there was a view of the Bay of Fundy at sunset when we left. These are some photos I took of it. In the first one you can see two kids playing on a raft if you enlarge the photo.


One day, we drove to Magnetic Hill to buy to some maple sugar candy and fudge. I thougt that the display was rather artful and took this picture:


The fudge was delicious!And the maple cream my mom treated me to was awesomely tasty. I had never had it before. I think she’s been holding out on the good stuff all these years.

For all the readers who are not familiar with maple sugar candy, here is a photo of it from the internet. It has a somewhat crystalline consistency outside, but the inside is maple creamy and delicious and melts in your mouth.
Here is a photo of maple cream. My mom waited until I was 53 to introduce me to this drug of choice! Is she mean or what? This great stuff is a hard block of sugary confection that breaks off into chunks of mapley delight that will melt in your mouth. This is what the locals savor, you know, the ones who know what they are doing. It is totally unlike fudge, that dilutes the joy of maple.

On our way out of Canada, we kept our eyes peeled for the small native blue berries and saw a stand. Mom bought a HUGE amount of berries [they freeze well]. But, the muffins I tasted a couple of weeks later were a delight! I hear she also made a pie, but I didn’t get any!



We kept talking about getting photographs of moose signs as we were zipping by them in Canada. But we never did. So this one is off of the internet and is from Maine. The ones from Canada were larger and more impressive and asked motorists to report moose sightings were in French.


We dropped Mom off in New London at the ferry and she took this shot of Vasco on the ferry as they steamed their way home to LI. We had a great time, but it is wonderful to get home after a long trip! Doesn’t this puppy look happy to be going home?

– finis -
Read full article |Comments Off
Tags: No tags
Categories: 2009, Canada, Travels

Mon Voyage À L’Acadie: Part 10: Bouctouche & the Birthplace of JC Irving

September 10, 2009 Posted by suefairview

Well now. How does one come down from the excitement of le grand tintamarre? I asked my cousin if he had gotten it all out of his system and could spend the oncoming year being contained and sensible without any outbursts of the sort I had witnessed the day before. He gave a wry chuckle and disagreed.

“No, I am charged up for the oncoming year,” he exclaimed. “It filled me with the energy to go on in my life as an Acadian! That is how I feel. That is until the next tintamarre.”

And so I bid my cousins sweet farewell until I could return… who knows when?

My mother and I hit the road bound for Moncton and our English cousins.

On our way we stopped for lunch at Bouctouche, New Brunswick. This marsh was behind the visitor center. If you enlarge it, you will see the heron in the middle.


The real reason we stopped there, though, was to see the Irving Memorial Chapel and the koi pond. This Scottish Kirk is constructed of stone with an open timber post and beam roof that is exteriorly covered by slates.


Here is the interior view:


Here is a photo of the window over the altar:


But here is my real draw; the koi pond! Here are two fellows working on it when we drove up. Fortunately, the younger one is in charge of keeping it! How lucky to come upon him!


Aren’t the plantings divine? Look at the size of it! The fish must be huge! It is many times the size of my koi pond.


Finally I got his attention and we got to talking about koi, and he told me that the fish are only 3 years old. So, not so big yet. But he fed them and they are gorgeous!




You can see his hand throwing the food. He said that the fish hide from herons under the netted grill and that in the winter, there is a deep area under there where it doesn’t freeze. So, they winter over right here in the pond.


These last two images are from my mom’s iPhone.


Here I am contemplating how great it would be to have a job as a koi keeper here!
Read full article |Comments Off
Tags: No tags
Categories: 2009, Canada, Travels

Mon Voyage À L’Acadie: Part 9: LE GRAND TINTAMARRE

September 7, 2009 Posted by suefairview

Now, we come to the big goal of my trip, Le grand tintamarre in Caraquet, NB. We had arrived early and the official parade was supposed to begin at 6 PM Atlantic time. So, with time to kill, I walked around and snapped some photos.

Here is a man from the Savoie family. According to his genealogy, he is descended from royalty. He looks it too. I could see him in a crown. But right now, I think he needs another hand.


I am glad I took a photo of these costumed people, because I never did see them again in the parade! Click to enlarge.


Here is a papillion; it looks a bit hot out for a dog today. He reminded me of Joshua, Martin Mazza’s puppy [which can be seen at Stag Homme Studios]!


Oh, mom and I did take time for some Caraquet oysters. This handsome young man shucked them for us and they were DIVINE! Raw and firm with briney goodness! Slurp!


There were Acadians from Louisiana at the food court behind the church who were deported there during the horrible times of 1755. They offered very unspicy versions of shrimp etouffe and jambalaya. But, they were inexpensive and filling, so we ate them.

Then it was time and the parade began! OMG! It was so gosh darn noisy! A din for sure! I approached the street and couldn’t tell where the parade began and the audience was. It was just a huge, noisy milling crowd of humanity. A crazy, Acadian riot! Out of control! I raised my camera to get a photo of all the commotion.



It was like this one day of the year, August 15, all of these typically reserved Canadian people just let loose and go nuts making noise with airhorns, clackers, maracas, clappers, tambourines, whistles, drums, and what have you.

Also, there was a costume and float contest to liven up the parade. Below, these two fellows figured that drag is always a good bet in costuming.


Here a fiddler adds his music to the din.


These fellows’ add their muscles to the costume contest.


Landry and Arsenault are the two Acadian names here. Google them if you want to know more about them!


These two gals are dressed in old timey frocks, but wouldn’t stand away far enough for me to capture the pretty hems of their dresses.


The family name here was Mourant, which means to be dying. In their float they featured a dying man who is being administered an IV of tequila! LOL!


This was so much fun! A huge Acadian flag that spanned half the street was passed over the parade and observers and parade marchers had to lift it over with their hands. It was so inclusive and bonding for everybody!


This was an impressive float because the actors were painted white and stayed in character and the boat was so spooky.



This was fun – a ship decorated like those we saw in the fleets!




The Acadians are a very inclusive people as shown by this African man. He and others like him, plus some Acadians played some Rastafarian drum rhythms.


These two ladies were selling maple leaves with Acadian family names on them.


Now, here is a way to get attention – get on top of a cherry picker!


Here I am at the parade [my mom shot this photo with her iPhone and all the rest]! I even joined it for a bit when my cousin invited me to. How could I turn him down? I am not Acadian, my mom’s family is Quebecois, but on August 15th, everybody is Acadaian!


Isn’t this a colorful shot?



I hope you enjoyed the photos, here is a video of the parade!

Video source: Capcadie, more videos there

Read full article |Comments Off
Tags: No tags
Categories: 2009, Canada, Moi, Travels

Mon Voyage À L’Acadie: Part 8: New Brunswick Aquarium & Marine Center, Inkerman

September 5, 2009 Posted by suefairview

So from the fleet, mom and I drove into the Town of Shippagan and decided to see what the New Brunswick Aquarium had on display.

There was this very beautiful quilt that you need to enlarge to enjoy. It has many ocean creatures on each panel and is very imaginative and clever.


Basically, the aquarium displayed the fish that are native to the waters in the area, many of which we had been, um, eating! But these jellyfish were not the case.


And though we ate many lobsters, none were completely white!


Nor where any blue!


These seals were exactly the same as the ones we saw around Bonaventure Island. I was so excited, because I just love seals!


So I took a closeup of one…


This is what a seal does when it is not ready for it’s closeup. It swims to the bottom and lies there with it’s tummy up and plays dead.


But here’s a chipper one ready for a closeup! See, he/she is even smiling! But I didn’t have a fish to reward this lovely pose, so I walked away sad.


Then we drove on heading for Inkerman Parrish on our way home. All of these areas are inland wetlands consisting of marshes, swamps, bogs, ponds, etc.. As a matter of fact, New Brunswick is so wet that my female host told a really neat joke about it. Here it is:

A man from New Brunswick dies and goes up to Saint Peter’s gate. Of those not admitted immediately, Satan is sorting through people who will go lower and those who will go to purgatory. But then there are a few set to the side who are just standing there waiting around. He sees that he will be sorted soon. When it is his turn he asks Satan “What are those people waiting for?” Satan answers “They are from New Brunswick and they are too wet to burn.”

Ba dum bum! I’ll be here all night, enjoy the veal…

Well, back to the trip. So, as we drive along, we see many osprey nests, so I got out and took a photograph of one. Click to enlarge and you will see that the bird is stretching his wings. See the tall trees in the distance? Would you believe that there is a huge church behind those?


This is Catholic Church of Saint Michel in Inkerman Ferry that was built in 1916. Inkerman Ferry is such a small town that there is not even a grocery store in it. It is stuck out in the middle of no place. If you enlarge this photo you can read the sign next to the building to see the church’s name and the stone tablet underneath the rose window hast the date of the building’s completion.


Note the twin silver domes and brick with stone masonry which is typical of the Catholic religion’s churches in this area. Also, the church is decorated for the upcoming festival.

Here it is from another view:


See! There is nothing near it at all. I wish I had the time to go miles away and photograph it… It is just standing there in the middle of nothing. A miracle!

Read full article |Comments Off
Tags: No tags
Categories: 2009, Canada, Travels
« Older Entries