One of my favourite aspect of site stats are the Referrers.  I don't really care how many people read my blog.  I know most of them anyway.  But I love to see which random Google searches land people on my blog.

In my referrer stats I noticed this link and I checked it out.

Its a weird collage of pictures.  There are two of my pictures - screen caps from my review of Riya.  The other pictures range from a group of school kids in Ireland or the UK (can tell by their uniforms) and a dog.  Scrolling down the first time I had a surprise when I recognized someone on the page, who I know, that is also named Siobhan.

These are the Siobhans I know.


The images come from a tool called 'Google Image Ripper' which finds images in the right size rather than the thumbnails that Google provides.  Its a useful little tool since many Google images are too small to use and sometimes link to a dead site.

I haven't been reading as much lately, I haven't had as much good stuff on request at the library come in and I haven't been sure what to request.

So if any readers have books to suggest, I would be definitely interested in good summer reading!

I read a book over the long weekend - Blackfly Season by Giles Bunt.  This was a well written mystery that takes place in a thinly disguised Thunder Bay.  It was a great summer mystery.

I just finished Midnight at the Dragon Cafe.  It was an excellent novel, especially for a debut novel.  Midnight at the Dragon Cafe portrays the life of a Chinese family that immigrates to a small Ontario town in the 1950's to run a Chinese restaurant.  More than anything, this novel made me realize how isolating life was for the first Asian immigrants who settled in small towns, couldn't speak English and had children who bridged both worlds, the private world at home and the public, Canadian world of going to school. 

Also, like the novel The Jade Peony, this novel illustrates how difficult Canada's immigration policies, restricting women to immigrate for many years, made family life for Chinese Canadians.

Sorry fisher friends, this is not a post about bass (rhymes with lass)
but bass (rhymes with face).

The T. and I went walking last Sunday and found the Kensington Bass.  I first read about it this bass in the Spacing Magazine. 

The Kensington Bass is a public art installation for bass players.  A bass was built on a street light pole.  Its completely in tune and operational.  There is no external amplification but if you put your head to the pole, you get a great sound as it reverberates inside.




The encounter with the Kensington Bass inspired me to upload my first YouTube video (will I be at a party some day saying, "I totally remember my first YouTube video, it was ...")  Its a very close up shot of the T. playing so that my circa 1999 digital camera could get some sound. 

Any other bass playing Trawana readers?  Go to the Kensington Bass, play it, record it, upload it.  And tag it baby, tag it.

DocSoup subscriptions are available and I just ordered mine.

You can do so here.

DocSoup is a once a month documentary at the Bloor organized by HotDoc.

Last year I saw a few great docs through DocSoup with the best being New York Doll
The doc is about the bass player for the legendary 70's group 'The New York Dolls'.

While, we are all now used to glam rock cross-dressing, the New York Dolls over the top look was one of the first, "I can wear make-up and still be macho' musical acts.  One of the best part of this doc was an animated 'rock family tree' that showed all of the rock groups that the New York Dolls inspired included KISS and Motley Crue.

So check out DocSoup this year!