Happy Canada Day week everyone! This week continues to offer more examples of our “new normal” with no grand fireworks displays either at Parliament Hill, or the smaller community shows, but we’re maybe starting to get used to everything being just a little different in our lives? There are still several parties and events occurring July 1st, and they’re listed on my events calendar. There are some in-person events as well as virtual parties. The big concert series celebrating the birth of our fabulous country is the Canada Day House Party featuring concerts from Caveboy, Dean Brody, Dear Rouge, Sam Roberts, Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine, Gord Sinclair and many more.
Speaking of my events calendar, I took this past week and did some much-needed updates and I’m so happy with the way it turned out. Events now have times listed with them, and are all chronological so it’s much more user friendly. Also, all online events are indicated as such with the little online icon (I’m not sure if it has a real name). 
Sports!
The boys of summer are coming back, and it looks like it will actually be this summer! Despite my comment of the MLB being a “mess” in my last sports update, they’re the first major sports league to actually have a plan in place. Players are reporting to “Spring Training” on July 1st and the season kicks off July 23rd or 24th for 80-games (about half the usual season). According to Sportsnet, The Blue Jays (which may or may not include the COVID-19 infected players in Florida) have been recalled to T.O. for spring training. Read the article on Sportsnet here:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-players-told-prepare-travel-toronto/
**Photo from www.mlb.com
Here’s all the details for the commencement of the 2020 year for baseball right from the horse’s mouth: https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-2020-regular-season
The NHL continues to creep along towards figuring out the details of the completion of their season, but still nothing concrete. According to Pittsburgh Hockey Now, Las Vegas and Toronto will be front runners in the Hub City search. Stay tuned; eventually it’ll be figured out. In other NHL news, most of the draft lottery picks have been determined, with only the top pick remaining to be selected (oh the suspense!!). The Sens pulled off picks number 3 and 5 for the year, so that’s a respectable showing and will help out nicely with the 20-year re-build.
**Photo from www.NHL.com
https://www.nhl.com/news/2020-nhl-draft-lottery-first-phase-results/c-317275622
America’s Got Talent!
I actually missed last week’s episode for the most part, but caught an eye-opening dance act by Lewis Shilvok. Normally the solo singing or dancing acts don’t impress me much as I like the craziness that comes out in this show, but this was pretty impressive! Some people have so much free time. It seems as though I think, or say that each time I watch AGT. A whole lot of training and natural ability went into this act though. Have a look:
Ottawa Festival Network
My friends at www.OttawaFestivals.ca have been busy despite our current COVID situation. Even though all the festivals were cancelled this year (so far), many festival organizers have been creative and have offered virtual/online options to still take part in the activities and keep the Ottawa festival scene alive and well. Ottawa Festival Network has prepared a useful list of festivals that have done so, and have it available for your planning use. This week, you can catch the online Fringe Festival most nights (on my events calendar too). Have a look at this feature from OFN!
https://www.ottawafestivals.ca/virtual-ottawa-summer-festivals/
The Juno Awards!
The Juno Awards were rescheduled and are being held virtually this year (no shocker there). You’ll be able to watch them live on CBC GEM tonight at 7pm with performances by iskwē, Neon Dreams and the Dead South.
https://www.cbc.ca/music/junos/news/this-year-s-juno-awards-to-take-place-virtually-on-june-29-1.5614363
This Kid’s Got Talent!
This section of the newsletter features submissions from you, the audience, of their talented kids! With a whole lot of nothing going on due to the pandemic, kids are becoming more and more bored and restless so it’s time to show off their hidden, or not so hidden talents. I’m looking for kids with talents of any type! In the first edition of this section, I featured Cooper Dunn, who is heavily involved with theatre, but showed off his amazing chalk drawings. You can read his story in my June 8th newsletter. This weekend, Cooper and myself will be featured on CFRA with Dahlia Kurtz, so stay tuned for a confirmed date and time.
This week my featured “Kid with Talent” is 12 year-old Lauren Ritchie. You might remember her from my review of The Greely Players’ Shrek: The Musical last year. Lauren is a talented singer (she sang at my wedding, actually!) and as I have recently learned, a talented artist in general!
Lauren drew these pictures digitally, using her mom’s iPad Pro. She has been drawing since the day she was handed a pencil (without paper, even!) and is very gifted. The drawing of the girl with the rainbow heart is a self-portrait. She is wearing roller skates because Lauren loves rollerblading and roller skating! The drawing of the girl with short hair is a drawing that she did specifically for Pride Month, with the colours pink, purple and blue to represent bisexuality. These pictures mean a lot to her, and she is proud of how they turned out! She notes that her inspirations are Pride Month and roller-skating.
I am so glad to know Lauren, and I am grateful that she allowed me to feature her meaningful art on my website this week! Keep up the great work, Lauren!
Another great newsletter. Your virtual events section is getting more interesting as we get used to and more creative with virtual happenings. I hope there are others who send in clips of their children’s talent or you may be forced to post funny pet videos. Where did you find the inspirational quote? Ven Boom isn’t a household name but her words from the past are so appropriate in our current political and economic times. Good job!