Vegas and the Canyons

Hello everyone! I just got back from a fantastic trip that some of you might enjoy hearing about, but I'll start with Las Vegas. The shows were a lot of fun, and we saw some old friends there, and fortunately for me we were staying in a hotel/casino. I'm a big fan of games of all shapes and sizes, and card games in particular, so a casino is a somewhat dangerous place for me. Everything went well in the end though, this time.

I was on a separate flight from the rest of the guys, and consequently got to the hotel about five and a half hours before the rest of them. The idea was to catch some sleep before the show that night as I hadn't slept at all the night before due to the fact that I had to be at the airport at about 4:30am Friday morning and I'm a late night kind of guy. Unfortunately the hotel wouldn't let me check in to my room because the rooms were booked in Trevor's name, and obviously I am not Trevor. Sadly, this meant no rest for me. They did however hold my bags for me so that I was free to wander about unencumbered. I figured that I might as well see where I could get at the tables, so I sat down at the first black jack table I found, and in about five minutes I was up $37.50, so I walked away.

I then wandered down to Ceasar's Palace to see some artwork by my favourite artist, Stuart Yankell. He has some of his original pieces for sale in one of the galleries in the "shops" area of Ceasar's Palace. I have a number of his prints up on the walls in my house, but it was great to see the original pieces of some of the art I own! I would recommend checking him out if you like art. The link to him is available on my blog page in the side bar to the right. I particularly like the pieces he does of jazz musicians, but I have a number of his cityscape and marketplace paintings as well. Great work!

Anyway, I eventually made my way back to the hotel/casino to wait for the guys to arrive. Since I now had some profit to throw around, I decided to try my luck at craps. This is a much more complicated game than black jack, so I'll explain a very basic approach to how to play. This is only one simple way to play (there are about a million ways to make bets in this game), but it's the one that works for me.

You start by placing some money on the "Pass Line". Then you throw two dice. If you roll a 7 or an 11, you immidiately win your pass line bet, double your money, and roll again. If however you roll a 2, a 3, or a 12, you immediately lose your pass line bet, and can roll again if you put more money down.

Now, if you roll anything else (ie. anything BUT 2, 3, 7, 11, or 12), you set whatever number it is that you rolled (say, 4 for example) as a "point" that you are then trying to roll again in order to win your pass line bet. The "dealer" (for lack of a better term) will then place a large disc on the large "4" in yellow on the table above. Now the rules change (by "now" I mean the moment you make it past that initial roll without immediately winning or immediately losing your pass line bet). Now, only rolling a 7 will make you lose. Rolling anything else may or may not win you any money (as I'll explain in a moment), but only a 7 will make you lose. This disadvantage to you of course is that 7 is statistically the most commonly rolled number on dice.

Now, if you roll a 4, you win your point, and double up your pass line bet. No other number will do anything good for you unless you make any more bets. An easy way to do this is by betting (in addition to your pass line bet) on any or all of the numbers printed in yellow ink above. Let's say you bet on 8. Now you'll lose everything you put anywhere on the table if you roll a 7, win your pass line bet if you roll a 4, and win whatever you bet on 8 each and every time you roll an 8. No other number will do anything for you or against you.

What you can do however is bet on any or all of the numbers in yellow ink. So let's say you put money on each of the numbers up there. That means that now a 7 will lose you everything you put on the table, a 4 will win you your pass line bet, a 2, 3, 11, or 12 will do nothing for you or against you, and any other number will make you money. In short, as long as you don't roll a 7, you'll make money with almost every roll of the dice.

The catch to all of this is that when you put money on those numbers in yellow ink above, you can't remove your money from the table when you feel like leaving. In a manner of speaking, it's already lost. It will stay there until you roll a 7 and lose it to the house. The hope is that it will make more money for you while it's there than you'll eventually end up losing. If you think about it, if you only put money on 8 then all you have to do is roll an 8 before you roll a 7, and you'll break even. If you roll 8 twice before rolling a 7, you're up by whatever amount you bet. Each number bet you make pays for itself by hitting it once before rolling a 7, and makes profit by hitting it two or more times before rolling a 7.

That's just one approach to craps, but I've had a lot of fun playing! I tried to drag Brian and Trevor down in with me Saturday night, but they ended up just observing. Too bad because I had something of a hot streak that night! That's the nice thing about craps: it's everyone at the table against the house. A win for you is a win for everyone (who made similar bets), so it's generally a very supportive crowd of people if you're rolling well!

I then wandered over to the three card poker table, which I had never played before, and to which I didn't know the rules. This is a simpler game, but a really enjoyable one, so I'll explain how it works.

You start by placing a bet in the diamond with "Ante" written in it. This will be the money you're betting against the dealer hoping to double. You're dealt three cards (as the name suggests). The hands are as follows, in ascending order of value: high card (just having a single card in your hand that's higher than the dealer's hightest card) 1 pair (two of the same card, ie. a pair of 9's), a flush (three cards of the same suit ie. three spades), a straight (three cards of any suit in numerical sequence ie. 4 5 6, or 10 jack queen), three of a kind (ie. three 5's, or three kings), and finally a straight flush (three cards in numerical sequence of the same suit, ie. 7 8 9 all of diamonds). In order to beat the dealer, you just have to have a hand that's better than whatever hand the dealer gets dealt. The shuffling of the cards in this game is done by a machine, and it also portions out the various hands. There are no draws; you just play the three cards you're dealt.

So, now you've got your bet on "Ante" and you've got your cards. You now try to decide whether you're likely to have a better hand than whatever the dealer may have. If you decide you might, you place your cards in the "Play" rectangle, and exactly match your "Ante" bet on top of your cards over the "Play" diamond; no more no less. (If you decide that you probably don't have a better hand than the dealer, you can fold, and surrender your "Ante" bet). Then the cards get flipped over, and we see who wins. If you win, you double your "Ante" bet and your "Play" bet. If you lose, the dealer takes both bets.

There is an additional catch however, in the casino's favour of course. The dealer must have at least the high card of a queen or better in his/her hand in order to "qualify" to play. This means that if the dealer does not have at least a queen high or better, even though you've decided to play, and you put your "Play" bet down on the table, the dealer essentially says, "Now that I've looked at my cards, I've decided that we're not really going to play this hand. Here's your money back, and let's re-deal". You still win your "Ante" money, but if you don't have at the very least a queen high in your hand, you might be wasting your time playing.

Now, an additional potential bonus for you. You may notice in the picture above that there is another betting region on the table: a circle with the words "Pair Plus" written in it. This is an optional additional bet that you can make. It has nothing to do with beating or losing to the dealer, and is not affected be whether or not the dealer qualifies to play the poker hand. This bet only relates to what cards you get dealt. Essentially, all you're betting is that you will get dealt a pair or better. If you do, you win that part of the bet. If you don't, you lose that part of the bet. It's totally separate from the actual poker playing. The really nice thing about this bet though is that the house offers odds. That is to say that while your "Ante" and "Play" bets only pay out 1:1 (ie. a bet of $5 pays $5 if you win), some of the "Pair Plus" bets pay as much as 40:1 (ie. a bet of $5 pays $200 if you win). The odds offered for different hands vary from casino to casino, but they're always printed on the table so you'll be able to figure out what's going on.

So that's that game. I had a lot of fun playing this game over the weekend, and I think it ended up being a good money maker for a bunch of the guys. I think I came out on top in the band as far as everyone's respective winnings for the weekend, but it's not like any of us are playing for serious dollars. The old rule of "never bet what you can't afford to lose" definitely applies, and I certainly can't afford to lose much playing games at a casino!

The Canyons

After Vegas, the guys flew home, and I was joined by my family for a bit of a holiday. First we drove out to Springdale, Utah to Zion Canyon. It was absolutely spectacular. If you enjoy hiking, I couldn't possibly recommend it any more strongly. The scenery is beyond belief, and it seems to change almost with every step. On this first day, we hiked up a trail to a location called "Observation Point". It's a couple thousand feet above ground level, and has a spectacular view overlooking a long valley. Here are a few pictures from the hike:

From near the bottom:

From near the top:

Our next day brought us to Bryce Canyon, also in Utah. This place is like another world: Mars specifically comes to mind. Deep red rocks with white striations eroded into hoodoos (spires) that stretch on and on. You come upon this canyon already at the rim, and hike down into it. Here are some pictures:

It's hard to really convey perspective here, but try to keep your eyes on the trees in these photos for comparison to the mountains:

Day three brought us to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I'm told that the South Rim is more spectacular (although I've never been there myself), but this certainly blew me away. There's really no capturing just how amazing it looks in person, but here are some photos anyway:


Some Dufus:

The whole crew of us (from left to right: my sister's boyfriend Jeff, my sister Katie, my Dad Hector, my Mom Judy, my girlfriend Kira, and that same dufus from the last picture)

Can you imagine what it must have been like for the first settlers to come across that? It just about looks like the end of the world. The first thing you'd have to try and figure out is whether it would be easier to go through or around! Just mind-blowing.

Finally, we went back to Zion Canyon to hike a different trail than the one we'd hiked before. This one was called "Angel's Landing", and was my favourite hike of the lot. They were all great, but this one had a great finish to it. After you climb a long way up, there's an extra peak on the top of the mountain that you can kind of treat as optional. Basically, you hike up the spine of the mountain top, with about 1,500 feet of air on either side of you. The people who look after the park have installed posts and a heavy chain most of the way up to give you something to hold on to, but even still it looks pretty perilous. There are a number of places where there's no chain, and no fence to keep you from going over the edge if you lost your footing. Unfortunately, my Dad and I made this ascent alone, and neither of us held a camera, but here's a picture of what the ascent looked like from below:

Here are some photos from lower parts of this hike:

Nearing the top:

Looking back on the climb leading up to the last photo:

My parents and I on a path between the sections depicted in the photos above:

All in all, the trip was absolutely wonderful from beginning to end, and I would strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in hiking seek out both Zion and Bryce Canyons. You won't regret a second of the time you spend there!

How I Joined ETH

Well, Trevor has lead the way in this story, so as per the requests on the talkboard I figured I'd kick in my own tale.

Back in high school, I played in an original rock/alternative band called Drowning June. A few members came and went from the band, but in the band's later days we ended up with a guy named Owen Pallett playing alternately keyboard and violin. I had met Owen years earlier when he Trevor and I got together to perform the tune Correspondences by a Canadian band called The Tea Party at a talent show night at Trevor and Owen's high school. When Drowning June decided we needed a violinist for a couple of songs, I thought of Owen.

I had always planned to go to school for physics, but in my last year of high school, I decided to pursue music for a career instead. I had to quit Drowning June, and I went off to Humber College to study jazz, following in the footsteps of my friend Anthony Giles (percussionist appearing on both Casualties of Retail and Soapbox Heroes), whose example convinced me that perhaps a person could play music for a living. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with music; all I knew was that I loved jazz, and hopefully if I got good enough I would meet someone who would be interested in working with me on some project somewhere.

I remember a conversation with my Mother when I told my parents that I wanted to go to school for music instead of physics. She had asked me what exactly I was planning to do with my music education, and I told her "I don't know exactly. I'm just going to go there, and something will find me." Naively bold words, but things ended up working out for the best anyway! I imagine that my parents must have been somewhat apprehensive about my dubious career choice, but they supported me all the way as they always have.

Half way through my first year at Humber, I got a call from Trevor saying that he'd just joined a Celtic Rock band called Enter The Haggis. He also said that the band was going to be looking for a drummer soon, and perhaps I should think about auditioning. Not only that, but my friend Owen Pallett was already a member of the band, and the two of them thought I might be right for the job. Trevor gave me the name and number of one Craig Downie and told me to call him to arrange an audition.

Craig encouraged me to come on down to one of the band's rehearsals to jam, although I didn't know any of the music. To be honest, I didn't really have any concept of what Celtic Rock as a genre was. I immediately went out and bought Ashley MacIsaac's High How Are You Today? CD, as well as Natalie MacMaster's No Boundaries and a Celtic compilation CD called Bravehearts (not to be confused with the movie). I listened to those CD's non-stop before I went to the rehearsal so I might have at least some idea what to expect.

On a Thursday night I found my way up the shady elevator to the illustrious loft in which Craig was living which was unlike any place I had ever seen before. It only added to the mystique of the place that Craig had warned me on the phone to steer clear of the building next door on my way into his building as he suspected that it was a sweat-shop of some kind. From there we walked to the band's rented jam space on Richmond street just east of Spadina in Toronto. The place more or less always stank of mold and mildew but there were a variety of other odours thrown in there from week to week. It was always interesting to see what the jam space was going to smell like each time we went there. We jammed for a while on a number of different ideas, and if I'm not mistaken ended up playing some Red Hot Chili Peppers tune. On the recommendation of the band's at-the-time current drummer Ken Horne who was present at the jam, it was decided that I was to be tried out for a while.

My first part-show with the band was in February 1999 I think, and for a while I traded off songs at shows with Ken, who incidentally is the one who gave me the nickname "Seumas/Seamus/Shamus/ Shame Us". On St. Patrick's Day, March 17th 1999 I was officially asked to join the band permanently, and I did so by taking over for Ken mid-tune during a performance of the song The Train from Let The Wind Blow High. The show was at a bar called "Original's" on Bay street in Toronto.

For a good long while, it was a real challenge for me to regain my "rock chops" as I had been playing nothing but jazz for months. (It might be argued by some that I still have a ways to go in that department!). If you could hear a performance from the band back then, I think you would find my playing VERY different from what it has become. It's been an ongoing struggle for me over the years to find ways to incorporate my musical preferences into the music of Enter The Haggis, and my efforts have met with a wide variety of success and failure. The experience has been very rewarding though, and I've learned a lot about my instrument, and a tremendous amount about how to play with a band.