U2's 360 Tour: VanCity Show

Since I got my dad his U2 360 tour poster (that he bought at the concert) plaqued for Christmas, I figured that I should finally post this entry. I've been meaning to ever since I got back from the concert! Enjoy:

My dad (far right) looks like The Edge plus glasses in this photo!

Yes it's true, I was very fortunate to attend the U2 concert last Wednesday (That's how long I've held off publishing this blog; the concert was October 28th)! Let me tell you that it was UNREAL! I probably shouldn't try to describe it in words because it would not do the concert justice. The Black Eyed Peas opened up, which was quite strange considering their genre difference. But they performed amazing and our crew (consisting of my bro, cousin, and sis; photo below) were the only ones up and dancing in our section. 'Meet Me Halfway' was defs one of the best songs they played. 'Where is the Love?' was also stellar (as always) and it got people finally going too! They closed with 'I Gotta Feeling' and it set the pumped-up mood for U2's set! It was during the intermission between bands when I found out I was sitting beside the top field manager for all of the Western Canadian Boston Pizzas! With him was the manager of the Pembina Boston Pizza here in Winnipeg! It turns out that this concert was his 13th U2 concert that he's been too (I can't exactly remember the number, but it was shocking)!! So, after talking about random Winnipeg things for about 5 mins, I scored a free pizza and soft drink coupon (coo-pon, not cue-pon!) for BP!

I was overwhelmed with excitement as the lights went down and the show was about to begin! I must have had chills during each song. U2's performance and the effects from their amazing "claw" stage just blew me away! It was just phenomenal. They went through their newest album No Line On the Horizon, while playing some of their well known favourites from U218 Singles as well. Here are some very interesting facts about the stage that they used:

It's dubbed "The Claw" and was dreamed up over dinner in 2006 with a model built using forks. It has a spaceship-like design and has four leg-like steel structures with a massive video screen suspended, looming in the middle. The total weight is around 54 tons and is 27 metres tall with the central spire extending another 22 metres! The stage was built from scratch at a reported cost of $30 mill! It takes four days to set up, so to keep the tour moving, three versions of the stage travelled across North America ahead of U2! The video screen itself weighs 48 tons and is made up of 888 LED smaller screen segments which open up/spread apart vertically to cover 14,000 square feet (it grows to seven stories). Each side of the stage has its own full-sized sound system, with more than 450 hidden speaker cabinets. There are two rotating bridges that connect the main inner circular stage to the surrounding circular catwalk and between 5,000 and 6,000 fans are able to watch the show from inside that space. There are hundreds of lights everywhere (and a lightning-arresting disco ball, whatever that means) and three spotlight operators per leg that follow the band in 360-degree rotatable followspot chairs. The show also uses 47 smoke and haze machines.

So this concert was ridiculous! To sum it up, this stage was off-the-hook which resulted in an off-the-hook show! Take a look at this time lapse video displaying the setting-up of the stage!



What a great night! One to remember, for sure!

Here is the fam dance crew who danced the night away!

MERRY Christmas!

Life Lesson: Enjoy the atmosphere and every aspect of Christmas, one of the most precious times of the year!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. It it strange how quickly this Christmas eve/day has snuck up! Yes, I am still up at 3am as I have finished wrapping the special gifts I got for my fam. We now have all 6 Goossens back at home for the holiday, and it's lovely.

As I was wrapping my gifts I of course listened to Sufjan Stevens': Songs for Christmas. It's a classic, but I just realized it actually consists of 5 EPs and I only have 15 of the 42 songs (iTunes is handy)! I must find those missing frolicking folk Christmas tunes fast!

We got an early family present this year. It is, to my delight, a ping pong table which was shipped all the way from Germany! It was complicated to assemble, but Josh Dyck and I figured it out and together we conquered the beast (vlog to come!). That night I got an unexpected call around 10:30 and a couple of friends shockingly showed up to engage in some activities. Good thing we just set-up the ping pong table! I'm still undefeated after numerous matches with family and friends. Would anyone dare challenge me? After our little tourney, we had a chill, relaxing game of Settlers of Catan that went till 2am (I must be at 5 consecutive nights going to bed past 2am... I'm tired). By the end of the game we were all exhausted, resulting in us being giddy, therefore we laughed at pretty much anything... good times!

p.s. My dad has actually submitted a bid for my Ping Pong Champ title, and he scheduled the title match for today, Christmas day. I better get some sleep... so to ALL, a GOOD NIGHT!

p.p.s. Remember, Christ is Come!

C'EST FINI! Now Let's Party, Party

My chapter at Providence College has come to an end this year (not necessarily for good tho...). Playing soccer is one of my most favourite things in the world and I had the chance to do so at Prov and I am so grateful; I can't express it enough! Each and every teammate influenced me in a positive way and I had a great time on road trips laughin' my head off and playing my fave sport. Wow, my whole time at the college was quite the fun experience, maybe minus the zoned out 40 minute drives back and forth from the school, but whatevs it was well worth it! My exams went decently well and now I'm just super stress free and loving it (except I have to register for UofM!). I also have time to do whatever I want! So now it is time to party, party.

Speakin' of Party, Party, this is the title of a certain spectacular song by the best man (stage name: Saint Kristoffer) at the wedding I went to last night! It was played twice on the dance floor and the reactions each time it began were priceless. I totally recommend the song and in fact, you can download it right here! Patti Parker & Graham Bodnar's big day was such a blast to be a part of! We all danced up a storm, it was UNREAL (especially seeing Graham rap to Vanilla Ice)! Cheers to everybody who set up that special day!

Now, I must start a new career of sport. Yes, I am starting to play Sponge Hockey tonight!!! I'm excited and I actually have to leave right now to get the special shoes to play in! Also, tomorrow is a highly anticipated bingo night (it has been forever since we've played) in honour of Josh Dyck who has returned to these parts for Christmas! Come out to Regent Casino at 10pm on Monday night! It'll be a blast.

Wrap Your Mind Around THIS!

K, so I am "studying" for my last exam right now! Hooray! Well, not really.... you see, this class I'm studying for is Intro to Philosophy and my professor, who is awesome because he's Dutch (if you ain't dutch, you ain't much), Dr. Hendrik van der Breggen is outrageously intellectual and there is no doubt that he is the smartest man I have ever met. I just finished my final essay for this class two hours ago and that only leaves me these wee hours of this morning to study for the exam! However, how am I supposed to study when I have to study this?:

Eternal counter argument:

Assume there is a beginningless series that ends in the present.
If we can prove that this isn’t the case then we can conclude the universe began to exist.
It’s possible then that an eternal counter ends his/her/its count, …-3,-2,-1,0 at the present moment,
But the eternal counter would have finished yesterday (since the beginningless series would have ended yesterday).
Thus, the eternal counter is forever in the past not counting.
Thus, the eternal counter counts forever in the past and not forever in the past.
Thus, the above assumption is false too (via reductio as absurdum).

Bottomless pit argument:

Jumping out of a bottomless pit is not possible.
Traversing an infinite past is not possible too.
Infinite past… today.
Infinite pit… standing at edge of pit.
Jumping out of bottomless pit isn’t possible.
Therefore traversing an infinite past isn’t possible... Because just as the fact that you jumped out of a pit shows it wasn’t bottomless, so too the fact we’re at the present shows the past isn’t infinite.
~~~
Ya... it's crazy talk. UNREAL! But awesome at the same time!

30 Rock: Secret Santa

I know I said I was going to be taking a break from blogging, but I couldn't help myself!! I've finished one exam and it went decently well! So I decided to take a break from studying for tomorrow's exam and watch an episode of 30 Rock (an amazing/hilarious show)! I thought I'd post the link so that you can laugh as hard as I did. One of the best so far this season for sure! Enjoy: 30 Rock: Secret Santa

Leave of Absence

Well, here we go! It's exam week and I've procrastinated again (no surprise there) until this week to study. So don't expect to see me in the next week. I'll sadly also have to pause blogging during this time. Hermitville, here I come!

p.s. Remember that U2 concert blog I promised? ...Yeaaaaahhh, I'm hopin' to get on that (after exams).

The Fall Effect

It was a long time ago and it's weird looking back on it, but back in my last year of high-school I was in a pop rock band. Yes, it's true. I used to have grandiose dreams of making it big as a drummer or a successful musician (I actually still dream of this...). My long-time bud Cody and I formed the band, acquired two others and gave ourselves the name Audio Ascend (cheesy, I know, but it was mentioned and we went with it). We then added a fifth member the summer after we graduated and it sort of went downhill from there (Check out my facebook notes. I believe the first note I wrote was about the splitting-up of our band). I went off to Europe, Cody went of to B.C., and our fifth addition went off trying to control everything... I'll leave it at that (don't worry, I'm over it). Once I was gone in Europe the remaining members came up with the title The Fall Effect for our band (which I did not like at all really). Our myspace is actually still accessible believe it or not; so check out my short-lived band experience at: www.myspace.com/thefalleffect

P.s. There may be a Goossen family band in the making, just wait and see. In the meantime I am always down to jam and really want to put together a music project with some people. We'll see what happens.

Check out this clip from our live concert in Matlock, MB way back when:

Scotty!!

Yesterday at the Providence v Red River Men's Volleyball game, I made a ridiculous literal name-calling mistake. I thought one of the guys on the Prov team was named Scott, so when he got a kill I yelled out: "Good hit, Scotty!" I was so sure his name was Scott, that I called him Scotty. His actual name is Delmer, and wow, I got that very wrong. I think I went three and a half sets of calling him Scotty. When I realized that I was calling Delmer - Scott the whole game, I could not believe the two guys beside me didn't tell me! Thanks Mike and Joel (...NOT). It's bad because I know Delmer (a little bit... ya no, we're just acquaintances) and I hope he didn't know I was calling him Scotty. Actually, the worst part about this little dilemma is that Scott, who I thought was Delmer, is not named Scott at all. His name is Steve. IDIOT. I swear Steve kinda looks like Delmer. Good thing Steve is really on the Volleyball team, or I'd be a total idiot; he just wasn't there that game. Maybe I was calling Delmer - Scott and thinking Steve was Scott because I was overall thinking of Scott Masterson, who is the athletic director for Prov. Though that doesn't make much sense because he wouldn't be playing on the team anyway! And even though Steve and Delmer look kind of a like (at least I think so), Scott doesn't look like either of them but kinda has the same hair as Paul instead! So really, I should have been calling Paul - Scotty! This is confusing, I know, but just think it over and it should make some sense.

Anyways, a bunch of us had a good laugh about it last night at the Kings Head. Today however, I experienced a little bit of Karma from last night's name-calling pickle. I was at Safeway picking up a turkey for a Super Seven event (you may hear about this later) and when I got to the register I told the cashier my phone number like always. She punched in the number wrong and because of this, called me the wrong name when I turned to leave. She said, "Have a good night Mr. Peter." I didn't correct her, I went on my way and gave a little chuckle just thinking about it (I love the thought of having an alias). When I got home I checked the receipt and it said Posey Peter on it as the name of the customer! Now that's quite the name and I guess it serves me right considering my own mis-namings from yesterday.

The Leafs Aren't Falling Yet

My beloved Maple Leafs are making a surging come back. Even though they are in second last place, they are starting to play like a team and I think the motivation is coming from the newcomer: Phil Kessel. He has been on a tear lately with four goals in his last four games and ten goals in his injury postponing start to the season. The Leafs just have a tough time finishing games! They have the potential to beat the best teams; they just need to find the passion to want the win! Well, at least they're only one point back on the Ducks (Malech's fave team), it's a start. I predict that the Leafs will snag the eighth playoff spot this year, MARK MY WORDS! I will stick with my team no matter what, I don't care what you haters say; I'm very loyal to my Buds. Also, Jason Blake finally stepped up tonight! Both Kessel and Blake scored two goals to propel the Leafs ahead of Columbus in a 6-3 victory, check out these sweeeeet highlights (if you're into hockey):

The Hawks Prevail

Yes, on Monday I relived my high school volleyball experience through this year's MBCI Hawks varsity boy's team. Although, they are the ones that made it and won in the provincial finals (we lost in the semis and the quarters in my varsity career)! Before the game, the school provided ~600 red t-shirts that said MBCI HAWKS on them. What a great idea. Since I am a proud alumnus of the school with school spirit, I gratefully received the shirt and frantically waved it around like a towel after every point the Hawks scored. Did you know that teams who wear red have a better winning percentage than any other colour and are more likely to win? It's a scientific fact. Too bad Liverpool isn't living up to this (and yes, I did sport my red Crouch Liverpool jersey during the game).

Anyways, this provincial final was UNREAL and the first two sets were a testament to that as the Hawks dominated. It looked like they were going to sweep in three. Dakota got lucky in the third set and milked the momentum to win easily in the fourth. The fifth set was unbelievable! The Hawks shot out to a 8-2 lead to switch sides! It was so exciting; I can't get over it just thinking about it (also, I was very nervous during the game... it was weird... but awesome). The 5th set ended at 15-9 and everyone rushed the floor like Massari (remember summer '06?)! The game was one of the best I've ever seen at a high school level. I still wish I stormed the floor after they won (I was going to if they would have won in three sets; I was so ready to). I've always wanted to do that! I decided against it since I don't actually go to the school anymore. As my bud Malech said, "MBCI is the only school where the alumni still believe that they are on the team."

Here are some picks from my bud Froese and his fancy cam (by the way, he sported a Friedrichshafen Vball jersey at the game. He rep'd the German team well):

(above) This boy can jump to the moon. It's Evan Jackson serving.
(below) In victory, fans RUSH the floor!