Driving the Vrsic Pass Through the Julian Mountain Range in Slovenia
High-speed seizure-inducing dashcam video of a harrowing hairpin-turn drive I took through the Julian Alps in October 2016.
Author: Todd Snelgrove
I've been having a lot of fun these past fifty-odd years. I've busked and bicycled through more places I can count, taught music and caught dengue fever, managed a band that toured all over North America and worked with Canada's National Orchestra for two decades. I've traveled countless miles to see a thousand concerts, played hundreds of gigs, won in Vegas and lost in Estonia, worked as a concert promoter, university instructor, janitor, and entertainment writer, seen the Grateful Dead and hiked the Dogon Valley, ran the stairs of the CN Tower and pedalled across Scandinavia once and Newfoundland twice. I've visited the graves of Alexander the Great and the great Robert Johnson, drunk excessively with some of the best and worst people you can imagine, and I've slept in some very, very weird places. Several years ago I started writing some of it down, and much of it is collected here for your perusal.
040189 Metallica/Queensrÿche, Moncton, NB
When Metallica hit the stage they did so in a blistering cavalcade of open-E palm-muted sixteenth notes absolutely synched with Lars Ulrich’s double kick drum flams. Out of the gate they were undeniably the tightest band my young ears had ever heard and I was hooked in for the next two hours…
033116 Preservation Hall, New Orleans, LA
In so many ways, the Preservation Hall band just screams “New Orleans!” and it screams it loud. When you walk into the small, square room you’d swear that jazz had been living there forever…
033093 Robby Krieger, Gatineau, QC
My only brush with The Doors came on March 30th, 1993 when Robbie Krieger played a very unlikely venue in Gatineau called Houblon. I went with my good friend Jojo and we had a whale of a time…
032407 NACO plays The Wizard of Oz, Ottawa, ON
I went to the show, Dorothy and her pals were victorious, that sneaky little wizard learned a thing or two as did that wicked old witch, the orchestra was as great as usual, and of course those flying monkeys freaked me right out…
032219 Reign of Fire; C4 Wrestling, Ottawa, ON
On March 22nd, 2019 I was just sitting around the house twiddling my thumbs and minding my own business when a message came in from a friend:
“Last minute heads up…” it read, “I’ve started going to a monthly minor league “professional” wrestling event…”
And just like that he had my undivided attention…
032112 Van Halen/Kool & the Gang, Ottawa, ON
On March 21st, 2012 I drove thirty kilometres or so to my local arena to see Van Halen. I had seen the band in Montreal about five years previous and had a great time at the show so I was anxious for another chance to see Van Halen (almost) as they were intended to be seen…
032016 The Passion, New Orleans, LA
In the Spring of 2016 I spent three weeks in the French Quarter of New Orleans. One morning I was perusing the local paper (as is my habit when on vacation) and I read about an upcoming event that I found very intriguing. It was a modernized version of The Passion of The Christ adapted by Tyler Perry, it was to be broadcast live on television as it was acted out in real time, it was all happening right in the French Quarter and best of all it was free…
Romania: Autumn, 2016
A mother and son rent a car and circumnavigate the land of Vlad the Impaler. Forts, castles, churches, vampires, historic old towns, caves, monasteries, and the only time Dracula’s Castle ever hosted a rave.
031612 Senators vs Canadiens, Ottawa, ON
Seeing this ticket stub from the March 16th, 2012 game between the Ottawa Senators and their despised rivals the Montreal Canadiens has jarred a memory free from my clogged mind (which I suppose is the main objective of this typing exercise). No, it’s not that the game ended with the Sens winning…
Todd Man Out 