links

Rush of Cuban migrants use Mexican routes to U.S.
Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in more than a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west - to Mexico - in a convoluted route that avoids the U.S. Coast Guard

The Leaders of Cuba, Venezuela sign a new economic partnership agreement
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba's interim leader Raul Castro oversaw the signing Monday of economic partnerships in areas ranging from oil production to tourism as the countries moved to further integrate their economies.

Slash and Burn
Smack, crack, groupies and firearms - not to mention little blue men crawling across the floor: with Guns N' Roses, at the height of their fame, Slash saw it all. An exclusive extract from possibly the most insane rock'n'roll autobiography you'll ever read ...

Modest Mouse in E-Town

Sat. Nov. 3 @ Ed's
pre-sale happing now
password: education

school

Classes start Thursday. I hope to use this site to catalog some sites and sounds for myself and for anyone else that shares any passing interests. Hard to believe that summer is coming to a close. A pretty decent one all told. I'm gonna keep show updates on the side to the best of my abilities. more to come, cheers

rock star tour

Chicago

'People call us renegades
because we like living crazy
We like taking on the town
because people are getting lazy'
kol

'And if it's crowded, all the better,
because we know we're gonna be up late.
But if you're worried about the weather
then you picked the wrong place to stay.
That's how it starts.'
lcd

'I fell in love again
all things go, all things go
drove to Chicago
all things know, all things know'
ss

good night san diego

hello family and friends. my time here in santiago is coming to a close. i´ll be heading out on wednesday morning along with five others to take a week long journey through cuba. we will first stop in camuguay and spend a night then head of to trinidad for three evenings. after we will be in santa clara for two nights before hitting varadero and then finally we´ll be back in havana by the 25th. i´ll be in havana intill i leave on may 1st. looking forward to this little trip. it´ll be pretty hard for me to be in contact during this jaunt. i´ll touch base once i get into havana. i miss everyone back home and i´ll be back in a flash. cheers

happy easter!

hello family and friends, i want to wish everyone a happy easter from here in cuba, wish i could be there with everyone.

tonight i will head out to the first game of the semi-finals in the cuban baseball league. santiago vs. villa clara. should be a grand evening.

only one more week of class left, hard to believe.

i will be leaving santiago on april 18th with a groupl of us canucks, we will tour the country for about a week on the journey back to havana. we should get to havana no later than the 26th and then spend a few days in and around the grand city before we head back to canada. looking forward to it.

cheers

from santiago

hello family and friends. the last few days have been pretty fun-filled here in cuba.

thursday-playoff baseball
friday-birthday party
saturday-afro/cuban dance show followed by a giant street party
sunday-beach

tough life. only two weeks of class left and then two weeks to explore the country before hoping on the plane back to canada. when i get back i´ll be sporting a beard, shaggy hair, and a tan. hard to believe the trip is almost over, i gotta admit i look forward to coming home and seeing everyone again, but until then i will enjoy this interesting nation a bit more. cheers

cuba time

if you head over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/shook_one/ my little sis has put a couple pic from cuba up. i think/hope she will upload a few more in the coming days and weeks.

my time here in cuba started of with a couple days in havana. a 15 hour bus journey took me to my home city for the trip of santiago de cuba. cuba's second largest city, santiago is all in all a nice place to experience cuba. not without it's problems, but is a bit quitter than havana and maybe dare i say a bit safer.

i spent the first half of the trip residing in the hotel birret. it's ran by the host university, university de oriente, and was overall a decent place to stay. we were given breakfast and supper and a room for a breath taking $9 CUC's a day. a big plus for me was that we got hbo, showtime, cnn, and tnt at birret. premium american movie channels in cuba? i'll take it. cnn isn't the best news source in the world but at least we got some idea of what was going on in the outside world presented in english.

i'm sorry i got distracted, just read on pitchfork that arcade fire debuted at number two on the billboard chart. wholly shit! my sis was able to send me a copy down in feb and it has been in constant rotaion on my ipod ever since. but number 2...wow. congrats. i'll pick up my tales of cuba very soon, running low on internet time. until then, cheers

not forgotten

well it´s been just about a month since i´ve posted anything on here. my apologies. during that time i´ve had the good fortune to have my family pay me a visit in cuba and i´ve moved into a casa particular aka a private home. school has been going good, in all honesty it doesn´t feel like i´m in school down here. so much different than back home. a more relaxed time all around. the weather is almost to good to be true. thank to everyone that has added me on facebook. i wish the internet situation was a bit faster and cheaper down here so i could check in with everyone. nice to see all the old forestburg gang online. i hope school and spring break went well for everyone. i hope to share some more details on my new residence here in santiago in the coming days. cheers

happy valentine´s day

caught a tropicana/caberet show just outside santiago this past weekend
cool experience
visited an amazing castle
beautiful view of the ocean
amazing runs at sunset down here
done first round of classes
started our first cuban taught cuban translated courses
interesting way to learn
miss everyone back home
enjoy spring break
cheers

bugs

first baseball game last nite
huge crowd
santiago vs. havana (bitter rivals)
amazing experience
today during ids class they burned garbage right next to our building
our hotel was fumagated this morning
i guess using masks while spraying chemicals is for pussies
as best as i can tell an aggresive spraying campaign is underway against mosquitos
lots of bug bites lately, i think mostly mosquitos (never actually seen one yet) and ants
my sunburn is doing quite well
four hour classes are not fun
i'll have more time next week, hope to get a pic or two up
if anybody wants to send me news clips from mtv, rolling stone, cbc, bbc, ny times, &/or any nba related thing i'd be very greatful
i don't get a chance to visit any of those websites down here
we lost showtime on our tv, but the a/c is kinda working now
miss y'all lots
cheers

three weeks

only one more week of espanol
could go for several more weeks of it
can't always get what you want
nice sunburn from the weekend trip to the beach
finally got to go in the ocean, beautiful feeling
had my best cuban prepared meal of the trip
hope everyone is warm back home (non-sarcastic tone)
experienced some earth movement yesterday
watched the superbowl in espanol
no a/c for the last 5-6 days isn't fun but we still get hbo and showtime
miss everyone back home
cheers

two weeks

two weeks in cuba
overall a solid time
slowly catching on to the two economy thing
nice hotel san the ants
good group of people to be around
miss everyone back home a bunch
cheers

hola

hello to everyone back in canada
i am safe and sound here in santiago de cuba
having a good time thus far
it´s like stepping into another world down here
the weather is beautiful
can get pretty hot
so far i only have two classes on the (spanish and ids)
i send my love and best wishes
cheers
devin

the new year

A belated happy new year's to everyone.

I will be leaving for Cuba very soon (12:30am on January 15 to be exact) and I am hoping to send old fashioned letters and postcards to friends & family while I'm gone. If anyone wants to visit the mailbox one day and find a little piece of Cuba in it send me your mailing addresses. You can email them to me or hit me up on facebook or phone 'em in, just have them to me by the 14th if you want a letter.

If snailmail is not your thing, I hope to send out a few mass emails on my goings on in the land of Castro. We've been told that internet thing is a crap shot each time Augustana goes so I'm covering my bases with the mail thing.

The Citadel show was pretty crazy. Long waits in cold lines, lost coats & licenses, and missed buses did not damper what was a grand ole time. Shout Out Out Out Out made me a believer. The Citadel was a beautiful venue to kick in 2007. Pictures will soon be up on flickr.