April 10: Amedeo, Amedeo!

This is Amedeo. He has been cutting my mom's hair for a good ten years now, and he did all of our hair for my wedding. I figured since I was back in Montreal this week, I would get him to cut my hair. Because really, when else do I get the chance to have an Italian dude named Amedeo run his fingers through my hair and tell me how sassy I look?

Every time my mom mentions Amedeo, I get this song stuck in my head. You know that song with a techno-pop-dance beat that has a chorus that repeats "Amadeo, Amadeo" over and over?

Yeah ... umm ... me neither.

So I decided to try and figure out if this song stuck in my head actually existed, and if so, what it is. An exhaustive Google search of "Amadeo, Amadeo" brought me this, which, despite not being what I was looking for, is actually WAY better than the original song in my head:

But after holding a mini dance party in my bedroom, which may have resulted in a minor neck injury, I still had the other song in my head.

Amadeo, Amadeo.

Amadeo, Amadeo.

I vaguely remember hearing a radio show about some website that allows you to record yourself singing portions of a song you have stuck in your head but don't know the title or artist, and then lets the general public (i.e. those with nothing better to do than listen to clips of tone-deaf people yelling into their computer microphones) give you guesses on what the song might be. The only two problems with this course of action: 1) I haven't the slightest clue what the website is; and 2) ummm ... have you ever heard me sing?

With a lucky shot in the cyberdark, combined with mindless indifference towards my already unwieldy list of usernames and passwords, I conveniently found myself signed up as a member of WatZatSong.com. Despite my skepticism towards the ability of even the most gifted musician to recognize anything that I might sing, I immediately filled out a "Guess Request" form complete with a 5-second vocal performance, and my helpful description "the only thing I can remember about this song is that there is a chorus that repeats 'Amadeo, Amadeo."

Now, I gotta give props to the legions of cybergeeks out there who see it as a priority second only to breathing to make sure that people in the world do not suffer the torture of having a nameless, faceless song bit stuck in their heads. Because within two minutes of posting my far-fetched request I noticed that seven people had already listened to the clip, and within five minutes someone had already posted a guess. The first guess was close, pointing me to a song by Era called "Ameno" but it wasn't a match.

I was already giddy with delight that people were actually responding, regardless of the results. But imagine my sheer nerd-bliss when, only seconds after I confirmed that the first guess was not a match, a new guess was posted. And not just any guess ... A CORRECT GUESS! Which turns out to be even more impressive, considering I later discovered that not only was my microphone off when I made my recording, but I was also wrong about the lyrics that I did know ...

So, here's to all the high school nerds holed up in their basement bedrooms, working their 24-inch iMacs hard into the wee hours of morn and saving the world from unidentified musical compositions. Nerds, I salute you! As a token of my appreciation I present to you the crooning of 1980's German pop-rapper Falco, with 'Rock Me Amadeus.'

(Sorry, I couldn't embed this video ... you know how those 1980's German rappers feel about their work ... )

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April 7: Brought to you by Audi .... uhhh ... I mean The Squamish Chief and The Benefits Company

I had my final races of the season this past weekend, and it was a truly international event. In the women's field there were Canadians, Americans, Brits, Koreans, Japanese, Italians, Germans, and the Audi-sponsored Swiss, among others (the others being Jamaica, U.S. Virgin Islands, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Finland).

Normally the America's Cup competitive field is not so diverse, because the Europeans race on their equivalent Europa Cup circuit. However, next year the World Championships are being held in Lake Placid, which means there are a whole lot of people who want as many runs down the track here as possible. Wait, let me be more specific: there are a whole lot of WORLD CUP SLIDERS who want as many runs down the track here as possible.

So let's talk about the competitive field in the two races this past weekend, which included:

• Shelley Rudman, 2006 OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALLIST.
• Anja Huber, current WORLD CHAMPION.
• Noelle Pikus-Pace, 2007 WORLD CHAMPION.
• Louise Corcoran, 2006 OLYMPIAN.
• Marion Trott, ranked top 10 IN THE WORLD.
• The entire Swiss WORLD CUP TEAM.
• Oh yeah, and me. 2008 Alberta Skeleton Association Cup #3 bronze medallist.

Ummm ... let's just say that they beat me. Twice.

The first day of racing was disappointing. In a typical race there are two heats, and the lowest combined time wins. When there is a large number of racers, the field is cut after the first heat, and only the top 20 move on to the second heat. On the first run I beat my personal best on both the start and the downtime, which is nice until you find yourself in 21st place ... Let me tell you, I never again plan to be sidelined during the second run. It feels about as good as being pantsed at a high school dance.

The second day of racing I had a solid first run that put me in 13th going into the second heat, and I finished the day in 14th. Which I guess isn't so bad considering there were seven world cup sliders finishing ahead of me and four other Canadians. In this sport, I suspect that my teammates are going to be my biggest competition. Turns out, Canada is REALLY good at skeleton ...

And this brings a long season to a close. I have been on the ice since October 1st (almost seven months), spent close to 16 weeks in Calgary and have done almost 200 runs. And now I am ready to ditch the spandex and parkas for flip flops and shorts. Because I need to be comfortable while I prepare myself for the thrashing I hope to have the chance to receive from the Whistler track in October.

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April 02: DUCK!

One of the ways we learn the steering and lines of a new track is by watching others sliders go down. Then we can see what they are doing and whether it is working.

During training runs before a race, you will see all the sliders sitting along the edge of track with notebooks, coaches and cameras, trying to figure out the best lines and steers. Which looks kinda like this:

Well, actually, it looks excatly like that.

And then you hope that, say ... oh, I don't know ... THIS GUY isn't going down the track while you have your face three feet away from the ice.

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