Missing Jazz Fest, still haven’t enjoyed all that has reopened

A street performer at the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival in 2012.

    Weird realizations seem to come out of the blue during these coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic times.

    Having passed through downtown Saskatoon over the past week, it popped into my head that the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival should have been going on. Of course, it was announced way back in April the Jazz Festival had been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Still, the clock in my mind went off that this should have been going on. The Jazz Festival usually runs during the final full week of June and might run for about the first two to three days in July.

    While my main interests usually revolve around the sports world, the Jazz Festival usually provides the opportunity for me to enjoy something different. I enjoy wandering through downtown and checking out the corner musical acts that seem to pop up everywhere.

    I will usually bike from my home to the free stage for at least one night to see what is taking place there.

A guitar player on the street at the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival in 2012.

    The organizers tried to push the Jazz Festival back to where it would have opened on Friday and ran through to July 12 before the conditions of the pandemic forced an indefinite postponement.

    Even today when I was biking on the Meewasin Trail pointed towards downtown Saskatoon, I thought it would be great if I could check out some of the sites from the Jazz Festival.

    Another thought proceeded to pop into my head at that time. I thought it would be great to go to a play put on by Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan.

    Back in April, it was announced the program for Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Believe it or not, I have gone to Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan performances in past summers. I saw Romeo and Juliet in the summer of 2014, and I took in Hamlet in the summer of 2018.

    Both were really good, and it felt good seeing those plays in the quaint tent setting. In my drives past the festival site, it appears construction is proceeding well for the permanent buildings that are going up there.
    The COVID-19 pandemic prevented The Pride Parade from going ahead in Saskatoon in June in a live format. 

The free stage at the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival in 2012.

    I’ve taken pictures of The Pride Parade on a couple of occasions, and I’ve always felt happy seeing the joy and the colour in those photos.

    With the reopening that has taken place in Saskatchewan since May 4, I haven’t taken advantage of everything the reopening has offered.

    I am not staying away due to fears of COVID-19. I have found I have grown accustomed to being a home bug.

    Currently, you can go into a coffee shop and sit in the dining area, which you couldn’t do for an extended time.

    I often frequented the Starbucks at Preston Crossing just north of the University of Saskatchewan to work on writing projects. Many posts for this blog have been written there.

    I last sat and wrote at Starbucks back on March 15. With the shutdowns that occurred, I have gotten used to working at home.
    I just can’t get on the horse of going to sit and work in a coffee shop again.

    I do have an office to go to in order to perform my duties, when I work as the communications coordinator for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

People march in the Pride Parade in 2015.

    It took work on my part in the middle of June to make it a habit to go into that office.

    I haven’t gone in to dine in a nice restaurant of a fast food restaurant. During the time heavy shutdowns were in place, I got used to ordering take out from those places.

    I didn’t frequented those places for takeout that much, but ordering takeout and eating food in front of the television at home has become the habit.

    The Great Canadian Brewhouse near my place in the north end of Saskatoon is open again, and usually its parking lot has been full of cars on a nightly basis. I keep asking myself if I want to pop in for a beer.

    I haven’t downed an alcoholic beverage at an establishment since going for a night out on March 14. I also want to pop in to Outlaws for a barbecued burger and a beer. While it is best known as a nightclub, the barbecued burgers there are good.

    I don’t believe the dance floor is open there, but I would like to go to Outlaws to see the staff I know there too.

One of the floats from the Pride Parade in 2015.

    My habit on Friday and Saturday nights have become watching movies or old TV shows I find on Youtube that I watched in my youth. If I want to drink a beer, I usually drink one or two before going to bed on a Friday or Saturday night.

    That has become my habit, and I find the urge to go out disappears as fast as it arrives.

    Before the pandemic, I would also go out to workout at a gym or fitness centre, when I want to switch things up and be around people. I’ve gotten so used to working out at home that I can’t find the urge to go to a gym.

Working out at home has become my habit.
    I wonder what it will be like to go to a live competitive sports event again in person. I haven’t done that for 114 days dating back to March 12, and sometimes I wonder if I will do that again.

    As these pandemic times go on, I wonder what other out of the blue things I will find I am missing. I wonder if I will discover changes in other small habits I used to have.

Winterhawks name may live on, other notes

Jaydon Dureau, front left, and Haydn Delorme are wrapped in star blankets. 

    It is highly possible Portland’s WHL franchise will continue to use the Winterhawks nickname.

    The nicknames for sports teams once again came under fire this week when news surfaced on Thursday that FedEx asked the NFL’s Washington Redskins to change their name. FedEx is a major sponsor of the team and the Washington NFL’s club’s home park is called FedExField.

    Since the early 1990s, the Redskins nickname has come under fire for being racially insensitive, and there have been calls to remove all nicknames of sports teams that are viewed as not being sound racially. The large majority of these cases involve nicknames that are linked to First Nations.

    Questions of addressing racism have found new momentum in the world following the endless protests that have occurred throughout the world due to the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25. All the soul searching is a good thing.

    In the WHL, I believe there is a good chance the Winterhawks nickname will live on.

    Back on Jan 12, 2019, the Saskatoon Blades were holding their annual First Nations Night contest as the SaskTel Centre, and the visiting Winterhawks were the opponents.

Fred Sasakamoose performs a ceremonial faceoff.

    Portland’s roster that night contained forwards Haydn Delorme and Jaydon Dureau, who are both members of the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in northwest Saskatchewan.

    Members of First Nations communities from Saskatoon and the surrounding area put together a warm and a cool culturally focused pre-game show. During that show, the blanket ceremony was performed for Delorme and Dureau, where both players had blankets wrapped around them by First Nations elders.

    They were given star blankets to honour their journey and dedication in sport.

    Fred Sasakamoose, who was the first player of First Nations descent to play in the NHL, was one of the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation elders that took part in the ceremony and wrapped blankets around Delorme and Dureau.

    Sasakamoose wore his jersey from his old NHL club, the Chicago Blackhawks, while taking part in the festivities. Actually, it is common for Sasakamoose to where his Blackhawks jersey for public appearances at sporting events.

The Winterhawks red jerseys are one of the best looking in the sports world.

    During the pre-game festivities that night, the First Nations leaders spoke to the crowd about how proud they were of the Winterhawks for how well they carried First Nations colours.
    Of course, the Winterhawks jersey design comes from the NHL’s Blackhawks. A number of First Nations community hockey teams across Canada also use the Blackhawks nickname and jersey design.

    As a side bonus, the Blackhawks and Winterhawks red jerseys are arguably one of the best looking uniforms in the entire sports world.
    The pre-game festivities from that night at the SaskTel Centre were covered in the Eagle Feather News, which is a First Nations media publication.

    Due to the fact the NHL’s Blackhawks and WHL’s Winterhawks have had First Nations players on their rosters and have had a positive identification on that front, there is a good chance those nicknames will continue to be used by those clubs.

• On Wednesday, there were numerous reports from media outlets in the United States that the NFL was planning to reduce the number of pre-season games each team plays from four to two due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If each team plays two pre-season games, that would cut the schedule of the entire NFL pre-season in half.
• On Thursday, the junior A Melville Millionaires of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League hired Daniel Wapple as the club’s new goaltending coach. Wapple has been a goaltender skills instructor for the past five seasons and resides in Regina. The Saskatoon product played goal in the WHL for four seasons from 2012 to 2016 with the Moose Jaw Warriors, Medicine Hat Tigers, Regina Pats and Vancouver Giants. He finished the 2015-16 campaign in the junior A ranks with the Estevan Bruins. Wapple played one season in the U Sports ranks with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team in 2016-17.
• On Friday, the Saskatchewan Soccer Association cancelled all of its outdoor provincial champions, the Provincial Soccer League and Soccer Day in Saskatchewan in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Back on June 23, Soccer Canada cancelled its national club championships slated for Oct. 7 to 12 in Halifax, N.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• On Friday, Hockey Canada announced the 2020 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge slated for Oct. 31 to Nov. 7 in Charlottetown and Summerside, P.E.I., has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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