Arts and Culture | The Proprietor Review

Category: Arts and Culture

Line Dancing

December 8, 2015

The old court house on Nicola avenue , in Merritt. File Photo Photo KDG

The Old Court House on Nicola Avenue , in Merritt.
File Photo:
KDG

The love to dance studio is offering line dancing on Tuesday nights at 6:30 PM. This small rural communities population is suited to Line Dancing because of its cowboy culture.

Line Dancing has only been offered for Community Rec 12 classes at the local high school as far as we can recall. The desert in had a group of line dancing children at the height of the Merritt Mountain Music Festival. We attended a Hearts and Stroke Society Convention in Kamloops some decades ago and we had instruction and practice in sessions at the convention. We took our new skills out on the town and tried them at a local NC in the evening. Kudos to the business located at the Old Courthouse Gallery, 2000 block Nicola Avenue in Merritt.

A line dance is a choreographed dance with a repeated sequence of steps in which a group of people dance in one or more lines or rows without regard for the gender of the individuals, all facing either each other or in the same direction, and executing the steps at the same time. Unlike in circle dancing, line dancers are not in physical contact with each other. source Wikipedia

On this Day: December 8th 1922

Northern Ireland leaves the Irish Free State.

Tags: heart and stroke, line dancing, Merritt British Columbia, oil

Comment

TGIF- Alternate energy

Filed under: Enterprize, Social Activism by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

December 4, 2015

Pipe for oil field
File:Photo KDG
Will they be the bad guy from Paris?

The Paris meetings have recently affirmed that there is will to change , what is different about this international meeting and others is this;usually the bureaucrats have already done the work for agreements or treaties and the elected are there to announce and confer as well as associate with others that have the confidence of the electorate. This time their is a 90 day time limit for conferring with officials after the fact. The cabinet must take their pledges to the ministries in there nations and come up with plans. Here is some of the alternate methods that BC hydro is adopting in response to the markets here already.

Electricity from independent producers must also be clean and renewable. Projects currently generating electricity for B.C. are found throughout the province, and include: ( BC Hydro)

Biomass: electricity is generated either by burning or by converting biomass to a fuel, which is then used to generate power

Run-of-river: the current of a river is used to generate electricity

Solar: energy from the sun’s rays are converted to electricity using photovoltaic cells

Municipal solid waste: combustion or gasification of waste to generate electricity

Waste heat: when heat is generated as a byproduct of other processes, it can be used to generate electricity

Wind: windmills generate electricity when spinning Source: https://www.bchydro.com/news/conservation/2015/hydroelectricity-still-best.html?WT.mc_id=c-15-12_hydroelectricity

Merritt is in the middle of a green energy project now, how this relates to Paris is unknown however it is always desirable for incoming governments to privatize. ( or in this case create new business) . Hydro says they have 100 projects on the go with the above elements.

Editors note: We think the first method of international agreements is preferable to the Paris format. Less surprises over all. That said it was nice to see all those getting along so well in a troubled world. We hope it sticks.

On this day December 4th 1875

Boss Tweed a New York crooked politician escapes prison later recaptured in Spain.

Tags: Energy, tgif

Comment

Live auction

Filed under: Barns and Old Buildings, Sports and Leisure by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

December 3, 2015

Merritt has a walk of stars walk and a hall of fame.
File Photo KDG

The Chamber is completing its silent auction with a live auction at 5 PM tonight at the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame building 2025 Quilchena Avenue. Two of the fourteen trees decorated for the parade on Friday will be sold by the parade committee.

The Hall of Fame is a progression from the activities around the Walk of Stars and the years of country music festivals in Merritt.:

http://www.ccmhalloffame.com/about/visit/walk-of-stars

On this Day: December 3rd 1959

Singapore changes its flag after six months of independence from Great Britain.

Tags: Chamber of Commerce, Merritt British Columbia

Comment

TGIF-Christmas parade

Filed under: Enterprize by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

November 27, 2015

Have a great day from Proprietor Review

Tonight there will be the annual Christmas parade in Merritt, the parade will start off the Christmas shopping season and will have a midnight madness open shops after the parade.
Merritt BC is a community of 8000 people in the South Central Interior of British Columbia Canada. Its Chamber of Commerce has had a number of themes over the decades including, A lake a day as long as you stay,The Copper Capital of Canada, The Hub of the Coquihalla Highway System and its most recent The Country Music Capital of Canada. It has the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in the 2000 Block of Quilchena avenue and is the bedroom community of the Douglas Lake Cattle Company, it is also the home of NVIT, a local Community College started by its First Nations citizens over 30 years ago. Merritt’s parade will reflect a lot of that flavor.

Community parade as part of the Country Christmas week to help kick off the festive season.
Parade starts at the Civic Center goes down Chapman Street to Quilchena Avenue, down Quilchena Avenue to Charters Street, down Charters Street to Coutlee Avenue, down Coutlee Avenue to Garcia Street where the parade ends.

Start time 7PM (spectators)

https://www.facebook.com/events/141232632902351/

On this Day: November 27th 2000
The Liberal Party of Canada wins a third mandate for Parliament.

Tags: Liberal Party

Comment

Finish the Sentence

Filed under: Sports and Leisure by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

November 25, 2015

The Merritt public library is having a finish the sentence contest. Patrons of the 1691 Garcia street facility can take out three books pile them in a staggered row to make a continuous sentence from the combined titles.
The contestants are then to take a picture of the pile of books and submit it to the library for posting and a vote. There is a prize of a large chocolate basket. Entries are due December 1st.

On this Day: November 25th 1999
The United nations makes an international observance of women’s suffrage.

Tags: contest, Library

Comment

TGIF- Veterans week past…

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Veterans by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

November 13, 2015

Historical military vehicles being displayed in Merritt.
File photo KDG

All roads lead to peace but for how long….

On this Day: November 13th 1982

The Vietnam War ( American war if your from Southeast Asia) memorial is opened after a march of vets.

Tags: Veterans

Comment

Community pictures

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Entertainers by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

November 10, 2015

Diversity makes for a broader community.
File photo KDG

We have a password protected page that has some pictures of community activities from about 2012. We think that it demonstrates a bend toward theater so we are sharing the current password today for your enjoyment.

Merritt is in the process of building a 5 million dollar Community theater and we think the pictures build a context of a possible support for Community Theater.

https://kevingriffiths.wordpress.com/topical-images/z-series-community-pictures/ Password : Community Theater

On this day: November 10th 1983

Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0

Tags: Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Theater

Comment

TGIF-Letter coming

Filed under: Enterprize by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

November 6, 2015

Telus making its presence known in Merritt.
Photo KDG

The Telus bunch working all over this city had a meeting and discussed what they were doing and what to tell people because ” people are asking”. so today one of them said a letter is going out to everyone in town explaining the upgrade. they are also handing out brochures that show that they are bring direct fiber to households, so that you can be “digital right to your digital device” with out analog lines being used to slow speeds down.

They also promote Netflix through Optic to bring thousands of movies to your digital device. They say downloading a full music item will be 5 minutes.

There is information at: telus.com/merritt.

The websites promises 90 percent of Merritt to had 150 Mbp/per second of speed.

Editors note: When it says MBp/s that is Megabytes per second when the b is small it is Megabits . There are 8 bits to a byte. Mega-Bytes is faster service.

On this Day: November 6th 1947
Meet the press debuts on TV.

Tags: Telus

Comment

The return of the big onion-windmill

Filed under: Enterprize, Social Activism by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

November 5, 2015

Heinz Lange big onion windmill.
Photo KDG

No its not a horror movie rather its a friend from the past. The onion was and invention of Heinz Lange here in Merritt and a version of it powered a warning light on the hillside leaving Merritt to the north and approaching the airstrip for decades.
A source with the city says that it is Murphy Shewchuck behind it’s construction it is being placed at the entrance to the Kinsman Park on Voght street and a plaque stand is in place ready to receive some acknowledgement.
Murphy Shewchuck is a retired BC Hydro employee and a free-lance writer and photographer. He has written several books on Merritt history and its trails and attractions. He also is published in outdoors magazines. He is a member of the Nicola Naturalists and a principal at the local museum and archives.
http://www.murphyshewchuk.com/guidebooks/
Heinz Lange was a high school shop teacher passed away decades ago after a long a productive career here. He immigrated from Germany after the second world war after being on the side not prevailing as a test pilot for the Messerschmitt jet aircraft. Many of us remember him fondly as a teacher who cared and was energetic and positive. His windmill was also deployed in tests to aerate lakes in the area. He is said to have gotten a patent for his invention in the United States.
Reconciliation was his and many others aim here in the Nicola Valley.

On this Day: November 5th 1943

WW 11 the Vatican is attacked from the air.

Tags: Technology, windmill

Comment

Download Speeds Netflix

Filed under: Enterprize, Sports and Leisure, Technology by Kevin Griffiths — Leave a comment

November 4, 2015

We will see if some accounts of 100 megabits per second will stand, for now here is some info on broadband applications we think is accurate. One thing for sure there is a lot of utilities activities in the small central interior City of Merritt.

The upgrade and stitching of Telus fiber optics is in full charge. A line worker said that this community is lucky as we will have the highest speed internet available. “Good for Netflix, digital to the home”. Telus is also installing some new poles on Garcia Street, often phone lines are shared on Hydro poles and are the lower lines about 2 meters lower then power lines.

Below are the Internet download speed recommendations per stream for playing movies and TV shows through Netflix.
•0.5 Megabits per second – Required broadband connection speed
•1.5 Megabits per second – Recommended broadband connection speed
•3.0 Megabits per second – Recommended for SD quality
•5.0 Megabits per second – Recommended for HD quality
•25 Megabits per second – Recommended for Ultra HD quality, source: Netflix
HD Video Quality

Movies and TV shows that are available in high definition will play in 720p or better with a fast enough Internet connection. To watch Netflix in HD, ensure you have an HD plan, then set your video quality setting to High in the Playback Settings for your account.

A source says Telus is providing 7MB/s now and is going to 100 Megs/a second:
stichers on the site maintain it is the highest TELUS will offer meaning 10 megs or 1000 bites a second

What Internet Speeds Are Available?

While there are many rural communities that cannot even reach the 2 Mb/s speed, more of the larger cities, suburbs and urban areas have speeds available of 10 Mb/s and above. It is not limited to broadband/cable internet. In some cases internet speeds nearing 20 Mb/s from a DSL internet connection may be available.

The workers on the project puff the value of the work but it appears that an improvement is coming to this small rural community that will give the choice to those that may want it , higher speeds to watch in particular Netflix films in better definitions. Modems are a concern when matching performance to what is offered. Buyer Beware.
Editors note: David Calloway writes a good explanation of Broadband speeds here:
http://broadband.about.com/od/speedissues/a/Broadband-Speeds-Explained.htm

On this Day: November 4th 1822

Howard Carter finds the Tomb of King Tut.