Festival Dalhousie

This past weekend was a busy one in our west side neighborhoods. There were a number of festivals, parades, and cultural events.

It was Budda's birthday. Shown below is the float that was the key piece in the parade from the Buddist temple on Somerset Street (beside the Plant recreation centre):

The Vietnamese community held a fundraiser at the site of their proposed museum and cultural centre at the corner of Somerset and Preston, diagonally opposite the refugee memorial. I was particularly interested to note the proud wearing of the South Vietnam military uniforms by veterans of that war.

Science Canada awards national prize to local school

Science Canada had a national short film contest for high school students, on the subject of science.

Ecole Secondaire de la Salle (on Old St Patrick St) is the local french language public high school for the west side action area.  Produced for chemistry class, and recorded in a single 75-minute period, this short rap film extols the virtues of science and technology through the illest lyrics you've ever heard . It was produced from start-to-finish in less than five days while the students continued attending regular classes.

ES de la Salle won first, second, and fourth prizes in the film contest. You can watch the rap video at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRS0yPoZHkA . The clever lyrics are, of course, en francais, and are written out on the youtube site (right side). The film is in HD so it was slow to download on my link -- download it all, then watch it.