Photo Credit: Photo by Andrew Fosker
Variety.com

Watching the movie Bohemian Rhapsody gave me the goosebumps and made me realize how much I’ve missed Freddie Mercury. The film topped the box office for many weeks because baby boomers like me, who grew up with Queen‘s music, went and sought nostalgia.

Excellent music should give you the goosebumps, and I’m very happy to have discovered three recent albums that belong to this category of touching music. Every year at this time prior to the Holiday Season, I would purchase a new X’mas CD (yes, I still listen to CDs in addition to streaming music). This year, I’ve bought Eric Clapton’s “Happy X’mas” and was pleasantly surprised that at 73, Clapton still sings the blues like no other! In fact, his new X’mas album is one of the best Holiday albums I’ve heard in years. However, for you to like it, you have to be a Clapton fan or a blues music fan, or both. Even though the album encompasses traditional songs such as “Silent Night” and “Jingles Bell,” it was not produced in the run-of-the-mill jolly and festive fashion. After all, Clapton is best known for his guitar, his husky voice and his blues.

Most of the songs on this album show off Clapton’s guitar chops and even the jolliest tune has a “bluesy” feel to it. My favourite track is the only original song on the album written by Clapton – “For Love On Christmas Day” – so sad, and yet so passionate during this festive season. In “Silent Night,” Clapton features his two daughters as back-up singers which I thought was very sweet since Christmas is very much a family affair. My last Clapton album was the Grammy-award-winning “Riding With The King,” the blues album he collaborated with the late B.B. King, some 18 years ago. It’s refreshing to see a boomer musician like Clapton still making great music in his 70s and I hope he would never retire.

During the last year, I’ve also become a fan of jazz musician Jon Batiste, the 32-year-old Julliard School graduate who is, perhaps, best known as the musical director on the “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” His new album “Hollywood Africans” paid tribute to his “blackness” and his roots from Kenner, Louisiana. According to the Rolling Stone magazine, this brand new album was named after a 1983 Basquiat painting, and is devoted to drowning out and responding to what Batiste likes to refer to as “noise.” For him, the term refers both to the rapidly degenerating state of America ever since Donald Trump became President, as well as the increasingly hectic pace that his own life has taken on since his Colbert adventure began.

As a result, the album is a wonderful collection of original ballads like “Don’t Stop” and “Is It Over?” mixing with classics such as “The Very Thought Of You,” “What A Wonderful World,” and traditional New Orleans favourites like “Saint James Infirmary Blues.” Produced by T Bone Burnett, the album is mostly guided by Batiste’s piano-playing and his vocals. My favourite track is “Chopinesque” – his arrangement and interpretation of a renowned piece by Chopin.

“Hollywood Africans” blew me away to such an extent that I immediately pined for more music from this gifted millennial. This led me to eventually purchase my second X’mas album this season, “Christmas with Jon Batiste,” which was produced exclusively for streaming on Amazon Music in 2016. To my joyous surprise, I found this album available for sale in a CD format on Amazon. Once again, Batiste’s creativity and musical talents are worth the exorbitant price of the CD. This is an album which features his collaboration with other African-American jazz musicians, including Aloe Blaac and Judith Hill in lead vocals; Jason Marsalis in vibraphone; Lee England Jr. in violin; Eric Gales in electric guitar; Sean Jones in trumpet; and Infinity’s Song in voices.

My favourite tracks are “Endless Love,” a duet with Aloe Blaac; “Silent Night,” featuring Batiste’s piano-playing and lead vocals, and violin by Lee England Jr.; and the final track, “Christmas in Barcelona,” featuring Batiste’s lead vocals and piano again. The Jon Batiste Trio is also prominent throughout the record with Batiste on the piano, lead vocals, harmonabord, B3 organ, celeste, percussion and hand claps; Joe Saylor on drums and tambourine; and Phil Kuehn on acoustic bass and hand claps.

I believe that Jon Batiste is such a rising star that he should be hosting his own musical show rather than being Stephen Colbert’s sidekick. But kudos to the comedian for recognizing this young talent and providing Batiste with a mainstream platform to enable more people to appreciate his music.

The world of music is constantly changing and influencing so many of us in a variety of ways. While it is nostalgic to listen to the music that we grew up with, boomers should continue to discover new music that touches our hearts and souls.

Photo Credit: mirvish.com

Beautiful:The Carole King Musical, from the Mirvish Productions, has been a huge success for a variety of reasons. It’s a musical tracing the career of Carole King, and endorsed by the iconic singer of the 70s herself. King is a musician whom most boomers love and the musical, featuring a lot of her songs from the Tapestry album, understandably pulls the heart strings and, therefore, the purse strings of the boomer theatre-goers.

The musical is currently touring Toronto after garnering seven Tony-Award nominations and winning two of them (Best Featured Actor in a Musical and Best Sound Design) in 2014, and following a year-long tour in the U.S. After Toronto, two simultaneous tours will take place in the U.K. and Australia. The musical also won three Drama Desk Awards in 2014 and a Grammy Award in 2015. Adapted from the book on the early life and career of Carole King by Douglas McGrath, Beautiful is a substantial work of art featuring not only great music, but a witty and funny dialogue, and outstanding orchestrations. It’s a musical that makes boomers laugh, reminisce and sing along. For boomers like me, who didn’t know much about the singer in the 70s except to appreciate her songs, the musical told a story of how a young musician went through her early life of love, success, heartbreaks, motherhood and friendships.

For the Toronto audience, it’s particularly heartwarming to see the homecoming of Chilina Kennedy, the lead Canadian actress from Oromocto, New Brunswick, who plays King. Kennedy, who replaced the Tony-Award winner Jesse Mueller in Broadway’s Beautiful in March 2015, had to take a leave of absence from New York City to perform in Toronto. The young actress has a rich theatrical pedigree on both sides of the border having spent three seasons at both The Stratford Festival and Shaw Festival in Ontario. She also starred in a touring production of Mamma Mia and played Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway. Playing opposite Kennedy is another Canadian, Liam Tobin, who hailed from St. John’s Newfoundland. Tobin plays King’s first handsome and talented husband and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin, probably the second most important character in the musical.

Entertainment production companies have recently been paying a lot of attention to boomer audiences. The Desert Trip Music Festival last year, which featured The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young and The Who (average age 72), was a resounding success. Goldenvoice, a division of AEG Worldwide, produced this event as well as the renowned Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival each spring in Indio, California. Unlike Coachella, which targeted mainly millennials and GenXers, the Desert Trip Festival was geared to the moneyed-boomer crowd with attractions such as US$10,000 tents, vintage shops, galley space, a pinball-machine arcade and an organic farmers market. It would be interesting to see whether they have enough boomer musicians to do an annual roster for The Desert Trip!

As posted before on this blog, Casino Rama and Fallsview Casino in Ontario have also been featuring big-name boomer musicians to lure the mature crowd. Upcoming shows include performers like Kiss, Donny and Marie Osmond, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Paul Anka, Engelbert Humperdinck and Buddy Guy. Similarly, going through the list of scheduled events at Fallsview Casino is like a stroll on memory lane, featuring bands such as Air Supply, America, Creedence Clearwater Revisited (instead of Revival), and KC and the Sunshine Band.

In the world of entertainment, producers have definitely been targeting at and marketing to the boomers. Even Steve Coogan, the British screenwriter and filmmaker who is famous for his “Trip” travelogues, has just turned 50 and joined the league of boomers. His latest film, The Trip to Spain, is full of self-deprecating humour about insecurities and aging. We boomers obviously look forward to seeing more quality and inspiring entertainment coming our way. Unfortunately, Beautiful‘s extended run in Toronto will end on September 3. In the meantime, we are anticipating another musical, the revival of The King and I – undoubtedly another popular hit with boomer audiences – which will be in a Mirvish theatre next summer.

Photo Credit: E. Pang

I thought my third and final blog post on my recent travels should summarize my experience with the cruise ship, Oceania Riviera, built in 2012 and renovated in July 2016. I’ve sailed with many luxury cruise lines before but Oceania’s Sanctuary Tours Voyage was my maiden sailing with this cruise company, billed as “the world’s largest luxury cruise line featuring the finest cuisine at sea”. Oceania, together with Regent Seven Seas Cruises, is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. I would recommend this cruise to my fellow boomers because The Riviera is beautiful and spacious; the itinerary was meticulously designed and well organized; and the overall 10-day cruise offered much value-for-money.

I was, first and foremost, impressed by the efficiency and personalized welcome upon check-in and embarkation at Port Piraeus in Athens, Greece. My travel companions and I were probably among the earliest passengers to embark – there was no line-up and two Oceania staff members took us through the check-in procedure and escorted us to the ship in no time.

The Riviera is quite stunning in many ways. Its interior design is a masterpiece created by the renowned ship designers, Yran and Storbraaten, the same Norwegian architects who designed the Disney ships, several Silverseas and Regent Seven Seas vessels. The grand lobby on Deck 5, where the main reception is located, features a magnificent Lalique Grand Staircase which is perfect for a showstopping entrance or photography. My 282-square-foot verandah stateroom is very spacious, particularly after paying a 100 percent single supplement to enjoy what is usually a double-occupancy room. Each suite includes a plush seating area with flat-screen television offering satellite news and programming; a refrigerated mini-bar with free and unlimited soft drinks and bottled water; a spacious closet and a marble and granite-clad bathroom with a full-size bath tub and a separate shower stall. Furnished in Ralph Lauren Home, the room features a King Prestige Tranquility Bed which is exclusive to the cruise line, with 1,000-thread-count linens. All bathroom amenities are Bulgari and thick cotton robes and slippers are, of course, provided to guests as well. There is also a complimentary 24-hour room service and Belgian chocolates are served with nightly turn-down service.

The rooms are sufficiently sound-proof and even for a light sleeper like me, I had to admit that I slept very well throughout the voyage. I was very happy with the duo-housekeeping team members assigned to my room. They were fast, efficient, very professional and clean. I was also impressed with the ship’s room service as I’ve relied on them for breakfast at the crack of dawn for at least half of my time on the voyage – particularly when I had to optimize every minute in the morning to get ready and catch the bus for the shore excursions departing from Haifa, Israel. Even though there was no hot food, the continental breakfast was sumptuous and delicious. A duty attendant from the kitchen would always call me 15 minutes prior to my scheduled delivery time to announce that somebody was on the way with my breakfast. I usually do not like any food odour in my room, but I made an exception on this cruise and was immensely satisfied with the efficiency and punctuality of their service.

With a total of 1,250 passengers on board based on double occupancy, The Riviera’s layout was very carefully designed and built as I’ve never felt claustrophobic nor crowded even during our two full days at sea. There are at least eight dining venues all of which were tastefully designed with an understated elegance. Two of them offer casual buffets and the rest of the six are gourmet restaurants with no surcharge.

As part of Oceania’s offering, we  had had a choice of four free shore excursions, a ship board credit or a wine package. Since my group of five was quite adventurous, we all picked the first option and ended up participating in the shore excursions of Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee; a day in Jerusalem and Bethlehem; Jerusalem Old City; and Pafos and Kourion in Limassol, Cyprus. Billed as the “Sanctuary Tours” Voyage, the highlights were, of course, the three full days in Haifa/Jerusalem, Israel. All the shore excursions were extremely well organized and included buffet lunches in a hotel or local restaurant. Cruise expeditions usually present a wide range of tour guides in terms of quality, but we found all our guides to be extremely knowledgeable and professional. Unfortunately, stormy weather in Patmos, Greece – supposedly our first stop on our itinerary – led to a cancellation of our visit ashore and we ended up spending an extra day cruising the Mediterranean Sea instead. Even though we did not participate in any formal shore excursions after Israel and Cyprus, the other stops on our itinerary – the Greek islands of Rhodes, Santorini and Mykonos – all offered us breathtaking scenery for casual expeditions, local food samplings and artsy photography.

Prior to my commitment to this voyage, I’ve heard many friends raving about this cruise line’s food. As a “five-and-a-half-star” cruise line, Oceania’s epicurean offerings in all its specialty dining rooms have met our expectations. Even the casual Terrace Cafe and Waves Restaurant, which prepared buffet-style breakfasts, lunches and dinners, offered diversity and creativity in addition to the quality and flavours of the cooking and the freshness of the ingredients. With our proximity to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, seafood, naturally, became the main attraction. From the lobster dishes at the Polo Grill; to the jumbo shrimp and lightly-breaded calamari at Toscana; to the French signature dishes at Jacques, designed by the renowned master chef Jacques Pepin at his first namesake restaurant on a cruise line; to the daily different European-inspired menus offered at my personal favourite, the splendid and handsomely decorated Grand Dining Room, there was always a choice of at least 10 appetizers, soups and salads and 12 entrees at dinner. The quantity and quality of the food were probably the reason why I’ve gained four pounds immediately after the cruise.

The weakest link among all the specialty restaurants was, in my opinion, The Red Ginger, which offered an Asian-fusion cuisine. The ambiance looked great with plenty of Asian touches, but the food was, at best, mediocre. The disproportionate heights of the chairs and tables made it extremely uncomfortable to maintain a proper posture while dining; and one of the servers almost burned my friend’s hands while pouring hot tea.

According to vacationstogo.com and galaxsea.com, Oceania belongs to the Deluxe Class, often ranked as a five-and-a-half-star cruise line – one class below the top-of-the-line Luxury Class or six-star cruise lines including Regent Seven Seas, Silversea and Seabourn. Then comes the Premium Class or five-star cruise lines including Celebrity, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Cunard and Norwegian. What differentiates a six-star from a five-and-a-half-star cruise line often lies in the attention to detail. Having sailed with both Seabourn and Silversea, I rate Oceania’s food as better than Silversea but inferior to Seabourn’s. Here, the challenging ‘C’ word comes to play in the hospitality industry – to really excel as the finest cuisine of any cruise ship, hotel or restaurant, consistency becomes the key yardstick. The food and service have to be consistently top-quality in all restaurants, for all courses and at all times on the cruise ship! And consistency, particularly in service, was what The Riviera lacked.

I was initially very impressed with the Polo Grill when dark napkins were offered to match our black pants or dresses. You could, of course, imagine my disappointment when we dined at the other specialty restaurants and this great attention to detail was entirely overlooked. Such examples were ample throughout our sailing: the high tea served at Horizons every afternoon at 4 p.m. featured instant tea bags instead of loose leaves; The Canyon Ranch, supposedly one of the best spas in North America, often mixed up pre-booked appointments and made no attempts at offering beverages on each of my three hair appointments; staff at the Deck 5 reception desk lacked a smile on their faces almost at all times; and wait staff in a few restaurants often looked stressed and unhappy. When the laundry/ironing service damaged a small part of my friend’s dress, the staff blamed it on the garment’s “defect” instead of apologizing and owning up to their mistake.

Having said that, I would still recommend Oceania’s “Sanctuary Tours” voyage to my fellow boomers. Oceania does include more “Port Time” than most of its rivals and the itinerary to Israel on The Riviera is a ‘must’ for all boomers’ bucket lists. The cruise line offers unlimited internet access for passengers who want to be connected  with the rest of the world while sailing – but be forewarned that depending on your itinerary, the internet can be very slow at times, particularly when everybody is at sea. The respected and ad-free U.S. website cruisetruth.com, devoted exclusively to the world’s top 10 cruise lines, ranked Oceania as number nine on its most recent list updated on November 24, 2016. Should you want upper-end premium quality, good food, country-club casual attire, classy and subdued entertainment, and enough time in port to explore and experience, without paying at the price point of the six-star lines, this is the right cruise for you.

Cruise vacations used to be popular primarily among senior citizens and boomers, but according to a recent report by the largest industry trade group, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the number of global cruise passengers is set to rise again in 2017 after several years of consecutive growth. One of the reasons for this anticipated increase in the cruise business is because of a rising interest from millennials and generation X travelers. The Association’s survey found that these younger cohorts rate cruise travel as better than land-based vacations, all-inclusive resorts, tours, vacation house rentals or camping.

Even though younger people seem to start sharing our interest in cruise travel, our “Sanctuary Tours” Cruise still attracted more smartly-dressed boomers than millennials. And because the shore excursions to The Holy Land required some strenuous walking, there were also fewer elderly passengers than I expected. No matter what age demographic, cruise travel is now more popular than ever. Perhaps, young and old alike, people are starting to appreciate French explorer Jacques Cousteau’s famous words: “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” Happy sailing this summer!

Photo Credit: Ottawa Citizen

2016 was full of bad news, so let’s hope the new year is going to bring more good tidings, particularly for us boomers! Based on some of the developments last year, here are my anticipated top 10 good news for the new year:

1. Canada Continues to Be The Shining Light Of the World: Canada graced the October 29 cover and feature story of The Economist magazine last year. The publication said that our nation is uniquely fortunate in many ways – but its liberalism and tolerance hold lessons for other Western countries and went on to explain why Canada is still at ease with openness. Under Justin Trudeau’s leadership, we might not be perfect, but Canada will continue to be a champion of immigration, open trade and the fight against climate change. For 2017, I have to quote retired Global TV journalist, Tom Clark, as he said farewell to his career on December 31, “For all of our troubles, all of our scandals and disagreements, we should try to keep things in perspective. In global terms, our problems are small. Our country works better than most, perhaps better than any other. We should always aim higher. But let’s remember how blessed we really are.”
2. Canada officially kicked off our 150th Anniversary of the Confederation on December 31: In addition to a special commemorative 150th Anniversary coin series produced by the Royal Canadian Mint, there will be numerous special celebratory events and festivities in local communities and urban centres across the country throughout the year. Under the umbrella theme of “Diversity, Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, the Environment and Youth,” the Department of Canadian Heritage has budgeted $180 million for a variety of initiatives across the country and $20 million for special events such as the New Year’s Eve party on Parliament Hill.. According to a recent government-commissioned poll, nearly nine in 10 respondents expressed a lot of pride in being Canadian, and they felt strongly attached to their country. Nearly the same number said they would visit a national park in 2017 or attend a Canada 150 event. But, as of last summer, few had heard much about what the government was doing to celebrate. Looks like the government has a lot of marketing and promotion work to do on upcoming celebrations.
3. From brain drain to brain gain for Canada in a Trump presidency: Canada’s tech firms are hoping Donald Trump will help keep Canadian graduates from skipping town for Silicon Valley and perhaps lure some of the talented expats who have gone south for work. According to CTV News, Canadian companies large and small have quietly bemoaned the exodus of talent for decades, and agencies like Communitech and the City of Toronto have been trying to woo them back. That’s why billboards have been placed on well-travelled Route 101 in Silicon Valley promoting “GoNorthCanada.ca,” a website extolling the values of tech jobs in Ontario. Communitech said that the site has seen spikes since Trump’s victory. “People are reaching out and letting us know they are ready to come home,” said Communitech’s vice-president Heather Galt. With the growth of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry and the important research role that Canada has been playing, the nation can further benefit from a brain gain. Last year, Google has announced that it is investing $4.5 million in the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, the latest sign of Google’s growing interest in AI. As part of the deal, Google will open an AI research group in Montreal. The company believes the city has the potential to become a “super-cluster” of machine learning knowledge. Some large companies have also recently moved their AI divisions to Toronto, including Thomson Reuters and General Motors, with the intention of hiring hundreds of data scientists. According to The Globe and Mail, many of Canada’s largest companies have also stated a desire to hire thousands more data scientists in the coming years. Demand for talent already outstrips supply, and the gap will only grow. Now is the opportune time for Canadian AI companies to spread their recruitment net wider to include the U.S. so that we can benefit from a larger pool of AI research talents.
4. The Paris climate change agreement was signed by 194 countries and ratified by 121 members, including the U.S. and China, by the end of last year: In spite of what Donald Trump said, it would not be easy for him to repeal this accord. With the enforcement of this agreement, nearly 200 governments will become obliged to meet emissions-cutting pledges made before the deal. The agreement would also commit the countries to aspire to keep temperatures below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The agreement went into effect on November 4, 2016, which means that 2017 will see a lot of countries starting to move in the direction of reducing greenhouse gases. In Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau and most of the premiers (except for Saskatchewan and Manitoba) signed a historic pan-Canadian framework last month to fight climate change and meet the country’s 2030 emissions reduction targets.
5. Self-Driving cars from science fiction to science fact: after the first series of successful pilot-tests of self-driving vehicles in both the U.S. and Canada last year, these autonomous cars will hit the street in larger numbers in 2017. Last month, Alphabet, the owners of Google, spun off the research and development of self-driving technology into a separate company with the name of Waymo. The company has partnered with Chrysler to develop self-driving Pacific Hybrid minivans. Test units will hit the road over the next several months. According to technology news website Dice.com, expect Uber and Tesla to speed up with making their autonomous-driving offerings as advanced as possible in 2017. This development will drastically improve the quality of lives for aging populations across North America.
6. On the health front, 2017 will be a breakthrough year for the fight against Ebola. An Ebola vaccine developed by Canadian researchers and considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the first effective treatment against the virus has already started a new phase of clinical trials. The vaccine’s safety and effectiveness were tested on volunteers infected with HIV, starting in Ottawa and Montreal last November, and followed by trials in the new year in Senegal and Burkina Faso. According to the principal investigator Cecile Tremblay, “It is particularly important to study the effectiveness of this Ebola vaccine in vulnerable populations, such as those living with HIV. These populations can often be most at-risk during outbreaks, because of their compromised immune systems.” The Ebola vaccine, originally developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, provided blanket protection in a field trial in Guinea in 2015. Health Minister Jane Philpott said that the next phase of clinical trials in 2017 is an important milestone in the development of the world’s first proven, effective vaccine against the Ebola virus.
7. A revolutionary blood test that can detect cancer can become part of an annual physical in five years. Liquid biopsies, as the blood tests are known, can give physicians a telltale sign of the presence of the disease in almost all types of cancer mutations. For cancer patients undergoing treatment, liquid biopsies could spare them some of the painful, expensive and risky tissue tumor biopsies and reduce reliance on CT scans, which must be limited because of the danger posed by overexposure to radiation. Medical experts say that the liquid biopsy has come a long way in the past year and a half. According to CNBC, doctors and medical researchers are excited by the prospect that liquid biopsies would be a way to help people already fighting the disease. The new year will bring even more research and development in cancer centres across the U.S. on how a non-invasive blood test could be appropriate in many cases to identify the DNA mutation driving cancer forward.
8. New eye drops can dissolve cataracts with no need for surgery. We’ve all read about a new study that used eye drops to shrink cataracts in dogs may have made an important step in overcoming them. According to Professor Kang Zhang, from the University of California San Diego, whose research team developed the eye drops, this new drug could play an important role in the prevention of cataracts in those showing early signs. Although at this stage eye drops have the potential to overcome a number of limitations of surgery, they won’t be able to replace it yet. According to Dr. Manuel Datiles, a senior investigator and attending ophthalmologist at the U.S. National Eye Institute in the National Institutes of Health, eye drops will become key in treating cataracts, as surgery will not be able to cope with the growing needs of the world’s aging population. The new year will also bring more research and development to investigate whether there can be more medical breakthroughs in this area.
9. On the arts and culture front, we could not have asked for a better year than 2017 when Canadian musicians took the Grammy nominations by storm and two Canuck male lead actors were nominated for the Golden Globe Awards. After a year of Canadian dominance on the international music scene, Drake, Justin Bieber and The Weeknd were nominated for many categories in the 2017 Grammy Awards. Drake leads with a whopping eight nominations while Bieber fares well with four. Other Canucks on the list include R&B singer Tory Lanez, Vancouver-formed and now Brooklyn-based duo Bob Moses, jazz musician and composer Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Toronto-based record producer Nineteen85, and the renowned classical music conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin in the Best Opera Recording category. We all look forward to awards night on February 12 when we will see how much hardware these artists will bring home! On the big screen, two Canucks will go head-to-head in the best actor category for a musical or comedy. Ryan Gosling, from London, Ontario, was nominated for his lead role in La La Land while Vancouver-native Ryan Reynolds is also up for his comedic performance in Deadpool. (Gosling eventually took home the Golden Globe and will, almost for sure, be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar!)
10. Canada tops The New York Times‘s 52 Places To Go in 2017. On January 4, The New York Times put Canada number one on its annual list of places to go in the new year. According to the publication, Canada has it all – from cosmopolitan cities to barely explored natural wonders and everything in between. It also mentioned that all of the country’s more than 200 national parks and historic sites are offering free admission through our 150th Anniversary year, “from the turquoise lakes and mountain peaks of Banff in Alberta to the rolling dunes and red sandstone cliffs of Prince Edward Island along the Atlantic Coast to the newest reserve, the glacial-rounded Mealy Mountains in Labrador.” Looks like Tourism Canada did a better job in marketing our country as a travel destination to our neighbours down south than to fellow Canadians!

With all these good news, let’s move forward into the future with more positive thinking and cast away all the bad news of 2016. A new year is always a new beginning with new hope!

Photo Credit: noisey.vice.com

In spite of the many differences between the millennial and the baby boomer generations, there is the universal appeal of music that often crosses generations and influences both. Needless to say, millennial musicians dominate the Billboard Hot 100 – from Adele and Rihanna to The Weeknd to Justin Bieber to Drake, and the last three happen to be Canadians!

As a boomer who loves music, both old and new, I’ve recently added two millennial musicians to my most-favourites list: Danish pop/soul/funk group Lukas Graham and American singer and songwriter, Meghan Trainor.

I first heard Lukas Graham’s 7 Years on the radio while driving in Florida and fell in love immediately not only with the music, but the lyrics of the song. Originally an Internet sensation, the Danish group of four, all averaging 27-29 years old, has just released their first album in North America with Warner Brothers titled with the same name as the group. The 11 songs on the album not only dazzled me with the music, but also the poetry in the lyrics. From his tight bond with his late father and the wisdom of his mother while growing up, to the criminal company he kept and the love stories including the loss of his virginity to a stripper, group leader Lukas Graham Forchhammer sang about his poor upbringing in Copenhagen, his dark past and his gratitude to his parents for making him what he is now. 7 Years might be the band’s first worldwide hit, but I believe it’s their last track on their album, Funeral, which will make them a cross-cultural, inter-generational superstar.

Why would a millennial think about mortality? Shouldn’t this generation be fearless albeit disillusioned? Instead, the song that starts with the chiming of church bells, begins with: “When it’s my time, I know you’ll tailor a new suit for me, And buy a new tie, so I look this good; Boy, you were right, you said, “Only the good ones die young,” Never in my life, did I look this good…” and ends with a partying attitude, ” You’re all on my tab, Bartenders pour out the whiskeys on me, And don’t be so sad ’cause I lived this good. We’re all closer, now it’s over, But it doesn’t mean it’s closure, I see you and I love you, I’ll be watching out above you.” Next to Robbie Williams’s Angels, this is, by far, the best song about death and funerals that I’ve ever heard!

What I like about Graham is his ambition and focus. In an interview with The Huffington Post, he said, “I don’t want to be in the Hot 100 with a Hot 100 song. I want to be in the Hot 100 with 7 Years.” And he did – with a song on the themes of aging and growing up. Graham said that it’s the age that captures people first because everyone is getting older. “You can’t stop that,” he said. Sounded like a boomer talking?

Apart from Lukas Graham, I’m hooked on the music by 23-year-old American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. It’s not surprising that boomers like me would naturally love her first album Title because of its 1950s and 1960s rhythm and sound. But it’s once again the lyrics of Trainor’s songs that caught my attention. From the themes of modern womanhood, body image and female empowerment, emerged the success of a young woman whose debut album in 2015 won her numerous awards, produced four top 20 singles, and sold over one million copies just in the U.S. alone.

Her second release, Thank You, scheduled to release next month, already produces a lead single, No, which has reached the top three on the Billboard Hot 100. Instead of the retro-style R&B tunes so prominent in her first album, the song No is more hip-hop and rap. However, the lyrics remain feisty and feminist: “All my ladies, listen up, If that boy ain’t giving up, Lick your lips and swing your hips, Girl all you gotta say is – My name is no, My sign is no, My number is no, You need to let it go, You need to let it go, Need to let it go, Nah to the ah to the no, no no….” This is the perfect “no means no” song for college girls who are prone to sexual violence and date rapes on university campuses.

To Trainor, her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist this year was both a breakthrough and an irony since she has already written, recorded, performed and produced three independently-released albums between the ages of 15 and 17. Nevertheless, she cried on stage when she received the award and the whole world was happy for her!

In this day and age of superficial celebrity culture around the likes of the Kardashians, it is gratifying to see the success of both Lukas Graham and Meghan Trainor who impress all generations with their confidence, talent, hard work and perseverance even though they may not initially appear as the most physically-attractive entertainers on stage. It is their music and individuality that make these young musicians beautiful, and inner beauty trumps it all!