Music

The 2019 Polaris Music Prize Short List – S14E09

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The Polaris Music Prize has released their 2019 short list. The list below are the nominated albums running for the best in artistic merit in Canadian music and the $50,000 grand prize.

The Polaris Music Prize Gala will be held on September 16th at The Carlu and will be attending the event with fingers crossed.

Presented by CBC Music, here are the short listed albums and the long listed albums:

The 2019 Short List
Marie Davidson – Working Class Woman (Released: October 8, 2018)
Elisapie – The Ballad of the Runaway Girl (Released: September 18, 2018)
FET.NAT – Le Mal (Released: February 25, 2019)
Dominique Fils-Aimé – Stay Tuned! (Released: February 22, 2019)
Les Louanges – La nuit est une panthère (Released: September 21, 2018)
Haviah Mighty – 13th Floor (Released: May 10, 2019)
Pup – Morbid Stuff (Released: April 5, 2019)
Jessie Reyez – Being Human in Public (Released: October 19, 2018)
Shad – A Short Story About a War (Released: October 26, 2018)
Snotty Nose Rez Kids – Trapline (Released: May 10, 2019

The 2019 Long List
Tim Baker – Forever Overhead
Tanika Charles – The Gumption
Clairmont the Second – Do You Drive?
Charlotte Cornfield – The Shape of Your Name
Dilly Dally – Heaven
The Dirty Nil – Master Volume
Dizzy – Baby Teeth
F–ked Up – Dose Your Dreams
Yves Jarvis – The Same but by Different Means
Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated
Kaia Kater – Grenades
Kimmortal – X Marks the Swirl
La Force – La Force
LAL – Dark Beings
Laurence-Anne – Première apparition
Salomé Leclerc – Les choses extérieures
Lee Harvey Osmond – Mohawk
Jean Leloup – L’étrange pays
Shay Lia – Dangerous
Loud – Tout ça pour ça
Shawn Mendes – Shawn Mendes
Operators – Radiant Dawn
Orville Peck – Pony
Sandro Perri – In Another Life
Lee Reed – The Steal City EP
Alexandra Stréliski – Inscape
Sydanie – 999
Tobi – Still
Voivod – The Wake
Wintersleep – In the Land Of

More Photos From The 2018 Polaris Music Prize Gala – S13E06

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At the 2018 Polaris Music Gala, aside from taken photos from the digital camera, I decided to bring 3 Polaroid cameras. It was quite an overkill using 4 cameras in one night.

I recently brought the Polaroid Originals OneStep+. The new camera was released in late August and it added Bluetooth for creative tools. I will go in-depth in a future blog post as I will be doing a collaboration with someone and try to use the tools using the Polaroid Originals smartphone app.

You will see Polaroids and a couple of food photos from the Polaris Gala. I took photos using the gold frame film from the SX-70, blue duochrome film from the OneStep 2 and the photos from the OneStep+.
The Polaroids will also be posted to Instagram.

The food was made by chef Chris Barrett at Oliver & Bonacini and was a courtesy from SOCAN. It consisted of fish tacos, grilled cheese sandwiches and meatballs.
You can view the photos below.

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The 2018 Polaris Music Prize Gala – S13E05

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The winner of the 2018 Polaris Music Prize went to Jeremy Dutcher for his album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa.

The classically trained operatic tenor and composer beat out nine Canadian albums from artists and bands for the $50,000 monetary reward.

Performances from the Gala had Dutcher, Weaves, Jean-Michel Blais, Hubert Lenoir, Deep Waters Band (of Girls Rock Camp) did a cover of Alvvays, Pierre Kwenders and Partners.

This year’s Gala went pretty long but the performances from the bands and musicians were all excellent.

It’s always a great time attending the gala and seeing friends and acquaintances. 

You can check the photos below. Be sure to check out the Polaroid photos from the Polaris Music Prize Gala on another post or on my Instagram.
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The Polaris Music Prize Short List for 2018 is Out – S13E02

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Polaris Music Prize ©2018The 2018 Polaris Music Prize Short List was unveiled and here are the 10 albums as voted by Canadian journalists, bloggers and critics and broadcasters to find the best in Canadian music.

  • Alvvays – Antisocialites
  • Jean-Michel Blais – Dans ma main
  • Daniel Caesar – Freudian
  • Jeremy Dutcher – Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa
  • Pierre Kwenders – MAKANDA at the End of Space, the Beginning of Time
  • Hubert Lenoir – Darlène
  • Partner – In Search of Lost Time
  • Snotty Nose Rez Kids – The Average Savage
  • U.S. Girls – In a Poem Unlimited
  • Weaves – Wide Open

There you have it, a good mix of Francophone, Rock, and R&B music to the 2018 edition of Polaris Music Prize.

Some repeat entries from Alvvays, U.S. Girls and Weaves to new entries from Daniel Caeser and Partner. All 10 short listed albums will be worth listening on music streamed services like Apple Music and Spotify.

The Gala is on September 17 and hope to be there in Toronto.

How Cantopop Influenced Me From The Hong Kong Handover 20 Years On.

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It’s very rare I usually do an essay/commentary on my blog. For those who know me, I’m a total Cantopop fan/lover when I combined that genre with Canadian indie music when I had a weekly radio show.

Being as a Chinese-Canadian, my mom used to rent videotapes from Hong Kong’s TVB. Ranging from dramas to music shows, it’s been ingrained since I was young.

How did I become hooked on Cantopop? I would say that the Hong Kong Handover in 1997 affected me because I had relatives living there and my parents were from there. I didn’t want to lose that part of my cultural heritage. It wasn’t until towards the end of high school where I was listening to Hong Kong radio on the Internet and my love of radio came back in a different approach. 

In my University phase, I still kept listening to the classic Cantopop songs and some newer music. 2003 struck when Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui died and the Cantopop industry was never the same since. In the mid-2000s, I was not able to listen to one of the popular Hong Kong radio stations because of the audio streaming and switching to the Mac computers. 

An article published on July 22, 2017 from SCMP explained the decline of Cantopop and who can be the next star to regain the footing. The link can be read here.

In 2019, a New York article writes about Denise Ho being face of Cantopop’s fight against mainland China. The link can be read here. CBC Q also has the interview with the New Yorker’s Jiayang Fan on Denise Ho, you can go here.

Getting into Beyond
Aside from the tragedies, one impact that still hits the mark among Cantopop fans has been the death of Beyond’s frontman, Wong Ka Kui. I’ve been entrenched with their music because their range can soft, slow, fast and heavy. They were mainly a rock band unlike the conventional singers in Cantopop.

Their popular tracks were often love songs towards the end of 1980s and into 1990s, it was getting into the political message.  Continue reading →

Saturday at The 2017 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S12E15

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After recovering from equilibrium or balances issues on the boat ride at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, Saturday’s event was filled with races, activities and live music.

The weather turned out very good but throughout the afternoon, winds were picking up during the races and caused some delays. It was fun to shoot photos of the dragon boat races while in the boat on the waters of the Rideau River. It’s the second year to experience seeing the action on the waters.

To the concert series, missing Friday’s lineup due to not having a camera without it. Saturday ended off with Twin Flames (from Ottawa), Kasador (from Kingston), The Darcys and Half Moon Run (from Montreal). It’s always a thrill to see The Darcys and the first time to see the three bands. I’ve been familiar with Half Moon Run but never seen them live.
You check the photos galleries below.

It’s always a pleasure to attend Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival every Summer. Great seeing the sights and sounds of the races as well with the live music to keep fans and racers entertained. Kudos to the organizers for making the festival fantastic.
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Thursday at The 2017 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S12E14

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Live music, bagpipers and lion dancing kicked off the 2017 edition of The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival on Thursday night.

Their concert series kicked off with The Elwins, Said The Whale and The Sheepdogs. All three were great and the best thing about the concert series at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, it is free! Best of all, the music lineup are all Canadian.

Friday’s lineup will have Kalle Mattson, The Zolas and Dear Rouge. There is a lot of things to do in Ottawa with Summer in full swing.

Check out the photos below.

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The 2016 Polaris Music Prize Gala – S12E01

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2016-polaris-gala-main

It’s become a tradition to start the new season in Toronto for the Polaris Music Prize Gala at The Carlu. Congratulations goes out to Kaytranada for winning the 2016 edition of the music prize for the album, 99.9%. It beat out the likes of 9 artists and bands from Black Mountain, Basia Bulat, Grimes, Carly Rae Jepsen, Jessy Lanza, Pup, Andy Shauf, U.S. Girls and White Lung.

At the gala, there were live performances from Black Mountain, Jessy Lanza, Basia Bulat, Andy Shauf, White Lung, Carly Rae Jepsen and U.S. Girls. All of the performances were. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra assisted in Bulat’s and Jepsen’s performances. The gala were hosted by Amanda Parris of The Exhibitionist on CBC and Tom Power, new host of CBC Radio q.

To my own delight, there were food served at the Gala. There were perogies, sliders and five spices pork.

Got to hand to Steve Jordan and the Polaris Music Prize staff for the great work as usual.

Don’t forget to check out the photos here.
Enjoy!
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Sunday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S11E34

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ODBF 2016 Sunday Main-1

It was quite a weekend to be at the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. I wasn’t planning to go to Sunday’s event but decided to go because one of my lion dance member was participating in the race and also support Loon Choir play live.

Despite being another scorcher, there were some winds helping cool things slightly. It was fun to hop on the raft to check out the races as mentioned that my lion dance member taking part in it. The schedule for the races were delayed and I was able to catch it while on the raft. It’s just the thrill to seeing the races on the waters. Photos are posted below.

The concert series ended with Loon Choir, Young Empires (from Toronto) and Ottawa’s own A Tribe Called Red. Winds were blowing during Loon Choir’s performance while the loud tone from Young Empires rocked through. Lastly, A Tribe Called Red brought loud, strong beats and getting to crowd to dance it out with excitement. Don’t forget to check out the photos below.

Overall, an excellent 2016 edition of the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival and the organizers and volunteers have done a great job holding the festival. It’s become the best in North America. Dragon boat racing, various activities and live music in the hot Summer, you can’t beat it in Ottawa.

This wraps up season 11 of the blog. It’s been fun filled ride with the music and lifestyle events covered in Ottawa. See you in the Fall.

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Saturday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival and the Percy Station Opening – S11E33

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ODBF 2016 Saturday Main

There were a lot of events happening in Ottawa. From the Ottawa International Jazz Festival to Escapade to House Of Paint’s Community Jam and the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival.

My afternoon started in Chinatown as there was a popup structure on Somerset and Percy. There was a fire that destroyed businesses in 2015 and the city decided to create a pilot project to transform the streetside parking to space of activity and renewing the urban space. Local businesses from Jackpine and Atelier Ruderal help made the creation possible. On hand at the opening were Somerset Ward Councillor, Catherine McKenney, the Somerset BIA and Awesome Ottawa. Photos from the event are posted below.

After that was off to Mooney’s Bay Park for Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival again. I never had a chance to take photos of the actual race, I have participated in dragon boat race back in the mid/late 1990s but it was the first time to hop on the boat and just have fun shooting the races.

The concert lineup for Saturday night was a good one. It started with Ottawa’s Pony Girl, then Halifax’s Nap Eyes (they’re on the 2016 Polaris Music Prize Long List) and topping it off was Alvvays. All three bands were excellent. I originally planned to leave after the third song of Alvvays but I saw a few friends I know that were in the crowd. I decided to dropped by for a bit. The crowd was quite the spontaneity with the crazy jumping, dancing and bumping around.

You can view the photos below.
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