After returning from Niagara Falls and Toronto, I rushed backed to Ottawa to check out Chinatown Remixed 2014. It’s located in Ottawa Chinatown on Somerset Street West. Chinatown Remixed is a month long event where artists promote their contemporary art to put at various businesses in Ottawa Chinatown. The event also provide live music and cultural performance to kick off the month long event.
For six years that Chinatown Remixed has been running, they got a major sponsor in the form of Porter Airlines and also promoting a contest as well. It’s great to see a small festival get good support from sponsors.
At Raw Sugar Cafe, there’s the #WeLoveOttCtown exhibit and one of my Instagram photos is on it.
I didn’t get a chance to check out all of the artists and there was some people I know who are participating. I was able to drop by one of the artists as I usually keep in touch on social media. It was Justyna Czujko aka Neon Lilith. She has unique photographs which she displayed at Chinatown Remixed.
Lastly, I finally got to take instant photos with her. The Impossible photos will be posted up later.
As usual, you can check the photos from my brief check out of Chinatown Remixed below.
It’s become a yearly thing as we parade through Ottawa Chinatown for Chinese New Year. It’s the Winterlude Lunar New Year Parade to celebrate the Year of the Horse. Luck was on our side as the weather was not too cold, no major snowfall and it was a nice sunny day.
At the start of the parade, it was feeling cold but as the parade progressed further into Chinatown, it didn’t get very cold. My fellow lion dance buddies were getting sweaty as they were using the lion.
Chinatown Remixed joined the parade this year as the group has become prominent in the Ottawa arts and culture scene. Some of the members were holding horse signs as it’s the year of the horse. There were the zodiac animals and another dance troupe joining for the parade festivities.
As usual, they were firecrackers, red envelopes and lettuce as it ward off evil spirits and to bring good luck and prosperity.
You can check out a few photos from below. I was able to shoot some of it during the parade. I tried shooting with the Polaroid camera but the image quality didn’t turn out right.
This concludes the major activities and performances for the lion dance troupe as Chinese New Year winds down for another year. Kudos goes out to the Ottawa Chinatown businesses for bringing the fun and endearing the cold for the parade. Continue reading →
It was a chilly but wonderful Saturday as the lions and dragon roamed through Ottawa Chinatown for the annual Chinese New Year parade. Also on hand were other drummers and twelve animals from the Chinese zodiac.
This year was unique as it was in conjunction with Winterlude/NCC.
For myself, I was on the cymbals and the tail of the lion. The photo shown had Ottawa mayor, Jim Watson giving the red pocket to the lions under the Chinatown Gateway. It was definitely the popular spot as crowds waited for the lions and dragon to come through the part of Chinatown.
Don’t forget to check some of the photos I took during the parade.
Here’s a short clip via Vine at this link.
Overall, the weather was great and fun watching families and their kids be happy for the occasion. I forgot to mention that the seventh day of Chinese New Year is everyone’s birthday. Continue reading →
Weekend Fun – Radio Show & May Sweeps (TV Shows)
It was an awesome weekend as it started off with The New Midnight Jamz on CKCU-FM. There were some guests and it became fun hanging around. There were models and then the other guest was a DJ and friends. Considering that it’s the final May to be on the show as the remaining weekends of May will have me absent. As for the models from Saturday’s show, they will be back again for my show for Wednesday morning.
Onto May sweeps, it’s this time of year when the TV season is finishing up. From the special podcast with Daddy Rich of The New Midnight Jamz, we talked about show which ended on Friday. It was Smallville as it wrapped ten seasons on TV. It’s astounding that it lasted ten years. The first song to start off was “Save Me” by Remo Zero. It’s going to be sad missing the song. Another show being discussed on the special podcast is Chuck as it wraps up its fourth season and great but sad news for the show is that it will be back for a fifth and final season with only 13 episodes. Also on the podcast were songs that were played on Chuck as some of the songs were from Canadian indie bands. Played were Stars, In-Flight Safety and Plants & Animals. Lastly, how can you not forget about Doctor Who as the current sixth series has been good.
You can listen to the special podcast and the May 14th edition of The New Midnight Jamz in the audio section. I will try to post up a playlist from the special podcast. Hope you will enjoy the podcast.
Chinatown Remixed 2011
This leads me to the other event on Sunday. It was Chinatown Remixedin Ottawa’s Chinatown on Somerset Street, I was there to support May-Jun as she had her art photograph displayed at one of the venues and do a live performance. After her performance, I decided to tag along and check out the other art and photo displays at various places on Ottawa Chinatown. It was all in great fun on a nice Sunday afternoon. Luckily, the rain held off for the rest of Sunday afternoon.
The photos are posted below. Enjoy!
Audio/Podcast
The WildWorks special podcast edition (for May 16, 2011) – joined by Daddy Rich of The New Midnight Jamz. Press play to listen.
The May 14th edition of The New Midnight Jamz – Press play to listen.
Wednesday’s radio show was the post POP Montreal edition as the top 10 countdown had some bands that attended the music festival and then later on, I aired two interviews by Grand Analog and Think About Life.
What’s new on the radio show is that I got a new co-host. Her name is Marzia and she’s an exchange student from Italy. So, be kind to her. She’s been a great addition to my show as she’s enjoying the music that I am playing.
I started off the show with a couple of Anita Mui songs because October 10th, would of been her birthday if she was still alive. It was another tribute to the “Madonna of Asia.” First song was her rendition of Stand By Me because a good friend has been fond of the original version by Ben E. King. I decided to play it again for her.
As I explained in the previous blog post about the various activities I did at POP Montreal like hanging out with two members of The Balconies and The Golden Dogs for poutine in Montreal. In the second hour, I made the new co-host happy by playing The Hundred In The Hands, Delphic and The Temper Trap. I attended Saturday’s show by checking them out. They were pretty good. The PKG Giveaway
One thing I forgot to mention on air was who are PKG? They are a Canadian company and they make electronic accessories like laptop sleeves/bags, iPhone cases and other tech carry-on.
The fine folks from PKG had me do a giveaway for the radio show. It was grateful of them to do another one after POP Montreal. It was pretty tempting to not get hooked the messenger bag I gave away.
Congratulations to Tom Burns (of Ottawa) for winning the awesome messenger bag. Kudos to last week’s winner, Tanya Poirier (also of Ottawa) for winning the PKG/POP Montreal VIP giveaway bag.
Thanks to PKG for displaying an excellent room at the POP Montreal headquarters (Notman House) and for the giveaways.
Don’t forget to check the playlist by going to this link. The countdown entry is at this link.
You can listen to the radio show by pressing play.
The Interviews at POP Montreal
Grand Analog – Part 1.
It’s in part 1 because the length of the interview was long. Press play to listen or download it.
Think About Life
Press play to listen ordownload it.
October 7th Update: Thursday Show Guest Hosting and Ottawa Chinatown Gateway
It was totally last minute as I decided to do some guest hosting for 12pm on Thursday at CKCU-FM. Instead of 30 mins, it went to 2 hours. As I ended the show, I decided to sneak in Imagine by John Lennon. What I didn’t realize was his birthday would be on October 9th and he would be 70 years old. Talk about ironic timing.
Press play to listen and the playlist for the show is at this link.
Following the guest stint at CKCU-FM, I had to go to Ottawa Chinatown for the official opening of the Gateway. The official opening had dignitaries and politicians for the unveiling. Here are a few photos I took. The Gateway looks lovely.
