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Friday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S11E32

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ODBF Friday Main

Friday night at the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival was crazy hot. I had to do a lot of running around because I decided to take some photos of The Beaches playing and then rush to my lion dance troupe for the opening ceremony. I definitely was in a sweaty mess.

I’ve been hearing good things about the Toronto female indie rock band, The Beaches. Their music is like glam rock meets new wave and just having a good time. It was a short time checking them out but they’re just wonderful. The band opened up Mia Rae and Mother Mother.

Onto the lion dance performance, it was different than the previous years because we were part of the parade of champions led by the RCAF Pipes and Drums. At least it was time efficient for us to start lion dancing right away than to wait for the speeches.

It was crazy and fun Friday night to be at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. The concert lineup is the best there is with Canadian content and it’s totally free.

The photos are below and there’s a lot to look at.
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Friday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S10E33

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ODBF Main

After missing out on last year, it’s great to be back for Friday night’s opening ceremony of the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. The opening ceremony began with the bagpipers marching and leading the dragon boaters to the main tent. Following the speeches was the lion dance.

Prior to the lion dance, I had a chance to check out Kalle Mattson as they were one of the opening act for Hey Rosetta, the headliner for the Friday show. It was definitely a fine Friday night to be out anywhere in Ottawa.
I can’t wait to check out The Acorn, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Dan Mangan + Blacksmith at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival for Saturday evening.

As usual, you can check the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Happy Chinese New Year – The Year of the Sheep/Goat – S10E18

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CNY2015 Lions

Gong Hei Fat Choy! This year’s lunar new year celebrations is quite late. This year’s animal is quite confusing as it’s either year of the sheep or goat. I’ll leave it either way.

As usual, it’s great to go out and lion dance at various places. The first stop was at a public school and kids were excited to see the lions and take part in it. What was surprising that some of the kids knew their animal that they’re born in. I was able to take some photos from the event. Then my lion dance troupe did five other events and they were at a bank and several retirement homes. It was great to see some of the guys again for the performances.

You can check the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Posted below are a few silly photos during the performances. I got several lion dance performances to go. Have a Happy Chinese New Year!

Pssst, February 20th is my birthday!

Photos from the February 22nd lion dance at T&T Supermarket. Click HERE.

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The First Lion Dance Performance of 2013 – S08E22

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Lion Dance Pembroke Feb 2013-2
It’s been several years that my lion dance troupe went to Pembroke for Chinese New Years celebration. A bit of a scary story getting to Pembroke was experiencing a slight white out conditions from the blowing snow. It was like a thriller movie and quite scary going through it. It’s funny how my dad was driving quickly during the brief treacherous conditions, one of my family friends who was driving behind text messaged to slow down and not knowing it was my dad who drove.
I know Chinese New Year doesn’t start until February 10th but the Pembroke community did it a week early. As usual, the crowd enjoyed the performance and there was food.

The newest edition to the troupe’s instruments is a slightly small but brightly looking drum. My thought was that it sounds very hollow but over time, the sound should improve from drumming a lot. There will be getting used to the new sound.
It was great to see some of the lion dance crew and will be seeing more of them in the days to come when Chinese New Year arrives.
Don’t forget to check out the photos.

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What a Black Friday to Not Remember & Arts Nest – S08E13

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Black Friday is usually a big deal in the United States but it has been catching on in Canada. Let’s say that it was a eventful day as I tried to get a new laptop at the Apple Store but they did not have the right model. In a way, Black Friday in Canada was a dud as I did not get anything that was worthy of a great sale.

To forget about the unfortunate event, I had the opportunity to go to Magpie Jewellery in Westboro for Arts Nest at night. It was organized by Creative Mornings and part of Support Local by Apartment 613. There were local designers, local musicians, and an artist.
There were free food in the form of tacos by Taco Lot and cupcakes! Plus, there was a free swag bag included at the event. All in all, being at Arts Nest certainly erased the frustration from shopping early this morning for Black Friday deals.
I did not to stay very long but got to take photos and a few are posted on my Instagram.
Hope you have a great weekend.
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The End of November’s Radio Show Came With Glitches – S06E11

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Due to a slight delay on not posting up Wednesday’s radio show right away for the blog. The reason was that the playlist for the November 24th edition was being incomplete. It was the on-air studio’s computer causing itself to restart and I had my entries from the top 4 songs and the second hour to be gone. You can check the countdown at this link and the playlist is now posted up at this link (via CKCU-FM’s website).

On the show itself, I had a surprise guest on the show as I predicted of hosting on my own and almost having a trainwreck. My co-host was unavailable due to being sick and tons of assignments.
In the second hour of the show, I finally decided to play Hallelujah for the fourth time as I was slightly pressured to play the original version of the song.
The interview I aired was Nat Baldwin in the band, The Dirty Projectors. This was considered my second music interview who’s not from Canada. With Baldwin, what interested me to interview him was that he collaborated with a well-known band, Vampire Weekend. For Baldwin, he was on tour for his solo music. It was a great opportunity to interview him and I should thank, Adam Saikaley (host of CBC’s Bandwidth) for putting on the show at Raw Sugar Cafe.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a photo of Nat Baldwin for this blog entry.

Without further ado, you can listen to the November 24th edition of WildWorks on CKCU-FM.
Press play to listen.

The interview with Nat Baldwin
Press play to listen or download it.

End of April and Beginning of May Shows & Monday’s Radio Show – S05.2E7

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There were two awesome live show this past weekend to marking the end of April and the beginning of May. The show on the end of April was The Balconies returning to Ottawa after their cross Canada tour. It was at Zaphod Beeblebrox, opening up for The Balconies were Sandman Viper Command and The Belle Game. It was great to see The Belle Game but it was three out of the eight members. Overall, they performed a good set and one part of their was when front man, Adam Nanji gave me a shoutout for being supportive. Even though I was slightly embarrassed, I had to use my hat to cover my face in a funny way.
Here’s a video that I shot of The Belle Game.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izLODenSfZg]
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Basia Bulat and Chinese New Year 2010 – S05E37

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[vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/9441987]

It was a hectic weekend checking out bands and dealing with the cold. It started with doing an audio interview with Young Rival at Mavericks on Friday night. It was last minute because I almost forgot they were in Ottawa and it has been awhile I haven’t heard from the band. There’s a lineup change in the band and as far as I know, the interview should be airing sometime in late March as their upcoming album will be released in April.
On Saturday night, it has been a long time waiting as Basia Bulat came to town for a sold out concert. This time, it’s for her current release of the second album, Heart Of My Own.

The funny thing was having to wait outside the First Baptist Church for several hours. Thoughts on the concert, the opening act was Ottawa native and now residing in Montreal, Leif Vollebekk. Vollebekk brought along a band as the previous times I had seen him, he was performing solo. As usual, he soothed the crowded with his soft toned songs. His folk influenced fit the right tone for the church.

Onto Basia Bulat’s performance. As usual, she still brings the excitement when she comes up on stage. The crowd still enjoy her songs from Snakes & Ladders to the new song like The Shore. The video on top is a live track of Sparrow. Even though, the church had a curfew for 10pm, the audience still wanted Bulat to return for several more songs and she definitely did. The best thing about the Ottawa crowd was knowing when to clap on I Was A Daughter and Before I Knew.

I almost forgot to interview her because her publicist text messaged me that sound check was late and they didn’t get food as well. I was fortunate to interview her at the end of the concert. On the interview, Bulat did mention a Casey Mecija of Ohbijou. CBC News posted an article on Bulat on Feb. 22, 2010.

Feb. 17, 2010 Update
Without further ado, here’s the interview with Basia Bulat. Press play to listen or download it. You can also stream it through iTunes or other media players.

Here’s the radio show including the interview. Playlists are this link, Show #1 and Extra
Press play to listen to Show #1

Press play to listen to the extra half hour show. Foolishly used two other CKCU radio show themes.


Happy Chinese New Year – Gung Hei Fat Choy/Gung Xi Fat Chai
It’s this time of year for having as I have many liondance performances. In time to celebrate the Year of the Tiger, it started off with a 30 min performance at T&T Supermarket in Ottawa, Canada. The video posted from above in a condensed form. It was crazy when performing at the Asian supermarket because it was difficult having to get through from the crowds. Overall, it was the first time for our troupe to perform at a popular Canadian Asian Supermarket.

Afterwards, we had another performance at Winterlude. Before getting to the area, I bumped into Basia Bulat and her band again but they were leaving the hotel. It was a funny moment because I saw their red van and I decided to get out of the friend’s car and started to run towards them. It was funny to surprise them and then telling them I had a liondance performance. If you’re able to read this entry, I posted the videos for your enjoyment.

Back to Winterlude, we had three performance, it was at noon, 1.30pm and then 3pm. It was cold but fun as the crowds got to watch it. Here are videos to check out.
Enjoy!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPioplnGVZ4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68s67zAjRE]
Another video, here’s one from Monday (Feb. 15) at Ottawa Chinatown. A Chinese New Year parade, click on the link.

Bonjay at Bands Undone & Friday’s Show – S05E23

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I had the opportunity to check out Bonjay at Bands Undone. Much to my delight, I was surprised with their unique performance because it was soulful and intimate. The setting is different for them because when they perform at dance clubs, the crowds are more rowdy and drunk. Myself and others were more calm but we were head bopping to the beats from Pho (the DJ) and being hooked on the lustful voice of Alanna. At first, I was thinking they would be similar to Thunderheist but they are good friends with that duo. I had a chance to do an audio interview for my radio show and their connection to Thunderheist will be fully explained. I shouldn’t spill the beans a lot until I air the interview on radio soon. I will update this post later when the the Bands Undone site has the video up. I seem to be quick in writing things up.

Special thanks goes to Kara for giving me the time to do the audio interview and I felt like I was rushing myself to finishing up the interview and not bore others. I was a bit worried about the time but the matter of fact that the duo was not in a rush and host of BU & Brian weren’t as well.

For anyone interested in checking out Bonjay, they will be performing at Timekode on Friday. Place is at Eri Cafe on Somerset St. They have an Ottawa connection, also a hint to my upcoming interview.

You can check the photos by clicking here.
The review is now up on the Bands Undone site. Even Apartment613 wrote a review, here is their link.

Oh! I make a cameo appearance in the beginning of the video for Bonjay’s performance. Laugh it off if you want because it was on fast motion.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/7723516]
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You Say Party! We Say Die! at a Record Shop Performance – S05E14

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You Say Party! We Say Die! at Sounds Unlikely on Oct. 22, 2009
It was unexpected for me to go to Sounds Unlikely (a local music store) at noon to check out You Say Party! We Say Die! Oh boy, I almost got their name wrong because instead of the “We”, I still say the “You.”
It’s another B.C. band who I haven’t got a chance to see them live previously but I was lucky to see them live in an acoustic environment. It’s different when a band performs at a store as it brings an intimate atmosphere. They sang several songs from their previous and current album, XXXX. There was two song from the current album that I can remember from today, one was Make XXXX and the other was Laura Palmer’s Prom. It’s funny how the second song is pop culture related. Twin Peaks anyone?
The last song they sang was Monster from their previous album, Lose All Time. One cute moment was when the lead singer used someone’s mittens and sang during the set. I forgot the song name but it was funny seeing the singer improvise. Continue reading →