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Music, Culture, Photos and Other Happenings in Ottawa

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Music / Series 10

Saturday Night with The Elwins and a Haunted House Pop Up Show – S10E06

The Elwins Cover-1

It’s been awhile I have written a blog post and it’s most likely a Polaris Music Prize Gala withdrawal. October has been a slow month and it’s been a crazy and sombre time in Ottawa. The shooting in Ottawa on October 22, 2014 has been a tense and sad time as we all know that Cpl. Nathan Cirillo lost his life at the National War Memorial. People in Ottawa have bringing life back to normal after the tragedy. On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to drop by to the National War Memorial and pay my respect. It has been a week that I haven’t gone to downtown Ottawa. It’s a new reality set in the Nation’s Capital. Onto the entry.

The Elwins in Ottawa
On Saturday night, The Elwins were performing at Mavericks as they’re on tour with the Manitoba band, Royal Canoe. The band from Keswick, Ontario, which is north of Toronto are having a surprising year as they got signed to Hidden Pony Records. It’s worth mentioning that the band is taking up a challenge as they’re going to be TV critics. You can follow them at elwinsTVclub and @TheElwins on Twitter as well as blogging at The Huffington Post.
As for the concert, they played some of the usual songs and played some new songs. There was a good crowd for the show at Mavericks and for my experience, I was near two young ladies who were dancing enthusiastically and a bit of robo movements. The Elwins definitely brought the crowd to its feet as the city is moving back to normalcy from the tragic event of the past week. Prior to The Elwins playing was the Ottawa band, Pith and the Parenchymas.
I didn’t stay too long for Royal Canoe’s performance but there was a good turnout for the Winnipeg band.

You can check the photos via Flickr by clicking HERE. There’s also two Impossible B&W photos of The Elwins below.

The Haunted House Pop Up Show
Before going to the concert, I decided to drop by in the Westboro area for this event. It was a pop up shop as well as a Halloween costume party and festivities. Entering the pop up shop was a terrifying but creative entrance in time for Halloween.
The pop up show had paintings on display and sale as well as a photo booth and fortune telling. It was a fun event
I was there to give some support to DJ 2 Creamz as he spun some Halloween tunes. I decided to take some photos from the Polaroid camera and the digital camera. The Impossible Project B&W photos will be posted below.
Kudos to Dream Love Grow for hosting the event.

You can check the photo via Flickr by clicking HERE.

Since I hadn’t written anything for the month of October, I’m going to post some photos taken from the iPhone 6. That’s right, I changed phones as I finally upgraded. I had been using the iPhone 4S for about three years and needed to replace a phone. From below, some photos from Saturday’s event.

It has been whirlwind of a week in Ottawa and hoping you are safe with the loved ones.
Enjoy! Continue reading →

Audio / Music / Series 9

Season Nine – Interview with Leif Vollebekk, The Return of Lauren and Shooting Polaroids (S09E01)

WildWorks Vinyl New Season-1

It’s a brand new season of WildWorks. Nine seasons, I can’t believe it’s going on for pretty long. The radio show is now onto its fifth season. I know it’s confusing to track what season is what for the blog and radio show.
To start off the ninth season, I had the opportunity to check out the 2013 edition of Ottawa Folk Festival. It was a privilege to see some of the musicians and bands again. Just great to see The Belle Game and Leif Vollebekk.
In kicking off the new season of WildWorks on CKCU-FM, I aired the interview with Vollebekk as he came out with a new album in early 2013. It’s been awhile I have seen him in Ottawa as he’s mostly residing in Montreal and touring around. You can listen to the interview below the entry.

Also returning was Lauren as she was away for over nine months and due to a change in the co-hosting positioning earlier this year and the change in the scheduling for this season.
It was awesome to have her back as the new Arcade Fire song was unexpectedly leaked prior to the 9/9/9pm release date. All I have to say that the new song, Reflektor is a catchy and funky track. I mentioned on-air that it feels like “Sprawl II” all over again.
It was a good show as new music from The Darcys, Stars, Basia Bulat and Jenn Grant were played. There are new albums being released next week (September 17th) and onto October. It’s an exciting time for any music fans around.
You can check the September 9th show’s playlist over at this link. The audio is posted below.
Programming note, as with the schedule change, The Wild 10 Countdown will now be separate. Expect a split on the audio. The expected return for the Wild 10 will be around next week.

Since the Summer, I have been shooting photos through instant film. It’s becoming a fun way to shoot photos and in a way, I feel like it’s becoming a bucket list on who to take photos with. You’ve been seeing the photos over the Facebook Page, Instagram, Flickr and the blog. You’ll be seeing more photos from the Instax and Polaroids. I can’t say that I’m being a trendsetter with shooting instant film photos. Although, people are astounded seeing the cameras as everyone is used to shooting on digital camera. Instant films and Polaroids have been making a slow comeback because of its quality and feel of the photo.

Lastly, I had a great time on Sunday night as an old friend was in Ottawa for a wedding. We met over at El Camino as it’s a popular spot for good tacos in the Nation’s Caption. It was a privilege to meet his wife and baby son. I already posted the photos on Instagram.  All in all, what a great way to start the new season.

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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

X Marks The Spot on Arts & Crafts – S08E42

A&C - X

On this week’s radio show, there were several new music being played and one album got released this week happens to be Arts & Crafts: X. The album consists of collaborations from bands and artists from the Arts & Crafts lineup. In a way, I decided to play some of the tracks before Ryan’s show, Whatever’s Cool With Me (also on CKCU-FM).
Played on the show were Anamanaguchi, Camera Obscura, Braids and Geneva. A mix of 8-bit/electronic to alternative to soul/R&B to indie rock. It’s a variety mix of great music for this week.
Sad news in the Ottawa music scene. The drummer of The Love Machine‘s father passed away on May 25th. I was searching on Facebook for info as I don’t have any of the members on Facebook. I decided to play Love Is On Your Side from their 2010 album, Sweater Weather.

On The Wild 10 Countdown, Said The Whale takes the top spot to end off May. You can check the top 10 summary over at this link.
For the podcast, there were new songs from Scary Bear Soundtrack, CHVRCHES and the usual from The National, She & Him, and Daft Punk.
The playlist for the podcast can viewed below. As usual, you can listen to the entire show below.

The playlist from the live show is over at this link.
It’s a pretty short blog entry to end May.
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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

For This Week… – S08E38

May 8 Vinyl

On this week’s edition of the radio show at CKCU-FM, it was tribute to the late Teresa Teng and the annual songs for Mother’s Day. It’s quite fitting to commemorate on May 8th as it’s the 18th anniversary of Teresa Teng‘s death. She passed away in 1995. Teng was revered and beloved throughout East Asia as her music has garnered older and younger fans alike. I was able to play Faye Wong‘s version of Wishing We Last Forever (但願人長久). One of the Teresa Teng songs played was called Red Bean. A funny story was my former co-host, Candice, made a tweet that I am weird for not liking red bean. The tweet along with a photo can found here. Kudos to China Album for the support.
As usual, Mother’s Day is this Sunday and every year, I play certain songs for Mother’s Day. This year, I added Keep Shining by Shad as the song is an ode to strong females.
On the Wild 10 Countdown this week, New Summer by Young Galaxy takes the top spot as Ottawa was having warm Summer-like temperatures for the past week. The summary can be checked over at this link.
The playlist from the live show is over at this.

On the podcast part of the show, new tracks from likes of Vampire Weekend and She & Him were played. I’m still enjoying the new Daft Punk song, Get Lucky (featuring Pharrell). This week’s podcast used the M-Rock’s Bangin’ Disco Mix of Get Lucky. Starting off the podcast was playing a new Shad track called Peace but it’s a rough mix/demo, which won’t be on his upcoming album. Briefly mentioned the lineup for the Wolfe Island Music Festival as it was announced last week.
Playlist from the podcast is posted below. Red highlights Cancon.

This weekend, I will be checking out Ottawa Comiccon. Wish me luck when I see people in “unique” costumes and experience the geek/nerd culture. It’s been awhile I’ve gone to a comic book convention and it’s the first time to attend a major convention in Ottawa. The previous conventions I attended were in Toronto.

Lastly, I didn’t have an image to use and again, I used Vinylize Me to create the entry for this week.
Have a great week and wishing everyone a great Mother’s Day for Sunday!
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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

A Lovely Warm Spring Day To Begin May & Asian Heritage Month – S08E37

May 1 Vinyl
What a way to start May with Summer like temperatures. With the lovely weather, the slight disappointment I had to endure was the O-Train being out of commission. Arriving to CKCU-FM a bit later will be the growing pain for Spring and Summer.
Aside from that, today’s show was focusing on Canadian bands and musicians with Asian background as May is Asian Heritage Month. This week featured music from Hooded Fang, Scary Bear Soundtrack, Dirty Beaches and Kid Koala.
It’s unlikely I will be playing a lot for the month of May but I will be playing known and emerging talents from Canada with Asian backgrounds. The image was made on the iOS app, VinylizeMe.
Lastly, as Summer is nearing, May and June are considered a slow point to the radio show and blog as the season draws to a close. Slightly having withdrawal as I had help with Candice for the past four month and she’s now in Toronto, I have to get used to doing things on my own. I will continue to play exciting indie music.

On The Wild 10 Countdown, Born Ruffians is still number one for the second week. To check the top 10, you can check the summary over at this link.
You can check the playlist from the live show over at this link. As usual, you can listen to the entire radio show below.
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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

A Goodbye to Candice – S08E36

Lenny & Candice - April 24th

It’s been a fun time having Candice on my radio show. Wednesday was her final show as she’s moving down to Toronto. I’m trying not to rehash what was said on the show but it’s been a great privilege to have someone on the show with enthusiasm towards Canadian independent music.
All I have to say that we had a great time interviewing bands, interacting with them and going to the venues prior to soundcheck. It seemed like an adventure. The last and funny part was having to be at Second Cup in downtown several time to go through the questions. It was almost like a daily routine.
Another thing I forgot to mention on the show was getting to meet some of the hosts at CKCU.
Lastly, as much as you’re a worrywart and kept “cattle-prodding” me, I’ve been very easy-going, calm and made sure things were fine.

Prior to Candice’s final show, she decided to bring her adidas track jacket to slightly match the style that I’m wearing. The photo shown above. Unfortunately, the Polaroid pics didn’t turn out so well.

Song played today had new tracks from Louise Burns and Aidan Knight. The Cantopop segment was on Sandy Lam as her birthday is on April 26.
The send-off songs to Candice at the end of the show were I Was A Fool by Tegan and Sara and Take Care by Beach House. Videos posted below.
Also on the radio show, we played Genesis by Grimes as she won for electronic album of the year at the 2013 Juno Awards. What I didn’t know was that she posted on her Tumblr page about sexism. It was trending on Facebook and Twitter, so we didn’t get a chance to mention on the air what was happening as it was very sudden.
In my opinion, I rarely watch Grimes’s music videos and when playing her song on Wednesday, I was dancing along to the song and not think the image or anything in particular. Call it an ironic day by playing a musician and not knowing the buzz surrounding it.

On the Wild 10 Countdown, Born Ruffians take the top spot as we end the month of April. The countdown entry is over at this link. If you’re listening on the blog, the songs played on the podcast is posted from the countdown blog and no longer on the CKCU playlist.

The playlist from the live show is over at this link via CKCU-FM.

So long and enjoy Toronto, Candice!
You’re the best!
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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

Remembering Leslie Cheung, 10 Years On – S08E32

image

Hi friends, this is Candice with a recap of today’s edition of WildWorks.

This week was an important one for Lenny – the 10th anniversary of the death of Hong Kong Cantopop legend Leslie Cheung. Cheung was one of HK’s biggest stars, releasing more than 30 albums and acting in over 60 movies.  Known affectionately as “Goh Goh,” translated as ‘older brother,’ he was also one of the first pop singers in Hong Kong to publicly acknowledge his bisexuality. However, on April 1, 2003, Cheung committed suicide by jumping from a hotel room balcony. He was 46.

To mark the occasion, Lenny put together a few medleys of classic Cheung standbys. It featured songs like “Silence is Golden,” “Black Midnight,” and “A Man of Intention.” We also played a live version of Sandy Lam’s song, “At Least I Still Have You,” taken from the Passion Tour in 2000, which was the last tour before his death. Being the tenth anniversary, there are several events happening in Hong Kong to mark the occasion.
The image chosen for this year’s tribute is the cover to his 1987 album, Summer Romance. It’s an iconic image as the album became critically acclaim and put Cheung into major stardom.

If you’re reading this entry after April 1st, 2013, some links to check out. A story over at AsiaOne/The Straits Times about the last phone call that Leslie Cheung made on the fateful day ten years ago.
Huffington Post on the exhibit paying tribute to Cheung. Over at AsiaOne – “Two million cranes for Leslie Cheung.”
At Yahoo! Singapore Entertainment – “Leslie’s memorial concert a success.”

Elsewhere on the show, we played some good ol’ CanCon, with folky tracks from artists like Octoberman and the Abramson Singers, both of whom are playing at Raw Sugar Café tonight. We also referenced a bit about the two pandas arriving to Toronto and decided to play a song called Slippery When Wet by The Acorn as it mentioned about the cuddly animal.
Scary Bear Soundtrack released a new track called Victoria Island, as it got revealed on Tuesday night.

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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

Gloria of Scary Bear Soundtrack Taking Over The Show – S08E19

With Gloria - January 2013

OK, I couldn’t think of a good title. On this week’s edition of the show, I had the opportunity to have Gloria from Scary Bear Soundtrack join me on the show because she has been promoting a live show at Babylon Nightclub for Wednesday night (today). It’s also her final live show as she will be moving to Nunavut at the end of January. Even though, it’s her swan song, the band is doing a music video party release before leaving to the Northern confines of the Arctic.
On the radio show, Gloria picked some of her music picks from the likes of Melissa Laveaux and gatesgatesgates while there were brand new music on my end from You Say Party, Leif Vollebekk and The Matinee. January is a bit slow in terms of new music being released. It was another blessing in disguise to have a guest on the show. It was an unexpected surprise to play You Say Party’s new song right away as it was announced on social media and music sites. It’s great to hear about the band reuniting after their tough time back in 2010.
Also mentioned during the live show was talking PSY’s Gangnam Style. Overall, a good mix of new wave, rock and folk music all in one for this week’s show.
The first half of the show for this blog is the Wild 10 Countdown. For the second week on the top spot, Pick Me Up by Hollerado is still number one.
The top 10 countdown for January 16th is over at this link.
After the countdown, I discussed about Arts & Crafts celebrating their 10th anniversary and Broken Social Scene reuniting for one night only. What I forgot to do was mention Broken Social Scene in the playlist set. It’s after Caught a Long Wind by Feist. I blame my co-host for no-showing.
The playlist for the radio show is over at this link.
Finally got New Myspace and my profile is over at this link. Hopefully the new version has a good following and not fizzle out.
All I can say to Gloria, enjoy your time in Nunavut, your presence in Ottawa will be missed but two years can go by quickly.

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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

Checked Out Pop-Up Gallery’s Opening Night Reception – S08E14

IMG_4164

The concept of pop-up have become popular recently and on Thursday night, I had the opportunity to check Pop-Up Gallery in Ottawa. They had a grand opening and opening night reception as the gallery is located in the Hintonburg area of Ottawa. Who’s running Pop-Up Gallery? It consists of Ottawa’s three artists, Andrew King, Alison Fowler and Katherine Jeans.
The opening night was quite packed with guests as the blue house was not as big of a space to walk around. Also on hand were Liberal MPP, Yasir Naqvi and City of Ottawa Councillor, Katherine Hobbs.
I was able to look at some of the art and they were pretty interesting and unique to look at. What caught me by surprise was King’s Ottawapparel t-shirts as they have been getting a lot interest recently. What can you not like about Ottawa’s past signs and icons from former establishments. One missing was the Cathay Restaurant shirt as King said that the former owner bought the whole thing. The restaurant is no longer around as it’s replaced but an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant.
How could I not forget about food and refreshments. Food were provided by chef, Michael Blackie and it was deliciously awesome to try them out to go along with the art. There were mini Yorkshire Pudding, Oysters, chips and popcorn. The drinks were also provided by Pop Shoppe soda. Picture shown from above, I chose cream soda on the left. The photos of the event are be posted below.
It was a nice but cold Thursday night to experience Ottawa’s first pop-up art gallery. The Pop-Up Gallery runs from November 29 to December 23rd. They are located on 77 Holland Ave. Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday but check the website for further info.

Wednesday’s Radio Show
Sorry for the delay in posting up the radio show as I didn’t have an idea to write this week. This week’s live show was mainly on cold & snowy songs and for the Chinese music, it was songs using the Saxophone.
This week’s Wild 10 Countdown has Crystal Castles staying on the top spot for the third week.
The playlist for this week’s show is over at this link.
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Audio / Music / Series 8 / WildWorks Blog

It Was Mostly Music Played This Week & A New Addition – S08E06

This week was just music being played on the radio show. There were no music interviews due to the post Canadian Thanksgiving holiday. There was an event I attended last Friday and it was the Herd Magazine launch party at Fall Down Gallery. Aside from it, that was it.
This was planned out of the blue and I decided to add a new segment to the blog. Prior to recording part of the radio show, I decided to come up with a video segment and it called WildWorks TV. It’s mainly talking about topics trending on social media. It will be less on the music and more on pop culture.
Apologies for the first episode due to the bad angling from the DSLR camera. It’s a work in progress. Hope you will enjoy the video segments. It’s a bit influenced from Nat & Marie as they talk about online culture. I’m waiting for their return on the interwebs. You can watch the video below.
This week’s top 10 countdown has a new countdown. To view the top 10 countdown, go to this link.
As for the radio show, Lauren and I played a bunch of new Canadian indie music and an Ellie Goulding track as she’s fallen in love with the new album, Halcyon.
Have a good week.

Audio/Radio Show
The October 17th playlist is at this link.
Press play to listen.
[audio http://archive.org/download/WildworksOnCkcu-fmForOctober172012/WildworksOctober172012.ogg]
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