Series 8

Wrapping Up Season Eight & The Interview with Born Ruffians – S08E46

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Born Ruffians ODBF Vinyl

I can’t believe the blog has gone on for eight seasons and as usual, it’s that time to wrap up the blog and radio show (currently on season four) for the Summer. On this week’s show, there was the interview with the Toronto band, Born Ruffians as they were in Ottawa on the weekend for the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. You can listen to the interview below the entry. Note: The version on the blog is a full version as we discussed about social media. The radio show version was edited.
Apologies for the image as I forgot to get a photo with the band members.

Also on the show was the conclusion to the tribute to Beyond’s Wong Ka Kui as June 30th marks the 20th anniversary of his death. The song choices for the Cantopop segment are the well-known Beyond tracks. One track I played was unusual choice and it’s an English song called Long Way Without Friends. Another classic song played which had significance back in 1990 and it was about Nelson Mandela. That song is 光輝歲月, which is translated as Glorious Days. We’ve been hearing about Mandela’s health in the news recently. It’s just fitting to play that song one more time as it’s another tribute to a fearless leader.

Due to the length of last week’s entry, I’m reposting the interviews with Chris Ho and Crissi Cochrane. In case you weren’t able to find it. They are posted alongside the Born Ruffians interview.
Maestro Fresh Wes takes the number one spot for this week to end the month of June on The Wild 10 Countdown.
The playlist from the June 26th radio show (season finale) can be seen at this link.

Still having a bit of NXNE/Toronto withdrawal and if you kept up to date on my Facebook page, I posted a link from the CBC Music Presents The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions where there was a finale party in Toronto. Yes, I appear in the video. If you’re wondering why I have been wearing an aqua coloured vintage adidas jacket, it partly due to attending the 2012 edition House of Paint. I decided to wear the track jacket and wore it during my high school days in the 1990s, which still fits me.

Last thing, this ends the blog for another wonderful season. I know it’s confusing that it’s season eight and the radio show is season four. A big thanks goes out to Candice So as she helped out and contribute for the blog. We also had a great time interviewing bands and musicians. You’ve been awesome!
Another shoutout goes out to Lauren Bridle in joining me for the first half of season four of the radio show on CKCU.
The blog will be back in the Fall for season nine but expect a few Summer specials on the blog.

Have a great Summer.
NOTE: I will not be doing any music interviews for the Summer. They will return in the Fall.
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The NXNE 2013 Wrap-Up with Chris Ho & Crissi Cochrane – S08E45

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NXNE 2013 Wrap-Up with Chris Ho & Crissi Cochrane

It was the second year to go to the big smoke, Toronto for NXNE. I definitely had a great time there and unfortunately, I ended up blowing out my left knee as I had to limp around from place to place. Blame it on carrying a shoulder bag full of cameras and an audio recorder. It was painful but was able to manage through the weekend. Here’s my description of events. Apologies if this is a very long blog entry for this week.

Friday (June 14, 2013)
The first band to check out was at Urban Outfitters on Queen St. W and it was the Vancouver Electronic band, Bear Mountain. I found out on Twitter from a fellow CBC R3 fan and a photographer that she and a couple of people were going to Urban Outfitters to see the band live. They were definitely good to check out for anyone that likes Electronic music.

Later on, I went to the CBC Broadcasting Centre to kill time and unexpectedly bumped into one of the members of The Matinee. By then, it was time for the CBC Music Presents The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions finale party at the Glenn Gould Studio. It was great to see the CBC Radio 3 fans/bloggers and some for the first time in person as I interacted on the R3 website, Facebook and Twitter. I finally got to meet Lana Gay as she’s one of the hosts I’ve interacted online but never got to meet in person as she was previously in Vancouver and has recently moved to Toronto. The Darcys performed for the finale party as well and played some of their hits. Bands from The Matinee, Shred Kelly and Hollerado showed up at the party. There was a funny moment when CBC Radio 3 host, Grant Lawrence did a crowd surf entrance from outside the CBC and inside Glen Gould Studio.

After the party, I tagged along with several people to go see k-os but found out we went to wrong location. Some of the guys were goofing off at Harbourfront and that’s when my knee starting buckling up. Some of us splited up and went with two people (Eric and Brenda) to check out The National. Unfortunately, it was very packed getting to Yonge-Dundas Square. Then I tagged along with Brenda to go see… Sloan! For the life of me, I felt like a newbie to see Sloan as I never got to see them live. They played at The Great Hall and crowds were packed to see them.
Afterwards, I went down to Blk Box to see Still Life Still and Gold & Youth. I didn’t stay for all of Gold & Youth as my knee was getting pretty sore.

Photos
Shows from Friday can seen over at this link via Flickr.
The CBC Music Present The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions finale party photos can be seen over at this link.
Photos on my Facebook Page can be seen at this link.

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Off To NXNE (2013 Edition) – S08E44

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image

For the second year, I will be heading to Toronto for NXNE and this week’s radio show consisted of acts who will be playing at the music festival in Toronto. On this edition of the show, played were Chris Ho, Gold & Youth, The National and a bunch of others.
Starting off the live show was a brand new song from Maestro Fresh Wes as he will be releasing his new album, Orchestrated Noise. It will be out on June 25th. The track played featured Canadian soprano, Measha Bruggergosman. It’s a unique track as Hip-Hop meets Opera. To my own surprise, Bruggergosman tweeted with excitement that it was played on CKCU-FM.

It’s the second week play another tribute to Beyond’s Wong Ka Kui as this year is the 20th anniversary of his tragic death.
This week’s song choices were from the 1988 album, Secret Police (秘密警察). The album cover is shown above for this week’s image pick. Although, the two songs didn’t have Wong Ka Kui on vocals and I forgot to mention on-air that it was Paul Wong, who did the vocals for the two songs. Ending the Beyond set was the song, Morning Train (早班火車), as I will be hopping on the train on Friday morning, barring no disruptions.

On the Wild 10 Countdown, Said The Whale is still number one for the third week. You can read the summary over at this link.
You can check the playlist from the live radio show over at this link.

Have a great week and I will have a great time at NXNE in Toronto.
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Hong Kong Milk Tea & The Radio Show – S08E43

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Hong Kong Milk Tea Frame

I was a bit stumped in writing something as I haven’t had any music interviews for the past month. Instead, I decided to blog about making Hong Kong Milk Tea as DAVIDsTEA came out with a recipe to making Hong Kong Milk Tea. It caught my attention as I like things about Hong Kong.
I decided to buy Kenyan Tinderet and didn’t expect to see the tea leaves looking like coffee. Worse part was not getting sweetened condensed milk until later in the night as I walked to the supermarket and bought one. It costed around three dollars as I’m not too familiar with it.

Onto making the tea, I boiled one litre of hot water (95 degrees Celsius) and added four spoonfuls of Kenyan Tinderet in a teapot. I didn’t use a pitcher as it got used for storing water. Later, I put 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk. I didn’t know it was gooey and sticky compared to liquid-y condensed milk. Mixed it together on a cup and measuring cup due to not using a pitcher (photo shown above). Added ice and it was done. The silly part was drinking from the measuring cup.

The verdict: It tasted sweet and nice. There was hint that you’re not really drinking tea. On their website, it mentioned “light honey” and I did felt a bit of a slight honey taste. Another thing that I was reminded of drinking Vitasoy.
Overall, a nice drink but had a complicated time in making due to not using a pitcher. I’ll definitely make another drink again.

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X Marks The Spot on Arts & Crafts – S08E42

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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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Too Hooked on Daft Punk’s New Album – S08E41

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WildWorks May 22, 2013 VinylizeMe

On the show this week, it’s the post-Victoria Day weekend edition and the buzz being Daft Punk’s new album, Random Access Memories as it got released this week. There’s been a lot of talk because the robotic duo haven’t released new materials for several years and so far, Get Lucky is still number one on the UK Singles Chart for the fourth week.
Aside from the album and the opening intro for the live radio show, I stumbled on a mash-up track done by The Melker Project and played it on the radio show at CKCU-FM. She & Him was played as I Could’ve Been Your Girl got released as a music music. Something about Zooey Deschannel makes her so quirky as she directed the music video. I did watch the season finale of New Girl last week. Wish I could watch more of the tv show.

Also on the show, local band, Fevers released a new single and they will be having a concert on Saturday night at Ritual Nightclub. The band will be giving away the single free for the concert for Saturday night. Opening up for them are adaline, Glenn Nuotio and Birthday Girls. There’s some Canadian indie music added to the mix.

On the Wild 10 Countdown, Gold & Youth is still number one this week. Check the recap over at this link.
The playlist for the radio show is over at this link.
The audio for the radio show is below.
Have a great week!
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The Interview with The Doctor Who Society of Canada – S08E40

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Doctor Who Society of Canada-1

This is an epilogue to writing about Ottawa Comiccon. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned on my radio show at CKCU-FM. The interview with the Doctor Who Society of Canada hit a snag as I did not get the audio file when the radio show was happening. As I make up for the error, The audio interview is posted for the blog version of the radio show as well as a separate link. Apologies on the technical difficulties that happened on Wednesday.
I had the opportunity to interview one of the members of the Doctor Who Society of Canada at Ottawa Comiccon. Aside from being a comic book fan, I’m also a diehard Doctor Who fan and it was with great privilege to chat with the not-for-profit organization. Luckily, I was able to do the interview as Saturday before the crowds got hectic throughout the day.
Even though, I didn’t buy anything at the convention, I was able to buy a one year membership for the society and hopeful that an Ottawa chapter of the DWSC will happen.
As I don’t want to spoil much about the interview, you can listen to the interview from below.

On the radio show, there were new songs from Bravestation, Austra and A Tribe Called Red. For the non-English music part, I played Moonlight Densetsu by Moon Lips (the theme to Sailor Moon S & Super S) as a nod to Monica In Heels because she and her friends were dressed up as Sailor Moon and gang at Ottawa Comiccon. This ends the post about Ottawa Comiccon.
Lastly, an event to check out this Saturday is Chinatown Remixed. On the radio show, Silkken Laumann was played because they are performing at Chinatown Remixed. A nice way to promote the month long event.
The Wild 10 Countdown this week has Gold & Youth on the top spot. You can check the top 10 over at this link.
The playlist from the live show is over at this link.
The audio for the radio show is split into two parts due to the error.

Lastly, it’s the Victoria Day weekend. Have a safe holiday!
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Ottawa Comiccon 2013 – S08E39

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Ottawa Comiccon 2013
It’s been several years since I went to a comic book convention. Ottawa Comiccon was the event for comics, Sci-Fi and Anime fans alike to bring out their inner geek and to hobnob with the celebrities. The event is in its second year over at Ernst & Young Centre. It’s my first time to attend the convention as I had previously went to comic book conventions in Toronto. It’s also convenient to attend in my area, except for the one hour bus ride.

I had the opportunity to check out the marvellous vendors and the varieties of people dressing up in wonderful costumes. It ranged from comic characters to Sci-Fi characters such as Doctor Who and various Anime characters.
Being a comic book fan, I did not bring a lot of comics and trade paperbacks but was able to get my X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga trade paperback signed by Chris Claremont. It was definitely a plus as he’s a legendary storyteller.

On Saturday, I got to check out a few panels. One panel had quite a humourous trainwreck which was Name That Anime Tune. The participants did not know certain themes to Anime shows and I didn’t know any as I haven’t followed a lot of Anime shows for so long. One panel I truly had to attend was The Doctor Who panel as it had two authors from the book, Who Is The Doctor. They talked about 50 years of DW and how’s still a hit for 50 years. Plus, the Dalek appeared and humourously crashed the Q&A panel.

It was funny bumping into people I know and some have said that it’s their first time attending Ottawa Comiccon. It’s pretty surprising that Ottawa is known for being a boring city but the magnitude of Comiccon showed that there’s a big following for comics, Sci-Fi and Anime. The organizers and sponsor bringing in big name celebrities know how to attract fans and people in general. It’s quite wonderful to experience seeing lots of people to be at a convention.
The only setback I had was the lack of cell phone signal at Ernst & Young Centre. I was hoping to tweet and photos but the reception was not great to do so. At least I was able to shoot photos on the DSLR camera. You will be able to view the photos of people in their creative costumes from below.
There’s a photo of lovely ladies in Sailor Moon costumes and I know one of them as you can check her blog. They were made quite nice and also got some attention from the people. ’nuff said on that one.
Links to my Instagram from Friday – my media pass, green Dalek, Dalek Emperor (I think), classic Dalek, and R2D2.
Overall, I had a good time at Ottawa Comiccon and the organizers sure made it top notch. Lastly, happy Mother’s Day to everyone!

Coming up on Wednesday’s radio show, I will be airing the interview from a member of The Doctor Who Society of Canada.
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For This Week… – S08E38

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

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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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