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Season Finale / Series 14 / WildWorks Blog

Best of 2010-2019, The Decade in 2010 – S14E21 (Season Finale)

It’s quite the decade in the 2010s. This is a look back on how my blog evolved throughout the decade.

The Early 2010s
The integration of the radio show I had at the time made good use of the blog. It was used as a summary and continuing the coverage of Canadian music. 

My favourite thing from the radio show were interviewing Nat & Marie and musicians from the likes of Basia Bulat, Shad and various Canadian musicians and bands.

I had the opportunity to have people come in as co-hosts of the radio show. Shoutout to Lauren, Marzia, Erica, and Candice.

Past blog posts are linked via WordPress.com from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

2014 and Onwards
Due to the abrupt end of the radio show in early 2014, things changed with the blog with less coverage of Canadian music. I was able to cover the Polaris Music Prize Gala every September and enjoy the live performances as well as finding out who would win the prize.

Not all is lost when covering Canadian music as I’ve become a great supporter of Scary Bear Soundtrack.

There was more emphasis of a lifestyle theme in my blog posts. More links to social media through Instagram and Facebook.

Polaroid photos were used in covering the blog and social media accounts. It became an obsession to shooting Polaroids.

One of the fun memories was in 2017 and it was covering Red Bull Crashed Ice event. I got to meet two photographers/Instagrammers there. Shoutout to Andrew and Sudevi.

Past posts are linked through WordPress.com and WildWorks.ca – 2015, 2016 and 2017. 

Wrapping up 2019
Several Instagram meetups would define 2019. It’s been great meeting some photographers and Instagrammers at events.

To end 2019 and season 14, you will notice a makeover of the blog as I changed the theme layout. I hope you will enjoy the new look and going forward to the new decade.

Happy New Year and season 15 to be coming soon.

Series 14 / WildWorks Blog

The Photo Walk on Tuesday Night – S14E19

On Tuesday night, I joined up with a couple of people for the photo walk hosted by Passportunities. It was a fun time as the weather held up pretty well with no rain and snow. I used the Sony a7 III as I don’t usually get a chance to shoot with the camera. 

It’s one of the rare times I shoot outdoor night photos. I had good lenses for the Sony camera but forgot to bring a tripod to shooting long exposures.

Thanks to Darcie for organizing the photo walk. You can view the photos below.

Continue reading →

Series 14 / WildWorks Blog

Getting the Sonos x IKEA Symfonisk Speakers – S14E12

This is not a sponsored post. There was a lot of talk with the unique partnership with IKEA and Sonos as they released two WiFi speakers called SYMFONISK. One is a bookshelf speaker and the other is a table lamp with speaker. The lamp can be used with smart lightbulbs from IKEA’s own and Philips Hue lightbulbs.

I decided to pick up the SMYFONISK bookshelf speaker as it got released on August 1st. The price is $149 Canadian while the table lamp with speaker is at $249. I chose the black speaker. It is affordable than getting the Sonos WiFi speakers.

Setup was pretty simple as you need to install the Sonos app on either the smartphone or tablet. Then you need to connect to the WiFi router and slightly had issues due to forgetting the password.

The sound quality is pretty good as I tested on TuneIn, Spotify (need to be on Premium account) and through AirPlay 2 via Apple laptop/desktop and iOS apps. You can use Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant to connect to their devices. 

I tried playing this clip from Infernal Affairs through Netflix as it’s become a favourite scene because of a song used in it. The scene can seen at this link.

The design of SYMFONISK is pretty simple with the look and buttons. You put it anywhere in the house and play music to your own liking. It’s convenient to connect or pair with other WiFi compatible speakers for surround sound.

Overall, I’m pleased with my first purchase of Sonos branded speakers in partnership with IKEA. I should create the 2019 Polaris Music Prize Short List playlist on Spotify and give it a listen to the new speakers.

You can view the photos from below.
Continue reading →

Series 14 / WildWorks Blog

The CASETiFY & Pokémon iPad Pro Folio Case – S14E10

I decided to purchase an iPad Pro case from CASETiFY. They kept showing ads when I was going through Instagram Stories and what caught my attention was their collaboration with Pokémon.

They released the now sold out Drop 2 collection and their theme was Day & Night. I took the chance and got the iPad Pro folio.

The case came in on Monday and I’m impressed with the look and feel of it. The insides have slots for cards and bigger slots for passports or tickets when traveling. There is a holder for the Apple Pencil added in it.

The minor issue is the enclosure, I would need a rubber band to keep it closed if putting it a backpack while traveling.

Overall, a great case for the iPad Pro and for anyone who loves Pokémon while looking stylish. The 3rd drop will be in August, be sure to catch them while it lasts.

Check the photos below.

Continue reading →

Music / Series 14 / WildWorks Blog

The 2019 Polaris Music Prize Short List – S14E09

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

Music / WildWorks Blog

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

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 →

WildWorks Blog

Pages Missing

Since the move to a web hosting service, I found out that a bunch of entries did not make the move. Please refer back to the WordPress.com site.

Expect this site to have a refresh in the future.

To refer back, here are some of the links from wildworks.wordpress.com;

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/rich-aucoin-at-nuit-blanche-montreal-s10e19/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/hong-kong-milk-tea-the-radio-show-s08e43/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/summer-special-2013-the-social-media-summer-series-2/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/happy-birthday-and-new-shoes-s09e26/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/the-nxne-2012-wrapup-s07e44/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/ottawa-winterfell-s08e28/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/friday-night-at-house-of-paint-2015-summer-special/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/nuit-blanche-ottawagatineau-2014-s10e03

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/gloria-of-scary-bear-soundtrack-taking-over-the-show-s08e19/

http://wildworks.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/the-vanitea-room-grand-opening-s11e22/

Series 12 / WildWorks Blog

The 24 Days of Candies and Tea – S12E04

advent-calendars-2016
It’s that yearly time on the final month of the year. It’s the popular advent calendars in the form of DAVIDsTEA and Squish Candy. Squish Candy has opened a location in Rideau Centre for several months and it’s been a great convenience in getting the 24 Days of Candy. DAVIDsTEA offered their hot selling 24 Days of Tea in late October. It used to be released on November.

Here’s the list of the advents calendars. They will be updated for the 24 days.
The openings will be shown on Instagram. Continue reading →

Series 12 / WildWorks Blog

Siberian Cat Café in Chelsea, Quebec – S12E03

cafe-chat-siberien-main

On Thanksgiving Monday (Canadian holiday), I had the opportunity to check out the Café Chat Siberien, the French name or the English name, Siberian Cat Café over in Chelsea, Quebec. Cat cafes have become pretty popular throughout the world. I’ve been wanting to check it out as I enjoy seeing adorable cats.

The Siberian Cat Café has opened for over a year and it’s become a fun destination when heading down to Gatineau Park. Being a holiday, there was traffic for people going to Gatineau Park. Luckily for Google Maps, it gave us another route to avoiding the car pileup.

Getting inside to the café and to see the cats, you need to order either a drink (tea, coffee and cola) and grill cheese sandwich or some small sweet bites. They also had the Montreal cola, 1642 Cola. I heard good things about it. It’s a cola with maple syrup in it.

Heading inside the cat room, there were some cats hanging around and some sleeping. The cats were friendly and they didn’t bite or scratch patrons and myself. There were also art installations throughout the building.

Overall, it was a quaint and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday going to the cat cafe. You can check out the photos below.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Continue reading →

Series 12 / WildWorks Blog

Beau’s Oktoberfest 2016 – S12E02

2016-beaus-oktoberfest-main

It was a fine Saturday afternoon as I went to Vankleek Hill (an hour’s ride from Ottawa) for the 8th annual Beau’s Oktoberfest. I had to go along with my dad and I’m not total beer drinker. He had extra tickets and why not go to the event for the third year.

The 2016 edition of Beau’s Oktoberfest had a lot of craft beer from Ottawa, Quebec, and Toronto (including the GTA and Golden Horseshoe area). Beau’s brought their 16 beers and tap. Aside from the beer, there were restaurants from Ontario and Quebec serving their kind of Bavarian styled food.

This year’s main concert lineup had 54•40 and Born Ruffians for Friday. k-os and Hannah Georgas for Saturday. Even though, I didn’t stay past 6pm at Oktoberfest, I was able to check out part of Montreal’s Motel Raphaël. I haven’t seen the band live for quite awhile and they recently released a new album, System.
Oh yes, Alan Neal of CBC’s All In A Day was MC for Saturday’s concert lineup.

All in all, it was great to be at Beau’s Oktoberfest and it was quite a big turnout as people will have fun and drink beer.