Interview with Julie Lan of Pop Champagne (Summer Special 2012)

After three weeks of airing the Nat & Marie interview on CKCU-FM as part of the Summer social media edition of the radio show. A new interview was aired and it’s more on the fashion and blogging side of things. I had the opportunity to chat with Julie Lan of Pop Champagne. The topics dealt were about blogging and a bit of fashion. Doing this kind of interview is different than covering music related topics. It’s a challenge to branching out into unique themes.

August 1st Update:
New month and summer is half-way done. On the radio show, the second part to the Pop Champagne aired and a certain cartoon theme was played. It was the theme to the Japanese version of Transformers called Transformers: The Headmasters. If you’re wondering about the Japanese theme song, here’s the link via YouTube. As usual, the Wild 10 Countdown is continuing throughout the Summer. Japandroids is still number one on the countdown.

August 28, 2012 Update
The previous radio shows are posted at the other blog.
The August 15 edition – Click here.
The August 22 edition – Click here.

August 29, 2012 Update
This is the second last Summer edition. One more left and a new blog entry will be back.
The August 29th edition – Click here.

Audio/Interview
The July 25th Radio Show – Playlist is at this link. Press play to listen.

The August 1st Radio Show – Playlist is at this link. Press play to listen.

The interview with Julie Lan of Pop Champagne.

The August 8th Radio Show – Playlist is at this link. Press play to listen.

Interview With Nat & Marie (Summer Special 2012)

The Summer edition for 2012 brings you the interview with Nat & Marie. After avoiding and being negative towards Canada’s largest city known as Toronto. I had the opportunity and a change of heart for the city as I met up with the lovely ladies. I will admit that meeting Nat & Marie was the first priority over NXNE and I will leave it at that. Overall, they were great to chat with and I wasn’t overly nervous meeting them because I was in my comfort zone while interviewing them on the nice, warm June day (it was a Saturday) in Toronto.
The interview is in three parts and it mainly delves on social media and online culture. Aside from the interview, there’s the usual music and the top 10 being played on the Summer edition show.
Since it’s the Summer, the TV shows that I am watching are Hell’s Kitchen, Masterchef and Dallas. Big Brother is now added to the viewing list.

Basia Bulat at Ottawa Folk Festival – Audio Interview & Radio Shows [Preseason - Update for Sept. 7, 2011]

It was a great opportunity to attend the newly managed Ottawa Folk Festival as the new location was down on Hog’s Back Park. The new site was enormous and accesible compared to Britannia Park, the old site to Folk Fest.
What I enjoyed about this year’s Folk Festival was that several CKCU-FM hosts (including myself) got to introduce some of the workshops in the daytime.
The Folk Fest lineup pretty good as my favourite bands and artists like The Rural Alberta Advantage and Basia Bulat attended for the first time. This leads to the Basia Bulat interview, as I was able to conduct on the final day. Aside that the final day of Folk Festival became cold and very windy, I was able to do the interview. It was great to see Bulat as I haven’t seen her for a year and missing out on her concert back in March. Hope you will enjoy it.
This ends the summer festivals in Ottawa and it’s nice that the Ottawa Folk Festival ended on a positive note.

On the radio show, there was a lot happening like the top 10 countdown, the countdown to Pop Montreal, a wrap-up to Ottawa Folk Festival and the final U2 Summer Shoutout Challenge.
The playlist for the August 31st show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown entry is at this link.

Lastly, this is getting close to a brand new season, hence this entry as being preseason. Season 7 on the blog is soon. The new season of WildWorks on CKCU-FM will be on September 14, 2011.

Summer Related Entry

I forgot to mention about the link from Local Tourist Ottawa about the magic of community radio in Ottawa. Click at this link. Thanks to guest editor (at that time), Hilary for convincing me to write something up.

Audio/Podcast – Updated for September 7, 2011
The September 7th radio show. The playlist is at this link. The countdown summary is at this link.
Press play to listen.

August 31st radio show. Press play to listen.

The Basia Bulat Interview at Ottawa Folk Festival.

Summer Special 2011: Blue King Brown

I had the opportunity to chat with Natalie Pa’apa’a of Blue King Brown at Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest on Friday night. They are an Urban Roots band from Australia. It was nice to chat with an international band and have a good insight on other kinds music not in North America.
My experience of seeing them live was quite a surprise because I didn’t expect an energetic crowd. Kudos to the Bluesfest organizers for bringing an exciting band.
Afterwards, I rushed over to The Hard Rock Stage to see Hey Rosetta and unfortunately, the rain came and I only got to see the band play three songs. I had to go to the Canadian War Museum to get dried up. The sad part, I didn’t know Hey Rosetta resumed playing. Such a shame on my part.
Aside from that, you can listen to the interview with Natalie Pa’apa’a of Blue King Brown and the July 16th radio show summer edition.
Then there are photos I used from the iPod touch.
To check out the playlist, it’s at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown for July 13th is at this link.

Audio/Podcast
The July 16th Summer edition radio show – press play to listen.

The Blue King Brown Interview

Photos
  
  
 

Summer Special 2011 – Gotta Have Cupcakes and Fundamentally Sound (July 7, 2011)

OK, I had an itch to blog something as it’s food related. Before going to CKCU-FM, I decided to go to The Cupcake Lounge to try out their cucpakes. As usual, I would buy cupcakes before going to a radio show at CKCU. Never on my show because I’m on for Wednesday mornings and the cupcake places don’t open at 10am and I’m stuck at the station. It used to be on Saturday nights but this time, it was on Thursday from 12-2pm for Fundamentally Sound. The photo displayed, top left was Key Lime, bottom left was Chocolate Dulce du Leche and then the others were Cherry (middle) and Red Velvet (right). I had Fundamentally Sound’s Dennis and Jewne and even the CKCU Sponsorship Coordinator try them out. Their verdict on the cupcakes by The Cupcake Lounge were great. For myself, I had Red Velvet, Cherry and Key Lime. When I had the Key Lime after the show finished up, I was close to having a cupcake coma due to their excellent icing. Overall, the cupcakes were excellent and it’s nice that they were freshly made. The icing weren’t overly sweet. Remind myself to get an extra bottle of water to overcome the icing.
Lastly, I’ve decided to post up the radio show from my mine and for Fundamentally Sound on here. Enjoy another Summer special entry!

Audio/Podcast
The July 7 edition of Fundamentally Sound – Press play to listen.

The interview segment on Funadmentally Sound

The July 6 edition of WildWorks (Summer Edition) – press play to listen

Photo

Summer Special 2011 – Canada Day

Since it’s a summer entry as the blog won’t be updated regularly for the Summer months. It will be less writing and more visuals.
It was a nice and sunny day in the Nation’s Capital on July 1st, Canada Day. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see the Royal couple, William and Kate and then the fireworks. Here are photos that I took at the Ottawa Jazz Festival in the afternoon.
Enjoy!

Ruby Jean and The Thoughtful Bees at Ottawa Jazz Festival on Canada Day. Surprise to see Jenocide join Ruby Jean on the tour they’re embarking.
  

Ohbijou at Ottawa Jazz Festival on Canada Day

2010 Summer Special

It’s this time of year where I sporadically post entries during the Summer. I had the opportunity to go for more Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest dates compared to last year. I was able to do audio interviews with several artists. It will be provided here. Overall, I was excited to see some of the performing acts. Worse part was enduring the heat.

The Ottawa Folk Festival Edition (Posted on August 18, 2010)

You can listen to the August 18th edition of the radio show. Aside from the top 10 countdown and Arcade Fire songs, there were interviews from Rolf Klausener of The Acorn, Aidan Knight, Jill Zmud, & Jim Bryson.
Press play to listen.

Apparently, I am taking part in this blog rally challenge, check the blog link out by clicking here. If you like my entry on Ottawa Bluesfest or the radio show, just comment away. Finished on July 26th.

Don’t forget to check out http://wild5countdownckcu.wordpress.com/ as it will be the only blog to be updated weekly during the Summer. I have been mentioning Arcade Fire over on the other blog.

Cameo In Audio Form on Other Radio Shows

Posted: August 4, 2010
There are two radio shows where I made a voice cameo appearance.
The New Midnight Jamz on July 31, 2010 – press play to listen.

The Drunken Master Revue on August 4, 2010 – press play to listen.

Holiday Wrap Up 2009

We’re inching closer towards the end of 2009 and ringing in 2010. It’s also the end of the decade called the noughties. I won’t be resuming my Series 5 entries until after the new year as this is another special entry for the Christmas holidays.
January 1, 2010 update: Happy New Year to everyone!

The best of 2009 edition for Wednesday morning’s radio show at CKCU is now posted and you can listen to it.
Here’s a previous audio which is moved to this entry since it’s a wrap up to 2009. Here’s the embedded player to listen.
From the December 16, 2009 radio show, my top 10 Canadian albums of 2009. Press play to listen.

Here’s the December 30, 2009 edition of ASR and my radio show. Press play to listen to the entire show.

Press play to listen to my Best of 2009 edition. At the end of the show, I played a famous Chinese song by the late Anita Mui. It was December 30, 2003 when she passed away.

Playlist is at http://wildworks.wordpress.com/radio/

Yeah Yeah Yeahs -My Favorite of 2009
I picked the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as my favorite for 2009 and since I explained a bit on-air, I forgot to mention on-air that there’s this clip from NME’s YouTube site had the Yeah Yeah Yeahs talk about It’s Blitz track by track. It’s funny how they explained the first 2 tracks as “party, party, party!” Here’s the YouTube clip.


Remembering Anita Mui
At the end of the radio show, I played an Anita Mui song in a way of remembering her. Here’s a YouTube from her final concert in 2003 and she was ill but continued to perform under pain. The ending when she leaves the stage will put you into tears.

Holiday Listening 2009

This is the return of the so-called holiday specials as it will not be linked to my usual entries. This time, these entries will be connected to the radio shows I have been doing. So far, I have played the usual Christmas songs by U2, The Pogues, Mariah Carey, Band Aid and Wham! There’s been a heavy dose of Fairytale of New York being played from the radio show.
Don’t forget the playlist is at http://wildworks.wordpress.com/radio/

December 24-25, 2009 - Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you take your time reading and listening through this blog entry. I should thank North by East West for providing the new Christmas songs by Canadian independent bands and musicians. Without them, I would not be able to play good Christmas music on my radio show at CKCU-FM.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 wrapped up the Christmas edition of the radio shows. Played several new Christmas songs by Said The Whale, In-Flight Safety with Jenn Grant and Library Voices. Surprised that I have played Fairytale of New York four times but the other 3 are cover versions. Also on the radio show was The Balconies Christmas interview that I did on a cold Friday, December 18, 2009, prior to their concert at Cafe Dekcuf.
Here’s the full radio show from 10-11.30am. Press play to listen.

Here’s my radio show from 11-11.30am. Press play to listen.

The Balconies Christmas Interview
Press play to listen or download it.

Due to sound quality issues, if you couldn’t listen to In-Flight Safety & Jenn Grant’s version of Fairytale of New York clearly, you can download the song for free at this site via NxEW, http://www.nxew.ca/2009/12/free-download-in-flight-safety-and-jenn.html
The same goes for Said The Whale, here’s the link to download the free Christmas songs, http://www.saidthewhale.com/christmas.html

Monday, December 21, 2009 was my final Monday afternoon show. I started the final show by playing the Christmas #1 song in the UK for 2009. That’s right, it’s Rage Against The Machine. The song that trumped the 2009 X-Factor winner was Killing In The Name.
I had a special guest on the show. It was Ben Welland of Sadie Hell. We played our favorite Christmas songs and I did live interview (first time) with Welland as he is promoting his debut album and the gig on January 2, 2010.
Without further ado, you can press play to listen to Monday’s show.

Saturday, December 19, 2009 was not Christmas related as I got to be a guest on Midnight Jamz, alternating on Saturdays from 8-10pm on CKCU. Actually, there was talk of Christmas in one of the host break. This radio show mainly plays Hip-Hop, R&B, Dance and Reggae. Near the end of the show, we were all singing along to It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boyz II Men off-air. I had no clue why I was singing along to it with no mistakes.
Press play to listen.

Wednesday, December 16 continued with several Christmas songs being played. Past Christmas #1 songs in the UK were also played and my top 10 Canadian indie albums of 2009. Joel Plaskett and Metric were battling for the 1-2 punch.
Press play to listen.

Monday, December 14 kicked off the Christmas themed show. It was the return of the duo of Horses Spilled Milk and we basically played the Christmas tunes by the mainstream artists and bands.
You can listen to the Dec. 14th Christmas edition radio show by pressing play.

Happy Holidays!

August Extra #4: Joel Plaskett x Three at Ottawa Folk Festival

It’s certainly ironic that Joel Plaskett’s current album is called Three because it is the third time I saw him live (two from last year, one in winter and late Spring). It seems like 3 is a lucky number into itself. Onto Plaskett at Ottawa Folk Festival, he definitely gave an excellent performance because he had his dad, Bill Plaskett, perform along with him. It is different than seeing without his Emergency band because his solo performance from Folk Fest seemed to be a bit mellower than his rock-style with the Emergency. He did some humourous talk during his performances and joked about being delayed at LaGuardia Airport and getting bit by mosquitoes. All in all, it was great and having Amanda Putz MC’ing made it awesome.
What was also funny was my brother got Plaskett to write number 3 in Chinese. It’s such an easy Chinese word to write.
Earlier in the afternoon, I got to check out the “Songs From The Road” songwriters circle with him, Ana Miura, Steven Page and Bruce Cockburn. I didn’t stay too long due to the some reasons (bringing my two month old trusty 13″ MacBook Pro) and I was totally sweating like crazy.
You can check the photos here.
Overall, I had a great time being at Ottawa Folk Festival for that one and only last day. Seeing the usual folks made feel happy and making me laugh. (you know who you are).
Another nice favour I have done for the two CKCU radio shows were giving them a promo of sorts from Plaskett. I hope they will like it.
Photos from Plaskett’s performance at Ottawa Folk Festival can be seen here.
Well, that’s all for now and will put various Ottawa Folk Festival photos that I took later on. It was an awesome weekend (minus Saturday) with i(heart)music festival on Friday and then the final day of Ottawa Folk Festival.