It’s a Six, Folks (Season Finale) – S06E45

It’s been an exciting sixth season on the blog and a second season for the radio show at CKCU-FM. Apologies that it sounds confusing between radio and the blog.
On my radio show, I wasn’t sure about having co-hosts but it became helpful to myself as I didn’t have to mess up compare to hosting alone. I have to give credit to the Italian co-host who joined in the first half of 2nd season as she was able to broaden my music horizons. She was there for a couple of months and I still miss her presence. As for the second half of the season, I had a returning host from a former radio show and was helpful to my show. Then there was a new co-host as she’s studying in Journalism at Carleton University. It was helpful for her in gaining some experience and is into the Canadian indie music, which certainly helped on my radio show. How could I not forget about Digory as he’s appeared on and off and there were a few people who came on as well.
I could not forget about the countless of interviews I’ve done with musicians and bands. The people who inspired me to make the show interesting are Ellie Davis, George Stroumboulopoulos and Nat & Marie (second half of the season).
To clarify, I will still be on the air but airing reruns on the interviews. I didn’t explain on The Wild 10 Countdown as that will continue in podcast/pre-recorded form.
Speaking of The Wild 10, there were two debuts in the form of Matthew Barber and Graham Wright. For the third week in a role, Lose It by Austra is still number one.
For the second year to Cantopop listeners/fans, there was a tribute to the Hong Kong rock band, Beyond on the live part of the radio show.
Last but not least, the playlist for the June 29th show is at this link. The audio is posted below.
As usual, the blog will be on a Summer break, even though Ottawa has a bunch of Summer festivals happening. Don’t worry, there will be a few Summer special entries.
Have a great summer! New season (series 7) returns in September.

Audio/Podcast
The June 29th Radio Show (Season Finale) – Press play to listen.

The live part/second hour of the show is posted up on Podomatic. Click here to listen.

Checked Out Adrian Wu’s Resort 2011 Collection and Wednesday’s Radio Show – S06E44

Decided to hold off posting on Wednesday because my radio show had no photo to post up but there was an event that I got to attend on Wednesday night. It was Adrian Wu’s Resort 2011 Launch Event and Film Screening at Lobby Nightclub. It’s one of those rare times that I go to nightclubs on the heart of Rideau St in Ottawa.
At the event, there were a 5 piece collection and then the film screening in collaboration with Cloud in the Sky Studios. From the film screening, it was short but amazing with the quality as it’s quite the high definition on the eyes. The clip is available at this link. It was also great to see the usual people in the Ottawa fashion scene. Photos will be posted below.

After the event, I decided to go to McDonald’s to try the McRib. The verdict, it was good but the BBQ sauce was quite messy on the fingers.

Wednesday’s Radio Show for June 22, 2011
It’s the second last show of season two and it was just playing through the 2o11 Polaris Music Prize Long List. I didn’t play all but I got through the ones that I haven’t had a chance to play. Dirty Beaches, Louise Burns and Little Scream were the one I haven’t had a chance to play.
For the Wild 10 Countdown, Lose It by Austra continues to be number one for the second week. No new entries but a re-entry for Miracle Fortress as the album, Was I The Wave? is on the long list of Polaris.
The playlist is available at this link.

Podcast/Audio – Updated on June 23, 2011
The June 22nd radio show – press play to listen.

There’s a Podomatic version at this link.

The short June 23, 2011 Radio show – Press play to listen and the playlist is at this link.

Photos
  

iPad and iPod touch Photos
  

  

The McRib

A Nice Saturday at the Ottawa Dragon Boat Race Festival – S06E43

For the first time in awhile, there was no rain at the Ottawa Dragon Boat Race Festival. It was just a nice sunny day and I thought it would be a very hot but the winds helped cool the climate. Enough weather talk, it’s always a privilege to perform at the Dragon Boat Race Festival. As usual, it’s always good to have Max Keeping introduce our lion dance troupe and for the first time, Carol Anne Meehan, was the co-MC with Keeping. I think she enjoyed the lion dance performance.
Prior to performing, I had a good walk around at the festival (in Mooney’s Bay Park) and to my amazement, it was packed with a lot of people walking around checking out the vendors.
Since 1993, the festival has really changed a lot with bringing charitable organizations to the forefront and I think for the past few years, they’ve added the concert series and unfortunately, I did not get to see Jim Bryson perform because I had my dad around and I didn’t want to wait until 4pm. At least I got to see Spartacat (The Ottawa Senators mascot) after concluding the lion dance performance. Aside from that, I got a free deodorant at the festival.
Overall, kudos to the board of directors and staff of the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival for making the event fun, passionate and successful.
Don’t forget to check out the photos from the lion dance performance.

Photos
   

Almost Wrapping Up and Preparing for Canada Day – S06E42

It’s one of those unique timing as I didn’t have an audio recorder or not bring an USB microphone to pre-record the first half of the show as I was on for 2 hours at CKCU-FM. I wasn’t expecting to air some kind of interview segment as I decided to interview someone from The National Capital Commission to talk about Canada Day. Due to the unique timing, it was best to get the interview over with as I wouldn’t have an opportunity to have an extended time on the airwaves. The first hour was the Wild 10 Countdown and there’s a new number one song and it’s Lose It by Austra. They bumped Kill Count by The Balconies off the top spot.
The second hour had the interview with Denise LeBlanc of the NCC to talk about the plans for Canada’s 144th birthday celebration.
Since Polaris Music Prize is near, I played some of the would be contenders that will most likely be on the long list for June 16th’s announcement.

As for wrapping up, there’s two shows left until the end of season 2’s radio show and the blog will coincide with the season finale as well.
Oh yeah, how can I not forget to give a usual shoutout to Nat & Marie as I’ve been enjoying their Internet show on Wednesday night. Even though, they conflict with The Wedge on Much.

The playlist is posted at this link. The final song I played on the show, it’s a cover to Leo Sayer’s When I Need You. The Chinese version was released in 1999 and was the theme song to a Hong Kong TV drama by TVB.

Thursday Update
I had the opportunity to go on for Thursday at CKCU-FM and sub in for the Hip-Hop show, Fundamentally Sound. The host, Dennis was running late and decided to go for a bit. I didn’t have time to play the would be contenders for the Polaris Music Prize Long List. The two songs played on Thursday’s extra show were eventually on the long list. The playlist is at this link.

Audio/Podcast
The June 15th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The June 16th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Beethoven’s Ode To Joy at The NAC on Thursday Night – S06E41

It’s once in awhile that I attend a classical music concert and I’ve forgotten that I did attend a concert done by the NAC Orchestra but it was based on Sci-Fi music (go to back to Season 4’s entry). Thursday night was the first of two nights of the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s final concert of the season. I went because there was also blogger’s night and I got to meet some bloggers. Apologies with the image quality on top as it was taken before the start of the concert and it was used on the iPod touch. What was used unique about last night’s concert was that it started off with a video interview with Malcolm Forsyth telling about the creation of his composition, “A Ballad of Canada.” After the interview was the world premiere of A Ballad of Canada. My thoughts on the 25 minute musical composition brought a lot of raw emotions. There were times where the music felt epic because the themes were based on poems from lands and wars. In Flanders Fields, considered to be the most well-known poem. Overall, it was all in sheer brillance. To top it off, Forsyth was in attendance and was given tremendous applause from the crowd. It’s been in the media that he’s going through cancer and making it to Ottawa made it emotional as her daughter, Amanda Forsyth, being the principal cellist with the NACO having the family connection. After that was an intermission and then finally, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. The worse part at that time being that I shouldn’t have have drank a cold soda because I was getting sleepy but I still persevered for the 71 minutes of pure amazing music brought by the legendary composer. It’s just amazing how Beethoven created this piece as he was deaf and pulling off quite a beautiful composition. The part that finally get me alerted were the soprano and tenors. One of the sopranos being, Arianna Zukerman, Pinchas Zukerman’s daughter. What caught my ears were that they didn’t need microphones. Just beautifully sung along with the Ottawa Festival Chorus. To end it off, both programs were amazing and I never expected to go for this ever. Afterwards, the bloggers were treated with a ten minute session with Arianna Zukerman as she’s big on social media and blogging. It was nice to hear her perspective of the arts and how important to get butts in the seats. Then, we got a tour backstage of the main stage of the NAC. Photos are posted below.
Hats off to the National Arts Centre for giving myself and the bloggers a chance to experience brilliant music. It’s one of those opportunities to go for it. The irony is that I seem to be going to NAC often for 2011. It’s my fourth time. The three were The Genie Awards, Prairie Scene and the fashion show (Rip The Fab Lane 2011).

Lastly, on an unrelated note, due to the delay in posting Wednesday’s radio show on CKCU-FM, it will be provided here as well. It has been posted on my Twitter and Facebook, at least it’s finally got a place here, two days late. If you want to check the playlist while listening, it’s over at this link. To the graduating students, I decided to kick off the show with Graduation (Friends Forever) by Vitamin C.

Audio/Podcast
Radio Show from June 8, 2011, press play to listen.

Photos – Backstage Tour at The National Arts Centre.
 

It’s June But There’s a Leftover from May – S06E40

Summer has arrived in the Nation’s Capital and the nice, warm weather has been either positive to the sun lovers or negative for anyone not liking the heat. I don’t need to mention about the fashion shows again as you go back to the last entry. Aside from that, Wednesday’s show returned to the usual format of the first hour being pre-recorded and the second hour being live on the airwaves. Due to last week’s post holiday hangover, the segment I wanted to play got aired for the first of June’s edition of the radio show. It’s a leftover from May to say the least. I found out a friend went to sleep when I started to play the sad love songs in Chinese. Before that, I decided to play a track by Crissi Cochrane and I think my friend liked the song I played. As usual, the new Arcade Fire tracks, Speaking In Tongues and Culture War has been garnering a lot of buzz and for this week, the new single from Library Voices came out. Forgot to mention that the start of the first hour (podcast) of the show had a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron as he passed away last week. He was known as the Godfather of Rap. I wished I had known some of his musical works.
I couldn’t forget about giving a shoutout to Nat & Marie again as I have been enjoying their Wednesday night Internet show.

The Wild 10 Countdown for June 1, 2011 summary. In case I may not update the sister blog, there’s a new number one song to kick off June’s countdown. It’s Kill Count by The Balconies. Even though they are now in Toronto but good for Ottawa’s own The Balconies for grabbing the top spot. The biggest gainer for this week happens to be Austra as the band is getting a lot of praise for the release of the debut album, Feel It Break. It is also iTunes Canada’s Free Single of the Week.

Since there will be a lot of events coming up for June. Season six for the blog will be winding down soon. There will be a few entries left before it goes into Summer break, just like the TV season as it finished in May.

The New Midnight Jamz Preshow – June 4, 2011 and Cupcakes
I finally returned to The New Midnight Jamz and the preshow podcast. It’s a lengthy one as the host, DJ Daddy Rich and myself went through the Top 10 US chart from Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart. As usual, we discussed on Doctor Who since the midseason finale aired in the UK.
As we ended off the podcast, we decided to play the mini-mix from The Strombo Show’s The Blend. The mini-mix is at this link.
It’s been awhile that I brought cupcakes to CKCU-FM and this time, I went to Auntie Loo’s Treats as I’ve heard it has one of the best cupcakes.
Here’s the mini-playlist from the preshow.
Praise Da Lord (featuring Shad) – Maestro
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Alright OK! – Masia One (apology for not mentioning her on the podcast)
The Blend – Coco Fresh and Lissa Monet

The photos posted from below shows Strawberry Lemonade, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Mint Chocolate and Earl Grey with Lemonade. Overall, they were pretty good but the bad part was that I putted it in the fridge and it was kind of solid. The icing tasted good and wasn’t overly sweet.

Links
The playlist for the June 1st radio show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown entry for June 1st is at this link.

Audio/Podcast 
The June 1st Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The New Midnight Jamz for June 4, 2011 (includes the preshow podcast)

The Preshow Podcast – is posted from PodOmatic at this link.

Photos – Cupcakes from Auntie Loo’s Treats