Summer is not finished yet as I had the opportunity to check out the 12th edition of House of Paint. That’s right, it’s 12 years since the venerable outdoor Hip-Hop festival has been dancing and giving beats for so long. From Rap to graffiti art to break dancing just to name a few, it’s a lot to experience the urban culture in the Nation’s Capital.
Friday night was the Rock Tha House event. The lineup had Jonathan Emile, Moun Fou, and Buck N Nice as I checked them. DJ 2 Creamz was DJing along with Ducats inbetween the sets.
Saturday is the main event and will run all day with the more performances by Kool Krys, Flight Distance and Socalled.
You can check out the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.
There were a lot of events happening on Thursday night from Ottawa Jazz Festival to to several concerts like Murder Murder and Scary Bear Soundtrack at Rainbow Bistro. The Summer festival is full swing in Ottawa and so many things to do.
I decided to go to the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival to check out Mounties as I haven’t had a chance to see them live. Mounties consists of Hawksley Workman, Ryan Dahle and Steve Bays. They were an enjoyable band to check out as their stage presence was funny and engaging. Between in each songs, they kept bringing up funny banter and the crowds loved it. What a way to start the concert series at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. Unfortunately, I missed out on Jim Bryson and Yukon Blonde as I had to head over to Babylon Nightclub.
Fresh – June Edition
I went over to Babylon Nightclub for Fresh, it’s an event by DJ 2 Creamz of The Mix. There were performances by Missing Linx, Phoenix Pagliacci, Yusso & Junia-T. There was live art and display from Vincent B, Cinema, Mique Michelle, Alexandre Aimée, Robbie Lariviere, Jay Leblanc and Bradford Photo. As well, there were beat showcase by Bix and CircaBeatz and music by 2 Creamz himself and The Kid Gorgeous.
Lastly, it’s nice to see House of Paint as one of the supporters/sponsors for the event and keeping Hip-Hop in Ottawa strong.
Due to the time, I didn’t get a chance to check out Yusso and a few others but was able to take a bunch of photos.
It was good night to check out a lot of events in Ottawa. This weekend continues to be a fun time as June finishes up.
You can check out the photos by clicking HERE (for Mounties) and HERE (for Fresh)
Thursday night at Babylon Nightclub was The Mix 3rd Year Anniversary and it was hosted by the creator of the radio show, DJ 2 Creamz.
The Mix has been on the radio airwaves for 3 years and was originally an overnighter and is now from 8-10pm Fridays at this radio station.
Due to the amount of snowfall in Ottawa, I was able to make it in midst of the deep snow fall and the slow buses getting to downtown.
In celebrating the 3rd year anniversary, the event also had an art display by Dems & Doll and Dream Love Grow. Both had terrific artwork on display.
Prior to the performances, there was music DJ’ed by DJ Ducats. Even though I stayed for two hours, there were three performances on the bill. They were G. Grand, Eddie Quotez and Goliath Paw. All three are from Ottawa. It’s just great to that DJ 2 Creamz was able to bring local talent in the burgeoning Hip-Hop scene. Continue reading →
Kicking off the new season of the blog and now on its tenth season. You’ll notice a change in the look of the blog. It’s still a work in progress as I will probably be changing things around to the blog. It’s astounding that the blog has continued for pretty long. Aside from that, on to the event I went.
I had the opportunity to check out the 11th edition of House of PainTwhich happened at the Dunbar Bridge Underpass located near Carleton University and Brewer Park. For those who don’t know House of PainT, it’s a hip-hop festival showcasing and celebrating urban arts and culture in Ottawa.
This year’s festival is held for five days. The one I went was day 3 and dubbed, The Main Event. Saturday lineup had the ever popular graffiti wall, the crew bboy/bgirl, workshops, live music performances (DJs and Rap) and visual arts. It was definitely a fine Saturday to be out and after the crazy thunderstorm which hit two times on Friday in Ottawa.
I missed out last year’s HOP but I made it out to this year’s festival by bringing along the trusty Polaroid camera (SX-70) with the Impossible Project films to shoot some fun instant photos and getting the people excited with it. The black & white Impossible photos are posted below.
You can check out the digital photos over on Flickr. Click here to view the photos. Continue reading →
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
This week’s radio show brought up a couple of unexpected surprises. First, I had to deal with filling out the SOCAN music survey, the second being that I went on-air for 2 hours, live. There’s no pre-recorded edition for what used to be the first hour of the show. Third reason being that due to two factors, I decided to air the Masia One interview in its full form. As shown from the photo above, I had the opportunity to finally chat with Masia One as I have been following her music career for several years and before I started shifting into Canadian independent music. The interview was very lengthy as I asked some unique questions ranging from Chinese culture to the usual topic in music.
On the radio show, it was 100% Canadian music and I had planned to play different music. It also was my co-host, Lauren’s final show as she is finishing up her exams and then going back to her hometown of Toronto for the Summer.
Without further ado, you can listen to radio show from below or the Masia One interview.
The playlist can be viewed by clicking here. It’s a SOCAN week edition as myself & other radio shows at CKCU-FM have to fill out the grueling music survey.
The Wild 10 Countdown summary is at this link.
Overall, it was great to chat up with Masia. You were awesome!
Audio/Podcast
The April 6 Radio Show – press play to listen.
[audio http://www.archive.org/download/WildworksOnCkcu-fmForApril62011/WildworksApril6.mp3]
The Masia One Interview
What could I say about helping out on the February 12th edition of The New Midnight Jamz on CKCU-FM. Aside that it was the Valentine’s Day edition, I decided to bring something that’s nice and yummy. That’s right, it’s cupcakes! The photo above are from The Flour Shoppe. If I can remember the flavours, from top left to bottom right, double chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, strawberry, coconut, chocolate chip pancake, and black & white. There were three more cupcakes that I got at Thimble Cakes. It’s pictured on the bottom and the three flavours were lemon, strawberry cheesecake (the one with the black heart) and mint chocolate. Unfortunately, I did not try the ones from Thimble Cakes but the host and one of the co-hosts from The New Midnight Jamz liked the cupcakes. Apologies on the Thimble Cakes photo because I kind of slipped the box when I was putting it in the bag. Overall, the gang and special guest, Dennis of Fundamentally Sound (airs on Thursday from 12-2pm at CKCU-FM) liked the cupcakes from the two shops. There was jokes on the milk when one of the hosts brought 1% milk. The others aren’t fans of that kind.
Saturday night’s radio show was totally hilarious with the hot topic about hall pass. It had something to do about a movie coming out soon. There was a lot of laughter during the segment.
It was great to have another radio show host (including myself) just having a great time on The New Midnight Jamz.
Without further ado, the audio from The New Midnight Jamz on CKCU-FM. I only talked during the first host break. There’s two photos posted at the bottom.
Tempted to get cupcakes?
Enjoy!
Audio
Press play to listen to The New Midnight Jamz for February 12, 2011. To check the playlist, go to this link.
Thursday night was pretty exciting as I went to Zaphod Beeblebrox for the 3rd week as I checked out Girl Party featuring Jas Nasty, Kool Krys and Jenocide. I decided to do an audio interview with Kool Krys because she’s been heard on other radio shows lately. There’s something unique about her music because Ottawa hasn’t really got a big hip-hop presence (my opinion, I don’t check out the 613 hip-hop scene very much). It seems like she’s my first “official” Ottawa artist to be interviewed for my radio show.
The show was great because Kool Krys brought excitement to her hip-hop music. She sang some classic tunes like Salt ‘N’ Pepa and Destiny’s Child as it reminded me of my teenage years when I listened to those songs on the radio. She brought the old school mentality and it certainly gave me a smile because I felt like it was the 1990s all over again.
Prior to Kool Krys performing, Jas Nasty was spinning tunes and she also played old school tunes from the 80s. The final act was Jenocide, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her music was more on the electronic and thrash (as her MySpace page says it). I didn’t realize her style of music reminded me of Ruby Jean and The Thoughtful Bees, also from Halifax.
Overall, it was a good night even though I missed out on other events happening.
From cartoons to comic book heroes, we will go from Jem & The Holograms to Wonder Woman.
Played the Superfriends theme on the March 24th radio show because of Wonder Woman being in the cartoon. The Superfriends theme is played around the 17 minute mark.
Here’s the radio show and interview with Kool Krys in 2 parts. Playlists for hour 1 and hour 2 are available if you want to check what was played.
Radio show – Press play to listen. You can now listen to the show through iTunes as an audio stream.
WildWorks Extra – The new slot from 11.30am-12pm. Press play to listen.
Kool Krys Interview
Part 1 interview, press play or download it.
This is not the end of Series 5 yet, as I didn’t expect to go over with the number of entries. Series 5 will continue with a new number, 5.2.
5.2 will possibly start with the Said The Whale/In-Flight Safety/Graham Wright concert or a yearly tribute to Leslie Cheung and the first time to dedicate it on radio after writing up for a couple of years since his death.
Other Loose Ends Before Ending 5.1
I did some video shooting for Bands Undone. I shot for Ottawa bands, Dave Norris & Local Ivan and Old Crowns on separate days. What made me excited was that the Canon EOS 5D Mark II got a new firmware update and I shot on 24p (24 frames per second, which they say is cinema look).
A new method I tried was using the microphone and monopod as a boom mic. Instead of having Kara using a microphone, it was nice to have her not use a mic and have her chat freely. The one with Dave Norris was shaky because it was a first time but the one with Old Crowns turned out well.
Check the links provided from the Bands Undone site as it will include the videos I shot, Dave Norris & Local Ivan and Old Crowns. Both local bands were great and enjoyable.
I was able to be a guest co-host on Fundamentally Sound with Dennis Molnar on Thursday. Fundamentally Sound is a Hip-Hop, Rap, Funk, Soul radio show that airs from 12-2pm at CKCU-FM. Warning, there are several songs that have swearing and this blog being PG-friendly, I just want to give an advance warning. Overall, I was very comfortable being on-air because at least there someone in the on-air studio. I was calm, cool and collective and not as nervous when hosting your own radio show. Although, my loyalty still lies with Canadian indie music radio shows but my roots still lie with enjoying various forms of musical genres.
Finally, May has become my favorite month of the year again because of the mild and cool weather and the start of the festival season in Ottawa. As you see from the photo with Masia One, I checked out CBC Bandwidth live at Ottawa Race Weekend. The live taping was on May 24, 2008 and it included performances by Hilotrons, Amanda Rheaume and Abdominal.
Photos from the event are on my Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenny-wu/sets/72157605236760760/. It was a great “live” taping and I did not expect to meet Masia One because I have her on Facebook and I think still on MySpace. I had kept in contact with her through MSN Messenger and MySpace for a couple of years. What was unexpectedly cool was that she gave me a DVD and CD of her music video and upcoming tracks from her album (to be release in June). Abdominal is another surprise because I watched an episode of R3TV where he went to England and chowed down on unusual foods. Here is the link from Youtube and warning, it is not for the weak or anyone with a full stomach, R3TV Episode #38 – “Un-Rapped: A Food Diary”. I told Abdominal that I liked the video and I did not get grossed out. I was like wanting to crave on the foods he ate.
At the event, I was so worried about getting sunburned as there was no shade outside Ottawa City Hall. My feet were partially sunburned as I wore sandals for the whole day. My feet looks like tiger stripes and I should go back to wearing shoes for the time being. It is my first time to check out Ottawa Race Weekend and I was astounded by the amount people being out for this event.
Other past happenings, I went to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Thursday. How did I think of the movie? It was an enjoyable film but I found the plot about the crystal skull to be silly. Still, it is worth watching at the theatres.
I still haven’t watch Iron Man yet. Do not expect me to watch it.
That is all for now.
WildWorks 