Duane & I arrived in Victoria Sunday morning, with Ianiv arriving later that afternoon. On Sunday night we scored media passes for the Splash Symphony presentation, and were invited onto the barge to take some photos. It wasn’t the best photography set-up, but it was fun to be behind-the-scenes of the concert.

The three of us spent most of Monday parked in front of the main stage taking photos or listening to the free concerts. The artist lineup included Burt Cummings, Dal Richards & Guests, Colin James, Sarah McLachlan & Feist, among others. We arrived early in the morning and were the only photographers there during Sarah McLachlan’s sound check, where she performed parts of various songs (some of which she did not perform later, so that was a treat).

Sarah McLachlan was the highlight of the day. The light was great for her set, so photos were great, but just listening to her was a treat. She stood alone on the stage, singing and alternately playing the piano or guitar. She has a strong, confident voice that carries so much emotion. An amazing amazing performer.

Feist was the last artist of the day, doing her full tour performance for an hour and a half. Her style was definitely alternative, and I am not as familiar with all of her music. Her concert was as much visual as it was musical, incorporating shadow panels, finger painting art projections, props and her own incorporation of looping audio snippets. She’s a very interesting artist to watch, and very talented. A strong and distinctive voice and a humble individual.

To the Junos & Back

Two of the artists, Alex Cuba and Feist, won Juno Awards this year. It was great to come full circle and to see them performing live.

We haven’t yet uploaded the video segments from our weekend trip, so stay tuned for those.

Tags: bc150, bc 150, bc festival 150, feist, victoria, alex cuba, sarah mclachlan, canadian musicians, concert, festival

There’s a lot of buzz going around the web for Feist’s appearance on Sesame Street and her remix of her hit song "1234" to be a counting song on the kids’ show. The remix features Feist singing and dancing with the muppets. Backstage at the Juno Awards, Feist says that the Sesame Street remix of "1234" was refreshing for her.

Feist made her apperance on Sesame Street in the 39th season of the show. Shows to appear on this season of the show include Jessica Alba, David Beckham and Heidi Klum. The Feist episode will air on August 11th.

Other upcoming parodies of pop culture include "30 Rocks", "Pre-School Musical", and "Are You Smarter Than an Egg Layer?"

Tags: feist, muppets, sesame street, 1234, 1 2 3 4, 1-2-3-4, feist sesame street

On our first night of the festival we went to The Media Club and stayed for Elias, Carmen and Camille and a little bit of Sweetheart. I was keen to be there to take photos of Carmen and Camille, who appeared on an episode of MTV’s The Hills. I ended up enjoying their music and that of Elias, though found Sweetheart too harsh for my tastes. 

On Thursday, as mentioned previously, we went to the Red Room with Duane and Rebecca to hear Armchair Cynics play, but also listened to the earlier performances of Jessie Farrel and Aaron Pritchett. Although I’m not a country music fan, I did enjoy their performances. I was not as impressed with the new music from Armchair Cynics, as it deviated quite a bit from the style we’d come to enjoy on their earlier CD.

Friday night we were quite tired, so didn’t stay out as long. We saw a great Australian band, Bladeshy, at The Bourbon, but didn’t feel like hanging around there. We eventually landed back a the Media Room, but the mellow soul music of Chantel Upshaw made us more sleepy. On Saturday, we picked up the pace back at the Fairview listening to a few bands, including Threat from Outer Space featuring our friend Josh on guitar.

The whole experience was great. Some of the venues were not as nice as others, and some definitely posed more lighting challenges for photography, but we heard a lot of new music and had a good time. Looking forward to the next year!

Check out the rest of our New Music West photos on Flickr:

Tags: new music west, vancouver, vancouver events, around vancouver, vancouver music, new music west 2008

However, the venue left us very disappointed. Since I was driving, I was not drinking any alcohol; so when I got thirsty, I went to the bar and asked for a glass of water. The conversation went something like:

- Hi! Can I get a glass of water please?
- It’s $4.25
- (The music was loud so I thought she couldn’t hear me well) Oh, no, I just want water.
- You have to pay for it?
- For tap water?
- Yes, we only serve water to people who are buying drinks.
- What? But I’m the designated driver and all my friends are drinking. Why can’t I just get some tap water?
- Our manager tells us that is the rule.
- So now I have to go drink water from the bathroom sink?

I have to say I was very surprised and a little pissed off. I kept trying to reason with her and then a bouncer showed up and we argued a little more. I didn’t want to get kicked out just because I wanted to drink water so I went back to my table. Although it would’ve been a lot more interesting to be kicked out of a club that reason.

This no free water rule is extremely stupid. I’m being a responsible person driving my friends to a club so that they can drink to their hearts content (and if you know Duane, you know he has a BIG heart ;) ). I’m enabling them to drink and spend money, but The Red Room is too cheap to give me some tap water, which costs them nothing. Instead they want to charge me $4.25 for a 500ml bottle of water, which is probably tap water to begin with. Contrast this to what Raul says bars do in Mexico.

Any other bar I’ve been they will give you water and some still even give you a free pop, but the Red Room managers want to milk their customers for all they are worth. Someone else wrote about a similar experience they had there, which includes an actual conversation with a very rude manager who doesn’t think his customers have the right to drink water unless they pay for it. He even asked them to leave the bar.

So, I probably wont be heading back anytime soon.

Anyway, here are some photos from last night:

You can get a wristband for only $30 that lets you in to all the concerts in all the venues, so you can pick which bands you want to see and go bar-hopping every night without having to pay anything more.

Yesterday there was a press conference and we got a sneak peek at three of the artists that will be playing at the event.

Adaline

Lindsay May

Aaron Nazrul

So go pick some bands from the schedule. And come say hi if you see us next week at New Music West.

I am currently sitting in the Vancouver airport about to fly into Calgary for the Juno Awards 2008 to meet up with my b5 co-worker, Jeanne Dupuis, who heads up Celebrities (while I head Entertainment). Together we’ll be taking photos, interviewing, and providing coverage of all the events of the next few days.

All our live coverage will appear on MediaScribbler, a new Entertainment site launched to cover industry news (including awards). Photos will go up on Flickr here.

For more about the events of this weekend, check out the Juno’s website.

Image © Copyright 2008 Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. ; Tags: junos, juno awards, juno awards 2008, b5media, music, canada

‘Rhett and Link’ have put together a music video encouraging us to drop all the New Years resolutions we won’t keep – quite funny.

Happy 2008!

Tags: resolutions, new years resolutions, rhett link

This video is for Ianiv’s benefit. Every time he calls me baby I get the Baby Beluga song by Raffi in my head. So, pretty much every day. And, given Ianiv did not grow up in Canada, he has no idea how annoying the song is. Still, it’s worth it :)

Tags: baby beluga, raffi

I don’t know why I like it. Truth be told, it’s an incredibly annoying song. But I like it.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here is the music video
(the kid is adorable):

Tags: mika, grace kelly

And I am not so much referring to criticism of singing. That, I can understand. It’s a singing competition. It’s the outright criticism of people themselves: of how they look and act. And, this year more than other years, those made fun of are done so to the extreme, drawn out, and have more obvious things to criticise. Without going to details, more have physical or even obvious emotional defects/problems, and it’s horrid to see them being taunted so.

Example:

Singling out one performer for his appearance, Cowell said the contestant resembled "one of those creatures that live in the jungle with those massive eyes … what are they called? Bush babies?" [Reuters]

Yesterday at the TCA Press Tour, they slightly responded to the criticism, although noting that they are no different than other years…

OK, now on to the "crueler" Simon. "I take your point; it’s a singing competition. Why would I say that someone’s a bush baby?" But he defended himself by saying, "We never try to censor this show. There are times I watch it back and I think, ‘God, I wish I never said that. I feel more comfortable being on a show where we’re prepared to show the warts as well as the good things."

Randy agreed. "It’s season six; it’s no different than it ever was." [TV Squad]

Another quote:

"American Idol" judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul say they’re no crueler than usual this year, and that people who audition should know what they’re going to get.

"If you don’t want to hear that, don’t show up," Cowell told television writers at a news conference on Saturday. [AP News]

Perhaps we are not asking the right people. Perhaps it is no more mean than others, in terms of Paula/Simon/Randy. Perhaps it’s the producers and editors who are choosing the clips of the criticism and drawing out long scenes on peoples’ appearances. So, let’s listen to their response:

Executive Producer Ken Warwick made no apologies for dwelling on the delusional, the tone-deaf and oddballs among contestants, insisting he was giving viewers what they wanted.

"People like the bad singers," Warwick said. "It’s more the bad singers that will bring in the ratings." [Reuters]

I think what is not being made clear to producers it that the dissatisfaction is less with the talent of the contestants than their obvious appearance flaws.

I’ve always found it annoying that although this is a competition on talent, so many people are aired who have no talent whatsoever. We never hear the mostly good compete against the really good – just the bad versus the good. Entertainment.

For a show with guaranteed high ratings, I was shocked to see them go so far as they did during the premiere week. Completely unnecessary and cruel. And, if this is a true reflection of the changing demands of viewers, the desensitization to cruelty and demands for it for entertainment value, then it is truly sad.

If you want American Idol coverage, check out b5′s own Idol Stalker.

Tags: american idol, press tour, tcn press tour, fox, mean, cruel, cruelty