Reaganomics

This was taken at Jessica + Peter’s wedding at the Gladstone Hotel back at the end of August, where they had two live bands (Peter was in one of them, the Reaganomics). When I was editing the band pictures, I was thinking I’d like to photograph more live music. I did shoot live music last year, but I’d like to do more.

Some live music photos from 2011 in no particular order:

Chicago Jazz Festival

Montreal Jazz Festival

Frankie Chavez in Porto, Portugal

Red Moon Collective - December Jam Night

Random Recipe at the Rivoli

Sam Cash at the Rivoli

Everyone's Talking at the Rivoli

live music at Kensington Market for Pedestrian Sunday

Canadian military band at the CNE

Aretha Franklin at the Toronto Jazz Festival (I was too short to see her)

Miles Raine & Alana Bridgewater at Theresa + Abner's wedding

God Made Me Funky at Fight For Independence 8

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Directed by Jeremy Fisher

Heard this song on CBC Radio 2′s “Nightstream”, where I pick up a lot of new music. I am always amazed at how consistently spot-on this program is for playing the kind of music I enjoy.

Imaginary Cities is a two-member band from Winnipeg and were nominated for a 2011 Polaris Prize, check them out: www.imaginarycities.ca

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I got a free six-month subscription to Rdio.com when I bought my mobile phone a couple of months ago, and it’s been put to very good use on my long walks home. I’m thinking about actually buying a subscription when the free trial ends because I don’t feel a need to own music, I only want to listen to it. But how to get music on demand without having to dig around for it? I make playlists on YouTube, but that takes time and it would suck the battery life (not to mention the data usage) out of my phone far too quickly.

There’s a $5/month web version of the Rdio service that lets you listen from your computer and a $10/month computer+mobile version that lets you sync your playlists to your phone, and that’s what I use the most — the mobile sync. I’ve been using Rdio to listen to full albums since I got the phone on August 15, and what’s surprised me is how quick it is: I press play and there’s no waiting for the sync, it plays everything immediately. I choose to sync mostly with wi-fi if I need to, but even at the times I’m off wi-fi and on the network it’s synched very quickly.

Last week I was poking around other people’s playlists and got all nostalgic listening to someone else’s ’90s playlist and decided to make my own. Here it is, and you can subscribe to it if you’re already using Rdio (you can demo the service without a credit card, according to the website). Some of these songs I haven’t heard SINCE the ’90s (The Pharcyde! Faith No More! Snow?), but I have a story for every song in this list, including the one Queensryche track!

I came up with 38 so far, but I can add more — there’s a big catalogue to choose from. Have you got any suggestions for me?

1. Tennessee / Arrested Development – 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of…
2. Love Spreads / The Stone Roses – Second Coming
3. Gangsta’s Paradise /Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise
4. Low / Cracker – Kerosene Hat
5. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover / Sophie B. Hawkins – The Best Of Sophie B. Hawkins
6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart / Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha
7. Groove Is In The Heart /Deee-Lite – The Very Best Of Deee-Lite
8. Laid / James – Laid
9. Your Woman / White Town – Women In Technology
10. Pony (Extended Mix) / Ginuwine – Greatest Hits
11. Informer / Snow – 12 Inches Of Snow
12. Say It Ain’t So / Weezer – Weezer
13. Sabotage / Beastie Boys – Ill Communication (Remastered Edition)
14. Get Ur Freak On / Missy Elliott – Miss E….So Addictive
15. Life In Mono / Möno – Great Expectations
16. One / Aimee Mann – Magnolia Soundtrack
17. Virtual Insanity / Jamiroquai – Travelling Without Moving
18. Hey / Pixies – Doolittle
19. Freedom! ’90 / George Michael – Listen Without Prejudice
20. Bitter Sweet Symphony / The Verve – Urban Hymns
21. Ice Ice Baby / Vanilla Ice – To The Extreme
22. Silent Lucidity / Queensryche – Power Ballads Gold
23. I Touch Myself / Divinyls – Divinyls
24. Hook / Blues Traveler – Four
25. Epic / Faith No More – The Real Thing
26. Insane In The Brain / Cypress Hill – Greatest Hits From The Bong
27. Passin’ Me By / The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ride II
28. No Diggity / Blackstreet – Another Level
29. Always On The Run / Lenny Kravitz – Greatest Hits
30. Are You Gonna Go My Way / Lenny Kravitz – Greatest Hits
31. Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon / Urge Overkill – Pulp Fiction
32. Song 2 / Blur – The Best Of
33. Dude (Looks Like A Lady) / Aerosmith – Big Ones
34. Cryin’ / Aerosmith – Big Ones
35. Breathe / The Prodigy – Fat Of The Land
36. Paranoid Android / Radiohead – The Best Of
37. Just / Radiohead – The Best Of
38. Connected / Stereo MC’s – Best Of Old Skool Hip Hop

The video is one of my favourite songs from the ’90s — “Hook” by Blues Traveler. There’s something about the harmonica and the guitars in this song that make me want to bounce around with a bunch of friends.

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A very pleasant $4 water taxi ride from Michigan Avenue Bridge to Navy Pier.

We also caught some of the Chicago Jazz Festival in Grant Park, with a bit of rain but not enough to drive all the crowds away.

There was some queuing (natch), but we finally got on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier with great views of the city.

We happened to be up at the John Hancock Center on Saturday night while the fireworks were on, which was a super vantage point:

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impressive physique

I’m swimming in photos at the moment, and there’s no way I’ll even be able to view them all today (or even the next few days), so I’m not even going to try. Instead, I will cherry pick a few and upload some phone clips to videographically take you through part of my afternoon…

Today I was supposed to do a family shoot but it was postponed, and the lunch where I was supposed to meet some friends in Kensington Market got moved to another location and I ended up just staying and enjoying Pedestrian Sunday. There’s always lots to photograph and eat, and that’s all I need to be happy on a Sunday (or really any day, for that matter).

http://www.pskensington.ca/

While noshing my tasty chicken biryani outside on a bench, I watched this group set up and do sound check. Between the horns, guitars, drums, and vocalists they were quite a large band and I hung around, waiting for them as I thought they’d be interesting. I wasn’t disappointed! They’re called Dead Bent, and they’re a highly energetic mix of hip hop, funk, and rap.

lion dance

face painting

performance art

Filipina rappers! Kapisanan Centre (Philippine Centre for Arts & Culture) on Augusta Avenue:

dancing on Augusta Avenue

Further south along Augusta Avenue, another dance but I have no information about it:

belly dancers

Belly dancers, but not your expected Arabic music:

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I have to pick up patients at 7am for their 8am chemo appointments, so I’ll leave this post extremely brief but loaded with calories. After the cupcakes in the last post, it was more sugar on the brain while editing these photos of cakes and desserts and jelly beans.

sweet gifts

guess how many?

my weakness: cookies!

And on a related note, if I could be reincarnated, I would come back sounding like this — Chanda Rule covering Nina Simone’s song of the title:

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I’ve had a productive day of editing work, and now I’m a little brain-dead. So I leave you with a video that I tweeted a while back but wanted to show, because of its storytelling. Even if you aren’t a fan of Robyn’s music (I only know her from the ’90s, her sound is different now), it’s worth a 3-minute look.

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I first wrote about Amy Winehouse back in May 2007 after I heard her on CBC. I bought “Back To Black” and listened to it countless times on road trips that summer. This song is from her first album, “Frank”, when she was younger and her voice sounds quite different.

This song, “Stronger Than Me”, is from when Amy Winehouse was around 19. No beehive hairdo, not a tattoo in sight. She looks healthy. Parts of the video are amusing to me, probably because it reminds me of when I was 18-22: liberal amounts of youthful stupidity. It’s a lifestyle far, far removed from the here-and-now but I still remember it well.

During this time I lived briefly with drug addicts — in Australia, and in Scotland. It’s because of these experiences that I can never chime in with the internet chorus that’s always ready to condemn and send these people off to their graves. There is no compassion from the smug who can never imagine what it’s like to be addicted, until one day when someone they know — maybe even a relative or a friend — becomes “one of those people”.

This is not about just another celebrity unable to handle fame, it’s about a young human being losing control but who wasn’t strong enough to get it back. Mocking the weak does nothing for society, it just makes us look like jackals.

I don’t know how Amy Winehouse died (and might I remind the internet that nobody else knows for sure, either), but people have already assumed it was a drug overdose. Maybe it was suicide. Maybe her heart just stopped.

The only thing I do know is that there won’t be any more music from her, and that’s everyone’s loss.

UPDATE: This is the best commentary I’ve read thus far about Amy Winehouse. It’s by Russell Brand: http://www.russellbrand.tv/2011/07/for-amy/

An excerpt:

Not all addicts have Amy’s incredible talent. Or Kurt’s or Jimi’s or Janis’s, some people just get the affliction. All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill. We need to review the way society treats addicts, not as criminals but as sick people in need of care.

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the sky has a personality

Ragged from today, it made my head grey. Walking home helped.

ever-changing

Terry Fox, we haven't forgotten you

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Breakdancers along Rue Sainte Catherine:

Loved these two! David was always a big fan of jug bands, and he introduced an appreciation for them to me. Check them out online: www.jitterbugswing.com

Roaming performers at the Place des Arts:

Saxophonist Allan McLean with the Jacek Kochan Quartet:

Performers at the Jazz Festival:

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