I kicked off my 2012 wedding season by shooting Michelle and Robert’s wedding on Saturday, and if this one’s any indication, I’m going to have a doozy of a year! In fact, I took another six-hour nap today to recover…

This preview pic was taken at Sugar Beach, where the winds were so high I could barely open the car door. I took one look at the trees and said an involuntary “uh oh”. It felt like a storm was on its way and the forecasters were going to tell us to batten down the hatches (there were winds coming up from 121 storms in 4 states that day). I was unsure everyone would go along with my cockamamie idea, especially in the first 30 seconds out of the car when we were all leaning into the wind (there’s a reason why there are no people at popular Sugar Beach), but we survived it and the pictures turned out great!

There are plenty more to come, stay tuned. Especially the karaoke pictures from the latter part of the evening when everyone is super-merry. At the end of the night the Maid of Honour shoved a microphone in my hand and I joined the Best Man on “I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones. My second-shooter took the camera out of my hands and got a couple of photos of my first EVER karaoke number — believe it or not!

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You may not peg me as a Bob Marley listener, but I am. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to smoke anything to enjoy his music. It’s happy, it’s positive, it makes you want to shimmy. It reminds me of the days when I lived in a commune near the beach in northern Australia, when livin’ was easy. The sun shone all the time.

["We're Jammin'" -- on YouTube]

Ooh, yeah! All right!
We’re jammin’:
I wanna jam it wid you.
We’re jammin’, jammin’,
And I hope you like jammin’, too.

Ain’t no rules, ain’t no vow, we can do it anyhow:
I’n'I will see you through,
‘Cos everyday we pay the price with a little sacrifice,
Jammin’ till the jam is through.

We’re jammin’ -
To think that jammin’ was a thing of the past;
We’re jammin’,
And I hope this jam is gonna last.

It is in the spirit of a Bob Marley tune that I think of Red Moon Collective’s monthly music jam. Edward’s loft turns into a musical love-in, with warm gestures of hey-nice-to-see-you-again hugging and other expressions of genuine connection between music-lovers. The last jam even included surprise birthday cakes for Clint:

Happy Birthday, Clint!

This set is bigger than the previous two jams I’ve shot, so I will post just a few and let the rest autoplay below.

the sign-up sheet for musicians

The All-Women Jam (except the bass player)

The Percussion Crew

The Dancers are a big part of Red Moon

Alex brought the house down!

Do check out all 126 photos below (it was a big Jam!) or visit the Red Moon’s Facebook page for more links and events.

April 13 addition: video! Check it out:

[thumbnails]
[full-screen slideshow]

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Pictures and video was the closest we got to bottling this jam.

Event super-hosts Lisa and Clint of One-of-a-Kind-Dinner throw music parties at a loft in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District once a month. By day, the space serves as a photography studio for commercial shooter Edward Ambrosius, but each month on a Saturday after the night lights burn brightly and the taxicab cacophony begins on Adelaide Street below, Edward opens up the loft to let the sounds of guitars, drums, voices, and horns (and any other instrument that shows up) take over.

The Red Moon Music Collective is as much of a group as Broken Social Scene. Some of the performers make it every month, some less often, new people join in, they take breaks and take turns and sometimes they combine the two:

slide guitar with beer

There is no protocol other than a simple sign-up sheet so people know when they’re up next, the same as what you’d find at a pool hall or a dart board. The only difference is it’s all self-serve: BYO drinks and snacks. It’s like going to a house party except a third of the space is covered in guitar cases, percussion instruments, speakers and cords leading to an amplifier.

This is not your garden variety houseparty, however, unless you have artists simultaneously drawing and painting musicians and dancers as they perform. (Or maybe you do. If so, they should join us!)

It’s tough to describe the vibe, so I’ll leave you with Lisa’s videoclip above and my photo album below of last Saturday’s jam. As jams go, this one was ace: lots of new people jamming with the regulars, sing-a-longs to Queen and dancing throughout. Completely unscripted and free-flowing, the evening didn’t want to end.

And did I mention it’s FREE? Yes, the best things in life are.

our illustrious co-hosts, Lisa and Clint (along with Edward)

thumbnails
full-screen slideshow

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Wow. A roomful of talent at the Red Moon Collective’s monthly jam in Loft 210 (263 Adelaide Street). A proper post later, but for now 10 photos before I crash to recharge for a busy Sunday of talking all day at the Vintage Hotels annual wedding show, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

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My friend Jan of Red Gecko Productions just released his parody music video of the Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls” by local comedy troupe Plum Thunder, and it is funny! I don’t know why, but the scene with the slide is so pathetic I had to watch it a few times It’s probably funnier if you live in Toronto because there are lots of reference jokes, but I’m sure you’ll get most of them whether you live here or not.

Check out http://www.plumthunder.ca and http://www.red-gecko-productions.com

STARRING
Bryan Paccagnella
Troy Martin
Cara Stephenson

SHOT & EDITED BY
Jan Keck

MUSIC BY
Bryan Paccagnella

SOUND RECORDING BY
Ugo Troccoli

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Natalia Kantor

SET PHOTOGRAPHY
Quirien Wijnberg

PRODUCED BY
Red Gecko Productions

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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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