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!
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.
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.
The temperatures have climbed and held, which means this warm spring weather isn’t a fluke! Walking home in all this warmth is a reward for walking home all through winter.
In true urban fashion, I’m going to complain about bad driving but with a real example. This tractor-trailer was driving west along Wellington Street and when it reached the busy intersection of University Avenue it stopped right in the middle, stopping rush hour traffic in all directions. Then it pulled a U-TURN. I thought it was just pulling a regular turn, but this maniac did a 180-degree multiple-point turn in the intersection to drive the WRONG WAY (east) back into Wellington Street, just so he didn’t have to go around the block. He was turning into an alley, but he stopped all the traffic on Wellington again for ages while he backed in.
It’s rush hour and Wellington Street has three lanes, so imagine how many vehicles had to stop for this truck? Even the pedestrians are baffled.
pulling a U-turn at Wellington/University during rush hour
I watched this TED Talk by Susan Cain on Sunday from the comfort of my sick bed with much fascination. Well, as much fascination as one can muster watching a phone screen lying down, sideways.
Then I read the comments, all 314 and counting (as of Sunday). I usually avoid comments as they hardly add value to the article/video/presentation, but in this case many of them were thoughtful and articulate. Susan Cain attempts to condense into 20 minutes an explanation for what introverts offer to the world, which she argues is overlooked because they are drowned out by extroverts. A self-admitted introvert, Cain tries to dispel the myth that introverts are antisocial or misanthropic, rather, they find energy in solitude versus people and recharge in nature, not crowds.
I have no problems with crowds at all (hey, I went alone to Times Square in New York to celebrate New Year’s Eve with 600,000 people in 2002), but I always prefer small groups or ideally, one-on-one conversations. In a group, I’m usually the listener although I have no problem speaking, but won’t speak unless/until I have something to contribute. But when I am passionate about a topic, it’s hard to shut me up…
The part of Cain’s talk that completely resonated with me is that introverts greatly dislike small talk. Oh boy, do I ever! The idle chit chat at gallery openings and conferences and receptions drive me bananas. I’ve only ever attended three Couchsurfing weekly meetups since 2007 because it felt like I was repeating the same five-minute introduction and answering the same questions over and over. In fact, I took the anti-small talk attitude to the extreme a few weeks ago with someone I’d just met to watch basketball. Poor guy. (To qualify, English isn’t his first language.) While we were walking to a restaurant, he had a very random series of questions and the fact that I was starving drove me to the edge:
*silent walking*
V: “How much rent do you pay?”
I stopped dead in the street: “What kind of question is that?”
V: “I don’t know. It’s just a question.”
Me: “It’s not a meaningful question when you don’t know what part of the city I live in, how large my place is, or if I share with others.”
V: “What’s wrong with the question? It’s a starting point.”
Me: “You can do better than that! Tell me what you really want to know, I can tell you what question to ask to get the information you want and we can skip all the crap in-between.”
V: “I don’t really need to know anything. But is there any harm in asking the question?”
Me: “Yes there is! It makes me not want to answer any more questions! Conversation is an art form, not a bunch of filler questions to kill silence!”
Over the Friday night din of the beer/sausage hall at Wvurst, I apologized profusely for biting his head off (in extreme hunger, ha!) and tried to explain why I got so cranky about his innocent questions. In the end, after food was consumed and the hunger pangs subsided, everything was alright again but I could scarcely believe my own outburst. I’m not prone to outbursts. But this is how much I loathe small talk — I’ll go to practically any lengths to avoid it!
The core of Cain’s talk is that this world is designed for extroverts, but the introverts have much to say — if only the extroverts would let them say it in their own way, in their own time. One of her calls to action is to stop the group work (have I mentioned my dislike for group work?), or at least let people formulate ideas individually first, thereby avoiding groupthink.
The messages we get as children — especially Filipinos, I daresay — is that outgoing is BEST. That being introverted means there is something wrong with you, that you are not properly socialized, that you have to work harder to be more like the gregarious children to get anywhere in life. So-called bookish, quiet kids make their Filipino parents worry that they will never have grandchildren.
In the (hundreds of) comments under the video, someone mentioned that introversion is not a set of behaviours, since anyone including extroverts may exhibit these behaviours from time to time. Rather, to be introverted is an orientation.
Many creative people are introverts. Introspection and time spent reflecting and thinking is necessary to create. Someone else mentioned in the comments that plenty of actors are actually introverted people who love performing, but they prefer to spend their personal time alone or with a few close people. That same person suggested that when introverts are actively interacting with other people they feel like they’re acting/performing. I found this very interesting.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this talk (how’s that for introverted) because I felt it explained a few of my own tendencies:
I make choices for my own life without asking anyone’s opinion of those choices, before or after;
when someone is telling or teaching me something, I listen until he/she is finished before I ask questions;
I only shop alone;
I travel alone 95% of the time;
I prefer to teach myself most things rather than take classes;
I don’t care if I’m the only person to hold a particular idea or opinion, but I will always listen to what other people have to say.
At first I thought it was just stubbornness (that’s my mother talking), but I believe it’s much more than that. Part of knowing yourself, to be an individual, is to develop your ideas independently, without comparing yourself to other people. You have to be alone with your thoughts to absorb, process, and analyze. It takes time to think things through, and quality thinking happens without the self-consciousness that comes from having people around all the time. (The operative words being all the time.)
In spite of all the solitude, my love for the computer and the internet, I make a concerted effort not to let my online life overtake my Real Life. The last thing I want to have is an online persona, to have someone read my words then meet me and be disappointed that I’m different in person. That would be truly awful. I want the Best Me to be me at large, not behind a computer!
I shot Astrid + Navarre’s engagement shoot at Harbourfront Centre on December 18, after flying in a helicopter over them an hour and a half before. When I mentioned it they did recall seeing a helicopter flying overhead, but little did they know it was me!
I’d also done a family shoot before the helicopter ride, so after a morning of kiddie-wrangling and a lunchtime thrill of seeing the top of the CN Tower up close(r), the mid-afternoon felt like a break. Ice-skating at Harbourfront Centre? Yes, please! After all, I wasn’t doing the skating. (Holding a camera? That would be inviting disaster.)
Astrid was pretty tentative on skates, but Navarre’s a pro — he’s an avid hockey player.
Of course, when I found that out I had to put his skills to the test and make him do a little stunt. It was rather busy at the rink, but I asked Navarre to do a leaning stop beside Astrid, and then a skate-on-one-knee, gliding to a stop. That was really cheeky of me to ask, but I did, anyway, and made a little videoclip of it:
After that, I was worried I’d wreck Navarre’s clothing before the shoot was up! Time to put regular shoes back on, as it was beginning to get very chilly. Not to mention, by the time I arrived Astrid’s parents had already been doing their own photo and film shoot of the couple for at least an hour. Between the three of us, we were Team Paparazzi. For two people who’d never had their photos taken together before, Astrid and Navarre would soon have more photos than ever.
The wind by the lake was picking up, which meant I had to get everyone walking, otherwise we’d freeze. Without prompting, Navarre did a heel-click and I got my favourite shot of the day:
Considering how much the temperature kept dropping, the shoot went splendidly and they held up for another hour before the sun disappeared over the horizon and we couldn’t feel our extremities anymore.
Just in time for the rest of the family to show up for a group shot:
Astrid and Navarre’s wedding is in May, we’re all looking forward to the rise in temperature and flowers!
I’m still uploading photos to the set, so the set will expand over time. For now, it is best viewed as a full-screen slideshow, thumbnails, or watch it autoplay in the smaller slideshow below:
This is a powerful 30 minutes. Please watch! (then read the comments below) –Gail
KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.
HOW TO HELP:
Join TRI or Donate to Invisible Children: http://bit.ly/yp5Ffv
Purchase KONY 2012 products: http://invisiblechildrenstore.myshopify.com/
Sign the Pledge: http://www.causes.com/causes/227-invisible-children
FOR MEDIA INQUIRES ONLY: Monica Vigo pr@invisiblechildren.com
DIRECTOR: Jason Russell LEAD EDITOR: Kathryn Lang EDITORS: Kevin Trout, Jay Salbert, Jesse Eslinger LEAD ANIMATOR: Chad Clendinen ANIMATOR: Jesse Eslinger 3-D MODELING: Victor Soto VISUAL EFFECTS: Chris Hop WRITERS: Jason Russell, Jedidiah Jenkins, Kathryn Lang, Danica Russell, Ben Keesey, Azy Groth PRODUCERS: Kimmy Vandivort, Heather Longerbeam, Chad Clendinen, Noelle Jouglet ORIGINAL SCORES: Joel P. West SOUND MIX: Stephen Grubbs, Mark Friedgen, Smart Post Sound COLOR: Damian Pelphrey, Company 3 CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole, Gavin Kelly, Chad Clendinen, Kevin Trout, Jay Salbert, Shannon Lynch PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Jaime Landsverk LEAD DESIGNER: Tyler Fordham DESIGNERS: Chadwick Gantes, Stephen Witmer
MUSIC CREDIT:
Original Instrumental Scores by Joel P. West http://www.joelpwest.com/
“02 Ghosts I” Performed by Nine Inch Nails, Written by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, Produced by Alan Moulder, Atticus Ross, and Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails appear courtesy of The Null Corporation
“Punching in a Dream”, Performed by The Naked and Famous, Written by Aaron Short, Alisa Xayalith, and Thom Powers, Produced by Thom Powers, The Naked and Famous appear courtesy of Somewhat Damaged and Universal Republic
“Arrival of the Birds”, Performed by The Cinematic Orchestra, Written by The Cinematic Orchestra, Produced by The Cinematic Orchestra, The Cinematic Orchestra appears courtesy of Disney Records
“Roll Away Your Stone”, Performed by Mumford and Sons, Written by Benjamin Lovett, Edward Dwane, Marcus Mumford, and Winston Marshall, Produced by Markus Dravs, Mumford and Sons appear courtesy of Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC
“On (Instrumental)”, Performed by Bloc Party
Written by Bloc Party, Produced by Jacknife Lee, Bloc Party appears courtesy of Vice Records
“A Dream within a Dream”, Performed by The Glitch Mob, The Glitch Mob appears courtesy of Glass Air
“I Can’t Stop”, Performed by Flux Pavilion, Flux Pavilion appears courtesy of Circus Records Limited
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)
I may or may not have mentioned before that I’m a big fan of DNTO (“Definitely Not The Opera”) and listen to the podcasts if I’m not near a radio on Saturday afternoons. When they announced a live taping in Toronto, I was on it like nobody’s business, immediately emailing for a ticket. They confirmed the ticket — the next day, I think? — and yesterday they announced that there would be some audience participation in the form of stories around the theme “In Over Your Head”, specifically about:
- home renos
- parenting/babysitting
- at work
- exercise / physical activity
You know, I have stories for ALL of those topics, but the first one that came to mind yesterday was about babysitting.
So I thought about it today, and when the five of us arrived at The Tranzac to find good seats, I flagged down one of the show’s producers to tell him I had a story. When I gave him the rundown he laughed and said I was the only one with a babysitting story and that he’d try and put me in the show. Soon after, he came by to confirm that I was in the show and he wanted me to sit in the front row.
Eeek!
I have very little experience in public speaking, but all occasions were rather high-pressure: speech at my cousin’s Vancouver wedding in September 2003 (I introduced her to hubby), emceeing a retirement party I hosted at a Vancouver hotel in November 2003 (my employers), David’s memorial in Pennsylvania on December 2005, Vinny’s memorial in Germany in March 2006, and the last time was Arliin’s memorial in January 2008.
Weddings, retirement, funerals. It was high time I told a story where it didn’t make people cry, don’t you think? I’d much rather make people laugh.
Marin joined me in the front row for moral support while the others stayed at the side. When it came time for audience stories, of which there turned out to be only two (the other participants were doing other things), I was asked to stand along with another guy. I stood behind him… on purpose, because I didn’t want to go first. I really dislike going first.
Guess who went first?
For some reason, Sook-Yin Lee didn’t point the microphone at the guy standing closer to her, she looked straight at me and I panicked…
“So what happened that made you feel in over your head and stressed out?” she said.
All I could think of was, “You making me go first!”
She even requested they turn UP the lights so I could see out into the sea of people, but I couldn’t bring myself look out there and said, “Um, I think I’ll just look at you instead.” I thought it would be easier to think of me just telling a story to ONE person, like two people in a cafe, rather than the whole country.
The rest was a blur, but I did vaguely hear through the rush of blood in my ears the muffled sound of laughter from light years away, and I did remember the one thing I made sure I said to close the story.
If you want to hear the “In Over Your Head” stories, stay tuned to Definitely Not The Opera this Saturday, March 3. You can always hear it later on the podcast soon after that, too.
The rest of these photos below were taken with my cameraphone. I tried to shoot a video of a random guy from the audience volunteering to try balut (don’t click unless you have a strong stomach!), but my Android stopped recording partway! Oh no! So I just have some pictures instead and one minute of video.
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.
I uploaded a short clip I shot on Saturday with my phone, but it’s only 45 seconds of play that took place mostly at the other end of the field. To show you more of the game I’ve embedded Saturday’s highlights reel from NLL (National Lacrosse League) below so you can see the speed.
I’d never seen lacrosse before, and it wasn’t one of the sports I’d learned how to referee in my Grade 12 PhysEd class (we focused on the major ones), which meant I had to figure out the rules of play by watching it. I could’ve read up on the rules beforehand and used it as reference, but instead I went to the game at the Air Canada Centre with a fellow photographer, Pete, who also had never seen a lacrosse match, and we compared it to the sports we knew.
As far as similarities, at first lacrosse seemed the closest to hockey — there was even a penalty box — but with a 30-second clock, to me that was more like basketball (which has a 24-second clock). It reminded me a lot of playing floor hockey (I only played floor because my skating wasn’t good enough for ice hockey).
I had to look up the rules today, because even watching an entire match required a fair amount of guesswork as to how to play it properly.
One thing I noticed immediately about watching lacrosse is the sheer speed of the game. Compared to all other sports I’ve seen live, whether team or individual sports including tennis, basketball, hockey, rugby, cricket, baseball, gridiron, soccer, and whatever else, lacrosse has the least stoppage of play. The field may not be as big as a soccer pitch, but the players are running constantly, the plays are long, and the whistle is not blown nearly as often. There was some frustrated pushing but no out-and-out brawls, and it doesn’t appear that fighting is encouraged (unlike hockey).
I was pretty fascinated by the way the players wield their lacrosse sticks, using a twisting motion to keep the ball from dropping or bouncing out. They catch and run with the balls in the basket at the end of the stick, and the passing techniques are impressive. Even as a viewer, it takes some adjustment to track a higher field of play compared to hockey, where the puck is sliding around the ice and the sticks are kept to ice level and players are looking down a lot. In lacrosse, the sticks are high, the ball is thrown and tossed high, and the players have their heads up all the time.
Pete was impressed, too. In the first half of the game he compared the playing style to that of a three-dimensional hockey game where the object of play (a ball, in this case) has another dimension to travel through rather than just at a single, low level.
I doubt lacrosse will ever break through commercially as a Major League, but if you appreciate athleticism in all its forms, you will enjoy watching what these players do.
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.
