Shortly after arriving in Vancouver, I saw someone Tweet that the Barenaked Ladies were busking on Robson Street, so I strolled on down. Sure enough, right on the corner of Robson and Burrard was a massive group of people and music playing. I only got to listen to a few minutes worth of music, but the crowd was definitely into it.
Here’s a shot of the bass player, Jim Creeggan, that I snapped shortly after the show was over:
...
I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 18 years old. My first guitar was actually (believe it or not) a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. It was basically my high school present from my mom in exchange for graduating and getting myself to UBC. Unfortunately, I really couldn’t afford an amplifier at the time, so I basically just practiced on it ampless for the first few years. Eventually I managed to save some cash and bought a Fender Princeton 112 amplifier, which I still have (although it’s been at my friend’s house for a few years now — something I’ve been trying hard to remedy ...
To be honest, I haven’t really spent much money on my home theatre setup in about seven years or so. But for a while there, I was into fairly decent home audio equipment. That’s not to say I don’t do the odd update from time to time, because I do: last year I purchased a HD-DVD player, and more recently an Apple TV, the former of which was a rather poor investment (although it performs quite well as a basic upsampling DVD player).
My current home setup consists of the following. In terms of speakers, I’ve never been big on home theatre, and have always tried to have my system focus more ...
I was going through some of my old videos tonight, and realized I have a pile that I haven’t uploaded yet. Here’s one of Feist singing 1234 at the BC Festival 150 in Victoria.
[easyvideo video=”http://blip.tv/play/AcnFUAA”] ...
It should come as no surprise that photoshop is a much better tool that iPhoto. iPhoto is a free package that ships with Tiger and Leopard, and allows you to do quick adjustments to your photos. While obviously not marketed towards a high-end market, it’s easy to use and is a fairly decent tool to have a in your photography arsenal.
Unfortunately, sometime around Leopard, my iPhoto experience seemed to get a lot worse. I never really figured out exactly what happened, but there was a clean point in time where I felt iPhoto started really underperforming.
The other day at the BC Festival 150 ...
Blog traffic is pretty low, even by weekend standards. So I can only assume that everyone’s out enjoying the long weekend. I’ll keep this post short for now.
We all had a rather crappy sleep last night, so we’re a bit tired. We went down to the main stage early in the morning and managed to catch a few artists doing sound check. Here’s a quick shot of Sarah McLachlan.
Here’s a quick video I took of sound check. It’s not finished converting yet, but head over and take a look. ...
Arieanna and I spent this afternoon walking around the festivities. Today is basically the warm up for tomorrow, so it was rather relaxed. We spent time bouncing between beer gardens and the second stage, the latter of which had various talent performing throughout the day.
Ianiv took the ferry this afternoon, and will be getting here shortly. Arieanna and I sweet-talked our way onto the fireworks barge later, so we’ll have press access for that as well. I haven’t really taken photos since the Junos, so today was a good warm up day for me. Here are a few shots I took:
Also, here’s a ...
Update – Hotwire came through for me again. We’re going to be staying at the Magnolia Luxury Boutique Hotel right in Inner Harbour. So exciting.
The other day Arieanna contacted me via Twitter and asked if I wanted a photo pass for the festivities this weekend in Victoria. Since I haven’t been to Victoria in a few years, I thought it might be a good opportunity to sample some island beer and take some photos.
Sometimes photo passes just let you get your camera in the door, and aren’t really anything special. However, Arieanna just got confirmation that our passes include access to the ...
At this time tomorrow, I’ll be bouncing around Calgary trying to get my media pass before the press conference at noon. Which means I get to spend most of tonight getting my camera gear ready and packing some clothes.
Photo from Russell Peter’s WebsiteMy flight is at 7am in the morning, and I hope to have a few minutes in the airport relaxing with a coffee and an eggs benedict. I’m pretty excited about going to the Junos, and really have no idea what to expect. Russell Peters will be at the press conference tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll get to chat with him a bit — I’m a big fan of some ...
It’s getting close. In just nine days, I’ll be getting on a plane and heading out to Calgary to attend the 2008 Juno awards. I haven’t really had time to let the whole event soak in yet, and to be honest, probably won’t figure out where I’ll be all weekend until I land in Calgary. What I really want to do is provide an insider’s view of what it’s like being at the Junos during the entire weekend. I’m not sure what that means yet, but it will most likely involve tons of photos and the odd video.
To that end, I really want to go out and buy a new portable camera, something that can ...
When the Juno awards were announced a few months ago, I put my name on the list for media accreditation. I didn’t hear anything for a while, so I sort of assumed it wasn’t going through.
Today I got an email saying I had a media pass, which means I have full access to photograph the Canadian Juno Awards. I’ll be photographing and writing on behalf of Urban Vancouver, so look on my blog and over there from time to time for photos and a few entries.
I still have to sort everything out and see if I can get a hotel room and what not, but it’s fairly likely I’ll be heading to Calgary for ...
John and I made it. I was pounding back caffeine most of the way which meant I had to pee a lot, but we’re at the Holiday Inn now (yes, very classy I know), having a liquid dinner in the hotel.
We’ll be heading down to the Tractor Tavern in about 90 minutes to catch the show. I’m charging the camera now, so hopefully I’ll grab a few shots.
Also, just checked the official website. The only musician to have a sell-out at the Tractor Travern this month:
...
I accidentally ran into this song the other day on my iPod (yes, I have lots of music I haven’t heard before on my iPod), and there’s something about it I really liked. I’ve been working on playing it myself, and I’m pretty close. It’s rather hard (for me) to pick this song and try singing at the same time, but I’m getting better. In the video the other guy is doing most of the guitar work.
Check it out. It’s an acoustic version they recorded at MTV. ...
So it’s weird. When I was about 19 years old, I picked up my first guitar, which at the time was a Fender Strat electric. Surprisingly, I didn’t really know how to play, but it was something I was always interested in doing so my mom surprised me and picked me up a guitar.
I spent the next few years pissing my roommates off by walking around my dorm room playing Green Day and whatever else was popular at the time. When I hit the age of about 25, I sort of just gave music up completely, probably because I didn’t really have much time and I wasn’t really making much progress.
About two ...
So, I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but whatever. I’ve been messing in garage band for about six months now, wanting to record something but just not sure what to record. I used to be in choir over 20 years ago, and I can sort of carry a tune. I know I need to have a ton of practice to get anywhere close to where I used to be as a kid (and most of my practice was pre-puberty, so I have to re-learn a deeper voice), but I decided to get over the hump and just quickly record something and take my beats for it.
When I was out in Toronto visiting everyone, Raymi pointed me at this song ...
A few weeks ago I went down to the Bell Mobility store and asked how much longer I was shackled to their service. Unfortunately, it’s on the order of two more years, which means I really can’t get a iPhone and switch to Rogers (although, I’m still not sure that’s a great option either).
So tonight, while talking to Jason, he was telling me about his recent iPod Touch purchase. It’s basically the same as the iPhone, except it doesn’t have a camera or obviously a phone. But the user-interface is roughly the same, and it has Wi-Fi, so you can surf the web wherever you are.
The first ...
In the last couple days, I’ve read several reports of people discovering embedded user data in the new DRM-free versions of music on iTunes.
While I’m not suprised, having embedded user data within these files is essentially a form of Digital Rights Management, which at the very least points to false advertising by Apple regarding these new music files. I’m quite certain that a utility will exist shortly to strip it out, should people want to, but Apple is being very guarded about these files and exactly just how DRM-free they really are.
I personally have no problem with my user data being ...
I’ve had an iPod now for probably at least two years. On my birthday, Des picked me up one of those iPod Minis back when they first came out. And as I sit here, on my couch, patiently waiting for it to charge enough so it will make the rainy walk to work, I thought I’d reflect a bit on the iPod.
Since I usually walk wherever I go downtown, I pretty much take the iPod with me when I can. I’m sure I’m going to be part of that generation that goes prematurely deaf since I’m somehow genetically inclined to listen to my iPod on max or near-max volume all the time. In fact, if it could go ...