first fringe, then bluesfest then bed.

The Ottawa Fringe Festival Has come and gone.

In a nutshell, The festival was wonderful, with new, innovative ideas and organization and adventure happening everywhere.

Myself, I didn't have the best Fringe. Not because of the fringe itself, i loved the people and meeting old friends again and awesome dance parties in the beer tent. This year, the lottery factor of the Fringe got the worst of me and I saw more bad shows than good. Well, there were only a few REALLY terrible ones (we all know what they are/were) but I found that there was nothing realy amazing or anything that really caught my attention, or moved me or spoke to me. It seemed quite repetitive and lackluster. Mind you, I did miss a lot of great shows due to work and NXNE schedules clashing, so I'm a bit one sided (and frustrated by it too!) but I guess this was not my year for Fringe.

Oh well. NEXT YEAR!!

Bluesfest is happening now, with shows such as Flaming Lips, Dana Fuchs, Woodhands, Rush, Swell Season, Arcade Fire, and Sarah Harmer flooding our streets with music. This weekend wraps up the festival, closing up with Foghat and Weezer. I'm so excited to see this show, however, at the same time, I'm really excited for Bluesfest to be over. My schedule this summer has borderline festival'd me OUT!! I'M EXHAUSTED!!!

Monday, post-pinkerton, I plan on sleeping in, drinking tea and regaining my bearings again. I'll need them, especially since I'm moving in just over a month to Toronto.

...without a job (yet).
...or an apartment (yet).
...or a roommate (yet).*

*please note my blind optimism. It's there I swear!!!

I think I'm going to catch some sleep while I can. I have another blog post in my head, but my head is feeling smooshy. Yes, smooshy. Deal with it.


-janeovision

update of sorts...blog mashup, twitter style.

Once again, I have fallen off the Blogging wagon. oddly enough, while I've been procrastinating, I've been contemplating starting a new blog with specific rants focusing on one topic. However, I think I should work on managing one blog at a time. If you can't do one thing, two can't be any better.

I'll keep this short, note the things that have happened in the past month in twitter-style: 140 characters or less. I tweet far better than I blog anyways, so why not combine the two! This post will have a bit of everything, cover all my bases of the past month and ideally get me back on track with this damn thing!! Okay, here we go:

UPDATE:

Tattoo: I have one! Paper cranes and black ravens up my ribcage. Yes it hurt. A bit. I love it. No, mum, the birdcage is not crooked.

Scooter: I'm driving it now! It's awesome and was such a pain to get on the road, but $$ and stress later and I'm scootin'!

Julie Doiron and co.: Cute 4-piece band which name i forget. cute and mellow. one guy stood like an old man. In a cute way.

Plants and Animals: AMAZING CONCERT! New album rules and they put on a great show. Openers for them were lame.

London: I went for a weekend (no, the other one). Bad start, good ending. Saw family and friends, but some things never change.

Toronto: I'm the girl who cried it. But this time it sticks or I lose my mind for good. I have roommate prospects!!

Wooden Sky: Saw them at Cafe Nostalgica just in time for the encore. I'm still in love with you guys, shoe scuffs and all.

Roommate: Have a new one. Last one pulled a "Mr. Big" and moved out sneaky style. Left a note. New one has promise.

NXNE: I'm volunteering! I'm either running the retail tents or the merch/artist tent. ICOULD MEET IGGY POP!!


Okay i think that's the worst of it. One day I'll be able to do this properly. Maybe even non-twitter style.

Until then.

-janeovision

Musical Adventures: Diamond Rings and Woodhands

Last week I whet my whistle with the coming of the summer music festival by watching Diamond Rings and Woodhands at Mavericks.

When Diamond first came on stage, I was very skeptical. He was wearing zebra leggings tucked into black tube socks, with an oversized leather jacket and more makeup than I've worn in a week. (although, I was impressed, his lines and blending was nice and clean) Once he started playing, I wasn't immediately swayed either. He had his Itunes open to his songs and accomanying it with either a keyboard or guitar. Once in a while he did both.

It threw me off for sure. His outfit was wild and his music was peppy, but his voice was so deep and somber. It was an interesting contrast. Think Magnetic Fields meet the Cure. After a few songs and a LOT of skepticism, he grew on me. This solo artist slowly dragged you into his moody-poppy hipsterlicious music. I even realized that I knew one of his songs as he came up to perform his encore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6IUKa25e80

I'm still not sure if I'm a fan. This song is alright and seems to be enjoying its 15 minutes of fame, but I'm doubting any staying power. I can't even look at him without giggling at how ridiculous he looks.

My heart and my ears were saved once Woodhands came on. I've been a fan for the past year now and to finally see them in concert was making me do a happy dance to the dance music. And that's a lot of dancin'!

They played the old and even tossed a couple new songs in, including the recent single, "CP24". The audience was feeling all of it, eating up every stroke off the keytar and the beats of the broken snare drum (occupational hazard, I suppose).

I'd have to say the best part was the remixes of old songs like Biz Markies "Just a Friend" and Cory Hart's "I Wear my Sunglasses at Night" in with their own tunes. This created an extra vibe and pour-out of energy from the crowd, singing along to the awesomeness.

I'll try to add my videos later, but my words are failing me at the awesomeness. Obviously I'm not much of a writer, but let's just say it kicked ass and Woodhands and I are getting married. We confirmed it on twitter and everything. So there.

Hoping it just gets better from here.

-janeovision

my summer vacation

Yes i know, no postings. whatever. I had a life to live.

So i promised myself that i would complete my summer theme, that being the summer of music.

SHOWS SEEN:
The Love Machine
Coeur de Pirate
Bluesfest:

• OLP
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Ludacris
• Balconies
• Girltalk
• Kiss
• STP
• Broken Social Scene
• Amos the Transparent
• Arkells
• Lief Vollebek
• Beast
• Ben Harper
• Divine Brown
• Iron and Wine
• Hollerado
• Basia Bulat
• Land of Talk
• Metric
• Punch Brother
• Black keys
• The National
• Zombies
• Styx
  

Passion Pit
The Wooden Sky (with band hangouts afterwards!)
Fleet Foxes
Hotshotcasino
Osheaga:

Coldplay
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Lykki Li
The Roots
Arctic Monkeys
Rufus Wainwright
Decemberists

Jason Mraz


And so on... there were more but I can't remember.

Summer Success!

now I'm back to the grind, back to work and back to reality...ish.

Also went to Costa Rica, but that's another post. I'll catch you all up, don't worry.

-janeovision

kiss me, one more time...

Got to be a kiss roadie for a day...



Pushed around heavy shit
Played with pyrotechnics
Hung out with roadies
Spent the day being showered with compliments (it's as if they'd never seen girls before!)
Had some fun with roadies
Oh, did I mention the Pyrotechnics?

A good day, but owowow my body owowow.

-janeovision

jobs can be cool...

so tomorrow...

I go and load out and set up for Kiss.
I go and watch Kiss.
I teardown Kiss.

oh life, you entertain me sometimes.

-janeovision

this one's a doozie...of the concert persuasion.

and I rant again.

***Please be warned, I'm especially annoyed this time, so I'm going to swear. A lot. Actually, whenever I rant, I tend to turn into a sailor. Nothing held back. From this blog in, you've been warned.***

So Bluesfest is on right now in Ottawa. Concerts everywhere you turn, with almost anyone you can think of playing.

Metric.
Ani DiFranco.
Mother Mother
Kiss.
Joe Cocker.
Ludacris.
Broken Social Scene.
Basia Bulat.
Divine Brown.

Let's just say, Bluesfest has their bases covered this year.

SO! I've, of course been going to these concerts and the second I step into the crowds, my urge to punch, punt, and pulverize those around me rises dramatically. It seems that the people of Ottawa do not seem to understand the concept of CONCERT ETIQUETTE!

1. If you are near the front of the stage, you are standing. At outdoor shows, lawn chairs do not belong within the first 10-15 yards of the stage. Unless its mid afternoon and no one is around, it's just silly. concerts are for standing up close, dancing and experiencing the music. If you don't want to stand, then grab your chair and go to the back. The music sounds just as good, you can see the light show great from there, and, you're probably saving yourself from permanent hearing loss like us keeners in the front.


2. If you so choose to stand in the front with us keeners, participate. Once again the music is there to be experienced. That can mean dancing, swaying, humming or singing along (but not too loud, we're not here to see you), clapping and so on. The audience is there not only to enjoy the show, but also to feed energy to the performer.

Shiny happy audience=shiny happy performer

They feed off of our energy. This gives them more energy, producing a more exciting and fun show for all!
However...
If you stand beside me while I'm dancing/swaying/humming like a big boob giving me the stink eye because I'm in you 'personal space' , you are not helping. You are being a big lump bringing me and everyone else down because you're too 'cool' to express your emotion towards the music. I don't care if you're a lovelorn emo pre-teen with so many problems that I 'just wouldn't understand' or a middle aged fart whose conservative background makes them believe to stand still and quiet so not to disrupt anything. This is a concert. It's not your ap history class and it's not your living room with your 2.5 children and dog named muffin. Go to the back with chairs McGee and brood somewhere else. I have a concert to enjoy.


3. Don't bring your 8-year-old to the front of the stage when the concert is loud, bouncy music and everyone is jumping around and pushing eachother. She is too young, and you are traumatizing her now so she'll never enjoy concerts when she's big enough to fend for herself. I know you bought a ticket for both of you - and good for you for introducing your child to different musics at such a young age - but please gowhere you're both safe. You're not doing anyone any good.


4. Respect the space of the front of the dance/moshpit. Some people have camped there for a while to get that spot and are working hard to keep it to enjoy the show. Little turds that squeeze from the very back and push and shove and HURT people so they can get what they want. Just watch the crowd and see how people move. Usually you can get up there eventually, just be patient. And enjoy the show! It sounds just as good everywhere else. Ask chairs Mcgee in the back! Oh, and don't push to the front so that you're crushing people. Us in the front know what we got ourselves into when we put ourselves up there, that we were gonna get bumped around and will probably be bruised and sore in exchange for our coveted spot. but don't be THAT douche behind us just because you didn't get there.


5. Respect the violence that is the front of the stage. It's loud, crowded, dangerous and can be painful (especially with crowd surfers coming over your head). We're all in this together, so take care of eachother. And then help me beat the shit out of that one guy/girl that is being a douche.


That all being said, here's my rant:

To the bleach-blonde tramp and her fat hipster in the vest:

FUCK YOU!

You are rude, ugly people who were there just to hurt those around you and be obnoxious little twats. You were crushing people, hurting people, pissing EVERYONE off with your disregard for everyone around you. How dare you swear at ME when your punching me, crushing me and my friends, and putting those around you in danger. We fought for the spots we got and for you to be the shits that you are and try to push us back gives me more reason to pummel little hipster wannabes like you. And don't try to call me fat when I'm pushing you off of my friend who is suffocating on the barricades. First of all, stop acting like a 4-year-old, because, seriously, I don't give two shits what you think of me. Second, don't punch my ass to try to make me move or to make some sort of point. I have enough ass on both of you that I'm not even gonna feel it and it makes you look pathetic. My ass was able to overpower BOTH of you, so suck on it. I'm glad you both got on stage, because then I didn't have to deal with you.

To the girl - You're a dumb bitch who has to have some SE-RI-OUS daddy issues to want to be on stage that bad. I'm sorry you never got the pony, or the polly pocket for Christmas, or that your daddy didn't care about you and mom was to busy drowning her emotions in a bottle. I hope you enjoyed those 15 minutes, but they'll never fill the daddy-issue void. Next time you're on a stage, fall off. We'll appreciate that more than you flashing your gross crotch to 10,000 people. Go back to your corner downtown and save up for a better dye job. I'm done with you.

To the guy - You are a pathetic asshole who cuts everyone else around him down to make up for his own emotional scarring. I'm sorry that you were 'that kid' in school, but grow up and out. Your in need for some deep therapy and a good cry, because obviously you can't seem to handle your life so you try to destroy those around you to make up for it. You were hurting girls half your size (but, really, weren't they all at MOST, have your size, cuddles?) and were so selfish in your actions. Go choke. I'm done with you.

Thank you for getting on stage and out of our way. We appreciate you being as far away from us as possible, seriously. Now, let us enjoy the concert while you get the dick out of your teeth. You're wasting our time.

Rant ended.

***From here on in, I won't bring this topic up again. This is a venting system for me. Now that i've said it, I can go and see the good in people again and move on. Like I said the other day, 'see the good, or drown in your own hate'. I've vented, and now I can see.***


Ahh. I feel better now.

Next post will hopefully be more positive.

I'm seeing Basia Bulat tonight.
Win!

-janeovision

concert chat #1: plants and animals

dear plants and animals,

let's make out like the cafe alt couple. all.the.time.

you make me dance and sing and smile.
i approve to the highest level.

heart
janeovision