Healthy Competition for the Easily Excitable.

When I was growing up, I was more of a tomboy than an artsy girl. My how times change...

I always participated in sports, but sadly (and not shockingly) the teams I was a part of never did well. I am a huge fan of reminiscing, so here are a few examples:

- My high school basketball team once lost to another school by over a hundred points. Our team only had 4 points, so that was a thing.

-One time my basketball team was losing so badly that the coach asked me to fake an injury because he knew I wanted to be an actor. I jumped up to catch a rebound and "fell down". Guys, it was awful. I didn't really hurt myself, but it was convincing, and everyone was concerned, but I was LYING. To this day I don't really know why our coach wanted me to do that, but oh that GUILT carries with me...

-I was taking a test for my Tae Kwon Do red belt and I almost kicked someone in the teeth. Instead, I threw out my knee, subsequently making me have knee surgery at the tender age of 16 and not get the red belt I had worked so hard for.

-I once threw a bat at someone on my co-ed baseball team because he mentioned that baseball was a good sport for me because I was overweight and anyone who plays baseball is out of shape. Needless to say, I was removed from the team. (Side note: I DO NOT like Baseball now... some things you just can't let go)
  

I guess you could say that I have drifted away from my competitive sports-related past, but I have definitely kept some of those qualities. I am still kind of a competitive person at heart, but I also have  developed a very short attention span over the years, allowing me to not really care about winning or losing. I do remember one time I have won first place in something...

 If you look verrrry closely, it actually does say "First Place"

When I was in high school, I was a shot-putter. Yep, that was what I did. I tossed very heavy balls around. I went to my first (and last) city-wide track and field event at the University of Manitoba, where I awaited to be called for my turn to participate. I waited and waited, and finally they called for the senior female shot-putters. MY TIME TO SHINE. I strutted over to the part of the field, and checked in with the official. I looked around, and saw that no one else was walking over. As it turned out, there were NO OTHER SHOT-PUTTERS in my category. Not one other person in Winnipeg was going to compete against me. The official felt bad, and I was pretty upset. By default, they ended up giving me the First Place ribbon.

Yep. I got First Place. By default.

Yep.

I still have the ribbon. It is on my aptly titled "board of life laughs" by my desk in my apartment, alongside numerous letters of rejection for bank loans, letters from financial institutions with the heading WITHOUT PREJUDICE as well as passive aggressive "good luck" cards from old employers after I had told them I was quitting to work in the arts. It's a great lil' board. Always makes me laugh.

The reason why I've been doing a lot of looking back on my awards/medals (or lack thereof) lately is because I have recently been nominated for an Edmonton Music Award in the "Artist to Watch" category. This is nothing in comparison to the Shot-Put debacle of 1999, as I know there are some really great artists in my category that I am alongside. I always hate when you hear Oscar-nominated actors say "It's just an honour to be nominated", but I actually have to say that it is just an honour to be nominated. Even if I don't win I will still be so proud of myself and everyone who has been nominated (although I have heard that the award you receive is actually a bottle of wine, so COME ON. That award was MADE for me).

The fun part of the award that I am nominated for is that it is decided by public votes. That means that YOU (yes, you) can vote to see me win! And heck, if it turns out I win a bottle of wine, I'll try my best to share it with y'all (no promises though...).

If you are interested in voting for me, please visit:

https://yeglive.ca/ema-2013-public-ballot

While you are there, you can also vote for "People's Choice", and I highly recommend voting for my good friends, Collective West. They are super rad and deserve this award. Thanks all!



Until next time I want to recount all my competitive failures,

The girl who may actually win something....one day.


*As an aside, I just want to make it known that even though I am nominated for the "Artist to Watch" award, that doesn't mean you should start creepily watching me (in other words: stalking). If you have been stalking me for a while, keep up the good work! I haven't noticed you...yet.*

Tales from the land of tour-planning: From fear to stress to happiness to wine in one night.

Here comes the news of the day: 

This one-woman show is taking it to the streets. (And no, I am not homeless again...)

In case I haven't told you (or in case you haven't been inundated with the onslaught of personal info I have been tossing around) I am releasing my debut EP Our Glory in May (May 4th to be exact - YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!) and I am planning a Western Canadian tour to support that (don't worry my east-of-Edmonton friends, I will trek out east in JUNE!). This will be the first time I have planned, and ventured out on a tour all by my lonesome, and I have to say: it's been such an amazing experience so far. And I haven't even hit the pavement yet!

In the past 2 weeks, I have sent approximately 50 emails to various live music venues, house concert groups, and just about anyone who will allow me to email them about playing in their garage/shack/veranda/Bavarian-inspired guest house/pet store/bowling alleys/ANYWHERE while in BC. I have come to terms with the fact that many (read: most) emails are not being responded to. It can be a little bit of an ego-bruise to me (just like all the letters I send out to all of my suitors. ALL those letters. To ALL those suitors...) But you know what, heck, I understand. Live music venues are like the popular kids in the room (let me finish-I think I am onto something with this metaphor...), whereas I (as a musician and a person) am the weirdo child picking my nose lying on a pile of similarly odd children all picking their noses in different and unique ways. Now those popular kids have to choose from a pile of snotty kids which ones they will spend their recess with each day, and I can assume that it is not an easy choice at all. (Metaphor achieved!)

                                           

What it comes down to is that there are only so many ways you can say "Hey! I'm an awesome human being and a great musician! Please oh for the love of all that is holy in the world hire me!" Before you have a bit of a mental episode.

I have been saying all that for 2 weeks now.

Commence mental episode (or would it be considered a mental series...?).

It actually isn't that bad. I have only been a bit more mental than usual, which is already on the going-mental side of things. I think I am doing a-okay.

And to be honest, all hope is not lost in the land of tour planning; I have gotten some bites! It is amazing. Who knew that an unknown-on the music scene lass like myself would get some responses! I am seriously super excited and shocked and happy, all at the same time (I know, it's weird). There are so many of us out there, plugging away at writing good songs, playing shows and doing the business of all that is musical, and here I am getting gigs in a province I have never played in. Yes, I have been working super duper hard at this, and I can see the work I do coming around and proving itself to me. Still, it  makes me take step back everyday and realize how lucky I am.

It's funny. The feeling I feel every time I go to write an email to a venue, or check my email, or look up new places to play, I feel like I am in the honeymoon stage of a relationship. You know that point at the beginning of a relationship (or in movies, the whole relationship) how excited you feel when you see that they've called you, or when you plan to see them, et cetera... (the closest I've gotten to that is when my cats pay attention to me because they want food). When I am working on my tour,  I get that funny feeling in my stomach that is nerves and excitement and joy all barreled up into one. It is such a wonderful feeling. I understand (just like all relationships) there will be a lot of work to do, but I am ready for it. I have been waiting to do this for a long time, and now it's happening. I couldn't be more happy.


Until the next time I can take a break from tour planning,

The girl who is going places-literally.

Once you leave home, you can never go back...well you can, you just have to be half in the bag.

Happy belated E-weekend (Easter weekend)!  

Happy belated E-day (Earth Day)! 

And Happy almost E-day (Election day)!

This past weekend I decided to take a trip to my hometown Winnipeg, Manitoba. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I LOVE flying. (Is it because of the feeling of freedom you get from flying above the world for a few hours? Maybe.  Is it the idea of however much you drink before and during your flight being amplified ten-fold and you being able to get away with anything because (similarly to the idea of “international- water”) you are in international water-air?  YES.  YES IT IS.)  So in keeping with the theme of the weekend (the theme being drinking wine and going mental...) I am writing this blog on the airplane while drinking some lovely red table wine.  Let’s see how this goes...

Glass number 1:

Going home for me is always the best gong-show of my life.  Somehow it seems that because I am only home for a short period of time I end up seeing my family at their craziest (which is an almost deadly amount for most, not for me though!).  There will be wine, food, laughs, gross jokes, awkward moments (this usually follows the wine...) where family secrets get exposed (my cousin has a baby?!?  HA!  YEAH!  SECRETS!)

This time was no different.  I told members of my extended family all of the hilarious attempts my mom has made to get me to “find a man who can support you and your crazy artistic ways” ... I shall only give one example, and it was the introduction to my life with my mother:

I was 16.  My mother asked me to go with her to a social (don’t know what a social is?  If you don’t, YOU HAVEN’T LIVED.  Also, it is just a big party at a community hall where people drink and eat chips and dance and bid on silent auction prizes an drink and drink.  And usually the money made from that goes towards a wedding or something lame)

Glass number 2:

Shall we get this out of the way now?  When I was 16, I looked an awful lot like a soccer mom (more so than I do now, if you can believe that).  I didn’t have a heck-load of friends, and I LOVED school.  I was a complete loser, some would say (“Look at me now” Is what I would scream to them, then I would hold up a picture of my cats and wipe the tears from my face)

At this social was a bunch of my mother’s co-workers.  And I had a few drinks (I won’t lie, I started early with my love for wine.  AND LOOK WHERE I AM NOW!)  And I was a dancing FREAK.  People must’ve thought that my mom’s best friend (ie. ME) was just a partying superfreak.  And I was.  Then the slow song came on (I’ll never forget it, The Beatles “Let It Be”) and a lovely man asked me to dance.  

WHAT?!?

Here I am, the girl who is 16 years old, never kissed a boy, a girl who was certain she would marry a wrestler from the WWF (Rowdy Roddy Piper or Brett Hart to be exact) about to dance with a grown man.  

THIS IS MY ONE SHOT AT LOVE.  DON’T BLOW IT, WALKER.

So I dance with this guy, and after that song is done is THE LAST SONG OF THE NIGHT.

WHAT?!?

Glass numbwr 3:: 

(IT’s getting hardder to type.  With the planes, and the drinks.  Just saying...)

What happens after this song is over? (The song, by the way was Journey’s “Open Arms”.  A classic love song.) As the song ended, the lovely man says to me,

“I’d love to see you again; could I ask you on a date?”

And to which I reply, “You’d have to ask my mom” 

As I point to my mother, standing proudly, watching her daughter “fall in love”.

That lovely man had all the colour drain from his face.

He was so close to statutorily dating me it was scary.  

Later did I realize that my mother told him he should ask me to dance, without adding I was (a) her daughter or (b) a minor.  Neither of this fazed good ol’ mommy.  THIS is just one awesome example of the stories weshare at in opportune times with my famil.y.  

Neddleless to say, it was a fun time.

Glass numbe r4: 

...

Glass n 5:

Sorrry bout htat.. I was looking out the wind ow that last glass.  I wish I could tell time by glas;ses of wines.  “It’s four glasses of wines passt noon”  That is now my official my catchhgphrase.  

I thmnk I ned a a nap.

I reaslly lorve you guysm.  Yous know that, right?!

Whrees’ the baarf bag?  Jusst incase..

I hsould go now.  Did I mention I loves you gutys? 

Sincerely from 3000000000 fett up in the aiir (sr somethings like that) ,

Someonw who should not be drunk flying/bloggin./living//