senatorhung's pad
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
my first backstage pass
permalink Thursday, 12APR2007:got to the toonik tyme northern band nite around 8:30 (about half an hour late) only to find that they had a full house and weren't letting anyone else in until some audience members left (shades of the legion lineup ??). i sat and pestered the volunteer bouncers, but they wouldn't budge, especially after the fire marshal walked in to take a tour. i contented myself with hob-nobbing with the other line-holders and commiserated with those who didn't feel like waiting and went on their way.
however, while i had been delayed by the rehearsals for the return engagement of '52 pickup', i refused to miss any more of the action and when claude showed up, we looked at each other and the still unmoved lineup and mutually decided to mosey on around back and scope out the situation from there. claude had assisted with hoisting the backdrop for the toonik tyme stage for the opening ceremonies held the nite before and i had co-ordinated the lighting with andrew and eric. since some of the performers at the cadet hall were the same ones who had played at the AWG, we just chatted them up and went in with them after they finished their smoke break. success !
so claude and i hung around backstage until the throngs in the audience began to dissipate and we could slide into some open seats. donovan and jamal were playing when we got in, but we had already missed taqraliq partridge's performance. she had done a neat spoking word set at the AWG arena, but that crowd was just not ready for that kind of expression and half of the audience cleared out while she performed. obviously the northern band nite crowd was much more open-minded. after D+J, sylvia and celina did a bit of throat-singing, followed by the road to nowhere band (including my daytime job supervisor) who played some songs from errol's cd.
next up was the tim evic band from pangnirtung who played a country-rock flavoured set that was great. the slaves made their first appearance in years and their wall of sound hard rock was accompanied by drum dancers matthew and siobhan.
the northern ramblers did their set next and got the place hopping. they even played my fave song 'baby bye bye' from their new cd / dvd 'jump the gate'. closing off the nite was the eskies from iglulik. all-in-all, a concert very much worth sneaking into!
next up will be 2 nites of the play '52 pickup' at l'école trois soliels where i'll be working the sound cues from vinnie's laptop while patrick operates the lighting board, then to the museum's table at the toonik tyme craft fair on saturday (morning !) and then back to the AWG arena on sunday for the closing ceremonies. boy, will i need a break when this is all over ...
winning or losing is just a matter of time ...
permalink Monday, 30APR2007:unlike most of the movie-going population, the movie i'm most looking forward to this coming weekend is not 'spidey' (tho i do want to see it), but rather 'lucky you'. so it goes. obviously the fact that the movie's been sitting on the shelf for 2 years is a bad sign and opening up against the marvel behemoth is a hulk-sized shrug that indicates that the studio has given up on the film. however, given my own card-playing inclinations (and my fondness for drew), i think it still has some potential to entertain.
another big plus is the fact that the 2 songs featured in the trailer (bruce springsteen's 'lucky town' and john hiatt's 'have a little faith in me') are both golden nuggets that i had somehow missed during my record-store haunting days. needless to say, my audio rips from the youtube vids won't suffice for long and my next amazon.ca purchase will remedy this glaring gap in my collection. i do have 1 john hiatt cd, but the whole 'born in the usa' hype machine had turned me off of springsteen, despite my recall of listening intently to 'darkness on the edge of town' on a library-borrowed cassette in a teenage funk).
my post-toonik tyme schedule has now cleared up a bit thanks to the end of this year's tax season and the completion of my final CVITP volunteer shift. however, i didn't manage to get my *own* taxes done in time for tonight's midnight deadline, but since i'm getting a refund, mailing my envelope a couple days late shouldn't cause any problems.
another event that took a chunk out of my dayplanner was the city's decision to axe their solid waste management sub-committee. we had only had a single meeting under this new council's mandate, but we had been enthusiastic about the level of passion and technical savvy supplied by the new committee members. sadly, the city staff was not enamoured with the possibility of being held too accountable for their sometimes questionable engineering decisions and decided to nip this potential thorn in their side before it sunk too deep. since the agenda's now moved from the technical realm to the political, i'll have to step back from active involvement so as to avoid any conflict with my day job.
speaking of which, i'll be going out of town later this week to attend the CALL conference in ottawa, so i also decided to take a one-month hiatus from my cfrt radio show so that i can return to the booth fully refreshed. alas, my absense may mean that i'll miss out on the may 4th ticket sales for the white stripes concert that will be at the AWG arena on june 27th. hmm, maybe i can sneak in again as a tech ?
a raucous crowd of broomballers (and a few who haven't been converted yet) gathered at chez jane / kerry on friday evening to celebrate this year's successful season. JFB, as reigning drama queen, came tiara'ed; john attempted to allay his on-ice bruiser profile by dressing up in a suit for the occasion; the 'asian invasion' team of julian and myself fended off all challengers at the foozball table; jillian joined us by phone from her quebec city hotel room; and then we handed out a few awards !
2006-2007 IQALUIT BROOMBALL AWARDS:
best shot blocking: - daniel, garyp, gord, john, kerry, kevin, markt > runner-up: MARKT > WINNER: GARYP 'beckham' award (for finest display of soccer skills on ice): - alastair, erin, etienne, gord, john, jokeypah, julian, kevin, steve > runner-up: KEVIN > WINNER: JOHN hardest shot award: - chrisw, JFra, JFB, kerry, markt > WINNER: KERRY (by a landslide) 'northern standard time' award (for consistently tardy arrival to games): - chrisd, christianl, garyp, kevin, markt, willy > runners-up (tied): CHRISD, CHRISTIANL > WINNER: KEVIN goaltender of the year: - curtis, daniel, gavinw, kevin > runner-up: DANIEL > WINNER: KEVIN best center-line player: - chrisd, jacques, JFra, JFB, john, marco, markt, yoan > runner-ups (tied): JFB, MARCO > WINNER: JACQUES (by only 1 more vote) playmaker of the year (for sweet passing): - chrisd, gavinn, jacques, JFra, JFB, marco, mark, yoan > runner-up: MARKT > WINNER: MARCO (by a single vote) 'don cherry talkshow' award (for mouthiness on ice): - chrisw, cindy, etienne, garyp, jacques, JFB, jillian, kevin > WINNERS (tied): JFB, JILLIAN sharp-shooter of the year: - jacques, JFra, JFB, kerry, markt, steve, yoan > WINNER: JFRA (by a landslide) most improved player of the year: - curtis, emily, erin, etienne, gord, jillian, john, julian, susan > runner-up: JILLIAN > WINNER: EMILY 'drama queen' award (for being a drama queen): - christiank, JFB, jillian, john, markt > runner-up: MARKT > WINNER: JFB for the 3d consecutive year ! (was a tense see-saw contest until a surge on the final day of voting) 'i'm too hung over to play today' award: - JFra, JFB, kevin, > runner-up: JFRA > WINNER: KEVIN (by more than double the votes) notorious bruiser award (for goon-like tendencies): - chrisd, christiank, curtis, dan, JFB, jillian, john, markt, travis > runner-up: CHRISD > WINNER: JOHN defensive player of the year: - cindy, emily, etienne, garyp, gavinn, jacques, john, markt, siobhan > runner-up: JACQUES > WINNER: GARY cherry-picker of the year (for uncanny awareness of future ball placements): - cindy, emily, jacques, JFra, JFB, markt, megan, yoan > runners-up (tied): JFRA, JFB > WINNER: YOAN (with 4x the votes of the runners-up) most sportsmanlike award: - christianl, cindy, dan, daniel, emily, erin, etienne, garyp, gavinw, jane, jokeypah, markt, martha, megan, sarah, sheila, siobhan, susan, tracy > WINNERS (tied): ERIN, ETIENNE, MARTHA (3-way tie) 'ben johnson' award (for the suspiciously fleet of foot): - alastair, curtis, emily, gavinn, JFra, JFB, kerry, marco, steve, yoan > runner-up: EMILY > WINNER: JFRA offensive player of the year: - JFra, JFB, julian, kerry, markt, yoan > runner-up: MARKT > WINNER: JFRA 'vince carter' award (for most injury-prone player): - dan, JFB, kerry > WINNER: KERRY (almost unaminously)
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