Spring in Toronto (PTX, Cherry Blossoms & Doors Open Toronto)

Well, not being in school is pretty fantastic.  Spring has just "sprung" in the most bipolar way possible (34 degrees yesterday and 9 today...what the heck is going on), and already I've had the chance to do loads of fun things in the city.  

A couple months ago, I saw Pentatonix in concert again!  Last year it was at the Danforth Music Hall which was probably the best venue for an acapella group.  This year it was the Sound Academy which ironically has the lamest sound possible.  But anyways, Pentatonix....I used to watch the Sing Off on TV & on Youtube where I first discovered Pentatonix (before they became a viral sensation); so yep.  We lined up about 2 hours before the doors opened, because vertically challenged individuals have to do things like that if they want to see anything at a standing concert.  Ah well, I can confidently say it was 100% worth it!  

View from the Sound Academy

Then in April, the Cherry Blossoms erupted causing the entire city to gather in High Park.  Obviously I decide to go for the first time after I've moved far away from Bloor West...instead of the during 17 years I lived in the Village.  

This month was also Doors Open Toronto, which I've never gone to either.  I happened to be strolling around downtown for other reasons, but figured I might as well check out some buildings.  I ended up visiting the Canada Life Building (observatory), Osgoode Hall, the HOK offices, Knox College and the Coach House Press.  Twas cool....who knew the city had such neat buildings!?  

View from the Canada Life Observatory

-M

Blast from the Past: Newfoundland

So I was looking through some of my old photos, and I was surprised to find some photos I took when I was 14 which don't look half as bad as I would expect them to look. So....here we go, a blast from the past: 
 
Once upon a time, a long long long time ago, my choir, High Park Choirs of Toronto (yes...I'm forever a choir girl) went to St. John's, Newfoundland for a music festival (Festival 500).  It was 2007, and it was my first long-ish trip away from home (apart from summer camp). We had a ridiculously fun couple of weeks meeting choirs from around the world and causing a ruckus at Memorial University.  We were introduced to some amazing adult and children's choirs such as the professional group Anuna and the Australian Children's Chorus (I think the only reason they stand out in my mind was because I couldn't get enough of their accents...).  We sang almost every day attending workshops and performing for the other choirs. 

The trip was great because we had some time to travel around Newfoundland and look at the sights (even though it rained 80% of the trip and I don't think I appreciated it as much as I should have seeing as I was 14/15).  We went whale watching, saw some of the landmarks, and visited a couple of the museums. And no, those aren't penguins...I know, I was disappointed too - I half expected them to break out into song and dance like in Happy Feet but ya....they're Puffins.
 

And there it is, I'm extremely proud of past me for taking scenic photos, rather than just photos of people doing dumb things which is literally the only thing I did from age 15 - 17.   The photos I took from our choir trip to Germany is a perfect example of this & therefore un-bloggable....*sigh*

-M

A Musical Weekend

I wish my life was a musical.  I'd be satisfied just to have my weekend turn into a live musical...but anyways not quite what the title was implying.  This weekend I had the chance to see a small gig downtown, as well as a much larger show at the Rogers Center. 

Winchester Kitchen and Bar was hosting a three day "Folk Festival" which a couple of my awesome friends and I attended on day two.  It was a little bit disappointing at first as the place was pretty empty and the music didn't start until about an hour after advertised.  Nevertheless, I was really only there to see one person, and you can best bet she didn't disappoint whatsoever.  The one and only singer/songwriter Alanna Matty backed by Kel Bhatia played a 45 minute set and had the whole venue in silence (it was pretty loud and rowdy during the previous set).   It was fantastic - I think they're pretty much the only live performers I've seen who sound just as good, if not better, in person.  They performed a number of Alanna's originals (some of them I hadn't heard yet, so that was pretty exciting) as well as some covers.  Unfortunately I keep missing the shows Alanna does with her live band, so hopefully I'll get a chance to see them sometime soon!  I was lucky enough to be around when Alanna wrote her first song "Fly" back when we were....10 or some ridiculously young age so watching her perform now is always really exciting.   I attempted to record/take pictures but my crappy iPod obviously didn't do anything justice.  

We found the most random bridge on the way there

And a random passage way that probably goes to Narnia

My personal opinion: don't bother going for the food, go for the music

You should definitely check out her stuff!

:)

-- 
I also went to the Taylor Swift Concert this weekend at the Rogers Center, and I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (well...mainly I was scared of the screaming teenie boppers, and admittedly they were still pretty frightening).  I'm not much of a Taylor Swift fan myself, but my sister is, so I got her the tickets for Christmas.  We were sitting pretty high in the 500 section on the right side of the stage, but I kinda liked it.  It was neat being able to see how big the venue was, and the screens were more than enough to get the full impact of the show. 

Tswift concert ticket	Full house at the Tswift Concert

The show opened with two artists, the first was a country singer and the second one was a pop singer but skipping towards the exciting part: Ed Sheeran. Oh my goodness....I want to marry that man :P.  Ed Sheeran is an amazing British singer/songwriter & anyone who knows me, knows I'm all about the Brits and anything UK related.  I actually discovered him when his first single was released in the UK, so hearing him live was pretty flipping exciting. He was....abso-frekin-lutely ASTOUNDING. It was beyond words, honestly.  So first of all, Ed is all about music - quality of music, conveying his message and just a bare bone honest performance.  Best of all, Ed is a one man band, he doesn't have any backing tracks or live band with him, instead its just him, his guitar and a loop pedal.  Basically he played all the extra accompaniment for his song, and he recorded it on his loop machine right in front of us.  He continued to add layers including some beatboxing, some drum sounds (hitting his guitar) and some insane guitaring.  He got the audience involved as well getting us to sing harmony with him in some sections, and he encouraged us to sing along and have a good time.  Besides playing some of his singles, he played a couple covers and songs off his album including an 11 minute performance/mashup of "You Need me, I don't Need You" which was super intense. I'm going to stop myself here, because I could fan girl forever, but Ed Sheeran live is something worth seeing! 

Rogers Center

ED SHEERAN!

Taylor Swift was a very very good vocalist and a dramatic performer (in a good way).  I was a bit iffy when she started talking about the colour red, and so on inbetween songs; I mean for people who were interested in why she writes what she writes, what her album is about and such I guess that's great but - I found it a bit corny, and her persona was a little over the top for me.  But as someone familiar with all her albums, watching her perform, and listening to her live, was really fun and enjoyable. Her staging, dancing, performing, props and set really added to the whole effect, and she really is a very good singer. 

 

There were a number of neat costume & set changes through the night - she changes ridiculously fast!

 Overall, this was actually the first concert I went to where all three opening acts were really good.  I also discovered my camera is even crappier than I originally though.  In the end I had a really good evening enjoying some fantastic music.  The fans weren't completely insane like at the One Direction concert I went to last year, but the energy was still electric, which made it really fun to be there.  On top of that, I got to hang out with my cousin and sister who had a blast singing along so all in all: epic weekend.

-M

Pirates of Penzance

Any Gilbert and Sullivan fans around? 

In March 2013 I took part in Vic Chorus' production of The Pirates of Penzance.  For the past four years, the chorus has put together a Gilbert and Sullivan show in commemoration of the fact the Chorus used to be "The Gilbert and Sullivan Society" back in the day.  This year I acted as one of the Co - Producers as well as a last minute Assistant Stage Manager; two roles I never thought I'd ever experience.  It was an incredibly stressful process as I (along with my wonderful partner in crime aka my other half) was forced to deal with one insane crisis after another.  Thankfully it all came together in the end, and it was overall a pretty rewarding experience.  The photos in this post were taken by a couple students from the photography club who came in during our dress rehearsal.  

Most of the actors had been a part of our productions in previous years, so there were many familiar faces in the cast.  At the same time, we had a handful of new members and we were extremely lucky to find our male actors both within the University and outside of the University community. 

For the first time in Vic Chorus history, we had a two night run of the production and it went extremely well with only a couple minor costume malfunctions.

One of the actor's father filmed the entire performance and it's been uploaded onto YouTube.  If you're really bored on a rainy day feel free to check it out! :) -M