Day 4: DIY, telling fortunes, mackarel and Myles of awards

After a late Saturday night, including baking french fries at 5 am with the crew, I overslept and missed the Industry Awards ceremony. Boo, but with the busy day ahead, I was glad for the extra sleep.

My media accreditation this year has kept me much busier than usual, so I hadn't yet taken in any of the seminars geared at teaching artists about the industry. That all changed around 1 pm on Sunday as I checked out the DIY seminar. Someday, I hope they'll ask me to serve on one of these panels! :)


I also took in another seminar entitled 'Music Managers Forum' (MMF), which was quite informative. Panel members included:
* Louis Thomas of Sonic, who manages Great Big Sea and others.
* Brookes Diamond, who managed Rita MacNeil and others.
* Millie Millgate of Australasian Performing Right Association.
* Jordan Verzar of Top Shelf, based in Australia.

Afterwards, I chatted with Millie about Maya Jupiter leaving her post as host of Australia's most renown hip-hop radio show and moving to California to pursue her rap career. We also told me about the beef in the Australian scene between rappers who try to sound american instead of using their Australian accent.

I also chatted with Jordan Verzar about his interest in original sounds, particularly instrumental. When I mentioned Ryan Leblanc, Jordan agreed Ryan was the most impressive act he'd seen all weekend.

I'd worked up a good appetite, so I wandered West street, stopping at Jade Garden for my first real eat-out meal of the trip. The chinese food, particularly the rice after 4 days of potato, was refreshing. However, the fortunate cookie stated: "When in doubt, follow your heart." This struck a cord with me, as lately I've been struggling to figure out what my heart is saying. It feels as though my heart is pulling me in 3 separate and equally passionate directions: software developer / performing artist / marketer & promoter. But there aren't enough hours in each day to pursue all three to the degree of my drive. It can be very frustrating to have no choice but to pass up some amazing opportunities due to lack of time.


After the meal, I returned back to the pad. Clutch felt bad for eating the last of my hot dogs, so he offered to cook up some of the mackarel given to us by the owners of the Hillside Haven Housekeeping Suite. We had to google cooking instructions, but it turned out amazingly delicious!

As I finished the mackarel, I realized I was already late for the awards ceremony, so I made it up to the Pepsi Centre as quickly as possible.

As I walked into the media area, I ran into new acquaintance and all-round good guy Josh Hogan holding an ECMA award.

For the past two years Josh lobbied for the creation of the new "Loud Recording of the Year" category. So it was fitting he got to accept on behalf of the first ever winners, Moncton's Iron Giant.


Immediately afterward, another all-round good guy, Hotbox won the ECMA for Rap/Hip-Hop Single Track Recording of the Year. Unfortunately, as a full-time teacher, he couldn't make the ceremony. That marks 2 years in a row the rap winner hasn't been there to accept the award.

David Myles won folk recording of the year. Swift as ever, he made a funny joke after the presenter of the previous award for the "Konica Minolta Male Solo Recording of the Year" announced that "Konica Minolta" had won the award... haha. The actual winner was Matt Anderson.


I was surprised when Radio Radio took to stage on the televised portion of the gala awards show. This Moncton Acadian rap group spit their lively jacuzzi rap. Afterward I spoke with one of the members and mentioned how I'd heard their name, but that was the first time I had seen them perform. They weren't surprised, since they rarely perform outside of Quebec and France.


After the gala awards show, it took the convincing charm of Super Dude extraordinaire, Don Levandier, and his St. Andrews/Corner Brook friend Maria, to convince me to sacrifice more sleep and attend the Post awards party. Albeit brief, it was definitely worth it.

I had a great chat with Chad Hatcher about hip-hop, Classified and life. I finally met the 2009 Female Solo Recording Artist of the Year, Jill Barber for the first time, as we'd agreed to exchange CDs a few weeks back. As a side note, she graduated high school with my brother's fiance.

I talked with Murielle Savoie about the change in name of NB's arts funding program from NB Sound Initiatives (NBSI) to Music Industry Development (MID). I had another great chat with Ed Ward of the Milwaukee Irish Festival.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I cut in line in front of Pink Thunder when I was going to buy fries. Whoever, the trio of young ladies were, I felt bad, so I let them go ahead of me.

Finally, I ran into David Myles explaining to Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Radio One's 'Q' how he caught a mackarel this big (see pic below) over the weekend in Corner Brook. No, not really. :)


Now all that's left is a little bit of sleep, and keeping up my hopes that tomorrow's freezing rain doesn't hinder my return trip to Ottawa.