2010 Holidays

Thank goodness it's the end of the semester! Not to say that it was a bad one (well, maybe just one bad class) but I'm extremely happy that it's done. It started off at a decent speed, only to get to that point of not enough hours within the day to complete everything that was needed to be done towards the end. I hope I don't have to go through that again.

That being said, I've met quite a lot of people this year and became close friends with a few others. I was also a teaching assistant for the first years in Sound I this semester and will continue to do so next semester too! I'm so excited! I love this job! I basically get paid to teach the first years the basics about Pro Tools and how to use Edirols, it's fantastic! I didn't think I would enjoy it so much! That and I had such amazing students this semester! They were all super creative and just left me in awe most of the time!

For instance, I had to give a workshop on mashups and remixes with a friend, and within the hour that was left of class, I gave the kids a half hour to create a mashup (with files I gave them of course; all pre-warped and everything) during that time frame. What they came up with for the first time compared to what I was able to do in half an hour when I first started (which was also this semester) was just so impressive despite them only learning that day. They all had great potential! Of course, you're always going to have those few students who are much more advanced than others, and their works will always be a bit more impressive, but either way, with this particular workshop, they just all blew me away. I was so proud of them!

Here is the mashup I collaborated on and used as an example for that workshop:

Instrumental used:
1. Rihanna - Only Girl (In the World)

Acapellas used:
1. Britney Spears - Circus
2. Rihanna - Disturbia

I had also made another mash-mix during the semester before this workshop (and it was my first one actually) for a class assignment. Yeah, an assignment :P one of the main reasons why I love my program! Anyways, I'll post that one up another time.

As for the holidays this year, I plan on catching up with all of the TV series I missed this semester due to school work, catch up on sleep, see friends and family, go out with friends, create more mashups, work and snowboard. It's all about balance :) but I'm hoping to do all of the above! Especially snowboarding and doing more mashups. They are seriously, super addictive. I can't stop.

Anyways, wishing everyone the best holidays this year and for good things to come for the new year!

Till then,
Cheers!
C.

Summer 2010 Events

I am so sad to say that summer is coming to an end... what a summer this has been! It has been, probably, the most eventful one in a while! It feels like just yesterday that I was finishing up my last project and handing in my Sound II portfolio! I had started taking better care of my health and body by going to the gym with my best friend, then work started up and I had a blast taking care of kids and helping them discover their creativity and talents that they knew not of. It was hard saying goodbye to them all last Friday, and much harder to part ways from the staff that I had grown so close to throughout this summer! But who's to say that I'll never see these amazing individuals again. I wish them all the best with their endeavours and challenges to come (hopefully with less challenges).


Besides the casual get togethers with some pals throughout the summer, my main excitement were the following;


1. Trying out Montreal's very own Candi Bar
2. Going on a fantastic cruise with my family
3. Heading up to St. Sauveur with some of the gals
4. Seeing the Backstreet Boys with Shawn Desman and Dan Talevski
5. Having a hell of a time with another close friend of mine seeing Green Day and A.F.I.


Montreal's Candi Bar

Need I say more? These were the kinds of drinks that they served. Although I'll admit that they were quite pricy... they were definitely worth it. For 11$ you get 2oz of what ever alcohol comes in the drink, the rest is just slush and a tiny treat. Sufficient to say that it satisfied my ring pop craving. With only two drinks that night, I can honestly say that one was enough. I could barely get through the second one. It was just way too sweet. So if you have a huge sweet tooth, this is definitely the place to check out (unless you're diabetic then I highly recommend you don't come here at all).


A great evening of fun with two of my best girlfriends! They are like my adoptive family. Not even adopted. I consider them sisters to me :) Great fun, great music too! We were rather excited (pre-drinks) when they started playing the Presets' "Girl and the Sea"... fun playlist and cute venue.

Carnival Miracle cruise with the family 2010

What fun this family vacation has been! We've never been on a cruise before, so this was extremely exciting for all of us! This photo that you see was taken at Grand Turk (Caicos and Turks). The cruise went along the Eastern Caribbean and what a sight it was. I have never seen water so blue. It has definitely changed how I look at water here back at home... even though some of our lakes can be rather clean (more up north) it's just not the same. But pretty salty. Very salty.

So this is the boat we boarded on... absolutely beautiful with so many different activities to do each day and night! There were two elegant nights where we had to dress more formal, shows in a nice theatre called the "Phantom" every night with excellent performers! I do hope that I can join them one day. Preferably as part of the stage dancers, but sound tech doesn't sound too bad either. Besides the point. The view on the ship was beautiful when it came to sunsets... I could only imagine how beautiful it was for the sunrises. Although I added a bit of photoshop to this one to give it a bigger contrast, here's a photo from one of the sunsets I took to give you an idea.

Alright, having some technical difficulty with the text and this image right now... but isn't that something? I don't know where we've been the past few years and how we could skip out on something like this. But if there's anything that I've learnt while being on this trip, besides being eternally grateful for being able to experience something like this with my family, is that everyone should have this experience (whether with family or friends) at least once. It's one that you'll never regret! Unless you have a phobia of water and being at sea... then maybe not. We had spent four days at sea and three days exploring Grand Turk (Caicos and Turks), Half Moon Cay and Nassau (Bahamas). All islands that everyone should see and visit. Well, for Half Moon Cay you'd have to take a Carnival cruise line since it's owned by the line itself. But an experience worth trying! Saw a few couples taking their honeymoon on this cruise too (they were actually married the day we all boarded)!

St. Sauveur with three of my chicas

Can't say that this trip on it's own was boring at all! What great times we had!! We started our morning off with a dip in the wave pool, daaaamn it was cold :S but that certainly got the blood pumping to keep us warm as we explored the entire water park! I've never used this much sun screen though, we even polished off one of the bottles :S and yet we still burned.

The rides were just different adventures on their own! Ironically, on our first ride, Cassy was worried about being left behind with Tara. So Cat and I had told the two to go on first and have us following them just in case we did lose one of them. Here's where the irony kicks in... Cassy ended up getting to the bottom first and Cat ended up getting lost behind. Gave us a good giggle while walking to our next ride; the Colorado. It's literally two people on a raft going down man-made rapids. Tara and I had so much fun despite the water feeling like it was way below zero! Then at one point, our laughter both ended at the same time because we both ended up getting a huge mouthful of water. We honestly panicked a little because we were trying to breath... but seeing as more water kept coming in, and the water being cold so it tightened the lungs... let's just say we're glad to have been able to catch some clean fresh air.

Backstreet Boys ft. Shawn Desman and Dan Talevski

For some reason, I can't get this text to go along the sides of these photos anymore... it's really starting to bug me right now. Anyways, this was a much more pleasant concert than I had anticipated! Not only did my sister enjoy the show (it was her first real concert), but it had brought back memories for me that I had so long forgotten.

The boys had played more of their older tunes rather than their latest ones, which had the entire full stadium fall in love with them all over again. More mature than they were ten years ago, my love for the BSB has definitely rekindled. They had played "the One" off their Millenium album, which in my opinion was one of my favourite songs and should have been on their Greatest Hits album. Definitely a concert that I will remember for a while! They even had Shawn Desman open up for them and he had also played a lot of familiar tunes that we all had loved as kids. I'll admit that I didn't know about Dan Talevski (and still don't) except for the fact that Howie D. manages him. He seemed okay... not exactly the same genre that I know and love, but he has potential.

And last, but not the least...

Green Day ft. A.F.I.

Nothing can describe the pure happiness I was feeling that evening... that was, until I realized how close I'd be standing near the band as they sang out my favourite songs from every single album they've released! That's right. There's no zoom on this photo! I was two people away from Billie Joe Armstrong that night! I can't even begin to express what kind of concert it was that night! You really had to be there to believe it!

Many people didn't agree with the 21st Century Breakdown album, and I'll admit that in the beginning, I was not completely happy with it either. Some of their songs had riffs and chords from tunes in American Idiot and their last song "See the Light" sounds like a song from the 80s! But over time, I grew to like then love this album as much as I loved any other of their works. Obviously it's not the same as Dookie, Insomnia, or Nimrod... but at the same time, they were able to create an entire album as a soundtrack to fit the lifestyles of two characters. No one but these three geniuses can pull that off.

So for me, this was definitely the concert of the century :) and I cannot WAIT to see them again!

Cheers,

C.

Sérénade mélancolique - Tchaikovsky

I'm very proud to present one of the recordings I had submitted for my portfolio for this semester's Sound II class. Although it was originally composed by Tchaikovsky, I was fortunate to have my colleague and friend Grégor Monlun play this for me. It has his own style and personality to it which I think is great!

Recorded and edited by myself in production and post-production. And nope, it was originally recorded in a tiny recording studio, but made it so that it sounds like it's been done in a concert hall :) all to say, this was definitely my best product since the only feedback written from my prof and T.A. were, "This was well recorded, it gave me the chills!"... my other pieces are still in post-post production (trying to work on them with the new feedback) and will be posted up shortly.

Cheers,

C.

End of the Semester... Done!

It has been the longest 13 weeks of school I have ever gone through during my entire two years (so far) at Concordia! I started off this semester, pumped and ready to take on the entire world :) now I'm ready to hit the hay and hibernate for the next two weeks. Well, I'll be ready when I submit my Sound II portfolio completed haha! Waiting to hear back from the department to see if I got accepted into Sound III. Man, I worked so hard to get into the Communication Studies program only to realize that I have to reapply into a specific field every year? I love it! Seriously! It helps keep the motivation up with pushing these practices past our 150% :)

In hindsight, taking four core classes (one being a practical one where the lab time exceeded the hours in a day) and one elective wasn't the brightest of ideas. At the beginning of the semester, it was all fine and dandy keeping up with readings, reviews, assignments, small projects. But when it came to midterm season (which was - in our department - within the first 4 weeks) everything seemed a disaster. Things then just spiralled downwards as profs started putting more and more onto our plates and sometimes made me wonder if they forgot that their class wasn't the only ones we were taking... but then again, it was all foreseen within our class syllabus. So I guess I had it coming. That and I should have realized that it would've only gotten worse seeing as I took more classes than I should have.

Classes taken this semester;

Mondays: Specializing topics in Recording pt. II and Media & Gender

Tuesdays: spent most of my day in the studio

Wednesday: Psychology of Communication

Thursday: Sound II

Friday: Studies in Documentary

All were excellent profs and classes! Although I'm sad to say that we, as a program, are losing two great profs after this semester. I won't mention any names due to pure respect for their privacy, but all I can say is that it has been an honour studying their specific fields of interest with them. I would have recommended them to other friends soon joining the program, but for now all I can do is wish them the best for the upcoming future and know that which ever university hires them, they will have done themselves a great service and are extremely lucky to have such dedicated staff. Dad says it's more political than just keeping profs due to their evaluation... but doesn't that have some part in deciding to renew their contracts?

En tout cas, for the end of this semester I had decided to collaborate a final project using animation... all to say, I haven't touched Adobe Flash since last year and am rather surprised with the outcome! (You'll notice it in the vid. below)

This past week was a chaotic nightmare! With the semester coming to an official end, here's what had to be done. Now let me clarify one thing, I started doing these two essays weeks in advance, but there were numerous subject changes along with a ridiculous amount of proofreading that had to be done.

Monday: last final in my "Intro" to Recording class, instantly followed up with a 12-15 paged case study on the roles of gender within the use of televised media (TV series, documentaries, movies, and films) specifically paying close attention to the Aileen: the Life and Death of a Serial Killer case.

Tuesday: Friday schedule - 10 paged paper for my Studies in Documentary class

Wednesday: Psychology of Communication final project due (this is where the animations come in to play) where my classmate and good friend (her name being confidential as well) did our final project on Jean Piaget's theory of how the child's mind works. Needless to say, it was a long process. I'm not exactly proud of the vocal recordings done seeing as we both had much more experience within our respective fields than that... but with everything being due and this project proving itself to be a little bit more complicated to put together, we're still happy that it's done and of its outcome. Props to the best classmate and friend in the world for agreeing to have a head start on this project while I was swamped with other papers to do :(

Finally, I've got this portfolio to submit which has its own complications within itself that I'd rather not talk about. It's just frustrating and makes me realize that when it comes to practical projects, I much rather work on my own. But on the fun half of all this, I experienced my first photoshoot with portraiture as a photographer and am quite happy with the outcome! Well, after I've adjusted the lighting in the photo... hey! Don't look at me like that! I'm sure you've done the same (for all you photographers who just tsked me haha)!! First time guys, cut me some slack :P

So that's pretty much it for now... hopefully you'll enjoy the upcoming animations and the photos taken... feel free to criticize! But for the respect and copyrights of these individuals, do not copy and distribute without permission from myself or these models, thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Good luck to all those still in finals and school!

Cheers,

C.

Vancouver 2010 - Winter Olympics

Oh. My. God.

This winter's Olympics down in Vancouver were something else! I have never been so proud in my entire life to be Canadian. Not only did we achieve in getting 26 medals total, but we also received the highest amount of gold medals (14) to ever be won on home ground! That is truly inspiring and surely bonded the nation together as a whole through one major event.

The athletes who participated did amazingly during the games! The majority of them showed absolute sportsmanship, while others... well... I know it must be disappointing to not get the rank you felt you deserved, but seriously, some of them really surprised me.

My absolute favourite moments of the entire two and a half weeks of pure fun and absolute stress:

1. Alexandre Bilodeau: The first Canadian to win a gold medal on our own home soil! His performance was spectacular, but his story was even better! Doing what he does best for his brother, now that is inspiring in many ways. To be able to have such a close connection with a sibling or any other family relative and make them your central point of motivation... amazing.

If we could have photos in our dictionaries, Bilodeau would be an excellent definition of "the most loving brother" :)

2. Shaun White: I don't really care that he's American or the fact that he was sponsored by Red Bull and had his own half pipe made out in the hills of Colorado. He wasn't always this "rich and famous" (forgive my terrible pun).

For those who didn't know, White grew up in a childhood that wasn't always as easy going as most of ours were. As children, we took our lifestyles for granted where White couldn't. But being supported by the best family he had, he was able to build up a career around skateboarding and snowboarding! He worked his hard off to get to where he is now, and for that, I admire his constant motivation to keep practicing what he does best and defending his title with gold. I read a comment on another network where someone actually had the nerve to say that Shaun didn't deserve gold simply because he had his own half pipe to practice on and was sponsored by a huge company.

Are you serious? That's like being signed up for a swimming competition and not knowing how to swim. What do you think all those athletes did before the Olympics? Lounged around? Wow, the obliviousness. "He shouldn't get the gold because he had his own half pipe to practice on"... well I don't see you getting up on a snowboard and making a name for yourself. Let's hope for a three-peat when Sochi rolls around.

3. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir: Now if Canada wasn't already proud of our athletes, these two definitely just blew Canada's mind away!

What a graceful and absolutely phenomenal program!! I have never seen two people skate so comfortably and confidently! If these two were nervous, well guess what, none of us saw it! I guess it helps when you've been skating together for over 13 years, but still. I have never been so mesmerized by such a performance! I was so happy to see that these two had won the gold because to be honest, I didn't see how any other couple could top what these two had done! The best part was that they even left the commentators speechless! Now if that doesn't say something on it's own, well, then we've truly lost all perception of art with this particular sport.

4. Sidney Crosby - Canada's Men's Hockey (Canada vs. USA): "And it's 3:2! Crosby just scored Canada a GOLD!" CROSBY! CROSBY! CROSBY! Officially Canada's hero of the entire game :) Although I think it was a joint effort on the entire team and I believe the entire team (and Canadian athletes) should be considered heros. But, because Crosby was able to get that puck to slip past Miller during OT, well, he just went national.

That's a lot to take in from someone who was born and raised in Nova Scotia. Starting off small and joining the junior hockey team in Montreal, being shipped off to the States and then representing Canada... to only then become the nation's favourite player. That is one hell of a lot to take in. In fact, it's a lot to take in for all our athletes and the athletes world wide! But, props go out to Luuuuuoooooooooooo :P what would we have done without him?

Although the only thing I didn't enjoy from the outcome of this game (which btw gave me a heart attack and nearly made me pass out at the same time) was how we have some Canadians making photos poking fun at the States. Seriously? That is ridiculously immature and beyond low! The States played a fantastic game too! Yes they may have beaten us the Sunday before but that is absolutely disgusting! Ryan Miller is an exceptional goalie and was given MVP! So cut the crap because what these photos are doing is only hurting Canadians by giving us the exact title of complete assholes!

5. And last, but not the least... Joannie Rochette: Nothing can express what the world feels for her. Her programs were absolutely phenomenal and she did them so gracefully despite the current situation she was in. RIP Mme. Rochette, my heart goes out to Joannie and her entire family.

Given the title of model/athlete idol was not enough to even come close to describing the strength and motivation she had to continue in these games. Although she was still on the podium receiving her bronze medal, I think it's safe to say that everyone thought she deserved gold. I wish her all the best for her upcoming dreams and competitions, and pray for her family and herself included to stay strong through these tough times.

Needless to say, she kept the entire nation on edge yet the entire nation kept her motivated and will continue to support her :)

I believe.

Cheers,

C.

Welcoming the New Year

Firstly, happy new year! All the best for the upcoming years to come :)

With that long absence in mind, the reason for not posting anything in the last two months was simply because I was enjoying the rest of the fall season (in my opinion, the best season of the year! And not because it's my birthday) by just enjoying it as it was. Sure, the weather was a little more gloomy this year, but the smell of it was just... well... crisp. Clean. Refreshing.

Okay so that sounds odd, but for those who enjoy the autumn season know exactly what I mean. I think. You wake up to a crisp morning, go throughout the day without worrying about the heat of summer, the cold and snow of the winter, or the consistent wetness of spring. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all the seasons... I just prefer autumn :P

Plus, I was working on a pre-demo for a colleague of mine so that he may pitch it to another producer. All the best to him! So with enjoying the outdoors, pumpkin carvings and days in the studio... it's been a productive semester. During the last week of this past semester, there were a ton of things going on; two ten paged (min) papers to write, two finals, one project (although fairly simple), and one 4-5 minute interview to conduct (sounds extremely easy, but when your interviewee talks enough and everything is rather fascinating... it's hard to bring down an hours worth of conversation down to 5 minutes). With that pre-demo to top it off (as much of an amazing experience it was), things got slightly stressful. But I guess that's what years and years of schooling is for, to prepare us to be able to do what we study to do in a lesser amount of time. Lesser? Is that even a word?

Needless-to-say, that was the best final week of school work so far since I was extremely fortunate enough to work with two phenomenal artists and meet another personal favourite one of mine. The two artists I worked with (one being my colleague)... nothing can describe their talent! Alexandre Éthier, founder of a group named "Forestare" and talented classical guitarist - with whom I work with - and Alexandre Désilets, a phenomenal vocalist and one of my personal favourite french artists. I thought I was going to go into some complete idiotic spasm when I found out that I would be working with the two of them. In the end, the piece turned out wonderfully (although I do wish we had more time to work on certain things) and I don't regret a single moment working with the two of them.

With this in mind, I was starting off to a great week. Two weeks or so prior, I had submitted my name for a contest to a private concert that I knew for a fact that I would not win due to the musician's large fan base and to the fact that I had no such luck. It just doesn't exist in my life's index.

I was wrong.

Two weeks after submission, the day before the concert, I had received an email saying that I had won a ticket for myself and a friend (optional) along with a few other tokens. At the time, I thought I was going to have a heart attack in the school's computer lab. Let's just say I looked like an idiot grinning and mentally... um... squealing. If life were to be a cartoon, the people around me would have heard the squeals. I have had the biggest "high school crush" on this guy since, well, since high school and knowing that I was going to finally meet him the following night was extremely exciting. As for the name, maybe I'll share that some other time ;)

In result to these two events, I had completely opposite expectations. For the first event with the two Alexandres, working with them and meeting Mr. Désilets only led me to having a deeper respect for the both of them. Where as with the private concert, don't get me wrong, I still enjoy his music and what he does, but to put it simply; I can now put that high school crush I had on him in a box, store it somewhere in the back of my mind and move on. Is this a good thing? Yes, I believe it is. Would I have changed my mind? No, not at all. Who do I thank for such luck? My grandmother and grandfather for watching over me up in Heaven and making sure I didn't do anything stupid.

Anyways, I thought I would share another personal photo of mine which I had taken while I was in Hong Kong for the first time this past summer. The experience was marvellous, the food was absolutely delicious, and the shopping was overwhelming. Best part of it all was spending time with family I have not seen since I was 8 years old.

Next destination: the UK, Germany, and Ireland.

Destination after that: LA and Las Vegas.

When?: whenever I've managed to save up enough money to do so :)

In conclusion, may this year bring many more opportunities such as these!

Cheers,

C.