I would guess that this video has been posted thousands of times before on blogs everywhere. It hasn't been posted on mine yet, so here it is, and IF, on the off chance you have not seen this video yet, well, yay. Good thing you are here. Please take a moment to join the 73 million other people who have seen this on You Tube.
When I watch this video, I seriously don't know whether to laugh or to cry for the little guy, he is one of the most adorable little beansprouts I have ever seen, this is easily one of my top favorite videos on You Tube. Enjoy.....
I can't even write the words I was uttering to myself this morning as I shovelled my car out once again, with my ridiculous little child's size shovel. Consider this a lesson learned, finally. After all, aren't I too old and too tall to play with kids toys? My back is killing me and I seriously need my back. I really must learn to be more practical , and I should stop being so drawn to cute things.
Anyway, that's not the reason I am writing today, it just couldn't be ignored that it was a very stupid decision to buy a child's shovel that's all.
So, back to story, I was shovelling my driveway (with the equivalent of a barbie shovel in hand) when I noticed someone needed help with a car out in the culde sac. Of course I ran right over to assist and was greeted by name, I thought about how this has become a regular thing in the culde sac, this little rescue maneuver, because there is so much snow that it is difficult reach our driveways. Its like a club now, I think everyone has had to be rescued at least once. I have needed four assists in or out of the snow zone, they were all given with a smile.
This whole winter snowstorm may have had its downfalls, but it certainly has brought our little culde sac community together in a nifty way, and that's my silver lining for the day.
EDIT, see photo evidence of the moment in which I recognized the value of owning a child sized snow shovel. I take back everything I said about myself earlier, I am a genius.
I am getting quite excited because early this year we will see the results of two projects that I worked on last fall.
Project ONE: is that I will have a song included on a compilation CD release for a website called Stupid Cancer. You see I wrote a song last year, shortly after losing my father to a cancer. I was originally inspired to write the song, after seeing interview of Melissa Etheridge. I admired her so greatly, everything she said about life, love, and learning, made perfect sense to me, and because she went through it, she made me think about what women must feel and endure, and so I began to write a song about a moment in the doctors office when a woman is told she has breast cancer.
One day, in the middle of writing the song, through a moment of tears and brutal realization, it dawned on me that I was using the feelings surrounding the loss of my father to draw from. When that realization hit, some part of me knew, at that moment, that this song would be a part of something very helpful to people with cancer. I did not know at the time, that the song would one day be connected with one of Time Magazines top 50 websites of 2007. Oh Yeah, if you wish to hear the recorded song, it will play when you go to this page on my website:
This video, is the original rough draft of the song, which I posted on You Tube
The other exciting project is a documentary that will be shown on W network. It is a reality documentary called Keeping it Real, which examines the use of non-invasive, non surgical procedures for women that wish to battle aging, but who don't wish to undergo surgery. The audition notes had said they were looking for women with strong stories. So I sent in an audition, I have a pretty strong story, and I had just done a laser technique on my skin, and filmed and posted it on You Tube. So I included a link to the video with my little audition blurb about my busy crazy life. Its a pretty funny video actually, and the film company thought so too, so they chose me to be one of the subjects of the documentary.
It was quite a lot of fun to do this show, the people from Insight films are so super cool and nice, and very positive and complimentary, it was impossible not to feel comfortable. The film crew followed me around while I had some consultations and they filmed me while I had some laser and botox ( which I hated in the end ) done. And of course they needed a back story so they filmed me while I played with my kids, recorded a song, rehearsed at home, and they even shot some footage of me with my band at the casino.
I must say, I am so clever for doing this, because now I will have some professionally shot footage of me with my band that I can use to promote myself and get gigs. I am in no position to pay for this kind of promo, so this was a very synchronistic connection to make. I also included my pal Kelly Brock in the casino shoot. My band and I are a cover band, with only a couple of originals that they play with me. The same band however, has played originals with Kelly, so seeing as I know her background vocals, and the band knows her tunes, I invited her to share the filming gig with me. That way she could get some great footage of her own original material, to use herself, and at the same time, the show, would have more music to choose from which is a little more easily licensed.
Well thats all I have to say about that really, I am just getting excited. Its nice to see the results of past work. Of course I am already onto the next little bunch of projects, I have two demos to learn and sing for people over the next few days, as well as 3 new songs for my casino gig, and a number of different videos to shoot and edit. I will be collaborating with the Vancouver Film School on a video for my breast cancer song, so I will have to find time to do that when the school year starts up again. I have no idea what to expect there, but its going to be a great project, and should be good cross promting opportunity, considering the song will be released on the Stupid Cancer CD. I also have been asked to give an interview about being a female singer in Vancouver, to Rebecca Bollwitt of Miss 604 fame, so thats very very exciting, I admire the lady and look forward to meeting her.
So, busy months ahead, I don't know how often I am going to be able to post, but now that I have started this little blog, I will certainly try to keep it updated.
Erica Ehm, one of the original VJs on Much Music, now runs a highly successful website called the Yummy Mummy Club. Last fall, I was mentioned in Erica Ehms Blog.
This year I had the great pleasure of meeting a local recording artist, performer, singer named Kelly Brock. I knew who she was from the radio, I had heard nothing but great things about her over the years from industry friends, I had seen her perform live a couple of times, and I even competed against her in the finals of a province wide vocal competition back in 94, but I never had the to opportunity to really meet her, until this summer when I performed background vocals for her set on the mainstage at the Merrit Mountain Music festival.
Kelly is just one of the nicest girls ever, and we clicked right away. She like myself, is just one of those girls that prefers to be nice to others, and is genuinely happy to see other people succeed. She knew I was looking for more corporate work, and the day after we returned home from Merrit, she called me up and asked if I could sub for her for her band gig the next day. THE NEXT DAY? I had not even met her band, though they are one of Vancouver s top corporate bands, I had no idea even what their set list was like or anything. Kelly assured me that it would be a breeze, and promised she would not have asked if she didn't think I could do it.
So, the next day I went. I literally met the band 10 minutes before going onstage. We got a game plan, picked some songs ( they have been playing together for 20 years, it turns out they know everything), and I walked onstage with them. Depending on the line up there are at least 3-5 singers in the band so we all took turns which made the gig pressure free. When it wasn't my turn to sing, I followed Sarah Johns, who is the other gorgeous gal in the band, found the missing harmony part and added it to the mix. I had such a great time that day, and have been added to the call list, and worked with them again.
Since then, Kelly and I meet up occassionally, when time and family allows, and because I have a video camera, a You Tube channel, and wanted to do some filming/editing of someone else for a change, I decided to try out my idea for an ALL ACCESS PASS channel, which is meant to promote other artists and interesting people. So my plan, is to go film my friends in the industry doing their thing! If I am lucky I can get Kelly to help me with some of the videos, which willl add a great dynamic to the project.
This video is from the rehearsals, and backstage for the BCCMA country music awards show where Kelly was singing and doing background vocals.
The thing about Christmas, is this, I, like plenty of other Moms, went to a bit of trouble to get exactly what my young children were wishing for this year.
Just imagine this please, it is only a few days after Christmas, I have invited a little school friend of my son's, to come for a sleepover. I have been watching them playing and I feel as if I have been somewhat duped over the importance of presents at Christmas. They don't care about the toys. I would like to share with you, what the most popular play item, so far this year is.
scroll down for pics......
keep going....
this may or may not surprise you......
you'll see what I mean in a second.....
I promise........................................
They easily spent a full 45 minutes creating costumes out of plastic grocery bags. I was just wondering by the way, is this considered recycling at all? Because I could always use some extra recycling karma.
I worked last night, at a lovely Dine and Dance style restaurant called Howies Bistro. The room has tables on two levels, surrounding a large dance floor and stage. It is clear that this place caters to dancers. I was thrilled to find they already had a PA set up, which means I didn't have to haul equipment and gear around in my high heels. ( its the small things in life that really make me happy). The decor is sleek and modern, the colors, black, red and white. I had someone take a picture of me because I matched the decor so well.
The venue was sold out, people from the local dance school came in a large group, so the dancing began with the first song and did not end until the last. I love watching couples dance while I play, especially if it is ballroom dancing, I am so impressed with the moves and fluidity of some couples. It completely entertains me as I perform, and this crowd was very entertaining, it was a great night.
The food they served was divine, I had the seafood medley, which was a plate of lobster, crab, prawns and scallops. The garlic butter what to die for. I hope that those couples who were on a date, BOTH chose the seafood and garlic butter, lol, it was powerful! The plate was enormous, I could barely get through half of it.
At the end of the night, as I could not believe my eyes as I opened the door and walked outside into a flurry of snowfall. Good grief, are we KIDDING here? I had a long way to drive home, on slippery roads, and there were several potentially treacherous hills to get over between where I was and home. It did require a great deal of planning to avoid all the stop lights that are situated at hills. Starting on a hill from a standstill, would have been impossible for my vehicle seeing as its so crappy in the snow even on flat ground, so if I wanted to get home without getting stuck somewhere, I really had to work out my route carefully. It took me twice as long as it normally would have but me, my car, and my gear, made it home safe and sound.
I feel like had JUST fallen asleep when my kids woke me sometime before 7am, asking for breakfast.
