The power of a Tweet~! (Part 1)

People who don't use it, wonder what the point of Twitter is. I get asked frequently about it and it's not easy to explain in a nutshell because there are endless applications for something like Twitter. I myself use it as a tool. It is a phone book, a source for personal references, a connector, a reflector, a gig getter, a people mover ...... Twitter can be whatever you make of it.


One week ago I had a Saturday night that was conceived and brought to life entirely through Twitter. My evening started in the afternoon actually at Vancouver's Twestival, a fundraising event which was born online, promoted, through Twitter and held in our city to help raise funds for a local charity, the BC Children's hospital.

These events are held worldwide,Vancouver's Twestival was held at Cieli's Pub and was organized by social media savvy goddess of all things Vancouver, Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss604 (who is also known as @Miss604 on Twitter).

Event organizer Rebecca Bollwitt and Raul Pacheco


It all started with one single Tweet and from that it grew and turned into a social networking success with the venue, gorgeous prizes, live music and comedy, all donated. Tickets were sold for the prizes and entry and in the end, nearly $3000 went to BC Childrens hospital .

This is John Chow, I just love this pic, it has no real relevance to my particular story today, but I had to include it because it made me laugh. BTW. John is a very cool guy totally plugged right into the world of social media. Dial him up sometime.

The above shot is of Rob Cottingham treating us to some comedy!

The ladies all sitting in the front area there are Twitter friends most of whom are Mom's doing some sort of online business. We have all chatted online through Twitter over the last year, and I had sent videos, links etc of my singing, but most had not actually seen me sing live so I was very touched that so many gals showed up to support the event and told me they came to hear me sing. Here is a video link, the only video I have found of me at the #Twestival, it is less than 30 seconds long but it was tweeted out on Twestival's twitter page as well as links to pictures of the event if you wish to see more. :)

I donated some CD's to the prize pot.

My CD cover by the way was designed by Chris Norris and I thank him very much, I will do a better blog post about my CD soon. :) If you are looking for a graphic artist by the way, Chirs is super talented and a really great guy to work with, see his link!

Well there you go, a little glimpse of Vancouver's latest Twestival, and the whole thing started with a single Tweet. The message continued to be passed on all the way up until and throughout the event. Here is a a tweet I found when I got home that night:


So glad the YummyMummyClub Tweetup ladies came to #yvrtwestival - thank you @rachaelpachel @earnestgirl @raspberrykids @sharilyn and more.

And yes there were more of us, and even more after that because right after the Twestival ended a bunch of us gals headed down to Granville Island for a lovely dinner at the Dockside, which was another little tweetup born and raised on Twitter. A Mom's night out with YummyMummy Club founder Erica Ehm.

What is Yummy MummyClub you ask?


Go to the next post for (part 2).......

feelings for sale~ rough draft, rachael chatoor

Song idea came from one of my favorite childhood poets, Shel Silverstien and his wonderful poem Sister for Sale.

Feelings for sale, Feelings for sale, some trying and sighing young feelings for sale
I don't want them anymore, they're just doing me wrong
Trying to make me go to places where I just dont' belong.
Feelings for sale, Feelings for sale, some vying and prying dumb feelings for sale

Im going to wrap them up so pretty
that your never going to know
They way they are going to tear you apart if you ever let them show
I don't need them anymore this has gone on too long
I could have a thousand faces but I only want one

Feelings for sale, Feelings for sale, some vying and sighing young feelings for sale
Feelings for sale Feelings for sale, want to go to the party now like I never really cared.

I was so PUNKED!!!! (caught on video) Surprise!!!!! You are going on the ZIPLINE!

I was punked, its all in the video. :)

If you ever wanted to know about the ziplining on Grouse Mountain? Here you go!

a horse of course

A horse of course.......press the replay button so see how I drew this....:)

Rach

Lulu's and the best night ever!

Last week I had the absolute joy and pleasure of playing with a wonderful group of musicians at the River Rock casino. I have been nothing but blessed with the incredibly high caliber of players that I have shared the stage with over this last year of gigging at the casino, but this last show was perhaps the highlight of the year for me.

I can't explain it exactly, but the combination of musicians was magic. They seemed to lift me up and hold me high. They let me just take off and fly away and they were right behind me like a gust of wind. I felt so free as a singer, and so safe, and it made for the best night I ever had there.

Gene G. and Sharylin B. thankfully took some footage of me and the boys playing that night. Here are a few of the clips. They are not edited the way I would normally like to edit them because my software didn't work with their video formats. Without my 'tools', I am clearly not very patient. No matter, its worth sharing the night with you!

The first video is mostly focused on me, I have it up on my website now as a bit of a demo reel.




The second features more of the band and I highly recommend that one if you are a fan of the musicians because it features more of the amazing players who joined me onstage:

Message to the band: You lifted me higher with your energy and excellence! Thank you. :)

Russell Marsland (guitar) http://www.russellmarsland.com/
Shawn Soucy (drums) http://www.drumsetc.org/
Nathen Aswell (bass- guitar) http://www.nathenaswell.com/
Andre Kunkle (keys) http://www.facebook.com/andre.kunkle
Mike Norman (keys) http://www.mikenorman.com/





This is an original song from my CD. This video is neat for me, as it is documentation of the very first time I ever played this song with a band.

How buzzy was this? We never even had a rehearsal, this video is IT, try number one.

There is a point in the song, somewhere around 3:59 I think, where I recognize Russell playing the solo (and it sounded just like the recording on the song). Ha, it was cosmic and in the video you can see I was excited to hear it, Shawn heard it too!!!!





Enjoy the show!

xox
Rach

Session 1 Vancouver League of Rock

On July 22 Vancouver's chapter of the League of Rock launch at the Yale and I saw nothing but smiling faces all night long!

Founder Terry Moshenberg flew out from Toronto for the draft event and put us all into our bands! Terry brought his partner Topher Stott and it was such a pleasure to meet Topher finally and have a chance to jam with him as he is a monster talent! Also out to support and help kick off the event were Kyle Shannon (New York LOR chapter head) and two of our our highly respected coaches Tal Bachman and Shaun Verreault so it really was an exciting night!

Speeches were made and contests were won, and then Terry got down to the business of the draft event!

I was put in a band with Nando and Steve and we started talking about songs right away. We all seemed to like the same sort of music so we really got off to a great start!
Some of the other bands.......
Yeah baby!

Everyone seemed just as happy as we were with the way the draft went!

Once we all had a chance to meet the people in our bands, some of us got up onstage to jam. There were some really groovy moments where people gelled together musically and it was fantastic to see and hear!
I can't wait to see how this all progresses!

I got up with my band members and sang/played a few tunes!

I love these little cards that were on the table, our beer sponsors.

I met the fine folks at TREE brewing and they are good people who make fantastic beer, we are delighted to have them join with us!!




It was a cool night, I wasn't the only one wearing a smile!

We all (the members) went home and started our email exchanges discussing and deciding our songs to have ready for the next week. Our band was short a bass player still, and I had always wanted to try bass but never had anywhere to really give it a go, so I contacted my band members and asked them if they would tolerate having a beginner bass player.

Thankfully they both agreed wholeheartedly so I rented a bass, took a lesson from friend and LOR chapter head Rob Boshaw, and spent the next few days cramming for the first session.

I am quite thrilled to announce that session one rocked!

(that is, no one asked me to quit trying to play the bass)
I love it, I am totally embracing this experience.

Abbalicious!

<

As mentioned previously, one of my gigs is with Mooncoin Productions in their show called Abba-cadabra which is a musical journey through the music of,... well, Abba. I love the job and the people involved with it but I didn't apply for the gig because I am an Abba fan, in fact, I was not drawn to Abba's music as a child and I didn't have any of their records so I never really listened to the words of the songs.

Having said that however, the melodies were certainly in my head just by virtue of the fact they seemed to be played everywhere all of the time, so preparing for this job was basically a lyrics exercise for me.

Once again, I have to note how funny it is that things arrive into our lives to help us right when we need them, we just need to be open to them. As I listened and learned, I realized how timely and helpful the lyrics were for me and it occurred to me that if I had learned these songs as a kid I would have missed the messages.


The lyrics from 'I have a Dream' in particular were really powerful for me, they even helped me get through some tough stuff by reminding me that failure can be a reason to learn about yourself and move forward.

I know the world is not all sunshine and rainbows people, I know that. Crap happens to me just like it does to you. I don't really think there is magic determining everything around me but I do choose to hope there is something to this energy we all seem to tap into collectively. I can't describe it, and I don't know that we can even conceptualize it fully, I just like to think that it is a nice thing sometimes, to dream the impossible.


I have a dream
a song to sing
to help me cope
with anything
if you see the wonder
of a fairy tale
you can take the future
even if you fail
I believe in angels
something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
and I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream
I have a dream

Rach~