House concert with Sara Kamin!

    
Sara Kamin's West Coast Tour!

It never ceases to amaze me how useful a forum the internet is as a tool to connect with others. Last week I had the great pleasure of finally meeting  some of my online friends live and in person as Sara Kamin along with pal/tour manager Pamela Detlor set off from  Toronto to blaze a trail along the west coast on a tour to introduce Sara and her music. Sara had several show's of which I went to two, but when I first met them it was at the House Concert held by my friend Kathleen.

Perhaps it is because we have all been talking to each other and scoping each others websites and blogs for the past year  that we all found it so easy to connect in person I don't know exactly, but when I walked into that house I really did feel like we were all  just meeting again, rather than for the first time. The hostess Kathleen  is a smokin hot Momma I met through Erica and the Yummy Mummy club (who has made an appearance on this blog several times in fact), so she was the one person I knew already but the connection to her in this particular story was through another group of twitter friends, a talented, dynamic group of artists and musicians who make me laugh out loud with their tweets and posts.
 
I noticed the lot of them when I first started following Jann Arden on twitter. While I was browsing  around following what her friends were doing I stumbled upon and entered a contest on the Thought VOX blog. Pamela Detlor did such a beautiful job on her blog that I wrote her a long gushy letter telling her she had inspired me to push myself to get more creative with my own blog  (which at the time was a lot sparser than it is today). She wrote back and we exchanged a number of warm emails that only confirmed my immediate impression, not only is this a lady with a great eye and enormous talent, but she is a woman of depth and substance, I have been a fan ever since.  I also won the contest she was holding and so I was sent two CD's as my prize.  Sara Kamin's CDs. Wow. From the first note that played, I was hooked. Her tone is warm and angelic, one of those voices you could sit and listen to all night, and her writing is deep thoughtful, creative and raw. Yep insta fan right here, right from the get go.
 
So I followed and I watched the gang from all the way over here on the west coast. I saw the comings and goings as well as the doings and I saw creativity blossoming everywhere.  In fact let me digress for a moment and mention a very cool book a number of them (including Sara) are a part of. Linda Woods, Karen Dinino, with Pamela Detlor have published a book called Meeting in the Ladies room   and I love the concept. This book is filled with photos of  real women in their own bathroom, sharing their personal thoughts as they look at themselves in the mirror. It is described as 'reflections of women in a room of thier own'.  Whether you are an idolized celebrity or a struggling single mother, the ladies room is where you create your make believe, and where you face your reality.  68 brave women from around the world bare all and share an empowering look in the mirror, it's a meeting in the ladies room.  Featuring Jann Arden, Amanda Palmer, Rosie O'Donnell, Jen Foster, Sarah Bettens, SHeDAISY, Sara Kamin, Pamela Detlor, and Kathleen Cook Tennant to name a few.
 
So I always thought this was cool and when I found out that some of the cast of the Ladies Room were heading out to Vancouver, I marked the date in ink and planned to come party with them.
 







So as the story goes, Sara kicked off on a tour of the west and one of the many stops she made was at Kathleen's for a House Concert.  I dont' know how many of you have heard of this House Concert concept but if you are a singer songwriter I would highly recommend you consider this idea. Of course you have to have someone fabulous like Kathleen with a warm beautiful home and lots of wonderful friends to pull it off, but wow, when it's done right, it can be a hugely successful night.  Kathleen's hubby and her dear friends Patience ( who provided some of these photo's) and her best friend Glamma all worked hard to transform the house into an inviting music venue.

Not only were there delicious appy's and bevvies for us all to enjoy, there was a stage, lights, pillows on the floor, candles for ambiance, and most importantly a full house of music lovers. When everyone was finally gathered together Sara took the stage she charmed and delighted us all with not only her music but herself.  She is funny, and real and completely open hearted. She had us all laughing with her raw ironic descriptions of her songs and I loved that about her. Judging by the crowd response, so did everyone else.

So without further adieu, I give you, Sara Kamin.........




After the concert, it turned into a good old fashioned house party. Someone turned on the tunes and we danced and danced and danced. Before I knew it I had my guitar in hand and was leading sing along songs.  I just love the campfire where everyone sings along and connects through music and boy did they ever sing. It was all so warm and glowy, of course that could have been the booze talkin  but the voices were loud, strong, and everyone seemed to know all the words. We were rocking like we were teenagers again. I think my fav moment during the jam was singing a song that Jann Arden recorded and hearing all the voices fill the room. I know I'm not the only one who felt it.

I won't soon forget the night or the people that made it so wonderful and I thought I would reiterate just one more time to all you musicians, artists, and creatives out there. Think outside the box to get yourself out there, call on your community and don't ignore the idea of the house concert. In fact I have been so inspired by this idea I am going to start figuring out how to promote myself for hire for house concerts. I can play a nights worth of sing along songs easily and if a house full of people want to

sing along to live music, all the better. So thanks to you gang, for the great new business idea.

And to Sara, Kathleen, Pam, Glamma, Patience, Teri-Lyn.....and to all the new folks I met and shared laughs with, Thank you for the warm embraces, it was a pleasure to meet you!

Rach xox

First Weekend Club pre-screens the Year of the Carnivore

I recently was asked by the First Weekend Club to sing for the pre-screening of the Year of the Carnivore, a film by Canadian writer/director/actress Sook Yin Lee.  Always happy to  support Canadian films as well as the First Weekend Club, I quickly agreed. The First Weekend Club puts on an event that is unlike any other movie experience. First of all the theatre, District 319,  is simply stunning in decor, style and comfort and is the antithesis of  a big movie house, feeling more like an exclusive club where you get to enjoy wine, appy's, live music and  time mingling with the actors, producers and key players in the film before it rolls.  For this event I asked a naturally gifted singer/songwriter Stephanie Lee Rhodes to join me and if I do say so myself it was a beautiful and effortless blending of voices and music. 

After  the wine reception, everyone headed to the theatre to claim one of the big comfy red leather arm chairs and settled in to watch the film. This romantic-comedy-drama follows Sammy, a 21 year old girl with an unrequited crush on a boy who thinks she's bad in bed. She hatches a plan to get more 'experience,’ catapulting her on a quest that takes her through her neighbors’ bedroom, the public swimming pool,

and finally to blackmailing shoplifters into giving her sex lessons. 

I am not a film reviewer by nature so I won't offer much in the way of a review but I do have some personal feelings about the story to share. While I found the lead actress to be very adorable to watch as she navigated her way through her uncertainties, the story was a little  uncomfortable for me to be honest. In fact at first I thought it was oddly appropriate that they had asked me to open for this particular film as I can relate to the some of the characters feelings of  inadequacy.  But the actions she took in the face of rejection had me squirming in my seat as she took the exact opposite route I would be inclined to walk, that is, I would be inclined to choose a path that is far less.... crowded.  Personally if I experience unrequited feelings for another rather than becoming determined to release my inner sexuality, I tend to just go deep inside myself to hide (right in front of everyone yes, but I hide nonetheless) and like a turtle and I will stay in my shell until I am sure it is safe to come out, if ever. 

But this character Sammy was the polar opposite, she went way outside herself and put herself in situations that I could never imagine putting myself in and I found myself covering my mouth in a bit of shock as Sook Yin opened up the window to her vulnerabilities and resulting actions.  As the mother of a daughter who will grow up in todays world I feared this story alot in fact, but by the same token it is good to be aware of things that I don't get and a story such as this which is exploring someones journey out of innocence, can deliver insights not otherwise seen so I admire Sook Yin's ability to write so boldly yet still deliver a character that is both charming and amusing. (see trailer)

After the film finished the director Sook Yin Lee was dialed in on Skype and the actors were brought up front to do a question and answer session with the audience. This is always interesting to see their personal take on a film as often times these pre-screenings are the actors own first chance to see the film themselves. We the audience are often let in on some unique insights from their memories of the shooting.

By the way I can't carry on without saying a big thank you to Murielle Fréoa for the photographs, and also to the stellar folks at Long and McQuade for letting me use the slick Bose speaker tower you see behind me in the pictures. If you need a small portable PA system with crystal clear sound that disperses beautifully around a room with no feedback, I highly recommend you give this system some serious consideration because it is a dream to use.

Thanks to the folks from the First Weekend Club for all that you do for Canadian filmakers, and thank you for asking me time and again to be a part of your pre-screening events. Also thanks to Stephanie for making the trip over from the island and for singing so beautifully with me, that was a truly fun and artistic day and it was a real pleasure to work with you. And to you dear reader, go see the Year of the Carnivore,  and take some time to support more Canadian films. To find them, please go to the First Weekend Club website and watch for all the wonderful events they put on.

best, Rach  xo

please forward this to your favorite artist... xo

Art, by Andrea Dorfman
I do believe this is my new favorite song.
Watch it
watch it
watch it.
Rach xo

go ahead, be bad.....

It's always a bit of a whirlwind when Erica Ehm rolls into town and last week it was no different. Erica was here to promote the Mischievious Mom at the Art Gallery, a delightful book about a naughty Mother and her spirited adventures with her kids (co-written with her friend Rebecca Eckler).  I love the book because it not only gives us Mom's permission to be bad, it celebrates us for it~

Erica's visit to Van was also another perfect opportunity to tweet up with her west coast friends and fans so we made a plan or two and what follows is a photo blog of the adventures of a village of  dynamic west coast Mom's  which  has grown under the umbrella of Erica Ehm and her Yummy Mummy Club.

 
First stop for Vancouver was at Kidsbooks in Kits where Erica did a book signing. A bunch of us girls showed up and we all wound up having a good old fashioned gab fest about parenting, Mommyhood and blogging. In the photo above was Danielle @justdworld meeting Erica for the first time, it was emotional meeting to say the least, she was excited, we were excited for her and there were a few itty bitty tears of joy shed. Erica as always, was gracious and welcoming and herself as she quickly put everyone at ease.

We found it funny how when we all met up we called each other by our twitter names (which is most often how we commmunicate to each other)!  So in order of appearance by our twitter names.......

@rachaelpachel  @yoyomamadotca @yummymummyclub @Savvymomvan  @ymc_bc

(thank you for the photo goes to Eileen, @ymc_bc)

Next on the progam a scrumptious dinner at the Sandbar. It started out with a couple of notably non-Mummy types joining us for a bevvie.  Raul @hummingbird604 and Jason @jasonsanders who are social media kings in their own right  really wanted to meet up with Erica to say hi in person after months of tweeting cross country so they were allowed a first hand peek into our world,  for a short while at least!   

You might notice a fair amount of handheld devices in this post,  I'm confessing on behalf of each and every one of us right now, Total Twitterholics..... and when a brand new iPad made an appearance, it held our attention for quite some time....

Yes, that's me singing with the piano player.... if there is a musician around, I will usually find a way to get in there and jam a tune or two. :)











Twitter handles from our cast of Mischevious Moms   @YummyMummyClub, @alexishinde, @crunchycarpets, @raspberrykids, @YMC_BC, @tjrossiGnol (thank you for the photos),  @justdworld, @mummyjanie, @theTsunamiMommy

So my gosh what a night, we just had a blast talking everything woman with no apologies and more importantly in the absence of kids, with no interruptions.... 

Of course we couldn't just leave it at that, we can't forget the way this started on the west coast, with a
full-on social media, networking/gathering coffee tweet up. And it also had to be complete with kids, because really, any day that includes a few moments of  awwwwwwww how cute factor  is a good day indeed.  This time our tweetup was at Cafe Artigiano on Broadway and we virtually took over the back half of the cafe because there were so many of  us.......I don't even have all the twitter handles of everyone so I invite you to help me along by reminding me and leaving your  name in the comments section so I can link you up! :)  

Saffron and Camille Henderson authors of the Motherboard as well as Sarah Bancroft (who runs Vitamin Daily, an online lifestyle mag that should be part of your daily reading if you are devoted to finding the best of the best in fashion, art and culture in your city ) all arrived a little early to chat with  Erica pre-tweet and it was nice to finally meet Sarah in person. I've enjoyed watching her fantastic career and business take flight ever since I was first aware of her as an editor at Fashion magazine. I admire how she has built a presence that embodies class and good taste and exactly the right amount of zest.


                                      Saffron and Camille with Erica (and with me in pic below)

Artigiano's was nice and calm and peaceful as we chatted and talked shop and slowly but surely Mom's and babies wandered in and introduced themselves to each other (often by twitter handle such as @earnestgirl @kstennant @TheraWise  all pictured).  And more Mom's and babies showed up, and more, and more, and more....... until there was noise, commotion, squeals of laughter and excitement flying throughout the room and as I looked around I thought once again, this is the perfect  village because kids are watching their Mom's socializing, getting along, sharing, doing and connecting........and  how better to teach your children how to socialize than to teach them by example. 

Catherine, me, Erica

This is what is missing from many families today, the community.

Some people complain that the internet isolates people. I don't buy it. This story is proof that it doesn't have to. I know all of these people through the internet alone. Some people like Erica have the ability to pull a group together and facilitate a community.  Other people, know how to find that community.  Erica seems to attract busy and dynamic women so she has all around her a powerful community who support one another and it reaches across the country. It is the village time a thousand.

I love that  about the internet, that I can sit here and do PR in my pyjamas yet still find different collectives to gain something from or give something to out there in the real and concrete world.  The internet can be a tool of inclusion, it all depends on the way you use it.

If you are a Mom who tweets or who has an online business and would love to connect and network with this amazing group of ladies, do make sure to join the Yummy Mummy Club and watch for updates, this is your village, it is a place where we as women and Mother's don['t apologize for being bright, creative go-getters and most of all, are not at all afraid to be mischevious!


Rach xo