June 4-6 Tracey and I traveled up to Brantford for this year’s annual Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament. As fans of filmmaker Kevin Smith, we made the trip and had an amazing time last year. Last year I took a bunch of pictures of the event and was invited to take more this year by Ming, the View Askew web guru and Hockey event organizer.
This year really was a step up. I was given access to take photos from the bench and from within the rink after the game. Having that close proximity to the players allowed me to get some great shots.
Spending the weekend down in Brantford also gave us the opportunity to meet a lot of the players on the other View Askew teams.
Aside from taking pics, I also designed an iPhone app for the tournament that featured all of the View Askew teams. I will do a post on the app in the next few days.
I just wanted to drop a huge thanks to Ming Chen he really is the MVP of the View Askew organization.
All of my pics from the tournament, can be found here:
Day 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eplatero/sets/72157624205809682/
Day 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eplatero/sets/72157624218270814/
Day 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eplatero/sets/72157624218380378/
Friday, January 15th, I had the great pleasure to attend the CD release of “no ghostless place” by Raised by Swans. I have been a very big fan of the band since hearing “Violet Light” on the CBC Radio3 Podcast 4 years ago. Their first CD “Codes & Secret Longing” has been a favourite of mine since the day it was purchased, and sits in my list of top albums of all time.
I have been eagerly awaiting to hear some new material, and after 4 years, the band has release their new CD. I ordered mine via online pre-order hoping to receive my copy the day before the show. I can review this album with one word: AMAZING. The new CD is on par if not better than Codes & Secret longing. I cannot recommend enough to anybody reading this post, leave my site right now, and click on this link to buy this album right now!
I almost didn’t make the show as our babysitter fell through at the last minute, but my wife, Tracey decided to stay home with the kids so I wouldn’t miss the show.
Moving on now to my review of the show. If it has not been made clear, I am a fan. The band played a solid 14 song set, that featured heavily the new material of “No Ghostless Place”. The new material played very well live, some songs like “Hail of Arrows” and “Secret Garden /S.C” sounding more rounded out and driven than the recorded versions.
Sound at Call the Office has always been a problem in my opinion, and there were times where the vocals did get lost in the wall of distorted mud that is Call the Office’s sound system. According to interviews with the band, they are about to embark on a coast to coast tour of Canada, so it was nice to have them playing in front of a hometown audience before embarking cross country.
I managed to take quite a few pictures of the performance, you can view the entire set on my flickr page here.
Setlist from the show: (Show Highlights bolded)
We Were Never Young
Hail of Arrows
Relentless
Easier
Capable of Cruelty
Old Fires
Longer Shadows, Shorter Days
Sandcastles
The Waitings Over
Still Inside You
There’s Hope Yet
How do These Hearts Unfold
Violet Light
Band Website: www.raisedbyswans.com
A few weeks ago, Tracey, her brother Marshall and I took the kids to see the fabled Saskatoon Street house here in London. It was all of our first times visiting the house, and it didn’t disappoint.
Here is a quick video that I shot.
Music is “I love NYE” by Badly Drawn Boy
I also did a quick long exposure shot that didn’t quite turn out.
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