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| Smile! Summer's here! |
With
summer in full swing and a heat wave gripping us like a cub to its mom, one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to find things to do, especially outdoors, outside the usual '
Music in the Park' offerings..
Car Clubs for example are in full swing as shows spring up from
Harveys restaurants, to malls, to Main St. Take a quick search and you can find any number of events and festivals going on, with all types of ridiculous reasons and names for them like the "
Friendship Festival" from Niagara which also has a festival in the same area called the "
Festival of Friends"...Huh?..Both sport free live outdoors bands,
affordable accommodations, beer tents, and cool food, info / crafts booths, and a midway with rides for the kids, but they are apparently different festivals. Strange but cool.
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| Relax at a cottage or... |
Toronto of course has its smorgasbord of choices, but outside of a visit to the
Metro Zoo again to see
Pandas, there's nothing new that appeals to me there and the
Caribean, Gay Pride or Afro-fests aren't my style either.
Dragon boat races are cool, which you can find at Toronto's harbour front, but you can find that in
Barrie or elsewhere too.
Last year I not only attended the
Collingwood Elvis Festival but took part as a
performer and in the competition. Unfortunately I was
judged for the wrong category so my older style suits didn't match the concert days (jumpsuit) era they were looking for! But it was fun and they offered to pay my way and contest entry this year to make up for it which was nice of them. I declined with a polite,
"No thank-you, very much." This way I will always have that excuse as to why I never won the Best Elvis award! Ha!
Closer to home, with the
July 1st celebrations in the rear view mirror the
focus of the local media week after week after week (someone has money) has become about a "
Hoe Down" which
spends hundreds of thousands of donated dollars to put on a party, then dishes out the leftover spoils to a hand full of hand-picked minion charities and is then adored and fawned over by a community and embraced by local governments as proof of their do-gooding, and therefore justifying their ongoing support given them regardless of jobs going overseas.
Yeehaw!
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| George Olliver , " The Blue Eyed Prince of Soul" |
Then there is the
Garlic Festival - ideal for a first date! - and
Buskerfest in upcoming
Newmarket with
both the town of
Newmarket and nearby
Aurora hosting
"Jazz" Festivals in August.
I'd post a link to
Newmarket's Jazz Fest info however
the town has a policy against blogs linking to their sites ( they sent me a letter saying so) therefore here's a
link to
Aurora's Jazz Festival info instead.
I put "jazz" in
parenthesis because at first glance of the announced line-up for
Newmarket's new festival -
which are using the ousted former organizer of Aurora's Jazz Festival - there
doesn't seem to be many actual jazz bands. For example
Glenn Marais is a great local talent and he's played a gig for me before, but they are not a jazz band. I grew up with
Glenn and we didn't listen to jazz, believe me, we were classic rockers as was 90% of Aurora's teens -
not country (sorry Hoe-downers) or jazz - but he is a great talent no doubt and I'm sure will rehearse some jazzy numbers for the event.
Headliner George Olliver isn't a jazz band either, they are
R&B. Soul as well, and yea he's played with
The Who and
Rolling Stones and they had some
hits... in the 70's.. but not for jazz.
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| Music in the parks becoming same old , same old |
I covered them when no one showed to see them play at
Graystones in Aurora, which was a shame because he's really talented, especially on keyboards. But it's psychedelic rock / r&b / soul however, not jazz, sorry...and on...so we'll see what this
"music" fest becomes and whether it sticks to theme - which as a big theme guy I hope it does - as they sure seem to have a budget for advertising, with
ads almost approaching Hoe-down numbers...Well, no, they don't have all the giant signs and lamp post banners...yet...having been running since early June.
I'm thinking perhaps they could have invested in more jazz bands instead of over hyping it so early on. That's just me.
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| TP does Elvis Festival Parade |
Long run, I think some
original thinking might do the trick..same old, same old, simply being redone, will always simply get compared to others' who have had more longevity, and are long established. So although starting an
original event - like a
Beatle Main ia - may take guts, if done right will attract nevertheless and then its up to organizers to make it a success by giving people a reason to want to come back...and sticking to the theme!
..Build it and they will come!
Enjoy my latest wacky video - BBQ TIPS!
TP out!
Speaking of T-shirts, across the street, CanadaT.com has just expanded their printed T- Shirt selection by eliminating the sales of retro records from the store which they'd added for a spell, but which proved hard to manage - however the new array of wacky message shirts got me chuckling and thinking as well about some ideas of my own for T-shirt designs. As a visually creative and word guy, it fits me to a "T". Ha.
Recently I watched a documentary on the origins of the printed message T-shirt. It was a fascinating history and one that inspired an idea to create a contest for designing T-shirts, and perhaps putting them for sale for the winners in a store and online as well. The good people at Custom T.com liked the idea too having thought about it before and as we talked I got excited. Hey, it doesn't take much these days! Lol. And judging by some of the outrageously talented artists in the area as witnessed at the Jazz+ Fest, there should be no shortage of entries. Stay Tuned for future Announcements and links here on this!
