Melissa's Blog

Friday, July 21, 2006

Rhianna Concert, a big two thumbs down.


Friday of last week, Rhianna actually headlined BluesFest. Let's not even discuss the strangeness of this decision, I mean, Nelly Furtado doesn't get to headline, but Rhianna, who has released about 4 songs does? What's that about.
The tickets for the concert were about $35 a pop, and thank goodness we didn't bother with any of that. Again, we camped out just outside the fence to enjoy the show, any closer might have actually made me violently ill.

To put it bluntly, the show was horrible. Rhianna lipsynced throughout much of the show, to a very obvious backup track. The times she did bother to sing, it wasn't to the main track of the song, but rather to what would be considered backup tracks, leaving us all pretty annoyed and confused.

She forgot half the words to her current single "Unfaithful" and left the stage about 4 times in a 40 minute set. During these 'breaks' her DJ played the music of other musicians, her competitors really, and encouraged the audience to get a little louder- we didn't really, we were busy stifling yawns.

At least Rhianna seemed to know where she was, she used the word Ottawa about 25 times throughout the show, saying things like 'how you doing Ottawa?'. I'm thinking perhaps she had written the city name on her hand so she didn't forget.

Needless to say, we were not impressed, and it's pretty sad when after not even paying for a show, you can't even sit through it. We left before it was over.

Here are some blurbs from the Ottawa Citizen, I have to say that this specific review doesn't really give the essence of the crappiness of the show, I have read much more scathing reviews of this particular show:

Her show was a Disney-esque choreographed fantasy of non-stop hip-swivelling, sassy attitude and personal endearments and a string of funky, sugar-free hits, such as We Ride, Unfaithful, Kisses Don't Lie and the Soft Cell-inspired SOS that, even by hip-hop standards, was surprisingly forgettable.The music took a back seat to fashion as Rihanna had a hard time singing in tune, while her dancing was little more than strutting back and forth. Meanwhile, her hyperactive DJ kept telling us to make some noise, which I thought Rihanna was already doing sufficiently well on her own throughout a dreary and embarrassingly short 40-minute set.

It's not that every one of the hundreds of musicians who play Bluesfest have to have a blues pedigree, but what claim the bubblegum queen has on blues, or music for that matter, is beyond me. For an event as predictably trustworthy as Bluesfest, last night's presentation was a broken promise.


Don't worry Rhianna, you'll get another chance to impress Ottawans (is that what we're called?). This week it was announced that Rhianna will be opening for the Black Eyed Peas in September at Scotia Bank Place. I think Rhianna is much more 'opener' material than 'headliner'.

Nelly Furtado @ BluesFest

Last week Alain and I went to see Nelly Furtado performing at BluesFest downtown. We didn't actually pay to go inside the venue (why bother when you can see the same show for free from the OTHER side of the fence), but we really enjoyed the show. Nelly put on a great performance (unlike Rhianna a few nights later.... See my next post) and I have to say that I'm impressed with the success of her current album. I didn't like Promiscuous too much before this show, but its definitely grown on me.

Here are some blurbs from the Ottawa Citizen review:

OTTAWA - She really should have been the headliner, but the sun was still shining brightly when Nelly Furtado took the Ottawa Bluesfest main stage to open for the more serious, spiritual likes of Live last night.

After all, who could have predicted Furtado's third album, the provocatively titled and marketed Loose, would explode in North America and the U.K? Reception to 2003's Folklore was lukewarm at best, and there is no way fans or concert bookers could have known the wunderkind who exploded onto the scene in 2001 would have such sexy tricks up her sleeve.

Though she seems to be wearing nothing but tank tops and hot pants these days, it was a relatively demure Furtado, in a knee-length blue dress, who took the stage in front of a jam-packed crowd.


Her clear, strong voice soared on a traditional version of Forca, the theme penned for the 2003 Euro Cup. She and the group also did a nice job of rearranging some of her other well-known songs to make them new for the crowd. That included giving breakthrough hit I'm Like A Bird a relaxed treatment; funking up Turn Out the Light and turning in a percussion-heavy version of the joyous tune Powerless (Say What You Want).

Monday, July 10, 2006

Saturday Adam, Elizabeth, Alain and I rented paddle boats on Dows Lake and went for a two-hour spin around the lake and the Rideau Canal. It turned out to be a lot of fun and the weather was amazing as usual. It wasn't too expensive, about $20 for the two hours, and we got a little bit of exercise and experienced something new. Our butts sure hurt by the end of the two hours.

I think we're going to go back and do either canoeing or kayaking, we'd be able to cover a little more ground that way I think, the paddle boats just don't move incredily fast, no matter how much fun they are.

Just a quick post with Alain and I on the Motorcycle... hehe gosh it's fun...
Sarah and Matt took these photo's for us last weekend. Don't worry Mom, we always wear the helmets when riding.. The photo's without helmets were ONLY for the photo op. And... We NEVER go fast.. I swear... hehehe.




























No seriously, we are VERY careful, you have to be.

On Friday Alain and I took the motorcycle up to Gatineau Park. I had never been before, but like elsewhere in Ottawa, it never ceases to amaze me how much greenspace the National Capital Region has. Gatineau Park is HUGE and so green and lush and beautiful.

We stopped briefly at the Mackenzie King Estate (also within the Park) and saw an amazing lake and some of the guest cottages that King had while he lived or stayed at the Estate.
I can't find some of our best shots of the lake, so these ones (with us slightly blocking the view hehe) will have to do for now).










We didn't stay too long at the Mackenzie King Estate because we had planned to be at the top lookout spot for the sunset, so we hurried on our way.
Here are some pics of the sunset and view.


























After the sunset at Champlain Lookout we decided to head down to a lower lookout point, one that Alain said had a great view of the city. While I'm sure the view of the city was lovely, we got slightly distracted pretty much as soon as we arrived. It was just the two of us at the lookout, and almost immediately we heard a snorting noise in the brush below the lookout area parking lot. I thought it might be a dog that someone was walking at first, but after a closer look into the brush, Alain and I saw the big fat snout of a black bear!!!

Where we were standing from the parking lot there was about a ten foot drop (bordered by a stone wall( down to the treed area where the bear was hanging out, but he quickly proceded to move along to and area that had much less of a drop (about five feet). We followed him tentatively, trying to snap some photo's along the way, but since the sun had already set, it was hard to catch him in a good light. He stopped and was staring at us, about five feet away from us, and about five feet below us (the drop was still bordered by a stone wall). At first it seemed okay, but he was staring at us so intently that I got a little spooked. Alain continued taking photo's, while I screamed quietly in the background that that five feet was not nearly enough room between us and that the bear could probably overcome it pretty easily if he wanted to.

We backed off a little, and a few other people showed up in cars (all we had the bike, which although you may THINK it would make a good quick getaway, it's not so quick to get the helmets etc on and actually get on and settled on the bike, this was also scaring me a little, because we really had no safe place to go if the bear decided he wanted to play) that we hid behind. No sooner had we backed away from the bear, that he decided to come out of the forest and onto the parking lot. He wandered around a bit, still keeping his distance, but a little too close for my liking and headed up towards the road. He got scared off by some other motorcyclists and ran back into the forest. That was the last we saw of him. He wasn't HUGE, I'd say about as 5 feet tall and 200 lbs - but that was big enough for me!

I had never seen a bear in the wild before, and I did NOT expect to see a bear in a park in the middle of the CITY! It's like bears wandering around Central Park in New York, it just shouldn't happen, you know?

Still, it was a pretty amazing experience, even if only one photograph turned out. I hope you can see it ok...
He's kind of the middle of the photograph, it looks like a clearing of trees, but if you look closely you can see his eyes. Click on the pic for a larger image that makes him easier to see. He's actually pretty cute if you ask me!




NOTE: According to the NCC website for Gatineau Park, there are actually between 150 and 200 bears within the park! Wow! To learn more about the wildlife in Gatineau Park check out this link: http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/bins/ncc_web_content_page.asp?cid=16297-16299-10170-16377-16379&lang=1

Whew, it's been busy, sorry for the lack of updates....

Over the long weekend the RCMP was at home here in Ottawa putting on some pre-tour shows at their stables. Alain and I went to the Sunday show, which was surprisingly busy and enjoyed the different acts. The first hour was filled with silly exercises, involving RCMP officers and boot-camp type obstacle races, in addition to some exercises with the canine units and horse jumping. The main show includes music and the horses doing all kinds of elaborate military type formations. I found it very similar to the show put on by the Fort Henry Guard at Fort Henry, Kingston, only with horses instead of just men (and women). The formations were pretty well coreographed and the whole event was fun. It was a beautiful night, we've been lucky in Ottawa the past couple weeks weather-wise and it was definitely worth seeing.

Here are some pics of the show, although to be honest they don't really do it justice.




You can learn more about the ride at http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/musicalride/index_e.htm

We also stopped along the way home at Rockland Park overlooking Quebec and took some photo's of the sunset. It was a beautiful ride home on the motorcycle (did I mention Alain has a motorcycle?). It's a tonne of fun, it makes any boring old trip a real journey.









Whew, it's been busy, sorry for the lack of updates....

Over the long weekend the RCMP was at home here in Ottawa putting on some pre-tour shows at their stables. Alain and I went to the Sunday show, which was surprisingly busy and enjoyed the different acts. The first hour was filled with silly exercises, involving RCMP officers and boot-camp type obstacle races, in addition to some exercises with the canine units and horse jumping. The main show includes music and the horses doing all kinds of elaborate military type formations. I found it very similar to the show put on by the Fort Henry Guard at Fort Henry, Kingston, only with horses instead of just men (and women). The formations were pretty well coreographed and the whole event was fun. It was a beautiful night, we've been lucky in Ottawa the past couple weeks weather-wise and it was definitely worth seeing.

Here are some pics of the show, although to be honest they don't really do it justice.

You can learn more about the ride at http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/musicalride/index_e.htm

We also stopped along the way home at Rockland Park overlooking Quebec and took some photo's of the sunset. It was a beautiful ride home on the motorcycle (did I mention Alain has a motorcycle?). It's a tonne of fun, it makes any boring old trip a real journey.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Canada Day

Sarah and Matt came down to spend Canada in the Capital with me and we had a great time enjoying the festivities downtown. We cruised Wellington Street (note all the tractors parked along Wellington for a protest) and ran into Steve (yes, Steven Harper) making his rounds on the Hill. We saw the Snowbirds and a few museums and enjoyed the fireworks in the rain. We had a lot of laughs and were thankful for a late night run to the Hasty Mart beside our hotel.









Monica came into town with a tour group that she runs on weekends, so we got to visit with her for a few hours before they headed on to Montreal and Quebec. It was a short but nice visit and we relaxed on patio in the Market and had a few drinks.

Alain joined Sarah, Matt and I in time for dinner at Tucker's Market Place (where Matt ate entirely too much meat) and more drinks before fireworks at Parliament Hill. We got a great view of the fireworks along the Ottawa River and behind the National Library and Archives.
The show was amazing, much better than last year, even thought it rained a little


We were troopers and lazed around along the river for quite a while after the show ended, meeting an interesting fellow who told us the secret to fitting 4 hippopotumus' into a Honda Civic (Don't ask... it didn't make sense even when we were a little drunk). These are some photo's of us just generally being silly.

Busy Busy Busy.. The past week has been insane, so I have a lot to catch up on. I'll do my best over the next couple of days as I am also trying to get some school work done.

Last week I went to a Jazz Festival concert with my boyfriend Alain... that's right, you read that right, this is the first time I have actually specifically mentioned him on this blog, although we've been hanging out for a little while now. I know you're dying for pics, so a few will follow, just bear with me through some other stuff first. We've been doing a lot of really fun cultural things in Ottawa, and Alain has opened up my eyes (and ears etc) to many things I might not have tried on my own, the Jazz festival included.

We chose to see a studio show at the NAC (National Arts Centre) downtown featuring a Jazz trio called E.S.T from Sweden. The group includes Esbjorn Svensson (piano), Magnus Öström (drums) and Dan Berglund (bass) and actually turned out to be pretty amazing.

They perform what I like to call fusion jazz combining jazz with drum 'n' bass, electronic elements, funk rhythm, and pop and rock as well as European Classical music. The group is considered one of the most innovative jazz bands of today.

It was a small venue and the boys put on a great show.

You can learn more about E.ST at http://www.est-music.com/
and more about the now concluded Jazz Festival at http://www.ottawajazzfestival.com/2006/