Announcement: Tranquil Dreams is on Facebook!

Hey everyone!

As you may have known from the last WordPress update news or whatever you call it, I can’t connect Facebook to my profile anymore, which wouldn’t matter to most of the people here as only a few of you are on my Facebook which I keep fairly private. However, since I do treat Facebook as a means to mostly share the posts, the only way the posts will share automatically upon posting is if it was a page. Its something that I’ve been planning to do for a while but I envisioned it always more as a step that I’d take when I finally decided it was the right time to buy a domain and really expand the brand. After some thought, despite all the Fantasia Festival craze, I decided to just set it up. Its still somewhat of a rough draft but all the posts including Avenue of Daydreams will go there.

As I get used to managing another Facebook page, I’ll try to share thoughts and stuff over there. Random little things and updates but then most of it is already here. I’ll share trailers and videos and stuff also if that is what you like or maybe events I plan on attending. Who knows, since I do a ton over here, the myriad of topics opens up a lot of possibilities. As frustrating as this was to do last minute (and better today than later) since it starts on August 1st but Fantasia runs until then, I don’t really know when I’ll carve out the time to do it, probably in August at this point. I’ll probably do some Instagram sharing there as well.

If you happen to rely on Facebook to see the posts, then give me a like or follow and the posts still show up on your news feed. If you don’t read this through Facebook, maybe just still do that to show me that you support the blog! And if you happen to have a Facebook page, put it in the comments below. Let’s share some community love so we can all support each other!

Check out the Facebook Page HERE!

Fun Times at the Concert!

I love music! Its part of my life.

Some time 2-3 years ago (or maybe longer) I started falling in love with YouTube independent artists.  I believe the first person to spark my attention was Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider.  I have shared some of their music before.  Due to my vacation week and not sure when I would be home, I had to also postpone getting the tickets to their first ever concert and it was along with Alex Goot (another very awesome independent artist) and a bunch of other great groups.

Last Friday, I finally decided that this was really something I wanted to do and there were still tickets left for last night’s show! My best friend came with me.  It was great of her to do so even if she wasn’t as into this as me.  I love the atmosphere of these standing concerts where we get to really move around and have fun with the artists on stage, scream and cheer them on with everybody else in the audience and just have a whole lot of fun! I’ve been to concerts like these at Metropolis and Cafe Campus but this one was called La Tulipe and it was a pretty good venue! 🙂

Somehow, I missed part of the first group that went on and didn’t even catch their group name but they did a really good job.

The group we went in that had started playing!

After that we had a local band go on called Perfect Sideline!

Perfect Sideline!

There are always treasures to be found in these gigs and this group was mine! They totally rocked it and was fantastic! When they were doing the transition, I went right ahead to like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.  Ah..the wonders of having a smart phone, right? Do things before I forget! SCORE!

Next up, we were joined by King The Kid.  A group that I started following when they were another name, Wellington, before one of their team members left. I have been a bit slack on that so I wasn’t as up to date with their music.

King The Kid –> Lead Vocalist

However, this group is energetic and they have great band members.  Ricky plays the heck out of those drums for one!

Ricky –> is awesome on the drums and great on guitar!

I will strive to catch up with their music now! 🙂

After that, they were followed by Against the Current.  I’ve only followed this group when they do collab videos with other independent artists that I follow on YouTube.  They are pretty good as well! The lead singer is a very energetic girl and she teams up with 3 other guys to play the guitar, bass and drums (I think?)

Against the Current

Right when we thought the wait could be no more, FINALLY Kurt and Sam enter the stage and they start.

Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider doing acoustic

The crowd goes even more wild than they were before! They hit it off to heat up the whole crowd and everyone is in love with their on stage appeal and charisma.  I can tell you right now! I LOVE THESE GUYS!

Sam Tsui

I supported their Kickstarter project and I’m waiting patiently for my copy of the CD to arrive in the mail.  I hope its soon because all those videos they’ve done on the new music is fantastic and I cannot wait to hear it all! Put it in my car and just drive around singing to their awesomeness!

After waiting and waiting and waiting alongside some great music, I was ready for Alex Goot to finally makes his appearance!

Alex Goot accompanied by another awesome artist Luke Conard on guitar!

This tour is in his name and he is the highlight! He did a lot of originals from his album In the Atmosphere (which I own and put in my MP3 to listen to all the time) and he also did some great covers! My favorite is always his rendition of A Thousand Miles originally by Vanessa Carlton.  Love it!

Unfortunately, my best friend had to leave halfway through the final act with Alex Goot but I stayed to enjoy the rest of the show and then ran outside afterwards to get pictures with these talented artists 🙂

King the Kid with their camera!

I didn’t get a picture with them mostly because I was intimidated by the constant crowd around them…I would’ve missed all the public transport to get home. Then guess who walks right out of the doors: PERFECT SIDELINE! The guys who is the keyboard and vocals and their drummer! They were so nice!

Perfect Sideline vocals and drummer

After that, Luke Conard had gotten out front also and I went to get a picture with him.  This guy is awesome! Its too bad he didn’t get to sing tonight.  He has an amazing voice!

Luke Conard Take#1

Luke Conard Take#2

So much fun! He actually took two shots with me.  Very awesome!

Right after, Sam Tsui emerges from the bus and I follow everyone and try to get my chance to get a picture with him.  Sam is totally cool!

Sam Tsui

After that, my final artist that I caught was Kurt Schneider! He’s super nice! I love his music and how creative he is! Love him so much! Plus, he doesn’t sing often but he has an awesome voice as well and plays tons of instruments! 🙂 My inspiration, I tell you!

Kurt Hugo Schneider

By that time, I had wanted to wait for Alex Goot to come out but it was already 11pm and I had to walk to the subway stop which was a good 10 minutes or so away and then catch the bus to get back home!

It was an amazing and fun night! I was so hyped up and it was worth almost losing my voice!

Seriously hope that they perform in Montreal again and if they don’t, in close enough cities that I can go away for the weekend (if it lands on the weekend)! Totally worth it 🙂 Check them out on YouTube if you get a chance! They seriously are amazing artists! 🙂

I might post some of the videos from the performances after I string them together and upload it to YouTube 🙂

Have a great weekend!!

Weekly Writing Challenge: Mail It In..

Back when I was in university, it marked the days that it was routine to check my email at least once every single day when I woke up to make sure that I was not missing homework assignment by teachers or group meeting updates, even job offers.  Eventually, it became that sometimes, group meetings were not that necessary either as we could send in our work separately to each other for review through email and than simply have one person put in the final draft and have everyone do the final reviews also by email where another person will do the final corrections and print out for submission.  Now that I work, its become even more essential.  The habits of checking email hasn’t changed on a personal or professional level.

 

Do I look forward to checking email everyday? I would say that its been a lot more joyous in the mornings to check my personal email since I started diving into the blogosphere.  The various blogs that I follow have made my inbox full of new surprises everyday.  Its always something new to look forward to with new recipes, travel, photography, workouts, movie reviews.  Its just absolutely amazing! As for work, what more can I say than that its more of an obligation to answer to client emails.  The only hope is that it will not bring forth a problematic day or add more stress to the normal work day.  What is nice about email on a work basis though is that it now allows us to not have to meet up with clients in person as much but many issues or transmission of documents can be done through exchange of email.  That is the main pro for email at work.  Time efficiency is so important since whatever time you save from one place, you can put that into finishing up something else or helping move things along ahead of schedule.  On top of that, this also helps to have some sort of “paper” trail where we can refer to discussions with proof of what was talked about and mentioned when conflicts occur.

 

We can easily see the benefits of email is its convenience.  It also helps with saving time to complete tasks.  You can now save time to meet up for anything or to have to bring anything in hard copy to discuss.  It can all be discussed through soft copies sent over to another person to help solve any issues.  With this way though, sometimes, one major downfall is miscommunication. Miscommunication is also due to the lack of communication in general.  So now we pull back and bring this to a more personal level.  On this level, we have the benefits of having a more cost-efficient way to keep in touch with our friends and family that may live in the neighboring city, next province, next state (if you are in US), another country in the Americas or overseas.

 

I hate to sound all old-school but I love snail mail.  It may take days to weeks to receive but I enjoy doing it.  Even if during the year, I don’t end up sending off a lot of mail but I always make it a point to send off actual Christmas cards.  I need to maintain that little bit of human connection.  I’ve always felt that reading something someone wrote is a lot more personal than sending off an e-card or something along those lines.  Yes, it costs to pay for stamps and cards or whatnot but sometimes, its very nice to receive something heartwarming in the mail (other than bills, flyers and more bills).  Of course all this is on a more personal level.  Emails are a means to get the arrangement of meetings done or to pull a efficient conversation or message through to someone far away.  Is it more efficient than picking up a phone and telling someone all your updates once in a while or simply skyping about it?.

 

I love emails because on one side it help be a whole lengthy word vomit session with your friends.  Nothing can really replace the voice of your best friend, hearing the excitement when you share some great news or knowing that they aren’t okay when they say they are.  Even seeing all the effort they put into writing a card or letter and sending it off, because you know that they took the time to do that extra little gesture, doesn’t it just warm up your heart?  Thinking about it, if you were in the same city as the people you email to keep in touch, does that replace having a nice chat over dinner or possibly even having movie night together? Maybe its because life has become so eventful, maybe work is very busy, maybe there just isn’t time…emails are the answer because you just can’t spare the time on either end.

 

The important question now is: Do you feel that emails are the last resort to keep in touch or is it your go-to plan no matter what the circumstances are? What do you think?