I have been watching a crazy amount of random YouTube videos lately and one day I happened across a cover of Beyonce's Why Don't You Love Me by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. That got me thinking about covers and a musician's ability to take a well known song and alter it to fit their style, while still keeping the song's essence. I love covers because it's always interesting to hear a different interpretation and sometimes I end up liking the newer version better than the original. So after some searching and thinking, here are some of my favourite covers (links because a lot of videos would slow down page loading).
MARIA ARAGON - Born This Way (Lady Gaga Cover) (This is by an 11 year-old girl from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Lady Gaga fell in love and flew her out to perform at her concert in Toronto)
KURT HUMMEL/CHRIS COLFER (Glee) - Rose's Turn (Cover from the musical Gypsy)
Last night, the awesome singer-songwriter Kina Grannis came to Toronto. I went with a friend (who shall be referred to as M) for her birthday - Happy Birthday!!! (It's today). Anyway, Kina was FANTASTIC!! Honestly, she is soooo good live. For those who don't know, Kina started singing covers and putting original material on YouTube in 2007, (although she has been singing for longer), and has been growing ever since. She is a brilliant singer with such an honest voice. She recently released her newest album, a remastered version of her 2010 album "Stairwells". We bought the deluxe edition which has covers and extra material as well as music videos.
Imaginary Friend (sorry for bad pic quality)
The show started about 40 mins late, probably because people took so long to get in. It was sold out and held at the Great Hall, in Toronto, the third stop on her tour. The late start was really only frustrating because M and I were terribly hungry due to the fact that we didn't have the sense to eat before we left. Her opening act, Imaginary Friend, was great. Just a man with a guitar and a soothing voice. You can see him on facebook, myspace or Twitter, with the name "imaginarytweets" (hehehe).
Then Kina came on, to a much adoring crowd. We Torontonians love her :) She opened with "The World in Front of Me", the name of her tour. Her set consisted of new songs, like "In Your Arms", old favourites, such as "Valentine" and "Message From Your Heart" and some requests shouted out by the crowd. She was very laid back and fun and awesome to see live. You can actually listen to the regular version of the CD on AOL New Releases. M had only heard Valentine before going to the concert and she loved it :)
*unrelated stuff ahead*
M and I didn't stay for the meet and greet with Kina because we were just so hungry and she had class all day the next day. So we headed back to my place but decided to stop for pizza up the street. We went to Pizza Pizza, and got a large pepperoni because there was a deal. It was almost midnight, there was a music video about zombie ninjas playing, so naturally our conversation shifted to a lovely discussion on whether or not ninjas could be zombies and zombies ninjas. While we were waiting for our gooey deliciousness to arrive, some guy, named Adam apparently, comes in and asks to sit down at our table. The restaurant was empty with lots of free space, but we said yes (cuz we're polite). Then he joined out conversation, explaining the origins of ninjas and samurais. He continued to talk about random stuff, got our pizza for us and talked while we ate and listened. He told some unrelated story about an 18 year old in a bar (19's the drinking age in Ontario) and was like 18!! Ohh those high schoolers. Then he asks us, so you're in university right? We answer yes (it's true) so he continues to talk for a bit. When he gets up to get us napkins, he asks, you guys are 21 right? Nope. 19 (one more month still for me). He says ohh, sort of finishes what he was talking about, gets his jacket and leaves, like he's about to be caught doing something wrong. Really? Honestly? I've had plenty of conversations with random strangers (of all ages - old people especially). I mean, he seemed like a perfectly normal guy who just liked talking to people at midnight on a Wednesday, but that 19 thing just threw us off. Did he expect something to happen? If he tried anything, we would have gone all zombie ninja on his ass.
Thoughts on Zombie Ninjas or got some Kina Love? Leave in the comments :)
♥ Turtles
p.s. Two music videos:
My fave Kina song that she did not sing unfortunately.
Last night were the Junos, a Canadian music award show, kind of like the Grammy's. I never intended to watch it, but since both The Celebrity Apprentice and The Amazing Race were not showing, I ended up watching it. And it was actually pretty good. One of our more popular exports, Drake, hosted it and he was fantastic! Probably the best host I've ever seen and I generally don't like them. But he was extremely funny and messed up only once. His Old Money sketch is hilarious.
Anyway, while Shania Twain was accepting her life time achievement award, I got to thinking about how awesome Canadians are, and being a Canadian is. Honestly! It's one of the best countries on the planet, in my humble opinion. We're peaceful, pretty well off, compared to a lot of countries, our health care and education is excellent and we're generally nice people. Stereotypes about hockey, the weather, and our beloved Tim Hortons, are generally based in truth, but if that's what people think of us, that's great.
The Junos honour Canadian musicians and throughout the program, I heard names of people I've never heard of before. But it just made me proud that there are so many great musicians out there representing Canada making all types of music. I guess I'm just in a proud mood :)
Here's some awesome Canadian music for you guys.
Oh Canada - Classified, a good old Maritime Rapper. Very good song.
The Anthem - Kardinal Offishall, a Toronto rapper
Loving You Is Easy - Sarah Mclachlan ( the one that brought you in the arrrmmss of an anggelll...)
p.s. What stereotypes do people have about Canada and Canadians? I'm curious to know what people outside of Canada actually think of us. Leave a comment :)
Now I can't claim to be an expert on Bollywood, or anything Indian for that matter, but I quite enjoy watching Bollywood films. Every Sunday at noon on OMNI, a channel that shows various cultural programming in multiple languages throughout the week, they play a Bollywood movie. Should I not be at church or still sleeping, I like to tune in and enjoy. The films have subtitles, thank goodness, because my Hindi is non-existent. Although the translations aren't the best, you get the gist.
There are three reasons why I think love these movies so much.
1) The music!!: Years ago, I used to be neighbours with a Trinidadian woman. We (my bro and I) would be at her house often after school or when my parents were working. She would always play soundtracks from various films and have them playing on the TV too. I think that's where this whole thing started. I love the music because it's different from the music I normally hear. For one, the woman's voice is always very high pitched. It always sounds so beautiful and I don't think the translations do it justice. Sometimes it's sad, other times happy and jolly. And there are ALWAYS awesome dance moves.
2) India: I know that what I see is not the whole country, just a selection of the beautiful, but beautiful it is. The shots used are often very stunning and the people and the culture are gorgeous. Especially the clothes. Weddings for instance, are extremely ornate, in the costuming, makeup, jewelery, henna, etc. The colours and designs are stunning. Even in sad film, the beauty is always there.
3) The endings: Not all movies have a happy ending, but I have yet to meet a Bollywood one that didn't. Nor do I want to. I like when things end well. Last week, one movie almost had me fooled. I was one the edge of my seat, almost crying, but not quite because the tears would block my view. There was five minutes left and the wife had not returned!! She full out hoped on the plane and went away!! Only 3 mins before the film was over, did she return. I was sooo relieved. My brother and dad thought I was crazy but honestly, I was freaked. An unhappy ending to a Bollywood movie? Never.
My favourite film is the very hilarious Sunday (2008). It's about a girl who goes clubbing, gets drugged, and forgets a whole day, waking up on Monday. She, along with various extremely funny friends and strangers, try to remember what happened on Sunday. I hope that if you're ever in the mood for something different and interesting, you give Bollywood a try :)
Well it's Valentine's Day. Yea! I guess. I've never really been into it. But I do like the chocolate and candy, naturally. I had a container of conversation hearts, which led to make this little 6 second video. The song is Valentine by Kina Grannis. She's awesome.
My friend Rae made an interesting video about the history of Valentine's Day: check it out! :)
In other news, the Grammy's were yesterday. And I actually stayed up, neglected my work and watched the whole thing :O. I'm not much for award shows because I have a dislike for speeches (the mute button and my self are close personal friends).
But I was surprised at two the winners: Esperanza Spalding (YouTube) for Best New Artist and The Arcade Fire for Album of the Year. I'd never heard of Spalding so I googled/wikied/YouTubed her and she's pretty awesome. Very deserving.
And of course, the Arcade Fire are proud Canadians, so it's all good. I only know one song by them, Rebellion (Lies). <-♥ They seemed shocked, as did Barbra Streisand, who read out the award. Montreal was mentioned about 4 times in their speech - woot woot for Canada!!
Some good performances were by Miranda Lambert, Dr Dre + Rihanna + Eninem + Skylar Grey, B.O.B. + Bruno Mars + Janelle Monae, Mumford and Sons and the Avett Brothers.
Now, for some outrageousness...
Yeah, she showed up on the Red Carpet in this egg and was "born" on stage as she emerged to perform her song "Born This Way". Ridiculous, but not as crazy as the meat dress...
Of course Ms. Nicki Minaj would show up looking like this with her signature pink lipstick and a Bride of Frankenstein wig.
Oh, and J. Biebs had ninja drummers (though you can't see the drums here because they're in stealth mode)
Cee-lo was channeling some major Elton John and I was scared Gwen would fall off the piano o_O. Those were like 5 inch heels! As my friend so awesomely put it :
"I think he had a little brawl with Big Bird before he showed up to the Grammy's. Judging by his outfit, Big Bird won".
Recently, there has been a song that I cannot stop singing: Mariella by Kate Nash. I have no clue why. Maybe it's the extreme change of tempo from the slow begin to the infectious end. Maybe it's that I been in love with British things recently, and Ms. Kate Nash falls in that category. Perhaps it's because part of me wants to "never ever ever ever ever ever ever unglue my lips from being together!" (you know, if they were). Whatever it is, I freaking love it. So much that I even made a little postcard thing about it. (I've been doing that lately, decorating a postcard to express whatevs on me mind).
The song is basically about a girl who takes a glue stick and glues her lips together, much to horror of her mother. Mariella throws out all the colour and only wears black. She doesn't speak or have many friends, but she does what she wants and is perfectly content in her own little world.
