2009 September | Being Emme

Shark Bites at the CCMA

September 14, 2009 By Emme 4 Comments

For those of you that read here regularly, you’ll know that I rarely write a bad review, but rather highlight what’s hot and sexy in this fine city of ours. Well today is different, because I was completely disgusted and appalled by the arrogance and lack of manners of one particular Vancouver establishment last night. And believe me, they have absolutely nothing to be arrogant about.

Was excited to be attending the Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA) Throwdown After Party at the Shark Club and catching some stompin’ good Canadian talent, like Terri Clark and One More Girl, so for once I got there nice early (no mean feet for me, let me tell you). Well, given that this was a ticketed, invitation only party, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered a line up in front of the Shark Club. No worries, just figured they were running late on setting up.

Ticket Holders Wait in Line at Van City's Shark Club

How wrong I was. Discovered they were letting people in that showed up at the door and were on ‘the list’. No biggie if those people were the entertainment that was showing up to set up. Well, pretty quickly realized that wasn’t the case when they started to ever so slowly let in a few people from our line and huge hoards of people that sidled up to the door.

So what was the story? A local country station, 93.7 JRfm, had given out tickets to lucky winners to attend the CCMA Throwdown, and The Shark Club had taken it upon themselves to make the prize winners wait in the line up on the street, whilst they let those affiliated with the CCMA in. When I finally figured that out, it was because the bouncer told me that ‘we’, in the line, were the ‘nobodies’ and those he was letting in were the ‘somebodies’. WOW!!! Curious to know who he was? The people I was standing in the line with were the true Country Music fans. Many of them were my parents age. Many of them were professionals. So, I’m sorry, who was he!?!

Musicians are nothing without their fans. Its their fans that make them stars. Its their fans that allow them to live their dream. This is one thing that I love about Country Musicians, is that most of them realize this and pay their fans due respect. The Shark Club did not pay these fans due respect. I realized at this point that we would have been on ‘the list’, but there was no way now that I was going to leave the true fans behind in the line. Shame on you Shark Club.

I regularly attend Television Festivals and I can assure you, if you have a ticket, you don’t wait in line. Everyone is treated with the same level of respect, no matter if you are a broadcast big wig or writer just starting out. And I may not be a rocket scientist, but it would seem to me that if you have given out a set number of tickets to an event, then you shouldn’t be over capacity by letting people with tickets in. Shame on you Shark Club.

Furthermore I’m generally disgusted by any club that leaves people waiting on the street whilst inside things are practically empty. This just makes you look pretentious and like a bunch of dumb asses. These are not the sort of establishments that I care to frequent or that I’d recommend to others. The festival pub at the Banff Television Festival has always been the St James Gate, because they treat everyone the same and with respect. The only time they make people wait on the street is if they are over capacity and then everybody waits, no matter whom you think you are. Shame on you Shark Club.

If you want to learn to create raved after establishments, take a page out of the books of two true gentlemen and two of Vancouver’s finest restauranteers – Sean Sherwood (formerly of Fiction and Century House) and Patrick Tubajon (of Gudrun and formerly the Alibi Room).

Photo by Erica Hargreave

What make these two gentlemen truly great in Van City’s restaurant scene is that they treat their guests as though they are welcoming them home. They know their guest and make them feel loved. Sean in fact once told me that he thought of his restaurant as his living room, where he was fortunate enough to have so many friends to share it with.

Shark Club get over yourself and learn to behave like gentlemen. Your parents would not be proud by the behavior I witnessed last night. Shame on you Shark Club.

Filed Under: All the Gossip, Events, Music Scene, Vancouver Events Tagged With: 93.7 JRfm, Canadian Country Music Awards, CCMA, Country Music, Country Musicians, gudrun, One More Girl, Patrick Tubajon, Sean Sherwood, Shark Club, St James Gate, Terri Clark

Dating Guise

September 12, 2009 By Emme 7 Comments

My buddy, Remy Ty, posted this the other day:

… and besides from it giving me a chuckle, it made me wonder why we women put a guise on for men when we first date them? Ladies do you really want to be with someone that you can’t be yourself with?

Filed Under: All the Gossip, Meeting Mr. / Ms. Right (or Right Now), Perfect Dates, relationships, The Tube Tagged With: alan colegrave, ashley walker, brian holdam, deceit, entrapment, guise, mark jackson, menvent, nathalie page, pretending to be someone your not, Remy Ty, stripped, trust, yvonne jackson

Back to the Dating Pool Tech Advice

September 11, 2009 By Emme Leave a Comment

This back to school advice for parents from The Onion, also rings true for observing the behaviors of potential suitors and scaring off the competition. We are after all mammals and this is simply the new form of survival of the fittest.

Thanks for the heads up on these great tech dating tips Monica and memelabs!

Filed Under: All the Gossip, Meeting Mr. / Ms. Right (or Right Now), The Tube Tagged With: back to school, back to the dating pool, dating advice, memelabs, Monica Hamburg, parents, social media. facebook, stalking, The Onion, twitter

It’s Not a Disability. It’s a Superpower.

September 10, 2009 By Emme 5 Comments

Something that I rarely mention is that I am actually dyslexic. I don’t mention it, as I think of it as my secret gift, kinda like my superpower (cause clearly I’m a superhero, in case you had any doubt).

Photo by sergiok

So why is dyslexia a gift to me? It’s a gift, because my mind thinks in a different way to most peoples. I see things differently and I am not limited to seeing within the lines. This often confuses people into thinking I am brilliant (but thats okay, your welcome to continue thinking that). It’s also a gift as, because it takes me longer to read things, I learned how to work hard at a young age and I learned how to problem solve. There is generally more than one solution to any given problem and more than one way to get things done. Not everybody realizes that.

But I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m lucky, because I have two of the most amazing parents that never treated me as if I had a disability (because its not a disability, it’s a superpower – remember) and they had the same expectations of me as of my siblings (and in fact emphasized that my sister and I had identical IQs). I’m lucky, because I have a Mom that fought to keep me out of resource rooms that would have treated my dyslexia like a disability. And I’m lucky, as I was given the resources and attention that I needed to learn to read and write properly. I’ve always had more than my share of angels in my life. Hell, I didn’t even know that I was actually dyslexic until I was 28 (but thats a story for another day).

But, not everybody is as lucky as me. A lot of people are told they have ‘disabilities’ that make them incapable or less capable. Thats hogwash and if you believe them, then you are giving yourself a disability.

So why am I telling this story now? I’m telling it as the Shore 104 fm introduced me to a great project and organization a couple of weeks ago. The VAMS ‘Music Saves’ Project that brought people with superpowers together with well known musicians to help tell their stories.

Thats what VAMS does. They empower people with superpowers to tell their stories through music. Love it! They are essentially like one of the angels that empowered me to be able to tell my stories through the written word, but with music.

An enormous thank you to the people at VAMS, and to the Shore 104 fm for introducing me to their work!