Jammin’ | Being Emme

Ross Neilsen’s Serving Up the Black Coffee

February 19, 2012 By Emme Leave a Comment

For those of you that have been following along for awhile, especially on blip.fm, you’ll know I love my slow moving weekend coffee blips. So was pretty excited to discover this morning, while posting a ‘Tune from the Road‘ on Roamancing, that Mr. Ross Neilsen was serving up some ‘Black Coffee’.

If like me, you love listening to artists play around with making tunes and writing their own music, you’ll want to follow along on Ross’ blog as he’s taking on the Song of the Week Challenge. Was first introduced to this concept when Bronwyn Malloy was interning with Ahimsa Media, and lending her pen to my site, and I have to say it gave me a huge appreciation for the creativity and hard work these musicians put into their craft.

Filed Under: All the Gossip, Bronwyn the Intern, Buds, Jammin' Tagged With: black coffee, blues, ross neilsen, song of the week

Scenes that Make Me Smile: Dancing up at Storm at 2012 IBC Great Canadian Polar Bear Blues Showcase

February 17, 2012 By Emme 1 Comment

"No, I Said Smile!"

Moments like these two have made me decide to start a new column of ‘Scenes that Make Me Smile’, because life is too short not to.

Groovin' Up a Storm at the IBC Great Canadian Polar Bear Blues Showcase

With special thanks to all the great Canadians at the first annual IBC Great Canadian Polar Bear Blues Showcase for inspiring these moments. Here are two of them in action at the Kooky Canuck in Memphis, Tennessee.

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

Filed Under: All the Gossip, Events, Jammin', Music Scene, The Tube, Travel, US Tagged With: 2012 IBC, 2012 International Blues Challenge, dancing, dancing to the blues, great canadian polar bear blues showcase, ibc, ibc canadian polar bear blues showcase, IBC Canadian Showcase, international blues challenge, jimmy and the sleepers, kooky canuck, memphis, scenes that make me smile, smile, Tennessee

Valentine’s Love

February 14, 2012 By Emme 1 Comment

For me Valentine’s should not be a one day affair or simply about couples. Valentine’s should be an on-going philosophy of remembering to tell the people in your life that you love them and showing them that on a regular basis. Saying “I love you” when you get off the phone or bid them adieu, giving them hugs and kisses when you see them and leave them, and doing thoughtful things for them.

Alas I may not be Richard Yearwood's 'lover', but I do love that this man has no issues with hugging, kissing or telling me he loves me. The feeling is mutual and one of the many reasons I love to both work and play with this man.

These are not simply the ramblings of a gal that is single on Valentine’s Day. I actually generally prefer my single Valentines, as more people tell me they love me and I am never met with disappointment. Plus Fuzzywiggle Furrypants Roo makes the best damn Valentine’s cat that there ever was. She gives even more kisses and hugs than I do (and I’m pretty liberal with mine).

No, this is a philosophy instilled in me thanks to my parents. And thanks to them, it is the reason that I know where I stand with my family, close friends and many of the people who I work with (who I consider to be family and close friends) ~ they love me and I love them (Hell, at Ahimsa that seems to be one of the long term prerequisites ~ do they have talent and do we love them ~ necessary after all, when we do long hours, all over the World). And as I get older and have sadly started to lose some of the people in my life that I love, it is for this reason that I always know the last thing that I said to them ~ I love you! (and despite saying these words often, every day of my life, they are not hollow words).

And with that, I send all you lovely readers some hugs …

With smooches to Ian MacLatchy for posting this video on our producer, Erica’s, facebook wall, where I spotted it.

Love and Kisses,

Emme xoxo

Filed Under: All the Gossip, Jammin', relationships, The Tube Tagged With: Ahimsa Media, Erica Hargreave, Fuzzywiggle Furrypants Roo, hugs, i love you, Ian MacLatchy, kisses, love, on-going Valentines, philosophy of Valentines, Richard yearwood, Valentine's cat, Valentine's love, Valentines, Valentines Day, year round Valentines

Proud to Call Myself Canadian with all the Great Canadian Talent at the 2012 IBC in Memphis

February 11, 2012 By Emme 2 Comments

Always find it funny that it takes traveling the World or, in this case, driving to Memphis, Tennessee to discover just what incredible talent we have at home. And that is exactly what happened last week on my road trip to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. I discovered just what incredible talent we have in Canada’s Blues Community and what great ambassadors they are to Canada. Yes, there were many talented musicians that we met from the States and elsewhere in the World, but the Canadians were everywhere ~ from Jimmy and the Sleepers at the next table in practically every joint we pulled into for lunch, to the Conor Gains Band teaching a pre-coffee (and hence poorly functioning) version of myself how to use the waffle maker at breakfast, to Ross Neilsen generally showing up whenever I felt the need for a giant bear hug or a cheek to kiss (without the bearer of the cheek thinking it weird – well maybe Ross does think it’s weird, but he certainly doesn’t make me feel weird about it, so I wouldn’t know).

I have to say an enormous thank you to the Ottawa and Montreal Blues Societies for throwing the IBC’s First Great Canadian Polar Bear Blues Showcase and the Kooky Canuck for hosting it, as this ensured that I got to see all the Canadian acts I’d been promising to watch and didn’t need to worry about competing times in the program to catch them all. And wouldn’t you believe it, one of the acts I fell in love with was just a stones throw away from where I live, on Vancouver Island, Jesse Roper with The Roper Show.

Filmed more great Blues from Canada that day, so this is just the beginning of what we’ll be sharing here and on Roamancing.

Thanks to the International Blues Challenge and Memphis, Tennessee, for showcasing all the great Blues artists, and to all the sponsors, including Canada. And congratulations to this year’s IBC winners, Canadian born Ray Bonneville in the Solo / Duet Category and The WIRED! Band in the Band Category. I was lucky enough to see Ray perform and would have to agree that he was brilliant.

Polar Bear Kisses,

Emme xoxo