Apocalypse Kow Show!

Edmonton a cappella quintet Apocalypse Kow is recording their first CD, and you're invited to help them out!

On Saturday, June 24th, at the Knox Metropolitan Church, Apocalypse Kow hosts a show that will be recorded for the purposes of making their first album.

Apocalypse Kow has been around since 1997, when all the members met through the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus. Since then, Kow's been seen busking around Edmonton, and they’ve been featured guests in the Carnival of Shrieking Youth, participants in multiple Northern Harmony competitions (Alberta's "Battle of the A Cappella Bands"), and most notably, had their own outdoor stage show in the past three Fringe theatre festivals. Last year, Kow was honoured to be the hosts of the World Masters Games "Party in the Park," where they entertained an audience constisting of athletes from around the world.

Apocalypse Kow has been trying to record an album for quite a few years, now, but technical difficulties keep getting in the way. But this year, they really want to get a CD out for the fans that have been asking for one for the past eight years now. So they decided that a live CD was better than none.

At this concert, Apocalypse Kow has asked John McMillan and Jennifer Kinghorn to participate as well. Aside from being a member of Canada’s premier nose flute ensemble, Jennifer accompanies many choir ensembles, such as Oran, the Brail Tones, Kokopelli, and Operanuova. She recently completed her diploma in Music Composition at MacEwan College, and sings with local a cappella jazz ensemble, Tapas. John McMillan is also a graduate of MacEwan’s Music Composition program, and recently returned from the University of Toronto, where he studied jazz voice. He conducts the FORM vocal jazz ensemble and is the artistic director of “Happnin,” the U of A vocal jazz ensemble. Besides directing choirs, John is in demand as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, teacher and clinician.

The concert takes place as Knox Metropolitan Church (8307 109 St) at 7:00 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $10 in advance and at the door. For more information, call Kyle or Stan at 439-5799.

Concert Alert!

This Saturday, May 20th, come see the choir that Kokopelli managed to bring in from Namibia for a month tour, Mascato!

I've got in my hands 12 tickets, six for the 2 pm show, six for the 7 pm show. Adults go for $16, Students/Seniors are $13, and Children from 6-12 are $8.

You'll see Mascato, which is one awesome chamber choir from Africa, along with Kokopelli and Oran.

The show takes place at West End Christian Reform Church (10015 149 St), and tickets are pretty much sold out.

So, if you can get a hold of me, I can get you some tickets for one sweet show!

And now off to work.

Is anyone doing anything next Wednesday (the 26th)? Does anyone WANT to accompany me to the Small Sins (formerly The Ladies and Gentlemen) concert at the Starlite Room?

Because I'm going. Thom d'Arcy and friends ROCK the JOINT! (Here's the review of the last time I saw them...)

Also, how could I forget about this? Jordan Jose Elek Rivero was born last Monday. I'm a pseudo-uncle! Now if only I knew Astro's Photobucket address so I could link to all the baby pics!

Congrats, Joel and Anita!

Odd Transformations 31... OR IS IT???

So I went home for Easter. It was a very fun time. Loads of food from my parents (Friday: Steak. Saturday: Turkey. Sunday: Steak. Again. Not that I mind. Monday: Homemade hamburgers.), hanging out with Braden and his fiancee, silly pics taken at Mac the Moose for my e-fed friends, and a trip to the set of Corner Gas.

Now, Corner Gas isn't currently filming, but of course, the sets are all up and in some cases, boarded up. And a lot of local Rouleau buildings act as sets, so it's not like they tear THOSE down! Still, once Kow goes to Moose Jaw for Brade's wedding, I'm sure I'll take Canton and others who want to go for a proper tour, when they ARE filming.


Here's me at the actual, boarded up set.













When it comes to my dream, I had one on Monday morning. When I woke up, I realized that I wouldn't be able to post promptly, since my sister was sleeping in the computer room. So I used the whiteboard beside the telephone to make notes and then went back to sleep.

Now, lots of dreams escape in that period where you just wake up, and this was no exception. Good thing I took notes! But my heart dropped when I read the notes:

HORROR FILM

- Demon attacking
- Killed by a possessed Durgrlwrw

Yup, I was sleepy when writing, and I couldn't figure out the last word. It took me five minutes of trying to decipher it! But I remembered, sort of.

Now, I'm not sure if I was killed by a possessed D-word, or if it was the demon. However, the word I had trouble figuring out was "Dagwood."

Yes, something was killed by a possessed Dagwood sandwich. The one that gained fame from the Blondie comic. Yes. A monster sandwich turned, well, monstrous.

* * *

Otherwise, not much going on. Went to Metric last week with Dev, Marky and Dustin. Fun concert, although I'm very happy I managed to finangle earplugs from a security guard. And, as Dev said, the encore is a LITTLE long when they play Dead Disco for 18 minutes.

Now, if only I could get a lead on Death Cab/Franz Ferdinand tickets...

Odd Transformations 30: Coming home

My school's having its 75th anniversary reunion in July. Unfortunately, due to Kow singing at my brother's wedding the week afterwards, I don't think I'll be able to make it to the celebrations. Regardless of if I can go or not, my mind decided to take me there in the midst of sleep this morning.

Kow decided to take a bus full of Peacock alum to get to Moose Jaw. When we got there, the celebration was in full swing, and the rest of Kow melted away while I went to be part of these celebrations in my old high school auditorium. There was a talent show, that I might have been a part of, I can't remember. My friend kingston did an act that got straight zeros from the audience.

My old drama teacher LJ was the MC for the night, and he got into a fight with some teens who were tuning up for their rock band portion of the show.

Odd dream.

* * *

So I had a week of vacation last week, one where I just decided to stay in town and rest. It was fun, and I've still go another week to burn before the end of April, so I'm heading to Moose Jaw for a few days over Christmas.


Inventory was last Sunday and I was at the store for 16 hours! Whee! Apparently, I wasn't there for all of the fun, like when the computer broke and lost a good chunk of stock numbers (I went in to sell Dev his shiny new MP3 toy for about an hour or so on Thursday), or when that finally got fixed, the inventory was all out of sync.

I went back to work yesterday to find a whole bunch of things that hadn't been fixed (the sale that ended last week not taken down, old flyers in the flyer basket, etc.) and the store the temperature of a sauna. We called maintenance and they went on the roof to clear out our vents or something, because we finally had ventilation in the store in the afternoon. Other than that, it was a VERY slow day at work. Marky's taking some time off in between my two vacations, and I think he deserves it with him working his ass off. Every time we think we get to relax, there's a threat of a store visit by the new boss of the company, or inventory, of threat of a visit by the old boss. Sigh.

The reason I rarely hit the clubs...

First off, today was the Mixed Chorus concert.

Beforehand, Dev, MFJ, Astro and wife, Justice and wife, and I went to L'Azia's for dinner. I love L'Azia's. Such good food, and more than just the Asian fusion cuisine they're known for. I had myself an awesome steak. It was the first time in a while that we had ALl gotten together, but Justice was determined to have us hang out, to the point of setting a time every month since January, only to finally have today settled upon before we realized it was the night of the concert.

But, hey, we're all alums of the chorus, except for Justice's wife, the Talkative One. So we decided to just go for dinner beforehand.

The concert was decent. Nothing really stood out to me, except for one song with a harp. I enjoyed the second half more than the first, and the choir didn't really seem to be giving it all they've got. They were holding it in. And it showed. But all in all? Good.

But tonight was ALSO the Oran pub crawl. Astro really wanted to go, and I thought it'd be fun to hit one of the places they were going to before coming back and hopefully having rest before tomorrow's inventory at the store. (We start at 8 am. When do we finish? Who the hell knows? WHEEEE!) The bad part? The location that party was at (since it was a crawl, they were at club 3 of 4 or something) the Union. Now the Union's a typical club for Edmonton: Lots of young folk, half-dressed female staff, pumping loud music. And crowded as hell.

Astro and I get in without worrying about cover (God bless the pub crawl party reservation), and manage to locate our Oran friends. Since we were at the UAMC concert beforehand, we were also two of the best-dressed guys at that place. I'm soaking in my surroundings (such a gaudy club) and observing the friends already on the dance floor when I get kicked in the head.

Yes. Kicked! In the head! (Snakes! On a plane!) I only realized it when my glasses were pushed halfway across my face. A guy at the bar was swinging his girlfriend around (in a very crowded bar) and her foot caught me in the temple. The guy asks if we're cool, and I shoot him a dirty look before saying that everything's fine.

So it became my catchphrase in the bar:

"Hey! Jago! How are you doing?"

"I'm so hardcore, I was kicked in the face!"

"What? When?"

"I dunno. Five minutes ago?"

Astro and I get some beers and travel to the dance floor in search of some of our friends. I'm pretty decent at travelling through crowds. My height really helps me locate people in a crowded room, and I'm big enough that I can cut my way through a bunch of people pretty easily and not jostle them to the point of being pissed off.

Halfway to our group, I hear someone mutter to her friend, "Hey, can you pinch that guy's ass for me?" At which point, someone decides to take a pound of flesh from my posterior.

To be honest, I was so intent on getting to people I knew in this place, that I completely ignored whoever decided to pinch my ass. Didn't turn around with a scowl, didn't anything. Just kept on slicing through the dance floor to get to my destination.

So, was the pinch enough of a good thing to counteract the "kicked in the face" part? Well, I could say it was Schrodinger's Girl, and that she could have been either hot or not-so. But I'm not sure if even a very good-looking girl would be worth the fact that I could HEAR HER GIVE INSTURCTIONS to her friend, and that it wasn't exactly something that'd make me say, "Your place or mine?"

Unless, you know, I knew them.

It brings up another story that happened a few years ago with Canton and one very cute soprano in the Mixed Chorus:

I forget the context of this story, but I'm pretty sure it was at least the three of us hanging around, and Canton, EB and I were shooting the bull. Somehow, the conversation turned into how much guys like getting their asses grabbed, and Canton said, "Jago doesn't like getting his ass grabbed."

EB: Oh, really?

Canton: Nah, watch.

And Canton grabs my ass. Of course, I know how to play this up and I frown, furrowed brow and all.

EB: That can't be right. Let me try.

And she does. And I smile.

Canton: Wow. That's never happened before.

Canton grabs my ass, and I scowl. And repeat, Canton not figuring out that it's not so much me getting my ass grabbed that makes me angry, so much as it's when it's not being grabbed by a hot girl.

And with that, I'm off to bed. Whoo! Inventory!