Tag: meetup

This is the fourth year in a row that I’ve written an original holiday song. Previously, the songs were funny or cynical, or took a stab at conventional holiday sentiments like peace and love. Immediately after finishing last year’s song (perhaps the most scathing holiday song of the three) I decided to write my next [...]

Beige Shelter had the pleasure of being interviewed on Passion Projects TV. I'm the percussionist, occasional songwriter, and producer for the band. Our host was journalism student Kayla Douglas. We talked about: the band name and where it came from our debut album, Rumours We Make, Paths We Take songwriting and collaborating performing cover songs [...]

In September, I hosted a new event at my Meetup group, The Songwriting Supermarket. I invited members to get together and collaborate on writing a song in two hours. Three other talented songwriters showed up, and we had a blast writing and recording a new song, Don’t Fix Me. Before the session, I [...]

I met singer-songwriter Shari Archinoff at one of my meetup groups. Shari plays piano, guitar, sings, and lives in the same neighbourhood I grew up in. The first time we met, I came up with a simple chord progression on the piano. Shari developed lyrics and a melody for a song about moving on from [...]

I was always labelled the “shy one” or the “quiet one” at family gatherings, and even school group activities and other social functions. Being an impressionable child, I just believed what I was told and didn’t actually do anything about it. I don’t think I noticed, as I grew older, that I could carry on one-on-one [...]

In addition to being a co-organizer and co-host of the the Songwriter's Meetup in Toronto, I also participate by presenting my own songs to the group and getting their feedback. There's nothing quite like getting constructive feedback from fellow songwriters that's always supportive and encouraging. The group experience never fails in inspiring me to improve my [...]

Organized as a Meetup.com group for photographers, we made the conscious choice to stay in the old part of Havana instead of a resort. Havana had been, and continues to, go through a massive transformation as the old city becomes gentrified and joins the global community. Often you'd see a crumbling old building next door [...]

I hosted a showcase event for our Songwriter's Cafe meetup group today at the Central Bar. It was a great experience, and I got to see many great performances. In addition to announcing the performers, I also photographed and sound recorded the event to share with the individual performers. Live mixing was handled by Phil, and [...]

I had the opportunity to join a group of photographers for a special shoot. We arranged to enter the show before it was open to the public, and we were permitted to use tripods. The group gave pointers before the event to use a middle f-stop (f5.6 or f8)  to ensure you get the entire [...]