Mainstreets Association of Almonte and Pakenham’s Neighborhood
The "O" stands for "Oh", the "C" stands for "See", and the "B" stands for "Bananas", which is what we see - a whole big nasty pile of the yeller fellers if we can get these boys out to their rightful audience! Actually we made that up. The band's name is derived from the lyrics of a song by their Musical God, Neil Young. Guess which one? You could win a banana-daq-soaked-ride in the record company limo if you get it right!
Ed Atwell and Nathan Sloniowski have wrapped their cucumbers in foil, tied on new guitar strings, brushed up their Stetsons and are headin' out into the indie musical yonder to perform a bunch of tunes they've been making up since meeting just outside Blakeney, Ontario, in a box-car, mere moments before it crashed into the icy rapids of the Mississippi.
Learn about gigs and all that at the minty-fresh OCBurning Faceobook Group! And before you go over there have a listen over to the left to the live-off-the-floor recording that we, the cheap chimps at the record company, put together at one of the boys' recent practice sessions. See ya in the musical yonder!
Folk and bluegrass musicians band together Oct. 28th for concert against uranium mine at Almonte Old Town Hall
Almonte – Oct. 24th, 2007: Help protest through song! Mining exploration on the Mississippi watershed has so far inspired an ongoing hunger strike by a grandmother named Donna Dillman (see pic below), a protest flotilla down the Mississippi River to Parliament Hill, and multi-million-dollar lawsuits and counter-suits between mining interests and private citizens or Native People. This Sunday Oct. 28th starting at 7pm at the Old Town Hall in Almonte, Ont., Ottawa Valley folk and bluegrass musicians are uniting behind this important cause to help raise funds for the Native People and private citizens who are manning protest positions near the Frontenac County mining company site and running community awareness campaigns. Concert tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for youth and are available at the door.
Musicians who have agreed to play at the benefit concert include: Terry
Tufts, Neville Wells, Joey Wright, Jenny Whiteley, Ric Denis, Jennifer
Noxon, Nathan Sloniowski, Jim Kirkham, Frank Morrison and Morrison's
wacky alias, "Dwain Scudder". Tufts, Wells, Morrison and "Scudder" have
each written songs inspired by the anti-uranium mining issue and will
be playing their new compositions at the Sunday concert.
Frank Morrison, the first landowner to raise awareness regarding mining prospecting plans at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, will MC the concert.
For more information, please contact Kathryn Briggs or Terry Tufts by email: bluenorthernmusic@gmail.com or call Frank Morrison himself at 613-479-8016
This is a typical restoration project. We started with a fine old chair from my own collection - a product of the F.E. Coombe Company Limited. Based in Kincardine, Ontario, the furniture made at the Coombe factory was known worldwide. It was used to furnish the Canadian Government House in England, the MPPs' chairs in Parliament, and the Queen's suite when she visited Canada. Talk about heritage!
OK, now let's talk about restoration. The upholstery on this chair came to me in good shape, but a frustrated family pet seemed to take a liking to one of the chair's arms, and so the chewed up woodwork had to be restored and refinished by one of my trusted craftsmen.
Next came new cotton felt on the arms and body of the chair, and then I covered the chair in the new material and added tacks, in keeping with the styling of the original piece. Lastly, I enlarged the cushion and added some feather down to keep its new owners comfy.
Glenna Watts. 613-256-7165 for your next upholstery project.
Well its official... change has come for James McBeath
As many of my closest friends know, I've been lighting candles at both ends, the middle and elsewhere for going on two years. Breathe Productions is growing and my attention is being spread very thin to too many initiatives. I've made the executive decision to simplify. I've decided that it is time for me to change my role with Breathe Productions (web) and concentrate on only two initiatives. Two new and exciting ones to boot!
First - Breathe Productions: I've created a partnership with Shelley Montreiul of Strategic Media Consulting and she will be the wind beneath Breathe's wings from here on in. As many of my clients are my friends and I've invested a ton into this company, I will definitely be working closely on the strategic direction end and business managing Breathe as it continues to grow. We are now 8 strong and will be hiring and engaging more for our team after a brief period of settling to roles. In 2008 we will be actively moving towards two vertical markets with our web offerings. Breathe Production clients will continue to have me as their strategic lead, but Shelley will be shoring up all the details in her strong project management ways and handling the production and delivery process. www.breatheproductions.com
The new...
Left side of brain - World Kayak: The World Kayak Initiative has been a brainchild of 4-time World Champ, Eric Jackson for going on 10 years. We first spoke of it in '96 at a infamous meeting of the minds in Montreal. The idea had merit, but no funding, time or leadership to be truely carried forwards. This year EJ and I reawakened it due to dangerously slipping statistics concerning new enthusiasts... our market is drying up a bit. The aim is quite simply to bring the sport of whitewater kayaking to where it should. Build a network of ambassadors across the globe, improve how the sport is integrated with other sports, get into the media's face more, implement Parks programs, youth programs, help events become point series/leagues, help the World Cup efforts and get our freestyle events into the next Olympics. I've just been appointed Chief bottle washer (Dir/Prez) of the World Kayak org. This is finally an extremely well funded and backed initiative and has legs of its' own now to stand on for generations. We have access to a staff and a growing list of volunteers in most sectors of the globe. I get to be that first master of the ship as she launches out of the dock. Cool. www.worldkayak.com
Right side of brain - Post-Production Project Management: Luc Devar, one of my first hires 15 years ago at Honeybee Software has gained the rights to a software I had helped design back in the day. I left that company simply because the partnership didn't want to go down the 'product' path. Last month, Luc asked me to help him do just that. Job Central (new name to come) is a tried and true project management software solution. Luc has been installing it internationally at some of the largest agencies, design houses, internal art departments and post-production firms around... Red Car (NYC), NFL Productions, Chiat Day, Leo Burnett, Whirlpool, Final Cut and many others... Luc has made an amazing living with this product, but he wants to take it to the next level...he needed some help with the sales and channel development... I get to rebrand and launch into this industry at my own whim and pace... basically taking over from where I was 15 years ago and leaning on the experience I have gained in channel marketing/development over that span with Compuware and others. Fun! www.job-central.net (old and outdated)
Cheers.
Wow. What a community!
The story: OK. About 4 or so years ago a study came out naming Adventure Tourism as THE fastest growing market vertical in tourism. Who wouda thought. A couple years later, studies showed that Adventure Sporting retail became the 2nd largest industry in between IT and Telecom. WOW #2. Here's where the mystery lay: Why then did it seem that whitewater was at a standstill. Manufacturers were closing down, pro paddlers weren't getting the coverage other adventure athletes got... there were many signs of contradiction in the stats. So in 2007 we got a closer look. Adventure industry stats showed that, where most adventure sports climbed in enthusiast buy-in, whitewater and a handful of others declined! As far back as 2002 a decline started. Viewing these stats at the same time as I, was an old pal Eric Jackson (www.jacksonkayak.com), the #1 whitewater boat manufacturer. We got to talking.
"So how can we bring attention to our sport?" one of us asked. We stepped back and listed the many characteristics of our passion and both came to the same conclusion... its the people. Another element of note in our industry is our web savvy. There isn't a SINGLE boater who isn't hooked to the web. Boaterboards, Skype, youtube, myspace is laden with our kind.
"So... why not bring the community together" one said. So we did. www.Worldkayak.com was launched last week. The site is set in three social media arenas...
www.worldkayak.com - your common portal, run by 25 regional ambassadors who keep it up to date with regional news, events, lists of paddling orgs and much more. It is already signing on ambassadors from Central and South America, 10 countries in Europe, the Africas, S. Korea, Japan, NZ and Australia. All built on Breathe Production's publishing tool suite of course.
www.worldkayakblogs.com - a blogspot with attitude. Much like Vox actually, but built for self customization. Bloggers can set up a web site just like VOX, but can also add on their own 'widgits' and choose from thousands of WordPress templates. More importantly bloggers are associated by region and a growing list of categories (tips, video, trip journals etc.).
www.worldkayakblogs.com/wiki - a riverwiki built on the same engine as wikipedia.com, this site will play host to an evergrowing list of rivers and detailed descriptions of each.
The sites will forever be moving, migrating, growing and exciting for all ... our community is becoming more present and hopefully worldkayak.com will help pave a way to an increased interest in our sport. Please feel free to check things out... its very early in its infancy, but growing rapidly.
I'd like to thank our ambassadors, Colin Kemp and EJ and all who helped get this up... this was a team effort!
Wow. What a community!
The story: OK. About 4 or so years ago a study came out naming Adventure Tourism as THE fastest growing market vertical in tourism. Who wouda thought. A couple years later, studies showed that Adventure Sporting retail became the 2nd largest industry in between IT and Telecom. WOW #2. Here's where the mystery lay: Why then did it seem that whitewater was at a standstill. Manufacturers were closing down, pro paddlers weren't getting the coverage other adventure athletes got... there were many signs of contradiction in the stats. So in 2007 we got a closer look. Adventure industry stats showed that, where most adventure sports climbed in enthusiast buy-in, whitewater and a handful of others declined! As far back as 2002 a decline started. Viewing these stats at the same time as I, was an old pal Eric Jackson (www.jacksonkayak.com), the #1 whitewater boat manufacturer. We got to talking.
"So how can we bring attention to our sport?" one of us asked. We stepped back and listed the many characteristics of our passion and both came to the same conclusion... its the people. Another element of note in our industry is our web savvy. There isn't a SINGLE boater who isn't hooked to the web. Boaterboards, Skype, youtube, myspace is laden with our kind.
"So... why not bring the community together" one said. So we did. www.Worldkayak.com was launched last week. The site is set in three social media arenas...
www.worldkayak.com - your common portal, run by 25 regional ambassadors who keep it up to date with regional news, events, lists of paddling orgs and much more. It is already signing on ambassadors from Central and South America, 10 countries in Europe, the Africas, S. Korea, Japan, NZ and Australia. All built on Breathe Production's publishing tool suite of course.
www.worldkayakblogs.com - a blogspot with attitude. Much like Vox actually, but built for self customization. Bloggers can set up a web site just like VOX, but can also add on their own 'widgits' and choose from thousands of WordPress templates. More importantly bloggers are associated by region and a growing list of categories (tips, video, trip journals etc.).
www.worldkayakblogs.com/wiki - a riverwiki built on the same engine as wikipedia.com, this site will play host to an evergrowing list of rivers and detailed descriptions of each.
