5 Things I'll Miss Most About Winnipeg

Winnipeg is one of those cities that's very easy to complain about. It's absolutely freezing cold for half of the year (hence the nickname Winterpeg), and you get maybe 2-3 months of nice, sunny weather, it's not exactly a famous touristy city, and the transit system is beyond awful.
But you see, Winnipeg is my home. I was born and raised here and I think it's a beautiful city. Maybe it's because I've travelled that I can come home and really see its beauty. The prairies may be flat and seemingly boring, but all you have to do is try a tiny bit and you'll always find something to do in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg is home. I'm definitely going to miss it while I'm gone.

Skating on the river is one of my favourite things about winter. It may be way too cold, but when the river is frozen, you forget about it all. It's the longest ice rink in the world and you can go whenever you want. I've also run on the river a few times, on the snow trail next to it. The best part? A rum & hot chocolate to warm up afterwards.

Winnipeg Folk Music Festival is my favourite festival by far. I practically grew up at this festival, going almost every year since I can remember, whether it was my dad on stage or some random band from across the globe I'd never heard of before, I owe this festival some of my best summer memories. Some years, it rained so much the week before that we would walk around barefeet in the mud (you can imagine how much fun that is as a child), or you would get the most perfect July weather, with a few sunburns. It's truly a place of happiness and music.

Festival du Voyageur is the outdoors winter festival almost every Franco-Manitoban waits for all year long. Every year, we would go with our class and learn a bit about the fur trade era and our history, all while having a ton of fun in the snow; climbing things, getting lost in the big snow maze or going down the ice slide, and don't forget the tire sur glace! As young adults, we go there to party, see some really great live bands, admire some fantastic snow sculptures and drink some caribou. It's where we get together and pretend it isn't incredibly cold outside. We all know once Festival is over, the summer isn't far away.

Camping season. Okay, so this may not exactly be a Winnipeg-specific thing, but Manitoba in general has so many beautiful places to go to during the summer, that it's definitely something I need to add here. I love going camping and spending time outside. The sunsets, the fresh pine-smelling air, the lakes... Manitoba is a lot prettier than we give it credit for.

The People. If there's one thing I'll miss more than anything, it's the people. Winnipeg has been my home for 21 years, and my roots are deep. I have made some truly great friends over the years, and I am so grateful for the people I have met. You have grown with me, inspired me, made me the person I am today.

There you have it! The 5 things I'll miss most about Winnipeg. Though I'm sure I can find all of these things in Berlin in one way or another, it just won't be the same as good ol' Winterpeg. Until next time!

Beatlemania in Liverpool

Liverpool.... Where it all began for the Fab Four, our beloved Beatles. I was only in Liverpool for two days, and honestly spent most of my time exploring the Beatles-related areas of the city.

After I checked into the hostel, I went straight to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles really got famous. They played there 292 times in about two years! It's a really cool basement bar and there's constantly live music in there.

I also went to the Albert docks where there's the Beatles Story museum. They talk about the Fab Four from their very early beginnings up until very recently, even recreating certain bars, or even a plane (for when they went to America for the first time). It was easy to spend at least two hours in there! Next door, they had the British Invasion museum, another part of the Beatles museum, dedicated to the British bands that changed rock music in America and around the world. This part also had a little 4D movie experience and a "secret" photography gallery of never-before seen photos of the Fab Four, all of which was included in one price. The Beatles Story has a huge Beatles merchandise store and a cute café with quotes all over the walls, so I definitely spent over 4-5 hours going through all of that.

Next, I went on the Magical Mystery Tour, that went around the city to all the different spots that were made important by The Beatles; Penny Lane, the childhood homes, Strawberry Field, the boys' schools, etc.

John Lennon's childhood home

Paul McCartney's childhood home

As you can imagine, I've been listening to the Beatles a lot more than usual after all this! ;)

Folk Fest 2015

Ever since I was little, my family took us to the Winnipeg Folk Festival. You can read about last year's Folk Fest here. The difference this year? I camped! It's the first time I've ever camped at Folk Fest and so it was a whole new experience, one that I highly recommend to anyone who attends the festival.

There were over 70 artists this year from all over the world, some of my highlights were Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Bahamas, Shakey Graves, Donovan Woods, Royal Canoe, and The Dirty Catfish Brassband. There was such a variety of artists, and many local artists showcasing our Manitoba talent.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

Bahamas

After the Main Stage show one night, my sister and I spent about an hour playing with glowsticks, making all kinds of shapes and things, including mushrooms, flowers and a turtle shell that I wore all night long.

My turtle shell

While I was volunteering at the Festival Music Store as a cashier, I was given a bunch of plastic geckos and frogs, which I then starting sticking to my water bottle... Those 6-hour shifts went by much quicker with this arts and crafts activity, though it really made me look like I was on all sorts of drugs, but hey, it was fun! Even my co-volunteer Sanjay helped me with this art project and we came up with a whole background story for the different animals on there. And yes, I did keep the bottle.

More Folk Fest art:

It was such a hot weekend, that I bought myself a scarf from one of the vendors and walked around with it only head all night, with my sunglasses too, and at some point, I decided that I became a hippie Jedi... I was probably the least "out there" of the people in the campground... From angels with 6-feet tall wings, to glowstick gladiators, to just plain naked. You'll always be surprised and it makes people-watching that much more fun!

As you can see, it's a hell of a lot of fun, and it's just a beautiful place. The lack of sleep doesn't even phase you and you get to hear incredible music all night long, even after the concerts are over, as bands and people are playing music in the campground all night, and the sun rises, just like the people, are incredible.

See you next year, Folk Fest!

1989

Taylor Swift came out with a new album just before Halloween and I bought it. After listening to Shake it Off, I wanted to see how much of her new album really was pop (and of course, I just like her). I bought the deluxe edition of course, which comes with two extra songs and a series of pictures with lyrics on them, which I think is a brilliant idea. The pictures all look great and have this really sweet vintage feel to them, which goes perfectly with the album, since it's named after her birth year.

1989 is actually such a great album! I've pretty much had it on repeat since I got it. There's a variety of songs from the happy Shake it Off, to the sadder, slower This Love and Clean.

I find that a lot of her lyrics have really improved from her previous album.. Some of her songs are really deep and well-written (for a pop artist). For example, her song Clean references to an addiction, and being clean and sober, which in this case, refers to love, and her song Wonderland, on the deluxe album parallels Alice in Wonderland and falling in love.

Taylor Swift's new single Blank Space just came out on the 10th and I thought I would share it for everyone to see!

Gerald Laroche: Master of the Harmonica

In my filmmaking class, we had two projects to make: a drama, and a documentary. At first, I thought that the drama (scripted) would be easier and more fun to do, since I love writing and telling stories, but I found myself enjoying making the documentary so much more!

At first, I wanted to do it on bullying, but then decided against it, since it would be a pretty hard subject to make a documentary about. So I decided to be "lazy" and do a documentary on my dad. He's a musician and I thought it could be interesting if I were to do this about him, so I thought what the hell, and I did it!

I'm actually so proud of this one. I work really hard on it, and I love it.

There it is!

Gerald Laroche: Master of the Harmonica

JUNOfest

The Juno Awards were in Winnipeg this weekend and it was quite the event! I didn't go to the award show, unfortunately, but I did participate at JUNOfest, which is basically a 2-day music festival with over 100 artists at over 15 different venues. I was volunteering at The Pyramid Cabaret and got to see some really fantastic Canadian bands! It was so worth being up until 3am!

Since I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the bands (what a stupid rule), I put the music video of two of my favourites from this weekend: Rah Rah and Born Ruffians.

A Beautiful Lie

I recently re-discovered the band 30 Seconds to Mars, which I used to be obsessed with a few years ago, but then it became a little too intense for me when I drifted to folk music. One thing that I remembered of this band was their music videos. They have always been really artistic and I love that about them.
I don't really watch a lot of music videos (I prefer to just listen to the album), but I looked it up and re-watched all the videos of the album I have (A Beautiful Lie), which is their second album. One of their songs, which has the same name as the album has an incredibly beautiful music video.

It's music videos like those that really make me want to do that for a living. I want to create something that beautiful one day.

There's a couple other videos that have this effect on me, here are my top 10 (that I can think of):
30 Seconds to Mars - The Kill
Avicii - Wake Me Up 
Avicii - I Could be the One
Kelly Clarkson  - Behind These Hazel Eyes
Diam's - Jeune Demoiselle
Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends
Simple Plan - Untitled
Paramore - Misery Business
David Wax Museum - Born With A Broken Heart
Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed

And a bonus because it has such a great message:
Headhunterz featuring Krewella - United Kids of the World

There are a ton more great music videos out there, those are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

What are some of YOUR favourites?