{"id":672,"date":"2020-07-02T17:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taractaylor.com\/TCT\/?p=672"},"modified":"2021-10-03T20:10:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T18:10:51","slug":"happy-canada-day-online-celebrations-in-a-covid-19-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taractaylor.com\/TCT\/672\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Canada Day! –\u00a0 Online Celebrations in a COVID-19 World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Canada Day! <\/b><\/p>\n

To all of my international followers July 1st, Canada Day, \u00a0is the celebration of my birth nation\u2019s birthday. It\u2019s a day that is full of music, fun, friends and fireworks.\u00a0 In Berlin the Canadian Embassy and an organization called the DKG <\/span>(<\/span>Deutsch-Kanadische Gesellschaft<\/span><\/a>\/German-Canadian Society) have put together large Canada Day \"\"celebrations over the years.\u00a0 There are usually a few thousand people that attend. You can find Canadian favourites like Poutine (care of The Poutine Kitchen<\/strong><\/em><\/a>), Montreal Style Smoked Meat Sandwiches and you can wash the food down with a spicy caesar\u00a0 or Canadian beers like Molson, Labatt and Mousehead.\u00a0 There will also be Canadian comics and musicians that would entertain the audience to fill the afternoon.\u00a0 This year\u2019s Canada Day celebration in Berlin would be different because of the Corona Virus…this year\u2019s celebration would be online.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In early June I was approached by the DKG to do a video for the online Canada Day celebration.\u00a0 The song had to be family friendly (gulp) with some French lyrics if possible.\u00a0 I thought to myself that my song \u201cLe Louvre\u201d would be perfect! \u00a0As an extra special feature I wanted to have Matthew Presidente<\/em><\/strong><\/a> from Vancouver play keys and \u00a0backing vocals on the song \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I reached out to Matthew to let him know about the Canada-Day in Germany gig and wanted to know if he would be able to record \u00a0his performance so I can add it to the \u2018Le Louvre\u201d video. \u00a0 He said; \u201cYes\u201d right away and then asked me if I could do a Canadian cover song for his \u201cWorld is Watching – Canada Day\u201d Youtube episode and I said; \u201cI would love to record Ahead By A Century by the Tragically Hip\u201d. \u00a0<\/span>Now Don and I would have to shoot two videos which wasn\u2019t a terrible task for us for we had shot so many concert videos for the \u201cWorld is Watching\u201d YouTube series. \u00a0 Piece of cake!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"On Sunday June 14th we prepared and sent a scratch track to Matthew.\u00a0 His turn around is the stuff of legend!\u00a0 He recorded the vocal and keys tracks, shot the video and sent the files back to us the next day.\u00a0 \"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

On the afternoon of Tuesday, June 16th (my birthday) we proceed to rearrange our 60 square meter (600 square feet) apartment to make room for lighting, 2 stationary cameras and a Candian themed backdrop with a bottle of red wine as a prop. \u00a0 I wore a hometown black “Winnipeg” t-shirt and a Beret on my head.\u00a0 As soon as we finished shooting a few off-the-floor takes that we felt good about we shut our film set down and we departed to the pub to celebrate my birthday. \u00a0 The rest of the week Don would concentrate on mixing the vocals,\u00a0 instruments and then editing the video.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The next song\/video to be recorded and shot is a cover of the Tragically Hip\u2019s 1996 song \u201cAhead by a Century\u201d.\u00a0 I must admit that I have never been big fan of \u201cThe Hip\u201d (it wasn\u2019t my type of music at that time). \u00a0 I began to gain\u00a0 appreciation for them when living in San Francisco \u00a0I watched \u201cThe Hip\u2019s\u201d final farewell concert at an Irish bar in Noe Valley (a district in San Francisco) that hosted a special\u00a0Canada night for the global CBC broadcast.
\n\"\"The concert was on August 20th, 2016. The crowd in the bar was so emotional during the show and I admit I cried with the audience. During the show I looked forward to watching The Hip play two songs for the last time:\u00a0 \u201cNew Orleans is Sinking\u201d and \u201cAhead by a Century\u201d. \u00a0It was a truly Canadian moment for us while living in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

The original song is a very simple stripped-down song so, I decided this time I would build an arrangement on my own from scratch. \u00a0 I didn\u2019t want my arrangement for this song to be a “copy” of the original but, close enough and to add something of my own to it.\u00a0 My arrangement had to honour Gord Downie \u00a0and respect \u00a0the original. Rest in peace Gord.\u00a0 I sent the arrangement with a scratch vocal to Matthew and once again he had sent his vocal, piano and video files to us in less than twenty-four hours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Next we proceeded to tear apart our apartment to make room for lighting, two stationary cameras and this time we did a Pride themed backdrop. \u00a0We shot my off-the-floor vocal and guitar and next Don worked\u00a0 feverishly to mix the track and edit the video.\u00a0 We had the final cut ready and sent to Matthew within days.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Matthew\u2019s \u201cWIW-Canada Day Episode\u201d (link below) would premier on Monday, June 29th at 8:00 p.m. (PDT) meant that it would air in Central European Time (CET) Tuesday, July 30th at 5:00 a.m. so, needles to day Don and I could not watch the show and participate in the live chat in real time.\u00a0 We watched it the afternoon of Tuesday the 30th and we loved it!\u00a0 It was so wonderful to see all our of our singer\/songwriter friends doing their covers\/interpretations of famous Candian songs. \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"On July 1st we watched my first musical contribution to a Canada day in Germany
\n(online) celebration!\u00a0 The video for \u201cLe Louvre\u201d was one of the last performances before the online feed went to the \u201cUnited we Stream\u201d DJ set.\u00a0 I must say Ben McLean was a wonderful online host and I was so very happy to be a part of the celebration.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"As a side note…in July the DKG reached out to me in regards to doing an interview for their online\/email publication and I gladly agreed to participate. You can see the interview on the DKG Website<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for a cocktail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/span><\/p>\n

TCT\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n