Trying to find a family event on the island this Christmas?
Get your tickets now for Cookeilidh – Making Spirits Bright
Saturday December 17th at 7:30 pm.
We will be playing a variety of celtic and festive songs of the season in this beautiful theater. We will also be joined on stage by the world class O’Brien Irish Dancers so get your tickets today and mark your calendar!
Tickets are available now at…
http://marywinspear.ca/event/cookeilidh-making-spirits-bright
Cheers,
Tom
😄
One of our rules in the Ollie and Emma project is that we leave the issue aside and just have fun with the opportunity to bring people together. That aside I think their should be some ground rules. Being the white half of a comedy team writing a multicultural project knowing where the line between funny and too far is only too apparent. It all comes down to simply respecting someone else and looking past the stereotypes which need to be finally dropped.
The problem I have with Halloween headdresses, sport teams names and so on is that it treats Native culture like it’s something of the past. We call the University of Victoria sports teams the Vikes (Vikings). We don’t call them the UVic Norwegians. There is another team I’m sure is called the Pilgrims (I will admit…I’m not especially a sports person. Apologies to those who are.). The folks who are referred to as Braves are still very much alive and active as well as the use of real ceremonial garments (and unless your entire sports team is First Nations, which would have the name make more sense). The best way to think of this is consider something that is important or sacred to yourself and ask yourself if you would want it used like a gimmick. Yeah, First Nations people don’t love that either.
This is one of the things about working with my cowriter Cheri Jacobs that I think has it’s own influence on the Ollie and Emma project. Our two cultures can work together with common respect and have lots of fun doing it. All the people who I have met have been very welcoming and free of judgement.
Community is possible.
Cheers,
Tom
Posted from WordPress for Android
Cookeilidh are : Woody, me, Kim David
Been a really busy week since last Tuesday when St Patrick’s started. That’s the thing about being in a celtic band. St. Patrick’s for us is, and sorry if this sounds ego driven but it’s a whole lot more than one night of green beer (even though that’s fun too!) We’ve been pretty much doing one gig a night for well over a week and there is still more to go. One thrill was having tracks from our new cd played on All Points West CBC with Jo-Ann Roberts just before our show at The Copper Owl (pictured above)
It’s funny…just jamming along to Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus with my bass (ok that’s wierd) and how even though lots of things change…lots more are always the same. I love playing acoustic music and playing a lot to the band’s I’ve loved over the years (some celtic, some acoustic and some really neither) and I love writing and creating things. I’ve probably said that before and it’s easy to go with the things you know but the main thing is not to leave any place unexplored because you’ve got a prejudged notion. That was the wierd story behind me as an acoustic / celtic musician liking Depeche and others (weirdest cd I ever had was definitely “Coyot” which was aeolian strings stretched across a Swedish abandoned military base) I was very much focused on my style of music back then and I heard of Depeche but lumped them in with those “wierd stuff over there” bands. When a friend gave me a tape I never even listened until one day making a tape (yeah, tape) as a joke. From that I brought the whole tape to work and it seriously turned my head around. Learned my lesson. I think that applies to way beyond music. You simply never know. You never know what the young man with the skateboard on the bus next to you or the lady in front of you in line at Tim’s is really all about. The idea that other people have it easier is also illusion. Rich or poor live provides its struggles and it’s joy.
Went philosophical there. Anyways, check out my other new thing I’ve been working on this week if you get a chance. It’s a story that is based on my own background when I use to aspire to bike mechanics and was seriously into cycling and going to bike shops…and listening to loads of classic rock!
Journal by Max
You can also follow the band at…
Cookeilidh’s main website!
Cheers
Tom 🙂
Posted from WordPress for Android
Sort of a good time to catch up as we are at the start of March. It’s my birthday month (ok that’s self indulgence, I apologize) but sitting on a bus with more posters it’s kind of less imposing though.
I don’t really get concerned about my age most of the time. My main inspirations created their best work past 30 so it doesn’t even phase me.
March is St Patrick’s month and that means I get to do lots of shows with Cookeilidh (presently out in James Bay with posters. ..trying to get to each of Victoria’s micro communities. And there is a whole lot of those. A friend and I were discussing that. It’s one of the cool things about our city and the diversity that’s been here since the Gold Rush but perhaps that’s why travelling across town feels so epic. It’s like you’re going through six towns before you get to where you’re going.
Ollie and Emma is still very much active too with setting up everything with our awesome new executive producer Less Bland Productions and Cheri and I are working not only on that but on creating other pitches that we could also use in the future. Our next skit is slated to be one featuring our two fun surreal elders played by Fred Samuel and Wolf Rick Patterson and we will soon be starting the table reads and rehearsal for that. I get a lot of questions about when do I sleep…i use a memo app so far. Maybe one day I’ll have a secretary with a memo app. We’ll have matching memo apps. That would be amazing.
Oh yeah, and when I have time I’ve been playing around with a little blog story. I’ll try to keep it pretty regularly posted at least until the story is done. I’m typing this on a phone and sometimes the auto suggestions are far more interesting than what I write. I have got to meet that guy someday. Anyways the new blog is at…
https://journalbymax.wordpress.com/
Have to cut this a little short as I’ll miss my stop.
Cheers,
Tom
Posted from WordPress for Android
Tom's Creativity Blog 