Dear friends, foes, and love interests,
I have achieved one of my most prized goals; being featured in crowd shots from a concert and not looking terrible. I have been shown crowd shots from a handful of concerts that happened this month in which I am either making faces at the camera or am mid-lyric, and to be honest I don't look terrible in them. You’ll have to keep an eye on local band photos and photographers to try and catch a glimpse of me.
In other news, I have been procrastinating working on my upcoming Zine, procrastinating reading books, and drinking the best dirty Chai of my life from one of Ottawa's hidden happy-goat locations (hint: it’s in a hotel).
In this blog post, I'm going to talk about the road trip I took to Kingston to watch a eleven-artist music video screening, [content removed], how much I hate Mick Jagger, and the playlist that I released at the beginning of the month. Make sure to subscribe to get all of my blog posts to your inbox every month, and comment down below which local musician you think could beat Mick Jagger in a fight.
Roadtrip
On March 4th, I drove down to Kingston, Ontario to watch the Kingston Canadian Film Festival’s YGK music video initiative. This showcase featured eleven videos all made in Kingston by local artists and producers who were paired up for the purpose of this showcase. The initiative allowed Kingston to highlight their phenomenal talent behind the mic and behind the camera.
I initially learned about this project through Kingston-based artist Luella, whose music video was being featured that day. So, with my editor in tow, we headed down to Kingston to gallivant around the city's quaint downtown before heading into the Kingston Grand Theatre.
As we were on our way, we ended up following a man with a camera, a large voice, and a shirt made of sticky notes hanging out from underneath his blazer. When we realized he was heading to the same event as us we were shocked, to say the least. Arriving at the theatre, there were people dressed to the nines hanging out outside. Once we were inside we realized that it was formal but not fancy, which caused both of us to breathe a sigh of relief, especially when you consider I was wearing ripped jeans.
The theatre itself was beautiful, a two-story viewing experience with all of the hallmarks of a historic theatre. The seats, the carpets, the wall decals, everything, I’m sure you can picture iy.
The first music video was created by Alex Mundy and Mickayla Pyke Media. The song was a soft folk track about family life, love, and perseverance. The music video was very reminiscent of home videos, in both colouring and framing. Shots of Alex performing were interspersed with running children, making meals, and family relying on each other. The song was the perfect opener to the night, as it was positive yet slow-paced. As of right now, Alex doesn't have any released music, and the music video is awaiting its official release. The film footage featured in the music video is emblematic of Mickayla Pyke Media’s style. Soft-focus sepia-toned storytelling is featured throughout much of their work. This video is an excellent example of the production company and the artist working very well together, which must have been escalated by the fact that both Alex and Mickayla were pregnant during the shooting of the music video.
The second music video was produced by Micheal George. QR The Band sang the story of a couple falling out of love in a wholly respectful way. The opening shot is in Balzac’s, a coffee chain whose beautiful interiors are familiar to many students. During the question and answer portion of the night, it was revealed that this song was written within three hours. The video also had many scenes that looked a lot like 3D apartment tours, something else that is very familiar to many students. The producer shared how they have a background in 3D filming, and that's why many scenes utilized that technology, for better or for worse. I was blown away by the strength in the female voice and the way that she brought the song to life, regardless of how I felt about the song itself.
The third video was a 60s-esque stop-motion collage with a clear aesthetic goal in loads of details. This AKAFLK Productions video was created to highlight a yet unreleased song by Good Fortune. Good fortune is what I would describe as a weird lady icon; authentically herself, the artist uses unique fashion, makeup, and music video ideas from decades past to build an unforgettable story and aesthetic vision. The video is packed with loads of detail and the collage contained in it was actually built and mapped out on the floor. The Good Fortune music video below is not the one that was unveiled at the music video showcase but is an older music video with a similar vibe for their song Feelin It which recently turned one year old.
I'm going to skip a couple of music videos in the middle and get right to Kasador’s music video which started with a striking image of a fish staring you right down. The music video was produced by Outpost 12 and Visual Menace Creative and contains many high-contrast shots and bold colours. About halfway through the music video, we realized that the sticky note-ed man from outside the venue was actually a star from this music video who was miraculously still in costume. To me, the video evoked a lot of 2010’s imagery, harkening back to the bold and outrageous music videos of the time. Rumour has it that the video concept started with Boris from Kasador saying, “I wanna do something really weird.” The song contained in this music video is set to be released on April 7th, with the music video itself coming out on April 12th. Below is one of my favourite Kasador songs to tide you over until their new release.
The eighth video of the night was for Luella’s OLD CONVERSATIONS, produced by Happy Kid Productions, which is a song about breaking up with a pair of old converse. The music video twisted this idea and made the break up more literal - between two people - but the idea of the converse followed the couple throughout the video. I loved how the shots in this video were slown down and I liked all the cameos of people from Luella's life that I recognized from her Instagram or from the conversation she and I had back in February. During the question and answer portion of the night, Luella revealed that a different song was initially pitched for the music video and then once they decided on OLD CONVERSATIONS the original idea for the video was shoes with googly eyes on them.
The final video of the night was the yet unreleased music video for The Girls by Tiny Horse, produced by Little Friday. The settings and the editing were so meticulously made, yet the whole video felt incredibly natural. This must have been heightened by the fact that the two female leads in the video are best friends in real life and have worked together for over 20 years. This was, by far, my favourite video of the night, which seemed to be a common thought as it won the Fan’s Choice award at the showcase. This music video followed the story of two older women going on a night out. The story in the lyrics and the story on screen were so well integrated with lots of complex shots and dances that were allegedly choreographed by the actors themselves. With this video I was left with the thought, “I want to be those ladies when I grow up.”
Bestie Vibes Only
[I have made the decision to remove certain content from this post that was previously featured here. This decision is based on new information that has come to my attention and the need to maintain the integrity and values of Fan Behaviour.
I am committed to providing our readers with content that aligns with my principles and standards. While I strive to be transparent and open in our communication, there are situations where it is not possible to share all the details behind my editorial decisions.
Please know that this decision was not made lightly, and it reflects my dedication to promoting content that is consistent with our values.
Thank you for your understanding.]
A New Man To Hate
I spent most of my teenage years actively rebelling against anything popular, cocooning myself in comfort bands that played what I thought at the time was obscure music. To many, it still is, but because of my isolation and my small town, I did not realize that many of these bands were in fact, insanely popular. This insulation meant that I kept myself from much of pop culture and neglected to pay a good amount of attention to the inspirations of many of my favourite bands. This means that throughout the entirety of Christopher Ardenson's 2012 book Mick (about the Rolling Stones singer of the same name) I was genuinely shocked by the behaviour I uncovered from this global star that I knew almost nothing about.
I don't really react big when I'm reading a book, I don't gasp at the next twist and turn of a thriller, but when I learned on page 38 that Mick Jagger and his bandmates genuinely smeared s*** on the wall of their own apartment, I had some choice words for my empty room. Less than ten pages later, the author reveals a young Mick Jagger as quite predatory towards a young teenage singer. I had already developed a small contempt for the artist, due to his cosplaying of lower-class life and his lack of fidelity to the anarchistic ideals that brought him to success, but I was shocked at how soon in the book he was revealed to be... Him.
The first section of the book, in which events that likely had little documentation occurred, was quite difficult to understand. Obviously, in the early part of the Rolling Stones' career, there would have been little written about them in comparison to the vast tomes that you could fill with excessive details of their every movement since. However, that is no excuse to weave a narrative that is difficult to follow, especially in the opening section of a book, during which many readers are likely to drop off when the going gets tough.
What struck me about the writing style in this book is how the author was overindulgent on the dramatic adjectives, but I'm one to talk considering I just used two in this sentence. I also took issue with the way the author describes Mick's treatment of other people. Anderson would describe him as callous and uncaring when it came to previous managers or club promoters that helped the Stones on their rise to fame. He would take on an almost identical tone and often compare that situation with Mick's dislike and disinterest in Brian Jones, a member of the band who was notorious for battering women and girls. The author also makes many references to astrology in a way that I cannot tell if it is serious or not. A couple of mentions I could understand that it's a joke in reference to what Mick may have valued as a predicting tool, but the repeated use of astrology to justify tragic events was outright bizarre.
One thing that always strikes me when I'm reading second or third-hand accounts of an artist is wondering "how they got all the information that they're writing about. I understand that some details might be added to make the story a bit more clear even if they weren't documented previously, but I think a lot about the original journalists and friends who pulled out all these facts and laid them bare during different decades. I wonder if one day the stuff that I write will be used in a book like this about one of the many talented people I have written about. I wonder if one day I will be trusted to write a book like this, hopefully about a more honourable subject.
After reading it, I was thankful that Mick by Christian Anderson was only $1 at the thrift store.
What Is To Come
For Women's History Month, I released a playlist called Femme Behaviour, featuring many female artists from local Canadian music scenes. Some of the musicians are singers, some of them are bassists, but all of them contribute majorly to their local scene and to the songs that they feature on. There's a vast lack of representation of women in music, especially in many local scenes, so highlighting the art and achievements of women is something very important to me.
This weekend, Fan Behaviour will be making a special announcement for subscribers only, whether at free or paid levels, so make sure to subscribe right now in order to get access to the announcement on March 25th.
Also, on March 30th paid subscribers will be given access to March’s paid post which includes a recap of this year's Queer Connection, amongst other things. So, if you're interested in getting twice the amount of content from me and reading about more local music, make sure to upgrade your subscription to paid to get access to that exclusive bonus content.
With all the raddest vibes,
E