An article I wrote for Fresh Print Magazine about the TDot Fest concert that happened at one of my favourite places to shoot Yonge and Dundas Square.
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I may be turning into a bit of a music snob. Or maybe my reaction is normal for what I am seeing and hearing on stage. There are moments nowadays that my camera is simply dangling limp in front of me as someone performs. When I go out to music events I expect to be entertained. Otherwise, I could have just stayed home and cranked the tunes. Thankfully, TDot Fest had many acts that held the audience captive at Yonge and Dundas Square for several hours on October 4th, 2015. FYI some of the things that will make my camera shy are:
1 - a monotonous sound (That includes beats that don't have anything that makes them stand out from every other beat), 2 - a lack of a clear message in the lyrics (Everybody has something to say. The way they decide to say it says a lot about the individual. A string of expletives just doesn't cut it for me.) & 3 - GRABBING YOUR CROTCH continuously throughout a performance (Think about that for a second. Unless you are hung like a Chip or a Dale you don't want to be drawing attention to it. Just sayin') October 1rst, 2015 was the day that students from the Toronto area filled the Air Canada Centre during school hours to enjoy the WE Day celebrations that included some incredible stories of personal achievement despite incredible challenges interspersed with some amazing musical performances. On a day when the headlines are more concerned with a 29 year old "alleged" drunk driver who killed three children and their grandfather, as well as, a 26 year old gunman that invaded a college campus killing nine people in Oregon, WE Day should have been headlining the evening news. Instead of glamorizing the demons in our society it's high time we shine a bright spotlight on the heroes that have surmounted impossible odds to achieve some incredible goals. To have their accomplishments highlighted at a WE Day event just doesn't seem to be enough.
In the meantime, let me give you some homework. Here are some names for you to research: Annaleise Carr (the youngest person to swim across lake Ontario), Silken Laumann (winning an Olympic bronze medal weeks after a leg shattering injury), Marlee Matlin (the only deaf performer to earn an Academy Award for best actress), Toni Morgan (from homeless to Harvard), Henry Winkler (from lifetime of dyslexia to accomplished author), and Joseph Boyden (living with depression). Their stories are in the minds of every student that attended WE Day. |