Rose's Cantina

Like most communities, Ottawa has a legion of people who volunteer their time to raise money and to give a helping hand. Some of these people are near saints with their tireless devotion to the greater good. Others are Bluesfest volunteers. You do not become a Bluesfest volunteer because you want to make a difference in the lives of people. You become a Bluesfest volunteer to get free entrance to the festival and maybe get up close and personal with Jim Cuddy or Elvis Costello. To get an autograph. To get a bird's eye view of the stage. It isn't one of those great volunteer gigs for Ontario students who have to get their volunteer papers signed to graduate high school. The Bluesfest volunteer brigade is comprised of a lot of people who don't want to pay for the privilege of seeing bands. A lot of public servants take weeks off every year to carry garbage, pour beer or guard the gates from interlopers. The Bluesfest volunteer system is a lot like a pyramid schem...

It looks cool, but being a television producer can be one of the hardest jobs around. There are many words for it -- tedious, hot, tiring, incredibly frustrating -- and you sometimes have to wait hours to get a 30 second clip especially when you're covering live music festivals. Scott and I produced a documentary nine years ago, Carnival of The Blues: Ten Days at the Ottawa Bluesfest , and we had the opportunity to interview nearly all the stars. We soon learned there was a rhythm to it. First you had to get to the crusty old road manager who would leave you cooling your heels for hours. This was just to find out whether you even had a shot at speaking to an artist. You had to push, cajole and charm these old assholes who take on airs because they are in the business of protecting the rich and famous from the media. Once you get to the artist, though, it's a great experience for the most part. Some of them are happy to talk to the media, I mean, who wouldn't wa...

Nine years ago, Scott and I managed to score a backstage pass to the 10th Annual Ottawa Bluesfest. After ten days of sweltering heat and hours cooling our dogs in the green room just to get a 30 second clip from Gregg Alllman, who was unsure where he was, we cobbled together a one hour documentary, Carnival of the Blues. This is the trailer for it. It never aired anywhere because we didn't get signed consent from some of the artists. We also lost approximately $7,500 making it. But we still had a blast. We got to interview everybody but Sheryl Crowe who was a complete bitch. Blue Rodeo also declined to talk to us -- I mean, we got Allman and Aykroyd, but Blue Fucking Rodeo was to impotent to give us two minutes of their time. I'm posting this in honor of Bank-Sponsored Bluesfest which is not really a bluesfest anymore but a good old fashioned cash-grab. Hopefully, the organizers won't high-tail it to Costa Rica with the money like some other swell concert organiz...

When Nick was in private school, I spent a lot of time hussling him back and forth from the Ottawa International Aiport. As frequent flyers know, you see a lot of important or famous people if you're just sitting around. One time, we were standing in line and I saw Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy , in line in front of us. Obviously, Alex didn't realize there was a line for him (first class) and a line for us (no class). "Nick," I said, excitedly. "Look it's Alex Trebek." He shrugged. "Go on up there. Don't you want to meet Alex Trebek? He just looked at him. "Maybe he'd like to meet me." What a great attitude. I wish I had Nick's self-confidence. For my whole life, I've been fascinated by celebrities and impotent folks, so I spent a lot of time doing jobs that put me in direct contact with them. For a few years, I was an entertainment writer and got to interview all sorts of famous people, mostly on ...