Tag: I AM CANADIAN

805 Studio, CDR Toronto, DJ Culture & Music, Establishments, events, Movers & Shakers, Music, promoters, Toronto

CDR Toronto- Local Music Series – April 21st 2016-Part 1 (cdr-projects.com)

theshineprjct

Apr 2016

Calling all production people, bedroom and garage studio peeps, shower singers- CDR is reaching out to all of ya’ll! First London, then Berlin-followed by Sydney and now Toronto! Why Toronto? You know what I’ll say: Canada’s got talent with inner Toronto and surrounding areas being an explosive hub.

I originally wanted a cipher-like roundtable discussion with all 4 members/creators/collaborators on this project but with busy schedules I was able to pin down Gavin Alexander and Ramon Charles. We talked about CDR Toronto-(A head space to deliver unfinished works) and we pondered on its momentum and how they have created a hub for local talent to showcase their music ideas, production and creativity.

This is why CDR is so special>>>>>>>‘audiences at CDR have been treated to pre-pre-release plays of songs’ and underground heads love this stuff! If you missed last year’s sessions you won’t wanna miss the first CDR of 2016.

Let me introduce to CDR Toronto team of talented collaborators:

Gavin Alexander (CDR HQ) Experienced Producer of both Music and Multi-media events as well as TV & Film production and co-collaborator of CDR HQ London

Janine Wright (The Flower and the Bird) A Toronto-based jazz, blues singer and composer also part of The Flower and the Bird a soul jazz quartet new on the Toronto scene!

Koray Özel (istolethesoul) Label Manager at @istolethesoul. A self-described “music enthusiast who loves to share new discoveries with like-minded people”, Koray Özel aspires to curate beautiful and meaningful releases with talented artists from around the world!

Ramon Charles (BLK BETA) A Producer/Writer/Editor at Bell Media’s Creative Agency and juggling Freelance Editing and Motion Graphics work in his free time

Describe how you see Toronto culturally, musically and artistically? Gavin and Ramon both believe that Toronto is rich (multi-perspective), seasonal (Spring’s here!) and Diverse (multicultural).

Gavin: Cultural projects have so much promise and opportunities in Toronto, in London there are always people in the way

Ramon: Population is lower here, the influx of people to the city’s core adds a bit of spontaneity

What about THIS city? A city’s culture can thrive if artists can afford to live in the city. (Gavin)

With more people, there are more ideas, more collaborative project and of course more creativity. (Ramon)

Musically, Toronto is at its APEX (Gavin)

Why bring a showcase like CDR? Why choose Toronto?

Gavin: ‘WelI…. live here now, Ramon inspired me to get this started in Toronto…It’s an amazing place for music, I love grassroots events, I like to find new music early, It’s a big city but a small world, A lot of people know of each other but they don’t connect, All genres stay separate, I want to use CDR to create a different vibe!

Ramon: I’ve seen the transitions here in Toronto…. We’ve got new options but also people/scenes are going introspective….the bottle service thing is one way but we’re looking to add a little more substance. Toronto is an artful place, CDR is great for creating works and it’s actually quite fresh/new!

Gavin: Toronto is kind of getting a sense of self-awareness and confidence. There’s always been an existential message/identity of firmly planting it in anything done here that we’re Canadian!

Ramon: There’s a surprise by artists/Torontonians that their music is good. Artists are not used to the attention. Toronto is a place where different styles can live. The music reflects the multiculturalism of the city.

Participants have increased, the growth is organic. People love CDR’s concept, people are also curious. Established artists have shown up, but there’s more room to grow. If you can’t make it now they’ll get you at the next one. Gavin believes that if something is genuine and you bring in a genuine vibe, the ripple effect goes on from there….Ramon adds ‘We want CDR to last, it’s a community thing. We don’t expect it to happen overnight”

‘It’s like shining a light on ourselves creatively instead of around us-to make CDR sustainable. It’s a key component to what we can do continue this for the next generation’

The first installment of CDR Toronto (Create, Define, Release) takes place this Thursday April 21st, 2016 at 805 Studio, 805 Dovercourt Rd at 9pm! All genres welcome, music enthusiasts are also VERY welcome!

CDR HQ Twitter: CDR Headquarters 

CDR Toronto Event/Facebook: CDR Events page

CDR Toronto Instagram: @CDRTORONTO

Event Venue:http://www.the805studio.com/

 

 

Food, Health & Wellness, Hemp Hearts, Holistic Health, Knowledge, Manitoba Harvest, Product Reviews

Manitoba Harvest – Hemp Hearts – Raw Shelled Hemp Seed – #imfuelledbyhemp

theshineprjct

Manitoba Harvest Hemp.jpeg

I began a very focused workout schedule last summer. Instead of losing weight-I’ve opting for building muscle. I always feel that as you age weight loss looks different and weight looks a little awkwardly distributed throughout the body. (You know-chins,guts and extra thigh junk). In my quest to build muscle besides consistently lifting weights and kettle bells I’m also paying attention to what I eat to achieve results. Almost every article I’ve read and every health food expert I consulted recommended I try whey protein powders.

Hemp

Although whey protein is the fast and widely easily available muscle-building ingredient it might not be the best for everyone. There are a few things I noticed when ingesting whey protein. 1) Full all the time, no room for food. Protein makes you full and gives you energy to complete an arduous workout. By following the daily intake recommended on the package-I had no need to eat. I’m not sure if this is good. I’d have to workout much more than an hour a day to speed up my metabolism. Also-who wants to feel that full all the time? Whatever you ingest should be fuel not weigh you down.

2) Acne breakouts. Within a few days of taking whey protein, I started breaking out. Shoulders, back and face. I’m lactose intolerant and I’d discovered years ago that excessive dairy causes acne for me. I keep dairy products to an extreme minimum. Cheese,milk,ice cream are very low on my daily dietary menu.I opt for dark leafy greens (not kale) but spinach, broccolini, rapini,okra, green beans,greek yogourt to get the calcium I need.

What I found out was that ‘whey’ in whey protein isolate is a by-product or separated component from milk. Whey is high in protein but its effects don’t ‘sit well’ in my stomach.

I needed something protein-rich pre-workout that’s light but substantial and tasty. So I went into my 2 favourite health food spots (Nutrition House and Healthy Planet) to look for plant-based protein powders. I saw a few made with chlorophyll, green vegetables or spirulina but I was really interested in Manitoba Harvest’s Hemp Pro Fibre Powder. Believe or not I found a small container of Manitoba Harvest powder at Marshall’s for $11.99! Although it’s not too high on the scale for protein at only 10g per tbsp, it goes down really well and I have a tremendous amount of energy to handle my workouts without feeling bloated, sluggish and full forever. Each serving you make in an 8-12 ounce smoothie needs 4 scoops.

I tried the Green Smoothie challenge twice last year and along with all the kale, spinach avocados I used-I threw in scoops of Hemp Powder.Working out has helped my iron (anemia) and I’m taking iron capsules on occasion now since I’ve started using this powder. With 52% (13g) of iron ‘things’ can get a little backed up and the hemp powder with fibre helps with that!

Let’s take a look at Hemp: It’s related to Cannabis. I don’t use Wikipedia often but it says this: is a commonly used term for high-growing varieties of the Cannabis plant and its products, which include fiber, oil, and seed. Hemp is refined into products such as hemp seed foods, hemp oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, pulp, paper, and fuel. The Body Shop has an amazing range of Hemp products from hand wash, to hand and foot creams to oil for cuticules and for eczema patches. It’s a versatile product and its not Marijuana!

After using the Hemp powder I noticed I had more energy during and after my workout. My metabolism picked up so much so I’d split a smoothie in two parts. My acne flare ups disappeared and my overall skin health improved. I put on 8.5 pounds of solid muscle in 6 months and looked leaner than I did before I started weight training.Using Manitoba Harvest Hemp Protein proved beneficial because I got a good portion of my daily protein intake before my workout and I didn’t need to continue rationing out the amount of protein all day with too much animal protein.

After seeing the benefits of the powder I inquired a little more and found Raw Shelled Hemp Hearts. When I first tried them they only sold their ‘natural’ Hemp Hearts but they’ve since introduced the ‘organic’ Hemp Hearts product. So what are Hemp Hearts? They are a shelled seed super food derived from the industrial hemp plant. They look like tiny split peas are whitish-grey in texture and have a very nutty flavour. Kinda like sunflower seeds! Hemps seeds contains more protein than milk, meat or eggs and that’s pretty dope. (No farting here!)

I started using the hemp seeds in my Greek yogourt, oatmeal, breakfast cereals,smoothies, salad and pancakes. I started ‘breading’ my fish or chicken with ground hemp and all of that tastes good!!! All these methods helped me increase my protein intake without depending on crazy amounts of animal protein. I also use chia seeds, sunflower seeds, flax and cranberries on almost everything! They are Canadian which is awesome and one of the founders Mike Fata has a great story to tell about how Hemp has changes his life. http://www.manitobaharvest.com

If you’d like to try this product you can find Manitoba Harvest on: Facebook- Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, Twitter-@manitobaharvest, Instagram-@manitobaharvest

Biography, Knowledge, Reflections, Social Media, theshineprjct, Toronto, Vancouver

I AM CANADIAN – What it means….

theshineprjct

Image

As a child in school I never really identified with my heritage. I never identified with any particular group or thing. I just knew myself as ‘girl who likes to draw, girl who rides her bike, girl who lives at Jane-Finch,girl who loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, girl who thinks about writing, girl with lots of ideas……years and years have passed and those things haven’t really changed (My locale has, lol)

It’s only when I started kindergarten that I met other kids and they would talk about ‘who they were’.

When kids would ask ‘what are you?’-As is customary in Toronto and I’m assuming in Canada-I would tell them I’m a Chinedu, I’m a girl, I like Star Wars.

Literally, it’s only through racism I discovered who I was. It was being asked by teachers how long I’d been in Canada or the the seemingly slow, slow speech that teachers would utter to me that I began to realize that I was seen differently than I viewed myself. After teaching in Japan and teaching students by webcam online, the first few lessons I taught; students would ask me where I was from and the shock comes when I tell them Canada and they shake their heads saying that ‘only white people are from Canada’. Again, another rude awakening about ‘what I am’ during another milestone in my life……another reminder that I never quite got right since grade school.

To be Canadian is a frame of mind and as I get older I see that it truly IS a frame of mind. With aging parents one of whom I wasn’t raised with (she spent most of my life in the home country, returning to Toronto after 25 years!) I see how differently I think from them, how I speak to them, even my opinions about certain topics….all DIFFERENT. My self-awareness is VERY different.

As important as it is to be self-aware- I believe that dis-association of labels can be an excellent way to achieve goals, ambitions with less caution and restraint. You learn more and you end up in places and spaces most people would only dream. Knowing oneself without becoming wrapped up in what it means to be just that in a limited framework is also important. Image

A few weeks ago they had a talk (they talked at me) about where I should be in life and what I should be doing now. The interesting part about the talk was that I couldn’t understand why my mother couldn’t see my point of view.

A topic like this gets written off as generational or perhaps I’m not thinking clearly (Maybe I’m transient)…but what I got from the talk was that I was a new species to them.

My Dad started talking to me about embracing both cultures and that I was African-Canadian (Canadian born of Nigerian parents) and it had me thinking the same way I thought as a little girl in Junior Kindergarten……To my parents I wondered what it meant to them to be a Nigerian-Canadian.

Based on their comments it dawned on me that they would never be able to see what my identity means and looks like to me. It seems simpler to them to build some guidelines on how-to-be ‘Nigerian’. Comparisons to other family members who’ve migrated to North America (as Africans maintaining culture or any other ethnic group for that matter, were being bridged).

I started wondering what they knew about what it meant to be me. You see: to me I don’t identify like that.I never will. I’ve never entirely went with a specific group. I’ve never completely identified with Africans. Maybe because most of the Africans I’ve met were newcomers to Canada. They all (parents and those I’ve met) expect me to speak the language, visit the home country frequently demonstrate and understanding of the customs and have them acted out in true form. I say ‘act’ because it’s easier to just follow to behave ‘African’ so guidelines are met and being ‘found’ would be much better than being ‘lost’.

The urgency comes from my mother’s fear( I didn’t grow up with) of me being ‘lost’. My being lost and not ‘knowing the culture’ is a nightmare for them. The problem with that is families have no idea that a hybrid child is created once (im)migration occurs. DNA is the same but the finished product is ‘a new thing’, not ‘ a bad thing’.

If only they understood that my experience with identity had been carved out a long time ago. I already identified with being ‘A Chinedu, a girl, a peanut butter jelly sandwich eater’ long time ago.Seemingly all things making me a Canadian aside from birth.

I believe it’s important to know where someone comes from, where their customs are coming from and understanding about heritage…..but understanding where you are and how you fit in and demonstrate the here or now is more important too!

The point I’m trying to make here is very clear to me: Within the landscape of Toronto-people, organizations, offices, other ethnic groups, your own family, even employers see a name or a face and immediately want to place you, categorize as something and once they get to know you or mis(understand) and dissect you they either become horrified, impressed or shocked why? Because they are expecting you to fall into any of the categories for your supposed type to make it easier.

When I visited the family’s home country….. I remember meeting random people in the streets of Lagos, in shops, people visiting my family during our stay all knowing and not expecting me to be anything other than what I was—A Canadian.

Sooo I may not go camping or fishing every Summer, I may not say Eh! All the time either. Heck, I may not be Caucasian. But I know what it means to be from here. I AM CANADIAN!

Happy Canada Day!