January | 2011 | Samantha Everts

Archive for January, 2011

The British are coming! The British are coming!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged braids music, ottawa, ottawa music scene, paramedics, Slaysh, tourism, UK, University of Nottingham on 01/23/2011 |

So a week back I was surprised to get an email from my old English flatmate telling me she was in Montreal for a few days. We lived together with a group of 6 other girls when I was attending the University of Nottingham in the UK. As charming and lovely as Jackie is my first interaction with her went as follows:

Samantha- “Hey nice to meet you! I’m Samantha. I’m Canadian.”

Jackie- “You talk funny.”

Then walked off! Hilarious!

It was her first year of university and, ever the experienced independent woman, I taught her how to microwave a potato and make Kraft Dinner with resounding, ‘Ooos,’ while her and another flatmate smoked shisha until 5 a.m., played ‘bagsy’, or held parties of 30+ people in my kitchen at the most random times. I learned so much about English culture from living with those girls.

Being able to reflect on memories of living in Notts with someone that had a similar experience was such a treat. I had to curb talking about the UK a few weeks after I moved back or else just became too annoying to my friends with my constant comparisons and stories of European living.

skating on the Rideau Canal!

It was really cool to show her my city. I do love Ottawa. Only so many people can say that but I think living in other countries and provinces affirmed that it truly is home. We did the traditional tourist things, oddly, when we visited Parliament there was creepily no one around at 7 p.m. Despite throwing an insane amount of Canadiana at her (Tim Hortons, Hockey, the Canal) she had an incredibly ‘hipster’ visit, as I brought her out to Avant Garde, So Good, Raw Sugar, Zaphods, Mavericks, oh, and GT Boutique. It was so great catching up with her and even now is surreal writing that she was even here.

Paramedics photo by Jamie Kronick

Onto more arts-based interests- Saw an incredible set from Ottawa’s Paramedics for their CD last night. Despite the -32 weather, people came out in swarms to support the guys. One of their songs had two drummers and synth pop similar to the Shout Out Out Out Outs, which I loved. So many good people were out last night including my old friends in The Love Machine. Thought that stuck with me as I was getting ready, ‘You know you’re Canadian WHEN… you wear two pairs of tights and two pair of socks on a Saturday night when you go out to a club.’ You can read the interview I did with Paramedics here! Their album packaging is unlike any I’ve ever seen before in my many years of working in radio.

Thanks to Paramedics for the sweet swag back from Slaysh! Being me, I didn’t even hear my name called out for the $500 gift pack. Very cool stuff indeed.

oakley tuque, sexy URANIUM necklace, swedish WESC argyle cardigan, new FLUTE earbuds, beautiful URANIUM scarf, fuzzy COAL mitts, and brand new kick-ass SPY OPTIC sunglasses

Braids Mtl

Highly worth mentioning, Montreal’s Braids blew my mind on Friday night with their dreamy-Bjork-like minimalist atmospheric pop. (Lester Bangs just called after reading that last sentence, sorry.) You can read the interview I did with them HERE.

I’m going to be busy working on some really cool projects in the next month including movies, photography and music. They can’t be shared quite yet here though, shhhh!

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My baby, my book: Marty McFly Update

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged marty mcfly, my book, writing on 01/23/2011 |

I started my fiction book, ‘Marty McFly’ in March of 2010 based on a 7 page short-story I wrote. It’s now about 150 single spaced 8×11 pages, which is pretty big. It’s not done yet but I kind of feel like if someone was to lock me up for a week with vegan catering and no internet, the first draft would be complete. I’ve been really inspired lately. The problem is that I’m coming to the point of the story when things are beginning to wrap up and it’s really hard to hurt my characters as I’ve grown so close to them.

This is the first physical copy of my book (fiction)… so far.

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Jan-man plan

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alternative music, apt613, broken social scene, film, friends, journalism, legally blonde, music journalism, new year, webisode, writing on 01/08/2011 |

So January First rolled around with the regular fan-fare. A.k.a. giant Chinese buffet dinner my Polish side has every year. Admittedly, the best hang-over cure, though this year I didn’t have to worry about much. I also took my mum to go see Legally Blonde the Musical at the NAC. It was ‘fluffy’ as she said, but was a lovely treat to do something so cultural with her as she lives a fair piece away. The last time we saw a musical together was Wicked in London (UK) and she’ll be the first to admit she cried through the whole thing.

The week prior I had been going out every single night and day to socialize after being out in the country with no cell phone reception and shit internet for Christmas. This week marked back to ‘reality’- so much reality that I showed up at my ‘real’ job on a statutory holiday. (No one ever tells me these things and it’s a very small office!) Basically I’ve been making to-do lists daily.

That being said, I’ve been productive… chasing stories mainly for Open File, interviewing for Apt613.ca, pitching to CBC, writing book stuff, and generally being creative. Actually I left my fiction book for about a month because I was overwhelmed with paid work and am really glad to come at it with new eyes. I was reading it and was like, It’s good. This girl’s good. This girl’s funny.

Congrats to Apt613.ca for being named best ‘GROUP BLOG’ in Canada for 2010!!!

I've already got the camera out on him!

Big news is- I’ll be filming a pilot. Yes, you heard it here first- my old friend Luca Furguiele (a music video director and editor extraordinaire!) and I are gonna make a moooooooooovie. (that was my imitation of Stewie Griffin there for the rest of you.) I’m not going to give away too much yet as we’re in discussions with a few important people but we’ll be pitching for a series on the history of local venues. We’ll profile them, give their backgrounds, interview celebs and locals about what the club means to them and any special memories… and then we’ll get to down to the I’ll keep you all in the loop as I may need some help. We’re going at it from the most professional standpoint as both of us know exactly the aesthetic, format, and style we’re going for.

It’s going to be fucking COOL. It’s also testing out my investigative journalism skills I’m just honing in on.

Oh, recently I interviewed Broken Social Scene. That went pretty well. No big deal. interview here

And Tokyo Police Club. I’ll be talking to a bunch of other people in the next week that you’ll no doubt be excited to read about. It’s just trying to figure out who to pitch to sometimes to make sure I’m getting paid, which is a shitty requirement but if you’re talented and experienced like I am money’s pretty important (I’ve been doing this since I was 18)

Now go outside and play in the snow! Wait, you need inspiration? Check out my article on toboganning!

best! xo

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Hot 89.9 NYE PARTY!!!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged clubbing, hot 89.9, hot girls, New Years Eve, NYE, promo model, radio station on 01/08/2011 |

I had a BLAST on NYE with the radio station . That above picture sums up the whole night nicely. Some people were shocked to learn I was working this holiday, I didn’t mind. There’s so much expectation about where you are and with who for midnight, why not make a little money?

how to make a hottie

I pretty much don’t stray from Zaphods (yes, yes) but it’s part of the acting. The week before I was the ‘glowstick girl’ at the same club for a red light green light party- a dating traffic light themed party. I wore red. A lot of it.

So the premise of this event was that the most popular DJ had an ‘Entourage’ and while we might not have gotten the limo (sigh, next year, next year) we’d take them around to all the best bars and clubs Ottawa has to offer and get them VIP treatment the whooooooooole time. So we indirectly were responsible for wrangling a group of 15 winning listeners. We were unofficially titled the ‘Party Paparazzi’ as we were to take photos of everyone out on the town celebrating. That also meant we were in a TON of the pics!

They ended up being hilarious and by the end were like old friends. Well, really DRUNK new old friends.

My coworker and I had a hoot. Being professionals we couldn’t drink, but I didn’t really mind. Watching everyone sober on NYE was fascinating. And we were like celebrities paid to party. Wait, that last sentence makes me sound like Paris Hilton.

I ended up at bars that I’d never been to and bars I’d only ever go to if I was paid. Not even kidding ended up in a country-themed bar with a mechanical bull in the middle of the dance floor. At that point I made an excuse to get some air and ran up the street to see my best friend play one song but only after getting teased for the logo dangling from my neck.

Then it was back to clubs and unwelcome gropes and spilled beer of the other bars and clubs. My coworker and I quickly discovered a huge source of fun party hats to distribute at each club, so we took turns walking around and placing them on unsuspecting revelers. They then realized we were ‘Hot’ girls and these are the photos that followed. I swear we’re now in half of Ottawa’s facebook profile pictures. We even signed autographs. I’ve checked my ego since then, don’t worry.