Ottawa band crowdfunds Christmas album
By Kyle Duggan and Brett Throop One Christmas, North Easton made a promise to his mother: he would write her a Christmas album of his own songs. That was some years ago. And while Easton plugged away at the Christmas collection over the years, tragically, his mother died of lung cancer before the project could be completed. Now, with the help of online fundraising, Easton is making good on his promise. Easton and his three-piece acoustic band, My Favourite Tragedy, raised $6,414 on Kickstarter, a popular crowdfunding website, to produce the original Christmas album. The album has eight songs that tell intimate stories about family and the holidays. The band is doing a music video for the song Christmas Lights, which is about Easton’s father’s tradition of waking him up early to put up the Christmas lights—rain or shine. Click on the photo below to view an audio slideshow about the making of their music video for Christmas Lights. “Traditions of Christmas aren’t just waiting in a mall in a line up to buy something somebody doesn’t want. But more like sharing something inside of you that’s real,” he said. The group’s Kickstarter page asked for $5,000 to produce the album and raised it with just three days to go before their deadline. They then pushed on to get another thousand to make the video for Christmas Lights. Drummer Phil Desmarais said friends wanted to buy an original Christmas album but the band didn’t have the resources to make one. But when Easton found Kickstarter, he saw an opportunity to launch their album. Kickstarter works by direct donations, where artists pitch their project to potential backers. If the backers like what they see, they can donate to the project in exchange for products or services. “There was a musician on there who raised over $1.5 million and I thought this could very well be the next revolution in music,” Easton said. “Artists now have a chance to sell to their fans before they’ve created their product, as long as the trust value is there.” Desmarais said crowdfunding is a “very democratic way of getting things produced because ultimately the public has the right to say what is good and what is not.” Phil’s brother, John-Marc Desmarais, plays bass and cello for the group. “It’s kind of a gamble on backers’ part given that the product they’re trying to purchase hasn’t yet been produced,” he said. “But thankfully they’re willing to gamble.” He added the band will likely look to Kickstarter again for future projects based on their success. The group raised funds from 92 people around the world, offering...
Year’s first snowstorm may be followed by colder than normal winter
By Kyle Duggan and Brett Throop Ottawa will be whomped by the first snowstorm of the year Tuesday night, the first in a year that’s expected to be colder than usual, according to the national weather service. The weather service issued the winter storm warning for Tuesday night and Wednesday. Dave Phillips, Environment Canada’s chief climatologist, said there could be a significant amount of snow in the Ottawa area and there could be rain or freezing rain. “The morning commute might be a little bit on the messy side, with some blowing snow – that kind of a situation,” he said. The warning calls for 10-15 centimetres of snow Tuesday night, followed by another 5-10 Wednesday. “You haven’t had much of a winter. London’s had 60 or 70 centimetres of snow and Ottawa has had traces of snow, about six centimetres total,” Phillips said. He said this is nothing surprising. “It probably won’t be the biggest storm of the winter. There’ll still be lots of time for that.” Phillips said after the system passes through Ottawa and heads toward Quebec and the Maritimes, Ottawa should see “some very nice sunshine and temperatures a little on the cool side.” The weather warning cautioned driving conditions are expected to rapidly worsen tonight and tomorrow. City police reported over 50 accidents in an hour on Saturday after Ottawa’s first snowfall of the year. Look ahead Environment Canada is preparing its winter outlook and expects to issue it within the next week or so. But this year their crystal ball is a little cloudier than normal. Phillips said the water temperatures in the Pacific that normally control the winter aren’t warm or cold right now, making it hard to forecast. “There’s not a lot of skill in a forecast where the water temperature is rather neutral. It’s more for curiosity’s sake. I don’t think anybody should invest any money in it, or make any plans on it, or cancel your Florida trip,” he said. But Phillips said it’s clearly going to be more of a winter than it was two years ago, “when we almost cancelled winter.” That was one of the warmest Ottawa winters on record with about half the usual snowfall. Last winter, he said, was slightly warmer than normal, with about 12 per cent more snowfall than usual. “My sense is this year we may be colder than last year but we may not see as much snow,” he said. But Phillips said he wouldn’t bet the family farm on it. “There’s no guarantees with weather in Canada, that’s for sure,” he said. Ready for winter Carleton University students waiting...