I Do, and Now I’ve Got a Plane to Catch

by Brett Atkinson on

Here’s the ideal solution for those couples that always seem to flit past each other in the whirlwind of a busy life. Get married at the airport.

In a promotion organised by innovative British airline easyjet, Czech couple Miloslava Vopelkova and Robert Hruska won a wedding at Prague’s Ruzyne airport. I’ve spent a few hours at Ruzyne, and while it’s more spacious and modern than a few other international gateways I could name, (bonjour Paris-CDG and howdy LAX), it’s certainly not where I’d choose to spend one of the biggest days of my life.

Still, the bride and groom look very happy, and can now look forward to an all expenses paid honeymoon around Europe.

I’ve just got two questions. Did they have the wedding reception at the excellent Pilsner Urquell pub that’s part of the airport, and who’s going to pay their massive airport parking bill after once return from tripping around the Continent?

Click here to watch the happy nuptials.

Thanks to Micke-Fi on Flickr for the moody pic of Ruzyne.

Band on the Run: Sister Servant (Pre-Wedding)

by Ember Swift on

This title is tongue-in-cheek. In fact, quite literally; my tongue has found itself being held down between my teeth many times in the “bite your tongue” fashion since my sister decided to get married a year ago, regularly finding itself wedged between my molars and only able to greet the inside of my cheek rather than be used to form words. And, that’s a good thing – really and truly. The motto that I have stuck to (and gratefully) has been to “stand by, offer help and question nothing.”

After all, weddings are for the bride and the groom, right? Some say it’s for the family, but in this case I’d say it’s really for my sister and her husband-to-be. She’s getting married in Maui, Hawaii next week and it’s her dream wedding location. He (the groom) is in love with my sister and knows better than to have any conflicting dream! Together with about fifty family members and friends, we will gather on the beach and enjoy the palm trees and sand while they tie the knot.

No hurricanes please.

Summers are a time of weddings. We just got back from Lyndell’s sister’s wedding in Northern BC and I’ll be off to my sister’s event next week (and be sure to post about Hawaii). The “sister servant” reference is really a reference to what happens to musicians and performers when people in their lives get married.

Quite simply: we get put to work. It goes with the territory.

Whether it be as a wedding band (yikes!); or as an MC at the reception or the various events beforehand like the Stag & Doe party; or as the music that people hear while the church or hall or synagogue or beach area is being slowly populated with attendees; or, quite commonly as the song that is sung during the signing of the marriage certificate. Whatever the particular task is, it surely includes a microphone or the ability to project one’s voice in a cavernous building of somebody’s worship!

I have been asked to do all of these things at one point or another. Usually, it’s a gig. For my family, it’s a gift.

(Do you still have to buy the bride and groom a wedding present if you’re the music and the MC? I’ve been trying to figure this out, but I’ve come up empty. I could use some advice here!)

You see, I’m certainly not a traditionalist. I have been to many weddings and they’re all so different that I really can’t place how it’s done exactly. All I know is that I am often expected to speak to the people, make everyone feel comfortable, program the music for the assembling of people (luckily, I talked her into using a CD for that part) and singing during the signing. Also, happily, I won’t be the music for the reception. There’s no way my band could have afforded the trip to Hawaii – I couldn’t even afford it and so begged a loan to get there next week – and so she will be using the in-house band. Should be fun to watch. Especially because by the time we get to the reception, it will be other people working and not me for once. Phew!

When Lyndell and I arrived in Prince George on the night before her sister’s wedding, we were both prepared to perform together during the signing of the marriage certificate the next day. Lyndell’s sister had asked to learn a song by James Blunt (who sounds suspiciously like Rod Stewart, don’t you think? Maybe it’s Rod’s voice and music with a young hottie in the ad campaigns? I’m just sayin’!) and she wanted Lyndell to play the violin. Well, this song is called “Goodbye My Lover” and it seemed strangely inappropriate for a wedding. The words are about a break-up, but we dutifully sang while I drove and she practiced on the violin. After the many hours on the road, we arrived with the words and melodies memorized.

I’m thrilled to report that I didn’t have to sing. She didn’t want the words to be sung (knowing it wasn’t the right theme!) and so Lyndell just played with her cousin (“once removed,” I might add) who is also a professional musician (pianist) and who was able to find the sheet music in a local music shop. He hadn’t known he was playing until the day before either, but took the task on effortlessly.

I, on the other hand, watched the whole thing by myself in a pew and befriended a little kid named Sammy, the little brother of one of the bridesmaids. We had a great time shooting pictures and trying not to get in trouble.

Now, for my sister’s wedding, I’m planning a few songs so that she can veto the ones that don’t work and choose the ones that do. After navigating a dangerous tryst with my Mother who tried to insert the songs of her choice behind my sister’s back (that’s the equivalent of trying to get me killed by my older sister!), I have narrowed it down to four and she will choose two. That’s my task on this six-day break that I’m on before flying over to the land of the tropics for four days.

Luckily, I arrive a day and a half before the actual wedding day, which gives me just enough time to brush-up on the songs of her choice. I’ll then lounge with a piña colada in the hopes that the beach and the umbrellas in my drinks will help me to forget how much money I’ll owe for the four-day pleasure.

I only have one sister.

I wouldn’t miss her special day for the world.

In servitude,

— the musician, and sister.

Band on the Run: Train Crashes the Party

by Ember Swift on

I have been thinking a lot about trains lately.

On August 4th in Prince George, BC, there was a head-on collision of two CN trains just on the edge of town. The resulting derailment created a huge fire that burned into the next day and threatened the nearby Fraser River with contamination from the small gasoline spill. One tanker was northbound carrying the oil product and the other was southbound carrying lumber. The reports say it didn’t cause any “significant” environmental damage.

Isn’t even a little bit of damage significant?

This story caught my attention because it seems to be in line with my life at the moment. I’m heading through beautiful Jasper National Park en route back to Edmonton towards a flight home and I’m thinking philosophically. The elegant mountains and the crystalline lakes, black bears (I’ve seen three!), elk and moose (two!) are all setting the scene for a little self-reflection. Nature does it to me every time.

Beautiful. Pristine. Not deserving of any damage, no matter how “minor” it is deemed to be.

I’ve come to a point in my life when I can see that it has so many possible courses – performance, touring, composition, recording or record production, teaching, writing, language study, activism, China – and I’m wondering at what point it will all collide, head on and messy. Somehow, this weekend’s train crash struck me awake with that inevitability.

(Why so foreboding, Ember? What happened to having a good time? Enjoy the party!)

I was in Prince George when that crash happened. I was there because it was Lyndell’s sister’s wedding and we were able to attend (despite its remote location) thanks to the Edmonton gig and the Wells gig that framed it perfectly.

Anyway, it was the morning of the wedding day when we saw smoke in the sky across town. That cloud hung there all day long and into the night (the fire was visible for miles) and the commotion shut down a couple of roads and was all over the radio and television. Detours were put into place and life for Prince George carried on without much fuss. The bride and all of the wedding party were nonplussed about it all and the ceremony and celebration went off without a hitch.

(Well, except for them getting hitched of course – har, har!)

Still, it was on my mind.

I remember an incident in high school when two students – one rushing east down one hallway, the other heading south along another – collided head on and emptied classrooms with their yelling. Both were hurrying, head bent, towards their single-minded destinations. At that hallway juncture, both hugged the corner as tightly as possible for ultimate speed and efficiency and they arrived at the point of collision at the exact same moment with the exact same impossible angle to see the other or to swerve around and avoid the impact. One got a mild concussion and the other a giant goose egg but nothing terribly serious. It was forgotten the next day.

“Two Students Rushing Towards Their Futures Collide: No Significant Damage.”

I thought of all this when I was reading the online headlines about the CN crash. One talks about it being a result of “management error,” which (now that I’m gratefully back being self-managed) got me thinking about my renewed active role in all this coordination. Responsibility.

It’s so much easier to blame someone else, isn’t it?

As an artist/musician, I have been five months without management and I couldn’t be happier to no longer be in that working relationship. To say it was toxic is an understatement and saying goodbye to that bad energy in my life and career was one of the best decisions I’ve made in awhile. Of course, I learned a lot – plenty – and will always be grateful for that learning, but two and a half years of working with management does not make me an advocate of hiring a manager when asked by other artists. Quite the opposite, actually.

The trouble is, since I “broke up” with my management company, I’ve realized that I don’t really want to do it either. So much paperwork and responsibility all the time and it makes me want to reverse this locomotive and ship myself back to China where my career wasn’t in my face needing maintenance, needing management.

So, “management error” sounds quite right to me, because there were a lot of those in my two and a half years of having one. But, I’m ashamed to have become accustomed to the deflection of responsibility that having the management of your career in someone else’s hands offers.

I guess it’s like letting someone else drive the train, so-to-speak.

Deep breath.

This time in my life reminds of the end of high school, a time when it was all about options and the anxiety that they presented. Because options are choice – equal levers on the train tracks leading to new lines that are just as easy and hard to navigate as the old ones were. And these new lines lead into other landscapes that are no less beautiful than the ones I’m writing this in. Everything is possible.

I guess we’re all just as liable to be on a crash course with our futures as we are to be leading ourselves safely down the tracks. The trick is making it all work together without the collisions, like a symphony, like a network of trains, like a marriage.

So, throughout the wedding, the train crash haunted me – a day to witness a couple’s significant choice: two people coming together in lifetime union.

Sounds like a soft collision to me.

Maybe not all collisions are unsafe and cause damage.

Maybe.

I’m just going to choose to believe that and stop worrying. Enjoy the party, kick back and laugh more. After all, no mistake is going to be intentional and it all leads to learning, no matter how messy it becomes. And this natural world — this gorgeous country — is just too beautiful to not enjoy while we still can.

[It was at that conclusion that I rolled down the windows of the car and started taking pictures.]

Trust.

Ideal Wedding Gift: A Honeymoon!

by Martha Edwards on

I’m in a long-term relationship and we’re not planning on tying the knot in the near future, but by the time we do, I suspect we will have all the things that typically go on a wedding registry: the blenders, linens, silverware, etc. So this idea of registering for a honeymoon instead of houseware sounds awesome! In fact, even if I didn’t own a single plate, I’d probably still want to register for a vacation rather than a food processor.

There are a number of travel companies that offer honeymoon registries, and basically, guests contribute an amount towards the whole trip, or they can purchase individual tourist items such as restaurant gift certificates, tours, tickets to shows and so on.

Maybe I should hurry up this whole marriage thing ….

(via The Window Seat)

Wedding Travel a.k.a. Personal Bankruptcy

by Iva Skoch on

The average wedding in the US costs around $30,000. According to CNN, the number of destination weddings has increased 400 percent in the last 10 years. So, I am certain, has the cost for guests.

Is it just me or has wedding-related travel gotten out of control? I like weddings, but…

If you are in the 25-40 year category, chances are that you have to go to a wedding-related event practically every other weekend in the summer. Events include engagement, bachelor and bachelorette parties, bridal showers (and if you are really unfortunate, they are followed closely by baby showers). Guests are, of course, encouraged to not only come, but also bring a gift, buy a new outfit, etc. This stuff adds up.

Lately, it has become customary to travel for similar events to distant, exotic places, which adds additional cost. It is nice if the destination is to your liking and you can make a trip out of it. Unless, of course, you are required to be “on wedding-service duty” 24-7 by a controlling bridezilla or a perfectionist-groom. You never know, there might be an emergency of colossal kind – what if the candles don’t match the flowers perfectly?

Umm, whatever happened to people eloping?