You Pinspire Me
I’ve always wanted to be an extra in something. Hallmark filmed several Christmas movies at my former place of work, but they never pulled me aside and begged me to be in their film. Jerks. Walk Off the Earth filmed a music video in Hamilton a few months ago, but we were out of town that night so we had to pass up that opportunity.
My chance finally came last month when Hamilton duo Ash & Bloom advertised on facebook & Twitter that they were looking for Hamiltonians to help them out with a music video about (not surprisingly) Hamilton. You’ve heard me talk about Ash & Bloom before in this post, Simon & Garfunkel Meets Ben Folds, wherein I disclose that the folks who make up Ash & Bloom are actually my choir buddies from university (which, by the way, should not detract from my raves about them – while they haven’t made it to The Vinyl Cafe quite yet (knock on wood), they were featured on CBC Here and Now this past summer on Song of the Week).
I signed up right away. My dear husband agreed to take one for the team and stay home and nap while the kids were napping so that I could get out to the Finch Espresso Bar for the music video taping. I admit, it was a bit…quieter there than I was expecting (no fancy photography lights? No big video cameras? No MUSIC?), but was so pleased that this adventure had brought me into the new cafe in town – what a chic little place!
I got to write up my own sign, but had 2 takes since I’m actually TERRIBLE at penmanship. I gave Matt a short lesson in Social Media shorthand (DH = Dear Husband, DS = Dear Son, DD = Dear Daughter, DD3 = My 3 year old Dear Daughter, LO = Little One, etc), and then I smiled at the cam for 8 seconds. voila.
In all seriousness, I’m thrilled to be a part of this video. When I came to Hamilton for University 13 years ago, I had much the same opinion of it that the rest of Ontario did: it was dirty, crazy, and pretty boring. Since my university was located almost on city limits and I didn’t have a car, I didn’t actually get to change my opinion about the city until I graduated and moved downtown.
There is so much beauty and possibility and promise in this city – sure, we’re overrun with crazy hippy NDPers (I mean that in the friendliest way possible 😉 ), but wow, what a place. We’re the Waterfall Capital of the WORLD! We have such a gorgeous tree canopy on the escarpment and around the city. We’ve got a beautiful outdoor skating rink in the winter and roller rink in the summer. We’ve got Gage Park and Bayfront Park and Princess Point. We’ve got the Royal Botanical Gardens and the escarpment trails.
We’ve got the Super Crawl and Festival of Friends. We’ve got the one of the best textile shopping districts in the country. We’ve got amazing small businesses like Barefoot Babies and The Mustard Seed grocery co-op, not to mention the homegrown coffee culture: Cafe Oranje, the afore mentioned Finch Espresso Bar, and Relay Coffee Roasters, just to name a tiny percentage of the amazing places to get a cuppa in town. Besides all of that, we’re hosting the Junos next week and the men’s & women’s soccer tournaments for the PanAm Games this July!
In short, I love my adopted city, and I love this song.
By the by, Ash & Bloom will be playing next Saturday night at The Gasworks as part of JunoFest. Will you be there? I already have my ticket.
Jenn vanOosten
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SUPER COOL. FUN. I love it.
How cool Jenn!!!
I looooove this city too!!!