Photo courtesy of Ming Wu

The hiatus is finally over! This week, Audio Visual returns with a great show featuring Ben Welland, Dave Halabisky, and May-Jun of the awesome local band Sadie Hell. Ben’s been performing under that name for years, performing the same songs in everything from solo shows to multi-instrument extravaganzas. He finally decided to sit down and record an album last year, and their eponymous LP was released on January 2. We talked with Ben about the crazy history of Sadie Hell, his photography career, and the new album - take a listen! The album release show was also a special event for Ben’s love life, as well - he proposed to his longtime girlfriend Colleen, and she said yes! As you can see from the picture, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.

As well, this week marks the return of the Audio Visual podcast! Woo! Unfortunately, it won’t include the 2-hour end-of-the-decade spectacular we put together for the December 30 broadcast. Due to a cruel twist of fate, the computer that records our show suffered an existential crisis 30 minutes before we went on air, and the backup computer also simultaneously got lost in the futility of its own existence. So, we don’t have an mp3, but you can imagine what 2 hours of me and Tina talking sounds like - just listen to this week’s show 2 1/2 times and imagine us talking about the Arcade Fire for much too long.

Download:

Click here to subscribe in Itunes, click here to subscribe in another RSS feeder. Yay!

Caroline Ishii and her sous chef pose for the camera at Zen Kitchen. Photo courtesy of John Wiseman on Flickr

It’s no secret that we are big fans of ZenKitchen here at Apartment 613. The little vegetarian restaurant on Somerset has become a welcome addition to Ottawa’s culinary scene. When we first wrote about ZenKitchen back in the summer we reported that the restaurant’s executive chef, Caroline Ishii, and co-owner/sommelier David Loan were followed by a camera crew as they tried to fulfill their dream of opening the place and making it a success.

That adventure has now been documented in the new show from Mountain Road Productions titled, The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave. The first of 13 episodes will premiere on the W Network, this Wednesday night at 9PM. (Click here for a sneak peak). The co-owners are planning a small party (media event/tasting/episode watching) that evening to kick the series off - invitation only, we’re afraid (more on that later).

According to the shows’ producers, Caroline and Dave did not have an easy voyage turning ZenKitchen into a reality.

Though Caroline is an excellent chef who prizes the freshest ingredients, she did not have much experience with the business side of running a restaurant. Dave too, a former political staffer, was a little wet behind the ears on business front.

Their inexperience was compounded by early financing problems, real estate issues, faulty equipment, absent contractors and “staff walking out the door.”

Somehow, they made it all work and came out with a great product. If you want to see exactly how they managed to make their restaurant one of the city’s best culinary additions this past year, you should tune in to the show. We will.

As a very special treat - ZenKitchen has invited two lucky Apartment613 readers to their party/ screening tomorrow night. If you want to get your vegan on and celebrate with the team at Zen, email us at editors@apt613.ca and we’ll enter your name in a draw for the chance to attend! Get typing… we draw names at 6:00pm!

Courtesy of McLoy2008 on flickr

In the tumultuous scramble of holiday shopping, the convenience of gift cards is sometimes too alluring. Fret not! Covered previously on Apt613, the topic of holiday presents is given the Audio Visual treatment: we explore tips, ideas and etiquette to help our listeners establish some thoughtful gift-giving cred among family and friends, subsequently shaming their close ones who lazily resorted to those precious slips of plastic. I make the argument against gift cards — an obvious argument to make, but it gets a little complicated and heated when Peter steps in as devil’s advocate. We talk about Etsy, the Dalhousie St. designer shops, online wish-lists, and fascinating family gift-giving rules (the most earnest, if not “better in theory than practice” example being the created-from-scratch-only rule most accurately depicted in About Schmidt) and some gender stereotypes (pro-tip: buy your boy Modern Warfare 2).

After the break we spin some of the best songs of 2009. Speaking of lists, don’t miss our exclusive, two-hour special on the Oughts a fortnight from now.

Music:
Burial/Four Tet — “Moth”
Drake — “Best I Ever Had”
Jay-Z — “Empire State of Mind”
CFCF — “You Hear Colours”
Grizzly Bear — “Two Weeks”

Download:

Courtesy of Eduardo Mueses on flickr.

This week on AV (yes we’re back!):

- A tonsillitis’d Peter exhales The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townwomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production Of A Christmas Carol in one breath once more before diving into a review of the Gladstone production. Peter’s verdict: the play is reasonably satiable, though given the production’s heavy reliance on audience participation, A Christmas Carol seems best suited for families who have better taste than taking their kids to see the epic fail that is the new Jim Carrey film adaptation.

- Peter and I (mostly me, though) interview Dipna Horra, an M.F.A. Fine Arts student at the University of Ottawa whose sound installation The Colonial Times will be shown at Gallery 115, the uOttawa visual-arts gallery at 100 Laurier Ave. Dipna talks about the influence of architecture in her artwork and her experiences living in Brooklyn. The Colonial Times takes place Wednesday Dec. 16. at 100 Laurier. The exhibit will be up noon to 7p.m., and Dipna will serve tea between 5-7 p.m.

Music:
The Flaming Lips — “Evil”
The Most Serene Republic — “The Four Humours”
Spiral Beach — “Raising the Snake”
Rose Melberg — “Things That We Do”
Bloodshot Bill — “Pretty Lil Miss” and “Oh Honey Doll Baby Doll”

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The Rural Alberta Advantage: Amy, Nils and Paul. Photo courtesy of ipickmynose from flickr.

Last week’s show featuring Casey Mecija from Ohbijou about rural hometowns could not have made a better precursor for this week’s interview with Nils Edenloff from The Rural Alberta Advantage. The Toronto-based band’s debut album Hometowns — a recording themed around heartbreak and moving away from home — was critically acclaimed by many music bloggers in 2008 and the trio has been touring extensively for the past year, making their third trek down to Ottawa this year on Nov. 12 at Zaphod’s. Next up, Peter interviews Michael Small from The Meligrove Band, who were scheduled to drop by Zaphod’s on Saturday but had to cancel due to H1N1. Sad, but the show will go on with headliner The Most Serene Republic. Lastly, we wrap up the show with a review of Humpday, a great indie flick about two straight guys who decide to make a porn. It sounds like a premise out of a Judd Appatow flick but it’s actually a profound film — listen to learn why.

Music:

The Rural Alberta Advantage — “The Ballad of RAA”
The Meligrove Band — “Planets Conspire”
The Most Serene Republic — “Heavens to Purgatory”
Annie — “I Don’t Like Your Band”

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Photo by Jess Baumung. Courtesy of Indoor Recess.

The Hometown. For many, we may never again inhabit the towns of our childhood, but we do make occasional visits, if not in person, then in memory. I can say with certainty without even having to verify with Peter that my co-host is not likely to ever move back to Brantford — he’s too much of a big-city guy. Brantford never meant anything to me until I met Peter and heard his stories about the Ford Plant, the gritty music hub home to Brantford’s young music scenesters. On this week’s Audio Visual we talk to Brantford native Casey Mecija of Ohbijou, who shares her memories of the Ford Plant and the influence it played in her career. We move chronologically to the place she now calls home — Toronto — and how she incorporated the city’s well-documented indie-rock collective philosophy into her own work, like her Friends in Bellwoods compilation albums that feature a cornucopia of indie-rock Canadian talent, including Snailhouse, Katie Stelmanis and Ottawa’s own The Acorn. Her band’s most recent collaborative effort is Beacons, Ohbijou’s sophomore album, released this summer and the main reason for the band’s current tour. Ohbijou hits up Babylon this Saturday with openers Silver Starling and Giant Hand.

In the second half of the interview Peter and I review Big Fan, a new indie film by Robert D. Siegel, the previous editor-in-chief of The Onion. Starring Patton Oswalt in his first leading, serious role, Big Fan tells the story of Paul Aufiero, a devoted football fan of the New York Giants who is beaten up by his hero, Giants player Quatrell Bishop. Siegel’s script examines the cultural prejudices of fandom — as illustrated through Paul’s “loserish” lifestyle as a parking lot attendant who still lives with his mother — and the way in which fandom can implicate life-changing decisions. In the case of Paul, the question is whether or not he chooses to sue the pants off of Bishop, the “right thing to do” according to his bewildered and demanding family members. Peter and I agree with many of the critics lauding Big Fan, for this is a pronouncedly strong debut for both Oswalt and Siegel. Don’t t miss it at the Mayfair (playing Fri-Mon; check the theatre schedule for more info).

Music:
Cold Cave — “Love Comes Close”
Ohbijou — “Jailbird Blues”
The Almighty Defenders — “Ghost with the Most”

Download:

Courtesy of kenjiys on flickr

On this week’s edition of Audio Visual we talk to Artengine artistic director Ryan Stec, who coordinated Niteride, a bus ride sound installation that takes viewers on a 40-minute trip around the Gatineau region accompanied by soundscapes created by the project’s two artists. One trip was constructed by Canadian ambient musician Tim Hecker — who spent some time in Ottawa while working on his Polaris Prize-nominated album Harmony in Ultraviolet — and the other is an interactive installation by Marla Hlady wherein viewers can manipulate the auditory experience with home-made instruments during the bus trip. Given the rustic, desolate nature of the season and the lucubration-inducing atmosphere evoked by the bus ride’s soundscapes, Niteride transcends the typical road-trip mode we are all accustomed to. This time, we are not plugged into our own world via iPods — everyone on the bus shares an auditory experience that is so engulfing the soundscape even appears to affect the air pressure in the bus. Niteride takes place nightly until Saturday, and you can find more information at Artengine’s website.

In the second half of the show Peter talks to director John Koensgen and actors Steve Martin and Emma Hunter from the upcoming Gladstone Theatre production, The Final Twist. Much like Niteride, the British play is well-suited for our recent dark, cold weather given its status as a Hitchcock-inspired murder mystery. Unlike Niteride, The Final Twist is a fast-paced thriller. The show runs Oct. 29 - Nov. 14 and for more information, visit the Gladstone Theatre website.

Last but definitely not least, local musician Adam Saikaley makes a surprise visit on the show to intro his amazing piano rendition of Tim Hecker’s “I’m Transmitting Tonight.” While we only had time to talk to Adam for like, two minutes and thirty seconds, this is quite easily the show’s highlight — this means “not to be missed,” folks.

Music:
Tim Hecker — Chimeras
Adam Saikaley — I’m Transmitting Tonight (piano cover)

Download:

Photo courtesy of Kingdom Shore

It was a blast from the past this week, as friend of the show and formerly frequent contributor Travis Boisvenue came into the studio to talk about the silent movies performed with live scores at the Mayfair Theatre on October 16 and 23. But there’s more than just the silent horror movies playing this month - although you should check those out too - and future editions of the live score nights will include Buster Keaton’s The General and Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. Travis talked to the brains and the bands (including Kingdom Shore and the Hilotrons) behind the festival, and he talks about the different approaches each band is taking to their respective films. There are more great silent movies in store for Ottawa, so stay tuned to the Mayfair Theatre website for updates!

We also played an interview Peter did with Patrice James, the executive director of the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa (only works in IE). They’re putting on a series of workshops designed to reach out to minority communities, which you can read more about here.

Lastly, Travis and Peter did a little unpaid commercial work, talking up the new release  from brilliant video-game designer Tim Schafer, Brütal Legend. Right now you’re like “Who is that? I don’t care.” But you should. Oh yes, you should. Schafer is the man behind some of the best games ever, including the Secret of Monkey Island, Psychonauts, and Grim Fandango. His work is criminally under-appreciated, but it looks like this time around he’ll get the critical and commercial success he deserves. That doesn’t stop us from telling all you loyal AV listeners to check the game out!

Music:
Vincat - Crab on the Beach
Kingdom Shore - Stray Bullets
Deer Tick - The Ghost

Image courtesy of Alroy Fonseca from the Apartment613 Flickr Pool

Recently, Apt613 was the media sponsor of the Salon Evening Event at Cube Gallery. The theme of the evening was Anxiety, and the audience was engaged in a discussion about their anxieties while watching fantastic performances by Gruppo Rubato, singer-songwriter John Carroll and actress Kel Parsons. We invite you to Check out our podcast as we present selections of the performances from that evening.

Photo courtesy jontintinjordan on flickr

The Review Edition:

• Tina talks about her initial apprehension and gradual admiration for Mary and Max, a claymation feature-length film that will be screened at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
• Peter analyzes the new multi-artform shift in orchestra performances with Beyond the Score: Mozart’s Final Piano Concerto at the NAC
• We wrap up the show with a discussion about the noir homages and humour in the new HBO television series, Bored to Death, starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson.

Music:
Javelin: “STD Fury”
Memory Tapes: “Bicycle”
Plants and Animals: “Feedback in the Field”
Hudson Mohawke: “Rising 5″