'I'll Hold Onto Your Heart' - Morgan Cameron Ross

Check out this new video from Morgan Cameron Ross feat. Holly McNarland. 

'I'll Hold Onto Your Heart',  Definitely one of my faves on the album! 

  

Hey There Darlin' Music Video by Morgan Cameron Ross

Check out Morgan Cameron Ross' new music video for 'Hey There Darlin'. 

Starbucks Prank with Gavin Slate

This. Is. Brilliant. 

Check out the video below of Toronto musician Gavin Slate doing what he has to do to market himself in his official video for "Life As A Salesman".



Follow Gavin on Twitter: @GavinSlate

Britney Spears is Not Fat!

Photo: PictureGroup/Splash News

I am absolutely disgusted! Since the official news of Britney Spears and Demi Lovato joining X-Factor the media has been going nuts. Not nuts with excitement, but nuts with non-stop Britney bashing. Look, I will say up front that I am team Britney, and have been since I was 15 years old when I got to meet her during her first trip to Toronto. I also realize that many people are not. I realize that people seem to think her 2007 meltdown was just yesterday. But honestly, that is all besides the point. My reason for writing this blog post is to say how disgusted I am that the media is attacking her appearance and calling her fat. FAT! In what world is Britney Spears considered fat?!?! This one apparently. Some of the words used in many online reports? Dimpled, lumpy, even bruised and just fat. Others said she looked liked trailer trash. Honestly, I've seen her look a lot worse. The girl has come a very long way from the low point in her life. She's looking good and healthy these days. Gotta give the girl some credit here.

With terrible comments like these, it's no wonder girls have body image issues...and that is my biggest problem with this whole thing. This is the absolute worst message to send young girls. It's impossible to live up to this idea of absolute perfection. I'm sure we all have things that we don't like about ourselves, I sure do. I'm also pretty certain that some of these people behind these mean words don't have perfect bodies either. I'd love to see their "dimples" because I know they've got them! We are imperfect human beings, but we have to learn to be happy and accepting and not try to live up to what the media says is perfect.

Britney Spears is 30 years old and a mother of 2, she's not 17 anymore and I say she looks pretty damn good. Just my opinion.

The Fault In Our Stars

Looking for a really good read? A story that you will become completely immersed in? Read this book.

"The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green will make you laugh out loud on more than one occasion, it will make you bawl your eyes out and you will not want it to end! But, that was just my experience, give a read for yourself and then let me know how you felt about it.

'The Lucky One' Nicholas Sparks

Last week I had the honour of meeting one of my all time favourite authors, Nicholas Sparks. 

Nicholas Sparks had been on a press tour promoting his latest book to film adaptation, "The Lucky One" starring the handsome Zac Efron and beautiful Taylor Schilling when he made a stop in Toronto to meet some "lucky" fans (about 500 of them)! 

I read this book about 3 years ago, and it is definitely one of my faves! I highly recommend reading this book...and maybe all of his other ones while you're at it! ;) 

This was my third book signing since December, all put on by Indigo events. If you have ever thought that a book signing might be boring then you need to attend one of these events, it is anything but boring! There is always a DJ playing some tunes, and there are often giveaways as well. At this event they were giving away t-shirts (I got one), and lip gloss. There were Twitter contests, dance offs and a full on sing-a-long to One Direction for the younger girls in the crowd.

Nicholas Sparks was all smiles and just as friendly and gracious as you would expect him to be. He was nice enough to stick around and take some photos with some of us after the signing, good thing too, otherwise I wouldn't have had a photo for this blog!

"The Lucky One" hits theatres on April 20th. Check out the trailor below. 



Follow Indigo Events on Twitter @Indigogreenroom

Everybody Needs to See BULLY!

This past Monday, I was lucky enough to be able to attend an advance screening of the documentary Bully at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. I had been waiting to see this since I first heard about it and I was definitely not disappointed. 

I could not be happier that director Lee Hirsch decided to make a film about bullying. It's about time that people are now truly starting to pay attention and admit that we have a serious, serious problem. After all of the headlines we've inevitably read in the last couple of years, Bully could not have come at a better time. 

 

Now, I think the thing that shocked me the most was that in the United States the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) slapped this film with an R rating. In a discussion panel after the Canadian premiere Lee Hirsch made sure to point out the hypocrisy of it all. I hadn't thought about this, but they give PG and PG-13 ratings to many films that glorify and even "sexify" violence. Lee was absolutely right. 

Discussion Panel (iPhone photo from back row)

They of course didn't just accept this unfair R rating. Harvey Weinstein along with Alex Libby, one of the bullied boys featured in the film stood before the appeals board. In his statement, Alex told the board that they were basically saying that he couldn't see his own life! They lost by one vote. It's not a total loss though, they ended up with the film being unrated which is definitely better than R. Canada on the other hand gave Bully a PG rating in every province with the exception of Quebec who gave it a G. Go Canada! 

If you know me, then you know the subject of bullying really hits home with me. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I am so glad that I did not grow up in the digital age. The bullying I encountered while growing up was nothing compared to what's going on these days, but I will never ever forget the hurtful words and poor treatment. It didn't follow me home from school unless you're talking the odd prank phone call, but today there is no escaping it. Today you're bullied even when you're in what's supposed to be your safe place. 

Bully is such a powerful and moving film. Teachers need to see this, kids to see this, everybody needs to see this! With a generation of kids that are the least empathetic ever, now is the time. It's time to make a change. It's time to stand together against bullying. Do I think that bullying will ever go away completely? No. But I do truly believe that we can make a difference and save some young lives. 

A little word of advice for when you see this film? Bring kleenex.

Check out the trailer below:


Make sure to visit their Canadian website www.bullymovie.ca to demand it in your city and while you're at it, pledge to take a stand against bullying! 

You can catch Bully at the Varsity Cinemas in Toronto beginning Friday April 6th. 

*UPDATE: The MPAA has finally granted the film a PG-13 rating!*

Steve Major - Peace of Mind

Check out my pal Steve Major's new music video for "Peace of Mind". 

Days of Our Lives Book Signing

This past Friday, Kristian Alfonso, Molly Burnett and Bryan Dattilo of Days of Our Lives fame made an appearance at Indigo Manulife Centre to sign copies of "Days of Our Lives 45 Years". 

I was one of the lucky fans who got a chance to meet them. What I love about book signings is the people that attend are all talking about how long they have been a fan. When I met Regis Philbin, everyone talked about how many years they had been watching him on TV, and it was no different for Days of Our Lives. I talked to one girl who had been watching her entire life, all 29 years. She listed off all of the 80s children's shows that I watched, as well as Days.

"Hope","Melanie" & "Lucas"

Bryan Dattilo aka Lucas

Kristian Alfonso aka Hope Brady

Bryan and I

Molly and I

It was a real pleasure to meet Hope, Melanie and Lucas! 

A huge thanks to Indigo for another amazing event! These guys know how to run a book signing! 

"Storybook Romance" - Morgan Cameron Ross

Check out my pal Morgan Cameron Ross' brand new music video for "Storybook Romance" featuring the lovely Tara Gill.

If seeing this video makes you want more, check out Morgan's Canadian Music Week set this Friday at the Library Bar inside the Royal York Hotel at 9pm.

Remembering Whitney Houston

To me, this is how Whitney Houston should be remembered. 

The video below is her singing the U.S. national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl while America was at war in the Persian Gulf.

Absolute perfection. 

Johnny - Morgan Cameron Ross

Check out my friend Morgan Cameron Ross' new music video for "Johnny".



"Like" his Facebook page.

2012 JUNO Award Nominations

The nominations for the 2012 Juno Awards were announced this morning. I know a lot of people in this country do not care for these awards, but I do. There is SO much amazing Canadian talent, and they deserve to be honoured! I will never stop supporting our awesome homegrown talent! 

I was so happy to hear that hosting this years show will be none other than Captain Kirk himself, the one and only, William Shatner! Very cool!  

Blue Rodeo will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and will perform alongside Sarah McLachlan. They also announced this morning that Nickelback and Hedley have been added to the April 1st CTV broadcast of the 2012 JUNO Awards. They join previously announced performers Feist, Deadmau5 and City and Colour. More performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The nominees for the 2012 JUNO Awards are:

Artist of the Year 

City and Colour

Deadmau5

Drake

Michael Bublé

Feist

New Artist of the Year
Alyssa Reid

Dan Mangan

Diamond Rings

JRDN

Lindi Ortega

New Group of the Year

Braids Flemish

Hey Rosetta!

Mother Mother

The Rural Alberta Advantage

The Sheepdogs 

Album of the Year

Avril Lavigne - Goodbye Lullabye

Drake - Take Care

Justin Bieber - Under the Mistletoe

Michael Bublé - Christmas

Nickelback- Here And Now 

Single of the Year 

City and Colour - Fragile Bird

Hedley - Invincible

Johnny Reid - Let’s Go Higher

Nickelback - When We Stand Together

The Sheepdogs - I Don’t Know 

International Artist of the Year 

Adele - 21

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

LMFAO - Sorry For Party Rocking

Rihanna Island - Loud

Juno Fan Choice Award 

Arcade Fire

Avril Lavigne 

City and Colour

Deadmau5

Drake

Ginette Reno

Hedley

Justin Bieber

Michael Bublé

Nickelback

Pop Album of the Year

Avril Lavigne - Goodbye Lullaby

Down With Webster - Time To Win Vol. II

Hedley - Storms

Lights Lights - Siberia

Marianas Trench - Ever After 

Rock Album of the Year 

Arkells Arkells - Michigan Left

Matthew Good - Lights of Endangered Species

Sam Roberts Band - Collider

Sloan - The Double Cross

The Sheepdogs - Learn & Burn 

The full list of nominees can be found here.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Doesn't matter what time of year it is, you will always find people from all over the world who have come to pay their respects and to remember...

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

The 2012 Oscar Nominations

The Hollywood award season continued today with the announcement of the nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards.

I think there were a few surprises, but looking over the nominees here, I think they went pretty much as expected...at least how I expected anyways. I now have 33 days to get all caught up on the nominated films that I have yet to see. Last year, I didn't see The King's Speech until the afternoon of the Oscars! Hopefully, I won't cut it as close this year! 

The Nominees are:

BEST PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Demián Bichir - A Better Life 

George Clooney - The Descendants 

Jean Dujardin - The Artist 

Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn 

Jonah Hill - Moneyball 

Nick Nolte - Warrior 

Christopher Plummer - Beginners 

Maxvon Sydow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara -The Girl with th e Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots

Rango

DIRECTING
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants - Alexander Payne
Hugo - Martin Scorsese
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
The Descendants - Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Hugo - Screenplay by John Logan
The Ides of March - Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
Moneyball - Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin - Story by Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
The Artist - Written by Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids - Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
Margin Call - Written by J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris - Written by Woody Allen
A Separation - Written by Asghar Farhadi

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Artist - Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo - Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse - Janusz Kaminski

VISUAL EFFECTS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
Hugo - Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
Real Steel - Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

As always, a full list of nominees can be found on Oscar.com 

The 84th Academy Awards will be held on February 26th on abc.

2012 People's Choice Awards Recap

I like lighthearted award shows, and that's exactly what the People's Choice Awards are. It doesn't take itself too seriously. 

Things I liked from last night: 

• I think choosing Kaley Cuoco as the host was a great idea! She's funny, beaming with confidence and absolutely gorgeous! I liked the Big Bang Theory opening scene. 
• Neil Patrick Harris being part of the live opening; all ready to go with a song and dance number complete with a tearaway tux! Too bad Kaley had him dragged away by "security" lol! 
• The Bridesmaids acceptance speech! Breaking out into "Hold On" was awesome...as was thanking CVS Pharmacy for some reason? 
• Everything Betty White! I heart her so much. Can't believe she's 90 this week! Congrats to Hot in Cleveland for winning Fave Comedy on Cable. 
• Morgan Freeman accepting his Icon award. Short and sweet.
• Emma Stone being all cute and tongue tied accepting her 2 well deserved awards! But did they seriously have to give her the count down so quickly? 
• Nathan Fillion winning Fave TV Drama Actor! His speech was brilliant! Looking at the Twitter feeds, people were either happy he won or literally crying and cursing that Ian Somerhalder didn't win. I am also happy that Castle won Fave TV Crime Drama!
• Jane Lynch as the Seat Coordinator.
• Something not seen on TV; Miley Cyrus being sneaky and taking over the @peopleschoice Twitter with this tweet: "its miley! i just found a computer with this account open haha! =]]] im hacking PCA bout to watch my boo go on stage xx love yall"
• How I Met your Mother, Neil Patrick Harris & 2 Broke Girls all winning awards! 

Things that I didn't like so much: 

• Adam's Sandler's acceptance speech. Good effort, and I laughed a couple of times, BUT it went on way too long, and I don't think it was as deserved as others in his category of Fave Comedic Movie Actor. 
• Demi Lovato's performance was...horrendous. I do admire her for being a good role model for young girls and being brave enough to share her struggles. Just not a good performance last night. Faith Hill's wasn't all that spectacular either. 
• A lot of the banter between the presenters. Sharon O and Cuba Gooding Jr. being the worst.
• Revenge not winning Fave New TV Drama.
• Finally, not enough celebs were present at the show and not enough awards were given out during the live 2 hour broadcast.

A full list of winners can be found here on the People's Choice Awards site. 

Congrats to all of the winners! 
 

Walk Off the Earth's Cover of 'Somebody That I Used to Know' Goes Viral!

This right here is another example of the power of social media! 

Ever heard of the band "Walk Off the Earth"? I hadn't until this YouTube video of the Burlington Ontario band doing a cover of Gotye's song "Somebody That I Used to Know" went viral this past weekend. 

On Saturday Russell Crowe tweeted: "Check out Walk Off the Earth's cover of Somebody I used to know. Brilliant"...and now they have over 4.5 million views on YouTube! They have made news in North America, Germany, the UK and Australia and they were even featured on Good Morning America today! 

Check out the video below! It's pretty incredible! 

My Fave Viral Video of 2011

These twins are so freaking cute! This vid can always put a smile on my face!