Musicians helping more musicians get here.

By Erin Land (cross-posted from yegmusicclub.com)

If you had all the money in the world, and could do anything you wanted, what would you do? That is precisely what James Seabrook of Two Bodies of Water Productions asked himself when he came up with the “Pay it Forward” program.

“Why wait until I’m rich? I have unique opportunity right now. I have something that is needed and the means to give it, something I’ve never had before in my life. I guess I just feel it’s my turn to give back,” Seabrook explained.

Pay it Forward is a new initiative, aimed at helping local talent achieve their dreams of recording in a professional setting and perhaps launch a career that will span a lifetime. Completely free of charge!

Seabrook’s studio has been growing a Community Fund since the beginning of June. Artists that pay for studio time are asked where they would like to donate 10% of their purchased time. Some choose to donate the funds to friends, whereas others have chosen to donate the time back to the studio – for newer artists or projects within the community that can take advantage of the cache.

Back on September 1st, a submission form appeared online for the opportunity to use studio time for your recording needs. A panel that consists of Edmonton music industry professionals and local music lovers have volunteered their time to review the submissions and award the studio time to artists or groups they feel are the most deserving of the opportunity.

There are going to be four allotments of five hours awarded; two sessions in November, and two in December.

What will happen in 2012? Seabrook says he’d really like to see the program turn into a regular grant or bursary that can have a much larger impact. Ideally, the program would expand across the prairies, perhaps all of western Canada. Without any corporate sponsorship or investors, the program will continue to grow based on current recording artists contributing to the Community Fund, as they have since June of this year.

The deadline for the first round of submissions will be September 29, 2011. For more information on the Pay It Forward program, or to create your online submission you can view the Two Bodies of Water website.

What are you doing Friday night?

Sister Gray are having a single release party at New City Legion. And they want you to join them. (You might remember them from a previous post, and they being Sonic’s Band of the Month earlier this year.)

They really want you to be there. So, they’re offering up a pair of tickets to the show. It’s going to be a good one too. With Cygnets, The Frolics and a new band; Very Dangerous Animals. That’s an all-Edmonton lineup.

What? Two tickets isn’t enough to convince you?

Fine.

How about two tickets to the show, two download cards of Sister Gray’s new single, AND two t-shirts? Yeah, now we’re talking.

The new single, by the way, will prepare you for the new album, likely to come at the beginning of 2012 according to the sisters Graling.

Drop us a comment to be entered into a draw for the prizes. We’ll draw a winner at 5pm today. You can’t have won anything from us in the last 30 days and must be ready to have a good Friday night. The winner will be contacted by e-mail.

Ah, tipping. One of those societal items that can spark debate, anger, mistrust, and leave service staff smiling or fuming.

Way back at some point you heard about Steve Dublanica’s “Waiter Rant,” a bestselling book about being a waiter and bringing food to others, right here at this web log.

Well, I’m not sure how the Internet tubes work, but that somehow made its way to New York City, and a senior marketing manager, and yadda, yadda, yadda, we’ve got some free books for you.

Dublanica has followed up Waiter Rant with “Keep the Change: A clueless tipper’s quest to become the guru of the gratuity” – which is all about tips, tipping, and what those on the receiving end of our tips think about us. (Heck, we’ve all worked service jobs, we know what we think of them too.) Dublanica goes through various businesses and industries; wait staff, hotel staff, mechanics, baristas, bartenders, the people cutting your hair, driving your cabs, moving and delivering your stuff, even strippers and bathroom attendants.

So, basically, once you finish the book you will be a tipping genius. (Which, one would hope, would equal the best possible service.)

But, because we always want to make sure you’re paying attention, how about you drop some great “tip” stories into the comments and I enter y’all in a draw. We’ve got 3 copies of  Keep the Change for you. And, hey, if you want to have a conversation about gratuities we’re up for that too.

Just remember to leave us a nice tip.

*I’ll pull names on Thursday afternoon, say around 4pm. You can’t have won anything from us in the last 30 days. (Not even if you slip us a $20.)

Since we’re always looking for excuses to plug our ShawTV show “the edmontonian presents” (Sunday nights at 9pm on Shaw cable channel 10), we figured we could do so every now and again while actually making it worth your while.

If you’ve seen episode 3: spring then you know there are exercise workstations through the Alberta Legislature pedway. There’s even a workout mat for you to use at one of them. (Something we did not know before working on the show and exercising with Defining Eve’s Alex.)

So, we’ve got a lovely Edmonton prize pack from Whyte Avenue print/art shop Vivid Print for someone who works out down there.

Just e-mail us a photo of you working out at one of the the Alberta Legislature pedway exercise stations, or post a link to a photo in the comments (if you Twitpic, upload to Flickr, or something like that), and we’ll enter you into a draw for:

• Edmonton postcards with work by Jason Blower
• 1 Art Gallery print by Bee Waeland
  

That’s a whole lot of great Edmonton landmarks and locations (including the Alberta Legislature). Plus, you’d be getting some exercise. It’s winning all around!

*We’ll be accepting exercise photos until Friday, June 24. You can’t win if you’ve won anything in the last 30 days.

Hey you, sexy, swinging Edmontonians.

Recently, Textuality opened in select theatres (not in Edmonton to my knowledge). It’s a Canadian movie starring starring Jason Lewis (Smith Jerrod to you Sex and the City fans), Canadian actors Carly Pope (Young People F**king, Popular), Eric McCormack (Will & Grace, Lonesome Dove), and Liam Card (also the film’s writer). The movie looks at dating in the age of smartphones. And texting (obviously).

It looks like this:

Now, just because Edmonton wasn’t on the movie’s release schedule, doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun. (That might just be a double-entendre.) Details on getting you a new phone after the jump.

How about we chat about dumping people via text or instant messages. My initial reaction is that it’s not cool, but then I think about the fact I talk to only a handful of people on the actual phone, so maybe e-mail and text break-ups aren’t so bad after all…

Also, what’s up with all the self-portraits in the mirror?

For more things to kick off our conversation, the actors are sharing some of their thoughts online.

*****

If sharing your thoughts about dating in the digital age isn’t enough of an incentive to join the conversation (in the comments section) how about we throw a couple of free phones your way? Yeah, let’s do that.

WIND Mobile has offered you, good friends, 2 Blackberry Bold 9780s and 2 months of service on WIND. So comment away and we’ll throw you into the draw for the phones.

(If you don’t want a new phone just add something to your comment like “I’ve already got a sweet smartphone…No, thanks…I just broke up with someone by text, so I’m good…)

We’ll draw for the 2 Blackberry Bold 9780 phones + 2 months of service from WIND at the end of the week. Let me know how dating works today!

 (Comments will be open for contest entries until 4pm on Friday, May 6. You only get entered in the draw once. We’ll accept tweets and Facebook comments as long as you link to this post when @’ing @theedmontonian or comment on a Facebook link to this post. Otherwise we might miss your entry :( Good luck!)