GET OUT THE VOTE (Then come party)

All right everyone,

It is that time of year again. Thats right, it is time to vote in the ULSU Elections.

It is super easy. All you have to do is go to the website, log in, and VOTE!

WWW.ULSU.CA

There is literally no reason not to vote. Seriously, if you are reading this, then you can vote. Just open the site in another tab or something. Go. Do it. Now. VOTE!

Voting is open until March 5th at 3:00 pm.

Then, come on up to the Zoo for the Election Results and Big Rock Bash Party.

At 5:00 pm, the winners are announced. Then comes the music. With performances by The Record Holder and Chief Mountain, it promises the be quite the night. Also, there is no cover.

But it doesn’t stop there. At 7:00 pm, our friends at Big Rock Brewery are giving a little presentation on how you can enter to win $10,000, just by entering a contest. Also, you can go the Eddies (apparently these are a big deal in C-town).

All in all, looks to be quite the night. So, come on out, welcome in the new council, say goodbye to us old hacks, listen to some cool jams, and find out how you can win the big bucks.

Not too bad, for a Thursday in Lethbridge.

Check out the FB for more info:

ULSU Elections and Big Rock Bash

Adam Vossepoel

President

That Rock n’ Roll part…

Ba bam.

I think that would sum up the last week and 1/2 nicely.

Sex, Drugs, Rock n’ Roll was a kickin’-smash-good-time-bear-hug of a week and I give a giant high five to all who came out to the events and checked out the ULSU Tunnel of Love.

Huge props to Calm asa Coma, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald and Chad VanGaalen for the amazing show they played on Thursday. It was a killer time and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

If you didn’t make it out, or just want to enjoy some good ‘ole memories take a gander at these beauts (courtesy of the amazing skills of the one and only Michael Warf photography)

Hedley is Playing Fresh U Jamboree

Hedley is Playing Fresh U Jamboree

Hedley is coming to Lethbridge for Fresh U Jamboree!

We have been hinting at it for a while now and the ULSU is proud to announce that Hedley will be the headlining act of Fresh U Jamboree.

Tickets are available on-line now for $25! (Click Here or on the image above to purchase)

Please note: If you have already purchased your Fresh Fest package, this includes a ticket for Fresh U Jamboree. If you have not purchased a ticket for Fresh Fest or Fresh U Jamboree, what are you waiting for?! Do it now!

You can purchase Fresh Fest tickets here.

You can purchase Fresh U Jamboree tickets here.

The final Fresh U Jamboree line-up looks like this:

Sleeping with Tuesday
Mahoney
Vacation on Mars
Hedley featuring a special guest
Michael Bernard Fitzgerald
Hot Little Rocket
Dan Mangan

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal

fresh fest! sign up now!

Online registration is now open!

Click on the giant lemon to head to www.ulsu.ca to gain access to biggest 3 day party the University of Lethbridge has ever seen.

Fresh Fest - Sign Up Now!

Fresh Fest Details

September 4-6, 2008

FRESH FLIX
The festivies begin with a Movie on the Hill. Come out an enjoy a free movie on the Big   Screen, right at the U of L!

FRESH FACTOR
In teams, you will compete in challenge stations set up across the campus. The team with the most points wins!

FRESH FRIDAY NIGHT
Join us for a secret Friday night activity. You will have to sign up to find out what it is!

FRESH U JAMBOREE
An outdoor music festival, with 8 live bands, promising to be one of the can’t miss events of the year!

COCA: Solid Programming or Solid Drinking?

So…

I am doing my report on the COCA Conference I attended and I keep rolling the same question through my mind; is COCA worth it?

For those that do not know, COCA stand for the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities (website here: http://www.coca.org) and we at the ULSU pay a membership fee to access their resources with businesses and professionals in the world of campus programming.

We also get to go to this conference that I suspect you have heard of once or twice in passing.

Now as an organization COCA makes sense to be a part of; contacts, education, and resources for first time programmers or experienced veterans alike!

But what about that darned conference?

In case you haven’t heard some the rumors, COCA has been framed as one giant party filled with free alcohol and ample opportunities to engage in “questionable” behavior. Rooms full of naked people. The Devil play card in the back corner for someone’s soul. That kind of stuff. And now that I am back the question a lot of people have been asking me is, “so how was your time at COCA?” wink.

(That little wink at the end of the question makes reference to all the lovely rumors that circulate around the conference.)

Really, though, I can’t say that anything that went on during our stay in Ottawa would be rumor worthy material; yes there were the rooms with free alcohol, and yes we took a late night swim in a pool, but COCA is not this huge monstrosity of party that I keep hearing about.

Was it a good time? You bet! I saw some awesome bands, I got to hang out in bars with lots of cool people 5 nights in a row, and I got to talk to people doing the same job as me across the country.

So back to that first question; is COCA worth it?

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is yes, because it gives programmers the ability to become instantly comfortable in their job, develop their skill sets to create better events at their respective campuses, and make dozens of contacts across the country for professional purposes.

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal

Back from COCA with too much A/C

Greetings!

Back and fresh faced from the lovely and amazing COCA. Eric has been diligent on updating on bands and the other wicked showcases we saw, so no need to be redundant. I do have to say that my personal high lites are seeing Dan Mangan, The Coast, Hey Rosetta! and Hey Ocean! live. All these artists put on amazing live shows and they all are very very worth checking out.

The showcases in general were great and incredibly helpful for ideas on booking. If you personally heard any of these artists and are super jazzed to bring them to Lethbridge, than let us know! Chances are one of us exec’s will be equally jazzed so please don’t hesitate to throw in that opinion.

Besides seeing amazing bands and meeting equally amazing people, I got the chance to look at speakers available in the upcoming year and will be following up on a few people. Two themes I am going for this year in planning speakers and academic related events are “Politics can be sexy?!” and “Sex, drugs, Rock n’Roll”. If there are any suggestions out in the crowd, please comment and let me know if there is anyone you would like to see brought to the UofL. The sky is the limit right now, so give me all you got. I would love to see some people brought who are prevalent in Canadian culture and home town hero’s are always in my favourites.

While in Ottawa I got the chance to watch the Residential School apology while sitting on Parliament Hill. For a political junkie such as myself, this was an amazing event. The ability for our government, for any government, to stand up and apologize for past atrocities that Canadians committed shows true strength and true belief in what it means to be Canadian. Regardless of your political leanings, this event truly shows that we can work as a country to better ourselves and our society. As Adam posted earlier, I do recommend you taking the time to learn a little about this past but also remembering that Canada is an amazing country with an identity not always easily defined. Each and every one of us believes in Canada differently and identifies what it means to be Canadian differently. It is when we come together, as that day in The Hill, that we see really, we are all Canadian and that does mean something.

Jenn Prosser, VP Academic

bands! + songwriters!

The last batch of artists!

We saw a great deal of talent at the COCA conference in Ottawa this past week. Here are some shots from the last showcase:

Day 4:

Kobo Town – From some very deep roots, “Kobo Town” brought a great performance. With traditional reggae styles as well as some worldly influences these guys had a great sound. I was very impressed with these guys.

The Salads – The hardest performance of the entire conference. They definitely played their genre and showed their own personality in their short set.

The Johnstones – Oh Ska music, you will always hold a small place in my heart. These guys were both entertaining and ridiculous at the same time. But they sure got the crowd going and their energy definitely made a huge impact on me. A bit silly, but very fun.

Nadine Medawar – It seem very hard for a softer sound like Nadine’s to translate to the COCA atmosphere. She played well and her band did their thing, but I am afraid she got lost in the crowd a bit. Still, very well done.

Sweet Thing – A male vocal lead, who does nothing but sing?! Well done sir, well done! “Sweet Thing” was the best of the night for me and while at times the lead singer seemed a bit over the top, there has to be something said for an guy to go up there and sing as well as he did and do nothing else.

Day 5:

Day 5 saw the Singer Songwriter showcase, and it was very worth while. We were very lucky to see the likes of Craig Cardiff, Lesley Pike, Jessica Rhyne, Robyn Dell’Unto, Casey Desmond, and Colin Munroe. All of these artists showed a great deal of passion as they really tried to present exactly what they had to offer for us with their music. It was a great way to cap off the musical showcases that had been abundant throughout the entire conference.

And so with that, COCA 08 comes to a close for its musical portion. I will be posting later on the organization itself and how it has affected me in my job at the ULSU.

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal

more bands!

Ok, in case you can’t tell, my camera is very poor at getting everything right when it comes to taking pictures. Sometimes the shots look great, and sometimes the shots look poor, so dearest bands, if your picture looks crappy I apologize. I tried to pick your best shot. But I digress;

We just saw the strongest showcase of the conference. Don’t get me wrong; the variety/lecture showcase we had in the afternoon that featured the likes of Darrin Rose (comedian) Jason Escape (escape artist) Daniel Packard (speaker) Cory Johnson (speaker) and Garbage! The Revolution (documentary) was great for our programming. But these bands were just a great night; they have been the capstone event at COCA as far as I can see.

Day 3:

Hey Ocean – What a preforming band! They had a great flow from song to song in such a short set (you only get 20 mins each at COCA. Yuck!) They brought out some new instruments for an indie band, including the flute and a few different percussion lines. A knock out performance!

hey rosetta! – You have to respect a band that puts strings in their set. My picture does not show it well, but “hey rosetta!” features two string instruments. On a purely personal note, I love hearing strings mixed into pop and folk music. These guys did very well.

God Made Me Funky – Wow. If there was a party band that would kill every show they played, then “God Made Me Funky” would be it. The crowds at COCA have been moderate at best, but all of a sudden those funk notes hit the air and people were just having too much fun. They brought the room to life. Arms went from folded to pumping fists and clapping in the air. As I said, wow.

Will Currie and the Country French – I am not to sure about these guys. Will Currie (I assume is the front man) on the piano and lead vocals was great. He made the show more enjoyable for me. I am just not sure about the rest of the band. They seem fresh and full of life, but not really sure about a larger show. Maybe nerves got the best of them; still well done all around.

The Coast – <insert Jenn Prosser screaming like a teenage girl over the Backstreet Boys circa mid 90’s> These guys did alright. Reportedly (since I am a bit ill-informed here) their original EP is much better than the content they played for us off their new album. Still, new or old content, they sounded a bit off. Who knows maybe the sound guy just didn’t know what to do. I still enjoyed these guys, but they weren’t the best we have seen for the conference.

Once again folks, these are just my opinions on the bands we have seen at COCA 08 in Ottawa. Jenn and I are having a blast, but it is very late, and I am very tired. Until tomorrow (when Jenn attempts to kill me for giving “The Coast” a less than absolutely stellar review)…

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal

Bands!

Here are a few shots from our two nights out on the town so far:

So far we have seen 11 bands play over the past 2 days. For what its worth, here’s what I have to say about them all.

Day 1:

Creature – Great band with some funky beats. They really do their own thing, but wow do they rock! They have such a high energy show and a great presence for the stage.

Escalate! – The kind of band you would hear in a high class lounge; their songs flowed together. Awesome sound and entirely instrumental.

wordPEOPLE – A solid six person crew with male and female vocals that blended well. The had some great crowd interaction.
Day 2:

More or Les – These guys were the surprise of the night for me. A killer DJ (she is called DJ KillaJewel) and man could she spin those beats. More or Les kept the club going near the end of the night and played an awesome show with some very quick rhymes.

Crash Parallel – Rock out! They sounded great, but nothing about them was innovative or overly exciting. A great show, high energy, but I am afraid they are competing with a saturated market in terms of genre.

The Carps – Haha! These guys got kicked off the stage but damn they got the crowd going! COCA started them late and didn’t give them the extra time they should have! Boo! But they have balls and a great show to back up their attitude. (They promised to play nice if we ever book ‘em at our school.)

The John Henrys – Yee-Haw! Really though these guys had some very impressive showmanship. Need a good opener out west? These guys are what you are looking for.

Jon and Roy – We meet again! These guys played the Zoo two years ago. Their surfer rock tones are as good as they have been and they have a new disc out! A personal favorite for me and they capped the night off at the venue with some great songs.

Kae Sun – Some great beats. He seemed very political and conscious in what he was saying. He has a larger group, normally, but all and all he preformed well.

The New Cities – These guys did their thing; unfortunately I felt like I had heard their thing before. Fallout Boy, Good Charlotte, Panic at the Disco… the list goes on. Sorry guys, but no thanks.

Dan Mangan – Best show of the night! A west coast boy with a real heart for music. He has such a good blend of folk sound, melodic vocals, and poetic lyrics, look out for Dan to start breaking out big time in the next year. He will need some solid promotion, but man this is the kind of music that reaches deep into you.

Tonight’s show is going to be sick! “Hey Ocean,” “hey rosetta!,” and “The Coast” have peaked some major interest around the conference as well as the funk sensation “God Made Me Funky.”

More pics to come.

Eric
VP Internal