Dr. Draw defies classification

I have a piece in this week's Xpress weekly, regarding Canadian musician Dr. Draw. I had reviewed Draw's last CD for Outlooks well over a year ago (and enjoyed it), so when I got word that he was coming to town (well, to nearby Wakefield) with a new CD, I was quite keen to do this piece. While I had been hoping to hear some of the new tracks, he was still mixing them when we spoke last week, so I was out of luck there. Nevertheless, I enjoyed talking to Draw, and while I was given an opportunity see the show tonight, alas it is out in Wakefield and I'm without a means of locomotion (but don't worry - I actually have competing plans).

EBA 101

In this week's edition of Ottawa Xpress, I preview the upcoming show at Gallery 101, titled "Verticality." "Verticality" is a group show and a collaboration with local artist collective Enriched Bread Artists (EBA). One of the particular challenges in writing this piece was not having seen the show in place, as it hadn't been hung before my deadline. So, working with a group of images provided by EBA, and being familiar with many of the artists there from past articles on their shows, I was able to come up with a pretty decent preview if I say so myself.

The article can be read online here.

Melanie C - Online

My Melanie C article is now online on the Xpress website, found here.  Thanks to it being a web-only feature, I was able to have the space to do the interview justice and not have to worry about it being crammed into something that was only some five hundred words, which is probably all I would have been allowed in the print edition.

The Delicate Art of Negotitation

Attempting to sell the Melanie C piece has been something of a headache the whole week. In the end, the piece wound up back where it started--with Xpress. The piece was not so much commissioned as "if you want to do the interview, go ahead, and if we have page count we'll take it." And then they were supposed to get the increased page count, but their head office in Montréal had their own interview, which they were supposed to use instead. And then, that piece turned out to be too Montréal-centric, and it was back to me. They could put it on their website--but not pay me for it.

I don't like working for free. I've done a couple of spec pieces here or there for editors I've never worked with before, and in most cases they've panned out. In one case it didn't quite--the editor liked the piece and planned to run it, but they ran out of space, and then the bill passed, and they it was rendered moot. Nevertheless, it led to new work from him a couple of weeks later.

So I shopped the interview around, but most outlets either had their own piece done--in some cases I knew that but pitched that this interview steered clearly away from the topics they had covered--or in one case, the editor never got back to me, after three voicemails.

Winding up back at Xpress, I submitted the piece on the condition that they arrange for passes for me for the show in lieu of payment. That seemed to work, and it is some token renumeration for the work that I put in. Being as they have a new editor there as well, this was my trial run with him. So it all worked out as best as it could, and I did get to interview a Spice Girl. But it highlights some of the perils of working as a freelancer.