It was so nice to get out of the cold rainy weather and into a warm tropical environment… even if it was only for 2 hours!

All shots taken with a Pentax K20D, FA* 200mm f4 Macro, with a monopod and external flash.

Pentax K20D, FA* 200mm f4 Macro, 1/200 sec at f8 with external flash

Imagine: it’s a perfect sunny day. You’re out in the field behind the school with all the other children. Some of them are older than you. Some are younger. Some of them are your friends. Some are your enemies. Some are your neighbours. Some of them you don’t know at all. But none of this matters. In this moment you are happy. Everyone is. Everyone is excited; smiling, talking, running, jumping, playing. Basking in the warm summer glory of the last day of school. Everyone is connected then, in that moment, by that feeling.

I had almost forgotten about that feeling. I didn’t think I’d ever experience it again. But I did! I found it! Or rather, Rich Aucoin aroused it from within me.

Describing a feeling within a moment, or perhaps a moment that creates or awakens a feeling, is quite difficult. Words don’t really exist to describe the complexities of how everything can come together to form a perfect moment in time that you instantly recognize in your heart and soul as happiness. Yet it’s not exactly happiness either. It’s more like being at peace with the universe and truly living in that moment.

All I can do is describe the scene, and you can judge for yourself whether it’s comprehensible:

We’re in a small night club, with hundreds of strangers all around us. There is a white bed sheet hanging on the wall behind the stage. The sheet is covered in images and lyrics being projected in sync with the music. A strobe light is flashing. Everyone is jumping up and down with both hands in the air, shouting along with the music. Some people know the song. For others it is their first time hearing it. It doesn’t matter though, everyone is singing along. And jumping.

Oh, and did I mention that everyone in the room is under a giant rainbow-coloured pinwheel-patterned parachute? It floats up and down in the air as it glides over our outstretched fingertips. It feels as though the whole crowd is moving in sync, not just with each other, but with the universe. Everything seems to be going as planned. We can’t argue with the universe, so we keep jumping and singing along. The parachute is like the pulse of the music, floating effortlessly through the air as the sound fills the space between us all. We feel like a single entity then, as if we’ve all become the physical embodiment of the music. What if the music goes away? Will we remember this perfect moment when it’s gone? Will we ever feel this way again? We can’t take any risks, so we keep dancing, jumping, singing, and smiling as furiously as we can.

That’s the best I can do to describe the experience of Rich Aucoin’s live show. Please just trust me and go see him; you have to experience it for yourself. I wholeheartedly agree with words of Kirk Hamilton:

Without a doubt, and without hyperbole, Rich Aucoin’s live show is one of the best I have ever seen. It’s fun, and uplifting, and will leave you with a full heart and grinning for days on end. One of the lines he had everyone chant was “When you give it all up, you get it back”, and I can’t think of a better way to sum up the show; Rich more that gives it all up, and deserves everything he gets back.

Thank you for the experience Rich. In your own words: WE ARE SO LUCKY!

<root>
  <fields>
    <field_abc>
      <name>field_abc</name>
      <value>1</value>
      <enabled>true</enabled>
    </field_abc>
  </fields>
  <fields>
    <field_def>
      <name>field_def</name>
      <value>2</value>
      <enabled>false</enabled>
    </field_def>
  </fields>
</root>

Note how all the nodes under /root/fields are named after the field name, rather than each node being named <field>. So I can’t just ask for all the nodes named field or all the field nodes in the fields collection, and I don’t know what the field names are or how many there are either.

I can’t easily change the format of the XML to conform to a schema since this table has been in production for a few years on a few dozen Oracle instances.

So how can I query and/or loop through all the children in the /root/fields path without knowing the child node names? It turns out to be fairly easy!

Example Query:

SELECT EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (xml), '*/name') AS "name",
       EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (xml), '*/value') AS "value",
       EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (xml), '*/enabled') AS "enabled"
  FROM my_table_with_xml tbl,
       TABLE (XMLSEQUENCE (EXTRACT (tbl.xml_type_col, '/root/fields/*'))) xml
 WHERE tbl.primary_key = 1234;

Example Output:

name        value   enabled
---------------------------
field_abc   1       true
field_def   2       false

The trick is this line:

TABLE (XMLSEQUENCE (EXTRACT (tbl.xml_type_col, '/root/fields/*')))

What we do is we EXTRACT() all the nodes below the /root/fields path regardless of their names (* wildcard). Then XMLSEQUENCE() will split the extracted nodes into a VARRAY of XMLTypes. Finally, the TABLE() function allows us to query the VARRAY results by converting the multiple array values into a pseudo table containing multiple rows.

We could even apply a WHERE clause against the XML data to further restrict the results:

Example Query:

SELECT EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (xml), '*/name') AS "name",
       EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (xml), '*/value') AS "value",
       EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (xml), '*/enabled') AS "enabled"
  FROM my_table_with_xml tbl,
       TABLE (XMLSEQUENCE (EXTRACT (tbl.xml_type_col, '/root/fields/*'))) xml
 WHERE tbl.primary_key = 1234
   AND EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE(xml), '*/enabled') = 'true';

I love how this video challenged my expectations and turned out to be the opposite of what I would describe as a ‘normal’ music video. Instead of actors (or the band) lip syncing along to the original audio of the song, the actors in this video are actually overdubbed so you can hear them singing the song. It’s a totally different song when sung by children; I think I might like the music video version more than the original! Very cool idea.

After listening to their streaming tracks I was very impressed! Their music reminds me of so many different genres and artists at the same time. So I joined their mailing list and they emailed me some selected tracks:

• Bolsheviks – reminds me of Mars Volta + Mr. Bungle + Bjork + Opeth
• Hey – reminds me of… Fantômas + Bjork + Tori Amos + Broken Social Scene
• Must Get Laid – reminds me of Mr. Bungle + Goldfrapp
• Zoo – reminds me of Mew + Metric with hints of Coheed and Cambria, but mostly of Electric Turn To Me (I really wish they hadn’t broken up a few years back!)
• Sunshine – VERY Mars Volta like + Fantômas + Coheed and Cambria
• Army of Me (Bjork Cover) – Whoa.. I mean.. “WOW!!!” Definitely check out the video to see for yourself.

OK, so the music is good, I’m digging this new find so far… then I decided to check out their music videos… WOW, now I’m totally blown away! You MUST check out their awesome music videos! “Lose This Child” and “Hey” are both extremely impressive videos but I especially like the video for “Attractive” – a soft, delicate song with a video that seems like it could have been inspired by Little Big Planet.

That took care of our primary goal, but what about my secondary goals? I wanted to include some of my favourite music! This was our day after all! What could I do without turning into Groom-zilla on our DJ (or my wife)? I toyed with the idea of giving a few favourite band names to Drew to see what he’d come up with, but as I typed out some of my ideas I quickly realized that I had too many opinions; that I’m too picky; that I really had to build some sort of playlist myself and pass it on in it’s entirety.

I had a great idea: during the time between the ceremony and dinner (roughly 1.5 to 2 hours) while we’re off taking photos and the bar is just opening up why not share some of my musical selections with our guests as they mingle? I didn’t mind that I wouldn’t be able to hear most of these songs because I knew them all by heart and I’d always have the playlist to listen to whenever I felt like it. That sounds like an easy task right, an hour or two of celebration music to psych up our guests while they’re waiting for us?

Well, the playlist grew, and grew, and grew… and soon the scope of my little project included music to play during dinner as well. I was worried that Drew would feel that I was stepping on his toes, but luckily he was ok with it, he actually complimented my taste in music! His real job for the day would begin after dinner and go into the wee hours of the morning, so really, I was doing him a favour – he could sit back and relax for the first few hours!

I took inspiration from many sources, including the CBC Radio 3 Wedding Bell’s Podcast long time personal favourite artists and tracks and of course songs that had a personal meaning behind them. I tried to group the songs such that more modern, fun and upbeat songs would play earlier when the guests were arriving, getting their first drinks and mingling in the sun. Then in the middle section when we would be arriving at the reception I chose songs with some personal meaning behind them, then later in the mix some of the more quieter and romantically themed songs would come on while guests were eating.

Here it is, my wedding playlist:

1. Broken Social Scene – Forced to Love
2. Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
3. Land of Talk – Some Are Lakes
4. You Say Party! – Laura Palmer’s Prom
5. The New Pornographers – Go Places
6. Stars – Fixed
7. Sia – Under the Milky Way (The Church Cover)
8. The Tragically Hip – Flamenco
9. Zero 7 – Somersault
10. Cary Brothers – Blue Eyes
11. The Goo Goo Dolls – Iris
12. Young and Sexy – Life Through One Speaker
13. Bonnie Somerville – Winding Road
14. The Apples In Stereo – Nobody But You
15. Big Star – I’m In Love With A Girl
16. Jason Mraz – I’m Yours
17. Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight
18. Collective Soul – The World I Know
19. The Goo Goo Dolls – Let Love In
20. The New Pornographers – We End Up Together
21. The Shins – New Slang
22. Royal Wood – I’m So Glad
23. Lamb – Gorecki
24. Metric – Love Is a Place
25. Hannah Georgas – This Is Good
26. Stars – My Favourite Book
27. David Myles – Run Away
28. Jason Mraz – Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat)
29. Sarah Harmer – Open Window (the Wedding Song)
30. Hawksley Workman – Oh You Delicate Heart
31. Constantines & Feist – Islands In the Stream
32. Patrick Brealey & the Knives – How Would You Choose to Be Loved?
33. Hannah Georgas – Shine
34. Jill Barber – Chances

You’re probably wondering what the grand finale was, the song that rose above all others and was selected to be the soundtrack for our first dance. This was a tough choice, there were many contenders, but in the end we chose Celebrate by Rose Cousins. It was wonderful and amazing; everyone loved it!

I hope you enjoy this playlist as much as I do.

I was listening to their incredible 2007 album In Our Bedroom After The War while driving on the highway the other night and a few thoughts went through my mind:

• This is my favourite Stars album. I hadn’t listened to it for a while so it immediately felt like I was connecting with an old friend. Newer releases always bump the older ones out of the CD wallet in my car but I wish I had never taken this one out.
• This is an excellent CD to listen to while driving! With a wide variety of beats and melodies you can listen to it loud or soft, whether you’re alone with the stereo cranked up or listening to it in the background while having a conversation.
• My favourite song on the album is the second track The Night Starts Here. It’s a beautiful male/female duet that starts out light and dreamy but ends in an epic bass driven alt-pop orchestra – I love it!
• I enjoy whistling along to most of the songs on this album when I’m alone. I didn’t really realize I was doing this at first, it just felt natural.
• I think this would be a fun album to sing along to… especially the duets.
• This album is upbeat enough to keep you awake yet smooth and calming enough to prevent road rage and traffic frustrations from making my drive unpleasant.

In conclusion, this album is wonderful and it deserves more attention, go listen to it right now!

You get the picture, I enjoy and value music in my life! Maybe it’s because I respect musicians so much. I have never played any instruments with a measurable proficiency myself so I look up to those who are experts in their craft. Now that I think about it, really, I look up to anyone who is an expert in their craft.

Another reason I love music so much is that it is one of few asynchronous activities I can do. For example, I can listen to music while working, cooking, exercising, reading, etc. It’s not so easy to cook while exercising, or to read a book while riding a bike, etc! So, because music is so important to me I would like to share some of my personal favorite artists and tracks. Once in a while I will publish some of my playlists on this blog under the Music category. Stay tuned!

I am pleased to be joining the (Athletics Canada) team and am truly excited about bringing my experience to the fold in continuing to assist in the development of Canadian Officials to be the best in the World.