Have You Ever Been To The MMVA's??

Accompanied by MMVA's Video 2011.

I've decided to make my Have You Ever Blog about the MMVA's tonight because...well...it was cool!!

SO...the MMVA's!!! A pretty exciting time for me as I actually was able to secure a media pass for the event (representing canadianspecialevents.com). I never would have thought that this would happen so I was pretty stoked when I received a confirmation from the media relations lady. Going into the night I really didn't know what to expect. I found out my two areas of access were the press areas...which to me meant nothing. All I could picture was a bunch of people squished together clammering for attention. Eek. This thankfully wasn't the case.

On the morn of June 19th I woke up rather groggy, and had to go to work at 9:45 at Marish's. It was Father's Day so the cafe was jam packed! Yippee. I was trying to remain focused on my tasks at work which I think went pretty well until 2:30 rolled around. I was getting kind of nervous for the evening's events and just wanted to get out of work to start getting ready. I had only decided the night before what I was going to wear, and my shoe shopping escapade on the Friday before my big day was a huge FAIL!!! This was not surprising as buying shoes for me is like trying to kiss your own ass. Impossible (except maybe for those Cirque du Soleil people). This meant that I had to wear the most uncomfortable shoes I own...AGAIN. Eff. More blisters ANNNNDDD lack of mobility. Sweet. I got off work at 3 and to avoid driving people away due my pungent bacon smell I jumped in the shower as soon I got home. On the email I received, it said that registration for media was between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m and that we had to come early to get a good spot (or something along those lines). Well...what the hell does that mean? What does a SPOT mean??? So needless to say I started rushing to get ready and did it in pretty good time I must say. I chose a turquoise dress that I bought from New York (which I've worn before and felt comfortable in). I let my hair air dry to get some sort of wave and it actually worked! Excellent...now I didn't have to make any more effort with my damn hair!!!! I made a final run through of all the things I needed to bring to the big event before I left my apartment.

1) Camera. Check.
2) Recorder. Check.
3) Notepad. Check.
4) A pen this time. Check.
5) Make-up to beautify myself. Check.
6) Phone. Check.
7) My actual purse on my arm. Check.
8) My brain. Half check.

All ready. By 4 p.m. I was on my way to Kipling subway station to take the train in. Traffic would have been horrendous getting into the city, and since I had a "spot" to secure, I didn't want to waste time. Riding on the subway in a dress that gets a little short when you sit down wasn't the most comfortable thing to do. I had to keep adjusting myself in order to nix the free peep show for the couple in front of me. The ride to Osgood station on Queen Street took about 30 minutes from Kipling which wasn't too bad. Osgood was probably two blocks from where I needed to pick up the media pass so that was great as well. I met a girl named Danielle on the train who was going my way, so her and I chatted for quite a while and she directed me where to go when I got off the subway. She ended up being a writer for an advertising company, as well as a Pilate's instructor so that was pretty cool! Another writer just like me! As we made our way to ground level from the station, the scene we saw ahead of us was all kinds of crazy. Fans were lined up along Queen, John and Richmond and they were packed in like sardines. It was impossible to get through them all (we tried) and even more impossible to go the short way to my location, so we went the long way around to get to Richmond. Yay. Just what my feet wanted in those amazing shoes. At least the weather was perfect. Sunny and warm just the way I like it. Around 15 minutes later I arrive at the media tent to register, which was black with a chandelier hanging from the centre. I handed the girl my driver's license hoping to god that my name was for sure on the list, and was handed a Press pass and bracelet when my name cleared! Woohoo!!! I made it! I actually made it! This wasn't just a big joke! I waited a few minutes for an escort to bring me to the press area. I had to pretend I did this all the time, while bottling the excitement inside. However...let's be honest. I get excited over perogies, so who cares if my excitement showed a bit! We walk up to the press room and she shows me the ropes. Bathroom here. Food there. Media information area here. Photographer area there. Interview area here (which consisted of about 6 rows of chairs for reporters and press). Ok. Great. Sweet. You lost me at food area here lady. I was starving and excited that there was free food!! Yeehaw. A big score for me!
    I saunter into the photography area at one point and ended up seeing someone I knew!!!!!!! The talented Sonia Recchia was hanging out, manning her photographers "spot", and I got super excited. I was feeling like a fish out of water, so it was nice to know someone. I was watching everyone walk around like they've been in this position a million times...and more specifically seeing that a lot of people were wearing sandals...that were flat! God damn it!!!! Note for next time. Sonia and I chatted for a bit and snapped a few pictures against the Much Music backdrop where the artists would be taking their photos. There were bright lights everywhere to provide perfect lighting for the photos being taken. As I was turning off my camera, Sonia was telling me that turning my camera on and off or viewing the photos wastes the batteries. I turn it back on and...DEAD!!!!! I couldn't believe it. It was only 5:30 and my camera was freaking dead! The event hadn't even begun yet! It was still 3.5 hours away! WHYYYYY???? I had just charged my battery on the Thursday and didn't even use it for that long, so I was definitely confused at the turn of events. I, at that point had to make sure that my phone wasn't going to die as I could take pictures off of that. Sonia and I wandered into the food area and since she already had eaten, she held my stuff as I stacked my plate with pesto pasta, bread, cheese, salad, salad, and some more salad. Yummy. I grabbed a water from the bar (lame) and we headed back to continue chatting.
    
After eating I went to see if I could take a picture of the red carpet before things started happening up in our area. This was a harder task to do then I thought. Because I already signed in, I needed to be escorted by a staff member to do anything outside of our press areas. At this point no one was available or helpful in having this happen for me. I eventually ended up getting told to go through a curtained area to travel down some elevator and then walk outside. A tiny adventure ensued after receiving these directions. I did go through the curtained area as told, wandered past the ETalk set and another bar area and got rather lost past that point. There were three other kids trying to figure out how to get backstage and I thought...JACKPOT!!! I need to pretend I'm alot younger then I am and get in with these people! The one kids uncle was the director of programming and they had on these sparkly platinum wristbands. My dull white wristband did not measure up to theirs that's for sure. We all started to try and find a way backstage, however, security guards stopped my dream while they continued their search. Damn you security. I ended up finding a staircase that led me downstairs, and before I reached the doors to the outside I decided to ask the front desk if I'd be able to get back in. Unfortunately I wasn't even supposed to be there at all, so they told me I had to walk up the loser set of stairs, as the stairs I initially went down were for the stars. Pshhh. Whatever. I will become a star gosh darnit and I will come back and walk those stairs to show you!!!!!
    I arrived back in the press room to find that it was kind of hopping. The food area was dimly lit, with the food set out along long higher tables. There was a small bar near the door. Other people hung around the interview area to keep their spots while the photographers (probably close to 20 of them) all crammed on the three steps available in the centre of the room, to ensure they keep their perfect spots as well. Karl Wolf and the Neverending White Lights singer were just hanging out, as our bar area was the only open bar at that time of the evening. I ended up making friends with people from different radio stations (from Ottawa, Toronto and Sudbury) and we hung out most of the night (shout out to Natalie, Jenny and G-Rant!!!). I wandered back behind the curtained area again and talked with the security guard named Rick, who ended up opening up about his cool ass girlfriend. While he was sharing his stories about her I look ahead and who do I see??? Justin freakin BIEBER!!! He was walking towards us (with his entourage of course) and was super short compared to...well...anyone, but had total swagger.  I fumbled to get my phone in the right position to take a picture and even said..."Justtttin..." to get his attention. His bodyguard ended up whipping the curtain at me to avoid taking a picture, however I took it damnit!!! Even though it was super blurry! HAH! Take that!!! I said bye to Rick pretty fast after that and started to follow the Biebs. Not my proudest moment but if they were taking pictures by the photo wall I wanted to be there! This however was not the case. They were going to the green room, and I just looked like a giant pedophile stalker. I walk back to the food area with my imaginary tail between my legs and rejoin my new friends. We all were chatting for a bit when I see a band walk in (who I recognized from when I was walking down the "stars" set of stairs). I thought one of the members was pretty cute, and tried to figure out who they were. The desserts had just been set-up which included chocolate covered strawberries, meringue covered with chocolate, and peanut butter chocolate cups! They were beckoning me to come over, and beckoning some of these band members as well, as they too started surrounding these lovely desserts. I saunter over beside one of them and start talking about the strawberries. What an ice-breaker eh? We ended up cheersing our strawberries and then eating them. Totally amazing that they did it with me! I actually got to talk to the cute one I wanted to talk to and found out they were the band The New Cities. I had never heard of them and perhaps told them that, but in a nice way. I talked about his tattoos (which was of a storm on his arm) and their friends, Simple Plan's, outfits for the night (they dressed up as Wham! for the red carpet! haha) and some other stuff too that I couldn't remember. I called one of his band members short to his face as we were comparing our heights, and the height of Bruno Mars. He said he's taller than Bruno. I will believe him as Bruno Mars does look rather short. The cute guy ducked out to go to the "bathroom" which was probably code word for "this girl is crazy...I need to get out of here."
   I believe around 9 or so the stars starting filing into the press room to give their interviews. I had a spot in the second row that I was making some people hold while I socialized. I don't know if this was proper protocol, but they were nice to actually do it! This was the exciting part of the evening. Neverending White Lights, Shawn Desmond, Danny Fernandez, Fefe Dobson, Far East Movement, Dev (I touched her earring and chatted with her a bit), some Degrassi kid, Nina Dobrev, Cody Simpson, Kat Graham, David Guetta, Simple Plan, Down With Webster, Johnny Galecki from Big Bang Theory, Classified (and I'm sure some other people) all filtered through the room to take questions from the press. It certainly was a lot of sitting but it was such a cool experience to observe what goes on during these types of events as members of the press. The most exciting part was waiting for the last performer to come through which was none other than LADY GAGA! Surprisingly she was very humble and nice despite her over the top clothes and antics. The interview was almost going to get cut short at two minutes long but she wasn't having any of that! She looked just as surprised as we did when the host said that they were wanting to wrap things up. She just arrived!! SO Gaga continued answering questions and I got it all on tape! What a great end to that part of the evening!!! Although I didn't get to see any of the performances, seeing the people after was just as great.
     After saying my goodbyes to the people I met, Sonia and I walked to her car to drop some of her stuff off and head over to Snoop Dog's after-party! She was asked to shoot the party which was super cool. My feet were full of blisters at this time of the night, and pretty much in pain, but I fought through the pain as we walked over to the club LIVE. There was a huge line-up when we arrived and we couldn't figure out where the VIP entrance was. Eventually Sonia found the person she needed to talk to and we walked in. When we first arrived her friend Gorav was there and his summary of the club at that point was that it smelled like an giant armpit. How appealing. It was PACKED with people waiting for Snoop and his guests to arrive. We walked past the speakers and the bass was so loud that my heart literally jumped into my throat. I thought I was going to have a heart attack for sure. The smell of weed wafted through the air as we maneuvered through the crowd trying to find the VIP section. We ended up back at the front lobby again and she had to leave me for five minutes as she tried to find her location. It was 12:50 a.m. and I had no idea when the subway closed down. Everyone kept telling me 1 a.m. (which was WRONG!!!) so I had 10 minutes to walk over to Osgood again in my horrid shoes to catch the train. I was debating on whether I would just cab it to Kipling so I could stay at the party or just go home. I opted for the latter as it would be a million dollars to take a cab home. SO my night ended and as I was driving home Sonia had mentioned that she got into VIP finally!!!! which would have been something I would have been able to do as well. She got her shots of Snoop and the other celebrities and went home herself. DANGIT!! Ah well. It was still a night to remember. I made some new friends, observed press room action, and got to see some celebrities! I can't wait until next year! Hopefully by then I will have a better swing on things and come prepared with some questions!!

I finally feel like things are coming together! Can't wait for what's next!!! I have added some pictures of the night!

The Group!

Beiber

Gaga

Stage

Cassettes on Wall

Interview Area

Photographers (Sonia is the one with the flower!)