My 2012. DJ Mag Canada and life.

For most it’s too late to be doing roundups of their past year, but I like to work on my own pace, plus I haven’t updated my blog in a while so why the hell not.

The year began with me doing work for Observer news, the in-house publication at my school. The semester started out a little rough when I was being too slow in getting stories done but eventually I picked up the pace and got into the rhythm of things and before I knew it writing two stories for every cycle became a much easier task. Through my experience in the observer I noticed my communication skills advancing significantly; I was able to approach people much better and my bond with friends and family started growing because I was able to express myself much better through better communication.

Something happened over the summer.

In 2008 I re-discovered my taste for electronic music when I came back from my trip to Greece and I was looking for music to bring me back and it happened to be some old Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren. Since then I started going to clubs a lot more and exploring my city even further, even beyond the nightlife.  It’s a life style I have gotten used to. It certainly isn’t a normal person’s idea of fun to dance in a hot, dark and loud night club for a whole Friday night then doing it again on the following Saturday night.

I don’t know what it is, but this life style is addictive and I don’t even take drugs and I’ve quit drinking. I just really love electronic music. Nothing beats a world class DJ taking you on a journey through even the most simplistic beats and melodies.

Maybe I will get into talking about Toronto’s scene but that’s something I will save for another blog entry.

This past summer I experienced, I guess what you would call a “life changing” event where it put a lot of things in perspective. I went back to the motherland[s] I told myself that I would get involved with the scene and I was going to pursue my dream of… well I don’t quite know what I wanna do in this industry yet, but I am finding my journalistic experience has helped me break into it. Additionally I have been involved with social media, please follow me on twitter @anihajderaj and I have been establishing a bit of a following.

For my internship my friends at Different Levels connected me with the editor of DJ Mag who has taken me under his wing. Through DJ Mag I’ve been getting a taste of how press works in the electronic music industry. It’s been a great experience thus far and I can’t wait to continue.

Recently I launched a new TUMBLR account, http://anihajderaj.tumblr.com/ where I post everything electronic music. It’s a work in progress as is this wordpress account, but I promise one day it will all make sense!

Anyways I am rambling on again, thanks for reading as always. Stay tuned on my tumblr for electronic music and for everything else, there is wordpress!

Cheers.

-Ani H.

Panoramio

In my last blog entry I spoke about my trip to Albania, Greece and Turkey and you might have noticed some panoramic photos I posted in there.

Panoramio is an amazing tool for photographers. Its a site that was started in 2005 so it’s a relatively new service. Through Panoramio you can share your photos and tag them on the map so when people search for a place your photos pop up for them to see. It is a predominantly travel oriented website with cool features such as “Look Around” which sort of creates a 3D image made up of different images from many different photographers, here is an example: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/77244559

I remember discovering it through Google Earth. I was looking at random places and noticed little squares come up and those where photos. I set up an account and began tagging my photos. At the time I was shooting with a Sony Cybershot digital camera, however even some of my lower quality images have received thousands of views!

There are other great photo sharing services but I feel this one is very straight to the point and extremely easy to use. It also gives your photos a lot more exposure through geo-tags.

Another great element on the site is the user base. The comments tend to be very positive and everyone gives encouraging words and greetings from wherever they are. I feel this a great aspect because it makes it feel like a good community full of people who appreciate the places they have seen and are privileged to live on this planet. Albeit some of the comments are in broken English but you can make it out most of the time.

Although it has good features, I feel Panoramio could improve. Their forums are bland and I like the old design a lot better. I would much rather have them be traditional style forums because the new layout is too tight where it should be a little more spaced out.

I invite you to start using Panoramio. It’s free and easy to use. You will be amazed at some of the photos you will see and some of the places you will discover through it. It’s inspiring.

My photos can be seen here.

Thanks for reading.

-Ani H.

A second visit to the roots

Last time I was “back home” was exactly four years ago and in that time a lot has happened.

Aside from advancing in school and nearly finishing my program Greece has been going through a lot of economic and political turmoil. More recently riots broke out at Syntagma square, near downtown Athens where people were injured and lots of public property was destroyed. A couple of friends were apprehensive when I was telling them I was leaving for a month and I simply told them “I will be on an Island, nothing ever happens there.” I was right but besides the point, riots have stopped, for the time being.

A common sight in Kos Town(located in Kos island) has always been people shopping which makes sense because the town used to be one of the biggest hubs for trade in the ancient years. In fact a lot of the old market architecture is still standing. Times have changed however and not for the better. Shops have closed down, locals have moved away and drinking establishments are not full of people. A sight that has become more common now are store owners sitting outside their shops playing with their komboloi (I have two of those by the way).

I’ll put the journalist in me aside and I’ll tell you about the good things.

I can’t complain about the people, everyone was nice. Didn’t see any American tourists, it was mostly Italians and Scandinavians. I found the Scandinavian tourists were friendly, polite and had a good sense of humor, one day I saw a guy wearing a watermelon shell on his head with “Magneto” carved on it. You could tell who the Swedish tourists were since most of them wore WeSC, an urban clothing brand from Sweden, some also wore “I <3 Swedish House Mafia” t-shirts so you knew they were on party mode.

The island has a party vibe to it, no doubt. My dad has actually renovated some of the clubs on that island and he told me how crazy it was back when we were living there (I was young so I don’t remember much), having said all that I didn’t party much at all, I decided to take things easy and really wind down and truly get away from the city life, I left my cellphone in the drawer of my desk and I can’t say I missed it while I was gone. Aside from my camera, my iPod was the only thing I would carry with me. Sunlounger I think was the most fitting.

I can’t say a whole lot about the food, other than it was very well priced. For about 8 EU I was able to get a big plate full of gyro meat, salad, pita, fries and zatziki sauce. Also my favourite crepe shop there was still in business, thankfully, I bought myself a breakfast crepe and enjoyed a sunburn with it because I skipped on the sunblock that morning.

While on the island, my days were mostly spent on the beach with my brother and mom, it doesn’t seem exciting but to me it was an opportunity to really slow down and get away from the stress that stuck with me from my winter semester. I also checked out some of the historic sights that are very easily accessible and for the most part, free to look at. I don’t know a whole lot of history about Kos but it used to be a large trading hub and that it is the home of Hippocrates, a very important person in the history of medicine. I always love going to historical sites.

Panorama: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/77548497

My birthday happened to fall while I was in Kos and turns out I shared it with my brother’s god sister. She got her friends and we all went to a bar lounge called Cavo Paradiso. It wasn’t busy, which was a good change of scene since I am used to the Guvernment where there are thousands of people crowding the place. Cavo Paradiso was nice; it had the beach right outside of it, nice place to sit while enjoying drinks with company, stray cats were roaming the lounge area which added to the overall aesthetic of the place. Don’t worry they are just looking for mice!

My mom was always curious about Turkey so we took a ferry across. It was only 25 EU and the ride there was only half an hour. I can’t say I enjoyed it, even though it was only a short distance away for some reason the weather got even hotter. The shops there were filled with counterfeit and the waiters hover over you while you eat. But there was something inviting about Turkey, it felt like Albania and Greece mixed together. We spent about a day there and we came back to Kos.

After about two weeks, we went back to Athens and on the same day we left for Albania.

Albania hasn’t changed a whole lot since last time I was there but more buildings were being built and they have started major construction on some roads, this obviously shows that Albania is headed somewhere. I didn’t get to do a whole lot in Albania for I was simply spending time with my grandparents and other family. I did however explore some ancient sights and really get in touch with Albanian history since I left the country so young and didn’t have the opportunity to learn about Albania.

My uncle took me to the city of Berat, which is right beside a series of mountains and a river. It was a beautiful town where most of the houses are very old and on top of the cliff there is a castle that has a community within and there are inhabitants within, the view is also breathtaking. A villager was strolling through with his horse and he let me get on it to get my picture taken! This made me think about the time I went to a village where my great grandparents lived and one of my uncles helped me up on a horse. The other area I visited in Albania was Apollonia which is a very famous archeological site. I saw a lot of Italian tourists there probably because there were a lot of Ancient Roman artifacts in the museum. It was a great place to visit because you get a nice hike out of it to and obviously the view is great because you see all the mountains and farm land that spans around the sight.

Panorama: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/77243167

After about a week in Albania, I returned to Athens where I spent a lot of time hanging out with my cousins. I also visited my old neighborhood which was a great experience. It felt weird walking past the places where I used to live, a big sense of nostalgia as I was showing my cousin the areas I played soccer at and just how I would spend my days in that area. I checked out the entertainment district of Gazi where there is a big gay community expanding but there are a lot of regular night clubs in there and the one I went to was called “Why Sleep?” which was a pretty cool name I thought, it was also one of my cousins favourite spots and I wasn’t doubting her taste. I liked that they had actual wait staff going around getting drinks unlike clubs in Toronto where you have to go the bar if you wanna buy drinks.

When I was living in Athens I never got to see the Parthenon even though I have gone to all the major museums and stadiums in Athens. It was a great experience even though I had to hike up a long hill and walk around the streets in the hot weather. The view once you get up there is beautiful; you see the entire city of Athens and also ancient temples situated on top of hills.

Panorama: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/77244024

All in all it was a great trip that I am glad I took. It gave me an opportunity to re-connect with my family and it was great to know that my cousins are like minded, I felt very close and connected with them even though there was a slight language barrier. Additionally I was able to space out and really think a lot of things that were bothering me through. I will definitely visit both countries again and maybe next time I will spend more time in Turkey!

More Photos: http://www.panoramio.com/user/2614375
Thanks for reading, I know it was a long one but it should give you some insight on where I am from and also some tips in case you are interested in visiting, if you need further suggestions or have any questions please leave a comment bellow.
-Ani H.

DJ Top 100

Festival season is upon us and it is generally a great time to be an EDM(electronic dance music) fan.

But it is that time of the year where everyone finds themselves in debates whether or not it should be producers or DJs on that list, to tell you the truth those are not really the criteria I go by when voting for DJ Top 100.

I voted Markus Schulz at No. 1. He has been doing a lot of great work with building his label, Coldharbour Recordings by signing lesser known trance artists and exposing their stuff on his Global DJ Broadcast show which is great because it remains consistent with the sound. He is currently working on a new artist album, and he recently collaborated with trance veteran, Ferry Corsten and made “Loops & Tings“. Check it out.

My second pick was Arnej. Toronto has been setting a landmark of House artists to come up such as MSTRKRFT, deadmau5, Adam K and Zeds Dead but not much has been happening for trance, however Arnej is an exciting artist to emerge from Toronto and Markus Shulz has signed him on Coldharbour. I saw him at Toika lounge, and his set was perfect for the venue which was small, but people still had a ton of fun. He deserves more exposure and Toronto needs to show that we love trance too!

My third choice goes to Armin van Buuren. I voted him No. 1 last year and I wasn’t intending to vote for him again but then I saw him at the Kool Haus and I was blown away even though his set wasn’t super amazing or anything but the energy was just amazing. Definitely deserves to remain on the map as a top dj.

My fourth choice was Ben Gold. His sounds are energetic and dynamic, basically everything trance should be. He has done some great colaborations with Tritonal and he has potential to be huge. Also he kinda looks like Jamie Oliver.

My final choice was W&W. Their sound is unique and it stands out, they have a lot of energy and they know how to move the crowd. I will never forget the night they dropped “Punk (Arty Remix)” at the Kool Haus. Unforgeable, also here is a reel summarizing their year:

Be sure to vote, and please don’t vote DJ Paris Hilton!

Thanks for reading. My next blog post will probably be from Greece.

-Ani H.

My encounter with an Olympic athlete

When my semester began, with it also began my first cycle in the Observer where I had to report on stuff that was happening in Toronto/Greater Toronto Area and Ted Barris, my professor/editor suggested that we should track down Olympic athletes who are on the road to London 2012 and get their stories out to the public so everyone can get a sense of the work that goes into become an Olympian. I felt it was a great idea and a good way to expand on my knowledge.

I originally wanted to get in touch with an athlete who was competing in combat sports, more specifically Judo because it’s the sport I enjoy watching the most in the summer Olympics however I wasn’t able to track anyone down near me it seems most Canadians who compete in combat sports are situated in Montreal, probably because of Tristar training camp but my search continued.

I came across Crispin Duenas’ profile on the Canadian Olympic Committee site and one of my editors briefly mentioned that he met him so I went with it. Duenas is a UofT graduate so it made most sense to contact someone at UofT. I called the editor of The Varsity (student paper for the University of Toronto) and he gave me the contact information for a woman who deals with the athletics and things of that nature, finally I left her a voice mail.

It was a Saturday morning when I got the phone call from Duenas and he told me that although he was in the Beijing 2008 Olympics he still needs to qualify for a spot in the London Olympics. This caused some confusion between Barris and I because I wasn’t sure if he was ok with me doing the story on a hopeful but it turned out that Duenas is very high in the rankings of Canada so I felt there was value in speaking to him.

Duenas and I arranged to meet him at the Peel Archery Club, in Brampton, Ontario where he gets most of his training done since the distance in that range is the same as the Olympics. Duenas was surprisingly very open and I didn’t sense much hesitation in letting me follow his routine which was great because it allowed me to be more relaxed and ask all the right questions.

The most interesting aspect of the interview I would say is the amount of technical stuff he shared with me about the sport and how his physics background gives him a competitive edge in the sport. I also got the chance to speak to his coach and some of his training partners all of which gave me loads of good information.

I am not sure where Duenas is at right now but archery qualification tournaments tend to be late, including many other Olympic sports but everything should be released soon.

To read my story and view the photos please click on the URL: http://www.torontoobserver.ca/2012/02/06/toronto-archer-takes-aim-at-olympic-berth/

-Ani H.

Been keeping busy.

Since my last blog post I went through my fall semester at my program and also got into the security industry.

The semester was unlike anything I’ve experienced in terms of school because it was 90 per cent professional training since I was part of the online and Scarborough print edition of the Toronto Observer.It was a good experience because I had the chance to see what doing work in a newsroom was really like; meeting deadlines, dealing with difficult people, finding people to speak to and unfortunately dealing with people power tripping in their “editor” positions which is understandable since there are many dynamics that can affect how someone can act once placed in that position. Although I wanted to take the easy tasks and make my life easier I found myself doing the right opposite which meant I had to chase stories very often throughout the semester to fill my quota. I will give you more in-depth insight on some of my stories that I wrote, but that’s another blog post.

Additionally I felt that doing this would place me in situations I didn’t really want to be in and doing this helped me build confidence and become more comfortable with being in unfamiliar places in the city which ultimately builds your knowledge.

The semester ended rather well, the magazine edition of the Scarborough Observer was published in time and the news team actually delivered a whole lot of them(including myself) so it is comforting to know that there are at least a handful of people who read my stuff.

Other than school, I entered the security industry as my part time job. I went through the training and testing process, it was very easy and actually pretty informative. I feel it has made me more aware of everyone’s safety and I feel more confident when situations get out of hand, or if not, a better foresight so you know what to do when things might go sour.

I am not going to reveal the company I work for but I am working as a concierge at condo buildings, it’s been a good experience thus far because I have improved on my customer service skills because I constantly have to deal with people who tend to make things difficult for themselves trying to find easy solutions. It’s a test on patience really the trick is to not get emotionally attached to it!

The summer break is here, I am currently working mostly weekends but in July I will be heading back to Albania and Greece to visit some family for a month or so, so that’s exciting.

I will be sharing some of my journalistic experiences soon where I will post the articles and give you some of my comments regarding the stories.

I am still alive and this post is here to indicate that.

-Ani H.

Happy Holidays and Happy New year

I have been rather inactive in my blog. Before my last post (Toronto Elephants story) I hadn’t posted anything in a good couple of months which I feel is kinda bad.

During that time school had started to become stressful. I didn’t have any midterms or exams like most of my buddies but my projects involved me going out and getting interviews, which can be nerve wracking. Additionally I was trying to lock down my sources for the elephant story which was rather complicated. The city council is usually very busy during the end of the year with budget meetings and other similar functions so getting them to speak to you becomes tricky since you have to work around their schedule. Actually speaking to the councilors was not a problem for me. Both of them had interesting things to say and where very clear and concise which I was very grateful for.

What really put me off was The Toronto Zoo. I wanted to go into the zoo and get interviews with people who directly work with large animals, such as elephants and really gain an insight of how they are planning to move them into the trailers. I believe my intentions were clean and I was not looking to expose them in a negative context, but rather in an educational manner for the readers. The PR simply did not let me do that, which is disappointing. At this point it’s water under the bridge but I do believe it was unfair for stuff like this should be transparent.

During the past couple of months I discovered that I love working within a TV broadcast room, more specifically the East York Observer news room. I am actually a pretty decent anchor, aside from my minor screw ups I am able to follow a teleprompter well, assuming the person operating it isn’t on crack. I wish the TV segment of my program was longer, it really seems like something I would like to do at some point in my life.

Right now, as I type this, I am listening to some Frank Sinatra from his Christmas song album. I will admit this year I was not very in spirit for the holidays but I have remained with a relatively positive attitude and spending as much time as possible with family and friends. Also the lack of snow this season was pretty strange, no matter how many times I played “Let it snow.”

On my last week of the semester I completed the Ontario Security Training. I am now certified to be a security guard and I also got Class C CPR certificate. I actually learned a good amount of information about the law, which is good. I am not waiting to take my ministry exam so I can officially get my license. I hope to find work before the end of January, I’ve been without work for quite a while… well not officially at least.

2011 was a stressful year for me, but I learned a lot. I feel like I have grown a lot over the year. There has also been some change throughout the year not just in my life, but to those around me and the way I have dealt with the change, is a good indicator that I have grown a lot. The way I have been dealing with is to simply embrace it and get excited about what’s going to unfold in the next year and not frightened.

To those who read this far, I hope all the best for you, your families and all your loved ones. I am wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Before you take your first drink, please envision me wishing you good health and all the best.

I hit next and this came up on shuffle on my Frank Sinatra playlist:

-Ani H.