It’s probably the same wherever he goes. As soon as he walks into the room, heads turn and people either sneak furtive glances at him or else openly gawk, all the while with expectant smiles. They’re waiting for him to say something funny. But Mercer’s all business as he and his crew prepare for the shoot. Well, perhaps not all business!

The segment will air on Tuesday, January 31st at 8 p.m. on CBC, and then on Friday, February 3rd at 8:30 p.m.; as well as on line at youtube.com/mercerreport.

Click to view slideshow.Tim, a singer, songwriter, and band leader for Morning Fold, recent returned from a 26-day solo tour of Australia. In just the last two years Tim’s work has garnered him Australian and Canadian management and agency deals, a # 1 and # 8 music video on Much More Music, # 41 on the Canadian Alt Rock charts, had the most #1 singles on the East Coast Countdown, voted as one of the Top 10 Gigs of the Year for 2011 by Australia’s GETMUSIC.COM, headlined opening night of Atlantic Canada House at the Olympics, played two Gibson All Star Parties, played eight shows at Juno Fest, headlined two shows at Indie Music Week, played Canadian Music Week, North by Northeast, Burlington Sound of Music Festival and Indie Music Week, toured across Canada with The Trews, He and his band have shared the stage with The Tragically Hip, Finger 11, Danko Jones, Joel Plaskett, Johnny Reid, Matt Anderson, Haywire, Michelle Wright, Lennie Gallant, Crash Parallel, Sweet, Chris Caddell, David Myles, Lady Antebellum, and Catherine MacLellan.

Kinley Dowling is a freelance musician, singer, and songwriter who performs with Hey Rosetta and The Express, has toured or performed with Jenn Grant, Broken Social Scene, Lily Frost, Anne Murray, The Heavy Blinkers, Lennie Gallant, Rose Cousins, Daniel Ledwell, In-Flight Safety, Dalhousie University Orchestra, Jubilee Quartet, Cortland Quartet, Mary-Jane Lamond, Brent Randall and his Pinecones, Kelly Sloan, Christina Martin, Gabe Minnikin, Catherine Maclellan, Dance Movie, Ra-Dawn Sun Cult, and Classified, Classic Albums Live. She has also recorded with Gabriel Minnikin, Dale Murray, Brent Randall and his Pinecones, Jenn Grant, Christina Martin, Dave Christensen, Adam Puddington, Two Hours Traffic, Dirty Poets, Hour Glass Class, Reels, Oh No Forest Fires, Olympic Symphonium, Kelly Sloan, In-Flight Safety, Classified, Mary Stewart, Share, Prospector’s Union, Rose Cousins, Ruth Minnikin, Jason Haywood, Dance Movie, Andrew Watt And The Glory Glory, Modern Men, Molly Rankin, Buck 65, Dennis Ellsworth, Raccoon Bandit, Rich Aucoin, Matt Mays, Adam Baldwin, The Details, Gianna Lauren, Doug Taylor, Haunted Hearts, Chloe Jones, Milks and Rectangles, and The North Lakes.

As part of The Express, which she formed with Liam Corcoran of Two Hours Traffic to enable them to express themselves as singer/songwriters outside of their regular touring groups, they have received 2012 Music PEI nominations for Album of the Year, Group Recording of the Year, Roots Contemporary Recording of the Year and SOCAN Songwriter of the Year. Kinley was also nominated for Musician of the Year.

Hey Rosetta, based in Newfoundland, was #2 in CBC Radio’s Top 50 International albums of 2011, has won four Music NL Awards in 2011, has record deals in Australia and the U.S., won The Verge Music Awards Prize of $25,000 cash, was nominated for three Polaris Music Prizes, has shared the stage with Metric, The Tragically Hip, Great Big Sea, Bare Naked Ladies, Sarah Harmer, Broken Social Scene, and The Weakerthans, and is currently preparing for a three-month European Tour.

Needless to say, both had lots of useful information for the aspiring musicians in the Music Performance program. The students had plenty of questions, and learned a great deal from these two talented young people.

The students wrote down the concepts that stuck with them most from the visit.

“Although they have had great success, each one of them is down to earth,” wrote one student, noting that they had both talked about how much preparation touring demands.

Another wrote, “You will need to put in far more effort than you’d think, and the first returns you see will be small. Cliché, yes, but perseverance and commitment is key.”

Both Tim and Kinley had stressed to the students the importance of treating your career as though it were a business. As one student noted, “Don’t underestimate the business side of being a successful musician.”

Bringing thriving professionals from the music industry into the classroom is an important facet to the Music Performance program. While their instructor, a seasoned and highly-acclaimed musician himself (and Kinley’s father), may share his own experiences, talking with high-calibre young performers reinforces the message that a career in music requires more than just raw talent.

Meeting Kinley and Tim was a real treat. We wish them all the best, and we’ll be following their successes with great interest.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,500 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Nations Cup is a biannual invitational event in which students from the CIC have competed four times before. The CIC teams have always done well in this high-pressure competition against their peers from Scotland, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Mexico and the United States; but this year, Amy and Michael racked up five gold medals, two silver medals and four best of show awards.

Chef Kevin, who trained the junior chefs and accompanied them to Grand Rapids for the two-day six-dish competition, said Amy and Mike were so successful because they had practised for weeks for the black box competition. But it’s not about memorizing recipes, because in this kind of competition, participants don’t know what their ingredients will be until just before they are expected to start cooking.

“They have 20 minutes to determine their menu based on the mystery ingredients. After 20 minutes, they are not allowed to gather together any other ingredients, so they have to make sure that they have picked out all of the spices, herbs, butter, sugar, fresh produce – even salt and pepper – that they’re going to need to create their dish,” he explained.

On average, the teams have less than two hours cooking time.

“Rather than memorizing recipes, Amy and Michael memorized proportions, and had a strong foundation in basic techniques and methods,” Chef Kevin said. “Because they had practised together for so long, they were in sync in the kitchen, and had great communication skills with each other.”

As if all of their preparation weren’t enough to give them an edge, the two had an added stroke of luck in one of the competitions…the mystery ingredient was lobster.

“They couldn’t have had a better choice,” Chef Kevin recalled. “Who in the competition could prepare lobster better than a team from Prince Edward Island?”

He said the judges were taken aback when the CIC students chopped the lobster on the cutting board before cooking it.

“All the other teams boiled the lobster first, but Amy and Mike knew that the meat would be much more flavourful and tender if they killed it first.”

Apparently the judges agreed. The students won a gold medal and a best in show for their efforts in the Fish and Shellfish Entrée category.

Michael is back in Prince Edward Island in The Culinary Institute of Canada’s Applied Degree in Culinary Operations program. Amy has returned to her home town of Cochrane, Ontario.

 An expert panel of judges convened at popular Halifax watering hole, Your Father’s Moustache, to scrutinize the photos and determine who should receive these prestigious awards. 

Following much consultation and deliberation, they narrowed all the ‘stashes into the four main categories. Once in these categories, they were judged on a strict criteria. Due to the intense competition, draws were conducted to select winners in each category.

That’s what it was like for Sarah Nuesch. On her own with three small children, she realized that if she wanted to improve her family’s life, she needed to get a “real job”, and to do that, she was going to have to go back to school.

But the 26-year-old didn’t like the idea of working in an office all day. She’s more of a hands-on kind of person.  Thanks to the Women’s Network PEI’s Trade HERizons career exploration program, Sarah was able to try her hand at a variety of trades and technology programs at Holland College in areas that are traditionally considered to be “men’s work”.

Sarah was first interested in the Wind Turbine Technician program, but when she researched job opportunities in the field, she decided that it wasn’t suited to her and her family situation.

“I found out that most wind turbine technicians are on the road most of the time,” she explains. “That’s not something I wanted to do with three small children at home.”

Then she took a closer look at the college’s Welding Fabrication program, which is located in the Georgetown Centre, and decided to give it a try. Last summer she relocated her family to Montague from Charlottetown, closer to the Georgetown Centre, so that she wouldn’t have to spend time travelling back and forth, and she started the program in September.

“I was so nervous when I started the program,” she recalls. “It was a big change for me, and there seemed to be so much fire, and danger, and heat! “ She laughs now when she compares how she felt only a few months ago to how she feels about welding now.

“I just love it!,” she says.

Last summer she worked at a local welding shop, and really enjoyed it.

“The guys were really great. They teased me a lot, but they teased each other, too.”

She’s finding that it’s the same now that she’s in school, and now she knows what she wants to do with her life.

“ When I’m finished the program, I’d love to have my own fabrication shop; but that’s a long way off.”

Her instructors are pleased to have Sarah in the class.

“Sarah has been working hard developing her skills as a welder here in the Welding Fabrication Program. Her commitment to her trade and to her family has made her a model student in our program. She works hard with the college student union and her classmates to help organize college and program events. This makes a huge difference with our campus atmosphere here in Georgetown. Students with this kind of team spirit and dedication to lifelong learning will be very successful in whatever career pathway they choose,” says Welding Fabrication instructor Craig Boudreau.

Sarah’s taken to the program so well that her instructors have encouraged her to take on outside projects that incorporate the welding skills she’s learning with her interest in stained glass, which she worked with for many years in her mother’s stained glass studio in Victoria, P.E.I.

Craig Boudreau showed her a picture of butterfly-shaped metal chair created by a welding student in the U.S., and suggested that she could build something similar. Sarah’s modified the original design in her own style, including stained glass inserts. As she builds it, she’s learning more about metal work and pattern-making – things that she’ll be able to use both on the job and in her art.

Sarah knows that she’s got a long road ahead of her. The Welding program is two years and seven months long, and then further work and study are required to obtain a red seal credential, but she knows that what she’s doing will benefit her and her children for many years to come.

Her eight-year-old daughter’s already taking her mother’s example to heart.

“She excited,” Sarah says. “It’s nice that she can see that you don’t have to take traditional roles.”

In addition to the butterfly chair, Sarah has been working on a stained glass and metal window for the chapel at The Garden Home, a nursing home in Charlottetown, and a stunning glass and metal sculpture for installation at the front of the Holland College Georgetown Centre.

For Sarah Nuesch, her commitment to giving her children the best upbringing she could has led her down the path to a fulfilling career that will not only provide a stable income for her family, but will also allow her to express her creativity in unique and exciting ways.

Human Services student Michael Moors, left, and Heritage Retrofit Carpentry instructor Josh Silver getting ready for Movember.

November promises to be a hairy month at Holland College. More than 110 staff and students in centres across Prince Edward Island have pledged not to shave their upper lips until the end of the month as part of the Movember campaign to raise awareness about prostate cancer.

Some of the college’s participants even shaved off their existing moustaches in order to grow fresh ones for the campaign.

“One of our staff members shaved off a moustache that he’s had for more than 17 years,” said Greg Gairns, a student services and athletics officer at the college, and organizer of the Holland College Movember group.

“Movember gives men an opportunity to discuss health issues, but it’s also a lot of fun.”
It’s not just for men, though. Women can show their support by joining the team, making donations, and by not laughing at the guys, no matter how creepy their moustaches may turn out to be! We’ll check back with members of the Holland College Mo Bros in a couple of weeks to see how they’re doing.

Donate money to the Holland College Mo Bros at http://ca.movember.com/. Join the team at www.movember.com/ca/register/details/team_id/353330.

The menu for the royal’s visit to Prince Edward Island focuses on the high-quality, delicious local foods, including Prince Edward Island potato chowder, steamed Island mussels, barbecued pork belly with homemade mustard, barbecued beef rib eye with onion marmalade, oysters, and strawberry shortcake. The royals will also have an opportunity to enjoy a clam, mussel, and lobster bake on the beach with Chef Andrew Nicholson before they head out. Their private luncheon for 25 people will be prepared by Chef Jeff McCourt.

The team of approximately 16 chef instructors is headed up by Chef Joerg Soltermann, various other chefs and students will be in tents around the grounds at Dalvay, with Chef Hans Anderegg and his group serving in the royal tent. Chef Craig Dauphinee will be responsible for making sure that all of the cooking equipment and utensils are on site on time, no small undertaking when catering for such a large crowd.The chefs are all agreed, it’s the kind of opportunity that doesn’t happen very often, and they’re looking forward to the challenges presented by preparing all of the dishes on site. Here’s hoping the weather holds out for them! Oh, and chefs?…don’t forget to bring me some leftovers!