Classical Mystery Tour – a Beatles tribute backed by a Symphony Orchestra – is coming to Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto this Thursday!

This is a note-for-note live Beatles tribute performance with full costumes and, most excitingly, accompanied by the Kitchener/Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and I will be there!  How about you?

Crazy to think about how part of the reason The Beatles stopped playing live at all in 1966 was because they felt like they could not reproduce on stage what they were doing on their records.  Did you know that the longest concert The Beatles ever played during their touring years was 33 minutes?  They just took their nightclub act and put it in an arena or a stadium.  Their historic Shea Stadium concert in 1965 was only 27 minutes.  This was obviously long before the days of 3-hours-plus concerts with elaborate stage set-ups and guest performers.

It goes without saying that this is the most popular music of the 20th century and when it’s recreated on stage like this, it’s nothing short of magical.  I’ve downloaded a few performance clips from the show’s website and they sound totally authentic.  And the crowd that comes out for these kinds of shows runs the gamut from people who were there when Beatlemania was happening to pretty twenty-something girls dancing in their cutest retro-styled dress.

Get tickets to Classical Mystery Tour from the Sony Centre’s website (click).

And if you can’t make it, I’ve got you covered with a Beatles tribute of my own….

But where did they get the idea to crash an amateur hockey league and give them the ‘big show’ treatment?

As it turns out, the idea came from another video that you may have seen if you have been visiting my website for any length of time.  Remember this goodie from my ‘year of daily vlogging’?

A lot of the marketing and PR companies in Canada are based in Toronto. I know that a lot of PR people watch my videos and count on me to know what’s happening in the streets, so I always love it when some video or song or comic book of mine sparked an idea that ends up on a billboard or in a commercial.

Remember this 2010 Olympic billboard?

Where do you think the Toronto-based marketing people got the idea for the slogan from?

I’m not claiming it’s a rip off or anything.  I just know that a lot of people in these kinds of marketing & PR positions watch my stuff on the regular and I keep seeing so many of these ‘coincidences’ that at some point I have to stop wondering about it and just enjoy that my work is that impactful.

Love to everyone who ever saw any thing I made and thought that it was hot material.

“In the streets, my inspiration’s profound
You see my style copped all over town
I go to the club, the DJ’s dressed like me
I even heard some jokes I wrote spoken on TV”
- True stories as found in the lyrics to Intergalactavida by The Wizard of Rock featuring MC Sean Ward

(l-r) @seanward Me, @NaughtyByNature Vin-Rock, @pixeladdikt Greg

Greg, with Mobicartel, made Naughty By Nature‘s Android app.  Now they’re working on… well let’s wait a bit before we reveal that.

Vinnie gave Greg the heads-up that he was in Toronto and told him to bring whoever could make it from the bnotions & Harth TV family to meet him at the hotel bar. Greg and I were the ones who could make it out, so Vinnie brought us along to a private charity gig that Naughty By Nature was headlining at the Royal Ontario Museum.  Also on the bill: Sugarhill Gang, Rob Base, and Young MC.  It was amazing.  The whole roster of artists met in the lobby and went to the Museum together.  We walked down Philosopher’s Walk to a back door at the ROM.  We were led down a few halls and then took an enormous freight elevator to the backstage area where Vinnie and Kaygee encouraged Greg and I to enjoy the feast of treats and drinks that were waiting for them.

They rocked the show, and then Vinnie and Greg and I went back to the hotel to get into a long session of talking about the Internet, Naughty by Nature, and Harth TV, and then started cooking up schemes to collaborate on.

Naughty by Nature were my heroes in high school.  I had a full-page magazine ad for 19 Naughty III cut out and posted in my locker.  I had all of their tapes and even tried to shop for clothes at the mall based on what Treach had worn to a MuchMusic Rap City interview.

To be part of their entourage for an evening was a thrill.  I know how to play the game so I was cool on the outside but inside I was geeking the fuck out.  It was also a big moment of pride for me to look at it as a symbol of the trajectory my life and career have taken.

You can imagine my chagrin at my phone dying early in the evening.  These performance pictures were all I got.

But you needn’t worry, dear reader, my commitment is to you.  That’s why we’ve got a couple of epic collaborations on the horizon.  Stay tuned…

These pictures were posted over the weekend to my Tumblr blog.  I post to my Tumblr constantly.  Click here and then follow me there.

What was New Year’s Eve like in your part of the world?

My New Year’s Eve was nothing short of magical. Maybe I was caught up in the moment but taking in the night in the wee hours, it felt like the streets were electric.

Let’s see if I managed to capture a snapshot of the vibe…

I posted a few of these photos earlier to my Tumblr and my Twitter – follow me there for instant gratification.

Monday Morning on Canal Street (2 Moments)
Sean Ward
Animated GIF, 2011
$175

Want to know a little secret?

I’m actually really nervous about playing at Electric Christmas Freak-Out 3 next week.  I don’t really get nervous about being in front of people, but right now I feel like I did the first time I ever played live.

At that time, back in 2004 or 2005, I had a bunch of songs that I had recorded in my bedroom and only let a few people hear.  Outside of a small group of friends, no one had heard these songs before and this was going to be the moment of truth when I find out if I’m on to something or if I was dreaming all along that these songs were good.

Now it’s been a couple of years since I’ve done a performance like this and I’ve got some new songs I’ve been working on.  Before, I just wanted to make hot party music.  I was hiding the DHM (Deep Hidden Meaning) all throughout it, but this time I’m getting way more personal.  I’m coming way more overt with certain things I’m not quite so open about on the Internet, and then I follow that up with lyrics where I bare my soul about certain true-life experiences. In a couple of cases, the people involved know that those experiences are in the songs.

I was feeling really nervous about the show next week until I remembered what this felt like.  Then I remembered how I killed it then, so I’m pretty pumped to kill it now.

Back then, I developed a strategy on the spot to get the audience on my side.  I had a bunch of buttons on me for a comic book I had just released so I went around before my set to all the groups of friends in the audience, buttered them up with buttons, and then got talking to them and ‘let it slip’ how nervous I was about performing.  I asked them to please help me out and go to the front of the stage and cheer real loud so I don’t have to feel like I’m all by myself up there.  It worked like magic and it was a great show for me and for them.

Now it’s years later and people read my blog and watch my videos and I know more people than I did then.  But it’s still important, if not more important than ever, to maintain that kind of personal touch with people.

“Tintin and Snowy go Hollywood”

I remember the Tintin books from my elementary school days.  The teachers tried to pretend like different standards applied and the Tintin books didn’t belong in the same pile of reading material as Batman, Spider-Man, or any of my other favorite characters.  But I knew better.  These were comic books, same as the rest of them.  They were just much more artfully crafted and elegantly presented.

I loved these books when I was a kid, and I hated the cartoon show because it was a quickly produced throwaway thing.  It did not convey the elegance and grandeur of the source material.

I was fortunate enough to see a 10-minute preview of the new movie The Adventures of Tintin during TIFF this past season and this movie looks like the most ground-breaking animation since people started knowing who the eff Pixar is.  It totally looks like it’s going to take the newly-developing art of comics-to-screen adaptations to a whole new level.  And if this is successful, we’re one step closer to a Pixar Spider-Man movie.

I’m dying to see this movie and thanks to my very good friends at Paramount Pictures, I’m going to see it almost a month early…

…and I want to take you with me to see Toronto’s first look at the new Tintin movie tomorrow night (November 30) at AMC Dundas Square.

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To enter, just leave a comment below telling me which was your favorite Tintin book and why.

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I’ll draw five winners late tonight who will each receive a double pass to the advance screening of The Adventures of Tintin, Nov. 30 at AMC Dundas Square.

This giveaway is sponsored by Harth TV and Paramount Pictures.

EDIT: Winners have been announced! Check for your name here (click)

Even though my mother is from the Halifax area, I had never been to the east coast in my own home country. But after Conor McCreery told me at Montreal Comic Con about how amazing Hal-Con was last year, I had to pack up my product case and make the trip.

And what a trip! The Saturday of the convention was my biggest single day for sales ever. Sunday was a little slower on account of how the big ticket programming was on Sunday, but if you count the books that stores bought from me to sell for Christmas gift-giving, this was my highest-grossing convention weekend ever.

Three conventions in the last couple of months and each one more successful than the last.  It occurs to me that this is living the dream.

My deepest thanks and appreciation to everyone at Hal-Con who came by my table, bought my pop art wonderworks, and gave me a very warm welcome in Halifax.  And extra special thanks to Harth Publishing for sending me on this trip to represent our book, Tomorrow Never Knows – A Comics History of the Psychedelic Beatles.  This partnership just gets more fun by the day.

Thanks so much, everyone!  If you were there, drop me a line and let me know how you liked the books you got. Send me your pictures and I’ll put them on the blog or the Facebook page!

Here is the vehicle in which I arrived to Halifax. First time flying Porter!

Pondering the wisdom of Yoda. This, probably my favorite costume of the convention, was knitted by the person wearing it. She said it took her three months to make it!

Here are my custom monogrammed bags. Buy something, and then advertise me all weekend!

Homeboys chillin’. Let’s kick it on November 5.

This girl came running to the table with money in hand to buy everything Beatles on the table. It all made sense when I saw the tattoo on her wrist.

And after the convention, Strange Adventures (Legendary Halifax comic book that regularly wins awards for being the best comic book store in North America) hosted the after-party where I got to catch up with a bunch of artists I haven’t seen in forever, and make a bunch of new friends.

Speaking of Strange Adventures, Tomorrow Never Knows is going to be on their featured products wall for the Christmas gift buying season. If you are in the Halifax area, make sure you pop in to pick up a copy.  Also available in Halifax at Monster Comics Lounge.

Thanks again to everyone who made my first-ever visit to Halifax a big success and a lot of fun. This is just a sampling of the photos I took. Check out the complete gallery on my Facebook page: facebook.com/SeanWardSuperParty

I was MCing and DJing but I managed to sneak in one trip to the photo booth for what many people have told me is the greatest photo booth strip ever.

HarthFEST took place at 99 Sudbury on October 26. But did you know that it wasn’t just Toronto’s most colorful party of the year?  HarthFEST was the after party for the AndroidTO conference!

Originally, HarthFEST was going to take place in July.  The vision was huge, and even some of the people in the room during the early brainstorming sessions thought that we were crazy for wanting to do stuff like put a wrestling ring in a party.  The craziest and most impractical ideas we could think of were put on a white board, and when it came time to actually stage the event as the after party for AndroidTO, it was amazing fun to see those crazy ideas come to life.

This year’s AndroidTO (a production of BNOTIONS, the most amazing technology agency in Toronto and I’m not just saying that because Harth TV lives there) was the 2nd annual edition of the conference.  The team faced a multitude of new challenges this year as AndroidTO grew to include two programming streams, a long list of high-profile speakers, major exhibitors including Rogers and Microsoft, and an impeccable production standard.

I didn’t even get a chance to take in the full AndroidTO experience because of how insane my day was, getting ready for HarthFEST.  But I got to tour the space at the very end and I was blown away.  With 750 registrations and an attention to detail I could only wish for from other groups I’ve worked with, I was elated and proud to see it all come to life.

And the glow coming from everyone who worked like dogs to pull it off was a beautiful thing to see.  There are moments in life (they’re rare but they’re real) when you feel like everything went just right.  Even the mistakes feel like they were part of the perfect whole.  October 26, with AndroidTO and HarthFEST happening on the same day, was one of those moments.

I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the organizing committee, volunteers, and staff.  And I offer my deepest thanks to Alkarim, Mark, Paul, Elliott, and everyone at BNOTIONS for the collaboration, and giving me the once in a lifetime opportunity of producing the first edition of HarthFEST.  And I’m going to single out my homeboy Alkarim Nasser, executive producer of HarthFEST and AndroidTO.  His Twitter bio says he is “converting passion into every day life”.  There’s a surface level to that phrase where you can take it like he’s doing what he loves for work, but when you see stuff like AndroidTO and HarthFEST materialize, you get a deeper look at the alchemy he’s hinting at.

COMING UP: 3rd Annual Electric Christmas Freak-Out, Star Wars Day Toronto 2012, and much more. Stay tuned!