Saturday, July 19, 2008
RDRR is tomorrow night!
Though technically seeing as it is after midnight, RDRR is tonight. Tonight we will be featuring Molle Dorst and Amanda Hiebert, two amazing spoken-word artists. Generally at Rochdale Rhymes and Readings we only have one spoken-word artist and a page poet. But I'd already booked Amanda and decided I really wanted Molle to have a spot before she went back to Kingston to finish her grad school work and seeing as RDRR is taking a break until September, now was the time. So if anyone does read this blog and is into spoken word, performance poetry or "slam," RDRR goes down July 20, 8 p.m. at the Regal Beagle, 335 Bloor St. W. That's in the old Rochdale College building beside the Bata Shoe Museum, by St. George subway station. There's an open mic and admission is whatever you throw into my fedora. Hosted by yours truly, Mike Lipsius. And if anyone who reads this was at the Toronto Poetry Slam on Friday, please tell me who won. I had to leave part way through the second round.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Fringe Festival
I never did review what I liked and disliked about the Fringe Festival. I saw eight shows and will give a really short review, mostly in point form of each.
Crude Love- Story about an environmental activist deemed too extreme for Greenpeace who falls in love with an oil worker. Funny at points, but far too preachy. It was sponsored by Adbusters, which kind of bothers me as I'd have the same problem with any other sponsor of a play at the Fringe Festival. At the end they had a hat to raise money for Greenpeace in hope of banning oil mining in the Alberta tar sands. I mean, I realize there's a problem with the environment, but could Greenpeace not have come up with a more realistic goal? If it's as gloomy as some pessimists say they'll run out of oil soon anyway and it won't matter. I'd rather see a play that made me think rather than see a play that told me what to say.
Mating Rituals of an Urban Cougar- Andrea Thompson performs her performance poetry, which is great, but an hour of it is too much. Her banter in between pieces just wasn't enough to stretch it into an hour long show. Also, she objects to being called a cougar which kind of defeats the point of the title.
Einstein's Wife- Life stories of three women, Rosalind Franklin, Jackie Mitchell and Wally Funk who all have great accomplishments suppressed by men, from striking out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession to hoping to be the first women in outer space to discovering DNA. Story is told in 35 minutes, but told brilliantly. Only problem was a factual error. Babe Ruth never had a candy bar named after him. He was nicknamed after the candy bar.
Ladylike- Interesting look into the life of a transgendered woman. However, there really seemed to be not as much of a story as there could have been. Not as great as Eye's four star rating.
About an Hour- One hour improvised comedy play, from the people who brought That Show Stopping Number last year. Absolutely hilarious. Six out of five.
Moments on a Wrist- Your typical interpretive dance show. I took a chance on seeing something different and I'm not about to pretend to be an expert on interpretive dance.
Sitting in a Tree- All over the place. No focus at all on the struggles in the relationship of the main characters. I still don't know why that one guy was dressed up as a duck and that Italian guy had a foam heart tied to him. Come to think of it, a lot of the characters were silly. I went away wondering what the message was supposed to be.
The Movies (Abridged)- Story of a guy trying to get a managerial position at "Bigbuster." Without going to far into the whole background, different genres of film are explored in a comical way. Funny, but not that funny.
Crude Love- Story about an environmental activist deemed too extreme for Greenpeace who falls in love with an oil worker. Funny at points, but far too preachy. It was sponsored by Adbusters, which kind of bothers me as I'd have the same problem with any other sponsor of a play at the Fringe Festival. At the end they had a hat to raise money for Greenpeace in hope of banning oil mining in the Alberta tar sands. I mean, I realize there's a problem with the environment, but could Greenpeace not have come up with a more realistic goal? If it's as gloomy as some pessimists say they'll run out of oil soon anyway and it won't matter. I'd rather see a play that made me think rather than see a play that told me what to say.
Mating Rituals of an Urban Cougar- Andrea Thompson performs her performance poetry, which is great, but an hour of it is too much. Her banter in between pieces just wasn't enough to stretch it into an hour long show. Also, she objects to being called a cougar which kind of defeats the point of the title.
Einstein's Wife- Life stories of three women, Rosalind Franklin, Jackie Mitchell and Wally Funk who all have great accomplishments suppressed by men, from striking out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession to hoping to be the first women in outer space to discovering DNA. Story is told in 35 minutes, but told brilliantly. Only problem was a factual error. Babe Ruth never had a candy bar named after him. He was nicknamed after the candy bar.
Ladylike- Interesting look into the life of a transgendered woman. However, there really seemed to be not as much of a story as there could have been. Not as great as Eye's four star rating.
About an Hour- One hour improvised comedy play, from the people who brought That Show Stopping Number last year. Absolutely hilarious. Six out of five.
Moments on a Wrist- Your typical interpretive dance show. I took a chance on seeing something different and I'm not about to pretend to be an expert on interpretive dance.
Sitting in a Tree- All over the place. No focus at all on the struggles in the relationship of the main characters. I still don't know why that one guy was dressed up as a duck and that Italian guy had a foam heart tied to him. Come to think of it, a lot of the characters were silly. I went away wondering what the message was supposed to be.
The Movies (Abridged)- Story of a guy trying to get a managerial position at "Bigbuster." Without going to far into the whole background, different genres of film are explored in a comical way. Funny, but not that funny.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Major League Home Run Derby
I am currently watching the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. If I have to hear Chris Berman talk one more time about "A former heroin addict who was out of baseball for three years has hit 28 home runs!" I will scream. Yeah, Josh Hamilton's a good story, but enough!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Stone Temple Pilots
Last night I ended up at Edgefest at Downsview Park to see Stone Temple Pilots, Sam Roberts, Linkin Park, etc. The day was incredibly rainy and muddy. You could not avoid getting dirty. However, everyone got dirty together. Stone Temple Pilots put on such a great show. It was great they were just on a reunion tour and not trying to sell a new album. They just played all the great songs you remembered. They were far better than when I saw them in 1994 (opening up for the Rolling Stones in a 50,000 seat stadium with 10,000 people who didn't care to see them and were just waiting for the Stones). I realize now why STP were/are so great. They never had a sound. You couldn't say someone sounds like STP, because STP doesn't sound like anything. Their music was/is all over the place.
I didn't stick around for Linkin Park. I'm not a huge fan to begin with and I could see more rain clouds were on the way. I just went home.
But yes, I will pester this blog with more poetry. This poem is about STP.
A walking walrus running through the mud.
A recovering heroin addict
owns about 30,000 eyes
and 30,000 ears
for an hour and a half.
Even with the mud and rain
those eyes and ears
felt like they were donated to a good home.
The owner of more eyes and ears than he could count
in his red fedora points at the rainbow.
(No one saw it. We were watching him.)
He offers $5 and a colour TV
to the one who brings him the pot of gold.
No one was leaving.
We were flies in Vaseline,
very filthy Vaseline.
I didn't stick around for Linkin Park. I'm not a huge fan to begin with and I could see more rain clouds were on the way. I just went home.
But yes, I will pester this blog with more poetry. This poem is about STP.
A walking walrus running through the mud.
A recovering heroin addict
owns about 30,000 eyes
and 30,000 ears
for an hour and a half.
Even with the mud and rain
those eyes and ears
felt like they were donated to a good home.
The owner of more eyes and ears than he could count
in his red fedora points at the rainbow.
(No one saw it. We were watching him.)
He offers $5 and a colour TV
to the one who brings him the pot of gold.
No one was leaving.
We were flies in Vaseline,
very filthy Vaseline.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Weird phone stories
So today I got three voice messages saying, "Hey Mike, why are you paging me at 3:30 in the morning," "Hey Mike, why are you paging me at 3:30 in the morning and not answering your phone?" And one telling me to quit paging them. Who was this? I had no idea. My phone shows no calls or messages sent at that time and though I'm often a bit of a night owl, I was in bed at 3:30 am.
This story gets weirder. I received a call from the man who was calling me today. His name is Chester and I do not know him. He says my number showed up on his pager. This is very strange. I did explain to him I was in bed at 3:30 in the morning.
I called Rogers tonight. They told me they know nothing of me calling anyone at 3:30 am and it possibly could be on Chester's end.
On another note, I have been doing a lot of volunteering with the Toronto Fringe Festival. I have enjoyed it. I'll comment on highlights of the festival later on when the festival is over or almost over. I have many comps. I've seen four plays so far, with many to go.
This story gets weirder. I received a call from the man who was calling me today. His name is Chester and I do not know him. He says my number showed up on his pager. This is very strange. I did explain to him I was in bed at 3:30 in the morning.
I called Rogers tonight. They told me they know nothing of me calling anyone at 3:30 am and it possibly could be on Chester's end.
On another note, I have been doing a lot of volunteering with the Toronto Fringe Festival. I have enjoyed it. I'll comment on highlights of the festival later on when the festival is over or almost over. I have many comps. I've seen four plays so far, with many to go.
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