Upcoming Rochdale Rhymes and Readings

On Oct. 5 Phoebe Tsang and Valentino Assenza will feature at Rochdale Rhymes and Readings at the Regal Beagle, 335 Bloor St. W. I'm excited as both are fantastic writers. Phoebe Tsang is a page poet, but often commits herself to reading her poetry from memory. Her work is quite impressive and worth listening to live. Valentino Assenza is often considered a spoken word poet, but has published three chapbooks, and in my opinion, is more of a page poet than a performance poet when in comparison to many of the spoken word poets in Toronto. He's performed very well on the spoken word/slam scene. Personally, I think it's because the poetry he brings is so good. He needs not to yell, speak fast, etc. Audiences just connect with him and his honesty.

Down

I've been down lately. Perhaps it's because of money. Perhaps it's because I find myself working in a job where most people are several years younger than my 28, not to put them down as they are mostly great people. It just hit today when someone said, "I worked here when I was 16." Perhaps I feel I'm capable of doing so much more but cannot smash a door down and prove myself worthy of a shot.

I actually like the company I work for quite a bit and I'm not putting them down. It's just everyday I hear Switchfoot's Meant to Live over the store's PA and hear the chorus of, "We were meant to live for so much more," and yes that hits me.

Sarah Palin

Look, I haven't posted in awhile and I'm not trying to become one of those special Internet bloggers, but what's going on in the US disturbs me.

In the US election, you have Barack Obama, perhaps the smartest, best candidate the democrats have put forward since JFK. On the Republican side you have John McCain. Truth be told, if it were between John McCain and Al Gore in 2000, I would've supported McCain, but America twice decided to go with some idiot of a president's son. McCain now looks frail and it would not surprise me if at some point Sarah Palin took over office. Yes I do see her as a trailer trash Alaskan, but she's not ready to be president. She's spent two years running one of the least populated states in America and before that was mayor of a town smaller than Port Hope.

Sarah Palin is not a bad mother because one of her teenage children has gotten pregnant. Many children will go out and have sex before they are married, regardless if their parents tell them not to. But when a mother teaches contraceptives are evil and wrong as Ms. Palin publicly has, this is what happens. I went to a very large Catholic high school that had one of the highest pregnancy rates in Ontario and one shouldn't be surprised.

As frail as McCain looks, this election may be a battle between Obama and Palin. As pathetic as Palin's attempt was to show she actually has more experience than Obama, people seemed to lap it up. Americans will get what they ask for. George W. Bush was a lousy president, as will be Trailer Trash Alaska. But maybe That's what the US wants.

Unrelated, I saw a film called The World According to Monsanto. The film itself is rather boring and not the best put together documentary. Going in though, I did not know as much about Monsanto as I should have. I think what was most eye-opening was when Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and former winner of the Right Livelihood, or Alternative Nobel Prize, said that what's more dangerous than one person owning all the world's guns and bombs is owning all the world's food, which the movie claims Monsanto is trying to do, though it is a one-sided smear job (A company official is on tape saying they will refuse to cooperate).

On a happier note, Rochdale Rhymes and Readings is on Sunday at the Regal Beagle, 335 Bloor St. W., featuring Tomy Bewick and Phlip Arima. Admission is PWYC and there is an open mic. Come on down.

Not so Fast

That new job I was telling you about crashed and completely fell apart. I won't go into details. For now I've found a job at a clothing/sporting goods store.

So I was at Toronto Poetry Slam last night. Valentino Assenza won and was thrilled. I was thrilled for him. He's a great guy and good things sometimes do happen to good people. I was pulling for him in the finals because he was that good. He'll be featuring at some point at RDRR. He will be featuring with me at the Plasticine Poetry Series on Tuesday (Aug. 19th) as well. Rochdale Rhymes and Readings will be on Sept. 7 and will feature Tomy Bewick and Phlip Arima.

New Job

So I do have a new job. I'm now, or will be shortly, the listings co-ordinator for Sources, a company that makes directories mainly for media and PR people like the Sources guide as well as Parliamentary Names and Numbers and Media Names and Numbers. I've only worked there one day and know the learning curve will steep but know it's nothing I can't handle.

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.

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.