Yesterday, while at the little film shoot in Oakville, I shot some video. I filmed a bit of the trip getting there and a bit of the shooting day. I did this with the intent of using this footage to teach myself editing while producing something to post on this blog (via the magic of Youtube).

Alas, after spending a couple of hours working, I discovered what happens if you don’t save after trimming video. My computer was slow after all that work, so I thought i’d reboot before rendering. Sadly, it turned out that the trimmed bits don’t get saved, and so all my video was gone. The audio survived, but what’s a video without… Video? (Answer: audio)

So, this evening I’ll try again. If it works, you’ll see the video here.

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This summer has been just brutal on my asthma.  Its almost as though things held off just until the Fringe show was over (thank you, Doctor Theatre) but as soon as the show was done: BAM asthma city.  This has meant that I pretty much have not had a day when i wasn’t wheezing and coughing, though today the cough has just been getting worse.  I have already been to the hospital once. Fortunately, I haven’t had to go back yet.  However, with the way the cough is going, I’m beginning to be afraid that I may have to.

I have been having some irrational fear about the breathing that I’ve been experiencing, that it might be something more than just asthma.  Normally one might just go to the doctor and ask them for their opinion, but I don’t have a family doctor, and haven’t for many years.  I have to to to the walk-in clinic, which is not exactly condusive to expressing concerns.  Most walk-in clinics operate on a revolving door system: get the patient in, turn them around, get them out as quickly as possible.    So I should probably find a doctor, at they very least to allay these silly fears.

If you are curious what the last visit to the hospital looked like, here’s a taste.

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About a year ago, I wrote about a play that I was “mulling over“.  In addition to mulling over the idea, I’ve also been doing a fair bit of research, reading different accounts of the Upper Canada Rebellion, and soaking up as much information I can. Recently, I acquired a book I’ve been wanting to find for a while, The Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada, which contains excerpts from letters, newspaper articles and the like that were written as the events were occurring.  This book has been invaluable as a research tool.

When I first conceived of this play, it was as a small cast, single-set play, the kind we often see in small to mid-sized theatres these days.  There’s a reason why most plays that are produced have a small cast, and a single set: money.  Its expensive to produce a play that has a lot of actors, something that can really only been done for plays by Shakespeare or for musicals.  For new plays, it can be difficult for theatres to be able to afford to produce plays with a large cast, since the play a) may have a limited appeal/audience or b) employing actors and building sets may take away from the funds available for other shows.   As I have progressed in my research, however, I’ve determined that confining the events of this topic to a small cast, on one set does a disservice to the topic, and to the drama of the thing.

I have given myself “permission” to write big, to not worry about how many characters and the scope of the play during the writing phase.  That’s “thinking like a producer”, which I think I should avoid during writing phase of the project.  So, I’m going to do that.

The play is shaping up to be structured like a Shakespearean history play (though I won’t attempt to write in iambic pentameter, that way leads to madness).  Right now, I’m plotting out the play (selecting the “historic events” and writing down how the scene will be structured around those events).

When the play is written, then I’ll worry about how to deal with a play that has such a large cast. But for now, I’m just writing.

Posted in Lyon and the Banshee, words, Writing | 2 Comments »

This question is more difficult to answer than you know. I know so many talented people. I’ll take this opportunity to name a few, and tell you why they are so awesomely talented.

Jim Zubkavich and Ray Fawkes make awesome comics. If you haven’t checked out Jim’s Skullkickers or Ray’s Possessions, you really are missing out.

Daisy MacLean makes movies, and good ones at that. Watch her, because you’ll know her name soon enough.

Adrianna Prosser is a talented actress, among many talented actresses I know. See also: Ginette Mohr, Hannah Barnett-Kemper, Dana Fradkin and…frankly, too many others to mention. Other actors to be watched: Nick May, Adam Bradley, Dylan Jukes and Scott McCulloch.

David Atkinson is a musical genius.

Those are just a few of the most talented people I know.

Ask me anything

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I admit that I am dismayed by the results of our election.  I am saddened by the fact that regardless of the contempt Stephen Harper has for our democracy, his lies and obfuscations, that Canadian voters gave him a majority in the House of Commons.   And from the updates on my twitter feed, and the postings on Facebook, I see that I am not alone.

Those of us who did not want to see another four years of the “Harper Government” are dismayed, and were disappointed by our fellow Canadians.  We “lost”.

But this is not the end of Canada as we know it.  We’re stronger than that.  We survived the Mulroney years, we can survive the Harper years.  Harper won’t be the end of Canada, he can’t be.  He’s not strong enough.

And what’s more: for those of us who aren’t happy with this result, we will be watching him more closely than ever before.  We’ll be watching for his lies, and we’ll expose them.  We’ll correct him on his ignorance of parliamentary procedure.  And when he again displays his contempt for the Canadian people, we’ll give him a reason to respect us.

Yes, he has a majority in Parliament, which means that if he tries to go a little crazy (like he did before this election), the opposition cannot force an election.  But we can make our voices heard, and he will hear us.

This is not the end.  Its the beginning.

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Since I’ve been thinking a lot about As You Like it, I’ve been considering the question of “what the play is about”.  And I don’t mean what the plot is.  I mean, what is the play about?

Going through the play, as I have been, it looks to me like banishment to the wilderness is freeing for the exiled characters.  Its striking that once in exile, none of the characters really laments being exiled, except for Touchstone, but he seems to be the one dissenting voice.    Aside from the Clown, everyone seems to be having a great time.  Duke Senior and his followers have “gone native”, and are enjoying themselves, living in a cave and killing their own food and singing songs celebrating their hunting prowess.  They are reveling in the freedom their rustic surroundings provide.

Rosalind experiences even more freedom.  Accepted as a man, she finds that she is able to escape the constraints that society normally places on her.

Even Orlando, who isn’t so much exiled as on the run, doesn’t do too much complaining about his “banishment” once he arrives in Arden.  Rather, his complaint is all about being separated from Rosalind.

What do you think this means?  Do you agree? Disagree?

Of course, while interesting, this does not yet provide me with an answer to what the play is “about”, but its interesting to think about.

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During our week of rehearsal, I took more pictures. Here’s a selection.

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So today I found a link to an available workspace at Artscape.  Sadly,  I can’t afford it, but its nice to dream, so I got to thinking about the kind of things I would do if I had a workspace of my own.  A place to go to write, to create, to get together with creative folks and create in a group. That sort of thing.  Again, it would be amazing, but I don’t have the funds to do it.

But that’s not the point of this post.  If you had a workspace of your own, what would you do with it?  Dream, and dream big.  What would you do?

Edit: For the curious, here’s the space I saw.

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Lately, I’ve been seeing this posted around blogs and facebook:

It was once suggested to Winston Churchill that he cut funding to the arts to pay for Britain’s war, to which he responded “Then what would we be fighting for?”

It’s a great quote.  I’ve seen it a few months ago from some American artists, when funding for the arts was being threatened in the US.  I’m hearing it now, in Canada, after the funding cuts to Summerworks, which may herald a significant cooling in the government’s funding of the arts.

But did Churchill ever say that?

Back in August of last year, when the quote was first making the rounds on Twitter, I came upon this post, which asks:

“There are a number of versions of this story quoted around the internet—some adding blasphemies or swearing to the Chuchill response—but none are traceable to an actual source or date.  I am trying to determine whether Churchill actually said this and, if so, under what circumstances.”

In the comments from this post, there are people who say that it sounds like him, but that there may be no reference to this in any speech, biography or recorded writing.

If Churchill did say it (and I really do want to believe that he did), then its great that its being used by artists to support arguments for the continued funding of the arts.  But if Churchill didn’t say it; if the quote is pure fiction or wishful thinking, then using it does no favours to the arts community.  Using a made up quote to back up the argument will merely serve the opponents of arts funding, they’ll be able to discount the argument being made if the quote is false.

Does anyone know if that quote is real?  Is there a source for it?

If its not, maybe we need to rethink using it so frequently in our defense of arts funding.  There are plenty of good reasons to continue funding for the arts without resorting to pithy quotations.

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