The title of the Save the CBC petition might sound a little alarmist—it’s not at risk of disappearing à la GM or Chrysler—but it’s not hard to extrapolate an eventual result from the actions (and inactions) of the party that’s currently in control of the purse strings.
Among other things, you’ll be helping to support Canadian musicians like Emm Gryner and T. Nile, and a news source that’s more trusted and unbiased than any other in the country (and perhaps the entire continent).
…the term “deus ex machina” has come to mean any inferior plot device that expeditiously solves the conflict of a narrative. See Battlestar Galactica.
Actually, the day before. But close enough.
Knowing a bit of the way these things work, I realize it’s not a huge coincidence that as soon as I came back from One Week I’d discover that Emm Gryner would be promoting the film on CBC Sunday (with director Michael McGowan). But it’s a nice surprise nonetheless!
Rats… Emm was on CBC Sunday (the 10am show) rather than CBC Sunday Night (the 10pm show). (Fortunately the interview segment is online.) Must make for a long day for Carole MacNeil and Evan Solomon, who host both shows.
One of the best shows of last year’s London Fringe Festival is being remounted in Toronto next month, and one of the best of the Montreal Fringe is coming to London soon after.
The Toronto play is Chaotica. It’s written and performed by Christel Bartelse, who I had the opportunity to interview (along with her stage manager Colleen O’Reilly) for Theatre in London last August. Christel’s promo describes it well: the madcap adventures of Alice, a stressed-out artist caught in a nightmarish board game that transforms her into different versions of who she thinks she wants to be.
Also on the bill is a play I haven’t seen, Lionheart, written and performed by Diana Kolpak, who directed Chaotica. Sounds like it will be a good complement: it’s about Litty, a lion-tamer trapped in a ring where the usual rules don’t apply.
The plays are at The Theatre Centre, which is the interesting venue where I saw Evalyn Parry in Breakfast last year. Haven’t decided yet which of the five performances I’m going to (although it’s most likely to be Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon) but if anyone wants to come with I’ll be happy to drive.
Coming to London as part of this June’s Fringe festival, on the other hand, is Daniel MacIvor‘s See Bob Run, performed by Lydia Zadel. I’ve written about Lydia before, particularly for her work in The Body at the 2005 London Fringe.
The poster for the show is reminiscent of Lola rennt (aka Run Lola Run), although from what I’ve read of Bob it sounds like that’s mostly coincidental: Bob, a chatty teenager, decides to escape it all by hitch-hiking the trans-Canada highway. The only direction Bob gives to her rides is to go “East… Until you hit water. A lot of water.”
I’m really looking forward to seeing Lydia perform a MacIvor play, as she’s the one who got me interested in him in the first place; Jeff Culbert’s article a couple of years ago served to reinforce that interest, and I’ve seen all the performances of his work that I’ve been able to since, including House at last year’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival and Passionfool‘s excellent production of Never Swim Alone here in town. (Coincidentally, Never Swim Alone and See Bob Run are the first two shows I’ve heard about for the 2009 Fringe.) “Canadian theatre god” indeed.
It’s ironic that this post will be a “meta” one—an entry about this blog—given my dislike for them (which I don’t think I’ve ever detailed; maybe that will be next). But coincidence abounds at the moment, and I’m a numbers guy, so I have to mark it somehow. It’s like watching the odometer click over, except in quadruplicate:
Yay me.
This was a ridiculous story the first time it was on TV.
attn canadians, the cd & dvd are on pre-order at amazon.ca! dvd: http://tinyurl.com/53zlb5 cd: http://tinyurl.com/3v5789
are you enjoying your dvds yet?
Hello from Amazon.ca.
We’re sorry to report the release of the following item has been cancelled:
“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”
Although we’d expected to be able to send this item to you, we’ve since found it won’t be released after all. Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience we’ve caused you.
We’ve cancelled this item from your order.
As the kids say, WTF?
At this time last year:
Mike sent this to me a while ago, back when it was more à propos to both of our blogs. (Now it’s just relevant to his. *evil grin*) Tonight I decided to post it, but wanted to provide proper credit, as the link he sent had had the copyright info removed. (Ironically, the image was 100 pixels wider than the original and twice as tall, due to extra whitespace that had been added, so it wasn’t simply a bad crop job on the part of whoever uploaded it.) After about ten minutes of searching I came across the source, Hugh MacLeod’s gapingvoid.
Which is a really long introduction to my extremely brief point, which is that three (now four) of my favourite online comics are simple line drawings. xkcd, and explodingdog and Savage Chickens all have a bent sense of humour which I find funny, although they’re all warped in different ways.
Speaking of weird humour, my brother-in-law sent out an animated card this year that is, as my sister puts it, “different”. Happy holidays!
