Because I'm helping the WSO's resident composer Vincent Ho with a movie (more on that in a future post), I was able to score tickets to last night's concert with Le Ombre - the traveling silhouette dance show (trailer is below).
It was great fun being surrounded by an audience gasping and sighing with pleasure at one of the oldest arts in human history. The dancers are strong on their own, but it's the moments of inventive imagination - when twisting bodies become an animal, a building or an iconic image - that carry the show.
It's a great night at the symphony, particularly if you don't regularly attend and are looking for a show to take you by the hand, smile and pull you up onto the stage and into your imagination. Check it out if you get the chance.
Time for an update! Because, gosh, I haven't blogged in a communicator's lifetime (two weeks?). Things are well, classes have wrapped for CreComm and I'm on work placement at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. I'm not bragging, but the art on my office walls is cooler than yours ;)
I'm having a tough time knowing what to do with my evenings now that homework is a thing of the past. I've said before I have a tough time transitioning from "work mode" to "have a life mode" and it's still true. I've essentially quit acting, I've lost a lot of friends during my intense schooling, I don't really have any hobbies... what's a girl to do?
So please, what hobbies should I pick up? How should I reclaim my/a life?
And do follow my blog at the WAG if you've got a second. I'm writing about the sharp learning curve I'm climbing as a three-week intern, plus the insane exhibit they have coming up called 100 Masters. What do Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Tom Thomson, Emily Carr and Andy Warhol all have in common?
They're all coming to the heart of the continent, baby!
When is the last time you had trouble finding a jaw-drop-warm-heart-high-pitch-squeaky gift for your special someone? The kind of thoughtful gift that shows you care.
The last time you had to get a present, amirite?
I don't know what kind of treat you're looking for, but I do know a wellspring of local creativity you can hit up to up your chances of finding the perfect present: my classmates. A number of second year Creative Communications students have their fruits of the labour up for sale after the independent professional project presentations. In no particular order, check out.
Have a friend heading off into the workforce with no clue how to dress for the office. Sydnie will guide them through what to wear with hardly any payne. (See what I did there? I bet you've never heard that joke before, Syd.)
Cyclist, granola cruncher, awesome communicator and author Laina Hughes has collected tales from one of Winnipeg's most storied communities. From the amusement park that used to fill the neighbourhood to women defending an ancient tree, it's a great look into what turns a street into a home.
Haunter lead singer Matt Williams has released a concept EP, with each song following a woman's journey to cities across western Canada. Bonus: a portion of each purchase will go to the West Central Women's Resource Centre.
Guitarist Mark Schram, bassist Steve Kesselman and poet Steve Currie weave tremendous work of pain and beauty. Warning - this music will break your heart.
Kristy Hoffman's collections of stories gathered from the trials of female adolescences was the most provocative content of the IPPPs. And she earned every bit of it. Check out the launch of her book on April 3 at McNally Robinson.
A graphic novel about a girl who can shoot lazers from between her legs. Brilliant, but what less would you expect from CreComm's Courtney Brecht (aka Coco Moloko).
Jackie Doming created a line of urban clothing (as well as a marathon of events) to raise money for the Children's Wish Foundation. Maybe you missed the concert and bake sales, but you can still grab some of her stellar clothing (I have the t-shirt, I know whence I speak).
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There are more projects just crossing the line to the point where you can pick up you copy. Plus, many of the final products are completely free and online. Check out the IPPP blog to see them all.
Perhaps that’s an unreasonable statement. That’s okay. I’m not a reasonable man. I danced (or my arm-waving, seizuresque version of danced) when I snagged tickets to Wainwright’s March 2 concert at the West End Cultural Centre touring Come Home to Mama, her third studio album, released in 2012 in the wake of her mother’s death and son’s birth. I put “You Cheated Me” on repeat at the physio clinic I worked at, to the angst of muscle-mashed clients. I am not reasonable when it comes to Martha Wainwright.
So here’s why your favourite artists suck by comparison.
Royal Wood kicked off his We Were Born To Glory tour this past Monday at Winnipeg's West End Cultural Centre. Happy travels, man. Thanks for starting in the heart of the country - it suits your music perfectly.
This fall I'm starting up my Winnipeg-arts-focused radio show Heartbeat. It's going to require me to interview local musicians (among others) which is something I don't feel entirely comfortable doing. I'm not a very 'musical' person (tunes carried but bucket required) and my hope for Heartbeat is to approach interviews from a place of knowledge. And not cheese off local musicians (I hear drummers are trouble... or is that just when you're dating them?).
I'm reading music reviews and interviews this summer as prep, but I'm also open to advice. Do you have any tips, suggestions, pet peeves or sacred cows when it comes to music interviews? Or useful graphic aids, like the one below?
My independent professional project for Creative Communications has been approved. Now I have the summer off to dream, connive and lay plans for my arts-driven radio show.
But I wanted to give you a little taste. Hopefully we can look forward to this together...
The first time I heard Price Tag by Jessie J, I replayed it on the computer five times. What a fantastic sentiment. Hypocritical perhaps, given who it's coming from (the same way Christina Aguilera singing Beautiful seems a bit... funny). But no - maybe this is a desperate cry from an artist inside the industry, pleading for a gentler, kinder, less money obsessed world.
Then I saw the commercial below. With new lyrics to Price Tag.
I"m lucky enough to be a member of Theatre by the River - a local, indy theatre company. We've recently started alternating our monthly Board Member/Artistic Core meetings with IdeaJams. Everyone brings something creative to the table that inspires them. It can be dance, food, music, a book, a sculpture or whatever.
And we had one earlier today. For my own reference - and maybe to spark something in your own mind and heart - here are some of the components from today's IdeaJam.
1) The Mad Men Mashups
To launch its upcoming season, AMC's Mad Men had these posters placed in New York City subway stations. The wide open blank space invited contributions from passerbys and the mashups took on a life of their own. Participatory advertising, as I've said, is the future.
2) Rockethub and Kickstarter
Funnily enough, two different crowdfunding sites came up today. Rockethub and Kickstarter allow those seeking financial support to connect with those seeking unique gifts. It's not fundraising; it's trading. Look at this Rockethub (for our own Derek Leenhouts band Those Guys cd recording project) to get an idea of how different donation levels get you different rewards.
3) The End of the Alphabet
TBTR's upcoming Fringe play Lungs deals with a young couple debating whether or not to have a child in this environmentally endangered, socially unstable world. The End of the Alphabet, by Canadian designer-turned-author CS Richardson looks at the other side of the coin - an older, childless couple facing the inevitable parting mortality brings with it.
The quality of a fable, exquisite and timeless - Chatelaine This is a very difficult book to put down at bedtime, even when the final page is turned - The Globe and Mail
4) Star Wars: Uncut
The guys behind Star Wars: Uncut divided Episode IV: A New Hope into 15-second bits. Then they put out the call for fans to replace sections with their own versions. Now the parts have been reassembled into the biggest collaboration in movie-making history.
Some clips are terrible (and good in their terribility). Some are brilliant. Go team.
5) The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
There are good reasons to celebrate the move from analog books to ebooks. Portability. Reduced paper use. Sometimes - though not always - reduced cost.
And there are good reasons to love and defend printed books too; mostly the 'book culture' that they bring. Books on paper are little, permanent totems of learning and feeling, physical records of the thoughts and feelings of our species. And they're reasons to gather - the bookstore and the library aren't just any retail spaces, but cultural halls. And books are transferable in a way eBooks aren't yet. I've loaned and borrowed books (usually remembering to return them, I hope). Having an actual physical object there, existing, matters. Like the difference between a painting and a jpeg.
Oh, I do go on. Anywho, this short film from Moonbot Studios celebrates the book. Tah-dum.
6) A Place Called Manitoba
One of our Board Members is doing her Master's Degree on the cultural narratives of cities. She's interested in the official stories that are sold in culture - especially Tourism pieces - and the stories that slip through the cracks. Witness the above, but watch out in case "fine English silverware catches your eye."
7) Prisoner of Tehran
Marina Nemat was jailed and tortured as a teenager in Iran's infamous Evin prison. She would have been executed, if one of her guards hadn't decided to marry her. Now living in Canada, she published her memoir Prisoner of Tehran to acclaim and recent (ridiculous) controversy.
8) Corsican Chant
I don't even know how to begin describing this improvisational, ancient singing style. They make it up as they go based on what the other singers are doing. Amazing.
9) Transitional Singing
I can't find the online content (if there is any) but there are choirs that get together for the sole purpose of providing music as someone dies; as they transition out of this life and into whatever comes next.
My first reaction, I admit, was discomfort. My second was wanting to have such a choir for my own death. My third reaction is deciding not to die <pats own shoulder>
10) Into Eternity
Finland is attempting to build the first permanent nuclear waste disposal site - a giant underground repository where spent fuel rods can be stored for as long as they're dangerous. 100,000 years.
Into Eternity is Danish film maker Michael Madsen's documentary on the project and the attempt to design 'keep out' signs our descendants will understand and heed. Because nuclear waste will be our longest legacy to the future.
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So that was our meeting. Now to soak it all in and come up with new ways to be a socially relevant, artistically provocative and financially accessible theatre company. Plus kick ass.
A blog post where I pay it forward. Local actor and footy fan Rod Beilfuss introduced me to Scott Walker. So let me introduce him to you:
Boy Child
You'll lose your way
A boy child rides upon your back
Take him away
Through mirrors dark and blessed with cracks
Through forgotten courtyards
Where you used to search for youth
Old gets a new life
Reach out you can touch it's true
He's not a shadow of shadows
Like you, you see
Hearts hold on holding
If you stay one, you'll stay free
Go seek the lady
Who will give, not take away
Naked with stillness
On the edge of dawn she stays
Nights starts to empty
That's when her song begins
She'll make you happy
She'll take you deep within her
Window lights for wanderers
Hide hard in your swollen eyes
Echoes of laughter
Hide in the cities thighs
Love catch these fragments
Swirling through the winds of night
What can it cost
To give a boy child back his sight
Extensions through dimensions
Leave you feeling cold and lame
Boy child mustn't tremble
'cos he came without a name
