Mmm...tasty Nathan Fillion. You know I'll be at Die-Nasty again tonight. Yummy goodness. Poor guy who told me that Mr. Fillion was doing improv this year almost lost an ear as my shrieks of "Captain Tightpants is here!" broke the sound barrier.

We've decided to do one more day of busking so tonight from 7:00-9:00pm is your last chance to catch us ladies and gentlemen.

Plays to see:
Identity, The Raven and the Writting Desk (House and Meer, need I say more?), Criteria, The Opposite of Infinity, Finer Noble Gases (great acting, but really unoriginal ending), Canterbury Tales (original south african adaptation, good acting).

My feet are black and sore, my muscles ache everywhere, there isn't a single part of me that isn't covered in sweat, the false eyelashes are starting to really get on my nerves, and my throat is raw from barking.

I think I may like busking more than anything I've ever done in my life.

I think maybe I do need to join the circus.

Courtesy of Pixie's "quote of the moment"

"Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you've got an audience."
- Diogenes

Been killing myself over this pic of us trying to be barkers out there while busking. What do you think, should we join the circus yet?

Ladies and gentlemen...

Well today was my first busking experience. I had a good time of it and I think we performed well. We're not overly prepared in terms of technology (we could use better speakers and a mic, my italian heritage can only get me so far in terms of volume of voice, plus I'm only half italian and the costa ricans are a pretty quiet bunch) but it all seemed to get ironed out. We got a great crowd today.

May I say it's hard to feel sexy and dance when you're sweatin' like a whore in church. It was a scorcher out today.

RAB! is busking at fringe. Busking times are not set, so times are approximate. Come see us:

Sunday Aug 20 sometime between 2:00pm-4:00pm
Tuesday Aug 22 sometime between 6:00pm-8:00pm
Wednesday Aug 23 sometime between 6:00pm-8:00pm
Friday Aug 25 sometime between 6:00pm-8:00pm

Saw the best show I've seen yet at this year's fringe: Identity by Anita Miotti. It's a half theatre, half modern dance piece about two superheroes and everything about it was fantastic. The musical score, the dancing, the acting, and the script were all top notch, I love seeing something like that come together. Plus, I also loved seeing what a dancer can do to a theatre piece in terms of movement, just watching what a difference it makes to the acting when the two people on stage have such knowledge of what movement can mean, what it can evoke. It's a great show all round, but it helps to be a bit of a geek (there's a bit in there about being a character being chaotic evil that had me in stitches - not many plays out there have D&D references. Still no references of old school THAC0 though, I'm still waiting for that)

The Good and the Ugly:

Criteria by Timothy Mooney was fabulous. The idea behind the plot is not entirely original (gee what will the US turn into in the future? let's discuss this more), but the script is great, it's funny and reasonably thought provoking without being too heavy handed about anything. But what really makes this show is the acting, this performance ranks among the best I've seen at Fringe in my 3 years of going. Mr. Mooney has the voice, the presence, the commitment, and the comic timing, that any actor would kill for. Not to mention the package, there's a scene where he's in his underwear and um...impressive. But I digress. I was on the edge of my seat just waiting to hear what that amazing voice would say next, it was superb. Seriously folks, it's wholly worth the cash to go see this one.

At the End of All Things...well if you can't say anything nice than don't say anything at all so here's me saying bupkis.

Reviews:

The Christian Brothers was well-written and very well acted, the best performance I've seen thus far. The only reason I'm not totally raving about it was because the theme just wasn't something that I personally was interested in. The reason I went to see it was because I like shows that deal with teaching, and I loved how hard this guy tried to really be a teacher to the boys. It was sad to see how hard someone can try to do something and still fail at it.

Wool was okay, but it really exemplified what some of the issues I have when people try and both write and act in an autobiographical show. It's about a young man's journey to the Isle of Mull in Scotland, where he spends many months with many sheep. He admits that he's not an actor (he's a composer by trade) and that he just wanted to get this story out. Having travelled around a lot, I get the temptation to write about my experiences because they have been so life altering, but really I find it can sound so pompous and self-involved when I actually try to formally tell the story. If felt like he should acknowledge more that he's not the only one who has been changed by their travel experiences, and that his is probably just one of many stories like it. Instead, it was a little like "this is my wholly unique experience which you plebes will never understand." But he did a pretty good job nonetheless, and kudos to him for trying out a whole new art form. The only real problem I had was that, though he was charming (and it was cute that he still had the Scottish storytelling patter and intonation), for most of the play, he seemed to put on his "actor's hat" and not be himself. This gave the impression that he was very distant from the story, that the story wasn't really resonating emotionally with him, when I think that a story like that has to be told like you're completely re-living it. There is one moment when he takes that hat off, and tells the story as himself and not as an actor, (right before he dunks his head in a big bucket o' water) and that moment was worth the ticket price.

The Opposite of Infinity is beautifully scripted and very well acted. My favourite of the plays I've seen thus far. This girl is the story-teller that the Wool guy is striving to be. The story isn't autobiographical, but it resonates with her, she is living it. She completely involves you in her life and you really believe, for those 40 minutes, that there is no difference between this girl and the girl she is "acting like." This is not a life-altering play, but it's simple perfect story-telling as it should be. I was talking to the Wool guy, and he said that this girl had a partner, but the guy bowed out at the last minute, so she re-wrote the script in five days, based soley on the title and the blurb she'd given the Fringe programme. This would explain why she did have a couple of "memory moments" where she needed to take a second to remember a line, but recouperated nicely.

RAB is busking at fringe. Busking times are not set, so times are approximate. Come see us:

Sunday Aug 20 sometime between 2:00pm-4:00pm
Tuesday Aug 22 sometime between 6:00pm-8:00pm
Wednesday Aug 23 sometime between 6:00pm-8:00pm
Friday Aug 25 sometime between 6:00pm-8:00pm

Fringe is here again! So excited as per usual. Plus I actually get a few days off this year so I can see some plays. Got myself a frequent fringer pass and everything. Plus the busking, which will be cool, though the getting up at 4:00am today to get in line for a busking pass and then heading off for an 8-hour workday was something I'd like to avoid for at least another year.

Went to see Twisted Thing by Jon Stewart tonight. I may have some spoilers in here, so read on with caution. I love this kid as an actor, and as a writer, he's amazing. His play Little Room that he did two years ago still ranks as one of the most emotionally raw and honest things I've ever seen. Twisted Thing is lacking in comparison, the acting (other than Mr. Stewart's) leaves something to be desired and the writing is a little...well it's cool but didn't quite work. Love the idea though. My take is that it's about how sometimes, and for some people, twisted things are really the things that make us happy and that we can only really be content once we learn to accept that. I dig that.

Though it wasn't the best play I've seen, the message hit home in more ways than one. The main character has a cat, her twisted thing, that she twisted and that now twists her back and she's all emotionally unavailable, and it's a big animal/pet metaphore for boyfriends. But the thing is, I have Katie, my own sweet, sick, twisted little cat and it's not a metaphore. It didn't help that Jon, who is a phenomenal actor, played the cat (named Freak). Katie is sick and twisted and I've been sick and twisted and though we've both hindered each other's health, we also need each other to survive. As Freak is complaining to his master that they're going to get kicked out of the apartment, I'm almost bawling as I'm reminded of Katie mewing that I better start caring about shit and cleaning the place up else we'd get kicked out too. Mewing even though she created most of the mess, dang her. And the times when I feel happiest are when she's feeling okay and we fall asleep together and it's lovely because we've earned that peace together and it's precious because it doesn't happen very often. This all may sound overly dramatic, but hey, I am italian here and large with the hand gestures and the melodrama.

Or perhaps it's just the whole been up and on the go since 4:00am thing. I'm a little overwrought.

Happy Fringing!

Frozen asses were able to be warmed whilst my inner zen ran away into the wilderness.

Such were the results of a rockin' girls' night. I got home exhausted from dance class, but decided to live on the edge and go out with Pixie and her friends last night. After a rather nerve-wracking car trip, we took a mad dip in the legislative pools last night, while the wind storm raged. It was warm as long as you stayed under water. We caught the eye of a couple of guys (of course) and I caught them trying to brave the water to join the 8 girls (or was it 9 personalities?) in various states of undress, but the boys couldn't get in past their ankles. Pussies.

We then headed, again in various states of undress, to a quaint little coffee shop downtown. They were very nice to us there, and spent the evening taking pictures of ourselves and the barrista in innocent and respectable poses.

At some point in the evening, I was having my ear nibbled on by a 20 year old girl, who also happens to be my manager. Hmm...seeing that written out, it actually sounds quite naughty. What is it with me and bookstore managers these days?

Good times. Good times.

I just finished getting through the Buffyverse and I thought this event should be commemorated in some way, why not with a blog entry?

I've been buying the seasons of Buffy for quite some time, spending little bits of saved money on them. I now have all 7 seasons and season 5 of Angel (the best season of Angel) and I just watched all 8 seasons sequentially. I think it took about 2 months. Bloody hell.

My insights now, having seen the whole oeuvre? The show resonates at an emotional level that is simply integral to me, but of course, they have their flaws. The score for season 1 is just funny bad, seeing SMG become anorexic is painful, Dawn's screams are irritating...Mr. Whedon really should have made her forgive Spike in the end because her relationship with him was one of the least annoying things about her character.

Consistency is a bit of an issue, not Star Trek bad, but how old is Spike? It changes every season. Spike's sire? The strength of the uber vamps in season 7? But character development is always consistent and that's what's really important. The only character progression I just don't buy is Giles' betrayal of Buffy in season 7. I bought it when I watched it for the first time, but watching the whole thing it kinda grates on me a bit. The writers acknowledge how much of a leap it is for him and he hasn't always agreed with Buffy in the past, but when I saw how close he was to Buffy in earlier seasons, I couldn't believe that one speech from a guy he knows is bent on vengeance would convince him to betray Buffy in a way he's never done before. And he says Buffy isn't seeing the big picture, but doesn't acknowledge that Spike is the only warrior they have?

Plus, I'm sorry, he plots to kill Spike, a vamp who has fought for his soul and has saved his life on many occassions, but Angel gets off the hook? Angel kills the love of Giles' life and tortures him for hours but once he gets a soul forced back into him, he's an okay guy whose wisdom surpasses Spike's? Spike does not-evil deeds for 3 years, protects Dawn and the Slayer, and then fights to win a soul and he's still evil incarnate?

The betrayal makes a great episode of television but I'm still not sure it's consistent with Giles' logic.

The fact the Nick Brendan is not the world's best actor started to bother me in the last seasons, however having watched the show from beginning to end, I really appreciated the journey he went on. Just trying to feel like a man around all these people who are stronger than him, you understand his pigheadedness in highschool and later on. And I love that he is one of the only male characters on the show who is not only not intimidated by female strength, but attracted to it. Watching this "just a normal guy" having his eye plucked out at the end, it really got to me in a way that it hadn't before.

The only thing that really bugs me about the shows is something Barb mentions in her Season 6 rant. The whole soul thing. It's so not interesting to make the soul the be all end all of whether a person is capable of good or not. It's like this "quick fix" for evil, and since Mr. Whedon doesn't seem to be a fan of quick fixes in general, it's odd that he's put this one in. It's far more interesting, and far more pro-free will, to say that no matter who you are, you get up every day and can make a decision to try to do good. This whole "spike isn't capable of love or good without a soul" crap when he obviously loves Buffy and Dawn like crazy doesn't fly. And if Buffy had concentrated more on the fact that a soulless thing had wanted to do right so much that he fought for a soul, I would have been happy, but all through season 7 she keeps on saying "he has a soul now" like that's the big fucking deal. And Angel also focuses on the soul thing, though thank fuck it at least acknowledges that Spike is the better manvamp for having intentionally sought his out.

Hopefully that's gotten the Buffy out of my system for awhile now. Oh who am I kidding?

"talking of which, i have got the most bizarre porn film ever. look it out if you can, i recommend it. its called 'in the days of whore' and features a leper losing his cock while shagging. i got it for the vikings so the lepers were a bit of a bonus."

And that last sentence is why Marie is one of the people I love most in the world. Her email to me this morning had me spitting tea at the screen I was laughing so hard.

Okay, on to something other than pornography. Actually, maybe it has to do with porn. You see, as may have become apparent to you, I'm addicted to fanfic porn. I remember articles coming out in the GlobeandMail about men becoming internet porn addicts, how they were treating it as an addiction that you needed to seek help for. They never talked about women becoming addicted to it. Which is weird given the whole "spander is crack" idea that's out there. Not that I only read these stories for the erotic elements, a lot of it is just good storyline.

But I digress, my point was that I've been disassociating from the world for a long while now. The porn addiction, the buffy obsession, even the dancing sometimes, it's all just to get out of my head and not be part of the world for awhile. Though the dancing has the opposite effect most days, makes me feel concrete, puts me in the moment. I haven't even been able to read non-fiction for a year now because it would cause me to be affected by something in the world, to start thinking about things, actually live in the world as it is.

My way of dealing has always been to disassociate for awhile, to daydream my life away for an hour a day or so. But I think I just daydreamed a whole two years away. Funnily enough, I've been busier in the world than most people even with all Calgon moments. Imagine what I could accomplish if I were associating. Not that I'll ever be productive efficiency girl, as the daily daydreaming is necessary for me, but perhaps I could stop letting people and myself down and avoiding all forms of responsibility.

I started this email with the quote from Marie because it was funny, but also because she's one of those people who never runs away from the world. She faces it head on, the pleasurable parts and shitty parts both. She's very inspirational to me that way. I could rave about many of her attributes here, but it would just take pages so I'll leave it at that for now.

I take it as a good sign that I started blogging again, have come up with some plans for the next few months, have gotten in touch with the Uni about finishing the MA, and I'm starting to read non-fiction again. Started At Home in The World by Jennifer Welsh and it's been fantastic. There have been many books about Canada and its role in the world today, but to my critical eye (hey, higher academia did teach me something!) they all seemed very surfacey and not well researched. Not finished the book yet, but so far, very impressed.

And hey, look at me relating to the world again.

Okay people, after having spent my unexpected 4-day weekend reading everything on Barb's site, I have lost all hand-eye coordination and I've changed my Spuffy link to her page. Now Herself is an amazing writer and I loved her fics but ...oh what the hell I'll have two Spuffy links. They're both just too good.

Barb's stuff is much more canon based, her characterizations are perfect and sometimes, imho, truer to character than canon. Herself has changed the Whedonverse more extensively, and I do still love the fics that take the 'verse away from its origins (supreme example is Subtleties (beautiful Spander)), they're just different. Barb has the Whedon lingo down pat, down to each character. She has Spike referring to himself as the Vamp of La Mancha for yoda's sake, how can you not love her? Her literary references alone make this work some of the best writing I've read in ages. Plus, funny.

Barb's three novellas are incredible and her collaborative work, Three Deep, at Tea at the Ford is also excellent. She has great rants on her site, rants about the show and vampire lore etc. I have to say, I'm ashamed that I was surprised that she's a lesbian writing Spuffy fic. How closed is my mind that I assume that an artist would need to write a love relationship that resembled his/her own? And of course she can think Spike is hot, as she herself says "I'm gay, not blind." And, hello? I've been reading slash for how many years now, stories about two men humping that are written (as research would indicate) mostly by women on the straighter side of the continuum.

It's funny to discover tiny parts of your brain you thought must be open (due to open-mindedness about most things queer) but were actually closed. And it's wonderful to feel them open once you've pounced upon them.