Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake Thursday 30th. Mum Dad and I headed out for Niagara-on-the-Lake. We usually go to Stratford at this time of the year, but couldn’t get good seats till September so added this trip. I knew it was further - a 4+ hour drive, but we got a little lost and adding the Hamilton traffic it became 5 hours. (Will not do it again). We made it, checked into The Best Western Colonel Butler Inn, which is a good deal if you book 3 months early (as we did), and had a nap. Then over to the Colonel Butler Sports bar located right behind the motel, for some food (we’d missed lunch) which was surprisingly good. Then off to the show - Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. The lady sitting next to me commented when I said we were from Windsor - “That’s a 5 hour drive”. The lead was Andre Sills (Tom), who was Coriolanus (in play of same name) last year at Stratford. It was in the Jackie Maxwell Theatre which is a small intimate venue - 265 seats, and prior to the start of the show, Mr. Sills walked around talking to the audience and doing a few magic tricks. The magic is a small part of the play - I missed the connection at the start. The actors are very close only a few feet away, and at one point due to the blocking (position of the actors) I felt as if I was really on stage with them. It was a somewhat traditional rendition in a theatre-in-the-round (audience surrounds the stage) and there were no set changes, just lighting. The set was a small apartment where the walls were only about 2 feet high - effective in giving you a sense of a few small rooms. The other actors - Julie Course as Laura (the sister), Allegra Fulton as Amanda (the mother) and Jonathan Tan as Jim - all very good. Up Friday morning and had a fabulous complimentary breakfast then waited on the porch for sister Holly and her husband Kim to meet up with us - which they did around 11:00. Having checked out, we drove over to Fort George, dropped some of the party off and went for a takeout lunch at Tim Hortons. Kim and I returned to the fort and we ate - the day was beautiful. Holly had recently purchased a years family pass to the national parks, but had forgotten it at home. Later she found her receipt for the purchase and we all toured the fort - kind of cool. We saw a great demonstration on firearms of the period. We then headed over to the Shaw Festival Theatre, met up with sister Mary and husband Pat and enjoyed “Brigadoon”. Then we had a beer at the Olde Angel Inn, the 3rd oldest pub in Canada established in 1815, and then off to dinner at Gingers. Dad felt dizzy so Holly took him to the Airbnb she’d rented for the night and returned later to join us. Dinner was excellent, and the service was superb. The Airbnb was delightful. On Saturday we departed and drove a short distance to Thorold to visit my Mum’s cousin John Crowe. John, now 81, is the adopted son of my mother’s Uncle Noble. It was wonderful to see him, and we realized it had been about 34 years, the last time being his second marriage ceremony. We then commenced our journey home. What is a Holiday? In our normal everyday we live in set patterns, which are ultimately thought patterns. When we go on holiday (even if we stay home) we break the normal patterns and are required to “create” temporary new ones. These new “thought” patterns disrupt our normal ones and allow room to adjust or even redirect ones which have become entrenched. The Perfect Partner? OK, no one is perfect, yet this person (when male) will at various times inhabit the role of lover, brother and father (a woman - lover, sister and mother). I also acknowledge that there are a multitude of structural issues - specifically surrounding the dominant partner (how power is shared). There are times in all relationships when we need to be these people. Some may disagree and say the perfect partner is a friend. I say a friend will be all these people. I'm also speaking of heterosexual relationships because I’m not sure the underlying nature of gay and lesbian relationships - they could be far more complicated. French River Flooding We usually open our cottage on the upper French River over the long May weekend - it has been a tradition. This year it’s not possible due to historically high water - our docks are under water so there is no place to tie up our boats and there are no roads - everyone lives on an island. It seems 100 year floods are happening with greater frequency. Son John made it up for May 31 and I’ve included several pictures. I came across this article and I think climate change deniers need consider it. Quote: “No industry's profits are more immediately threatened by climate change than insurance. Between 1983 and 2008, says Feltmate, annual insurance payouts for catastrophic events in Canada, mostly flooding, averaged between $250 million and $450 million a year. In nine of the 10 years since 2009, the average annual payout has been $1.8 billion. The average payout for a flooded basement is $43,000 and rising.” Simply put, flooding is caused by more rain (and snow accumulation) falling from the sky. To get more rain falling you need to put more up there, and to get it up there, you need more evaporation, and for that you need warmer temperatures. This article highlights a major effort by the insurance industry to get the Canadian government to update national floodplain maps so that insurance companies can walk away from any homeowner living or building in these expanded flood zones. The value of a lot of prime real estate is going to plunge (these are often lake and riverfront homes). You may be a climate denier but if you own one of these properties you might want to get out while you can - if it’s not already too late. View the insurance industry report here. Hairspray A musical based on the movie of the same name. A lot of upbeat 60’s era sounding rhythm and blues songs which seem very similar to hits of that period. The final song is a close copy of John Mellencamp’s “Rockin in the USA”. Windsor Light Music Theatre’s production had its controversy - being such a large production pushing many of its aging members to the edge of their comfort zones. That being said, it was a great show. Ryan Turgeron and Chris Hickman were absolutely fabulous (re: hilarious) as the parents. Their performance could easily succeed on Broadway (imo) and is probably the best you will see in Windsor this year. I worked mics - placing them on the actors and keeping them working, and this too was not without issues. Back in February I was approached by the production team and asked if I’d do it. My initial reaction was no, for this reason: an actor can miss a line, the lighting person can miss most of the cues, and backstage crew can misplace a set piece (place it on stage in a wrong spot - referred to as “missing it’s spike”) and no one will notice. But have the slightest thing go wrong with the sound and everyone knows. The mic person (wrangler) has little control over what and when something will go wrong. You live in a constant state of apprehension waiting for a problem to arise - it’s an art to relax as the mic wrangler. Add to that, Ryan Turgeon had just come off the role of Elf in Elf the Musical and we had problems with his mic in almost every show - and would be back as a lead again. I agreed with the stipulation the organization purchase at least 6 pouches to hold the mics to keep them dry. They agreed and the results were overwhelmingly positive. This show did not receive the sellout crowds it deserved. I believe this production has raised the bar for musicals in the city. It will be some time before someone can arrange for such a talented ensemble to appear together onstage. Luckily for WLMT they will still have the amazing backstage talents (makeup, hair, costumes, props, sound, crew, and pit chorus) for future productions. Too bad if you live in Windsor and missed it. Read The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels Freya Stark, 1934 It's not you, it's me. Nothing happened in this book. Like reading Lord of the Rings with all the weird names but nothing happens. Yes a travel book, but nothing but barren mountains. Written in 1934 in the flowery language of the period but I just couldn't get into it. Took too long to read - did not look forward to each sitting, but must finish one when I start - hoping it will get better. It didn’t. Goodreads listing here. Viewed Aloha, 2015 Cameron Crowe film with star studded cast (Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel Mcadam, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin and Bill Camp) which did not fare well at the box office. A romantic comedy which I enjoyed. The reviews were not good, the plot was implausible but the pacing was quick enough not to make this boring. Trailer The Spy Who Went Into the Cold, 2013 Documentary about Kim Philby, the Soviet double agent who became one of the the top members of MI6 spying for the Russians throughout WWII and after. Watch full movie here Raptors make NBA finals!! Returned to Source Doris Day (1922), Tim Conway (1933), Peggy Lipton (1946), Ed Poisson (1921), Niki Lauda (1949 race car driver movie Rush) Bart Starr (1934 football player)
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AuthorI believe we are what we think. What we think depends on what we feed our brains. This is a partial record of what my brain has been eating. Archives
February 2023
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