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Day Off - January 24 - 2010
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2075
Last night, a late night at work, in bed by 2:00 AM.
This morning, up at 7:00. The cat's been scratching at her litter box for an hour, she won't quit, I need to empty it, and when it's done I resolve to stay up. Coffee. More coffee. Check email, enter a few online contests, another win, apparently, 3rd prize, need to call tomorrow and find out what it is....I don't recall having even entered their contest...Shovel sidewalk.
9:00 AM - Call friend for coffee.
Meet for coffee. He's into Deepak Shopra at the moment, it's all making sense, he mimes for me the attitude of perfect mental emptiness I need to manifest my dreams.
I give him a minute or two, ensuring I understand. He's got his eyes screwed shut, holding his hands in front of him, waiting....
I don't need lessons in mental emptiness at the moment. My mind, my head, is a vacuum.
After coffee a ride to the Hillhurst Flea Market, no great treasures today, the periscope, it's vanished, not sure if it's been sold or the dealer's simply forgotten to bring it with him, I don't ask, to ask is to reduce one's bargaining power...
I do find a made in Holland porcelain statue of the beloved virgin for a twoonie, I pick it up, sucker that I am for religious kitsch.
Then home, a sandwich and a nap.
Dreams, erratic, that my rosary collection has been vandalized, someone has stolen the crosses from them, broken jewellry, an old house in Moose Jaw, they, the thief/antique dealer, lives across the street, he agrees to pay for damages only he wants to take back an old round oak table he sold me, he'll pay me $1400, which is OK, wheeling it across the street, an Asian gangster is watching him...
The phone wakes me, tele-web-advice, provided, back to sleep...
...more bizarre dreams...
then up, exhausted, at 5:00, email, work, surf the net, writing, projects, laundry, pay bills online, the ever growing list of countless things to be done in a very limited time....
Now time for laundry, dishes, back to writing, watch the rest of the BBC special on Chaos...
Time passes.
BBC - The Secret Life of Chaos
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1543
A rather excellent documentary by the BBC on the history and science behind chaos. Great music & visuals, and if you're not terribly well read quite informative. Especially intriguing are Turing's illustrations of his theories as they develop.
Blind Date - High Performance Rodeo with Rebecca Northan
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Theatre
- Hits: 1756
I woke up from my nap exhausted and half-talked myself into not going.
It would be easier to sit about and drink, there's lots to be done in around in the apartment.
But it's a day off, the last practical day off for a couple of months.
And so I dragged my ass out of bed and took a bath, grabbed a bus and found my way to the lunchbox theater. Where I discover that tickets have been sold out.
Now this was discouraging, especially given the enormous mental effort it had cost me to get out of the house.
Still, it's a night off, and I wasn't going to let it slip away as easy as that. So I popped into the Auburn Saloon next door for a drink. At the very least I could watch the people and the pre-show.
A lot of recognizable faces. People you recognize because you see them about at all the OYR and theater events. The community is small. There's the tall, thin guy with the pale face and dark hair and goatee, somehow associated with OYR. There's the dude with the shaved head and two little "wings" of hair left on his otherwise bald pate, it's a look for sure. There's the red headed guy who looks like James Spader a bit, I recognize him as well, but am not sure where. And Rebecca Northan comes in, dressed as Mimi the mime, and does her pre-show meet and greet, it's all pretty good and I'm damned annoyed I couldn't get a ticket.
She comes to the bar where I'm sitting. Now probably I should have brought wine and some flowers but as she has sort of called off "our" date by not holding my ticket and I hum and haw while she politely interrogates us ... "Brooding" she describes me, and I launch into a tirade about the "Grab your ticket at the lunchbox theater" that was posted on their website and I misinterpreted (rather naturally I thought) as "Buy your ticket", and she looks a little taken aback, then asks the older gentleman sitting next to me at the bar if we're together and I have another tirade about how we're dating and she better damned well keep her grasping paws off of him.
She wisely gets distracted by another table sitting near us.
Probably I shouldn't have done that. Certainly I should have had something to eat with my drinks....
The gentleman sitting beside me takes the opportunity to introduce himself. He's quite pleasant, civilized, we chat. I hope I haven't demolished his chance for a date with Mimi. And the customers with tickets line up to go to the play and I go to see if there are any returns at the ticket window. The little toad at the window tells me to wait, and at the last possible moment, when the doors have been closed, invites me up to claim my ticket.
It's my lucky night.
Now the show, I won't give it away. If your curious you can click here for a trailer interview with Mimi. Suffice it to say it's 5 star brilliant. Not the kind of brilliant that leaves you musing about the meaning of life, but a laugh-out-loud, gasp, cheer kinda great. And she does it well, Rebecca Northan, better than well, she's provocative, sexy, flirtatious, audacious, she engages the audience, her date, her date's date...
It's highly amusing. I'd give it 5/5 stars. And it's only in town a few more nights, so if you've a chance, catch it. It's very worthwhile.
The Commercial Olympic Torch
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2053
There are people and noises from the street, small throngs of people are gathering.
It's the arrival of the commercial Olympic Torch.
And because the restaurant isn't yet open and we're curious we go out to the street to watch.
There are lots of police. Vans and cars going up and down the street. Then there's music and more cars, it's like a parade, and a big truck comes by blaring music, loaded with all sorts of youthful dancers "getting down", passing out little Canada-Coke Olympic flags and special "collectible" bottles of coke. As the music fades another truck appears, more waving dancers "getting down", it's the Royal Bank of Canada, who would have thought bankers could be so fun?
Is this a day off for them? Do they simply pick the "cool" tellers and stick them on this van to drive up and down the street for the day the torch is in town? Or are they professional dancers, traveling across the country to promote the good name of RBC and Coke? They don't seem that professional. But they sure are trying to look like they're having fun. Although if you worked in a bank a day spent dancing on the back of a truck might seem like fun.
Do they drive down the highway like this, dancing on the back of the truck in the empty prairie, in the cold mountain passes?
Then there are more police, a squad on bicycles. Police come down on foot, pushing back pedestrians from the street, keeping it clear for the torch.
The crowds, the people, they immediately push back onto the street when the police have left.
More joggers, and finally the torchbearer, smiling and waving for all the world like it's Santa Clause. I'm seized with an overwhelming desire to grab a fire extinguisher, it'd be easy, for all the security and precautions, the millions spent, it all comes down to goodwill in the end; we're Canadians, we have nothing to protest, it's our moment, "lets all get along, shall we", meanwhile the torchbearer, still smiling and waving disappears down the street.
Anticlimactic.
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