A culture vlog
Here you go guys - our tips on how to conquer HotDocs 2009! I CAN’T WAIT for the festival and am looking forward to tweeting and blogging along the way. My mind is always blown when I go. I am seeing ten films over the next week - not a ton, but respectable given my commitments these days. Here are some links I mention in the ‘vlog’ that you should check out:
HotDocs Channel on YouTube with interviews/tips from the programmers
Last Sunday, Blair and I went to see Dedicated to the Revolutions at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. I can not tell you how excited I was to see this show. The thing is that this company, Small Wooden Shoe, is one of the most innovative and refreshing companies in town. They take ideas; they screw around with them, and take you on a ride.
They are looking at 7 revolutions that have shaped our modern world. These include the invention of the printing press, the industrial revolution, Darwin’s theory of evolution and the information revolution.
Perhaps you are asking: “What is it exactly? Is it performance art? Theatre? A musical? Experimental? How can I categorize it?” DO NOT BE AFRAID – but be very intrigued. During our interview, Artistic Director and Performer Jacob Zimmer said he can only best describe it as “Lecture-Demo Theatre”. In the hour and a half or so you are in the space, you are taken on a performative explanation/exploration of the many shifts in our world that have led us to the time we live in.
Their enthusiasm for the subject is infectious. I dare you not to leave there more curious about the world around you. I also dare you not to leave humming a tune or two. This is an excellent way for us as humans to ponder where we are.
Who knows what the next revolution will be? Maybe Vlogging…
Hey all,
Here is another moment in Toronto. Using footage from this fall while I was in the car with my dad and my brother on our way to do some ‘antiquing’ on Queen at Roncesvalles. I bought nothing, but my brother bought some cool theatre style seats and we found the world’s most beautiful and prohibitively expensive teak table. Afterwards, I got my hair trimmed and the lady blow dried it so high, I was a little embarassed on the walk home. I had to flatten it out before going out with my friends. Hair is not meant to defy gravity. You will never see a picture of this phenomenon.
Click above for the video……
Hey y’all,
So Blair and I have been super busy and we have plans coming up, so you will see an episode soon enough! In the meantime, check out the video above. It is the first one that I did on my own, and with the slowness of my computer, might be the last for a while. I went to the launch of the second issue of Bad Day Magazine at Studio Gallery . You can check out the art until mid-November there, so please check out the gallery’s website for hours and such things.
I have been working nuts hours these days, but I still got to see Scratch at Factory Theatre. If you are a woman/girl/lady person, you must see this play. It will bring you back to when you were a pre-teen/teen and no one ‘got’ you, and you were really going through lots of ’stuff’. If you are a man/boy/gentleman person, you should see it too.
For next week, there is tons going on…. almost every night is booked. I’ll try to take pics and stuff and tell you about it next week.
Monday - Fu-Gen Theatre’s Gala
Tuesday - Rest (maybe make a bean salad for lunches)
Wednesday - The night I have been waiting for!!!! Trouble the Water as part of the first Doc Soup of the season (as you will find out soon viewers, I am the hugest fan of Hot Docs Fest and Doc Soup series) then…. SHARON JONES and the DAP KINGS at Kool Haus! Blair will be there too, but I am sure Sharon won’t let us take pics. If you don’t know Sharon Jones, click on her name anywhere on this blog and the internets will take you to her. She is a massive talent - soul to the limit! Best band ever too!
Thursday - I have rehearsal, but there’s lots going on in the city
Friday - I am seeing The Black Rider at Tarragon but for the rest of you it is Halloween. (you will also learn that Halloween is not my scene and I do everything I can to avoid it. I hate halloween.)
See you dudes next week -
k
Hey - it’s 1:30ish. I’ve been admittedly cranky. So, things don’t always go like you planned. I missed a few things I wanted to see…. but still got some footage. So I am recharging and getting ready for Zone C. It’s insane out there. Just insane! Tons of people. Comments that range from “This is Art?” to “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!”. Awesome! Can’t wait for smashing stuff and other such insanity in Zone C!!!!!
Hey Guys -
So here is a blog without the Video. I know what you are thinking: “OMG, Blair and Katherine don’t have a camera anymore. It broke in the last episode and now they are screwed…. It is the end…..” This is simply not true. In fact, our own Blair Francey just bought a new super duper camera and our next episode will be done using new video technology. Fear not!
Although, we have both been super insanely busy and have not had time to put something together. However, there is a ton of stuff we want to tell you about. I wanted to tell you about my Saturday night! I woke up Sunday morning with my hands decorated as ones hands should be on a Sunday morning. Check them out:
Lots of stamps = Lots of fun
I know, my hands just look dirty… and veiny…. but they represent a super fun night. On the right hand (your left) is the stamp ‘kp’ which is for Kathleen Phillips‘ comedy show. Yes that’s right, for you loyal watchers you will remember that at the beginning of the summer, I spent an entire episode talking about how we were going to see one of her comedy shows, only to get screwed when the show was sold out! Well, this one was not sold out, but it should have been. Kathleen put a show together called “Kathleen Phillips is a Haunted House” and showed it at the Comedy Bar (a new venue downtown for the comedy). I laughed so hard, but, due to my being sick and losing my voice, no one could here the joy out of my mouth. Oh well. It was a great mix of live character hilarity and some of her best short films, including my current favourite “This Fuckin’ Town” See below (disclaimer: for those who aren’t a fan of swearing, this video may not be for you … everyone else, enjoy a laugh!):
So now to the left hand. The big stamp of dancing aliens is what you get when you pay $5 in the back room of Clinton’s (at Bloor and Clinton) every Saturday night. Because on these nights, it is Shake A Tail, one of the hottest dance nights. All 60’s funk and soul and all fun. It is one of the hottest dance spots on a Saturday. Click here for a link to their Facebook Group page. Join it. They just send you a quick reminder from time to time that dancing is in order.
The happy face on the left hand was for a concert it one of coolest or most random places. My brother Sebastien (www.myspace.com/sebastiengrainger) was playing at this newly renovated old building on Queen West called the Burroughs Building. I am trying to find information on how to find information on what goes on there, but it is all really weird. It looks like they are trying to lease out a lot of the spaces in the building but in the meantime renting out for events. Well, it was a really cool concert venue, it was like you were in a friend’s loft with huge windows overlooking Queen West. Only problem was… only 2 toilets! Seriously. I spent a good half hour in line. Though I was dancing at the same time. As for the concert, well, my brother and his band ‘the mountains’ rocked as usual. It was a sort of Virgin Fest after party. Poor them, they had to play the next day on the island. Not much partying for them… but that meant more free backstage (or behind curtain) white wine for me. If you haven’t heard their stuff yet, do go the myspace page. I am not just saying it because he is family. His music is seriously great and his first full album is coming out in October. Watch for it. Your ears will be blown.
That’s it for the tour of my hands. I DARE YOU TO SEND ME PICS OF YOUR ‘SUNDAY MORNING HANDS’. Would be great to have a little Facebook album full of stamped hands and tiny stories in the comments. I dare you to do it. Let’s go for it!
As for the next episode… Blair and I will be hanging out at the Queen West Arts Crawl on Saturday at Trinity Bellwoods Park. We won’t have a chance to air the episode until the event is over, so please check it out. I went last year and it was so great. I am looking forward to it even more now as I live so close by! I’ll get to know the artists in my neighborhood.
Okay - that’s it for me. Send in the photos of your stamped hands and please come and try to find us at the Queen West Arts Crawl this weekend. If I see you and you tell me you came because I told you so, I’ll either give you fifty cents, or a big kiss on the cheek. Wichever you choose.
See you around town guys!
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