Arts and Culture

PuSh Festival Opening Gala (Part 2)

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

Unfortunately can't remember the name of this troupe!

Sorry PuSh fans, I am no longer live-blogging from the PuSh Gala. Unfortunately, the wireless in Club Five Sixty went out so, seeing as I am a little behind the times and sans smart phone, I could neither blog nor tweet.

I took some beautiful photos with Lois in the booths downstairs, took in Theatre Replacemcent’s “Weetube” which is always a Vancouver favourite, and lugged my laptop and tired little self home because I work early tomorrow.

As I left, I believe the band “The Zolas” were setting up, small theatre performances were under way in the lounge, and I’m sure the party hadn’t even peaked yet. I also saw Gregor Robertson near the photo booths tonight but I was too shy to say hello. Maybe next time.

If you want to follow the gala and other PuSh Festival events on Twitter, the hashtags that I believe were most commonly in use tonight were #PuSh2011 and #PuShFest. You can also follow the folks at the PuSh Festival itself at twitter.com/PuShFestival.

2011 PuSh Festival Opening Gala (Part 1)

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

Through some kind of combination of Twitter, dumb luck, and the awesomeness of Zaira Petruf, the Outreach Coordinator for the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, I am typing in the VIP lounge of the oh-so-cool Club Five Sixty at the 2011 PuSh Opening Gala.

I am here tonight as one of the bloggers for the event: live-blogging, tweeting, interneting all over the place. My apologies to those who have e-mail-subscribed to NiftyNotCool, I’m going to be posting several times tonight. I’m also drinking wine. Sorry.

First up, the club. Club Five Sixty is MASSIVE. And groovy. Never seen a place like it. The whole basement is a bathroom. And a bar. And a coat-check. There is a massive main floor. There is a VIP lounge upstairs. There are labyrinth-like hallways. This place is full of theatre artists and theatre lovers and bucket-loads of nifty AND cool people.

Gregor Robertson: Mayor Extraordinaire

A big highlight for me so far was watching Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson make his opening remarks. I knew he was a nice-looking fellow but he is even better looking in person. He also seems to be very supportive of arts and culture in Vancouver in general. I appreciate a politician who is. I wish this attitude could carry more into the Provincial and Federal levels.

I have also run into major Vancouver bloggers Raul (Hummingbird604) and Rebecca (Miss604). Theatre blogger Lois (Lois Backstage) is typing next to me. I’ve also seen people I recognize from Neworld Theatre, Theatre Replacement, and Leaky Heaven Circus. I feel so VIP’ed.

I regret I must leave you all for a moment to partake in those crazy basement facilities. I’ll be back before you know it. xoxo

Dear Rick Mercer: Please make me your sidekick

/ Lauren / 1 Comment

 

Saskatchewan (usually BC), Canada

ATTN: Rick Mercer, The Rick Mercer Report

CC: CBC Television

Watch the Rick Mercer Report on CBC Television

Dear Mr. Mercer,

I am writing to you today to humbly request that you consider making me your sidekick on the Rick Mercer Report. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “The RMR is an excellent show just as it is, without a sidekick.” And it is. It certainly is. But my dream job is to be your sidekick on the Rick Mercer Report, and I’m pretty sure my effect on the RMR will be harmless at worst, and at best, I might improve ratings in the “enjoys watching well-mannered young Canadians on TV” demographic. (And who doesn’t like well-mannered young Canadians? It’s what we DO.)

I will now outline the reasons why I would make an excellent sidekick for you on the Rick Mercer Report:

1. FANDOM. I think anyone who is going to be your sidekick should be a fan. I am a fan. Of you Mr. Mercer, of the Rick Mercer Report, and of the CBC. Being from rural Saskatchewan, I was raised on CBC TV (one of two channels we received) and CBC Radio. I grew up watching This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Sure, once I moved out to the West Coast and mysteriously got free cable for a while I left my CBC roots. But after the Rick Mercer Report visited Simon Fraser University (my alma mater) for the Spread the Net Student Challenge I started watching the RMR. A wave of nostalgia washed over me and my highest show-biz ambition is now to be a CBC media personality.

2. TRAVELLING CANADA. A lot of what you do on the Rick Mercer Report involves travelling across Canada. As my only dependents in Vancouver at the moment are fairly hardy houseplants I am up for Canadian adventures whenever you and the CBC say the word. (I graduated with a BFA, so you know I have free time.) One of the reasons the RMR works is that you have a genuine interest in and love for Canada. So do I. I’ve lived in other countries and I relished the experience but I’ve got a pretty strong bias for Canada. Big places, small places, north, south, east, west, Canada’s my home and I’d love to show it off. I also feel that between the two of us (you growing up in the Maritimes and working in Toronto, me growing up in Saskatchewan and working in Vancouver) we’ll have Canada pretty much covered east to west. (As a matter of fact, let’s add “Western Canadians” to the demographic I can try to help reach. Cha-ching.)

“Hold the phone,” you might say, “there’s a lot more to the RMR than just travelling around Canada.” I know this, and I am ready. Heli-logging? Love to try it. Bungee jumping with Rick Hansen? Zip lining? Sign me up. Harvesting potatoes? I’ve been picking potatoes since I was a young fry. I am ready for you, Canada. I will taste your jams and dance your jigs and fire your cannons and ride in and/or drive vehicles I most certainly do not have the certification to operate. I will wear a camera on my head as I plunge off some Canadian summit, kept safe by only a harness and my will to not die on Canadian television. So Canada’s a big wild country? Bring it.

3. MY TV-FRIENDLY ATTRIBUTES. I understand that good RMR sidekick material would also have to be good TV material. I’m outgoing and love talking to people. I’m cheerful and silly, smart and grounded. I keep abreast of Canadian politics with my Maclean’s subscription (all the better to quip about politicians with), my more-clever-than-me friends, and my new Twitter addiction. I have a clear and pleasant speaking voice (like an elementary school secretary), I’m very polite, and I’m reasonably easy on the eyes too:

 

Nothing that a CBC make-up artist can't spruce up.

I realize that the RMR and CBC TV likely do not have the budget to hire a whole other (more or less unnecessary) person to be your sidekick. I would like to point out that in addition to the attributes listed above, I’m relatively small, don’t eat much, and require fairly little upkeep. I am happy to curl up each night in a bedroom set left over from “Wind At My Back” or any other remnant of CBC Canadiana not currently being used. A nice four-poster from “Road to Avonlea” would do just fine.

As a spunky Canadian and fan of your show, Mr. Mercer, I believe I really ought to be considered as a possible sidekick for you on the Rick Mercer Report. I would do an outstanding job mostly because I would be so jazzed to be there. Also, my parents would think it was really cool.

I am able to drop everything and be an awesome sidekick at your earliest convenience. References are available upon request. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Best of luck in your 2011 season.

Sincerely,

Lauren Kresowaty

(twitter.com/niftynotcool)

P.S. For all of you reading who are NOT Rick Mercer or a representative of CBC Television, remember to watch the Rick Mercer Report on CBC when it returns in the New Year and to have a wonderful Christmas.

Are you going to watch the Rick Mercer Report? I know I am!

 

 

“Christmas on the Air” – The internet giveth and I giveth back

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

This year, Christmas came early courtesy of Twitter. On Saturday, Sabrina of Twenty-Something Theatre (@theatre_20) tweeted that she had a +1 for Midnight Theatre Collective’s “Christmas on the Air” at Pacific Theatre she was hoping to make use of. Not having met Sabrina in the flesh yet, I wasn’t sure she’d want to give a ticket up to me but I decided to message her on Twitter anyways and see if she still had the ticket to give away. She did, and even though she’d never met me, she saved it at the box office for me and I got to see some delightful Christmas theatre. (I met her at the show, by the by. She’s very friendly and cool in addition to being generous with her +1’s).

Since the connective power of the internet (coupled with Sabrina’s niceness) got me my free ticket to “Christmas on the Air”, it only seemed right that when Raul from Hummingbird604 (@hummingbird604) tweeted that he wouldn’t mind having someone guest post for him, I offered up the “Christmas on the Air” review I was going to post here for his site. I had the good fortune to meet Raul this spring at the Global Agents Gala through a mutual friend and he has been nothing but kind and supportive during my adventures in this brave new world of Twitter and blogs.

(Incidentally, if you’re considering getting in the holiday spirit by donating to a worthy organization, Global Agents is a very effective Vancouver-based non-profit committed to eradicating global poverty. That’s why they’re in my “Nifty AND Cool” links.)

Before you think I was being altruistic by offering up my review, I should point out that Raul is a Vancouver Blogger Extraordinaire and that my post will get far more exposure through Hummingbird604 than it ever would from Nifty Not Cool. I am  tickled that Raul agreed to post my review. If you want to read about my evening at “Christmas on the Air” on Hummingbird604, click here.

Lucia di Lammermoor: My trip to the opera

/ Lauren / 1 Comment

 

Vancouver Opera Poster. Artwork by Leonard Dente.

Yesterday was the day I had decided I was going to write a new blog post. About what, I didn’t know. I had planned to write about whether or not Carole James should step down as the leader of the BC NDP, but then she went ahead and did it and saved me the trouble of pondering whether it was going to happen.

I had already changed out of my respectable work clothes and into my “comfies” and was just settling in with my lap top for a promising evening of procrastination when my phone rang. A friend of mine who works at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre had been given a free ticket to the Vancouver Opera‘s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (an Italian opera set in Scotland! How quaint!) and wondered if I would like to go. Free opera? You bet. I was out of my “comfies” and back in my “look respectablies” in half a tick and out I went into the wind and the rain.

I’ve been to the opera before, but not in Canada. A few Christmases ago I was lucky enough to see La Traviata in Bassano del Grappa. The only problem was that Italians don’t need surtitles to understand Italian operas so I didn’t really get much past the general gist. I was excited to be seeing an opera that provided surtitles so I’d know what the heck was going on.

I would like to state that the acoustics in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre are excellent. I was sitting pretty high up in the balcony and I could hear every sound onstage. The man unwrapping his candy three rows down sounded like he was unwrapping it in my head (thanks guy! You really made Act II for me!). Most importantly, of course, the incredible voices carried.

It always annoys me when Famous Old Shows (like this one) are full of men with only one main character being played by a woman. But what a woman! In this production, one is all you need. I know nothing of sopranos, even less about “coloratura” sopranos, but I thought that Eglise Guitierrez was exquisite as Lucia. She was a powerhouse who carried the show for me. I’ve always imagined that high notes are shrill for everyone, even if you can hit them, but every sound from Guitierrez was as smooth and pure as a crystal bell. Her voice didn’t sound like it was coming from her mouth, it seemed to be coming from the entire theatre. She sang her ass off and made it look easy. I was awe struck.

I’m not a big opera buff and when I see classical performances like this I’m always worried that I’ll fall asleep or be bored stiff (even if the music’s great) but I really enjoyed myself.  Obviously, the vocal athletics helped, as did the surtitles which were sometimes a little funny (“Oh. I cannot contain my anger. My blood blazes.”) but were sometimes downright poetic. It may have been my hormones but when the betrayed lover Edgardo crashed Lucia’s wedding to another man, and the surtitle to his part read, “I am a martyr to a deceiving heart” I was moved to tears. Oh Edgardo! It’s all a misunderstanding! If you would just listen! But no, he didn’t listen. He threw his ring at poor Lucia and sang something scornful and Italian at her before fleeing the scene. Epic.

The highlight for me was the Mad Scene, when the blood-stained Lucia entered and began to sing Il dolce suono.  A thought stuck me: I know this one! Why do I know this one? Well folks, I know this one because I have watched the movie The Fifth Element a gajillion times and Il dolce suono is the aria the blue diva starts singing before she goes into her Techno Opera. You learn something new every day. Sweet.

Not your grandmother's Lucia

While I had a lovely time and am extremely grateful for my free ticket, I’m not sure yet that I’m the kind of person who should be a regular opera-goer. Even though my heart went out to Lucia in her madness, I couldn’t help grinning as brother Enrico awkwardly moved her unconscious body a foot or so upstage because she had “fainted” right where the scrim was going to come down. When Lucia’s dying lover Edgardo gave his last fatal flop and collapsed at the end of Act III it was just too much for my silly little soul and I emitted an audible snicker (carried far and wide by the beautiful acoustics). Whoops. Sorry everyone. I really am moved, it’s just…  tee hee.

Despite not being sure that I’m mature enough for the opera, I had a top-notch evening and if tragedies and good music are your thing I heartily recommend Lucia di Lammermoor. The last two performances are December 9 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Queen E. I have heard good things about Vancouver Opera’s season so far so please check them out at www.vancouveropera.ca if you are an opera lover or are thinking of giving it a whirl.