Life's Context » Entertainment

The Harder They Come.

Periapex — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:57:37 +0000

We were in Toronto last month to attend this show. It’s basically about a Jamaican folk hero whose life ended tragically…kind of a Robin Hood story with an unhappy ending.

Unhappy endings don’t really bother me, as long as the story is worthwhile, but I found the show just OK. I’m guessing that the show is actually more than just OK, but the strong Jamaican accents and patois were completely incomprehensible to me most of the time (and I’m from the West Indies).

Riverdance.

Periapex — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:11:06 +0000

Riverdance was back in Toronto earlier this year. Although the concept is the same as when I last saw the show years ago, they’ve added a few things (or at least I don’t remember them being in the show back then).

The most memorable parts of the show for me this time were the two flamenco numbers. The experience was just an awesome fusion of Spanish and Irish dancing.

Watch the clip to see what I’m talking about: Lines, movement, footwork — unbelievably clean and expressive. I could watch this over and over again (except I still don’t have a high speed internet connection at home).

Spring Awakening.

Periapex — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:07:21 +0000

We saw this show 3-4 weekends ago. Turns out that the origins of this production stem from experimental theater.

The experimental aspect was obvious from the time we sat in our seats and noticed bleachers on stage that audience members were seated in. The live simulated sex on stage was also a clue that we weren’t watching The Sound of Music.

Spring Awakening is a show about the trials that teenagers all face — but it takes its perspective to extremes. Maybe this is an attempt to recreate some of that same angst in the audience.

Although it might be sounding as though I did not enjoy the show, the contrary is true. Music, lighting, and acting all gelled to produce an interesting and entertaining production. The show is definitely not for everyone, but every adult who is brave enough to see it will leave happy that they don’t have to contend with their adolescent years ever again.

The Color Purple.

Periapex — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:44:49 +0000

Never having seen the movie or read the book, I was completely unfamiliar with this story. I loved it.

I think this production is on the move across North America. If it comes to a town near you, go and see it.

Although the cast is all black, the basic themes really have nothing to do with race. It’s all about growing up and making the best of what life god has given you. It’s about living through physical and emotional hardship — through oppression — and finding happiness within yourself.

Throughout our lives, The Girl and I both have come to know how hard it is to break away from the ways of our parents, yet we both know how important it is to do that and find your own way when their ways impede you. This show brought our pasts back to life.

Without discussing the show much afterwards, we both know the meaning it had for each of us.

Medea.

Periapex — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:45:13 +0000

Our Mirvish subscription is winding down for the season. It’s been a great year of shows and the classic Greek tragedy, Medea, continued the season’s success.

The story is about how Medea, Jason’s first wife, exacts her revenge on him and his new wife. Greek mythos pulls no punches, and neither does Seana McKenna in the role of Medea. Simply awesome.

I think the producers feared that the audience would become lost as we tried to understand the mythology of the time and so we would not relate well to the story. They provided a lengthy written background to Jason and Medea’s history as well as a pre-show lecture. None of this was absolutely necessary, but was appreciated and did spur some extra emotional involvement from us.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Periapex — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:20:21 +0000

We saw this in Toronto the day after we got back from our vacation. The show was a fun bit of theatre for all of the children that attended (and there were lots). I loved the fact that some of the show’s actors were actual dogs.

What I didn’t love was the fact that my trusty Canon SD500 compact camera got damaged. I think it got stuck between the folding chair that I sat on and so the LCD cracked. I had to take the above picture by looking through the eyepiece. That’s something that I’ve never actually done with this camera after owning it for almost 3 years.

I had to decide if I wanted to repair the camera or buy a newer compact. I decided to repair the camera. The underwater case that I have for the camera is an asset when we’re on vacation, but only fits a couple of Canon compact models.

Ebay had everything I needed: A repair service for the LCD, and a used, but fully working SD500 for a really good price.

So now we have 2 SD500s. One for me, and one for The Girl (who didn’t have a camera of her own). The two provide redundancy for the underwater case. This all happened as I await my backordered Canon 5D Mark II dSLR…

Sound of Music in Toronto.

Periapex — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:13:41 +0000

We saw the show in Toronto a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. The vocal talent in the show is spectacular. The rotating mountain top on the set was a unique sight for me. The acting, overall, was ok.

You will probably want to see the movie (again) after being part of the audience for the theatrical version. The film version works just as well musically but unfolds smoother dramatically.

Nevertheless, I can see why this is another hit for Andrew Lloyd Weber.

Update: Thanks to Rudy for his interest. See comment number 1 below.

A Chorus Line.

Periapex — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:03:02 +0000

We made it into Toronto last weekend to see this show. Enjoyed the dancing (much more authentic than the dancing we saw in the stage performance of Dirty Dancing), kind of enjoyed the music, definitely enjoyed the acting.

This show was on Broadway for so many years that it would have been a shame to not have seen it. It’s currently on tour.

Menopause Out Loud.

Periapex — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:40:48 +0000

We’re gearing up for the Pro Am competition this weekend and Calculus is retiring from full-time dental hygiene today. There’s been lots of stuff happening and not enough time to do it all within. That will change soon.

Calculus did manage to find some time to drag me out to Menopause Out Loud in Toronto on the weekend. It’s a musical comedy about women and the issues they experience with menopause. It was surprisingly funny and entertaining — even if I was one of maybe 5 men in the entire theatre.

The gender distribution was so skewed that when we approached the ticket-checker at the door, she said, “and how are you ladies doing?”.

I looked at her blankly. She looked back and blinked.

She said, “I mean lady and man.”

I smiled. She continued, “Don’t worry. There are other men in there too.”

As we walked by her I think I heard her chuckle.

Of course, our seats ended up being in the front row.

The Other Suspects.

Periapex — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:41:53 +0000

We’ve been crazy busy running around practising our dancing for the upcoming Pro Am and working away in Workland. The Girl is jumpy with excitement that she’ll be switching careers soon and doing something that she trained for years ago, but never fully switched over to.

We saw the last part of Nicholas Nickleby on the weekend and were awed not only by its magnitude but by the way it exploded Dickens’ themes into life. Bravo to the cast, crew, and musicians who brought the show our way.

Now on to the meat of this post:

Shortly after I posted that I accepted drug money as payment, my blog became erratically glitchy. Not only did I notice this, but my readers did as well. Well actually only fragileheart mentioned to me that she did. That’s probably because she’s on the internet 24/7 commenting on everyone’s blog. Basically if you have a blog, she’s probably commented on it. And if she hasn’t don’t worry, she’ll get to it eventually. Not that there’s anything wrong with that or anything. I think it’s really cool and she does liven up my blog with her comments.

Anyway, my theory about the whole thing is that Canada’s internal security service (our version of the FBI and MI5), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, probably got interested in the post because of the drug angle title. They don’t mount people too much these days but they do have a budget for surveillance.

Their packet sniffer is probably an old Intel 486 that they attached downstream from me. Instead of passively checking my readers out, it slowed everything down like crazy. The whole situation got me thinking though: What if my readers had something to hide from the RCMP? I’ve been trying to encourage people to comment on the blog, but what if some of those commenters on that post have things to hide?

So I did some bloggound checking on those commenters and sure enough, suspicions abound. Who actually might be the real drug users around here?

Let’s start with Erin. She (he?) seems to be hungover a lot. One hangover remedy they recommend involves vitamins that help to reduce pain: http://paintmorgantownred.com/…/sunday-hangover-cure-11/. Uh huh. Vitamins that reduce pain. Yup.

Then we have Monique who I didn’t know was a woman of colour. I thought all of the pictures on her website were underexposed. She seems angry about various things quite often. Her doctors have told her that she has tortured her body too much in the past (http://moniquerenae.com/…/im-going-to-diet/). Really…?

We have BT Cassidy who walks through dark alleys meeting people: http://theanatomy…/and-now-little-more-about-inspiration.html.

There’s Melo whose goal seems to be to make money one way or another on the internet. You know how it’s been said that money corrupts: http://www.i-tong.com/2008/03/05/money4banners/

Fonzie’s Ghost is my cockroach friend. If you’ve read my posts about him you’ll know what a good people-user he is. He’s smart but doesn’t have many morals…

Person Who Is Hormonal And Keeps Changing Their Name: They admitted that they’re almost addicted to pot.

Of course, there’s fragileheart who must have been on drugs to post this: http://www.fragileheart.com/…/its-like-a-trainwreck…/

Laney is a good friend of ours…a really good friend who now lives in Switzerland. We know her well enough to know that she’s not all that sweet and innocent as she appears in her blog. Stay away, far away — which isn’t a problem considering that she lives atop a mountain over there. Although I’ve had horse meat and found it very good, I’m still not sure how I feel about eating horses: http://whatsuphighup.blogspot.com/…/not-for-veggetarians.html

Finally, there’s Rudy whom I’ve known for a long time also. However, one of his recent posts lists a person who is most definitely a regular pot smoker. Guilt by association I say: http://www.amid.com/werd/good-people-day-2008/

So out of all of this I know that the RCMP will need to upgrade to a more powerful computer in order to track all of these other suspects. Hopefully that’ll take some of the heat and glitchiness off my site.