First there was the word, and the word was ...overused

I was treated to another lovely evening with Craig - whom many of you remember as my partner in crime for daring art experiences, who had just returned from a Kayaking trip in Cuba with a few sexy little Cohiba cigarillos and tales of corruption and bureaucracy in the Caribbean - grace a Ken Hammlin, the sexy young publicists for Prodigal Son, the Sean Macdonald play about one man's struggle to commune his Catholic upbringing with his gay life. We were in good cie as other local celebs had flocked to this performance of the play including Pam Gill, Kevin Simpson, the Boca de Lupo crowd and a few of the usual theatre-going suspects....all minor stars in their own right

...too bad the play didn't shine like the audience did.

Now we all know that the young gay man is going to come to terms with his religiosity at a crucial moment of redemption when his dad is on his deathbed ready to accept his long lost son...well you know the story of Prodigal Son from the Old Testamen...don't need ot repeat it? It seemed that the Mr Macdonald felt he needed to. So all the actors go on talking about God, God, God, as if he was your neighbor, your principal or your el presidente. I can't even count the number of times God was used in the dialogue- wasn't there another passage in that same book that forbade the number of times you could take that word in vain?

Here's my beef with the play. When you are dealing with religion, you need to find new ways of describing what is essentially a very very old idea. You can't just keep pounding the word of God in, expecting a change in our understanding of it.

Generally we are uncomfortable with religion being talked about publicly - vestigal remains of secular humanism I fear, like democracy. We, as Canadians, are particularly uncomfortable with it. The story is set in Montreal in the 70's - a place that just broke out of the Duplessi's religous yoke of with the quiet revolution -and promptly began a cultural one. There is no need for tabooing the subject from the public sphere, except for the fact that religion, which is such a powerful personal experience, can get very righteous, and damn right hypocritical when it's yelled over the soap-box. We seem to cringe when we hear God being talked about like a righteous, powerful magician patriarch as he is in the OT.

The playwright was obviously attempting to shed light on this malaise we have about religion, particularly for the homosexual clan, who have a huge stake in this unholy matrimony. But subtlety is key in these delicate matters, and this production just did not pull it off. I blame it mostly on the layout of the stage at Pacific Theatre which weakened the great theatrical tools - hence the powerful message - at play. Pacific Theatre is a tiny stage at the bottom of two opposit sets of risers in a church basement, where you are always seeing the faces of the audience across from the actors... You get a very different sense of intimacy in that space, which does not lend itself to fancy lighting or mis-en-scene to tell your story - which this play was quite heavily dependant on. Essentially the church-space was sabotaging God's message...oh the irony.

...and did I mention the writing could have used a little more work? The story of a young man who leaves his home to go on a quest/search to commune with nature, to fight evil and learn about the truth, to find peace and god and bring it back to his people... is the oldest story in the world. It's everywhere from Homer to Star Wars... Joseph Campbell, in Hero of a Thousand Faces, says it's the essential human experience story that is shared by all... myths retell the story by keeping it alive - and vice versa.

Anyway, Prodigal Son, the play, was NOT the next installment in the Hero Myth...It's a way too preachy, just like Catholisism - as this review is starting to become. So off I go.
Don't bother to see it, rent Breaking the Waves by Lars Von Trier instead.

Moments in Memory

As I was walking back home from my latest temporary assignment today, I was thinking back on the last two years and the things or moments that I really enjoyed and cherished, specially seeing that so much of my time has been spent NOT collecting wealth or building a resume.

One of them was producing Jumpin' Jack by Lyle Victor Albert for Theatre Terrific Society which had a 10 day critically acclaimed run at Havana in Nov '04. I was dealing with an actor who had MS, a director who had lots of BS and an SM who had...all I got from her are X es and O's. They were such a lovely bunch of people to work with, I have only good memories when I think of those three months of my life, despite the fact that I had NO IDEA what I was doing ... But the energy was great, and though I couldn't have done it without the help of a stable of volunteers, I am very proud of my accomplishments and think it was a real turning point in my life.

That enthusiasm and fearlessness might have something to do with the fact that I had just returned from a month long holiday driving across the country in my pickup seeing all the wonderful things that only other people who travel across the country ever get to see.

The time I spent in Dinosaur Park, in the Badlands of Alberta, and the day and night in beautiful Winnipeg and that loooooong drive across Ontario, and that feeling of being home when I hit the Laurentians... and then the Kootenays...sigh.
Intermittent amongst the stunning stoic vistas of this country were moments of sheer fright when a rigg whizzed by whacking my car with it's turbulence, rattling and shaking my hood - which had been busted quite seriously by an X whose divorce settlement this car was - that only hung there by a thread for 7 years - both hood and x. It was particularly scary when I was riding at night, in freezing rain with a freshly broken headlight (from a pebble that had smashed it) in a truck full of Louis XVI antiques threatening to overthrow the rain tarp that was flapping in the wind at 130+K/Hr ... what a ride!

I was lucky enough to have made a little bit of money on the stock market with some day-trading that allowed for all this distraction...though I fear I have been paying for it since, and will do so for six more years...alas. I now have to earn a real living to continue doing things I want to do, but I am very proud of the things I have done so far... hope I don't forget that. Which is why I am writing these thoughts down I think so that the 2-3 people who read this will...oh what the hell, I just hope I don't get sued for liable for writing these.

Microcosmos - Life in a CoOp

Hello to all people who are living or plan to be living in CoOp Housing.

As you may already know, I live in one of the nicest homes in the worst part of town: the MauDan Gardens CoOp on Jackson Keefer and Jackson, a gated community that takes up a whole city block full of huge trees and birds - two blocks from Main and Hastings.

To get an idea what CoOp Housing is all about, check out some of the local and federal housing bodies http://www.chf.bc.ca/pages/about.asp that fund and oversee the units. By definition CoOp's provide a product or service at the best prices to its members - in this case housing. To take advantage of this price break, you will need to be a member of the CoOp which, due to demand, often means having to qualify through a stringent set of criterias and wait lists. There are many such rganisations, so make sure you are well informed on the process 1. Getting into one could be very time consuming, what with wait lists, and interviews, and selection commitees, but you might as well get used to the pace of decisionmaking, cause being patient with the process is essential to understand and live well in a CoOp.

Once you become a member and move into your new home, you are quickly bombarded by requests to join this committee or that activity. Participating in the governance of a CoOp is an essential component of CoOp living, so picking and choosing the right compatibility between your skills and the CoOp's needs will make for a long, productive and harmonious relationship in your new community 2. Given that most of the work is done on a volunteer basis by members. Motivation is essential in manitaining good participation hence good productivity in the managment of the little village that is the CoOp.

Because essentially the CoOp is a little village; a group of people who have to live and work together to accomplish things that are necessary for theirs and their community's well being. Wether it's a small block appartment with 20 people, or a large housing block of hundreds, the structure and needs are the same: collect money, keep the budget, maintain the infrastructure and common areas, accommodate and solicit members and deal with changes and emergencies, while acting within the law ...if you get all this done, then you can plan for some fun and festivities. Essentially it is resource management.

These are pretty much the needs of all societies or cities or countries or even empires: Taxes, Natural Resources, Civil Engineering, Population Growth, Political Structure and Arts / Culture. What is needed is good accounting, fiscal responsibility, good planning, a cooperative attitude, a functionning process, but most importantly it needs the people with the right skillsets to make it all happen.

The issues that come up in CoOps are the ones you read about in the newspapers - only at a smaller scale. The first and foremost is the need for money - are we making enough from the housing charges to cover the running costs as well being albe to do all the things we need to accomodate amortisation and emergencies. If there is a shortage of this one resource, then the strain will ripple down to the other parts of the organisation as people not only have to choose what to spend the money on, but often have to compensate for money with volunteer time. Who gets to choose which things are a priority and which requests are adressed or ignored. This is the starting blocks of all human governments, which is always cluttered by ideology, red-tape, power and influences, corruption and a largely inactive and incohesive population whose needs the system must meet. As you may asertain by now, this scenario is also the cause of most conflicts - a natural result of discrepencey between needs and resources.

I feel this describes in essence the factors at play with most organisations though I feel I would need a volume to be able to draw clear examples, which I hope one day to do, if it has not already been done to death by anthropologists.

Anyway, my chronicles of the events in my CoOp will follow this model: using situations and relationships in the day-to-day managment of our little village to reflect on the events and situations that we deal with as a global village. If enough of the variables are the same, then the analogy would be a very helpful one in understanding the issues we have to deal with as a society in Vancouver/BC/Canada/ North America/... and so on.

One example of such comparative analysis has always been the film Microcosmos http://imdb.com/title/tt0117040/. It studies the lives of insects and plants and the relationships they manage in going about their life cycles. The one big difference of course is the influence of individuals in the direction and outcome of events. Though we can't say everyone is the same, there is a long standing tradion started in the Human Sciences that looks at how most people react to most situations in similar ways. In that generalisation lies the diversity that is human existance - which can also be studied scientifically when you take into consideration, gender, race, wealth, intelligence, background, mental health and ideology. The key here seems to be to identify the behaviours and dynamics of events and issues in the group to mirror it's similarities with larger groups.

...Still not sure where this blogg is going, I am attempting to make a comparative analysis of human behaviour in a small cooperative with society at large: the Macro and Micro of existance. But I'm not sure of the structure of this blogg...will have to revist this later I think - thanks for reading this far (comments are welcome)

The Fine Print
1.These wait lists are managed by the membership committee who look at applicants based on a set of criterias that are set by the governing bodies and/or the CoOp membership itself. Criterias are usualy based on the number of people in the household, the financial situation and maybe some compatibility or demographic needs of the CoOp. The applications are reviewed by the commitee and their decision is then reviewed by members of the CoOp Board of Directors who are the elected body of the membership. Once you get through the application process then you have to buy a share of the CoOp to become a member. This shareprice is set by the CoOp governing body and/or the members of CoOp and can vary from a few hundred to a few thousands - this fee is refundable when your membership is terminated.
2. The decision as to how to participate in the managment of the community will greatly influence your and your community's future, so think carefuly and act accordingly - because things can easily get unharmonious and down right nasty if there is a bad fit.

Elections and Dictators - Firsts and Lasts

This weekend, I got to see the opening performance of Titus Andronicus and the closing show of Clown Elections.
The first is one of Shakespear's earliest plays which is rarely produced, the latter is an original play by the very prolific local Bil Marchand, whose film and TV credits speak like the who's who of Vancouver arts scene. Both a treat to see, but one ages better with time than the other.

Clown Elections has all the makings of a hit play

1. Great plot: two wannabe gay artists have run out of money, booze and drugs and are trying to pass the time brainfucking each other as they avoid work.
2. Great premise: we are in the living room of the two poor souls as they go up and down the emotional scale from masochism and sadism in their armchairs in a small theatre in the round.
3. Great poster: the actors are blond and brunette versions of mid-twenties' hotties who spend the whole play in their tattered underwear, jumping and bobbing across the stage.

The actors are unmistakably talented, one more than the other and the dialogue was very clever - and with a little refining, this play will be a huge hit. If it is ever remounted - which I hope it does, as not enough people got a chance to see this.

Speaking of remounts, just when you though there could not be another Shakespeare being produced...ENTER Titus Andronicus: one of the least mounted plays.

1. This production is rumored to have been a west coast premiere, which might have to do with the extreme violence depicted in the story as well as the fact that ...well, it just is not the best bit of the Bard.
2. United players is an Artist's CoOp which means that the actors are professionals and can handle the lines. Which they did, though it seemed a little hurried.
3. Relevance: remounting Shakespeare always seems to beg the question "why this now?" There were some hints of American Imperialism with Gitmo and the Goths being a stand in for the Arabs...but really a weak connection, one that never blossomed.

I was glad to see both of them, but I found Clown Elections had more of an impact hence value, whereas seeing another Shakespeare play sometime just ends up being that - another Shakespeare play. Don't get me wrong, I love reading them, as the words are quite lyrical and powerful, but they can easily get lost in a theatre production - unless of course that's your thing. But like Socrates in the Platonic dialogues, I often feel that he is writing just to hear himself speak. There are moments of great lucidity and insight, and the rhythm is unmistakable, but it can go on sometimes!

Clown Elections also goes on for a while, but it is the first time you are hearing them! Though a bit reminiscent of Who's Affraid of Virginia Wolf and the early works of Kassavetes, it is an original attempt at portraying a very specific time and headspace.

more on the value of focus and intention in art later.

Bingo Galore

Second and Forth Tuesday of the month at the fabulous Oasis Lounge on Davie st. http://www.friendsforlife.ca/gaybingo.html Hosted by Joan-E and Justine Thyme, and a few of the regulars drag queens for whom this is the first stop of the evening (which really is the afternoon for them) Gay Bingo at its best - or worst.
As usual, the we are treated to great entertainment ... which gets more entertaining as the host gets treated to more and more alcoholic treats on the house! Joan-E is one of the funniest performers around... and she is building quite the reputation as a thespian - but don't ever call her that to her face!. She was recently featured on the Collector, where she plays the devil in drag - but truely, she is an angel!
It is a pleasure working with her...oh yeah, I am the newly minted prize coordinator for Bingo For Life - Formerly Gay Bingo. Though my job description is a bit mercurial at this point, I am enjoying all the work- which is just like shopping. I collect items/donations from business and organizations that we, in turn, give away as prizes for the winners of Bingo... Joan-E has been nursing this event at various locations across town for a few years now. She has raised over $150 000 with it and it is going strong. We hope to make this event a weekly event, but there is lots of work that needs to be done first.
So come on by and play some Bingo - that's were I will be every other Tuesday! See you there.