A 30 pound cat named "Whiskers" has fallen in love with me. Talk about crude love.
Yes, sports fans, we have arrived safely in Winnipeg despite our car rattling like spare change and it stalling a couple of times yesterday. Some guy in Dryden, Ontario at the Husky gas station was just driving back from Tofino and suggested we need a coat hanger to stop the rattling of what is maybe our exhaust something or other. Also he was kind enough to notice that our oil cap was off. Like ships in the night, he said "yeah, it sucks to be Eastbound".
So we arrived. This morning we pick up posters and flyers and start postering. We are late and it looks like all the coveted spots are already taken. Then we tech the show for 3 hours this afternoon. Flyer people this evening and pray to God we can get some people out to our opening at 11 pm.
I forgot to mention that our number 1 Fan, beside Whiskers the aforementioned cat, is Corey Bennett who came to every single one of our shows in Toronto. 7 in all! And Frank made 5! Jan made 4! We couldn't believe it. The Bennetts like us. They really really like us. Its almost disturbingly stalkerish and also beautifully supportive. My sis did come to 2 and that's with 2 small children at home, so that is also a feat. Not that it's a competition. But wow, our families are lovely.
Some things that happenned to us on the way around Lake Superior: I saw a car in the ditch with other cars that had stopped on the side of the road. Then I saw a person, or a body, lying on the grass next to it with someone holding his hand. He didn't look conscious. Don't know if it was a person who had been run over. The ambulance and police cars arrived shortly thereafter. Hope that person was OK. Gives us all reason to pause at the frailty of life. Which leads to what our main topic of discussion was, "What is the purpose of life" and are we close? I'll just throw that one out there. Some ideas: To be Happy, To Grow, To Give, To Experience, To Learn, To Discover, To do your best with what you have.....
And we saw a bear.
We are now staying in a small house with a very sweet woman who is going to a wedding and a perogy festival outside of Chicago tomorrow. She lives basically next door to the tarmac of the Winnipeg airport. So every 4 minutes it sounds like a jumbo jet is going to land on our head. Or that we are under attack.
Gotta run to the printers. "It's opening night!!"
p.s. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband lately? 24 hours a day together in a small car in the very creepy landscape North of Wawa and we didn't gnaw each other's faces off or anything, though cannibalism seems somehow fitting in that remote and foggy tundra. No, we are still in love and I am so grateful.
But I can't say that I'm quite as grateful for the newfound affection I am receiving from Whiskers....Crude love indeed.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Back on the road
Wow, we have been horrible about updating this blog. That's life on the road. We are currently at a little place called "Adams Hotel" in Sault St. Marie. It is 7 am and we have to hit the road. Heading for Thunder Bay. It is freezing outside. Feels like the winter in July. So not much time to update the blog before we hit the Husky truck stop for breakfast but here are some highlights:
Ottawa was amazing. My sister and brother in law made sure we were well caffeinated. Ian roasts his own beans. Hubba hubba. He also helped us enter the age of facebook (join our "Crude Love" facebook group!) Before my first show in Ottawa, we were rehearsing the new blocking as we lost a stump in the show in Montreal and had to reblock a lot of the stuff. So we are in the yard a couple of hours before leaving for the show and Jasper, who is 5, wanted to watch. Jasper was so excited he sat in a chair and tried really hard not to say anything to interrupt. Next thing I know, I look over and he has found one of our posters and he is just holding it up over his head, with both hands, like at a hockey game or something. So funny. When I told him I was nervous, he said "don't worry, just think of me". Karen and Ian fed us and we flew out the door, me thinking of Jasper and wondering how you can be so heroic in the eyes of a child and yet so inconsequential in the eyes of a reviewer.
Ok, but highlights. Right? Cosmic adventure and Jasper's 5th birthday. Cosmic adventure is a giant, padded, locked down child's fantasy land. 3 stories of tubes and nets. Or as my sister said "a giant hamster cage". I played a lot with Audrey who is so adorable!!!! She really likes to climb things but isn't so much a fan of the balls you slide into at Cosmic adventure. You know, those ones they used to have at IKEA. Anyhow, great birthday, great visiting with Karen and Ian and Jasper and Audrey, great show, great award, great audiences. Ottawa was a very enthusiastic place where we felt the show start to lift. Great visit with Paul and Carol and their new baby. Feels like in Ottawa we were surrounded with children and babies, which gave us pause to wonder if we would ever have the energy to have kids. Is it like having a Fringe show? Constant and so many annoying things to do to service it. But then you know it's over and you can go have a beer or visit with a friend. Hmmmmm.
The road beckons. So Ottawa was great. Hit Muskoka and Jan and Frank's beautiful place we call "Golden Pond" for one day of rest. Though it was pretty busy with Russ dressing Frank in a Polar Bear suit and making him paddle around the lake in the hot sun while Russ filmed. Then made him stand on the side of the road trying to hitch a ride. Frank was great, really got into the role. A funny family dynamic. Toronto was great. Saw lots of friends. Stayed with lovely Ritsa and Emmanuel, and with Sarah Jane and Kenton. And Frank and Jan. So bounced around and caught up with lots of friends. Wondering if we should move to Toronto. Not as friendly as Ottawa. A little aloof generally, but we had our first sell out! And the buzz was good. It feels so great to flyer people and then flyer someone who saw the show and loved it. Recommended in the Toronto Star with a nice write up, good write up in the Eye with 4 stars and listed as one of the Best of the Fest (along with about 40 other shows). We had bad experiences with our techs and the Toronto Fringe Festival itself. But that is for another blog.
We have to leave the Adams Motel and make our way around Lake Superior today. By the way, it's big. Oh, we ran into Don Mckellar at a chip stand in the middle of nowhere yesterday. We stopped for a bite. The stand was right next to the Shell station in Muskoka Country. Not even in a town, but near First Nations land. It took the 13 year old boy at the chip stand a long time to make our food, so Russ talked to Don while we waited. We wondered what he was doing standing at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Then we saw his bus pull up and he got on. This is a guy who is an eminent Canadian Filmaker, he just adapted a nobel prize winning novel, and he is taking the bus into town. That's the Canadian Arts and Entertainment industry. You, too, can be a star....
Ottawa was amazing. My sister and brother in law made sure we were well caffeinated. Ian roasts his own beans. Hubba hubba. He also helped us enter the age of facebook (join our "Crude Love" facebook group!) Before my first show in Ottawa, we were rehearsing the new blocking as we lost a stump in the show in Montreal and had to reblock a lot of the stuff. So we are in the yard a couple of hours before leaving for the show and Jasper, who is 5, wanted to watch. Jasper was so excited he sat in a chair and tried really hard not to say anything to interrupt. Next thing I know, I look over and he has found one of our posters and he is just holding it up over his head, with both hands, like at a hockey game or something. So funny. When I told him I was nervous, he said "don't worry, just think of me". Karen and Ian fed us and we flew out the door, me thinking of Jasper and wondering how you can be so heroic in the eyes of a child and yet so inconsequential in the eyes of a reviewer.
Ok, but highlights. Right? Cosmic adventure and Jasper's 5th birthday. Cosmic adventure is a giant, padded, locked down child's fantasy land. 3 stories of tubes and nets. Or as my sister said "a giant hamster cage". I played a lot with Audrey who is so adorable!!!! She really likes to climb things but isn't so much a fan of the balls you slide into at Cosmic adventure. You know, those ones they used to have at IKEA. Anyhow, great birthday, great visiting with Karen and Ian and Jasper and Audrey, great show, great award, great audiences. Ottawa was a very enthusiastic place where we felt the show start to lift. Great visit with Paul and Carol and their new baby. Feels like in Ottawa we were surrounded with children and babies, which gave us pause to wonder if we would ever have the energy to have kids. Is it like having a Fringe show? Constant and so many annoying things to do to service it. But then you know it's over and you can go have a beer or visit with a friend. Hmmmmm.
The road beckons. So Ottawa was great. Hit Muskoka and Jan and Frank's beautiful place we call "Golden Pond" for one day of rest. Though it was pretty busy with Russ dressing Frank in a Polar Bear suit and making him paddle around the lake in the hot sun while Russ filmed. Then made him stand on the side of the road trying to hitch a ride. Frank was great, really got into the role. A funny family dynamic. Toronto was great. Saw lots of friends. Stayed with lovely Ritsa and Emmanuel, and with Sarah Jane and Kenton. And Frank and Jan. So bounced around and caught up with lots of friends. Wondering if we should move to Toronto. Not as friendly as Ottawa. A little aloof generally, but we had our first sell out! And the buzz was good. It feels so great to flyer people and then flyer someone who saw the show and loved it. Recommended in the Toronto Star with a nice write up, good write up in the Eye with 4 stars and listed as one of the Best of the Fest (along with about 40 other shows). We had bad experiences with our techs and the Toronto Fringe Festival itself. But that is for another blog.
We have to leave the Adams Motel and make our way around Lake Superior today. By the way, it's big. Oh, we ran into Don Mckellar at a chip stand in the middle of nowhere yesterday. We stopped for a bite. The stand was right next to the Shell station in Muskoka Country. Not even in a town, but near First Nations land. It took the 13 year old boy at the chip stand a long time to make our food, so Russ talked to Don while we waited. We wondered what he was doing standing at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Then we saw his bus pull up and he got on. This is a guy who is an eminent Canadian Filmaker, he just adapted a nobel prize winning novel, and he is taking the bus into town. That's the Canadian Arts and Entertainment industry. You, too, can be a star....
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