Day One (and a Half) of Fringe

Day One got off to a pretty good start.

I stopped by Fringe Central (in the Distillery).  I was there to try to get the artist lanyards, but they still weren't ready!  They will have some temporary lanyards, apparently on Thurs.  Then I will need to stop by one last time when the real ones come in.  Sigh.  I was able to pick up the artist rush passes, so I'll bring those to the show on Thurs.

I also talked to someone about upping the number of comp. tickets I can request for each show, which I do need to fix before I book the next round of comps.

I saw our poster has a decent position on wall of posters in Fringe Central in Distillery.  It has decent but not amazing positioning on the wall.

 

I was also able to leave a decent amount of postcards inside the Soulpepper atrium.

Then I swung by Equity, which has an office on Victoria St.  I was pretty late on the paperwork, and I really wanted to get it in before the first show.  I had to call someone, since you can't just go up to their floor.  Then I got a voice mail saying they had closed early.  I was a bit miffed, but I saw a security guard and asked him if they had a drop box or something.  He actually agreed to drop off the envelope to the floor, which I thought was great.  Then he came back down and said the receptionist was still there, and she wanted to talk to me.  This was pretty baffling to me, but I quickly realized she had thought I was Eric Peterson (whom she knew), but she then told me twice that she wasn't disappointed I wasn't him...  Anyway, she had my cheque and said it would be processed on Thurs.  At any rate, she said she knew Mark Terene, who is playing one of the leads in At Home with the Bards, and that she and a few others were coming to see the show.

I had a very short stint at work after this, mostly coming in for Book Club, where we were discussing Murata's Convenience Store Woman.  I didn't really care for it, as I am just not feeling up to reading books about autistic characters.  It was a quick read, however.  And Nermean brought in rice cakes as a snack.

On the way up to Tarragon to see You Choose (an improvised murder mystery by the Howland Company), I was able to stop by Robarts and return the book.  It wasn't a bad ride up there, though it was hot.  I was wearing the cast t-shirt and passed out a ton of postcards.  My 5 second pitch is "Stratford bed and breakfast comedy" and hand over a postcard, which worked pretty well.  In general, I think Fringe audiences really respect the hustle more than anything.  One couple I talked to already had tickets, which is a pretty great feeling!  Inside the theatre, I was sitting close to the actor who was in King Gilgamesh.  We didn't really talk about it, but I said I liked it, and then handed over a postcards.  I definitely convinced the woman sitting next to me at the show to come to see our show.  

You Choose is quite good, though it doesn't quite hit the same heights as Entrances and Exits, which was truly next level improv.  I'm actually seeing it two more times, so we'll see how it goes the other times.

I thought the next show was at 9 at Tarragon, so I would go around the corner to grab some pizza and get back in line (as I had almost no postcards left!).  However, it turns out Whose Lineage is It Anyway? is at Factory, so I biked straight down Bathurst to see that (and didn't eat after all).  Because they have added red paint and made the central lanes streetcar only, the cars are in the right lane, and it truly feels like a deathtrap for cyclists.  I certainly hope I don't have any other days I need to go straight from Factory to Tarragon or vice versa!  I'll have to investigate some other routes, as I really want to avoid Bathurst from here on out.

I ran into our stage manager, Victoria, at Factory.  We were both going to the show.  I told a few people in the line about our show (and displayed a smaller poster I had with me).  One woman is going to be at opening.  

Whose Lineage is It Anyway? was outstanding.  They do an improvised show in the style of a Shakespeare history play (using Victoria's prompt no less!), and often manage to speak in rhyming couplets.  It really is impressive.  I'd like to see it again, but I think the only time I could go is late on the last Sunday.  I'll forebear from booking that time slot for a little bit longer, even though I just realized we are up against a ringer for Critic's Choice at Alumnae.  Every Fringe Show You've Ever Seen All At Once is almost certainly going to be the show at Alumnae that gets the extra show on Sunday, and we'll likely come in second.  (Which means I might go see Whose Lineage is It Anyway after all, though I won't book just yet...)

We're still doing quite well.  When I checked on the numbers, we had jumped from 150 to 190 in a single day.  I know I can't take credit for all of that...

Canada Day is a more low-key day, as there are very few shows going on, not least because it is super hard to convince the main venues to open up, so it is mostly stuff happening at Fringe Central and the unconventional venues.

I had certainly considered going to see Such Ado, but it was sold out today!  And I might still have run up and tried to use my rush pass, but I was actually proctoring my daughter taking a math test at that time!

I did get to the gym a bit later than I hoped, and it was so very crowded.  I put in about half a workout (and I still need to make up for skipping the gym last Saturday!).  Then I biked straight over to Fringe Central and participated in the Fringe parade.  Brian (the actor playing Robin Bard) was there, along with the director.  I'm glad I turned up, as they didn't have any posters to promote the show.

The crowds watching the parade were on the thin side, probably due to the extreme heat, as well as competing activities (like watching the World Cup).  Nonetheless, I talked to several people, and I think I convinced some volunteers to go.

Our first performance is tomorrow after work.  I'm excited and yet still nervous all at the same time.  I guess at this point, I just have to let it all go and let the actors do their thing.

Futurama Interlude

My wife is back from a quick jaunt to Chicago.  She managed to see one concert (Patrice Rushen) but Lionel Richie was still recovering (from dehydration apparently) and that Lionel Richie/Earth-Wind-Fire concert was cancelled (and ultimately rescheduled for late Sept.).  This means she will most likely be going back for that.  It reminds me a bit of The Fixx cancelling on me in NYC.  They may have rescheduled eventually, but by that point I wasn't going south.  Interestingly, they have a new tour (where on some of the dates, they are backed by The Smithereens, not that I think seeing them would really be worth it without the original lead singer).  They do have a Vancouver date.  They are slowing adding shows in New York (though the venues are very small).  They actually come to Rochester, which is pretty close but still further than I want to venture into the States.  I probably would go if they came to Buffalo, but I really wish they would just tour Toronto and/or Montreal.

The reason I bring this up is that I had a few Futurama items that I picked up where the sellers simply wouldn't ship to Canada.  Mostly they were pins that celebrated seasons 11 and 12 (the new ones from when Hulu picked Futurama up and resurrected it).  I overall enjoyed the new material, with a few exceptions (like a particularly terrible COVID-19 themed episode), though I agree it wasn't peak Futurama.

I also got a grey market copy of what was supposed to be Season 13.  When I finally played it, it was Season 12, which I already sourced, so that was extremely disappointing.  It's not like the seller was going to offer up a refund, and I had placed the order several months ago.

I've read on some forums that Season 13 was actually better than Seasons 11 or 12.  It looks like Season 14 will drop in mid Aug.  I guess I'll consider looking for one of those deals where you sign up for Disney+ for 3 months, then cancel, so I can binge both of these Futurama.  Of course, I wish Hulu would get with the program and sell DVDs of their shows, but that is extremely unlikely to happen, sadly.  I don't have any idea if they will renew once again, but hopefully so.

Canada Day Reflections

Going through the news today is basically as depressing as ever.  Trump decided to tear up the CUSMA trade agreement, which wasn't a surprise, but still will cause real hardship up here, as well as being quite bad overall for US manufacturing.  Such an incredible dolt and a disgrace to humanity.  

I am not at all happy about Carney's recent moves and announcement that he is scaling back Canada's climate change goals to focus more on "national unity" (i.e. sucking up to those horrible Albertans) and economic growth.  This is extremely short sighted, on a week that is breaking all kinds of heat records in Canada, to say nothing of the US and Europe.  This complete inability to force hard choices on the public, i.e. actually making them pay the full external costs of carbon and thus reining in consumption and eventually restoring some sort of balance to the environment, really shows up the limitations of Western democracy (and the general short-sightedness of human nature).  So I am not particularly proud of where Canada is heading, though I guess it is somewhat better than most of the alternatives, aside from a few European countries that actually do have their transportation and environmental priorities in better order.  But immigrating to any of them is pretty much out of the question at my age, and unfortunately, they themselves are starting to show their racism as immigration levels increase throughout Western Europe.  I guess not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I am just not in a great mood these days.

I might as well cut this short and move on to more diverting and less serious topics.

Happy Canada Day, eh?