Snow-Maggedon

As the local tv channel termed it, today we experienced a snow-maggedon in Hamilton, Ontario. It really wasn't that bad, though driving on side streets wasn't successful for most. As usual, I love this sort of storm because it's a chance to catch up with the neighbours while shovelling. Being the first day of my vacation from school, it was a full day of maintaining the sidewalk and enjoying the beautiful snowy-ness that surrounded the house. I spotted two pairs of cardinals in the back yard which were really showing off today in their Christmasy red attire.

Things are brewing in the creativity department. I've got three dance projects on the brain and I'm just toying with which one to pursue first. Once again, time has flown by, and my dance/choreographic life has been pushed aside. That is, except for taking technique classes which shouldn't be underestimated as a productive and necessary part of maintaining the artist's tool, so-t0-speak. But, it's definitely time to flush out some of the ideas and new partnerships that are emerging...stay tuned.

A Beautiful Day

It was a beautiful day in Hamilton. I visited the Makers' Market in front of Christ Church Cathedral on James St. North. I walked away with a cool green tree tee (say that 3 times quickly!) and a pair of delicate earrings.

Later on, I captured the view from the corner of Chapple and Barton St.

The Last Mistress

If you have a chance to see this movie, do. It's quite a portrait of a steamy, oftentimes violent (either passionate or sadistic) couple, set in the 19th century. The story is masterfully woven and does present yet another facet to "love".

The End of the Summer

The end to my summer vacation went quickly but was a lot of fun! I took a day-trip to Toronto Island with my dad where we rented a 2-seater quadricycle and got the butt-kicking of a lifetime...it's not so easy peddling those contraptions.

The best cultural event of the summer was the Hamilton Fringe Festival. I had a chance to see 6 plays at the Downtown Arts Centre. My top two were "Human Brilliance to the 22nd Century" and "How Does a Drug Deal Become a Third Decent Date?"

My mom and I had a chance to visit the old family cottage and drop in on the best place to eat in Elora, the Desert Rose Cafe.

I caught Valerie Tryon at the final Fieldcote Music evening. She played "Flight of the Bumblebee" as bats flew above the audience.

In Guelph I investigated site-specific locations for a possible dance project. Here are two ideas: this grouping of trees:

or this sturdy trio.

This past weekend I attended Christie's Antique Show. There were so many beautiful things and unbelievably well-behaved children. I guess they had interesting things to look at, so they were calm? The strangest thing I saw was this:

and don't you just love this bench? It was snapped up right away.

On the first day back to school, I was outside with my class and we spotted a woodpecker. A good omen I think. It's definitely not a Pileated woodpecker, maybe it's a Downy?

All of Me

My love affair with gypsy jazz was rekindled this week when I had a chance to catch the Roberto Rosenman Quartet at the Pepperjack Cafe. They obligingly played "All of Me" upon request. Now I've found another version on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cZfMLVdvxI

Vacation Pickles

If you know me at all, you know how crazy I am about pickles. Today was the day I happily turned $4.99 of cucumbers into 8 jars of pickles.

This is one of my favourite summer vacation activities. Now, how long do I have to wait till they're ready?












Next, will be to make salsa!

Summer Garden

After garage-sailing this morning, I snapped a few photos of the house, garden and cats.

AGH Film Festival

Last night was the 10th annual Film Festival at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Once again, due to weather, it was held indoors but there was room enough for all. It was a long programme of 22 films with one intermission at the halfway point. I liked that the gallery was open during the intermission so I got a chance to see the latest exhibit focussing on Japanese art. Such beautiful kimonos with amazing colours.

Once of my favourites of the evening was the last video, U Don't Bring Me Flowers by Lucas Michael. Check it out on YouTube at http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hoBwyZTR4

Quinoa Salad

I just made a delicious looking quinoa salad for my friends -- caramelized red onion, grilled peppers and zucchini, dill, and tomatoes...all from the market or my garden. Could I become one of those bloggers who post photos of food?

George Fox at Fieldcote

Tonight I saw George Fox at Fieldcote. What a perfect night for an outdoor concert -- no skeeters, no rain, lots of people, and a couple of birds. Yes, right in front of me sat two ladies with parrots. I snapped a pic of the white parrot but my camera ran out of juice before I could get the other one.

Gypsy Jazz Bathroom

I was searching for a Youtube video I had stumbled across a long time ago where jazz musicians were jamming in a bathroom (probably in a club somewhere in France). I didn't find it but I did find Roberto Rosenman playing in someone's washroom in Toronto! Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYTpvBF3oc4

For those of you in Ontario, on TVO tonight at 10:36, they will be showing the Django Reinhardt documentary--Djangomania!!!

Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival Review

A gang of us from Hamilton made it out to Guelph this weekend. First off we stopped in at Louisa Kratka's new gallery space, Studio 490. She's a talented violinist, bookmaker, artist, and now she's even weaving! She has a really nice space in a huge old warehouse-type building.

We caught the 4:00pm Mainstage A show of the Guelph Dance Fest and enjoyed it immensely. David Earle's piece was campy and humourous with many styles of dance investigated. I especially liked Deborah Dunn's piece which, like her contribution in last year's festival, was narrative and theatrical. My favourite part was a duet section in which the dancers moved mainly on the floor. My kind of dance--where the steps melt away into the storyline and you longer see the split or pirouette or arabesque.

The second Mainstage show of the day was very long. The programme began with a piece by Janet Johnson, followed by a group from Calgary called La Caravan. The latter tried to incorporate grotesque vocal "sounds", ballet pointe work, and had a sort of absurdist angle to it.

The third piece was, to my surprise, a relief to watch. I enjoyed the grounded partnerwork of Kaeja d'dance's Abattoir which I had already seen at Harbourfront this season. When contrasted with a group like La Caravan, the skill of the dancers and the fluidity of the choreography in Kaeja d'dance is glaringly appearant.

The fourth dance was a duet by Kate Alton which was performed well but by that time the show was in its 3rd hour which was taking me beyond my breaking point.

The festival is an amazing success, now in its 10th year. How great that you can see progressive and entertaining contemporary dance in a smaller community. Now, we just need more of it!

Another Movie Review

I just saw The Visitor at the Westdale Theatre with my parents. We all enjoyed the story and the music. Some of us may even have been inspired to try the djembe. Thanks to Jim for the tickets, what a nice treat!

King and Queen of Turd Island

It's a lazy day here; enjoying a slow start to the long weekend. The felines are lying about, wondering why I'm home. Here's King Bing...

And here's Queen Maggie...

Pretty Things

I'm not sure what it is about me and earrings lately, but I know what it is about these particular ones-they're unusual, not from a mall, and handmade.

If you're interested, check out whiteapple on Etsy.com. Just don't be buying any of the ones that I have my eye on!

Happy Earth Day

Appearantly the old phrase "Don't throw your junk in my backyard," doesn't apply to my neighbourhood. Please, do throw it in my backyard! In fact, I suspect some neighbours are tossing their refuse into the woods right behind their own houses. The large No Dumping sign (City of Hamilton Bylaw 77-221) that greets you as you enter little Tom Park has no effect. The biggest offenders are: water bottles, beer bottles, makeshift bongs, dog crap, chip bags, bundles of newspaper flyers and 3 Fortinos shopping carts. I know damn well who the shopping cart offenders are, as I have already returned carts that have been left in the park after said cart "borrowers" have finished with them!

The other day my good friend Jon asked me 2 questions about my previous blog entry reporting on the Cootes Paradise clean-up. He asked, "What was the funniest item you found?" and "Did you find anything you kept for reuse?" I can answer those today.

In all of the junk I collected this morning, I did find a nice rock (now in my garden) in the middle of the grass in the park. Usually, I don't scavenge rocks from "the wild" as they are a part of the natural landscape. However, as this one was obviously going to be mowed over when the grass grows, I figured I'd save the City a lawnmower blade.

I can't really laugh about this. I did have a bitter cackle of sorts when I saw the 3 Fortinos shopping carts. In the winter I had taken to returning carts that I'd found in the park. That'll show me!

What to do? Is there a Fortinos hotline for cart retrieval? What about the numerous bundles of flyers? Call the Hamilton Spectator? Their delivery job is probably outsourced. One step is cleaning all this up. Another is the maintenance of the park. I had hoped to continue working this spring and summer on the garden in the front end of Tom Park. It is so disheartening to do so when the flowers will be marched upon by drunken idiots who party in the park on the weekends. Somehow the police who regularly patrol this street, never see those cars pulling up at night, dropping off drug-users who meet down in the ravine and then leave behind their disgusting garbage.

So Busy!

Spring has sprung and I am "springing" too. Don't you just love having 13 hours of daylight? It's like a wonder-drug for me these days. So, things have been busy here. Getting back into the swing of things for the last term of school. I bought a tank and some fish this weekend for the classroom. Just goldfish but I'm sure they'll be a hit.

Going back a couple of weeks now, I had a chance to see my friend, Tania Bove perform a night of dazzling jazz vocals at the Ancaster Fire Hall. What a night!

This led me to see Darcy Hepner's Big Band at the Corktown. Wow! All I can say is that my friends and I were impressed. Nick Marchione, on trumpet that night, was a huge hit with the crowd. The 17-member band almost blew my eardrums out and I had visions of the sound waves decimating my runny nose and cold germs as they crashed into my head.

At Harbourfront I had a chance to see Kaeja d'Dance's latest work entitled, "Abattoir". I must say the show was not quite a hit with my colleagues but I can appreciate the subject matter.

On Thursday I went to a talk given by Alfie Kohn at Westmount Highschool. The ideas passed along during this evening really resonated with me. He spoke about the insanity of Standardized Testing and the cruelty and pointlessness of homework. Many ideas really clicked with me that night.

On the weekend I opted for the Free Friday at the AGH. My fav of the evening was this one by Francis Jones Bannerman. I love how the inside environment is so different from that of the outdoor one.

Saturday morning I spent a couple of hours picking up garbage with my dad in Cootes. Disgusting mess! I don't ever need to see another Tim Horton's cup again.

The strangest items we found were construction materials (obviously dumped) and the saddest item found was a garbage bag.

Oh! And last weekend I ventured back the Staircase Theatre, of all places, to celebrate Earth hour. Kate and I enjoyed a candle-lit, full house performance by Lisa Winn. Nice to be back.