west uptowner

morning in the portlands, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

It is the season of lists:

- shows opening
- props to find
- wood orders
- plots to draw
- schedules prioritized by levels of desperation
- groceries
- parties to attend, graded by the ratio of washrooms to the number of drinkers invited
- emails to write
- emails to respond to
- emails to ignore
- shows to catch
- hours spent with loved ones
- books to read before 2008
- places to put magazines that will make it more likely that I might read them before the next issue is published
- debts to pay before being able to apply for a mortgage
- faces that I wish I had punched
- splinters healed
- friends to speak to before I lose the right to call them friends
- lists to write

# posted by trev @ 3:26 p.m. 1 comments

homage to banksy, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

So what to say about London. Ontario. The graffiti is a little derivative of London (the other one). But it's okay... the downtown area is a little strange - so many empty storefronts in one part of town, none in others. I went to see 300 at the mall (The London Galleria) and only the movie theatre and a college were open on the entire second floor. It was an indoor ghost town. Reminds me of upstate New York. But you can walk everywhere and the people smile at you on the street if you bother to nod at them. I've forgotten what a friendly mood on the street can feel like.

I'm here with Anna Chatterton and Evalyn Parry, putting up Clean Irene and Dirty Maxine for the week. It's fun, easy going, and there's time during the day to refine designs and such for the next big show.

Kind of surreal, though, sitting in the green room while the big musical upstairs is playing through the speakers. ("Say what you want! Say what you will! Somethin's cookin' at the Spitfire Grill!") Sitting there, in the basement, it's like the three of us are survivors in some post-apocalyptic world with singing crowds of performers belting songs at hundreds of bourgeois Londoners over our heads, while we put cookies in sandwich bags and prepare our humble show for an audience of a couple dozen lesbians and bohemians.

I like it that way.

# posted by trev @ 1:35 a.m. 2 comments

backstage at the debate, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

This photo was taken on Saturday. Sunday this show went up -- it was wacky. Then we struck and left, and I fled to Theatre Passe Muraille to finish up the strike of The Sheep and the Whale. Then back to Hub14 with a load of scrap wood in the van to have a moment with the peeps of Small Wooden Shoe. Perfect way to end an intense day. At 3am.

And up again at 7am to bring the scrap to the junk yard.

Then the week got busy.

Bea and I have been talking a lot lately, mostly to keep each other from flying off the deep end. She has been slammed with so many things, and is having tax issues to add to the aggravation. I feel like we are our own little nation of self-help.

We talked about being successful, powerful, and rich. As if that would make our lives easy. As we spoke of this George Bush showed up on TV, and Bea said that on his recent stopover in Colombia he had to leave after FIVE HOURS because the Colombian government could not guarantee his safety.

So the moral is that success and power have an upside, I'm sure, but what you lose when you gain fame and influence is honest and open relationships with people. I look at Dubya, and once I get over my anger with him, I pity him: can he shake hands with someone and know that that person actually wishes him the best? Can he look at someone smiling at him and know that that person is simply being friendly, and doesn't want something? Can anyone be sincere and honest with a millionaire or a politician?

# posted by trev @ 12:22 a.m. 1 comments

winter happy hours, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

Took this shot last week in the snow. Remember when the snow fell, and we oo'd at it, and loved it despite the (or perhaps a bit because) fact that it slowed everything in the city down...

Now it's mostly ice and blackened heaps of crust on the street edge, and it's been too cold to snow.

Anyway. I decided to post this because I realized that a lot of this year's favorite colours (based on what I've been doing in lighting design lately) are in this shot: the ambers, light purple, cool white.

# posted by trev @ 11:13 p.m. 1 comments

reasonable people sneak peek - ame and evan, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

This is from today's rehearsal of Reasonable People, Reasonably Disagreeing - on for one night only (Sunday March 11) at the Harbourfront Studio Theatre. It's a debate, with some allowances for theatricality and other forms of exagerration.

Tried to bike today but my bike was trapped by ice in the backyard shed. Tried to plan some cues but the show hasn't really solidified yet. Tried to save money but I forgot to pack a lunch.

... If this trend persists I'm going to "try" to procrastinate.

# posted by trev @ 6:52 p.m. 0 comments