December 3, 2012
Talented Friends
This busy weekend featured a couple of my talented friends, and not for having written books even! On Saturday night, we attended the very exciting Toronto premiere of the short film “How to Keep Your Day Job”, based on the short story of the same name by Rebecca Rosenblum. It was so wonderful to be there in a room full of people, all of us collectively laughing at the humour and gasping at the otherwise. The film was so well done, underlining the goodness of its foundation. The film has already been shown in Calgary, and if you hear of it coming about somewhere near you, definitely go and see it.
And then last night I went to the theatre! I saw Strolling Player at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Leslieville, written by Heidi Reimer and her husband Richard Willis, and starring Richard, a 90 minute one-man show about his life in theatre that begins with his birth (on purpose) at Stratford-Upon-Avon. A life in 90 minutes that takes up from a summer theatre in Guernsey, to stages in London’s West End, marriages wrought to ruin by tabloid journalism, exhausting tours across America, and a most unlikely true love discovered in the wilds of West Virginia. It was by turns funny, sad, and always excellent. I was so thrilled to be there, and very excited to learn that the show will be staged this summer as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. Do not miss this one…
December 2, 2012
It's December
It’s December, which means that we’re listening to Darlene Love on repeat, and trying to reconcile our secular selves with this religious holiday with a great deal of joy. (Christmas is about lighting the darkness. It is about the promise of new life. I like that.) It means that the tree isn’t up yet, too soon, but the halls are decked, and the Christmas books are unpacked into the pile that just keeps on growing. Over the next three weeks, I’ll be sharing some of them with you here. If I were so inclined I’d even put together a Christmas Book Advent Calendar–what a wonderful idea! Over at 49thShelf, we’re celebrating Canadian books with the Lit Wish List campaign, so many great ideas for giving and receiving. And the other Scaredy Squirrel Gingerbread Houses have put our efforts to shame, so much so that we’ve decided just to eat ours and forget about it and pretend this never happened.
In huge news though, I have a new hat.
