Dessert By Candy

Listen To Pochsy Unplugged

A couple of years ago I went to see Karen Hines' monologue Pochsy Unplugged and totally fell in love with Pochsy. I was looking for her tour schedule today on her website. Though there is currently nothing scheduled in the foreseeable future, I did find the complete audio recording available for listening online. I listened to it today and it absolutely reminded me why I enjoyed the monologue so much. If you enjoy dark cynical humour, I would highly recommend you to give it a listen.

CanStage's production of The Rocky Horror Show will open next week with a midnight showing preceded by a party. I'm looking forward to see this show but am a little disappointed that there are MANY rules that restrict audience participation. No rice, no toast, no confetti, no watergun, no throwing things in the air...half the fun is already gone! I was originally very excited about going to the midnight show and even invited a bunch of my friends to go...but now I'm not so sure. From the sound of it, it's going to be a very tamed show.

Mobile Live @ Toronto WinterFest

I was bored stupid in the last few days because of my bout of sickness. I still feel very weak today (jello arms and jello legs!) so snowboarding is out of the question. However, I figure bouncing about in front of a stage is probably easy enough so I decided to go to the Mobile concert at Nathan Phillips Square as planned. I'm so glad I went! The energy of the show was fantastic despite running into a few technique issues (broken string, liberal use of duct tape, out of tune guitars due to the cold...). Alas, if I had my voice, I would have screamed and cheered so loud. Check out some pictures and video that I took at the concert!

Two Down, Two More To Go

I returned to Nathan Phillips Square tonight once again for another free concert, this time featuring Sloan. Perhaps it was the slightly warmer weather, perhaps it was Saturday night, or perhaps Sloan attracts more fans...whatever the reason, the crowd was much bigger tonight and I could easily tell that there were some diehard fans in the crowd. The muscial style of Sloan is quite different from The Philosopher Kings but one common trait that really stood out was the importance of having a charismatic frontman. I'm not talking about a pretty face, rather, someone whose stage presense is larger than life in a way that positiviely connects with the audience.

Here is a brief video that I took during the concert, enjoy!

Toronto WinterCity Festival

If you're in Toronto during the next two weeks, I highly recommend you to check out our WinterCity Festival. I just came back from the opening festivities held at Nathan Phillips Square including a free concert by The Philosopher Kings, which played an awesome show btw. I'm not particularly familiar with their music but I went on the recommendation of a friend who recently went to their concert. Although my musical taste leans toward pop, I love the jazz influence of their music and this element made their sound so much more accessible to me. I'm also very impressed by the virtuosity of each members of the band, especially the little friendly duelling between the guitarist and bassist. Despite the cold and snow, the crowd really got into the music and I somehow managed to park myself at the second row in front of the stage! I love to attend outdoor concerts in general because of the energy of the shows and this time is no exception. However, I must say that this is the first time that I watch a concert in the snow! The sparkling curtain of snowflakes in the colourful lights was an unexpected visual treat. There'll be a few more concerts coming up including Sloan, Mobile, and The New Pornographers. Hope to see you there!

Another really neat attraction at the Nathan Phillips Square is the Paintings Below Zero gallery of artist Gordon Halloran (see some of my pictures here). As the title suggested, this is an installation of paintings on ice. Don't come here expecting your usual ice sculpture...the contrasts between light/shadow and warm/cold colour were really what captivated me. If you take a closer look, you can also see the crytalization patterns on the ice and how the colour brought out this natural beauty so vibrantly.

BuskerFest

I dropped by the St Lawrence Market Historic District on Friday evening to visit the Toronto Buskerfest. This is a really fun street festival with lots of street performances. The organizers have closed off a huge stretch of Front Street and it was a lot of fun checking out the different acts. I watched the entire set for Co-Existence who performed a lot of daring acrobalance. I really enjoyed their performance because it reminded me of the lifts that pair skaters do. Whether you're out on a date, thinking of activities for a family outing, or just want to drop by for a brief visit, I highly recommend this street festival.

You can still catch it this Saturday August 27 from 10am to 11pm and Sunday August 28 from 10am to 6pm.

Dream In High Park

J and I went to a performance of Much Ado About Nothing at the annual CanStage Dream In High Park. It's only an abridged version of the play but I found it quite lighthearted and entertaining. I'm not a regular theatre-goer so it took me a little while before getting into the stories and getting used to the old English dialogues. But once I did, I really enjoyed the verbal sparring between Beatrice and Benedict.

You know, there's something very romantic about theatre under the stars. If I wasn't feeling under the weather, I really wished the night would never end.

Bombshells

Went to an absolutely magnificent monologue tonight titled Bombshells written by Joanna Murray-Smith and performed by Caroline O'Connor. Ms O'Connor portraited four ordinary women on the verge of a meltdown. My favourite was the bride with coldfeet because it was a chaotic criscross of her panic-stricken internal dialogues and her determination to march through her wedding. It was like watching her wedding unfold and, at the same time, reading her hyperactive thoughts slowly unhinged with regret. It was hilarious.

Pochsy Unplugged

I haven't been to a play in ages. Musical, yes. Classical concerts, yes. But a play? If I remember correctly, the last time I went to a play was during my second co-op work term at Waterloo Maple when one of my co-worker invited me to go to the community theatre to watch his friend perform. Hmm, that must be over 7 years ago.

Based on a glowing review on the Toronto Star, I was very much intrigue by the monologue Pochsy Unplugged. The play is the combined work of the three Pochsy plays, written and performed by Ms. Karen Hines. I enjoyed the play very much and I really don't have much to say that hasn't been much better expressed by various reviewers before. There were lines from the play that really stood out in my memory though.

Pochsy on having kids: "I'm not lifegiving; I'm breathtaking."

On love: "Everything's falling apart; everyone's falling in love"

I love plays that are so darkly hilarious. I found myself laughing hard, at the same time identifying with many of the absurd sentiments and bitter observation of world we live in. It feels good to get back in touch with this side of myself that I haven't visit for so long.