The Fringe Diary from 2006 is here

June 17, 2007

It's 2:30 am on Monday, and I have to be at the Beer Tent by 10am (though it seemed like most of the work will be done overnight). Hence I won't say anything about the day, though I'm hoping I'll get around to it later and remember things to write down.

The 2007 Frankies have come and gone. I got a good seat, mostly in the middle and in the second row, and did better at getting the details. I don't know if my microcassette recorder that I brought out of retirement made a decent recording of the event.

About 10:15pm, two women come out and do a dance (take note the music was known long before The Austin Powers movies came out, and come to think of it, the first one is now ten years old, I remember a venue manager named Cathy going on about it back in 1997), doing a mild striptease. Then at about 10:20 the two hosts, whatshisname and whatshisname from The Thirteenth Hour along with Rufus came on stage as MCs. They said the dancers were Miss Sugarpuss and Seska Lee (and according to a Mainline ad in the Fringe Program, they will be having some shows there in the fall).

First up was the Chapters prize for Best Text. One English and one French script gets chosen, and unless it's changed, they only judge those scripts that are actually submitted. (In the early days, I gather not many did submit, but that may have changed in recent years.) Jeffrey Mackie came out to announce the award, I don't know if I spelled his name right. The winners get a fifty dollar gift certificate at Chapters, and I can't remember if they still get a reading. (Though, I've never seen mention that any winner has ever done a reading, I may just not see the announcement but maybe not.) The French prize went to Walk In ou Se Marcher Dedans and the English prize went to Thunderspank! (specifically Franc Duello was mentioned, but he wasn't there.

Next was the Theatre St. Catherine Prize. Eric Ambler came out to announce it. What was described "liked and wants to see more of" doesn't really fit the description in the program. (One might remember Ed Fuller won last year, or was it the year before?, and it seemed to be then about helping develop the show. Never heard anything more about it, I haven't seen Ed Fuller this Fringe, though I did pass him a few weeks before.) Anyway, the prize goes to The King of Fifteen Island, and they get a 1 week run at the theatre in the fall.

Next was the Tangente prize. Deena Davida came out to announce it, and again it sounds like the prize was changed in mid-stream. It was supposed to be about the "most promising non-local choreographer" but now it becomes, she said "most outstanding dance work". It was a tie, and either she didn't specify the prize, or I missed it because I have nothing written down. The tied winners were L'oeil du Pigeon and Haunted Womb Tour. So much for a prize for the out of town acts, both are local no matter what the blurb for the latter says. No one from either act seemed to be present, so the strippers, oops the Burlesque Dancers, squabbled over the prize, Deena saying they'd each get it for six months.

The Cirque du Soleil prize was next, and I caught none of the details. I'm sure it will be in the paper tomorrow. It was about 10:35 at this point.

The Comedy Nest prize was next. Ernie Butler came out to announce it, bringing his large jury with him (and it was too fast to record names). This is actually a good step, I think, because usually by the time the Fringe rolls around, Ernie Butler is talking about the comedy festival on his radio show on CJAD. I can remember almost a decade ago when The Freefall Iguanas would do sketches on the show, and Karen Taylor would do a comedy calendar, and the Fringe got no mention. The prize is a headline at Best of Fringe, which is 1 week at the Comedy Nest before January 1st. There are two prizes, one for Best Standup/Improv/Sketch Act, and the honorable mentions were Thunderspank! and Maxim & Cosmo with the winner being George Bush, Live in Press Conference. The Best Comedic Play or musical had Die Roten Punkte and On Second Thought as honorable mentions, and the prize went to CIrcus Incogniitus

The Centaur's prize for Best Play came next, and Gordon McCall came out, for the last time since he's leaving the theatre. He said he was just overseeing things, since he'd been out directing, so the judges did all the work. The jury went to all English language shows (it must be a subset, I can't read my word but dance has never qualified), and at least 2 jury members to each show. The winner gets $1000 in cash, and a slot in the Wildside Festival in January where they get 75% of the box office. There were ten finalists, named in random order
DIckens of the Mounted
Kafka & Son
Housekeeping & Homewrecking
American Squatter
The Rap Canterbury Tales
...And Stockings for the Ladies
Sahara Crossing
The King of Fifteen Island
one I missed
and The Works
Each runner up gets 2 tickets to a show of their choice in the next Centaur season.

The 2nd runner up was American Squatter. The 1st runner up was The Works and the grand prize winner was ...And Stockings for the Ladies. If the winner can't restage, then the 1st runner up gets the run, and if they can't restage either, then the 2nd runner up gets the run (and this has happened, though I can't remember when or who the winners were at the moment). Apparently the runners up and the winner get a season subscription to the next Centaur season, for each cast member.

The Thirteenth Hour prize came next, apparently a last minute addition. There were some pretty good prizes like $30,000 from the Canada Council, a trip to Cancun, a hybrid car, and I'm sure I missed some. And 2 tickets to the Centaur's Wildside Festival. I hope people read the fine print before trying to claim all those prizes. The selection seemed nebulous, something like the best act to play the show, and the winner was Die Roten Punkte

Finally, The Spirit of the Fringe came at 23:01. Jeremy came out to announce it, and he said it was difficult this year, because there was no clear frontrunner (but he worded it to suggest lots were trying). The winner, that gets a free slot in next year's Fringe, is Big Moves and since he mentioned the pancake breakfast, that would seem to be the clincher. Now the bar is set higher. The 2nd winner, that gets a guaranteed slot in next year's Fringe and a good discount on the entry fee, was Miss Gina the Piper, who some may know as Brent, who did help set up his first year at the Fringe

Jeremy said attendance was 55,004 total, and 24,567 indoors. I didn't note if he said tickets sold, or seats used (there is a difference, given all the Superpasses and Fringe Bucks and comps that go around). No mention of how much money artists earned from ticket sales.

It ended at 23:12. If any of this is wrong, it's my fault and I'm sure Without Annette have got the correct details, they had it up before (I fiddled a bit with the Beer Tent, and then walked home) I started typing this, but I did not crib from them.

ONe thing worth mentioning now is that there were no speeches from the winners. They came up, got the prize and spun the wheel. If we had less dance party, there'd be time for speeches.

More later, after the Beer Tent is put away.

June 16, 2007

That BeerPlant seems to have disappeared from the Beer Tent, or at least it's not near the beer coolers.

The Beer Tent goes down on Monday, starting apparently at 10am. It's a lot easier to move those beer kegs now that they are empty. And I'm hoping the drill will work to remove the nuts. It takes work, but nothing is really heavy. The more people that show up, the easier it is to pair up and move fence sections (you can move one by yourself once you get the hang of it, but nobody expects that). All those chairs have to be moved. All those tables have to be cleared of posters and flyers. Likely people will rip the posters down on SUnday night, leaving bits of tape that should be removed from the fence (terribly finicky work without the posters) before it goes back. Move all kinds of things back to the Fringe office. Sweep the site, and pick up the garbage (Jeremy himself helped on that last year). One last gasp of fun before next year. It does help to bring work gloves if you have them, and old clothes, those fences often carry some sort of hopefully not toxic dusting. We should have enough wrenches, we now have 3 half-inch fixed ones. Usually we can live off the dregs of the Beer Tent for liquid, though some snacks might be nice. I doubt there will be cookies I'll have to get to bed early tonight to get there by ten. It supposed to be clear tomorrow, though bring rain gear if there's some doubt, it isn't nice to be wet all day. It is supposed to be cooler, but not cold. Best to wear real shoes, steel toed if you've got them, I keep imagining scraped toes when people wear sandals.

Don't forget there is a Key to the Fringe waiting for William Shatner if he wants to come to our Fringe next year to make Jeremy happy. It even has genuine gold paint. I likely can throw in some Fringe Bucks, so long as I still have some when he finally puts in an appearance. So if you know anyone who knows him, or anyone who has a line to him, work that angle and make sure William Shatner knows that Jeremy would like him to attend the Fringe.

The Drag Races went on as planned, something I had forgotten about until I reached the Beer Tent and couldn't get in for the crowd. There were even people peaking in from outside the fence, as if they were spying on the forbidden, but the reality was it was so crowded a gap in the banners on the fence meant another place to see the activities. There did seem to be an awful lot of strollers around, as if the Races were suitable family fun. I hear there were Drag Kings this year, two years ago a venue manager complained that they wouldn't let her in unless she went as a woman. (Catherine Kidd has participated that year, and shesure looked to be in Drag at the time, I must find those photos.) It seemed odd, that men could define not only womanhood, but how women could participate.

One of the weird things about the Fringe is that if you throw yourself into it, you get this crowd where there is a high density of familiar faces. Sometimes it seems like everyone who walks by you can at least nod to. Then you move away from the activity, and you're still expecting to see familiar faces. On my way today, someone out of the corner of my eye says something like "hi, how are you?" like they know me. But when I look, nothing registers (though she did at first seem like someone selling something at the craft tables at the Beer Tent). I move over to her, and she says "what's your name" which sounded like an entry into some kind of spiel for a cult or something else she was selling. So I turned away. I'm still not sure if it was someone I should know. But more, I wonder if it was a tourist (she did have an Indian accent) who was about to ask for directions and simply had a means of approaching people that is foreign to those of us in North America. I'd feel bad if that was the case.

There will soon be withdrawal from all that. Back to being in crowds where you are lucky to see one familiar face. The poor people who've carried walkie talkies for ten days, suddenly feeling lighter and wondering what they've forgotten. And all that sleep we can indulge in. One minute the Fringe seems so far off, then suddenly it's upon us, and then even quicker, it's over. Yet there is also mixed feelings because nobody wants it to end, yet everyone really wants it to end so they can get some sleep. Since it runs for so short a time, it feels like we should throw ourselves into it, yet then we don't even get the optimum return when we are too tired to do all that much. I saw no shows today, partly because I got there too late (and I wasn't off at garage sales), partly because while there are still lots of shows to see, I am saturated.

It looked like it was going to rain for a bit, but it never hit. This is just about the best Fringe weather wise, usually we get at least some rain and some cooler days.

In the evening, there seemed to be a lot of women showing up in elegant dresses, as if they'd come from somewhere else and were stopping to see what was going on at the Beer Tent. It was certainly not standard Fringe Wear.

Oddly, there were assistants to the Venue Managers at some venues, countering the notion that volunteers are hard to find the final weekend. Maybe they've used up their Fringe Bucks, and need more to see more final shows.

Despite the festivities at The Thirteenth Hour on Friday night, one blog report is The Fringe Honeymoon is over there seemed to be less drowsiness and hangovers than last year with the Sweet Sixteen Party (where an awful lot of the volunteers dressed up). I ignored it, it just comes too late and just seems too inward looking. The whole Fringe is one big party, and it doesn't really need another party on top. We need to be reaching the world outside the Beer Tent, yet as fun as it seems to be, it's only reaching the already converted.

The Missing Venue Manager made an appearance late today. Allan Brown first appeared as a volunteer at the Fringe in 1997, being a roller blade rover (it was easy, the venues were really close together). He brought his children, Geoff and Nancy, who were also volunteers. The last day of that Fringe, when it was dark and few shows were running (they ran later on Sunday back then, since there were no Frankies, suddenly the sound of the song Happy Birthday comes out of the walkie talkie. It was his fortieth.

They all came back the next year, and the next. Nancy (not to be confused with Nancy K. Brown who has been a Fringe Volunteer for almost forever, though often just a couple of shifts per Festival) was a venue manager in all but badge in 1999, and became the youngest venue manager in 2000. Geoff was a rover and did his share of beer keg moving, and caused a Best Volunteer award to be added in 1999 (he deserved it, but later years it seemed to be issued for the sake of issuing and should be reserved for out of the ordinary work), when he was virtually living at the Fringe, sleeping in the temporary office as night watchman. (He won a gift certificate for a pair of shoes, clearly to compensate for those he wore out roving that year.) It looked like Geoff and Nancy would move on, and Nancy basically did, Geoff merely tapered off. He'd suddenly show up, and do something, and then leave. We'd be walking up the street with a pile of recycle bins, and suddenly we'd feel lighter because Geoff had come up from behind and taken one from each of us.

Meanwhile, Allan took off the rollerblades, and worked at the infobooth in 1998, and was a Venue Manager every year since. He brought along a woman he was dating as his assistant one year (that's one way of making sure you get an assistant), I think it was as long ago as 1999 (because I remember the large Beer Tent and that was the last year for that) and they made a great pair. They then got married, and for a bit there was talk of making it Performance Art, holding it at the Fringe. They'd do the shift, then go off for some gourmet dining (among the rarified few who don't stick with pizza slices) and then see shows. But then there was the year Allan spent most of the Fringe in jail. Something came up with his business, and he had to go install something at a prison out west, and that kept him away for most of the week. Elaine became the venue manager, but without the Superpass.

That's when they broke up. Elaine decided she wanted her own Superpass, so she became a venue manager, and they were no longer together at the Fringe. It got worse, because whereas it used to be very clear of when the venue manager shift changed over, the later start time each day meant it got all mixed up. Allan would finish his shift, and have to wait for Elaine. Or even worse, the other venue manager would be late, or tutoring, and Elaine had to stay on. One time I went over with Allan and we thought Elaine would be ready any minute, but it was at least an hour before the other venue manager arrived. Elaine lost interest at that point, though she was called back one more year. She decided it was less stressful (and cheaper) to buy tickets than to take time off from work and then volunteer. I guess it was two years ago, they were hardly seeing shows, because when they were finished, there wasn't much time to see a show and still catch the Metro back home. Last year, Elaine didn't volunteer, and she actually didn't actually attend the Fringe, being busy with other things. Allan ended up finishing his shift, and then going home most days.

This year, I saw no sign of them at the Fringe For All, I thought that might mean something but it could also have meant I just didn't find them in the dark. Opening night, at least some people were wondering where they were. There was no clear story. Later in the week, someone said Allan had moved to Atlanta, which still seemed a bit garbled. Someone else said "they've broken up, and it was his second marriage". That sounded more like my story of the breaking up as a venue pair, but who knew. I kept meaning to email Geoff, to ask him (since if it was bad news, better to ask him than ask directly), but I kept forgetting.

So Allan, Elaine, Nancy and Geoff all showed up at the Beer Tent just as the now nightly fire show was about to begin. Oddly, I'd just been talking about Allan and his disappearance with someone. The news is that Allan sold his business to a US company, and will be moving down to Atlanta. It had been in negotiation, but it suddenly came up right before the Fringe, so he had to turn down his role this year. This is good news for him, not good news for the Fringe.

This likely accounts for the musical chairs the venue managers have been playing all week. Traditionally, you stick with a venue, but I've found all kinds of people at venues I was expecting someone else. Some just seemed to work a shift, others were just shifting around. A last minute cancellation likely does cause that.

Allan and Elaine got Superpasses none the less (and low numbered Superpasses), not that they can be much more than symbolic when issued the last few days of the Festival.

Five minutes after they appeared, long time volunteer Doris May showed up at the Beer Tent, almost as if she knew they were there. But apparently not. I haven't seen her all week, and had wondered if she wasn't coming.

It was Bloomsday yet not a mention of it. There were a few years when there were local activities to mark the day, and one year one of the volunteers was reading a James Joyce book during the Fringe (though it wasn't Ulysees.

Matt of Uncalled For is saying they had a campaign to get the Fringe onto the Mirror's Best of Montreal poll in the Best Pickup Spot. I never saw anything about that, and I still think it's odd that both times I voted the Fringe in that category, it got on the list. It's sometimes hard to tell whether there is truth to some Fringe statements, or if they are playing things back for my benefit. One year I told a volunteer "You can tell the technicians because they have their flashlights and wrenches" and then later someone tells me "You can tell the technicians because of their torches and spanners" (different slang for the same things). It just seemed like too much of a coincidence. Then one of The Sketchersons from about two years ago had a great story about moving a barrier to get through somewhere (I've forgotten the exact story, he told it better) and I mentioned it here, and then later he said someone had commented on it after reading it here. That seems to odd to be true, so I can't help but wonder if things get garbled through lack of sleep.

A quick search shows I've moved up in the world, I get hit number 22 at google if I enter "montreal Fringe" (though, it's the page about Bringing William Shatner to the Fringe). I think this is better than before, there is so much clutter it's hard to remember and I don't do it often nowadays, but as I recall I was actually closer to the top of the returns last Fringe when I'd only had the page up for a few weeks. Thanks Annette.

This really has nothing to do with the Fringe, but someone starts a long rant, I guess you might say about men and women, Sympathy for the Devil after watching Maxim & Cosmo.

June 15, 2007

I don't know whether this was brought by someone trying to bring civility to the Beer Tent, or someone got scammed into buying a Beer Plant. (It reminds me of all the times I find beer cups (and beer bottles elsewhere) that someone has left a bit of beer in, making me wonder if they think leaving a bit will make it multiply overnight).

I saw Yabu No Naka: Distruthted. I don't know whether I like it or not, but it was indeed a different show. In the dark, it was very easy to forget that this very Japanese show did not have an all-Japanese cast. It's Japanese in the movements, they do it well, and it is a style I can't think of ever seeing at the Fringe before.

That too is the Fringe, a chance to sample things you wouldn't otherwise try. There was a tone to it that reminded me of Japanese films I've seen (the ones intended for Japan, not exports; for a while, and maybe still but to a much lesser extent, the Japanese Consulate here presented subtitled Japanese films at McGill in the fall, giving us a chance to see Japan more as insiders. And characters like those in this show did appear in some of those films, part of the culture. And I guess that's why some of the movement seemed familiar. They have chosen to present this piece, to share their art with us, and we can learn from it. At the very least, I suspect I'll be wanting to see Rashomon.

Take note that the troupe will be giving two workshops during the rest of June at the Playwright's Workshop, though they are very specific workshops. I guess we'll see them around still. And three of the troupe have been very visible this week, not just that chalking (who could believe a show could be responsible for so much death?), but working at the Beer Tent and out promoting their show. But, there's a larger cast, and it was only today that I saw them, leafletting at the Beer Tent. Or maybe I have seen them, and didn't realize they were with the show.

There was a certain desperation. Just a few more days (and we can sleep), and then it's all over for another year. The guy doing ..Numbers Up! was leafletting the Beer Tent, I haven't seen him around much. Oddly, I might have run up the street to that, if Yabu had ended exactly on time, leaving me five minutes to get up there, but that was not the case. There are acts I still couldn't identify, some seem to avoid the whole promotion thing (and it really shows).

But there is also disappearing volunteers, or at least volunteers that never were. Usually there are a lack of volunteers during the last few days, and I've always read it as meaning they jump ship to see shows with their hard earned Fringe Bucks, but given they were looking for overnighters about Wednesday for the rest of the week, it may simply mean that the early part of the week gets booked up first, the Fringe can't start without volunteers, and the later part just never gets fully filled. Some things never seem to get filled. The Venue Managers are supposed to have an assistant (at the very least, to keep them company and get them cold drinks), but that is sporadic and seems to get worse as time goes by. One said they'd had an assistant earlier in the week, for five minutes, and then the volunteer was recalled for some other task. But as the Fringe gets larger, more volunteers are needed for tasks unimagined a decade ago, so those that do volunteer get shunted into tasks that are deemed more important at the moment.

GM Geoff was guarding the Beer Tent today, no volunteer being available (because they were needed to sell and pour beer).

I moved beer bottles in 1996 when I just happened to be standing nearby when the truck came along, but I didn't formally volunteer (if it was ever really formal) until the strike of 1997, when I was backstage with a real volunteer and saw a sign saying they needed help on the Monday. They have gotten better about moving that sort of thing out front, but I still think it could be better. Work the crowd, turn audience into volunteers. It happens, one Venue Manager was audience last year, but it often seems to happen later, someone attends to see shows, and then the next year volunteers.

Watching Dickens of the Mounted, I was thinking he was actually British, but then I bumped into him today and it turns out he's not. Not a big thing, but I was fooled by the accent on stage.

I got a nod from the guy in If Tap Shoes Could Speak, I'm not sure if that was because he remembered me from when I saw the show, or some nebulous reason.

Thinking about how much work they put into the venue for Haunted Womb Tour, I realized that another wall to break is the concept of a show that you sit down and watch. Someone could find a venue (and it would have to be OFF, so it would be impossible to set up and take down between shows) and make a fun house or something experimental where the "show" is the experience. Think of an amusement park funhouse, but more artistic. It would be a nice short "show" but done right it could work.

Or I've long liked the concept of a continously running vaudeville show, just like in the old days. Get a venue, then book the acts, and no matter when someone comes in, they can see a mix of burlesque, comedy, standup, singing and whatever. The Hemi-Helmut Show back in 1998 was clearly vaudeville style comedy, and when I met them afterwards I was outright surprised how young they were, because they pulled that old time comedy stuff off so well. The concept isn't really different from the Beer Tent, but this would be a show that you pay money to get in, it would just be that the performance would be constantly changing. Make it cheap enough, and people could drop in for a bit here, and a bit there. The Beer Tent's entertainment is too much about drawing an outside crowd, to sell beer to them.

It's interesting how things go in the internet world. Based on the past, I had expected certain sites to have some stuff up about the Fringe, but most of them were duds this year. And maybe more important, nothing moved in to really take their place. Even the small blogs that started out so well with the shows they were seeing stalled about mid-week, I don't know if they stopped seeing shows or they lost interest in posting about it. Back in 1996 and 1997, we had a common space, however few read it all. But now everything is spread out, and instead of a cluster where any posting provides content so people will read it and stick around and even post something themselves, it's spread out and duplicated and one post here and one post there is not particularly useful in itself (though if they were all posting together, it would be different). I laughed last year when someone created some branded space for discussing the Fringe, "because so many volunteers have myspace" or words to that effect. But a space does not create content, content creates space. That's one of the problems I have with people rushing in with Big Attempts, they don't have a track record of saying much about the Fringe, and yet they think some special space will fix it. And pretty much anytime someone thinks there's a need for new space to discuss something, they haven't done their homework to find out what already exists.

One thing we forgot about was that it was Cindy Davis's birthday on Thursday. You might know her as an actor in Sexual Gore in 1997 (I think that was the show, if not it was Sexual Perversity in Chicago the same year), or as a sometimes venue manager (but not in recent years) or a tv and movie actor. When we were setting up, I asked Tristan if we'd see Cindy, she often does make a Fringe appearance at some point and often on her birthday, and then forgot. I hope Rumors on the CBC hasn't done too much damage to her.

I meant to mention Shakti right at the beginning. I have no idea why she's not here this year, though I hope I wasn't the only one to note her absence. She did her ten years, appearing for the first time in 1996, and every year through 2006 except for 1998 when the Fringe moved its date and she had something else scheduled. Her page has some lots of photos, and she has a mostly monthly "letter" of what she's up to. It's "mostly" since she misses some months, and there's nothing up for June. It's probably a good thing she's not here, I'm sure she'd miss Welch's moving up north with the cats.

June 14, 2007

So I've cheated. I will bake no more cookies this Fringe, having done a marathon (sort of) session to have some on stock for the next three days, including some gingerbread. Time keeps running out, and I know there will be things I want to do this weekend (like see shows, or the sidewalk sale) so I want to be able to get to the Fringe earlier each day.

I saw Haunted Womb Tour since the program said it was only half an hour, and I didn't get to the Fringe till late and it was right there. Don't believe the program, listen to company's name, Late Productions. It was supposed to start at 7pm, and while it's hard to judge fully when the starting point was, I'd say it didn't really start until 7:15 and then ran to about 7:55 or even 8pm. So much for that other OFF show I thought I could squeeze in right after. It's no wonder I don't like OFF shows; this one can afford to start late since they are the only ones using the venue.

That said it wasn't bad. They really have done a job to transform the space, and I'd love to help take it down just to see what it's like "normally" (I haven't done that in years, but it was always interesting to see what seemed like a nice small theatre space transform back into a larger and comfy room). It's almost worth it in itself, though in retrospect we didn't get much time with it. That explains it being an OFF show, it's very much site specific and it wouldn't be feasible to reuse the venue for other shows. We were let in one at a time, and we could see the dark room beyond. I almost backed out of it then, wondering what was about to happen. I turn to Deena Davida and say "I hope this isn't one of those shows where they throw things at you" and she pushes me ahead. No, it wasn't totally dark like those Noises in the Dark shows at Studio 303 (which suddenly stopped happening, without comment). You do get various sensations going through there, and a winding path it is until you come out at the actual performance space. The seats were relatively filled, there aren't that many seats but they are having two shows a day for the run of the Festival so I thought maybe attendance would be sporadic. I guess it was performance art. Loud guitar (and it's actually nice to hear electric guitar with fuzz and sustain, unlike today's bland music) and motion and dance and even some humor. Except that my mind was wondering about that other show, it didn't last too long. Maybe I should point out that I had been undecided about attending, because it is OFF and maybe because I'd had no handle on what it was really about. But I saw Technician Josh the other day, and he asked if I was going to see the show, and I guess that kicked me over, Josh having done the design, and basically the performers have helped take down Studio 303 after the shows for a while.

So the late ending meant I missed that other OFF show, half an hour to get there maybe was pushing it anyway, and there either was nothing to see at that time, or the 8pm-ish shows had already started. I ended up seeing nother more, a combination of nothing on (or nothing I wanted to see) and lack of sleep. I try to leave early, but end up waiting to help a venue manager move her table inside, and in the end I could have seen the show there and done the table afterwards.

It's interesting that when you can't classify a show, it's easier to react differently to it. A play, you can generally decide whether you like it or not, whether it's good or not. But The Haunted WOmb Tour and Mayan Time Reversal and others over the years and maybe others this year, most of us can't classify it. So I think it's easier to think about other things. I don't know whether I liked the Womb show, but all kinds of thoughts were fluttering in my head. There often seems to be an open-ended nature to it, the performers wanting a response but want you to decide how to respond, rather than reacting in some preconceived manner. Or maybe not, and the time I walked out on the guy just sitting there with the bunnies offended him, rather than make him glad I reacted rather than just stand there forever waiting for something to happen.

I guess the Porn Movie Night happened. I knew it happened later in the week, but somehow I'd lost track that it was already later in the week. Each day, the sleep deficit gets larger, and still there are more things to do that aren't getting done. But in four more days, we can sleep (three for those who don't come in to put things away afterwards.

Amy Elizabeth Blackmore has new flyers, for the last two shows. Take note that whether deliberately or not, she is feeding me things and so they get up here. There hasn't been a time since 2001 when I wouldn't have put up a press release for an act, and a few times I have put up pages for troupes at the last minute. The problem is this is an invisible webpage, and so most people don't even know it exists. I think someone from "indyish" caught on today, suddenly she had to go over there. The Fringe website (I realize why I've tried to ignore it this year when I used a different browser and it just jammed on the page, ironically I switched to that browser because the one I was using previously jammed on gmail's page, if you want audience then you have to accomodate them, not make them jump ethrough hoops) has a list of "blogs" but they aren't discriminating, so when Kate has an entry about an article in La Presse about the Fringe, that gets listed, even though Kate says nothing about the Fringe herself. Someone mentioned the Fringe in passing, something like "I have friends going" and then it shows up in the searches, and wham it's up, causing the poor woman to feel an obligation to type out a full page about acts at this year's Fringe, even though she doesn't even live in Montreal. One review adds to the base of reviews, but it hardly makes the blog a source of ongoing information about the Fringe. Meanwhile, I'm not there (though that might be deliberately), because I'm not a blog, and so the blog search engine doesn't find this. Regular websearches will find it, but you have to wade through all the junk. And there's so much turnover that anyone related to these matters wasn't there in the past.

Anyway, according to Amy's new flyer, here are the top ten ways to describe Hardcore Pussy:

1. Brutal
2. Odd & Imaginative
3. Leather & Whiskers
4. Clever Idea
5. Cinematic
6. Too Much Gratuitous Sex
7. Not Enough Gratuitous Sex
8. Sweet & Original
9. The Cat is Awesome
10. Experience typiquement
"fringesque"

Unless she suddenly appears with reviews at montreal.com (they have yet to put any up there, I wonder if they'll have any?), it looks like Fringe Oldtimer Janis Kirshner has only one review out there. That's the swelling of the press, lots of people getting creditation (and the press package that maybe helps them select what shows to see, I don't know how much of it all is by assignment), and getting to see shows, yet so little space that she only got one review in The Mirror.

I saw the Fringe Commercial tonight, I had caught it before the Fringe at an earlier hour, and paid attention this time. What struck me was that it looked amateurish. But it looks that way in part because it's in a whole different venue. The Fringe is good at what it is, but then when it tries to move elsewhere, the rest dwarfs it. It looks more like a festival that's trying to be big, rather than reflecting a well loved festival. I think the issue is that the Fringe doesn't belong on tv commercials.

I should say something about the cost of the festival, but I can't since I don't know what the costs are. The Festival gets $1 to $3 off every ticket sold (depending on where the ticket is bought) so if we use that 11,000 paid tickets, the income from that is $11,000-33,000 or somewhere in between. The Festival gets the money the artists pay upfront, somewhere from about $400 to $600 (which varies according to the length of the show, and maybe other criteria such as if they need a specific venue). Multiply that nebulous figure by the not quite 100 troupes that are at the Fringe, and that's somewhere up to $60,000. There is some government funding (though any time I've done searches I've never found a page belonging to the federal government that keeps track of current funding, though I can find pages that discuss older funding to the Fringe). There is the income from Beer Sales, which obviously varies depending on the weather and increases when entertainment at the Beer Tent is such that non-Fringe goers will come and watch and drink. There are the ad sales to the program, I don't know if that's a significant amount, but it's good this year to see more ads from new sources this year. Much of the time, it seems the ads come from troupes with shows in the Fringe, which seems self-limiting. And of course, the sponsors, though I gather to some extent they aren't so much paying to get their name up in the bright lights, but providing some service or such that the Fringe would otherwise have to pay for. Since they are interested in the Fringe in the hopes of reaching potential customers, the more attendance there is, the more they are willing to put into it, which of course drives the Beer Tent and the far higher figures that result from that attendance.

The other side of all that is the Fringe has to rent the venues, which I'm sure has risen in cost over the years. If a storefront lies empty for a long time, it's likely easy to get a short and cheap lease (the owners glad to see some income), but if you are using active venues, the cost has to be higher. There are all the technicians, and the staff that gets added shortly before the Fringe, and of course Jeremy and Geoff who are on the payroll all year around. Equipment rental, likely that can add up, but of course the alternative is buying the stuff (which requires money upfront) and then storing it for the rest of the year. There's all that advertising, and I bet all the odd little things like cable ties and safety pins add up. That doesn't really say anything, but it's amusing to see the other festival speak about how they don't have entry fees and they do things without a budget, when the reality is they are making do without a lot of stuff, and that makes a very different festival.

As mentioned in the list of "news" hits, someone saw ..And God Created Woman and blogged about it here, to the negative. I bring it up here since I took the time to make some commentary about political art, which the person seemed to be interested in getting. I've always seen the Fringe as political, just not of some specific ideology. How does it change people when part of the Festival is for the audience to stop being passive consumers of what's on stage, and go out and talk about it? It's political because you can win a slot and do what you want, the potential is there and the potential is great, but of course you have to either be good at it, or expect to lose money on trying to get a message out. Some of its potential is in it being smaller, you can't be much more than a passive audience at the Jazz Festival, but the Fringe is about interaction, and the potential is when people take that back to their regular lives.

There is so much turnover among Fringe Volunteers, staff for that matter too, that suddenly you realize some have been around more than a couple of years. Some make an appearance, once, and you never see them again, so it's like don't invest that much because you'll never see them again. And then time passes and some do come back, not just for another shift, but the next year, and that's almost newsworthy. They usually have time one year at a age of great change, and then are doing something else the next, so it's not unexpected. But then they do come back, and it's "weren't you here last year"? And then they come back the next year, and they move into rarer circles, those who stick around. It's only with the passage of time that you can see the length of their stay. There were volunteers who I thought had been around forever when I first got drawn in, but then a few years later, they disappeared too. At first it was a shock, but then as the pattern plays over and over, you realize it's the natural rhythm of the Fringe. They add continuity, knowledge that doesn't have to be retaught each year, and a familiar face for the audience who do come back.

And then it's embarrassing to recognize faces, but not be sure why you recognize them. One actress in The King of Fifteen Island seems very familiar (not in as I know her well but in "I'm sure I've interact with her at some point) but I can't figure out if she's been a volunteer, or was in a previous show, or merely reminds me of someone.

Then there were a couple of people who don't even seem familiar, making me wonder if Vinnie's profile of me has been noticed by some people.

June 13, 2007

It says something about a show (or maybe me) that I can walk into a show expecting a certain format and it turns out to be very different, yet I still like it and like it even more than that I would have liked what I thought I was going to see. The Mayan Time Reversal Acoustic had its first performance today, and I thought I should go since it's coming so late. Because the blurb in the program did say something about Mayans, it certainly implied some sort of play or close to it.

It turns out this show is improvisational music, and maybe even a bit of experimental music since some non-instruments were used at various points to make music or at least noise. In retrospect, the blurb isn't misleading, it is spelled out, it's just I can't see any reason for mention of Mayans. I wasn't the only one who had thought it was going to be something else. But I rather liked it (I imagine because I'm not adverse to musical improvisation in the first place).

It started out slowly (and I did wonder if that was a result of it being the first show of the Fringe), and was far better for the last bit. In some ways it was a treat, just sit back and listen to the music, not having to pay attention to all kinds of words, or all kinds of motions. There was even a video clip at one point, and someone who might have been dressed like Mayans were supposed to. At one point, they even tried to lure the audience into participation, handing out various noisemakers. The stage was a clutter of musical instruments and other noisemakers. I'm still uncertain whether these are people who decided to do a Fringe show (think of the scene in Revenge of the Nerds where they put togther a band), or are skilled musicians doing something out of the ordinary. Well, I think as time went on, the latter was the obvious answer.

We even got CDs, recorded by the group (the snappy dresser in the audience with the hat actually got two, so he doesn't have to buy the second part) and I'll try to listen to it before the Fringe is over. This is actually a classic Fringe show, in that I can't imagine there being a lot of demand among Fringe goers to see improvisational music, but for those who do, it fills their thirst. Gee, it should pull in an audience that's just tired of the same old thing. And of course, if they'd had the chance the troupe could bring people in from outside the Fringe. It also helps to broaden the boundaries of the Fringe, something that seems to be missing more and more as the years go by. Who can forget the 1995 show about The Beats, complete with a live band? Instead we get tap dancing in a play, and burlesque in a play, when we should be seeing someone like Mira Burt-Wintonick trying for a slot to show off some movie she's made. On the other hand, Flamenco con Fusion is a current example of this, because he sees no need to wrap his guitar playing in some piece of theatre. Play away, and let the audience fall as it will.

I saw Lost & Found: Goals for 2002 a second time, a combination of it being at the right time and on my way home, and because I like it. Just like last year, I want to write something but find it hard, not because of the usual "I should write something but I don't know what to say" but because this show appears simple at a quick glance, but is ultimately far more complicated. Again, I'm feeling there must be regional differences to dance, since there is a tone about this that seems to transcend trying better to engage the audience. But engage it does, and I feel some may think that somehow lessens it as art. But while I can see lots of vocabulary that I'd see in local contemporary dance shows, I don't see any broadway type or similar dance that is the mark of entertainment over art. They address the audience, and in a far stronger fashion than I can think of ever seeing before. The closest example would be Urban (Body) Parts and right after I mentioned to Lys Stevens that the MC between the parts acted as an intermediary, without changing the dance to attract a bigger audience. It's easy to "dumb down" a piece, far harder to get the reaction without compromising the dance.

Dance is about motion, and patterns, and emotion. People look for a story, and I'm wondering if I'm dense in not expecting a story. There are wonderful patterns here, not just in the dance but if you step back and take in the parts, you see patterns emerging. What patterns do you see, and how do you feel, is far more important than trying to impose some storyline on dance.

One bit is done to Pete Seeger singing Skip to My Lou, a song so many of us knew as kids. Yet the obvious dance, skipping, is not there. The music is the basic rhythm, yet the dance is far more intricate. The same sort of thing (though I'm not comparing art) as John Coltrane using the basic tune of My Favorite Things to weave in and around and make something far more complicated. In both cases, the familiar helps us to voyage into the unfamiliar.

I've seen performers twirl their heads in bowls of water, pushing the line of where dance ends and something else begins. You push the limit to try new things, to challenge things, and if they have a really funny scene with keys (the fruit of last year's show does not make a reappearance), it's no different from twirling in water just because this is funnier. And that's some of the complication, they aren't doing things for the simple way out, they are doing them in order to break old patterns. "Who knew dance could be complicated and funny at the same time?"

Or something like that, and this deserves far more commentary, and if I was on the jury I think I'd be picking this piece because there is lots to talk about. I understand exactly what they are trying to do.

That Link article that I used to desconstruct attendance, it spoke in terms of how the Fringe "gave back over $100,000" to the artists last year. But that's an illusion, since from the get go the artists get the money. A far better way of visualizing it is that the artists rent the space complete with technician (likely at a good discount) and pay into publishing the program. They benefit from the promotion of the overall Festival and get the cluster effect. But, it's not really different from when Ame Henderson did a show at the Darling Foundery two years ago. She had to scrounge up some money somewhere, be it her own or grants, rent the space, and then do promotion. Unlike the what the other festival wants to believe, there is very little that is free. So an artist that rents a space and puts on a show, of course, they expect to get the income from ticket sales. That's the way promoters work. The artists don't get money from the Fringe, they get the money from the tickets that are sold, and ticket sales reflect the quality of the show and the effort each act puts into promotion of their show. In both cases, if enough tickets don't get sold, the artist loses money. It's only non-Fringe, where there is a third party promoter who pays the artist up front and takes care of the promotion and such, that the promoter "gives" money to the artist, but even then it's no act of charity. That's one of the differences, to answer Peter Anthony Holder's question to Tristan on CJAD the other night, between Just for Laughs and the Fringe. In the former case, the acts get the money no matter how many attend the show, at the Fringe the act won't see income and can even lose money unless they sell enough tickets.

The Theatre in the Park took place as schedule at the Beer Tent. I wasn't around to see how it went, but it did seem like an audience was building up specifically to see it. I guess Christmas came early.

Either beer sales are really down, or things are working more efficiently. I haven't moved a beer keg since we set up the Beer Tent last Wednesday. I know last year my show attendance was quite small, a variety of reasons, but there were all the times I bumped into Tristan when he needed some help. That hasn't happened so far, and I've actually seen 12 shows, which isn't that great, but is more than many people. I've made it up to "beyond the arctic circle" to the 3 northern most venues, not once but three times, I just never got up there last year, and got over to Geordie today. I was feeling bad last year about not putting in an appearance way up there.

The other day, Joe was a the Beer Tent, and as he approached me, I buried myself deeper in my program. Then today I saw the actor doing the show and they mentioned how I had avoided them. I thought I was playing up the part, yet then I realized I really was wanting to avoid the guy in the show. He just seems like the only reason we can tolerate him is because it's an act, in reality we really would avoid someone like that. (But, I've not seen the show so maybe I'm misinterpreting the character.)

Meanwhile, he took the time between shows to do his laundry, hanging tshirts out on some rope from the door to the sandwich board. The photo is bad, so I won't include it. Apparently the tshirts are for sale.

They were playing hacky-sack way up at the Mile End Cultural Center, well outside, even dragging the Venue Manager into it for a bit.

Some (or is it all?) of the cast from The Haunted Womb Tour got on stage at the Beer Tent in the afternoon. I don't know if the Sailor Moon costume is part of the show, or just a prop for the Beer Tent. They might have made an appearance the day before, I know they were waiting around but I had to leave so I never saw them onstage.

The ice cream that remained from yesterday is still soup. So either someone has unplugged the freezer (the year a frozen yogurt company had a table at the Beer Tent, I think it was 1998, their freezer became unplugged at some point, making the yogurt unsaleable, though not inedible for volunteer. It was a bounty for Squishy, where is she this year?), or it just isn't a good freezer. It keeps the ice cold, which is its purpose, but that is more likely the mass of the ice combined with the insulation of the freezer. If it's frozen, it stays frozen, but that's all.

So someone is trying to connect with someone they met at the Beer Tent, see this post: Tom, we met at the beer tent on Friday, then the fight at the Barfly - w4m. Isn't love grand?

I forgot to mention, when Lys Stevens dropped by the Fringe the other day, I asked her if the temporary closing of Studio 303 (it's not as if some things weren't going on, and there could have been a 303 Prize this year since the jury wasn't getting paid) had caused anything to happen. She said the Quebec government had come through with $10,000 in emergency funds for 303, but they need more funding, and obviously need to go after new sources.

June 12, 2007

It seemed rather subdued today, just like Monday. Sort of a lull before the storm. Despite it being hot, it somehow hasn't been too hot (or maybe it's because I've not moved any beer kegs since last Wednesday, which can really wear you out in the heat). Ice Cream appeared at the Beer Tent, not quite for the first time since someone had some the other day. The trick is to dispense it before it all turns to soup.

I finally found Matt when I had change, and he still had bags of Uncalled For buttons, of differing styles and colors. You'd think they'd have them on consignment somewhere.

I saw Hanakengo, it being only half an hour and not too late. It got me up to the northern venues for the tour at least. My first thought was "they came all the way from Japan for this?". Yet, that's the point, they are presumably giving us a snapshot of something, Japanese pop culture or performance art or maybe North American culture filtered through Japanese culture. It's hardly a heavyweight show, and the essence could just as easily come from anywhere, even locally, yet there is a different slant to it because it's from Japan. It does seem more like pop culture than high art, which is presumably why the seats were fairly full at 10pm. Japan is both a similar culture yet also foreign. I once got in trouble with a Buddhist monk who didn't really fathom North American society (while another who had walked across the US in 1976 was more tolerant), and Japan is one country I'd very much like to visit to actually see what it's like first hand, rather than through the interpretation of others.

I then saw Pump Up the Jam I think mainly because it was on my way home and didn't start too late (and the timing worked so I could come down from Fairmount and Hanakengo to get to the Mai in time). I'm not sure I'd have seen this if I was paying real money, because it just doesn't interest me. Isn't this what kids do today, or has mass culture already moved on? I was honestly trying to decide whether these were performers putting on a specific show, or just doing something they'd do at a club some other night. They were good, and that does leave me wondering if they'd rolled the dice a different way if they'd have done a modern dance piece, or if this is what they do. I guess this is hip-hop, and a bit of breakdancing thrown in, but again I have no real awareness of current mass culture so what do I know? It's one of those five dollar shows (despite having at least six performers), and I think it's the sort of thing a younger audience would be interested in.

Orlando Fringe Festival Enjoys Record Setting Year is interesting in that it is quite detailed in the stats for the Orlando Fringe. Give us stats like that, and it's easy to track things. I did remember to count some seats today, Venue 2 has 5 rows of 16 chairs, plus some at the sides, so at least 80. The Mai has 6 rows of 14 or 16, so that's at least 84. Fill out the seats in one show, and you do get your Fringe Fee back.

Amy Elizabeth Blackmore says she uses the Tikki Lounge near the box office as a "time out" space, getting away from the crowd in preparation for her show. And now that she mentions it, I have seen Uncalled For having meetings over there, likely planning their next step in their plan for world domination.

Vinnie made an appearance at the Beer Tent incognito, without his Without Annette tshirt, most of the crowd wouldn't recognize him (except people who know him). They have some comments and some photos up at their website, but no reviews so far. They are on the jury for the new Comedy Nest prize, and that not only eats into time, but they feel they can't review the shows they are judging. Given that the Fringe tends towards the less serious, and I think rightfully so, the description of the prize "Best Comedic Play & Best Standup/Improv/Sketch Act" really covers a lot of territory. Found & Lost could almost fit in, despite being dance, they have that sense of comedy.

I got chastized for talking at the Beer Tent when Vinnie showed up. Never mind all the times I'm there and can barely hear people because the music is so loud. You don't put serious theatre on at the Beer Tent, you try to work the crowd. I don't even have a clue what they were doing up there with the swimming pool.

There seems to be no strong contender for the Spirit of the Fringe award so far. Usually, it's pretty obvious early on, even to the extent that last year I wondered if it was all planned, some show starts doing well and the Fringe says they want them back, so "here's what you have to do...". There have been various performers helping out, but not in the usual obvious fashion. Some came and helped put up the Beer Tent last Wednesday. Opening night, some were guarding the Beer Tent (and handing out their flyers). I think someone is working in the box office, but I may be confusing her with an actual actor. I hadn't noticed anyone working at the Beer Tent until today, with a woman from Laberintos working the cash, she jokingly handed me her flyer when I bought something but I don't know if she was really doing it to everyone. And then later, someone from Yabu No Naka was pouring beer. He said he wasn't really trying for the award, it was just a fun thing to do. Unlike last year, I haven't seen any of the inFluxx dancers working at the Beer Tent.

One reason things seem less hectic is that up at Club Lambi they take care of the beer themselves. Last year at the Academy Club we had to move up the beer, and that can take up time.

Travel Julie was sitting at her desk typing away, and her faithful assistant was sitting at the next desk typing away. And they both had their walkie talkies strapped on. It immediately sets up the image of them using the walkie talkies to talk back and forth, even though they could just turn and talk. The faithful assistant got ice cream later, but she never used that walkie talkie to tell Julie about it.

Robbie Dillon stuck his head into the park, waved, and and I honestly thought he was waving at someone else, then he came over, shook my hand, and he was gone. I mentioned him the other day, I haven't seen him in years. Odd.

It's neat, but also embarassing, about how many familar faces there are, even though a lot of the time I can't immediately place them. Last year, I saw a familiar face, and was about to say hi, when I realized I wasn't sure who it was. Then later she says hi, and I'm still not sure. It was only later that I realized it was Cat Lipscombe's mother, who doesn't just come to the Fringe to see her daughter's show. I feel bad about that, since other times she's said hi too. (I bumped into Cat going up the street yesterday, she said she's going out of town on Friday and is busy enough that she's not likely to get to the Fringe. I haven't seen her since December when she and Thea Patterson had one of their infrequent Kick! shows. I had expected another one in the spring, and when it didn't happen, I had wondered if everything was okay.) Someone came over to say hi today, I recognized his face and think he was a volunteer in a previous Fringe, and when I offered him a cookie, he took two and proceeded to give one to a woman standing nearby. I thought they were together, but no, she was just standing there. So she got the story, and the cookie. Oddly, it might have been an attempt at a pickup on his part, but he walked away. But there are all those familiar faces, and sometimes it's hard to keep track, did I meet them yesterday or last week, or some place else?

Completely un-Fringe related, but every time I've passed by Zeke's since last Wednesday, it has looked closed, at first I realized I didn't know the opening hours. But, then I realized he hadn't had a blog entry since end of May. Today he has an update, not saying anything but that the court date is June 21st, and some links to other sites that are saying things for him.

June 11, 2007

Sandwich Board Alley, coming into the Beer Tent

I saw If Tap Shoes Could Talk, which I found disappointing. Just like the recent wave of burlesque shows, they feel a need to wrap some exotic art form into a play, rather than just come out and do the art form. I don't know if they feel they can't just come out and tap or do burlesque, they misbelieving that the Fringe is a "Theatre Festival", or if they feel few would attend unless it was wrapped in a more traditional form. It's odd, the only times I've seen tap dancing is during the Fringe, in the early days I'd actually go elsewhere to see Ethel Bruneau's end of year tap show, and Wallabee Parade in 2002 did have some tap dancing, and now this show, but it should be seen in its own light, rather than a small part of some greater show. (Or, if there's ever a continous vaudeville show a the Fringe, tap dancing could appear at that.) Clearly this show was to show off tap dancing, and there were some neat scenes where it worked, but I think it would be better if they did like Flamenco con Fusion and just come out and tap. Make it fancier with a live musician (one spoken word act last year had a stand up bass acompanying her), but in a world where tap doesn't get seen much, just tap. Let's see the intricacies of the form.

I saw Confort a Retardement, and I'm undecided. This is the piece with the woman dancing in the wheelchair. At first, the wheelchair is too obvious, and I think it's because this is a relatively new thing. We have to get used to the idea, and the different sort of dance that it brings. Just like the wave of breakdancing brought to modern dance (and in a few years, either the vocabulary will be an everyday part of current dance pieces and the origins mostly forgotten, or there will be a decision that it's a false path, and something else will come along to be mixed in), it sticks out because it's not familar. But I also realize that choreography is actually the key, because when it morphed into a different piece, I realized I was less aware of a dancer in a wheelchair. It is ultimately no different than when there was a wave of big clanking steps (and clanking music to go with it), and I hadn't even realized it as a wave until I later realized I wasn't seeing that sort of choreography anymore. Dance changes, and sometimes it continues down the path, and other times it finds a dead end.

I do not have a report on TJ Dawes show on Monday, the one where others took his place. As the evening wore on, I realized that while 10:45 is not late, by the time a 90 minute show is over it's stretching things. I had my doubts about sitting through a 90 minute show, doubts I have no matter when it starts, so I turned in my ticket and went home.

Uncalled For has buttons, selling for a dollar each, the basic logo. I saw Matt with a big bag of them I guess on Sunday, but didn't have change, then I had change but no buttons. He seems to be the only one with the buttons. This follows the tshirts they had earlier in the week, which I gather are for sale too. I guess there's more in marketing than selling show tickets, and every time someone wears a button or tshirt, they promote the show. Reminds me of the time The Freefall Iguanas had buttons, actually quite artistic rather than the usual stamped out buttons, and mine didn't last long, the actual pin breaking off. I recall getting a refund, since there were no more buttons, but I wanted that button.

In the late afternoon, there was various bits of entertainment at the Beer Tent, including one pupetter (I don't know what show he's in, or even if he has a real show) performing for two attentive young people. Then Catherine Kidd virtually danced around the stage doing some spoken word.

For yet another night, there was juggling of fire at the Beer Tent after dark. It is neat to watch, though this photo doesn't actually reflect that. On the other hand, it is a neat effect to have them painting with light on the "film".

There is a whole area over near the Box Office, created by arranging the Fence differently, that Tristan calls the Tikki Lounge but it's not really seeing much use, and it looks like tables and chairs are being removed to the larger area. It is away from the crush and some of the noise of the stage. In the early days, it could be hard to have conversations at the Beer Tent because it was one big tent which contained all the voices trying to be heard over the others, but at least it was mostly about conversation.

One venue manager couldn't find her Superpass the other day, bringing up speculation that someone is walking around with it going to shows while she sits at a venue selling ticket.

Attempts at drawing a young audience to the Fringe has usually failed, Rick Miller and Stephanie (they later married and have a child) had Babaloo & Ganoosh in '97, though I don't know that it did well. I actually thought Rick Miller should have promoted Machomer to schools, the Fringe coming right in those hot days at the end of the school year where they still have to be in school but nobody wants to do anything and hence a field trip to the Fringe would have been great. There was an early show put on by a family doing Dr. Seuss, I missed that one because it ended its run early in the week. Marc Boiteux had a couple of shows around 1999, complete with his dummy Lazareth, I think he was disappointed the first year but then advertised outside the Fringe to bring in an audience after that.

But, one family is coming to the Fringe as a family, and now I recall them here last year. They took in History: Deleted Scenes and Extras Friday night (offering fresh out of the oven bagels to the volunteers), and were at a couple of shows today, including If Tap Shoes Could Talk. That's nice they can find shows that they all want to go to. Of course, in attendance at that latter show was one sometimes volunteer, bringing her mother. She treated her mother, it being her birthday on Tuesday, but those were my Fringe Bucks

If tie-dye shows up at the Fringe, it will be in tribute to it coming to the counterculture back in 1966 or '67. Back then, it wasn't a fashion statement. It was a way for starving artists to decorate the used clothing they were buying at places like the Salvation Army. And like a lot of things, it was in fact deliberately brought to the counterculture, with classes put on apparently at the San Francisco Mime Troupe loft. It was only later that it became something you wear if you want to be a certain type, basically by forty years ago right now, the artistic period was over and the mass was taking over, so instead of wearing things because they reflected yourself, you'd wear them because that's what you were supposed to do. I can remember making tie dye in elementary school, circa 1969, but a decade later it was all pretty much commercially made, losing the individuality.

There's this blog review, Fringe This! Dickens of the Mounted and take note the bit about about the Fringe website "But due to awkward formatting and busy graphics on said site". I've been called retro, but the whole point here is to make it easy to change things. I can slap up something as soon as I actually have something to put up. The glossier a website, the harder it is to do it that way. If the actual Fringe program went online early (often it comes after the paper program is out), it would be really easy to set up a completely different front page to access the content. The first year I had this webpage, I did that, each day having a link on the first page to the page at the Fringe's site where the shows for that day were listed. I can't remember if I edited it each day, or set up a link for each day and stashed the unwanted ones as comments. I cheated, I did look at the Fringe website a bit the other day, and waiting for the gloss to load remindeded me of what's wrong with a lot of webpages.

That article in The Link, Madness, mayhem and mania mentions that the Fringe gave back "over $100,000" to the artists. Yet that's a pretty low figure when you start doing math. Say there are a hundred acts (I'm not going to track out all the details, at least at the moment), charging $9 each, which means if all the acts got the same amount, it would be no more than a thousand dollars. But of course, some do better than others. It means each act sells 111 tickets, over let's say 6 nights, or 18 tickets a show. But some acts sell out, and other acts don't so the skew is different, and there are the occasional lower priced tickets. Another way to look at it, again using $9 as the ticket price, is that real attendance, ie the paid shows, is only 11,111. The article has Jeremy saying early figures might have been inflated, but even then the free outdoor attendance has dwarfed real attendance.

This was posted to The Mirror's BBS back in 1995 when the Fringe was over

Message 5 6/20/95 14:54
Subject: Fringe 95
From: David Gobeil Taylor
To: Theatre

Attendance figures for the '95 Fringe:

Indoor ticket sales: 10 062
Outdoor show attendance: 17 000 (approximately)
Beer Pavillion Attendance: 5106

Total Attendance: 32 168
(up 20% from last year)

Money returned to Artists: $55 573
(Up 16% from last year)
Financial statistics will follow soon...
(Unlike SOME organizations, the Fringe's books are public.)

You can always play with figures. How do you count "Beer Pavillion" attendance? Someone pokes their head in, does that count? Either these are terribly inflated, or the figures in The Link article are way low, because that isn't that much growth over 12 years. Of course, the "over $100,000" may be a really low figure for some reason, or a typo.

A different way of viewing it is to take an act, say they pay the full $600 to get in the Fringe. They then have to sell enough tickets at whatever price to recover that, at the very least.
$600 / 9 = 67 tickets. They usually have 6 performances, so
67 / 6 = 11 paying audience members per show. That's the bare nut, it doesn't take into consideration props, promotional costs, paying the performers, paying the playwright if it's an existing work, taxes on the income from the tickets (I don't know how that works, but there was a year, '95 or '96, when the out of town acts, or maybe specifically the non-Canadian acts, did not pay the required taxes, and left the Fringe with the tax bill, and for a while the stories suggested the debt would sink the Festival), and travel expenses (and eating out) if they are from out of town. Like I told Shakti a couple of years ago, doubling the number of acts (there were around 50 back in 1995) should show bigger ticket sales than double, because otherwise things haven't really changed, it just means more acts can have small audiences.

If I had real figures over the years, I would make the effort to put it all in context. Note that when David Gobeil Taylor posted that in 1995, the festival was under the guise of The Montreal Fringe Festival Corporation, a non-profit, but it disappeared back in 1999 with the coming of The Mainline Theatre Company and I don't know how it is set up.

Disclaimer. This is not now, nor has it ever been an attack on the Montreal Fringe. I do dislike the hype of the attendance figures that turn out to be about the Beer Tent, and while there is nothing sinister about not releasing concrete figures after each Fringe, they could change the image without damage by being upfront about this.

June 10, 2007

Buzz is up at the Beer Tent

TJ Dawe will not be performing at his show on Monday June 11 (at 22:45). According to something that must have been passed out at his show:

The performance on Monday June 11 of Maxim & Cosmo will (or did, depending on when you're reading this) feature(d) a cast of over a dozen other performers doing the show in TJ's stead a he (get this) flies (flew) to the British Virgin Islands for (get this) twenty-four hours to do a corporate gig for (get this) twenty-five luxury real estate developers. The gig came up at the last minute was just too goddam strange to turn down.

Of course, a novel way of doing things would be to take in this performance and one of the regular ones, and see how the experiment works.

I got a ticket, remembering that his shows usually sell out, though I don't know if there'll be a drop or increase in attendance due to the novelty. Of course, I can imagine some wanting a refund when they discover he's not performing tonight.

The pancakes did happen, though I could get any good stories from anyone. I obviously never made it in time. The Wet Tshirt Contest that was planned for 3pm did happen, but again no real comments and I missed that too (though not by as much as the noon pancakes. One contestant complained she never got wet, which I guess would have been a plus in this fine weather. They rolled up the sidewalk sale early, it was gone by 3pm. I had noticed the earlier finish on the signs, but it came as a surprise. Two whole hours, at least, that could have made great use of that fine weather, but for unknown reasons they had to put it all away by 3pm. Of course, they will have to set up again on Thursday when it returns (technically, this was a Grand Prix event this past weekend, and usually only goes up to about Pine or so, while later in the week it will be the actual sidewalk sale), which does make me wonder why they couldn't have kept the street closed for the full ten days. Cars are the obvious reason, but they have the run the rest of the time.

Junior Technician Poe at work

It was Kid's Day at the Fringe, or so it seemed. There was a year when there was a Kid's Day, it must have been 1999, but today it just happened. Lys Stevens came by with Vinnie, who first appeared at the Beer Tent two years ago when he was mere weeks old. He's right at the age of a lot of activity, Lys had to keep running after him. I think Vinnie actually took in a show, Action/Inversion but I'm not certain. Poe showed up, to work at the soundboard with his father Jody, he must be getting close to 3 years old. James Tiberius appeared, he marked his first appearance in the world, let alone the Fringe, just last year. His aunt kept busy chasing him, nothing like the fun without the full ultimate requirement of parenthood. Then a lot of other people strolled by with children, who just happened to be the audience.

Speaking of JT, I realize that if you reverse the letters, you get TJ. So is that why nobody knows TJ Dawes real name, just referring to him as TJ? Maybe he's really Tiberius James Dawe.

Flamenco con Fusion did a bit at the Beer Tent. At one point, there seemed to be a dance off, between traditional Flamenco and some variant that fuses with breakdance

Laberintos is listed in the program as 60 minutes, but when I saw it, it clocked in at 47. Since I'm not looking at the Fringe's website this year, I don't know if the times have been updated there to match reality (the paper program having to be printed earlier, it can't reflect last minute changes). But almost fifteen minutes can actually be significant, since it might mean you can get to that show over there that starts soon after. Or it may make some of the longer shows palatable; someone mentioned one of the longer shows actually cut back in time, but I can't recall the title and I have no way of verifying the information.

Late in the evening, Umbra sets up at the drinking fountain at the Beer Tent.

Awesome should never be used more frequently than once in a blue moon

The regular searches finds a blog comment about the Chinese characters on the Fringe posters (and program cover for that matter), Festival Fringe de Montreal. I certainly wondered what they meant, and without being able to read Chinese, assumed it was some reference to take out Chinese food. It seems like another less than great attempt at a theme, it might be better to only have themes when something fascinating comes along.

So I find a classified ad clearly stating they are in town for the Fringe, and looking for some fun. Because I don't know whether it would embarrass them, I will not link to it, but on some level I am curious about who it might be. Though it's odd they feel the have to advertise, since the Fringe has been voted as a Best Pickup Spot

I know I shouldn't, but with some glee I note that Wetlabel from two years ago, has dissolved into a blog, with no recent entries. It usually does work better to start small, and build on that and word of mouth, rather than a Big Launch first and then try to keep up.

June 9, 2007

It's gotten so large, they had to put up signposts

I did see Lost & Found: Goals for 2002 but I hope to get to the pancakes at the Beer Tent, so I won't write down anything yet. It deserves something coherent, and that takes time. They do have a show on Sunday at 3pm, and it's a two for one show, the next performance being on Tuesday.

There were some posters up at the Beer Tent today that I hadn't noticed before. And I didn't see any title. There was a photo of a woman in a bikini reading some magazine. Words like "sexist" were on the poster, and I thought maybe it was a bootleg, some third party making a statement about one of the shows. But then I realize it's ...And God Created Woman (you have to have the dots in there or else you wonder why it's not in the program index) just down the street from the Beer Tent, and only half an hour. Better yet, it was about to start, and that poster had reminded me that it was on the list of things I was thinking of seeing. It looked like some were attracted by the poster, since three young men not looking like Fringe goers came in (they almost looked like Grand Prix goers), and I couldn't help but think they were disappointed. It was a dance show (even though it's not with the others), nothing more. But it was a weird sort of show, because while the dancing seemed skilled, in the background there was a voice track that was basically of a political nature, and there seemed to be little connection between the two. It wasn't like Jane Gabriels (who did Fragments in 2000, I saw her in April at a birthday party and she said hi), using words to create a rhythm to dance to. It was more like, hit people on the head with words (and nothing really new, or said in a particularly new fashion), and then have dance so they have something to look at. It almost seemed like something from the seventies where there was a move to make a lot of art political, and the politics came before the art. They could have danced to any number of pieces that say something more subtly, like Nina Simone's recording of I Wish I knew How it Would Feel to be Free (it's actually the fortieth anniversary this year of the release of that recording), or Laura Nyro's When I was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag. The dance didn't really match the intensity of the words (or at least the outrage that the things being discussed by the words should generate). The piece can sort of be summed up by the fact that there was a Q&A afterwards, I'm sure someone wrote in previous years something about how if you have to explain a piece afterwards, you've failed. There are good reasons to want this to be better, it is dance after all and the things they want to bring up are of course of great importance. But it didn't really work, while I can imagine them doing either political or dance, and they'd be capable.

The first TJ Dawe performance was today. The crowd started assemblying early. There's some story circulating that he's taking some time off from the Fringe, being flown down to somewhere like the Cayman Islands, to do a corporate show, and then flying back. I'm not sure if the bit about a private jet is true, or was added in the retelling. He actually did make an announcement during the show, according to one audience member.

I thought that venue, at 4119 St. Lawrence Blvd, was new. But when I actually found it (a partial block up from the Mainline Theatre), I realize it had been a venue some years back for two years. It's some office space, and had been vacant for some years at the time.

La Fonte des Corps, a dance show at the Darling Founderie, ended its run today, me having missed it due to that long commute down there. Milan Gervais was one of the people involved, and she won the Studio 303 Prize last year. There are some other quirks to the programming that you have to watch, and I did go through the program but haven't had a chance to put it all together. The other show happening at the same venue Anesthesie Locale has one final performance at 8pm Saturday June 16th.

For a really good laugh, visit Without Annette's blog and see an entry from today.

Last year, on the opening Friday, baby JT dropped by, though he was asleep at the time. I mentioned it and said "I suppose babysitters will be paid in Fringe Bucks?". I mentioned it to Jeremy, and he said no, but he had given her a Superpass. Oddly enough, she shows up in a websearch, with this entry Oink (and some gratitude) where she mentions being given a Superpass and what she plans to do with it.

Here's a website about clowns, www.clownlinke.com I imagine useful if you like clowns, but it's put together by Adam Gertsacov who brought The Acme Flea Circus to the Fringe back in 1996. A four dollar show, and entertainment for the whole family.

After the Fringe for All, there was a lone flyer about something titled Yellow Fellas. Since I didn't recognize it as a show title (though I thought it might be an actor in a Fringe show doing some self-promotion, which did happen one year with one actor handing out personal flyers apart from his show's flyers), I tossed it, assuming it was some of the floatsum already at the venue. But, he was at the Beer Tent today, handing out his flyers. It still seems like he's not connected with the Fringe, but he has some movie title Yellow Fellas if I'm reading things right. The website is yellowfellas.com and that's all I know.

Apparently Robbie Dillon is looking for people who know him, in this ad. Way back in 1996, he was the Roving Rollerblade Reporter for Albert Nerenberg's radio show on CKGM (the sixth months or so they had Talk With Attitude, a morning show for the rest of us that started at noon. The final Friday of the Fringe, the show broadcast live from the Beer Tent (right in the parking lot of the Shatner Building), though I never saw Robbie wearing rollerblads.

June 8, 2007

I did see Action/Inversion (the woman in it was one of the Guardians of the Beer Tent on Thursday night, handing out flyers while doing the guarding). It's a 15 minute, five dollar show, and you don't need much more than that. It's break dance or hip-hop (I wouldn't know exactly), but without the music traditionally connected with the form. So just like the legendary Studio 303 Rubberdance performance of breakdancing to Dave Brubeck's Take Five, you don't have the baggage and can see it as dance rather than something to accompany the music. But it also, like Rubberdance and Solid State, bring a modern dance sensibility to the form, so it is somewhere in between. This is how new vocabulary is added, at some point in the future the moves may be so integrated into dance that it won't be defined as breakdancing. That's intriguing in itself, but the short length and low price is important. We don't see enough of those, and the Fringe should be about sampling new forms, not just being entertained. I'm not talking about "the shows are bad, so they should be short and cheap" but that you can fill a curiosity far better with a 15 minute show than a 75 minute show. I'd really hope more people who don't have an interest in dance might try some of the shorter pieces, so they could realize "that's not bad". I've seen far more variety of dance, because I've been to the Fringe and Studio 303, than if I only went to Place des Arts or even Tangente with their higher ticket prices. Each fills in a bit of the puzzle about dance. I suppose it doesn't matter if someone only goes to one dance piece a year, but I think it's better to get a good picture of it all. When you see Japanese dance juxtaposed with a far faster North American piece, it really does provide insight into it all.

Matt conspires with Andrea and some of the seven dancers from A Night on the Fourth Floor

Andrea Spaziani showed up at the Beer Tent, plus the other six dancers in her show. Who would have thought two years ago when she came to dance a solo piece that she'd be bringing such a large contingent from Toronto? Rare is the show that has so many performers, and rarer still if they are from out of town. They have to get them here, but they also all have to have available time. I said "so you seem happy with your Fringe performances here" and she said "It's like summer camp" which is not the first time I've heard that. I don't know whether I'll be successful, but I'm hoping one of those six might feel up to reviewing dance shows.

The cool Uncalled For minibus gets a makeover.

The Uncalled For minibus got a paint job, I rather liked it before. I may get around to uploading the before and after photo later. I realized we could use it for much more than going for ice cream, have it tour the venue circuit, picking up people and dropping them off to those far flung venues. For most troupes, the budget would likely only allow one of those bikes with lots of seats and peddles, so a group would go cycling off to the next venue.

These crime scene chalkings are appearing all over the place. Thursday night, I came out of Club Lambi, and an asian woman very formally gives me a flyer for Yuba No Naka: Distruthted. Yet, the next day they are chalking up the place, and seem to have a very good Fringe sensibility. The blurb suggests something quite formal, yet meeting the people doing it suggests something a little less staid.

Venue 2, the Ukrainian National Federation, has air conditioning. I toured most of the venues, and it's actually west of Park Avenue, though only a block or two. It's right on a far corner. It also features a venue manager who wasn't in attendance last year, making me think she had retired, but no she's back.

The Venue Manager at Venue 4, 4247 St. Dominique (just at the back door of the Beer Tent) was way up at one of the northern venues last year. She lucked out, she's now in a more central location.

Maybe it really is a pickup spot. Some woman selling art suddenly approaches me and starts commenting on my hair, so sudden that I didn't know how to react.

Myspace is not the internet. There is something outrageous about finding a Montreal Fringe hit from a websearch, and finding they want people to post things about Montreal, but it's behind a wall. I refuse to sign up for one of those trendy branded spacing just so I can send someone some email. But a lot of the acts are that way, they might as well not have internet access, because they are as isolated from me as when they'd only interact with the Fringe staff. And in this case, the blog wants content for its own purposes. That has to be the case since otherwise they'd have done websearches themselves and would have a very good clue of what people are doing here in Montreal.

You do searches to see what others are doing, to see what's being said, like the time I found some right wing group complaining about the Fringe getting government funding, because they took issue with some of the show titles. Same with Mindyish/Indyish (the former because I notice their logo has a bit of thread that forms an "M" making it Mindyish). They come carpetbagging in, oblivious to the long (but not too deep) history of the Montreal Fringe online, and rather than get together with their seniors, and ask "what can we bring to the scene" they think they can do it all just by imposing their vision.

I don't see them as a service, I see them as self-promoters. If you can lure people to your business site, then hey, they might buy something, and no matter how "indyish" they are, that's the purpose. They ultimately are no different than that website that came by last year blowing their horn, trying to get people to provide content, or the year there was the "murder mystery" where that site too "allowed" us to write commentary about Fringe shows, or Wetlabel a few years back who advertised on the buzz sheets, rather than use lesser means of promotion, and then never touched the Fringe after that year.

Yes, when Blork reviewed Fringe shows (and they were good reviews, in that they were longer than most newspaper coverage, and they told us something about the show), of course he was wanting you to come to his site. But that was to read his "product", ie his words, and since the site is about that, then he has no deeper motive. He added significantly to the review base those years he reviewed shows, but it was only about the last year that the Fringe saw any purpose in linking from their site to his. Sponsors get links, but those who add something to the mix don't. (And yes, the same can be said about Without Annette. They may have ulterior motives, I don't have a clue, but they aren't out promoting their site, while the reviews deserve attention.) Let the content speak first, and if it's worthwhile, then it will get attention. Too many groups have come to the Fringe where their website comes first, and often their content is lacking.

I've done deep searches for six or seven years, and most of the hits are junk, "I'm going to the Fringe later" or yet another say nothing "the montreal Fringe happens in early June". You have to wade through all of that junk to find the real hits, the artists or the people who have something to say. It doesn't help that not only does the Montreal Fringe have no real Internet Strategy, but neither does CAFF. But since all the work I've done on creating internet strategy here has only mildly been paid attention to, then we couldn't set the standard for CAFF and the other Fringes. I can remember a year when I found an announcement, the usual self-serving announcement, where some third party was glad to announce that they were going to make a Really Good Website for CAFF, and that never happened. When a website finally arrived, it was very late. But even then, they made it so it's not all-browser friendly (it finally took a chance visit with a graphic browser to find that there was more to the site than I had thought), but there are still way too many lists of Fringe Festivals sprinkled around the internet, when such sites should be pointing to a master list at the CAFF website. I remember one year (at least) going through the list of Fringes, trying to create a list of dates (which someone undoubtedly had but couldn't be bothered to let it loose) and not only did many of the Fringes not have any information up in the fall about the next year's Festival, but there were all these out of date lists of when the various Fringes would take place. The internet is precisely what it was like at the Fringe in the early days, troupes eager to reach the audience, with a heavy element of personal interaction, and moving around the blockage of old media. Yet for all the internet access the artists now have, in a lot of cases it actually hasn't done much for them.

Completely unrelated to the Fringe, the Tangente program for 2007-2008 arrived in the mail. So one can plan ahead, maybe even buy one of those passes that gets you into all the shows and saves a fair amount of money.

There's nothing like the smell of burnt cookies to put a damper on things. Not many were lost, but it's a smell that fills the place and you can't get away from it.

Alan Arkin is in town filming the movie Get Smart, where he plays The Chief. If he wants to come to Our Little Fringe, he can have some of my Fringe Bucks to see shows. We could even give him the Key to the Fringe, which is awaiting William Shatner's arrival (I can always make another one later). After all, he was an original member of Second City, and we have had various acts with some connection to that Comedy Institution over the years. And he sung with Lee Hays in The Babysitters (a folk group, I have them on a collection of covers of Woody Guthrie songs). Though, I must say, I think he'd make a better Siegfried than The Chief; think of The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming where he plays a Russian submarine captain, decked out in a leather jacket, and that fits the Siegfried well.

June 7, 2007

It was hardly decent weather for the Fringe Opening. I've seen worse, and it could have rained, but there were still quite a few volunteers shivering as the stood in place. At least when we put up the Beer Tent, much of the time we were active.

The sidewalk sale is in progress, this week a combination Grand Prix and traditional sidewalk sale (Grand Prix weekend has tended to close only the lower blocks, with the fashion and restaurants). It seemed like the Grand Prix suff was bigger than usual, complete with a large Playstation area (near where the Fringe's Beer Tent was one year), and all kinds of giveaways and women in skimpy outfits. And maybe I just never noticed, but obvious tourists taking it all in. The further up you go, the more the traditional sidewalk sale takes over. Santropol Roulant had their usual booth selling tshirts (it's further up than usual, just a bit higher than the Beer Tent). Welch's is obviously missing, and I will miss the chance to have something to do while watching the crowds pass by. (On the other hand, they had tables of $1 books out last Friday during the St. Viateur street festival, and I got a hopefully complete copy of that book of John Steinbeck letters.) It's the usual scene, new things taking over from failed businesses, lots of food and parachuted in jewelry tables, surprisingly little everyday things.

Things were in place at the Beer Tent by the time I arrived about 5pm. I even found some wood on the way over to cover the hole in the ground in front of the sound tent, a traditional hazard, especially when moving beer kegs. The artists starting circling soon after, looking like they were revving their engines in anticipation of the Opening Whistle (yes, some guy did have a whistle to blow), right exactly at 6pm. Though, some started early, hitting the outside surfaces of the fence, while others prepared for the whistle by stringing together flyers that could then be easily taped up en masse.

This whole scene was missing last year. The Beer Tent wasn't allowed to open until Friday, so nobody was allowed postering until then. Yet Friday afternoon when it opened, it was cold and wet and I don't think there was the event that it usually is. I know I never made it, and by the time I arrived, what posters were up already looked forlorn.

So it's good to hear the sound of ripping tape that is a hallmark of the Fringe. I've never understood why we don't get a tape manufacturer as a sponsor. Kathy Kennedy should have been around (maybe she was, I don't know what she looks like, and I saw no posters from her), recording the tape ripping and the other various sounds, and make some performance art out of it.

Wichita had girlfriends/groupies doing the work, the actual artists not showing up till the work was done. They had made the point of grabbing copies of Hour from last week, where the show as on the cover, so they could stick that up along with flyers. I met Monika, so that Mike Loves Monika on the back of one of their flyers has some truth to it (though it was still a publicity gimmick).

Some acts came in costume, particularly standing out were the cast of The King of Fifteen Island complete with crowns, and (hopefully) fake furs. One woman seems familiar, yet I can't place her, so maybe she's been in a previous Fringe show. Later, the Secret Service guys from George Bush, Live in Press Conference appeared, looking almost real, but I saw no sign of their principle. Since we knew they weren't real, there was a real temptation to try to bait them, not unlike that feeling that overcomes you when you see guards in bearskin caps. But, there was no principle, and I couldn't remember how that line in The Court Jester went, "The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle" (I had to look it up now) which if said loud enough, would surely make the SS jump.

Someone involved in The Procrastin8r was there putting up posters, proving the title must be wrong. If you aren't there at the opening whistle, you risk not having much space to poster. The idea being to cover as much territory, and especially prime space, as possible before others get it. Even half an hour later, and there is relatively little space. Of course, that likely causes creativity to kick in, though some of those spaces get used in the first wave too. It almost seemed like the dance acts realized this more this year, because there was a sizeable number of them, when most years it seems like they sneak in later and do it in the dark. On the other hand, most of the dance acts don't work the crowd well, always doing it quietly. Someone was postering for A Night on the Fourth Floor, which is in part Andrea Spaziani who came two years ago and did Jane and then came last year with Geordan Coupland and this year there are four choreographers (and I don't know how many dancers) so she keeps doubling. Andrea was apparently at the tech rehearsal.

There was the usual Guardian of the Beer Tent (I can remember when a troll had that task), complete with walkie talkie. But then I notice she is leafletting for a show, an actually good means of working the crowd. The shift changes, but the replacement is doing the same thing. And at least one of the shows was a dance show.

But the core of the Fringe, the actual shows that people pay money for, seems to get lost in the Opening Night Blast. They want to hear the music, not be pestered by troupes trying to promote their show, and the music is often too loud to have conversations. Plus, the crowd that's there to hear the music makes it difficult to move about to put up posters. At least the music didn't start right at six, which has happened at least once in recent years. As the sky grew darker, the performers for the parade started assemblying. When one of the Roller Derby Queens started top move around to pass the hat, I almost expected her to elbow people who didn't provide some money. (Seeing the Roller Derby Queens reminds me of the early seventies film Kansas City Bombers starring Raquel Welch. I've never seen it, but Phil Ochs was asked to write a song for it, though his song with the same name was never used in the end. It was released, though it's one of the few songs of his that I don't have.) But oddly, I somehow missed the start of the parade and they were gone with me only have a vague awareness of it all. A fair amount of the crowd remained at the Beer Tent, which likely made it easier to miss the fact that the parade had come and gone. I eventually got up to Club Lambi (don't forget, it's right next door to the swinger's club, and nothing was yet happening, but by the time I returned with the bundle of Fringe programs, it was very crowded and hot and the show was in progress. I didn't stay, making yet another blunder of indecision, since if I'd gone to some OFF shows I could have struck them from the list.

Elison Zasko, who's doing the OFF This Playland is in Your Head was at the Beer Tent earlier, even though she had a show at 8pm. And she was back relatively soon, faster than I would have expected her to be able to get back, let alone have a show. She said it went well, two rows full of audience. I do think that's good, opening night (when many may not realize there are some shows opening), and away from the Fringe, and contact improvisation to boot. I've been in shows where there was only one other audience member, so anything better than that is icing on the cake.

If only I could figure out why I got email from Stéphanie de Sève on May 29th. It's one of the few pieces of email I've accidentally deleted over 11 years, but somehow I deleted instead of saving it, and I never got to read it. There was no subject header, and I actually get so little unsolicited mail (except for spam) that I am quite curious.

Apathy is Boring is supposed to have a table at the Beer Tent this weekend. Someone had yet another gushy post, this time about the table, but the only Fringe relevant thing is that Illona Dougherty did Oonglit a few years back at the Fringe, winning the Studio 303 Prize. She even introduced me to her parents at the time, and I sort of wondered then whether I should know them. Because about the time she was attending disarmament rallies as a pre-teen, I was walking to New York City. And of course, I and a friend invented bike paths on the island of Montreal back in 1970, when I was ten.

Apparently ile sans fil is surprised that they are listed as a sponsor, at least according to this, fringe fest kept us as a sponsor from last year. I don't even understand why they'd be a "sponsor" in the first place, since they work a good scam. They talk businesses and other groups into letting loose their broadband access, paying ile sans fil an annual fee, buying the wireless router from them, and of course the business pays for its internet access. So ultimately it is the businesses and groups that are paying for it all, yet that seems to get lost. Under those circumstances, how can ile sans fil be called a sponsor? Yes, they should get a prominent mention, but not because they are owed but simply because having the access means that artists and others who want internet access from around the Fringe can get it easily. It's a tool to be used. But it's silly for them to be a sponsor when the Fringe is paying the bills. I can remember when CAM was a sponsor and had a venue named after it, right there in the Shatner Building at McGill, but since it wasn't open source, I didn't know about it until the Fringe basically started. Otherwise, I would have made an attempt to talk CAM into having a public access terminal right there, soemthing doable because the infrastructure was existing in the building. Yet carptetbaggers like ile sans fil can come in and think they can define how the Fringe should use the internet, while people like me have a far better understanding of it because we've been around for practically forever. But then, I had a better concept of what the Montreal Freenet should have been, and the gatekeepers couldn't keep it running more than four months in 1996.

Coincidentally with the sort of start of the Fringe (since except for the OFF shows, none start till Friday), Blork has a bit about that beer from Labatt's that is trying to be anti-Labatt's, readable here. It's topical since there wast article in the Gazette on Wednesday about this new beer, and McAuslin aka St. Ambroise was in the article. So when Mr. Beer came by yesterday to bring the beer kegs, it came up as a topic of discussion.

Back in April, I was walking home from Place Agrignon and came upon St. Ambroise Street. I'd never really given it any thought, but yes there is an actual street with that name. It made me think that after all these years, there's never been a tour of the beer factory as a Fringe event. Yet it would seem to fit into the general atmosphere of the Fringe. Apparently, McAuslan does do tours, the details are here. At the very least, we could organize people who wanted to take some time off from the Fringe to visit the Beer Factory.

So I take it hockey is over? So summer can now begin?

June 6, 2007

The Beer Tent is up.

While it could have been worse, it wasn't that great a day to put it all up. It looked like rain for much of the day, though it never did in fact do that. Every so often, there'd be a teaser of sun, but it didn't last long until later in the day. I think everyone was glad they'd brought an extra layer of clothing. I don't know whether it's worse to be cold, or for it to be so hot that merely moving one keg drowns you in sweat.

There's sort of an art to it all. Electricity has to be arranged, a phone line installed, the box office trailer brought in, the fence delivered and put up, and the chairs, tables and tents have to arrive, and at least the tents have to be put up. There is a proper sequence to it, but at times it can get off course. If the fence isn't up before the tents arrive, then the tents have to wait. If the beer kegs arrive when the chairs arrive, the volunteers have to be split between the tasks. Sometimes it can be a matter of waiting around, and then other times of big spurts of activity.

It generally went okay, though there was some overlap when the chairs etc arrived late. I guess the beer had arrived by then, it was supposed to come after. No serious injuries were sustained, though someone kept getting little cuts. The fence seemed in better shape than last year (when it almost seemed like someone had said "send them the dirtiest fence sections"). The cordless drill didn't really work, not enough torque (I imagine because the fence is putting pressure on the bolt), but I suspect it will be really useful removing all those nuts the day after the Fringe. On the other hand, having three fixed wrenches of the correct size went over well, they are far better than the adjustable wrenches the Fringe supplies.

A few volunteers brought gloves, but I'm not sure if the pair that brought basically mittens had them to protect their hands from rough work or because of the cold.

A major milestone has occurred in Fringe History. Jeremy did not help one bit with the setup of the Beer Tent. He dropped by later in the day to check up on things, but otherwise was absent. I guess it's a reflection of his trust in Tristan to do it, but also that the Fringe itself requires too much of him to actually spend time on the little things. That's kind of a sad change. Even last year he was mostly absent, but he was there more than this year.

Hence I was the one there with the longest history of putting up the Beer Tent. I haven't done it as long as the strike, but it was 2001 or maybe 2000 that I first did the setup, and that beat anyone. Tristan was a volunteer the first year ofd the Fringe, nobody can beat that record, but it's only last year and this that he's been involved in the Beer Tent. I suppose my presence helps a bit, since I at least know the outcome. There is a certain ambiguousness to the Fringe Oldtimer's Club, and I could now pretty much claim the title of The Old Man of the Fringe with the same ambiguousness.

A couple of artists helped out, until they had to go off and do their "tech rehearsal". Usually some artists do help to some extent, though it's never clear whether they are getting an early start on their campaign to win the Spirit of the Fringe award, or if they've got to town early and are bored. I've figured out who the performers were, and I was wrong. It was Ryan Costello, Jr., who's doing Clean, Freak and I didn't catch her name, but the woman who plays the maid in the show.

Unlike some years, we didn't have the flow of troupes coming by wondering if they can poster yet. On the other hand, we set up a day earlier than some years, with everything in place except for the sound equipment, yet nothing happening until Thursday night, so I imagine they'll start trying to poster Thursday afternoon. We didn't even seem to get the usual number of people who walk through the park, only to realize they can't quite go through because of the fence. (It's amazing when we take it down, soon after the regulars return as if we were never there.)

Hanakengo did walk down St. Lawrence Blvd later in the afternoon, but did not stop in. I got a wave, I'm not sure if it was because I was recognized. They always seem to stay in costume, but then who would recognize them if they went incognito? I actually find it off-putting meeting people in costume or a role when they aren't on stage. I found Hanakengo unapproachable last year because of their always being in costume. Even the Cheerleaders seemed to have that distance, since they too did not appear except in costume (and the final night, I saw one without, and I barely recognized her). Reminds me of the time Mask On! made their first appearance at the Fringe, when that was the name of their show not the troupe, and I bumped into them before the Fringe, leafletting. They were in mask, and I wasn't sure how to relate to them.

Deena Davida of Tangente (that website is too fancy for its own good) dropped by about mid-day, wondering where she was supposed to go to get her tickets. Kind of amusing she came by right when I was standing in the right place, and there were still brownies left. Then she was sent down to Mainline where the ticket booth was temporarily set up, pending the Beer Tent.

The jury is in place for the Tangent Prize, though it's kind of amusing to hear about how it was decided it would be a good thing to offer it only to the out of town acts, when I basically said the first or second year of the Studio 303 Prize that it hardly helped given that most locals had gone through 303, and what was really needed was a venue beyond the Fringe. The Fringe should never be a comfortable place, yet instead of a launching pad for new artists or artists who have something different to say, it's become too much of a permanent venue. It would be far better to work on more venues beyond the Fringe, so troupes can present the rest of the year.

So yes, it's kind of amusing that what I say doesn't matter, but then new constructs are created to react to my grumbling, when if they just broke the old constructs, things would be far better. Reminds me of the time I went to some session for En Masse some years back that Suzanne Miller was involved in. I walked out because everyone followed just like a mass, and life is too much like that already for me to want to be a part of it. Who needs people to feel sorry for you when those same people ignore you in the first place?

And ultimately it's fitting that The Old Man of the Fringe shows up to put up the Beer Tent with all kinds of things, like food and brownies for the volunteers and Bandaids and tools and enough knives for everyone, when yet another carpetbagger appears and they don't bring the proper tools. That says something about this indyish thing.

Mike Patterson did not show up to help, even though he had sort of said he would (though I had been joking when I said he should). I guess it's time for a newer act to work the Fringe.

Jem Rolls did make a brief appearance. And then when things were winding down TJ Dawe was sitting at a table, returning for something like his ninth appearance, having taken a sabbatical last year.

If only he'd brought Charles Ross to do the Star Wars show again, it being thirty years since the film was released. In looking for something else, I even found the Rolling Stone from that summer with the cast on the cover. ANd just last week, I scored "Star Wars Monopoly" for a dollar at a garage sale (I was looking for the game to make a bootleg version, Fringe Monopoly but I needed the real thing to get the details right and I gave Mira my set years ago. I don't think we'll be playing Fringe Monopoly at the Beer Tent this year, not enough time to make it, but maybe we can play Star Wars Monopoly.

Former Technical Dictator (that's a joke) Jody Burkholder made a late appearance. He almost seems naked without the title, he'll be playing a lowly technician once again. I thought he'd been that for a couple of years before he became Technical Director, but he says no, it was only one year. Clearly, he made a big impression back then, since I well remember him, but I couldn't name other technicians from that year without looking them up. Apparently, he'll be doing the sound at the Beer Tent, taking over from Danielle who did it last year (I thought I saw her at the Fringe For All, though). John Dodge is apparently taking a two year sabbatical, since he's not listed in the program this year. Interestingly, Jody is now on the Board of Directors, it's been some years since I could recognize most of the names of the Board.

Late in the day, they brought up the tickets from Mainline, so I guess the place to go is now the trailer at the Beer Tent to buy tickets.

Tristan had practically been sleeping in Uncalled For's minibus, mostly to stake out parking space for when the various trucks arrived. It is a neat bus, I hadn't realized they were so slick that they had one. I guess it was a short school bus at some point, but it's repainted and has the Uncalled For logo (and even the name at the front in reverse so it appears properly in rearview mirrors). Seeing it, I kind of expect to see their logo flashed on a cloud somewhere, indicating somewhere someone needs their help (or a sudden performance). By the end of the day, I thought Tristan ought to take us all out for ice cream in that mini-bus, it seemed to beg for an outing. Maybe we can go to the Beer Factory Tour in it.

I think I was in better shape at the end of the day than I was last year. But then, I took it easier, because of my toe. And oddly, I'm not longer being paid by the hour in Fringe Bucks, so maybe there is less incentive to work so hard.

My Superpass was ready, which is the first time I remember it being ready and waiting for me. I've won it four times at the volunteer auction after the Fringe (bidding with those hard earned Fringe Bucks), but I always had to remind them, even last year I didn't get it until later on Saturday. The situation has changed now, I've got it for pretty vague reasons, and forever, so I guess that makes it easier to put my name on the list with the Press and other who routinely get them. On the other hand, the venue managers get them, and there have been years when they've had to wait too.

And now, I don't intend to change my Fringe habits. It would be so easy to not do anything but go to shows, well not really since seeing even three shows a day is daunting. But the other things, which includes moving all those beer kegs, is part of the Fringe and I can't give that up, tempting as it might be. And neither will I load up on tickets from Day One, I really should do some planning but I want the flexibility of not having to go at a specific time.

I'm out of the running for Fringe Bucks, which doesn't really matter since the only thing I've used them for was to see shows, or bid on the Superpass to see shows. But I had been curious since surplus Fringe Bucks would mean generosity. I promised twenty to the Might Mira who may be too busy with her job at the CBC working on Wiretap (she started out as an internet, then got an upgrade to something like assistant producer), but has volunteered in the past. And I gave 12 to Magali Stoll (who was in the Mange Mes Pieds shows both times they were at the Fringe) simply because I saw her last week and felt generous. But I had hoped to keep the flow coming in, because one long-standing project is to buy tickets so someone can review the dance shows. I even asked Magali, but she laughed, the same sort of laugh I gave when she said I should do it. It's harder to review than to try to provide the essence of the Fringe.

June 4, 2007

I kept checking Amy Elizabeth Blackmore's website, www.aimsterproductions.com and it hadn't been updated to mention her show for this year, Pussy Galore. But then I notice it finally was updated, via a redirect to facebook.com This is not a good thing, though it's easy for the artist. Because when I use my favorite browser, I get a notice that the site won't work with my browser, which is incredibly rude at the very least. But I gather that facebook is a closed system, where you have to know someone in order to get access, or something like that. That's another no no, groups trying desperately for an audience can't afford to turn people away because of the browser they choose to use or because they don't already know the artist. This is the failure of the Fringe. A decade ago, we could have set the standard, but instead the Fringe follows. The internet is about letting information loose, not about constructing better distribution systems for Dorothy Smorgasbord Networks (oddly, Frannie Ruvinsky who came up with that name about 1981 appeared in the Mange Mes Pieds program the last time they had a show at the Fringe) where you only care about keeping in contact with people you already know. That sort of network was a reality decades ago, when there were only posters, telephone trees and nothing much else to keep people in contact. But the internet means the troupes need to work on reaching the public at large, to lure them in, and the notion that keeping mailing lists is the way to go is outdated. Pull them to your website, don't push them email. Once you start putting things behind walls, I noticed some myspace sites like that last year, it's not really useful to put up information about the Piss in Pool show if only some people can read it, then you are immediately limiting the potential audience. But then, kids today are too young for all that. The Fringe first went online in 1995, and anyone who was ten that year is now Fringe age, 22. They don't know what it was like, so they don't try to fix existing problems with the internet. They also don't know much beyond their myspace and facebook, so they think that's the solution, never realizing they are letting others define the space, for commercial purposes. "Web 2.0" can only exist in the minds of those who don't know the internet was always interactive and was non-commerical up until the early nineties. The kids should be reading something like this, What the myspace-generation Should Know About Working for Free instead of this bit where the only issue seems to be comparing myspace with facebook. Don't forget, there is nothing new about blogging. I did the essence back in 1996 every night when I went home from the Fringe, and even then the concept derived from paper publishing.

June 3, 2007

Rebecca says in email that there is an Origami Motorcycle, I hope I haven't spoiled anything, though the comment was ambiguous. Last year, there was a guy, Robert Lang had a display at the Redpath Museum of his origami creations. And an associated lecture. Apparently he is using computers to create intricate origami designs, less traditional than the cranes and frogs of the past. He was back in April to make an origami dinosaur, I had planned to go but never got around to it. Back in 1996, I started making origami out of the Fringe flyers, as the shows expired, and someone knew how to make a box and someone else a frog. I was distracting a venue manager the final weekend, so they sent rover Julie Tamiko Manning over to check on the venue manager. And Julie proceeded to try to burn a paper crane with a magnifying glass. There was a lot of origami that year. It's tapered off, but it sometimes appears. Methinks it will make a comeback this year.

June 1, 2007

I basically drop an anvil on my foot (not really, but what I did drop did as much damage) and it's nothing like the cartoons. The minute it happened, I realized I really should have bought those steel-toed shoes that I've been tempted to buy each time they go on sale. Considering its state, I was surprisingly mobile, though it does get in the way of various things I wanted to take care of before the Fringe. (And it more or less recovers by June 6th when it's time to put up the Beer Tent.) I once saw some material they give to real volunteers, and there was a disclaimer about how the Fringe is not responsible for damage to volunteers, or something to that effect. But surprisingly, I've never been hurt at the Fringe, despite ten years of doing the strike. I can't think of any serious accidents either, though one rover hurt his foot one year (and I don't know if it was Fringe related, or just happened that week). A couple of years back, we stood a table against a wall of the Beer Tent, and it suddenly fell on my head. It was a real shock, but for some reason did no damage, not then and not the next day.

May 30th, 2007

Coming back from taking the flyers I rescued after the Fringe for All to the Fringe office, I bump into one of the audience members. A frequent enough Fringe goer that I recognize him, though it always seems odd that much of the year can go by without seeing many people connected with the Fringe. It's almost like they get thawed out a month or so before the Festival. But I swear it almost seemed like a plant, because he made a comment about something I was won