Note: since I've started putting up some passages about Fringe History, I put up a list some years back of the shows that had been at the Montreal Fringe, it's here. It suffers because I didn't add each year as it came and went, eventually I will, and I have no material from the years before 1995 (in 1994, I didn't even keep the program, I can't believe it). Since I am the pariah of the Fringe, it's not like they'd want me poking around the files to do a deep history of the Fringe, and I'm stalled because I don't have material from the days before I arrived.

June 19, 2010

What a lousy forecast, they said hot (which was right) but thunderstorms, and that tends to me a sudden and hard rain that doesn't last long. Instead the rain came, and stayed for about 90 minutes. It was just sprinkling as I went into Mainline, and I decided to go to the Beer Tent before the Drag Races, I figured the rain would soon be over. Instead, the few people there got stuck, as did the people coming for the Races, and it even seemed like some passersby with no connection to the Fringe sought shelter at the Beer Tent. It doesn't even provide that much cover, unlike the old days when it was One Big Tent and except for the ground, we were pretty dry. Eventually, it did stop, and then some time later the clouds disappeared and the sun and heat returned, but not until it did put a damper on the day.

The Drag Races did begin before the rain had stopped, it was the only year that one could actually move in the Beer Tent while the Race was on. It seemed to start slowly, as if some felt the show should go on, but once the rain actually ended, it seemed to be the full blown race. Two contestants tricycled out past the InfoBooth and down St. Lawrence, I had visions of their feet coming off the pedals and then their tricycles would be out of control (just like when I was a kid), but that didn't seem to happen. Coming back, the InfoBooth manager, not the paid one but one of the loyal volunteers, had her camera out, and one contestant stopped for the camera, letting the other one pass. Isn't that the story of the Turtle and the Hare? Stop for vanity reasons, and you'll lose?

Every day there is the daily donation, where a group gets half the donations of the day, the Fringe the other half. Every or most days, the group sends some representative. Usually, the only reason you know they are there is because there is someone new sitting at the InfoBooth table, they are usually pretty quiet. Santropol Roulant earlier in the week had cupcakes, but usually the people seem distant and not knowing what to think of the activity around them. Today it was LOVE (which stands for something like "Leave Out Violence Everyone" but I'm not certain of the last letter. They were handing out their newspaper, stayed into the evening (when most of the groups disappear about 5 or 6pm), even got a real taste of the Fringe when they were stuck at the tent during the rain (and had fun, rather than complain) and enjoyed the Drag Races from their vantage point. Unlike the other groups, they seemed to have fun, which is good. I should have told them about the time Coretta Scott King welcomed us to New York City in 1982, someone who'd lost her husband to violence 14 years before, but still believed in non-violence.

I finally saw Molly and I have mixed feelings about it. I was intrigued by the idea, yet one reason was because I'd seen it before as mentioned down below, in other forms. It's the chapter that got James Joyce's Ulysees banned, yet how many are actually familiar with the book, other than the history about it? It's a written passage that people feel compelled to move into other medium. The show was well done, she moved around she was expressive and of course she has a non-North American accent, to add to the authenticity. But I kept wondering about the point, other than the novelty. I could just read the book. On the other hand, that may be the point, for the people who have read the book, or are intrigued, there's a story on stage for them.

The Superpasses this year are glossy, unlike the home made form of all the years before, though it's dated so they'll have to print more next year. Unlike the previous years, they have rules printed on them, most pretty obvious. It strikes me that there may be a lot more Superpasses this year than in the past, for the 20th year or maybe to boost the number of bodies in the seats. Time will tell, I keep seeing a lot of them. Meanwhile, I had a different number this year, gone is sturdy old 995 and even the 041 from last year (which I'd had some years back); but at least they finally got it right, not Lifetime Volunteer but Lifetime Superpass.

Various celebrities put in an appearance today. Sarah Moundroukas, former volunteer (I am getting the years mixed up, I think she first appeared in 1999, not 2000 like I said last year) and Coupe Bizarre stylist (or at least she was at one time, I don't know if she's still there) and of course a member of the band Pony Up. I haven't seen her in a few years, though unlike so many once upon a time volunteers, she's still around and we know where she went with her life after the Fringe. Then former volunteer, and current producer for Jonathan Goldstein's Wiretap on CBC (Radio One on Saturdays) Mira Burt Wintonick put in a brief appearance. She walked past me, I thought it was her, one of the few people in the world I can recognize with barely a glance, her recognition isn't a mental thing, it's built into my body. She was going to go see some shows, she isn't volunteering anymore. This year, well for another few weeks, I am twice as old as she is, twenty years ago I was five times as old as she, and when I first met her, I was nearly infinitely older than she was. She was seven years old the year of the first Fringe, and I'd spent an awful lot of time with her by then.

One old story from last Tuesday. I was going up St. Lawrence at 9:20am, and bump into Jem Rolls. "Are you with the Fringe again this year?" As much as any year, but the funny part was why else would I be going up there that early in the morning and then bump into a Fringe performer? Then I passed Mainline, and there was Paul Chambers, the assistant technical director, not the jazz musician.

This venue manager got tired of the soggy mess at the Beer Tent, so cleared off her table. Most people don't see the tables as they come off the truck since they are postered early on. But as the week goes by, the posters pick up the rain, and of course where they are serving beer, the beer itself, and it really is a horrible soggy mess. I was thinking last week, and again tonight, that really, the posters should be slipped under the plastic that is over the tables. The plastic seems to be there mostly to protect the tables from the horrible mess that comes as the adhesive seeps from the tape and onto the table (there was a time before the tables were covered in plastic, and it took a lot of time to clean those tables). Slip the posters under the plastic, and they don't need tape, but they are protected from the rain and spilled beer. It would likely be a better situation than we have now, where the tables are safe but the posters get icky as the week goes by.

Speaking of rain, the paper Buzz isn't doing so well. I can remember when the Buzz didn't get up regularly, so I'd start to read it out of the box, and Jeremy would gripe. Other times, I'd put it up but Jeremy would gripe if it was raining (well, it was going to rain later too, so who cares when it gets wet?). My solution was to put it under plastic, so the rain was not a bother. And that was when it was still in the Beer Tent (which caused people to actually go into the Beer Tent. Another Fringe Mystery, that year the Buzz was under plastic though no verbal or written response to my solution. That was actually the first year the Buzz was outside, in its current location near the Box Office. Yet, that's been watered down over the years, as the constant turnover means nobody really knows why the Buzz is under plastic, so it doesn't get properly covered. They use tape now, and a lot of the paper Buzz was smeared today, just like in the old days. I note that somewhere along the way, too, the lights on the Buzz and the newspaper clippings has disappeared. I can't remember the last time there were lights, but it sure isn't this year or last year. That was actually useful, even when the Buzz was in the Beer Tent, it was in the corner away from a light bulb and hard to read.

One of the few missed connections this year, boys with hoola hoops - 24.

Saucy Jack had its last performance today, and it did not take place. I thought the technician said nobody showed up. The performer has to be the King of Non-Promotion, it's the same guy who did that show about Eugene Debs in 2001, which I didn't realize until after the last showing. If he can't even get someone excited about the show to get the show into view, why bother performing? I gather the show wasn't doing that well, but as the technician pointed out, the show didn't even have a poster up at the venue.

Some shows could probably get by without posters or flyers, but that would be the ones that keep coming back, the ones that somehow get a lot of press no matter what. (I note that Uncalled For is one of the few shows this year that has a black and white paper flyer, virtually everyone else has gone to glossy cardboard, leaving us with little to make origami with. But surely Uncalled For an do it since they are so visible.) You need to work the crowd to some extent, and even then merely making the motions may not be enough. Heart-Strings did get some good reviews, but I'm not sure how they did overall. It was a show worth seeing, the one I liked best of those I saw this year, but the problem is, by the time the Beer Tent opens to the postering, it's too late to do a lot. The radio interviews are mostly booked, the advanced press has either happened or has already been set, I sure can't get away from Fringe things to put up flyers in odd places like the Ben & Jerry's or laundrymat bulletin boards (even a week before, I could, and do it as part of whatever else I was doing). Artists have said the Montreal Fringe is a great party, but often they don't make money here, needing to tour other Fringes to see a profit. I'm not sure that's a situation to boast about, yet the party aspect is what sees so much growth.

Someone once said the local shows make the Fringe look bad, but the local shows may have less expenses, they don't have to travel, they can go home at night, so they may be able to live with greater loss than the touring acts.

On the other hand, some acts have written Montreal off as a learning experience, I'm not sure if they are willing to do that or just say it after a less than great run. The pressure is less here than out West, so maybe some acts do like the chance at a dress rehearsal, get the show down pat, practice at publicity and learn from mistakes, so the next town they do better. On the other hand, we never really hear if they do better out West.

One thing about Fringe history, and maybe that's why Jeremy stopped his series at Hour, is that after a certain point, not much changed from year to year. The storefront venues disappeared, a combination of no empty storefronts and the Fringe having enough money to rent existing venues (like Tangente) or at least better locations where proper theatres could be installed (the Portuguese Association on St. Urbain is an example of that, it's a makeshift theatre, but easier to work with than some storefront. After a while, even the venues rarely change form year to year. The big story a few years back would have been those venues 30 minutes up St. Lawrence from the Beer Tent, I walk fast and yet it took me that long. That isn't a good situation, it spread the venues too far apart, and has been remedied. For a couple of years, the Ukranian Federation hall on some street way up across Park avenue was a venue, but that wasn't particularly close either. So the Fringe stabilized, and thus each year becomes pretty much the same as the year before, despite attempts at making each unique with a theme (which often does badly, like that takeout menu theme, or the vulgar finger, better to have a theme when you actually come across one that works).

What's forgotten is that creativity isn't a stable thing. There seemed to be much more variety in the early days of the Fringe, people willing to tell their own unique story whether or not they could attract an audience or not. Each year now, the performing is probably so much better, but how much variety do we see? Yes, this year there was science fiction, but there is a lot of riff-raff out there that isn't getting to see themselves on stage, fallout from the acts wanting to make their investment back, becoming artists first, so they seem to go for things that will draw the audience.

The Fringe is like, when it was new it was creative, to solve the problems of not getting press or not having money or dealing with turning storefronts into venues. Once it became fat, templates replaced creativity. Like a mature artist that can't afford to be creative because they are too busy performing the hits to a larger audience, or too afraid to be creative because they will lose that larger audience who expects the same, the Fringe is unwilling to take risks anymore, wanting everything under tight control because the risk is too large. The Festival stops becoming a vehicle for the acts, it becomes an entity in itself where becoming sustaining is in the past, but don't mess with the Beer Tent because that's the source of large numbers and thus power. That vulgar finger of two years ago is a prime example. "Hey, we're hip..." when in fact the Fringe isn't, it's lost that place in time where it could be trendsetting, it's cleaned up the acts so they lack a lot of distinction, so the Fringe has to pretend it's outrageous and all that, rather than being outrageous and all that.

Why did that volunteer come to the Fringe a decade ago wearing a dog collar and leash, holding the other end of the leash herself, just sitting at the venue with the Venue Manager and not really saying anything? That's a real story, and represents the Fringe as it was. The equivalent today would be having a volunteer dress up like that for some motive of the Festival. Likewise, when I did stream of conscience posts most days in 1996 during the Fringe, that was honest and an attempt to convey the Fringe to the readers at home, to reach into their computer and drag them down to the Fringe. Something the acts should be doing online, but rarely do (real intimacy is different from a faked up myspace or facebook account, complete with "friends" you don't know). This year, they sort of emulate that with Many from the Beer Tent posting at Hour, yet it's contrived, he doesn't sound that way in real life, it's advertising which is a whole different thing. Fringe promotion used to be big, now it's boxed into set times so it won't get in the way of the Big Events at the Beer Tent that is the money maker and the part of the festival that grows. Or tkae the Drag Races, let's pretend we're hip and all that, but how many gay shows are there, or shows from some other minority group? There was a time, maybe because of those who were writing about the Fringe, where the gay content seemed strong. I've said it before, but how many times have we heard black stories at the Fringe? The shows that come to mind were from out of town, as if we didn't have a black population, as if they didn't have stories to tell about being in Montreal. My friend Francine, and that includes her daughter, one time volunteer Leah, has implied that she's descended from slaves, a story that doesn't belong to others, but which is real and here. Instead, Instead, the Fringe can bring in Kalmunity and say "hey were black friendly", but that is distinctly different from having a non-juried show that tells a story about being black in Montreal, or whatever.

I went on longer than planned, but said less than I intended to, but maybe that's why Jeremy's history stalled. There were no neat stories to tell after a certain point, because the Fringe became fairly the same from year to year. Or maybe, he just got tired, despite Amy doing a lot this year, Jeremy is still around and it's had to find time to write and do the rest.

And if we want dance to do well at the Fringe, we have to take everything into consideration. I've said there was a time when it seemed like the dance acts felt promotion was beneath them, so they were fairly invisible at the Fringe. But if we want to be integrated into the dance scene, one has to be aware that someone (who will remain nameless) who is a "dance presenter" feels the Fringe is vulgar and is inclined to stay away. I haven't seen her this year or last year, pretending to be "hip" isn't going to work if it alienates the population you want to draw in.

June 18, 2010

For the fourth straight day, I didn't see any shows. I did get there relatively early, but the nice weather, the sidewalk sale, the volunteers, all distracted me. Early in the week, there is lots of time. Yet in the old days, there was a compulsion to see shows early, so you could Buzz about them and maybe get them an audience. I guess I've lost that now. But then towards the end of the week, not only are there distractions, and a realization that it will soon be over, but suddenly to see one show often means another show you want to see gets knocked out, because they overlap. Thus the decisionmaking becomes agonizing. I realize I do have some criteria, if it's over 60 minutes long I am a lot less tempted by a show, which leaves out some intriguing ones I might otherwise go see. I am interested in Adelaide's Sex Dreams, if for no other reason than that there is supposed to be ice cream, but at 80 minutes, it's long, and certainly too long for a late viewing by me. Some venues I realize I avoid, without giving it much thought. And the later a show is, the less likely I am to be enthused about going, I'm sixteen years older than when I first saw a Fringe show, and I was older than most back then. So I just sat staring at the program for a long time. Is it me, or is this a down year? After 15 Fringes, there is a limit on how "new" anything can be, especially when we aren't out seeking non-artists to tell stories. But the weather was nice, even talk of ice cream at the Beer Tent. I had a cone at Ripples on the way home, a long running audience member paid for it. The street was still very active at midnight or so.

The Missed Connections are way down this year, I don't know if it means the kids have moved on to some other online venue, or if it means they were all plants and the Fringe has gotten tired of it. Anyway, tonight I notice Shades of Grey where someone is wondering what's written on the back of the shirt, clearly unaware that it's a Fringe show (and it doesn't seem to be an attempt at a pickup, either.

Lying on one of the venue tables was this cassette, clearly promotion for autobiomusicograph(y)ie, the first time I've seen one. I'm not likely to get to listen to the contents until after the Fringe, but my first thought was, "that must be expensive". Then I realized it wouldn't be at that point, it's really easy to get even unused cassettes cheap or free at this point. It must have required work though, if there's content they'd have to copy the content to each of the cassettes, and then apply those labels.

This is <Funderstorm they walk around in those outfits, I think they had raincoats earlier in the week. I wonder if they deter rain, or bring it on? At least they stand out. The woman wanted me to take her picture with the troupe, it was a fancy SLR and I didn't think I could, so someone else did, and I grabbed the shot with mine.

William Shatner put in another appearance, at various locations, but then I lost him again. He keeps wandering off. Maybe he took the bowls I had for the ice cream?

They continue with the fire juggling at night. Tonight, I don't know if it's been there other nights, ihoopu.com performed in the dark just before the Beer Tent closed. It looks real nice live, but there is something to be said for a time-lapse photograph like that, which is really easty to do (capturing a single instance of the hoop twirling would be much more difficult.

This is what having a number of Fringe shows can do to you. Here's Matt Goldberg of Uncalled For and other shows, looking really worn out at the Beer Tent. This is normal, towards the end of the week, and I don't even remember Jeremy looking this worn out, even in the days when there was virtually no paid staff. I can remember the first year Uncalled For came to the Fringe, Matt helped us set up the Beer Tent. Those days are gone.

I'm not sure what was going on tonight. Someone showed up at the InfoBooth looking sort of zombie-ish, and they sure weren't with Shades of Grey. I can't think of whatever show they might have been part of, so maybe someone actually walks around like this. Then shortly after, this woman appeared, clearly that's a costume, but who knows what it's about.

One bit of old Fringe news. I bumped into Norman Nawrocki in the weeks running up to the Fringe (it seemed a bounty year for running into people), and he's promoting an every second Sunday series of events at Oxygene Park, on Hutchiston just above Prince Arthuer. On Sunday, it's supposed to be Theatre, I have no idea what that entails. Then Art (July 11), Comedy (July 25) and Dance (August 8). Time is 16:00 to 18:00. Those are the dates on the flyer, I thought they were every two weeks but they aren't. Norman always was the best dressed anarchist in town, I can't even remember how or when I met him, sometime 30 years in the past. He said Sebastian Yeung (did I spell that right?) has sold Joytoyz, the sex shop, which might be remembered for having a booth at the Fringe two years ago. That must explain an article I saw some months ago where her name was noticeably absent. I don't know how much she got for it, but it's nice that it's doing well enough that she could sell it. They suffer from not being at street level, but on the other hand, street level sex shops have to hide a lot from view, so maybe it doesn't matter much. Once upon a time, there was a sex shop on St. Lawrence, in the eighties just down from Frenco, and they never came out during the sidewalk sales, and you couldn't see anything from the street, the window pretty much covered over.

ihoopu.com or whatever they actaully call themselves, will be at the Beer Tent this afternoon, demonstrating hooping. They had fancy stickers at the Fringe For All, I tried to stick on on my bag yesterday but it fell off. They'll also be part of a show at Studio 303 on Saturday night.

Since I mentioned on Tuesday about the Fringe debt of the nineties, I should link to my post from early 1997 that is vague but at least puts a time on when we knew about it; the story wasn't vague when I wrote Fringe Festival as Fundraising Model. So we had read about the debt in 1996, I imagine an archive of The Mirror would find the story, it's too early to be online. And then there was a story around the beginning of 1997, since the Fringe wasn't sending out news directly at that time. Note the bit about concerts reaching an audience that doesn't have to be interesting in the product, the Fringe still does that with the peripheral events that they can sell Beer at. I still don't know why Playwright's Workshop isn't more visible when they have their annual raffle, sell to the public rather than the same people buying tickets.

Jeremy's history of the Fringe seems to have stopped at 1999. I don't have the programs handy to refresh my memory, but 2000 was of course the first year we had the Beer Tent in the present location, it no longer One Big Beer Tent, but the smaller ones you see today, which we'd had in the past for peripheral things like food stands. It was not the the first time we used that park, the final day of the 1995 Fringe, there was FringeStock, a day of music in that location, providing some outdoor music for the first time that Fringe.

It must have been the first year for advanced ticket sales, since it was the first year there was a place to sell them. (Actually, in checking something else I wrote at the time, it would seem 1999 was the first year of advanced tickets, maybe just online tickets? I can't remember.) The Fringe office was still a tiny space on St. Lawrence down near Prince Arthur, the wall was cracking and there was about room for three desks (and there was some storage space in the basement, which had no floor, just dirt). So they always needed some temporary space for the actual Fringe and some leadup to it, to handle the extra staff (which at that point meant the Volunteer Coordinator and someone, often imported, that carried the title of "assistant producer" or something, and I don't think anyone else). In 2000, it was a storefront on Rachel, across from the park. With a more public space, it was easier to add advanced ticket sales.

Admission was handling it, I remember asking someone "what about the service charge?" which could add a lot to the low ticket prices, and apparently they were waved. Advanced ticket sales changed things a lot, requiring more staff and volunteers, and of course breaking the experience of going to a venue early in order to get a ticket, and then waiting since there wasn't anything to do in the time before the show. I seem to recall Summer appearing the first year of advanced ticket sales?, just a volunteer who rapidly made a mark and seemed to become the defacto Box Office Manager.

2000 was the tenth edition of the Fringe, so there was a birthday theme. It was the first I heard of tv commercials, I made the cakes for it but I never did see that commercial. Loot bags were handed out opening night, I forget what was in mine. Since it was the tenth edition, there were peripheral shows, I think that was the first year, though they were scheduled at some horribly late hour, I want to say 2am but that seems a tad late. One act came up, driving continuously, took a nap, and then legend has it Jeremy didn't have the heart to wake them when it was show time. I seem to recall they won the Spirit of the Fringe award that year, but I'd have to check the records. Was that the year the Fringe actually did use a porn theatre? There was a film about the band Me, Mom, and Morgentaler and it was shown at the porn theatre just below Duluth.

It was a horribly cold and wet week, Jane Gabriels did Fragments, a dance show that had a rolling cast and content, she was importing performers from New York City. Mid-week, one of them shows up in a puffy winter parka, which wasn't all that off the mark. I seem to recall asking one performer if she needed any warmer clothing. I left the Beer Tent for some show, and it immediately started raining hard, too fast to get cover or get my rain jacket out. I was soaked, and stayed soaked through the next show, at which point I went home.

It was the year Ship of Fools came up from Vermont to do 1984, but had so much trouble at the border that they turned around and went back as soon as they got through Canadian customs. There was Beautiful Losers, the play by Leonard Cohen that came with press since it had been performed at a Leonard Cohen symposium a month or so earlier, and the fans had a good following, before commerce took over the internet. There was NOT the Same Old Song & Dance! which was an anthology of different types of music you'd see in musical theatre, kind of a sampler and I thought it made a good Fringe show. Ego Rites was performed, a one woman show from New Orleans where the woman wore a Wonder Woman costume and got onto the cover of a weekly. I never did send her the gingerbread cookie recipe like she asked, she had a site that was based on Flash, and I couldn't get in to find her email address. She said she'd be back, to perform in French, but I'm sure she's never returned. It must have been Maev Brennan's last year at our Fringe, because she missed 1999 and she was there in 2000.

It was the first year I had this webpage. I'd been trying to show what we could do with the internet since 1996, and ignored, so I wrote up a report, and still haven't heard anything in response, a decade later. Since some of the issue seemed to be that everyone thought making webpages was hard, I turned around and turned the report into a webpage, it took me a day or two, and I was learning from scratch. Some of it is still here. So not only was I writing something every day, but I was able to put up news as it happened. So when a replacement show came in at the last minute, I'm pretty sure it was 2000, I stuck a headline up about it, to point out that if something changes, it needs to be noted. It was Jairy's Sign Fell Down, yet Davyn seemed to think I had nothing to say about how to use the internet. It was also the year that a family value group took issue with the federal government for giving the Fringe $10,000. I wrote something at the time (which I later updated a bit), and it can be read here, though I'm not sure if even the updated links still work. Patrick shrugged at the time, yet months later they sent out email (the first Fringe mass emailing I got) making it sound like the Fringe would fold if we didn't do something about it. My response is here. It was late by then, but I sure was ahead of the curve. The Fringe's problem was never that they didn't know what to do in this matter, or in relation to using the internet, the Fringe's problem was they didn't bother talking to me about it. The email continued for nine years, even jumping to a different email address when I abandoned my ISP of 9 years at the end of November 2005.

The fall of 2000 meant the arrival of the Mainline Company I forget the exact name. Previously it had been the Montreal Fringe Festival Corporation that had run the Fringe, so this was more of the cleansing of the original Fringe. There was Solofest that fall too, though when it came to a second edition, it was announced and then rapidly cancelled, for reasons we've never heard to this day.

2001 was sort of like 2000, the first time in years that the Beer Tent was in the same place for two years running. The storefront across Rachel was still empty, so it was again used as an office. It was the year of the circus theme, and the infamous Fringe Button; you had to buy a $2.00 button to get into the shows, a tax on everyone. But complaints were constant, people losing their buttons and all that. I remember buying about ten dollars worth of buttons, and giving them away. The Button never returned, instead the next year the odious Service Charge came into effect; think twice before complaining, since it may get worse. Amy Elizabeth Blackmore made her first appearance on stage at the Fringe, in So Cruel, Teenage Wasteland which I remember saying at the time didn't really seem like the high school I remember. There was Debs: Looking Backwards to Now that somehow I never read the blurb from, and thought it was another show by Patrick (he'd had The Plateau of Deb Morgan in 1996) only to find the program after the last performance and find it was about good Wobbly and socialist Eugene Debs. I was the guy who would have promoted it, I've been known to walk around with the IWW Little Red Songbook, even had a run in with the cops on the 65th anniversary of the execution of Joe Hill. But it made such a low impression, I didn't even notice it. The same company, Tethersend Productions is back this year doing Saucy Jack, is it getting noticed? The shows still seemed classic, too many I remember to mention.

But the Big Story in 2001 was Car Stories. An off-show, the story still isn't completely clear to this day. It was thrown out of the Fringe, the first and only time, the reasons vary according to who is writing the history. It caused the Melt Down of 2001. The Gazette stopped reviewing for a few days as a result, and Pat Donnelly at The Gazette and Gaetan Charlebois at Hour stopped being theatre critics later that year, again depending on who's writing the history, they were fired or they just got sick of it all. Pat Donnelly tried her hands at politics, running in Westmount where a near lynch mob thought she was a traitor for running for the pro-merger party. It was the last year that Hour had daily reports from the Fringe, until last year (though they made such a fuss last year I think they had forgotten or didn't even know that the paper had been doing groundbreaking work years earlier, getting around the blockage of a weekly that comes out once during the Fringe). The comments section of that "diary" was damaged badly, as someone and/or his minions (always hard to tell since he was never compelled to keep a constant identity) just kept ramming the same story into the comments section.

Laughing Day Productions won the Centaur prize that year for Menace (or Perilicious, but there was no quote from the Gazette about their show since there weren't many reviews that year. They did go to the Centaur with a quote from montreal.com which should have proved there was value in the internet. It honestly seemed the most precarious Fringe year I saw.

2001 was the year the Fringe's website was a bit more than just the program, another Fringe Mystery since it sure seemed like I caused it, yet hey, nobody every acknowledged it. "If you're going to plagiarize, do it well"; in other words, if you really wanted to follow my words, you should have had me in the loop because I knew what I was doing. They had Buzz from the Internet but it was only old media articles that were online, not independent material that the internet is so good for. When the Meltdown happened, they didn't stick up a press release or even a post as things developed (there were some problems leading to the eviction of the show, and they Fringe would have been in better control by posting early rather than leaving things to rumor) or when the eviction happened, they did post a pointer to Gaetan's page where he told the Fringe's story. If you own the space, you can own the words.

Meanwhile, that was the first or second year that the Internet Wrestling Syndicate performed as a peripheral activity at the Fringe, the Fringe loving those fins of the internet but not really seeing the internet for substance. A lot of those carpetbaggers have later shown bad history, some years later one of the IWS wrestlers went to prison for murder. Thesetunes.org forgot to renew their domain, not a good thing when you name your company after your URL, and disappeared. In 2000, thefunniest.com was a sponsor of the Fringe, or as the latter put on one poster, the funniest.com which is a whole different URL. To this day I really don't know what they were about, they had a contest giving away an air conditioner but somehow the winner was not announced at the Beer Tent though that was the plan. They never came back, never heard from again; the next year Amy Barratt said their absence was the cause of the $2.00 pin. A few years later, one Big Website (I can't remember which Big Corporation they were connected with) were a sponsor, even had a murder mystery contest running, yet the winner was also not announced the final night at the Beer Tent like it was supposed to. Whatever that website was, they wanted us to flock to it and add our comments, the Fringe buying into the notion of the internet as commerce rather than community. Then there was Wetlabel in 2005, buying advertising on the Buzz forms. They lasted one year, the next they didn't come to the Fringe and then they disappeared. Is the Fringe still with ecohosting? A commercial product that sounds socially responsible, how is owner Giovanni D'Amico's trial for assault on prostitutes going?

June 17, 2010

I am getting old. I spent the day making brownies and cookies, so I'm ready for the final three days without having to stay up to make them or get up early, which usually means I miss the earliest shows (and won't stay up for the late shows, maybe the Fringe is for the young). But it just seemed to take forever and I got to the Fringe about 8pm. So for the third day running I didn't see any shows.

Everyone was in much better shape today, they all looked dried out from the rain the day before. The forecast hot weather of the weekend is something to look forward to, when it's that hot rain tends to be quick and fast instead of lingering, and when it's that hot, you can actually dry fast when the rain stops. If it's hot enough, ice cream will return to the Beer Tent this weekend.

Please Excuse the Mess was trying to drum up an audience at the Beer Tent at 23:00 as it closed down and the patrons had to find somewhere else to hang out. Where do people go after the Beer Tent is closed but 2 hours before Thirteenth Hour? I'm not sure if the cast was successful, they had doubts about a midnight show.

And where is Tristan Brand this year? He was a volunteer from the first year, and except if he missed some years around the middle years, he's been every year, though it's been over a decade since he was a volunteer, he being Volunteer Coordinator starting in 2000 and going for a few years, then the Outdoor Site Coordinator for a few years, and then he had a couple of shows, and made a movie (and was doing a lot of filming of shows around that time, then moved to still photography. I saw him briefly at the Fringe For All when he appeared at the front to photograph one act, I think Uncalled For, but haven't seen him since. They put him on the board of directors, and he disappears.

Pat Donnelly says Fear Liath has left the Fringe, some argument between the producer and the writer or something.

So yesterday Pat Donnelly said that Unbearable Prospect had pulled out of the Fringe. It's less spectacular than it appears at first, since they'd had three performances, and the last three didn't start till Friday, so they had half a run and likely factored in the four day wait between shows. On one hand, it is pretty snobby, too good for the Fringe, not getting a good audience so they pull out. Rare is the act that gives up, though one year an act came up from Vermont, had real troubles at the border, and once through, just turned around and went home, never coming to Montreal.

But, it says something very significant. They got a good article in the Gazette on Tuesday, and some of the cast were on that So You Think You Can Dance Canada which surely is leverage, far more people watch that show than come to contemporary dance shows. It would seem they didn't want to do promotion that is so necessary, even though that had that leverage. I remember when Solid State played the Fringe, they came with an outside audience, building a following in different dance circles than contemporary dance. And one year, maybe the first, they had an article by T'Cha Dunleavy (I likely didn't spell that right) completely away from the dance writers but in the circles that they were familiar to. It might seem they didn't know how to promote, maybe didn't know much about the Fringe, though lots of acts come here for the first time and somehow learn.

On the other hand, it is dance, and dance at the Fringe is fringe, like I said way back in '95 or '96. It gets portrayed as a Theatre Festival, no doubt helped by the Quebec Drama Federation giving up its festival of English theatre or whatever it was when the Fringe came along. Coverage by dance writers is sporadic. This year there was no preview of dance at the Fringe, and the first reviews for dance (though at least written by the Gazette's former dance writer) didn't come till Tuesday. And even then, it had the obligatory disclaimer, when very little dance at the Fringe is "kids putting on a show". Most come through dance programs, yes the quality varies but they aren't unskilled. Of course it varies, but lots of people are happy to see bar bands, and you can learn a lot from seeing lots of dance (which is easier when the ticket price is low). I remember one writer starting a piece like that, even though she'd been in a dance show one year. I pointed out way back in 1995, and still have the post to prove it, that two pieces that year had already been at Tangente. Since Tangente is about the step before Place des Arts, that has to be an indicator of the quality of the dance. There is the classic year when Hour barely mentioned dance at the Fringe, and I wrote a letter that they published which was a much better introduction, despite me not having access to press releases. LIke I said around that time, any fool can write that sort of introduction, but if you're lazy or you ignore the Fringe, of course you can't say anything.

Amy is hoping to get more dance to the Fringe. But she'll have to battle a history of genocide against dance at the Fringe. Way back in 1998, Enzo the technician figured the Fringe didn't want dance, since that year it was in a small venue at the bible college? on University. Once Jeremy was in full control, the programs starting saying something like "Montreal's only annual theatre festival" (I can find the exact words) and that went on for years. I kept sending letters to The Gazette about that, one year Matt Radz sort of addressed it in the preview to the Fringe, and Jeremy said they go out of their way to avoid that label. Well it continued in the program. That was why I brought in performing arts festival which they coopted at least one year, then festival of discovery which they coopted and continue to use. When the 303 Prize came along, somebody's press release said they'd decided dance at the Fringe was good enough that it deserved a prize? Come on, Miriam herself danced in that Sara Porter piece in 1995 that I'd already seen at Tangente. For quite a few years, the only time I went elsewhere during the Fringe was to Studio 303, that somehow let the June Danse-Vernissage coincide with the Fringe, the only reason it still doesn't is that they've eliminated the June show, yet they are having some show on Saturday of dance class graduates. If the Fringe was an integral part of the dance scene, there'd be no such conflict.

In 2000, Patrick said one of the things they'd hoped to do was improve coverage of dance. That was another time he was drawing that line he likes to draw, it sure didn't include me even though I had already made the effort. It's not a matter of making things better, it's a matter of overcoming the damage done all these years, as the Fringe let itself be seen as a "theatre festival".

When we put up the Beer Tent last Tuesday, a day earlier than most years, we had so many volunteers, I want to say twenty but I'm not sure if I'm just pulling that number from the edition of this year's Fringe. There were a lot, usually it's a small handful that sometimes gets better as the day goes on. I seem to recall some technicians helping some years. Except for moving beer kegs, it probably is the most physical work during the Fringe, that and the strike, and rare is the volunteer that keeps coming back. But it was great, I didn't move a single fence section, even though I've long learned to move a section by myself. I guess I just have to bring the food and the tools. Hopefully we'll have similar numbers for the strike on Monday, though that's usually offset by the late partying on Sunday night (I seem to be the only one who goes home early) and less incentive to earn Fringe Bucks, since the shows are over, and many don't know what they'll be doing next year. On the other hand, Jeremy said last week that they were short of Venue Managers, he'd given a couple of volunteers helping to put up the Beer Tent upgrades to Venue Manager on the spot.

I'm slow, but I did bump into Cat Lipscombe on the weekend, at the Beer Tent, her now almost two year old daughter staying on the peripheral. Odd, she shows up once a year a year at the Fringe, and I happen to arrive when she's there. She of course had a few shows at the Fringe, the two Mange Mes Pieds shows and then an earlier one of recent ConU graduates, I think Unusual Side Effects in 1994, I remember finding the program years later and recognizing her name.

With the sidewalk sale starting today, I guess we can get samosas from the Tibetan restaurant in the block below Mount Royal. I've found a more constant source though, Thali Montreal on St. Marc, an Indian restaurant for the rest of us. No real decoration, it's more like a cafetaria, but then it makes Indian food an alternative, rather than something fancy to do on special occasions. It's not unlike the low cost Chinese noodle places that have been springing up in the area, taking over from the old hot dog joints. There was even a review in The Gazette some weeks back, Casual Restos: Thali. I've been thinking of buying 10 or 20 samsosas to spread around the volunteers, though it's not the most direct route to the Fringe, so who knows.

One of the volunteers was wearing pearls the other day, I think a first. The Fringe is generally much less classy, though someone did pull up in a taxi the other day, though the show had just started and no latecomers. An occasional volunteer will go out for fine dining during the Fringe, but that is the rare exception.

Since the other festival makes mention of garbage, I want to thank the Mcgill student that moved out on May 1st, leaving a 17" monitor on the sidewalk for the garbage. I was looking for one, and I thus get my huge 19" CRT monitor off the desk. It's as good a find as the DVD recorder I found in a recycling bin last June 30th, on the eve of Moving Day. And when we were setting up the Beer Tent last Tuesday, I had a small Mountain Equipment Coop shoulder bag that I also found in McGill garbage, some years back. Nothing wrong with it, though I did have to run it through the washing machine multiple times to get rid of the perfume smell.

One of the technicians, I'm not certain but I think I know, has a blog entry up about the Fringe, Fringe Festival Love Letter. I should dig out those love letters I posted about the Fringe in 1996, maybe later if I skip some sleep. Anyway, some of the past technicians are not working the Fringe this year, but they've got Superpasses to see the shows. They usually miss out, they are the ones working the hardest during the Fringe probably, and most of that time sitting in dark and hot venues, making sure the shows run smoothly.

Two festivals start today, one which will always remain nameless, the other is the First People's Festival. I can remember going to that one year, so either that was when I wasn't spending all of my time at the Fringe, or they didn't completely overlap.

Curious about why Moe Clark (she's been to the Fringe a couple of times, doing spoken word as bumpers to the first Inertia Productions show two years ago, and was Poet In Residence at Westmount High this year, must have beat the time I was there and the riff-raff like me would sometimes get the afternoon off to see Hugh Hood and Mona Adilman) identified as Metis I finally looked up my family tree. For thirty years, I knew someone was Okanagan, just not which layer, I never saw the actual tree. I knew who they were, even found a book where they are mentioned at a garage sale, and then there was the time I took Mira to London, Ontario to visit her grandmother and found their pictures in an issue of The Beaver. Trying to find them with my name didn't work, but once I put their names in, wham.

It was my great, great, great grandfather Alexander Ross who came from Scotland, worked the fur trade, helped to found Fort Astoria in what became Oregon five years after Lewis & Clark (and Sacajawea) hit that point at the end of their Expedition, did some exploring, almost helped found Vancouver, then married Sarah the Okanagan (I don't think she was born with that name) and had 12 children, some born in the Pacific Northwest, the rest after they moved to the Red River Settlement. No wonder I'm attracted to the Pacific Northwest (including The Goonies that takes place in Astoria), it's my ancestral home. I always thought it was because of those weeks in the rain in a campground in Oregon in the summer of '63 or '64, I remember the rain, seeing a big net of crabs pulled off a boat, and cinnamon toast.

My great, great grandmother Henrietta married up, to the Reverend Mr. Black (just like in the Kingston trio song, but not the same guy), so ends the native connection. But her brother, James Ross was among other things, Chief Justice in Louis Riel's provisional government.

The marriage of my great, great, great grandparents is both odd and yet not uncommon, since at the time there weren't many European women out west so the men did go have relations with native women, but they had a European marriage and stayed together, unlike some who broke up when the man went home (and the native woman was not welcome back in England). And in what became Winnipeg, apparently there was some flack, and maybe even the family tried to pretend there were no natives in the family. She was good enough to sleep with and have children with, even marry, yet not good enough to embrace her culture at least to some extent? They didn't even stay in the Pacific Northwest, the people around what became Winnipeg were completely different people. The boys did seem to get a good education (it's amazing how much is written about those ancestors), yet was that at the cost of their native heritage? Who needs residential schools when my great, great, great grandfather suppressed my great, great, great grandmother's culture and heritage?

My great, great great grandfather died 103 years before I was born, to the day; my great, great, great grandmother lived 86 years, outliving all but one of her children, and dying 11 years before my grandfather was born. I still can't figure out why there is so much about them, was he so important, or is it that he wrote a couple of books about exploring and the fur trade? Or just that they were early settlers? There are apparently some streets named after members of the family in Winnipeg, and one house has been turned into a museum. So am I named after my great grandfather, my legal name I've never used? I was named after my father, but the next William up the family tree is his grandfather, my great grandfather. No wonder I couldn't find the family tree with a websearch on my name, I was using my legal name, and that's not in the tree. So I guess I can get a tribal tattoo now, just as soon as I figure out what that would be for Okanagans.

June 16, 2010

It was a wet day in Fringeville, I guess revenge for Monday when the rain stopped in time for the shows in the evening. I got wet making my rounds, decided I'd be miserable, so after hanging around the Beer Tent for a bit, came home, even getting baking chocolate on the way so there'll be brownies this weekend to sustain everyone during that busy final weekend. A lot of the volunteers were looking like prunes, all wet and cold. One woman who keeps coming back, even though she's finished with Montreal otherwise, appeared at the Beer Tent on Tuesday night in preparation for volunteering as a rover. She should have had the foresight to see that it would be raining today, and pick another day. She didn't even bother with rainwear, unlike many; she might have been better off bicyling naked.

Today is Bloomsday, there was a time when there were local events to mark the day, but I haven't heard of anything in recent years. But, you can celebrate by seeing Molly, as I pointed out previously, they are having a 2for1 Bloomsday seat sale today.

I suspect Cindy saw the bit I wrote about her on June 14th, since today she has an entry about her involvement in the Fringe on her webpage, I guess a little more polite than mine, Behind the Fringe: From the Fringe Photographer).

There are a few side issues completely unconnected to the Fringe, worth noting. Peter Orlovsky died on May 30th in Vermont, making the number of Beats still living even smaller. I don't remember him from the Kerouac books, but one day in '77 or '78, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts showed Pull My Daisy and Me and My Brother for some reason. I thought there was also a film about Desolation Peak, but maybe it was only that it was referenced in the second film. I got there late and had a front row seat, but way at the side, my neck still hurts. The latter was about Peter Orlovsky and his brother, I remember very little of it but his name stuck in my mind ever since. It's always hard to judge the secondary characters, there was a core group that obviously were the trendsetters and the actual writers and poets, but then others, were they just peripheral that got a chance at art because they were there, or did they have talent that somehow just wasn't recognized to get them to the top echelon? Peter Orlovsky, Neil Cassidy, some of the others, they were definitely part of it all, but would we have heard from them if they'd just lived their lives elsewhere?

The Jazz Festival has a weird lineup this year, Steve Miller, Boz Scaggs and someone else, I think Ben Sidran (and if not, then Lonnie Turner. It's an odd lineup because they were all part of the early lineup of the Steve Miller Band, the first three albums, Children of the Future through Sailor and then Brave New World, probably the three best albums. It's a shame they aren't performing together. Of course, Boz Scaggs went on to do solo, his first album from about 1969 is the best. CHOM used to play the 12minute long Loan Me Dime from that album. And then there was the hot summer day in 1977 when Steve Miller (the operator of The Seville not the musician) let me in for free to see Fillmore about the last days of the Fillmore in 1971, where Boz Scaggs performed some of that album.

And then in Ottawa in July, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh will be at the Ottawa Bluesfest, the closest the Grateful Dead ever get to Ottawa. They did play Montreal one day in August of 1967, at Place Ville Marie and then Expo '67, but never again. I thought they were going to play Montreal as the first stop on the Festival Express at the end of June 1970, but suddenly I'm not sure. There were rumors around 1987 that they'd play Montreal, but Donald K. Donald said that though he'd love to bring them, the market wasn't here (which I suspect meant not enough Americans would cross the border to Montreal). It's been 35 years since the film Janis came out, Budge Crawley seeing the footage from the Festival Express concerts and being blown away by Janis Joplin so he used her footage and added what else he could find to make the film.

June 15, 2010

It was another quiet day. When I stopped by Fringe HQ, virtually nobody was there, the busy drones off somewhere else. I decided to take the day off, not see any shows, so all I did was visit the venues and then come home.

Despite what I wrote yesterday, some volunteers do keep coming back. Spotted today in the Box Office was someone from the Golden Age who hasn't worked the Fringe in years (though she did make a brief appearance a few years back). She was volunteering, and turned around on hearing my voice, it was instantly like ten years ago. Living in Vancouver now, she's going back tomorrow yet volunteered. I imagine for old times sake. I never could figure out if I'd gone to the Freefall Iguanas naked, that she'd have done so too, like she said she would. Funny, I was thinking about her the other day, since she used to bring a toy duck to the Fringe and I certainly tried to get it away from her. I was reminded of that by the rubber duckies The Duck Wife has strung up around the Beer Tent.

I forgot, one reason every volunteer (and some others over the years) should give thanks to Maev Brennan who I mentioned yesterday is because she's the cause of the cookies. I worried about her not eating properly in 1997, she venue managering half the time and then rushing to shows, I shared some of the lunch I'd brought one day with her. When she ate it, I decided to make cookies and see if people would eat them, and they did. It was sporadic that first year and didn't happen until some days into the festival, but that's when it began.

They have St. Ambroise Fringe Mugs this year, acrylic or some other plastic, not glass. Here's Outdoor Site Coordinator Many (back for his second year in the role) trying the mug out. They were selling for $10 with beer, but today they were liberated, you can buy the mug empty for $5.50, which means the rest of us that don't drink beer can get this lovely souvenir mug. I bought one, it's not as thick as one I had years ago but how many times can we get Fringe merchandise other than tshirts?

The Fringe started spamming me in the fall of 2000, and it suddenly stopped back towards the end of September. I assumed it was just me, they having noticed my comments on Theatre St. Catherine and spam. But in talking to a few people, apparently they too stopped getting email from the Fringe. What bad email management. First they don't use a proper email list program, just popping addresses into their address book, and certainly in my case just adding my name without asking. But then when the issue of spam did come up last summer, even though everyone clouded it by talking about it like it was a language issue, they sent out email saying one could get off the list by going to a URL. I went, but it didn't work (something was wrong with the page). They should have simply said in email (since they'd already sent so much, one more didn't matter) that they were ceasing the email and anyone who wanted to still get it needed to specifically subscribe. They should have done that a decade ago. That's the history of the internet for too many small groups, afraid of the technical side, they completely overlook the social side. Theatre St. Catherine should have done that too, instead of the new management taking over and continuing to send out their junk mail to the existing list. If they weren't part of the venue before, how do they know where those email addresses came from?

Jeremy is doing some history posts over at Hour's website. A decade ago I said one thing we could do is post history at the Fringe website, as a lure so people would keep coming back to see the important news the Fringe had. A decade ago, the Fringe wouldn't even link to other sites (too bad Blork with his wonderful reviews, too bad Gaetan Charlebois and his daily Fringe reports that got around the problem of working for a weekly paper that only came out once during the Festival, too bad the artists that might have benefitted when the public was seeing more content about the Fringe). They still don't get it. Why give content to some other website rather than keep it on the Fringe's website? They did eventually catch on that the webpage could be dynamic, changing as the Festival progressed, instead of being a depository for the program. How many really read Hour's blog compared to the actual paper? For that matter, how many read Pat Donnelly's blog at The Gazette compared to the actual newspaper? Hence when putting up topical material, "Drag Races today", one has to wonder if there's any value. Yes, a decade ago I did post to the local newsgroup, but that was part of my ongoing attempt to show how the internet could be used; if the Fringe couldn't be bothered to have a dynamic webpage so when it was Kid's Day at the Fringe in 1999, then I'd do it using any means necessary. Instead of building a collective space, everyone has their own space, with all the duplication and competition that it entails. So what's the point of Spacing (I think it was) doing daily posts a Fringe or two ago about the free events at the Fringe, when all they needed was one post, to point to the Fringe? SInce it's competition, everyone wanting people to come to "my space", the same shows get reviewed, while there are lots that we really know little about. Some guy a few years ago was looking for "contributors" to post about the Montreal Fringe, yet he didn't even bother doing searches to see what/who was already posting about the Fringe. But he had the notion that he was some sort of "news site". Let's not even start about where this notion of controlled spaces came from, people who came late to the internet bringing their own baggage. Until we've built up a collective space, and the only way that sort of freedom is going to happen is away from commercial internet, nothing will be all that strong.

Anyway, Jeremy dismisses the Mcgill Years, won't discuss them. I have only a vague memory of 1994, can only remember two shows that I saw, and unlike all the years since then, I have nothing written down about that. Everything before was before my time. Yet from 1995 on, I may not know insider information, but I know the Fringe. It was a much quieter Fringe, with the Festival being low-key, as anyone who sees the programs from that time would know. No theme, no vulgar fingers, little gloss, it was the festival that you could love because it was small and exciting. It was the troupes that were loud, they needed to be loud to get the attention, of the press, of the potential audience. There wasn't much peripheral activity. Through 1998, you had to be a Fringe-goer to get into the Beer Tent (which really was one big tent), the proof being a program or a ticket stub. That did get watered down towards the end, the Guardian of the Beer Tent (one time a troll did it) would send people back to the InfoBooth to get a flyer. So how big could things get, that McGill was a step down?

It was a different Festival. Some acts made return appearances, but there was none of the annual shows that go on now. The out of town acts seemed nearly random, never clear why a given act chose to come to Montreal, and the touring circuit wasn't as well developed. For that matter, the notion of Fringe wasn't either, not just here but elsewhere. I knew about the Fringe in 1991, saw some troupe from Syracuse, NY perform outside the Beer Tent in '92 and actually saw some shows in 1994, any new business takes time to build a customer base. It was even a different beer company, five points if you can name it.

Jeremy says the debt drove the Fringe to McGill. Maybe, and then what we heard back then wasn't the story. The explanation for the move to McGill back then was to get away from the competition. In 1994, Cinema Parallel had a big anniversary, I guess their 25th, and showed a whole bunch of movies outdoors (that must have been the year of the movie marathon where one woman sat through days of films and they showed Andy Warhol's Empire State Building. And they had a Beer Tent where the Fringe has previously had their's, where the Second Cup now stands. The success of the event caused the October New Cinema Festival (whatever its exact name was) to move to June for a few years, which did conflict with the Fringe; I remember going to Fringe shows and then to free outdoor movies. One article even mentioned that the theatre had stolen the Fringe's Beer Tent site. It had to be 1994, I was out of town in '93, helping someone plant his vegetable garden. In 1995, the move towards McGill had already started, deliberate or not, with the Player's Theatre a venue and the P-Scene behind the High School of Montreal a venue, clearly changing the axis of the Fringe. The infamous Pepsi Wagon was there in 1995, which is what the Fringe had to feed the parking meter for. And I can name, but won't, the volunteer who claims to be the cause for the loss of the Pepsi Wagon, they having been caught drinking Coke in there. The debt never got mentioned until '96 or '97, I remember posting something unrelated and mentioning Jeremy's skill at getting rid of the debt in early '97. If we're hearing a different history now, then it's the Fringe's fault, for either not speaking the truth back then, or not speaking their own words, so it was garbled by the newspapers.

The McGill Years were great. 1996 fully dragged me in. I even shuffled beer bottles to and from the truck that year, I was just standing there when it rolled up to unload. That incident even included the panhandler coming up to us while we were moving the bottles and saying "can you spare some change, for food not beer?". It was the second year for MacHomer still bringing in a big crowd, and even a last minute addition on the final Sunday as a benefit for the Fringe. It was the first year for Shakti, the first of the long-term acts, she lasted a decade before moving on. And the Free Fall Iguanas made their debut, sketch comedy but they went all out in promotion, getting away from the Beer Tent and trying to convince passersby on University to come see their show. They were like the Uncalled For of the era, doing benefits and arranging a website one year and returning for about four years. The promotion was a show in itself. The Beer Tent was in the parking lot of the Shatner Building and was still a single tent. Yes it was lively at times, but full of conversation. Some music acts were scheduled, but either they didn't show up or they didn't show up as scheduled, and the neighbors complained about the noise, which put a damper on things, the only time the Beer Tent got really lively was when the cast of Hard as Rock (one of the earliest acts I remember with glossy flyers) would perform. On the other hand, Heather McLeod would perform acoustic in that tent, and the sound from the talking would drown her out. The Acme Flea Circus came, a short and $4.00 show, you really did think you were watching a flea circus. It was the year that the Internet Fest, aka INET '96 took place, people from other countries coming out of the Shatner Building and looking at the Beer Tent and wondering what was going on. One can read the proceedings from the event. We even had a live radio show broadcast from the Beer Tent the Friday of the Fringe, Albert Nerenberg doing his talkshow on CKGM from the Beer Tent.

1997 was even better, the Beer Tent moved to the Three Bares Fountain. That was Helen's first year, I thought she was a Japanese performance artist when I first saw her with that hair, until I did meet the real artist. She'd sign up to assist at a venue, then go off for food, and return hours later, with no food for the venue manager. How I argued with Helen, how I liked her. She was homeless, I reveal for the first time, I learned a lot from her. It was Mari Osanai's first year (that was who I mistook Helen for), she too came for almost a decade, somehow never getting beyond the Fringe. Byron Toben would visit the venues with his Daily Playlette review sheet, and have monumental arguments with the venue managers about how it should be presented, then the minute he was out of sight, a certain venue manager would clear his table completely. Enzo the lightning/lighting technician, the first Fringe Technician I noticed to get mentioned in a review, would come out of his cave at the P-Scene, bow to the waiting masses (the handful of people waiting), then wait for his meal to arrive, too long an alley to go for food in the time allotted. He made the technicians visible, the next year Mark Baer? had a whole spread at his venue. Feed the technicians, and you get good technical work. Inmotion Dance Company came from Toronto, complete with a camera following them around, eventually they were a documentary on one of the cable channels. It was a year of classic shows, maybe helped because they weren't lost in too many, maybe because as the years go by it all gets watered down by so many. Danespotting was performed, with a lot of publicity ahead of time, which seemed like a change. I started making cookies, which has to be of some significance. Coupe Bizzarre had a tent on site, every time I walked past they seemed to look at me and think "boy, we could do a lot with that hair", and then towards the end, a lot of the volunteers got new hairstyles.. What was the name of that sandwich place that had the tent? We'd gather by their small oven to keep warm on the cold nights. Allan Brown volunteered for the first time, being a rover on rollerblades (helped along by the closeness of most of the venues), celebrating his fortieth birthday on the last day of the fringe and bringing children Nancy and Geoff, a real Fringe Dynasty. (Oddly, Allan had come because someone he worked with had volunteered, the someone was the father of the volunteer coordinator, Deidre Brown).) I put the Fringe away for the first time, going behind the scenes while Helen checked out I saw a sign saying they needed help for the strike. I saw Shannon Webb, quiet like the Fringe was at that point, and asked if help was needed and she said "yes please, yes please" in a quiet voice. No signing up, no negotiating, no training, I've done it ever since.

1998 moved the Beer Tent towards the front of McGill Campus, close to Sherbrooke Street. Yes it was still quiet, but I know I couldn't get anyone enthused about leafletting the crowd gathering just down the street for the opening of Planet Hollywood, so if the crowds weren't coming, the acts weren't working that hard to move to where the crowds were. Shakti didn't come, after two years, because the Fringe was shifted a bit to accomodate a certain event and it conflicted with some other festival she was doing. Nantha's had a small tent that year, I'd give cookies to the neat woman working there, and eventually she gave me a samosa. I'm sure that was the year I ended up with a meal that she'd been saving for Jeremy, she offered it to me, I didn't grab it. The Frankies arrived that year, I think that was the last year that Frank Hopkins attended shows (maybe it was the year before?). It took place earlier in the evening, while shows were still happening, I was in the front row and Rick Miller doing his rock act humped my leg. Stay Black and Die won the Centaur Prize, though that year it was on the basis of audience vote (and there may have been ballot stuffing). Susan Jeremy made her first appearance, winning the Just for Laughs award. TJ Dawe made his first appearance, continuing the growth of the touring acts that would come every year for a decade. Shaun and Cindy volunteered for the first time, both lasting a decade, Cindy still around. My all time favourite show, Peel My Skin by Seven Foot Women from the Kitchener-Waterloo area was performed. Virtually no audience, they came and thanked me afterwards, and thanked me for the Buzz, "how do you know it was me?". "There were only two people in the audience, and there are two bits of Buzz". I bumped into one of the volunteers, Trudie after she saw it, and she said it was wonderful, she seemed almost shell-shocked by it, but then like me, she claimed to be a bad volunteer. The troupe lived in their rented van for half the week, nobody could find a place for them to stay. They'd debated taking the train, the same cost, but decided they'd rent the van to have a means of moving around in town. It was the year of the The Hemi-Helmut Show a look back to vaudeville, so real that when I bumped into the performers afterwards, I couldn't believe how young they were, they just seemed like old performers on stage.

It all seems so dry here, but you had to live through it. It probably was the Golden Age of the Montreal Fringe. We'd hang out at the Beer Tent, because we were so isolated you couldn't go far between shows, and community would happen. The acts would spontaneously appear at the Beer Tent, just before they were going on, to lure in a last minute audience. It was manic promotion, and so often a show in itself. You still couldn't buy advanced tickets, so you'd get to the venue to buy a ticket, then wait there since you could barely go anywhere without having to come back. That's when the audience would interact, a shared interest in the shows, a shared experience of waiting. And it was a good target for the troupes, it wasn't just a hand out the flyer sort of thing, they'd talk to the audience members, trying to lure them in; everyone had time, they were just waiting. It was smaller and thus you would know everyone. The Festival ran from noon to midnight everyday, the acts numbered about fifty which was manageable, and there were only five or six venues, very close together during the McGill Years. The Buzz was strong, not washed down by multiple outlets, you'd see the good Buzz come early as the family and friends posted, then reaction Buzz, "no it was awful" as people lured in from the first wave of Buzz discovered otherwise, then a third wave that was generally honest.

June 14, 2010

It was a quiet day in Fringeville, as it usually is on the Monday. The initial surge is over, and a limited number of performances tonight. The weather did sort of work out, clearing the rain and the clouds in time for the shows, but it was kind of cool. One Venue Manager was spotted wearing a winter parka, another kept adding layers as the evening progressed. The venue managers still seem to be playing musical chairs, either that or I haven't met them all yet, people weren't always where I expected them.

It always pays to pay attention to the schedule. I was late as always, and wasn't going to get to Tangente for the first show there. But once I got to the MAI and realized I couldn't get to Tangente in time, wondering if I should see the Samurai show while I was there or do something else, I realize the dance show was at 18:30, not the 18:00 I thought it had said, so there was time.

I saw Aurelia and Imago, which was like an explosion. A lot of activity on the screen, maybe one of the better "multimedia" shows at the Fringe ever. I'm not sure what it was all supposed to be about, in some ways what was on the screen dwarfed the actual dancing, and the music seemed more what you'd find at the electic piknik at the Beer Tent the other day than at traditional modern dance.

It's embarrassing, it's so neat. I looked over the program for the show, and recognized a name, Heather Young. Isn't that the former technical director of the Fringe? Yes it is, she reigned in 1999 and 2000, I even mentioned her last year (she was the last woman technical director, though not the first, Laura can also be remembered), but couldn't remember her last name. It's embarrassing because I talked to her on the weekend, yet did not recognize her. It's been a decade, she was so young back then. Lost in the ten days of when virtually everyone is a familiar face, even if I can't always remember who they are. I guess that explains why she picked me to sit in a certain seat and hold the butterfly net. So many people have come through the Fringe over the years, and it seems like once they leave, we never hear from them. Once in a while, I notice names in the program that seem familiar, people who have moved elsewhere and helped get a show together before it comes to Montreal. Sorry Heather.

Who knows what goes on in the Box Office when nobody is around. Here's the Box Office manager and his assistant. I'm still not sure how they gave the job to the dim-witted Audrey from As You Like It. Well they didn't really, she just played that role in last year's Repercussion Theatre production, see the Westmount Examiner story from last year, Repercussion Theatre returns to Westmount with 'As You Like It'

I remember the first year Cindy came to the Fringe, as a volunteer in 1998. She seemed so forlorn at the party afterwards, the fun over. I don't think she realizes how maternal I feel towards her because of that. She was back the next year, I found her and venue manager Lucy Black (no relative as far as I know) sunbathing in the isolation of the the P-Scene (terribly isolated down a long alley). I never did get the story on how they happened to have bathing suit tops with them. Then I remember the year Cindy made a photo album of the Fringe, showing it to Jeremy who seemed impressed. The role of Fringe Photographer seemed to start the next year (I don't remember the role existing before that), but another Fringe Mystery, Cindy didn't get the job. I remember wondering to someone if that would have happened if a woman was in charge of the Fringe, when they rolled out all the staff that year at the Fringe For All, all were men (or maybe there was one woman?) and the lack of women was very obvious. I guess we'll find out next year with Amy taking over. But Cindy kept coming back, which means this is her 13th Fringe, which is almost record breaking, and a few years ago she did become one of two Official Fringe Photographers.

Most come to the Fringe young, last a few years, and then never return, so we never hear from them. Cindy is one of the exceptions, since most (with a few noteable exceptions) are older if they keep coming back. Whatever happened to Morgan who seemed a staple for a few years? Never seen after 1999, Rebecca Singh the Outdoor Coordinator that year said Morgan was getting married, even though she seemed young. Though, it seemed implied that she wouldn't be returning.

That was the one year I got Buzz, Morgan wrote something. Then one of the volunteers added her own, very suggestive Buzz and she made sure I saw it. I wonder where I filed those? I saw the volunteer the next year, asked her if she was coming to the Fringe, she said she had exams, I said she could study at the Beer Tent overnight.

There was a pair of twins, Heather and Sara, about 1996, who also seemed to be staples until they disappeared. One won the Superpass at the auction one year, but then I never saw her the next. I found a webpage for one of them a few years back, but that's long gone. There was a Wendy who'd always seemed to be there when I arrived, she graduated and moved to Toronto just after the 1997 Volunteer Party; I had a webpage bookmarked about her, but it's no longer there as I type this. I'd have to find an old program to get her last name. She seemed to represent the best of the volunteers, really outgoing but also very much into the Fringe, so she could talk endlessly about the shows. It was easier back then, though, the Fringe ran from noon to midnight so the Venue Managers worked half the day and could see shows the rest of the time.

Then of course, there's Maev Brennan who hasn't been since 2000 or 2001, but was legendary at one time. She'd come to Montreal each year, first from BC then New York City, be a Venue Manager half the time and see shows the rest of the time. She tried really hard to see all of the shows, much easier in those days (fewer venues, but also fewer shows), which she mostly accomplished. Even bought a used bike for $20 each year to get around faster, though the venues were mostly close together. Maybe she missed one or two shows, though generally she failed at shows that cancelled when she was the only audience member (they didn't want to perform for only one person). So obviously she too was able to talk endlessly about the shows, helped because some of the acts had been in Kelowna BC where she reviewed for the local paper. She'd be selling tickets at a venue, people would come up, and she'd get deep into conversation about the shows. I wanted to sell tickets, make it a show in itself, one that always changed. She missed one year when the bosses wouldn't let her take vacation during the Fringe, returned the next year, and then was no longer able to attend. I miss her, and I realize a lot of things could have been better if she'd kept coming back, someone I really liked. She kept it up in New York City, at least for a while, On Top of the Fringe: A Critic's Notebook where she is described as a "Fringe Lunatic" at the New York Fringe (which is actually a juried "fringe") back in 2001. I actually heard from Maev this year. Actually, I had emailed her a few years back to keep her informed, never got a response, so I figured she'd moved on. I would have kept writing her but wasn't sure if she wanted to hear about something she wasn't able to come to anymore. But this being the 20th anniversary, and she was such a Big Part of the Fringe when I came along, I emailed her, she's still at the same job, and she answered. I'm glad. It was an odd friendship, one that happened for ten days each year, but it transcended the average Fringe relationship.

There was a time when you could play Fringespotting, you knew the Fringe was coming, but when would you see the first signs of it. Once upon a time, you'd find the first indicator in mid-May, someone postering early or leafletting some show. That's really dropped off in more recent years, maybe a complacency as the Fringe gets bigger and their advertising increases. This was the first poster I saw this year, at the corner of St. Lawrence and Mount Royal, on May 29th. Really, promotion was such a big thing at one time, Fringespotting should be a game that gets the potential audience invovled, since at least it relates to the actual shows, rather than peripheral things that don't. Why have a Murder Mystery Contest (which was done by some sponsor about 2001), when you could get the audience involved in real things? If there were tickets or something, that would encourage the audience, and maybe encourage the acts to get out of the box of around the Beer Tent.

It seems like my Fringespotting becomes who do I see first. This year, I saw Sara the Venue Manager on April 24th, me coming back from garage sales in NDG. That doesn't really count, I seem to bump into her once or twice a year (I saw her last fall before the cold set in, then in April as the weather turned nice). On May 22nd, more garage sales in NDG, and as I was walking along, someone putting up a poster said "Remember me? From the Fringe?" and yes, it was an audience member. I figure they draw straws, and the short one has to bump into me to lure me back. Invariably I do bump into someone somehow connected to the Fringe a few weeks before it starts.

The Fringe has stepped up advertising this year. I saw the bus ad on May 28th, coming down Park Avenue, I think this is the first time for bus ads. Then on May 29th, I saw the poster at right in NDG, just east of Decarie. The latter sort of makes sense, it gets into an area that is often not reached, yet since they have to have empty buildings to poster, it doesn't get very far into NDG. And I'm still not convinced it really helps, the Fringe is pretty visible now and just being out in view seems less likely to bring in new people. It strikes me as vanity advertising, "hey, we're big enough that we can afford advertising". It's easy to attract a certain number of people, the rest gets harder. Witness the fact that up till now, postering has been around the Fringe, and downtown. It's an area where people are most likely to already know about it.

This hasn't worked out very well so far, but the idea was to get William Shatner to the Fringe, for Jeremy. His visits to the comedy festival sort of killed things, I think I would have made more of an effort if he hadn't made those trips. Anyway, William Shatner was at the Fringe for All, here seen schmoozing with the Box Office Manager and the Infobooth Manager (aka the Oracle of the Fringe). But since then, I've lost him, so he hasn't made any more appearances as yet. I'm hoping as the week goes on, he'll get back on track.

It's Cindy/Lucinda Davis's birthday today, she being the former Fringe Actor and Venue Manager and more recently of stage and screen. Who can forget 1998 when she got an eclair for her birthday, she being the venue manager for one of the venues in the Shatner Building at Mcgill? We seem to see less of her each year, I used to bump into her in the non-Fringe season but not lately. She usually puts in an appearance at the Fringe and indeed, I forgot to mention it, but she did appear to take in shows on Saturday. Coolopolis was talking about starting a fan club after she appeared in one play sometime in the past few years. It must also then be former technician Flora's birthday, wherever she is.

June 13, 2010

I made the effort but lost. I tried really hard to get to the pancake breakfast (shouldn't that really be pancake lunch? It didn't start till noon), leaving earlier than I was ready and spending the $2.75 to take the bus. But when I arrived at the Beer Tent at 13:30, the pancakes were all gone, maybe some Mongol Hord had overriden the Beer Tent.

But at least it was a really really nice day. It sounded when I got up that it might not be, but the sun was out yet it wasn't too hot.

I did waste time, but since I got there so early, I still had time to see four shows, which so far means I've seen 9 shows, and if I keep that up, it could be 30 shows by the end.

autrui nm includes some recent ConU dance program graduates, something not obvious from the blurb in the program.

Since I was there, I waited to the next show, Wolf me Talk. I'd discounted this show, it didn't jump out at me, but in trying to figure out what next, I notice the blurb says something about aerial acrobatics. So maybe it was worth seeing, about a decade ago one troupe did do a show of aerial dance, a form we hadn't seen at the Fringe before. I didn't get anything out of this show, and the aerial bit was pretty limited and towards the end. It is only a 35 minute show, though.

I found Antoine the Venue Manager, I had wondered just the other day if he'd be back. Except he missed one year about 2005, he must be the longest running venue manager at this point, he started during the 10th anniversary year, 2000. I'm not sure anyone has lasted more than ten years as a venue manager, the ones I can think of that racked up that many years have actually moved on. Most people don't last more than a few years, at any task, though the rare few do move up rather than on. So I must have missed a show I was tempted by while I was talking to him, boring his assistant that hasn't got the same long Fringe history.

I realized as I talked to him that Jeremy was never a good volunteer. I can't remember when he morphed from volunteer to staff, but he was definitely on staff in 1996 and I'm pretty sure in 1995, which means at best he was a volunteer for four or five Fringes. I beat that by three times, if we include the time I moved beer bottles in 1996, just because I was standing there when the truck arrived. I've gone through seven Volunteer Coordinators in that time, not that I was ever the good volunteer.

Then I saw Shoshinz. This is of course similar to the pieces she's brought to the Fringe over the past five years or so, though this time she's solo. Like I said one year, it's North American culture taken to Japan where it's fuzed with Japanese culture, and then brought back to North America. It's hard to tell which dominates, but that likely defines Japan. It's one place I'd actually like to visit, to see what it's really like, rather than what we see filtered through movies and whatever. This year's show reminded me of a prop comic, a string of things pulled out of a box to make jokes with, and it seemed more deliberately funny than the previous shows.

Oddly, I'm not sure anyone has seen her without a costume. I was talking about that to various people, and they had stories of seeing her in a pizza parlor or just walking down the street, and obviously in full drag. I guess we wouldn't recognize her without the costume. Yet, the costume seems to inhibit interaction, she's staying in the role and you aren't sure you should approach. That contrasts with someone in a furry mascot costume, that seems to attract all kinds of kids and adults. Previous years, I've never been sure if they recognized me as they walked by, or I was just another potential audience member to try to lure in. But I offered her a cookie the other day as she was putting up a poster, and she said "Thanks, I was getting hungry", which seems to break the character that she otherwise works hard to keep.

I could have seen something next, but needed a break. 7 (x1) Samurai were leafletting the Beer Tent, trying to raise an audience for the show starting in a bit. They genuinely seemed uncertain if they'd get an audience, which surprised me, since they have got some media hits and a lot of out of town acts, at least coming with a known show, seem to have an advantage out of the gate. But it's probably better to be insecure and do the work than assume success. Also, they did point out that they are coming here cold, you can't know what the situation is like until you are actually here. For some reason something I said made them realize it was me writing here, I didn't think I'd said enough to make the connection. But the show was way down at the MAI, so I'll see it later in the week.

I then wrapped up with Shades of Grey. They are going for the Twilight Zone angle, but the stories (there were three) reminded me of the time when science fiction was pretty much the written word, and that was turned into radio theatre or even episodes of early tv anthology shows. Once Star Wars hit, the movies were made from original scripts, though often based on traditional science fiction themes, and sometime it seemed like stories. The Last Starfighter always struck me as being at the core the story in Heinlein's Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, but instead of renovating a surplus spacesuit and getting into space, the hero is a more modern day videogame player. So I was impressed that the stories were like those of the golden age of science fiction, stories set in space or the future, not adventure tales with lots of shooting that is futuristic. Now I understand why there were some very pale looking people at the Fringe For All, though I thought some of the shades tonight were brownish rather than grey. No, I never got to Anticipation last summer, but unlike so many shows at the Fringe, this was sort of me on the stage. That rarely comes along.

Recess had just ended, and I bumped into the woman doing it, she only got a cookie, no milk. Her show ends the run on Wednesday, something to watch for. Indeed, with the Ottawa Fringe overlapping Montreal (Ottawa must start on Thursday), some acts may disappear early to go there. It is always important to check such things, because otherwise a show may leave town before you get to it.

More speculation about the venue manager who stopped coming after a decade. Someone suggests there was an issue of lost money, careless rather than theft, and the volunteer was too embarrassed or something to return. That seems maybe too farfetched, I couldn't evaluate the rating of the intelligence.

The first missed connection of the Fringe that I've noticed appeared today, Our eyes met... - m4m - 24 - (Tangente, 804 Cherrier). There were a few related to the Extra Events last week, SLOW DANCE NIGHT. .. . I left w/out a fairwell - m4w - 1 and Fringe Fest going cheerleader at Roller Derby - w4w. I'm assuming they were connected to the Fringe versions of both and not when they are in their regular runs. The Roller Derby seems to get a lot of audience lust, I suppose it is harder top approach since the women in the audience can't be sure the Roller Derby players like women (or maybe I missed something that states all the players must be lesbians?)

Meanwhile as I was walking down the street, a woman was unlocking their bike near Mainline, and I smiled, not really recognizing her but simply assuming she was Fringe related. She smiles back, and I realize maybe she had nothing to do with the Fringe. Like I said last year, most "missed connections" are people too unwilling to approach someone, yet too often people aren't flirting (in the traditional sense, which isn't about something happening but about an interaction), but at the Fringe, things are different, a much greater level of interaction which should allow for things to happen rather than someone posting a missed connection. I took that woman as Fringe-related, so I didn't hesitate, and whether or not she was, she responded in kind.

June 12, 2010

Do I stay up and get things done, or wake up early and do them then? At least a decade old debate, I don't know which. I didn't get up as early as planned, and everything took longer than expected (well within the realm of knowing that it always takes longer), so it was mid-afternoon before I got to the Fringe. There were a couple of lane sales near McGill that I took in, both seem to be a tradition during the Fringe. It nags me that with three weeks to go before Moving Day, and nice weather, there are garage sales I just can't get to, and I always wonder what I might miss. The last few years, garage sales haven't seemed as plentiful or as interesting, so I figure I must miss some prime stuff during the Fringe. I did bump into a couple that are among the longest running members of the audience, they having found a cowboy hat and a Pete Seeger recording of cowboy songs.

So by the time I hit the Fringe, I'd missed the earliest shows and nothing starting at that time, so I made my rounds and didn't get to shows till the evening.

I saw Bernadette/Lux. It seemed more upbeat than when they came to the Fringe as Lacabalde some years back. The first piece started slow, but then improved. That was the one where they drop their pants. At first it seemed like a gimmick, most people give that up at the age of about five, but then I realized the pants around the ankles was a restraint, forcing them to move differently, forcing them to use other parts of their body rather than their feet. I liked the last piece better though, a nod to the Jazz Age when jazz was popular music and you danced to it. They did not jitterbug or Lindy Hop, most of the piece they stayed on their stools. It seemed to address what the Jazz Age is known for, drinking, sex, women wanting to break out of their roles, even getting drunk/overindulgeance. I clocked 55 minutes, which is longer than the 50 minutes in the program, I don't know which is reliable.

I then was going to see some other show, but stumbled on Sara the venue manager at LaChapelle. She's only doing it part time this year, so I skipped the show and talked to her. Three came and went, they only got one audience member. That's not a good situation, forget about money, it's hard to play to only one person, and the larger the audience, the easier it is for the performers to feed off the audience.

The women doing Heart-Strings showed up, waiting to go in and set up. Some trepidation, I want them to do well, I wasn't sure I wanted to see the show, but I was there and felt a sense of obligation. They have glossy flyers like everyone else, it's no longer an indication of performance. What if I don't like it, what will I say to them? The show I'd planned to see, I missed the opportunity to get to that, so I did go into Heart-Strings. This is a good show, much better than indicated by the two women quietly postering the Beer Tent after most of the spots had been taken. They have a Great Metaphor, it's funny, and they move around a lot, sometimes even to be funny (which women don't often do in performance). It's not dance, but the movement including the way they use their fingers, is a key element of the show. They even interact with the audience, though that first time they came into the seats I really worried. I told them afterwards I was worried about what I'd say if I didn't like it, I also said that if they don't get an audience, it's promotion not the show. I'm not sure it qualifies for the 303 Prize since it really isn't dance, but I bet if they wanted to come back they could be fitted into The Edgy Women Festival in March. I can put in a good word to Miriam about them. Oh, and I wasn't the only audience member, though it looked that way until five minutes before the show.

Then I saw The Duck Wife. I think the "rock opera" angle is to lure people in, I'm not sure quite what the term means, but on watching this seemed more like dance with an live electric band, though at times there were echoes of things you might see in Jesus Christ Superstar. They did have a storyteller at the side at times. This is Inertia Productions third year in a row at the Fringe, and I realized we don't often see that, young choreographers coming more than one year. So maybe it's not exceptional but we just don't see it, but I was impressed by the devices they cooked up to represent various things, it seemed to indicate quite a growth choreography wise, in two years. They've kept the humor from last year, though toning it down so it seems better placed. They even have cross-dressing and dance animals! And there was no sense of it being too long.

I was going to go home then, do the things before going to bed that I am now doing the next day, but I went passed the MAI, lots of people were there and I ended up talking for a bit, so then it was stupid to not stay for the show, get it out of the way. It was MIss Sugarpuss Must Die. I was expecting an erotic thriller from the title, but it was just burlesque. When burlesque hit the Fringe about five years ago, there were two shows that had it. I can't remember which one I saw, but it had the burlesque embedded into a play, so the show was about putting on a burlesque show. It seemed like they were stuck behind the notion of the Fringe as a "theatre festival". But this show didn't bother, it was just a burlesque show, albeit with less tassle twirling, and more like an autobiographical piece by the burlesque artist. But there was singing, humor, costume changes and some bump and grind and stripping. The show could exist in some other genre, the burlesque now becoming a delivery system rather than an end it itself. That seems to be a good thing. It seemed to run longer, I didn't note the exact time, but that may not be the case since this was the last show of the night.

I hear that if you bring your airplane, Miss Sugarpuss will airbrush her pinup onto it. Speaking of which, the "competition", Confessions of P.K. Pinup was leafletting before and after the show.

Molly is about Molly Bloom, the wife of the main character, Leopold Bloom, in James Joyce's Ulysees. I've never read any of his books, yet I've come across Molly Bloom twice before. Back in 1986, Fionnula Flanagan did a movie, James Joyces' Women (I think it was a play before a movie) and all I remember is the part about Molly Bloom. Then, maybe a decade ago, Margie Gillis had a dance piece where she danced to Molly Bloom's soliliquay in the book. One can grab the book from Project Gutenberg with this link though getting it easily and reading it easily are two different things. I don't know whether it's coincidence or not, but they are having a 2for1 Bloomsday Ticket Sale on Wednesday, it being June 16th and thus the day that all the events in Ulysees takes place, ie Bloomsday.

I was at two shows at Tangente today, but no sign of Deena Davida. She usually takes in the shows, and the appearance of the cookies often brings her out. Then I remember, the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa is this week, ending today or Sunday. A good excuse for the dance writers to get out of town and ignore the Fringe. Pat Donnelly has written a bunch of times about the overalap of FTA and the Fringe, and now the Fringe and the Francofollies, but no mention of the dance festival which does seem to impact on dance at the Fringe. The writers have an excuse to not go to the Fringe, likely some of the potential audience goes to Ottawa, and some years, at least some of the jury for the 303 Prize have not arrived at the Fringe till later, having taken in the dance festival in Ottawa. At least it's only every two years, and tends to overlap the Fringe only for the first weekend.

One volunteer came for a decade, being a venue manager each year, yet did not appear last year, and hasn't appeared this year. Nobody seemed to know what happened. Speculation that he moved out of town. Tonight, someone suggested he'd gotten married, and that is possible, he had a girlfriend two years ago and the relationship seemed to be going places. But that hardly seems a reason to give up the Fringe after a decade. The suggester suggested he'd come only to find someone. I suspect everyone is always hoping, but that doesn't mean they'd drop the Fringe if they meet someone. The volunteer did seem to get quite a bit out of the Fringe, and actually went to shows. Some volunteers that rack up the most Fringe Hours have no interest in seeing the shows, somehow the volunteering has an appeal in itself.

Last year, they were printing the tickets on demand, that prompted one audience member to point out that there was a real bottleneck if you were waiting to buy a ticket when they were printing the tickets to send to the venue for the last hour before the show ticket sale. The Fringe has reverted, preprinting all the tickets in advance. So you can see the flow of the Fringe by looking at the tickets at the Box Office, each day it shrinks a little bit as the shows for that day are over. It leaves a lot of surplus.

It's Anne Frank's birthday today, she of the famous diary, and having died in March of 1945, the camp being liberated the next month. Miep Gies, who protected Anne and her family by helping them hide, and then protected the diary when they were caught, died in January, a month before her 101st birthday, a good reward for doing good.

It's also the 28th anniversary of the big march for nuclear disarmament in New York City in 1982.

June 11, 2010

So despite my usual plans, I didn't get to the Fringe until just before 6pm, thwarting my plans to get there about 4pm, take care of some things, and then see shows the minute they started. I did get a sample of "Coke Zero" and a sample (actually a fairly large bottle) of some hot sauce, just in the block of St. Lawrence between Prince Arthur and Pine. I didn't get anything along St. Catherine Street, even though the main F1 activity is there, lots of women dressed up as if they were selling something, though. Maybe there'll be even better sampling on the weekend. I was sort of surprised that the street festival on St. Lawrence stopped at Pine, some years it's gone further up the street.

Hence I wasted the evening, finally seeing There Will Be Lasers at 10:30 at Theatre LaChappelle. Yes there were lasers, though I was disappointed and I don't know why. This is a good Fringe show, 30 minutes long (I clocked about 25 minutes) and only $6 before the odious "service charge". What's more, it's trying something new, the whole thing done against music in the background and a constant stream of singing, and the lasers. Maybe it was too slow for me, or maybe I missed something, but it ended up being less interesting than I expected. Maybe I should go back and see it another time. We badly need more shows where people are willing to be short and less than the maximum ticket price (now up to ten dollars, it seems to increment by a dollar a decade), but we also need performers to try new things, break the boundaries that says the Fringe is a "theatre festival".

I was going to see 7(x1) Samurai at 11:30, but I was too tired to wait around, and maybe more important, that one is an hour, and I'd hoped to get more done when I got home. The people involved, I know it's a one man show but someone was with him, were getting around on Segways, it's not clear if they own them or rented them here. I can remember when those were codenamed "Ginger" and nobody would reveal what the soon to be released product was, and then you would see them around town a bit, but they've pretty much disappeared, I recall some court ruling or something that makes them illegal except for some cases that don't make them practical. They were rented down near the Old Port for a while.

Marty Jezer died five years ago today, something I didn't learn until a full year after his death. "Marty who?" He usurped The Beatles yellow submarine into a pacifist symbol, first for Project Polaris (to protest nuclear submarines around New London/Groton Connecticut) and then as a more general pacifist symbol, when they were trying to meld the counterculture with pacifism. He helped found WIN magazine the best magazine about non-violence I ever saw. But he also knew Abbie Hoffman (he wrote American Rebel about Abbie, complete with very detailed information about when Abbie was here in Montreal during the spring or summer of 1976, and helped found the famous commune in Vermont that Ray Mungo wrote about in Total Loss Farm.

Yet he was also fairly invisible, none of Abbie's antics to get him that sort of press. I met him briefly twenty years ago, when he was living in Montreal part time, but it was preceeded by a build up that didn't set things up too well. It was such a brief meeting that I didn't realize until later that he stuttered. Before he died, there were some last interviews, and one he said something about "Question Assumptions" which is incredibly weird since I came up with the notion about 25 years ago, since too many groups weren't questioning why they were doing things, yet everyone had buttons saying "Question Authority". It's odd since maybe he saw something I wrote back then that mentioned the idea, a friend knew him, but otherwise it's just another case of knowing I have a point because afterwards it matches up with something someone else said.

June 10, 2010

It was a Dave Brubeck kind of day, I have no idea what that means but I finally filled up my 8gig MP3 player so I was listening to him while making the gingerbread cookies. Yes, there will be Christmas in June on the weekend. We have to watch that, it's a great line, but the title of the show is actually The Boy and the Wrapper they guy doing the show was walking around the Beer Tent giving out Christmas cards, you open it up, and there's the flyer. Gingerbread cookies have been at the Fringe in the past, but if I don't make them ahead of time, it takes too much time so it's been some years. I made a deliberate decision this year, to honor the theme of Christmas in June. So much for Travis Gekko's anti-Xmas rant, all the "hipsters" at the Fringe seem to like gingerbread.

Then it was the Grateful Dead as I made most of the chocolate chip cookie dough for the next ten days (originally I made them from scratch every night, but a few years in, I decided to make the dough in one or two big runs, and freeze it, it saves the cleaning up every day). There's no turning back now, cookies every day since I don't want the dough sitting in the freezer unused.

I never went over to the Fringe. I have no interest in an opening night concert, or an opening night after-party (how do you differentiate between the two?), and it was made worse by the coolish temperatures and the rain. Why go all the way over there just to get wet and see who might turn up? So I got things done, and got some rest. I've never gone to the Out of Town Fringe For All, a kind of boycott since it's another effort by the Festival to box in what used to be free.

Shades of Grey seems to be going for the science fiction market, I say "seems" because all I know is the blurb. They are the only group that has a poster up at the downtown Ben & Jerry's, at least as of last Friday. I note today that if you are a member of MONSFFA (if I remember properly, that's Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association), you get a $2.00 discount off the ticket price. We don't get a lot of science fiction at the Fringe, it's the sort of thing you need to market to a specific audience rather than the general Fringe pool, and it seems like many find that too much work.

On the other hand, pick something that isn't seen that much, and you draw the specialty audience, though you have go to elsewhere for it. I remember 1997 when there was a play about the Holocaust, The Wait and they were pulling in a very un-Fringe-like audience, clearly they were doing good marketing elsewhere. At the time it seemed to me cheating, using the Fringe for their own purposes, but later I realize it's fine. That too is what a Fringe is for, for "fringe" shows that aren't likely to get the space unless you put it on yourself. Pick something like science fiction (or tap dancing, or native storytelling or a play about the Beats) and it stands out among all the shows with fairly common storylines, and you can find that audience hungry to see themselves on stage. The theatre snobs may condemn such shows as amateurish, yet whether or not that is the case, the story becomes important to the audience, which is willing to relax some standards if necessary in order to see themselves on stage. And if you get the specialty audience in early, that can salt the show so the general Fringe pool will pay attention.

Speaking of Ben & Jerry's, they were a sponsor in 1996. I was glad they were there, but it was sort of contradictory, since you could still see shows back then for about the price of a cone, so while they were selling ice cream cones at the Beer Tent and I recall at one satellite venue, sales weren't so great. They did provide free ice cream at the Fringe For All that year, though of course back then you paid (I recall ten dollars) to get in, though you got a program as part of the package, back then program cost 2.00). Anyway, until the end of June, they have a "three scoops for $3.00" offer, from 17:00 to 19:00, I think every day. A few weeks ago they also had some coupons in the Suburban for a variety of items, though not discounts but "buy one, get one free" variety". I've not seen that sort of offer from them in years.

Jeremy said something in The Suburban about how the Fringe used to be a step between theatre school and a professional career. Not only does that show a bias (what about dance, and comedy and the rest) but it also shows a failure of how we should view the Fringe. For some years I did try to get a letter into the papers about the call for submissions, because not only was that not being mentioned in the papers (traditionally as a bit at the end of a theatre review), but because one should address the public at large. If you only keep the theatre school graduates and the dance school graduates informed of the Fringe, then all you get are those kinds of performers, who identify as artists. There's a big difference between someone having one story they want to tell, maybe with warts, and someone who defines themselves as an artist and then has to figure out some story to tell. The latter is the type most likely to enter to win a Fringe slot, and then figure out what to do (that did happen in the old days, I'm not sure if it still happens). So you get someone doing a show about working in a call centre, because that's what they know. It may be implemented well, but the setting just seems way too mundane. Fringe is stories we wouldn't otherwise see, and so long as it's been redefined as just another place to perform, we are going to lose the stories that are actually fringe.

Rachelle Forsdyce for instance, is back, doing unADULTeRated Me. She's been here twice before, including one show about working in a call centre. I could never get excited about that one, but this year the show seems to be more art instead doing a show because she is an artist. Maybe not a fringe of society, but maybe a reflection of maturing as an artist.

Last year, and maybe the year before?, there was a show or two in early July, obviously the off-season, that was fairly obscure, but it turned out that Tristan had some connection to it. Some theatre group from Ontario with a cast of young actors, methinks the intent was to give the young a chance at acting. Anyway, Please Excuse the Mess by jointPredicament seems to have some connection to that, I notice one name, Meghan Deere that was also attached to that show last summer. The blog doesn't say anything about this, and I can't remember what page they had for that show last summer.

June 10, 2010

I woke up, and my arms were sore between my elbows and wrists, I'd expect the muscles higher up to be sore. Then I realized it was sunburn from yesterday. Odd, with two months of warm and sunny weather, I would have thought I'd be acclimitized by now, but apparently not. The beer was supposed to arrive at 3pm, so I went over to the Beer Tent, only to learn that it had arrived at 11am. Hence I missed out on the traditional keg rolling, which is one of the perks of putting up the Beer Tent. Some years we've played it like Donkey Kong.

Nothing much was otherwise happening, a bit of last minute work but there were people on it, including someone recoving the cable that I covered yesterday. So I didn't hang around, I went off on a quest for something that didn't happen, and when I came back down, I notice people are starting to wait at the beer tent. It turns out a Fringe Tradition has now horribly been abandoned. The postering of the Beer Tent was happening starting at 6pm today. Traditionally it takes place opening night, a first chance for the artists and potential audience to mingle. The only time I remember if otherwise was the year the Beer Tent Noise first became a Big Issue, so we set up on the Thursday? but the postering happened on the Friday afternoon, which turned out very wet.

It would seem the audience gets in the way of the postering, or maybe the postering gets in the way of the Big Show that has nothing to do with the Fringe, since the postering was banished to Wednesday when nobody was around. Nobody told me. They could have just announced it, let those who are interested mingle with the artists, the crowd that comes for the Big Concert won't bother without the Big Concert, but the hardcore will appear. But since I was there, I pretended to look useful, and snuck in. Nobody should question my place there, but you never know. The pressing at the gate before the opening bell (I was going to bring my Tibetan bell, but obviously not this year) didn't seem as bad as some years, no injuries were reported. But there was the usual rush as soon as the gate opened. One group had already cased the joint, figuring out the best places and hitting those spots (they brought enough people) rather than a random but more massive postering efforts. It felt more like years ago, before there was a Big Concert to open the Fringe, obviously it was easier without the mass of people waiting for the concert. In the old days, it was more intimate without the large audience, but those who were there were the interested ones, just like when you paid to see the Fringe For All, a smaller crowd but the ones the performers would want to meet. As always, too many appeared without the means of cutting tape, though not many appeared without any tape.

But it seemed more incestuous than I remember, maybe because it's been some years since the old intimate days. A lot of people there, mostly performers though some volunteers appeared, knew each other, either from being here previous years, or being locals, or from meeting at other Fringes. It seemed like a high school dance, where the popular kids were the mass, and then the riff-raff were on the edges. The woman doing Recess seemed to be by herself, and had a shirt on that I think had her show's name on it, but I couldn't read it, too scrunched up or something. I wondered if I should approach, some performers in the past have actually seemed put out by me wanting to know what show they are in. But then later I did, so I know what show she's in, which is actually pretty useful, since I now write it down here. Yet that felt like a school dance, hesitating to approach, yet noticing that she may not be as connected as the rest, and then she seemed pleased that I had approached her to find out what show she was doing.

More of the dance acts appeared to put up posters than in the past. That's subjective, but there was a time when they seemed to always appear later, usually under the cover of darkness so you never saw them.

Inertia Productions is back for the third straight year, doing The Duck Wife. Not only were they postering, but they were also hanging up rubber duckies from the ceilings of the various tents. Too bad if you're tall. Why do I see a Sesame Street theme this year, first they want to rename the Beer Tent Fringe Park (reminds me of Sesame Park) and then "rubber duckie, you're the one"? Anyway, I talked to Jenn Doan and with a leading question, it seems like they did want to move out of the "dance" label, even though there is dance here. (I've seen some odd classififications over the years, as dance companies try to avoid the "dance" label that seems to scare some/many off.) Time will tell how much it classifies as dance.

The company is a good example of doing Fringe shows. The first year, they had multiple pieces, choreographed by the individual participants, rather like the end of term dance shows at ConU. Last year, they had a more cohesive show around the them of a Birthdy Party, and seemed to be pushing the limits of being funny in modern dance. This year they are going somewhere else. That's a good thing, being something different each year they return. Some of the long term performers seem to find a brand or theme early on, and then repeat for as much as ten years. Yes, they know what the audience will buy, but where's the risk? Sure I've seen Arlo Guthrie the last three times he's come to town, but he only comes every ten years or so, and each show was different (the first with Pete Seeger in '85, then with a backup band in '96 and then with his children and grandchildren last October as a fiftieth birthday present to me). Like I said one year, young performers can be different because they don't yet have the audience that wants to see the same stuff, they don't have an audience that expects them to be a certain way, so the performer can be anything they like. Yes, they can make mistakes, but you learn more from making mistakes than from rigidly following a path.

But then after the postering had died off mostly, and the mingling had begun, one pair shows up in search of space for posters. If you get there late, you risk finding no space. They are from Thunder Bay and are doing Heart-Strings They have been performing, but they say this is their first Fringe. We've built up this whole Big Fringe that favors the ones who keep coming back, which leaves a big gap between those that automatically get the audience and the newcomers. Time was there were lots of opportunity to get press if you were willing to work the second tier, precisely because nobody was bothering, but as the Fringe has gained greater control, that's lost. At the best of times it's hard to come into town and find some media hits at the last minute but even harder now since the second tier of media is being hit already.

I also wonder about the changing face of Montreal English radio, all those people fired from CJAD last year leaves a big chunk of time that previously might have welcomed Fringe artists. (When there was all that smoke a few weeks ago from the forest fires, there was nobody on CJAD overnight to talk about it, since it was syndicated programming, and the news was canned from elsewhere, no wonder everyone called 911 to see if the fire was local.) Peter Anthony Holder had become a place to get some Fringe coverage, on his overnight show on CJAD, but since he's gone, no chance at that.

Yes, the Fringe has done some things this year to address the issue of getting beyond the Beer Tent (I have photos so I'll discuss that later), but all that does is draw attention to the Fringe. Not many acts are bothering to poster at Ben & Jerry's, or out in NDG, or other niche areas. I came up with the notion of decentralized postering in 1996 to get around the problem, put the poster on a website and anyone interested could print it out and stick it up at the bulletin board at the local laundrymat or whatever. But that's never gotten much circulation, Fringe postering by now has become incredibly glossy so having printers in everyone's hands no longer is good enough. But once you start dealing with wider postering, you have to deal with how to pull those people in. Around the Beer Tent, everyone has a program, getting a flyer is more about meeting the artists and maybe that brings people in, but they can get details. Poster out in NDG, and you know the show title, and the schedule, but not much more. Is it something to go to, or not? What the potential audience thinks is more important than what the poster maker things, the two views can often be at odds.

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