Gutenberg a Must See at the Vancouver Fringe

Its not too often, in fact it’s never happened to me before, that you get offered a free book while waiting in line to see a stage play.

The man with the bag of books is director Brian Anderson who’s done an amazing job with Gutenberg! the Musical!

The free paperback is just the first of many treats in store as characters Bud and Doug take us on a ‘reading of the musical’ they’ve written about the man who invented the printing press. Defeated by Google in their attempt at researching Johann Gutenberg, Bud and Doug opt instead for an ‘historical fiction’ version - as they say “It’s fiction - but its true”.

The two actors, like director Anderson, are both Theatre Sports vets - Nathan Clark plays Doug, and Ken Lawson plays Bud. The two play over 20 characters, including a complete Broadway chorus line and a bevy of singing mice.

They sing, they dance, they cry; more importantly, they pull it off. Under the deft and thoughtful direction of Anderson, what could easily turn into a big broad mess wins us over within the first few minutes, and holds right until the end.

In this show timing is everything, and Clark and Lawson never miss a beat - or rather - know when to take a beat, and let the comedy work. A good Fringe show pulls you into its big warm bosum and smothers you with heart - these guys, along with pianist Matt Grinke (who’s awesome), ace it.

- - - - -

There are only 3 shows left - Sept 10th at 9:15, Sept 13th at 3:15, and Sept 14th at 7:15. Advance tickets at the Festival Box office or at the venue (the Arts Club mainstage on Granville Island) 50 minutes before the show.

Sphere: Related Content

The Loneliest Number

Two can be as bad as one, its the loneliest number since the number one.

-Lyrics from “One” by Three Dog Night

It’s been five years since I worked at CBC - but this week I’ve been pummeled with questions about CBC Radio Two.

Oops. Sorry.

Radio 2.

Once known as CBC Stereo, and beloved as “Classics and Beyond”, the CBC’s other radio network has become The New 2.

The New 2 is sporting a funky URL (thenew2.ca) that takes you to the same old URL (cbc.ca), and more fonts than you can shake a stick at…

Oh. And there are on-air changes as well.

Those changes have sparked yet another online protest by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, who seem to have missed the importance of the number 2, and have focused instead on the actual content of the network, with their WHO? campaign.

I’ve received two (2) emails from Ian Morrison of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting who wants to enlist help in fighting the changes to Radio 2 (two).

They too (umm, also) have their own funky URL, www.friends.ca/fight4radio2 . . .

We believe the Radio Two changes are consistent with the misguided approach of CBC’s current management group to “dumb down” CBC’s programs in search for a new and broader audience without regard for the damage this will do to its current loyal listeners.

We also believe that these changes signal CBC’s intention to ask the CRTC for permission to advertise on CBC Radio.

So, what’s all the fuss about ? And why are all my friends and neighbours assaulting me with questions about The New 2 ?

• A few were thinking this was some sort of long-weekend-hang-over-programming-error. You know, with the B team working the holiday weekend, someone loaded the wrong tapes in master control.
• One called this afternoon asking if CBC was ‘trying something out’ since it was Wednesday and the kids are back in school.
• Another (who knows a little of my history at CBC and the long fights we had convincing the the corp to let us call our online network Radio 3 instead of Radio Three) just emailed the classic text shorthand: WTF ?

The thing about it is this - it’s not that important.

They’ve made some programming changes.

Some of the new shows will be good and some won’t.

If they leave them on the air long enough people will get used to them, or they’ll find their niche audience, or they’ll just be mediocre and have small audiences.

Just like the old Radio Two.

See, it’s really hard to create any kind of broad or mass audience with ‘appointment’ radio programming.

The New 2 will have the same kind of small dedicated audience that the Old Two had.

It’ll just be a somewhat different audience, an audience that likes an off-centre, not ready for prime-time program. Just like the old Radio Two audience.

All the new hosts have that raised-on-DNTO sound. Just like all the old hosts had that Wanna-BBC sound.

The important thing to keep in mind is: it’s just a radio channel. There are others.

My answer to my neighbours:

Get an iPod.

You’ll be happier.

Sphere: Related Content

BananaGram Anyone ?

We were shooting some new promo picture for Garnet today. Behind the backdrop, happily snoozing throughout the whole thing, we found Serena, with a pillow all her own.

Sphere: Related Content

Sailing August Away

Saying goodbye to August with an afternoon on Madsu in Howe Sound.  Plenty of puffs interspersed with dead spots made for a challenging hopscotch across the sound.

Sphere: Related Content

Summer Never Ends

We had every intention of getting up early today and doing a circumnavigation of Bowen Island.

But given that this is the last weekend before school starts, we decided to let the boys sleep in.

So we got a late morning start on the boat, and managed to catch some nice in-flow breeze in Howe Sound with Madsu cruising to weather at 5 knots.

Heading back to Horseshoe Bay at the end of the day we played with the cruising chute a bit in the super light breeze ahead of the shift to an outflow.

Nice way to spend another summer afternoon on the west coast.

Sphere: Related Content

Go Figure for Aug 27

• Just how much traction has the organic food movement developed ? Apparently enough to attract Blueberry Hijackers.
  
• Ever wonder why you keep getting so much spam ? You’d think those spammers would call it a day considering we throw all their stuff in the junk heap. Or do we ?
• When times get tough, the rich go shopping. At Cosco.
• Shopping for high end clothes will never be the same, now that Wallace and Gromit are on the case.
• And they claim the cows are mad ? This loony British farmer crossed the Bering Straits in his Land Rover.
• Still on that side of the pond… with the price of feed what it is, this makes total sense. I think. Tiny Household Cows.
• I’m totally bummed about this cancellation, and I know my friend Dave T was looking forward to it as well. Apparently Nuns on the Catwalk won’t be happening after all.

Sphere: Related Content

Liquid Sunshine

The day’s rain scented the neighbourhood with freshness impossible to duplicate. Grouse Mountain was nowhere to be seen, engulfed in a thick cloud that drifted down to the street and hung on the neighbourhood trees.

So I turned my lens on what was close at hand, fruit and flowers hanging on to the day’s raindrops.

Sadly, many of our neighbours had their automatic-in-ground sprinklers running.

Sphere: Related Content

Next Page »