Fringe Festival Update

Just a minor update. We finished with a total of 23 plays at the Fringe festival (two weekends and one weekday evening). Only a few duds, most good, some great or brilliant. Unfortunately not enough time to write about them all, or even describe the reasons behind my semi-sorted order.

Amazingly Good, tell your friends:

Zombies by Screwed and Clued.
G-Men Defectives by Garkin Productions.
The Power of Ignorance by Chris Gibbs.
Chinese Clown Cabaret by Jan Chen.
So Kiss Me Already, Hershel Gertz! by Awkward Moment Productions.

Quite Enjoyable, worth seeing again:

Christain Slater's Father by Cellar Productions.
The Parrot Monologues by Percolator Productions.
i by S.O.S.

Nice Enough, worth seeing once:

How's It Going? by Punching Ptarmigan Productions.
head/case by Punchbag Playhouse.
Love Me... Now! by DECA Productions.
Flamenco Con Fusion 2006 by Richard Garcia's Flamenco Flow.
Forbitten Paradise by Skinny Jo Productions
Teaching Shakespeare by Doctor Keir Co.
Jem Rolls Away by Big Word Preformance Poetry.

Merely ordinary, good to pass the time:

The Man who Went to Work by Gruppo Rubato.
Cassandra by A-Plus Productions.
SIC:Scenes of Investigatable Crime by Picnic Scarecrow Productions.
The Skywatcher by Mystical Beast Productions.
Time To Put My Socks On by Smashing Stereotypes Productions.

Somewhat disappointing, obvious areas for improvement or things I don't get:

Off My Wavelength by Rick Cousins. Nice voice work, but needs a better plot - a story, dramatic tension, perhaps a chase from the CRTC men in black?
The Changing Faces of Adrev by Verda Rochon. Voice therapy exercises in expressing emotions or sub-personalities. Thus an abstract exercise in performance to me - I need stories. The fun part was the chat after the performance. However my girlfriend understood the whole thing as the arc of a healing process and got more out of it than I.
It's Your Turn by BearAmi. A tad too clunky in performance smoothness, plus an exhausted predictable story line out of a Dr. Who episode.

Summer Vacation at the Cottage

Since then, I've been away on a rare prime summer time vacation at the cottage. Visits from assorted relatives and family friends kept things hopping, and my girlfriend was happily there for a weekend too. The new camera (Canon A540) worked perfectly, even taking moonlight photos that looked like daytime. The downside is that I have a whopping 2GB of picture files to sort through.

Pirates of the Caribbean

I've also had time to see the Pirates of the Caribbean, both the first film The Curse of the Black Pearl on DVD and the latest Dead Man's Chest in the theatre. The first is surprisingly well done, bringing a swash buckling adventure to lively life. The second is more of the same, but this time breathing life into old marine myths. This Davey Jones does have a locker, and he's quite believable as being cursed to live in the sea. However, it ends with a blunt cliffhanger of certain death for captain Jack Sparrow and a vow from the rest to go and rescue him, while the first film was nicely self contained with a happy ending. The trilogy quality levels kind of remind me of the flow of the Back to the Future trilogy. So, if you don't have much time, seeing the first film is all you need to do to capture the feel of the series.

Chores and a New Suit

And this last weekend, I've bought another Scarecrow water sprinkler to protect the tomatos from the squirrels and groundhogs and rabbits. I also painted the front steps and cleared away a few more chores. I even had a bit of time to update my web page! And I'm ashamed to report that I actually bought my second suit, shirt, shoes and tie ever - a sign of impending adulthood. I'll include a photo since nobody will recognise me in that disguise. :-)

- Alex