Author Archives: Ephemeral Pleasures

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Today I took a day off, without doing anything for work or for home. It was great, and looking forward to it was great too.  I enjoyed a whole day of solitude without taking notes or checking my messages.

I headed out around mid-day. It was just above freezing, and I was comfortable in the stripey knitted jacket. I took buses to downtown, where I headed to Zinc and the Art Gallery of Alberta. When I was cutting across Churchill Square by City Hall, the empty square and the colour of the sky and the lack of greenery or Christmas lights to soften the concrete floor and towers reminded me weirdly of Revolution Square in Havana. I don’t know why a lot of school buses were lined up on a street, and I don’t know why a lot of (US?) military vehicles were lined up on an avenue. But while I was taking pictures, a woman came up behind me and said “Are you posting those on Flickr?” I said, um, not this minute (I had actually contemplated whether to get out the big camera to take the pictures home, or use the phone to post immediately on Facebook, so I was a little confused.) “But you’re going to, right? How are you going to tag them besides ‘edmonton’? ” Caught off guard, I said oh, Churchill Square, I guess, and the woman said “Great! Because I forgot my camera!” and walked away.

The Art Gallery has just re-opened in a dramatic new building. In the lobby is the restaurant Zinc, which I’d read about when it opened. It is extremely stylish, with the menus mounted on zinc plates and the place setting knives balanced on edge. Plating was more conventional, my server was competent without being intimidating, obsequious, or over-friendly, and my lunch was good. I had a glass of some Malbec, a couple of tiny buns with flavoured butter (fennel, shallot, and orange), and what they called the Un-burger with a side of gallery salad. The burger meat was elk and caribou, garnished with mushrooms and caramelised onions. It was really good. The salad was straightforward, greens with blackberry vinaigrette. Cost $29 something before tip. Some people were eating alone at the bar and reading. I think all the clients were better dressed than I, but it says something good about my confidence that I only noticed this at the end when I was looking around to describe the atmosphere.

The gallery exhibits included one of Yousef Karsh portraits, a couple of sound installations, Goya prints, and Degas sculptures and drawings of bodies in motion. They didn’t seem to have static exhibits of the permanent collection. The gift shop’s best feature was some really neat stuff for kids. Most of which I resisted buying. Next I walked to the Alberta Craft Council gallery/store, which was neat but I didn’t like it as well as the one in Newfoundland.

The rest of my planned shopping errands were in the 124-Street area of interesting shops. One thing that I wanted to buy was not quite available, so they will call me, and in the intervening time I will think/feel more about whether I want one, and I’ll tell you about it later. I still haven’t found a crochet hook that will pass through the little beads I bought to put in a lace shawl, so I don’t know if I need bigger beads or an even tinier hook or another method. But I got a long-cable needle for the yoke of a sweater I’m working on, and I patted some yarn and didn’t buy any. Then I spent a long time in MEC, figuring out which tent I would buy when I buy my next tent and which sleeping bag I would buy when I buy my next sleeping bag, but deciding I wasn’t ready to buy either. So I spent my Christmas gift certificate from Mum on a shirt, a replacement buckle for my backpack, and some Lindt milk chocolate. It felt like I should use this last gift on something more lasting, but I’ll have opportunities for that with the inheritance.

And then I came home. While I was waiting at the Telus-plaza bus stop, I took time to read the maps and confirm that besides the 7 and 57, I can also take the 70 down 99th. And unless I am waiting with people from OffWhyte and want company, it’s probably just as fast to take the 8 to Bonnie Doon and catch a 4 back from there.

zinc1 zinc3 churchill square 1

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Most of the places I’ve lived had what I think of as traditional one-trip-one-fare bus transfer policy, where you can’t break your journey or double back without paying another fare. In Hamilton, where I learned to ride the HSR buses as a teenager, the bus stops where the routes intersected were marked TRANSFER POINT, meaning that you could only use a transfer at those marked stops. If you took the first bus, got off it and turned the corner, and were wondering how long you’d have to wait for the second one, you either had to wait at the transfer point or you had to walk the whole way. You couldn’t just run one stop at a time, then look to see if the bus was coming – you’d invalidated the transfer by walking. Kingston still has one-trip fares, and I’ve heard bus drivers arguing with people who didn’t like this policy.

Anyway, the novelty of the timed transfers in Edmonton still has not expired for me. It’s not against the rules to get on the bus after work, make two or three stops to shop on the way home, and keep using the same transfer every time I get back on the bus in any direction. I don’t know why the price of a bus ticket would feel like such a deterrent to me, but it makes a huge difference. I always feel like I got away with something or should celebrate being frugal, when I get more than one destination on a bus ticket. The transfers are supposed to be set at least 90 minutes away, and drivers usually give you more.

Last night I got on the LRT after work. That’s even more of a bonus, since if you start with the LRT you don’t get the timed transfer until you get on a bus afterwards. I got off at Central station, took an 85 bus from that big stop across from the Hotel Macdonald, got off in Cloverdale, and went to the Muttart Conservatory. (That also didn’t cost me any more money, since I have a membership, and I think it’s free for the last half hour every day anyway.) It was neat wandering around in the twilight, and knitting in the quiet. The display in the feature pavilion was about a newly-discovered ancient species of trees from Australia. The light and shadows and empty Arid-landscape pavilion made me think of the kind of movie where the succulent tentacles begin to move in the dark. Then I was almost sorry I had thought of that.

My trip home didn’t quite work so well. I wanted to find a route without walking up the Connors Road/Gallagher Park hill, and I’d just missed a bus so I had half an hour to wait. I walked along the road (98 Avenue) admiring the attractive new townhouses and mixed-use buildings, then caught another 85 bus. The maps.google application on my iPhone had said to take that bus to the Capilano Transit Centre and then come back on a 4, but I could see that the routes intersected earlier on, at 76 Street. So I just barely missed a #4 bus there, had another half-hour wait in the increasing cold, then got home. All on one bus ticket.

This morning I took a bus a few stops to Bonnie Doon Mall, where I got a flu shot and bought stamps and medicine and groceries, then caught a bus in the other direction to work. All on one bus ticket.

Of course, if I buy a monthly pass in January, it may take away the fun of this game. Then I can play look how many times I can take the bus in a month.

Fringe 2009: six plays, three days

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On the first Friday night, I went to the Fringe with my friend Rob. We didn’t plan much ahead of time — just he sent a list of plays that people at VUE were saying good things about and I tried to figure out what was on and not sold out … so mostly we enjoyed the Fringe-site experience, eating green onion cakes and talking, running into people he knew, going to one off-site venue to discover it was sold out, hanging out in the beer tent, then going to “The Year of Magical Thinking“, a compelling one-woman show written by Joan Didion that reminded me of when my dad died. Rob was still up for more theatre after that, but I was overheated and sleepy, so I went home.

I told Rob about how last year I’d been to the Fringe by myself and thought about how in 2009, I could go with people I hadn’t met yet, or run into such people there. He liked that. It’s sure different, seeing that part of my neighbourhood closed to traffic and full of crowds and attractions, now that I have a picture of what “normal” is there, cutting across the empty courtyard to my library, etc.

Addition: An Unconventional Love Story: A young male-male couple has a threesome with a stranger, then fall in love unexpectedly. I was laughing and smiling-in-recognition and tearing up at different points from the rest of the audience.

Afternoon Delight: Six pieces of athletic and playful modern dance, company of four young  women. I really liked it.

Michael in Primetime: One-person show, intentionally disjointed, I didn’t like it.

Inviting Desire: Vignettes about women’s sexual fantasies. Not just comedic, and a bit more challenging than some of this genre, but could have been more queer-inclusive.

nggrfg Rob had told me on Friday that he liked it, and when he saw the actor/writer in the beer tent he told him it was the best thing he’d seen so far. One-person show, good use of minimal props, speaking directly to the audience at the start and finish about the two important words needed to talk about his life, which are words that can’t even be talked about. Also really good. Particularly interesting in the context of http://fugitivus.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/offensive-words/.
So out of six plays, only one that I didn’t like. And a bunch more that I’m interested in seeing but couldn’t schedule are at the hold-overs next weekend, for $17 each. ( the all-female Importance of Being Earnest, Bashir Lazhar, 7 Lives of Louis Riel, or Cherry Cherry Lemon)

As for the rest of the festival experience, I ate a green onion cake, samosas and naan, a mango lassi, an elephant ear with chocolate sauce, and some assorted other stuff. And I tried a free sample Vitamin Water. I also fitted in some grocery shopping, and enjoyed sitting in the shade knitting and people-watching.

Folkfest 2009

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Thursday night mainstage: Breabach (missed start), Kathleen Edwards, Steve Earle, Boz Skaggs (missed end) and some ‘tweeners.
Kathleen Edwards is one of those Ontario singers who has played the Grad Club and played with other artists I like, but I’d never seen her before.
Steve Earle is an older famous American guy. “Copperhead Road” is his song. Also, as an actor, he played Walon on The Wire, and in real life he’s been in jail.

Friday sessions:
David Francey and Dave Swarbrick, Alex Cuba, Chloe Albert, Joel Plaskett and his father Bill, a bunch of backing musicians. Alex Cuba is an impressive Cuban-style musician who now lives in BC. Chloe Albert is local and young. I already knew and loved David Francey and Joel Plaskett. David Francey was the host of the session. It was called Influences, and one amusing bit was a sort of mashup of Robbie Burns and Bob Marley.
Kathleen Edwards, Neko Case, Chuck Brodsky. All good, no memorable moments.

Friday mainstage: The Wailers (reggae), Neko Case, then I left. Neko Case is called alt-country, but also sings with New Pornographers. I don’t know why I didn’t buy anything of hers; I liked her.

Saturday sessions and small stage concerts:
Niamh Parsons, Old Man Luedecke, Ashley MacIsaac. Ashley MacIsaac didn’t appear to be as big a jerk as his reputation suggests. Niamh Parsons seems like a person I’d like to have a cup of tea or a beer with, but she didn’t sing all that much (I heard her later as a ‘tweener too). She was the session host. Old Man Luedecke was … well, he’d played the Grad Club and other Kingston folk/alt venues but I’d never seen him. See, I had him confused with Gentleman Jim who opened for Stars, whom I didn’t like at all. He’s a banjo-playing storytelling songwriter from Nova Scotia who actually reminded me a little bit of Stan Rogers. And in a later session he sang about him and his wife being infertile. (I am not entirely sure but it seemed like the song had a happy ending. It made me cry though.) Ashley MacIsaac had a very young guitarist with him, a boy who seemed impressive in jumping into other people’s songs and sounding good.
The Northern Cree Singers. I loved these guys. They are local, and since they’ve been on the road for a while they had no CDs left. They mostly “contemporized” their songs to be in English. I want to see them again.
Cara Dillon, John Mann, Eivor. I didn’t like John Mann. He had a good voice and I like his kind of music, but his lyrics and patter sounded annoying and sexist and kind of trite. Cara Dillon is young and from Northern Ireland, mostly singing in English, typical Celtic-ballad singing but not sean-nos. Eivor (must edit to put slash through o) is from the Faeroe Islands and looks like a … some kind of magical creature, with long straggly white hair. She has a high strong voice (much richer than Robyn) and sings in Faroese and English and plays guitar and a drum. I liked her but didn’t manage to see her again or buy anything of hers (must consult about which recordings).
Lynn Miles, Old Man Luedecke, Great Lake Swimmers. This was another good session. I had never heard of Lynn Miles but I loved her and the things she sang about. GLS, another Ontario indie band I hadn’t managed to see before but knew I would like, and I was right.
Chumbawumba Acoustic. These people were great too. Rob recommended them as being anarchist. They are from the UK, political and clever, with some timely songs and some old old English class/labour movement songs. I loved “Add Me” about creepy people wanting to be your friend on social networking sites. Unfortunately, no CDs available. Must find.

Saturday mainstage: Here is where we had the really great tarp placement.
Oysterband did the afternoon mainstage show. I don’t know how I’d missed knowing this band — they have been around a long time and I loved their show. They are from the UK, and they sing some political stuff and other melodic rock stuff. They are handsome charismatic middle-aged guys dressed in black — and two of them jumped in the audience and were singing one tarp away from us.
Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit
Patty Griffin
Iron&Wine

Fringe 2008, second day

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Overall experience I wasn’t as rushed between shows as on Friday, so I spent some time sitting in a breeze in the shade watching people,and talked to a Japanese tourist in the beer tent (Almost entirely in English, because I don’t remember much Japanese). It’s an interesting slightly-counterculture midway – I realize from visits to Montreal and Ottawa street life that Kingston doesn’t have these vendors even at festivals. I ate a green onion cake – something I’d never heard of till I came here which seems to be a local delicacy – fried savoury dough with green onions. There are so many beautiful tattoos in evidence. When I was leaving The Trojan Women, the actor Raoul Bhaneja who does the Hamlet (solo) was handing out flyers and talking up his play. So I told him that I’d already seen it, on the recommendation of a friend who saw him in Montréal, and that I thought it was great.

I don’t mind being by myself, but I am sure that if I come next year I will meet people I know. That is an interesting thought, because I probably haven’t met those people yet.

The Trojan Women I didn’t see this when they put it on at my daughter’s high school and now I’m sorry. It was powerful and haunting and earthily funny. The Cassandra was especially good.

Learning the Game was another one-person show, the kind of play that gets done for school audiences because it’s about an Issue. I saw it because the topic caught my eye-a teenage girl hockey player with a learning disability: how could I not! Afterwards I told the actor that it made me cry, and I got all tongue-tied in front of the playwright. The actor, Megan Leach, said that one in every three performances she feels herself going deep onto the character and knows it’s good. I guessed where in the play it happened today, and got it right.

Grey/Green Paradise was a short sparse contemporary play about two awkward young guys who are roommates (in Montréal, but it doesn’t really matter). One is kind of an extreme environmentalist, and the other is not quite so extreme and works in a bank. It kind of reminded me of one of my Montréal friends looking for philosophically-compatible roommates for some reason. At the end, the actors said that they were working without a script and it was different every night — so maybe the awkwardness wasn’t just part of the story. It worked, anyway.

There are a bunch more shows I want to see, if I have time and money this week. And if not, well, not.

Fringe 2008, first day

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Or, more formally, The 27th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival: The Big Kahuna.

Since I moved to Edmonton the day after the big folk festival my friends talk about, and since this one happens pretty close to my neighbourhood, I thought I’d check it out.

The overall experience I read their website, bought a program book at the 7-11, and bought some tickets on line. There seem to be about 20 stages and 100 different plays over 11 days. At the main festival site, I picked up my tickets, bought a donair, saw some street performers and about a hundred volunteer t-shirts, and decided I didn’t have time to visit the beer tent.

Hamlet (solo) A friend who attends Montreal Fringe recommended this performance, by Raoul Bhaneja. It took me a little while to get into it, and I wished I knew the play more intimately, but after a while it became clear who all the characters were from his voices and body language as well as context. The performance seemed very fast-paced, without any lack of clarity. One weird resonance for me was that because performances of both Hamlet and The Revengers’ Tragedy are described in Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, I kind of had some scenes muddled – like when they started playing with Yorick’s skull, I was expecting the part with kissing the poisoned skull to happen, but that’s in the other play. Anyway, it’s really good and has five more performances.

The “L” Word The program book describes this as Sketch: Comedy/Drama, Music, Mature, Sexual Content, Adult Language, Awkward Topics. It was kind of fun, but light and superficial and basically heterocentric and included gratuitous cheap shots at men. The best parts were the songs (which I think were original) and the skit about women going to the restaurant bathroom in groups – once they got in the bathroom, the strobe lights and dance music came on and they were all dirty-dancing together in their underwear for a few minutes, before getting back to checking their makeup and gossiping again.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to this kind of festival before. I really like the idea of it, and I’ll try to go to more performances. And the beer tent.