She's had good press, I even saw her on Global TV at midnight the Sunday before the Fringe, when they run the local newsmagazine show. But I never know how that translates, does someone have a good hook, are they good at publicity, or does it reflect their actual show?
Jessica Salomon is the one who had people dressed as waiters with trays of shot glasses, printed with "Doing Good" at the Fringe For All. One of the better gimmicks, that night or maybe any Fringe, but while that makes her stand out, it still says nothing about her show.
I was indifferent, but when I went to see "Venezuela" (luckily they had one night of shows on Thursday, before the Fringe began) she was one of the Friends. Yes she was funny, so I went to see her show. Another heroin reference, give away the sample to lure them in. Sadly, I saw much of standup when she opened for "Venezuela" so for some of the really good jokes, I saw them coming and didn't laugh as much as the first time. The key part of the show was more like storytelling of her time in law. She name drops Kofi Annan, who was then Secretary General of the UN. (I can name drop, on June 7th, 1982 when we arrived at the UN, the assistant Secretary General came out to welcome us. I can't remember his name, or anything he said. I do remember Corretta Scott King greeting us after we crossed the street). But in telling the stories, she's making them funny, it's no dry history.
I remember over a decade ago, Martha Chavez was part of a benefit for the Fringe, and I did see something different in her jokes, which got me to the Comedy Nest a few times. She organized a few nights of women comedy there (the Comedy Fest later took over the concept, with a different host).
The big thing I remember is that it was safe to sit in the front row, you might get pulled into the show, but you wouldn't get attacked. I found I did react differently to the women comics, I'm not sure if it's because the jokes are different, or if it's a sexual thing, they being women I am less inhibited in my laughing (or is it that laughing is a vulnerability so I feel I can be more vulnerable and thus laugh harder, when it's a woman telling the jokes)? Seeing women tell jokes is a treat, it shouldn't always be men doing the work of making people laugh.
I remembered all that as I sat in the front row seeing "Doing Good". I did react well on hearing some of her best jokes the first time. I loved the one about the sleepover, it's right up there as a sex scene with the one in the movie "Big" where Tom Hanks claims the top bunk. I didn't think the show was particularly "dirty", I thought they jokes were funny, and sex should be fun. I an see women dragging their boyfriends to this show, as foreplay, just like women would drag men to see Shakti dance when she came to the Fringe (it was never clear if they were excited because it was dance their boyfriends would see with them, or if they saw it as foreplay for later in the evening).
Monday, June 13, 2011
Venezuela, Venezuela, and Friends
I thought they used a picture of My Cousin Vinnie twice, but there really are two people who look quite the same. I wanted to see this one since they charge $2 for children under ten, I wondered if that was merely a gimmick for us to take notice of the show, or it was fit for kids.
It's suitable. It starts off like a silent movie and that would have worked in itself, but then slowly they add gibberish. The movement is the key, the gibberish allows for emphasis and exclamation. Think "Beaker" on The Muppet Show. I thought one piece went on a bit long, but I have no idea if it's a fixed show each time or if they have multiple routines to pick and choose from.
It works for children, but in a good way. It's neither a children's show nor an adult show, it's just funny and like old silent films, children can see the humor.
The "Friends" open the show, it's an hour show with the Venezuela bit about half an hour. So they've brought in some of the other acts to open. I don't think Jessica Salomon was really appropriate if there had been children, but I also assume any children in the audience would have been accommodated.
The Fringe needs shows that children can see, so I'm glad they've done this. The only bad part is that while a child can see the show for one week's allowance (I don't know what kids get for allowance these days, I remember when I'd get fifty cents and rush off to buy a "How & Why Wonder Book" with it), they then have to spend another week's allowance paying the service charge.
It's suitable. It starts off like a silent movie and that would have worked in itself, but then slowly they add gibberish. The movement is the key, the gibberish allows for emphasis and exclamation. Think "Beaker" on The Muppet Show. I thought one piece went on a bit long, but I have no idea if it's a fixed show each time or if they have multiple routines to pick and choose from.
It works for children, but in a good way. It's neither a children's show nor an adult show, it's just funny and like old silent films, children can see the humor.
The "Friends" open the show, it's an hour show with the Venezuela bit about half an hour. So they've brought in some of the other acts to open. I don't think Jessica Salomon was really appropriate if there had been children, but I also assume any children in the audience would have been accommodated.
The Fringe needs shows that children can see, so I'm glad they've done this. The only bad part is that while a child can see the show for one week's allowance (I don't know what kids get for allowance these days, I remember when I'd get fifty cents and rush off to buy a "How & Why Wonder Book" with it), they then have to spend another week's allowance paying the service charge.
Hidden Returning Acts, June 13
There are the obvious Big names returning this year, but some returning acts are sort of hidden. I'm not sure I've found all of them, but here goes.
Last year, a woman came from New York City and did "Recess". She's back, doing "JapJap". I never saw last year's show, she finished her run on the Wednesday, but it was something I was curious about, and it seemed to get good reviews. This year's show seems drastically different, and I didn't realize it was her until I looked at the program blurb a few times.
Maybe more important, Lynsey Billing is doing "Siblings". It's dance, but somehow lost over at Mainline. She did a dance show in 2008 "Barbie World". They wandered around the Beer Tent in electric pink dresses, I thought they should have been in the Drag Races since they were already in drag.
I wrote back then:
I saw Barbie World. It's only 30 minutes long, which helped a lot for a
performance that started at midnight. I heard the interview on the
radio, but I had expected something to play up the pop culture aspect
of Barbie, especially given the cast has been running around the Fringe
in electric pink dresses and wigs. I had expected more of entertainment
type dance, so I postponed my viewing of it. But, other than the
opening piece, where the cast are Barbies, this is contemporary dance,
maybe with a fair influence from ballet. It was pretty good. A bonus is
that there are lots of dancers, a lot of dance at the Fringe is solo or
duets, surely the result of the small stage and finding performers who
can be at performances at varying times. I remember now that I had
almost gone to see it months back when it was performed at Studio 303,
and something came up. It was right around Barbie's birthday, which is
supposed to be March 9th; she was born in 1959 so she turns the Big 5-0
next year.
So based on that previous show, I'll take in this one. I notice it's also a 15 minute and $5 show, which gives it even ore reason to be seen.
One thing we have to remember is that modern dance is not very lucrative, other than the most popular have to have a second job, if they are lucky they can teach dance or yoga. For others, how we view them is perspective. If I only know someone because she performs at Studio 303, I'll see her as a dancer or choreographer, but someone in another aspect of their life might see them as a librarian that sometimes performs
Fringe Very Oldtimer Ed Fuller is doing "Between Gossip & Dreams". It sure has an intriguing premise. I remember seeing Ed Fuller for the first time in 1996 performing at the Beer Tent, but his history goes back further. Sometimes he's missing, other times he's performing and other times he's volunteering.
Last year, a woman came from New York City and did "Recess". She's back, doing "JapJap". I never saw last year's show, she finished her run on the Wednesday, but it was something I was curious about, and it seemed to get good reviews. This year's show seems drastically different, and I didn't realize it was her until I looked at the program blurb a few times.
Maybe more important, Lynsey Billing is doing "Siblings". It's dance, but somehow lost over at Mainline. She did a dance show in 2008 "Barbie World". They wandered around the Beer Tent in electric pink dresses, I thought they should have been in the Drag Races since they were already in drag.
I wrote back then:
I saw Barbie World. It's only 30 minutes long, which helped a lot for a
performance that started at midnight. I heard the interview on the
radio, but I had expected something to play up the pop culture aspect
of Barbie, especially given the cast has been running around the Fringe
in electric pink dresses and wigs. I had expected more of entertainment
type dance, so I postponed my viewing of it. But, other than the
opening piece, where the cast are Barbies, this is contemporary dance,
maybe with a fair influence from ballet. It was pretty good. A bonus is
that there are lots of dancers, a lot of dance at the Fringe is solo or
duets, surely the result of the small stage and finding performers who
can be at performances at varying times. I remember now that I had
almost gone to see it months back when it was performed at Studio 303,
and something came up. It was right around Barbie's birthday, which is
supposed to be March 9th; she was born in 1959 so she turns the Big 5-0
next year.
So based on that previous show, I'll take in this one. I notice it's also a 15 minute and $5 show, which gives it even ore reason to be seen.
One thing we have to remember is that modern dance is not very lucrative, other than the most popular have to have a second job, if they are lucky they can teach dance or yoga. For others, how we view them is perspective. If I only know someone because she performs at Studio 303, I'll see her as a dancer or choreographer, but someone in another aspect of their life might see them as a librarian that sometimes performs
Fringe Very Oldtimer Ed Fuller is doing "Between Gossip & Dreams". It sure has an intriguing premise. I remember seeing Ed Fuller for the first time in 1996 performing at the Beer Tent, but his history goes back further. Sometimes he's missing, other times he's performing and other times he's volunteering.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
On the Spot's Walking Tour
I was intrigued (and don't make me type in the full title, it's listed in the program under "On the Spot") but OFF shows too often collide with the regular shows, with fixed times that can ruin a whole evening. But, I was soaking wet, just from walking from Mainline to the Beer Tent, and hovering around the InfoBooth for shelter, it slowly revealed that some of the crowd wasn't just there for shelter, but for the tour. I wasn't in the mood to go to a show while soaking wet, but as the sun returned, some walking might dry me out. And the tour was about to start, and it would finish before the show I really wanted to see, which happened to be close.
It shows that I don't pay that much attention to the blurbs, since I really expected a walking tour, albeit a humorous one. I guess being Fringe Historian, I'd want to arrange a walking tour to show off the old Venues.
Instead, this is improv, with the really neat factor of moving around. I liked that when they did Shakespeare on Mount Royal a decade ago, I liked it when some troupe did a free OFF show during the Fringe a few years ago. It can get tiresome to always be sitting in seats to see a show, to have to sit in the same spot through the show.
And then one can be amused by cyclists that just ride through the scene (on the other hand, some others made a point of avoiding it).
Still expecting history, when Terrence Bowman, I think it's him as the tour guide, asked for something from the "tourists', it came across like a teacher reaching for an answer rather than reveal it. It took me a while to grasp that one had control, sort of, over the situation by yelling out whatever. I liked it, and it wsa over before I started wondering about the time. Don't take the history as exact. I think it would work better with a larger crowd, there were about four of us as audience, and as many On the Spotters. There was also a horribly obnoxious woman in our tour Sunday night, I tried to be polite but then moved away from her.
It shows that I don't pay that much attention to the blurbs, since I really expected a walking tour, albeit a humorous one. I guess being Fringe Historian, I'd want to arrange a walking tour to show off the old Venues.
Instead, this is improv, with the really neat factor of moving around. I liked that when they did Shakespeare on Mount Royal a decade ago, I liked it when some troupe did a free OFF show during the Fringe a few years ago. It can get tiresome to always be sitting in seats to see a show, to have to sit in the same spot through the show.And then one can be amused by cyclists that just ride through the scene (on the other hand, some others made a point of avoiding it).
Still expecting history, when Terrence Bowman, I think it's him as the tour guide, asked for something from the "tourists', it came across like a teacher reaching for an answer rather than reveal it. It took me a while to grasp that one had control, sort of, over the situation by yelling out whatever. I liked it, and it wsa over before I started wondering about the time. Don't take the history as exact. I think it would work better with a larger crowd, there were about four of us as audience, and as many On the Spotters. There was also a horribly obnoxious woman in our tour Sunday night, I tried to be polite but then moved away from her.
Indiana Jones Day at the Fringe, June 12
Nobody even noticed, but Sunday June 12th was Indiana Jones Day at the Montreal Fringe. A chance to wear a beat up fedora and leather jacket, and show of your skill at using a whip. June 12, 1981 was the day "Raiders of the Lost Ark" came out.
I saw it early, at the Imperial, but I'm sort of blank about it. The concept was novel enough, so just like when Star Wars came out (I saw it twice the afternoon it first played Montreal), we weren't sure what to expect. Oh, preview shows pointed otu it was an homage to the serials of the old days, but in 1981, it wsa a fork in the road. I thought I saw it at midnight, and came back from somewhere to do so, but not on June 12th, so I must be mixing that memory with one of the Star Wars films, or even when the 2nd Indiana Jones film came out. It's lost some of its impact over thirty years, and the fact that I do have it on VHS so I can watch it when i wnat, but it was a potent film when it first came out. Back then, watching it whenever you wanted was only beginning with the slow rise of VCRs, you saw it when it first came out, maybe if it hit the rep houses, and then you were dependent on if it appeared on TV.
We should have made a big deal of this at the Fringe.
June 12th is always and forever also Anne Frank's birthday. This year I will get Miep Gies book about Anne, Miep Gies being one of the people who helped to hid the Franks, and then of course, kept the diary safe until Otto Frank came home safely.
Another event that I had to look up actually happened on June 12th, too. Back in 1971, the Whole Earth Catalog had their "Demise Party", having decided to shut down operation (of course, that didn't last long, they produced more Catalogs for decades, and of course in 1974 started printing the CoEvolution Quarterly that I read for most of its life. Significant about the Demise Party is that some guy named Fred Moore ended up with the money that the Catalog had offered up for some project (and the attendees could not reach a decision about where the money should go). When I read the Rolling Stone article about the Demise Party "The Last Twelve Hours of the Whole Earth" (Rolling Stone, July 8, 1971) around 1976, Fred Moore was just a name in the article. But some years later, he reached a certain level of fame by helping to start the Homebrew Computer Club, that was very important in the early days of home computers. And Fred Moore apparently walked through Montreal in June or July of 1964 as part of the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Peace Walk, an event made famous because when they hit the Deep South they ran into segregation, and the Peace Walk was not segregated.
That July 8th issue of Rolling Stone is also important, since on page 8 it carries a short article announcing that The Fillmore is closing at the end of June, rather than later in the year.
I saw it early, at the Imperial, but I'm sort of blank about it. The concept was novel enough, so just like when Star Wars came out (I saw it twice the afternoon it first played Montreal), we weren't sure what to expect. Oh, preview shows pointed otu it was an homage to the serials of the old days, but in 1981, it wsa a fork in the road. I thought I saw it at midnight, and came back from somewhere to do so, but not on June 12th, so I must be mixing that memory with one of the Star Wars films, or even when the 2nd Indiana Jones film came out. It's lost some of its impact over thirty years, and the fact that I do have it on VHS so I can watch it when i wnat, but it was a potent film when it first came out. Back then, watching it whenever you wanted was only beginning with the slow rise of VCRs, you saw it when it first came out, maybe if it hit the rep houses, and then you were dependent on if it appeared on TV.
We should have made a big deal of this at the Fringe.
June 12th is always and forever also Anne Frank's birthday. This year I will get Miep Gies book about Anne, Miep Gies being one of the people who helped to hid the Franks, and then of course, kept the diary safe until Otto Frank came home safely.
Another event that I had to look up actually happened on June 12th, too. Back in 1971, the Whole Earth Catalog had their "Demise Party", having decided to shut down operation (of course, that didn't last long, they produced more Catalogs for decades, and of course in 1974 started printing the CoEvolution Quarterly that I read for most of its life. Significant about the Demise Party is that some guy named Fred Moore ended up with the money that the Catalog had offered up for some project (and the attendees could not reach a decision about where the money should go). When I read the Rolling Stone article about the Demise Party "The Last Twelve Hours of the Whole Earth" (Rolling Stone, July 8, 1971) around 1976, Fred Moore was just a name in the article. But some years later, he reached a certain level of fame by helping to start the Homebrew Computer Club, that was very important in the early days of home computers. And Fred Moore apparently walked through Montreal in June or July of 1964 as part of the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Peace Walk, an event made famous because when they hit the Deep South they ran into segregation, and the Peace Walk was not segregated.
That July 8th issue of Rolling Stone is also important, since on page 8 it carries a short article announcing that The Fillmore is closing at the end of June, rather than later in the year.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The Beer Arrives, The Posters Go Up
Another day at the Beer Tent, though I got there a tad later. Beer was supposed to arrive anywhere from 11 to noon, it came about 3:30pm if I remember right. And there was no sense in my going for the beer, they brought three people and three handcarts. I suspect that happened last year too, when it came earlier than I'd been told and missed it. For a long time, it was only the driver, and so we volunteers worked hard at moving the kegs. That's the Donkey Kong reference, we were rolling the kegs into the park. But with three handcarts, rolling just got in the way, so I think my days of moving beer is in the past.
But there were some last minute things to take care of, so i didn't completely sit around. I think the full cast of "Think Outside" came to help, they were actually fun to have around. They even have tshirts, though I initially thought only those with tshirts were part of the troupe. It is a good way to work your way into the Fringe culturally, yes you can promote your show but the real impact is not that the olunteers may come to your show, but that they will think kindly towards your show. I do mention the show here, right? I've often thought for out of towners, it's also something to do. If you are in a strange place, helping out at the Beer Tent is a means of staying with the somewhat familiar, and then for the rest of the Fringe, there are some people around that you know.
Again, the postering was happening today rather than opening night. The first in line arrived about 3:30pm, "C'est un Riopel". Liz doing "Arthur C. Clarke's How We Went to Mars", was next in line, I guess reasonably soon after. A few trickled in, but then the real crowd did not arrive until much closer to the 6pm start time.
One or two acts were smiling at me, and oddly I didn't react. I suddenlywasn't sure if they perceived me as authority, or if they remembered me from other years. And sometimes it is actually someone I may know. Even some of the people bringing the tents or fences remember me from year to year.
So long as Patrick and a few other people aren't around, I've been around longer than anyone, now that Jeremy has "retired". Well, Nancy K. Brown is senior volunteer, I can't think of any volunteers who are still around who predate me. Tristan was a volunteer from Fringe 1, but he's been staff and board of directors since. Kristi in the counting house is another volunteer from before I arrived, but she's been staff, and has also missed some years.
There were some new rules about the postering, some good, some seem arbitrary. No postering on the benches, which is great. We've always cleaned them up, but two years ago we were told to scrub harder. It wasn't clear whether it was change of management of complaints, but this time Many said there had been complaints. That's one rule I'm glad of, those benches were really hard to get back in "normal" state. The glue of the tape actually starts affecting the wood. No postering on the tables where the beer is served. I think I can rememember when someone first took the initative to poster there, I guess it's deemed too messythough it always seemed like a good place. I'd still like to try putting posters under the plastic, without tape. If it works the posters stay clean and the top of the plastic is clean, but of course if it doesn't work, the beer gets under the plastic and the flyers soak it up. Some areas of the fence were reserved, obviously in some cases though I don't know why the fence on St. Dominique has to remain poster free.
I announced one minute to go at 5:59, nobody took the bait, so I blew the whistle at 6pm, and crowd rolled in. The usual stampede, some had been waiting for some time, though some had spent the time postering the outside of the fence and arranging their posters in preformed sets. Without that crowd of artists, there would be no Fringe. They are the paying customers at the moment, they subcontract the venue, technical help and ticket sales (plus some other bits and pieces) from the Fringe and they won't make money until they can sell their show to an audience.
Nodoby was at the gate holding the crowd back, nobody was there to greet them except for me. I can remember when volunteers ruled the Fringe, I can remember when that first night postering wasn't seen as tradition, but as one important thing to do to lure an audience to your show. I have absolutely no status, yet I have the deep history and uphold the culture of the Fringe.
With the posters up, it was the usual mingling. But then the sky darkened. We were actually lucky, it didn't rain either day of the setup, though it had been forecast. It's not fun being cold and wet all day. And then the wind came, gritty dry wind and then the rain came. Not too heavy, but not too pleasant. Amy passes by and whispers "it's not my fault". And I sure woudln't pin rain on her. It happens.
I left about 8:30pm. Again I was too worn down to do anything useful, so I was going to watch "Saving Private Ryan" as a late D-Day memorial, but the VHS copy I bought the week before for 25cents has mangled sound. I wonder if it was like that when I bought it, or if I mangled it by putting that radio on top of the tapes? So instead, I watched "The Ghost and the Darkness", that Val Kilmar/Michael Douglas film about a man eating lion attacking railroad workers in Africa. I never saw it before. It was okay, but I should have been doing something practical.
I think that gets the accumulated junk out of my system, so now I can get
with the Fringe.
But there were some last minute things to take care of, so i didn't completely sit around. I think the full cast of "Think Outside" came to help, they were actually fun to have around. They even have tshirts, though I initially thought only those with tshirts were part of the troupe. It is a good way to work your way into the Fringe culturally, yes you can promote your show but the real impact is not that the olunteers may come to your show, but that they will think kindly towards your show. I do mention the show here, right? I've often thought for out of towners, it's also something to do. If you are in a strange place, helping out at the Beer Tent is a means of staying with the somewhat familiar, and then for the rest of the Fringe, there are some people around that you know.
Again, the postering was happening today rather than opening night. The first in line arrived about 3:30pm, "C'est un Riopel". Liz doing "Arthur C. Clarke's How We Went to Mars", was next in line, I guess reasonably soon after. A few trickled in, but then the real crowd did not arrive until much closer to the 6pm start time.
One or two acts were smiling at me, and oddly I didn't react. I suddenlywasn't sure if they perceived me as authority, or if they remembered me from other years. And sometimes it is actually someone I may know. Even some of the people bringing the tents or fences remember me from year to year.
So long as Patrick and a few other people aren't around, I've been around longer than anyone, now that Jeremy has "retired". Well, Nancy K. Brown is senior volunteer, I can't think of any volunteers who are still around who predate me. Tristan was a volunteer from Fringe 1, but he's been staff and board of directors since. Kristi in the counting house is another volunteer from before I arrived, but she's been staff, and has also missed some years.
There were some new rules about the postering, some good, some seem arbitrary. No postering on the benches, which is great. We've always cleaned them up, but two years ago we were told to scrub harder. It wasn't clear whether it was change of management of complaints, but this time Many said there had been complaints. That's one rule I'm glad of, those benches were really hard to get back in "normal" state. The glue of the tape actually starts affecting the wood. No postering on the tables where the beer is served. I think I can rememember when someone first took the initative to poster there, I guess it's deemed too messythough it always seemed like a good place. I'd still like to try putting posters under the plastic, without tape. If it works the posters stay clean and the top of the plastic is clean, but of course if it doesn't work, the beer gets under the plastic and the flyers soak it up. Some areas of the fence were reserved, obviously in some cases though I don't know why the fence on St. Dominique has to remain poster free.
I announced one minute to go at 5:59, nobody took the bait, so I blew the whistle at 6pm, and crowd rolled in. The usual stampede, some had been waiting for some time, though some had spent the time postering the outside of the fence and arranging their posters in preformed sets. Without that crowd of artists, there would be no Fringe. They are the paying customers at the moment, they subcontract the venue, technical help and ticket sales (plus some other bits and pieces) from the Fringe and they won't make money until they can sell their show to an audience.
Nodoby was at the gate holding the crowd back, nobody was there to greet them except for me. I can remember when volunteers ruled the Fringe, I can remember when that first night postering wasn't seen as tradition, but as one important thing to do to lure an audience to your show. I have absolutely no status, yet I have the deep history and uphold the culture of the Fringe.
With the posters up, it was the usual mingling. But then the sky darkened. We were actually lucky, it didn't rain either day of the setup, though it had been forecast. It's not fun being cold and wet all day. And then the wind came, gritty dry wind and then the rain came. Not too heavy, but not too pleasant. Amy passes by and whispers "it's not my fault". And I sure woudln't pin rain on her. It happens.
I left about 8:30pm. Again I was too worn down to do anything useful, so I was going to watch "Saving Private Ryan" as a late D-Day memorial, but the VHS copy I bought the week before for 25cents has mangled sound. I wonder if it was like that when I bought it, or if I mangled it by putting that radio on top of the tapes? So instead, I watched "The Ghost and the Darkness", that Val Kilmar/Michael Douglas film about a man eating lion attacking railroad workers in Africa. I never saw it before. It was okay, but I should have been doing something practical.
I think that gets the accumulated junk out of my system, so now I can get
with the Fringe.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Fringe Doesn't Start Until I Put Up the Beer Tent
Even though I've already seen one show (my superpass came early, and without fuss), the Fringe doesn't start till the Beer Tent is up, and for something like the tenth time I was there early today to put it up.
I barely take the bus or metro, walking everywhere, but having wasted time trying to find something for my cordless screwdriver, I had no choice but to take the bus. And the 24 is still taking a detour at Guy, that's happened before but I'm not sure the construction has been going on continuously since last Fringe.
I can remember when few showed up, though usually some trickled in later, but then we often had other things to do too, in those days before more staff came along. It's better organized, there really is a sequence to it all, and some years there was too much overlap. So some years I really worked hard staying till 8pm or so (Jeremy would finally send me home). I should probably stop, with more volunteers I do less, yet staying all day in the sun puts a lot of wear on me right before the Fringe. But not only do I have the tools, I bring food, and I don't know what happens if I don't show up. Some disaster might happen, and then I'd get blamed.
We had a fair number of volunteers, all so eager. Even some returning from last year. Joseph St. Marie came back, for at least a second year (I can't remember about two years ago). When he was leaving, he remembered and handed out his flyers, he's doing "Elevated; Pushing Buttons". Sometimes it's confusing, I just see them as volunteers, and then when they later come back with a show, it almost looks like one of us "made good", but the reality may be different, it may be that they are volunteering because they are already interested in putting on a show. Someone else returned, I think, but my memory is mangled, is the face matching the memory I remember?
The fence is the key thing, and it was late. I only jokingly blamed Amy, it can't be her fault but with a change one has to connect it to other changes. If the fence isn't up before the other things roll in, something stalls. So we spent a while moving things up from the office (which has to be done eventually), and the regulars to the park were able to remain longer than usual. (Usually, there is a steady stream of people wanting to get through the park, because that's what they normally do. Then as we take things down, the fence is barely down, and we aren't finished, when people and animals return to the park. Nature is strong.) The tents. chairs and tables came before the fence arrived, not so good but better than if they arrive together. So when the fence did arrive, we had to rush to get the sections in place behind where the tents go.
Other than the delay, it was a quiet day. Really hot, I don't know if the rash on my arms came from something in the astroturf, or if it was a heat rash
Oddly, I saw nobody coming by wanting to buy tickets (usually someone does, not realizing the box office doesn't open yet, they have to go to Mainline), or people asking what was going on (it always makes sense to have a bundle of programs at the site from early on). One woman walking her dog near the back of the park was glad to see the Fringe returning, I couldn't help but wonder if she lived across the street.
I stayed till about 7pm, though I was hardly working hard all that time. Someone has to keep the volunteers happy.
But then I realized how much it takes out of me, that full day in the sun. So instead of getting something done, vegetating by watching "Singles" rather than sleeping or doing something.
I barely take the bus or metro, walking everywhere, but having wasted time trying to find something for my cordless screwdriver, I had no choice but to take the bus. And the 24 is still taking a detour at Guy, that's happened before but I'm not sure the construction has been going on continuously since last Fringe.
I can remember when few showed up, though usually some trickled in later, but then we often had other things to do too, in those days before more staff came along. It's better organized, there really is a sequence to it all, and some years there was too much overlap. So some years I really worked hard staying till 8pm or so (Jeremy would finally send me home). I should probably stop, with more volunteers I do less, yet staying all day in the sun puts a lot of wear on me right before the Fringe. But not only do I have the tools, I bring food, and I don't know what happens if I don't show up. Some disaster might happen, and then I'd get blamed.
We had a fair number of volunteers, all so eager. Even some returning from last year. Joseph St. Marie came back, for at least a second year (I can't remember about two years ago). When he was leaving, he remembered and handed out his flyers, he's doing "Elevated; Pushing Buttons". Sometimes it's confusing, I just see them as volunteers, and then when they later come back with a show, it almost looks like one of us "made good", but the reality may be different, it may be that they are volunteering because they are already interested in putting on a show. Someone else returned, I think, but my memory is mangled, is the face matching the memory I remember?
The fence is the key thing, and it was late. I only jokingly blamed Amy, it can't be her fault but with a change one has to connect it to other changes. If the fence isn't up before the other things roll in, something stalls. So we spent a while moving things up from the office (which has to be done eventually), and the regulars to the park were able to remain longer than usual. (Usually, there is a steady stream of people wanting to get through the park, because that's what they normally do. Then as we take things down, the fence is barely down, and we aren't finished, when people and animals return to the park. Nature is strong.) The tents. chairs and tables came before the fence arrived, not so good but better than if they arrive together. So when the fence did arrive, we had to rush to get the sections in place behind where the tents go.
Other than the delay, it was a quiet day. Really hot, I don't know if the rash on my arms came from something in the astroturf, or if it was a heat rash
Oddly, I saw nobody coming by wanting to buy tickets (usually someone does, not realizing the box office doesn't open yet, they have to go to Mainline), or people asking what was going on (it always makes sense to have a bundle of programs at the site from early on). One woman walking her dog near the back of the park was glad to see the Fringe returning, I couldn't help but wonder if she lived across the street.
I stayed till about 7pm, though I was hardly working hard all that time. Someone has to keep the volunteers happy.
But then I realized how much it takes out of me, that full day in the sun. So instead of getting something done, vegetating by watching "Singles" rather than sleeping or doing something.
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