Zoofest ios not Festival of Discovery, copy versus derived

This is one of the Zoofest flyers from last year. The Zoofest is not a Festival of Discoveries.  They want it to sound like  the Fringe, so they take the line from the Fringe.  Not unlike the first  year when they made such a fuss about it being separate from the comedy  festival, yet the domain for the Zoofest webpage was registered by the  comedy festival. Not unlike the first year when there were complaints  about the website, they having made it glossy instead of informative.


I mentioned it to Vinnie, and he repeated back the line that everything is derived from other things. Yes, maybe, but this isn't so much derived as simply taken.  I called the Fringe a Festival of Discovery back in 2003 because I wanted it viewed a different way.  I didn't like the snear that some reviewers gave the Fringe, I didn't like the notion that we should all wait for some reviewer to tell us which shows to go to.  The Fringe used it, but since they don't talk to me, I have no idea if they really understand what I was saying, or if they thought it was a good slogan. The Zoofest is removed a second time, I'm certain they simply thought it was a good marketing phrase.

Yes, everything is created out of what came before.  But there is a difference between merely repeating something,  and taking it in, processing it and and then spitting it out in a modified form.

The difference might be portrayed by the first Indiana Jones film. Steven Spielberg was influenced by others, he never denied that it was a look back at the serials of the old days. But, it was distanced by time, and at the very least he put something out there that hadn't been done for a while.  But once Raiders of the Lost Ark was out, various movies and tv shows came along to go after that market.  They didn't do the work to lookback to the old serials, figure out what was good about them, and then create a new character, they had to wait till Raiders of the Lost Ark came out.

I knew what I'd do with the internet long before I had access, before I knew about Arpanet.  It was very much based on science fiction fanzines, and that famous Gestetner machine in San Francisco in 1967. But it was  20 years of waiting, and all kinds of other things mixed in with it.  It's not the same thing as  aiting fifteen years with internet access and then saying "Oh  look, facebook is popular, let's use that".  I sure didn't think in 1996  "Hey, the internet is the latest thing, we must jump on it", I was trying  to deal with traditional problems of getting the word out.

Every bit of creativity is based on something, it needs stimulous to happen.  But that can come from taking in a lot and processing it, or it can come from observation.  You can look at a circuit and say "wait a minute, change this and you can do this...", but it requires an understanding of the circuit before you can make that leap.  I once saw a whole different path for something simply because I read a newspaper article about the trespassing law in Ontario changing; others were unable to make that leap.  But creativity doesn't come from "others" it comes from everyone. I can think of Great Thoughts I had when I was sixteen and they are not unique, in fact they were verified by the fact that I'd later read similar  yhings  elsewhere, but they were based on my own observation.  I'd forgotten some  of  those early  observations, yet the reality is they are what colors my  view of the world.

I invented bike paths when I was ten, in 1970.  "Invented" because at the time I was unaware that such things existed elsewhere.  I can run down exactly what caused that reaction.  But I can also tell about being 25 and realizing the error, that segregation doesn't fix things. Bike paths were a way for people to get tangible recognition, they are a way for municipalities to say "see, we do see bicyclists", yet they don't change things.  I can point to where bike paths were first debated on the island of Montreal, all the points taken up back then.  Yet for anyone who came later, Le Monde a Bicyclette came five years after, it is a different thing.  They aren't reacting to something and coming up with a solution, good or bad, they are reacting by pulling an existing solution off the shelf. They don't know a world without bike paths, so they continue to demand them, even taking painted stripes on roads for the acknowledgement. The only public argument today about bike paths is cyclists versus car drivers, one wanting them, the other hating them.  Very little is argued about whether they are the proper solution to the problem, that is lost in history.




Is creativity easy or hard?  I have no idea.  I am inclined to believe it's less about some ability than it is about external force that enables or disables creativity. But I suspect many people don't realize their dependence on creativity,  the masses thinking copyright is outdated, not thinking about  where they'd be if others weren't creating.

I want people to speak their own words, because that's the only way I can tell if they understand something or not.  If you just repeat back what was said in that magazine article, you aren't telling me anything new.  I am reminded of grade 7 or 8 science, where the teacher who otherwise taught English read through a book about how to fly a plane.  Not only was it more about the mechanics of flying than how a plane flies, but did she understand any of it when she was reading straight out of the book?

Art at the very least is about speaking your own words.  Yes, there can be horrible copies of things, but even then artists are forced to create using their own words, and hopefully they get better at it.  If you don't start, you can never move from mere copying to deriving.

Jim Peck did two years in WWII for opposing war.  I saw his photograph on TV three times in May, yet he was invisible.  This is one of his books, it seems to have a dedication scrawled inside from him, I bought it used but somehow it came to me.

As soon as he landed in prison during WWII, he started a strike to desegregate the prison dining hall. He opposed war because war is wrong, not because he thought Hitler was swell.

The reality is, the civil rights movement was built on those WWII riff-raff jailbird pacifists.

After the war, Bayard Rustin (he did 28 months for opposing war in WWII) organized the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947, the first of the freedom rides, to desegregate interstate busing.  The list of riders includes a good number of WWII pacifists. Not much happened, a few got arrested.

Jim Peck was a crewmember of The Golden Rule in 1958 (yes 13 years before Greenpeace, and it was the inspiration for Greenpeace) that tried to sail into a nuclear test site (when they were still testing above ground).  The ship was captained by Albert Bigelow, who had served in WWII but then turned against war.In early May of 1961, The Freedom Rides happened.  James l. Farmer organized it that time, another CO from WWII. There was nothing illegal that time, they were testing rulings that had disallowed desegregation on interstate busing.  Albert Bigelow and John Lewis ere attacked, Jim Peck was nearly beaten to death, one bus was burned. The civil rights hierarchy didn't like the Freedom Ride, the people in the south didn't like them, the US presidency didn't like them.  But just like Rosa Parks showing others to act by her deed, Diane Nash (who had been part of the lunch counter sit ins the year before) knew it was important and made sure the Freedom Rides continued. And with hundreds of jailbirds that summer, desegregated busing in the US stopped.

They had power that most of us can't grasp.  To stand up to bullies, and segregation and all that kept it in place was at its core bullies, to stand up to their violence.

Both sets of freedom rides counted on those WWII pacifists as participants or organizers (and sometimes both, since pacifist George Houser, I think he did time in WWII despite being a theology student (and thus exempt) rode in 1947, then helped to organize in 1961).

Bayard Rustin was a major reason for the non-violence of the civil rights movement.  It wasn't some tactic, it was a deep seated realization that violence is wrong. Non-violence came roaring out of the CO camps and the prisons of WWII to change the world.

In 1982 I was I was in the War Resisters Office buying some books, and someone served me who seemed familiar and was older.  I assumed he was one of those WWII pacifists, though I'm no longer sure which one. They have aged too, most have passed away already, without a lot of fuss from mainstream press.  Though, there was George Houser at about 91 on Oprah on May 4th/  Sadly nobody really said anything about him, or to him,  and not a word was said about the WWII pacifists that were key players in the beginning.

Someon'e slooking for a Fringe date, or is it just advertising?

According to this post, Let's Just Fringe Together. All Night - m4w someone is looking for a date for the Fringe.  Or maybe not, there are enough telltales in there to suggest it is advertising, 

Once again, in 1998 the Montreal Fringe was on the Mirror's Best of Montreal in the category of Best Pickup Spot.  I have no knowledge of some organized attempt to get it there, I know I voted it deliberately.

In that context, you're better off going to the Fringe and enjoying it, and hope to meet someone.

As I've stated before, if you spend enough time at the Fringe, it is an out of the ordinary experience.  I thought I said it was like summer camp back during the McGill years, but I just found something from about a decade ago  where I quote volunteer Sara, who went on to form   Pony Up! as saying it's like summer camp   The boundaries are different, so it is okay to go up and start talking to someone when in "ordinary" circumstances you wouldn't.  That doesn't make it a good pickup spot, it does make it a great flirting spot and without flirting, nothing else can happen.

Children's Shows, but there aren't any

I'm really glad that Venezuela is being promoted as a children's show by having a $2.00 ticket price for those under ten.  There are a few other shows that aren't children's shows but are suitable, which is nice too. But the days of having outright children's shows seem long in the past. The days when nobody knew what the Fringe was so people were willing to try variety have been pushed out. Though maybe that will change as the youngest Fringe Oldtimers start  having children.

In 1994 or 95, one family from the West Island did a Dr. Seuss show, I really wanted to see it, but they finished early and it slipped by.  I remember 1996 and realizing the Fringe was right in that period at the end of the school year when nothing much is happening but you still have to attend.  I thought how  MacHomer could be a great field trip in those last days of school before summer.  It helped that the Fringe ran from noon to midnight back then, so shows were happening during school hours.

Then in 1997, Rick Miller and Stephanie Baptist (did I get that right? They later formed a legal partnership and produced a child or maybe more) did Babaloo & Ganoosh which was intended for children.  Stephanie showed up at the Fringe For All in costume, wearing shoes shaped like hot dogs in buns.  "Are those dogs tired?",  I asked. I saw it, memory reminds me that someone small did watch it, interested in the toys on stage before the show started.  And Rick tossed a beret into the crowd, coming close to Bill Brownstein is what I remember.  (They did get a decent review, though.) But I don't think it did that well, certainly not drawing children.

Then in 1999, Marc Boiteux and Lazareth did Once Upon A..., Lazareth being a dummy.  They had been doing comedy clubs around then, but this was intended for children.  I don't think many attended.  When I saw it, I remember one maybe ten year old girl attending, and she had a good time. Then she dutifully went right over to the Beer Tent to fill out buzz. Marc said he  didn't get the audience he'd hoped, the typecasting of the Fringe already  being strong.  But he was back the next year, with "Balloon Factory"., helped along by the Great Zamboni, who was a man, not machine. That time he made the effort to promote away from the Fringe, pulling kids in from elsewhere and I thought he did well.   I think that was the year I saw him handing out flyers at the Fraser Hickson Library street festival,  one couple glad to  know that the Fringe was coming since they were  uncertain of the dates.  He came back again with the same show in French the next year, and then I guess that was it.  He had a sandwich board chained to the  short black fence at the Beer Tent, two months after the Fringe one year I was passing by and noticed the sign was still there.

The addendum to this is that about a week before the Fringe, I was watching the news and they had a story about Sun Youth's annual bike giveaway.  A familiar face appears, and then yes, it is Marc Boiteux, of course looking older.  Apparently he'd had some diabetic issue, and his son had done the right thing, which is why his son got the bike.

I can't remember any children's shows since then.  Though of course plenty that might have some appeal to them.  And we must never forget that dance has potential to lure a young audience, so much of the movement is similar to what small children are doing anyway.  And better to drag them to a cheap and short show at the Fringe, complete with the informality, than spending big money to take them to Place des Arts.

Oddly in 1999, there was "Kid's Day at the Fringe", right there at the Beer Tent in the parking lot of the restaurant.  But I must have gotten there after it was over, since I have no memory of it.  It was sort of incongruous, and seemed more a nod to someone who was on staff that year than part of some Big Plan for expansion.

Children's shows are often fringe, somewhere over there.  If anyone set out to do a specifically children's show now, they'd have to work hard away from the Fringe to bring in an audience.  I don't think we even do enough to promote that the Fringe can be a family event, Cabaret L'Amour Fou from the west coast 2 years ago certainly should have brought children in.  Instead of a fringe, we've set up a monolith of "young hipster" that can be as alienating as any clique.

Machomer is Going to Stratford!

According to this  Stratford Blog entry,  Machomer will be at Stratford this summer.  Aunt Julia will be so pleased.


I'ts been so long since the show appeared at the fringe, 1995 and 1996 (and then it was a fundraiser just before a Fringe, I guess 1997) that a whole generation has grown up not knowing it locally. Rick Miller has been in Toronto for at least a decade, though for a couple of years, he would come back for our little Fringe.  There was one year when he offered up something like $200 as a Multimedia Prize, memory says that didn't work out so well either because it wasn't well defined or there weren't many shows that fit the category.   Things have definitely improved in that area, the days of gratuitous multimedia are in the past.


For some reason, I checked, and there is even a Wikipedia entry for MacHomer

Folk Music

I have no idea if the folk music at the Fringe occurred yesterday as planned, or if it was rained out. I heard the later activities went inside, the Dramaturkey being interrupted by rain), but nothing about the folk music.

This is one reason I don't like the blender of the peripheral things at the Fringe.  There is a whole lot more reason for me to take in the Folk Festival at the canal than many other of the festivals, but since it happens during the Fringe, I won't go.  So why are we seeing a segment of Folk at the Fringe?

To make matters worse, John Sebastian is performing on Thursday June 16th as part of the Folk Festival.  I never really gave much thought to whether I'm willing to spend $50 ($60 after May 31st)  to see him because it happens right in the Fringe.  I miss so much while the Fringe happens , in those prime early hot days of summer, it's not fair to tempt me. Details are here.

Coincidentally, Thursday night on Channel 57, the Plattsburgh PBS station, they are running "John Sebastian presents Folk Rewind" from 9pm to 11pm.

This reminds me of the time I replied to someone in rec.folk.music:
    > Harvey Reid says the autoharp will never come into vogue until
        teenaged boys ask  for one for Christmas to impress teenaged girls.
 
    But didn't that happen at one point in time?  I barely remember seeing
    the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, but I've seen footage of the Lovin
    Spoonful, and  John Sebastians playing an autoharp.  I can imagine that
    that sort of thing did lead teenage boys to ask for autoharps to
    impress teenage girls.  Indeed, was John Sebastian's use of an autoharp
    traditional, or a prop to impress teenage girls?

    That is an exaggeration of the situation, but there was a time, and
    John Sebastian came out of it, where "traditional folk players" would be
    using the autoharp in non-traditional settings (ie, folk became hip), and
    then the newer generation like John Sebastian took it up and rose to greater
    visibility.  Once it was out there, surely there were people who took
    up the autoharp because John Sebastian played it.

    I must have somehow been impressed by the autoharp, because there was a
    time when I'd thought of getting one, to take up actually playing an
    instrument.  I guess I gave up on that idea when I mentioned it to
    someone, and he said the autoharp was very easy to start to play, but
    beyond that it was much more difficult.

That's when Happy Traum jumped in to point out that John Sebastian had made an introductory video on the autoharp for Homespun Tapes, which was Happy and Arti Traum's educational business.

In other folk music news, Roger McGuinn apparently has a new CD out, full of sea songs.  I've seen him perform twice, once with Gene Clarke at one of those old clubs near Place des Arts, about 1978 and then less than a decade ago when he played the Concordia Concert Hall with Ritchie Havens (and I'm too tired to look for the date).   he's a real gadget freak, there was a time when he'd post to rec.music.folk and the newsgroup about  The Byrds, until someone stalked him away.  if he came to town, I'd give him an early Sony transistor radio for his collection.

Tomorrow, Tuesday June 14th, "Phil Ochs: There But for a Fortune" is playing in Ottawa, presented by the Ottawa Folk Festival.  The details I saw are here.  Too far and the wrong week. But it doesn't matter, it will be out on DVD on July 19th (and yes, I'll buy it).

Montreal Improv

When they opened the actual Venue/school late last summer, I meant to go by, but either it was the wrong time or I didn't have the address. So I finally got into the venue this week, and it's nice.  It's not glossy, but it's the kind of venue we need, like the Yellow Door for folk music, or what Studio 303 used to be.  An intermediate place where people can start out, but still comfortable enough  for the audience. I would argue that some fancy venues are not so comfortable, unless you are used to that life.

I was surprised they had so much space for the stage, but then, no.  When they are teaching classes, they need a space to perform, and a place for teh rest to sit and watch.  It's not like dance at Studio 303 where we'd ahve to put the chairs and equipment away after the show even if it was being staged the next day, since it would get in the way of classes in the studio.

Bryan (on the right) has been venue managing a lot this week.  He and the rest have been around the Fringe for some years now, they are close to qualifying as Fringe Oldtimers, but I don't remember them volunteering.  of course, they had to supply their own venue managers, but it's a different role to see him and his lovely assitant.  They even have their own set of walkie talkies in addition to those from the Frio they can talk up to their venue.

I put this picture in because whatever night it was, I passed by and thought the guy on the left was some comedian. When I went back, I realized he resembled Lewis Black, and ona subconcious level I thought they were loading up with comedy superstars.  But he isn't, he's just "some guy"