Anyway.  It’s fun to be returning so soon to Montreal, after such a great time at Edgy Women Festival in March, where we presented SPIN.  Montreal is a city full of memories for me at every turn – those 6, formative years of university life, theatre school, so many important friends and teachers and lessons in adulthood now lurking on every street corner, in so many shops that used to be something else and apartments that used to belong to me and my friends.

Next weekend at the Mayworks Festival in Toronto, I’ll be officially “premiering” my piece To Live in the Age of Melting (aka, Northwest Passage Revisited).  But in truth -I’m going to perform it in Montreal on Saturday: sneak preview!   I call this piece a ‘musical essay’,  because i’m not quite sure what else to call it:  like so much of my work, it mixes song and poetry and storytelling – but running at 25 minutes long, somehow this new piece feels like it needs to be called something other than a song or a poem or a story.  I guess back in the old days, ballads were long songs that could go on easily for that long – but this isn’t exactly a ballad: it’s a poetic re-mix and meditation upon on Stan Rogers’ classic Canadian folk song, Northwest Passage, mashing it up (in a folk kind of  way) with the song Lady Franklin’s Lament.  Plus a lot of other ideas, mixing (and remixing) both historical and personal narratives with ideas about global warming, the complex legacy of “tradition”, and what happens when ancient ice begins to melt.

This past winter, I recorded To Live in the Age of Melting (with producer Don Kerr), and I’m super proud of the recording.  Bu before I release it, I’m working on creating  a visual component to goes with it.   In honour of the “premiere” at Mayworks, you’ll find the audio recording posted on my new SoundCloud account, so you can have a listen.

Oh yeah, last night I was interviewed on the cool podcast RoyNation, and I talked a lot about To Live in the Age of Melting, (and about the upcoming show at Mayworks) – you can listen to that here.   

Rock your two wheeled steed this spring sporting the newest SPIN tshirt

Available in Women’s sizes S,M,L,XL and 2XL.   100% cotton, Gilden brand tshirt.  Colour: light grey (not pink as pictured!).   $20 (includes shipping).

Illustration by Pearl Rachinsky.

Topping the list of lovely is that about three weeks ago, we adopted a new dog.  His name is Fox, and he’s a super swell little fella: part whippet, part mystery dog.  It’s been the best springy weather for having a new dog and going for long walks in High Park, getting to know the dog culture of the neighbourhood again.   Some of you may know that we had a quite a tragic experience with our last dog, a couple years ago:  Bosley was a 5 year old Boston Terrier, a rescue from a puppy mill bust in Quebec. Six weeks after we adopted him began to show a terrible aggressive streak.  To make a long story short, he wound up biting me in the face, splitting open my upper lip from top to bottom -and this after several other only slightly less awful biting incidents, followed by working with a dog trainer – so in the end, we had to put poor Bosley down.   It was horrible all around, and it’s taken me quite some time to be ready for another dog.  It’s been an emotional process,  but little Fox has stolen our hearts with his gentle sweetness:  the first day we met him, he came right over to me, and kissed me on my scar.  He’s a super quick learner, and a fast runner -so we are rocking the dog park daily.

So, other than the canine good times, there have also been a bunch of fun performances and travels: SPIN went to Montreal for Edgy Women Festival and we had a great time performing for a full house at the beautiful Sala Rossa.  (I’m heading back to Montreal in 10 days, this time for a (solo) show, splitting the bill with PEI songwriter Teresa Doyle.)

Brad and I also recently did a stripped down version of SPIN in Owen Sound, Ontario for their local cycling club, sponsored by the wonderful BikeFace cycling shop. Then last week, I had the chance to perform a couple of poems as part of a very inspiring evening with environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill. As i sat listening to Julia talk, I had to borrow pen and paper from the fellow sitting next to me so that I could write down so many memorable lines and ideas that she shared -  probably my favorite being: “part of the problem is that we throw so much away – as if there IS an ‘away’”.   Had a good laugh at her clever turn of phrase, “being granola-ier than thou”.   And loved being part of such an energized audience of activists and people committed to making a difference on the planet.  As Julia said, ” It’s impossible for you NOT to make a difference”.

Happy spring, everyone.   (She says, as a major snowstorm is about to hit Toronto… hope all those tender flowers make it…:)

Fox, our new canine family member

In a few weeks, SPIN goes to Montreal (March 22, at Edgy Women), plus there are a few other fun shows this month (a historical storytelling series at the Waterloo Regional Museum, Nightwood Theatre’s annual FemCab, and more).  I am working on a brand new little topical piece, which is a rant about Toronto’s insane Mayor, Rob Ford…if i can actually force myself to get any work done on this beautiful day, I will bust it out on stage Thursday (which is International Women’s Day, if you care to know) at the Tranzac IWD show.

“Gertrude and Alice” (the Independent Aunties new project) had its first public showing at the end of February, which was very encouraging (frankly, i think we were so deep in pain of creation, we’d forgotten that what we make is comedy – so it was wonderfully gratifying to be bathed in the raucous laughter of the packed house!).  We’re feeling the project is on the right track, and likely will have a full workshop presentation next fall.   This year’s Young Creators Unit presentations at The Rhubarb festival were terrific (I always feel like the proud mom).  There is exciting news about a show I’ll be directing at Buddies next year – but I have to wait until the season is announced next month to share that….oooo anticipation.

In the meantime…I must get myself out into the sunshine and start cultivating some new freckles.  xo

The wonderful metis film maker Cara Mumford created a film that using the poem I wrote about this sober anniversary. It’s up on youtube this December, please have a look and listen, and share widely.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The longer I’m at this thing we call theatre, the more deeply i understand that it takes a long, committed process to arrive at the place where you feel you have a “finished” piece…and I’m very excited about how far “Obaaberima” has come… and also about what we’ll discover when we begin our rehearsals next week.

Tomorrow, Brad and I are off to Edmonton with the bicycle, appearing at Alberta Showcase on Saturday, and first, on Friday night as part of Edmonton’s Exposure Festival.