sabotabby: (lolmarx)
So much walking up hills. So worth it.

First up: Hampstead Heath. For someone who walked up multiple mountains last year, I am awful at hills. But I am going to be so fit when I get back home, omg.

Then Bucket List Item #1: Highgate Cemetery.

If I had to come up with the names of two men who are among the reasons I turned out this way, you would find both of those people buried here.

9F958A5B-2825-4A31-BAEA-E7618984B16A

Note: No other gravestone has a lot number. Someone just put it there.

Douglas Adams sparked my love of sci-fi and British humour and as a wee tiny child of 8, I had most of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy memorized, even though at 8 there was no way I could have gotten all the references. But it was my favourite book for years and years.

B4BA1EC7-6D5A-4DE9-8CC6-4FC991CC305D

I left a pen on his grave. It’s my only pen, so I guess I’ll have to get another one on the way home.

And of course, the big man himself, and I imagine I don’t need to explain why visiting his grave was the top thing I wanted to see in London:

A9EA5088-83D5-4504-BA34-6362D0192090

(I have many other photos; I am sparing you b/c I am nice.)

48EB1681-1D63-4B34-9202-2EA89C70B892

Bonus Malcolm McLaren as he’s there too:

737E13CF-7DA7-4833-9846-0684CB41FC77

Then we went on a Hidden London tour of the abandoned station at Highgate. It was meant to be a Big Deal but war and economics interfered, and it was decommissioned. Now nature is reclaiming it and the city has decided to just leave it alone and let it be a sanctuary for endangered bats.

0615A4D4-7B83-4F33-8B42-F16859DED583

I have a lot of other pictures of it too, but for some reason Flickr isn’t allowing me to upload anything horizontal, so you’ll have to wait to see those after I edit them.

Then we went to Manuelita, a play about Manuela Saenz, a Latin American revolutionary and lover of Simón Bolívar, which was excellent and surprisingly entertaining.

Now I am off to bed.

Unsafe

Mar. 12th, 2019 11:08 pm
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
Just came back from the premiere of Sook-Yin Lee’s Unsafe. It’s one of those pieces, I think, that benefits from not knowing much about it, but I can tell you that I thought it was really amazing and is in many ways the nuanced take on censorship and free speech that I didn’t know I wanted. It’s kind of cool that 40-year-old me and 12-year-old me agree that Sook-Yin Lee is awesome for entirely different reasons.

Also, it will make you very angry at the CBC. If you weren’t already. I mean the basis of Canadian identity is being vaguely angry at the CBC, is it not?


daaaamn

Mar. 23rd, 2018 11:30 pm
sabotabby: (anarcat)
I went to see Tanya Tagaq and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory perform at CanStage. This is the third time I've seen Tagaq perform and every time I think it's the most groundbreaking and brilliant show I've seen. It's not that I don't love the music that she's released with a near-evangelical zeal, because I absolutely do, but her live performance is even better, if such a thing is possible. It's a miracle watching this tiny woman somehow sound like 12 different people, several musical instruments, a handful of birds, and one of those armoured polar bears from His Dark Materials.

Conversely, I've never seen Bathory perform and had no clue what to expect. I've seen pictures of what uaajeerneq (Greenlandic mask dancing) looks like, but had no idea how it was done. I guess I assumed that it was an actual mask, but nope, the dancer transforms her face with inks and sticks and it is unreal.

The show was gorgeous, funny, erotic, and terrifying in equal measure. It's difficult to put into words; I normally have a hard time shutting off the running monologue in my head, but this put me into a sensory trance. I can only imagine these art forms in the context in which they originated, in the frozen Arctic, where the nights are so long that you'd think the sun will never rise again, the only light your campfire, and emerging from the darkness, unearthly music and distorted faces.

It was also hot as hell. At one point, I thought that it was like watching two people have sex except with their voices. But then it was just like watching two people have sex. Bathory moved through the audience, climbing over people, at one point throwing a man out of his seat, yanking off his toque, dry-humping him on the steps, and then shoving the toque back over his face. Note that the event page did warn for intense physical contact, but I'm pretty sure that the many older white folks who presumably had CanStage season passes did not read this warning, because watching them be shocked and horrified was nearly as much fun as the show itself. At least one woman literally fled in terror. Naturally I found it Punk As Fuck and loved it. Western art and music has largely lost the ability or desire to shock or move anyone; indigenous art and music still absolutely has it.

A small, (sanitized and very much toned down) taste of what they're like together:



At the end—as I leapt to my feet for a standing ovation—when one have expected some man in the audience to shout out, "Bravo!" I heard some guy yell out, "Fuuuuuck!" Seems apropos, really.

Ragtime

Jun. 17th, 2012 07:26 pm
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (champagne anarchist)
I just got back from seeing Ragtime at Shaw with the wonderful [livejournal.com profile] bcholmes. It was very exciting. I used to think that I wasn't a fan of musicals* but this seems to have changed. Anyway, if someone had told me that there were musicals with Emma Goldman in them I probably would have been into musicals sooner.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is really pretty. I know it's touristy, but I do tend to fall for an entire town of Victoriana. I mean, they have a museum of pharmacy! How cool is that? One of these days, I need to tool around Southern Ontario and just be a silly steampunk tourist.

* Other than Cabaret and Threepenny Opera.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (iCom by starrypop)
Yesterday I managed three things in one day: gaming, Against the Grain Theatre's production of Seven Deadly Sins and Holier Fare, and a midnight MRI. Guess which one of those three was not remotely fun?

Anyway, I was really impressed by the performance. You can read [livejournal.com profile] chickenfeet2003's more detailed review here, but basically, I'm going to have to go on another mad music hunt for Exciting Music (other than the Reich piece, it was all new to me). And I'm going to have to attend their production of Britten's Turn of the Screw because they are quite an impressive little theatre company.

The MRI was less exciting. They put me in a tube and blasted loud beeps and clangs at me. It was nowhere near as beautiful sounding as anything by Kurt Weill. Sorry [livejournal.com profile] cyborg_kitty100, they did not allow me to bring a tape recorder in the machine, but I'm pretty sure I can reproduce the noises if need be.

In other news, [livejournal.com profile] misslynx's alcoholic cupcakes are a thing of wonder.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (sweatshop nationalism)
You know, in case you were feeling complacent today.

Tony Kushner, one of my favourite playwrights and deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize, was denied an honourary degree from CUNY for his views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. I dunno about the whole idea of honourary degrees, to be honest, but if one is going to grant them, nuanced political opinions ought not to be the reason.

From Barbara Ehrenreich:

The CUNY board's decision came after board member Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld objected to Kushner's statements about Israel, excerpts of which Wiesenfeld claims to have gleaned from various websites (Wiesenfeld's citations have been described by blogger Mitchell Plitnick as having been sourced from the notoriously reactionary pro-Israel propaganda purveyer, Camera.org). Wiesenfeld does not claim to have sought out the original sources of the statements he cites, lending credencem to the objection that he willfully has taken Kushner's comments out of context. Wiesenfeld has since argued, in an unrepentent op-ed posted on the Jewish newspaper site Algemeiner.com, that Kushner's views should be labeled anti-Semitic.


Lest you think that the new Conservative majority is going to be remotely moderate, check out this article on their proposed crime bill.

Here’s what the Library of Parliament says about the bill on its website: “Clause 5 of the bill provides that the offences of public incitement of hatred and wilful promotion of hatred may be committed by any means of communication and include making hate material available, by creating a hyperlink that directs web surfers to a website where hate material is posted, for example.”


Okay, so if I link to a site that has hate material on it, I'm guilty of a hate crime? I link to the Toronto SUN and the National Post pretty frequently! I am so screwed.

The latest from Foxconn, the sweatshop where all of your cool gadgets are made: workers must sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to "treasure their lives". That's because the horrible conditions in the company are so brutal that workers regularly kill themselves rather than put up with 96-hour weeks, overcrowding, and frequent humiliations. (Don't read the comments on the BoingBoing link. There are a lot of libertarian sweatshop apologists on that thread.)

So how was your day?
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (wall)
The murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, which was probably a political assassination, represents an overwhelming loss to humanity. He was an incredible artist who devoted his life to art's highest possible purpose: creating a better future.

Here he is talking about the Jenin Freedom Theatre:



Mother Jones has a tribute. And here's the story of one of the lives he helped change.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (red flag over TO)
Conflicting reports about a police raid on the Toronto Community Mobilization Network's convergence space, which turned out to be false, though there is still a police presence. At one point, demonstrators were blocked in and detained by police, but then let go. Rumours of rubber bullets being used near UofT. (For non-Hogtowners, neither the convergence space nor UofT is nowhere near where the summit was happening.) About 150 people have apparently been arrested doing strike support for the workers at Novotel.

The UofT Graduate Student Union was raided. The house of a young couple was raided at 4 am by armed police—the victims had nothing whatsoever to do with the protests. Two people were arrested at a solidarity rally at the detention centre on Eastern Ave.


Peaceful protesters boxed in by police at Queen and Spadina today.

[livejournal.com profile] nihilistic_kid gives us a poetic explanation.

Now, everything's quiet again. I went with [livejournal.com profile] bcholmes and S. to see Cherry Orchard at the Shaw Festival—it was awesome and I so needed to get out of the city. As we came back along the highway, we saw the motorcade taking the G2O delegates to the airport. Someone made or rented a gigantic billboard that read: "G-20: Go jump in the lake."

I am completely exhausted. It's over at last. Well, it isn't, because there are still people in jail or who have been charged who need our support, and there's still all sorts of disinformation in the media that needs to be countered, but for now I am a sleepy [livejournal.com profile] sabotabby who needs to sleep.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (eat flaming death)
I saw Frost/Nixon last night (thanks to the lovely [livejournal.com profile] brownfist, who had an extra ticket). I thought it was great, despite the mixed reviews it's been getting, but then, I've been a bit Nixon-obsessed lately. The more I think about him, the more I think that he was an actual clinical sociopath—the play is quite lovely in that, in parts, you really feel a bit sorry for the guy, and then you realize that he's manipulating you, and then you almost respect him for being a master manipulator because that does take talent, and then you remember that he's among the most evil men to ever live. So I really enjoyed it on that level.

Also, it's interesting to see a story about a confrontation between an ideologue and someone who is basically in it for the lulz, where the former is a right-wing bastard and the latter is the protagonist. I may have been on the internet for too long, but I kept thinking that what Frost was trying to do, and almost succeeded at, was simply the ultimate PWN.

Except—and this is where I think the play is really a tragedy—he didn't succeed. He won the battle—the interview, which was this amazing moment where you saw the true potential of the media and particularly that of television—and ultimately lost the war. Because where are journalists like that now? (And Frost was a bloody talk-show host!) What real consequences did Nixon face after his "trial"? In the end, it's the same thing that makes all of those stories where The Truth Is Exposed To The World completely fall apart—he got Nixon to admit wrongdoing on a lesser crime (the larger crimes, Vietnam and Cambodia, he didn't take any sort of fall at all), and then, nothing. Retirement and long-postponed death.

I like it when I come out of a play feeling really angsty. Go figure.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
I saw Frost/Nixon last night (thanks to the lovely [livejournal.com profile] brownfist, who had an extra ticket). I thought it was great, despite the mixed reviews it's been getting, but then, I've been a bit Nixon-obsessed lately. The more I think about him, the more I think that he was an actual clinical sociopath—the play is quite lovely in that, in parts, you really feel a bit sorry for the guy, and then you realize that he's manipulating you, and then you almost respect him for being a master manipulator because that does take talent, and then you remember that he's among the most evil men to ever live. So I really enjoyed it on that level.

Also, it's interesting to see a story about a confrontation between an ideologue and someone who is basically in it for the lulz, where the former is a right-wing bastard and the latter is the protagonist. I may have been on the internet for too long, but I kept thinking that what Frost was trying to do, and almost succeeded at, was simply the ultimate PWN.

Except—and this is where I think the play is really a tragedy—he didn't succeed. He won the battle—the interview, which was this amazing moment where you saw the true potential of the media and particularly that of television—and ultimately lost the war. Because where are journalists like that now? (And Frost was a bloody talk-show host!) What real consequences did Nixon face after his "trial"? In the end, it's the same thing that makes all of those stories where The Truth Is Exposed To The World completely fall apart—he got Nixon to admit wrongdoing on a lesser crime (the larger crimes, Vietnam and Cambodia, he didn't take any sort of fall at all), and then, nothing. Retirement and long-postponed death.

I like it when I come out of a play feeling really angsty. Go figure.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (tom waits)
I just came back from seeing The Black Rider at Tarragon Theatre. I am somewhat incoherent with joy and squee. It's my favourite musical (I mean, Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs—how completely awesome can you get?) and the cast and director did an utterly perfect job of it. I imagine that it's a fairly hard production to mount, and they did it splendidly. And it looked like they were having a blast. I am tempted to go see it again, and if you're in Toronto, you should go see it too.


Evil is hot.



My bio-grandmother just sent me this piece of drivel. Why do they let old people use HTML-coded e-mail?

Cut for drivel )

So I'm sending her back:
Actually, it *is* racist. (And it's grammatically atrocious. People who tell others to learn a language ought to learn it themselves first.)

Descendants of European invaders who plundered this country ought to be ashamed of themselves for believing in the claptrap of Mr. Allen and his ilk. Did *his* ancestors bother learning the language of the people from whom they stole this land?

Feel free to pass my comments along if you agree!
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
I just came back from seeing The Black Rider at Tarragon Theatre. I am somewhat incoherent with joy and squee. It's my favourite musical (I mean, Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs—how completely awesome can you get?) and the cast and director did an utterly perfect job of it. I imagine that it's a fairly hard production to mount, and they did it splendidly. And it looked like they were having a blast. I am tempted to go see it again, and if you're in Toronto, you should go see it too.


Evil is hot.



My bio-grandmother just sent me this piece of drivel. Why do they let old people use HTML-coded e-mail?

Cut for drivel )

So I'm sending her back:
Actually, it *is* racist. (And it's grammatically atrocious. People who tell others to learn a language ought to learn it themselves first.)

Descendants of European invaders who plundered this country ought to be ashamed of themselves for believing in the claptrap of Mr. Allen and his ilk. Did *his* ancestors bother learning the language of the people from whom they stole this land?

Feel free to pass my comments along if you agree!

Theatre!

Jun. 17th, 2008 10:16 pm
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (tom waits)
My parents, lovely people that they are, dragged my wretchedly ill ass to see My Name Is Rachel Corrie at the Tarragon. It was quite good. My reservations* aside, it was well-written, well-acted, and managed to convey the horrors of the occupation without feeling particularly like propaganda.

Anyway, so while we were waiting, we saw the list of upcoming plays at the Tarragon. They all look pretty awesome, to the point where I'm thinking of getting season tickets, but the highlight?

They are OMG doing The Black Rider, which is my favourite musical of all time that I've never seen on stage because hardly anyone does it.

*squeal*

Is it can it be time to get excited about going to the theatre in Toronto again?

* I would like it if instead of making a play about the one photogenic American killed in Palestine, they would maybe, for once, make a play about the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed in Palestine. It's like white people won't watch a play or movie that doesn't have a white main character. Not to diminish Rachel Corrie's heroism or the tragedy of her death, but she understood, and it's made very clear in the play, that it wasn't all about her.

Theatre!

Jun. 17th, 2008 10:16 pm
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
My parents, lovely people that they are, dragged my wretchedly ill ass to see My Name Is Rachel Corrie at the Tarragon. It was quite good. My reservations* aside, it was well-written, well-acted, and managed to convey the horrors of the occupation without feeling particularly like propaganda.

Anyway, so while we were waiting, we saw the list of upcoming plays at the Tarragon. They all look pretty awesome, to the point where I'm thinking of getting season tickets, but the highlight?

They are OMG doing The Black Rider, which is my favourite musical of all time that I've never seen on stage because hardly anyone does it.

*squeal*

Is it can it be time to get excited about going to the theatre in Toronto again?

* I would like it if instead of making a play about the one photogenic American killed in Palestine, they would maybe, for once, make a play about the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed in Palestine. It's like white people won't watch a play or movie that doesn't have a white main character. Not to diminish Rachel Corrie's heroism or the tragedy of her death, but she understood, and it's made very clear in the play, that it wasn't all about her.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (squee!)
Public Notice of Awesomeness to [livejournal.com profile] rohmie again. What can I say? He's just that awesome. And Tony Kushner is as well. ;)

Speaking of theatre, does anyone want to see Antigone: Insurgency with me? Because it will either be a fine mess or the coolest thing ever. Before I decided not to have kids, I always figured I'd name my daughter Antigone because that was my favourite play for a really long time.

In other news, I went to this tonight, which was amazing. It's always nice to go to a friend's art opening, but even better when the opening goes really well and everyone walks out of it saying, "wow, that rocked."

P.S. Do not go reading the Best of Craigslist without a copy of my Evolutionary Psychology Bingo Card. Otherwise, you will never want to date men again. Or be friends with them, for that matter. Present company excluded, of course.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
Public Notice of Awesomeness to [livejournal.com profile] rohmie again. What can I say? He's just that awesome. And Tony Kushner is as well. ;)

Speaking of theatre, does anyone want to see Antigone: Insurgency with me? Because it will either be a fine mess or the coolest thing ever. Before I decided not to have kids, I always figured I'd name my daughter Antigone because that was my favourite play for a really long time.

In other news, I went to this tonight, which was amazing. It's always nice to go to a friend's art opening, but even better when the opening goes really well and everyone walks out of it saying, "wow, that rocked."

P.S. Do not go reading the Best of Craigslist without a copy of my Evolutionary Psychology Bingo Card. Otherwise, you will never want to date men again. Or be friends with them, for that matter. Present company excluded, of course.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Nietzsche by jupitah)
Sore throat? Check.
Fever? Check.
Urge to be home on a Saturday night even though my meeting wrapped up early? Check.

Oh fuck. I'm sick, aren't I?
In weird news, I got a mass e-mail about boycotting France from my mom's friend. I didn't even know she had my address, let alone that she'd be so stupid as to fall for chain letters. It was rather offensive, containing a gratuitous diss against "the Arab countries" who export "just oil and hatred," and I did consider responding, but I figured it wasn't worth my while.
I also feel the need to mention that Marinetti was meowing in his sleep—so loudly that he woke himself up—and that his breath smells like centipede.

Speaking of the devil:

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

More cats )

(I do have a life, by the way. I was doing culture all day—I saw Hosanna and checked out an old friend's art show. I'd recommend seeing both, but Heather's show is over tomorrow, so you're out of luck there.)
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
Sore throat? Check.
Fever? Check.
Urge to be home on a Saturday night even though my meeting wrapped up early? Check.

Oh fuck. I'm sick, aren't I?
In weird news, I got a mass e-mail about boycotting France from my mom's friend. I didn't even know she had my address, let alone that she'd be so stupid as to fall for chain letters. It was rather offensive, containing a gratuitous diss against "the Arab countries" who export "just oil and hatred," and I did consider responding, but I figured it wasn't worth my while.
I also feel the need to mention that Marinetti was meowing in his sleep—so loudly that he woke himself up—and that his breath smells like centipede.

Speaking of the devil:

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

More cats )

(I do have a life, by the way. I was doing culture all day—I saw Hosanna and checked out an old friend's art show. I'd recommend seeing both, but Heather's show is over tomorrow, so you're out of luck there.)
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (yay)
CUTE WARNING!

Below this cut are pictures of kitties, puppies, rainbows, and hippies. Your head may explode from cute.

No, I'm not kidding.

Don't say I didn't warn you! )
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
CUTE WARNING!

Below this cut are pictures of kitties, puppies, rainbows, and hippies. Your head may explode from cute.

No, I'm not kidding.

Don't say I didn't warn you! )

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sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
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