cabaret

I went to a cabaret last night. I had never been to one before but I thought I would see a variety of acts including some music, some comedy, perhaps some dance and especially some slam poetry- all done in a night club atmosphere. I think somewhere in the recesses of my mind I thought I would experience a Liza Minnelli type of evening. I had purchased tickets to this event in large part because one of my students who is a slam poet of some reputation was listed on the bill. I thought it would be fun to see him perform.  

But I knew my expectations were wrong as soon as I walked into the lobby of the theatre and saw a few heavily made-up women walking around dressed in, shall we say, risqué clothing. There were also a few women moving around on roller skates and in an alcove there was a display from our local "sex shop". A young woman from that establishment who was dressed in a black bustier and little else was handing out samples of some of the items the shop has for sale.  While I was not completely uncomfortable - it was to say the least, not an environment that I am use to.

As we waited for the show to start - projected on the large screen behind the stage were a series of photographs that seemed to have little connection to each other. There were pictures of nude women, pictures of abstract and 19th century art, a handful of pictures of currently unpopular politicians and a few pictures of the local roller derby team (who knew that Peterborough had a roller derby team?).  I am not sure if there was a consistent theme to the pictures but it did give us something to talk about as we waited for the show to start.  The audience was comprised of a surprising large range of various demographic groups. There were a number of younger people including five or six of my former students (it was really fun to see them), quite a few middle age people and a handful of those who like me - were somewhat older than 60.

Just after 8:00 three members of a band got up on stage and just stood there. Shortly after the lights dimmed and a strikingly pretty woman got on stage. Pre-recorded music started to play and she started to strip! I won't go into all of the details but by the end of her brief show she had taught the audience that they were suppose to whistle and to hoot and she had removed most of her clothes. While there was some fake coyness on her part with the fluttering of impossibly large eyelashes - there was a sense that there was absolutely no embarrassment on her part and perhaps that this was just a well rehearsed  act. 

Our nearly nude hostess then introduced the band who had been patiently waiting (and looking somewhat disinterested by the whole stripping process). For the next 15 or 20 minutes the noise was, without wanting to sound even older than I am, was almost unbearable. The music was repetitive and unimaginative. The lyrics un-understandable  no matter how loud the singer shouted them out. I almost left. (Lord I sound like an old foggie!!)
After the band left the stage (I could not help but notice to my disappointment that they left their guitars on stage) we were treated to another couple of artist taking off their clothes, a singer with quite an interesting voice but whose song was overloaded with sexual innuendo and an local inprov group who were a lot of fun.

After the break there was another dancer, and then the slam poet, some more improve, a very strange musical act with an androgynous singer wailing away on the guitar and a nurse who gradually transformed herself into an over drugged blond who was infatuated with the singer (it was far more complicated than that but I cannot find the words to describe it), more slam poetry and then another dancer or two. The show ended with a two person musical act. I use the words musical very advisedly as I left during their second song. If the first musical act had been loud and incomprehensible, this act was worse. I think my ears were, 16 hours after leaving the theatre, still ringing.

Without a doubt the star of the show was the slam poet. He was great and worth the price of admission. The improv group were entertaining and fun. The music terrible and the dancers..... ah the dancers well - they were interesting.

The dancers were interesting not because they had extraordinary bodies or because they moved in incredibly sensuous ways or even because they were great dancers. In fact some of the dancers were so rehearsed that they were lacking in grace, style or any spontaneity. Although those that managed to get the tassels attached to their nipples rotating in opposite directions did show a rather amazing athletic ability. The dancers were interesting not because of what they did but because of what they represented or reflected.  There was a time when such displays of nudity would have been incredibly titillating.  A time when the coyness would have seemed natural and expected. And a time when such displays would not be something that would been seen in mixed company or at least not without some embarrassment and perhaps even outrage. We now live in a world where nudity and so much more is instantly available on the internet. CBC had a great documentary this past week on the issue of the hyper sexualisation of young girls that discussed the easy availability of sexually explicated images. The women who shed their fancy costumes to pre-taped music on Saturday night could never have competed with what is so easily available for free. And somehow the acts in spite of the nudity,  the practiced "come hither' looks on the part of the dancers, and the occasion raucous calls from both male and female members of the audience, there was an innocence and a formality - almost a ritual feeling to the whole proceeding. Everybody - not just those on the stage were acting out their roles. We were all pretending (or at least we were supposed to be pretending) to be shocked or to be excited by what we were seeing.

I don't know if it was intentional or not but somehow the cabaret had migrated to something more like a burlesque show. Burlesque as defined by the New World Encyclopedia  "is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring parodic humor, usually consisting of comic skits and sometimes a chorus line or striptease".  It was in fact a form of satire. A mocking of the upper classes conception of entertainment. I think Saturday night's performance was a parody of such shows. It was a parody that failed in part because the audience did not understand its role clearly enough.

It was an interest experience but one that was limited both by the performers' understanding of their roles and by the either under or over sophistication of the audience. In terms of applause, the audience appeared to appreciate the biting and potent words of the slam poetry artist talking about today's issues as opposed to women taking off their clothes and expecting us to see it as an unique event.

Taxes

No one likes paying taxes.  But only the silliest of us would argue that no one should pay them. The real debate seems to be about who should pay them and how much should they (not us) pay.

The most recent discussion on who should pay what erupted this week when Metrolinx - formally known as the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority published suggestions as to how funds should be raised for the proposed new and greatly improved transportation system for the greater GTA. Those suggestions included a five cent tax added to every litre of gas or an increase in the GST. The response from the citizens of Ontario was instantaneous and outraged. The reasoning was clear. The rest of Ontario should not have to pay for Toronto's subway system.

While I can appreciate that those who live somewhere north of Huntsville or perhaps to the east of Belleville might argue with some minimal justification that they seldom directly use Toronto's services, the majority of people living in southern Ontario are effected by and effect what happens in Toronto. If we watch Canadian television programs particularly the news - those programs originate from Toronto; our large newspapers are published in Toronto, and the provincial government's affairs, banking systems and hospitals are managed (I use that word somewhat loosely) from that city. Whether I like the city or not does not matter, if Toronto did not exist we would have to invent it. Contrary to the opinion of some people Toronto may not be the center of the world or even Canada but it is critical to the success of the province.

Perhaps therefore it is not unreasonable that we should help pay for the services they need so that they can do what they do more efficiently. But we protest when it is suggested that we do so.  It would seem to me that our thinking is somewhat paradoxical. Those of us who live in smaller cities or rural areas and take great pride in our organic markets and our minimal attempts to live a "greener" lifestyle. Some of us also brag about having escaped the rat race of a major urban center. But we are able to maintain this lifestyle and we are able to avoid the big city only because other people do not. Someone has to work in downtown Toronto.  There is a logic in the efficiencies created when thousands and thousands of people share infrastructures. Those efficiencies cannot be duplicated elsewhere in scattered small communities.

There is a second reason as to why us helping to pay for an improved transportation system helps us in the outlying areas.   If the air above Toronto is polluted - that pollution will drift somewhere. No matter how arrogant I may be about my "greenness"  I need to help other people have the same opportunity to be green. For folks in the GTA part of the solution is leaving their cars at home because there is a reliable transportation system. People will only do that when the transportation system is fast and affordable.

Other cities have innovative ways of encouraging folks to use transit. London, England taxes all cars that drive into the downtown core, Calgary (whose light rail line is powered by wind turbines) offers free C train rides within the downtown core while Spain, China and Japan all use high speed trains that allow people to live a hundred miles away and still commute into work. We need an effective transportation system within southern Ontario and whether we like or not, we are all going to have to contribute towards it.

On being a salesman

I don't like being a salesman of my own product. I am quite comfortable talking in public about program or policy development - sometimes trying to convince my solutions might have some validity. But it is an entirely different thing standing in front of the public and suggesting to them that they should part with their presumably hard earned money. While it is a rush when someone buys something, I am always worried that they will find a fault with it when they get home or that it won't last as long as I (or they) think it should. I have far too much personal angst about my abilities to be a good salesperson.

However yesterday I  buried those feeling of insecurity and went to the local Saturday Farmer's Market to sell my weaving. Actually I have been trying to do arrange it for a few weeks. The parking lot outside the Memorial Center is a large one but it is generally packed with vendors. There is no room for new vendors unless someone cancels. There is a building that some people use but I don't like it. The building feels dark and there are relatively few stalls inside. I suspect that the majority of the people who come to the market do not ever look inside. I wanted to be outside, in the sunlight and where there were lots of people walking by. On Thursday I was told that there had been a cancellation and if I could be there at 6:30 Saturday morning - I could have a spot. I spent most of Friday running around packing up my stuff. Loading all of my stuff including the two frames into my little Toyota Yaris is a bit of a challenge.

Saturday I was at the market by 6:15, got my spot and started to set up. It takes me a lot of work to get things set up. Assembling the two display frames is tricky in that there are too many pieces and not enough hands. None-the-less by just after 7:00 I was ready to sell. One on side of me was a friend who Makes, sells and demonstrates hula hoops and on the other side a person who was selling meat pies, baking and maple syrup. Across from me was a locally well known person who sells freshly made ethnic food and beside her was a person selling apples and fresh asparagus. On the other side of her was someone playing classical guitar. It was a good spot to be in.

 

 It was good except it was cold; people were getting set up wearing multi-layers of clothing or else winter jackets. I, or course, was wearing my sandals. It was also very windy. Someone told us that they were forecasting gusts of up to 40K which is a lot. People with awnings were having to hang on to them so that they didn't blow away in spite of the fact that they had extra weights tied to the bases. One of the stronger gusts blew over my rug display frames. The rugs all ended up the ground. I was forced to rearrange things and reduce the "sail potential" of the frames.

My feet were cold but I, for some reason, need to spin barefoot. It just does not feel right doing it with shoes on. I wanted to spin so that people might feel more comfortable coming over to my disply. I think I am too big and perhaps hairy for people to easily approach me. If they see me spinning they might be curious enough to look at my stuff. And that strategy worked. I had lots and lots of people visiting me, touching the rugs and remarking how soft they were. In fact my fellow exhibitors on either side of me suggested that I should charge people just for the privilege of touching my stuff! I also had a lot of business cards taken. I don't know why or what people do with them but I will need to get some more printed up.

It was generally a really fun day. People seemed to enjoy me taking about washing wool in my bathtub and the general state of my house. People particularly seemed to love my comment about the large swirls of dust bunnies, some of which are large enough to lose small children in, drifting through my house. I sold a shawl, a large bag and a few little purses. It was a bit less than I had hoped for in my fantasies but I had a number of people ask me if I was going to be there again as they were interested in buying something but wanted to think about it. I had lots of very positive comments and my fellow vendors remarked how busy I was. So I am happy - still filled with angst but satisfied.

Packing up was started by 1:30 or 2:00. As more and more booths disappeared (they were clearly more practiced in the art of dismantling than I), the gusts became even stronger. It was a lot of work taking things apart. By the time I got the stuff into the car, and then back out of the car and up the stairs into my apartment I was exhausted. I am going to spend time this week improving my display system so that it is easier to get assembled and perhaps more importantly disassembling it.

Perhaps I can be a good salesman..... don't know if I want to but it is the only way that I am going to get rid of my stuff. So when given the chance I will keep on working on those skills.

 

Underdog #2

In spite of my comments in the previous blog about the importance of citizens being active in demanding answers from their government I am becoming somewhat uncomfortable with the media's attack on Toronto's mayor. I don't like Rob Ford, I don't like his policies, I don't like his approach to budgeting and I don't like his apparently absolute assumption that his way is not only the right way, it is the only the way. While he may be a great dad or even a great football coach, I think he may be a buffoon of the highest order with few if any redeeming political characteristics or values.   

None-the-less he is being picked on by the media and now by late night television hosts from the US. Three reporters have reported that they saw a video of him smoking crack cocaine. To be clear it was  two reporters (who report to an editor and a board) and one on-line reporter from a self published internet publication who saw it. No one else has. People both in the media and within the political world of Toronto are demanding that Ford stand up and either deny the validity of the video or else admit that he has a problem.  He did that the first day and has since chosen not to talk about it on apparently the advice of his lawyer. Given that he frequently seems to open his mouth before he engages his brain, that was probably good advice.

There are, in my mind, two separate problems with the attacks on Ford. One - only three people have seen the video. If it does exist and even if it is a clear as the three reporters indicate, that does not mean that it is true. I suspect that even I could, given the sophistication of computer software available, make a reasonable realistic video. Do you remember the video that went viral last year of an eagle swooping down on Mount Royal in Montreal and snatching a child? It was totally untrue. It had been manufactured by some students. I suspect one can make almost anything look true for 90 seconds.

I have read that there are a number of relatively sophisticated processes that one can do to determine if a video has been tampered with or manipulated. I think we need to check out the video before we decide to hang the guy from the nearest light post. So given the fact that in Canada someone is innocent until proven guilty - I think we need to cut the mayor just a little bit of slack.  Is there anything that he could say to prove his ignorance? I don't think so. I think he could deny substance abuse until the cows came home and people would still want him to say more.  We need to see the video before we make a decision.

However the second and in my mind far more serious problem with all of the hullabaloo to get him to speak on this issue is what happens if the tape is purchased and it is found out to be a hoax? All of the right wing ultra conservatives will stand up and cheer, all of those who are sitting on the fence in terms of Ford's values and policies will swing over to his side, and all of those who are secretly inclined to cheer for the underdog ( I know I am not the only one) will feel vindicated and support him in the next election.

If the video is proven to be false then we have just given him a free get-out-of-jail card for the next time he screws up. He will become the mayor who can do no wrong and when he does mess up (and you know he will) no one will believe it. So back off just a little bit and wait for the proof. People don't need to work so hard make Rob Ford stumble. It he is given enough slack  he will do it all by himself.