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Penny Plain - Ronnie Burkett
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Theatre
- Hits: 1852
Sunday with the boy and we're going to try and get rush tickets to see Ronnie Burkett's "Penny Plain" - a new production, commissioned by the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.
Now I'm a pretty big fan of Ronnie Burkett, and I've seen most of his productions going back 25 odd years.
He's a genius.
But this time I'd kind of reconciled myself to the thought that I'd have to miss it - schedule, finance didn't particularly fit.
Until I found out about the Sunday Matinees.
Which fit perfectly, and so I'm at the theatre hoping against hope to get rush tickets.
It's this or we'll end up at Weibo's War at the Plaza.
And we get them.
Now the play, it's everything I've come to expect from Ronnie Burkett, Brilliant, entirely off the wall (and it seems he's getting more and more off the wall as he gets older), a dazzling array of puppets and great work doing the voices. This noted, his vocal range is going, and many of the puppets are starting to sound an awful lot alike....
As quirky and offbeat as it is it's par for the course, and there is the feeling that I should be challenging myself with slightly more - ?? - how to put it? More surprising theatre. It's a little like seeing 12 Angry Men, or Shakespeare, you know exactly what you're getting.
But I look at the boy, catch his reaction, and it is gold. He is impressed, he's never seen anything like this, and for me it's become a bit routine, for him it's all fresh and new, and that's why we go to the theatre. If you've only seen a couple of his, go and see it. If you've seen a dozen or so by him, take a friend and try and see it through their eyes.
The New Waiter
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1653
He's unusually merry for the morning, flushed cheeks and a contented smile upon his face, the Owner suspects that he's again taken to drinking.
He's not going to last.
The staff tells me that he stinks of booze, I can't tell, I give all the male staff a fairly wide berth out of caution, there are the not infrequent belches and farts that must be navigated around. They watch the security cameras, but they can't see any trace of his drinking, the owner looks around and can find nothing on the bar, suspects him of quick swigs from the bottle, I'm suspecting there might be a hip flask concealed in his slightly capacious trousers.
He's short, bald, looks easily 10 years older than he is, that is what the waiter's lifestyle will do to you. But he seems happy enough. A gold chain flashes from beneath a rolled up cuff, a couple of large and gaudy rings, he's old school, where you tried to look at least as rich as the people you served.
Pouring drinks, carrying a tray or plate, he's got the shakes and has to set things down, sobriety, perhaps, or the long years of drinking catching up to him.
Not even 10 years older than me he's a career waiter, everyone in Calgary knows him, have been served by him somewhere throughout the city. Knowing him is not a good thing, it's an excuse for him to stop and chat and catch up with our customers, he's not so quick as it is and now he's doing less.....
And he talks shit. Waiter shit, in 4 languages, fixing the house, his wife, his trips to the bar where he only drinks soda pop and coffee (being a recovering alcoholic and all), his operations and general health, the importance of having doilies to line the plates with....
We all know he's not long for the course, as soon as someone better walks through the door, it's tough to be too friendly knowing, he knows this as well, brings in sandwiches to share, somewhere in the back of his mind there must be the realization that he's not carrying his weight, that this is just another short stop on the way to unemployment...
Art from books
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1761
A new way of looking at common things - art created from books. A few links to get you started:
http://weburbanist.com/2011/06/27/art-that-speaks-volumes-12-more-book-artists/
http://maskulllasserre.com/section/193004 - Click on the Archive link. Site has horrible navigation, some art from books...
http://www.bookpatrol.net/2011/07/bansky-of-book-art-world.html - about an artist who shopdrops interesting works at libraries throughout Scotland.
Common Sense
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2074
While we're in the midst of looking for people to fill out our rather thin looking rota the owner has brought in a friend to help out.
He's never served before, or worked in a restaurant, he's an electrical engineer, but he's about my age, good looking, and he seems to have gotten the hang of it remarkably quickly for someone with no experience.
We're explaining what to do and giving him small details regarding service and seating people and he makes the point:
"You'd seat 2 people at a table for two, common sense"...
I glance meaningfully at the hostess. She's never figured this out, she seats people, on nights we're fully booked, without confirming their reservation and wherever she first happens to trip in the dining room, the size of the table is of no consequence. She understands and looks sheepishly at the floor.
Common sense, yes, but how rare it is...
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