Rondeaux

So recently, the writer Douglas Glover started a Rondeau writing contest on his website, Numero Cinq. The winner of the contest, as well as the finalists, as well as the rest of the website, can be found here. My sister, who is in contact with this author, suggested I enter it if I had the time. Somehow I did find the time to enter a rondeau. In fact, I wrote two! Never having written one before, I'd say that's not too shabby (a famous example of a rondeau is "In Flanders Fields"). Here are my entries for your amusement!


In Nicaea

In Nicaea, did they all choose
To gild the words of old Good News.
In god-like robes, for all to see
They dressed that soul from Galilee:
No longer man, this King of Jews.

Hundreds gathered, filled up the pews
With Bishops, all to air their views,
On that old question of Divinity
Once and for all, in Nicaea.

Arius said: "Do not misuse
The name of Christ. Be not confused!
Our Lord was Man!" That was his plea.
The rest believed that God was three,
And from a vote did his side lose,
A dead man became God in Nicaea.


Dreams

In my dream, I swung from the sky
Like Spider-Man. And who did I spy
Standing atop a 'scraper tall
But Barak Obama, all poised to fall:
Had I not caught him, he'd have surely died.

I also saw, in my mind's eye
A poor man chopped to bits. I tried to cry
Out but awoke, struck my head on the wall.
Jesus Christ! It was just a dream.

One night I saw dark heav'n up high
Burst open in a blaze of light. It dyed
The air with gold and violet falls,
Cascading down the starry walls.
A beatific sight, I dare not try
To reach. It was only a dream.


I'll be able to post more often on here as of next week, when I'm on HOLIDAY! Bye for now!

-Liam

Happy Birthday, Universe!

Today is James Ussher day. Why is that? Because 6014 years ago, God created the universe, and this 17th century Irish Archbishop figured it all out. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, on the eve of October 23, 4004 BC, EVERYTHING came into being. And we all owe it to Ussher's intrepid scholarship for pinning that date down.

Darwin was obviously on crack. Clearly, the dinosaurs and other prehistoric flora and fauna were wiped out in the Great Flood. It's a fact. Get used to it, evolutionary theorists. So today is for you, Creationists, you wacky bunch, and your champion, Mr. Ussher. I salute you!

Zappity Thanksgiving!

So sorry I'm late! Didn't have a moment to blog over the weekend, as it was filled with a whirlwind trip with Kayla to Vancouver, and turkey dinner. The dinner was delicious and enjoyed among good friends. But the highlight to my weekend was definitely Vancouver. It's amazing that it's taken me this long to hop across the water to go there. What I saw of it, which was very very little, was really cool. Unfortunately there was only so much I could take in in one day. I would love to go back (and I probably will). There was only one thing that seemed strange. The Vancouver Public Library, seen here...



...looks strikingly similar to a building located on Caprica, from Battlestar Galactica, seen here:



Coincidence? I think not! The Capricans must have studied Earth architecture and built a replica. It's the only explanation.

Hope you all had a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving!

Humour, and Professional Goals

Well so far I'm keepin' my promise to post on Sundays. So far my score is 1 out of 1 Sunday since I decided to do this. That's 100% on schedule!

I realised something recently about my sense of humour and my prejudices, that I want to test. I have this theory that there could be a person who is relatively quite uneducated, dumb and unsophisticated, tell a very vulgar joke and I'd probably think it was terrible, and I wouldn't laugh. Then, have another person who is well-educated, intelligent and sophisticated person tell the same trashy joke and I'd laugh my ass off. Why is that? Is that the result of my own prejudices? Do I judge the less educated person with harsher standards? Or is it just the hilarity of hearing a very intelligent and classy person totally subvert their image with a raunchy sex joke, while the joke in and of itself isn't all that good? Is it simply the irony? I don't think it's a class thing; but I'm not entirely sure. I have to wonder if there's a correlation, like the smarter the person is, the funnier the joke will be, or something like that, as if it's a matter of having the authority to say it. Or maybe I will find the same joke funny whoever is saying it, but I'll give the smarter person more kudos, because it shows that they might have a broader range of humour? It might be that, because I know no matter who says it, I still hate potty humour. Sex? Yes. Violence? Sure. Fart jokes? Hellz no. But again, I do think there's something to all this. For me, it does depend on who's saying the joke. What do y'all think?

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The past week has been a very inspiring one. I had about three evenings in a row where I was so motivated to work on my Half-Mask and Acting Masque pieces, and I've been prolific. I've virtually finished my first draft, four days before I have to present it in class. I really enjoy this year, because the emphasis put on self-created works. It's a delicious synthesis of writing and performance, two areas of interest that have always remained compartmentalised. Now it has me thinking about all of my post-post-secondary goals as an artist. There are so many projects I want to devote myself to, and I don't know which one is the best one to do first! FYI, here are my most immediate goals:

-write/perform a Fringe show
-get involved in the spoken word circuit, either here or wherever I end up living in the near future. This means writing poetry again! After so long!
-start up a theatre troupe that does Full and Half-Mask performances, and other non-realistic forms of theatre, like Clown and Puppetry. I want to take workshops in all of these things. This might even be a possible idea for Fringe. All, but especially Mask. The work I'm doing on it in Movement class is so gratifying, and it's surprisingly uncommon in the biz right now. There are pretty much no companies in Canada that do this kind of Mask. So yeah. That needs to change.
-finish my Writing degree. Wanna wait a bit before I go back to school, but this option is very plausible in my mind.
-while at some point I'd like to get involved in Film and TV, right now I'm more interested in doing smaller, self-produced projects. If I could get a camcorder and some other friends with cameras, we could make little indie movies and videos to put on Youtube.
-On that note, I'm strongly considering starting a video blog. The problem is it would need a point of focus, which I don't have yet that will lend itself well to video, rather than text.
-do more classical theatre. I fell in love with Shakespeare last year, and I think I still want to audition for Stratford in a couple of years. But, you know, that's in a couple of years, so it doesn't exactly count. I need other professional work under my belt before that. Maybe Bard on the Beach?

So those are some of them. The idea of self-created, self-produced work is shining brightly in my mind right now, knowing how hard it will be to get myself out there in the industry otherwise. I'll play it by ear, but I intend to do all of those things. Just you wait!

Here's to You, Eva.

Today was Eva Markvoort's Celebration of Life, at the Phoenix Theatre. It was a beautiful event. It featured the screening of her documentary 65_RedRoses; various people speaking, including Jan, Linda, Eva's fellow classmate, and her parents; and even a recording of her vocal masque. For non-Victoria readers, she was a former student at the Phoenix Theatre who was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a baby and lived with it throughout her all too short life. The doc was about her harrowing journey waiting for an organ donor, a few years ago. She died on March 27, this year. I came to the Phoenix the year after she graduated, and I know a lot of people who knew her personally. It's a strange position to be in. Stranger still is that today was the closest thing to a funeral I've ever been to, and I didn't even know her. But that doesn't mean that her life and her message haven't touched me. The things she has accomplished in her all too short life is staggering and humbling. The amount of love that that event generated--because from what I've been told of Eva, she was full of love--has already inspired me to share my life with others as much as possible, and to work passionately on what I am passionate about in life. During the documentary, as I watched Eva struggle simply to breathe, I became so aware of the healthiness of my own lungs, my own ability to breathe deeply, my own capacity to live deeply. Who am I to take that for granted?

I should also confess that I haven't been a faithful follower of her blog. In fact, the first time I ever went on it was tonight. I expect that I'll be on there more, now. On top of everything else, she's inspired me to keep blogging, and to remember that I do have something to say, even if it's not as big of a something as her journey.

Thank you, Eva.

As I had suspected, school has already started to take over life. No more leisurely reading--nope! I have to read Oscar Wilde, and various acting theores--and no more leisurely writing--it's VOCAL MASQUE TIME!--but I will certainly try to keep up on here. With any luck I can get a book in if I read slowly and patiently on bus rides. Also, Christine has approached me about a very interesting and exciting newspaper project, and I await with puppy-dog eagerness to hear more about it from her.

That's all for now! I hope to blog again next Sunday. Have a beautiful week, everybody!

By the Way...

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Sweet Jesus!

When I was on campus today, there was a free ice cream booth by the bookstore. You heard me. FREE. ICE CREAM. What a brilliant idea. Anyway, one of the people giving out the ice cream was a Catholic priest, Father Dean Henderson, whom I recognised from Holy Cross Church where I went for Lent. After I left the booth, I got this picture in my head of a Catholic mass where the priest dishes out a decadent maple walnut flavoured ice cream cone to each devotee for the Eucharist. I guarantee the Church would be way more popular if the Body of Christ was ice cream, and not some silly wafer. God Inlactate, if you will.

I at least think it's a good idea.