Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Liberal Leadership Prediction

THE KENNEDY/DION CONGLOMERATE will definitely overpower the MI and Rae campaigns.

Rafe Mair makes some valid points but forgets Dion is not liked much in Quebec and nor do delegates favor a Quebec person as they might feel there have been too many - its time for a change (after Chretian and Martin).

But remember ANYTHING is possible! As there is so much power and momentum that can be created or lost on the floor.

If I have to put money down on the next leader, I say:

- 40% chance either Kennedy or Dion (but most likely Kennedy) will take it - they both stand their ground on issues and are very clear what their stances are,

- 35% chance for Rae - the silent but deadly type

- 30% MI - too much of a wild canon.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

FUSE: Truly the Masala event that tantalizes all your senses

To all the naysayers who say Vancouver’s night and art scene is non-existent, I’ve found the event to prove them wrong: Vancouver Art Gallery’s (VAGs) FUSE. It combines an eclectic and exciting mix of art, music and performance. Taking place the last Friday of every month, FUSE offers an ever-changing collection of programming, drawing on Vancouver’s thriving artistic communities. I’ve been meaning to attend it for a long time and felt fortunate to drop in for the show.

The November 24th FUSE, the last of 2006, was a night to remember. What was remarkable was the juxtaposition of what happens outside the art gallery and now what is happening within. We’ve known the Art Gallery for being the centre post for many outdoor protests, street performers including spray paint artists, comedians and other Vancouver-based performance and musical artists. It was surprising to see similar events take place inside VAG. There were performances by the Vancouver Raging Grannies, an art inspired contemporary dance, provocative tours led by guerrilla guides and an interactive Book Making Party. And with the jazz and food served up in the Gallery Café and the drinks with an eclectic set of music from reggae to deep house being played in the FUSE lounge, FUSE most definitely indulged many tastes under one roof.

Besides watching Kathryn Ricketts dance along with the spoken word artist Carl Leggo; or listening to the public dissent of the endearing Raging Grannies who you so want to become the next leaders of our country; the most memorable moment for me was the portion put on by the Regional Assembly of Text, a group started last year by two recent Emily Carr graduates, Rebecca Dolen and Brandy Fedoruk. The Book Making Party, as it was called, was just that – a chance for all FUSE goers to be able let their creative juices flow and write out their own mini-stories. The best part of it all was that we wrote on traditional typewriters. And being the tech-junky that I am, it was very difficult for me to get retrained by a volunteer on how to use such a contraption! It definitely makes me nostalgic to an era I was so in love with. As soon as you walked in the glass doors of VAG, you could hear the monotonous beat of typewriters bellowing through the main foyer. It was as if you had been transported back thirty or forty years into a newspaper production studio where all the journalists were trying to meet the midnight production deadline. It was truly an amazing sight to see everyone working so independently on creating their mini-masterpieces. It was an inspiring moment and very different feel then say walking into the UBC Main Library and hearing similar typing noises coming from students using the public computers to write emails or chat on MSN Messenger.

As this was the last of 2006, I highly recommend in the New Year you make it one of your resolutions to try FUSE. Not only is FUSE a masala of events, but its good for people on limited budgets (tickets are only $10 per person).

I’ll leave this review with my only critique, having all these happenings at once place and not having much coordination made it difficult to know what and when things were going on. Future FUSEs should really try to truly Fuse the events in order to allow the art.music.performance connoisseur to enjoy all of what there is to offer.