We are incredibly lucky and excited to be putting on a workshop with Pete Balkwill of the Old Trouts. We are going to spend the weekend working with Pete and learning not only about puppets but about his overall creative practice. Take a look at the info and if you can please join us!

So we did it. Added a third freak show tour in the glenbow and did the 10 minute play festival. Got little sleep and ran on adrenaline for a few days. Not only did we survive it we actually curated and produced some fantastic work that we are incredibly proud of.

Of course now that it’s over we will have way more time… right… of course…except for
Puppet Workshop in February
iRobot Rehearsals in February
Leda’s circus show in March
Party in April
iRobot rehearsals starting in april and 10 day run with ancillary events in May
also gotta write some grants and start thinking about next year soon too…

i used to have spare time on my hands, now i dream of warm beaches and white sand but would settle for a few days undisturbed in my basement with mass effect 2.

Thanks to Leda we are debuting some sweet new Swallow-a-Bicycle t-shirts tomorrow at Freak Show. They are awesome, they look really funky. They also contain the best typo ever.

The name Swallow-a-Bicycle comes from this arthur miller quote “A playwright lives in an occupied country. He’s the enemy. And if you can’t live like that, you don’t stay. It’s tough. He’s got to be able to take a whack, and he’s got to swallow bicycles and digest them.”

the quote is going on the tshirts, which is great. except it says “A playwright lives in an occupied country. He’s the enemy. And if you can’t live like that, you don’t stay. It’s tough. He’s whack, and he’s got to swallow bicycles and digest them.”

“He’s Whack”. best typo ever!

57 artists. a third sexy new tour in the glenbow effing museum. crazy killer clowns, wild cat tamers, accidental tourists, siamese triplets, mermaids, lesbian camping, outerspace babes. freak show launches again.

sleep is overrated.

sleep when you’re dead.

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to participate in Swallow-a-Bicycles last workshop on Viewpoints, featuring the instruction of Rita Bozi.  Although it seems like so long ago now, I wanted to post some of my thoughts and experiences on the workshop.  I also strongly encourage others who have participated to comment as well.  It would be wonderful to have a dialogue on our observations of the work.

I felt as though the Viewpoints format allowed me the opportunity to express beyond my habits and shields.  However, more than the format that is Viewpoints, I felt that Rita’s direction that enabled me to notice what was making me limit myself, and encouraged me to move beyond those limits to a place of purpose and openness.  I feel as though in the workshop I saw moments of my potential as an artist, moments I haven’t seen in myself in quite some time.

The workshop also became more about relationships than movement.  Movement became the relationship.  And, in fact, this is always true.  In a relationship, like with movement we must communicate.  In order to communicate we must listen, receive and see.

I hope in the future I am able to infuse my own personal movement with these qualities.

To get a better sampling of the workshop visit our workshop page for a video montage of our final day.  Or, you can go to the youtube link posted bellow.

Swallow-a-Bicycle Workshop Series #2

Hello fellow cyclists,

I just wanted to thank all of you who came out to our party/fundraiser this past Friday.

Also, for those of you who missed it, here is the link to the video that was at the party.  It’s a little sampling of what some of you might do, should the world really come to an end some day.

Thanks again for all you support and patronage.

Last Night

The Swallow-a-Bicycle party fundraiser is tomorrow night at the Palamino! It’s going to be a blast, with bands, video, a graffiti wall and a party priest.

I have mentioned before on the blog but i will repeat that we enjoy throwing parties for the fun of it but also for the community building aspect. We like the idea of bringing people together and meeting new people.

As for Last Night, I did a quick email interview with Wil Knoll for a web magazine getdown.ca. i am going to repost it here.

wil’s questions:

1) What’s the costume? Sandwich board? Bathrobe? BDSM slave? Tux?

2) You guys have thrown some sucsessful parties. What’s the key in planning?

3) Why the end of the world, is this thematic with your coming season?

4) When the moment comes what do you hope to be doing when we all turn to dust?

my answers:
1) Costume:
Personally i am going the tux route. i think if it was the end of the world and i was by myself or just a few people i would wear my ripped jeans and my joel plaskett tshirt. However for an end of the world party I want to go black tie and so i am going with the tuxedo. Like any good party by the end it might not be fully intact so that when the world really came to an end the outfit would be more of a disheveled tuxedo.

2) The key in planning… well in the planning stages certainly picking a day that does not conflict with other cool fun things. Picking a venue that fits your party or a party that fits your Venue. It’s important to find ways to communicate your own excitement about the party and what helps with that is having a theme or idea behind it that you are genuinely excited by. In this case ‘End of the World’ party is something we think is effing cool and fun.

At the party itself i think Mark and I both value making real connections. We like to meet new people and make them feel welcome. We genuinely enjoy our own parties and we like to communicate that to the people who come. We like to make them feel open and included. We have fun, our friends have fun, we like to talk and dance and meet new people.

3) Why ‘End of the World’? It was my idea, i just know that it is what i would actually do if it was the end of the world, i.e. throw a party. Pretty much that would be the biggest party ever wouldn’t it? I guess some people might want to be alone or curl up but i would want to be with the people i love celebrating art, dancing, love and music. It just seem like it would give a party a unique feel. It is not thematic with our season just something we thought it would be fun to do.

4) Partying – with my friends. hanging in my back yard looking at the stars – with my friends. hugging my friends. finishing a delicious meal – with my friends. hopefully smiling and laughing and dancing – with my friends.

Hello S-a-B followers,

Come by and check out Solocentric Nov 6th and 7th, 2009 @ 7:30pm at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer (218 7 Ave SE – across from Olympic Plaza).  I will be performing a 10 min version of my solo piece from Shhh!

It should be an interesting evening with many diverse solo’s from emerging and professional artists.  Plus, you get a chance to see my performance, still in a church, but condensed and redefined.

For tickets and more information visit : www.solocentric.org

Hope to see you there,

Léda

Phineas and Ferb : Fossils, dun dun dun!

If any one wants to see a cartoon version of Mark Hopkins they need to watch Phineas and Ferb! It’s hilarious.

Here’s the Youtube link in case you’re interested or you can click above:

Léda

I recently went on a trip and my mission was to see art.  It was wonderful.  That’s not to say that there isn’t great art being produced in this city, but I find sometimes it takes removing ourselves from familiar environments in order to really pay attention.  I had the pleasure of attending 3 shows at Stratford, 4 very different shows in Chicago, one dance show in Chicago and a ballet in Winnipeg.  Our country definitely offers a high caliber of theatre and dance but it was a performance in Chicago that remains my punctum for the trip.  It was called “Too much light makes the baby go blind”, and it’s put on by a company called the Neo-Futurists (www.neofuturists.org/).  The concept is simple, thirty original works in 60 minutes or less.  The exciting part is that you as an audience decide the order by shouting out numbers from your “menu”.  And it’s cheep! Admission is $9, plus the roll of a dice ($11-$15).  But even that is not what made to show fabulous.  It was the specificity and simplicity in the performances.  They were little samples of ideas.  It was like going to a culinary arts festival, lots of little samples of really great, creative food.  Oh, I went to one of those too.  I have the traveling Gods to thank for free tickets to that event.

I’m excited to be back at home, and I am armed with new images, and ideas.  But, I can’t help but remember Wanderlust.  Secretly would like to run away again with my journal in hand on another artistic adventure.  Paris anyone?

Bloging is a funny thing.  I want to blog to encourage conversations on art, spark creative dialog and encourage new ideas.  So please people share your comments and experiences with Swallow-a-Bicycle.  We’d love to hear what you are up to and your ideas.