Summer Weekend To-Do List

This is about the height of my ambition and abilities for the next few days...

(image: wholefoodsmarket.)

N. Q. @ the Printers

Cheers!

(image: cardsunlimited.)

Almost Ready...

...just a few more things to check, recheck, sound check and triple check before we go to press...
Bert Riggs, our proofreader, being invaluable here. He knows the exact composition of the Newfoundland Regiment on July 1, 1916; the proper citations for all footnotes; when Napoleon was born. Doesn't have to look it up or anything. But he does. He checks.

(image: internetshakespeare.)

Production Deadline!

Got to get our copy to the printers on time!

(image: His Girl Friday, wordpress.com.)

Back when my daughter was in elementary school, this time of year was known as "not sports day". As in the announcements on CBC Radio's Morning Show that sports day was cancelled, delayed, postponed due to day after consecutive day of drizzle and fog. From what I heard this morning, this grand tradition continues.
But that's not all that is happening. It is also time to embark on some gardening in Newfoundland. Now that the spring equinox has happened, or we've had forty-eight hours free of frost, or whatever the saying is, let us plant impatiens, asters and black-eyed susans, shining pink and yellow beacons in the fog.

(image: sunriseseeds.)

N. Q. @ CBC Radio

About a year ago, I was walking into work when who should I fall in step with but Ted Blades, host of CBC Radio's
On the Go. We chatted about this and chatted about that, and the upshot was Ted asked me to come on the air and talk about the new issue of the N. Q. Then then-mayor Andy Wells drove up and began to yell at Ted about something - but Ted did not forget this conversation and since then it has been a regular gig, and a regular thrill for me, to appear on the show. I'm getting ready to drop a photocopy of the proofs to him, so he can see what's up with the new magazine, and should be on the air in a week or ten days or so.

(image: textually.org.)

And the Dance went on

Since yesterday's posting, I have not been able to get the tune Lord of the Dance out of my head. Not that that's such a bad thing, of course - this being in no way related to a Michael Flatley Production.
One year I attended an Armistice Day service at a local elementary school, and the children sang that song. They loved the song! The adults melted.

(image: dieselhousestudios.)

Dance, Dance, Wherever You May Be

Modern dance is not a...neutral art form. Some like a spot of it. Others would run for miles. Me, I like a good dance performance. Such as you might find at the
Festival of New Dance, opening tonight at the LSPU Hall. Christopher House has the first two nights, with a piece called Chiasmata. It is sure to rock.

(image: postellart.)

Copy Deadline

Today is the copy deadline for Vol. 101, no. 1. All writing should be in and the goal is to have most of it edited and filed with the designers as well. Checking my list I see almost all the articles and features are in, everyone has been timely and responsible...except for the person doing the Editorial, which would in fact be me - I best get on that.

(image: yourprops.com)

Fete @ The Rooms

The arts community will don its collective little black dress this evening. The EVA Awards - given to visual artists - will be held at The Rooms, followed by a reception. A little glitter and glamour to shine against the fog.

Subs, Lovely Subs

Here at N. Q. we're all about the numbers - subscription numbers, that is. Our readership is our raison d'etre, and the larger that is, the happier we are. Today we're selecting some lapsed subscribers who we think a) have honestly simply forgotten to renew and b)would genuinely appreciate and lead lives that would be truly enhanced by the presence of the magazine. Anyway, if a special copy of Vol. 100, no. 4 turns up in your mailbox in a couple of weeks, know we thought of you!

(Image: deimel.org.)

Wedding Grace

Last night's reading of the theatrical adaptation of Lisa Moore's short story Grace, from her collection Open, was deftly performed and well attended. The story takes place during a wedding; the characters are pulled into the bridal configuration of ceremony, toasts, veils and celebration. Like a lot of Moore's writing Grace is full of taste and touch, silken vanilla fabric and umbrellas spinning topsy-turvy and velvety red wine. Lots of - what's the word? - verve. Let's hope this work does reach the stage - it's off to a great start.

This evening, at 7PM, there's a reading of a theatrical adaptation of
Lisa Moore 's short story, Grace. It's at Eastern Edge, with a fabulous cast including Neil Butler, Sue Kent and Ruth Lawrence, and admission is FREE yes FREE.

(Image: grace.com.)

Lois Brown Fundraiser

Friends of the invaluable and award-winning Lois Brown are organizing a fundraiser for the multi-disciplinary artist, who was injured in a car accident in Vancouver, but is recovering with her usual spirit and elan. And by "Friends of" we mean just about everyone she's worked with/inspired/helped out/made laugh - pretty much everyone she's ever met, basically.
Here is but one example of her
influence - recognize that guy?
Collections are being taken at NIFCO, the Hall, and the Travel Bug.

(Image: that's Lois, back on, in blue. This is from a series of short videos she's posted at 48th Parallel. Check 'em out, they're great fun.)

The Boy On The Raft

There was a reading at the Rose and Thistle on Water Street a couple of years ago. Joel Hynes and Lois Brown had teamed up to present some new work. Lois's writing culminated in this line: "Would the boy on the raft please come to shore?" Repeated. Via megaphone. By then-Premier A. Brian Peckford. It was classic Brown, an exuberant and preposterous catharsis, delivered dead straight.
We hear this morning that Lois has had an accident in Vancouver, where she is attending Magnetic North, directing Andy Jones in An Evening With Uncle Val. Our fingers are crossed; we hope, hope, hope for good news.

(Image: etc.usf.edu/clipart.)

Icebergs - The New Black

With icebergs now the IT ingredient in all manner of cosmetics and cosmopolitans, here's a glimpse of the real thing.

(Photo: Gerald Riggs.)

Out & About

We hope to spend a fair bit of the summer traveling around Newfoundland, road tripping to the theatrical hubbub of
Trinity, the literary elan of
Eastport, and maybe even the west coast hot spots of
Rocky Harbour and
Cow Head. We like the face-to-face engagement of on-site subscription booths, and we really like meeting our readers. Too bad gas has increased to a bazillion dollars a litre, but perhaps we can pare back some other travel expenses.
Anyone got a spare room?
We're really quiet and neat.
Hardly eat a bite.
Never know we were there.
Seriously.

(Image: myleisuretravel.)

Weather

That is pretty much what the world looked like outside our office windows yesterday. Well, OK, we weren't really on the space shuttle, but things did look slightly otherworldly for a time. Now, extreme weather can be all kinds of fun to watch, but it can be dangerous. FYI,
here's some information on thunderstorms.

(Image: weatherquestions.)

Pascin

There is a new exhibition opening this week at the Leyton Gallery.
The work is by James Rosen, who is pretty interesting, and it is largely inspired by the artist
Jules Pascin, who was really darn interesting. Pascin embodied that whole between-the-wars period of Montparnasse verve - throwing parties that ended up as scenes in famous novels, studying with Toulouse-Lautrec, drinking with Hemingway, taking ten taxi loads of people out to dinner. Amidst such goings-on he also worked like the devil and produced hundreds of drawings and paintings. Came to a sad end, unfortunately. Ah, la vie, la vie boheme...

(Image: imagecache.)