And if you can ID this you definitely know your 1970s

Walking to the NQ office in the cool, metallic, askant sunshine of an autumn morning, thinking, always, of story possibilities and ideas for illustrations (and you should see the fabulous 1970s album covers Wayne Tucker has provided to run with his article on NL music), I thought, of course, of Orca (1977). This film, which as everyone knows was not an imitation of Jaws, because it was about a killer whale, not a killer shark, was filmed in Petty Harbour. Wayne Johnston wrote an hilarious piece on being an extra on the set, and the complete pandemonium at the local premiere. (I couldn't link to that piece, but here's another, just to give you a shot of Johnston's fine, wry humour.) Orcas were much in the news recently for their attacks on minke whales. These were thought to be rare, but several such lethal encounters were filmed; perhaps just a matter of witnesses being in the right place at the right time, though, as CBC's On the Go host Ted Blades says, it's hard to get away with anything if you're a killer whale.

(Image: mblog.hu.)

P.S. If you missed Andy Jones' four-night-run of To The Wall, he's staging it this Thursday, 6:30pm, in the Reid Theatre, MUN Campus.

Like Ford Prefect said

So there we were, heading towards Vol. 103 no. 3 with all systems set to go - when not one, but two, of our computers went down. Of course this proved immediately and almost ridiculously disabling - but, we are managing. Fortunately, no material for our '70s issue has gone far astray, so we'll just take a deep breath, saddle up our borrowed machines, and, like the heros of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, we won't you-know-what.

(Image: wordpress.com.)

The Newfoundland renaissance

This was the title of Sandra Gwyn's seminal article on the extraordinary energy of mid-'70s Newfoundland theatre, visual art and music, published April 1976 in Saturday Night magazine. Gwyn, who died in 2000 (the annual Winterset Festival and Award is founded in her honour) surveyed the scene and found "the freshest, brashest, most compelling art in the country." The evidence was undeniable: CODCO, The Mummer's Troupe, Gerry Squires' Boatmen series, Mary Pratt's foiled-wrapped domestic still lifes, Figgy Duff's rock-folk fusion, Elliott Leyton's immediately relevant anthropology that stepped from studies to stage. What caused all this? Gwyn, a smart, elegant and observant writer, had a few ideas: some comparisons to the Quebec culture, post-Quiet Revolution; an awareness of what Resettlement had wrought; an unflinching look at the ethics and ethos of the 'happy' province, one generation post-Confederation. On the To-Do list for this week: We hope to revisit this article, and some of the people she talked to, to feature in our Winter Issue.

(Image: www.cbc.ca/history.)

Next, we'll pick up a nice lava lamp

An informal quiz at our launch party last Thursday produced the following suggestions for our 1970s theme: MUN Extension, Decks Awash, The Boatmen Series, CODCO, and, my personal favourite cultural hit of the time, the superb (and underrated) The Rowdyman.
Maybe we'll cast a wider net, and talk about The Me Decade (check out Tom Wolfe's article, from 1976, from whence the phrase), op art, Fleetwood Mac. The advent of the blockbuster film. The groundbreaking TV series a la All In The Family. (And H. R. Pufnstuf!) The sideburns and platforms.
In the meantime, we note that a folklorist who just happens to be a font of 1970s idea, Mekaela Mahoney, is giving a talk at The Rooms this Wednesday, 7pm: Coastal Women of Newfoundland and Labrador. (And I mentioned that Edvard Munch's Madonna is on display there, I think? Until Nov. 18.)

(Image: affordablehousinginstitute.org.)