The full moon sits high tonight. You can smell the Equinoxy shift in the air. Soil. Leaves. Wax.
Summer happened. Salt swims and hikes. Backyard cocktails with my tribe. Navigating teenage angst. A soul food trip to the North Okanagen, that place that roots me and reminds me who I am. Mosuo nights - yeah, you. The pleasure of growing and feeding at the Progress Lab Greenbelt, Cedar Cottage Community Garden, and a new shared plot of land with my friends Rog & Jeni. Harvesting the last Tomatoes and Squashes before the cover crops go in. Thanks to Karen and Nicco at Farmers on 57th for welcoming my hands, my heart, my pesky questions about irrigation systems. And the flower farm gals, who sent me home with dreamy bouquets and a few aphids. The bees at The Cultch apiary got up to some curious hi-jinx just as the Blackberry nectar flow came on. No honey harvest this year, they’ll need all their reserves to see them through to next spring. The Queens are gorgeous and laying like champs. A little extra TLC now, to help build up the population of nice fat winter workers. As always, they’re rascals and a constant source of wonder.
My cub left for university and I took a few days to let it wash over me. She’s carving out her own way in the world now; I’m full of ferocious pride and love for her. If she only knew that her empty-nester Mama was gleefully piling up dirty laundry on the floor and eating cereal for dinner, she’d howl.
Work/Creative: My co-creator Lois Anderson and I completed our final development residency for HAGMOUTH at The Narrows Artist Retreat in the Kootenays. Lois is an amazing woman - we’ve mothered, tread the boards and laughed our tits off over the years. To have space and time away from daily distractions to create this outdoor, site specific show is a real privilege. We acknowledge that. And we’re paying it forward by providing a living wage for all the artists involved. Next steps are exciting and overwhelming - rewrites, producing partners, assembling the design team, securing funding with so many zeros it kinda makes my head spin. Our gratitude to Boca Del Lupo, PL1422 and the Canada Council for the Arts, for supporting this 2 year development process. Fall 2023…. The Lost Words: A Spell Book is finally happening after a long pandemic wait. The Elektra Women’s Choir is doing all the heavy lifting, singing some stunning original compositions by 10 Canadian composers. But I’m honoured to share the stage with them, reading Robert Macfarlane’s poems. The Electric Company’s An Undeveloped Sound kicks back into gear in November. I’ve been with this wild, wild project for a few years. Looking forward to digging into rehearsals for the premiere in January 2023. And the cartoons and tv stuff that keep the boat afloat.
Other artists who humble and turn my crank these days: my pals Erika Konrad, Wendy Morosoff Smith & Joanna Clark. Renate Reinsve’s nuanced performance in The Worst Person in the World. Binge watch Donald Glover’s brilliantly bonkers FX series Atlanta. Seriously, do it. Jessie Green’s excellent piece in last week’s New York Times ‘Racism Erodes the American Theater’ takes a deep dive into reforming monoculture. Audiophile swoon: George Riley ‘interest rates - a tape’, OMBIIGIZI ‘Sewn Back Together’, Nick Drake 'Box Set', Bonjay ‘Lush Life’, Steve Lacy ‘Gemini Rights’, Lady Wray ‘Piece of Me’, The Smile ‘A Light for Attracting Attention’, Veda Hille ‘Beach Practice’, Arjool Aftab ‘Vulture Prince’ (Track 4 is killer. Paki dub-step).
Analog. All of the above. The things we hold in our hands, see and taste, catch a whiff, or hear the sound of.
* Please consider donating whatever you can spare to support the Pakistan Flood Emergency Relief efforts @ canadahelps.org *