With an upcoming day trip to Stratford to see Richard III here are some photos from a day trip there in July 2021 to get away. We didn’t see a show but booked tickets to see Three Tall Women in October. https://topoet.ca/2021/10/01/ah-yes-i-remember-it-well/
Over the past month my TOpoet.ca following blog grew to 465! The WP map does show my hits have come from countries around the world. That USA & Canada top the list is no surprise but India is back to third place while Sweden & Bangladesh remain in the top 10 is a surprise. Hello Zimbabwe!
Most popular posts were Pandemic Poetry Project (https://topoet.ca/2021/09/16/pandemic-poetry-project/); Sunlight & Shadows (https://topoet.ca/2021/09/13/sunlight-and-shadows/). My particular favorite was Tales of Brave Trending (https://topoet.ca/2021/09/19/tales-of-brave-trending/).
My Tumblr is at 350 followers. 226 Twitter followers. Picture Perfect: 86 sections, about 126,000 words posted so far with approx 66,000 remaining to be edited then posted.
A surprisingly great watch has been American Horror Show: Double Feature. All the usual throat slashing & blood drinking but this time combined with a sharp, merciless look at creativity & the sacrifices made to be productive. In this case a drug that unlocks a writer’s, painter’s blocked inner potential. If you are brilliant & blocked you become genius, if you are mediocre & blocked you become a sort of stumbling grey person. Intense performances with Frances Conroy stunning & Macaulay Culkin excellent.
Finally got around to seeing Parasite – a visually & philosophically stunning film. Figuratively & literally the plot moves through cultural levels to a fugal climax that is breathtaking. The rich house set is an amazing piece of modern architecture – one of those sets like the astounding deco apartments that show up is 30’s movies but only existed in movies. The plot made me think of Dante’s Inferno as it takes us literally through the rings of Hell.
Also watched Valley of the Dolls, again 🙂 https://topoet.ca/2021/09/26/valley-of-the-bras/
Finished reading Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem (1928). McKay was part of the Harlem Renaissance & wrote several novels & books of poetry but his approach was ‘earthier’ & deemed not elevated enough to cast a favourable light on his race. The novel is a fun, fast slice of the night life, the work life, the love/sex life of the times by someone who lived those times. His hero has a strong emotional bromance with another male character: Wiki tells us “McKay was bisexual; he pursued relationships with both men and women throughout his life. He never officially “came out” (nor did anyone else in his time) nor explicitly stated his sexual preference.”
The highlight of the month was a day trip to Stratford to see Three Tall Women. https://topoet.ca/2021/10/01/ah-yes-i-remember-it-well/
The Tingler
as a boy
I couldn’t tell the truth
if my life depended on it
mot that I was a compulsive liar
or even lied that often
but under any sort of questioning
I was guilty
regardless of being innocent
Did you do that?
no – which was the truth
Go to your room
Until you are ready to tell the truth.
but
No buts. Now go you lying loser.
<>
to avoid that banishment
I’d have to tell a lie
but I was even a worse liar
thanks to some movie I saw
where some sort of centipede
would materialize
around the spine
when you were scared
lying scared me
as much as telling the truth
I would feel those
million sharp legs
sinking into my back
my skin would tingle
The Tingler!
that’s what that movie was called
<>
a lie would kill me
it would crush my heart
burst out of my nose
brain spattering everywhere
insect legs would dig out from my eyes
<>
so I was afraid to lie
the punishment for telling the truth
was bad enough
not be be believed
not to be trusted was confusing
it was better to leave the room
let them think what they wanted
because the clearly truth
made no fucking difference
<>
at that age
they made sure
I knew I was a lying loser
a useless dishonest kid
which I know now was a lie
and that’s the truth
Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees – thanks? paypal.me/TOpoet
Three Tall Women
Actually walking into a theatre for the first time in two years was a big part of the excitement of seeing Edward Albee’s ‘Three Tall Women,” directed by Diana LeBlanc with Martha Henry, Lucy Peacock, Mamie Zwettler & Andrew Iles, in the intimate The Studio Theatre, presented in two parts on the same day – think of it as a 3 hour intermission.
I wondered what changes there might be in safety protocols in the week before we would go to the show. Not having a smart phone our big fear was that only an e.ticket app would be acceptable – no paper – technology reinforcing class status so that only those with the right data plans could access entertainment.
Before we arrived I wondered if it would be like boarding at the airport after one had gone through all the pre-boarding. Well, there was no X-ray or luggage screening to deal with but we had to have all our documents in order – what’s the point of a photo i.d. if we’re wearing masks? Anyway there was no trouble getting into the theatre. Getting to our seats was a different matter – the steep incline had many people struggling up the stairs – this venue is definitely not for the mobility challenged.
So almost two years to the day we finally saw a performance at the Stratford Festival. As usual the production values were high for Three Tall Women. Good theme music, utilitarian & practical set, costumes that supported characters rather than create them. Strong cast, unfussy direction that let the play speak for itself.
The plot? In Act 1 she remembers, she gets lost in memory, a legal assistant taxes her short-term memory, her person care worker tries to keep her focused. In Act 2 the three are one person – much like the holy trinity – they are faces of her at different points in her life. Andrew Iles does a cameo as the son. The conclusion is well – I’m not sure – the conclusion is very Zen, our happiest moment is when we reach the end. Are we happy that life is over?
I didn’t end up feeling a lot of sympathy for any of the three faces, Zwettler didn’t have enough text to work with, Peacock’s character was prone to placating – when Henry’s lapses into pro-racist language we are told she doesn’t really mean it (although written 1990, in 2021 people are still doing the same thing – ‘can’t you take a joke?’). Over all, I enjoyed the show but don’t feel the need to see another production.
Words and Images by Richard Reeve
a repository of experimental haiku & poetry
seeing things again
An Introvert's "Ice Cream Social"
Vintage Blog-Where All Things 1920s to 1960s Vintage Live
Your home for exploring philosophy with an emphasis on Buddhism and Stoicism.
Hi, I'm Avisha Rasminda Twenty-Two years old, Introduce Myself As A Author , Painter , A Poet.
Malaysian author and storyteller
Daydreaming and then, maybe, writing a poem about it. And that's my life.
TOpoet 