digital downpour

Looking for something to do tonight after waiting in line at a voting booth all day only to find out that, due to some bureaucratic flub, the only candidates in your riding are a marxist-leninist and a conservative?

Well, here's something that will cheer you up, or maybe it won't, but at least it will let you wallow to the sad and beautiful music that is Iron & Wine. The band is made up of singer-songwriter Sam Beam and perhaps a few of his friends and they'll be playing some mournful, southern folk at La Sala Rossa tonight. The tickets are 12 bucks which is a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Still not convinced? You can listen to a sample of their music here.

So the good news is that the Canada Council jury said they would like to give me and my dad some money to make our film. The bad news is they ran out of money to give so they are all talk and no cash. This means that we probably can't afford to go all the places we planned on going. We're still waiting to hear from SODEC who will let us know their decision next week, but in all likelihood we are going to have to do some major replanning, shooting most of the film in Canada and using archival footage of other places, pretending that we're actually there.

Talk about disapointing.

But election day is only next week, you say. That don't matter. I voted today anyways.

What Mozart Saw on Mulberry Street is the cutest, short documentary ever. Filmed in 1956 on 16mm, it sets up camp outside a window on Mulberry St in which a stone bust of the famous composer has taken residence. What follows is a marvelous snippet of the daily lives of passers-by and alley cats as they go about their business and the Mozart looks on.

What I do find odd, though, is that, according to the internet, this film was rated PG-13 for terror/violence, sensuality and brief language. Hmmm. I guess I must have missed those bits.

Well, I'm off to Poughkeepsie, NY, for the weekend to attend the 50th anniversary of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, named of course for the Flaherty famous for directing one of the first ethnographic documentaries, 'Nanook of the North'.

Nanook aparently died of starvation shortly after the movie was released while Flaherty went on to, well, make some other great films, I guess.

So it goes.

That's right, the Fringe is back once again for 10 crazy days of about 80 even crazier plays. From the 10th to the 20th of June, the festival is taking over nine venues on and around the Main so for all you fringe-virgins out there or for those of you who were just too drunk last year to remember how it's done, here is a comprehensive guide to living on the fringe.

Step 1. Go to the opening night bash. That would be tonight. It's in the Beer Tent, a.k.a. your new best friend, at the corner of Rachel and St-Laurent. It's a great way to make friends, get drunk and make a fool of yourself right off the bat so as to set the tone for the next ten days. So go.

Step 2. Volunteer. Once you've recovered from opening night, head down to fringe headquarters and sign up as a volunteer. They'll probably remember you as the kid who ran up on stage, yelled something about koala bears and then barfed up all their beer at the party last night, so obviously they'll think you're a perfect addition to their unpayed staff. Volunteering is great fun because for every hour of 'work', you get a fringe buck and four fringe bucks will get you into a play. Yippee!

Step 3. See some plays, dammit. Plays are what the fringe is all about. Well, plays and beer. So go see a couple. The fringe works on a lottery system so that means pretty much anybody can have a play. While this is nice and democratic and all, it means that some of the plays really stink. But there are also some really great plays that don't stink at all and those are the ones you should go see.

Step 4. Sleep is for suckers. One of the best fringe volunteer shifts is 'The Overnight'. That means that from midnight to nine am you and five of your friends camp out on St-Laurent and guard the beer tent. Don't worry, it's safe. And the fringe people will give you money for pizza and lend you a tv so you can stay up all night watching T2 or something silly. You also get double fringe bucks for doing the overnight which is super. The only thing is you can't drink the beer since you're supposed to be guarding it, but you can always bring your own.

Step 5. Go to the volunteer party. The volunteer party is fun because you can continue that drinking binge you've by now grown accustomed to even once the fringe has officialy ended and you also get to bid on things with any leftover fringe bucks you may have at the volunteer auction.

So, now that you're all set, get out there and get fringing! And remember, you can't say no to cheap beer. That's just plain rude.

I don't know who these guys think they are, but they stole our name.

"If you're a documentary filmmaker, you know to learn from your enemies...who happen to be Steven Spielberg."

-my dad, on Gandhi and filmmaking.

so the reception booze wasn't free, but I had a pretty good time nonetheless. I shared a car ride with meagan follows (anne of green gables) and ron mann (grass, comic book confidential). all in all, not a bad night.