CanStage @ High Park & Tinkering on the Cusp of FringeTO

Fingers crossed that the predicted thunderstorms come and go by 8 pm! I’m heading to High Park tonight for Canstage’s annual Shakespeare in the Park tonight. This year, one of my personal favs - The Tempest – is being headed by Dora Award-winning Karen Robinson as Prospera. Prospera.

See what they did there?

Very excited, I’ve checked into their inclement weather schedule and am hoping for the best – what else can you do?

In other news, my Fringe TO schedule is a raucous mess; a Fringe guide addled with green and pink circles (“wish list” and “backups”). My head, it spins. Despite the prep so far, I’ve decided to ditch planning altogether and use the age-old “winging it” technique. I’ve never hit Fringe hard before and figure I’ll learn by doing. I’m aiming for twenty shows. 20/150? Laughable, really.

Any suggestions are welcome! If you know something that I don’t [not likely], send word via carrier pigeon.

Ah, escapism…

When I left my house yesterday morning, I half-expected the city to be at a standstill. Not the case however, as my street was entirely void of renegade garbage bags. Business seems to continue as usual (for now?). The repercussions of the strike perhaps have yet to set in, although the trashcans are ominously taped over – visually signaling the stand-off between the city and its CUPE locals 416 & 79 workers.

I put my tendency to wallow in political systems that I can’t control on hold the moment I dead-bolted my front door and faced this city, because there’s no better pick me up than gallivanting around TO. This city – I really love it. It’s turned into an elaborate playground for me lately because of Passport to Prana. This card is a license to yoga at 50 (and counting!) yoga studios across the GTA. The pass ($30) get’s you into one class at each yoga studio associated with Passport to Prana.

I’m an adventurer at heart; I love the idea of picking a studio at random, jumping on my bike and ending up who-knows-where. It’s been an education in yoga basics as I try different classes, teachers, styles… Besides that, I’m getting a yogic-tour of the city, ending up in nooks I’ve never seen before. A great addition to summertime in TO.

I’m about 10 studios in and the lingering muscle-soreness in my legs and lower back reminded me that I wanted to talk about Bikram Yoga on Bloor. The class was incredibly challenging. The mental and physical exertion – I don’t know how I made it through, but I did and frankly feel awesome about it. The class was small enough that the instructor could keep his eyes on everyone, catering his instructions to the range of levels. The pace was quick and the teacher’s enthusiasm and motivation certainly helped combat the heat-induced lethargy that started to set in nearing the end of the 1.5 hr class.

A yoga rookie, I didn’t anticipate the hot room (smart girl…), and walked home DRENCHED in my own sweat. The thought of walking through the Annex in that condition was troubling and I opted for the subway. Not a 9-5er myself (and suffering from a terminal lack of foresight), I overlooked the fact that Toronto’s rush-hour stretches into the 6pm range. My fellow Toronto populace: I apologize for the profuse amount of sweat you were subjected to yesterday on the Bloor-line westbound.

That night, checked out The Standard Pizza and Pasta Bar on College with some friends. The service was awesome – a huge selling point to me. The food is pretty dang cheap. The favorite at my table was the Linguine ai Frutti de Mare, although I cast my vote for the delicious sangria. It’s funny how the gravity of a city on strike seems to melt away on a day like this… I wonder when and how this will first become glaringly obvious.

Another beautiful day, you can barely feel the strike though the Globe has an awesome spread which lines up the key parties at play. As for me, I’m spending the day gearing up for Fringe TO! It’s almost upon us! My agenda is a mess, this is worse than my attempt to schedule my TIFF schedule last September…

La grève (and avoiding the stink)

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Toronto city workers are on strike. Today at 12:01 a.m., we are 24 000 workers short – a mass that includes garbage collectors, outside workers, and daycare services.

Like many of us I’ve been hearing the buzz for days and only sort of following it while hoping for the best. Now, and 24 hrs before my own garbage collection (sigh…), the talks between the city and CUPE locals 41 & 79 have amounted to nothing really and I’m spending the morning building a list of strategies, lest this strike begin to stretch…

Fortunately the top priority on both sides is negotiation. Well isn’t that lovely? Yet this whole issue is difficult to weigh in on – Mayor David Miller performing empathy by making speeches that plead and target an overall lack of money, and CUPE local 79 leader Ann Dembinski performing l’injustice! using flowery, inflammatory statements – but thankfully the friendly lack of public transparency that the two parties had previously agreed upon regarding this issue has been lifted.

Which, I’m going to just take a moment to say: David, Sack, Ann, dear mediator: Come on! Seriously? …Really? That’s the little sidebar that you thought would help this whole situation along? This is a community, and there is nothing that will be made through discussions in a dark, secluded room. If there is a transgression against someone’s sense ot justice, shouldn’t you want to include the masses in its resolution? Perhaps I’m not understanding. Yes, the issue is complicated, but certainly it’s clear that it includes more than just these two parties.

But I digress. Clarity is certainly an issue but what’s really getting lost in this war of rhetoric is the city’s strike plan, which includes a list of services being affected. It’s very clear and I urge you to read it! There are drop-off locations for garbage, solutions for garbage as this moves forward, parks and rec limitations. City-run museums, art galleries, and cultural centers will be closed. Child care services provided by the city have been revoked. Ferry services to Toronto Island are cancelled, etc etc.

No need to get caught in the stink — look around you and be the support that your community needs. Stay engaged to overcome this mess. Eyes and ears, friends.