All Fringed-out

A gentleman approached me at the box office the other day and said 'are you the guy with the blog?' 'Um...yeah' I tentatively replied. He went on to tell me that my blog came up when he typed 'Edmonton Fringe' into Google and that he'd read all about my travels and stuff. It freaked me out a little and got me a little worried about what I'd written (as box office staff we have to be completely impartial and not say anything about the plays so as not to be seen as biased). So even though I'm dying to review some of the plays I've seen it ain't gonna happen.

The Fringe is now over. I had a brilliant time, squeezing in over ten plays when I wasn't working, as well as spending time in the beer garden chatting to actors and fellow punters. I was seriously impressed with the quality of the shows and the organisation of the festival generally. It was a pleasure to be a part of it. As far as I'm concerned, if Fringe theatre is all I ever see then that's ok with me. It's so stripped back and the actors can't hide behind bombastic musical numbers or ellaborate costumes and sets. It's punk rock theatre!

I was chatting to a woman who had worked at the great big Edinburgh Fringe for many years. She became disappointed with how commercialised it has become and how it's being taken over by stand-up commedians. I don't think the Edmonton Fringe is in danger of losing it's edge. I met some really great people here and hopefully I'll be around next year to get involved again.

My plan now is to head east...somewhere east. I'd like to see as much of Eastern Canada as I can in the next couple of months before heading back west to work and ride out the winter. There's an 8-week part time creative writing course here at the Uni of Alberta I wouldn't mind doing if I can get back here by late October. I have some serious planning to do. I would like to see Toronto, Montreal and Halifax but I have no real concept of the scale of this immense country yet and how long is would take to bus around. So I just bought the latest Lonely Planet guide to Canada which I'll pour through this evening.

My most immediate plan is to take a bus to Jasper and then back to Calgary to meet some relatives who are arriving from Ireland. Then it's bus and or plane east. I'm really keen to see the big oilsands operation at Fort McMurray too. That's where the real action of the Alberta boom is taking place. I've heard some remarkable stories about the place. There's really nowhere else like it on earth I hear. Finding a place to stay though is near impossible. Work is exteremely lucrative though. I've heard of uneducated people earning sums of $10,000 in two months working the oilfields. Unbelievable.

Yesterday was pretty cool. I got to meet a cousin of mine who is a Cabinet Minister for the province of Alberta. He's the Minister for Gaming. He told me all about how revenue obtained from gambling in the province is collected into a pool and distributed to charitable causes. I observed Question Time from the gallery in the afternoon. It was a very interesting day to attend because a controversial private members bill opposing gay marriage was due for discussion. The Liberal opposition used filibustering tactics to delay any discussion of the bill, knowing that yesterday was the last day of the year that private members bills could be brought forward. So their tactic was to introduce to the floor every single guest they had brought along who was sitting in the gallery. It dragged on for ages. The government members pretty much knew that they couldn't get to the bill. So my cousin decided he'd introduce his Australian cousin to the floor! I got the 'traditional welcome' which was banging of hands on the desks.

Ok, i've got some trip planning to do.

MG

On the Ipod: Cosmic Psychos, '15 years, a million beers'
(oh thank God my aunt mailed my ipod up here from Vancouver...!)

Quote

"Develop an interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich textures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget youself."

- Henry Miller

Fringe begins!

It's a sunny Monday morning in Edmonton, Alberta and I'm bashing away on my housemate's laptop. I've been working at the Fringe Theatre Festival box office for over a week now. My supervisors realised I was spending a fortune at the hostel so they kindly added me to the billeting roster. Artists from other provinces and overseas are billeted out to private residences during the two week festival. I've moved into a sharehouse on 84th St, just off Whyte Ave and only 5 min walk away from the show venues. I'm getting along well with my housemates. The guy who offered to billet me is a journalist from Ottawa who works for the local paper (he reports on politics from the Legislative Assembly where a relative of mine works as an MLA - small world eh?). The other guy is a musician from Halifax in Nova Scotia. Edmonton is one of those cities in transition that's bursting with young people who grew up elsewhere.

Work in the box office is flat out. We're constantly inundated by patrons who order tickets in advance. Front desk work is pretty cool. Occassionally someone will comment on my accent and start chatting away about how their kids are studying in Austarlia or there was one Canadian woman who told me she married a no-good rugby league player. 'Enjoy your stay in Canada. Just don't get married while you're here' she said with a sigh as I handed her the show tickets.

I'm getting over my fear of handling other people's money. I wasn't particularly competant as a cashier in a department store back when I was studying. Whenever it came time to balance the till, 'lil Matty could usually be found lurking someone at the back of soft furnishings. Cash-out at the end of the night is a drag but i'm finding I'm making fewer mistakes as the festival progresses.

Anyway, the fun stuff: I can see as many shows as I want during the festival for free! With tickets going for $14 each that's a pretty good work benefit. I'm arting up this month!

The Fringe is such a cool concept. The first and biggest fringe fest in the world started in Edinburgh many years ago as an inexpensive way for local talent to get up and perform their creations. The Edmonton Fringe Festival was the first in Canada and is now the second largest in the world. There are over 100 productions - many are local because Edmonton has a very strong theatre scene. The rest of the troupes come from throughout Canada and a handful are from the US or overseas. The artists have to pay to hire the venue but they get every cent of the ticket sales. Sponsorship enables the festival to run.

Anyone can put on a show here. The final lineup is selected by lottery and the shows are completely unjuried. There's no telling what could pop up. It also means that quality varies tremendously. Shows range from inspired artistic creations that have toured throughout the country to rave reviews, to limp bearly-rehearsed joke-fests pieced together by a group of mates on a drunken night out. So the beauty of the Fringe is the element of controlled chaos - you take your chances with what you get tickets for. It's very random. Inevitably word will spread about the 'must see' shows, especially those that get rave reviews in the local press. Some shows will be disasters and drop out before long.

I'm just impressed that in these conservative times when so many people are out for a quick buck and most entertainment thrust upon us is incredibly bland, here is a community of enthusiasts who are just getting up there and having a go. And the punters sure give the Festival strong support. The atmosphere is great. I can't take photos inside venues but i'll take a few outside shots and post em up here.

And thus begins "the great fattening up of '07". This Aussie bag 'o bones is terrified of the approaching winter. I don't intend on buying a car any time soon and I'm wondering whether it's even possible to wait for a bus for more than 10 minutes in -40C weather, without ending up with blackened toes. So i'm spending most of my meager Fringe salary on a variety of Canadian festival food: green onion cakes, poutine (fries with gravy and cheese curds - a native dish of Quebec), elephant ears (like a big flattened-out donut) and perogies (a traditional Ukranian potato dish - Alberta is heavily populated by Ukranian immigrants; lots emmigrated to escape Stalin I believe).

I'm going to see my first Fringe show today. I'll cram in as many as I can this week.

MG

Food court blues

I'm typing away in an internet cafe/arcade in West Edmonton Mall, 'the greatest indoors show on Earth' as the brochure says (the Calgary Stampede is apparantly the 'greatest outdoors show on earth' so it seems the Albertans have quite the monopoly on 'greatness', or so they like to believe). It sure is a monstrosity. This is straight from Wikipedia:

...covers a gross area of 500,000 m² (5.4 million ft²) and cost 1.2 billion to build. There are over 800 stores and services and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles in the world's largest parking lot. More than 23,000 people are employed at the property. The mall receives 22 million visits per year.

The mall has North America's largest indoors waterpark (indoor beach) with a wave pool, as well as an ice rink, indoor lake with performing sea lions and a mini golf course. It's not surprising big business decided to plonk the mall here in one of the coldest cities in the world. What else is there for people to do during those looooong winter months but consume baby,consume!

I have vague recollections of coming here 20 yrs ago as a little fella. I remember they were just adding the indoor beach.

I've stuck to my word and not bought a single thing here, besides the tokens to operate this machine i.e my lifeline. I'm going home.

MG

Matt's buy nothing day

I have a day off tomorrow and I'm planning to go to the West Edmonton Mall. This is apparantly the *biggest mall in the world*!. What a horrible prospect. I'm going to catch a shuttle bus there in the morning, spend the entire day wandering around and return at 6pm. I will BUY NOTHING. There is nothing there I want or need. I thought of leaving my wallet at the hostel but that would be a cop-out. I'm going to go fully loaded with cash n credit, walk right into the belly of the beast itself and resist! I'll bring a packed lunch and a book. If I'm approached by attendants I will snarl.

Viva la revolution!

MG

What's a Fringe?

Today was my first day selling tickets at the Fringe Festival box office. I faced an onslaught of oddballs who had lined up early to score tickets to shows they couldn't miss. It was quite the challenge making sense of some crumpled bits of paper with shows, dates and venues scrawled on them. I have to locate the shows and times on a drop-down menu on the pc, take payment in cash or credit and then print put the reams of tickets, hoping that I haven't buggered something up. Aaargh, details!! I gained confidence by the end of the day and I reckon I'll be running the place by festival's end! My colleagues are a fun bunch. I'm the only non actor or theatre student in the group. My two supervisors are delightful young women who take the edge off a potentially stressful job dealing with other people's $$.

As a work privilege I get free entry to as many plays as I can handle. There are over 100 theatre companies involved and the line-up is completely un-juried. With shows named 'The Vagina Monologues', 'Duet for a Schizophrenic' and 'Pure Unadulterated Hot Steamin' Shirley' this should be a mind-altering couple of weeks. There are some world-class threatre directors involved and some seasoned veterans of the scene whose plays have been running on circuits in Europe. There's even an Australian production called 'The Christian Brothers' which I should check out.

I had an unexpectantly fun-filled night last night. An old boss of mine from ACT government is in Edmonton to attend an international conference on Indigenous Health. He dropped me an email last week wondering where I was in Canada and it turns out he was arriving in Edmonton at the same time as me. How freakish! So we caught up last night and went along to a party at a local bar hosted by the Canadian Aboriginal Counselling service. It was a blast. I met a whole bunch of interesting indigenous people from as far apart as the Northern Territory, New Zealand and off course Canada. I sure didn't expect to see a grey-bearded old blackfella from Ahrnem Land sing a traditional song in a pub in a pool hall in Western Canada.

I went along to the conference myself yesterday afternoon and picked up some reading material. I was particulary interested to find out that while there a millions of First Nations people it the United States (Aboriginal Australians, Maoris and First Nations Canadians are only in the hundreds of thousands), they have a negligible presence at the conference. Perhaps an example of Americans not being particularly clued in or interested in what's going on outside their borders.

MG

Calgary to Edmonton

Calgary just passed the 1,000,000 people mark (or did it just dip back to 999,999 when I departed!). That's a major milestone for a city that's flooded with corporate $$ and destined to, some say, become the next Toronto. Prior to my departure, the front page of the Calgary Herald had a picture of a bouncing baby boy '#1 million' with a beaming mum n dad. If Western Canada continues its trend of increasing affluence then that kid's got a bright future ahead. It's predicted that this particular oil boom will continue for a long time to come.

What's unique about the Albertan oilfields (or 'Oil Sands' as they are known) is that the oil is mixed up with grit so it has to be extracted through some technical process. It's not just a matter of pumping it out of the ground, jumping up in the air and yelling a great big Texan 'yee haa'. As the world's primary oil fields start to dry up and the price of oil rises, the world's eyes turn to Canada to supply much needed energy. With India and China consuming monstrous amounts of fossil fuels as they gallop head, scarce oil reserves will be horded. Dubya will no doubt be getting his greedy mitts on some top grade Albertan oil. I heard something about a possible pipeline being constructed to pump the extracted oil all the way down to the US.

The economy is overheating and while young '#1-million kid' may be set to cruise through life, a strange paradox is occurring in the here & now for many others, many in my age bracket i.e. the thousands of workers flooding into Alberta who can't find a place to live and who's quality of life outright sux. If I chose to work up in the oilfields after my stint in Edmonton I'll probably be earning a tidy wage but working long hours and paying a fortune for rent and food, if I can find a place to live at all. At least I don't have a family to worry about. I've heard terrible stories about the homeless and seen it with my own eyes on the streets of Calgary. I'm not an economist so I'd really like to know why the housing developers couldn’t seem to build affordable accommodation. Is it just greed? I'm meeting shortly with a relative who is a member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly. I can't wait to here an educated insider's view of this mess.

So I departed Calgary last week with my cousin, headed for the city of Edmonton to the north. We diverted off the main road to the small town of Stettler where she works part of each week in a small law firm. Perhaps someone will make a lawyer out of me yet 'cause it looks like it's in the genes! My cousin is quite impressive - an Oxford Rhodes scholar and former law professor. We've realised that we're almost complete opposites and that what I loathed in my past jobs she would love and vice-versa. She's the linear/concrete-thinking left-brained lawyer to my intuitive/abstract thinking, right-brained 'anti-lawyer'. She's found she doesn't like the small-firm lifestyle, dealing with unpredictable people off the street but that's what I'd like to get my hands dirty doing. The managing partner of the small firm offered me a job on the spot so if I do a few exams and qualify to practice in Alberta, this could be a good launching pad for my future. Gotta think about it.

I'm working this month at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival. I'm just in the box office selling tickets (I'm going to miss the moving around outdoors. The Stampede turned my soft little public service body into a lean shock of gristle). Because the Fringe is a non-profit organisation I get paid next to nothing so this month will be tight. I could easily get a second job but to be honest I could use a break after the last month n 1/2. The bonus is that I get to see as many shows as I want for free and with over 100 theatre companies represented it'll be a blast. It'll be a whole different environment to the Calgary Stampede.

I'm already feeling more at home here in Edmonton. Calgary is a hectic city where the status quo is 4WD-driving corporate types. Not much by way of culture. There's not as much money in Edmonton and it just seems a bit more downbeat and 'real'. There's the university of Alberta, a vibrant music scene and of course the Fringe shows that theatre has a strong input into local culture as well.

This'll be a fun month. I'm staying at a hostel right next to trendy Whyte Ave. Should meet a bunch of people. I'll have no transport costs and my entertainment will be Fringe, Fringe and more Fringe. George Orwell and Bertrand Russell have been taunting me from my backpack of late so now I'm going to pull out the hefty tomes I've been lugging and get readin'! MG