Oddball

I am on the sixteenth floor of a high rise overlooking Stanley Park and musing about the constant disappointment of Toronto. Theatre books just announced it is closing. A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from a presumptuous Toronto AD who spent my time explaining to me how “theatre in Canada works”. Not realizing I have already successfully toured this show…Meanwhile their theatre is shrinking this year to the size of a dead man’s walnut. Vancouver is raining and she is charging me far too much mortgage for my two bedroom apartment but she never disappoints me. I…

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the first motorbike ride

I pace my garden like a tiger in a cage around and around the potted plants. I gaze at the dark drip-droppy trees, their slippery limbs reach their fingers up up up in throws of cooling ecstasy, gently scratching their delicate branches down the back of the moon. I hate libido and I love it. It makes me ridiculous and it makes me great. I think back to when I first felt this feline way. I was on a twin star Honda motorcycle. Thirteen. My arms and legs wrapped themselves around Danny Thomas: a Marlboro man in the making. I…

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a novel idea

The dragons are snapping at spiders in the garden and the cat’s got a brand new tail. You’d never know a couple of months ago it was chopped off in the door jam. She doesn’t mind the new length. She darts it around proudly. It’s a bob. It’s French. She bounds over the fence, spayed, and ready for adventure. As I wait in the coffee shop I see a discarded Province has an article on “Rushing Woman’s Syndrome”. I am off to meet a dear friend who is selling Arbonne. I have been thinking about it all week: the business opportunity…

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becoming magical

Colleen smiles smartly. Her eyes are brilliant, backlit blue. I love this woman. I knew her way back before she was a visual artist. Before she even had a crush on any fellow of Cambridge. Before she gained a notoriety far beyond being a cousin of Marilyn Monroe’s. She was remarkable before she was remarkable. A vibrant spirit. She sculpts whale bones, she captures the inner landscapes of the body, she collects the dead leaves of extremely rare plants, grinds them down into an ink paste and renders their form fresh: resurrection. She swings easily between those who collect data…

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Dr Frangione

Today I wear my first stethoscope. This is a right of passage. All I need is a cop and a lawyer role and I can die knowing I have completed the Canadian actor trifecta. On this particular TV show there are a lot of new actors and non-union, so there is a bit of anxiety in the green room about proving one’s legitimacy to each other and putting up a front of confidence. I sit quietly in the corner and let a woman with lip injections go on for quite a stretch about working “all across the USA” and her…

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misty tells all

Misty squints at me over the Tarot cards and says, “You should try to meet Cee Lo Green while he’s in town”, as the answer to my question, “Will I financially survive if I stick to theatre?” She also suggests, “Write a horror like Stephen what his name” and “Book a gallery space and do a 24 hour open house”. I sit on her walker, her out door tarot card reading studio, and watch Nora swing from the monkey bars. “Question number two, dear?” She asks. I am not really here to know my future. I am a big fan…

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bud

My guard is down tonight, fatigue I guess. By the time I do Espresso for the second time today…my Dad cooking for me…I want to suspend time. I want him to stay in my kitchen, peeling the ends off the rapini, patiently. And Tony gets me tonight. The lost love. The mix of experiences he came from. i know who has freckles on his shoulders like a boy. I know what happened in Beacon’s Hill park. Parts of me gone and yet not. Memories I spin into fiction that all come from something beautiful and painful and worth reliving. Worth…

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loopy

I have to sign a paper to take my name off the mortgage, “we got divorced a year ago…” I say. “Yes, we just missed this niggling detail…” says John the banker. “Ah.” He hands me the pen and I lay down my signature next to Michael’s. “Woah!” says John. He reels back a little in his chair. I see what he means. Michael’s signature is lean, jagged, direct, masculine. Mine…well…it’s twice the size, a roundy loopy piece of spaghetti splattered onto the page, shaped like three naked ladies dancing. The difference is remarkable. “Explains everything, doesn’t it?” I say….

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cultural mosaic experiment

A toothless Happy-Go-Luck with his shirt wrapped around his head stretches out his brown leathery arms and legs across Commercial Drive in a full body “arrêter!”. He beckons me to cross. “You’re the kind of girl to stop traffic”, he grins.  “Why thank you very much”, I nod, queenly, sashaying past him on the way to buy some eco-friendly fish. Halibut season is here and I have fresh dill and lemons. The day is warm and bright and my neighbourhood is out flying all sorts of flags in the sun. Two people with shaved heads, cut offs and plaid shirts…

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Maleficent

NORA: Truth or dare, Mommy? LUCIA: Truth. NORA: Do you have a boyfriend? LUCIA: No. We sit at Joey’s on Burrard as Nora bites into the last of her slider burger and lip smacks the ketchup off her fingers. NORA: Do you want a boyfriend? LUCIA: I didn’t for a long time but now I think I might be interested. NORA: It’s that guy. Your boyfriend is Addy’s Dad. LUCIA: Rob? You’re picking out Rob for me? Nice choice. He’s talented, he’s a hard worker, I love that guy so much but no. We’re friends. I work with Rob. Mommy…

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