Phil Rickaby

While standing in line in the blazing sun to get into Fan Expo

2010-08-30T18:20:47Z

Me: I defintely should have worn a hat.

Daisy: We could switch sides?

Me: that’s a great idea. Even things out.

Daisy: Yeah, I’m pretty smart.

Me: Smarter than me. I woulda just stood here and then inside people would be all “Wow! Great Two-Face make up” and I’d be “I’m not cosplaying, I’m just sunburned”.

Cat Bundle

2010-08-12T19:21:29Z

I haven’t posted in a while, so here’s a picture of a cat.

“Inventions” – Last Shoot Day

2010-08-05T19:29:21Z

Yesterday I was back with the folks from “Inventions That Shook the World” and spent the day next to things that were set on fire. Here’s a selection of pictures I took.

Toronto Sun Continues to Blast Play No One Has Seen

2010-08-05T10:23:45Z

In Yesterday’s Toronto Sun, an article entitled PMO Frowns on Terror Play, the paper continued its campaign against the Summerworks Festival for daring to produce a play about one of the Toronto 18. The article quotes a representative from the Prime Minister’s Office as saying “”We are extremely disappointed that public money is being used to fund plays that glorify terrorism”. Of course, no one, not even the star or the representative, know if the play “glorifies terrorism” since they haven’t seen the play. This is just bad journalism. This is like a movie reviewer posting a review about a movie they haven’t seen. Of course, The Sun doesn’t care about journalistic ethics here, all they care about is restarting their old campaign against using public funds for art. The article also tries to make it sound like people in the arts community are afraid (due to the comment from the PMO) that arts funding will be cut as a result.

The reaction from the PMO has some in the arts community nervous that Frid’s play will become an excuse for more cuts to arts groups by the Conservative government, ”I would hate to see them use this play as an excuse to pull funding for anyone,” said a Toronto theatre worker who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisal by the Conservatives.

A Toronto theatre worker who asked for anonymity because of possible Conservative reprisal? Quite frankly, I doubt this person exists. No name given. A quote that is actually in line with what The Sun wants: a cut in funding as a result of this? The only reprisal that an artist might fear is having an arts grant application declined as a result of their comment. But since the Canada Council for the Arts is an arms length agency, which means that the PM (or any other government official) does not directly influence its decisions, there is no real reprisal an individual “theatre worker” might fear. Again: bad journalism.

The real hero of the piece? TD Bank, who refused to consider pulling their sponsorship, saying:

“The intention of our sponsorship of Summerworks is to encourage and support young artists,” said Matthew Cram, a TD spokesman. TD Bank is kicking in $5,000 to help cover Summerworks’ bills. The Royal Bank, whose corporate headquarters is also across the street from one of Adbdelhaleem’s targets, is also helping fund the festival.

Continued Musings on Social Networks

2010-08-03T18:16:51Z

I’ve been continuing my musings on a social network for entertainment industry professionals. The more I think about it, the more I am seeing that the current social networks do not serve the entertainment industry well. Sites like LinkedIn are work well for people in traditional industries, but for people like actors, dancers, and other entertainment industry professions, LinkedIn fails.

Social Networks like Linkedin or Facebook become too cluttered with other information and applications and don’t provide ways for people in the industry to properly connect. I guess the real problem is that they are not focused on what people in the industry might want or need. And why should they? Sites like Linkedin and Facebook aren’t really for us. They are for other people. People who have “normal” careers.

So, what would a social network for people in the entertainment industry be? What features should it have? A few that I can think of off the top of my head:

Discussion groups
Easily updated resumes
Photo gallery
Twitter/Google Buzz/Status.net integration
Email notifications (and the ability to turn them on or off)
Simple way of connecting with others
Such a network should also be simple to navigate and use. Ideally, anyone who was familiar with Facebook or Myspace would have no trouble in using it.
Should be focused on network rather than the social.

What other features should a social network for people in the entertainment industry have?

Pictures from a TV show (behind the scenes)

2010-08-02T02:35:07Z

On Thursday, I was shuttled off to Whitby to film an episode of “Inventions that Shook the World”. Here are some pictures from the day.

The shoot took place at Trafalgar Castle. Two lion statues guarded the doors, so I snapped a picture of one of them.

I did a lot of waiting. I arrived when I was called (which was early) and waited until it was my turn. I waited a long time. This is what waiting looks like.

Here are some other shots from the shoot itself.

Agent Search – Suggestions Welcome

2010-08-02T00:30:02Z

Years ago, just before I “left the business” for five years, I started a search for an agent. This was interrupted by the realization that a large scale project I produced had left me burned out and no longer passionate about theatre/acting. So I left it, giving up the agent search and telling myself that I would never go back to it.

Five years later, I tentatively returned to acting, telling myself it was a hobby and that I would stick with my day job and just do plays and things when it was convenient (usually when people asked me), and I didn’t bother to take up the agent hunt again, because…well, why would I if it wasn’t something I was intending to do as a profession?

Of course, that couldn’t last. The theatre bug, once it bites, is incurable. It might go into remission, but it will never truly go away. And once the passion for it returned, I had to admit that the “day job” I was working was not enough. Doing the occasional play or film was not enough. And so, recently I’ve been thinking about how to do more, and I’ve had to accept that really, if I want to do more acting, I need an agent.

Its been a while since I was in the market for an agent, and during that time, I could talk about being relatively new to the business. Now, I’m 40 and can no longer make that claim. If you are an unrepresented actor, later in life, what is the best approach for introducing yourself to an agent? Any suggestions how to go about this? Any suggestions for agents who might be in the market for a..well, a me?

The Sun and the Arts Funding “Debate”

2010-08-01T14:04:30Z

Sometimes I read the Toronto Sun. Not because I like the paper, but because I really hate it. I think its important to know what the “other side” is saying, and to understand that there are people who actually believe what that newspaper prints. Case in point: this article from the online version of the paper, which references an article in yesterday’s print edition. The article outlines a complaint from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation complaining about going to the Summerworks Festival, specifically due to funds going to a play called “Homegrown”.

Homegrown is a play about one of the members of the Toronto 18, calling the play sympathetic to terrorists. The article uses this play as a springboard for the Sun’s familiar complaint about funding for the arts, and how the funding plays is destroying the fabric of our society – ok, this article doesn’t say specifically that, but its clear that the Sun is revving up their readers to be outraged about this “abuse of public funds”. Some choice quotes from the article:

The [Summerworks] festival receives more than $90,000 from all three levels of government including $35,000 from Heritage Canada. Homegrown received $6,000 from the city funded Toronto Arts Council for a workshop. The play’s writer, Catherine Frid, stressed Friday that the play isn’t condoning terrorism but is a “sympathetic portrait” of one of the men caught up in the terror bust.

[snip]

But Kevin Gaudet, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said tax dollars shouldn’t be going towards a “terrorist love-in”. “You want to put on a play? Fine. Hang up your shingle and ask people to pay for it … and if it has to do with sympathetic portraits of terrorists who want to destroy my country, I won’t go,” Gaudet said.

It is of course, important to note that the CTF:

objects to funding for all festivals from Pride Toronto to the Calgary Stampede, he said.“We advocate against all this type of funding in that context,” Gaudet said.

CTF is a conservative group that objects to most public funding of events. Of course, without the kind of funding they object to, there would be no Fringe Festival, no jazz festival, no TIFF, no Stratford or Shaw festivals, or really any cultural events whatsoever. The play that CTF is “objecting to” is an excuse for the old saw about the bugaboo of the evils of public funding for the arts.

Arts funding organizations from all levels of government need to fund shows based on their merit or their relevance, rather than on their political ramifications. This means that sometimes there will be controversial plays that are funded by the government. But this is not a bad thing. The arts should challenge political correctness, they should be controversial, they should spark debate. If nothing controversial can ever receive funding because the sensitive right-wingers at the CTF (which will always be offended because public funds are involved) or the Sun might be offended, then all funded art will be safe and boring.

The article itself may be familiar territory for the Sun, the most important part of the article are the online comments. Many of the comments are from people who are just as outraged as the Sun (and the CTF) wanted them to be. These are the people who believe that the arts are not worth funding. These are the people who think that artists are swimming in money, people who think like Stephen Harper does when he talked about funding cuts back in the last Federal election (“I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren’t high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I’m not sure that’s something that resonates with ordinary people,”*). In my mind, the comments say the most. These are the people and attitudes that artists are up “against” when election time comes, when people want to be outraged about “wasted government spending”, and how the arts are for the rich and not for “regular people” so why should we fund them? I’d consider the comments a “must read”, at the very least, to know what those people who disagree with arts funding believe, so that those of us who recognize the importance of funding can plan our response.

*Quoted from the Toronto Star, Sept. 24, 2008

June 2010 [365project]

2010-07-02T17:35:07Z

Here are the collected pictures taken for the month of June for my 365 Project.

365project - June
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Flooded

2010-06-30T02:21:37Z

On Sunday night, I was out with Daisy MacLean having pancakes for dinner, when I got a call from my landlord telling me that the basement was flooding. Unfortunately, I live in said basement. I rushed home, and was fortunate to find that although the carpet in the apartment was sopping wet, that I hadn’t lost anything valuable. Only a few clothes I could stand to lose anyway.

The carpet, however, needed to be torn up and disposed of, and we had to start doing it on Monday. Fortunately, I had booked Monday and Tuesday off work. I’ll be honest, when I booked those days off, it was so that I could relax before attending the Dora awards on Monday night, and recover from a late night out on Tuesday. These days were certainly nothing like I had planned. I had to clear out all the wet clothes (and other soaking things) and move furniture around, so that we could start pulling up the carpet.

By the time it was time to get ready for the Doras, I was in a lot of pain. A hot shower didn’t help much, but I got into my suit and headed out to meet Dana Fradkin and Kim & Richard Beaune for dinner. Although none of the four of us were personally up for Doras for The Belle of Winnipeg, the four of us had been at the very first meeting for the project that became The Belle of Winnipeg, and we were bursting with pride to see Lorie Brown, David Atkinson and Ginette Mohr nominated for Dora Awards. In the end, only David took home an award, but for us, the nominations were a confirmation that the show we had worked on or 4 years had a future (and that’s something we’ll be pursuing). After the very long ceremony, I stuck around for the after party for only a few minutes, because I was dead on my feet, still in a lot of pain, with more work to do the following day.

Today, the carpet had been removed, and the floor needed to be washed. Right now, without carpet, its basically a concrete floor, but we’ll be looking at getting some rugs to put down. After the floor had dried it was time to start putting the apartment back together. It was slow going, because my body still hurt and every movement pretty much just made it worse.

The apartment is mostly put back together, but there’s still work to do. And at some point this week, a plumber will come to take a look at the drain that backed up.

I go back to work tomorrow, not having had much of a vacation at all, and still in pain.