Phil Rickaby

The Annual New Year Navel Gaze

2011-12-30T16:29:15Z

Like I’ve said before, I don’t do New Years resolutions. This is the time of year, when I do set some goals for myself. So here they are:

I am going to lose some weight.
I am going to write something every day, whether a story, a blog post, or work on a play.
I am going to see more theatre. There’s really no excuse for not seeing a ton of theatre in this city, so I’m going to stop making excuses, and go to see as much as I can.
I am going to stay a non-smoker.

Those are the goals for 2012.

Why don’t we look at how I did on the goals for 2011, shall we?

Get paid to act. When I wrote this, I was feeling a little taken advantage of. I felt like I had taken a few acting gigs for the wrong reasons. So, the upshot is, that I didn’t really get paid to act this past year. But the truth is that getting paid wasn’t what it was about (though, lets face it, that would have been nice). Really, it was bout being a little more choosy about where I put my acting energy. I didn’t want to act in just anything, I wanted to act in things I believed in. So, if that’s the case, I accomplished this goal.

Do more directing. I did a little more directing in 2011, as in, I did some.

Write more. I wrote some, but not as much as I should have. In fact, I wrote little enough that I feel like the writing muscles in my brain need to be worked out a little to get them in shape.

Become a better theatre marketer. Nope. Honestly, I feel like to be a better marketer, I have to learn how to be more comfortable in talking up the things I am working on. Its like, over the years, I have taught myself (or been taught, I’m not sure which) not to toot my own horn. In marketing, its necessary that you not only toot your horn, but find creative ways to do so. This is an area where I need work.

Become a better shmoozer. I put this in here, because I’m not good at the shmooze. Put me in a room full of people, and I’ll become more awkward than I am normally (and since I’m a pretty huge nerd, that’s pretty awkward). I am not good at the small talk, and not good at striking up conversations with people I don’t know. So this still needs work.

Get an agent. Mission not accomplished. And to be honest, I didn’t really pursue this all that much.

Maybe next year, I’ll be able to round up this list with some more “wins”.

The muse and the lack thereof

2011-12-16T11:42:07Z

Lately I have found myself talking a lot about writing, but actually doing very little of it. Oh, I will sit down at the computer, or with pen in hand, and I will turn off the Internet and focus only on writing for a bit, but no words end up in the page. And that has frustrated me. I haven’t been able to write that play, or even a short story. Which of course has frustrated me more.

The other day, Adrianna Prosser reminded me that writing needs to be practiced, and that if the writing muscle isn’t regularly exercised, it gets out of shape. So I need to exercise my writing muscles.

I need to write something every day, whether it’s a short (even a very short) story, a blog post or what ever. The important thing at this point is to just write.

So that’s the plan. Write something – anything – each day. Starting now.

Hey! I’m in that film…

2011-12-01T18:25:23Z

And if you look really closely, you might see me a couple of times in the trailer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My Nuit Blanche 2011 Roundup

2011-10-02T22:52:49Z

Some images from Nuit Blanche 2011

The next few pictures are from an installation called “Soon”. This installation was described as the occurrence of something otherworldly happening. I felt like it was the arrival of the aliens from a science fiction movie. The over powering sounds were out of a movie where the aliens are landing, and the smoke and lights accentuated this. Spotlights played over the crowd, occasionally stopping to linger, and sometimes, to play.

Here is some video of the spotlight playing with a child in the crowd. You can really get a sense of the overpowering sound.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fluxe was a video installation, where people in the crowd could draw on a screen to create some amazing patterns.

This is what it looked like in motion.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a guy playing drums in the body of a car.

Inside the Gorilla Glass. I don’t understand the name, but it was kinda cool.

Here’s video showing what it looked like in motion.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From “Shannon’s Fireflies”

The Heart Machine

And video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Probably the biggest disappointment of the night was Flight Path. Its description was ambitious, giving people the opportunity to soar over Nathan Philips Square like birds. However, it looked like only a couple of the departure towers were functioning. The line for “Flight School” was two hours long, with another wait for your departure. And then a short slow slide across to the next tower. And that was it.

The lasers on the ground were neat to look at though.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Slipstream at the Eaton Centre was neat to look at.

While below, people tried to get the Paparazzi Robots to take their picture.

Overall, the night was good. There is a persistent and growing problem with Nuit Blanche however, and that is the public drunkenness. While walking down Yonge Street, it seemed as though every teenager in the city was drunk and on that street. There were buskers all the way down the street, and at points, I felt like some of them were in danger, as a press of drunks surrounded them. A few times, it seemed like it would not take much to turn the crowd violent. From reports I’ve seen on Twitter, there were fights, thefts, and as reported this morning: a shooting. This event is one of my favourite events of the year, but each year the crowds get drunker, louder, and more dangerous. The event is far too large for the police to be able to monitor the public drinking.

I don’t know if there is an answer. I can only hope that this amazing event keeps running on its own strength, undeterred by the drunken louts around it.

Why the National Post’s apology is almost as offensive as the ad they apologize for

2011-09-30T20:32:55Z

Today, The National Post published an apology for an ad that ran in their paper. I’m not going to link to it. If you’ve seen it, you know why it was offensive, and if you haven’t, you could probably find it.

Here is the problem:

The National Post believes strongly in the principles of free speech and open, unhindered debate. We believe unpopular points of view should not be censored simply because some readers may find them disturbing, or even offensive. Free speech does not apply only to views that will not offend anyone.

The ad in question was attempting to make the case that the Ontario curriculum was teaching very young children about issues that, at that age, should be the domain of parents. In addition, it made the case that even when parents or teachers may object to the material being taught, they did not have the right, in the case of parents, to remove their children from the class, or in the case of teachers, to decline to teach the material on the grounds that they objected to it.

In an open society, these positions are worthy of being part of a debate on this issue. They are also legitimate arguments to make in a paid advertisement in a media outlet.

The problem here is in the statement that anything needs to be debated. If the advertisement had been about another minority, the ad would never have been run, and they would certainly not be talking about. What if the advertisement had been about education about race issues. Substitute Gay or Transgender from the ad, and put in black, or Chinese, or muslim. Would they dare to defend the ad?

Look, National Post, hate is hate regardless of the minority. When will you get that into your heads?

Leaving the comfort zone behind

2011-09-22T19:11:19Z

When I write, I tend to write in a specific format. I am most comfortable writing in the form of a script, most commonly for theatre. This allows me to write a lot of dialogue to tell a story (which the theatrical form demands), and something that I think I’m pretty good at.

I’ve decided, recently to try my hand at another format: the novel.

I’m going to do NanoWriMo this year, and am working on the process of outlining the story.

I’m told that stepping out of the comfort zone can be good for creativity, so we’ll see what happens.

A Sad Goodbye

2011-09-14T13:16:58Z

Last night, I said goodbye to my best canine friend of 13 years. He would have been 14 in October, but things were not going well for him. He laboured to walk, to move around,and his eating was infrequent. It was time. The average life span for a dog of his size and breed is ten years, so any time after that was a bonus round. We walked him over to the vet’s office, a last long walk for him, followed by an examination.

The vet was amazed at how old he was, and I think that’s why there was little talk of further treatment to make him more comfortable. She knew that his quality of life was falling and would continue to fall. From his demeanor and symptoms, she suggested that he likely had a degenerative disease of the spine, that was dissolving his spine, causing some of the mobility problems he had been experiencing, coupled with a neurological problem that had basically taken away feeling in his back feet.

Jessica and I knew that this was likely to be the end for him when we went in, so we were as prepared as possible. I knew it would be difficult, though. He’d been with me for so much. He got me through a couple of tragedies, and like good dogs always are, he cheered me up when I was down, and was the best companion.

As we sat, waiting for the sedative to take effect, I signed the consent form. The one moment of levity in the night, was my misreading of a declaration in the form which read something along the lines of “I certify that the dog has not bitten any person or animal in the last ten days” which I misread as ”I certify that the dog has not been bitten by any person or animal in the last ten days” and I commented on how strange a declaration that was. I commented on it, and was corrected, but could not get the image of some person coming up and biting my dog out of my head. Everyone laughed, and then it was time.

The sedative had relaxed him enough (he was pretty anxious in the vet’s office), he lay down on blanket they provided. I thanked him for everything he had done for me, we told him we loved him, and they administered the drugs. We stayed with him, petting him until he was gone. And the vet left us alone with him. We didn’t stay long. We had a good five minutes of weeping, and then just couldn’t stay any longer. He looked like he was asleep, and knowing that he wasn’t just made it harder.

I will miss so many things about him. I can’t even list them all. But most of all, I will miss how if I was sad he would come over and lay his head in my lap and look up at me. How petting him like that would make me feel better.

Thanks, buddy.

The Horror Play – is it a thing of the past?

2011-08-29T20:28:14Z

When Deanne and Balderson’s stage adaptation of Dracula opened in 1927, the audience found the play truly frightening. Apparently, when Bela Lugosi performed the role, there were screams and fainting. Of course, now the play seems very dated and overly talky. Film has taken over where theatre once ruled: the horror film provides scares and theatre isn’t known for its terror.

I wonder – is it possible for theatre to provide scares any more? With the exception of Ghost Stories (which seems to be just that…the telling of some ghost stories), can the theatre provide a scary story? A monster story? Can the audience be made to jump and scream?

It should be possible. But what do you think?

One Soul: Must Read

2011-08-09T20:04:32Z

Last week, I picked up Ray Fawkes‘ new graphic novel, One Soul.

First, the background: One Soul follows 18 characters from birth to death, with their lives running concurrently, though their stories take place in different times. Maybe I’m not explaining it well. The Oni Press site explains it like this:

One Soul takes the experiences of 18 individuals and weaves them into the spiritual journey of a lifetime.

This is a story that can only exist in the comic form. You could not adapt this into a movie, or a tv series, or anything else. This story can only be told in this form. It is a pure expression of the comic form. And a testament to what someone striving for a story told the way it needs to be told can accomplish.

The book is a deep and emotional read. Some characters die earlier than others, and some live long and prosperous lives. Each death is keenly felt, while for some, the pain of their lives is felt even more keenly. I found myself rooting for some characters, wishing for justice for others, and pitying still others.

More importantly, I found it hard to put down. I wanted to keep turning the page. Late at night, needing to go to sleep, I would still tell myself “just one more page, just one more page”. And then finally, I finished it. This is a book that needs a moment of quiet reflection after finishing; a moment to break to contemplate what you have read (tinged with more than a little awe).

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Its more than worth your time. Its definitely worth the read. And the second and third readings.

Pet Peeve: Actors with no web presence

2011-07-19T16:39:51Z

So, this past Toronto Fringe Festival, I saw some great actors perform in some spectacularly good shows. After the show, I invariably thought: “So and so is a talented actor. I wonder what else they have done.” And so I google the actor, and find…nothing. Well, not nothing, really, a scattered collection of mentions on various websites, maybe a review here or there. But nothing with the actor’s name on it. No website. Not even a twitter account.

Actors (and other performers) why don’t you have a website?