sing. sing a song.

part I of halloween was going to the buffy the vampire slayer double header at pacific cinematheque theatre, hosted by happy bats cinema.

buffy is so rad. such a buffy fan. and big spike fan. (still have the spike doll that jesse gave me long time ago)

the first episode played was a buffy halloween episode called fear, itself. then a small intermission where there was a costume contest and door prize giveaways.

then the piece de la resistance. the "once more with feeling" buffy musical.


the reason why i loved the buffy musical episode was because i often think, wouldn't it be just rad to break out in song and dance in real life? course, i'm not sure if my song and dance number would be of the retro pastiche or breakaway pop hit variety.



rocky horror has nothing on buffy.

oh you zombie you

guess what i'm going to be for halloween?

thanks to drollgirl for her find on zombie celebs.

yup, in the spirit of the halloween and the upcoming evil dead musical, i'm going to become my childhood fear.

attack of the killer bees

there just SOMETHING about the flight of the bumblebee! not only do we recognize it from the green hornet tv series from yesteryear, but various artists such as jazz artist al hirt, rockabilly brian setzer and heavy metal band manowar have put their own unique spin on the tune.

and if you can believe it, brazilian tiago della vega absolutely shredded his guitar breaking the 2008 guiness world record for fastest guitar playing with the flight of the bumblebee at 320 beats per minute.

and perhaps not quite as exciting, the score has also been used in adverts for butter, mobile phones and allergy medications.

this little humble tune is the orchestral interlude from russian composer nikolai rimsky-korsakov's opera, the tale of tsar saltan, which was based on the alexandr pushkin poem of the same name.



the tune, written in 1899, closes act III, tableau I. this little frantic piece of music is such a challenge for musicians to play, with its uninterrupted runs of chromatic sixteenth notes.

and exactly how it makes one feels, there is a sense of urgency with the piece, as the magic swan-bird transforms prince gvidon saltanovich into a flying insect so that he can visit his father, the tsar. (who doesn't know he's still alive) it is interesting to note that in the actual opera, there are lyrics to this tune, which the swanbird sings.

most recently, the flight of the bumblebee have been tied to women who absolutely kick butt.

in 2003's kill bill movie by quentin tarantino, it's used in the pivotal scene where uma thurman boards an airplane to japan to have the ultimate showdown with lucy liu. the tune was given a trumpet treatment, for that kitschy and swingin' 60s feel that's prevalent in tarantino's other movies, such as pulp fiction.



but what's even more butt-kickingly awesome is shanghai cellist tina guo's heavy metal take on the bumblebee. you can also check her out without the gold bodypaint, as she plays the tune in the studio here.



guo has played as a soloist with san diego orchestra, but has crossed over into other musical genres by playing with the foo fighters, stevie wonder, josh groban, john legend, chris isaak, il divo and her own progressive metal band, off the deep end.

she has performed at the grammys, mtv movie awards, the jimi hendrix tribute concert in rio and comic con where she played with the battlestar galactica orchestra. guo is also featured as cellist for both iron man 2 and sherlock holmes scores.

and all by the age of 23.

from the humble little beginnings of being just a musical interlude to "i am woman, hear me roar", the flight of the bumblebee sure packs a sting!

channeling my inner "psycho"

we got ourselves some pumpkins sunday and we did ourselves some carving. it was my first time disfiguring a pumpkin and i was kinda excited. a little bit worried too, as i never stabbed a pumpkin before. luckily everything went smoothly and no blood was dropped.

before beginning, i held the pumpkin up and rubbed it as if it was a genie bottle. i think i may have even talked to it. i took a long look at my pumpkin and assessed what i thought it was telling me about its personality. i decided that it was asking for a crazy face; as in lunatic crazy.

but how to go about it?

sean recommended that i just followed the natural grooves and lines before deciding which side to start slicing up. and that i didn't need a template before cutting. just free-hand it, he said. silly me, i was all about the colouring inside the lines.

we threw in some return of the living dead to keep us entertained as we sliced open the top and scooped out the guts. oooh, what a funky smell! once all the seeds and gooey threads were removed, i got down to scraping out the inside of the pumpkin. with that done, the stabbing and whittling could begin. i found myself feeling quite norman bates at this point and kinda enjoying it. take that, you member of the squash family.



it's been since high school since i watched return of the living dead and can i say, it was utterly ridiculous. campy dialogue and really bad acting. velveeta at its cheesiest.

i can't believe that i actually thought that movie was real. it had a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie, "this movie is based on actual events blah blah blah" and parts of the movie was time/date stamped, so you can see why i thought it was a re-enactment of a real life town in kentucky overran by zombies. (i was so gullible back then)

the movie may have scared us willy nilly then, but all it did was make us laugh. braaaains!

we were done by the time the movie was over. i made a crazy face but somewhere along the way, i felt that my pumpkin was telling me that it wanted some fangs, so i gladly obliged. so now it's crazy and a vampire!



sean and i threw tealights into our pumpkins and stood back to appreciate our handywork. not too shabby. a good first effort.





i could get used to all this. in fact, there are still a few days left before halloween to practice and hone my knife skills.

nightmare before christmas

it's halloween week! and it's time yet again to post some things to get me in the mood.

never really got into good charlotte, sum 41, green day or any of those faux punk bands, but i like this video by blink 182. mostly because it's shot like a spooky haute couture show. heavy on the make up and 20s fashions. i especially love the pin-curled hair dos, the caterpillar thick eyelashes and the kewpie doll mouths with the blood red lipstick.

the house was reportedly haunted which added to the atmosphere of the video, along with a cemetery, angel statuaries, tarantulas, crows, a pond to drown by and one creepy ass cat.

great video in a goth-lite kinda way.

a carvin' we will go

sean is going to show me how to carve pumpkins today. i love that he trusts me with a big 'ole kitchen knife.

i came across this song this week on bbc6. know very little about this indie band from new york, the pains of being pure at heart, but i'm SO digging this tune. part-cure, part-ash's a life less ordinary. you can never go wrong with dreamy shoegaze pop.

let there be demons. and dancing.

holy cow do i feel old.

but first, i'm getting ahead of myself...

peggy and i hit up the traveling tour of evil dead: the musical tonight at the vogue theatre. we missed the original production of this show when it was played in new york when i lived there, so we were all sorts of excited when it was announced the show was coming to vancouver.



we arrived at the theatre early to check out the souvenirs being sold and our great orchestra seats: row 13, seats 25 & 26. surprisingly (or not) the 1030pm was not close to being sold out. but then again, it was a saturday night in downtown vancouver, on "club" row, so there was a million other things people were doing instead of taking in musical theatre. like dressing up all skank-like and douchey and forming a line half a block long just to get into some skeevy club.

no thank you.

the grungy, sticky floored, ripped seats of the vogue theatre did not curtail us in our enthusiasm as peggy and i spied the large book of the necronomican on the stage and the blood nozzles hung up on the ceiling trusses.


don't read from the book!


shower nozzles of blood

another awesome? the 7 seats in the row in front of us remained empty the whole time so we had an unobstructed view. (no "trees" to block our view)

we joked about certain friends of ours who are under 30 and did not have the slightest inkling of what evil dead was to begin with. alrighty, young 'uns. and you call yourselves hip to the game.

i remember watching evil dead I & II & army of darkness when i was in highschool. i didn't realize until years later that the movie was suppose to be a send up. that it was over the top for the very reason to evoke laughs. i on the other hand, took the movie very seriously. i even thought just by having it on the tv, that the incantations from the movie would really conjure up something bad in real life. only me.

but could you blame me? i grew up watching horror movies like the omen, rosemary's baby and the exorcist. and they were far from being a laugh riot.

the theatre went dark and the evil began. the first act brought on the laugh out louds with sight gags and over-acting. don't you wish that we could just break out in song and dance in real life? there were even obvious ninja like people swarthed in head to toe black holding up or walking ridiculous props across the stage. Very well done.

i couldn’t help but laugh at songs such as “cabin in the woods”, “look who’s evil now”, “ode to an accidental stabbing”, “blew that bitch away” and my favourite, “what the fuck was that?”

after the first act, there was an intermission, which we both thought wasn’t necessary as the whole musical ran only 1 1/2 hour long. but we suppose it was a way for the theatre to ring in more bar sales.

that would've accounted for more drunken yahoos when we all got back into our seats for act II. not including those that took a 420 break. for the audience in act II was a lot more louder, rowdier and obnoxious. especially the guy who snuck in the row behind us. his hooting and hollering made me want to turn around and knock that beer can out of his grubby paws with my red patent purse. thank goodness that the last time I used my red purse was to a concert, which meant that I still had my earplugs in the side pocket.

the intermission broke the roll we were on, for the first act was definitely more enjoyable than the second.

being that the second act was only 1/2 hour, it felt like the show wrapped up pretty quickly. everyone, especially those deadites sitting in the first 6 rows (the splatter zone) were waiting for the carrie bloodbath to be rained down on them. it was delivered in spades at the end by the specially made blood delivery system on stage, spurting blood out onto the audience, the nozzles overhead and the candarian demons running in the aisles to squirt blood onto the splatterees.

some splatterees opted to wear the clear plastic garbage bags provided beforehand but many chose to leave the show in clothes that they worn, basking in the glory of looking like they’ve escaped a bloody massacre.


splaterees getting their group picture taken


not envying the clean up crew

not that peggy and I were to girly to sit in the splatter zone. in fact, we’ll be sitting in the front row splatter zone at the local vancouver version of evil dead on Halloween night. AND we’ll be in costume.



we went for midnight dessert at the café crepe a block away. and as we sat down, peggy noticed that I was uncomfortable right away. was it because everyone in the restaurant was under 25 and chugging pitchers of beer because they couldn’t get into any number of the clubs on granville street? or perhaps that peggy and i had to yell at each other in order to have a conversation? or maybe it was the godawful top 40 dance songs that was being blared through the speakers? yes, yes and yes.

i was one decibel away from having a jack-hammering headache. i even put back in the earplugs. and I didn’t care if those babies were sticking out or that I probably looked absolutely dork-tastic. i kinda like my hearing and would like to hold onto it into my old age, thank you very much.

bleh, I feel like such a curmudgeon. my clubbing days are long since over. i can’t stomach eating somewhere where their music can rival that of the volume at a concert arena. and I’m increasingly finding that I have little tolerance for idjits drunk off their tits.

does this mean I’ve gotten boring or am I just bored stiff? have I lost my sense of humour or ability to let loose on a wild night on the town? does being in your 30s have something to do with it? maybe it's because i've always been considered the “cerebral” one of my friends. as well as the stone cold sober one.

it’s ironic however, that when it comes to sojourns to the park, communing with nature and animals, watching movies, hitting exhibits or even staying in, i feel entirely young at heart. like pigtails and hush puppies young.

i guess that makes one thing absoluely clear: that i could never grow up to become a proper cougar (hitting the clubs and on the prowl for young cubs).

you will be converted

the start of the season is almost upon us. with the golden anniversary gala & concert just around the corner and our first opera of the season opening up november 28, the office has been buzzing with activity. most of us will be working around the clock to ensure that everything runs seamlessly.

we are now rushing headlong into our busy season, which typically runs from november to may. for me, that means that my dance card is full. get togethers often take a backseat as i work nights and weekends during productions.

friends have often asked me what's all the big hullabaloo over opera? what's the appeal? why do people, season and season, buy tickets to watch such a grandiose form of entertainment? and wondering why and if they could ever get into such a thing?

these questions bring me back to that famous scene in 1993's philadelphia, starring tom hanks and denzel washington. aids ravaged hanks, preparing for his courtcase with his lawyer washington, is suddenly overwhelmed with emotion when he catches the aria from umberto giordano's verismo opera, andre chénier playing in the background.

like a man possessed (and over-acting), hanks sways rapturously (with IV unit in tow) as he translate for washington, the words soprano maria callas is singing in la mamma morta. washington who doesn't know anything about opera is moved and transformed by hanks explaining the meaning of the aria and his obvious passion for the art form.



i dare say, washington may have just become a convert right then and there.

andre chénier is an opera about the french revolution with the age old subject of the indifference of the aristocracy and the suffering of the imporverished. high emotions, most definitely.

based loosely on the real life poet and revolutionary activist, chénier and maddalena are so madly in love, they pledge their eternal troth to each other. gérard, who presides over the revolutionary tribunal, is also in love with maddalena.

wanting to get his competition out of the picture, gérard falsely signs chénier's death warrant.

maddalena, having just lost her mother and home to the revolution is now faced with losing chénier. she sings the heartbreaking la mamma morta.



gérard has a change of heart and tries to halt the execution of chénier, but is ultimately unsuccessful.

maddalena, literally, will not live without her love. she then becomes a condemned woman and joins chénier to die by guillotine.

with such universe emotions such as love, honour and sacrifice, it's no wonder that people are taken by opera. some even become hard-core "fanatics." opera's themes is all about the human condition. the music expresses all the emotions that everybody feels.

asked why i've come to appreciate opera, i would tell my friends that it's the beauty of the costumes and sets, the intensity of the drama unfolding on the stage, the dedication of all those involved and of course, the music and the singing that reaches to the rooftops and beyond.

i am a believer.

two thumbs up

ate too much popcorn the past few days. not that i'm complaining. popcorn = yummy goodness.

the popcorn that was had was at the movies, watching ninja assassin and where the wild things are. the two movies couldn't be more different. and yet, both held great appeal for sean and i.

when i was a little girl, i loved watching martial arts movies and was a big-time ninja movie buff. i so wanted to be a ninja; all stealth, graceful and deadly. dressed head to toe in black. throwing ninja stars and being invisible. i was even a multiple borrower of this how-to-be-a-ninja book from my public library. i kid you not.

course, very little has changed. i even get to live out my fantasies as the opera ninja for work.



this movie is FUN. if you're into dismemberment, body parts, gore and entrails. and video game red blood that squirts out like a geyser. it was all very entertaining in a check your brain at the door way. AND sho kushogi was the villain. i remember watching him in enter the ninja and revenge of the ninja.



and the lead korean actor, rain (no last name)? he apparently made people magazine's most beautiful people but i gotta say, does not fry my burger. however, he does deliver cheesy lines with aplomb.

this movie is not to be taken seriously. and that's why it's a pretty fun watch.

then came the wild things. i haven't read the book since i was wee, but what i remember the adorable onesie pajamas and the attached hood. i remember back when i used to tear around the house in a onesie. but, i digress...



because the book is only like 20 pages long (in large print), i thought spike jonze did a good job of imagining what life would be like with the wild things. not everything was sunshine and roses with all the wild rumpus-making. the wild things were not only cute and cuddly, they were also dysfunctional, volatile, hot headed and destructive. cue dirt clot fight getting out of hand.

it's all fun and games until someone loses a chicken wing.

and the scene where max constructs a fort made of blankets with only his teddy bears as the friends under the fort with him? it made my lower lip quiver ever so slightly. sad little peanut. i'd totally get down on the floor with him and play. heck, let's do some finger painting on the walls while we're at it. i would totally do that if i had kidlets.



but the best moment of the movie had to be the huge cuddle pile scene, where all the wild things launch themselves on top of each other to go to sleep. one big pile of monster fur. so warm and tactile. snuggles for everybody!

can i please have my favourite teddy fur jacket wrapped around me now?

saving the day

computer problems tonight.

just when i reclaimed my saturdays too! finally finished my last class for strategic corporate communications today and was looking forward to curling up in bed watching dvds when my macbook goes tits up.

seems my click button under my trackpad was fubar'ed. i could two finger scroll and onscreen, the arrow would whizz about highlighting things. but i was unable to enter. no clicking. which meant no opening up safari or iphoto or dvd player. nothing. i was dead in the water.

how cruel, i thought to myself. especially after studying all week for my final exam and working on my final group presentation and written communications report.

it was 7pm and i didn't have web access nor able to play dvds. (drat curses that i don't have a tv)

and just when i thought that i'd have nothing to do except read a book for the remainder of the night, sean took a break with his work, ran over in the drizzle and gave me his corded mouse from his imac.

forget flowers and chocolates, real love is apple peripherals.

thank you sean. <3

music at the click of a mouse

they say music calms the savage beast.

well, we're all about the music so you've come to the right place!

didja know that operalive.ca has podcasts and audio clips of our upcoming norma, nixon in china, the marriage of figaro and madama butterfly?

(pssst. operalive.ca also showcases our much talked about manga series, audience feedback, artwork and photo gallery)

you can also link on here to our podcasts:

norma
nixon in China
the marriage of figaro
madama butterfly

still in the mood for more? how about some featured audio tracks?


norma:
casta diva
oh, di qual sei tu vittima
qual cor tradisti


nixon in china:
the people are the heroes now
news has a kind of mystery
ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends
cheers


the marriage of figaro:
non piu andrai
dove sono
contessa perdone


madama butterfly:
vogliatemi bene
un bel di
muore butterfly

so when you're having "one of them days" at work or at home, click on any of these links to help tame that raging beast within and turn it into a flower loving ferdinand the bull.

a whole lotta love going around

it's one thing for us to rave on and on about edel rodriguez's visit to our office in our fair city. but it's double the warm and fuzzy feelings when we find out that edel felt the same way about us!

check out his view on his first ever trip to vancouver and his experiences with us on his website, drawger.

the animal farm

this is probably the MOST adorable, most smile-inducing commercial i've ever seen. it's certainly setting a precedent with me if i'm posting a commercial on my blog here.

it's by the new york (natch) lottery's sweet million game.



damn, i love those big bugs bunny feet! gets me every time.

the first sweet millions commercial featured puppies, kitties, chick chicks and piglets at slumber parties. and they're in jammies no less!



seriously, i defy anyone whose heart doesn't melt just a little when watching this.

thanks to sean for always knowing what will brighten up my day.

i need a brown bear hug

the world is crazy out there. it spins at a dizzying and frenetic speed. life comes at you in all directions and pulls you every which way, that it can get disheartening.

so it's important to hold on to each other. to the stabilizing force that won't allow you go off the rails. to the person who just makes everything better.

have you hugged your favourite person today?

cutting room floor

now that's a first.

annie and i were interviewed with vancouver courier on wednesday about edel's visit and the VO's snowboards. the interview just came out and hilariously, the information we gave is all in the write-up, but we were not. we got snipped!

ah, the world of publicity.

well, the most important thing is that VO got out there with the column inches. not to mention a nice little write up for edel to commemorate the wonderful time he had with us in vancouver.

click here for the vancouver courier article.

class is now in session

intrigued. inspired. impressed.

this was the collective feeling of the emily carr university of art & design students on tuesday when edel rodriguez stopped by to give a presentation of his art work.



associate professor justin novak welcomed edel, VO's graphic designer annie mack and myself upon arrival and gave us a tour of the university grounds. we then met the class of 20 in one of the lecture rooms.



edel had brought his macbook laptop with his portfolio in powerpoint. he began by giving a backgrounder of how he came to be an illustrator. he graduated from pratt institute in brooklyn, worked as an art director for time magazine and illustrated for the likes of newsweek, communication arts, spotco and toronto's soulpepper theatre.

it was after his work with the toronto theatre, that VO had contacted him to design this season's art work for norma, nixon in china, the marriage of figaro and madama butterfly.

opening up with madama butterfly, edel spoke about finding inspiration from pictures of japanese geishas. he then went on to submit a dozen sketches to VO's director of marketing, doug tuck for feedback. the bleeding moon with chou-chou san's face was a hit.



for the marriage of figaro, edel was surprised that the image of 2 men tucked into woman's bosom (and Edel's personal favourite), was also the preferred choice for VO. edel had thought that we would pick choice #5 as choice #1 may have been too risque. he told the students that this just goes to prove that illustrators should never underestimate the client and should always go for it.



the concept for nixon in china was a bit more challenging, as edel had to find a way to blend nixon and mao's heads together. first came an ink drawing. the next step was rolling the red paint on, using his light table and then adding the whites.



although all of the posters edel designed shared bold colours and strong images, his favourite poster, hands down, is norma. he worked with the concept of fire for the image and included pyres in his sketches. doug loved the original burning face of norma (top centre picture of sketches) but thought that the expression looked a little depressed, so it was tweaked a bit to what you see today.



once the images were finalized, annie mack took them and reworked them to fit our VO snowboards. edel went on to say that he was thrilled with the results. more than that, he loved the fact that the art was basically left alone; unlike other art directors who may chop up his images for their own needs.

throughout the 2 1/2 hour session, edel went on to share his other experiences in the industry, which included winning the bid to design the illustration conference poster in new york. he was also commissioned to design the logo of a flaming stratacaster for the rock & roll hall of fame concert and illustrating the dream girl campaign for german playboy magazine.

edel even wrote and illustrated a couple of children's books.

wrapping up the class, edel gave some words of wisdom to the fledging artists:

* work in a lot of different parts of the business and spread work around (magazines, books, posters. illustration vs design)
* switching materials will change the tone of the artwork, like his che guevara on papyrus paper
* combine painting and digital work for versatility
* mix up your styles so that you remain interesting and not outdated
* learn to work fast (most of edel's work takes him 10-15 hours to complete)

but the most important is always continue working on your own projects because that can create work in other areas that you may not have been aware of.

i'm not even an emily carr student but i was blown away with edel's presentation. to be taken along the process of conception to creation and experimentation to final approval of an artist's work was nothing short of incredible. it made me so much more appreciative of how our posters came to be. this season's posters, hung up by my desk, have taken on a whole new meaning.

for more pictures, go to my Flickr.

catching air with vancouver opera

so what the heck is up with edel rodriguez visiting vancouver opera, other than the fact that he's the artist who designed the 2009/10 golden anniversary season's artwork, and therefore, why not?

well, we can let the cat out of the bag now...

VO had new jersey-based edel fly to vancouver this week to personally sign the four custom designed snowboards we created with his images on them. one snowboard for each of our productions: norma, nixon in china, the marriage of figaro and madama butterfly.

the idea for the snowboards was conceived earlier this spring as a way to commemorate our 50th anniversary season this year.

so why snowboards?

the reasons were myriad:
1. the winter olympics are just around the corner
2. we ARE a city of snowboarders
3. edel's bold, vibrant and eye-catching artwork lends itself to be the perfect fit for snowboard graphics.

but most of all, we just thought they'd be super cool!

in the summer, we started working with prior snowboards, a snowboarding manufacturer located just outside of whistler, to design the topsheets that would go on the fully functional snowboards.

we got the call just over a week ago that the snowboards were ready for pick up. managing director christopher libby and i took an afternoon off to drive up to whistler to see with our very own eyes how fabulously the snowboards all turned out.



must say, everyone LOVES them.

and coming december 1, these one of a kind snowboards will be up for grabs on VO's ebay charity auctions website. with only four in the world, these boards will certainly appeal to both the snowboarder set and the art collectors. so ride the boards or hang 'em up; that, we'll leave up to you!

details about the 2 weeks only, world-wide auction to come. stay tuned!

the great escape

on sunday afternoon, sean and i were walking down the street together, when all of a sudden, a mob of high school anti-abortionists with their placards and sandwich boards swept us along with them. like surfers riding a wave, they carried us with them for nearly a block. they must have been 70 strong. singing on top of their lungs while taunting passing cars.

hell bent on converting us this surge was, sean and i decided to make a break for it.

a small clearing up ahead. there, shrouded amongst the long block of trees. just off the sidewalk. a high fence that we had to climb over. on the other side, a steep and wooded hill. it was our one and only chance.

we took it.

and found ourselves at the vandusen botanical gardens.



how much of that was fact? how much was fiction?

what was true was that we spent a lovely afternoon at the gardens. the great thing about vandusen is that it's never packed with people. perhaps paying admission has something to do with that. the grounds are manicured and well kept, with lots of interesting flowers and foliage. there's a reflecting pond, a huge pond with lots of koi fishies, a couple of waterfalls, a zen retreat, and oh yes, wizard trees.



what sean calls wizard trees, i call tyrannosaurus rex trees.

and the garden has a labyrinth of a maze. when we came upon it, we caught a glimpse of something off in the distance. it looked like a "wild thing", from the where the wild things are story.



racing to the other side of the maze, we discovered it was a sculpture of a horse on its hind legs holding a rabbit, also on its hind legs. the whole sculpture was made off wired coils. and i got to say, the horse looked rather, well endowed from a certain angle.



we walked the entire garden to take in their special exhibit from zimbabwe called zimsculpt: 150 or so shona stone sculptures displayed strikingly around the garden.

then we came across acorn-shaped blooms.



and paper lantern-liked flowers.



and pipe cleaner flowers that looked like they were flipping us the bird.



not that we couldn't just look at the sign and get the proper names of all these flowers. it was just more fun for us to make up the names.

a day at vandusen made sean and i feel like we were 13 again. when our overactive imaginations would run wild and we would see in ordinary things something wild, comical or absurd. we were transported to another world in these 4 block squared gardens. an enchanted playground for work-wearied adults to escape to.

like alice falling through the rabbit hole or the prevensie children walking through that wardrobe, vancouver seemed but a distant land. here, we could climb stuff. play hide and go seek. and maybe tell a tall tale or two.

VO running for the cure

vancouver opera was proud to participate at CIBC's run for the cure this past sunday. and you could not ask for a more perfect morning: gorgeous blue sky and warm sun that complimented all of the positive energy everybody brought with them.

we were going to kick some breast cancer butt!

VO's team of 14 volunteers met bright and early at the starbucks down by the international village, a couple of blocks away from the starting line. armed with fuel, in the form of coffee, we joined the thousands of people who were making their way to concord pacific.

some of our runners opted to run the 1K route, while others challenged themselves with the 5K circuit. there were people of all fitness levels at the run. some ran with children or babies in strollers. some ran with their dogs.

alot of people dressed up in costumes: pink sunglasses or boas, pink sequinned cowboy hats, even a man cross-dressing in a shocking pink wig while wearing a satin taffeta dress with a plunging neckline. a sea of pink and white gathering at the starting line.

most everyone there was running for someone they know who were battling or have battled breast cancer. vancouver opera was there in support of ingrid chiang who's in the midst of battling breast cancer. ingrid was accompanied by her husband, mike neal and their daughter kyra blair. katy garden, another vancouver opera volunteer, was running for her mom who had beaten breast cancer.

after an energetic warm-up led by the good folks of canadian breast cancer foundation, the run began. it was amazing to see the 10,000 runners all make their way across the starting line.

it wasn't very long after everyone crossed the starting line that the first trickle of speedy runners were coming back around on Pacific Boulevard, heading towards the same finish line.

one of the faster runners was VO's very own mark ferris, who finished the 5K run in 20 minutes! like most of the runners, the rest of the VO team came in around the 30-45 minutes mark. supporters on the sidelines cheered, hooted and clapped as runners came around the bend. there were lots of people who already finished, ran back to encourage their friends or family who were on the last leg by running alongside with them to the finish line.

quite the amazing and inspiring thing to see.

so inspiring that this non-runner (that would be yours truly) will be running next year.

many thanks to everyone who donated to the vancouver opera team! although we pulled together the team 2 weeks before the run and fundraised at the very last minute, we were able to donate $2600 to run for the cure!

this just in: this year's CIBC run for the cure raised $26.5 million dollars across canada!

and last but certainly not least, a special shout-out and thank you to our runners: avery bell, kyra blair, jozel campbell-lemire, ingrid chiang, mark ferris, katy garden, anne-elise keefer, elizabeth keller, christopher libby, faith libby, roan libby, mike neal, aileen spielmann, darren staten, kari staten and chris walters!

press play for slideshow or go here for flickr pics

keep on the road you're on

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i was amazed and inspired by the strength, support and love i witnessed at the cibc run for the cure this morning. to see the sheer amount of people all running for someone who are or have been afflicted with breast cancer. to be amongst brave women who are currently battling cancer or have beaten it. to stand amongst the thousands and thousands of people all unified in wanting to see a future without breast cancer. and to feel that energy of everyone coming together. sure puts things into perspective.

i wanted to give everybody there a hug.

better yet, i've decided i'm going to run next year.

80 minutes i'll never get back

maybe the movie was too art house for me? too truffaut? too new wave?



i really wanted to like face. i was excited at the thought of watching it today at the vancouver international film festival.

the film was commissioned by the louvre museum in paris and was shot in the louvre. the haute couture worn by model laetitia casta were from christian lacroix. there were musical numbers in costume. i especially loved the spanish song, historia de un amor.

it even featured jeanne moreau in a cameo. i've been a fan of hers since i saw jules and jim years ago. and she is a fascinating woman. (read her autobiography) her talent is completely wasted in this movie.

but ugh. each mise en scene was dragged out to an excruciating 10+ minutes. like watching laetitia casta taping up a window with electrical tape in one scene. or a mirror in another. or yet again another window in a third scene.

or what about the 7 minute scene of when a kitchen faucet explodes and the lead actor lee kang-sheng is going to get buckets, then towels and then a mop to stop/sop up the flooding water?

oh how about too close for comfort close-ups of a woman throwing away meats that've gone bad to having her sister re-pack said meat and put it back in the freezer? that went on for at least 5 minutes.

but alors.

scores of people were getting up and walking out of the movie. and after an 1hr:20 minutes into a 2hr:20 minutes movie, i also walked out. (and i've never walked out of a movie before)

i was disappointed. i normally try to remain in the dark when i see a movie. the less i know about it, the better. i didn't even watch the trailer for face or read reviews before seeing it. perhaps i should've.

i went because it was suppose to have elements of the salome story. and if it did, it wasn't in the first 1:20 of the movie. suffice it to say, it was too painful to sit through another hour of pointless scene after scenes to get to the dance of the seven veils. mind you, in the trailer, salome's costume for the john the baptist scene looked absolutely sumptuous.

unfortunately, the movie had absolutely no momentum. and with every frame being shown on screen, all i kept thinking was money going down the drain. art house for the sake of being art house. it did not dumb me down, but it did insult me by taking liberties with my time.

and in this case, the beauty that is face is not enough.

we got a visitor!

stay tuned next week when our special guest at the vancouver opera office will be none other than edel rodriguez!



edel is the fabulous artist behind VO's 2009/2010 season's artwork for norma, nixon in china, the marriage of figaro and madama butterfly. if you haven't seen them yet, just you wait. they'll be cropping up on every street corner, in every cafe and bus shelters in no time!



we're thrilled to have such an internationally renowned artist in our midst. we have edel for 3 days and boy, do we have surprises in store for him and for our VO fans!

here's a quick bio on edel:

Edel Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1971. Nine years later, his family immigrated to Miami during the Mariel boatlift. He graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1994 and began working regularly as an illustrator for The New Yorker, TIME magazine, and a variety of other clients. He was an art director at TIME magazine between 1994 and 2007 and is a graduate of Hunter College’s MFA painting program.

His work has been featured on the cover of the 2004 Communication Arts Illustration Annual. It has also been regularly selected to appear in the pages of American Illustration, Communication Arts, and The Society of Illustrator’s Annuals. Edel's artwork has appeared on Broadway show posters, U.S. postage stamps, product designs, ad campaigns, and most major American and international publications. He has illustrated six children’s books, two of which he has authored. His work is in the collections of a variety of institutions as well as in the private collections of writers, actors, businessmen, and political figures. He is the recipient of a Gold and a three Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators, and a Bronze Cube from The Art Director’s Club for his theatre posters. He has regularly exhibited his work in gallery exhibitions in Spain, Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York.

Partial Client List: The New Yorker, Time Magazine, MTV, Pepsi Inc., U.S. Postal Service, Spot Design, Nike Inc., WBMG, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Gentleman's Quarterly, Playboy, Reader's Digest, National Geographic Traveler, Little Brown and Co., The New York Times, Galison Books, University of Chicago Press, The New Republic, Hyperion Books, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Henry Holt Books, Esquire magazine, Conde Naste Traveler, The Washington Post, David Morris Design, Fortune Magazine, Billboard Magazine, Golf Digest, The Progressive, Los Angeles Times, McGraw-Hill, The Nation, Vibe Magazine

edel will be here bright eyed and bushy tailed on monday morning. stay tuned!

a very special birthday

happy birthday to you! happy birthday to you! ha-peeee birrrrth-day dear ingrid! happy birthday to you!

who is ingrid you may be asking?

well, the exceptional woman i'm speaking of is ingrid chiang and she's played bassoon in our orchestra for the past 10 years.

ingrid, who turns 36 today, will be one of vancouver opera volunteers participating in the CIBC run for the cure run on sunday, october 4.


besides the fact that the run for the cure is a worthwhile cause to be involved in, the run strikes a very personal chord with ingrid and with vancouver opera.

ingrid was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. her left breast had been exhibiting unusual symptons the past couple of years. at first her doctor advised her that he couldn't find anything wrong with her breast, but sadly, that turned out not to be the case.

when she came back from a tour to china with the vancouver symphony orchestra, ingrid was advised that she had stage 3 breast cancer and that the cancer had spread into her lymph nodes. she had to have a mastectomy.

ingrid just finished her chemotherapy last month and will be starting her radiation treatment this afternoon. that will be followed by one year of injections and 5 years of oral medications.

like many women who have breast cancer, ingrid has no family history of the disease.

this year's run will be ingrid's first ever run. she will be accompanied by her husband mike neal and their 13 year old daughter kyra blair, as they take on the 5k circuit.


company manager adrianne wurz and ingrid chiang

we at vancouver opera will be supporting ingrid and the tens of thousands of women afflicted by this horrible disease this sunday.

if you would like to make a donation to ingrid and CIBC run for the cure, click on support a participant and enter ingrid chiang. the run location is vancouver.

if you would like to make a general donation to the vancouver opera team, you can also enter vancouver opera in the participant search.

help create a future without breast cancer by making a donation today.

to find out more, please go to canadian breast cancer foundation.