The Beautiful and the Damned had a good run starting at Zelda’s, then Glad Day Books, Q Space & finally The Central. Over its few short years the series brought a rich variety of spoken-word & music to the stage. From James Ince to Spencer Butts to Marcia Rogers, to name-drop but a few. Musically diverse it introduced musicians from Kat Leonard to Rex Baunset to Nelson Sobral to spoken-word audiences.
mist in the Whispering Woods?
The final show of the series was hosted by Brenda Clews, with fun Poe trivia supplied by John Oughton. Spoken feature was the urbane, comic & tres gay J.P. Larocque. He did two powerful, insightful, funny & in your face queer pieces. Both combined explicit sex with the ironic counter-point of the mundaneness of daily life – in one piece he explores the mutual negianegationstions of a couple at a bathhouse – wanting to be sexually adventuresome while at the same time preoccupied with financial planning. ‘I am no longer the youngest one at the orgy’
His second piece took us to the under-lit confines of washroom sex – ‘… more hopeless that a men’s washroom on Friday afternoon.’ Again he easily mixes the erotic amidadmistst the ordinary. Sharp writing, that reminded me of Conner Habib’s clear eyed take on queerness.
what lies beneath the surface?
Music feature Amoeba Starfish has graced the Damned stage before & also featured with them at Pride a few years ago. Elegant, trippy, thoughful zen jazz that works effortlessly with spoken-word performers and stands equally engaging on its own. I might be biased as I do I have several of their recordings in my collection.
red eyes of the besat?
Although I’m saddened to see the Damned come to an end I’m not sorry to have it out of the Central – the wrong spot for a spoken-word show – at times it felt like listening to the performances while trapped in an MRI machine with earplugs on – loud house music, louder band downstairs – as volume was upped for readers, volume was upped else where to compete.
August 28-31 – attending – FanExpo Canada http://www.fanexpocanada.com
why so sad? No Buffy reunion panel at FanExpo 2014
October 19 – feature – Cabaret Noir – Pinebow 
https://www.facebook.com/events/1651892755035275/
I hit the open stage with another glimpse of my October set:
Pinebow 2
has anyone seen Brad?
he was here last night
remember how he screamed
when we told tales
around the campfire
last night
has anyone seen Brad
he shouted with fear and delight
said he wouldn’t be able to sleep without a light
has anyone seen him
I saw him go down to the lake
he took a canoe
rowed into the mist
now Jeff are you sure
that’s what you saw
because all the canoes are there now
not one’s missing
has anyone seen Brad
he has a talent for hiding
that’s for sure
he went missing last week
for two whole days
till we found him then
sleeping in the crook of an oak tree
as tidy and warm
as could be
up so high and deep
in the Whispering Woods
out near Pine Point
perhaps we should look
for him there
he could be pulling another of his stunts
just to teach us a lesson
to make sure we don’t scare with such tales
as you told last night
I saw him go to the smoke shed
he wanted a sausage
he felt so hungry and weak
he needed a snack before he went to bed
now Olaf that can’t be so
we don’t use the smoke shed
for the summer
that’s for the fall
as you well know
or in the spring
when we run the maple syrup off
perhaps he’s gone there
looking for what is left
there’s always some dribs and drabs
of that sweet sugar to be found
if you look hard enough
if you scrape under the ground
the black sweet blood of the earth
you don’t say
that’s news to the counsellors and I
so let’s go to the smoke shed
perhaps we’ll find what
we need to find there
as they approached
they saw a strange trail
footprints
small and dainty
hollow and round
with a smudge mark deep
between them
like a long sharp tail
we can’t go in there
the boys shouted as one
we can’t go in there
the Denizen is there
that’s what’s happened to Brad
the Denizen has gotten him
eaten him up
smoked with maple syrup
we know
we can tell
you warned us
the smell of death is in the air
they stood silent
in a circle around the smoke shed
none willing to to take a step forward
the door swung a little in the breeze
they all jumped back
a bell rang
six rapid clangs
ah there breakfast ready boys
we’ll leave this till later
Brad is bound to show up
he’s hoping to give us
another merry chase
another merry chase
which we won’t give into
as a whole
they rushed to the mess hall
hot steaming plates of food were ready
rice crispy squares
scrambled eggs
crisp bacon
pancakes
French toast
home made sausages
cornflakes
poached eggs
Belgian waffles
fresh milk
yellow butter
and ladles of maple syrup
syrup to wash everything down
to make the boys
fat and pump and round
as plump and fat and round
as Brad
river of syrup?
Tagged: Amoeba Starfish, arts, books, Brenda Clews, community, Conner Habib, Duncan Armstrong, Duncan T. Armstrong, gay, J.P. Larocque, James Ince, John Oughton, Kat Leonard, Kindle, literature, male, Nelson Sobral, Philip Cairns, poetry, queer, review, Spencer Butts, spoken-word, The Beautiful and the Damned, TOpoet, TOpoet.ca, Toronto, Whispering Woods, writing
