Two More Plays Left
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Friday 13July07
Last night I took another day off from the Fringe and went to the Spiegel Show at the Spiegel tent down at Harbourfront Centre. A totally spectacular show that had me laughing like I've rarely laughed at a show before. I was so over stimulated when I got home that I couldn't get to sleep until after 2am only to get up four hours later. Luckily today was my leave work early Friday but I had to get my ass in early to have the benefit.

I was feeling shaky after work because I hadn't eaten enough so I crept over to the Corned Beef house and had a gigantic smoked meat sandwich. It wasn't bad, not quite as Montreal as they said but the best quality I've had in Toronto. No Cotts Black Cherry though. Gotta have Cott's Black Cherry with a smoked meat sandwich. come on!

Saw four Fringe Shows today: Eleanor; Funny Business, the musical; Labyrinth of water; and Yabu No Naku Distruthted. I walked out of my first show ever... Labyrinth. i didn't get it. I couldn't tell if the girl was a girl, a flower, a branch... And she kept waking me up every time I tried to sleep with her screams and weird ass noises. I finally decided to leave when I was staring at the red bell for the fire alarm willing it to ring. ha ha. I fell asleep for bits of Eleanor but not because I didn't like it but because I only got 4 hours sleep. Funny Business was so funny. It was all about office politics and office romances. A good hoot.

After I walked out of Labyrinth, I planned to walk home and then ran into crazy Mandy who was off to Yabu no Naku Distruthted and roped me into that. I had planned to see Jihad me at Hello but couldn't be bothered with waiting til 9:15pm since Labyrinth was still on and it was damn cold at the Robert Gill theatre. Of course I was the only person with polar fleece on. Everyone else was fanning themselves. sigh! I nodded off a bit in Yabu no Naku. It was an interesting show. I would have been better seeing when I was fully awake. And it was performed in an underground parking lot.

So now I'm home. The cats are begging for a little attention. Lala is running back and forth and meowing like the crazy kitten she is. Zoe is walking back and forth and blinking her big eyes at me. Picasso just threw up the biggest hair ball I've ever seen. And Quincy can't be bothered with any of us until I get into bed. Then she becomes alpha cat and edges me over.

I've got two more shows to see tomorrow and then I've done 14 shows. And that's it for me. I'm glad I did it but now I'm exhausted. Next week calms down, I have plans almost every night but not every night. ha ha! But my plans next week are people plans. My virgo buddy Vanjandan is in town from Arizona and I will be her wedding date for Saturday to see a work friend from our Science Centre days get hitched. Still don't know what gift I'm buying.

And I've got Borat to watch. My funny friend who drives me crazy but less so now that I know what to do to drive him crazy in return has lent me Borat. ha ha. "If you'd just talk on my digital recorder I wouldn't have to go behind the bar." I can't believe I actually said that.

Okay, I'm going off into coma sleep land smothered by four cats. Zoe joined the fold last night because they all missed me so much.

EY

Lanterne Rouge
Topic: Someone Else Said It

American cyclist Dave Zabriskie has the chance to win the honor of being the first-worst American in Tour history.

By Bill Strickland

I suppose it’s cool and all that Dave Zabriskie was the third American to ever pull on a yellow jersey, and has also won a stage in all three Grand Tours — this little race going around France right now, plus the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta Espana. But this year he has a chance to really do something historical and special: Win the Lanterne Rouge.

That French term, which means “red lantern” (and refers to the lights hung on railway cabooses) is applied to the last racer who actually finishes the Tour. It’s not the insult you might think it is. There’s some measure of fame, and respect, to being the absolute last guy to stick out a race like the Tour — to suffer day after day even though you’re three hours or so behind the leader.

I’m somewhat of a student of the Lanterne Rouge. I suck and, on a bike at least, I am stubborn, which means that — although I never actually get to finish last in anything important because I’m not that good — I am often the last slow guy to get peeled off the back of the fast guys. (You can read about it here, which is my blatant commercial plug for this blog.)
Jacky Durand. Photos by AFP/ Getty Images
The greatest Lanterne Rouge of all time was Jacky Durand, the amazing and entertaining French legend, who over the course of his career launched literally thousands of ill-advised, stupid, insane, overly long doomed breakaways — and ended up winning two national championships, three stages of the Tour, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Tours on those rare attacks when everything went right. In 1999, Durand pulled off what I think of as the most remarkable feat in cycling: He simultaneously won the Tour de France’s award for Most Aggressive Rider, which paid 100,000 Euro, and the Lanterne Rouge.

“I don’t mind being beaten,” Durand said in an interview. “What I hate is being beaten when I haven’t tried.”

(Durand’s Lanterne Rouge, incidentally, was the fifth in a seven-year run of last-place finishes by the French, from 1995-2001. French racers have also won 6 of the past 10 Lanternes Rouge. Who says they’re having a bad time at their own race?)

The most mysterious Lanterne Rouge, I think, was also the first: Arsene Millocheau, who finished nearly 65 hours behind the winner in the first Tour de France in 1903, then never raced it again. One appearance, one Lanterne Rouge. It’s the stuff of legend and magic.

We Americans, in contrast, are appallingly focused on the podium. We may have won either 10 or 11 of the past 21 Tours (depending on what happens with Floyd Landis) but, sadly, in the long history of the world’s greatest race we’ve never brought a shining red light back home. That’s where Zabriskie comes in. After Tuesday’s Stage 3, he was sitting 186th out of 187 — ideally positioned for the best loss in sports, and carrying a bit of poetry with him, as well. What could be more rapturous than the racer known as the Z-Man winning America’s first last place?
Wim Vansevenant Photo by AFP/ Getty Images
There’s one problem: Wim Vansevenant is just three seconds ahead of Zabriskie. All you Lanterne Rouge pundits out there know that Wim won last last year — barely taking a brave and heated battle from previous two-time winner Jimmy Casper. So he knows what it takes to be last. Worse, he understands the call of destiny, as well. When he won, he told reporter Sam Abt, “Lanterne Rouge is not a position you go for. It comes for you.”

Vino? Valverde? Schleck? Levi? Without question there is glory in reigning as a star who stands high above us, spraying champagne out upon the masses and kissing beautiful women. But for the pure, gritty reality of what life is most often like, I’m cheering for Wim to pull out the July of his life and rocket up the standings, and for Z-Man to give us all something to believe in.

http://sittingin.bicycling.com/2007/07/go-wim.html

The Fugue Code
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Tuesday night Goldfish and I made the trek up to Withrow to catch Dusk Dances only to get there for the final dance performance. ha ha! We'll have to go back again before it ends. The thrilling part though was that I had a chance to have a pork souvlaki from and I met this absolutely gorgeous man. Too gorgeous. As he and Goldfish chatted I had to unwrap my souvlaki and start eating for fear that I might impulsively lick his face. He was that yummy.

Turns out he was in one of the dance performances we'd missed. He was still in his Indian garb. He told us that he actually did traditional Indian dance and he showed us a sample. But this performance was free style and he showed us a sample. Can I just say that when a man can move, it sends me over the edge? I meant was to ask Goldfish if I moaned out loud, he was so sensual. I may have to go everyday just to watch him. ha ha. Not really, but I will be chatting him up at the fundraiser on Saturday that Goldfish is having.

Apparently gorgeous man is Ojibwa Indian. So ridiculously beautiful. I'm reading up on the Ojibwans (?) before then so I'll have something to talk about.

Completely missed Stage 3 of The Tour de France Tuesday Night. Before I went to sleep I put the television on channel 58 so that when I woke up at 1:30am, I could turn on the TV and I'd be set. Well, I woke up at 1:30am, as planned. I turned on the television, as planned. And smiled to myself that all was good the race had just started. Then promptly went back into coma sleep only to wake up at 4am when all was over! Yup, I'm thinking my schedule may be a little overfilled when I'm trying to catch the Tour at 1:30 in the morning. Too funny though the ideas I get.

I read a funny piece about the Lanterne rouge on the OLN/versus blog that I will post.The latest shows I've watched at the Fringe are: You, Me and the Sea, and The Fugue Code. You, Me and the Sea was cute and a bit Woody Allenish. Some of the jokes were easy jokes but I particularly liked they way the couple went back and forth addressing the audience directly, as if they were thinking. Hard to explain, but well done.

The Fugue Code was an ambitious one man show. Alex, the actor, plays 11 different and distinct characters. It was a take off of the DaVinci Code only dealing with Bach and music. It was extremely clever and very funny. It was a Fringe show so it needed to be tightened but overall, one of the best shows I've watched in a long while. I've got 6 more shows that I can see on my pass. I've got to fit that in with The Tour, of course; a work thing; a fundraiser; Dusk Dances and an afternoon swimming with Goldfish.

I get to see Goldfish in a bathing suit. I've heard in whispered tones that he has a really hot body, the kind that makes your mouth drop open. How much am I looking forward to that? Will I ever be able to look at him in the same way again, without mentally undressing him? tee hee hee, can't wait!

EY

What Weekend?
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Sunday 8July07

I never did make it out of the house yesterday. I got a little caught up with the Tour de France and Live Earth and napping.

I caught three shows again today at the Fringe: Jem rolls up, Kiwi Joker; and Caberlesque. Carberlesque is by far the best show I've watched thus far. It's a combination of Caberet and Burlesque. The girls are really talented and very funny. The songs are risque but not too much swearing considering.

Overall it's been a fun if quick weekend. I'm catching the replay of stage 1 of the Tour de France then climbing into bed for a new work week. Dusk Dances is also this week, which is a bunch of dance performances in a park. I caught it last year and it was awesome so Goldfish and I will be meeting up and checking that out again.

Not too much to say. I realize that seeing three shows is my maximum. Maybe if I luck out and catch all great shows, one after the other, I'd have more stamina but alas, so far I haven't

EY

Mercury my friend
Oh and Mercury Retrograde ends on the 9th. It'll take to the 14th (the new moon) before everything feels back to normal. Does that mean I lose all the weird men and their advances? Yeppers baby!