The Dramaturge At Home

Two time wasters for your enjoyment

Ooo .. another ticker to tell me how close the wedding is ...

And (and this one is ADDICTIVE), me, as a Simpson's character.

Oh yes, you can roll your own Simpsons avatar.  But remember, I warned you!

Best place for a girls' night out? (Day 2 NaBloPoMo)

Ever want to have a girls' night out?  But just stay in?  Like when you were 12 and had slumber parties?  And maybe your tiny 554 square foot apartment in downtown Vancouver that cost you $450K because prices are so inflated isn't the place to do it?  (Really, I'm only a little bitter about Vancovuer's housing market).  Looking for a good option?

Well, sadly, there isn't one in Vancouver.

BUT!

If we were all in the UK, there would be this awesome option.  A Slumber Party Suite at Alton Towers. Oh, I KNOW!  Go ahead.  Take the Virtual Tour.  I'll wait.

According to Springwise, where I first saw this gem ...

(the suite is) designed to hold the ultimate girls' night-in, where up to six friends can share an evening of deluxe, unadulterated and uninterrupted fun. Picture a sound-proofed, bright pink room, enabling a night of blaring pop-music and girly shrieking. The suite is divided in two – an area for partying and a section for sleeping. The party section features a state-of-the-art home entertainment system with a plasma TV, a Sony PlayStation, a mini-dance floor, a karaoke machine, a pink fridge brimming with ice cream and chocolate and a library of chick flicks for an all night movie marathon.

The sleeping section includes six Chill-out beds by SilentNight which can clip together to make one. The bathroom area is girl-party friendly with wall-to-wall mirrors, dressing tables and lots of complimentary pampering products from UK health and beauty outlet Superdrug.

Oh, my!  Road trip to the UK anyone?  We so need one of these here.  Brilliant idea!

Mary Poppins, eat your heart out ...

Mary Poppins may have whipped Jane and Michael Banks into shape pretty easily, but if she had had this Japanese shirt-folding technique in her carpet bag, I'm pretty sure Bert and Uncle Albert would have fallen in line as well!

Hat tip to ShinyShiny!

Toronto Fringe Play - 87% True: The Lies that Bind

I am not being voted out of this family by you and a stuffed bear's head!

Words to live by.

Also, a quote from Roro's new play 87% True: The Lies that Bind.  She and fellow Edmontonian, Chris Gilpin, have penned a new comedy about family stories and the truth and non-truths that run through them.  Also, there are bears.  She and Gilpin are debuting 87% True: The Lies that Bind at the Toronto Fringe Festival and then will be taking it on the road for a cross-Canada Fringe Tour Extravaganza.  They will be hitting the Saskatoon Fringe, the Edmonton Fringe and ending up on the west coast at the Vancouver Fringe.

They are driving across Canada in "El Trucko"

And they are blogging the entire journey.

So, first, check out their Toronto Fringe schedule and decide when you're coming (they are in a great venue ... the Factory Studio ... where one of the two Fringe beer gardens are located!).

Second, sign up for their 87% True feed ... Roro's and Chris' writing is quite hilarious.

Third, if you have a blog, it would be awesome if you would share a little link love.  You can grab the pic (Chris is working on a blog badge) and link it to http://rosemaryrowe.typepad.com/liesthatbind/

Fourth, enjoy the show!  I'll see you at the Factory Studio.

It's not perfect, but it *is* my very first YouTube Video!

Update: Ogilvy Toronto, who actually made this ad, posted it on YouTube and on their blog.  It is way better quality than my terrible pirate.  So go check it out. [thanks, jted!]  And stay tuned, this is apparently only 1 of 3!

Oh, Lex .. see what you've reduced me to?  Pirating pickle commercials off the PVR!  What next?  No good can come of it ... (I had a bit of trouble at the end, so you'll forgive my novice editing skills, just this once!).

Touring the Canadian Opera Company's new home

I was recently invited to attend a blogger's preview of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the new home for the Canadian Opera Company and the performance venue for the National Ballet of Canada.

First ... How cool is it that the COC held a blogger's preview? (Answer: *very* cool.)   Kudos to the COC for starting to engage local bloggers as a channel for getting the word out about.   About 10 or so local bloggers were invited  and the COC was incredibly gracious and supportive during the preview and follow-up.

The tour was led primarily by Gary McCluskie of the architectural firm Diamond & Schmitt.  McCluskie was charming, effusive and clearly passionate about the promise the the Four Seasons Centre holds for the COC and for Toronto in general.   Themes about the building and its construction that were repeated:

Accessibility ... from a physical point of view (about 50% of the Centre's 2000 seats are located off of street level), an architectural perspective (the walls that face the main intersection of Queen & University are glass and the overall feel of the building is open and breathe-able) and a cultural level (the Centre will be hosting free lunchtime concerts in the City Room (the main atrium) where people can drop in, bring their lunch and hear some great music).

Acoustic Driven Design ... all surfaces, all building materials, all shapes were chosen to enhance the accoustics of the auditorium.  Now, I don't know a lot about accoustic design (and kinda zoned out during some of the description) so I'm just going to put in this little tidbit from a Globe and Mail article about the Centre, "50 mm-thick Venetian plaster on the ceiling and balcony fronts creates a hard finish that ensures good bass response. The plaster is slightly mottled to prevent a shrill, tinny response. Hard, resonant wood is used throughout the auditorium to reflect and boost the low-end frequencies - floors are maple while screens and other wood details are beech."  Rockin.  Oh, yeah, and the auditorium is structurally isolated.  It is effectively a building inside a building, formed with double concrete walls.  This construstruction eliminates structure borne noise (another cool phrase I learned on the tour), so well, in fact, that the auditorium has been given a top acoustic isolation rating.

Personal & Passionate ... in addition to McCluskie's comments about the relationship between the building and its locale, directors of the COC's PR & Marketing departments talked about the new opera house facilitating a more personal relationship (and hence a more passionate one) with its patrons and the city itself.

My impressions?  The Centre is beautiful.  The simple materials of wood and glass with other understated architectural details offer clean lines and an uncluttered canvas on which to present opera and ballet performances.  Now, I happen to like opera, but I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea.  The COC realises this and is continually looking for ways to make either it, or at least the space, more relevant and meaningful to people.

Washrooms ... The COC is going to be putting on the Ring Cycle in Sept.  That is some *long* opera.  So, I checked.  Just how many washrooms are there?  100 washroom stalls, 2/3 of them for women.  Overall washroom:patron ratio - 1:20 (standard North American ratio is 1:30 - way to go, Four Seasons Centre!)  For more interesting facts and tidbits, check out the Four Seasons Centre FAQ.

So, if you've not been to the opera, now's the time to go.  Especially if you're under 30.  The COC's Opera for a New Age is one of the best programs going.  $20 seats.  Ahh, to be under-30 again.

Many thanks to the wonderful staff of the COC and to Eli Singer for arranging this preview.  I've posted my full set of photos over at Flickr in my "Canadian Opera Company Blogger Preview Tour" set; you can also see them and other bloggers' photos using the Flickr tag canadianoperacompany.

I'll see you at the opera.  Don't forget your glasses! Oh, and watch out, the new wood floors are a little slippy.

Tags: COC, Four Seasons Centre, opera, toronto

Yay, me! My Squidoo Lens named Lens of the Day

Just read Squidoo's Lens of the Day post.  And it's me!  Or rather my Book List from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart lens.

Neato!

Thanks, Squidoo!

My TED2006 disks arrived!

Yesterday was a banner day!  The DVDs and CDs from TED2006 arrived.  Finally, I can listen to Stew's "Black Men Ski" (Stew .. you have to release that one, and soon!) and maybe (*maybe*) get that crazy, haunting, insidious melody and lyric out of my head.  OR get it into everyone elses.

On the commute home last night I popped that disk into the CD player.  (TED folks - I love the audio disks, thank you!).  Well, the lyric & melody are still in my head, though I did find the drive last night oddly relaxing.  There might be something there. 

I also had time to listen to both Tony Robbins' and Rick Warren's talks - and their common themes of serving and of finding passion.  It was a neat juxtaposition, really.  More interesting than the Dennett/Warren juxtaposition.  Really, this is something truly amazing that TED gives us, a way to relive the power and the passion of those 4 days.  As well as the ability to "roll your own" lineup.  If only Julia Sweeney had had more time on stage (Julia, when *when* will the CD be out??  Los Angeles is too far for me to come to a show.  Hey, come to Toronto!  You would be a total hit here!)

Tags: TED2006

Another Flickr Toy ... Make your own movie poster!

fd over at Flickr Toys has done it again.  Following on the success of the Make Your Own Magazine Cover toy, there is now Make Your Own Movie Poster toy!  My first attempt is below.  Hours of fun ... especially if you have a colour plotter at work and can create an actual movie-poster-sized poster.  Shhh .. don't tell my boss.

Funky and Chic Laptop Bags - my new Squidoo Lens

So, like every blogger, I'm a bit of a stats-whore.  I wouldn't say I check them *obsessively* but I certainly drop in once or twice a day.  My preferred stats tool these days is a combo of MyBlogLog (which I totally love and happily pay $3 a month for the Pro version) and Google Analytics (which I find a tad cumbersome, but they have such nice charts!).

While reviewing my stats, I realised that I get a lot of traffic for people looking for cool, funky, chic, stylish laptop bags.  And then the lightbulb went off ... why not make a Squidoo lens about cool laptop bags.  Sure, I have my Steve bag from Case Closed, but clearly others are looking for their Steve.  So, presenting, my new Squidoo lens: Funky, Chic and Cool Laptop Bags.

This actually lit two fires with one match.  I've been looking for something to create a Squidoo lens about.  I had started an online marketing one, but seriously, who needs another source for online marketing material.  During the alpha phase of Squidoo, I did create a "vanity" Squidoo lens, but if you read either of my blogs, you get that content.

So check out the Laptop Bag Lens.  If you are a laptop bag designer, leave me a comment and I'll add you to my lens.  If you have had good or bad experiences with laptop bags, leave a comment on that too and I'll see if I can incorporate that kind of feeback into the lens.

Technorati Tags: squidoo, laptop+bags, fashion+accessories