Monthly Archives: September 2004

Had my first rehearsal for Enemies, an improvised soap opera, last night. It will run for three consecutive Thursdays at the ARTS Guild, beginning Sep.30. This year, most of the action takes place in Las Vegas, so we’re hoping it’s a big, bright, glittery production.

I was involved, last summer, in the second season of the show, and it was a fun, interesting, challenging experience. This year should be likewise.

Basically, what happens is we are given a pretty detailed (6-7 pages each) synopsis of the three episodes (written by Sean McQuaid). We then spend the rehearsal process familiarizing ourselves with the necessary plot points, improvising as we go along. The goal is to have a quasi-improvised performance of each episode. The challenge is to familiarize ourselves enough with the plot so that we all know where we are headed in the scene/episode, yet not so much that we lock ourselves into any scripted dialogue. We want to know where we’re going, but we don’t want to really know how we get there.

I’ll be directing, and acting in this season’s episodes. Also performing will be Graham Putnam, Carly Martin, Joey Weale (all returning with me from season two), and (returning from season one) Patty Larsen.

Just gotta say…without question, the best cheeseburgers in Charlottetown are found at Cedar’s Eatery.

Without question. Go ahead, prove me wrong.

I remeber it perfectly.
It was a Friday night and I was sitting on the couch at my friend Wade’s house. His parents weren’t home and we were listening to CBC on the radio. The Piano Has Been Drinking came on and I remember it was like a wonderful slap in the face. Huh? He’s not playing the piano very well, missing a lot of notes, and his singing is like someone who’s chewed a hundred razor blades. What the hell kind of music is this? I loved it.
That was my introduction to Tom Waits. I immediately (well, the next day, let’s say) went and bought his The Asylum Years compilation double-album and was hooked, utterly and completely. I remember Colin (the guy who introduced me to The Clash, and whom I subsequently introduced to Hank Williams) saying that I was out of my mind for liking this guy. In fact, he was ashamed that would even suggest that he listen to John Waite. No, it’s Tom Waits and you’ll love it. And he did. We were two Parkdale PEI boys discovering a shared love of music, and spent the next year or so bringing new (to us) music to each other’s attention. Wade’s impression of Tom Waits: Meh.
Over the years, there’ve been a handful of artists whose records I’d buy irregardless. Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, R.E.M…. I gave up on REM first I think. I hung on to Elvis Costello longer than I should have, but eventually stopped getting his stuff automatically too.
Tom Waits, though. Album comes out. Rob buys it. I think he’s the only artist now I trust to do that.

Ramblin’ Man – Hank Williams
So, I had my Beatles obsession. I was working through all that punk. Naturally, from there, I turned 180 degrees around and became instantly enamoured with Hank Williams when I heard this song. I was wallpapering a bedroom with my father, and there was a Hank Williams album playing. I wasn’t really paying much attention to it, though, because as a punk, country was not cool, guv’nah. This song, though, made me re-evaluate what I was going to choose to listen to. I credit this song, Hank Williams in general (and later, George Jones) for turning the light on in my brain that said “listen to whatever the hell you like. If you like it, listen to it.”

Show’s over.

Last night was the first Thursday night in the past 9 weeks where a roomful of people wasn’t laughing at me. Instead of singing “I’m Glad She’s Dead” as Moe Gorman, at 9:40 last night, I was watching Canadian Idol whomever-singing-whatever. Of course, I should have been at rehearsals for “Enemies”, but I was too sick to go.
I much prefer Moe’s rendition of “Phillip Arsenault’s A Real Arsehole” to Josh (or was it Jason?) Greeley’s rendition of whatever-it-was-that-song-that-he-sang-was.