Rodeo Blog

Phew - the Rodeo has concluded! The handful of staff members that dragged themselves into the office today are quietly muttering to themselves about exhaustion and laundry, and the artists have all gone on their merry ways. This is always a bittersweet time for Rodeo-ers: on the one hand, the awesomeness of the festival is done for another year. On the other, we get to see our loved ones again. Also, sleep.

But before I nod off, I'm sure many of you dedicated blog-followers are dying to know: who won the Rodeo-Off?

When we last checked in, I was DOMINATING my noble competitor with a score of 72-50. How did he fare in the final days of the festival? Let's take a look!

Mark Hopkins (@markchopkins)

• Attended No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre on Wednesday, January 27 - 5 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge afterward - 2 points
• Attended Dedicated to the Revolutions on Thursday, January 28 - 5 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge afterward - 2 points
• Blog post about PIG: A Back Door Peep Show - 5 points
• Attended Tono on Friday, January 29 - 5 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge afterward - 2 points
• Attended Wine Stage on Saturday, January 30 - 5 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge afterward - 2 points

SUB-TOTAL: 33 points... +72
GRAND TOTAL: 105 points

Wil Knoll (@wintr)

• Attended PIG: A Back Door Peep Show on Wednesday, January 27 - 5 points
• Hit the Auburn Saloon afterward - 2 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge after that - 2 points
• Hit the Auburn Saloon on Thursday, January 28 - 2 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge afterward - 2 points
• Attended No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre on Friday, January 29 - 5 points
• Hit the Auburn Saloon afterward - 2 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge after that - 2 points
• Attended Dedicated to the Revolutions on Saturday, January 30 - 5 points
• Hit the Laycraft Lounge afterward - 2 points

SUB-TOTAL: 29 points...+50
GRAND TOTAL: 79 points

Looking at these results, you could be thinking any number of things. Perhaps you're thinking that Wil was foolish to challenge me (true), or that while my show-going was impressive, Wil had a more dedicated liver (also true), or that neither of us blogged as much as we should have (definitely true). I'm thinking that I spent a great Rodeo in the company of a great friend, and I can't wait to do it again next year.

Next year, when I will once again kick his ass.

Also, when I say that we "hit" the Laycraft Lounge on Saturday, what I actually mean is that we shut that mother down. An incredible end to an incredible festival. Thanks everyone!

Every once in a while, I get the inkling that my life might be a titch... different... than most.

Case in point: on Tuesday night, Kristine Nutting of Cowgirl Opera asked if I could help find a 16mm projector that could run her reel of porn for PIG: A Back Door Peep Show; hers had broken down. I didn't even blink at the request, just whipped out my Blackberry and, within twelve hours, we had our porn projector. It wasn't until this morning, as I was eating breakfast, that I realised some people might consider this situation a little weird.

But then, PIG is a little weird, so I really shouldn't be surprised.

I caught the opening night performance of PIG on Tuesday and, as soon as I walked into the Vertigo Studio, I loved the vibe. The room was utterly packed with people around the stage, a small thrust with a stripper's pole at the end. There were musicians jammin' out in the corner, scantily-clad women and men cat-calling at us from the stage. It didn't feel like a theatre; it felt like a strip club or a bawdy rock show.

My Rodeo-date and I (Aislin Winsor of 10-Minute Play Festival fame) were some of the last arrivals and, as we scooted past other patrons to take a pair of seats in "sniffer's row" (i.e. right next to the stage), the audience started hooting and groaning at us. This was confusing and worrisome.

Partway through act one, when a beautiful woman dumped blood-drenched intestines (okay, licorice coated in raspberry syrup) in my lap, I figured it out.

The drummer, Silas, is crashing at my apartment for the duration of his stay in Calgary. The night before the show, we chatted about the show's blood-spraying. I saw Evil Dead: The Musical when Ground Zero Theatre mounted it last year, and I was always bewildered when people paid extra for seats in the "splatter zone". I had no desire to get covered in fake blood, much less pay extra for the privilege. Silas warned me that PIG contained some generous sprayage and promised that, if he saw me sitting in a danger zone, he would warn me.

At intermission, I saw Silas - in full costume - standing next to the lobby bathroom, leering at audience members. When I got close, he leaned in to me.

"You're sitting in a really bad spot," he said.

"I kind of figured," I replied, gesturing to the crimson stains on my jeans and shirtsleeve.

"Buy a garbage bag," he suggested, then vanished back into the theatre.

I returned to my seat and discovered that Aislin, one step ahead, had already snagged a pair of garbage bags. We pulled them over our heads and braced ourselves for the jets of blood. As it turns out, we missed the bulk of the spray (in one particularly gushy scene, Harry P. Cjock was good enough to direct the flow away from us), but I was still grateful for the plastic protection.

As for the show itself - when we did Freak Show in Week 1 of the Rodeo, one of the tours was called Grotesque Delights. I can't think of a better way to describe my experience with PIG. It was utterly outrageous, with scenes of necrophilia and bloody murder, raw bacon projectiles launched into the audience, abundant blasphemy and irredeemable villains. It made us laugh at the murder of innocent girls, and then writhe in our own depravity.

The show could've been tightened a bit, and the ending didn't totally hold together for me, but overall I was delighted with PIG's bouffon excess. And man, I would love to spend a day in Kristine Nutting's brain. If I think my life is weird...

It's been over a week since Snowblower and I'm still digesting its utter awesomeness. I'll write my own reactions soon, but in the meantime the Internets have been abuzz. Check it out:

• Photostream by James Tworow
• Photos of Arc Fire by Faby Martin
• Video of hooping
• Whole bunch'a videos by Wrong Electron - one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine
• Video of Pretty Lights from the crowd
• Video and blog post by Matthew Dupuis at SPIN Earth
• Blog post by Connor Turner at ctoverdrive.ca
• Blog post by Drew Anderson at FFWD Weekly
• Blog post by Charles Netto at Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre
• Blog post by Krista at All Forward Motion Counts
• Blog post by Lo-Fi High Life
• Props to Calgarians from NightPanda

We also had a big ol' response in the Twittersphere:

"please keep alive the snowblower event for next year. This years was AWESOME!!!!"
"Fire and snow and lights and music? This is the place to be. Maybe with gloves 'cause it's a little chilly."
"SnowBlower at Olympic Plaza!!! Wow.. Come Down!! Shamz Shamz Shamz!!!!"
"Was digging the beats at Snowblower street party at Olympic Plaza. Kids like the fire hoola hooper."
"At snowblower at Olympic plaza. Awesome beats. Lots of furry creatures"
"Buzz Job amazing. Snowblower in Olympic Plaza exactly right. I think I'm in love with One Yellow Rabbit's vision"
"Freezing Man. Downtown Calgary is jamming."
"Awesome night at snowbloer & #hprodeo... Checking out Pretty Lights on myspace after hs great set."
"To all my friends and Fam that danced there brains out at Mr. Scruff, THAT WAS FUCKIN AWESOME!!!"
"Dear Edmonton promoters: see Calgary Snowblower event. Add motivation. Good luck - the bar was set tonight."
"Snowblower was the coolest thing to happen in Calgary since I've lived here (about 15 yrs now). Super fun!"
"At olympic plaza calgary with great friends, warm weather, pk sound, pretty lights and mr. Scruff, amazeballs!"
"Mr Scruff playing 'evvy, 'evvy chunes, like Hai Karate circa 2000."
"Mr Scruff was awesome and was very pleasantly surprised by Pretty Lights from Denver, great hip hop infused stuff"
"While Mr. Scruff was ridiculous, a definite highlight of #snowblower was @ThePrettyLights"
"Re-found my joy last night in a 3-hour #hooping marathon at the Beats Antique/Pretty Lights/Mr Scruff concert. BAM! There it was."

Finally, we got this comment on Facebook:

"Snowblower was the most beautfiul sense of community I have ever seen exhibited in Calgary. People from all walks of earth, small children breakdancing, the regulars of the electronic scene, to homeless people- all dancing together. I want to sincerely thank you, the High Performance Rodeo for putting this on, it was truly wonderful, and with the interactive lights and sound peice at the back, it reminded me of Burning Man and touched me in many ways. Please keep this going, this is a new page for Calgary, and its community that we are really going to need in the future."

Seems like people dug the 'Blower. Same time next year?

In addition to this fabulous blog, there have been a couple of other bloggers having a rollickin' good time at the Rodeo. Check them out here!

Wil Knoll & Sophy Kors - Downtown Calgary Blog

• High Performance Rodeo - preview and picks
• HPR - The Shameless Plug...
• HPR - Freak Show and Midway sampling
• HPR - 10-Minute Play Festival - Interview with Ryan Luhning
• High Performance Rodeo - Tubular Bells
• HPR - This is My City - Interview with Aviva Zimmerman
• HPR - Kawasaki Exit review
• HPR - Blind Date Review
• Tweetup and Tono

Stephen Hunt, Bob Clark & Tom Babin - On the Scene

• Midway and Freak Show at the 2010 High Performance Rodeo
• Theatre: White Cabin by AKHE Theatre
• Drop-In Centre Singers
• Review: The Pajama Men
• Dispatch: Two Bit Oper Eh? Shun
• Dance: Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie's In Paradisum
• Theatre:Blind Date by Rebecca Northan
• Dispatch: Showcase Cabaret
• Theatre: Kawasaki Exit
• Theatre: PIG: A Back Door Peep Show

Jessica Ruano - The Most Exquisite Moments

• The value of bloggers
• Feeling uncomfortable in all the best ways
• Still feeling uncomfortable... (Part 2)
• Meeting Sharon Pollock (or, why Ottawa needs its own theatre bar)

Richard Lam - Press+1

• 24th annual High Performance Rodeo
• 10-Minute Play Festival - Ground Zero Theatre (Calgary)
• Buzz Job! The True Story of Cal Cavendish - The High Performance Rodeo (Calgary)
• Kawasaki Exit - One Yellow Rabbit (Calgary)
• No Exit - Electric Company Theatre and The Virtual Stage (Calgary)
• PIG: A Back Door Peep Show - Cowgirl Opera (Calgary)

The folks at Verb Theatre have also blogged about me blogging about the Rodeo. Weird.

Have I forgotten anyone? Drop me a line at mhopkins@oyr.org. I'll try to keep updating this post with more blogs as I come across them!

In case you're reading this post and asking, "What the hell is a Rodeo-Off?", check out my summary of how it got started and the rules. All caught up? Brilliant!

When we last checked in, I was destroying Wil with a score of 65-43. Let's see where the week has taken us so far...

Mark Hopkins

• Attended PIG: A Back Door Peep Show on Tuesday, January 26 - 5 points
• Hit the Auburn Saloon afterward - 2 points

SUB-TOTAL: 7 points... +65
TOTAL: 72 points

Wil Knoll

• Blog post about Blind Date - 5 points
• Drinks at the Auburn Saloon - 2 points

SUB-TOTAL: 7 points... +43
TOTAL: 50 points

You may ask yourself, "The Auburn Saloon? I thought the official Rodeo bar was the Laycraft Lounge!" Yes, you're quite correct - but last night, the Laycraft was shut down, so we, along with the cast & crew from PIG: A Back Door Peep Show and Dedicated to the Revolutions, headed over to our old stomping grounds at the Auburn for some nostalgic drinkin' fun. Never fear, we're back at the Laycraft tonight.

It looks grim for @wintr, strugging behind @markchopkins' overwhelming stamina... but I've got faith in ol' Wil. He's got some kind of trick up his sleeve.

Tonight: No Exit!

I spent a good chunk of yesterday in the company of Small Wooden Shoe, a delightful bunch of Torontonians who have eagerly plunged into our Rodeo insanity.

First, I headed over to the Glenbow Museum for a noontime chat with the company's Artistic Director, Jacob Zimmer, about the value of "meeting". He talked about the power of having people in the same room, whether at the theatre or in a conference room, and the chemistry that can result. It was way more interesting than I'm making it sound.

Then, I ran into Jacob and (Artistic Producer) Erika Hennebury at the Hop In Brew (which is, to my mind, Calgary's best pub). We were in the company of a whole schwack of local visual artists, and the conversation ranged from making galleries more accessible, to current projects, to community-building practices. Also, there was pizza and beer.

Small Wooden Shoe is performing Dedicated to the Revolutions here at the Rodeo, January 28-30, and we are offering a special 2-for-1 deal to all of our loyal Web 2.0 followers! Just click here or call 403.294.9494 and use the code "JENGA" to receive your discount - advance sales only, not valid at the door.

Hope you can make it!