I bet you thought the Foofarah was dead, didn’t you?  Well so did I, but then, a few times in the last 3 weeks I though I was dead too.Seriously, I’ve had a rough, dark time the last little while, and blah blah blah, boo fucking hoo, somebody hit me with a dead baby and shut me up.  Time to get on to some much-neglected BIZNESS!!!

…and, yes, I do mean Show Bizness.

– IN THEATRES THIS WEEK:

GLACE BAY MINERS MUSEUM at the National Arts Centre. A terrific Canadian classic, co-produced with Neptune Theatre, a bagpipin’ good time. On all week.

THE HOLLOW at Ottawa Little Theatre.  Get Agatha Christied, starting on the 23rd, as the 100th season rolls on!

DEATH OF DRACULA from Phoenix Players, at the Gladstone Theatre. Community Theatre goes goth, starting on the 25th.

ALBERTINE EN CINQ TEMPS from Theatre la Catapulte and Theatre Francais de Toronto, at la Nouvelle Scene.  Michel Tremblay done right, from the 24th to 27th.

JULIUS CAESER from the Ottawa Shakespeare Company, at Centrepointe Studio.  Delayed but not defeated, the OSC is back with their anticipated, high-tech retelling of Billy Shakes’ Ides of March drama. Starts on the 25th, with your choice of interactive or spectator seating! I may have a couple of tickets to give away for the premiere later in this post.

CRACKERS from Tale Wagging Theatre, at Shenkman Center.  The folks who brought THE ROOF TOP GUY to Fringe are back with their latest, from the 25th to 27th.

YOU NEVER CAN TELL from Linden House, at the Elmwood Theatre.  George Bernard Shaw meets Jenny David!  Who could ask for more?  Starts on the 26th.

PLANS AND SCHEMES: I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but make no mistake, Operation ‘All Your Fringe Are Belong To ME’ is moving along nicely.  At least, in the sense that we’ve been understaffed at work for a month now, I’m working crazy overtime hours, and thus am saving up the necessary monies to make the several months-long trip to review the entire Fringe Festival circuit next summer.  Yes, there WILL be tee-shirts.  I think all the Fringes have announced their dates for next year by now, so once my schedule calms down I’ll be making a plan of attack and making contact with the individual festivals.  It doesn’t hurt my excitement any that the Ottawa Fringe recently had their early-bird entries, and local heroes Bear and Company and Smooth Tim Oberholzer are IN for next year, as well as a freakin’ Opera troupe from Toronto!  Squee!
That excitement notwithstanding, the opposite side of this is that all this crazy overtime at work is making me realize mre than ever that this cooking life, that I fell rather lethargically into decades ago, is very, very much no longer the life I want to lead.  Nothing like getting chewed out for doing a terrible job, twice, on day 20 of 20 days in a row without a break, to make you realize a change needs to be happening.  With that in mind, I’d like to announce my SECOND major initiative for 2013…VISITORIUM INCORPORATED.  I don’t know the hows and whys yet, and any suggestions or helping hands are more than welcome, but by this time next year (at the very latest) I want to have taken this blog to the next level…that is, the professional level.  Yes, I’m willing to sacrifice my beloved ‘amateur’ status, in what is nothing less than a desperate attempt to salvage what’s left of my sanity.  So, consider this a ‘feeling out’ for this planned change.  Anyone out there have any interest in advertising on the Visitorium, if I took it pro?  Anyone have any idea what advertising rates should be for a concern like this?  Any lawyers out there have decent retainer fees, in case Wen Bell-End feels litigious again??  So many questions!  Fuck it, just listen to Budgie and be amazed:

TREATS:  I bought myself some DVD’s the other day, a bit of a present to myself for time spent chained to the oars at work (and the ridiculously fat paycheck I just got as a result).  A trip to one of my fav’rit places in the whole wide world, Invisible Cinema, was in order.  Picked up six movies in three packages…DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME, one I really wanted to catch at the Bytowne a ways back but didn’t.  A 2-bill from the awesome Dragon Dynasty collection, GOLDEN SWALLOW and KILLER CLANS.  And a special little something from the good folks at Retro-Seduction Cinema, the Joe Sarno 3-movie INGA collection, which promises to be some seriously Swedish Softcore, a bit of a soft spot for me.  Hey I’m a child of the eighties, I was raised on illicit softcore viewings of Bleu Nuit on late night French teevee!

Ah, nostalgia.  But I HAVE been neglecting my movie collection of late, which leads me to a new idea I had recently, that I want to start hosting at my place on a semi-regular basis…VHS MOVIE NIGHTS!  Seriously, I still have a buttload of VHS, many of which I haven’t even watched yet.  Anyone up for this?  BYOB, I’ll supply the movies and the snacks and the Winston?  Come on over, you fucks, I’m lonely.  And now, before I wrap up this overdue edition, here’s the latest old teevee show I wish they’d hurry up and release on DVD…CAPTAIN NICE (and yes, that is William Daniels from ST.ELSEWHERE in that outfit):

Peace, love and soul, folks,

The Visitor (and Winston)

PS I totally forgot!!  I have tickets to the October 25th premiere of JULIUS CAESER to give away!  PARTICIPANT tickets, even, whatever that ends up meaning! I don’t know yet, but it sounds fun!  Tell you what…first person to go to my Facebook Page (that’s the Visitorium page, not my personal page) and post the name of the actor who played Julius Caeser in XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS and HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS gets the tix.  Simple enough?  You know you want it!