FLYING, FALLING, FALLEN: Ghost River Theatre Production’s “The Highest Step in the World”

24 October, 2011 in New Media and Multimedia Performance, Theatre | Leave a comment

FLYING, FALLING, FALLEN:
A Review of Ghost River Theatre Production’s
“The Highest Step in the World”

by Simone Keiran

Five separate stories are woven into cohesive and compelling drama in David van Belle and Eric Rose’s Ghost River Theatre production, The Highest Step in the World.

Captain Joseph Kittinger

The main story centers around a very literal interpretation of the question, “What do you do when you can’t go back down the same way you came up?” — by examining what it may have taken from American air force pilot and war veteran, Captain Joseph Kittinger, to jump off the Excelsior III flight balloon on August 16, 1960, from 102,800 feet (31.3 kms) in the upper stratosphere, and free-fall for four and a half minutes, reaching supersonic speeds of 614 mph (988 km/h) — a feat which has not yet been equaled.

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THIS IS NOT A MEAL! Calgary International Film Festival’s Screening of Gereon Wetzel’s Documentary, “El Bulli: Cooking in Process”

3 October, 2011 in Festivals, Film Industry, Appreciation and Criticism | 1 comment

THIS IS NOT A MEAL!

Documentary, El Bulli: Cooking in Process;
Gereon Wetzel, Filmmaker.

by Simone Keiran

♫ A law was made a distant moon ago here:
♪ July and August cannot be too hot. ♫

Overlooking a half-moon cove called Cala Montjoi, near Roses, along Spain’s lush Costa Brava, there was once a restaurant open only six months of the year. They accepted reservations one single day out of the entire year and, yet, filled every available space. The white-washed adobe building with floor-to-ceiling windows floated cloud-like under towering arbutus on a cliff with stunning views of the warbly mermaid-filled Mediterranean.

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A WILD CSÀRDÀS OF REVENGE: Calgary International Film Festival’s Presentation of “A Halába Tábcoltatott Leány (The Maiden Danced to Death)”

28 September, 2011 in Dance, Festivals, Film Industry, Appreciation and Criticism | Leave a comment

A WILD CSÀRDÀS OF REVENGE

Calgary International Film Festival’s Presentation of
A Halába Tábcoltatott Leány (The Maiden Danced to Death)

Laszlo Zsolt (Gyula Udvaros) and Bea Melkvi (Mari) on the Banks of the Danube.

Hungarian and Slovenian folk dances are so intricate, it takes years of practice to acquire the necessary precision and dexterity before the dancers can proceed at the breakneck speed of a professional company. One misstep, one forgotten element of movement, one careless moment of distraction and a Rube Goldberg’s progression of disasters unspins. When everything goes perfectly, however, the dance leaves viewers breathless, pulses racing like the dancers themselves.

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TEACHABLE MOMENTS: Youth by Youth Film Competition at the Calgary International Film Festival

26 September, 2011 in Education and Learning, Festivals, Film Industry, Appreciation and Criticism | Leave a comment

Sunday, 25th September, 2011
Globe Theatre Upstairs

By Simone Keiran and Aidie Keiran-Arney

A collective theme runs through the short movies crafted by young filmmakers for the 2011 Youth by Youth Film Competition, an annual feature of the Calgary International Film Festival: the problems they perceive are apocalyptic in nature, overwhelming in scope, and hopes are fragile and tenuous. Even at the elementary school level, they are anxious to reach out and overcome the experience of alienation between people. The most innocuous and lighthearted of the films had philosophical inquiry at their core, not to mention crushing social critiques and violent explosions. These young filmmakers have wrestled and wrangled the monstrous scale of these problems into scenes and stories small enough to fit through the camera iris. The results were surprisingly elegant  and well-realized.

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Beautiful Art Produces Positive Physiological Effects on Viewers

10 May, 2011 in Art Appreciation and Criticism, Education and Learning | 2 comments

Aesthetic Effect of Old Master Paintings Measured by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

The University College of London recently undertook an experiment where subjects were given brain scans while they viewed a 10-second interval progression of projected images of paintings by Old Masters such as Constable, Bosch and Ingres.

John Constable, A View on the Stour, 1810, Oil on paper laid on canvas, 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in (26.7 x 26.7 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art (royalty-free stock photo.)

The results showed that blood flow to the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with pleasure and desire, increased by ten percent — a reaction similar to falling in love.

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LITERARY ROUNDTABLE FOR THE BOOKISH COMMUNITY at Pages Bookstore on Kensington

18 March, 2010 in Books, Literature and Publishing | Tags: , , | 2 comments

A LITERARY ROUNDTABLE FOR THE BOOKISH COMMUNITY: The Sequel

Presented by the Writers Guild of Alberta and the University of Calgary Creative Writing Research Group,
Upstairs at Pages Bookstore on Kensington,
March 15, 2010.

This informative panel was presented by Samantha Warwick, with the Writers Guild of Alberta, who laid out the format and introduced the four speakers, professionals associated in one capacity or another with writing, publishing, taxation or legal issues.  Each spoke for fifteen minutes, after which a Question and Answer session was opened to the audience.

The speakers were:

  • Brian Brennan, journalist, author and area representative of the Writers Union of Canada, who encapsulated the recent Google settlement in the United States, and its implications for authors in Canada.
  • Sarah Ivany, publisher of Freehand Books who explained the transition process of paper publications to electronic books, and the possibilities which open up in that process.
  • Lawyer, David de Vlieger, from Code Hunter LLP who addressed the issue of copyright and electronic publishing.
  • Freelance writer and accountant, Toby Welch, who provided tax tips.

Brian Brennan and The Google Settlement:

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Kent Monkman

9 March, 2010 in Art Appreciation and Criticism, History and Heritage | 3 comments

KENT MONKMAN:

Western Art, Colonial Portrayals of First Nations Peoples and “The European Male.”
The Triumph of Mischief touring exhibition at Glenbow Museum
The Treason of Images solo show at Trépanier Baer Gallery

Canadian Cree Kent Monkman’s paintings, performance art, super-8 movies, antique tintypes, multimedia presentations, & mixed media installations poke fun at depictions of First Nations People in art and movies from the 19th century right up to modern times.


"Théâtre de Cristal" by Kent Monkman; multimedia tipi installation, with beads, fishing line, simulated buffalo hide, digitalized super-8 movie, "Group of Seven Inches", and video, "Robin's Hood", 2006. The Triumph of Mischief touring exhibition at the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, Canada, until April 25th, 2010.

George Catlin, Paul Kane and Cornelius Krieghoff were a few of many historical western artists who presented a view of North American First Nations’ peoples skewed by colonialism and self-importance, which Kent Monkman punctures with sharply pointed paintbrushes and sharply painted fingernails.

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Ark Construction after the Deluge

26 February, 2010 in Art Appreciation and Criticism, History and Heritage | 2 comments

The ROW: Reflections on Water Exhibition at Touchstones Museum in Nelson, BC, and what is happening to BC’s regional museums?

By Simone Keiran

A lap cedar rowboat gleams in the centre of Gallery A at Touchstones Museum in Nelson, BC., crafted in the 1940s by Clarence W. Walton of the defunct Walton Boatworks, one of many owner-operated boat builders that thrived in the Kootenay-Columbia region.

“As a passenger, it is not always possible to see clearly what is immersed below the vessel, which emulates subconsciousness.” Deb Thompson, Curator-in-Residence spoke during the public gallery walk, on 08 October, 2009, for ROW: Reflections on Water, a nonlinear, thematic exhibition running from September 12 to November 22, 2009.

Waterspines, an installation by Tanya Pixie Johnson for ROW.

ROW is the latest Touchstones exhibition to eschew traditional chronological or culturally codified display paradigms for shows which embrace, among other things, activism at the community level with community input.

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Dance Futures

6 October, 2009 in Dance | Leave a comment

Dance Futures:
The Forecast for Dance in the Columbia Kootenay Basin Region

by Simone Keiran

Published ARTiculate Magazine, Fall/Winter 2009.
Editor, Margaret Tessman

Grandmother Choreographed by Hiromoto Ida

"Grandmother" Choreographed by Hiromoto Ida

Funding roulette has hit regional performing artists hard. Even professional choreographer, Hiromoto Ida, with his long track record of successful performances and collaborations, was turned down. Three-quarters of the projected budget for his latest production, which was to be developed and staged in Nelson, depended on a federal Arts Canada grant.

“It’s like being stuck in a hotel room with a television set that has all these channels, but nothing you really want to watch,” Ida explained. “No matter how many times you click through the remote, the choices don’t become more appealing.

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Retro-active: Two Decades of Sculpture by Lou Lynn

27 June, 2009 in Art Appreciation and Criticism | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

Retro-active: Two Decades of Sculpture by Lou Lynn

Grand Forks Art Gallery, June 13 – August 15, 2009

By Simone Keiran

Published in Route 3: Life in the West Kootenay/Boundary Region Magazine, Summer 2009. Ed., Shelley Ackerman

Lou Lynn, Sculptor (Photo by Janet Dwyer)

Lou Lynn, Sculptor (Photo by Janet Dwyer)

Hand-tools have always fascinated artist, Lou Lynn, particularly the union between a succinct form, such as the semi-circular sweep of a prehistoric ulu whose handle runs parallel to its blade, to a specific practical function: a knife which was not used to stab but—depending on how the handle was held—to slice or scrape with a rocking stroke of the wrist. Her metal and glass sculptures suggest implements such as the ulu, auger, chisel, trowels, rasps and other forms.

“I’m not actually inspired by tools,” she emphasizes. “The form is more important, how shape determines how tools came to be used.” Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Strawbale Garden Shed, Cottonwood Falls Market Memorial Garden in Nelson, BC, Canada, 2008, by Simone Keiran.

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This is an archive of published expository or investigative nonfiction and critical reviews. This journal is affiliated with six noncommercial arts events notice-boards (links provided below.)

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