Tungsten Arts & Letters Society Outdoor Word & Music Adventure III -- Politics

Hello everyone, and an especially warm Tungsten Arts & Letters Society welcome to those joining us from the Globe and Mail.

In the midst of a civic election, we at the TA&LS think it's a fine time to talk about Politics. And what better place to do so than at Toronto's almost completely neglected monument to free speech, the Speakers' Corner at Nathan Phillips Square.

The festivities will commence at 6:30pm on Wedenesday October 4. Two or three performers will be announced in the coming days, and as always music will be provided by Bacon of Brunswick. Grandma Donna has promised warm drinks -- perhaps hot chocolate and hot apple cider -- at the refreshment table.

You will not want to miss it.


(Photo stolen from Live with Culture.

Tungsten II -- Sarabande boogaloo

It was a cool night on the waterfront for the second installment of the TA&LSOW&MA, but the demand for lemonade remained high among those brave few who navigated the unfamiliar environs south of the Gardiner and wandered into the Sarabande section of the music garden.

An unrehearsed band was rescued by Sasha Chapin on ukelele, and reading by Damian Rogers and Emily Schultz -- who, in keeping with the Music theme, read on a rock (ROCK!) -- exceeded expectations.

Many thanks to Liz Clayton who once again provided the photo above and also suggested the title of this post.

TA&LSOW&MA II

The poet's corner in the "Sarabande" section of the Toronto Music Garden will be the picturesque site of the second installment of the Tungsten Arts & Letters Society Outdoor Word & Music Adventure. The theme, given the location, is Music. There will, of course, also be words, too, the theme notwithstanding. The words will likely be about music, though, so if you really hate music, you may want to stay home.

We will feature readings by Emily Schultz and Damian Rogers. There will, as always, be music by our house band, Bacon of Brunswick. And of course there will be refreshments by Grandma Donna Keenan, which many people will consider to be the highlight of the event. Ceremonial Mastery will be provided by TA&LS head honcho Edward Keenan.

The whole thing goes down at 6:30pm on Wendesday September, 20, 2006. As always: there is no sound system, there is no booze, there are no washrooms. My, can you stand the adventure?

Here is a map to t he Music Garden.

The photo above was stolen from lesliet.

One Done

The first installment of the Tungsten Arts & Letters Society Outdoor Word & Music Adventure went off with a small-but-cozy degree of wonderfullness. There were 35 total attendees, including three children and one grandmother. A mixture of homemade and store-bought cookies were served. And lemonade.

Joel McConvey used props, including a stubbornly un-rigid horn (we hear it could happen to anyone -- not to us mind you, but...) to bring his story narrated by the last unicorn to life. Kathrn Borel took her shoes off to read her horrifying-yet-true tale about her pre-school teacher's menacing, magical fairy tale (it involved a child snotting himself into death-by-car and Peaches eating someone's throat, though I'm sure it wasn't that Peaches (in fact I know it wasn't. It was a hamster.))

Kathryn felt it important to point out that the photo I selected of her to put into the "What do some of the performers look like?" page of this website is of someone ugly who does not look like her. Instead she asked me to direct you to these photos. Despite her announcement from the stage, she is not naked in them (she's the one in black).

The house band, whose name, at long last, was revealed to be Bacon of Brunswick, fairly stole the show with their theme song (and their theme song reprise) and their covers of popular renditions of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Three Little Pigs." The latter marked the rapping debut of Sasha Chapin, and featured Jonny Dovercourt as a fairly bad-ass Big Bad Wolf.

Celebrities in attendance included Carl Wilson (our new King of Hearts), Kate McGee (our, um, Two of Hearts), Caroline Lock, Liz Clayton (to whom we are thankful for the photo above), Lee Towndrow and just about everyone else you'd care to meet.

Also, the theme, location and featured performers for the next installment of the TA&LSOW&MA were revealed. But that's the subject of another post.