These past few days it feels as though we've been living at the Park Theater.
Tonight we attended our weekly improve fix of Soap Scum Presents where talented local actors Improvise a comedy soap opera. This year is "The Western". I you haven't been to it yet, I highly recommend you do. It has cowboys, cowgirls, fancy gunplay and pooh whiskey… everything you'd want in a western.
On the weekend we took in the Plastic Paper animation film festival which featured a screening of Ralf Bakshi's "American Pop" including a Q&A with Mr. Bakshi following the film. Mr. Bakshi's new passion is painting and his work can be seen at the Raw Gallery until May 25th.
On Saturday morning we were treated to 3 hours of Saturday morning cartoon that included "The Mighty Hercules", "Spider Man and His Amazing Friends" and the Bakshi produced "Mighty Mouse" episodes that were directed by the great John Kricfalusi, Oh and all the cereal you could eat. An added bonus was a bunch of the old commercials that I watched on those Saturdays were interspersed between the episodes like Gobots and My Buddy/Kid Sister.
Also on Saturday were some interesting independent films such as "The Beast Pageant" a surreal black and white mindfuck and "The Trashmaster", a film entirely made from Grand Theft Auto 4 screen captures. They capped off the festival with the documentary "American: The Bill Hicks Story" on the late great comedian Bill Hicks. What is a documentary about a comedian doing in an animation festival? I thought that this film was the best use of after effects type cutout animation combined with subtle 3D animation and live footage I have seen in a long time.
The sad thing is that this is the first time I've ever heard of festival and I found out about it 3 days late. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for it next year.
oh yeah, you might have noticed the new banner. I am giving up the darts again, this time with the help of Champix the pharmaceutical smoking cessation aide. So far, no thoughts of suicide, only intense dreams that last the entire night.
In honour of this undertaking inspired by a manitobaquits.ca cash contest, I leave you with the comedy of Mr. Bill hicks. Sorry Bill, looks like I might turn into one of THEM.
