The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan

Went to see this puppet show on Wednesday this week, and man, it is AMAZING!

It follows the sad story of historic womanizer Don Juan, as an old man being tormented by demons in hell. He has to wear some sort of spout encapsulating his penis, as punishment. He plays this up a lot, tapping it and waggling it to the audience's delight!

He starts with his birth, to a cold woman who was seduced by a horny bullfighter who then disappeared. He goes to become 'a man of the cloth' but falls in love. He then cheats on that love with a local showgirl, rationalizing it the entire time. He declares that the best thing is to love, and love many (rather than love one) and in the end, he shows that he cannot change, and the demons herd him back to hell.

The puppetry was astounding. They had four puppeteers, and they acted as well as performed with puppets. The set cut down, was climbed on, shifted, was a bedroom, hell, a burlesque, a church and a town square. There was a minotaur riding a tricycle, glowing red eyes, a 'golden calf' representing the father getting 'jiggy' with the bastard son in the town square, womanizing. It was fabulous and hilarious.

One of my favourite scenes was a pair of dogs (actors with dog heads) acting out dog courtship while Don Juan was watching. So funny and reflective. Also, they had three actors acting out the dancer Don Juan cheats on his wife with. One was boobs (wearing boobs on their head) one was legs (walking with a pair of legs on his arms) and one was a mask and arms, waving them about and holding them above boob-head and leg-man. It was soooo good!

I highly recommend this puppet show. Erotic and fun, light and yet meaningful.

Review: Cupcake from Urban Cakes

Yes, after maligning it for cost, I decided it was time to put my money where my mouth is. I swung by today and picked up a cupcake ($3.00) to eat and review.

The cupcake was pear-lime on vanilla buttercream icing, on a chocolate cupcake. The cupcake was physically gorgeous, two pieces of pear with a twist of lime zest. Unusual but delicious combo.

The cupcake itself was moist, and smelled a bit funny, like cocoa but with a bitter undertone. It tasted like cocoa but wasn't very sweet at all. It was kind of disappointing. The icicng on the other hand was delicious, sweet but not achingly so, and paired very nicely with the lime zest and canned pears. The chocolate cupcake left a funny aftertaste, but the icing and toppers were delicious.

Would I buy these again? Debatable. I sure wouldn't refuse a cupcake if offered, but the cupcake itself, devoid of icing, was definitely not thrilling.

Candy Review: Sorbee Chocolate Lovers Peppermint Patties

Yeah yeah, I know everyone's going to be freaking out about eating NSA--candies. But I'm here to tell you, it's not the 'shitstorm' everyone thinks they are going to be.

I bought Sorbee chocolate peppermint patties on a whim (50% off at Superstore) and decided once and for all, I am going to see how these things are. Using myself as a human guinea pig, as it were.

And? Well, the are wafer thin little chocolate and mint discs. Kind of like a York peppermint pattie that got sliced about 10 times thinner. The taste is not too bad actually, a little on the bloomed & stale side, but chocolately and minty. They don't melt very well in the mouth, so they are more of a chew than savour chocolate.

And side affects? None. I ate 6 of them with no issues whatsoever. The calorie content is 6= 180 calories, so they aren't really a low cal food, but not high cal either. Due to my terrible teeth and assorted fillings, I enjoyed knowing these chocolates weren't going to destroy them anew with it's appreciable lack of sugar.

At 50% off, they cost $1.24. Not bad, not great either. I will consider them in the future, when my teeth are giving me heck for my chocolate addiction.

A Cleansing Fire

We took part in the annual 'Burning Away the Winter Blues' festival on Saturday, and man, all that pagan ritualism really gets the blood flowing! (metaphorically, not physically).

We gathered torches, flags, pennants and drums. We marched from the Paddlewheeler to Robert Service, sharing three well fortified thermoses of mulled wine, thanks to dear friend's apt foresight! It was actually quite chilly, even though this winter has been remarkably mild. My legs froze until we got to the fire.

The turnout was great, as usual! The effigy was this bizarre face with reaching hands, and it was quite spooky looking. I think I liked last year's effigy of the dragon a bit better, this one reminded me of fall strawmen set on fire in some witch-burning town festival.

The fire was crazy hot, I loved it until I swore I smelled something burning, like my jacket... And the next day my face felt kind of funny, like I burned it? We celebrated by writing down our 'blues' and putting them in Arlin's paper bag to burn. My blues felt rather mundane, and I'll be extra-daring and share a few:

Secret nemesii
Distance apart
Parental problems
Allergies
Bad marks on my master's papers

So, all in all, I hope those things get resolved or at least I can stop thinking about them!

Allergic to Whitehorse?

Lately I've been suffering from a variety of allergy-related symptoms, and they are giving me a devil of a time.

I've scheduled a Dr's appt to get this figured out, but in the meantime I'm trying to sort out what exactly I am allergic to, and this is far more complicated than I initially imagined...

First I have a bizarre run-in with something at the Kebabery, enjoyed the food but didn't enjoy the crazy mouth itching that came with it... Then I had that same unpleasant reaction to a chicken wing coated in mild sauce at an art show. A muffin (delicious) from the Chocolate Claim also made my heart beat at what seemed to be an alarmingly fast rate, my face flushed and I felt dizzy and hot. ??? This reocurred again this Thursday with another muffin from the Chocolate Claim (history repeats itself) and I took a Reactine and got some fresh air right away, after I noticed my heart beating too rapidly. Still, what the devil is in these foods that I am allergic to??

These are all brand-new reactions and are happening suddenly and often. That in itself is quite startling, and has prompted me into action quicker than I normally move. I average one episode a week, and I still can't figure out what the triggering food item is. I am also a bit wary of green tea, as I think that may have triggered a reaction last week as well, but again...can't be too sure. Hmmm.

Maybe I am allergic to work? Stress? School?

Alice & Other Heroes??

I attended this show last night, expecting something entirely...different.

It was definitely avant-garde and edgy. So edgy that I felt like crawling out of my skin by the end of it. With music by The Longest Night Ensemble, the show was basically the full band playing onstage to film shorts. The shorts were book-ended by a whacked-out Alice in Wonderland story, so it went like, Alice, short, short, Alice, short short, Alice.

Let me tell you, the music was all very high-toned and on the thin side of register, so it was very eerie. The film shorts were nothing short of the creepiest interpretation of Alice in Wonderland that I have ever seen. I felt edgy and incredibly tense watching it. The sounds in the shorts are over-emphasized, so the taxidermied rabbit that dons a waist-coat and top hat 'screeeekkss' across the screen with every stiff artificial hop. He has creepy fake eyes and snaps his taxidermied teeth together at little Alice. Eugh.

Alice also gets chased by various animal skulls of every description wearing santa-type hats and eyeballs. Miniature coyote skulls pop out of chicken eggs as if hatching. It is all so insanely creepy that I just felt very unsettled the whole time.

It is bizarre and disturbing. There was also a short that echoed some very disturbing themes, like God=Dog that had a woman writhing in a bed, then clutching a doorframe frantically watching some bored looking huskies on a dog tie. I got some bad vibes off that short, that's for sure.

We came out of the theatre feeling like we were ready to jump out of our skin, and I told my friend, "I'm glad I was a little buzzed, and not high. My skin would be crawling if I was!" (Note: I do not smoke pot, and I was not driving that night. Hence the allowable buzz)

It was just... well. Eerie.

Review of Brand New's "Daisy"

My husband is a Brand New fan and introduced me to them when we were dating. I like them a fair bit and have an appreciation for their early stuff "I believe you but my Tommy gun don't" and "Me vs. Maradonna" are all really good genuine songs that I can get behind, as a fan.

Their newest album, "Daisy" is a marked depart. There remain elements of the original Brand New (low whispery sullen tones, bitter lyrics, strong vocal and instruments, crazy rising vocals) but it just seems...forced. For example, they could start the CD a bit off easier than having an interesting intro and then have it segue into a crazy scream, which almost made me drive off the road in the throes of a simultaneous deafness attack/heart attack. Jesus it was bad!

I was a bit soured for the rest of the CD, which has it's moments, but like the other great albums, just doesn't compare. At all. Interestingly, my husband who purchased the CD mentioned that I probably wouldn't like it, to which I went, "pfft what are you talking about, I like Brand New and their last album was really good." Yeah, he was right. I do not like this one at all.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, unless you like being shocked by insane screaming early on in a CD. Boo.