I was lucky enough today to take in Calgary Opera's boisterous  pop-up performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance in the East Village. My grandfather was a big fan of Gilbert & Sullivan, so not only did his children grow up hearing their music, I did too. It's some of the music that's permanently stored in my head - in fact, I may be the only person who ever performed a song from The Pirates of Penzance at the Ship & Anchor's open jam (and that's probably just as well).

As soon as I took my seat at the piratical operatic tent, I wished I'd brought my sketchbook so that I could draw some pictures of the whole experience. A bit later, I decided I was glad just to enjoy the show. However, some of the things I would have liked to draw were: the view of the C-Train rolling across the Bow River overpass just behind the performers; the shadows of seagulls skimming above, seen through the roof of the tent; the fact that the music playing through the speakers in the adjacent fancy port-a-potties was the Papageno/Papagena duet from Die Zauberfloete (you've just gotta love that!); and the faces of the audience, some of whom were clearly longtime fans (like myself) and others who were cracking up at W. S. Gilbert's lyrics for the first time.

Some folks may not realize how deeply those lyrics have permeated western culture. For example, I love the fact that famous sci-fi author Isaac Asimov was crazy about Gilbert & Sullivan, and actually couldn't resist slipping a few lyrics into his works of fiction. It's somewhere in the Foundation series (all my books are in boxes right now, or I'd go dig it up for ya), in which he writes that someone has "journeyed for a month, or nearly..." - clearly a nod to Nanki-Poo's line in The Mikado: "So, have I journeyed for a month, or nearly/To find that Yum-Yum, whom I love so dearly..." (Well, I've never confirmed that, but there's no doubt in my mind. Anyway, how could you confirm that?) Another (more well-known) instance of this music finding a place in popular culture, is "The Elements," a really incredible spinoff of the Major-General's fast-paced tongue-twister of a song (from "Pirates") which was written and performed by satirist Tom Lehrer. And of course anyone who's read Margaret Mahy can tell that she grew up steeped in Gilbert & Sullivan - and here's my homage to that (she actually sang "The Elements" the one time I met her in person.) Ok, but I digress, as usual.

I drew some pictures of The Pirates in the Drawing Book - on my 23rd birthday, apparently (a long time ago). Seeing the performance today made me want to dig them up:

Right now it's kind of funny to think of a 23-year-old reflecting on how the "moments quickly die." Seems like they're going a lot faster now than they were then!

It was fun to see Michelle Minke of Cowtown Opera wonderfully well cast in the role of Edith (the rather exuberant sister) in "Pirates." Here's a picture of Michelle wowing the crowd back at our Ramsay "find it" event, "Opera on Scotsman's Hill," in 2012 (a rather less ambitious pop-up event than a full-scale opera in a tent... but very fun nonetheless!)

Most of all, it was fun to see a major opera company having so much fun. (If you don't believe me, check out the URL when you click on the link to Calgary Opera's Pirates of Penzance page.) I hope this Opera in the Village thing becomes an annual tradition!

I have to go to bed now, but you can bet these rollicking melodies will be the last thing that go through my head before I fall asleep. Good night!

I tried to fit all this into a tweet and realized I needed a whole blog post.

How could I get Red's Diner, Calgary's Beltline neighbourhood, a "floodraiser" benefit at the Hotel Arts with funds going to the Calgary Foundation, and a comic strip about the Memorial Park Library (among other things) into 140 characters? I just couldn't.

So here's the story.

It all began last year when Bruce Campbell of Red's Diner - local breakfast spot and community gathering place, on 4th Street in the Beltline - asked me if I could draw some comic-strip-style posters for Red's. We envisioned something kind of like this one that I drew about Ramsay. Since Red's is opening a new diner in Ramsay soon (my neighbours and I are pretty excited about this), we talked about creating some posters about Ramsay. But then we thought it might be fun to do some posters for Red's on 4th, too.

The first in the series - which is mainly about the R.H. Williams building itself - will be on display at Red's on 4th sometime in the next couple of weeks. Watch this space for that news! (Or check Red's website, which I believe will shortly be sporting a new look, too!)

Ok, so why I am telling you all this? (Other than just to give a shameless plug for a great local business I've had a lot of fun drawing pictures for, during the last several months...) Well, not long ago I heard from Richard White (local writer, blogger, man-about-town and flaneur... look it up!), about an upcoming benefit to raise money for people affected by Calgary's recent flood. Here are the details about this event, which is happening this Sunday, August 25th (yes, folks, that's this weekend!)

When I heard "silent auction with proceeds earmarked towards flood relief..." I immediately thought: Maybe the Red's Diner team would like to donate a print of one of our Beltline comics posters to this cause! After all, the Hotel Arts is another Beltline business, only a few blocks from Red's, and, like Red's, affected by the flood. In fact, the Beltline suffered some of the most extensive damage caused by the flood, and, just as we saw all over the city, local residents and business owners came together to support each other in a way that really displayed their community spirit. Here was another chance for some mutual support in the hood.

To see the first Red's poster, you'll have to head down to Red's on 4th and see it on the wall in a week or two (I'll let you know when it's up!). For a sneak preview of the second poster in the series, you'll have to head down to the Hotel Arts on Sunday to see this first-ever print of the artwork. Its subject is "Beltline Stories" and it features a comic strip depiction of all things book-related in the Beltline: The Memorial Park Library, the Lougheed House (which boasted one of Calgary's earliest private libraries of note), old bookstores (Sandcastles) and new bookstores (Shelf Life Books)... and, just for fun, it also features a bit about my own "Beltline love story" (yes, my own courtship began and ended... that is, when I got married... in the Beltline). (You know I just can't write comics about neutral facts and figures, I've always got to put some stuff about myself in there.) So if you're a fan of comics, Calgary history, the Beltline, and books... this may be something you'll want to have on your wall!

Of course, you can also keep watching the walls at Red's on 4th, as the series is unveiled.

There'll be some more artwork along these lines at Red's in Ramsay sometime soon, too (featuring Ramsay stories). I'll be sure to let you know about what's happening with that. For now, get your tickets to the "floodraiser" and help support a good cause! It starts at 2 PM... which should give you plenty of time for a coffee at Red's on 4th before you head over.



There... that wouldn't have fit into a tweet, now would it?

Hey, I just saw that Edmonton journalist Annalise Klingbeil wrote an article (in Edmonton's Metro) about how a couple of civic campaigners are using art in their campaigns. You can read the article here.

Klingbeil mentions Scott McKeen, running in Edmonton's Ward 6, who "doesn't have a campaign office. Instead, he has a campaign gallery." Now that sounds cool.

And she also mentions Calgary's Alderman Gian-Carlo Carra, who asked me to be his campaign's "artist in residence." I've been writing the occasional comic strip about what he's doing and posting it here on my blog. You can see these comics on Gian-Carlo's website, too. (And I just noticed this nifty graphic on his site: if you scroll over the drawing of Gian-Carlo, it changes to become a drawing of me holding an "Artist in Residence" sign. Well, you know, there are some things about politics I don't like, but I do like the way election campaigns... and great campaigners... can inspire people to work hard, be creative, and even have fun with things like website graphics!)

I just thought I'd mention this here, in case Klingbeil's article sends readers here to my blog. I write about other stuff here, too, but if you're looking for my campaign artist-in-residence comics, you can find them here.

Enjoy! Or... even if you don't enjoy, at least remember to vote on October 21st!

In case you didn't already know, I'm expecting a baby. Since I did this once before, I think I've got some idea of how much time I'll have for decadent, frivolous free-time stuff after this baby arrives (i.e. not much). So I signed up for something frivolous, last weekend... just because I still could.

I went to a local event called "When Words Collide - A Festival for Readers & Writers." It's the third time this unique annual festival has taken place. I've been to a few academic conferences about literature (and here are some sketchnotes from one such), but this multi-layered event combined academic panels, informal group discussions, one-on-one sessions with experts in various fields (writers, publishers) and a hodgepodge of other writerly stuff. So it was pretty accessible to anyone (I even saw some school-aged kids), while also offering specialized info sessions for professionals.

The festival isn't about mainstream literature, though. When Words Collide features "genre fiction": sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, YA (Young Adult), and any number of sub-genres I probably haven't heard of (I did hear some folks talking about "Zombie Erotica"... that's a genre?!!). If you've been reading this blog, you might know I am a fan of YA fiction (in fact, that's pretty much all I read). But I like those other genres too (well, the first ones I mentioned - probably not the zombie erotica, I have to confess).

I did have cause to reflect, while I was there, that it's a funny thing that YA fiction gets lumped in with these other categories - in much the same way indie comics get lumped in with superheroes, TV show fans, toy collectors, and cosplayers, at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. Drawing sketchnotes about this weekend's event, I kind of felt the same way I did at the Expo earlier this year - kind of on the periphery of a bunch of stuff I don't know anything about.

But maybe that's part of the reason for putting all those things under one umbrella. You come looking for one thing, and you end up learning about another. Here's what I took away.

And now I have a confession to make. I couldn't resist putting a little piece of my own writing onto this anonymous slush pile. There's this story I always write when I have time (which is hardly ever. Even writing this blog is ridiculous, considering the stuff I should be getting done RIGHT NOW). So it's pretty slow going - I've been working on it for, oh, twenty years or so. Anyway, it's in no shape to send to a publisher, but I did think it was in good enough shape for an anonymous critique such as this one. (And luckily, it seemed to go over OK.)

But here's the funny part. Until I came to this panel, I had completely forgotten that I had, once before, submitted a piece of this same old story to a panel of critics. This would have been in 1997. I had just moved back to Calgary. A friend of mine told me about this group called the Imaginative Fiction Writers' Association. I had just finished taking a senior Creative Writing course at the University of Toronto (in which, of course, I worked on this same story... it's the only one I got!) - and I was feeling kinda "writerly" - so I submitted an excerpt from it to this group for a critique.

After that, though, I started painting and writing indie comics instead of writing fiction, and I haven't really been moving in Calgary's Imaginative Fiction Writers scene (in fact, I only just this moment looked them up and found out that they still exist!). But when I came to this panel I suddenly thought, "Hey... I bet these same folks, who are now local superstars and who are organizing this conference, were all part of that old IFWA group from fifteen years ago!" And I was right.

Here's what I dug out of my old story box of files when I got home (yes, I keep all that story-related stuff in one big box... pretty organized, no?):

And just as I expected. There they were - these same folks! Still driving Calgary's writing community after all this time. Now there's commitment to both craft and community.

Besides the critiques written by Randy McCharles, Hayden Trenholm, and Tony King, some of the other ones in my box were Al Onia, Liz Westbrook, and Sandy Fitzpatrick - names I also glimpsed here at When Words Collide 2013.

I should add that the story I submitted all those years ago was entirely forgettable... and I kind of was, myself, too. I'm much more interesting now. And those fifteen years of self-editing have really paid off, judging by the more recent comments I received! Ha, ha.

Ok - thanks for indulging me in that lengthy digression. Now let's dive back into the festival.

Here are some notes from an entertaining group discussion with author Jefferson Smith about names. Everybody knows that sci-fi and fantasy stories are full of weird made-up names. But there's a method to the madness...

Personally, I give first prize for made-up names in literature to Ursula K. LeGuin. Not because her names are always the best (it's hard to beat Tolkien at that) - but because she does it again with every new book: each imagined world filled with convincing names for people, geography, technology, you name it.

By the way, I should add that Ursula K. LeGuin, who is 83, is the last surviving one of my four favourite authors. The others all passed away not too long ago: Diana Wynne Jones (died in 2011, aged 76); Margaret Mahy (died in 2012, aged 76); E. L. Konigsburg (died in 2013, aged 83). Hang in there, Ursula!

And now you should take a look at Linda Kupecek's website. The fact that I only ever read YA fiction is my excuse for not knowing more (if anything) about local writers who write anything else. So I am always excited to find out more. Meanwhile, I also see that Linda's site features a blog, in which she also wrote about her weekend at When Words Collide (she's clearly much quicker on the draw than I am - but then, she didn't have to upload all these cumbersome images). From the sound of her review, it sounds like she had a great time!

For fans of speculative fiction in Alberta, here's "On Spec". And for fans of virtual reality, here's the "Oculus".

Couldn't find the banjo player online, though.

Something (someone) else I couldn't find - online OR at When Worlds Collide: Vance Neudorf! Vance, where are you? Ok, so Vance has no idea who I am. But I know who he is, because in about 2009 I bought his self-published, locally-set fantasy novel "The Hammer" at the now-seemingly-defunct Calgary Children's Book Fair & Conference. Since I was right in the throes of new parenthood back then, I didn't get around to writing about how promising I thought The Hammer was at the time - though I did mention it recently in this post about novels set in Calgary. Anyway, Vance, I hope you haven't given up - I thought your book was great and I thought it should have been at this event!

Maybe Vance just takes fifteen years to complete his writing projects - like me. OK, so back to the festival again. This next panel was about children's literature - a bit more up my alley.

Here's Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy. (It's a song - not a book!) And here's Ian Wallace, who drew the pictures for this particular book featuring the song.

Ginger Mullen's retelling of the story of the prince who married the tortoise reminded me of another tale - The Flying Carpet, illustrated by the three-time-Caldecott-Medal-winning Marcia Brown. I have a lot of books from my childhood, but this one has been lost along the way. However, I can remember it pretty vividly and a quick Google search yielded this brief blog post about it - featuring the fabulous comment that the illustrations "are like what you’d get if Marc Chagall were an Arab." Um, awesome - and accurate!

Ginger Mullen also mentioned that countless fairy tales feature the motif of a human who marries an animal. This reminded me of another children's book that tells just such a story: Errol Le Cain's The White Cat (which, I'm amazed to see, seems to be out of print). Luckily, I still have it:

Ok, so, first: with regards to Jessica Bay's talk about books that cross genre boundaries: even though I wasn't familiar with the books she discussed, I love her subject. And so, in aid of that, here's Ursula K. LeGuin again, with a quote to that effect (from an essay I wrote a long time ago, back when I actually had to type my text, print it out, cut it out, glue it on to the page I'd illustrated, and then photocopy that. Luckily, Photoshop has changed my life since then).

And now to Paula Johanson. To judge by her talk, she likes Ursula K. LeGuin, too (well... who doesn't?).

I can blame my aforementioned exclusive reading of YA books for my utter ignorance of The Curve of Time. Sounds pretty interesting... even if the book was lousy (which it sounds like it's definitely not), the premise sounds great: the true story of a single mother in the depression who takes her five children on boat trips along Canada's northwest coast... and then writes a book about it? Why hasn't every Canadian heard of this cool mama?

Hey, I took my son camping this year and I lasted one night... sleeping in a tent while pregnant did not agree with me. I felt kind of guilty to be such a wimp, and now I feel even more guilty (and wimpy). But hey, I'm making up for my lack of outdoorsy-ness in other ways, right? Like: just ask me to rattle off the names of a whole lot of Canadian YA books about outdoorsy stuff! I can do that with my eyes closed! Don't even get me started!

Here's where you can find out about The Centennial Reader - an intriguing-sounding initiative.

Actually, here's something I just read on its "Call for Submissions" page: a description of the project that sounds very much like something that might be a good description for When Words Collide, too:

The Centennial Reader straddles both worlds: the academic world and the popular publication world. Submissions should therefore apply intellectual thought to topical concerns, offered in an entertaining and popular way.

And now - the last panel (for me). I couldn't attend on Sunday, by the way, so all these sketchnotes are just from Friday & Saturday's talks.

I was looking forward to this discussion about books set in Canada, but although it was fun, I think it only really scratched the surface of a topic I've given probably way too much thought to over the past ten years or so. If you feel like it, you can read this blog post I wrote about it not too long ago, in response to a post by Amy Jo Espetveidt of awesome local blog Calgary is Awesome, who was looking for books set in Calgary.

I actually bought a book at When Words Collide - a new YA book (something I rarely do. I like to buy second-hand books. And I like to wait until they've been out for a while, so I know they're more likely to be on the shelf because they're good, and not just because they're being well-hyped).

I know - I should have gone to the "What's new in YA fiction?" panel!! It was on the top of my list! But it was also at 10 AM on Saturday morning and I had to help out at the (amazing) Inglewood Night Market the night before... so it didn't happen. (Check it out, folks - there's only one more Night Market this year, and it's on Friday, September 13th.)

Anyway - I missed the panel and had to take a guess with regards to something good in new YA fiction. I chose a book called Run like Jaeger from Owl's Nest Books. I chose it for two reasons: one, it was by an Alberta author (Karen Bass - who also worked as a librarian, like my favourite author Margaret Mahy). And two, it looked like it was set in Germany. I used to go there a lot, but I haven't been there in almost two years, so I figured this story might keep me in the loop a bit. Then, after I bought it, I realized it was about an exchange student from Calgary who spends a year in Germany! Well. I did that too, a really long time ago.

Funnily enough, even though the action of the story takes place in Germany, the protagonist's "real" home is in Calgary, so that's ALMOST one for Calgary is Awesome's list of  books set in Calgary.

Almost.

Thanks, When Words Collide, for a great weekend... it's nothing short of inspiring to glimpse what's going on out there in the world of local literature! Now I'll be retreating to my neighbourhood again for a while. But not too long. I promise it won't take me another fifteen years to finish that neverending story.

This is the story of how I went to the Inglewood Sunfest, missed a pie-eating contest, and stayed for some politics.

It's too bad I missed the pie, because I had this picture from Harold and the Purple Crayon all ready to post. Harold was a boy who had his priorities straight: he was hungry, he had to draw something tasty and edible, and so he drew pie. Of course, pie makes me think of my friend Phil Nel's blog, which is about Phil's "...many and varied obsessions. Children’s books. Music. Comics. Humor. Ideas of all sizes and shapes. And probably some advice." And which is named "Nine Kinds of Pie."

But this really has nothing to do with my Sunfest expedition, which was supposed to be about seeing what Gian-Carlo Carra was up to, as his campaign for Calgary Ward 9 Councillor moves ahead toward the October 21 vote.

That looks like Vance is saying "daddy!" as he reaches up for his mommy! But no - he was saying "daddy" as he reached up towards the poster that was hanging behind her - which featured the Sesame-Street-inspired street sign that I drew here, but also a picture of Gian-Carlo. You can see the real poster here - along with (I only just discovered) a rather less cartoony picture I drew of Gian-Carlo! Ok, just thought that might need an explanation.

In case you didn't know by now: yes, I am the aforementioned 7-months-pregnant lady. Which is why I haven't been posting quite as much stuff up here over the past month or so. I'm hoping that when I have a few more things sorted out - like, finished the artwork I'm supposed to finish before I have this baby, and maybe got my house in order (I guess I should get a bassinet, or a cot, or a cradle, or something for this baby to sleep in...!?) - I'll be back with more!

By the way: the baby is due October 2nd. So I might have to take a bit of a break from some things... but I'm still planning to vote on October 21st!