Ted Dykstra directs two plays for the Soulpepper Theatre company this summer: the Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie, and the one-act, one man show, The Kreutzer Sonata. The first has a great cast and very solid direction, while the second is reasonably well acted by Dykstra but is terribly directed.

The Glass Menagerie is the story of the Wingfield family in the South, struggling to make ends meet after being abandoned by the patriarch: the father to Tom and Laura, husband to Amanda. The children are grown now and so the role of breadwinner falls to Tom, who feels shackled by his family responsibilities, stuck in a low-paying job he hates, wanting desperately to escape, to have adventures, and to write. Laura is a shy cripple, who spends her days wandering the city and caring for her glass menagerie – a collection of small glass animal figurines – rather than learning a trade so that she can support herself. All of this worries their mother, Amanda, who lives in constant fear that Tom will abandon them just like his father, and that, left to fend for herself, Laura will fail, and remain always hopelessly dependent on others. The characters all speak in a Southern drawl, flawless enough that it helps give the language the right sound adding to the performances.

Dysktra’s rendition of The Glass Menagerie is done with a surprising amount of levity for a Tennessee Williams play, which is not to say it lacks Williams’s trademark bleakness. Amanda (Nancy Palk) is the real star of the play, delivering her nostalgic dialogue and complaints in a light and over-the-top fashion which is incontrovertibly funny. Palk often talks about the gentleman callers of her youth with such vanity that the tone is humourous rather than full of loss. And it works.

In the beginning of the play, Tom speaks to the audience to explain that “The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic.’” And yet Dykstra’s production feels very immediate. The dialogue flows impeccably to the point that I remained so utterly engaged that I would forget that this was a memory play, Tom’s memory. The only reminder that the events were supposed to be memories was the fact that the actor playing Tom, Stuart Hughes, is too old to be the Tom in the unfolding action. Part of the realism comes from the fantastic set which gives us both the interior and exterior of the apartment the family inhabits. The interior is especially good and the characters move comfortably in it, which kept me completely convinced that this was a real home. But the fact that the play feels so realistic – despite its being a memory play – is hardly something I can complain about in the production, though I worry that some of the nuance of the text may be lost because of it.

What most impressed me about the production was how radically and masterfully the tone and pacing changed through the three parts of the play. It begins with despair and little hope. The characters talk slowly and keep their distance from each other in the physical space; the action moves slowly, too. As soon as a gentleman caller for Laura becomes a real possibility – Tom asks a friend from work to dinner – the characters light up, the energy on-stage increases, the lines delivered more quickly and excitedly, and the physical distance between these unhappy characters decreases. The pacing of the action and the hopefulness in the tone wonderfully tells us just what an important symbol of hope the gentleman caller really is. And when everything blows up as it must – this is a Tennessee Williams play – the tension and the bleakness of the situation seem audible and can be physically felt: everything slows down and becomes pregnant with pauses.

While Dykstra’s direction was a triumph in The Glass Menagerie, it is a trainwreck in his one-act show, The Kreutzer Sonata. The Kreutzer Sonata is a play adapted from the short story of the same name by Leo Tolstoy, which, itself, is inspired by the Beethoven duet for piano and violin, the “Kreutzer Sonata”. It tells the story of a husband who becomes consumed with jealousy and rage when his wife plays Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata” with another man that he murders her. The wife and other man play with whom she plays Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata”. Ted Dykstra plays the enraged husband, who tells us the story of the events leading up to and including the murder of his wife, of which he is ultimately acquitted, since it was provoked, supposedly, by adultery.

It’s a one-hour show during which Dykstra sits in a red armchair, sipping a glass of water throughout the entire performance. Dykstra is convincing as the husband and successfully takes us on his journey of emotional turmoil, engaging throughout. The trouble with the play is that it lacks context. In fact, it’s staged in such a way that he looks just like the host of Masterpiece Theatre. To whom is he talking to? Is this a monologue to himself, as he works through his issues? It can’t be since he seems to be talking to someone? Does he think he is in front of an audience, addressing us directly, like Richard III would do? Is he confiding in a friend from the comfort of his armchair at home? This seems unlikely given the frequency of private intimate moments that he experiences throughout the telling. The reason why he is telling his story and to whom are completely unclear, which means the production ultimately fails. And the fact that it’s full of misogyny – an insane and enraged husband gets away with murder because he is right to think that women should be assumed adulterous and evil and deserve to be beaten and die for it – only fuels my distaste for the play.

Live theatre is a wonderful thing, but without knowing how to find student ticket prices, it can be an incredibly daunting endeavour for your already empty wallet. Finding your way to the theatre (especially out of town) and around the complicated student discounts can be exhausting, so we at blogUT have put together a short list of some of the best theatre in the city and how to access it at reasonable prices. Stay tuned on blogUT for reviews of many of the shows from these festivals.

1. Best of the Toronto Fringe Festival (July 20-27)
Price: $15 for 2 shows (each ~1 hour long)
Location: Toronto Centre for the Arts at the North York Centre subway station
Schedule: http://www.tocentre.com/studio/fringe

Did you mean to go to the Fringe Festival and miss it because there are just way too many festivals in Toronto in the summer to actually be able to attend them all? Don’t despair! You can catch the Best of Fringe at the Toronto Centre for the Arts (right at the North York Centre subway station on the Yonge line). Here you can see two one-hour Fringe shows in one evening for the low price of $15. Pitch Blond is a must-see one-woman show by local actress/director/writer Laura Anne Harris, playing on July 23rd at 7PM, about Hollywood actress Judy Holliday during the McCarthy years. It’s brilliantly directed and Harris is a fantastic actress : you actually have to remind yourself that there’s only one actress on stage.

2. Broadway musicals in Toronto (ongoing throughout the summer)
Price: Under 30? Tickets starting at $35, if you join <30 Dancap
Location: Four Seasons Centre (Osgoode station) and Toronto Centre for the Arts
Schedule: http://www.dancaptickets.com/pages/shows-all

These days you can see the best of Broadway musicals without ever having to shell out for a trip all the way to New York City! In fact, you can see these shows for just $35 (when regular tickets are more like $40-65). We reviewed 9 to 5: The Musical, which showed earlier this summer, and check back soon for a review of the Tony-award-winning musical Next to Normal, playing from now until July 30th, which is a FABULOUS new musical about the trials and tribulations of a bipolar woman and her family coping with the disease (and other normal things). At $35, it’s a steal (bear in mind that regular-priced best seats for musicals at Stratford can run up to $120)!  Also coming up this summer is Come Fly Away with music by Frank Sinatra and choreography by Twyla Thorpe.

3.  Soulpepper Theatre in the Distillery District (year-round)
Price: Student tickets for $28. Or join StagePlay for $22 tickets if you’re 21-30! Or 21 and under? Get $5 rush tickets on the day of the performance.
Location: Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District (take the King car to Parliament)
Schedule: Full list of performances here and performance calendar here

Sometimes it’s nice to simply enjoy some local talent, and I’m always game for an excuse to visit the beautiful historic distillery district. The Soulpepper Theatre company has shows year-round but as UofT students, summer is probably the time when we actually have time on our hands to enjoy theatre! This summer, you can see the one-act show The Kreutzer Sonata (**), Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (review coming soon!), Ionesco’s Exit the King (opens August 6th), and Torontonian Judith Thompson’s White Biting Dog (opens August 12th).  There are a lot of different student discounts to navigate which can be a bit confusing. If you’re under 21, then either buy advance student tickets ($28 for full-length plays, $25-35 (any age) for one-act plays), or rush tickets in-person, 30 minutes before curtain, for $5 (cash only). If you’re 21-30, first join and check with stage play on the day of the show. For Monday night shows, you can buy advance tickets from stage play for $22. For more date flexibility and advanced tickets, I suggest buying advance student tickets for $28 online, anytime. I’m pretty excited about The Glass Menagerie and Exit the King.

4. Stratford Shakespeare Festival (until October 30th)
Price: $25 for Play On tickets (aged 16-29) or $29 for TIXX
Location: Stratford, Ontario
Schedule: Season calendar

What’s On
The Stratford Festival is one of the best theatre festivals in North America, especially if you want to get your yearly fix of Shakespeare. This year’s must-see Shakespeare is Richard III starring Seanna McKenna. The festival is also mounting Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. The musicals are Jesus Christ Superstar and Camelot – not the most inspired plays of recent years but could be worth a visit. Also playing: The Little Years, Moliere’s The Misanthrope, Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, Grapes of Wrath, and Shakespeare’s Will. I’ll be posting a review of Richard III soon (it’s fabulous!) and possibly other plays later in the summer so keep your eyes peeled for those.

Getting Discount Tickets
The best way to get tickets is to check for Play On dates, which are usually posted 2 weeks in advance, which are the cheapest tickets and the best (discounted) seats: for $25, you get tickets for the best available seats in the house, excluding A+ seating, and you only need one person in your party to be between 16-29, in order for the discount to be valid for all seats (up to 4). If there aren’t Play On tickets available for the shows or dates that you want, then the next best thing is the TIXX program, which will randomly assign you to Balcony seats (A, B, or C) but it won’t tell you what your seats are until after you’ve already paid. It’s also $29  per ticket but there are no age restrictions whatsoever. If you’re in the area, purchasing rush tickets on the phone or in-person on the day-of may be an option, too, but it’s unrealistic for Torontonians. The plus side for Rush tickets is that you can get a discounted price (20% for A+ seating; 50% for C seating) on better seats, but it’s still likely to be more expensive than either Play On or TIXX. And A seating is perfectly adequate.

Getting There
The biggest problem with going to Stratford, for us city folk, is actually getting to Stratford. The easiest (and probably cheapest) thing to do is to drive there. But not all of us downtown folk have licenses! The next best bet is to take the Stratford Shuttle bus for $48, on select Saturdays in July, August, and September. It will pick you up in downtown Toronto, drop you off in Stratford in time for a 2PM play, and bring you right back afterwards. The downside is you can’t see two plays in one trip.  Look for “TO Direct” on the Stratford calendar. The only other reasonable option is to take the train, which costs $50-70, depending on when you book. The trouble with the train is that it doesn’t arrive early enough in the day to see a 2PM show and it leaves too early to catch an 8PM show, so you have to stay overnight. There are lots of places to stay, but they book up quickly on weekends, and finding very cheap accommodations can be tough. Check out the Stratford accommodations guide for more information.

5. Shaw Festival (until October 30th)

Price: $24-60 (details below)
Location: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Schedule: Season schedule

What’s On
A nice alternative to the Stratford Festival is the Shaw Festival, down in Niagara-on-the-Lake. This season’s line-up is particularly exciting, including My Fair Lady (which is essentially Shaw’s play, Pygmalion with excellent songs added in), and Tennessee Williams’s wonderful play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  True to its name, the Shaw festival is putting on three more Shaw plays: Heartbreak House, Candida, and On the Rocks. Look for reviews on blogUT next week of My Fair Lady and Heartbreak House and the week after for reviews of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Candida.

Getting Discount Tickets (complete list)

The best deal is to get tickets for a performance marked as a “student special matinee” where you can get $24 tickets for any available seat. The next best thing is to book $29 balcony tickets at the Festival Theatre for any regular-priced performance. If you’re under 30, you can also book $30 tickets for preview performances, but there are only a few of them and the show is still considered “unfinished” at that point (they won’t let our reviewers from blogUT review preview shows!) and it’s not the cheapest option anyway. If you can drive, then you might want to consider going to a Sunday evening performance where you can get tickets for $46-60 (except at the Studio theatre), but I would make sure that you’re getting better seats for your money before booking.

Getting There
Driving is the easiest way to get there, but if you don’t drive, there are still some reasonable options. On weekends, the easiest way to get to the Shaw Festival is probably to take the Go Train from Union Station to Niagara Falls (~$20 each way, schedule here) and then board the Falls Shuttle from the Go Train station into Niagara-on-the-Lake ($3.50 single fare). You can arrive early enough to go to a 2PM matinee and leave after a quick and early dinner or a leisurely dinner. You can also take a Via Rail train, for $45 round trip, which will definitely get you in town in time for a 2PM show but could be tight getting back as your show would need to be done by no later than 5PM to likely be able to make the 5:45PM train from Niagara Falls. You can stay overnight – it’s definitely a tourist destination – but it can get pricey and will book up early.

Honourable Mention

For indie Toronto theatre, consider checking out the SummerWorks festival on August 4-14. There’s also a lot of great Toronto theatre being produced by recent grads of the UofT UC Drama Program. In particular, I’d recommend checking out plays by the Red Light District company (especially anything directed by Lauren Gillis who did Alkestis last year, which I raved about) and Pandemic Theatre (especially anything starring Tom Davis, who is undoubtedly one of the best actors to graduate from UofT in recent years).

Endnotes

Feel free to leave questions in the comments section. The whole process can be pretty daunting since there are so many different options for students. I’m well-versed in the first four festivals, and I still found Soulpepper and Stratford discounts to be a headache to wrap my head around. Transportation out of town to Stratford and Shaw can be tricky if you don’t drive, but there are ways of getting there, if you want to! And there’s a whole lot of good theatre to be found there. If it’s too expensive or too much work for you, then do check out something in town, as there’s much to see without going too far!

Michael Cera has made a career out of playing the same darn character: the goofy geek  that somehow always gets the girl. In Juno, we see his character, Bleeker, through the eyes of the wise-cracking Juno, and so we grow to love him for the sweet, albeit awkward, boy that he is. Even in Superbad we get to see his character’s heart and so we care for him. And in both cases, he is either in school or looking ahead to university, or he has at least something motivating him and propelling him through life.

In Scott Pilgrim vs The World it seems as though we are supposed to remember how much we liked Michael Cera’s character in previous movies and thus the film assumes we will like his similarly geeky and awkward character here. But in Scott Pilgrim he is a 22-year-old loser: he is not in school, he does not have a job, he is in a terrible band, and he lives in a tiny basement apartment with his gay roommate (with whom he shares a bed) across the street from his parents’ house. Oh yeah, and he’s dating a 17-year-old high school student who conveniently wears a Catholic school uniform, presumably to help him fulfill, through this completely hands-off relationship, any related fantasies. He could not be more pathetic. And when he starts up a relationship with his dream girl without breaking it off with the high schooler, he becomes a jerk.

At least his life is populated by colourful characters, which would have made for a far more interesting film if they were more in the foreground and less in the background. There is his gay wise-cracking roommate, Wallace, who is a master at the sarcastic and dry wit, played by the very talented Kieran Culkin in a 2-dimensional reprise of his role from Igby Goes Down. There is also his gossipy sister (Anna Kendrick from Up In The Air) who is often in league with Wallace for ridiculing Scott and attempting to get him to stop screwing up his life. And the wonderful Canadian actress, Allison Pill, plays Scott’s ex-girlfriend and the drummer – with attitude – in his terrible band. I pretty much enjoyed every minute that any one of these three were on screen.

The film is based on a series of comic books about a young man living in Toronto and it does an outstanding job of translating the medium of a comic book into film both by giving people written-out sound effects like “kpow!” and by showing many short reaction shots to any small piece of action, mimicking the format of multiple cells in a comic. Scott’s life is also supposed to be somehow larger-than-life like a video game and this translates amazingly well to film. When Scott defeats an opponent, we see his score increasing and coins magically appear. The game he is playing is that of defeating the seven evil exes of his dream girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) that he is trying to pursue. When each of the exes shows up for a duel to the death, we crossover into full-on video game world, where Scott has super powers and the characters move like video-game avatars. It’s a really neat idea and marvelously executed, but it gets a little hackneyed by the nth battle scene.

Scott is a pathetic loser but in his world he is a video game hero who gets to kick ass all in pursuit of a girl he claims to love. Yet he doesn’t seem to know much about her aside from that she has funky-colored hair, a fairly cool hipster wardrobe, and a standoffish demeanor. She is basically a two-dimensional fantasy, a prize to be won once he defeats her evil exes. At least she’s not a damsel in distress. Along the way he learns a lesson that defeating these exes is about overcoming his own inner daemons and getting the self-confidence he needs to be with this girl, but it’s kind of a crappy message to be sending that the ‘girl of your dreams’ is a prize to be won by proving yourself better than her exes in literal battle. I tried to like his dream girl. I really did. She oozes cool. But then I thought about Juno who oozed cool in a similar way only she had a keen wit and a sharp tongue to back it up. This girl isn’t developed enough to be liked or disliked, she just is: pretty.

There are some funny scenes and funny lines, and some great Toronto references: “fun? In Toronto??”, everyone reads Eye Magazine and Now Magazine, and the bands play at Lee’s Palace. The film is, after all, shot in Toronto not masquerading as anything but actually being Toronto. And that’s reason enough to get you into theatre (and this film is much more watchable and enjoyable than Atom Egoyan’s Chloe which also showed off Toronto’s beauty). The film is fun with a reasonable amount of momentum. It’s just shallow, like a weekend comic. If you can accept it at face value, and somehow find something to like about Scott, it’s an OK ride, though not one I’d want to take more than once. Leaving the theatre, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I just wanted to rewatch Juno to see a Michael Cera that I like, and rewatch Igby Goes Down for my Kieran Culkin fix, rewatch Up In the Air for Anna Kendrick, and rewatch Dan In Real Life for Allison Pill, all superior movies.

If any of you have classes over at the Bahen Center or have friends in CS/ECE, you will know what I mean about the laundry part.  So we’ve constructed a simple guide for you Computer Science/Electrical-Computer Engineers.  The GPL lifestyle consist of gym in the mornings, to help straighten up that posture.  Programming during the day, because those open source projects won’t write themselves.  And finally laundry at night, so you can stay fresh for the next day.

*This post is in reference to “Gym, Tanning and Laundry” from the TV series Jersey Shore.

Danny

Try not to take on too many projects, it can become a real headache.

Both the Dave Holland Quintet and the Branford Marsalis Quartet could have easily sold out the MainStage space at the Toronto Jazz Festival had they each been the headliner act of their own show, so it’s a little strange that they should be shoved together in a double bill on Friday, July 3rd. Nevertheless, it’s hard to complain when you get to see that much talent and good music on display for the affordable price of $40 at the Toronto Jazz Festival, all in one night, even if the acoustics leave something to be desired.

The Dave Holland Quintet – Robin Eubanks on trombone, Steve Nelson on vibraphone, Chris Potter on alto/soprano sax, Nate Smith on drums, and Dave Holland on bass – opened the evening with a wonderful, energetic 75-minute set of original compositions from Holland’s albums. The set list included: “Step to It”, “Last Minute Man”, “Full Circle”, and “Lucky Seven”. The Dave Holland Quintet has a very eclectic sound, and at times, dissonant. Generally, this means there’s a lot going on at once, with Potter and Eubanks each carrying a bit of the melody – at the same time – and Nelson, Smith, and Holland sharing the rhythm sections. This tends to lead to a lot of complexity, and because of all the different instruments, each with what could be a standalone part, all together, gives you a rich variety of things to listen to. You can tune in and tune out of various different instruments, take your pick, and never be bored. Sometimes all this action leads to really rewarding and interesting dissonance and other times it ends up as just too busy. Sometimes I had trouble differentiating between the parts that Potter and Eubanks were playing, sometimes they blended together, and it felt like a bit too much mushiness. But the band really shone when its three stars took the stage with their solos: drummer Nate Smith, saxophonist Chris Potter, and bassist Dave Holland.

Drummer Nate Smith also played with Chris Potter in his “Underground” group at the Pilot on Monday, but it was in this concert with Holland where he really impressed me. Generally, when drummers take solos, they are so excited to finally be allowed to stray from just beat-keeping that they try to hit and bang as many drums and cymbals as possible in the smallest amount of time: this is their chance to make a lot of noise. But this approach lacks musicality; it’s just an unpleasant racket, the kind I usually can’t wait to stop. But Nate Smith, much like drumming greats Jack DeJohnette and Tony Williams, understands that less is more with drum solos. He hits a beat, he finds a rhythm to play with, and he lets the audience in on what he is doing. We can keep up, we can enjoy, and while it’s not “simple” it’s not overdone either: there’s music and clarity here. He also finds different pitches and tones to play with so that when his drum solo comes to an end, we can’t help but want more, or look forward to his next one. Smith is a great drummer and these are very, very few and far between.

When Chris Potter was introduced at the beginning of the concert, the volume of the audience applause just about doubled: this saxophonist has much talent. His solos are inspired, whether playing with his own group like he did on Monday at the Pilot or as part of the Dave Holland Quintet. But when playing with the Dave Holland Quintet there is extra structure and rules imposed on him, which, to some degree, constrain his solos, and leave them just a notch below the level they were at when he was performing with his own group. Don’t get me wrong though, a notch below the Underground Chris Potter solos is still absolutely fabulous, but his solos with the Quintet, in the style of the Quintet, tended to be more dissonant, and maybe a little less accessible, though still good.

The third star of the group I’ve saved for last, as he is, after all, the headliner. Dave Holland plays a mean bass with bass lines that don’t just follow the basic beat but challenge it, play with rhythm, play with harmony, not just forming the backbone of the music, but challenging the ears of the audience and group, at the same time. His bass lines make you want to tap your feet. Even when there are other melodic lines going on at the same time, you can’t help but tune your ears to Holland’s bass, because it’s always doing interesting things with a lot of energy: the mark of a master. Holland’s solos made up some of the best highlights of the concerts. Jack DeJohnette once said of Dave Holland, “Dave is one of a few bassists who can get an audience on their feet during a solo. He learned from Miles to have a point of view in his playing,” and this was certainly true of Holland’s performance on Friday. He was at his best opening a new composition “Veil of Tears” with a solo on his bass, which had me tapping my feet and nodding my head with appreciation.

Though the Dave Holland Quintet as a whole was very good, sometimes I found the dissonance of the sound turned me off: it’s not as easily accessible as the follow-up act, the Branford Marsalis Quartet. Nevertheless, there were some undeniably great moments for everyone to enjoy when Holland, Potter, or Smith took the spotlight and nailed their respective parts.

After a brief intermission, the music got going in full swing once more, this time with the Branford Marsalis Quartet. Their music is much more straightforward and accessible, which is not to say that it is either better or worse, but it will appeal to a greater audience, and the focus is much more clear. Marsalis carries the melody on soprano, alto, or tenor sax, with equal comfort on each, seamlessly changing between the three and still achieving a beautiful sound on each. Joey Calderazzo on piano occasionally helps with the melody or harmony and leads the rhythm section with Eric Revis on bass and Jeff Watts on drums. When the melody is done, Marsalis takes an awe-inspiring solo, and then backs off, upstage, so that the three other band-members can play off one another. They play a sort of combined solo, led by Calderazzo, which seems to have required much more preparation than Marsalis’s solo – Calderazzo was reading his music and notes throughout his solos, while Marsalis played by heart – with less success than Marsalis’s joyous solos. The group was strong together but the individual parts were much less strong on their own, with the exception, of course, of Branford Marsalis. Nevertheless, bassist Eric Revis held his own pretty well in a long and good solo, especially considering he had to follow the great bassist Dave Holland, which almost seems cruel.

The last time Branford Marsalis played Toronto it was to a small, intimate audience at the Top of the Senator on closing night in 2004. I remember that one of the highlights of that show was when Marsalis did a tribute to the great saxophonists: from Sonny Rollins’s signature squeak, to the trademark sounds of Bird and John Coltrane. But this setting, the MainStage at Nathan Phillips Square suits the group, too: the tightly packed audience members there to see some great jazz at a great price bring up the energy and Marsalis makes you want to get up and dance when he plays. He’s self-confident and for good reason: he can play. He may be the lead talent in his group, but his group still works well, and they were a joy from start to finish.

There was an unexpected guest though in both the Marsalis and the Holland set: the bell from the clock tower striking the hour. It was interesting to see how each of the bandleaders handled the interruption. While Dave Holland worked the predictable ringing into his routine, Branford Marsalis set up a call and response solo with the bell: both were great fun to watch. This was real-time, unplanned improvisation with skill, taking a nuisance and turning it into a gift.

Both groups received a well-deserved standing ovation for each of their respective sets. And in the end, the audience was treated to a fabulous encore, perhaps the true highlight of the concert, which certainly pleased, as Chris Potter on sax and Robin Eubanks on trombone returned to the stage to join the Branford Marsalis Quartet. The highlight of this encore piece was watching Potter and Marsalis play together on sax. They traded off the melody and when the time for solos came, they took turns each playing a solo for a few bars and then handing it off to the other. They each built on one another’s solo, each with his own flare, and each then took an extended solo on his own and then together. The spontaneity and sheer energy at work was what made it such a joy to watch a couple of youngish master musicians at work together, just jamming, having a good time, and making some wonderful music, too.

I went this weekend with U of T Pharmacy, so this is a relevant post .  The place we went to was at Ottawa river, and the tour company was http://www.wildernesstours.com. It was spectacular (just as it was last year when I went for the first time). Great way to meet new people, and an even better way get to know the ones you think you already knew.

It is very safe for any age and size, not to mention they take care of all the food and equipment. The cost of the trip for us, a group of 140 people, for 2 days of rafting… was: 171.15 each with camping (byo tent), or add 211.20 for sleeping in a cabin. Not the cheapest weekend trip, but definitely worth going once or twice.

Now without further delays this weeks comic:

The ultimate saving throw.

Sometimes when pickup lines fail, I really wish I could re-roll.

Danny