NUIT BLANCHED

toronto's first-ever nuit blanche has come and gone. as conversations evolved during the night, the term 'nuit blanche' took on holiday connotations, and i felt that 10-year-old-hallowe'en-lovin' self giddy-up. happy nuit blanche! nuit blanche greetings to you!

my nuit blanche started mid-day on saturday, as jason christie and i wandered the city. we dropped off lamps at margaret christakos' for her night bulb installation at university of toronto, and were greeted with four horsemen sound recordings echoing through the halls. we then wandered to active surplus for LED-light headsets and MEC for mosquito netting. i returned home wet with rain and eager to commence rehearsing.

conor, jason, and i planned our 1/2 hour of slumber-share before dinner, napped, and then hurriedly rehearsed. we arrived at night bulb around midnight, a little sleepy though pleasantly surprised to see so many people out for nuit blanche. maggie helwig, dressed as a naughty nurse, assisted sherwin tjia with his Poetry ER. margaret's "orphans fan the flames" performance rang through the SCS building. 12:30, sonnet l'abbe lectured on ghazals and tzara, her oneiric sound singing through the building's interior.

1:10am, conor and jason started our performance. a little tech humour off the top, followed by guided breathing and visualization. i cocooned my way (osbcured by a green umbrella and mosquito netting creation) in front of the glass building, weaving through ramp and wheat, and eventually met conor and the onlookers. we slipped through insomnia, NREM, and parasomnia texts with aural and kinetic activity. half an hour later, we cleaned up our bottles of tattooed or stolen bodies and wandered outside for the bpNichol Lane poetry rumble @ 2am.

michael holmes took on bill kennedy as they approached each other from opposite ends of the lane, amplifying their poetry through megaphones. katherine commented on site-specific aural installations (this one got a thumbs-up), and one of my favourite moments happened when an apartment-building resident shouted from his window for the rumblers to go home (the aggressive request worked with holmes' wrestling poem). souvankham thammavongsa mediated holmes and kennedy with her wispy, centred texts. appreciative audience. conor, jason, katherine, and i wandered some more...

...and found ourselves at the fog sculpture. oh, i wish i wasn't rushed so quickly through the thick, disorienting wet! this was hella cool, though muddy as all get-out and teeming with audience. conor marvelled at the fog/water/electrical wire hook-up, wondering how safe it could be (and noting that IATSE wouldn't let theatre companies get away with such combos in shows). i hope the artist returns next year, so she may build another fog sculpture. so awesome.

as we wandered to hart house, katherine regaled us with her queen west claustrophobia, as she'd had a chance to catch some of the earlier activities. when we reached hart house, we knew what she meant; what a zoo! neat to see so many people out, but at 3am and exhausted it proved too much stimulation and, like lightweights, we wandered home.

my total time @ nuit blanche: 3 hours + 6 hours of prep. an honour to be included. tons of blog posts about other events, which makes me feel a little less sad to've not stayed longer. check out blog posts from squiddity and zoilus.