A Great End to a Great Week!

Jesse Roper playing at the IBC Canadian Showcase

As far as week’s go, this past week has been pretty damn fantastic ~ enjoying my first music pilgrimage into the history of Rock & Roll and the Blues in Memphis, discovering some bloody fantastic Blues talent at the International Blues Challenge, cheering Canadian Ross Neilsen on in the Semi-Finals of the International Blues Challenge, and coming home to discover some simply beautiful music that Chris Blake has written for Roamancing.  Now to top it all off, I went to pull the name of a winner for Studio 58‘s Julius Caesar tickets and was thrilled to pull Kelly Lui’s name, who interned with Ahimsa Media this past summer.  To make this especially fantastic, I went to congratulate Kelly and discovered it was her birthday!  Happy Birthday Kelly!

For those that entered, but didn’t win, we are entering you for a second chance at the tickets on Roamancing’s site.  For anyone unaware of the contest, that wishes they’d entered, you can still do that on Roamancing’s site until midnight.  Just drop us a comment with which Shakespeare play you would most love to see as a gender bender (ie. with men and women playing opposite gender role). Here’s a little of what you can expect from the play:

 

 

Catch this gender bender of a Julius Caesar at Studio 58 in Vancouver, February 2nd – 26th, Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8 pm and Saturdays & Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets can be purchased here.

Vancouver Theatre Giveaway: Julius Caesar at Studio 58

For those of you that have been reading here for awhile, you’ll know that we have a huge love of the theatre, and that when I’m not attending the latest piece of theatre in Vancouver, Alyzee Lakhani is. One of our favourite ways to spend an evening! Well, for the last week, we’ve been regrettably having to turn down all of those lovely theatre invites, with Alyzee in Mozambique and me (hopefully) road tripping to Savannah, Georgia.

The upswing of Alyzee and I missing out is that Langara College’s Studio 58 has decided to extend our two tickets to you delightful people in a little theater giveaway for their latest play.  I’ll get to that in a minute, as first I’ll fill you in on the play.

 

Photographer: David Cooper

The play is Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, but Julius Caesar with a twist, a Julius Caesar gender bender.  You see, when casting for the play, Director Scott Bellis decided to break with tradition and offer the parts of Caesar, Brutus, Cassius and Octavius to women.  I must say this very much tickles my fancies, as traditionally the parts of women in Shakespeare’s play would have been played by men.

For those of you not familiar with Julius Caesar, it is Shakespeare’s masterpiece of political power-play and manipulation, examining the conflict between one person’s ambition and the good of the state, all set in a life-and-death struggle for control of Rome. As Director Scott Bellis puts it, this is very much a tale involving traditional male roles and a story of ‘honourable men’. “In this alternate telling, we are discovering what it means for a male Mark Antony to avenge a female Caesar; what a same-sex marriage looks like in the house of Brutus;  and how being a ‘man’ can say more about your social status than your gender in this very different vision of Rome.”  Sounds fascinating!  Would love to see how all of this unfolds.

And if you are curious about Studio 58, you can read of Alyzee Lakhani’s most recent experience there with The 13th Chair.

So the Giveaway.  We have a pair of tickets to giveaway here and a pair to giveaway on Roamancing (stay tuned for that giveaway in a day or two) with your choice of Wednesday February 8th at 8 pm, Thursday February 9th at 8 pm or Saturday February 11th at 3 pm.  For the giveaway here, to enter:

  • Comment below with which Shakespeare character, of the opposite sex from you, you would love to play;
  • Deadline Thursday February 2nd at midnight PST.

To be entered a second, third and fourth time:

  • Tweet this post with me, @EmmeRogers and #VancouverTheatre somewhere in the tweet, so I see the tweet;
  • Share this post on facebook and include @Roamancing in the text when you post it (this should link Roamancing’s facebook page, so I’ll see the post); and/or
  • Share this post on G+ and include @Emme Rogers in the text when you post it (this should alert me on G+ of your post).

I shall pull the name of one lucky winner from commenters, tweeters, facebookers and G+ers, and announce the winner on Friday February 3rd.  Very much looking forward to making somebody happy!

Oh, and if sadly you don’t win, the play is running at Studio 58 February 2nd – 26th, Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8 pm and Saturdays & Sundays at 3 pm, and tickets can be purchased here.

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

Still Time for the Whistler Sabbatical

With setting up our Roamancing calendar for the year, I keep eyeing up the Whistler Sabbatical and thinking “DAMN! That really would be cool.”  Not just for the storytelling, but also for the adventure, exercise, mountain air and a bit of r&r.

 

 

If you’ve yet to hear of the Whistler Sabbatical, Roamancing covers the What? and the How to Enter? here.

So what are my chances?  Well, I have entered almost every week, just need to catch the last couple and to get caught up on a few missed weeks over the Holidays. And then there is tackling the question of who to take?  Maybe it’s time to find a lover, as the idea of a roaring fire and hot chocolate, snuggled up with a cuddly creature really is rather appealing as a part of my Whistler Sabbatical.

Although they may already have me covered for that man issue:

 

 

He’s none too shabby on the eyes.  And really, who wouldn’t want to spend time and learn from this talented cutie?

 

 

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

PS. And if you beat me to the prize, be warned, I bite. ;-)

So I Wish I Could Make TV

I’m loving my temporary life as Being Brie.  I think it pops off the lips much better than Being Emme!  Despite all the clutter around me, I am also enjoying cat sitting, I mean goddess visiting, for Emme.  There have been many times when I have thought that Emme was a little cheesy with her adoration for Fuzzywiggle Furrypants, but having spent so much time her, I must say that there really are no words to express the qualities she posesses.  It is entirely possible that the Fabulous Feline Royal has hypnotized me because now I want to make her a star!  There is a So You Think You Can Make TV? contest at Paperny Films and I was planning to make an entry for a new lifestyle show about modern day cats that reign.  This was going to be one of many surprises for Emme to come home to.  Unfortunately, I am not between the ages of 19-30! It really is too bad because I’m sure this would have been the winning shot:

Stunning, I know

Wrestling Salsa

After mine and Emme’s attempt to peel onions in preparation for Bob Blumer’s go at breaking the world onion peeling record, I got inspired.  My win over Emme gave me some confidence and I thought I might really have something special in the kitchen.  With Glutton for Punishment coming to an end after 5 incredible seasons, I thought I would start something new for myself.  I decided to embark on a journey similar to Julie and Julia, but call it Brie and Bob.  Once I realized that would have me wrestling a 50 pound catfish, chasing a cheese-wheel down a cliff in England, and detoxifying a deadly poisonous blowfish in Japan, I decided to just make Bob’s salsa instead.  This proved to be enough of an adventure in itself, but I am quite proud of the delicious results and I plan to win hummingbird604′s Glutton for Punishment contest with my experience. Now I know how much I need the DVD sets of the show!

Bob Blumer's Salsa

I learned something very important while making this salsa.  It’s really lousy to be a slow chopper!  I don’t mind that I had to hunt down all the ingredients (well, a really nice grocery man helped me-I think I looked lost), or pay a lot more than pre-made, store-bought salsa, but I felt like a real let-down that it took me 23 min just to chop the tomatoes.  I thought I would serve it up during some family TV time, but instead I was running to the kitchen on commercials to chop the onions and herbs and ended up having the whole salsa ready for bedtime.  When everyone went to sleep, I stayed up and ate my salsa. I loved it, and everything turned out for the best, as it tasted even better for the family the next day after all the flavours had hung out in the jar in the fridge all night.  I now have a new side focus though.  I am going to learn how to chop fast.  I want to invite Emme to join me but she is a real danger in the kitchen.  I need Bob to give me some tips!