Big fun times with amazing artists and friends at The Central on Saturday night for LMG Productions’ Super Wonderful New Year Kickoff fundraiser for the upcoming Wonder Women 2013 festival in March. Organizers and hosts Arlene Paculan and Kat Leonard (aka Musedy Tag Team) treated us to some tunes, including their new Michael Jackson mash-up, and some kick-ass raffle prizes, including CDs from participating artists and tickets to the upcoming Wonder Women concert on March 8.

This was one incredible party – and we were moved, rocked and amazed by feature acts of Wonder Women and, for the first time, Super Men – check them out:

Asleep in the Machine

Dread Eye

Matt Gerber

Linda Inthahack

Miquelon Rodriguez

Candice Sand

Supertash

Lizzie Violet

It was a reunion of sorts, and I got to see folks I hadn’t seen in a while, including some of the incredible open mic guests: Angela…

BuDa (Beautiful & Damned) kicked off 2013 with a dynamic January show, hosted by Philip Cairns, with three features who left me wanting more – sadly time restraints at Glad Day force us to wrap the show by 9:40 or all of them would have been called on for encores.

First feature Faye Guenther read Hostage Spaces – a short story told from the ‘You’ point of view. It opens  with an almost clinical description of a building’s white marble lobby: “smooth dove-coloured leather couches that never hold a body, standing in illuminated pools of white on white” The descriptions move into a more personalized sense of the space, of the You addressed, “the soreness begins to explore your face”; of the life You lives, then brings other people into that life – a lover, a coworker: “you lifted your head and recognized someone…. Her eyes were the color of trees this time of…

Happy New Year, all!

Here are a bunch of upcoming events/performances/productions to watch out for – and there’s a little somethin’ for everyone here:

Tin Star Orphans open for The Strumbellas at The Dakota Tavern on Tues, Jan 8.

The next edition of The Beautiful & the Damned poetry cabaret, hosted by Philip Cairns and featuring trivia on dead celeb of the month James Dean, is on Thurs, Jan 10 – 7 p.m. at Glad Day Bookshop.

Queen Milli ofGalt, written by Gary Kirkham and directed by Victoria Shepherd, opens at The Village Playhouse on Fri, Jan 11 and runs until Sat, Feb 2.

Theatre Brouhaha’s Toronto Fringe 2012 hit production of Kat Sandler’s Help Yourself runs at Red Sandcastle Theatre Fri, Jan 11 – Sat, Jan 19 – if you missed it at Fringe, be sure to check out this remount. Check out the rest…

The Next Big Thing: an online interview with yourself.
(How romantic!)

The effervescent Lizzie Violet tagged me in a blog experiment called The Next Best Thing in which writers answer ten questions about a current project and post them on their blog, tagging other writers who would have interest in doing the same.  It started as a bookwriters exercise and Lizzie added the playwright angle.  Now I add the songwriters angle!!!!

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

(Songwriters version by Kat Leonard)

What is the working title of your song?
 Santa’s Sack

Where did the idea come from for the song? 
During a Christmas song brainstorming session with Heather Hill,Aynsley Saxe and Steve Didynuk.

What genre does it fall under?
 Novelty/comedy

Which performer (if not yourself) would you like to perform the song? 
Will Ferrell

What is the one-sentence synopsis of what the song is about?

I was invited by my friend writer/blogger/poet/editor Lizzie Violet to participate in an online interview called Next Big Thing as a way for writers to do a little self-promotion and/or think about what they’re working on or will have out soon. Writers tag other writers, who all answer the same 10 questions and post them on their blog. Lizzie added a twist and decided to include playwrights, songwriters and bloggers as well, so my responses will be about my blog.

What is your working title of your blog?life with more cowbell

Where did the idea come from for the blog?I was the company blogger at Alumnae Theatre, posting about the shows it was producing, and generally shouting out and supporting the theatre. When I made the decision to “retire” from there, I decided to start my own blog. I wanted to get out to see more live theatre…

Got out to Plasticine Poetry Sunday night. I haven’t been to the series for two months now – busy with NaNoWriMo – so I was eager to get back there. Even more eager because of the dynamic line up. As usual I made sure I got onto the open stage in the first set. It’s always easier for me to listen when I get my own piece out of the way.

By 6:25 there was full house, I had a tasty chicken wrap and …. I get asked to host the show. Let’s be honest give me a street light over head & two drunks watching me from across the street and I’m ready to do some spokenword. I was happy to step up and take on the task. But I did insist on keep my open stage spot all the same. I read a brand new piece (see below)…

Last night was a double pleasure – for the art and for the company. First up was The Beautiful & The Damned (TB&TD) at Glad Day Bookshop, where a gang of my best pals (Liz, Lizzie, Kat, Janis and Kira) and I gathered to catch the first set before continuing our evening’s cultural festivities.

The December edition of TB&TD was Star Wars night, with props to dead celeb Sir Alec Guinness. Host Duncan Armstrong started the evening off with his poem “Guilt,” funny and insightful youthful reminiscences of a father’s jacket and stealing away to the closet – my favourite line “grow much too quickly into adulthood.”

Open mic performers included author/poet Adam Abbas, who read his piece “Excess,” words and rhymes tripping from the page and out of his mouth with Dr. Seuss-like playfulness. Singer/songwriter Kat Leonard treated us to a new song, a fun – and…

OVARIAN CANCER – The Little-Known Killer of Women!

We the Four Winds Collective (independent artists Kat Leonard, Arlene Paculan, Meghan Morrison and Heather Hill) played a fundraising event for Ovarian Cancer Canada last Friday night with local artist Kelly Sloan at Bass Line Station in Ottawa, Ontario. Mike Anderson of CanadaParties.ca organized the event.  As the Winds traveled the 401 east, we discussed our issues with supporting certain types of charity fundraising events. We agreed that we are not as interested in supporting organizations that are backed by pharmaceutical companies as much as we want to support the charities that are lean, agile and creative and not backed by organizations that serve to benefit from the illness and its treatments.

Upon arrival at Bass Line Station we met Lynn Griffiths, who has been an active volunteer for Ovarian Cancer Canada since losing her dear sister Ann to the disease in…