I sometimes imagine at least one of Queen Victoria’s voluminous dresses are made by a time traveling Agnetha Dyck and a coterie of bees gone to London to see the queen. I slowed a little today looking for the quote that God was ill and created the world – made something, even if on the shabby side, to recover. Freud, Goethe, Nietzsche maybe?
I am remaking my Always Breathe manuscript opening with manifestos and linking more closely to the Lookshow opening in Winnipeg, as early as September 29. I’m worried that five manifestos may be four too many, but I can’t cut any. Famous last words. The Manifestos; 1. Always Breathe 2. Suffer, 3. Create 4. Persist
5. Love (or be Kind).
I’m using the May long to pitch the Lookshow fundraiser. I’ve posted on Facebook and Twitter as well as the GoFundMe platform. The 12 artists in the show deserve the best I can do for them. IN this instance the artist have free access to my website, nothing too private to be locked away. I also send them writing, largely from a memoir taking shape called Pieces of my mind/My Body in Parts. Murray Toews is responsible for the look of lookshow and artists wrangling. It’s easier because he lives in Winnipeg and knows the OUTPUT venue well. I live in Kelowna. The artists include Ken Gregory, Grace Nickel, Nicole Shimonek, Leigh Konyk, Andrea von Wichert, Lora Van Loewen, Jim van Dusen, Lief Norman. Composer and cellist Leanne Zaccahrias is writing an OVERTURE played live on the opening weekend, and Chris Bauer is preparing a drum/soundscape piece including “ready-made” instruments such as wheelchair wheels and other mobility aids, with graphic projections by Murray Toews.
We need to raise money to meet our Canada Council for the Arts inspired budget who are well pleased to see community support in as many different ways as possible. The $5,000 we raise will be for promotion, installation, and keeping the doors of the OUTPUT venue open as much as possible in October, yes, THIS October 2022. Once the show is down we will proceed to produce a “virtual gallery” as legacy and witness.
My psychiatrist asked why I always wrote so many dark and depressing poems, often about my pain. Wouldn’t that just make my pain worse? I didn’t have an answer for him in that session, but did in our next session.
“Witness,” I said, “that’s why.” Suffering people can see they are not alone, and the able bodied can see their health is a gift. My work is not all dark. I have gained a sense of humour since I lost my leg, amputated and used for instruction to med students. I say I am donating my body to science one limb at a time. I’ve been criticized for laughing too much for the pain I claim, and not showing my suffering side. Well Lookshow is the answer. But if I didn’t have a sense of humour I’d have no sense at all.
I’m not looking for cents, but dollars. Anything you can do is appreciated, and $100 or more gets you the victorenns9 smorgasbord now hidden behind Patreon pay walls.
I just killed my first mosquito of the season. He was the kind of guy who killed seven mosquitoes with one blow. 🙂
-Victor
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