Our Lady of Perpetual Hell

Okay, I said I’d explain the wristbands…

There is a local non-profit organization called Rebound:

Sarnia-Lambton Rebound is committed to supporting young people in reaching their full potential. We support youth who are experiencing difficulties at home, school or with the law. Our unique program design incorporates trained community volunteers to act as mentors and positive role models to youth.

At Sarnia-Lambton Rebound, we are committed to developing evidence-based services and programs. We stay current with the latest literature and research to ensure our programs are delivered in the most effective manner. Rebound provides a series of six youth and three parenting programs that focus on building confidence, making healthy decisions and improving communication.

Now, Tristan never used the services of Rebound but he went through a rough patch where he might’ve actually found them pretty useful. As it happens, when it was decided that the family would ask for charitable donations be made instead of flowers at his funeral, T’s big bro Mike suggested a couple of local youth-support organizations that he thought T would like. Rebound was one of them.

Tristan was an avid golfer. He could hit that ball straight and he could hit it a mile. He played every summer–for years in the youth program at Greenwood Golf Course (where his grandma and grandpa had taught him to play) and then, later, in a similar program at the Sarnia Golf and Curling Club, where his parents got a membership. A few months ago, one of Tristan’s golfing buddies mentioned to my sister that it would be kinda neat to hold a golf tournament in T’s memory. That got the wheels turning…

So, on August 21st, Greenwood Golf Course will host a memorial golf tourney, in Tristan’s name, which will raise funds for Rebound. Lunch & registration is at noon, Best Ball shotgun start at 1pm, dinner at 6-ish, and there will be a silent auction along with prizes and raffles and gifts. A representative from Rebound will join us to tell everybody about their organization. $75 for golfers (incl. lunch & steak dinner, along with the golf), $25 for non-golfing diners. The field is pretty much filled up, although, as I write this, there is room for one more foursome and there are a couple foursomes that have a spare spot. There may still be a few dining-spots open, too. But it certainly looks like we’re going to sell out.

We really didn’t know what to expect when we first started to plan this (honestly, I have done little–my sister really took the bull by the horns and she’s had lots of help from my brother-in-law and our parents and many friends), but I don’t think any of us realized what kind of response we were gonna get from people who wanted to take part and people who wanted to chip in any way they could.

Local and national businesses and organizations have been stunningly generous when family & friends have approached them about donating items for auction or prizes. Folks would approach friends or family they know in the company or actually do cold calls and it’s amazing to see the response. Area papers have covered the story and the local radio station K106 is sending its Rockpatrol. RBC Dominion surprised us a couple days ago by offering to sponsor a hole-in-one contest in which someone could win $10,000 if they get a hole-in-one on the sponsored hole, and Rebound would get a thousand bucks, too. Holy shit! One of Tristan’s other aunts works for Hockey Canada and she has procured some pretty cool Team Canada swag for the silent auction–including a stick signed by all members of the gold-medal-winning 2008 World Juniors (including Maple Leaf Luke Schenn and 2009 NHL #1 draft pick John Tavares). Local restaurants have chipped in gift certificates, local businesses donated services and gifts, and local professionals–from Tristan’s tattooist Pete St. Marseille (that’s his “Carsy” tat on Pete’s portfolio) to his dentist Dr. Guy Kohlmeier!–have been so eager to help! He is fondly remembered far and wide, which is wonderful for us and such a great comfort.

As the lone non-golfer in my family, I will be helping with other volunteers to register golfers, sell raffle tickets, monitor the RBC-sponsored hole, and any other kind of running around needed while folks are golfing. I’m really looking forward to the day, although I know that it will be a very emotional one for me.

Most days are like that, though. Still. I don’t foresee an end to that for a long time. I miss him desperately.

The wristbands? I had those made up for the tourney. They were originally suggested by Tristan’s friend Casey, who thought a lot of T’s friends would love to have something like the “Livestrong” bracelets (which T wore) to remember him by. The colours–also suggested by Casey (a clever young woman who should go into the field of marketing!)–are the colours of T’s team, the Wallaceburg Lakers. My sis suggested the text Carsy 16 1989-2008–“Carsy” being his hockey nickname, “16″ his jersey number, and the dates self-explanatory. I added the ankh in the middle because of the silver ankh he always wore on the chain around his neck. It has kinda become our little symbol of him. Eternal life.

I cleaned my gutters.

I did a little gardening.

Actually, more than a little gardening.

I designed some fundraising wristbands (the purpose of which I’ll tellya about soon–it’s too late to go into it tonight).

I listened to tunes.

…I haven’t forgotten about this joint. I just haven’t been in the mood. But with TIFF coming up and with other things I wanna tell you about, too, I will try to get back into the swing of things around here. Until then, at least enjoy the music.

After years of hoping for it, I am thrilled to see that the diary Werner Herzog wrote while he was making his epic Fitzcarraldo has finally been translated into English! The only way this could be better news would be if he had also released an audiobook version—I would love to hear him read it. The NY Times’ Janet Maslin has a review here and they have published an excerpt as well.

I think it’s time to rewatch Fitzcarraldo and Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams while I wait for my book to arrive.

Do you need a daily fix of Cannes? The Toronto Star’s Peter Howell is doing a daily vlog from this year’s festival (which is more than I can say of my own coverage of Hot Docs, heh-heh!). I’ll post today’s vid here but I’m a bit slow on the uptake, as he began doing this yesterday.

Pete’s daily updates can be found here. You can be fairly sure he will be covering all the high profile films at the festival.

Yes, I do plan to tell you a little about the films I saw at Hot Docs but, first, I want to mention something a bit more personal…

Last night, I went to see the new play, Caught in the Acts, a comedy written by my friend Karen Robinet and presented by Theatre Kent.

I knew it would be funny because Karen has a great sense of humour–dark and sharp and quite smart. And it is funny. I really enjoyed it!

The play is about a small-town amateur theatre troupe–much like the one presenting and performing this–that finds itself the recipient of a government arts grant to the tune of fifteen grand. Naturally, they’re pretty excited until they learn the grant comes with a couple strings attached… 1. they must present one of Shakespeare’s plays, and 2. they will be under the direction of once-mighty professional director Tony Symington, whose career has fallen on hard times. Very hard times. They’re not too thrilled about either prospect but they decide to go along with it. Now, there’s a reason you don’t often come across small-town amateur theatre troupes who choose to tackle Shakespeare. Symington (naive? oblivous? in denial?) insists that they can do anything they put their minds to, and pushes ahead. But then rehearsals start and he finds himself with a Hamlet who is a “doood”-spouting dreadlocked eco-geek and a Ghost who injects his performance with spooky oooOOOOOooooOOOoooohs and a getup that features a bed sheet over his head and black socks on his feet and, er, nothing in between. “I didn’t know “Casper The Friendly Ghost” had been adapted for the stage,” snarks one character.

The play is a couple hours long, structured as half a dozen or so acts with a blackout between each for stage and wardrobe changes. I enjoyed the witty banter and subtle hints about some mystery in the past of a couple of the characters, so each act just flew by. The set stayed basically the same throughout–it was the rehearsal space for the Primrose Players–and although it appeared (to this newbie, anyway) as a very small stage, it seemed just the right size for this performance in that there was an feeling of intimacy that, I think, only helped the audience to care more for the characters.

The performances were a real eye-opener for me, as I am not a habitué of the theatre (amateur or professional). I really didn’t know what to expect but I found that the actors gave lively, fun performances and exercised quite skilled comic timing. Tony Symington would’ve loved them!

I spoke with Karen during the intermission and she told me that this is the first time in Theatre Kent’s 31-year history that an original play has been produced. That it was written by a local makes it even more special, I think. Karen works as a journalist and has written for a number of different newspapers in Southwestern Ontario. She is also a veteran of community theatre, and based her play on that experience. I am totally impressed!

Kudos to Karen and to director Glenda Lansens, as well as to the entire cast (Dennis O’Neil, Keith Burnett, Cindy FitzGerald, Mark Stacey, Don McCutcheon, Stewart Morton, Jan Holt , and Annette O’Neil) and crew!