The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Mad Hatter and March Hare

Originally uploaded by zakira rose

Today we went to Trout Lake for the 14th Annual Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and Lewis Carroll Festival. I remember this event from about 10 years ago, when it was maybe twenty oddballs getting dressed up, playing some croquet, and having a picnic under the willows. Well times have changed, and those twenty oddballs has somehow exploded into maybe 150 or so people – I’m a terrible visual count for people, but there was a great turnout this year to the event.

We hung out on the grass for a long time while the event got going, but we weren’t bored – watching Queen Victoria seem bored while listening to the lovely sounds of a historical/anachronistic band called Toot-a-Lute was very amusing indeed. Eventually the White Rabbit raced through, Alice hot on his heels. The event was a trip down the rabbit hole itself – we found ourselves running after Alice and the Rabbit, from station to station to crane our necks and catch a glimpse of her true-to-literature interactions with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle, the Walrus and the Carpenter, and the Queen of Hearts. At one point we ended up back at the Tea Party again, and in a surreal twist participated a second time in the same dialogue – bringing us deeper into the play on sense and fantasy essential to the Alice books.

What a day. With a Caucus Race and DIY facepainting, a by-donation buffet spread, country dancing to medieval music and wandering ‘neath the willows in the company of Queen Victoria and Charles Dodson, this was a pleasure and will definitely be a repeat next year.

 

New Moves – Uzume Taiko

  Last Sunday we went down to crowded Granville Island to catch a free dance/drum show. Part of the New Moves “All over the Map” festival, this was the first of several Sunday performances held outdoors at the base of the big, treed hill they call Ron Basford Park.   The performance was on a small wooden stage outside of Arts Umbrella/Carousel Theatre, and the three members of Uzume Taiko, a Vancouver-based Japanese-style drumming group, played a good hour’s worth of original Canadian compositions.

There was a fairly good turnout – the few wooden bleachers were filled up and we, like many of the audience members, perched ourselves precariously on the steep hill and allowed the spell of Uzume Taiko to take us over. There was a minimum of silly segments and despite a somewhat stupid digression to sushi education, overall the performance more than made up for our frustration in finding parking (next time, we’re biking). There were sublime moments, when they were moving in concert, beating each other’s drums as if they were one, many armed drummer. Other moments, especially the final piece, where they held lunge positions low to the ground for extended periods of time while drumming their large, heavy drums, were both impressive and transporting.

 

Welcome to VanCal

I’m just in the process of setting up VanCal for July/August. I’m working on a calendar template and we’ll be up and really running soon. With any luck I’ll have information on local events super-soon.

Just a note: the photo I picked for the header bar is one I took from the Illuminaires lantern festival from last year. You’ve got two weeks to get a lantern ready: this year the date is July 28, 2007.