This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
I’ve had things I wrote about become useless before, but none more quickly than what I wrote last week. Almost everything about galleries reopening was made irrelevant when the province…
I’ll bet you’re thinking, “didn’t I read something like that last week?” You did.
I wanted to remind you because a new record was set, what I wrote last week wasn’t even good for 24 hours and the province changed the colour zoning for Orillia and area. We’re back to red. Not seeing red, as many of you, most of you have been.
So, look at my column from two weeks ago, because I’m not re-writing it. Whatever I said is operative now.
Almost. The Orillia Museum of Art and History is re-opening March 16. There has been one change. The Artifacts: The Art Behind the Art exhibit won’t happen because some of the art making up the exhibit isn’t available now. And the medical exhibit is about more than I was originally told. There are still going to be artifacts from the collection on display in the lobby, but there will also be 16 photos by Dr. Harry Hall and that part is called Views From a Canoe.
And March 14 is Sue Mulcahy’s 100th birthday. OMAH has a webpage to honour the occasion. Of course the main gallery is named for the Mulcahy family. And OMAH still has the QuarARTine online art auction fundraiser happening. Since the auction started, OMAH has reached 84% of their $10,000 goal.
What A Difference A Year Makes
Last March 7 the last live (and you can be there too) concert happened. Two of them. The Orillia Concert Band was at St. Paul’s Centre. They had Cassie Dasilva as their guest performer. She did three tunes in each half of the concert. One of them she said was a new tune, Enough, but she doesn’t have a video upload o it. I did discover she has a new video for a tune called Unsolicited Contact, which is really good, both the music and the video Take a look here, and you’ll find more of her music here.
Cassie did one tune with the OCB, Skyfall, and though I don’t have a great memory of it, apparently I really liked it. The OCB also did Catch Me If You Can.
VK and the Legends of the Deep where at the Geneva along opening for Reay. Both were Awesome. I was really looking forward to seeing Reay’s first public appearance in Orillia and I wasn’t disappointed. They played tunes from their excellent album Butterfly Tongue Revisited . They sounded great live.
Oh, and students at Orillia Secondary School did High School Musical in their new cafeteria which doubles as an auditorium the same night.
And that was it. People were already starting to cancel gigs, and on March 20 Mayor Steve Clarke declared a state of emergency here, three days after the province did.
We’ve had some days of activity as a community since, particularly during the summer when the pedestrian mall was created downtown (which is on the books to happen again this year). Mostly we had small art exhibits. Not small as in shows with few pieces, but shows with few people allowed in at one time. Creative Nomad Studio opened too and has had a few things happen inside, but of late mostly online. Check out their website to see what classes and tutorials they are offering.
Soon we’ll be outside again. Hopefully we’ll be in better circumstances to get together, and it looks like that may be possible in summer. As long as we don’t get all giddy and forget to do the things we need to until someone in authority (who speaks authoritatively, not looking at the provincial government at all) says we can return to our original upright positions.
I know there are some of you who probably have had your fill of all this, or never thought this pandemic was worth all the fuss. Take a few minutes and watch this. If it doesn’t straighten out thinking I don’t know what will.
Music and Other Stuff
The Leacock Associate’s annual student writing competition is open to high school and college students aged 14 to 19. There are prizes of $1,000, $700 and $300. Entry details are here, you have until April 15. Email studentawards@leacock.ca for more details or questions.
Steven Henry takes requests Saturday nights at 8 p.m. here. It’s good way to spend two hours.
Joe Huron plays jazz guitar Sunday’s at noon on Facebook. Catch him here.
Through the Farmers’ Market, artists have another online avenue to sell their work. Check it out here.
Saturday you can shop in person at the market from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The Orillia Silver Band has new recordings to listen to. The Earle of Oxford’s Marche is from The William Byrd Suite. They also uploaded Scott Joplin’s Something Doing. You can find the music on their Facebook page.
Check out The Nate Mills Show. Do not sit near the computer keyboard with a coffee or anything liquid in your hands. He’s a master at quick cuts to absurd things you will laugh at.
Stanton McKinnon, formerly of Terry Savage and the Wonky Honkies, has been writing some music. You can hear it on his Soundcloud page.
Reay has a new video for the song Junkyard. You can watch it and other video they produced here.
(Photo By Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia; Images Supplied) Main: Two items from OMAH’s QuarARTine online art auction fundraiser.
