This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment

By John Swartz

The Classic Car Show is happening downtown all day Saturday. This is the biggest event for the downtown every summer. Usually there are 400 or more cars getting free parking and looking all shiny.

Last year the Rotary Club of Orillia took over managing the show and changed the name a bit to The Classic and Custom Car Show. It always had some custom cars in it, so the name change isn’t reflecting a whole lot of change.

There will be music. Jakob Pearce is playing from noon to 3 p.m. Crusin’ will be playing outdoors at Brewery Bay Food Company as well.

Gurgle and Spash

Last weekend’s Chamber of Commerce Waterfront Festival at the Port of Orillia featured the annual Cardboard Boat Race and the Dock Diving Dogs contest.

The Cardboard Boat Race and more entrants this year over last with 8 boats (if you can call them that). As always many of the boats were designed, or built by Evan Devine (half the fleet this time). Before the race, he wasn’t sure which boat he would swim in, or even if he would; he did ride the Paper Planes Play Café boat to the bottom.

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For several years, some Orillia councillors have made up a team, I think they even won once. This time they barely got off the beach before floundering. They were riding the Batboat; Dave Campbell (Batman), Jay Fallis (Robin), Janet-Lynne Durnford (either Batgirl or Catwoman) and Jeff Czetwerzuk (The Joker) didn’t even have to do any swimming when their craft got a mysterious hole – even though one can drown in 18 inches of water, this crew was OK.

“It was the Joker. He sabotaged the Batboat. We knew, as soon as I saw the Joker show up I thought there’s no way he’ll stay in line, he never does,” said Campbell once back on shore.

“I can’t let Batman get away with what he’s doing any longer. I thought, here’s my chance and I jumped on and it was just the right time. I think the biggest issue we had though, they all got in and they were trusting me to be behind to push them out. I did try to save them, for a moment, until I jumped in and everything… the balance was just not there. As Batman said, I think the boat riders were almost as unstable as the boat,” said Czetwerzuk.

A couple ladies, Diana Simonds and Joy Clements, were new entrants this year with a boat named The Hippies. They replicated the strategy of another older couple from last year who just let the wind carry their boat southward away from the mess of soggy cardboard and back to shore, almost intact. While everyone else was doing their best to sink opponents, they escaped notice, though lining the floor of their boat with pool noodles made have has something to do with it.

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The Titanic Award for Most Spectacular Sinking went to Donny Smith The sole occupant of his boat. The Batcrew won the Best Dressed award. Nixon Boyd and Anne Douris’s boat, Spamalot, won the Largest Boat award. The Hippies won the Longest Floating Boat and the Smallest Boat.

Later in the afternoon it was showtime for the dogs. There were too many dogs which looked the same to even try and pin names on the photos. However, there are somethings I realized after seeing this event for three years.

There is a lot to be said for how their owners throw the balls and chew toys, both timing and distance, affecting how well their dogs jump. One owner had a good tease set up and a nice high arc to whatever he threw, but not a lot of distance, which caused his dog to have a nice jump. This particular dog flubbed his jump in the last round, allowing another dog, Nukky, to win for a second time. I think the trick is to have your dog jump high and far after their target to get the best response from the crowd.

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The prizes are awarded according to crowd response, so bringing friends and family might also be a good idea (and maybe buying the contest wrangler, announcer, applause gager and prize awarder a nice cool lemonade for a hot day, or beer; beer always works)

Some of the dogs missed the briefing about what they were supposed to do. There’s almost nothing funnier than a dog running to the edge, stopping and looking back and forth from the thing they were supposed to retrieve floating away and their owners.

The Shorts

• Jacob Duquette has a house party happening with B A Johnston and Freeman Dre Sunday Aug. 17. Text 416-738-9601 for tickets ($25 advance / $30 at the door). It’s in town. Freeman Dre hasn’t played here in a while. He used to do The Brownstone and always drew a crowd.

• Glen Robertson has a new album, Cunning, out. It’s a remix and remastering by Joseph Breitenbach, of tunes Glenn has released the last few years. I’ve been listening and this is a great sounding album, very slick. Glen always could put two words together and paint a picture. Oh speaking of pictures, I’m pretty sure Glen does the video editing (each tune has its own look) and he’s pretty adept at the visual presentation too. Glen, of The Rockdogs, has been living in Thailand for a few years, but I’m sure his friends here at home will want to give this album a listen.

• Zain Cook, who has a new album out, Caterpillar, is going to be guest on the J&J Talks podcast Sunday, Aug. 17.

• Hxmesweethxme has The Straight Goods and Grace 2 playing at ODAS Park Saturday Aug. 23. Tickets are $35 online. All proceeds go to Jake Beers Scholarship and Orillia Youth Centre creative programs.

• The Orillia Youth Centre has a few fundraising concerts happening in the fall. The Sadies with special guest Terra Lightfoot are lined up for Sept. 20 at St. Paul’s Centre; Kevin Seconds, Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One, and Nixon Boyd play Oct. 10 at Creative Nomad, and Oct. 11 at the youth center; and Danny Michel with special guest Roger Harvey play at the youth center October22. Get tickets online.

• The Mariposa Folk Festival has their fall Mariposa-in-Concert event happening November 29 at St. Paul’s Centre with Aysanabee. He performed at the 2022 festival and is the first Native musician to win Juno Awards for Alternative Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. You can get tickets online right now.

• Moonstone’s Nick Bellingshausen has his song, Overtime, selected by Amazon Music featured in their new series of new Canadian talent called, Northern Echoes.

• OMAH launched an online auction to raise funds for education programming and exhibits . There are 50 pieces of pottery by Roger Kerslake to choose from. You register to bid online

• At OMAH see a permanent exhibit of their acquisition of items from Gordon Lightfoot’s estate, Gordon Lightfoot: Turning Back The Pages, in the small gallery on the main floor; the main gallery has the spectacular Yours To Uncover: An Ontario Road Trip featuring the work of Peter Fyfe and John Notten; an exhibit on the second floor of photos taken over the years at the Mariposa Folk Festival by Edwin Gailits (1970s era) and, Deb Halbot called Voices Through Time: A Mariposa Journey; and Orillia: Then And Now a collection of historical photos of Orillia landmarks and buildings contrasted with recent photos of the same by Samantha Vessios; OMAH also has their summer walking tour, Gangs, Guns, and Grog happening every Wednesday evening; you can register to take part here; the submission period for the annual Carmichael Landscape Show – Tradition Transformed is open until August 22; you can get details here; now is the best time to get tickets for OMAH’s Music For The Museum event, November 1; Jacquie Dancyger Arnold, Hugh Coleman, Ross Arnold, Blair Bailey, Laura Kelly, and Gail Spencer are performing.

• Hibernation Arts has new work by Peter Fyfe featured and new work by other gallery members up in August; this is the last month for Hibernation Arts, Molly is retiring and closing the gallery at the end of the month; a new gallery, The Maker’s Circle, operated by Melissa Van Dam will reopen in the same space Oct. 1; those interested in showing their work can apply here… Cloud Gallery has the Great Big Summer Show, a collection of new works from gallery members, on all month… Peter Street Fine Arts has art by Patricia Roser featured this month… Starry Night is Aug. 23

• Quayle’s Brewery has Kyle Wauchope playing Aug. 16; Upbeat Groove Aug. 17; Andrew Walker Aug. 21; and Mark Gunn Aug. 22… the Hog ‘N Penny has an afternoon jam session every Sunday with Sean Patrick and others… Picnic has Todd and Robyn playing Aug. 17… the noon hour recital at St. James’ Anglican Church (every Wednesday) is with Brent Mayhew and soprano Avis Shah Mansouri this coming week (bring your lunch)… Outcast plays the ANAF Club Saturday, Aug. 16… Jamie Drake is at the Coldwater Legion in the afternoon Aug. 16.

• The Aqua Theatre roster is, Movies In The Park returns Saturday, Aug. 23 with Toy Story at dusk (free, collecting donations of food or cash for the Sharing Place) and The Simcoe County Band plays the Sunday evening band concert Aug. 17 at 6:30 p.m

(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied)

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