I have this little idiosyncracy. Well, okay, okay, I may have more than one actually, but for now, we'll focus on this one.
When it comes to research, I'm pretty good at finding out information when I need information, a task that has been made almost mindless, ironically, thanks to Google.
But, when it comes to "the arts" and "entertainment", I have this strange little way of being that rears its weird head in that I tend to base my decisions about what I want to attend based almost solely on intuition once I've read the smallest snippet of advertising about it. Therefore, if you're someone who needs to know all the details about what I've chosen beforehand, then you would be much safer to find out for yourself, or even safer if you stayed home.
Entertainment, like life, is risk. You might spend money and it might be crap. Or not! I'm willing to take that risk. In fact, I like that risk. Not every day mind you. But, every once in a while. Afterall, it's about the experience. It's about being invited into the ideas and perceptions of others who think more than most about playing with the mind and whatever freaky thoughts might enter it. God knows and so do you, if you're truly human, that can be scary, possibly dangerous, sometimes humorous and at its very worst, lethally boring. But, and this is absolutely key, it will be different than let's say, showing up at the office every day!
Last night was a good example. Hive 2. Part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival runs this year in Vancouver to June 14th. Apparently this Festival travels to a different city in Canada every second year and then returns to its base at the National Arts Center. They've been doing this for six years. They choose some of the hottest productions from independent theatre companies across Canada (although, this year, the Prairies for whatever reasons didn't make the cut).
Vancouver's Indie theatre scene, like the variety of cultural experiences in Vancouver in general, has exploded.
Hive 2 took place in a warehouse at the Centre for Digital Media at the Great Northern Way Campus which isn't really a "campus" yet! I'm not sure how to explain it. Dark. Big open warehouse-type space. Bar. 10 different groupings. Active theatre. Short. We showed up. We were led away to each contained experience. Wierd. Confusing. Different. Definitely, not Friday night in front of the TV.
Oh, and speaking of Oh, here's a little celebrity gossip for you. Sandra Oh of Grey's Anatomy and of the film Sideways was there with a friend. She looked liked, well, herself in a rumpled, sand-coloured raincoat and in true Canadian fashion, she was treated like you'd treat your next door neighbour. Actually, you'd be more friendly to your neighbour.
Why not attend one of the other theatre performances. You've got 8 days. Here's the Magnetic North site.