Blogging 201 – Keep a file for ideas

So you have a blog, and you’ve decided that you have the resolve and the energy to continue writing it.

You’ve decided that you’re dedicating yourself to write at least twice a week (if not more). You have the blogging platform chosen, the setup, you have even integrated your blog with social networks (Twitter and Facebook).

But…

You’ve run out of ideas to blog about.

That’s not uncommon, and despite how prolific I tend to be (sometimes writing up to 6 entries in a day), sometimes I have no clue what to write about. Don’t get me wrong, I get pitched every single day of the week. I get dozens of emails asking me whether I’d be interested in writing about THIS or THAT cause/event/project. And most of the time, I *am* interested in writing.

But sometimes, by then I have already read my email, marked it with a star and a note “I should come back and write about THIS or THAT project”. And I sometimes get so overwhelmed I forget. So how do I still keep myself relatively on track? I keep a file for ideas. I write down a note for myself — “I probably should try to write about this before THIS date”. And then I file it.

Once a week, I review my folder of blogging ideas and see if I’ve missed anything. And then I set my blogging schedule to cover everything as I see fit. Perhaps this method will be of use to you.

Dinner and a movie

Last night, I had the pleasure to hang out with my friend AF and her boyfriend DM, both of whom are not in the online world. We had amazing food from Rangoli (the take-out version of Vij’s) and then we stayed in to watch Star Trek. I think that’s my definition of a perfect date night – dinner and a movie. My question is – is this a standard for everyone? E.g. do people like to do dinner and a movie as much as I do?

On working from home and office setup

One of the reasons why I don’t like working from home now is that I don’t have an ideal office setup. I do have some resemblance of a home office in a little hole-in-the-wall that I have in my bedroom, but frankly, I would need a MUCH better setup if I were to work from home on a regular basis.

If I had the right equipment (e.g. if I had enough space in my tiny apartment) to have a full-blown home office, I probably would work from home more. But, the truth is (a) I have a very good setup at The Network Hub and (b) I really don’t like the way my home office is set up right now. If I had it my way, I probably would have a home office that looked like the one on the photo on the left. I have been looking for IKEA stuff.

So, when do I actually work from home? It’s usually under one of the circumstances below:

• I don’t have meetings with clients set up downtown, nor do I teach on that day.
• I have to wait for any contractors to do work on the house, like today – the plumber had to come and fix our laundry
• I am sick and I don’t want to pass my cold along to anyone else
• I am working late and I realize that taking a bus home at 3:30am is not going to work. So I go home and work from home for the rest of the evening
• I have a particular program that I don’t have uploaded in my laptop and only in my desktop

When do you find yourself working from home? And, do you enjoy it? [On that note, I’m getting ready to go downtown as I was working at home this morning because the contractor was fixing the laundry drain]

Happy birthday Arieanna

EDIT – I found the original post, but I had set it to become a Page rather than a post. Yeah, I was exhausted when I wrote it. So below is the original post.

There are people who have come into my life through blogging who have left an indelible mark in me. My friend Arieanna Schweber is one of them. A professional blogger for b5media, for me Arieanna is much more than just a Vancouver social media personality. We (Arieanna, myself and her husband Ianiv) have grown close through the years, and they’ve been supportive of me since I’ve started participating more in the blogging community (in early 2008). Despite the fact that we have only been friends for a couple of years or so, we are pretty close and we have had a chance to spend a substantial amount of time together. I feel honored to have been the first (non-direct-family-member) visitor of their newborn Aiden Riley Schweber.

Arieanna and Ianiv are probably the only two of my friends from the blogging community with whom I force myself (well, let’s admit it – they force me) to relax and not do my usual hummingbird buzzing “I have to go right now and get back to work”. Whenever I hang out with the Schwebers, we really have a good time in a very low-key environment. It’s always a pleasure to spend time with them, and even though we won’t probably be able to celebrate her birthday (given how recent Aiden’s birth occurred) I definitely have her in my mind.

Arieanna – all the best today and every day, I’m very happy that you and Ianiv have come into my life. Today, wherever I end up, I will raise a glass to celebrate your presence in this planet. And I hope we will have a chance to celebrate you too!

—-

And this is the post I wrote this morning 🙂

I had crafted a beautiful blog post to congratulate my good friend Arieanna Schweber and scheduled to publish at midnight plus five minutes of December 2nd (today) so that she could see it (having a newborn usually disrupts sleep schedules, so I figured she’d be awake and it’d be the first thing she’d see online). Well, WordPress ate my blog post. Very frustrating. I spent a full 30 minutes crafting it and it was very nicely worded.

Since I don’t want to let more time pass by (and since I woke up a tad late, ooopsies), I figured I would just write a short blog entry to wish Arieanna a very happy birthday. I am very happy that you and Ianiv (and now Aiden) came into my life. You guys have been very supportive of me, and I am very glad to have you in my life. Here’s toasting to many more birthdays and chances to spend time together!

Have a wonderful birthday, Arieanna.

SAD light therapy lamps

One of the things that I dislike the most about winter in Vancouver is the lack of sun, the continued rainfall and the darkness around when 4:00pm hits. For someone who was raised in countries where warmth, sun and daylight are the norm, this became really an issue when I was doing my Masters degree. It continued to be a relatively rough ride when I did my PhD, one that I fought by staying at my office until late with lots of artificial light around me.

By then, I realized that I might be affected by a very mild version of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), what is often called “the winter blues”. A couple of years ago, JT wanted to ensure that, if indeed I had some form of mild SAD, there were ways to counter what could have a potentially negative effect on my academic performance and thus he got me a light therapy lamp

You can see a version of a SAD light therapy lamp in the photo above. This is not the one I have, but one that Darren and Julie did some marketing for, the LiteBook Elite). I am not one to feel the extreme effects, but I always try to prevent being affected and thus I do use my light therapy lamp regularly.

The Canadian Mental Health Association has very good coverage of what can be done to fight what many people call “the winter blues”, including suggestions of dietary changes. If you decide to use a lamp, I found out (because they’re following me on Twitter) that there’s a couple of companies that distribute SAD light therapy lamps. You can follow them here and here.

Admittedly, while neither of these companies paid me to write this post (or even suggest it), I wouldn’t mind getting a couple of lamps to give away to my readers (hint hint!).

World AIDS Day

According to the statistics presented on the website of World AIDS Day, and on UN-AIDS, 2.7 million new cases of HIV infections have occurred in 2008. The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is Universal Access and Human Rights. HIV remains a very stigmatized disease, and the worst part is that people affected by the virus are also frequently ostracized.

The UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé indicates that for him, universal access and human rights mean “means doing everything we can to support countries to reach their universal access goals for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support – all the while protecting and promoting human rights.”

For updates on this and other activities, follow UNAIDS on Twitter.

More environmental and policy-focused talks in 2010

Most of those who follow me on Twitter on either of my social media/personal and/or my research accounts may know that I’ve spent a substantial amount of 2008 giving a lot of talks about social media, online community building and how to further your message using social networking sites. This is something I will continue to do in 2010. However, I have realized that I miss the academic conference circuit, and since I’m almost done with my water governance book, I have decided that for 2010, in addition to teaching two university level courses, continuing my academic research, my consulting (both in environment and public policy and in social media), and my business coaching, I want to do more environmental and public policy-focused talks (open to the public).

I find that I have a lot of fun when I speak about what I study, and as I mentioned in my post on the Reading is Sexy calendar, I plan to read a short excerpt of my forthcoming book on water governance. If you’re interested to hear me

Reading is Sexy Calendar @EmmeRogers Launch Party on Dec 3rd

Yes, that beautiful building you see to your left, IS a library. More precisely, it’s Koerner Library, the place where I spent many of my mornings, mid-days, afternoons and evenings. The location where you could find me photocopying journal articles, scouring many shelves trying to find the latest issue of many academic journals.

It was at the Koerner Library that I found many interesting journals (including International Environmental Agreements, Environmental Politics, Canadian Public Policy, etc), and where I pored over thousands of book chapters and read hundreds of books. Because, you know, not only is knowledge power but also, Reading Is Sexy.

Coincidentally, that’s the name of the calendar produced by Ahimsa Media and to which I was invited to participate by the always delightful Emme Rogers. It’s the same calendar where yours truly and a number of other wonderful local personalities have posed (in my case, in a lab coat with the gorgeous Shannon Falls as the background). My photo adorns the month of April given its relevance to my research (April 22nd is Earth Day).

The book I am reading during the photo shoot (by talented local photographer and social media maven Tris Hussey, a good friend of mine) is by California State University San Marcos’ Professor Vivienne Bennett, another good friend of mine and (like me) a scholar of Mexican water policy. Her book, The Politics of Water: Urban Protest, Gender, and Power in Monterrey, Mexico, is an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of urban water governance in the northern industrial city of Monterrey. I chose this book because its subject matter is one of the closest to one of my most recent completed research projects on water and wastewater governance in the Lerma-Chapala river basin in Mexico.

At the launch party (which Emme is organizing at Gudrun’s in Steveston) this Thursday December 3rd, I will be reading a short excerpt of the book that came out of my Lerma-Chapala research project (the book is currently in press). Since it will be a new talk (I don’t expect that we will be talking for long, and besides, it’s a party) I would strongly encourage you to come, particularly if you want to hear me speak about what I do in my academic research (instead of the many times where you might get the chance to hear me speak about social media!)

The details (and RSVP) for the launch party are on Facebook. Register soon!

The Network Hub is opening more space in December 2009

I am always happy to share in the success of my friends, and I know that they always do the same with me. So when Minna Van (one of the co-owners of The Network Hub) told me that there would be more space available come December 2009 for entrepreneurs who are interested in renting space (also known as coworking or hotdesking) I was pretty damn happy. I am pretty sure that most of my readers know that my consulting studio has a home at The Network Hub, but also, independently of that fact, I’m really looking forward to meeting the new crop of incoming entrepreneurs.

For me, coworking at The Network Hub has been a really fulfilling experience because I get to bounce my ideas off of my fellow entrepreneurs, share a cup of coffee and talk about different topics, even test new concepts with a group of bright individuals, some of which have become very good friends.

From what I understand, the new space will be on the first floor, so it should be a very interesting time. I know that a number of initiatives around coworking are sprouting around in Vancouver and these should also foster innovation in the tech sector. I am also aware that there is a lot of people out there looking for shared space, and since at the time that Workspace closed, The Network Hub didn’t have space to accomodate Workspace’s former members, it looked as though the community’s perception was that vacancies at TNH never occurred – which isn’t true, sometimes, spaces open up, like in this case!

Disclaimer: While I have a desk at The Network Hub, this post is in no way, shape or form an advertisement. I just happen to know about these news from my conversations with Minna.

Tethering on an iPhone for PC

My consultancy has had a home at The Network Hub for over a year now, so I really haven’t had much need for wireless access outside of my office. However, given that I do a lot of research field trips, and being the case that I’m away from Vancouver today, I reflected on the fact that I may, at some point, need some form of non-coffee-shop wireless access. As you may all know, I don’t have an iPhone.

The truth is, the one thing that probably is swaying me the most (in addition to possibly responding to tweets and emails on the go) is the idea of tethering. I’m not sure what the cost on the data plan is going to be (I’m doing work today remotely with an iPhone, tethering on my PC laptop) but I figure that it should at least be a possibility. I wasn’t really sure whether it would really work with my PC as my laptop is not a Mac, but I have to hand it to Apple – as I said on Twitter.

Successfully tethering (on a PC), borrowed iPhone. Very clever, Apple. Your device tethers *even* w/ PCs, & seamlessly.

Now, I might need to start looking into an iPhone data plan and contract.

On disappointment

Sometimes, being a perfectionist is kind of annoying, and sometimes it’s disappointing. Despite the fact that I have been down with a cold this week, I’ve been finishing client work that I have needed to submit, dealing with my upcoming courses and the ones I co-teach this term, and trying to get a letter of intent for grant proposal that is overdue for five days, I haven’t had the concentration to do other things, amongst others, following up on some blogging on my site.

Admittedly, nobody expects me to blog when I don’t want to/can’t do it, but I do receive numerous pitches and a large number of them are initiatives that I deem worthy of being highlighted. So, despite the extenuating circumstances of being ill for a week, I still have a feeling of disappointment on myself. Having high standards sucks sometimes.

Also, I’m disappointed I’ve missed many great events this week, including American Thanksgiving at Anthony Nicalo‘s home, the book launch for Darren and Julie’s book, a Movember gala, an event that Mhairi Petrovic invited me, to name a few. But I also realize that I am of no use to anyone if I’m sick, so better to get better.

Who is responsible for blog comments

I was looking through some comments on the CBC News website on a recent story on the cost of mental illness. Anybody who has ever read my blog or knows my blogging history will know that anything related to mental health touches a nerve with me. I have a stake in reducing the stigma associated with mental illness. Full disclosure – I co-organized with Isabella Mori the first-ever Mental Health Camp.

So, my blood boiled when I saw the quality of some of the comments (trivializing mental illness, etc). As I was thinking about it, I questioned the double-standards we seem to have vis-a-vis news outlets. Apparently, as bloggers, we are responsible for the comments left on our site. But shouldn’t be traditional media measured by the same standards? Same as with the discussion on disclosure when freebies are given.

What are your thoughts on this matter? And remember, I moderate ALL comments 🙂 but I’m not responsible for them!

Upgrades to HootSuite include multiple social platforms

I’m a very big user of HootSuite (and as I told my friend from Invoke, Paul Donnelly I probably would have ditched TweetDeck ages ago if I could simply have a reply-all function and an adding-users-on feature like the ones that TweetDeck has). I went to the Movember Tweetup but they hadn’t released these upgrades yet and so now that I see them I wanted to announce it to the world. The crew at Invoke Media are good friends of mine, and I support them in their endeavours. Also, I *love* HootSuite. The multiple accounts and scheduling updates (now you can do this with LinkedIn, Ping.fm and Facebook) is fantastic. Congrats to Invoke for a job well done!

Opening Minds (Mental Health Commission of Canada)

On my commute on the Canada Line, I was reading about the Opening Minds initiative of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. As many of you know, mental health is NOT one of my research areas. However, I am very interested in this field for various reasons, not the least of them, the fact that I co-organized Mental Health Camp ’09 with my dear friend Isabella Mori). The initiative was launched at the beginning of October, so I’m not too late in learning about this. Its focus is on reducing stigma (a goal that is near and dear to my heart, and to many of my co-collaborators with Mental Health Camp).

Opening Minds, the largest systematic effort in Canadian history to reduce the stigma of mental illness, was officially launched on Friday 2 October by the Honourable Michael Kirby, Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

The one thing that worries me is that a cool project on media portrayal of mental illness (the exact title appears to be “Mental Illness: Language and Content in News Media Coverage“ that is not within my areas of expertise. I can do very good media analyses and have both very strong quantitative AND qualitative research skills, but as I said I’m not really an expert on media studies nor on mental health. So since the call for proposals closes on Dec 15th, I’m crowdsourcing this and hoping to find someone who can collaborate on this project with me and a few other people I want to get involved in this.

Suggestions, anyone?

Blogging 201 – Leave meaningful comments

A few weeks back, I asked on Twitter whether people would appreciate if I wrote a series of blog posts on blogging for beginners. Paul Rickett suggested that everyone and their mother had already written that kind of series of posts. A couple of my good friends have books on blogging coming out. And I figured “well, what can I write that can be useful to my readers who want to blog, once they’ve actually begun blogging, but that can be sort of a refresher course or a way to move forward along with their blogs” – and so this will be on “now that I have a blog”.

I have been pondering about what would be the content I would share on the Blogging 201 series, and I figure that the first tip is one that people (even some fairly well seasoned bloggers) seem to forget relatively easily. When you choose to comment on a site, drop a meaningful comment. This doesn’t mean that it has to be perfect.

Sometimes, you can feel that you can’t really add to the conversation, but you want to still express support or care for the blogger. For example, there are times when I feel overwhelmed and I tweet “I need a hug right about now”. And I get several responses just saying “virtual hug for you“. That alone helps. In the case of a blog post, even if you don’t feel like you can contribute much to the conversation, it doesn’t hurt if you say “not sure what to say, but just want you to know I’m here”.

I, personally, appreciate all the comments. I know that many people read blogs and don’t feel like commenting, but even if you feel that you can’t really give add much on to the conversation, you can still say “I’m here, I’m listening, appreciate what you are writing”.

Take a day off per week

When I was still in graduate school and finishing my doctorate, I remember having a conversation with my former PhD advisor on my goals, and the things I wanted to achieve, and so on. I clearly recall that he said “even though I want you to work hard, you should take AT LEAST one day off per week – 24 hours where you don’t think about your thesis and recharge your batteries”

I find myself having a hard time sometimes with this particular productivity tip. However, for example, last night I slept 15 hours and today I decided to write on my blog only a couple of things that were focused on productivity, rather than trying to write more in-depth stuff.

Today, I’ll be offline for the rest of today, mostly, and will spend some time doing some work around the house, although I do have a couple of grant proposals that need to go out, but those are mostly done. So, my recommendation is – if you can (and you certainly *should* be able to!) take a day off per week. It really does help me not to be thinking all academically or about consulting/teaching *all* the time.

Start working on chores right away

I am very organized 97% of my life, but the one area where I sometimes feel as though I need more organization is on deciding which chores to tackle first. As you may have read on my blog before, I am a big proponent of dedicating one day to cleaning up and of getting rid of the Box of Miscellaneous Stuff (BMS). I’m also pretty good at jumping ahead with the tasks I’ve already broken down into manageable bits, even while I travel (remember that post of mine on the Minimum Travel Work Unit, the MTWU?). But the one thing I always struggled with was – which chore to do first? I end up multitasking them all.

So, finally (and since I’m a very big proponent of reading horoscopes, even if just for fun) I decided to read my horoscope for today (as I am doing laundry, reading Twitter, downloading articles on workaholism and cleaning my apartment) and guess what it says?

Virgo: You have an unusual list of chores to do today and you might actually be looking forward to getting started on them. You don’t know exactly how it’s going to go until you begin, but don’t waste too much time figuring out all the details. Your best shot now will be to let go of your tendency to want more control; simply make it up as you go along. You have all the skills necessary for success.

My list is indeed unusual in the sense that I might need to do some additional Christmas shopping and buy some decorations for home. But what I particularly enjoyed was the advice – simply make it up as you go along. So, I’ve decided to advice what seems to be working for me now – start working on chores right away. Don’t delay thinking “should I do (a) or (b) first?” … just get going with them!

Have a wonderful day!

The Social Entrepreneurship Experience #SEE09

I’m late to capture the live-tweetage from the SEE conference (Nathan, you *should* have told me and I would have set up a live-tweetage!)

Moulin Rouge (Royal Winnipeg Ballet) at the Vancouver Centre for the Performing Arts

I love Paris. I really do. Having spent a substantial amount of time in this amazing city (and sometimes wondering what would have been of my life had I done my PhD at Sorbonne Nouvelle instead), I can’t help but always have a soft spot for anything that reminds me of the time I spent in Paris. And of course, I *have* been to the Moulin Rouge. An interesting spot, to say the least.

I have watched the Ewan McGregor & Nicole Kidman “Moulin Rouge” movie more times than I care to remember. I knew the story even before it was written in its current form. This ill-fated love story of a young aspiring artist (Matthew) and a newly-minted courtesan (Natalie) develops within the confines of the Parisian cabaret Moulin Rouge. Tales of lovestruck birds with tragic endings have been depicted in other storylines (Orpheum and Euridice, Romeo and Juliet, just to give a couple of examples). But Moulin Rouge has managed to capture audience’s imaginations in part, I believe, because it develops in Paris, and because in one way or another, despite knowing that the love story will end up tragically, we intrinsically (and not-so-secretly) want them to end up living happily ever-after. The promise of never-ending love.

JT took me last night to the Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver to see the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s performance of Moulin Rouge. We were both really excited about watching this show. Him, because it was the first time he had seen live ballet, and me, of course, because I’m still a dancer, someone who appreciates movement, rhythm, technique and passion.

Despite lukewarm reviews I just read on The Georgia Straight and The Vancouver Sun, I truly believe that the Royal Winnipeg Ballet accomplish something that very few people are able to achieve: transport the viewer to Paris to bear witness to the star-crossed romance of Matthew and Natalie, while almost flawlessly melding very disparate dance styles (ballet with tango and ballet with can-can).

I was hypnotized by the strength of Natalie’s fouettés, the graceful and beautifully coordinated grand jetés of the collective can-can troupe and the powerful ways in which the ensemble captured my soul in the two final numbers for each act. First, the story of lovestruck Natalie and Matthew completes Act I and at the end, as Natalie meets her ill-fated destiny. I shed tears during both numbers, deeply moved by the main leads’ performances. Overall, I was most impressed with the tango collective ensemble and the can-can, where I appreciated the synchronization and deeply complex moves that involve putting together a show of this caliber.

A little United Nations in and of itself, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet succeeds where I have seen others fail. Kudos to them for a phenomenal performance that brought the audience to its feet (JT and myself included) in a standing ovation. I’d strongly recommend this show (although, to be quite frank, I found the tickets to be slightly pricey – but it’s a really good show, and worth seeing).

TEDxVancouver livetweets #TEDxVan

I am not attending TEDxVancouver, but that doesn’t mean I can’t capture the livetweetage. I saw my friend Airdrie is going to attend and she mentioned she might live-tweet, so since she will be there, and I am sure lots of the social media folks are going to be there too, I decided to help out and capture the live-stream of tweets. Follow along, and if you want to contribute, add the hashtag #TEDxVan to your tweets. I’m going to assume that ScribbleLive won’t be case-sensitive.

Surveillance Games Research Workshop Livetweets #sgw

Since I won’t be able to make it to any of the sessions, I offered Dr. Richard Smith (SFU) to create an archive of the live-tweets for the The Surveillance Games: A Research Workshop”. My friend Christopher Parsons (who is doing his PhD at University of Victoria) informed me about the workshop and asked me to spread the word. I contacted a few friends of mine from the social media and traditional media world who are interested in the topic and found the hashtag (#sgw) for the workshop. Follow along in this post.

Land of Confusion (Genesis and Disturbed)

I have very eclectic musical tastes, but one thing I can never deny is that I have always been a fan of Genesis and in particular, Phil Collins. I went to have a coffee to Trees Organic Coffee (West Hastings and Granville, near the Canada Line station for Waterfront) and as I was making my way in, I ended up listening to a song I was trying really hard to identify. I could hear Phil Collins, but I was so tired I couldn’t really make out what the song was – all I knew was that it was one I really liked). I ended up asking (as usual) my friends on Twitter, and Jon Jennings informed me that it was Land of Confusion. From what Chris tells me, there is another version by Disturbed. So here are the two versions. Which one do you prefer?

On getting enough sleep

I have written before about how you can create new habits within 21 days (a commonly accepted time standard for establishment of new rules and norms, like a rule of thumb). One of the best habits I’ve developed in the past 3 months is to go to bed early and to wake up early too.

I really value a good night of sleep and there have been times where I have gone to bed at 8.30pm (something previously unheard of).

Sadly, with going to bed early I have gotten used to waking up early too (I have to deal with clients and research in the East Coast too).

I decided to test with a BlogThings thingie whether I was getting enough sleep. Clearly, am not. I have tried several remedies (because, even if I sleep at midnight, I still wake up at 5:00am), including hot baths, etc. To not much avail. So, I’m wondering what to do.

I need an iPhone (or an Android or BlackBerry for that matter)

I have been thinking about the kind of equipment I need and most of the people who know me (even those who meet me for the first time) are kind of shocked that my cell phone is not a smart phone. I have probably the stupidest, simplest phone ever. It doesn’t even have a camera. I chose it for that very reason. I am always online so I chose the least techie phone I could.

There is only one little problem – currently, my workload is so massive and I have to travel to client sites, and to the schools where I teach, so given that I too, have Obssessive Productive Disorder (OPD, as Chris Burdge put it on his comment on my post on the Minimum Travel Work Unit, MTWU), I would benefit from having a smart phone. I could tweet, respond to client’s emails, or my students’ emails, etc.

The only challenge would be (a) to deal with the long-term contracts that phone companies lock you in (I am currently in a pay-as-you-go, non-data plan) and (b) assess whether I really, really want to be THAT connected. I do foresee enormous benefits, but I’m still debating whether I’m going to go the smart phone way or not.

Thoughts, my dear readers?

Win tickets to the world premiere of Demon Voice (theatre)

Thanks to PR superstar Cynnamon Schreinert, who has always kindly helped me with ticket giveaways to several local theatre production, I have a pair of tickets to give away for the world premiere of Shawn McDonald’s Demon Voice. Presented by Touchstone Theatre, a Canadian production company that has (as per their About page) an all-Canadian mandate, Demon Voice explores a theme that has permeated in my life for a long time – intimacy.

I am very intrigued by the teaser summary that was provided on Demon Voice’s press release:

A melted woman hovers between life and death trying to remember what happened to her. Anna runs into an ex-con she sentenced harshly five years earlier. Mike meets Rachel for a one night hook-up that turns deep. Pete roams the streets looking for Darryl. Six lives stumble toward personal freedom and connection, entangling souls and exposing hidden damage. Demon Voice is a powerful meditation on the thirst for intimacy and its inescapable consequences.

Opening night is Saturday November 21st (which I am definitely not going to be able to make as I am quadruple-booked for that night) but I have two tickets to give away for November 25th. I will be drawing the winner of this contest on Monday Nov 23rd at 11 am. Drop a comment on this post to enter the contest!

Demon Voice runs from November 20 to 28 (Tues – Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 4pm) at Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Granville Island. Tickets are $26 adults, $24 seniors, $20 students from Tickets Tonight at 604-687-2787 or on Tickets Tonight’s website.