The Tart, the Hussy and the Trollop on the Danforth!
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| Eric Peterson(Corner Gas), Seamus O'Regan and Allan Hawco |
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| Greg, Barry and Allan! Give 'er! |
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| Comedian Jonny Harris |
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| The lovely Hussy Lauren |
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| The lovely Colette, aka The Trollop! |
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| The lovely Kim Stockwood and Tarty old me! |
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| So Delicious! Hey now..I'm talking about the Guinness...yeah..that's it...photo credit: The Hussy |
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| Greg Hawco, Kim Stockwood, Barry Canning (photo credit: The Hussy) |
We arrived at our venue exactly on time by subway. A lovely Irish pub called Dora Keogh's on Danforth Ave. in Toronto. It was tiny but the pints were excellent( and plentiful since I wasn't driving!)
The gathering was in support of the Company Theatre's next production, The Test. Performers, all Newfoundlanders, were on a little stage right in front of us, except for the lovely Kim Stockwood who decided since we didn't come close enough to the stage, she'd come down close to us and performed in the middle of the pub with the audience surrounding her.
Up until last night only one female recording artist had ever brought tears to my eyes, and that was Bette Midler. Kim Stockwood's rendition of the St. John's Waltz, made her number 2. Her newest album is all traditional music and is on my mother's day wish list now!
Barry Canning, an incredibly talented singer and songwriter was on stage for the bulk of the night and played some well known covers as well as a few of his own tunes. My own particular favourite of the night was Sweet Caroline, done as well as I've ever heard "my" song sung. Lots of fun, bum bum bum!
Can't forget to mention the Newfoundland comedian, Jonny Harris. He told us about his favourite reality show on TSN. You know the one where they pit some regular guys against professional athletes just to see how it goes. He had trouble coming up with the name of it at first, then he remembered. Leaf's hockey! He was in my good books from then on. From that point on we were in stitches at his comparisons of Newfoundland to Toronto. Seriously funny stuff.
Now since the Trollop is the cousin of Greg and Allan Hawco, we hung out with the family all evening. What a fun bunch of people, most of them reside in Cambridge, Ontario, aka Bell Island west. Her famous cousin mingled around our area quite a bit, grateful for his family's support I'm sure!
In some ways it was surreal, there is Eric Peterson(of Corner Gas fame on CBC) having a chat. And a pint crosses the dance floor for host Seamus O Regan, host of Canada AM on CTV. Then the main draw, star of Republic of Doyle and co-founder of the Company Theatre, Allan Hawco is there cradling a pint of Guinness and chatting to everybody. Kim Stockwood is belting out a rendition of the classic Newfoundland song, "Now I'm sixty four." Oh how I long for those bright days, to come again once more~it was truly a down home celebration with the audience loudly joining in on the chorus and swaying to the music.
We danced, we sang, caroused, mingled, and generally enjoyed the entertainment. The Guinness was the best I've tasted west of the Duke of Duckworth. The talent in the room was unparallelled.
And it wasn't just the performers, but even the attendees. I had a chat with a lovely lady from Wesleyville to discover she was an artist. And not only is she an artist, but she's a Blackwood. If you know art at all you would be familiar with the work of David Blackwood likely and my new friend is his niece. We hit it off and became bbm friends and, of course face book friends. She lives 25 minutes away, knows my cousin and her daughter and I looked at her pictures this morning and is an amazing artist in her own right! Hi Tracy!
Now there were some seriously attractive men in this room. Good lord but this girl was twitterpated. But the highlight of my evening was a nice long chat with Kim Stockwood. We talked about music, my writing, her beautiful voice making me cry, her new album, my book, and the jewellery I was wearing.
I told her some stories, we laughed a lot and she is now the proud owner of a copy of my novel, The Secrets of Rare Moon Tickle. An avid reader, she promised she'd get right into it and let me know if she liked it. Then she knocked over her beer and I cut her off. Mudder Mary, Kim, handle your booze maid!
And then...just when I thought it couldn't get much more fun or more celebrity packed the word comes that Rick freakin' Mercer is outside! For Americans, he's kind of our version of John Stewart but with stunts. He is also a Newfoundlander as were all of the entertainers. He was mobbed and photographed. There are pictures floating around somewhere of that bit of added excitement!
All in all the Tart, the Hussy and the Trollop had a fantastic evening! I was awake a total of 22.5 hours by the time I got home last night(don't ask me why I wake at 4am these days every night) and I'm still groggy from my nap today.
The best part of it is that I'll get to watch these people (and many more) perform often when I get to NL as all but Barry Canning live there and I'm sure he'll show up as well!
I started yesterday morning with a foray into songwriting with Terry Rielly, a well known entertainer from Newfoundland. With absolutely no musical ability, that right there is proof that anything is possible! But that's a post all on it's own.
My life, at this point is so very satisfying and happy. I don't know that I've ever had more clarity, more of a sense of where I want to go and best of all, who I want to be. It's all mixed up with an absolute certainty that I'll get there and be that person. It seems every dream I dare dream comes true so I might as well dream big! Impossibility never plagues me now because looking back at each day and see that the previous one was a happy and successful one and it's proof enough for me that I'm heading towards the right place.
And that place is St. John's. It calls me like a seagull on Amherst rock calls to its flock. It's time to go home. Of that I have no doubt.
Today I am back to my regularly scheduled life of raising children and cleaning the house. And you would think it would bring me down but the smell of fresh baked bread, the laughter of little girls and the promise of a very quiet evening at home writing, having a cold Canadian and watching the hockey game is about as good as it gets for this girl with her big dreams and her simple daily life. It's all about balance and at this point in time, it's all just about perfect.
Cheers!
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