04 May 2005

Blogs of omission

I've been a bad blogger of late, but a good interviewee: since arriving in Toronto I've done two radio interviews (one with Here and Now, the CBC Toronto afternoon show; the other with Les arts et les autres, the Ontario Radio-Canada noon show), and one newspaper interview (today, to The Globe and Mail). The Here and Now one was live yesterday; we made a recording but haven't had a chance to put it up yet. Les arts et les autres may air tomorrow at noon; the Globe piece may be a few days coming. (No word on the CP story as yet.)

Whew! Talking to the media is always a pleasure, but the interviews seem to happen right before or right after a performance. If they're before, I'm in the process of psyching myself up; if afterwards, I'm usually in a state of mental exhaustion. But I think they've gone well; I rather dread hearing what my accent in French sounds like -- sort of like hearing your own voice on an answering machine as you make multiple grammatical errors -- but maybe our digital equipment can correct my vowels when we get it up online.

It's great to be in Toronto. What a place, especially after so long on the road! The drive down from Sault Ste. Marie was nice, though marked by the hail/rain/sleet/freezing rain combination we are now used to (and which has incidentally 150% justified the decision to go by car this time and not by bike!). We continue to have Internet accessibility problems, perhaps because our hotel is not top-of-the-line (rates being very high here); and by God it's slow. My mind continues to boggle that this essential service should be so hard to secure. The best connection we've had yet is still the little motel in Revelstoke on our first night on the road.

And surfers shake their heads : but in their hearts : a dread and wonder dwell

to paraphrase myself.

Two school shows here in Toronto so far, both to Grade 7 and 8 classes. I think this is the most challenging age group, being neither fish nor fowl; but no one has attacked me yet. The shows are good, and would be better still if I took care to get more sleep. The public Toronto performance is on Friday at Fort York (7pm); this will probably be the biggest audience on the Tour, especially as I advertised it on the radio yesterday (with a listenership of several hundred thousand). The show will also be featured on BookTelevision!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Surfers indeed! Just think -- you could be in California!

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