Art After Dark, WritersFest, Wood and Fuel!

The moon is glowing full, and so is the week (and month) ahead. After taking a break all summer, time to get serious about artshopping.

Although it's a great week ahead, I've one big complaint: I wish Downtown Kingston had moved its wonderful Art After Dark, because I think it will suffer, not benefit from, the competition of the WritersFest events. I really want to see Bob Blenderman's work at Studio 22, and the Water for Life photographs, taken in Africa, at the Grand Theatre -- but then will have to dash off to the actor Nicky Guardini doing a staged reading of Carolyn Smart's very neat women's monologues, "Hooked." (Just reading that inspired our family to read Carson McCullers this summer...she's truly captured some interior mindscapes.) But if you're not seeing a WritersFest event on THursday, give the Art After Dark a shot. It's free and wonderful.

Merilyn Simonds has created a phenomenal Writersfest, but I'm "only" going to the evening events. In addition to Hooked, we're seeing the opening night Paul Quarrington piece and Joyce Carol Oates and "the poets" (especially Jill Battson) on Friday night's Vox Performa.

Saturday, I think I'll head off to Tamworth to check out a sale at the beautiful Stinson Wood Studios...and Bon Eco Design followed by the opening of Homelands at Modern Fuel (then probably popping over to the WritersFest Saturday Night Speakeasy, which was a lot of fun last year, as poets/writers improvised to Jonathan Stewart and friends.

Next week it quiets down a bit, (so why isn't THAT Art After Dark week?) which is a good time to check out Night at the Firehall Theatre. It wasn't my favourite script of all time, but the depiction of an Inuit community is very powerful, and the young woman in the lead is amazing.

We actually booked a hotel to go and see Nuit Blanche in Toronto Oct. 2 - a good time to also catch the wild ceramicist Shary Boyle at the AGO.

It's also time to get the Grand Theatre "alternate theatre' Package at the Baby Grand, which offers options for all three Theatre Kingston shows (the Attic and the Pearls and Three Fine Girls starts their season in November (Norman 4D, about Norman McLaren kicks off the Grand's Theatre series on Oct. 20.) www.kingstongrand.ca

That's it for spectator sports right now. Omigosh, Micky Rooney is in town today. Life is so strange.