At the open stage last night, I played an old song, Airplane on the Highway and then a newer one about parliament (not the band). Both Chaz and a woman new to the Tranzac open stage, Clara Mascara I believe was her name, wanted more explanation later, which makes me think my assumptions wrong again. Just because blues doesn’t mean dismissal a tout. On the other hand my guess about emitting critical remarks a la performance electronique, which I watched a bit standing behind Don Pyle and later from the side stage of Colleen, proved true. As they used to say in signs carefully taped to others in grade 5, kick me. Last night’s more interesting moments were Michelle Breslin from 5th Column playing for the the first time making a new audience for herself. Fun to hear Chaz travel in song to his 50s childhood and his own son’s break up. Those new people whether Helsinki waves or the one whose upper register was a tightrope walker, all did something more musically powerful, which I’m looking for vs. defensive lectures. I also like Marzio who always sings at least one song in Italian and explains weekly how famous this or that one is which none of us the Southern Cross ever heard before. The thing I liked most about Victory City was how the 9 yr old girl doesn’t comprehend the powers of what the God’s are saying through her and innocently advances magic without second thoughts. The kind of powers to create cities out of sand. Last August, when I picked up Arabian Nights I read similar designs. Made me think about Rushdie’s growing up and how many of us honour our influences when we creating art. Hard to believe people would try to kill someone over writing fiction, over creating art, over expressing ideas. At the same time not hard to believe at all.