Gung Haggis Fat Choy

This is Vancouver's mayor, Larry Campbell, the man who served as the basis of the character of the coroner on DaVinci's Inquest, a Canadian television series.

As you can see, he is wearing a Chinese jacket with his kilt. He was one of the imaginative dressers that came out for Gung Haggis Fat Choy last night in Vancouver at the Floata Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown. It is claimed that Floata is North America's largest Chinese restaurant.

When I called in to CBC radio & correctly answered a question on a contest, I won two tickets to this event, along with several sets of theatre tickets & a Tuscan cookbook.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy is also known as Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner. It is a truly Vancouver happening that illustrates the limitless value of our Canadian cultural mosaic.

Thank you Frankie Kerr for being my date for the evening & taking the excellent photographs that are included with this post, except of course the one of you & I.

The evening's entertainment included these Scottish dancers, members of Silk Road ensemble, Carmen Rosen, opera singers, door prizes & was hosted by CBC's Shelagh Rogers with Todd Wong & Tom Chin.

Frankie & I were two of 700 people who attended. And we were the lucky ones from our table who got to carry home the doggie bags.

These charming Scotsmen in kilts sat across from us at our table. All three of them work in the film industry.

This Buddha baby girl sat at our table too & I did so enjoy holding her. She was with us for all 4 hours of this glorious event & was peaceful throughout. She was born in the year of the Wood Monkey like me & did wake eventually to celebrate the upcoming transition to the year of the Rooster with us.

This appendage dangling from McCloud's nose like a Commedia dell'Arte mask is the end of one of the haggis's that came in the 10 course dinner that included deep-fried haggis wantons as appetizers & novel entrees like lettuce wraps with hoisin sauce stuffed with vegetables & haggis. Gung Haggis Fat Choi was a uniquely cross-cultural feast that will be remembered for years to come.

No al capitalismo Bush genocida

No al capitalismo Bush genocida
Originally uploaded by txiwhizz.

No a las privatizacion

No a las privatizacion
Originally uploaded by txiwhizz.

Bush terrorista borracho

Bush terrorista borracho
Originally uploaded by txiwhizz.

Vivan las resistencias del mundo

Vivan las resistencias del mundo
Originally uploaded by txiwhizz.

FOMMA Foons

These three women are improvising in one of the workshops I conducted for FOMMA, Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya, an indigenous women's theatre group based in San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas.

Through these workshops we created a physical theatre piece based on the humility of women, using techniques of bouffon, with a revolutionary message.

I was fortunate in that a Camp Winnarainbow young wonder woman named Yakira Teitel joined in the workshops & is staying in Chiapas through May & will continue the work we began together.

And if we can find the opportunity, the women from FOMMA would like to visit communities in Canada. I am looking for ways to help that to happen.

Inside the window in the blue wall behind the buffoons of FOMMA in this photograph is a small room with a telephone & an altar. While I was making masks with the actor/playwrites in the group, we kept the masks on the altar & the mask making material underthe pink fabric that covered the altar. This is the altar decorated one day with flowers.

Looking Forward

FOMMA Altar
Originally uploaded by txiwhizz.

Now I look into 2005, where I will finish writing the opera with Geoff Berner, do my first Vancouver Memorobics classes at the Roundhouse Community Centre & try to figure out how to get back to Chiapas pronto.

My son Adad is keeping his blog alive at www.humanfauxpas.com/baconparty even though he is now back in Montreal & starting his PhD. That has inspired me & I will attempt to keep this going even though I am not traveling & do not have my camera on my body at all times, as I did in Mexico.

Perhaps when it stops snowing. Yes, contrary to my memory of Vancouver & to the fluidity of my bones & muscles, it is snowing.

I will not allow the snow to keep me from meeting my daughter Kefi tomorrow at Kits community centre to offer her the every-other-day opportunity to prove she is stronger than her mother.

Nor will I let it keep me from the Jennifer Mascall class on Sunday.