Sunday, July 08, 2012

CR Squared, The Hard Way
Corin Raymond's Bookworm
The Cameron House, Toronto ON 4 pm
CR Avery at Williamsford Books, Durham ON 8:00 pm
2012-06-30

Finally get to double up on my CR quotient. It's going to take a few miles to accomplish this one.

On the road at 11:00 am for a 1 hour ride to the northwest of Toronto where we're having lunch and visiting with our sister-in-law. She's a semi-retired educator and she's really going to get a kick out of Corin's love of reading. Another hour on the road gets us to the Cameron House in time for a drink and a chat before we're treated to 50 minutes of prose on prose. And some stuff about comic books.

Follow this link for a brief of  Bookworm.

London Free Press review

Corin is taking this show out west where he'll be doing what looks like 9 days at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and a handful of dates farther west. It'll be available in Southern Ontario in late October and early November if you pay attention.

Can't really tell you too much as it would take some the edge off the performance. Suffice it to say it covers a lot of topics from father-son bonds to Greek Myths; from Spiderman to zealot mothers; from long road trips to the escaping via Ray Bradbury.

CR Avery is writin' another book. Came in last week for a couple shows, took off to Cuba for some Rest&Relaxation&'Ritin'. Swung through eastern Ontario and Quebec when he got back and is saying good-bye at the wonderful cafe and bookstore in Williamsford ON. As we leave the Cameron at 5:15 pm we have 3 hours, minimum, left to go. Fortunately CR is in the back seat so we're not going to be late.

The evening starts with an open mic where 4 or 5 locals treat us to some spoken word pieces ranging in topic from a sad dog story to a love/hate relationship with Toronto.

CR is getting ready to leave the poems and songs from 38 Bar Blues behind. He's got a burlesque show coming east in November and he's starting to work on the pieces that will be in the new book.
So it was a treat to get Birdcage, The Boxer Who Just Returned From London, and PET tonight.

4 AM Text is gonna kill when it follows a naked woman.

Problem with the piano tonight - out of tune. Problem with the banjo tonight - tuning peg was broken at Customs. No problem for CR who makes half his show an unplugged performance on guitar. Always something different.

Set list


Sylie (Leadbelly)
Blame It On My Troubled Youth
Cain and Abel
Birdcage
4AM Text
I Know I'm On To Something
My Bad
Doll House and Pocketknife
That's It For This Cowboy
World Gone Wrong
Boxer Who Just Returned From London
PET



So 1 1/2 hours on the road north to Tobermory where we can recover.

Total distance: 413 km

Total time on the road: 6 1/2 hours

Total performance time: 1 hour and 50 minutes

Time well wasted.