Good morning, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and are excited for another fun work week. It’s Halloween week, so don’t wait until the last minute to buy your costume, decorations, and most importantly: candy!! AND….if you wait until next Monday, the candy will be 50% off, so you can buy it for next year (if it will last in your house that long!)
Halloween Events:
Normally, in non-pandemic times, I’d write a post listing all of the parties and activities around town for Halloween, but you won’t see that this year. Despite the new capacity limits that Mr. Fordy announced last week, clubs, strip clubs and sex clubs still can’t open to full capacity!!! WHAT? What else is there to do on Halloween?
LOTS! The usual Halloween players are back in business, running their events; it’s almost as though things are back to normal! You’ll have to plan ahead though, and get tickets early, as I am sure that most local favourites will sell out! So if you want to make plans, buy your tickets NOW…not today, not tomorrow, but RIGHT NOW (after you’re done reading this post, of course). Here’s what you should look into:
Saunders Farm – offers daytime fun, called “haunting season” for the whole family each day this week leading right up until the 31st. For the night time ‘scare the shizit out of you’ events, check out “Fright Fest,” running each night this week. This classic event is one of the most well-attended annual events for Halloween, so if you’ve never been, I would highly recommend checking it out!
Upper Canada Village – Pumpkinferno is running each day, and offers a variety of activities for all ages, but is mostly geared towards kids/families. Only an hour from downtown, it’s worth the drive for some seasonal fun!
SKREAMERS is back this year at Proulx Farm in Orleans. After taking a break in 2020 during the COVID closures, they’re back with their spooky wagon rides through the “border forests,” followed by a walk through the “Side Laboratory” and the “front barn.” Once again, these activities are selling out fast, so get tickets while you still can! There are only scheduled rides on Friday through Sunday of this week. Check their website for tickets and more details.
So even though I’ve only listed the big draws here in this post, there are actually events running all week around the city. Instead of my typical Halloween post with all the details, I’ve just added the events to the Events Calendar; go there to see what’s going on around town this spooky season!
Ottawa Fall Home Show
If Halloween isn’t your thing, the Ottawa Home Show has returned for the first time in a year and a half for in-person programming at the EY Centre. Thursday through Sunday, the Ottawa Fall Home Show will be featuring all sorts of home renovation experts. I personally love home shows, they provide amazing inspiration for all sorts of projects. It’s also great to be out and about in public again.
Time for Some Theatre
I know my last post focused on upcoming theatre, so I won’t delve too much into details, but will just add some updates.
The Greely Players
Auditions for The Greely Players’ production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella have been officially announced. They’re especially looking for men in their 20s and 30s, but are running auditions for all ages and genders. An information session for the show is on Saturday, November 6th, and auditions will be held on November 13th and 14th at the Greely Community Centre on Meadow Drive.
“Are you interested in Political Intrigue, Revolution, Humour or Magic? Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a modern adaptation on the classic tale presented by the Greely Players. After several months away from the stage, the Greely Players can’t wait to come back with this breathtaking rendition of a lifelong, family favourite. The Greely Players encourages anyone who is fully vaccinated and at least 12 years old to come out to the Information Session on November 6th and Auditions on November 13-14th. Ottawa Public Health protocols pertaining to COVID-19 will be adhered to by the Greely Players throughout the Information Session, Auditions and regular rehearsals. For further information please visit Greelyplayers.ca.”
The Gladstone Theatre – NO-SHOW: Songs from Lost Gigs
The Gladstone theatre is opening for live performances again, and this Three-Sisters and Burn Ban Productions performance looks like it’ll be a great way to kick off theatre and musicals again.
“Opening October 29th and running until November 13th, No-Show: Songs From Lost Gigs is an eclectic evening of tunes by great Canadian artists such as Sarah Slean, Sarah Harmer, Hawksley Workman, Corb Lund, Sloan… and even some Alanis in the mix! Plus a bit of Judy Collins & Arlo Guthrie smuggled across the closed border… Oddly enough, the songs happen to be about the end of the world, living life in hiding, and how your plans never quite work out the way you expected. But ultimately, the music is all about resilience. Woven among the tunes are poems and stories, vignettes of the lives of artists in a time without art.”
I’ll be attending opening night on the 29th, and I’ll make sure to get a review out quickly so that you can grab your tickets for the remainder of the show run. It’ll be so great to get back into the theatre and take in some live entertainment! Tickets are available for all dates of this show, and can be purchased through the Gladstone Box Office online.
Not Ready?
If you’re still avoiding the pandemic world, there are plenty of things for you to do still! Even though the “Covert-Almost-Irish-Twins” are keeping us pretty busy, we’ve made time to keep up to date on our TV-watching. In previous posts last spring, I had started a “what am I watching” section, but ended up deciding not to continue with that. However, I have to offer some suggestions here. For those of you who have been hiding under a rock, there’s a great new show on Netflix called Squid Game. I assume everyone has binged it already, but if you haven’t…..do it!! It’s really addictive (like so many of Netflix’s originals), but man, this one is messed up! Although it’s easy to draw comparisons with Hunger Games and maybe even the literary classic “Lord of the Flies”, it has a whole new twist to it. Fun fact: in the first episode there is a phone number printed on the back of the business card. The number that is there is actually a real phone number in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and the owner of that number was inundated with thousands of calls when the show first aired. That scene has been removed now, but I still find that funny! I guess post-production lessons that were learned long ago in Hollywood haven’t yet been learned in the Koreas.
My next suggestion for some entertainment CAN be watched at home on HBO-MAX: the theatrical release of Dune corresponded to the HBO release. I am a huge Dune fan. Despite the low budget for the original 80’s release, I still really loved the movie. The book was incredible, and even all of the off-shoots from Brian Herbert were entertaining, although not nearly as detailed and intricate as Frank’s original. The remake of Dune was announced in 2012, and I’ve been excited since then. It was cancelled twice for various reasons, but finally went ahead with production. It even features Hollywood heart-throb (really??) Jason Momoa, who plays Duncan Idaho!
Dune is an amazing mix of science fiction, politics and war. Oh….and of course giant sandworms!! “If you walk without rhythm, you won’t attract the worm” – Fat Boy Slim (“Weapon of Choice”) – Paul Atreides
Check out the Dune trailer here:
Dune | Official Main Trailer – YouTube
The movie was fantastic! I won’t get too into reviewing it, but for me, the word ‘epic’ has been completely re-defined thanks to this movie. The sound effects and music throughout are incredible, setting the scene for excellence. Just go see it!
Thanks for reading, everyone, and enjoy late October’s mild weather before the white stuff arrives. I got my snow-plow sticks put up on the driveway this weekend; winter is coming!!
Have a great week, stay healthy, and be kind to one another!
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