Urgent!!! And Sorry For All The Exclamation Points!!!

A lucky few (hundred) of you will have received this same information by email. Sorry for the media saturation, but I hope this is an effective way to spread the word.

Brooke and I attended a very important meeting this past Sunday afternoon. It was regarding the future of one of our very favourite cultural institutions in this city. For the past 15 years, Brookstone Theatre has been fulfilling its mandate “to radically re-connect theatre and spirit.” Brookstone is a small but passionate theatre company that has received many positive reviews and Dora Award nominations (the Canadian equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards). They receive a small amount of government funding, but since their mandate is broadly Christian, they don’t receive the same amount of public funds as other theatre companies of their size. Among churches and the Christian community, Brookstone often gets overlooked or simply challenges people’s ideas of what “Christian theatre” should be a little too much. They exist, like many innovators, between two worlds.

The thing that has always threatened to happen is happening now. Brookstone is in danger of falling through the cracks. If they are unable to raise $30,000 by the end of January, Brookstone will simply cease to exist. This would leave an empty hole in the soul of our city. Nobody else is doing what Brookstone tries, and succeeds at, bringing issues of spirituality into the realm of professional theatre. There is not one performance I have attended in the past ten years that has not moved me and caused me to think.

The theatre is not losing money. Each season they have been profitable. But over the years, the lack of a professional business manager has led to mounting debts that have simply been lost in the shuffle. Donations given will go toward the debt as well as to funding a “transition” season with a lower budget. Brookstone’s board of directors, a dedicated group of volunteers, are also searching for a fulltime business manager who will start putting things in order. The feeling among Brookstone’s supporters at the meeting was that we simply cannot allow Brookstone to disappear.

Donations in ANY amount are welcome and needed. There are several ways to donate. Cheques can be made out to “Brookstone Performing Arts” and mailed to: Brookstone Performing Arts, 188 Lowther Ave., Toronto, ON, M5R 1E8. If you prefer to give via credit card, you can give online through CanadaHelps.org.

Please consider this an investment in the future. If you’ve ever been to a Brookstone show, you’ll want to ensure their survival. And if you haven’t, this may be the only way to make sure that you’ll be able to in the future. I’m not totally comfortable writing to ask you for your money, and I’m sorry if I’ve offended you. But I think it’s absolutely critical. And whether you can give or not, please consider linking this.

CanadaHelps Donation Page
Brookstone Theatre

January

Ah, January. Two things always happen in early January:

  • Macworld — In a word, underwhelming. No consumer hardware news except the silly iPod mini, which is insanely overpriced. When Steve Jobs said, comparing it to a US$199 Flash-based player, that the US$249 iPod mini was “the best $50 you’ll ever spend,” I think what he meant was, spend another US$50 and get more than three times the capacity. For US$299, get the 15GB iPod. If these had been US$149, they would have sold a ton. In a year, they will be, and it will probably be too late.
  • The Beginning of SXSW Frenzy — I’ve already started my planning. From March 11-17, I will be in Austin, drinking and talking geek talk. Thanks to the stronger Canadian dollar, the $14 margarita I “enjoyed” last year can now be had for closer to $12. Let the good times roll!

In other news, just before the new year officially began, I quietly threw the switch and the web site for Lifford Wine Agency roared (groaned?) into life. Of course, after looking at it for close to six months, I’m sick of it. And already working on version 2.0. Or at least 1.1. Time to learn PHP/mySQL, I think. And some design skills…

Christmas Letters

Now, before I get started, I need to apologize in advance to my friends. I mean you no disrespect. Try to see the humour!

Among a certain crowd of my friends, a new “tradition” has taken hold. It’s the annual Christmas letter. Tucked into the Christmas card is a photocopied letter, usually on cheerful stationery covered with snowflakes or snowmen or holly or Christmas lights. Since it’s from the whole family, the letter is usually narrated in the third person, which makes it sound weird. I mean, who’s narrating this thing? And since this is sent to everyone from family to close friends to acquaintances, there isn’t much detail. There are usually three themes: property, employment, and offspring. So here’s one from Brooke and me:

Dear Friends,

Peace and joy to you at this blessed time of year. We’ve had a very exciting 2003, with lots of crazy stuff happening all the time. However, we can only talk about some of it. Just like you, we had good times and bad times, and a lot of kind of boring times, too. We got a little older, hopefully a little wiser, and a little further down the road trying to figure out life, the universe, and everything.

Brooke:

  1. wanted us to buy a house but also wanted to travel, so we decided not to buy a house. Not that we could have, anyway…
  2. continues her job at a fabulous FASHION magazine (which shall remain nameless), though still not a convinced fashionista.
  3. still dislikes OPK™(other people’s kids) and therefore remains ambivalent about having any of her own.

James, meanwhile:

  1. remains blissfully ignorant about mortgages and property taxes and how to fix stuff. For a while, there, it was close, though…
  2. wanted to quit his job in February, but lost it in March. In July, he found a much better one, though he makes about 58% of the money he did before.
  3. still has that gleam in his eye, though it’s likely to remain there.

Oh yeah, did we mention that the two of us:

  1. still don’t own a car, and have no plans to buy one.
  2. went to Poland for two weeks in July with our church to teach ESL.
  3. argue sometimes but are still very much in love.

Well, that was our year. We didn’t buy a dog, either. Merry Christmas!

Love, James and Brooke

P.S. That stuff you might have heard about us sacrificing a goat was totally untrue. We’re not even allowed to barbecue in our apartment building.