Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

While I was watching the recital at UBC, I started daydreaming about putting on a play. Today I was talking to James aboot it and I came up with an idea for a sort of guerrilla theater. Basically, we would write a play - a little on the improvy side but still with definite characters and a storyline. There wouldn’t be any set dressing but there could be props & costumes. The venue would change from week to week and in fact we wouldn’t make arrangements with the venue - we’d just figure out when a venue - like let’s say the Havana Theater or the stage we watched the recital at the UBC Music Hall or whatever - and then announce on our website what time the play starts. There would be no charge to see the play, but if it lasted the full length then we’d take donations. If the manager or the venue asked what the hell was going on, we’d incorporate that into the performance. In fact - the subject of the play could be guerrilla theater, and trying to set it up. It would be like a documentary in play form about the subject of the play. META!! I think it would be fun and if it got shut down - well nobody is out their $10.

Today I played tennis, at UBC I experienced my first piano recital, and I cleaned out the hall closet, discovering some old doublemint gum in a jacket pocket–still good.

News snippets from the past week: US: It was reported that more than $5 billion in antiterrorism money for local governments and agencies has been held up by red tape, and that last year the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control assigned only four employees to work on terrorist cases; in contrast, almost two dozen were investigating violations of the Cuban embargo. Since 1990, the office has opened 93 investigations into terrorist finances and 10,683 relating to Cuba. California banned Diebold’s electronic voting machines, and experts said that the United States is losing its dominance in science and technology. Scientists developed a type of computer made of DNA that they hope could someday diagnose and treat diseases from inside the particular human cells that require treatment. Researchers discovered a molecule, used by some cancer tumors, that prevents cells from dying. Archaeologists found an underground Egyptian maze filled with mummies, and scientists discovered that women tend to marry men who look like their fathers. A Russian museum of erotica announced an exhibit featuring Grigory Rasputin’s penis.