Posts by movita beaucoup
family snapshots: the explorers
This is one of my most favourite family photos. That’s Rosie Beaucoup and the Beaucoup children exploring Whale Cove in 1981. My dad took the photo. I turned in my studio keys yesterday; the curtain lowers on twenty-four years of sweat, laughter and tears. Bill Beaucoup is retiring in two weeks, and my sister is leaving her job to…
Read Morecrap no. 31
I’ve been a bit MIA lately because I have a neck injury that is making it difficult to sit at the computer and live and stuff. I know what you’re thinking: didn’t I delete this blog from my reading list three months ago? YOU DIDN’T. I fell at work the other day. (That’s not how I hurt my neck; only my self-esteem…
Read Moreballet explained: coppélia, act 3
READ ACT 1 | ACT 2 It is the day after Franz was almost murdered and Swanilda destroyed a man’s life. The town is preparing for the wedding of the pair because – as in most ballets – the female lead has completely forgiven the asshat she’s been dating for his indiscretions. Wedding attendants and guests…
Read Moreballet explained: coppélia, act 2
READ ACT 1 HERE The curtain rises on Doctor Coppélius’ house. Inside the dimly lit workshop, Swanilda and her friends investigate the space which is filled with life-sized mechanical dolls. Like the characters in any decent horror movie, the girls ignore the stench of heartbreak and desperation, and lack the good sense to flee before being discovered. Instead, they wind up the…
Read Moreballet explained: coppélia, act 1
Our story begins long ago, in a small European town. It’s a bright and warm summer’s day, and a festival to celebrate the arrival of a new bell is set to begin. (People in the days of yore were really into ding-dongs.) Behind the doors of a tiny wooden house lives Doctor Coppélius, a toy-maker…
Read Morecrap no. 30
Murder Couple is MIA. I have noticed an unmarked white van driving around the neighbourhood, but can’t see the driver well enough to know if it’s one of them. Fingers crossed! Speaking of horrible couples, I made a birthday cake for Mr. Rutherford on the weekend. I was feeling pretty bad about making a cake for…
Read Moremarooned
In the 1980s, the Red Cross ran a water safety program which aimed to make Canadians safer in, on, and around the water. Certified instructors led countless children through a program of swimming lessons which consisted of eight levels, each marked by a coloured badge. Lessons started at the yellow level and progressed to orange,…
Read Moremost unlikely
Like any other decent high school, mine had a well-established social hierarchy. The members of TOTS (Top of the Stairs) had long ruled the school. Mostly twelfth graders, with a smattering of popular tenth and eleventh grade students, TOTS were as cool as cool could get in a 1980s rural high school. Each year a…
Read Morepetite merde no. 3
The other night, 2.0 told me that my underwear was on backwards. movita: No. No, it’s not. 2.0: Are you sure? It looks lik- movita: No. 2.0: But it looks like they are on backwar- movita: I know how to put on my underwear, honey. 2.0: The big side is supposed to go on the back…
Read Moreclose call
Saturday, 4:15 pm: I return from work to find our garden gate flung open. The gate was not open when I left that morning. I check the yard and then enter the house cautiously. 4:45 pm: Our landline is not working. I unplug and re-plug all the phones in the house, but despite my technical savvy, the phones…
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