Day 238. Busy Busy

Can’t believe it’s April already.  But it is.  And I am going to be so crazy busy, this month is going to whiz by.  I’m tired just thinking about it.  I’m looking forward to everything, but I have got a lot on the go.

On top of the usual work I do for him, one of my clients is having an event for his clients, this month.  A breakfast, with a guest speaker.  Preparations have already been keeping me busy, but there’s still a lot to do.  Plus I’m shooting some videos for another client.  Well, I’m not the one doing the actual shooting, but I am producing and creative directing them.

It’s work I really enjoy.  I produced fashion videos for years, back in Montreal, when I worked in the fashion industry.

Socially April’s nuts as well.  David Sedaris, the American humorist, comedian and author is coming to town.  Really, he’s a satirist, which I love.  He’s going to be reading from a lot of his books.  I’m going with a friend, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Another friend and I have split a 20-film pass to this year’s Hot Doc’s festival,  It runs from April 26 – May 5.  Most days we’re seeing one film, but there’s a couple where we see two.  That’s nothing for me.  When I went to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) I always saw five and six a day, for ten consecutive days.

Not so sure I could handle that now.  But I am looking forward to our films.  It’s always challenging to cull it down from a couple of hundred to only ten, but I think we’ve chosen very well.

We’re seeing a documentary about Anita Hill.  Specifically about how her testimony against Clarence Thomas changed her life.  Another film is about a journey of self discovery one man takes while caring for HIV-positive orphans in India, while his friend documents it.  Yet another is about the legendary New York gay bathhouse where Bette Midler got her start.

Number 4 is about a tiny backwater town in Alabama (Muscle Shoals) and how it made stars out of the likes of Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin, Gregg Allman and more.  We’re also seeing the world premiere of a documentary about Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss, as they speak publicly about the importance of science and reason.  Next on the list, we follow an acclaimed director and an award-winning actress on their journey to India, in the hopes of finding a cure for the actress’s cancer.

Then, a film about the delicate balancing act between consuming human love and an all-encompassing artistic passion (based on the life and career of a world famous Swedish ballerina).

Most of them so far as quite serious.  We’re changing that up with a documentary about the 40-year love story of two Japanese artists who live in New York.  We’ll get to peek into their rivalries and processes, as well as the interaction between love and creativity.  Then there’s a film that follows four glue-sniffing Kenyan kids over the course of three years, watching them create their own family.  And finally, we get to listen to four Chilean chambermaids who, despite working in a hotel where rooms are rented by the hour, they still believe in love.

Quite a variety, don’t you think?

But that’s not all.

Errol Fisher, the jazz and blues singer I’ve written about a couple of times, will be playing at a different venue in April.  He’ll be at the relatively new, Ritz Hotel.  I’ve been there once since it opened about a year or so ago.  But it was for a conference.   It will be interesting to see what it’s like ‘after dark’.  So a friend and I will pick a night (he’ll be there for three) and go catch his show.

Whew!  I better double up on some of my vitamins, I think.

That just about takes care of the whole month.  There’s only 30 days in April.  Couldn’t be many left.