 Hi, art lovers! | | |  | CBC Still Photo Collection | | | One of our top articles last week was a nostalgia-stuffed story about a show that was way ahead of its time. I’m talking about Mr. Dressup, a legend of CBC programming and the subject of the new (award-winning) film, Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe. The feature doc debuted Tuesday on Amazon Prime, and like most people over 25, it’s definitely on my weekend watch list.
As director Robert McCallum says in this interview, “[Mr. Dressup] is a language that unites our country coast to coast to coast.” (He’s also likened it to “the Seinfeld of kids’ shows” — insomuch as it’s a show about nothing.) And if you were among the countless Canadians who voted it the most beloved homegrown television series to ever hit the airwaves, I imagine you’ll want to crack open a Tickle Trunk of memories before pressing play on the new film. To that end, here’s CBC News Entertainment’s preview. (They even catch up with Jani Lauzon, the puppeteer who played Grannie.) And from The Current, here’s an interview that first aired during TIFF; in it, McCallum discusses the close friendship between Mr. Dressup and Mr. Rogers, the “Lennon and McCartney of kids’ TV.”
Other nostalgic things I bookmarked last week: This is what happens when more than 100 artists collaborate on an animated episode of Frasier. (Frasier, BTW, is voiced by Eric Bauza of CBC’s Stay Tooned.) MuchMusic’s archive is going digital. I had no idea this “strange Minnesota farm kid” invented fantasy fiction as we know it. Do you miss the days of small concert venues? Commotion discussed why they’re disappearing. The show also got thinky about The Exorcist, which has been rebooted so many times I’m not sure if it counts as nostalgic IP. (Seinfeld, however …) And if this collection of links has convinced you that cultural innovation is a thing of the past, I’ll leave you with one last long read. | | | | | And because we promised you eye candy ... | | | | |  | Roda Medhat | | Is anyone reading this in Halifax? (Hello!) Who saw Roda Medhat’s Killim at Nocturne last night? It was on our list of must-see projects at the festival, and the same inflatable sculpture was at Nuit Blanche Toronto earlier this year. The year before that, Roda had this piece at NB: Farsh, a 16-foot obelisk wrapped in traditional Kurdish carpets. On his website, he describes it as a sort of beacon, intended to draw different communities together. | | | | |  | Photo: James Arthur MacLean/Colin J. Muise | | One more highlight from our Nocturne list: Colin J. Muise’s Becoming Halifax. Colin makes costumes based on local landmarks (pictured: the Tufts Cove Generating Station). | | | | |  | Natalie Purschwitz | | Kamloops, B.C., has its own art-after-dark festival, and it’s happening right now. Luminocity is on through Oct. 21, and this is a preview of one of the featured video works: Ai Ikebana by Natalie Purschwitz. | | | | |  | Maru Aponte | | A correction! I referred to the North Shore Art Crawl by the wrong name in last week’s newsletter (and very much regret the error). Some good news, though: there’s still a chance to check it out because today’s the last day of the crawl. Griffin Art Projects is one of the participating venues, and you’re looking at a painting by one of the gallery’s current artists in residence, Maru Aponte. | | | | |  | Prime Video | | | | | Remember Casey and Finnegan? (Of course you do!) Created by puppeteer Judith Lawrence, Casey might have been the first non-binary character on children’s television. | | | | |  | Courtesy Nan Devitt Tremblay | | | | | It was the TV show that brought runway glamour into Canadian living rooms, and as an FT journalist, Nan Devitt Tremblay had a front-row seat to fashion’s Golden Age. Now in her 60s, the Toronto native is telling her story in the documentary Carton d'invitation. | | | | |  | CBC Arts | | | | | | | Vivek Shraya stops by Here & Queer to talk about her multifaceted career, a journey that’s captured in the new CBC Gem series, How to Fail as a Popstar. | | |  | Mark Williams | | Mark is part of the 2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which will arrive at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on Nov. 25 and the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria on March 1, 2024. Mark has two photos in the show, and he captured this shot of a three-legged Arctic fox near Cunningham Inlet on Somerset Island, Nunavut. He told CBC News more about the “rare encounter” that led to this arresting photo. | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time! | | | | | |
