2019: Personal news and announcements from our members

My wife just updated her web site, devoted to her mask and puppetry work. The gal's a genius and this shows why:

https://sherronburns.carbonmade.com

Wonderful stuff she's done and a wonderful thing she's doing.

These puppets reminded me instantly of Macnas's 'giant puppets'; there are 2 or 3 in the style hers made me think of on this page: http://macnas.com/productions/. Don't know whether they'd be of any interest to her.

Sherron says it's high praise to compare her work to Macnas--those folks are amazing and work on a much larger scale.

Sher's creations are personal, intimate, her performances often take place on tabletops.

Thanks for taking the time to check out her work, it always leaves me in a state of wonder...

Cliff, just wondering if your friends who are breaking into the movie biz ever use a site like the one I just stumbled upon. After a quick glance it looks like they are there to serve those trying to break into the biz or promote a concept.

https://watchdust.com/anthology/

It's my youngest son Sam and his pals--they've graduated film school and are trying to earn their bones so they can latch on to an actual big budget film or TV series.

Thank you for the tip and I've passed it on to Sam. He has been involved with a number of short films that veer into the horrific and surreal.

Hi Cliff, I just wanted to say I'm very impressed with your wife's work!

Thank you, on Sherron's behalf.

She is something...

Just posted the cover art for my next book, due out the end of April:

https://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/presenting-mouth-rants-routines-cov...

Love it!

>8 CliffBurns: congrats in advance!

We'll see what sort of response a book of politically incorrect rants earns.

In the course of close to 40,000 words I basically offend everyone.

You can see why my social circle shrinks a bit more every year.

>11 CliffBurns: How about you make a promise for lent you won't constantly use the phrase "politically incorrect"? Just say what you say and let the chips fall where they may, you don't need to preemptively declare how other people are supposed to judge it.

If I was Catholic maybe...

I see what you're saying but PC is a convenient shorthand for what I'm trying to get at.

Everyone on the Left is so afraid of offending some interest group, however tiny and marginal, whereas I'm with Ricky Gervais:

"Offense is the collateral damage of free speech."

Recorded a live reading from my collection of rants in my living room. A group of progressive-minded friends came by to listen and nobody burned a cross on my lawn afterward.

A successful evening, by that standard alone.

You'll find that recording on Bandcamp, available free of charge:

https://cliffburns.bandcamp.com

...and a rant from my book, posted on my film blog:

https://cinemaarete.wordpress.com/2019/04/12/i-hate-comic-book-movies-dyou-think...

>15 CliffBurns: Don't hold back, Cliff - tell us what you REALLY think...

I'm particularly proud of my cinema rant.

When I performed it last Wednesday, I had a roomful of people howling with laughter.

Why restrain myself?

If it looks, sounds and smells like shit...

Posted another rant from my latest book on my blog, this one to piss off some of the fundamentalists I know:

https://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/excerpt-from-mouth-rants-routines

An on-line writing site has published an excerpt from my collection of rants:

https://www.nfreads.com/man-of-constant-failure

A modern dance company from Saskatoon will be visiting our little city in late June, performing a piece set to some of my strange, ambient music.

I've been collaborating with the Free Flow Dance Theatre for a number of years and never cease to be amazed by what they come up with.

If anyone's in the neighborhood...

If a video of the performance is posted anywhere please go remember to link here.

(TIL that Canadians don't live in neighbourhoods, but in neighborhoods.)

>18 CliffBurns: Seems the Founding Fathers of the U.S. government had your rant in mind when they put together its Constitution. Not a single mention in it of God or Sin. No mention in the Bill of Rights either. They did manage to insert the following text in Article VI:
“no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Maybe they should have boldfaced "ever."

#22 Amen.

My book MOUTH: RANTS AND ROUTINES is now available on Kindle:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S3RXYHD/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mouth%3A+rants+and+rout...

An ePub version will follow shortly, which should be readable on most devices, from phones to tablets.

...and now the ePub version of MOUTH: RANTS AND ROUTINES is available:

https://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2019/05/23/mouth-rants-routines-e-pub-and-kind...

I just posted some more live readings from my latest book, MOUTH: RANTS AND ROUTINES:

https://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2019/06/06/stupid-people-a-case-for-eugenics-f...

Article on an upcoming modern dance performance, utilizing some of my ambient music:

https://www.newsoptimist.ca/entertainment/local-a-e/atlas-figment-to-challenge-a...

Just added more of my weird, ambient music to my Bandcamp page. The very first cut is my favorite:

https://cliffburns.bandcamp.com/album/navigating-purgatory

Just had a couple of poems published:

one in The Bookends Review (http://thebookendsreview.com/2019/07/01/rattlesnake-master-december/)

and another in the Tipton Poetry Journal (https://issuu.com/tiptonpoetryjournal/docs/tpj41, on p. 44).

Congratulations for your achievement and continued good fortune.

And to you!

Our prime minister is being boiled alive for an indiscretion from his past--but, to my mind, he's got a lot more to answer for than that:

https://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2019/09/19/justin-trudeau-in-black-face-is-not...

>33 bluepiano: ' more to answer for than than that', including his shortcomings as an actor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRnwK01n904.

Good blog post and a persuasive one; thanks for that.

Interesting that on the news channel I watch--France 24--his frat boy tribute to Rastus'n'Remus was referred to as 'brownface'. Don't know whether that's an Americanism or taken fr. French vernacular; hope it's the latter.

>103 - brownface is a variation of blackface where someone imitates a person from Latin America, parts of Asia, etc. Ben Kingsley in Ghandhi is probably the best-known example.

Ben Kingsley is half Indian so perhaps not as egregious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Kingsley

>35 Taphophile13: - it's not about his heritage it's about him wearing make-up to darken his skin. Not unlike the criticism Zoe Saldana received for playing Nina Simone.

Have a real treat for you all this morning.

My son Sam has a new film out, one on which he was producer, director of photography, co-editor and co-sound designer.

The project, "Whiteface", received money through a special film fund and was released on the internet yesterday.

The piece is based on a Fringe production and has powerful statements to make on race, identity and appropriation.

Have a look at it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R839aYF6LQo

Needless to say, we're very proud of him--this is an amazing short film.

A modern dance company in Saskatoon will be employing some of my music in their performance:

https://ontheboards.ca/events/the-journey

Announcing the arrival of our first grandchild, Ronan Kenneth Burns.

Nine pounds, two ounces, so he already has a head start on life.

Magic times in our household.

>39 CliffBurns: Congrats! Isn't it amazing how much love can exist in just nine pounds?

So very, very true.

I printed this for my wife before she gave birth to our first son.

She read it as she was experiencing strong contractions and it helped her focus:

"The Stream of Life"

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death,
in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood
this moment.

-Rabindranath Tagore

Congrats Cliff !!!

>39 CliffBurns:
Welcome to your family's new "edition"!

This edition a particularly valuable addition to the family collection.

My take on last night's election results:

https://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2019/12/13/boris-unleashed

>46 CliffBurns: The mob chose Barrabas.

I liked your response on my blog, Robert. Very detailed and thoughtful.

Favorite films watched in 2019:

https://cinemaarete.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/best-films-watched-in-2019/