"Well does the fact that I'm trying to do it do it for you?"

Well, folks, these are the only two options: 1) look the part, or 2) totally reject the part. I've read Baudrillard, Zizek, Deleuze; I've been lost in the fog of theory. You've probably been "fortunate" enough to hear me use the words "simulation" and "simulacra" before. From my experience, I've found that about 90% of really playing the part is imitating the part. "Just act like you know what you're doing," my mother has always told me, and in my tainted little head, simulating preparedness is just about as good as preparedness itself. Yesterday marked my first day at KINO, and I decided it best to don the glasses, pack the vintage thermos, and arrive on time. That's more effort than this vendor at Parc Mont Royal put in, eh?

Before I arrived in Montreal, KINO put on one of its many kabarets. This one involved collaboration between some of its most celebrated artiste-kinoites and writers present for the International Literature Festival. Authors wrote screenplays that the kinoites developed into short films, and the kabaret screened the finished products to a crowd of over 200 people. This is but one small example of KINO's creative spirit and its willingness to continually transform artistic expression and collaboration. The organization has often been compared to the French New Wave, although KINO's founding members contest that it's more of a social movement than an artistic one. The goal is ultimately to encourage filmmaking, from professionals and neophytes alike. This means that there is definite schlock to wade through at the festivals, but there are also real gems from unexpected sources. More importantly, filmmaking is democratized, FREED from the clutches of the Man, the system, the business.

Easily-organizable tidbits:
1) The Quebecois French accent=impenetrable!!!!
2) A fellow intern, François, refers to himself, like Jean-Claude Van Damme, as "the muscles from Brussels," but accidentally says "ze mussels from Belgium" in a thick French accent. [How'd you like my oh-so-clever transcription of "muscles"?]
3) Geneviève, the KINO coordinator, often uses the word "intense" (same in French as it is in English), but TENDER! might be more appropriate as today she made up a salad large enough to share with me at lunch.
4) At lunch we argue (four Montrealers pitted against poor lil' Jordie) about winter and cold. Not one of them believes I've ever felt cold as one feels it in Montreal. People get territorial about their cold weather?! Since I operate on a Fahrenheit model, and they on Celsius, our arguments make little sense. I later look up average temperatures for both Montreal and Madison, put them together on a graph, and discover that on average there's only six degrees (Fahrenheit) of difference between a Montreal winter and a Madison winter. [Incidentally Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same at 40 degrees below zero. Perhaps, should this winter reach that point, we will finally be able to argue on the same plane.] Since none of them has lived in either Wisconsin or Nebraska, I guess it is I who will be the true judge of what we Americans know about suffering, come January. I'll keep you updated. [Sidenote: Leif tells me the U.S. has lost every war it has fought against Canada. I'm here to break that trend!]

Some days it does seem easier to sleep on a bench while on the job, "let the popsicles sell themselves." But had I decided upon this option, Uncle Sam would hunt me down, ask me to return his money, and I'd be . . . well, asleep in the park. And that would be less-than-acceptable come next month when I'll be included in the kabaret fun.