Resurrection and Remembrance

The Event: The Toronto debut of "Winnipeg Babysitter".
The Venue: the Workman Theatre, at the Queen Street CAMH, formerly known as the Provincial Lunatic Asylum.

Sheena had a gut feeling that the stars had properly aligned.

Winnipeg artist and video archivist Daniel Barrow presented his fascinating production last night to an appreciative crowd, many of whom were clearly reliving and unlocking repressed adolescent memories coloured by the dusty schmaltz and frozen inhibitions of the Prairie capital.

For my readers who grew up unscathed by local cable access television, it may be difficult to appreciate the gem that Barrow has constructed. About three years ago, Sheena got into a debate with another former Winnipegger over the musical duo "The Cosmopolitans". In an attempt to one-up my competitor, I phoned Shaw Cable in Winnipeg, asking if any of the old Cablevision footage from the 1980s existed. The answer was No. Much of it was no longer readable and had been destroyed. Enter Daniel Barrow, who has stepped up to rescue the cultural treasures we now realize that Winnipeg citizens lovingly bootlegged on new-fangled VHS machines in basements and rec rooms across the R2K.

Barrow has spliced together highlights and lowlights from a wide range of the better known cable access shows primarily from the 80s and early 90s. The presentation style is simple yet effective: Video clips on the main theatre screen, with Barrow's hand crafted liner notes on an overhead projector to the side. Less instrusive and more respectful of the images than voice-over, and the hand-turned transparency pages provided an appropriate edge of the personal, the unrehearsed, the home-grown to complement the ad-hoc television we were there to see.

"Metal Inquisition", featuring thrash sock puppet musical interludes. Live performances by Winnipeg punk pioneers The Stretch Marks on "Alternative Rockstand". "Math with Marty", aiming only to entertain and teach the children. "Survival Man", a parody of the survivalist movement that taps perfectly into the mid-80s "If You Love This Planet" zeitgeist when we all believed nuclear war was inevitable. Survival featured a 20-something cast that would go on to rock North American film and television (Greg Klymkiew, Kyle McCulloch, Guy Maddin).

The best remembered show was the Pollock and Pollock Gossip hour. Odd and disturbing brother & sister team Ron and Nathalie created controversy even beyond the Manitoba borders with their antics, and perhaps helped local cable programming jump the shark when they were cancelled under the guise of excessive breast bounce. A subsequent Human Rights complaint propelled Nathalie into the political sphere, including a run for Mayor on more than one occasion. Sheena was not aware of Nifty Nat's anticipation of the Jerry Springerization of talk TV until last night, when Barrow's explanatory notes delved into an infamous Jenny Jones episode in which Nathalie beat up a couple of strippers. One of the most hilarious and train wreckish segments included Donnie Lalonde singing "At the Hop" with Ron & Nat. Apparently the Pollocks had found the former WBC boxing champ talking on a payphone and dragged him over to the studio for an interview.

But Sheena was really there to see if the Cosmopolitans were able to be rescued from the trash heap. They were. Barrow's handling of the drum and organ duo of Marion Clemens and Louise Wynberg was poignant and respectful. They were a kitschy joke in my household, but there was always an odd fascination. Why would two middle aged women dedicate their lives to the delivery of goofy old standards to an audience surely composed of only shut-ins and basement stoners?

The Cosmopolitan back story nearly moved me to tears. They were band-mates, friends, and life partners. They came to Canada to escape social persecution when they attempted to live as a couple in their homeland. They struggled but ultimately carved a place in Winnipeg society with their community service and music. They pushed envelopes back then. Not only with their life choices but by mixing Led Zeppelin and the Beatles in with the polka standards they loved best.

The audience last night laughed throughout the production. But Sheena felt a touch of sadness. The show was possible only because of the efforts made to unearth the homemade copies of the shows destroyed by the channel owners. I commented not long ago that I likened the bloggers of today to the cable access shows of yesteryear. Loads of crap put out there for no reason but to get some public attention, mixed together with genuine talent looking for a break, sprinkled with rubber-necking oddities that couldn't be imagined by the best professional comedic minds.

The ultimate irony of the information age in which we live is that it is all so fleeting and ephemeral. The electronic digital media we've all raced to adopt is transitory and unfit for long term preservation. Who is protecting the gems of the online world? Who will archive the idiot-savant brilliance of the blogosphere? Who will allow the Gen-X'ers to remember their MySpace goofiness as they hit middle age? Will Daniel Barrow have to sift through our basement backup disks in 20 years to allow us to relive these moments?


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