Holiday Show Guest Revealed

For those that like receiving early gifts, one of this year's 'surprise' holiday guests have been revealed. I'm not going to give any hints, but if you would like to know who it is, follow this link.

Passioneer Holiday Project 2008

slean_harboufront_dec2006_2
Originally uploaded by YenC

The 4th Passioneer Holiday Project is now in full swing! It is a way for fans to give back to Sarah for all she has given us this past year. For more information and how to contribute, please see the thread on the official forum over here.

For those unfamiliar with this project, it has been a tradition since 2005. Fans do a good deed for an organization of their choice and then have their name and contribution included in a card. The card is then given to Sarah as a gift after her annual holiday shows in Toronto. This is a completely fan-run endeavor and has drawn participation of fans from around the globe.

Pictures from past years are archived in various places, but here are sources for a few of them.

• 2005
• 2006 Thread / Pictures
  
• 2007

Sarah and the Roaring Girl Cabaret

Sarah has collaborated with the Toronto indie act the Roaring Girl Cabaret. You can hear Sarah play on the song "Passion Play" on their debut album "In Last Night's Clothes" that was released in September.

You can listen to the song here on CBC Radio 3.
You can purchase the track for a dollar on Amazon over here.
More information on the band including upcoming concerts and where you can purchase their CD is contained on their myspace.

It may be more then coincident that Joni Mitchell has a song that bears the same title.

Sarah Slean Bside EP, Track list and Info.

Sarah has presented an early holiday surprise with announcing the release of her Bside EP "The Baroness Redecorates" on December 9th. The announcement was first made via her official site's mailing list on November 13th and facebook group account.

Since January of 2008 we have had a short list of the songs that did not make onto The Baroness and Sarah's wishes to put them out on a Bside. It appears she has managed to get them all onto the Bside with the exception of the yet to be heard song, "The Right Words".

The track list for the EP is as follows.

1. Parasol
2. Lonely Side of the Moon
3. Modern Man I & II
4. Compatriots
5. The Rose
6. Hear Me Out
7. The “Disarm” Suite

The EP title "The Baroness Redcorates" is also the title of one of Sarah poems contatined in her book for poetry, The Baroness.

Parasol was released as a bonus track online while Lonely Side of the Moon and The Rose were released in an offer through iTunes. This is the first time those who live outside of Canada or missed Parasol bonus offer have the chance to purchase these songs.

Sarah has played Modern Man and Compatriots live before. I suspect the first section of Modern Man is instrumental with Sarah conducting before the second movement where she takes the piano. Hear Me Out appears to be a brand new song, although she has an unrelased bside with a similar title of Count Me Out.

The "Disarm" Suite appears to be a new song and a title I have never seen published before. In Sarah's recent's Q&A session, she did have the following to say about disarming:

"When you disarm, everything changes.

Permit me this little instructive exercise for disarmament. Go to a nearby park. Sit down in a spot free from noise or distraction and have a good look at a tree. A good long look. Imagine it smiling at you. Seriously!... You'll know what I mean. Try it.

Disarming means knowing love and trusting it as truth. Love then gets behind every one of your senses. You see food as the sun and the rain's conspiracy to strengthen and sustain you. You see difficult people and situations as opportunities to deepen your compassion. You hear the plea for love that is hiding behind all complaints, attacks and criticisms. You feel the life in your body, in another's body, and you're amazed."

- Sarah Slean, Q&A Part 2, Answer 20

The EP will be available through iTunes, SarahSlean.com, and rhinorecords.ca. The mail list posting did not indicate if there is a physical release of this EP that coincides with the digital release.

Sarah's Poem 'Buddha Crowns' is Online

Sarah's poem 'Buddha Crowns' has been published for the first time online on HealthyGirl.net.
The poem is included in Sarah's latest book of poetry, The Baroness that is on sale at Sarah's site and a handful of stores.

Earlier this year Sarah played a concert of HealthyGirl's event for women, WellSpot. Recently they posted pictures from that event to Flickr.

Upcomming air dates of Creative Block Interview

CBC's Creative Block aired an interview with Sarah in August.
Repeats of Sarah's on CBC Bold's Creative Block in November. Air dates include:

Sunday November 9th, 18:00
Thursday November 13th, 13:00
Thursday November 13th, 16:00

CBC bold scheduale

If you do not receive this specialty channel, I believe by calling Rogers you can get a free preview of it for 3 months.

Drink Poetry - Slean poems on wine bottles (Update)

Sarah's poetry will be landing on Southbrook's new bottles of wine, Poetica

Information regarding the launch of the wine, availability, other poets involved, and more can be found in the following Quill & Quire report of October 31st.

Bottling poetry

October 31, 2008 10:42 AM By Danielle Ng-See-Quan

Just when you thought the combination of poetry and public transit couldn’t be topped, along comes a new pairing to shake things up all over again: poetry and wine.

Poetica, a new wine label that will feature Canadian poems on each bottle, is the brainchild of Ontario vintner Southbrook Vineyards. The limited edition label series – which will be available only to regular Southbrook customers – will reportedly consist of the vineyard’s best annual output of chardonnay and cabernet merlot. The labels will feature excerpts – or, in some cases, full-length works – by poets such as bpNichol and P.K. Page.

According to Southbrook director of customer experience Elena Galey-Pride, the new label was devised in order to celebrate the company’s relocation to Niagara-on-the-Lake, after more than 17 years in Richmond Hill. Graphic designer Laura Wills, who was hired by Southbrook to create the labels, says she read “hundreds and hundreds” of poems for the project, and contacted the poets (or their estates) directly for permission to use their work. According to Galey-Pride, all but two of them immediately agreed to the project (she wouldn’t say who the two holdouts were). In return for their involvement in the project, poets will receive a case of wine.

The full poet line-up for the label’s launch, besides Nichol and Page, includes Christopher Dewdney, Wendy Morton, Lesley Choyce, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Stephen Elliott-Buckley, Charles G.D. Roberts, Steve Venright, Martin Tielli, and Sarah Slean. Going forward, each new year will bring two more vintages and two more poets.

Poetica launches in Toronto on Nov. 19 at an invitation-only event for the wine biz and the arts and literature communities.

Update, 2008-11-19 - Launch
The launch party took place as schedualed today at The Richmond. The event featured two poetry readings but Sarah was not scheduled. Posters of some of the wine bottles were also displayed that may contain an enlargement of Sarah's poem.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Southbrook-Vineyards-921327.html

Update, 2008-11-21 - Sarah's poem
The poem of Sarah's included, is actually an excerpt her song Your Wish is My Wish from her 2004 album Day One. To see the bottle, learn more about wine, and cost information see the following page:
http://www.southbrook.com/Poetica_2005chardonnay.html

Sarah Slean is acting in the film, Last Flowers

between takes
Originally uploaded by zablotny

Sarah is making a return to film in a CJ Wallis short film titled, Last Flowers. Sarah's acting debut to film came in 2005's Black Widow.

Currently, not much has been published on the film as it just stated filming on October 30th (and wraps this Wednesday). In Sarah's recent Question and Answer session she didn't mention the film in her list of projects but did bring up working on a Modern Man movie.

Many thanks to a Flickr user who has provided me some greater information and has uploaded an excellent set of photos to flickr in his set for Last Flowers. You can view the images here.

From the film's faecbook page, the following information is revealed:

Last Flowers is an uplifting dramatic short film about an author named Harvey Harris.

With Harvey’s latest novel being universally rejected, he is feeling more distanced than ever from the world and everyone that surrounds him - a desperate move leads him to sneaking into the very funerals he writes about as a bizarre form of self-help therapy, gaining temporary love and acceptance from those people who are at their most vulnerable and self-less state of mind.

The death of Harvey’s mother, coupled with a chance meeting of a strong-willed woman named Mona, will force Harvey to confront his greatest fears about loss and rejection and how to find a way to connect through the most severe forms of disconnection.


Written & Directed by: CJ Wallis
Produced by: Elli Weisbaum
DP: Robert Walsh
Original Score: Kevin James Maher


Cast: Joseph May, Sarah Slean, Troy De Lottinville & Rikki Gagne

I encourage you all to join the facebook group as they will be posting news, pictures, and video from the production. Currently, they have one video of Sarah walking herself to the piano with a wine glass in hand.

I was also able to receive the following information.

Last Flowers is being screened at 2009's sundance film festival, and is directed by CJ Wallis. It's been an absolute blast to work with Sarah, and everyone is having a fantastic time. There will eventually be a DVD release of some form with lots of extra fancy things.

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival is only 74 days away.

The film director CJ Wallis has put Sarah Slean in his 'Top 4' on his myspace page for the film Heat Sink. The site's picture page and the film's poster shows a strong resemblance to Sarah's keyboard following her 2005 concert at the Phoenix.

Update: 2008-11-13
Exclaim magazine has a few updates on Last Flowers. The film is to be 20 minutes long and hopes are for public viewing to start in early 2009. The film's music is being scored by Fake Shark of Real Zombie,