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Corin Raymond

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    BOOKMARKS REVIEWS

    Friends, I don’t know that BOOKMARKS will get a more satisfying review than this one from Tor Lukasik-Foss, a Hamilton-based writer/storyteller of whom I’m a HUGE fan. Tor saw BOOKMARKS at the Hamilton Fringe and was inspired to write it.  Speaking as the creator and performer of BOOKMARKS, it's high reward to feel this understood; to have the work I’ve done be this perceived, and articulately enjoyed :

    BOOKMARKS: AN OFF-THE-RECORD REVIEW BY TOR LUKASIK-FOSS 

    “I’m a sucker for good storytelling, but I’m also finicky—I don’t like it when stories are told in a way that feels acted, I don’t like it when stories have been polished to a high precision, and I don’t like it when stories are delivered solely for weightless amusement. I do like it when the craft of the storytelling is so hidden within a conversational delivery that I don’t notice it—when the teller seems to be speaking casually and only when I’m knee deep in their narrative do I realize that I’m enmeshed in something that is both poetic and precisely crafted. 

    This is why Bookmarks, written and performed by Corin Raymond, currently on view at the 2022 Hamilton Fringe, whalloped me as much as it did. It starts off so unassuming, and then in small, deliberate increments builds to a finish that is equally emotional and revelatory. No small feat for a play whose premise suggests nothing more than ‘books are cool”. 

    Through a succession of 5 or 6 monologues (I wasn’t counting), Raymond alternates between alliterative tributes to the tactile, talismanic quality of books and key biographical moments where his attachment to them has been forged. Within the weaving of these pieces is a seemingly inconsequential tale of losing a Helen Garner paperback in an Australian airport, and Raymond’s subsequent overreaction to the loss. This moment soon becomes a toggle switch for a more foundational trauma. 

    Normally, I think I might write it off as a storyteller’s trick to take a slight moment and then extrapolate on it so that it can talk to bigger and more elemental themes. But in Bookmarks, the sheer ferocity of Raymond’s conviction, and the urgency and vulnerability of his telling erase any notion that he is either contriving or being clever. By the end of the piece, it is evident that books are not just books for Raymond; they are tools essential for his survival. And those things that give us solace and stability should never ever be taken for granted; indeed, we should take time to recognize and venerate them. 

    And this is what Raymond has done. I’m grateful for it.”

     

     FURTHER REVIEWS THUS FAR

    (hover the cursor for links)

    VICTORIA & VANCOUVER:

    Between Victoria and Vancouver, BOOKMARKS received only one review, but it's one I'm proud of.

    BOOKMARKS won Favourite Storytelling / Spoken Word at the Victoria Fringe!

    HAMILTON:

     The first "official" review of BOOKMARKS in Beyond James: Arts and Entertainment News for the Hamilton Area

    (BOOKMARKS received a "Critic's Pick" from Beyond James)

    Steel City Girl Reviews: "An (unofficial) official Hamilton community theatre blog."

    VIEW Magazine online 

     

      

    BOOKMARKS PROGRAM & APPENDIX

     

    BOOKMARKS 

    written and performed by Corin Raymond

    is dedicated to my Mom

    Kaarina “Karen” Liinamaa (1948 – 1978) 

     

    BOOKMARKS

    owes spiritual debts to 

    True Stories by Helen Garner

    The Neverending Story 

    (Die unendliche Geschichte) by Michael Ende

    and The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

     

    renders awe (and apologies) to Carson McCullers

    whose The Ballad of the Sad Café 

    I plagiarize in my “Lost Books” monologue  

     

    tips its hat to Susan Orlean for the nugget 

    I got from The Library Book

     

    BOOKMARKS

    shouts out PICADOR 

    a UK publisher founded in 1972 

    (incidentally, the year I was born) 

    who made it their mission to publish 

    international authors in paperback only. 

    Their choices have never failed me. 

    The spines of PICADOR books are distinctive 

    and I’ve never turned one away. The same way, 

    if I came across a record by STAX, I’d buy it, 

    no questions asked –– whether I knew the artist or not. 

    Some of us are loyal to favourite publishers 

    (I also mention Pantheon and The Folio Society in this show) 

    the way we are to our most-trusted record labels. 

    The only other publisher that’s never failed 

    to change my life (despite that I’ve rarely heard 

    of the authors they print) is NYRB (New York Review Books). 

    PICADOR, NYRB. accept no substitutes. 

     

     

    BOOKMARKS

    name checks these books and writers 

    (and sonnet), in this order:

     

    The Hardy Boys series by “Franklin W. Dixon”

    The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

    Hellfire by Nick Tosches

    Get in the Van by Henry Rollins

    The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy

    The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

    The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

    New Selected Poems by Phillip Levine

    Italian Folktales edited by Italo Calvino

    L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy

    The Collected Stories of Tennessee Williams

    The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

    Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and 

    Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

    The Magus by John Fowles

    It’s a Busy, Busy World by Richard Scarry

    The Sherlock Holmes Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch 

    (or The Night of Wishes) and Momo by Michael Ende

    “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John Keats

    (anything by) James Baldwin

     

    BOOKMARKS

    features excerpts from these Scott Cook songs:

    “This One’s On the House (the Hobo Song)”

    from his second album This One’s On the House (2009)

    and (in the slightly-extended version of BOOKMARKS 

    “Pass It Along” from his fourth album 

    One More Time Around (2013)

     

    Scott has seven albums and I love ‘em all.

    And I don’t say that lightly.

    If you’re interested after the show, 

    I’m carrying his sixth record, 

    Further Down the Line (2017) with me.

    It comes with a gorgeous 132-page book.

    Find Scott here.

     

     

    BOOKMARKS

    owes thanks to these hearts and brains

     

    Mike Rinaldi /  TJ Dawe / Megan Phillips / Kristina Agosti / Grace Bauer

    Emily Case / Patrick Cotter / Jai Djwa / Carter Ford / Bill Fugler / Kristin Govers

    Janet Law / Georgette Lockwood / Matthew McLaren (who I’ve since learned 

    has my copy of The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber!)  Ana Mozol 

    Eleanor O'Brien / Stella Panagiotidis / Jonathon Paterson / Sherri Pierce / 

    Lisa Pijuan-Nomura / Carlyn Rhamey / Ryan Schmitt / Julian Seguin 

    Abbey St Brendan / Bobby Wesley / Andrea Wiebe 

     

    The Hamilton 7: Karen Ancheta / Darla Biccum / Sheldon Davis 

    Tor Lukasik-Foss / Hitoko Okada / Lisa Pijuan-Nomura / Joshua Taylor

     

    Michael Goddhardt / Barb Smith / Melanie Dawn 

    Emma Jane / Jessica Rae / Tamara Kater

     

    the good folks at Home Routes:

    Cathy Crawford Ava Kobrinsky / Graham Lindsay / Leonard Podolak

    and everybody in the Magic Front Row

     

     

    MY FAVOURITE PANDEMIC READS

    I managed to read 147 books during the pandemic.

    The following reads especially knocked me out

    (this list would be different on any other day):

     

    The Shining / Stephen King

    In a direct line with Henry James and Shirley Jackson, this isn't just

    the re-invention of the modern ghost story, it's also a read that holds up 

    despite cultural inference from the (much lesser) Kubrick movie. Forget Kubrick.

    This is King's third novel, and no screen adaptation has yet touched it;

    but the book-lovers know what's goin' on.

     

    Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell / Susanna Clarke 

    I read this for the third time the winter of the first wave. This book

    is an old, wingback armchair of a friend now. If the era (not to mention the styles)

    of Jane Austen turns you on; if Charles Dickens makes you laugh;

    if you love books about books; if an alternate English history laced with magicians

    and magic is your cup of Earl Grey; if you're a nerd, an anglophile,

    a person who believes that one is never alone in the company of a book;

    if you wish to get deliciously bookish –– this is for you.

     

    Stoner / John Williams / NYRB

    One of the greatest novels I've ever read.

    Published by New York Review Books

    (my favourite favourite favourite publisher),

    the success of this one gave NYRB the economic muscle to keep

    introducing us to the best books we somehow hadn't yet heard of.

    The less you know the better. Just read it. I promise  that your idea

    of the places a book can take a reader will not be the same.

     

    Nightmare Alley / William Lindsay Gresham / NYRB

     

    Suttree / Cormac McCarthy

     

    The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde / Robert Louis Stevenson

     

    The Haunting of Hill House / Shirley Jackson

     

    Oscar Wilde / Richard Ellmann

     

    Ready Player One / Ernest Cline

     

    The Queen’s Gambit / Walter Tevis

    Tied for me with The Hustler –– the early success of which bought Tevis

    the freedom to drink ten years away in Mexico before cleaning up ––

    and The Color of Money, his decades-later  follow-up to The Hustler –– which,

    along with The Queen’s Gambit, he went out on. I read all three without being able to

    stop, but Gambit takes the cake. The Netflix series is great and the book is even better.

    I've just never read any author (outside of Keith Maillard) who can put you

    inside a game –– in Tevis's case, chess or pool –– being played by a master

    on the edge –– and who can further put you inside the mind of that master on the edge, 

    the way Tevis can. I would love to have known him (and Lord help me)  drank with him. 

    I can't wait to read Gambit again. Accept no substitutes.

     

    Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / John Le Carré

     

    Can’t Hurt Me / David Goggins

     

    Tapping the Source / Kem Nunn

     

    Ayoade on Ayoade / Richard Ayoade

     

    The Long Goodbye / Raymond Chandler

     

    A Maggot / John Fowles

     

    Fat City / Leonard Gardner / NYRB

     

    Titus Groan / Mervyn Peake

     

    Shit, Actually: The Definitive 100% Objective Guide 

    to Modern Cinema / Lindy West

     

    The Adventures of Anatole / Nancy Willard

     

    Kindred / Octavia E. Butler

     

    The Power of the Dog / Thomas Savage

     

    Wild Seed / Octavia E. Butler

    Mind of My Mind / Octavia E. Butler

    Clay’s Ark / Octavia E. Butler

    Patternmaster / Octavia E. Butler

     

    The Rescuers / Margery Sharp

     

    We Have Always Lived in the Castle / Shirley Jackson

     

    Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont / Elizabeth Taylor

     

    A Manual for Cleaning Women / Lucia Berlin

     

    Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life / Ruth Franklin

     

     

    My Worst Pandemic Reads:

     

    The Talisman / Stephen King and Peter Straub

    Ghost Story / Peter Straub (567 pgs; I read 252 that felt like 796.)

    Archangel / Robert Harris

     

     

     

    My BOOKMARKS Pre-Show Music:

     

    1  “Ain’t Gonna Rain Anymore” / Nick Cave / Let Love In (1994)

    2  “That Don’t Make It Junk” / Leonard Cohen / Ten New Songs (2001)

    3  “What Will You Be Building” / Amelia Curran / Spectators (2012)

    4  “Already Then” / Corin Raymond / Dirty Mansions (2019)

    5  “I Was in the House When the House Burned Down” / Warren Zevon / Life'll Kill Ya (2000)

    6  “Proud” / Jonathan Byrd / Unreleased

    7  “Cheirinho de Mulher” / Glorinha Gadelha / Grandes Cantos Sertanejos

    8  “Careful With My Heart” (by Heather Styka) / Scott Cook / Further Down the Line (2017)

    9  “Northern Girl” / The Undesirables / live in Selby, VIC, AUS (2008)

    10 “Oh My Buddha” / Corwin Fox & the Cumberland Brothers (2018)

     

    Some badass quotes from these tracks:

     

    1 “Now the storm has passed over me

    I’m left to drift a dead calm sea

    and watch her forever through the cracks in the beams

    nailed across the doors of the bedrooms of my dreams”

    –– Nick Cave

     

    2 “I fought against the bottle

    but I had to do it drunk

    took my diamond to the pawnshop

    but that don’t make it junk”

    –– Leonard Cohen

     

    3 “What will you be building when you have to go?

    That is the only thing I need to know“

    –– Amelia Curran

     

    4 “I feed the machine

    movie scenes and mixed-up memories

    photographs that you’ve never seen

    of little me in the seventies”

    –– Corin Raymond

     

    5 “I had the shit ’til it all got smoked

    I kept the promise ’til the vow got broke

    I had to drink from the lovin’ cup

    stood on the bank ’til the river rose up

    I saw the bride in her wedding gown

    I was in the house when the house burned down”

    –– Warren Zevon

     

    6 “You love the girls and can’t get enough

    you tell the whole world when you’re in love

    you see a pearl in the moon above

    you’re gonna dive right up and bring it back to us”

    –– Jonathan Byrd

     

    8 “and there’s nothing I won’t tell

    when I’m behind my guitar

    but when I’m standing beside you 

    I am careful with my heart”

    –– Heather Styka (via Scott Cook)

     

    9 “I left southern ground because I found a Northern girl

    found her up in Thunder Bay

    two days on the two-lane take me to my Northern girl

    and I’m singin’ all the way”

    –– The Undesirables, live in Selby, VIC, OZ, 2008

     

    10 “Oh my Buddha

    shoulda woulda coulda

    if I could only understand 

    what I misunderstood wa-hoooooo”

    –– Corin Raymond and Corwin Fox

     

     

     

    I’m reading Helen Garner again.

    I’m re-reading The Neverending Story.

    I’m reading The Little Prince in Italian ––

    because why not? Life is short.

     

    My current reading challenge: 30 pages a day.

    I talk about books on my Patreon.

     

    Reading isn’t about remembering. 

    Reading is an experience.

    Being human isn’t about remembering either.

    It’s about what we're present for.

    To remember, we need to write things down.

    Which is why we need writers.

    They remember for us.

     

    Some images ©

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