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Corin Raymond

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Rec Room

From the recording Dirty Mansions

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Rec Room
by 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.

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