daniel macIvor's notebook

This guy has got to be one of Canada's most industrious writers. He's a celebrated playwright, whose work is seen on stage (the photo is one of his Dora awards for theatre) and film (Marion Bridge and Wilby Wonderful are two movies that come to mind). He's also an actor.

Daniel is a busy man. He has a hard time getting into his work sometimes, but he's very disciplined. And there's more to it than just the writing. There are play readings, workshops, rehearsals and travel; there are opening nights, reviews, mentoring others; there are friends and family; there is life, and Daniel's notebook lets us in on it all. How he finds time to blog, I'll never know, but I'm glad he does.

Here's a sample:

“Neil Young and the Budgie
I love when this stuff happens. Yesterday morning I was looking for music for “The 83rd”. Something a Canadian soldier might like. I listened to everything from Arcade Fire to Trooper. And a lot of Neil Young. I kept being drawn to Neil Young. Especially Harvest and Harvest Moon. On my way to rehearsal I ran into Rita and our friend Henry who were putting up posters because Henry found a budgie on his balcony that morning. (Henry loved the budgie but said he didn’t have room in his life for a budgie. I said that perhaps the budgie was the Universe saying that it would be good for Henry to make room in his life for a budgie. Henry asked “A budgie is my soulmate?” Perhaps.) As I walked along the street with them I thought to mention I’d been listening to a lot of Neil Young that morning. Just then Henry said “I hope those posters harvest the owner.” I said how funny it was that he used the word “Harvest” since I had been listening to Neil Young all morning. Rita looked at me strangely and said that morning Henry had given her a Neil Young CD and she had it in her bag. We remarked at how odd that was. We stopped off for a coffee. The coffee shop was playing Neil Young. I love when that stuff happens.

On a sad note, the budgie died. On a happy note, Henry decided he’s getting a budgie.”

To see how a productive person like Daniel MacIvor approaches his craft, his blog can be found here.