The year is 2017, I decide to do a little bit of improv with my mom. It was a lot of fun to fill her in on the uncanny scenario which I imagined that day. She didn't really understand about the parallel universe premise, but it didn't really matter because she appreciated what her different characters were supposed to do or say.
I am so grateful that she went along with my plan to explore the mystique of the Village Éphémère, a contemporary community hub and garden. The memories of this playful endeavour nourish me to this day. The site carries special magic because it is where the Multi-Culti collective and With Dimensions had some of their most epic moments involving electronic music.
There was a lot of ambient noise, so the audio is really bad, and I apologize for that. However, I made some neat tracks in Garage Band and the chaos of the surrounding machinery hard at work, building the Université de Montréal campus, gives the audio an original quality. Making this music is a way to live out this precious moment in time, filled with bohemian glamour.
We are talking about a surrealist Sci-Fi home movie presenting Pierre Lapouf in all his fabulous glory. Mysteriously teleported into a parallel universe, he encounters "fragments” of his mother, all of which are missing something of the genuine character. Will Pierre find his way back to the world where he came from?
My partner at the time aided me in inventing the character. While we didn't always see eye to eye with Pierre, we had a lot of fun creating him. One thing he helped me develop is how ditzy Pierre is, he constantly dates new men, and it was interesting having this back story not particularly exposed in this plot. It allowed me to understand him better and dish out a convincing performance.
I do want to give a special shout out to Travis Jones for his help!
My relationship with my mom is very meaningful which may explain why it took me a while to finally write this post. It gave me an excuse to think about her and what an inspiration she has been over the years. I love to witness her resilience in the face of large obstacles such as her more recent psychological struggles with anxiety. She decided to take medication for depression, even though she was not technically depressed, after being glad that she did not need them for so long.
She found one of her old slams stating the very fact that she had gone this long without the meds, despite her close contact with climate change. Her writing is really tubular, I can never say OK Boomer! girl bye to her because she is so fresh.
She decided to take her mental health into her own hands, as she had been doing for years, and said that she used to think that she knew anxiety but that she realized what it was like to experience the genuine thing, only when it happened to her.
I love you Michele, you are truly wonderful, thank you for playing these three characters and thank you for treating mental health seriously, we can all learn from that!
Here is a summary of my story:
Pierre is dumped from a wormhole into a parallel universe. He is afraid and starts to look for his mother.
Characters:
Pierre Lapouf, a flamboyant French gay guy who is looking for his mother. He is articulate, curious, has a temperament and a great sense of humour.
Fragment 1, she is going down memory lane, remembering that she had known Pierre is gay since he was 6 months old.
Fragment 2, plays the role of a shaman and the guide, she is affectionate but she vanishes away.
Fragment 3, more dramatic, she symbolizes the mother waiting in Pierre's former dimension.
A lot of the loose ends are addressed in part 2 which I hope can give meaning to this one-day challenge.
I hope that this inspires you to care for your own personal endeavours and perhaps about the ones you love. It can be so amusing to be kids again together. You must dream big and dream small all at the same time, keeping things achievable that is.
I say, don't let the general apathy get to you and create all sorts of fun, weird projects that you can be proud of!
