Well, the big FEST X opening party was last nite. At St Brigid’s…….

…..which, as you can see, is quite beautiful.

The hilite of the nite for me was getting punched by Genviéve Thauvette…..

…..punched, hard, right on my shoulder. I can still feel the ache this morning as
I write this. She had threatened to “rough me up” after reading my review of her
show (Beheld, at the Dale Smith Gallery, see below). The review was absolutely
glowing except for one geeky criticism about oversharpening (or something). Her
threat was, of course, in jest. In fact, I had to remind her, when I met her at the
party, to “rough me up”. The fact that she unloaded a right with so much gusto
just confirms my belief that this is a gal to watch. Gotta love total abandon when
it comes to throwing punches. We need more of that in the Ottawa-Foto-Scene.

Anyway…..back to the party.

There were scores of fotogs present. I had my trusty point + shoot in action, but
there were too many faces and not enough time to shoot ‘em all. Here’s a few fotogs
I managed to, as they say these days…..a horrible expression, capture….

…..my apologies to all the people I missed shooting. I suppose, though, that after seeing
the shots of those I did manage to “capture”, all those I didn’t manage to include here are
counting themselves lucky.

All the openings are happening tonite. Tune in tomorrow for more grabshots and commentary.
After the dust settles I’ll be writing about some of the FEST X shows.

Y’all come back now, you hear?