Announcing the PuSh Festival Email List Winner

March 03, 2011

He has won a Kobo wireless eReader & a $50 gift certificate for eBooks ($200 value)

CONGRATULATIONS!

More about Gerry:

“I’m a former prairie farm boy and 4-H club member. I remember during hay making season, on my way back out to do more field work, seeing city kids with their suntans and new bikes on their way to the George Ward Swimming in Saskatoon. I moved to the big city as soon as I could. And Ive never looked back. Vancouver has been home for over 30 years.

By day I work for the federal government filling out forms and looking after the taxpayers dollars. By night I love the cinema, the theatre, music, and books. I am blessed with the nicest friends in the world.  Im a good trade unionist, a social democrat and a pacifist always and forever. My artistic heroes include  Zola, Hugo, Truffaut, Bergmann, Isabelle Huppert, Vanessa Redgrave and all those fabulous Italian filmmakers who are now gone but never forgotten. My favourite addition to the local arts scene…Blackbird Theatre.. without a doubt. And Music on Main.  Ive been involved with an arts program on Coop Radio 102.7FM for years.

I admire anyone with artistic talent and the guts to put it out there.The Push Festival is …as someone said…the best thing to happen to Vancouver since the glaciers retreated. And over the years….I’ve had the pleasure to see some truly phenomenal stuff that I would never have had the chance to experience without  the vision of Katrina Dunn, Norman Armour and many others…and the hard work of so many. Our tax dollars at work indeed.  So many wonderful and memorable Push events…its unfair to name only a few. But over the years…I would have to mention the brilliant performance artist Marie Brassard from Quebec, the 4 Horseman Project choreographed by Serge Bennathan, the sweet humanity of performance artist Taylor Mack, James Long in his rabbit outfit with Clark and I Somewhere in Connecticut, Toby Berner as Steve Fonyo, the intense horror of The Jerk, and the incredible artistry of White Cabin from St. Petersburg a season or two ago.

As for Push 2011….all terrific….and with discount ticket passes….all affordable …. but the poetry…the performances….and the music of In the Solitude of Cotton Fields from Radoslaw Rychcik/Stefan Zeromski Theatre in Kielce Poland. Words almost fail me, but I knew I was in the presence of something magnificent and memorable. Keep up the good work. I can barely wait for Push 2012. And a quote. If I could. From the (late) Chava Rosenfarb…..from the yiddish….“A kind word costs nothing and is worth so much”. Thanks again. And please everyone. Support the arts. And tell our new premier to restore and enhance arts funding ….because the arts represent what is best in all of us.”