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26 Artscene Oakville Beaver · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com MASS turnout For the Love of the Arts By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF This year's For the Love of the Arts Festival was bigger and better than ever. More than 1,000 people turned up Sunday at Town Hall for the third annual festival, which featured non-stop day-long performances by 400 different members of the local arts scene. "It was awesome," said Susan Obermeyer, executive director of Music and Art Shared Space (MASS), which organizes the festival. "We had basically two performance areas going at the same time, we had art displays, we had art demonstrations, we had everything from steel drummers to 100-member choruses to the Oakville Wind Orchestra." The festival used all of the available space on the first floor of Town Hall for not only performances, but also for displays put together by more than 20 local arts groups. Each had information on how to join and when concerts, shows or other opportuni- ASHLEY HUTCHESON / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER MASS HARMONY: The Circle of Harmony performs during the For the Love of the Arts Festival at Town Hall on Sunday. ties were available. Many groups new to Oakville, including The Association of Knitters and Crocheters, The Camera Club and Masterworks of Oakville, joined the festival this year to contribute and get the word out about their clubs. Other arts groups included in the festival were Artworks Oakville, Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton, Canadian Music Competition, Circle of Harmony Chorus, Halton Youth Symphony, Marjorie Carberry Hooking Guild, Oakville Art Society, Oakville Chamber Orchestra, Oakville Children's Choir, Oakville Choral Society, Oakville Entertainers, Oakville Scottish Country Dance, Oakville Sculptors and Wood Carvers, Oakville Spinners and Weavers, Oakville Ring and Tatters, Oakville Stitchery Guild, Oakville Symphony Orchestra, Oakville Suzuki Association and Tempus Choral Society. All were present to celebrate Oakville's 150th birthday at 3 p.m. Sunday with the singing of Happy Birthday. "That was the highlight," said Obermeyer. "The mayor was there and cut the cake, and we sang. We had probably had more than 400 people singing Happy Birthday." The song was led by the Oakville Wind Orchestra and the Oakville Choral Society. The Festival also featured a birthday card contest to celebrate Oakville's 150th in addition to other activities for kids. The winner of the contest will be See Support page 27 Humble Howard proud of The Slime That Men Do By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF One guy took his girlfriend to a mud wrestling match to celebrate their anniversary. Another packed his first date's purse full of items he swiped from the restaurant table. And maybe worst of all: a husband thought his wife's birthday party would be the perfect time to announce he wanted a divorce. That's just some of The Slime That Men Do ­ and Humble Howard Glassman, author of the recently published book, has heard it all. "I meet women all the time ­ I have met hundreds, if not thousands now, and they'll say one of three things to me," said Oakville's Glassman, better known as Humble Howard for his days as a radio morning man. "One, they'll look at the book and say it should be bigger ­ it should be way thicker. "If they're of a certain age, if they're sort of early 20s they'll say, `Oh I've got a great story for you.' "And If they're mid-20s and up, they go, `I could write your whole book,'" said the 47year-old, laughing. Full of women's stories "about the crappy things some men do," as the cover puts it, and with Glassman's addition of sarcastic comments, the book will see a portion of proceeds go to The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF). Originally, the former Mix 99.9 host planned to send all proceeds to the CBCF, where he did a lot of work during his nearly 20 BARRIE ERSKINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER SLIMY AUTHOR: Even Humble Howard Glassman is surprised at some of The Slime That Men Do. Some proceeds from his new book will go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. years with stations like the Mix, The Edge (102.1) and Mojo 640 Radio. "I had done this bit on my show years and years ago, The Slime that Men Do, and after doing a lot of little fundraisers for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, I thought this would be a great way to help out," said Glassman. Stories started flooding in via e-mail early in 2006 when Glassman, who was supported in his endeavour by the Mix, started telling listeners about his book idea and where proceeds would go. Then, the Mix let Humble Howard go. "I finally got the book done, I go on vacation, I get fired. I wasn't as upset about getting fired as much as I was like, `Oh my God I spent all this time writing this book. Now what'?" said Glassman. With a deal already inked with Chapters Indigo and Coles, Glassman was given the rights to the book and decided to self-publish, with no radio station backing him. That meant he had to pay for publishing and printing costs, so he hammered out a new deal with the CBCF to send a portion of proceeds to the cause. Now, Chapters stores across the country are carrying The Slime that Men Do. "A Canadian best-seller is 5,000 copies. Chapters bought 2,500 copies, and they haven't given any back yet, so that's good," said Glassman, smiling. He admits publishing his first book has been a learning process. "It's certainly taught me that nothing comes easy. I thought it was just going to fly off the shelves," he said. "The women that have read it, though, and the ones I guess in my market, women with a sense of humour, love it. They think the stories are funny and the comments are funny." Glassman has learned where not to market the book, like bridal shows. He booked a few in January, and while he says "it wasn't a complete disaster," it didn't go as expected. "I just thought, you know, thousands of women, they'll see the book and go `Oh I'd like that.' But they're all these brides who are like, `I'm marrying prince charming fairy tale' and they look at me like, `My guy's not a slime.'" 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