IN: Pierrot (French pronunciation: [pjeRo]) is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comedie-Italienne; the name is a diminutive of Pierre (Peter), via the suffix -ot. His character in contemporary popular culture--in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall--is that of the sad clown, pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim, more rarely with a conical shape like a dunce's cap.

In 1842, Deburau was inadvertently responsible for translating Pierrot into the realm of tragic myth, heralding the isolated and doomed figure--often the fin-de-siecle artist's alter-ego--of Decadent, Symbolist, and early Modernist art and literature. In that year, Gautier, drawing upon Deburau's newly acquired audacity as a Pierrot, as well as upon the Romantics' store of Shakespearean plots and of Don-Juanesque legend, published a "review" of a pantomime he claimed to have seen at the Funambules. He entitled it "Shakespeare at the Funambules", and in it he summarized and analyzed an unnamed pantomime of unusually somber events: Pierrot murders an old-clothes man for garments to court a duchess, then is skewered in turn by the sword with which he stabbed the peddler when the latter's ghost lures him into a dance at his wedding. The pantomime under "review" was a fabrication (though it inspired a hack to turn it into an actual pantomime, The Ol' Clo's Man [1842], in which Deburau probably appeared--and also inspired Barrault's wonderful recreation of it in Children of Paradise). But it importantly marked a turning-point in Pierrot's career: henceforth Pierrot could bear comparisons with the serious over-reachers of high literature, like Don Juan or Macbeth; he could be a victim--even unto death--of his own cruelty and daring. When Gustave Courbet drew a crayon illustration for The Black Arm (1856), a pantomime by Fernand Desnoyers written for another mime, Paul Legrand (see next section), the Pierrot who quakes with fear as a black arm snakes up from the ground before him is clearly a child of the Pierrot in The Ol' Clo's Man. So, too, are Honore Daumier's Pierrots: creatures often suffering a harrowing anguish. In 1860, Deburau was directly credited with inspiring such anguish, when, in a novella called Pierrot by Henri Riviere, the mime-protagonist blames his real-life murder of a treacherous Harlequin on Baptiste's "sinister" cruelties. Among the most celebrated of pantomimes in the latter part of the century would appear sensitive moon-mad souls duped into criminality--usually by love of a fickle Columbine--and so inevitably marked for destruction (Paul Margueritte's Pierrot, Murderer of His Wife [1881]; the mime Severin's Poor Pierrot [1891]; Catulle Mendes' Ol' Clo's Man [1896], modeled on Gautier's "review").
QUESTION: Is he punished for the murder?
IN: Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly in the city of Toronto. These associated acts include Metric, Feist, Stars, Apostle of Hustle, Do Make Say Think, KC Accidental, Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, Amy Millan, and Jason Collett.

In June 2007, BSS founder Kevin Drew began recording an album which featured many members of Broken Social Scene. The album was produced by Ohad Benchetrit and Charles Spearin and was titled Broken Social Scene presents ..Spirit If.... The album was recorded throughout 2004 and 2006 in Ohad Benchetrit's house while the band was not on tour. Although billed as a solo project, most Broken Social Scene members make cameo appearances. The sound itself is Broken Social Scene's familiar mix of rough and ragged, sad and celebratory, with psychedelic swells and acoustic jangles. Also featured are Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis and Canadian rock icon Tom Cochrane playing and singing and handclapping along. The album was released on September 18, 2007 and a tour billed as Broken Social Scene Performs Kevin Drew's Spirit If... took place in late 2007. The second "Broken Social Scene presents..." record, by Brendan Canning, is entitled Something for All of Us and was released on Arts & Crafts in July, 2008. Broken Social Scene also took part in the 2008 Siren Music Festival in Coney Island, Brooklyn. On April 29, 2009, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning guest-hosted 102.1 The Edge's program The Indie Hour to promote their concert at the Olympic Island Festival. The festival was later moved to Harbourfront Centre after a labour dispute resulted in the suspension of ferry service to the Toronto Islands. In May 2009 Arts & Crafts, with association from Anansi Press, released This Book Is Broken written by The Grid editor Stuart Berman, who had a close personal involvement with the band. The book includes artwork, concert posters and photographs (professional and amateur) of the band. Berman includes extensive interviews with band members and related persons, arranged by subject and chronology.
QUESTION:
Did they go on tour to promote this album?