Vancouver let-downs, part 2

Or more likely part 5 or 6.  I'll keep this fairly short but tart.

I already mentioned how annoyed I was at a Vancouver musical society that raised their door price well beyond the advance price (and if I am recalling correctly what was actually printed in the newspaper).  I left in a huff.

This past weekend I just barely made it in time to see the Vancouver Philharmonic performing Dvorak's Cello Concerto and Symphony 9.  The tickets were the correct price, which was a good start.  I didn't have a lot of experience with the Vancouver Phil, but I thought that Dvorak's 9th is a pretty forgiving piece, so could they really mess it up that much?

Well, it turns out they are essentially an amateur orchestra.  I am surely being too harsh, but I found them pretty sloppy, particularly the horn section.  The Cello Concerto wasn't too bad, particularly in the 2nd movement when the cello largely has the field to itself, but the 3rd movement was kind of mangled.  I actually decided to bail at intermission, so I am not sure if they managed to pull off the 9th, but I certainly have my doubts.  As it happens, the Toronto Symphony is doing Dvorak's 9th in Oct. I believe, so I'll try to catch that.

Then today was free donut day in the US but apparently not in Vancouver (or only at Krispy Kreme, which only has an outlet in Delta, which is a heck of a long way to go for a free donut).  The Tim Horton's people just told the guy in front of me: no--no free donuts here.  So I got out of line.  What gives, Timmy?  You're only giving away free donuts in the States?  Lame.  (Ok, this wasn't a specifically Vancouver-only let down, but I experienced here, and that's what counts, right?)

At this point I am just looking forward to turning the page on Vancouver and returning again to Toronto.  Will being there magically return me to being in my early 20s (when I first lived in Toronto)?  Sadly no.  But it was a place I felt I fit in very well and had the right scale for me.  I don't think that will have changed, even if the traffic is a lot worse and housing prices have sky-rocketed (if only I could have stayed on in the 90s and scraped together some dough for a house then --sigh).  If anything the cultural scene is better than it was when I was there 20-odd years ago, and that I am definitely looking forward to. 

And one more thing... I don't know if this is specifically a Vancouver thing or a Canadian thing or just a rotten-luck thing, but I really struggled to find a place among the writers and artists here.  I kept having ideas including hoping to do a staged reading of one of my plays, and I just could never bring it off.  Now it was not easy doing this in Chicago, but with some effort you could make these things happen.  Not here.  Let's see what Toronto brings. (Apologies to the Hip.)