Since the movie showing was so late, we shopped for a couple of things at Gerrard Square and then had lunch at home. Then we set out for the library to drop off a DVD and then crossed over to the Shoppers to mail off the taxes. (I had printed out the very last pages in the morning and double and triple checked them. I wanted to check something against my 2016 T4 but couldn't find it. If I can't locate it in another few days, I'll request a replacement. If it turns out that I did overpay in 2016, I'll just request a refund for the 2018 taxes. I really don't want to refile at this point.)
The post office at the Shoppers was completely out of commission. I really don't understand how their system could be down and for so long (they estimated a couple of hours), but this really threw me off. I decided it was best just to go downtown and figure the nearest post office. I have to say that the post office app does not work well on the phone, and it took probably at least 10 minutes of fiddling around to find out that there was a store open in the U of T bookstore. So we picked up a book at Robarts and then walked down to the bookstore. I was able to calm down after the package was mailed off. I was hoping to find a UT toque, since I seem to have lost my winter hat. (I'm sure it's somewhere in the house but not sure where.) Surprisingly I didn't see any winter gear on sale, so maybe they already sold it all off. I saw a bunch of sweatpants on sale, but didn't want to try them on, since I was in a bit of a hurry. I did get a long sleeve t-shirt for about $5, so that was a good deal, though it only partly made up for the long detour imposed on me by Shoppers. I will say that my mood did improve a bit as the rain let up.
Anyway, we then took the replacement bus to Landsdowne. I wanted to see this Douglas Coupland exhibit before it closed. I had hoped to go Friday after work, but work got in the way... Sat. was actually the last day, so there was a bit of urgency. I've never been to the Daniel Faria gallery, and it took a bit of work to find it, but we managed it and saw the exhibit. It was interesting. Basically, all the pieces are trash (mostly plastic) that Coupland or his collaborators have pulled from the waters off of the BC coast, and then he has either painted or gilded them.
I decided since we still had a bit of time to kill, we should go to the AGO. This would probably be the last time my son could see the Mitchell Riopelle exhibit. (I may stop by one more time next week, especially if there are any paintings in the exhibit where my camera phone photos are just too blurry.) Note that the exhibit closes May 6, so only one more week to go!
We also saw the teaser for the Yayoi Kusama exhbit (we have tickets for mid May). It's a room full of mirrored balls. This is the only part of the exhibit that the general public can see without a ticket.
Anyway, the Mitchell Riopelle exhibit did not disappoint. However, it is a little sad at how empty it was. I suppose almost everyone in the museum is lining up for Kusama. We pretty much had the exhibit to ourselves. I already posted a bunch of photos in this post, but here are some others that I liked quite a bit.
This is the most imposing of all the Joan Mitchell paintings in the exhibit, and I think it is my favorite. Apparently, it is held by the Pompidou Centre in Paris though I don't recall seeing it on my visit there.
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| Joan Mitchell, Chasse interdite, 1973 |
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| Joan Mitchell, Untitled, 1975 |
This was one my son's favorites. While the style is totally different, the black-white reversal reminds me just a bit of Keith Haring.
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| Jean-Paul Riopelle, Le ligne d'eau |
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| Mitchell, Tilleul, 1978 |
We were actually running a bit short on time for the movie, so I only took him around the corner to see this George Segal installation. It was only recently reinstalled at the AGO.
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| George Segal, The Butcher Shop, 1965 |
We made it to the movies on time. I have to say I can't believe they still haven't fixed the escalators. It is a huge problem in this place. I don't know how much to say about Ready Player One. It was a pretty entertaining ride, but there were a lot of changes, and I don't think it completely holds together if you haven't read the book. The whole thing was simplified down to only three keys (not three keys and three challenges within the gates). The movie challenge was switched over to a different movie (but probably one that was a lot more interesting from a cinematic perspective). Probably for the better, the action was switched away from always having Wade/Parzival being the hero. I-Roc was a much more interesting character this time around. Also, the hitting the reader over the head with the 80s references was definitely toned down and mostly was left to super quick visual homages, which was also good. However, Og's role was considerably reduced, and you never saw his annual party. Also, the way they shut down the orb was vastly more amusing in the book (and probably still would have worked in movie-form). There were other weird things the movie added, including a truly stupid throwaway line towards the end that they shut the Oasis down on Tues. and Thurs. Hello! Since all learning has been moved over to the Oasis (and probably quite a bit of other economic activity), I think that would cause a lot of problems that the High Five didn't think through. So definitely not a classic movie for all time, but fairly entertaining. Actually, the theatre was pretty full, so I guess not everyone did want to see the Avengers.
However, the movie didn't let out until 7:15 and we had only eaten popcorn, so I decided to forget about Candide and take my son to a Vietnamese place that I used to go to when I worked on Adelaide. That was pretty good, and then we headed for home. Overall, a fairly productive and very artistic day.
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