Many tasks (on a hot, hot day)

It was so crazy hot today!  What makes it even worse is that our AC went out about two weeks ago.  It took a while to get someone to look at it, then they said it was just too old (25+ years old) and that they couldn't fix it.  I'm honestly not sure if we will replace it, since I am basically opposed to AC on environmental grounds.  So of course, this Canada Day weekend decided to get up to these crazy temperatures, so that even indoors with the lights off and the fans going, it was just miserable.  I suppose if summers just keep getting worse (and they are certainly likely to), then at some point I'll have to relent (and of course make things worse for the planet in my own small way).

Anyway, we went over to the mall early and got a few last props for the play (a nurse's mask, some make-up and shoes for my son's costume).  I went to a different shoe store and got some new gym shoes, since I had worn the other pair out.  I may even be able to go jogging in these.  And we got a few groceries on the way back.

After lunch, we went up to the Danforth, and I managed to leave a big poster and a few postcards at Circus Books.  Then postcards at the bike store (where I also pumped up my tires) and at Book City (where they had taken a small poster already).  I really didn't place too many of the large posters, but I was pretty active in putting the smaller ones up along Danforth, Gerrard and Queen.  I think I've kind of done what I can to publicize the Fringe show.  I'll just have to hope buzz (and a review or two) is good and we sell more tickets for week 2 (week 1 isn't too bad in terms of sales).

I picked up some dry cleaning and crashed for a bit.  Finally, I went back to the mall, mostly to go to the gym.  Interestingly, the mall was air conditioned but the gym wasn't (they were just running big fans).  It looks like I have locked in 25 pounds lost (in fact it was closer to 30, but some of that was probably just water loss).  The first 10 pounds were easy, but the next 15 really were hard.  I am hoping it will be easier again now, especially as I am eating better.  I can certainly fit shirts better, but I think I will need to lose another 25 pounds before I can easily fit into most of my t-shirts, and maybe 50 to go one t-shirt size down.  (It looks like I actually hung onto a few of those shirts.  I don't think I've been able to wear them for 10 years!)  The last thing I did was to buy a reclining chair for the deck and had to carry it home.  So it was kind of an exhausting day.  Fortunately, I don't have quite as much planned for tomorrow.

(Other) Fringe shows to check out

While I want everyone to come see Final Exam first, this looks like a pretty good Fringe year.  One thing that it doesn't have a lot of is innovative stagings of well-established plays.  (Often there are a few, but this year I think the only one that falls in that category is Bakersfield Mist by Stephen Sachs, though I already saw that at the Theatre Centre.)  There are a few shows that have been moderate to big hits at other Fringes, but pretty much everything is developed by the local companies.  That makes Fringe particularly interesting and a bit like a Cracker Jack box where you never know just exactly what you are going to get...  But that's part of the fun.

I've identified quite a few shows that look worthy of checking out, though I probably can only see a small fraction of them, given that I have to be at all the showings of Final Exam.  (Perhaps if a number of them all fall on a single day, I'll take a vacation day, but I haven't gotten quite that far yet.)  Anyway, here are the offerings I find particularly interesting, grouped somewhat thematically:

Site-specific shows east of the Don Valley:
Final Exam!
Kitchen Sink Drama (apparently there are snacks involved!)
Coconuts, Cedar Trees, and Maple Leaves

Shows with a SF element:
2018: A Sex Odyssey
Space Hippo
Police Cops in Space
Flute Loops

Shows based around classic literature (Mr. Miller would approve!)
Paradise Lost
Dead for a Ducat (loosely inspired by Hamlet)

Shows where I know the cast:
The Ties that Bind
Kitchen Sink Drama

Other shows of potential interest
Women of the Fur Trade
Josephine (a cabaret/burlesque show about Josephine Baker)
The Preposterous Predicament of Polly Peel (Act 1)
Fine China
Her

Postering

I wasn't that busy this weekend with the postering, seeing that it rained quite a bit both days.  But the previous weekend I had gone around and made sure that we had posters indoors.  I managed to get posters inside the Paper/Danforth library branch and the Jones library branch.  There is a large poster up at Matty Eckler of course.  Also, I left a mid-sized poster at Queen Books and a fairly large stack of postcards.

Then I put the mid-sized poster on a bunch of community boards, most of them near TTC stops.  (In this photo, you can also see the postcard for Gruesome Playground Injuries, which runs this weekend.  I think I'll try to get to that.)

These had largely held up through the week.  Given that it did rain so much, it's probably time to replace them over this week.  Also, now that Fringe is really getting close, it's time to place the rest of the large posters.  I need to find at least one business on Danforth, on Gerrard and on Queen to take one.  (I'm going to check in with Circus Books on Danforth and maybe the cycle shop.)  I also should see if Red Sandcastle will take some postcards in exchange for a shout out to their show(s) during Fringe week.

Speaking of a shout out, we are partnering with Unspoken Theatre -- one of the other groups putting on a Fringe show on the East Side -- to promote a Sat. double feature.  First come see Final Exam at 4!  Our show will wrap around 4:45, giving you plenty of time to mosey on down to Queen St. for one of the many fine dining options, then see Kitchen Sink Drama at 7:30.  Make sure to leave some room for snacks!  More info here.

Goodbye to Peter O.

This is the last week of Peter Oundjian's residence as Music Director of the TSO.  While I don't think the TSO reaches the heights of the Montreal Symphony, it's a solid symphony.  I've enjoyed seeing them perform, even though I don't care much for Roy Thompson Hall itself.  Anyway, it will be a challenge to replace Mr. Oundjian, and in fact there will be an empty chair next year as they complete their search.

To celebrate his 14-year tenure at the TSO, the TSO threw a free concert on Friday, but the catch was it was a midday concert.  

I decided I had put in enough extra time at work that I could take some time off, though I didn't go early.  I went over at 11:45.  The doors opened at 11:30, but the concert itself was supposed to start at 12:30.  The line snaked well past Roy Thompson to King St. and then into the park next to Metro Hall.  

I came close to giving up and going back to work, but remembered that it was a pretty big space inside, and I didn't really have anything to lose by standing in line for a while.  I had brought a book with me, so I did a bit of reading as well.  In the end, I think everyone in line did get in, though they may have cut off stragglers at some point.  They started at 12:30 promptly, which was a bit of a surprise.

They kicked things off with "O Canada" (I really need to learn the words...), then an overture by Glinka (I believe it was the overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila).  Followed by the last movement of Brahms' Symphony 1.  Then they played the majority of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.  They had Peter announce that they were suspending decorum and allowing photos (of the TSO playing Pictures), given that it was such a special occasion.  I didn't bother, as I knew they wouldn't actually look that great (I was in the upper balcony).  It was definitely a rousing finale with the gong going crazy in The Great Gate of Kiev.  It was actually another small surprise that there was nothing pop-y in his selection for the free concert, but it was definitely all well done.

What was a bigger surprise is that after the concert ended, they wheeled out a podium and Mayor John Tory gave a short speech and presented Mr. Oundjian the key to the city.  Definitely a classy move by a mayor who does genuinely support the arts.  Peter Oundjian gave just a very few words of thanks, and then it was over (probably disappointing folks who thought there would be an encore).

I was content with the concert (and didn't need an encore).  Plus, I really needed to get back to work anyway.

Two mysteries (Fringe show)

First, just what (or who?) is everyone looking at?

Second, what's in this snazzy (spacey?) bag?

Come find out (info here).  Hard to believe the Toronto Fringe starts next week!

At a bit of a loss (or at loose ends)

Probably you have experienced this -- when you are working extremely hard on something, then suddenly it is over, and you aren't entirely sure what to do with yourself.  That feeling hit me this weekend.  I had to work quite hard Friday evening and all of Saturday, just trying to get two presentations ready for a conference early next week.  I'm not entirely sure if I would have been more motivated to get to this earlier if I was actually going to attend, but my travel request was denied, so I am preparing the material but won't actually get to go and present my work.  Not the best feeling in the world, but I'm trying to get over it.

Anyway, I found a fairly significant error in the set-up of one of the models, so I had to rerun that in the late afternoon, but I ultimately got it all done.  Then Sunday was mostly spent on groceries and cleaning up, as we have a house guest next week.  Actually, there was a break in the rain, and I tried to take the kids to Incredibles 2, but both the shows were sold out.  I guess everyone had the exact same idea, so I guess we'll go next weekend...

It's not like I don't have more work, though even with the Fringe show, it is mostly out of my hands now (and in the hands of the director).  I'm mostly trying to do a bit more promotion here and there, but otherwise, I am done.  Now of course, I have work work (including a few things I pushed off last week) and a bunch of books to read and several other projects (including catching up on some very tardy blog posts), but it is kind of odd to think that I sort of do have a bit of time to myself for once.  Probably in just a few more days I will be feeling like I am back in the swing of things (and in fact I need to get one more presentation ready for Tuesday).

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that I did fall off the wagon just a bit.  I had been quite good about not snacking at work (or rather only fruit and rice chips) but we threw a bit of a party (and it had actually been my idea), so I was pretty bad, snacking on the chocolate-covered pretzels.  Then I didn't get to the gym on Thurs. or Friday, and I only went on Sat.  (I do expect to go Monday, however.)  I'm trying not to get too depressed about how long it is taking to see results.  I mean I am fitting into my clothes better, but there is just a long way to go to get down a shirt size (though I did manage to get down two pant sizes, which I suppose is nothing to sneeze at).  I actually find I have less temptation during the week than the weekend, so I will in a way be looking forward to getting back to work.

11th Canadian Challenge - 24th review - Passing Ceremony

Helen Weinzweig's first novel is highly experimental.  In this reprint of Passing Ceremony by House of Anansi press, her editor, James Polk, recalls that Weinzweig sent the novel to him in a big box and instructed him to throw the pages in the air and reassemble in that order (apparently taking a page from the John Cage handbook).  It's probably worth noting that she was not even represented by the press at that time!  I don't believe that Polk literally followed the instructions, since there is a very rough shape to the novel, starting with a few scenes that occur during the wedding ceremony with the rest taking place during the reception afterwards.  Still, it is clear that there is no overall plot to the novel, but rather it is composed of interior glimpses (often only half a page) from the various attendees at the wedding as they remember previous interactions with the bride and groom (most often the bride) or wonder whether this union will last. 

 
The cumulative effect of these is not unlike Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo, though Passing Ceremony is a bit easier to follow, as it is organized around a single day in the life of this new couple.  Nonetheless, I did lose track of several of the wedding guests and only remembered the ones with a particularly juicy backstory, including the bride's father who had fled to Mexico and married a young Mexican woman about the same age as his daughter.  He brought his wife and their infant son back to Toronto for the wedding.  Several of the bride's former lovers turn up, and at least one contemplates interrupting during the ritual, while another expects to pick back up after where they left off at some point after the ceremony.  I'm fairly sure that the groom's (male) lover is not in town, and the bride tries to comfort him over this.  It isn't entirely clear why she enters into a lavender marriage, as the groom isn't attracted to her at all, but perhaps it is simply to take herself out of dating pool and to break, once and for all, from her former lovers.  This is definitely a quirky, unconventional novel, but it is a quick read.  I would almost classify it as a grouping of prose poems.  I am finding that I am still thinking about it, several weeks on from finishing it, which is generally a good thing.  I'm looking forward to reading Weinzweig's 2nd (and unfortunately last) novel, Basic Black with Pearls.  I'll probably get to it this fall.

Expensive art

I mentioned a few weeks back that I thought the Banksy exhibit was just too expensive -- $35 plus a bunch of fees.  Perhaps I would have eventually gone if the total cost was kept to $30, though really $25 is kind of my upper limit for paying for a one-person show.  Ticket sales have been really strong, however, so it is unlikely they will have to do any last-minute discount or deals.  Too bad for me, so I think I will end up skipping this and trying to see the Banksy piece that is somewhere near Union Station.

What I was not expecting is that some of the Luminato shows would be so expensive.  I had been planning on catching Burning Doors by the Belarus Free Theatre with special guest Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot fame.  This would naturally be very challenging and intense, based on their past work.  As they note, there will be scenes of violence and torture, so leave the young ones at home.  However, if one is not an arts worker (and I can't really claim that, even with a piece in the Fringe), then the tickets work out to over $80 with fees.  Have I ever paid that much for theatre?  Yes, but only in very exceptional circumstances, and definitely not to sit for an hour or two and be made utterly miserable by watching man's inhumanity to man.  So I'll skip this as well, and indeed all of Luminato this year.  I'll just have to live with my memories of catching them in Evanston right after the company had been forced into exile.  For those of you still interested, here is the link.  They are playing this week only at Luminato.

Fortunately for you, there are many lower priced options, especially including Fringe, where even with the ticket fees, tickets come out to $13 (or even just $8 if it is a preview night).  As I have mentioned before, Final Exam has one preview on July 5, so come out and check that out.  Tickets can be purchased here.

Shirts

Recently, I had to go through a elaborate order for t-shirts for a staff event.  The men's t-shirts were easy, but the women's ran very small, and definitely some are too tight, leading to some hard feelings. I mention this because I spent a chunk of this weekend going through my closet seeing if I could wear some older shirts I set aside when I got so incredibly fat.  I think I may have been feeling a bit too optimistic at the start, and by the end, I definitely had some bruised feelings...

Anyway, it looks like there are three shirts I can definitely bring back into general circulation, though one will need a button sewn on.  There are probably another 3 or 4 that I may be able to wear by the end of the summer, if I keep to my regime.  Then there are a bunch that I may need to lose a huge amount of weight and may just be out of reach.  I have to admit that I was pretty upset about these shirts, even when I bought them.  I mean how can you sell an XL shirt that doesn't have any room around the midriff?  Seriously?  I actually stopped going to that store, since the sizes all seemed out of wack.

I am doing better on the jeans front.  I have gotten down two sizes and a bunch of belt notches.  I mean there is still a bit too much of a muffin top, but it's not so bad.  I have about three weeks to go before Fringe, and the goal is to fit these jeans a bit better.  I'm trying not to obsess over the weight, but it is frustrating in the sense that even just a few years back, this much exercise and cutting out junk food would have led to more immediate results.  This time around, I lost 10 pounds almost immediately, then plateaued for the longest time.  I have finally locked in 20 pounds lost and have hit 25 pounds on the scale once, but that doesn't feel entirely stable just yet.  Maybe in another week or so.  I'm just about ready to try adding another form of exercise into my routines, either swimming or even jogging, though I definitely need better shoes for that. 

Final Exam - Caption Contest!

I'm giving you the chance to rewrite the dialogue of the play, or at least the captions to these rehearsal shots.  The best entry for each photo will win a ticket to a performance of Final Exam during the Toronto Fringe (I will do my best to find a time that works from the shows that are not sold out).  I will be the sole arbiter of the contest,* and I must be at least somewhat entertained before awarding any tickets.  By the same token, if your caption entry makes me laugh so hard that tea shoots out my nose, then 2 comp tickets will be awarded.

Contest ends June 29 at 7:30 pm (ET).

Here is an example.

"I don't care.  No Ghost Bike Rides inside the school."

Now it's your turn.  (Surely you can do better.) 

Submit your entries through the comments.

Photo #1

Photo #2

* P.S. Please keep it reasonably clean...

More action from Final Exam

Getting very close -- we are down to blocking the last 4-5 pages of script.  We should wrap that up next week and then can work on polishing.

A few photos and then a short video clip.  I've tried to avoid anything too spoilery.

Wild weather

Anyone in Toronto (and most of the GTHA) Wed. experienced some crazy weather.  I had known there was going to be a storm, but it was supposed to be over by 3 or so, so I biked in, but left my bike in the bike storage room (which I don't usually bother doing).

Around 4, the rain just came down in sheets.  It was actually going sideways most of the time (since there were gusts of wind close to 100 km/hour).  I didn't see it, but apparently it rained so hard that the Eaton Centre sprung a leak and it rained inside the mall and some of the stores!

I was getting pretty antsy, as I had to leave early to pick up a big t-shirt order (which is a story for another day perhaps).  However, the rain came down hard and fast and was done by 4:30 or so.  That said that were still big puddles everywhere, and I definitely felt in some danger, since I wasn't willing to hug the right hand curb (and go through the puddles), which wasn't too popular with some of the drivers.  But I tried to stick to streets with bike lanes as much as possible.

As I came into Riverdale, I started seeing some big branches down on the street, but then I saw an entire street blocked by tree branches that had fallen.  I thought I might be able to scoot around on the sidewalk, but saw that some wires were down as well!  Very scary.  I managed to detour around this using a back alley.

On my street, there were some mid-sized branches that had fallen, including this one on a neighbour's roof!  Not quite sure how they will get that off, but hopefully there is no actual damage to the roof itself.

I still had to finish picking up the t-shirts.  Going under the viaduct at Logan was actually a real problem due to flooding (and the wind was still strong), so I had to work around that, but I eventually made it.  I suppose it could have been worse, particularly if I had been caught in that crazy rain.  What a storm!

Dueling posters

We have the official poster (also used on our postcards).  This is actually the third or fourth time I've remade the image, but it is fairly sharp this time.

We have an alternative poster (or at least an image) here.

I've found that for some reason polls don't work for those viewing the blog on phones, but feel free to weigh in on which one you like better in the comments.

Even more rehearsal photos

We managed to get through 20 pages of script in two rehearsals.  Way to go crew!  At this rate, we will get through the whole script by the 20th and then will have a few dates to just tighten and review.  So exciting!

BTW, ticket sales have just opened on the Fringe website.

We have had the first sale already.  Thank you to whomever that was!  Still good availability, but there are a maximum of 30 seats per show (fewer than many of the shows in the main spaces), so if you have a specific date in mind, you might want to book sooner rather than later.  Just saying...

Digging deep for a silver lining (new theatre seasons)

I am so incredibly depressed about the state of Ontario and the broader world.  However, I will focus on something that I enjoy, which is tracking down obscure productions before anyone else knows about them.  Partly I do this just because I like being in the know, but also because the more established theatre companies just are not putting together slates that interest me.

Factory Theatre has Bears, which to be fair was interesting, but I saw it already at the Theatre Centre.  Theatre Passe Muraille isn't doing anything of interest to me.  Tarragon has one play about Marshall McLuham (The Message) that I might catch, but that is it, so I definitely won't be subscribing.  (I really wish they had transferred The Breathing Hole from Stratford, but they are doing another play based on an Inuit legend, which isn't as compelling.)  I don't even know what Soulpepper is up to in the fall, but I've already decided I won't be subscribing again for a couple of years.  Canadian Stage still is going in a direction that doesn't appeal to me, though I'll probably check out their silent play, Bigre, playing next April.

The only company I might subscribe to next season is East Side Players.  They open with 4 short plays by Christopher Durang (including The Actor's Nightmare).  Then their middle play is a drama, Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies.  Then they end with Ann-Marie MacDonald's Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet.  Now I don't absolutely need to see this, since I saw it at Brock a few years back, but it was pretty entertaining.  If my friend wants to go, then I'd probably go ahead and subscribe.  Otherwise, I'll just see the Durang shorts.

There are always a few plays I just check to see if they are playing anywhere.  One is Samuel Beckett's Happy Days.  It will be in Boston, but at a time that I really can't make it.  Maybe next year...  Dietz's Yankee Tavern is another one I've really hoped to catch.  It's going to be in Rochester, NY in Feb. 2019.  I think I will try to swing it and catch the Greyhound out there, so I'll sort of pencil this in.  It would be really great to cross this off my list.  I'd actually like to see both American Hero and Lobby Hero (both sort of about the ubiquitousness of security guards in the U.S.).  Supposedly, Lobby Hero will be playing in Mississauga this Sept., but I suspect this may turn out to be a phantom production.  However, I will keep my eyes open to see if it becomes real.

Staying in Mississauga, but turning to productions that are more likely to go forward: in August, Calliope Sound Productions will be doing The Glass Menagerie and P's and Q's Theatre will be doing Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty.

I was so excited to find that Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton was apparently doing Lynn Nottage's Sweat, but they have something else in the slot (Crees in the Caribbean), which just cannot hold a candle to Sweat.*  I'll check in one more time, but definitely a missed opportunity...

In Toronto proper:
Late June 2018 - Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph will be presented at Eastminster United Church.  (I just was not able to see this in Vancouver, perhaps because the movers showed up a day late, but I can't recall any longer.  I'll probably go see this black comedy.)
Sept 2018 - Solar Stage presents A Number by Caryl Churchill
Sept-Oct 2018 - Hart House is doing Heathers: The Musical 
Oct 2018 - Toronto Irish Players present Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel
Nov. 2018 - Crow's Nest performs Middletown by Will Eno.  (I'll probably pass on this, having seen the premiere at Steppenwolf, but this will be of interest to the broader community.)
Nov 2018 - Hart House performs Atwood's The Penelopiad.  (Kind of an odd choice, since George Brown just did this.  I will pass, having seen this twice now.)
Feb 2019 - Studio 180 will do Oslo by J.T. Rogers
March 2019 - Hart House is doing Kat Sandler's Retreat
March 2019 - Eclipse Theatre Company is doing Kiss of the Spider Woman -- in the Don Jail!  I will absolutely have to see this.  Just wonder when tickets will go on sale, since I want to get in early on this show.

Overall some interesting things to look forward to.


* Assuming that Sweat isn't coming to Hamilton or Toronto next season, I did a bit of poking around.  It will be in Vancouver, which is often a tempting destination.  Also, in Pittsburgh and Baltimore, both of which would be very suitable for its focus on the working class.  Porter no longer makes direct flights to Pittsburgh, but it does offer some service, and I've always wanted to check out the museums in Pittsburgh, so it isn't inconceivable that I might go.

Rehearsal - live action

Just a couple of teasers from tonight's rehearsal.  (Again, we covered a lot of ground and the energy stayed high, which was great.)  The students are debating the pros and cons of going along with the Process and becoming part of the hive mind.  Interestingly, most of the students are on board with the idea (not truly valuing privacy much) with only one who strongly objects.

I particularly like the second clip, since it justifies this tagline: #HivingItUp

But maybe I'm the only one that really finds that funny.

Disappointing books

No question there are an endless number of disappointing books, but it is always frustrating to run across a whole bunch of them.  Most of the books I have read recently have been sort of in the middle of the road -- they won't make my year end list but I wasn't too disappointed in them (except for I.B. Singer's Enemies, which I thought was so absurd, with this nothing of a man with 2 women madly in love with him suddenly being confronted with his wife returning from the concentration camps).

But I've now hit a slump.  I'm really struggling with Faulkner.  Sometimes I like reading him, but sometimes his over-florid style just gets in the way.  There were parts of Flags in the Dust I liked (particularly the machinations of one of the Snopes clan) but again this business of the Sartoris women just falling for these bad boys over and over was frustrating.  But that is nothing compared to The Unvanquished, which goes back into the childhood of Bayard Sartoris (who is a fairly old man in Flags in the Dust), while the Civil War is winding down and Reconstruction is going on in fits and starts.  Anyway, his father John Sartoris is mighty pleased with himself for killing two Northern carpet-baggers and preventing Negros from voting.  And I just think, even while Faulkner himself condemned slavery, how can I read about these characters who are basically scum?  (And worst of all, it was one thing to read this when it seemed white supremacy was largely dead and buried in the States, but Trump, speaking of scum, has managed to give it new life.)  I'm almost done with The Unvanquished, and I think I just have to take a bit of a break from Faulkner for a while.

I've wanted to read more Dickens for the longest time, but I definitely picked the wrong one -- Hard Times.  It's actually one of his shortest novels, if you don't count A Christmas Carol or the unfinished Drood.  But it is so boring (ok, I'm only halfway in, but something should have sparked my interest by now).  The characters are boring, especially this braggart of a man, Josiah Bounderby.  It's intolerable reading his recollections of his hard childhood.  (And the northern dialect of Stephen Blackpool is frankly unreadable.)  The book is mostly about the politics of an industrial town and the proper role of labor unions.  The same topic was done much better in Gaskell's North and South, not that I completely loved that novel either.  (I actually picked up Hard Times to compare it to North and South before I completely forgot that novel...)  Reading Hard Times is becoming a real drag, but I'll go ahead and finish it, as there aren't that many more pages to go.  I'll just have to pick one of his better novels next time around.  Probably Oliver Twist and then Nicholas Nickleby.

However, I did abandon another novel -- Burning City by Ariel Dorfman and Joaquin Dorfman (his son).  This is theoretically a YA novel, but the main character (just about to graduate high school) is frankly a menace to society.  He lives for the thrill of going fast on his bike (he is a bike messenger), but endangers pedestrians all the time and even rides his bike into building lobbies.  So this was a major strike against the book.  (I really hate the careless or super-aggressive cyclists who make things worse for bike commuters.)  Anyway, he is a fairly morose individual who feels the world owes him something, which I also didn't care for.  Finally, he makes a lot of terrible decisions (and indeed most of the characters make implausible decisions), such as throwing a cake onto the windshield of this beat cop, who is his nemesis.  I was just done at that point.  I decided I had no interest in seeing this little shit win the woman of his dreams or be fulfilled in any way.  It was much better to just toss the book aside, leaving him eternally stewing in his own juices as it were.  This book is so not recommended...

Last Canadian Challenge?

I would say like most things, the Canadian Challenge seems to be winding down in a way.  I just sense less general enthusiasm for it, though maybe that is just my own feelings about it, which I am then attributing to others.  I'll sign up one more time this July.  I'm not sure I will do so again, though I certainly might.  I almost certainly wouldn't have maintained the blog as much as I did if it hadn't been for all these reviews.  In fact, that was almost the only time I blogged in 2012 (to catch up on book reviews), and then I started branching out...  While my official reading list has relatively few Canadian authors towards the top, I can certainly move a few things around and bring some books off of my library reserve list as well.

Working on the assumption that this might be the last time I formally participate in the Challenge, here are some books that I will aim to review (R marks a re-reading but first time reviewing):
Atwood The Onyx and Crake dystopian trilogy
R Atwood The Edible Woman
Earl Birney Turvey
Bishop-Stall Ghosted
Bissoondath Doing the Heart Good
Morley Callaghan The Loved and the Lost
Morley Callaghan Our Lady of the Snows
Roch Carrier La Guerre Trilogy
Wayson Choy The Jade Peony & All That Matters
R Robertson Davies The Deptford Trilogy
R Findley Famous Last Words
Findley Piano Man's Daughter 
Mavis Gallant A Fairly Good Time
Mavis Gallant The Cost of Living
Graeme Gibson Five Legs/Communion
R Robert Kroetsch Completed Field Notes (poetry)
Vincent Lam Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
Margaret Laurence The Diviners
Margaret Laurence The Stone Angel
John Lavery Sandra Beck
(A couple more by) Alice Munro: Open Secrets & The Love of a Good Woman
R Carol Shields Larry's Party
R Skvorecky The Bass Saxophone
Skvorecky Dvorak in Love
Russell Smith How Insensitive & Noise
Miriam Toews All My Puny Sorrows
R Vanderhaege My Present Age
Vanderhaeghe Homesick
Helen Weinzweig Basic Black with Pearls
Ethel Wilson Swamp Angel
Adele Wiseman Crackpot

This would be a fairly solid list to work through, even if it took two years rather than one (and picking up a few left-overs here as well).  Sort of in the back of my mind, after I review these books, the remaining 5 Alice Munro story collections, a few more Findley's and the core Margaret Laurence novels, I might feel I've really said all I have to say about the core Canadian canon (such as it is).  That doesn't mean I wouldn't still occasionally review, and I assume I would blog on other topics, but I might not be so focused in my reviews.  Of course, that is just how I feel now.  I might feel very differently in 2020...

Fringe Guide out!

I know the listings went live a few days ago, but I now have my hands on a couple of the printed Fringe Festival guides.  They look pretty snazzy.

Here is a list of where they are available.  As it happens, there will be a bunch at Tarragon Theatre -- where my short piece The Line, is being performed Monday evening. So you could kill two birds with one stone.  Just saying.

Oh, most important information -- our listing is on p. 34!

More rehearsal photos

Wednesday night was super productive.  We did a full run-through, then started breaking down the individual scenes with our director, Gillian Armstrong.  A lot of great energy in the room!

11th Canadian Challenge - 23rd review - Friend of My Youth

Now that I have gone through Alice Munro's Friend of My Youth, I have exactly hit the halfway mark in terms of her short story collections.  (I am not counting Best of or Selected volumes, only the original volumes.)  It's a nice milestone, having seen some changes in her style and her preoccupations, but knowing that there are quite a few stories left to go (to say nothing of if I decide to read the New Yorker versions, which are often fairly different).

Gentle SPOILERS ahead

The first three stories see Munro trying some different approaches.  In the title story, the narrator talks about a woman that her mother knew, rather than anyone in her own life.  Part of the story hinges upon a different interpretation of how this woman reacted to being jilted twice by the same man, with the narrator's version being twice-removed as it were, since she had no direct experience of meeting this woman, although apparently she had some access to their correspondence, such as it was.  (Her mother wasn't much of a letter-writer.)

"Five Points" is primarily about a woman hearing about her lover's past.  He is eventually forced into making some admissions about his past, which then seems to spell trouble for the relationship.  Again, what interests me the most is the inability to know the truth about someone else's past, since it is all relayed second-hand and the person doing the telling can choose what to relate.

"Meneseteung" goes further back into the past, attempting to reconstruct the life of a female poet from the late 1800s.  The documentation is thin (her published work and snippets of gossip from the Vidette, the local paper).  However, the story pushes on and generates a whole interior life for this poet, bringing her back to life, as it were.

The other stories are on more familiar turf for Munro, mostly about marriages on the rocks due to infidelity or about women who have gotten out of marriages one way or another.  It isn't entirely clear when they are set, though I have the impression most are based in the late 70s or early 80s.  Many of the stories are set in small town Ontario, though there are some departures from this.  "Differently" features a trip to (or rather a return to) Victoria.  "Hold Me Fast" features a Canadian widow traveling to Scotland to see where her husband served out WWII. By the end, she seems to understand why he never wanted to return during peacetime, when it would have been so different.  "Goodness and Mercy" is largely set on a cruise ship, with a mother and daughter travelling to Scotland.  (I wonder if perhaps Munro herself made the trip in the late 80s and was inspired by her travels.)

One thing that is different in these stories, compared to some of the earlier stories, is that Munro seems to be taking a much more Olympian view of infidelity.  Pretty much everyone cheats on (or has cheated on) spouses and partners, perhaps the women even more than the men.   She doesn't go too deeply into the reasons why (maybe it was just something in the water in the 70s), but follows through the consequences, again at a bit of a remove.  There does seem to be less anger expressed towards cheating spouses and more interest in where people ended up after the next turn of fortune's wheel.  There is an exception to this in "Wigtime" where a wife is incredibly bitter about her husband's cheating with the babysitter.  Of course, she doesn't really reflect back that she is his second wife and had been the sweet young thing that broke up his first marriage.

There are a couple of exceptions to this pattern.  In "Hold Me Fast," it isn't entirely clear to me whether the vet and his wife were married when he went overseas or if they married after the war.  In either case, she never felt threatened by his wartime fling, as it was perfectly natural for men facing death to seek a bit of extra comfort over there.

The most atypical of all the stories and thus the most interesting from my perspective is "Pictures of the Ice" where a widowed minister is giving up his position, selling off his worldly goods with the proceeds going to charity and moving to Hawaii to get remarried.  Plenty of gentle ribbing at his moving away, though his adult children are more than a little concerned.  It turns out that he is actually going to move to a remote part of Northern Ontario into a trailer and minister to a tiny community.  Not sure how long he thought he could keep up the deception, but the story ends tragically anyway.  By the end of the story, the minister comes across as one of those holy fools that aren't quite cut out for this world, like Prince Myshkin from Dostoevsky's The Idiot.