I've been in a fairly bad mood since Thurs. when I discovered that someone messed with my bike. I actually came out and saw someone climbing on top of the bikes parked outside Union Station to get onto this concrete ridge. What a total a**hole. While I didn't actually see him mess with my bike, what I did see was that someone had yanked the brake cable out of place. I managed to get that back in place, then set off for home. There was some problem with the derailleur and the chain was clanking on the side of the wheel and looking like it would come off. I was so pissed. I turned around and put the bike in storage and then took the train home.
I was hoping that one of my co-workers who knows a lot about bikes could take a look, but he had just set off on a week-long vacation. I decided that since I would almost certainly need to take the bike on the train, I would need to wait until Saturday to retrieve it from work. And going forward, I'll have to either leave the bike in storage or bring it into the office, which is going to be a major pain, adding close to 10 minutes each way. I guess that is pretty minor compared to the bike being out of service due to sabotage. At any rate, it just reminds me how much I dislike scummy destructive people, of whom there are just enough around to ensure that the collective we can't have nice things...
Anyway, Saturday rolled around. I went to the gym fairly early, then picked up some swim goggles at Winners. (I think these will fit better, but I'll check this out later in the week.) Then I went off to work. I fussed around with the chain and the gears a bit and managed to get the chain to bite on one of the middle gears. However, this meant that I had to take it very slow and pretend to be riding a "fixie," i.e. a fixed gear bike. It was really hard not to shift up or down, but I was disciplined and made it home. I did risk gearing down once I got to the steep section of Pape and fortunately didn't throw the gears out of whack. At the shop, they thought they probably could fix the derailleur, but they won't actually know for sure until Tuesday. While this experience wasn't ideal, I had really been stressing over taking the bike on the train (and dealing with elevators and so forth), so avoiding that did put me in a better mood. (Of course, if the derailleur does need to be replaced and this is an expensive repair, then my mood will revert to a much darker shade...)
I got a few other tasks accomplished, and then after dinner I set off to Harbourfront to see Angelique Kidjo. She wasn't going on until 9:30! Anyway, it was pretty crowded, but I was able to get a seat towards the back. I think she was a bit disappointed that it was so hard to keep the crowd on its feet, but it was a fairly high-energy show overall. However, it is true that the Celia Cruz songs are a bit slower, and perhaps she should have skipped a couple of those in favour of more dance-oriented tracks. At any rate, she sang quite a few songs from her Cruz cover album. She sang three* of the songs off of Remain in Light: Once in a Lifetime, Cross-eyed and Painless and Born Under Punches. This was my favourite part of the concert. She also did "Macumba." (Oops - "Tumba".) During the song "Afirika" she had the whole crowd singing, then she went into seats and marched around the whole audience. Pretty cool. She had a singer from another group come up as they did Makeba's "Pata Pata." Pretty awesome. I think the only way it could have been any better is if she came out for an encore and did "Malaika." Well, you can't have everything.
While I got home fairly late, overall Saturday was a decent day, and I ended it in a better mood than I started. Well, I'll just have to see how this holds up after Tuesday.
* Actually, she also sung "Houses in Motion." It turns out this show made it to Setlist.fm after all! It looks like we got a fairly typical set (and she has retired Malaika at least for the time being), though a couple of months back she did "Burning Down the House," which I'm sure was awesome.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Musical Musings
This will be a somewhat random post.
After having listened to several live shows on Youtube and more or less recreated Beck's Night Running Tour set, I'd say that, while I enjoyed seeing him, I don't think I would pay to see him a second time. I would also say that I appreciate Cage the Elephant more on CD than live. I don't think their fans are wrong or anything, but their live set didn't interest me all that much. I still wish Spoon had at least another 10-15 minutes. If you look through their various setlists for the tour, they mix the songs up far more than the other two groups with no two shows being quite the same. I would definitely go see them again if they come through Toronto on a more proper tour, so I'll just keep my eyes open.
It sounds like there is a good chance that Beck will be coming out with an album later this fall, and perhaps Spoon as well, though they may be a bit further behind.
Tinariwen is releasing a new album, Amadjar, on Sept. 6. I'm pretty excited to see them at Danforth Music Hall on Sept. 28. I imagine if I really want to, I can pick up the new album at that time, though I am trying fairly hard not to add any more CDs to my collection. However, if it is a great enough album, I'll probably weaken.
Sept. 6 is also the launch date for Rubberband, a "lost" album by Miles Davis, though it is probably more accurate to say it was an abandoned effort that has been stitched together and re-engineered. This has basically no interest for me, though I'll probably stream it once, assuming it comes to iTunes. I'm definitely not a fan of Miles's 80s work, though Amandla and Aura aren't too bad. I also have a bit of a soft spot for the Dingo soundtrack. However, I didn't like any of these sufficiently to keep them in my collection after the upteenth move...
Later in Sept. (Sept. 20), Robbie Robertson has a new CD called Sinematic coming out. This is tied together with the documentary on his life, which is going to premiere at TIFF. Aside from the fact that I boycott TIFF during the festival (because of their selfish and ridiculous demand to reroute the King Streetcar), I just don't have the patience to watch biopics (of anyone really, but specifically not musicians). That said, the film sounds promising, but just not something I'll ever get around to watching. I'll listen to Sinematic though.
In early Oct., Abdullah Ibrahim will release a solo piano CD called Dream Time, and I'll try to remember to keep my eyes open for that (in iTunes at any rate).
In early Nov, Skye Wallace is opening for Matt Mays at Danforth Music Hall. I haven't decided if I will go or not. I think the set will be pretty similar to her show back in July, where she had about an hour. Not surprisingly, she focused mostly on her newer material, but that left out a bunch of songs I had hoped to hear. To be honest, I don't know anything about Matt Mays, but I'll listen to his last couple of albums and decide if I want to go.
In early December, Cracker is coming back to Lee's Palace. I was really hoping this would be slightly later in Dec., since that would mean it would be a joint show with Camper van Beethoven. I think I'll go anyway, but of the two groups that David Lowery fronts, I do prefer CvB. Oh well. I wonder if he'll be playing any new material off of his solo album, In the Shadow of the Bull. This is also around the time that 54-40 comes around to do their anniversary celebration shows at the Horseshoe Tavern. I passed last year, but I might go again this time around.
I'm only just piecing together what 2020 will bring, but I am excited that Laurie Anderson will be performing at Koerner Hall in January. I've already gotten my tickets. I have no idea what she'll be doing, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I've never seen her live before, though I've listened to some of the CDs of her performances. Anyway, definitely some promising live dates in the near future.
After having listened to several live shows on Youtube and more or less recreated Beck's Night Running Tour set, I'd say that, while I enjoyed seeing him, I don't think I would pay to see him a second time. I would also say that I appreciate Cage the Elephant more on CD than live. I don't think their fans are wrong or anything, but their live set didn't interest me all that much. I still wish Spoon had at least another 10-15 minutes. If you look through their various setlists for the tour, they mix the songs up far more than the other two groups with no two shows being quite the same. I would definitely go see them again if they come through Toronto on a more proper tour, so I'll just keep my eyes open.
It sounds like there is a good chance that Beck will be coming out with an album later this fall, and perhaps Spoon as well, though they may be a bit further behind.
Tinariwen is releasing a new album, Amadjar, on Sept. 6. I'm pretty excited to see them at Danforth Music Hall on Sept. 28. I imagine if I really want to, I can pick up the new album at that time, though I am trying fairly hard not to add any more CDs to my collection. However, if it is a great enough album, I'll probably weaken.
Sept. 6 is also the launch date for Rubberband, a "lost" album by Miles Davis, though it is probably more accurate to say it was an abandoned effort that has been stitched together and re-engineered. This has basically no interest for me, though I'll probably stream it once, assuming it comes to iTunes. I'm definitely not a fan of Miles's 80s work, though Amandla and Aura aren't too bad. I also have a bit of a soft spot for the Dingo soundtrack. However, I didn't like any of these sufficiently to keep them in my collection after the upteenth move...
Later in Sept. (Sept. 20), Robbie Robertson has a new CD called Sinematic coming out. This is tied together with the documentary on his life, which is going to premiere at TIFF. Aside from the fact that I boycott TIFF during the festival (because of their selfish and ridiculous demand to reroute the King Streetcar), I just don't have the patience to watch biopics (of anyone really, but specifically not musicians). That said, the film sounds promising, but just not something I'll ever get around to watching. I'll listen to Sinematic though.
In early Oct., Abdullah Ibrahim will release a solo piano CD called Dream Time, and I'll try to remember to keep my eyes open for that (in iTunes at any rate).
In early Nov, Skye Wallace is opening for Matt Mays at Danforth Music Hall. I haven't decided if I will go or not. I think the set will be pretty similar to her show back in July, where she had about an hour. Not surprisingly, she focused mostly on her newer material, but that left out a bunch of songs I had hoped to hear. To be honest, I don't know anything about Matt Mays, but I'll listen to his last couple of albums and decide if I want to go.
In early December, Cracker is coming back to Lee's Palace. I was really hoping this would be slightly later in Dec., since that would mean it would be a joint show with Camper van Beethoven. I think I'll go anyway, but of the two groups that David Lowery fronts, I do prefer CvB. Oh well. I wonder if he'll be playing any new material off of his solo album, In the Shadow of the Bull. This is also around the time that 54-40 comes around to do their anniversary celebration shows at the Horseshoe Tavern. I passed last year, but I might go again this time around.
I'm only just piecing together what 2020 will bring, but I am excited that Laurie Anderson will be performing at Koerner Hall in January. I've already gotten my tickets. I have no idea what she'll be doing, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I've never seen her live before, though I've listened to some of the CDs of her performances. Anyway, definitely some promising live dates in the near future.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Easing Back Into Things
I didn't feel great today, but I was definitely better than Sat. or Sun. I made it in to work, though I took the TTC. I don't quite feel up to going to the gym. I think, weather permitting,* I'll bike tomorrow and perhaps I'll make it to the gym as well.
I'm hoping that I am 90% or so by the weekend, since I want to check out this Angelique Kidjo concert Sat. evening. I'm less sold on it, but I may go see a Panych play at Alumnae Theatre called The Ends of the Earth this weekend. I don't have much else planned, but I'll find some way to fill up the time.
* Looks like it will rain (most of) Tuesday, so perhaps I will aim to go to the gym tonight and bike to work most of the rest of the week.
I'm hoping that I am 90% or so by the weekend, since I want to check out this Angelique Kidjo concert Sat. evening. I'm less sold on it, but I may go see a Panych play at Alumnae Theatre called The Ends of the Earth this weekend. I don't have much else planned, but I'll find some way to fill up the time.
* Looks like it will rain (most of) Tuesday, so perhaps I will aim to go to the gym tonight and bike to work most of the rest of the week.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Summer Sickness
I had an incredibly runny nose on Friday, leading me to get an extra strength antihistamine. Sat. was even worse, and I finally decided I was probably sick, not just suffering from allergies. I don't get sick too often, though I vaguely recollect getting sick last summer at some point. It could easily be brought on by stress (and certainly falling off my bike in the middle of the street counts as stressful!) or lack of sleep or almost anything else. Fortunately, I didn't have too much planned,* but I decided not to go to the gym this weekend (particularly on Sat. when my nose was running almost every 10 minutes) or to go up to the library. I think even on Monday, I will take the TTC (rather than biking) and then stop in at the library on the way home to pick up a couple of books on hold.
About the only thing I did manage to do was go to the grocery store on Sat., and then I went back to napping. I am about to run over for another short trip to pick up some baking materials, but even this could wait until Monday.
I was going back and forth about seeing The Winter's Tale at Withrow Park by Shakespeare in the Ruff, but the Now review convinced me that I really didn't want to bother. I didn't really like Portia's Julius Caesar that they did last year, but at least they were fairly clear that they were changing the play around. Here, the director, Sarah Kitz, has seen fit to more subtly add her own monologue towards the end to try to balance the play and talk about the oppression of women in history (and presumably by extension in Shakespeare), but I really don't appreciate this hijacking of a famous work to fit someone else's agenda (and I didn't like it a few years back when someone inverted Glass Menagerie). At least last year Kitz was more honest about what she was up to,** but not so much this time around. I am fairly unlikely to see any further Shakespeare in the Ruff productions as long as she is leading the charge. C'est dommage. And maybe it is a bit hypocritical in that I would accept strategic cuts in Shakespeare (namely Kate's last monologue in Taming of the Shrew) but not these strategic additions. Nonetheless, I find that contemporary playwrights don't do a good job when they add their words to Shakespeare's. (I'm quite consistent in this and didn't like this in Ted Witzel's All's Well That Ends Well in High Park back in 2016.)
So I mostly slept, trying to get over this cold or whatever it is, though I probably do need to get ready for a meeting at work tomorrow, assuming that I do make it in. It probably also true that my current reading has done little to lift my spirits. I'm most of the way through Naked Lunch. I've never read this before, and it certainly comes across as wilfully, overwhelmingly, obscene. If his other novels are quite so unrelenting I probably won't bother, but I'll try to finish this tonight. It does help a bit to think of it as a very, very long prose poem about man's inhumanity to man, further amplified by the raging desire of the addict to score and woe to anyone who gets in his way. The other book I am reading is Ibuse's Black Rain, which is sort of a cinéma vérité-style account of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. Neither of these is particularly helpful at a time when I am very down on humanity in general and Western politicians specifically. Given that Celine's Journey to the End of the Night is coming up fairly soon, I may have to go a bit deeper into the list to find something less bleak. Perhaps a Barbara Pym book or something...
* And it is certainly possible that not having more on my agenda led to the illness in the first place, as I generally get sick only on the few occasions I do attempt to relax.
** Actually, it was Kaitlyn Riordan who reworked Caesar, but my point still stands that I am not very interested in Shakespeare in the Ruff under the reign of Riordan and Kitz. I see that Hart House is going to be staging Portia's Caesar, so it will certainly get a wider audience, but I will not be a part of it...
About the only thing I did manage to do was go to the grocery store on Sat., and then I went back to napping. I am about to run over for another short trip to pick up some baking materials, but even this could wait until Monday.
I was going back and forth about seeing The Winter's Tale at Withrow Park by Shakespeare in the Ruff, but the Now review convinced me that I really didn't want to bother. I didn't really like Portia's Julius Caesar that they did last year, but at least they were fairly clear that they were changing the play around. Here, the director, Sarah Kitz, has seen fit to more subtly add her own monologue towards the end to try to balance the play and talk about the oppression of women in history (and presumably by extension in Shakespeare), but I really don't appreciate this hijacking of a famous work to fit someone else's agenda (and I didn't like it a few years back when someone inverted Glass Menagerie). At least last year Kitz was more honest about what she was up to,** but not so much this time around. I am fairly unlikely to see any further Shakespeare in the Ruff productions as long as she is leading the charge. C'est dommage. And maybe it is a bit hypocritical in that I would accept strategic cuts in Shakespeare (namely Kate's last monologue in Taming of the Shrew) but not these strategic additions. Nonetheless, I find that contemporary playwrights don't do a good job when they add their words to Shakespeare's. (I'm quite consistent in this and didn't like this in Ted Witzel's All's Well That Ends Well in High Park back in 2016.)
So I mostly slept, trying to get over this cold or whatever it is, though I probably do need to get ready for a meeting at work tomorrow, assuming that I do make it in. It probably also true that my current reading has done little to lift my spirits. I'm most of the way through Naked Lunch. I've never read this before, and it certainly comes across as wilfully, overwhelmingly, obscene. If his other novels are quite so unrelenting I probably won't bother, but I'll try to finish this tonight. It does help a bit to think of it as a very, very long prose poem about man's inhumanity to man, further amplified by the raging desire of the addict to score and woe to anyone who gets in his way. The other book I am reading is Ibuse's Black Rain, which is sort of a cinéma vérité-style account of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. Neither of these is particularly helpful at a time when I am very down on humanity in general and Western politicians specifically. Given that Celine's Journey to the End of the Night is coming up fairly soon, I may have to go a bit deeper into the list to find something less bleak. Perhaps a Barbara Pym book or something...
* And it is certainly possible that not having more on my agenda led to the illness in the first place, as I generally get sick only on the few occasions I do attempt to relax.
** Actually, it was Kaitlyn Riordan who reworked Caesar, but my point still stands that I am not very interested in Shakespeare in the Ruff under the reign of Riordan and Kitz. I see that Hart House is going to be staging Portia's Caesar, so it will certainly get a wider audience, but I will not be a part of it...
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Rough Day
Things didn't start off so badly today. I was running a little bit behind, but I wasn't too worried, since I had made blueberry muffins to bring in to work (excusing or at least explaining my tardiness). The weather was ok, so I rode in. I realized that my shoelace was about to get jammed in my spokes, but I pulled over before anything terrible happened. Nonetheless, I probably do need to buy a pair of shorter shoelaces.
I had a meeting up at College and Bay in the middle of the afternoon. I debated just taking the TTC, but decided to bike up. I didn't want to bring the full pannier, since I only had a notebook to bring, so I tossed it in a bag on my front handlebars. This ended up being a costly mistake. While it's never a great idea to have stuff hanging on the handlebars, this was a large notebook and incredibly stiff. About two blocks away from College, it jammed up under my knee and I lost control of the bike. I rolled the entire bike. It really was just like one of those movies with 360 degree barrel rolls, but happening in real life. I basically jumped up, untangled the bike and got over to the sidewalk. I was incredibly fortunate this happened north of Dundas where Bay St. widens a bit (and also most cars avoid the right-hand lane, which is technically reserved for bikes, buses and taxis). If it had been south of Queen, I absolutely would have been hit by a car, though I also might have been travelling a bit slower. I was pretty shaken up, as you can imagine, and quite sore. Once again, I was saved by my helmet, though I mostly hit my elbow and side on the pavement. A couple of people (a pedestrian and another cyclist) stopped to ask what had happened (and to hand over my bike lock, which got separated from the bike) and to ask if I had been hit by a car. I said that No, I had just been very foolish. I probably ought to invest in a backpack or a messenger bag for these small things that don't need to go in the pannier.
I walked my bike on the sidewalk the rest of the way. While I was certainly shaken up, it could have been a lot worse. I went ahead and went into the meeting. It was fine, though I did have a bit of trouble focusing. There was someone there who was going back to our offices, so I handed over my notebook. While I wasn't super eager to get back on the bike, it wasn't too bad (aside from some soreness in my side and a small bit of scabbing on my elbow -- it could have been a lot worse). I don't want to get too spooked or I will just stop riding altogether. (Probably my next serious accident will be the last time I get on the bike.)
As it happens, there was a terrible crash (caused by an Uber driver) with several pedestrians hurt, but I think they must have gotten the time wrong in the article. This must have happened closer to 3:15 rather than 2:30, since I had to cross that intersection to get my bike after the meeting was over, and it was definitely not closed off. Here's hoping for a full recovery for everyone involved in the accident.
I did wait an extra hour before leaving work, since Front Street is just too hard to deal with with the traffic at 5 and even 6. It was a fairly uneventful ride home, which was fine by me. I did decide to skip the gym, given that I am pretty sore. And I will take the subway tomorrow, though this is only partly due to my mishap today, but also because I will be taking the GO train to a BBQ after work. Anyway, I am definitely hoping there are no more incidents like this next week. I have enough to deal with already without falling off my bike into traffic again...
I had a meeting up at College and Bay in the middle of the afternoon. I debated just taking the TTC, but decided to bike up. I didn't want to bring the full pannier, since I only had a notebook to bring, so I tossed it in a bag on my front handlebars. This ended up being a costly mistake. While it's never a great idea to have stuff hanging on the handlebars, this was a large notebook and incredibly stiff. About two blocks away from College, it jammed up under my knee and I lost control of the bike. I rolled the entire bike. It really was just like one of those movies with 360 degree barrel rolls, but happening in real life. I basically jumped up, untangled the bike and got over to the sidewalk. I was incredibly fortunate this happened north of Dundas where Bay St. widens a bit (and also most cars avoid the right-hand lane, which is technically reserved for bikes, buses and taxis). If it had been south of Queen, I absolutely would have been hit by a car, though I also might have been travelling a bit slower. I was pretty shaken up, as you can imagine, and quite sore. Once again, I was saved by my helmet, though I mostly hit my elbow and side on the pavement. A couple of people (a pedestrian and another cyclist) stopped to ask what had happened (and to hand over my bike lock, which got separated from the bike) and to ask if I had been hit by a car. I said that No, I had just been very foolish. I probably ought to invest in a backpack or a messenger bag for these small things that don't need to go in the pannier.
I walked my bike on the sidewalk the rest of the way. While I was certainly shaken up, it could have been a lot worse. I went ahead and went into the meeting. It was fine, though I did have a bit of trouble focusing. There was someone there who was going back to our offices, so I handed over my notebook. While I wasn't super eager to get back on the bike, it wasn't too bad (aside from some soreness in my side and a small bit of scabbing on my elbow -- it could have been a lot worse). I don't want to get too spooked or I will just stop riding altogether. (Probably my next serious accident will be the last time I get on the bike.)
As it happens, there was a terrible crash (caused by an Uber driver) with several pedestrians hurt, but I think they must have gotten the time wrong in the article. This must have happened closer to 3:15 rather than 2:30, since I had to cross that intersection to get my bike after the meeting was over, and it was definitely not closed off. Here's hoping for a full recovery for everyone involved in the accident.
I did wait an extra hour before leaving work, since Front Street is just too hard to deal with with the traffic at 5 and even 6. It was a fairly uneventful ride home, which was fine by me. I did decide to skip the gym, given that I am pretty sore. And I will take the subway tomorrow, though this is only partly due to my mishap today, but also because I will be taking the GO train to a BBQ after work. Anyway, I am definitely hoping there are no more incidents like this next week. I have enough to deal with already without falling off my bike into traffic again...
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Back in the Saddle
I've actually been riding my bike quite a bit lately. In fact, last week I rode every day to work and then on Saturday rode in to Union Station (in the rain no less) and parked my bike in long-term storage while I took the Via train to Ottawa.* This week I'll probably not ride tomorrow (Wed.) due to the rain, but I will probably ride the rest of the week. This may seem pretty incredible to anyone who remembers my bad biking accident from last September. But the truth is I just don't remember the crash, so I don't get all anxious about riding. I'm probably a slightly more cautious rider than I was, but you pretty much have to be somewhat aggressive or you simply can't bike downtown.
In any event, I meant this a bit more metaphorically in terms of going back to the gym. I had one thing after another come up to prevent me from going (I think the last time I went was last Thurs, but it might actually have been Wednesday), and then Sunday I really was just too weary after replacing the ceiling fan. While I had a bit of adrenaline left after biking home on Monday, I basically just wanted to lie down on the couch. However, I forced myself to go to the gym. Once I am at the gym, it isn't so bad after I actually start working out, and I do feel a sense of accomplishment afterwards. I had wanted to free up Tuesday evening in case I went to the Shakespeare in the Ruff at Withrow Park, but in the end, I decided I was again a bit too tired and there was a 40% chance of rain. At this point, I'll aim to see Shakespeare on Thurs.
The good news is that I have been able to lose (and keep off!) 30 pounds. That's a solid achievement, though I really ought to lose another 20-30 pounds. However, to do that (and keep it off), I need to make more lifestyle changes. I would need to add in another form of exercise (like jogging on days I am not at the gym -- or swimming laps and so far that has not gone well at all!), go to sleep sooner (and not stay up half the night reading) and change my diet even more. I have to be honest that this is probably not going to happen, so I am trying to focus more on maintaining the original weight loss. I really shudder to think what kind of shape I would be in if I hadn't done so much biking over the years...
* As it happens, I dithered around for a week or two before finally booking my Via tickets and the price went up by $30 dollars, which was extremely annoying. However, at over $3 a ride on the TTC (even with Presto), I actually saved myself over $30 with all this biking. At least that is one way to think about it.
In any event, I meant this a bit more metaphorically in terms of going back to the gym. I had one thing after another come up to prevent me from going (I think the last time I went was last Thurs, but it might actually have been Wednesday), and then Sunday I really was just too weary after replacing the ceiling fan. While I had a bit of adrenaline left after biking home on Monday, I basically just wanted to lie down on the couch. However, I forced myself to go to the gym. Once I am at the gym, it isn't so bad after I actually start working out, and I do feel a sense of accomplishment afterwards. I had wanted to free up Tuesday evening in case I went to the Shakespeare in the Ruff at Withrow Park, but in the end, I decided I was again a bit too tired and there was a 40% chance of rain. At this point, I'll aim to see Shakespeare on Thurs.
The good news is that I have been able to lose (and keep off!) 30 pounds. That's a solid achievement, though I really ought to lose another 20-30 pounds. However, to do that (and keep it off), I need to make more lifestyle changes. I would need to add in another form of exercise (like jogging on days I am not at the gym -- or swimming laps and so far that has not gone well at all!), go to sleep sooner (and not stay up half the night reading) and change my diet even more. I have to be honest that this is probably not going to happen, so I am trying to focus more on maintaining the original weight loss. I really shudder to think what kind of shape I would be in if I hadn't done so much biking over the years...
* As it happens, I dithered around for a week or two before finally booking my Via tickets and the price went up by $30 dollars, which was extremely annoying. However, at over $3 a ride on the TTC (even with Presto), I actually saved myself over $30 with all this biking. At least that is one way to think about it.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Lost Weekend
It wasn't lost so much (getting so blitzed that I don't recall anything) as I just had quite a bit to do and this squeezed all my other plans out. This was particularly true for Sunday, whereas Saturday more or less went off as originally planned.
Friday evening, I had some folks from work over for a casual BBQ. The weather was supposed to be ok (certainly compared to the previous year where my event was rained out). It did sprinkle for about 10 minutes as I was setting up the grill, but fortunately it passed quickly. In the end, only about 5 people showed up, so I had too much food left over (particularly as one of them brought chicken to throw on the grill and this took ages to cook). It didn't go quite as planned, but it was still a reasonably fun time. Perhaps next year, I'll book my slot a bit earlier and more people will plan around my BBQ. It's a hard thing, since I probably don't want more than 10 people, but I had to cast a pretty wide net just to get 5... Anyway, this Friday there is another event (at my previous manager's place) that has been in the works (and Outlook calendars) a bit longer, so more people will make it, and it is more of an indoor potluck, so it won't matter too much if it rains.
Sat. I got up fairly early and got myself ready to take the Via train to Ottawa. I probably should have pushed through and left at 6:30, but I just wasn't quite ready. I ended up leaving at 7 am and got pretty soaked. I had enough time to change at Union Station and then get on the train. It was supposed to get in at 1:15 or so, though it wasn't until 2 pm that we actually left the train. There is still quite a bit of construction around Kingston, and then the Kingston-Ottawa leg seems to be down to a single track, so trains have to pull over onto a siding to let the other train go. So frustrating. Amtrak's on-time performance isn't much better (outside the Northeast corridor and the Chicago-Milwaukee run), but somehow it still seems run a bit better.
I was reasonably well prepared for the delays, though I didn't have enough food with me (I couldn't really bring a tub of left-over potato salad along...). I had spent a fair bit of time updating an old iPod mini. I probably hadn't used it in a couple of years, but the battery was still about 25%! Anyway, I wanted to add both of Glenn Gould's recordings of the Goldberg Variations, since this played a fairly big role in Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which I had selected for my on-board reading. I also added Tafelmusik's recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Handel's Water Music. In the end, I didn't get around to the Vivaldi, but I did make it through the 1955 Goldberg a couple of times and the 1981 recording once, along with the Handel, most of Beethoven's violin sonatas, some jazz and a bit of rock music I've been listening to recently. The iPod still is about 50% filled with New Wave music, but it's probably a bit more balanced now. After the trip, I removed the 1981 Goldberg as it didn't speak to me quite as much, and I wanted to make room for U2 and David Bowie.
At any rate, I can report back that the iPod held up well on the trip (maybe better than me) and the battery still had a tiny bit of life as we pulled into Union Station. That's right, I actually did the round trip in one day for pretty close to 9 hours on the train, including the various delays (the return trip was delayed roughly 25 minutes). I did read the entire book on the train. Perhaps I should have left just a bit (maybe the coda) for the TTC journey home (it was far too late to justify biking home...). It's been quite a while since I have done that much concentrated reading on a train, though I must have read something last year when I went from Ottawa to Montreal and then on to Quebec City on the train. Not sure what that would have been, however. I might have finished up Sun of a Distant Land, but I would have wanted something longer. When I was much younger, I did the Chicago-New York run a few times on the train and often got through a couple of books. Given that I did read the while thing in one pretty large gulp, I'm still sorting through what I thought about it, but I'll write a review fairly soon (certainly before I have to take it back to the library at any rate).
I was making this trip to get over to the National Gallery to see the Gauguin portrait exhibit. After I started, I was worried that it was only a couple of rooms of self-portraits (and hardly worth my while), but then it settled down with several more rooms, including a few of his famous paintings from Tahiti.
I was pretty hungry after getting through the exhibit, but it was late by this point (3 pm) and the little cafeteria was shutting down, so I just grabbed some fruit salad. I had planned to meet a friend who lives in Ottawa at 4:30, so I had 90 minutes to get through the main galleries. Fortunately, I do go about once a year and most of the permanent collection isn't changed up that much, aside from the contemporary galleries. It's also true that I don't really think the pre-1850 European art they have is all that great, so I can just dash through those galleries. I did note that the Chagall piece that caused all the fuss last year is not up on the walls any longer, which is a shame, as it is nicer than the other Chagall, which is still up on the wall. (Below is the painting that the National Gallery foolishly tried to sell off to get the funds for a particularly ugly religious painting of St. Jerome by Jacques-Louis David.)
I came very close to buying a jigsaw puzzle of Stuart Davis's The Mellow Pad in the gift shop, though I have to admit, I am just not really enjoying doing the Monet puzzle that I have started. I think it's a combination of my interests have changed and just not having the space to do the puzzle properly and spread out the pieces. I'm guessing that between this Monet and a Van Gogh puzzle that I never finished, I may well be puzzled out. But who knows. I may change my mind on my next visit.
I met my friend and we went to a cafe, where I wolfed down a panini. We chatted about a lot of things, including the miserable state of the world and how it will be so much worse in another 15 years... He also told me that the LRT still hadn't opened (it was supposed to open a few days before). There is a Tremblay stop which is right near the Via rail station, so hopefully I can take that on my next visit. I did see them testing the trains, but didn't have a chance to get my camera out in time. I grabbed a bit more food for the return journey, and he dropped me off at the train station, where I had a fairly uneventful but long ride home. It was sort of amusing and sort of annoying that due to the delay, I ended up catching the subway just as huge numbers of Kiss fans emptied out of their concert and filled the train. Being Canadians, they were well-behaved, however.
Sunday I slept in relatively late, but I guess I was finally moving by 9:30. I had had a few things on the agenda, including going to the gym and then stopping by Robarts Library and then Union Station to retrieve my bike. However, the main thing I had planned was to replace this overhead light/ceiling fan in the kitchen. In the end, it took about 3 hours just to remove. I came very, very close to smashing the glass bulb, since that was stuck on (basically the main reason I had to replace the thing in the first place).
Then I had to make two trips to Home Depot - the first to pick up wire cutters, since I couldn't remove the safety anchor any other way and then at the end of the installation to pick up new light bulbs. I have some 40 watt bulbs that should work fine, but the instructions claim that anything over 35 is unsafe and will result in the shutting down of the overhead light! Of course, then the only bulbs are these new "dimmable" LED lights that flicker like crazy when you try to dim them. Basically, this is why I hate the environmental regulations that are trying to phase out all the old light bulbs without making sure that 1) the replacements really are as good (and they just aren't), 2) there is a way to dispose of the new fluorescent bulbs (again, nope) and 3) there is an actual effort to make sure that the new lighting systems work with the new bulbs. The instructions of the new fan basically say outright that the dimming feature only works with standard bulbs, so why are they even selling this in the first place? Shouldn't it be illegal? I don't care quite enough to take this down and ask for a replacement, but I am severely pissed off. In the end, I managed to get the new light/ceiling fan up right around 6 pm, so several hours more than I had bargained for, and then I still had to make the run for the new light bulbs, as I just mentioned. I was too tired and sore to go to the gym (my arms had been over my head for hours), and Robarts was closed by that point. The whole day was quite horrible, and I'm glad it's over. I suppose I will feel some accomplishment later on now that I have a working kitchen light, but it certainly shouldn't have been nearly this hard.
So that was my lost weekend. I'm exhausted just rereading everything I got up to.
Friday evening, I had some folks from work over for a casual BBQ. The weather was supposed to be ok (certainly compared to the previous year where my event was rained out). It did sprinkle for about 10 minutes as I was setting up the grill, but fortunately it passed quickly. In the end, only about 5 people showed up, so I had too much food left over (particularly as one of them brought chicken to throw on the grill and this took ages to cook). It didn't go quite as planned, but it was still a reasonably fun time. Perhaps next year, I'll book my slot a bit earlier and more people will plan around my BBQ. It's a hard thing, since I probably don't want more than 10 people, but I had to cast a pretty wide net just to get 5... Anyway, this Friday there is another event (at my previous manager's place) that has been in the works (and Outlook calendars) a bit longer, so more people will make it, and it is more of an indoor potluck, so it won't matter too much if it rains.
Sat. I got up fairly early and got myself ready to take the Via train to Ottawa. I probably should have pushed through and left at 6:30, but I just wasn't quite ready. I ended up leaving at 7 am and got pretty soaked. I had enough time to change at Union Station and then get on the train. It was supposed to get in at 1:15 or so, though it wasn't until 2 pm that we actually left the train. There is still quite a bit of construction around Kingston, and then the Kingston-Ottawa leg seems to be down to a single track, so trains have to pull over onto a siding to let the other train go. So frustrating. Amtrak's on-time performance isn't much better (outside the Northeast corridor and the Chicago-Milwaukee run), but somehow it still seems run a bit better.
I was reasonably well prepared for the delays, though I didn't have enough food with me (I couldn't really bring a tub of left-over potato salad along...). I had spent a fair bit of time updating an old iPod mini. I probably hadn't used it in a couple of years, but the battery was still about 25%! Anyway, I wanted to add both of Glenn Gould's recordings of the Goldberg Variations, since this played a fairly big role in Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which I had selected for my on-board reading. I also added Tafelmusik's recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Handel's Water Music. In the end, I didn't get around to the Vivaldi, but I did make it through the 1955 Goldberg a couple of times and the 1981 recording once, along with the Handel, most of Beethoven's violin sonatas, some jazz and a bit of rock music I've been listening to recently. The iPod still is about 50% filled with New Wave music, but it's probably a bit more balanced now. After the trip, I removed the 1981 Goldberg as it didn't speak to me quite as much, and I wanted to make room for U2 and David Bowie.
At any rate, I can report back that the iPod held up well on the trip (maybe better than me) and the battery still had a tiny bit of life as we pulled into Union Station. That's right, I actually did the round trip in one day for pretty close to 9 hours on the train, including the various delays (the return trip was delayed roughly 25 minutes). I did read the entire book on the train. Perhaps I should have left just a bit (maybe the coda) for the TTC journey home (it was far too late to justify biking home...). It's been quite a while since I have done that much concentrated reading on a train, though I must have read something last year when I went from Ottawa to Montreal and then on to Quebec City on the train. Not sure what that would have been, however. I might have finished up Sun of a Distant Land, but I would have wanted something longer. When I was much younger, I did the Chicago-New York run a few times on the train and often got through a couple of books. Given that I did read the while thing in one pretty large gulp, I'm still sorting through what I thought about it, but I'll write a review fairly soon (certainly before I have to take it back to the library at any rate).
I was making this trip to get over to the National Gallery to see the Gauguin portrait exhibit. After I started, I was worried that it was only a couple of rooms of self-portraits (and hardly worth my while), but then it settled down with several more rooms, including a few of his famous paintings from Tahiti.
 |
| Paul Gauguin, Christ on the Mount of Olives,1889 |
 |
| Paul Gauguin, Melancholic (Faaturuma), 1891 |
I was pretty hungry after getting through the exhibit, but it was late by this point (3 pm) and the little cafeteria was shutting down, so I just grabbed some fruit salad. I had planned to meet a friend who lives in Ottawa at 4:30, so I had 90 minutes to get through the main galleries. Fortunately, I do go about once a year and most of the permanent collection isn't changed up that much, aside from the contemporary galleries. It's also true that I don't really think the pre-1850 European art they have is all that great, so I can just dash through those galleries. I did note that the Chagall piece that caused all the fuss last year is not up on the walls any longer, which is a shame, as it is nicer than the other Chagall, which is still up on the wall. (Below is the painting that the National Gallery foolishly tried to sell off to get the funds for a particularly ugly religious painting of St. Jerome by Jacques-Louis David.)
 |
| Marc Chagall, The Eiffel Tower, 1929 |
I came very close to buying a jigsaw puzzle of Stuart Davis's The Mellow Pad in the gift shop, though I have to admit, I am just not really enjoying doing the Monet puzzle that I have started. I think it's a combination of my interests have changed and just not having the space to do the puzzle properly and spread out the pieces. I'm guessing that between this Monet and a Van Gogh puzzle that I never finished, I may well be puzzled out. But who knows. I may change my mind on my next visit.
I met my friend and we went to a cafe, where I wolfed down a panini. We chatted about a lot of things, including the miserable state of the world and how it will be so much worse in another 15 years... He also told me that the LRT still hadn't opened (it was supposed to open a few days before). There is a Tremblay stop which is right near the Via rail station, so hopefully I can take that on my next visit. I did see them testing the trains, but didn't have a chance to get my camera out in time. I grabbed a bit more food for the return journey, and he dropped me off at the train station, where I had a fairly uneventful but long ride home. It was sort of amusing and sort of annoying that due to the delay, I ended up catching the subway just as huge numbers of Kiss fans emptied out of their concert and filled the train. Being Canadians, they were well-behaved, however.
Sunday I slept in relatively late, but I guess I was finally moving by 9:30. I had had a few things on the agenda, including going to the gym and then stopping by Robarts Library and then Union Station to retrieve my bike. However, the main thing I had planned was to replace this overhead light/ceiling fan in the kitchen. In the end, it took about 3 hours just to remove. I came very, very close to smashing the glass bulb, since that was stuck on (basically the main reason I had to replace the thing in the first place).
 |
| The nadir |
 |
| The old fan is finally down! |
Then I had to make two trips to Home Depot - the first to pick up wire cutters, since I couldn't remove the safety anchor any other way and then at the end of the installation to pick up new light bulbs. I have some 40 watt bulbs that should work fine, but the instructions claim that anything over 35 is unsafe and will result in the shutting down of the overhead light! Of course, then the only bulbs are these new "dimmable" LED lights that flicker like crazy when you try to dim them. Basically, this is why I hate the environmental regulations that are trying to phase out all the old light bulbs without making sure that 1) the replacements really are as good (and they just aren't), 2) there is a way to dispose of the new fluorescent bulbs (again, nope) and 3) there is an actual effort to make sure that the new lighting systems work with the new bulbs. The instructions of the new fan basically say outright that the dimming feature only works with standard bulbs, so why are they even selling this in the first place? Shouldn't it be illegal? I don't care quite enough to take this down and ask for a replacement, but I am severely pissed off. In the end, I managed to get the new light/ceiling fan up right around 6 pm, so several hours more than I had bargained for, and then I still had to make the run for the new light bulbs, as I just mentioned. I was too tired and sore to go to the gym (my arms had been over my head for hours), and Robarts was closed by that point. The whole day was quite horrible, and I'm glad it's over. I suppose I will feel some accomplishment later on now that I have a working kitchen light, but it certainly shouldn't have been nearly this hard.
 |
| Success |
So that was my lost weekend. I'm exhausted just rereading everything I got up to.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
(Henry) Needs a New Pair of Shoes
Appropriately enough, since I named-checked The Lowest of the Lowest in the last post, I had a pair of shoes fall apart on me and I had to replace them pronto. I believe I've seen TLOTL play the song live twice. It's not my very favourite song, but it is up there, and it is certainly the song I know best from its inclusion on a Q101 sampler from way back in the day. Here's a relatively recent performance (with the current lineup, I believe), though I wasn't at this Lee's Palace gig.
Anyway, this is how the shoe peeled apart.
So obviously I needed some replacement shoes. I stopped by Winner's at lunch but didn't like what they had on offer. On the way home, I stopped by a different Winner's and found some black tennis shoes that are pretty similar to this pair. I'm not in love with them, but they'll do.
As it happens, this is the change room at Regent Park Aquatic Centre. I was trying out a new pair of goggles, but they leaked water like crazy, so I had to stop after one lap. So incredibly frustrating. In any event, I returned the new pair and more or less sulked for the rest of the evening. It just doesn't seem like I will be doing any swimming any time soon. I really need to track down my old goggles. Hopefully they are hiding in the basement somewhere.
Anyway, this is how the shoe peeled apart.
So obviously I needed some replacement shoes. I stopped by Winner's at lunch but didn't like what they had on offer. On the way home, I stopped by a different Winner's and found some black tennis shoes that are pretty similar to this pair. I'm not in love with them, but they'll do.
As it happens, this is the change room at Regent Park Aquatic Centre. I was trying out a new pair of goggles, but they leaked water like crazy, so I had to stop after one lap. So incredibly frustrating. In any event, I returned the new pair and more or less sulked for the rest of the evening. It just doesn't seem like I will be doing any swimming any time soon. I really need to track down my old goggles. Hopefully they are hiding in the basement somewhere.
Musical Interlude - Danforth Music Hall @ 100
I had no idea that Danforth Music Hall had been around for 100 years. Of course it was more of a vaudeville & movie house in the early days. This article discusses a bit about its legacy. It sounds like it was still operating in the early 90s, though I wouldn't have considered coming out that far. Then there were some dark days in the early 2000s when it came close to going under, but it's been under new management since 2014 and is in better shape than ever.
I've been to see The Lowest of the Low twice, Psychedelic Furs and the Irish comedian Dylan Moran. It appears there is a bit of a birthday celebration this weekend, and The New Pornographers are playing. There are still some tickets, but I can't actually make it unfortunately.
I think I will pass on Adam Ant as the tickets are a bit steep for a nostalgic act, but I will check out Tinariwen in late September. I don't always remember to check their listings, but it's definitely a convenient place to go see a show. Hopefully it will be around for at least another 50 years, before inevitably being replaced by a condo tower...
I've been to see The Lowest of the Low twice, Psychedelic Furs and the Irish comedian Dylan Moran. It appears there is a bit of a birthday celebration this weekend, and The New Pornographers are playing. There are still some tickets, but I can't actually make it unfortunately.
I think I will pass on Adam Ant as the tickets are a bit steep for a nostalgic act, but I will check out Tinariwen in late September. I don't always remember to check their listings, but it's definitely a convenient place to go see a show. Hopefully it will be around for at least another 50 years, before inevitably being replaced by a condo tower...
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
13th Canadian Challenge sign-up
Anyone who has been reading the blog for a while knows that I still review Canadian books on a routine basis. While I certainly comment on other books I have been reading, I don't typically write out full-blown reviews of them. It's fairly likely that I wouldn't have kept up with the blogging without the structure of the Canadian Challenge to provide a bit of a skeleton (and a raison d'etre) for the blog.
I haven't been quite as good this year as in year's past. My first review was actually supposed to be the last review for the 12th Challenge, but I got shut out in the last minute or two of June.
At any rate, the host of the Challenge itself has switched, and sign-up information is here. There's still plenty of time (9.5 months to read 13 books), so do check it out if interested. (There are occasional prizes for posting enough reviews as well as for fulfilling the challenge. Indeed, I won some poetry books from Brick Books during the 12th Challenge.) There do seem to be a few bugs to work out with the linking software, but I think I've more or less figured out how to handle it. I shouldn't have too much trouble getting to 13 this time around. I'll probably get through two more books in August. I'll definitely be reading more short stories by Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant.
I see that I didn't really get through too many of the books on this list, with the main exception being the two Russell Smith novels, so I'll probably start there. I'm almost certain to get to Sandra Beck and Basic Black with Pearls, but I do need to decide fairly soon if this is the year I tackle Atwood's dystopian trilogy, starting with Onyx and Crake. It might be. I'd rather read that than reread A Handmaid's Tale and the sequel, The Testaments, which is really too depressing for me at the moment, given the state of the world.
I haven't been quite as good this year as in year's past. My first review was actually supposed to be the last review for the 12th Challenge, but I got shut out in the last minute or two of June.
At any rate, the host of the Challenge itself has switched, and sign-up information is here. There's still plenty of time (9.5 months to read 13 books), so do check it out if interested. (There are occasional prizes for posting enough reviews as well as for fulfilling the challenge. Indeed, I won some poetry books from Brick Books during the 12th Challenge.) There do seem to be a few bugs to work out with the linking software, but I think I've more or less figured out how to handle it. I shouldn't have too much trouble getting to 13 this time around. I'll probably get through two more books in August. I'll definitely be reading more short stories by Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant.
I see that I didn't really get through too many of the books on this list, with the main exception being the two Russell Smith novels, so I'll probably start there. I'm almost certain to get to Sandra Beck and Basic Black with Pearls, but I do need to decide fairly soon if this is the year I tackle Atwood's dystopian trilogy, starting with Onyx and Crake. It might be. I'd rather read that than reread A Handmaid's Tale and the sequel, The Testaments, which is really too depressing for me at the moment, given the state of the world.
Monday, August 12, 2019
Another week gone...
I am getting so far behind on the blog it isn't funny. Indeed, there are times that maintaining the blog, to the limited extent that I do, gets to be more of a drag than anything. In any event, I'll fill in a few of the more important things from the past weekend, and then perhaps add a second post covering other things on my mind.
Sat. was mostly a day of chores. I hadn't felt up to going to the gym on Friday, so I went fairly early on Sat. I then ran up to Danforth to drop things off at the library and to pick up some holds. I really wanted to get there before noon, since I didn't want to deal with the Taste of Danforth. I went over to Circus Books and asked about selling used books. They seemed somewhat receptive to the idea that I bring Musil's The Man Without Qualities by and they'll take a look. Perhaps if it hadn't been for the Taste I would have run back right then, but it will just have to wait. Later in the afternoon, I did laundry and grabbed the groceries. Since the rest of the family is travelling to Chicago, I'll pretty much be on my own for meals, so I didn't have to bring a lot back, which was fine with me. I did just a bit of weeding and staked the beans growing the backyard. While I don't think I'll be able to eat anything from the garden (in the unlikely event something grows, the raccoons will get it), it's an interesting experiment.
Sunday I went over to Regent Park Aquatic Centre. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate my swim goggles. I borrowed a pair from my son, though they didn't fit well. I pulled the straps tight to try keep water from leaking in, and the strap broke! I only managed to swim half a lap and then had to swim back basically with my eyes closed! They don't even sell goggles here, which seems kind of odd. So that was a huge bummer, since I've wanted to try to add a bit more exercise into my routine. When I got to work, I took a look at Sports Chek, but they basically didn't have anything other than Raptors gear. I'm not going to bother going into that store again...
I got some work done, and then around 4:30 I set out for Ontario Place. I've been to Exhibition Place for the CNE, though not very often, but this was the first time I went over to Ontario Place. I have to agree it is pretty run down. I actually had biked over, and finally found a place to lock up my bike. The path to get there isn't great (far too narrow and no separation from walkers/joggers).
I was there a bit early and checked out the Night Market. It was a little classier than the one in Richmond (no stalls selling cell phone cases or socks), so mostly food stalls and less fried food overall. That said, the food was way overpriced, and I settled for just having roast corn and a cannoli filled with Filipino flavouring.
Then I went over to the Budwiser stage to see the show. I was there to see Beck and Spoon was opening for them. Actually, there were four bands on the line-up! Sunflower Bean was ok, but not particularly memorable. I liked Spoon a lot, though I wish they had another 10-15 minutes, as their set was just too short.* About every third show they sing "Can I Sit Next to You?" instead of "Hot Thoughts." I was hoping this would have been one of those nights, but it was not to be. Sad...
While the crowd was really into Cage the Elephant, I didn't care for them at all. I thought they tried way too hard (they had fire on stage, lasers, smoke machines). The lead singer seemed to be trying to channel Mick Jagger. I definitely would have preferred it if they had switched places with Spoon. I gave up listening after a while and worked on a short playlet for September's Sing-for-Your-Supper.
I should probably mention that in terms of other disappointments, I had brought along a new SF road adventure (FKA USA) and I ended up getting about halfway through the book when I finally decided to drop it due to a combination of the very annoying footnotes and the endless "How can you top this?" impossible situations that the author put his characters through. I decided it was basically a cynical mash-up of The Wizard of Oz, McCarthy's The Road, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Ready, Player One. It definitely reads as if one eye was on the movie rights, and indeed, it has already been optioned... While I had quite a few issues with Ready, Player One, that at least felt like it was written by someone who understood and loved video games/puzzle games/quests. This feels like it was written by someone with only the most cursory understanding of or appreciation for dystopian SF as a genre.
Anyway, Beck's set was great, if a bit too short. He seems quite re-energized on this tour after a few somewhat down years. The music was surprisingly loud, and if anything, the vocals probably should have been a bit higher in the mix. While Beck has been kicking off every show with "Loser," he did mix things up a bit this time, moving "Devil's Haircut" and "The New Pollution" towards the end of the show. I definitely appreciated the live version of "Saw Lightning." The show ended just a bit before 11. I had some trouble finding my way back to Union Station, but finally made it. I dropped my bike off, and then found out that there was a silly shuttle bus to King Station (I was probably only one more block away at that point), though it could have been worse. There was a fatality on Lakeshore West, snarling GO Trains for hours. However, I was not pleased to find out that even though I didn't get to Pape until after midnight the bus service still hadn't been restored from the Taste disruption, so I had to walk the rest of the way home. So that was my not very restful weekend...
* I also would have liked to hear "Do I Have to Talk You Into It." This video is a fairly good representation of what the show could have been if they had had another 10-15 minutes.
Sat. was mostly a day of chores. I hadn't felt up to going to the gym on Friday, so I went fairly early on Sat. I then ran up to Danforth to drop things off at the library and to pick up some holds. I really wanted to get there before noon, since I didn't want to deal with the Taste of Danforth. I went over to Circus Books and asked about selling used books. They seemed somewhat receptive to the idea that I bring Musil's The Man Without Qualities by and they'll take a look. Perhaps if it hadn't been for the Taste I would have run back right then, but it will just have to wait. Later in the afternoon, I did laundry and grabbed the groceries. Since the rest of the family is travelling to Chicago, I'll pretty much be on my own for meals, so I didn't have to bring a lot back, which was fine with me. I did just a bit of weeding and staked the beans growing the backyard. While I don't think I'll be able to eat anything from the garden (in the unlikely event something grows, the raccoons will get it), it's an interesting experiment.
Sunday I went over to Regent Park Aquatic Centre. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate my swim goggles. I borrowed a pair from my son, though they didn't fit well. I pulled the straps tight to try keep water from leaking in, and the strap broke! I only managed to swim half a lap and then had to swim back basically with my eyes closed! They don't even sell goggles here, which seems kind of odd. So that was a huge bummer, since I've wanted to try to add a bit more exercise into my routine. When I got to work, I took a look at Sports Chek, but they basically didn't have anything other than Raptors gear. I'm not going to bother going into that store again...
I got some work done, and then around 4:30 I set out for Ontario Place. I've been to Exhibition Place for the CNE, though not very often, but this was the first time I went over to Ontario Place. I have to agree it is pretty run down. I actually had biked over, and finally found a place to lock up my bike. The path to get there isn't great (far too narrow and no separation from walkers/joggers).
I was there a bit early and checked out the Night Market. It was a little classier than the one in Richmond (no stalls selling cell phone cases or socks), so mostly food stalls and less fried food overall. That said, the food was way overpriced, and I settled for just having roast corn and a cannoli filled with Filipino flavouring.
Then I went over to the Budwiser stage to see the show. I was there to see Beck and Spoon was opening for them. Actually, there were four bands on the line-up! Sunflower Bean was ok, but not particularly memorable. I liked Spoon a lot, though I wish they had another 10-15 minutes, as their set was just too short.* About every third show they sing "Can I Sit Next to You?" instead of "Hot Thoughts." I was hoping this would have been one of those nights, but it was not to be. Sad...
While the crowd was really into Cage the Elephant, I didn't care for them at all. I thought they tried way too hard (they had fire on stage, lasers, smoke machines). The lead singer seemed to be trying to channel Mick Jagger. I definitely would have preferred it if they had switched places with Spoon. I gave up listening after a while and worked on a short playlet for September's Sing-for-Your-Supper.
I should probably mention that in terms of other disappointments, I had brought along a new SF road adventure (FKA USA) and I ended up getting about halfway through the book when I finally decided to drop it due to a combination of the very annoying footnotes and the endless "How can you top this?" impossible situations that the author put his characters through. I decided it was basically a cynical mash-up of The Wizard of Oz, McCarthy's The Road, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Ready, Player One. It definitely reads as if one eye was on the movie rights, and indeed, it has already been optioned... While I had quite a few issues with Ready, Player One, that at least felt like it was written by someone who understood and loved video games/puzzle games/quests. This feels like it was written by someone with only the most cursory understanding of or appreciation for dystopian SF as a genre.
Anyway, Beck's set was great, if a bit too short. He seems quite re-energized on this tour after a few somewhat down years. The music was surprisingly loud, and if anything, the vocals probably should have been a bit higher in the mix. While Beck has been kicking off every show with "Loser," he did mix things up a bit this time, moving "Devil's Haircut" and "The New Pollution" towards the end of the show. I definitely appreciated the live version of "Saw Lightning." The show ended just a bit before 11. I had some trouble finding my way back to Union Station, but finally made it. I dropped my bike off, and then found out that there was a silly shuttle bus to King Station (I was probably only one more block away at that point), though it could have been worse. There was a fatality on Lakeshore West, snarling GO Trains for hours. However, I was not pleased to find out that even though I didn't get to Pape until after midnight the bus service still hadn't been restored from the Taste disruption, so I had to walk the rest of the way home. So that was my not very restful weekend...
* I also would have liked to hear "Do I Have to Talk You Into It." This video is a fairly good representation of what the show could have been if they had had another 10-15 minutes.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Civic Holiday Too Short
While my daughter was significantly put out by the early August Civic holiday, as she wanted to go to the library, I enjoyed my time off. I didn't work particularly hard this weekend, leaving a couple things aside that I could have tackled but decided to put on hold.
I did some weeding and watering of the plants in the yard. While I don't think they will actually yield any vegetables, I did plant some carrots, beans and cucumbers a few weeks back. I guess the raccoons do keep the rabbits away, but raccoons are also pretty disruptive (and personally I'd rather have rabbits). I caught one raccoon sniffing around the discarded bean seed package. I'll try to remember to stake the surviving beans and cucumbers pretty soon.
I did manage to clean out a small space in the study to do a jigsaw puzzle. It's far from ideal, as I don't have enough space to spread out all the pieces. I did manage to turn up all but one of the edge pieces, and I am currently working on the white/light areas. Then I'll switch to the blue and green areas. I have to admit this isn't as relaxing or fun as it used to be (I used to be a pretty good puzzler, though not world class or anything).
I'll see if I can make more progress over the next week or so, but I think more than anything I wanted to reclaim that space to 1) force me to go through a bunch of CDs to take to the second-hand shops and 2) make space for a possible litter box. I've been thinking more and more seriously about getting a cat, and I think I'll do it this fall. It's still to be negotiated with my wife, however.
I read a fair bit over the long weekend, including while sitting out on the lower deck, which was nice, though this triggered a major allergic reaction Tuesday morning. I went to the gym a couple of times and did a bit of shopping for the kids on Monday (as most stores actually were open). It was a poor second-best to actually being on vacation (summer vacation was cancelled this year for a lot of reasons I don't want to go into), but it was a nice change of routine.
I did some weeding and watering of the plants in the yard. While I don't think they will actually yield any vegetables, I did plant some carrots, beans and cucumbers a few weeks back. I guess the raccoons do keep the rabbits away, but raccoons are also pretty disruptive (and personally I'd rather have rabbits). I caught one raccoon sniffing around the discarded bean seed package. I'll try to remember to stake the surviving beans and cucumbers pretty soon.
I did manage to clean out a small space in the study to do a jigsaw puzzle. It's far from ideal, as I don't have enough space to spread out all the pieces. I did manage to turn up all but one of the edge pieces, and I am currently working on the white/light areas. Then I'll switch to the blue and green areas. I have to admit this isn't as relaxing or fun as it used to be (I used to be a pretty good puzzler, though not world class or anything).
I'll see if I can make more progress over the next week or so, but I think more than anything I wanted to reclaim that space to 1) force me to go through a bunch of CDs to take to the second-hand shops and 2) make space for a possible litter box. I've been thinking more and more seriously about getting a cat, and I think I'll do it this fall. It's still to be negotiated with my wife, however.
I read a fair bit over the long weekend, including while sitting out on the lower deck, which was nice, though this triggered a major allergic reaction Tuesday morning. I went to the gym a couple of times and did a bit of shopping for the kids on Monday (as most stores actually were open). It was a poor second-best to actually being on vacation (summer vacation was cancelled this year for a lot of reasons I don't want to go into), but it was a nice change of routine.
Monday, August 5, 2019
13th Canadian Challenge - 2nd Review - To Me You Seem Giant
This book, To Me You Seem Giant by Greg Rhyno, should probably come with trigger warnings for anyone who was a high school teacher, particularly a largely ineffective/ineffectual high school teacher. As will be explained in short order, you actually get it from both sides, since our narrator, Peter, is a fairly hapless high school senior, who then returns after 10 years to become a supply teacher (the Canadian term for substitute teacher) at his old high school! While this may seem too spoilery, this fact is splashed on the back cover. Also, the chapters alternate (A-sides and B-sides) between these two time frames, so it isn't long at all before the reader finds out what Peter is up to (and obviously he is not a rock star). However, Rhyno does sort of take his time in revealing a few key events in Peter's life, such as why and how the band broke up, how he lost his first serious girlfriend and how a car accident impacted quite a few lives in Thunder Bay.
There are perhaps a few inconsistencies, though going into them will involve some minor SPOILERS...
Minor SPOILERS ahead
There is a point at which Peter and another supply teacher are up for permanent postings at William Lyon Mackenzie King High School (mascot the Lyons), but then an old-timer (who had a severe mental breakdown ten years ago) scoops up one of the coveted positions. While I suppose this might happen (particularly given the interference teaching unions run against weeding out incompetent teachers), the vice principal and others on the hiring committee seem quite jazzed to get the vet back in the saddle. It is a bit hard to believe that they don't think history will repeat itself.
Also, there is a high school thug who gives Peter a fairly severe beating, and yet no one does anything about it. I could basically buy this in the 1970s or early 80s, but it's hard to believe this "Boys will be boys" stuff would still fly in the 90s, even in Thunder Bay. (Particularly as Peter does live with his basically working class parents, who would be expected to pay some sort of attention.) I guess the guy does play on the school hockey team, but even so. Later in the book, the thug causes a car accident, and this time the book is thrown at him, so the hockey hero thing apparently no longer cuts any ice. This doesn't fatally undercut the novel, but it did seem inconsistent.
While there are certainly a fair number of illegal substances consumed (and teenage sex comes up), the high school chapters definitely feel like a somewhat darker version of A Christmas Story, though young Peter mostly wants a recording contract and not a Red Ryder rifle. It's a little hard to tell what the older Peter wants, though he seems to have his eyes on an attractive surplus teacher when he isn't making a pass at a video store clerk (who turns out to be an AWOL student from his civics class!) and avoiding getting entangled with a colleague who was once his French teacher. I will say that this book does not do much for the image of Thunder Bay, given that the only things worth doing are going clubbing or to concerts or hooking up. Indeed, there's a bit of a running joke that this guy from Sudbury is cool just because he's from the big city...
It's perhaps telling that while The Tragically Hip are name-checked (and they were pretty inescapable in the 90s in Canada), most of the groups that Peter interacts with and focuses on emulating are from smaller cities (Sloan, The Killjoys and Eric's Trip). Truth be told, The Hip formed in Kingston, though most (all?) of the members eventually relocated to Toronto and they became a bit of a Toronto institution. Interestingly, The Lowest of the Low (a quintessential Toronto band) are name-checked in a chapter title, but not mentioned in the text itself.
A lot of the novel involves friendships and how these may change as people get older (and some people drop away while others come back). Peter has a quite tight friendship with Deacon and his wife, Ruth, who was another musician in a competing band and is now a teacher at Mackenzie King. Spending time with them seems to make his time in Thunder Bay more or less bearable. Interestingly, you don't actually see Peter interacting all that much with his parents in the early or later chapters. I think it's fair to say that most of the adult figures let young Peter down in one way or another, and a few continue to make trouble for him, even after his return as a supply teacher. It's also fair to say that adults (and young adults) are clearly portrayed as having their own issues. While they may be "authority figures," they are quite flawed. (This certainly rings true to my own experience, where only a few teachers in the school where I worked were particularly helpful to the students and the administration was singularly terrible.)
I was debating putting a few of my stories from the teaching trenches into this post, but decided this wasn't really the time. Nonetheless, I can definitely relate to having to chaperone a school dance in my day (just as Peter does), though I didn't have a drunk student vomit on me fortunately. Peter just avoids getting entangled with a student through dumb luck, and that wasn't an issue for me (even though I was much closer to the students' ages -- 21 when I started compared to 28 for Peter). One amusing fact is that we still ran off our pop quizzes on a mimeograph machine, long after these were supposed to be sidelined (due to the chemicals being carcinogenic), and I believe the young Peter gets mimeo'ed bulletins from his teachers, though these seem to have finally been taken out of service at Mackenzie King by the 2000s when Peter returned.
This novel will definitely appeal to readers who followed the Canadian indie music scene in the 90s and 2000s. It might appeal to readers from smaller towns, though it might cut too close to the bone at times. Finally, it may speak to people who chased a dream, gave it a shot but didn't make it, and then finally retreated to plan B, though it may simply say to them "Life is unfair" or "Make sure to pick a safety school"...
There are perhaps a few inconsistencies, though going into them will involve some minor SPOILERS...
Minor SPOILERS ahead
There is a point at which Peter and another supply teacher are up for permanent postings at William Lyon Mackenzie King High School (mascot the Lyons), but then an old-timer (who had a severe mental breakdown ten years ago) scoops up one of the coveted positions. While I suppose this might happen (particularly given the interference teaching unions run against weeding out incompetent teachers), the vice principal and others on the hiring committee seem quite jazzed to get the vet back in the saddle. It is a bit hard to believe that they don't think history will repeat itself.
Also, there is a high school thug who gives Peter a fairly severe beating, and yet no one does anything about it. I could basically buy this in the 1970s or early 80s, but it's hard to believe this "Boys will be boys" stuff would still fly in the 90s, even in Thunder Bay. (Particularly as Peter does live with his basically working class parents, who would be expected to pay some sort of attention.) I guess the guy does play on the school hockey team, but even so. Later in the book, the thug causes a car accident, and this time the book is thrown at him, so the hockey hero thing apparently no longer cuts any ice. This doesn't fatally undercut the novel, but it did seem inconsistent.
While there are certainly a fair number of illegal substances consumed (and teenage sex comes up), the high school chapters definitely feel like a somewhat darker version of A Christmas Story, though young Peter mostly wants a recording contract and not a Red Ryder rifle. It's a little hard to tell what the older Peter wants, though he seems to have his eyes on an attractive surplus teacher when he isn't making a pass at a video store clerk (who turns out to be an AWOL student from his civics class!) and avoiding getting entangled with a colleague who was once his French teacher. I will say that this book does not do much for the image of Thunder Bay, given that the only things worth doing are going clubbing or to concerts or hooking up. Indeed, there's a bit of a running joke that this guy from Sudbury is cool just because he's from the big city...
It's perhaps telling that while The Tragically Hip are name-checked (and they were pretty inescapable in the 90s in Canada), most of the groups that Peter interacts with and focuses on emulating are from smaller cities (Sloan, The Killjoys and Eric's Trip). Truth be told, The Hip formed in Kingston, though most (all?) of the members eventually relocated to Toronto and they became a bit of a Toronto institution. Interestingly, The Lowest of the Low (a quintessential Toronto band) are name-checked in a chapter title, but not mentioned in the text itself.
A lot of the novel involves friendships and how these may change as people get older (and some people drop away while others come back). Peter has a quite tight friendship with Deacon and his wife, Ruth, who was another musician in a competing band and is now a teacher at Mackenzie King. Spending time with them seems to make his time in Thunder Bay more or less bearable. Interestingly, you don't actually see Peter interacting all that much with his parents in the early or later chapters. I think it's fair to say that most of the adult figures let young Peter down in one way or another, and a few continue to make trouble for him, even after his return as a supply teacher. It's also fair to say that adults (and young adults) are clearly portrayed as having their own issues. While they may be "authority figures," they are quite flawed. (This certainly rings true to my own experience, where only a few teachers in the school where I worked were particularly helpful to the students and the administration was singularly terrible.)
I was debating putting a few of my stories from the teaching trenches into this post, but decided this wasn't really the time. Nonetheless, I can definitely relate to having to chaperone a school dance in my day (just as Peter does), though I didn't have a drunk student vomit on me fortunately. Peter just avoids getting entangled with a student through dumb luck, and that wasn't an issue for me (even though I was much closer to the students' ages -- 21 when I started compared to 28 for Peter). One amusing fact is that we still ran off our pop quizzes on a mimeograph machine, long after these were supposed to be sidelined (due to the chemicals being carcinogenic), and I believe the young Peter gets mimeo'ed bulletins from his teachers, though these seem to have finally been taken out of service at Mackenzie King by the 2000s when Peter returned.
This novel will definitely appeal to readers who followed the Canadian indie music scene in the 90s and 2000s. It might appeal to readers from smaller towns, though it might cut too close to the bone at times. Finally, it may speak to people who chased a dream, gave it a shot but didn't make it, and then finally retreated to plan B, though it may simply say to them "Life is unfair" or "Make sure to pick a safety school"...
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Pairing novels
I happened to be at the gym and looked up and the movie version of Life of Pi was on one of the screens. I'd seen very short bits of this from the trailer (back at that time talking about how amazing the CGI was, though it was sort of showing its age in 2019), though I hadn't had much interest in watching the film. Now having seen some longer clips during my workout, I clearly made the right decision. Things that were pretty far-fetched in the novel (but "symbolic") become outright ridiculous when made so literal in the film. I liked the novel well enough when I read it a while back, though I suspect I wouldn't care as much for it the second time around. I'm not actually sure whether to pair my reactions to this novel to The Namesake (where the film version was decent enough but eliminated all the complicated games with time in the novel) or Midnight's Children (where I thought the film made a few things too literal but was fairly faithful to the novel). I know that I did not like Midnight's Children nearly as much on a second reading, so maybe that is the appropriate pairing.
I'm not entirely sure what is wrong with me these days, though probably I am a bit too pressed for time and generally a bit more down on the human race in general than I was in my twenties, but there have been quite a few novels that I didn't enjoy as much (or much at all) on second readings. This includes Kafka's The Castle (The Trial still worked for me, however), Madison Smartt Bell's Waiting for the End of the World, Djuna Barnes' Nightwood, Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd (where I found it quite terrible and actually unreadable on a second reading) and, most recently, Powers' Morte d'Urban. Perhaps not all is lost: I did enjoy DeLillo's White Noise the second time around (though even there slightly less than the first time through), MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night and Slesinger's The Unpossessed (in fact, I probably did get more out of the second reading, which is always what one hopes to achieve).
Minor SPOILERS ahead
My specific problem with Waiting for the End of the World is that one of the novel's anti-heroes turns on his compadres and foils a plot involving setting off a dirty (atomic) bomb in Manhattan. It's not that one really wants the plot to succeed (sort of a precursor to Ozymandias's mad plans in Alan Moore's Watchmen), but there is no good reason for this character to have suddenly broken ranks and "seen the light" as it were. It's basically a cheat after the author realized he had painted himself into a corner and didn't actually want the plot to succeed. The closest analog I can think of is the movie (and play) Rope. I may already have mentioned it in the blog, but I loathe everything about this film and Saboteur for that matter. Even if I do get around to going through Hitchcock's film in order, I am going to skip these two.
The bigger mystery might be why I liked Morte d'Urban so much in the first place. It's a novel about a Catholic priest who moves in fairly high circles in Chicago but then is banished to rural Minnesota. He largely learns the lesson of humility in this more modest parish, then returns to Chicago. At least this is a very superficial gloss. While Father Urban never openly rebels against the Church hierarchy, it is clear that he feels he is being wasted in Minnesota and still feels that way at the end of his time there. However, he undergoes some serious misadventures in Minnesota and a health scare, and this more than anything else humbles and changes him. The ending is fairly downbeat, all things considered. As an aside, I am sorry to report that I think interested readers should skip the NYRB edition of this novel. Not only is the cover completely misrepresentative of the novel, but the introduction by Elizabeth Hardwick is very poor. It gives away far too many plot points. In addition, I'm fairly sure that she gets a few points factually incorrect (about the aftermath of Billy's falling out with Father Urban), and her interpretation is suspect in a few other places. With all that said, I didn't really dislike the novel on the second time through but I was more impatient with Father Urban's puffed up view of himself, which lasts nearly 2/3rd of the novel. He probably never should have joined the Church in the first place, and his fever-dream of being an important business executive seems much more appropriate for a person of his talents and outlook. I also found it really hard to read any sections where Billy turns up, as he is such a jerk (and Father Urban really was quite weak in trying to suck up to him to get money for his order). As a second aside, the novel pretty much all hinges upon Billy grabbing a deer by the antlers and trying to drown it in a lake (while sitting in a boat no less) and then Father Urban's actions and Billy's further reactions. I'm sorry -- this just seems so completely implausible at every level that it does undermine the novel. The sheer physics make it impossible. Nonetheless, perhaps if I didn't have such high expectations, I would have enjoyed it more this time around. I can't see reading it a third time, so I put it out in the Little Free Library.
The last pairing I will discuss is Robert Stone's A Hall of Mirrors, which is about an alcoholic musician who washes up in New Orleans and starts working for a right-wing radio station. He takes up with a young widow, who is also a bit of a drifter. I haven't gotten that far into it to be honest. There seem to be a few parallels with Rabbit Redux (the general craziness of the 60s lies heavy on both novels), though structurally this reminds me a bit of Murakami's 1Q84 with the alternating chapters featuring the two main characters. Goodreads reviewers say a third character pops up, but I don't know if he will get his own running set of chapters or not.
Edit (8/5) There was a really interesting passage about a soap factory (operated by convicts and people from halfway houses and shelters as part of the shadow economy) that seemed somewhat related to Ellison's Invisible Man. I'm not sure if we will be returning to this setting now that Rheinhardt has landed his job at the radio station, but it was a neat set piece. The third main character (Rainey) has turned up and does have his own chapters. At least for now he is conducting some kind of survey of welfare recipients. (I wouldn't at all be surprised if this is paid for by Mr. Bingamon who owns the soap factory and the radio station.) This brings up some uncomfortable parallels with the super obscure late 60s novel, The Bag by Sol Yurick, which focuses on how the welfare state is designed to keep African-Americans in poverty. Perhaps ultimately the most appropriate pairing is A Hall of Mirrors and The Bag. (I had no idea that A Hall of Mirrors was made into a film, WUSA. While two of Yurick's novels in his 60s trilogy were made into movies (The Warriors and The Confession), The Bag has not been and is likely unfilmable, at least if the director stayed true to the source material.)
I'm not entirely sure what is wrong with me these days, though probably I am a bit too pressed for time and generally a bit more down on the human race in general than I was in my twenties, but there have been quite a few novels that I didn't enjoy as much (or much at all) on second readings. This includes Kafka's The Castle (The Trial still worked for me, however), Madison Smartt Bell's Waiting for the End of the World, Djuna Barnes' Nightwood, Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd (where I found it quite terrible and actually unreadable on a second reading) and, most recently, Powers' Morte d'Urban. Perhaps not all is lost: I did enjoy DeLillo's White Noise the second time around (though even there slightly less than the first time through), MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night and Slesinger's The Unpossessed (in fact, I probably did get more out of the second reading, which is always what one hopes to achieve).
Minor SPOILERS ahead
My specific problem with Waiting for the End of the World is that one of the novel's anti-heroes turns on his compadres and foils a plot involving setting off a dirty (atomic) bomb in Manhattan. It's not that one really wants the plot to succeed (sort of a precursor to Ozymandias's mad plans in Alan Moore's Watchmen), but there is no good reason for this character to have suddenly broken ranks and "seen the light" as it were. It's basically a cheat after the author realized he had painted himself into a corner and didn't actually want the plot to succeed. The closest analog I can think of is the movie (and play) Rope. I may already have mentioned it in the blog, but I loathe everything about this film and Saboteur for that matter. Even if I do get around to going through Hitchcock's film in order, I am going to skip these two.
The bigger mystery might be why I liked Morte d'Urban so much in the first place. It's a novel about a Catholic priest who moves in fairly high circles in Chicago but then is banished to rural Minnesota. He largely learns the lesson of humility in this more modest parish, then returns to Chicago. At least this is a very superficial gloss. While Father Urban never openly rebels against the Church hierarchy, it is clear that he feels he is being wasted in Minnesota and still feels that way at the end of his time there. However, he undergoes some serious misadventures in Minnesota and a health scare, and this more than anything else humbles and changes him. The ending is fairly downbeat, all things considered. As an aside, I am sorry to report that I think interested readers should skip the NYRB edition of this novel. Not only is the cover completely misrepresentative of the novel, but the introduction by Elizabeth Hardwick is very poor. It gives away far too many plot points. In addition, I'm fairly sure that she gets a few points factually incorrect (about the aftermath of Billy's falling out with Father Urban), and her interpretation is suspect in a few other places. With all that said, I didn't really dislike the novel on the second time through but I was more impatient with Father Urban's puffed up view of himself, which lasts nearly 2/3rd of the novel. He probably never should have joined the Church in the first place, and his fever-dream of being an important business executive seems much more appropriate for a person of his talents and outlook. I also found it really hard to read any sections where Billy turns up, as he is such a jerk (and Father Urban really was quite weak in trying to suck up to him to get money for his order). As a second aside, the novel pretty much all hinges upon Billy grabbing a deer by the antlers and trying to drown it in a lake (while sitting in a boat no less) and then Father Urban's actions and Billy's further reactions. I'm sorry -- this just seems so completely implausible at every level that it does undermine the novel. The sheer physics make it impossible. Nonetheless, perhaps if I didn't have such high expectations, I would have enjoyed it more this time around. I can't see reading it a third time, so I put it out in the Little Free Library.
The last pairing I will discuss is Robert Stone's A Hall of Mirrors, which is about an alcoholic musician who washes up in New Orleans and starts working for a right-wing radio station. He takes up with a young widow, who is also a bit of a drifter. I haven't gotten that far into it to be honest. There seem to be a few parallels with Rabbit Redux (the general craziness of the 60s lies heavy on both novels), though structurally this reminds me a bit of Murakami's 1Q84 with the alternating chapters featuring the two main characters. Goodreads reviewers say a third character pops up, but I don't know if he will get his own running set of chapters or not.
Edit (8/5) There was a really interesting passage about a soap factory (operated by convicts and people from halfway houses and shelters as part of the shadow economy) that seemed somewhat related to Ellison's Invisible Man. I'm not sure if we will be returning to this setting now that Rheinhardt has landed his job at the radio station, but it was a neat set piece. The third main character (Rainey) has turned up and does have his own chapters. At least for now he is conducting some kind of survey of welfare recipients. (I wouldn't at all be surprised if this is paid for by Mr. Bingamon who owns the soap factory and the radio station.) This brings up some uncomfortable parallels with the super obscure late 60s novel, The Bag by Sol Yurick, which focuses on how the welfare state is designed to keep African-Americans in poverty. Perhaps ultimately the most appropriate pairing is A Hall of Mirrors and The Bag. (I had no idea that A Hall of Mirrors was made into a film, WUSA. While two of Yurick's novels in his 60s trilogy were made into movies (The Warriors and The Confession), The Bag has not been and is likely unfilmable, at least if the director stayed true to the source material.)
Friday, August 2, 2019
Goldberg Variants
Tuesday was a pretty incredible evening. I heard Angela Hewitt playing Bach's Goldberg Variations (completely from memory).* I am still amazed that anyone can memorize
such an immense and complicated piece of work. I'm supposed to see her
playing The Art of the Fugue next year at some point, and she may also play that from memory. I do wonder if
Hewitt attempts to play The Well-Tempered Clavier from memory, as she does tackle it from time to time (as a two-part concert I believe). That
would seem to be a bridge too far, at least for me.
What made the evening even more special (at least for me) was that they were interviewing Madeleine Thien about her novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing and the connections between it and the Goldberg Variations. I haven't read this book yet, but I've moved it quite a bit up on my reading list and expect to get to it at some point in August.
At any rate, the book is basically about the lives of three musicians in China, some (all?) of whom relocate to Canada after the Tienanmen Square massacre, though there are earlier chapters looking at how Western classical music was banned in China after the Cultural Revolution (and how that negatively impacted the musicians). As an aside, Thien mentioned that any novel that even mentions Tienanmen Square is banned, so she knows there will never be an official translation of her novel into Mandarin Chinese, though it may well be published in Taiwan. And a few Chinese readers told her that they struggled to get through the novel in the original English.
Thien said that Gould's Goldberg Variations popped up in her iPlayer shuffle at an opportune time (while she was depressed in Berlin). She started listening to it constantly while writing her novel in cafes in Berlin (to drown out background noise). It eventually became a leitmotif in the novel, but only later on. The original Gould recording would have been known to the characters in the early chapters, but as she worked on the later parts of the novel, she switched to Gould's 2nd recording (from 1981). She estimates that she listened to the piece close to 10,000 times while writing the novel! But tonight would be the very first time she had seen it live!
I'm not quite sure how many times I've heard Gould's Goldberg, but probably only on the order of 20 times, and the 1981 recording probably only a couple of times. (I suspect I shall listen to both again while reading the novel...) On the other hand, I've seen the Goldberg Variations played three times (including last Tuesday), though this is actually the first time on piano. I saw it played on harpsichord in Vancouver, and then Tafelmusik did some version for harpsichord and period music accompaniment back in 2016. (I can't quite remember if the other instruments played throughout the entire piece or only on cadenzas. I should probably see if I can find a review or even a recording of the event.) It's a close thing, but I would probably give the palm to Hewitt for the most incredible performance. Certainly looking forward to The Art of the Fugue next year!
* I should note that Hewitt dedicated her performance to Walter Homburger, who passed away on July 25. He had been a massive figure in Toronto's classical music scene, promoting the TSO, and, perhaps even more critically, he was Glenn Gould's manager and landed him the recording contract that led to the Goldberg Variations (among dozens of other critically acclaimed albums).
Sadly the classical music scene also lost another major figure in July: the cellist Anner Bylsma. He had close ties to many of the members of Tafelmusik and recorded with them several times, though I am not sure if he ever called Toronto home, even temporarily. I have quite a few CDs featuring his playing, though I'll have to get a few more with a Tafelmusik connection and then a recording he did of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time.
What made the evening even more special (at least for me) was that they were interviewing Madeleine Thien about her novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing and the connections between it and the Goldberg Variations. I haven't read this book yet, but I've moved it quite a bit up on my reading list and expect to get to it at some point in August.
At any rate, the book is basically about the lives of three musicians in China, some (all?) of whom relocate to Canada after the Tienanmen Square massacre, though there are earlier chapters looking at how Western classical music was banned in China after the Cultural Revolution (and how that negatively impacted the musicians). As an aside, Thien mentioned that any novel that even mentions Tienanmen Square is banned, so she knows there will never be an official translation of her novel into Mandarin Chinese, though it may well be published in Taiwan. And a few Chinese readers told her that they struggled to get through the novel in the original English.
Thien said that Gould's Goldberg Variations popped up in her iPlayer shuffle at an opportune time (while she was depressed in Berlin). She started listening to it constantly while writing her novel in cafes in Berlin (to drown out background noise). It eventually became a leitmotif in the novel, but only later on. The original Gould recording would have been known to the characters in the early chapters, but as she worked on the later parts of the novel, she switched to Gould's 2nd recording (from 1981). She estimates that she listened to the piece close to 10,000 times while writing the novel! But tonight would be the very first time she had seen it live!
I'm not quite sure how many times I've heard Gould's Goldberg, but probably only on the order of 20 times, and the 1981 recording probably only a couple of times. (I suspect I shall listen to both again while reading the novel...) On the other hand, I've seen the Goldberg Variations played three times (including last Tuesday), though this is actually the first time on piano. I saw it played on harpsichord in Vancouver, and then Tafelmusik did some version for harpsichord and period music accompaniment back in 2016. (I can't quite remember if the other instruments played throughout the entire piece or only on cadenzas. I should probably see if I can find a review or even a recording of the event.) It's a close thing, but I would probably give the palm to Hewitt for the most incredible performance. Certainly looking forward to The Art of the Fugue next year!
* I should note that Hewitt dedicated her performance to Walter Homburger, who passed away on July 25. He had been a massive figure in Toronto's classical music scene, promoting the TSO, and, perhaps even more critically, he was Glenn Gould's manager and landed him the recording contract that led to the Goldberg Variations (among dozens of other critically acclaimed albums).
Sadly the classical music scene also lost another major figure in July: the cellist Anner Bylsma. He had close ties to many of the members of Tafelmusik and recorded with them several times, though I am not sure if he ever called Toronto home, even temporarily. I have quite a few CDs featuring his playing, though I'll have to get a few more with a Tafelmusik connection and then a recording he did of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time.
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