Quick Takes (early 2020)

I really meant to get a few posts out, but time gets away from me.  (I've almost entirely given up on book reviewing, but I suppose I'll make another push in February...)

First, there is only one weekend left to see the Romare Bearden exhibit in Atlanta.  I will be checking it out and reviewing it shortly.  The bulk of the exhibit then moves on to Cincinnati, though there are a few pieces only on display in Atlanta.

There is an interesting photography exhibit, A Handful of Dust, that just opened up at the Ryerson Image Centre.  It runs through early April 2020, and I'll probably drop by again once or twice.

It looks like Picasso (the Blue Period) is coming to the AGO this summer, which will be quite a block-buster.  I'm really looking forward to that.

There is a lot of theatre on the horizon, including Kushner's Caroline or Change and Lady Sunrise at Factory Theatre.  I'll probably check out the current show at Coal Mine, though I just missed out on the previews.  I'd like to try to get rush tickets, but they usually are sold out (and it is a small theatre).

I need to decide tonight on when I am going to Stratford and if I am going to the Shaw Festival at all this summer.  The early bird ticket prices are ending soon.

Tonight I also need to recharge the battery on the iPod (yes I am still using it) and free up some space on my phone.  But otherwise, I am basically ready to go.  It's a quick trip to Atlanta, and I don't need to bring too much along.

I recently managed to find one copy of New Worlds Anthology #6.  It's much rarer than 1-5, which I tracked down pretty easily on eBay.   (I found this one through Bookfinder.com, oddly enough.)  While the price was certainly higher than I wanted to pay, it wasn't completely ridiculous (given the relative scarcity of this issue), and this way I don't have to wait for Dean Motter to get around to collecting the Mr. X material from these issues.

There's a lot of political stuff on my mind these days, but I'll refrain for now.  There's time enough to rant later on.

Pretty Much All Downs (2020)

Last evening was a very, very bad transit day.  I guess the morning was worse for a lot of people (with a Line 2 derailment in the west), but it was still incredibly frustrating.  I just missed the Spadina streetcar, and the next one was 8 or 9 minutes later.  It was incredibly packed, and I actually had to push my way out (which always triggers a mild claustrophobia) at College.  Naturally, we had run so slowly that the next one, which was supposed to be about 5 minutes behind, had caught up.  I went into The Beguiling, but they didn't have any of the comics I was hunting for.  To be fair, the Carlton streetcar wasn't bad, but the various delays meant I didn't get to the Regent Park pool until 7:15 or so.  I debated whether it was even worth trying to get in a few laps.  I thought I could probably get in 10, though in the end, I only got in 6.5 laps, as they basically hustled us out 10 minutes early!  (At this point, I won't bother going again unless there is at least a full 30 minutes prior to closing.)  Then I went outside and waited and waited and waited for the Dundas bus.  Three went by in the other direction, so it had been at least a 15 minute wait and there was still no bus in sight.  I finally gave up and walked back up to Gerrard to catch the streetcar instead.  This meant I couldn't get over to the library.  So one activity was completely abandoned and the other only half accomplished due to problems with transit (and being rushed by the pool staff).  There is no question that, in North America at least, transit is and will always remain an inferior alternative (because we won't fund it adequately and implement other policy changes that would truly discourage car use), and most of my career (trying to urge people away from cars and onto transit) has been pointless.  I really was in a pretty grim mood, all in all.

I'm sure it doesn't help that I noticed I've been picking up weight, especially since around Halloween.  I finally weighed myself at the gym, and it was worse than I thought (a gain of over 10 pounds).  I've started buckling down and getting better on the snacking front.  It is hard, since there are almost weekly treats at work, and I've had to stop going to even more social events just to avoid all the empty calories.  When I was losing weight last year, I pretty much had to restrict calories at breakfast, lunch and all those deadly snack times in between.  I haven't gone that far (yet), but I am cutting back at lunch and trying to avoid snacks, so needless to say I'm pretty cranky at work, pretty much all the time.  I'll just say that it is never easy to lose weight, and it is particularly hard in the winter when your body is yearning for calories (and to generate fat) and I can't even bike to work.  I think for the moment I've stabilized, but I probably won't lose any serious weight until the spring.  I'll just have to take this as another hard lesson and make more permanent changes in my snacking habits.  It is frustrating, as my will power is already stretched pretty thin as it is.

My knee is still bothering me a fair bit.  I actually went to physio to get some advice and relief, and I mostly got some stretching exercises.  It doesn't really stop me from walking (though I'm more hesitant to take the stairs), swimming or even biking (at the gym), but it also doesn't really seem to be getting better.  I'm struggling to find any positives at the moment, other than things could always be worse...

I think I'll just go ahead and sign off now.

Two Down, Four to Go (Terry Jones)

Cribbing shamelessly from John Cleese's post, I want to take a moment to recognize the passing of Terry Jones.  I've generally stopped commenting on the deaths of celebrities (after the double whammy of David Bowie and Alan Rickman in January 2016), but I will make an exception here, as Monty Python was such an influence on me growing up.  I know I watched this in the dorm when it was on late-night MTV(!) in 1988, though I most likely had seen a reasonable number of the episodes prior to this (most likely on PBS,* as we were definitely an NPR and PBS sort of household).  I'm sure I had seen Holy Grail and Life of Brian on VHS while in high school, and I definitely went to see Life of Brian at a university cinema club screening.

Terry Jones (surprisingly handsome when not dressed as a woman)

I didn't have the opportunity to see the Pythons live on their final reunion tour (and as much as I do like them, I wasn't going to try to fly to London!).  I have seen Eric Idle live twice, doing quite a few Python sketches and songs.

While in some ways Cleese and Idle may be even sharper (if somewhat caustic) comic writers, my favourite Pythons were Jones and Palin, who both seem like absolute top-form blokes.  The world will be a little sadder without Jones, but thankfully he (and the other Pythons) have left an amazing legacy.**  I've been planning forever to go through the Monty Python set (of all the original, uncut episodes).  There is no point in saying I am going to do that, starting tonight, as it just won't happen, but I probably can (and should!) plan to watch Holy Grail, Life of Brian and Meaning of Life over the next three weekends and ideally introduce my son and daughter to the Python-brand of humour.


* Interestingly, I found out about Red Dwarf from a NY-based PBS station in 2000 or so, but had never heard of it before.  I was also a relative late-comer to Blackadder, only finding out about it when visiting a friend in Victoria in 1995 or so.

** I know I shouldn't be surprised by this, but it's still astonishing that as late as the 1970s the BBC was forever wiping their old programs and reusing the tape with no thought that there would be reruns apparently.  Steve Coogan recounts that Terry Jones was responsible for storing the whole run of Monty Python, so there really would not have been much of a Python legacy without him.  Amazing.

Mr. X Follies

I'm not really sure how or why I got turned onto Mr. X.

Maybe I heard that the main character was an insomniac who routinely wandered around a retro-futuristic city, which incidentally he had been the prime architect responsible for designing.  This would have checked off quite a few boxes for me.  I don't really follow any comics regularly, aside from Girl Genius (which moved on-line many years ago, though it did start off as individual issues that then were collected as trade paperbacks) and Futurama (as discussed in the last post).  So it wasn't like I would have seen it (Mr. X) in the shops, since I went in so rarely.  Nonetheless, I must have been reading about an artist (or even a cartoonist) who was inspired by Dean Motter and his creation.  (It's certainly possible that it was Warren Ellis, who came up with Transmetropolitan (which I did read roughly while it was current) and acknowledged the influence.)

At any rate, I suspect it was mid to late 2000s when I started collecting them.  The first three series were long out of print, and I had to buy them from on-line comics stores (along with some missing Futuramas).  While I think I had most of the collection put together by 2010 or so, there were probably a few that I bought in 2011-2 (I vaguely recalling having a few things shipped up to Vancouver right before the US to Canada postal rates went completely through the roof).

While I have the first four issues of Series I as a trade (The Return of Mr. X), I actually have single issues for the rest of Series I, II and III.  It is pretty cool to have the individual issues, but pretty inconvenient for anyone starting out now.

The good news is that Series I (on Vortex) was collected into a massive trade paperback (and hardcover) titled Mr. X: The Archives and Series II (also on Vortex) was collected as The Brides of Mr. X and Other Stories.  In both cases, there is quite a bit of bonus material, much of which I didn't have already.*  Fortunately, the library has the Archives, so I checked it out.  Last night, I found a reasonably low cost copy of The Brides of Mr. X, and I suspect after reading the bonus material, I will probably donate it to the library so others can enjoy it.

As far as I can tell, Series III -- a relatively short 4 issue series on Caliber -- has not been collected.  This is quite unfortunate, particularly as I only learned a few days ago that there is a 6 part Mr. X serial (written and illustrated by Seth, who was fairly heavily involved with Series I and II) in Caliber's New Worlds Anthology, which was published back in 1996!  Given that Mr. X is sort of hot again and Seth is quite an important figure in the comic world (not just the Canadian comic world), it is probably some rights issue that is preventing this from being pulled together, as the bonus material to Series III.  If I had known 3 or so years ago, then there was an opportunity to get the complete run of the New Worlds Anthology for fairly cheap.  Now it looks like I should be able to assemble #1-5 without too much trouble (though at some cost), but #6 is pretty rare.  My guess is that I will eventually get ahold of it, but that just around that time Motter will finally release a collection of the Caliber material.  It never fails...

Series IV is out on Dark Horse.  Given that this is much more recent (2008-2015), it is much easier to find Condemned, Evicted and Razed.  All the individual stories were pulled together into Mr. X: The Modern Age, but there are no "extras" not in the original three volumes, though The Modern Age is 10-15% larger in size than the three separate titles (so bigger pages!).

So if I was starting out trying to collect Mr. X., I would just buy The Archives, The Brides of Mr. X and The Modern Age in one fell swoop.  They really are quite nicely put together.  That would leave you with just the Caliber material to assemble, which is not nearly as daunting a task.

It's not clear if Motter will continue putting out more Mr. X material,** or for that matter, anything from Electropolis.  (Razed was actually a bit of a surprise to me when it came out.)  I'll try to keep an eye out, but I'll try not to obsess over it too much.

* I forgot the number one reason to buy or borrow The Archives is that Dean Motter completely rejiggered 14th issue of Series I, with all new illustrations.  In his view, this is the finale as it was always meant to be.

** Actually, it does appear that he is working on another series called Excavations, which may hit stores in Fall 2020.  There is currently a print-on-demand title called Pokerface, which collects an uncollected series about Mr. X and a gambling ring in Radiant City, along with a few pages from Excavations.  I'll probably order it, though it is quite pricey given the relatively short nature of this book.

P.S. I went ahead and asked Dean Motter himself, and he answered(!), saying that he continues to write new Mr. X material (and collect it), but it would probably be a couple of years before Excavations is collected (probably with Pokerface) and that they are shopping the Caliber material around, looking for a publisher.  This is great news, though it makes it a bit harder to decide what to do about New Worlds.  Given that I am somewhat impatient, I will probably go ahead and order New Worlds #1-5 but not stress too much about the missing #6.

The Nine Lives of Futurama

I'm not sure how often I mentioned it in the blog, but I was a huge fan of Futurama, catching most of the original episodes on TV in the original run.  (This doesn't sound like much of an achievement, but I didn't have a TV at the time the first series aired and had to arrange to go over to my then-girlfriend's (now wife's) apartment.  I guess she wasn't completely turned off by this obsession.)

I was pretty upset by the way Fox kept moving the program around and pre-empting it, often when a game ran late.  It's not so much that Futurama was a bad fit for Fox, but my understanding is that on the second go-around Groening learned his lesson from The Simpsons and kept much more of the IP related to the Futurama characters for himself...

I suppose it is a bit excessive (given that I so rarely play with the figures), but I have a fairly complete set of Futurama characters (though I never did break down and buy Zap Brannigan or Kif).

Anyway, after four seasons' worth of episodes (stretched over five years), Fox cancelled Futurama.

 

I was simultaneously not surprised and devastated.  It did help that I would have started watching the reruns on Adult Swim around that time (and I even bought a poster off of Ebay!), and I regularly bought the DVD sets (mostly imported from the UK, as the extra features were usually a bit better).

Somewhat incredibly after 5 years, Comedy Central renewed the show.  While I own all the movie-length episodes on DVD, I don't think I've watched them in their entirety.  One of these days I definitely will have to watch Futurama: The Lost Adventure, which was basically the insets from a Playstation game (which I own but haven't played all the way through -- perhaps a theme is emerging).  Anyway, it is a bonus feature on The Beasts with a Billion Backs.

I probably have seen all or nearly all of Seasons 6-7.  It is possible I held off from watching the final, final episode (Meanwhile), since I really ought to watch that last, after making sure I've seen the other ones in sequence.

While it has gotten extremely quiet lately, I do head over to Gotfuturama from time to time.  That's where I learned about a Nerdist podcast that is essentially a radio episode featuring the original voice cast.*  But there really has been so little Futurama news, and with Groening now focusing on Disenchanted it is unlikely there will ever be anything more on this front.  In general, the second wave of Futurama episodes was solid, with some outstanding episodes, though of course some folks carp and say that it shouldn't have been brought back.  Nay, I say.

Throughout this period, there was also a run of comics, from Bongo Comics (formed by Groening), and it was somewhat comforting to be able to read the comics (imagining the cast doing the voices) when the show was on hiatus.  I was a fairly regular reader for a long time.  Even when I was in England I picked up a few, though they had an odd oversized format compared to the States.  I did buy a few back issues on my return, but was not as obsessed with making a complete collection.  At any rate, I have a fairly complete collection from issue #1 to #62 with a few gaps.  But I did kind of lose interest somewhere along the way.  It looks like at issue #82, they decided to try to move away from a print version to some kind of an app that would load the comic onto your phone.  They had two issues like this, but it can't have been a big success, and it looks like Futurama comics came to an end with issue #83 in Sept. 2017.  They then reprinted #82 and #83 as Futurama Annual #1 (perhaps wishful thinking, as Annual #2 is nowhere to be found).  While none of the local shops had Annual #1, it is still possible to find on-line without too much effort, so I ordered a copy for old times' sake.

With the folding of the comic book series in 2018, I think Futurama has finally reached the end of the line, but it was a pretty great run while it lasted.  As Bender would say, ¡Hasta la vista, chumps!


* This seems to have vanished from the Nerdist podcast, but probably is still floating around on Youtube.

Two Degrees

Most of you will be familiar with the phrase "six degrees of separation," where all people on Earth can supposedly connect with each other using at most six personal connections.  I have my doubts about whether I can really connect with all Brazilian tribesmen or aboriginals from Australia, but so be it.  At one point, I think I was only four degrees separated from President Clinton, but I wasn't able to make much use of that fact.  I guess I am two degrees separated from President Obama, through folks I know reasonably well in Chicago.

I was thinking about this over the weekend, as it became obvious that there was no simple mechanical explanation for the Ukrainian jet PS752 to have gone down, and indeed, Iran admitted, in a major reversal, that it had shot down the jet accidentally.  While nothing will reverse this terrible event, there can be some closure after Iran made this announcement rather than trying to continue the cover-up.  While I don't know what proportion of the blame should rightfully fall on Trump (5-15% perhaps), there is no question there is a chain of events going directly back to his assassination of the Iranian general.

But back to two degrees.  We were discussing this at work, given how many Canadian citizens and permanent residents were on the flight, and it turns out that two of my co-workers are Iranian and knew several people on the flight.  It really brings the cost of war home, far more than any dispassionate news report.  I suppose at this point we can only hope that the sabre rattling is done for the time being, though I don't have a lot of hope that would be the case.

Weekend Update

It was a fairly busy weekend, though, per usual, I didn't get through everything I had planned.  Curiously, Friday it was reasonably warm out, and I probably could have/should have biked to work, though I tend to avoid biking now, as it is so dark (and dangerous on Toronto streets) by the time I am wrapping up work.  In general, I am not mentally prepared to bike in the winter time (since my accident I am incredibly leery of riding if it is at all slippery or wet, though I suppose one advantage of the memory gap is that I am not terrified of riding in general, only when the roads are slick).  Also, I was enjoying reading Rushdie's Quichotte and felt like getting a bit further into that.  I did manage to make it to the gym in the evening, which was good.

Saturday, I had basically intended to go swimming, but I got up late, and then we took the tree down (I had taken the outdoor lights down right around New Year's).  We would probably leave it up a bit longer, but we have so little space in our living room.  I was pleased that we managed to consolidate at least 4 boxes of ornaments, though of course we have about two weeks to go until recycling pick up day.  The downstairs back room is still quite full of boxes, but it is definitely better than it was.

I have two boxes left to go through of what are probably toys that can be donated (or discarded), and then I can bring my son's bike in for the winter.  I'll probably leave mine out for longer, however.  While it was quite brisk (and not as nice as Friday), I decided to go ahead and bike downtown to make up for missing out on the swimming.  I ended up getting the groceries in the evening.  It was probably around this time that I found out that my piece had been accepted for Sing-for-Your-Supper on Monday, so the streak continues.

Sunday I also got up a little late, though this time around, I was able to get to the Regent Park pool and get my laps in.  I had thought that the movie I was interested in (Knives Out) was playing at 1:55 at Scotiabank, but when I finally got downtown at 1, I checked again, and the movie started at 12:55!  I'm just going to take this as a sign (between this and the Yonge-Dundas Square theatre only offering this as an overpriced VIP movie experience), and I will just wait to see this whenever it starts streaming.  I saw that they had started dismantling the skating rink in front of Union Station.*  I did manage to get some work done, and then hit BMV on the way home.  They totally ripped me off, but they did take most of the graphic novels off of my hands.  (I actually got in touch with the buyer at Seeker's Books, and he'll almost certainly take Musil's The Man without Qualities from me, but I have to wait until late January to bring it over.)

When I got home, I got laundry started and went off to the gym.  (I wouldn't normally do quite so much exercise in one day, but I knew I wouldn't be going on Monday.)  It was a fairly productive weekend, though I wish I had made more progress on the other boxes and worked a bit on the quilt (to say nothing of finishing up this jigsaw puzzle that I think I will probably ultimately just abandon).  As a bit of an aside, I am extremely delayed in posting some book reviews and a few other posts, and I didn't get them done over the holidays as I had hoped to do.  Well, they will just have to wait for another time then.

* I had somewhat unrealistic fantasies about going several times a week to really brush up on my skating (since the rink and the skate rental was all free!).  However, I only went once and I really felt ill-at-ease, and I didn't bother going back.  It probably would have been different had I grown up here, given the large number of free rinks in Toronto neighbourhoods.  It was certainly a bit harder to find decent ice when I was growing up in Michigan, though if I had really wanted to pursue it, I'm sure I could have.

Update: It took a couple of false starts, but I did sell the Musil and a William Maxwell LOA volume to Seeker's for $20!  That was way more than I was expecting, and I threw in Marten's Waste for free (as I was glad to get this creepy book featuring necrophilia out of my life).