Coping with FOMO

I really don't suffer from FOMO too often, though I also do my best to limit opportunities for it to come up in the first place.  For instance, I don't spend a lot of time looking at the theatre offerings in Chicago, though I did slip up and see what Steppenwolf was doing (Pinter's No Man's Land), and now I may well schedule a short trip to Chicago this summer, combining it with seeing family (not only to go to see a play).  And I definitely don't wish I was in Vancouver that often, though it is annoying that a handful of US acts will play Seattle and then Vancouver, while skipping Toronto.  (I guess largely because Buffalo and Detroit are not exactly thriving these days...)  However, a few weeks ago I was poking around on the Kronos website and saw that they are scheduling an absolutely amazing concert in Berkeley on April 1.  They will be performing Tan Dun's Ghost Opera and Steve Reich's Different Trains.  The Different Trains/Black Angels combo is actually from a box set, not one of their original CDs, but I still often pair the two in my own mind.  I have seen them doing Black Angels (and I did travel to see that), and I would really, really like to see them doing Different Trains before they hang up their bows for good.  

Had I been living in Vancouver, the plane fare would have been completely reasonable, and I would have just booked the trip.  When I first started looking, it was $525, which is high but I guess not crazy expensive for a cross-country trip.  I dithered and didn't book (in part because the whole trip would have worked out to close to $1000), and I just couldn't justify it.  However, I think really at the back of my mind, it was the guilt of the carbon emissions from flying more than just the cost that held me back.  (The smaller regional prop planes Porter flies do emit less greenhouse gasses than the larger jets, though I don't know how it works out on a per passenger basis.)  

So I mostly thought about what I could do with the money instead (including maybe getting that tattoo**) or maybe buying a small artwork or replacing the couch, which it looks like we have to do soon.  Then I looked and the price was well over $600 just for the ticket.  And I tried to put this out of my mind, but I kept circling back and checking Expedia.  At one point, the price dropped back to $600, but when I tried to actually book the tickets, it kept jumping up to $630, which annoyed me to no end.  I mean I could have afforded it, and I am sure this would have been amazing, but still incredibly hard to justify, particularly on the climate front.

At any rate, about a week ago, the ticket price hit $700, and it was $800 a day or two ago.  I think I can finally breathe easy that this junket no longer makes sense, and I don't have to feel terrible about blowing my annual carbon budget on one event.  That said, I probably still will be heading to Chicago this summer, and potentially NYC in the late spring to see Stoppard's Leopoldstadt, which no longer looks like it will hit Toronto (hopefully I am wrong).  I think either or both of these events will take away the sting of missing out on Different Trains.  However, I will still write to Kronos to ask if Different Trains or even Black Angels will feature in any of their other upcoming concerts.  If I can get to see them by train trip or even a Porter flight, I will certainly see if I can make that happen.

* There are so few people who really will commit to everything that is required to really combat climate change.  Even people who know better, like myself, are pretty much in the same boat as St. Augustine - "Let me be pure, but not yet."  Instead it is let me do my part, but I still want to travel across the country and at least once more over to Europe.  No question there are lots of ways to "justify" this, but unless we got all the other emissions down or ran airplanes on a non-polluting fuel source, this just means our children and our grandchildren will suffer for it.  When I think too much about it, I do feel the whole climate change apocalypse is inevitable with no way of avoiding it.  Which of course then makes it easier to give in and take those non-essential flights...  Sigh. 

** I'm still pretty serious about it, but I might hang on another couple of years.  I am not sure I want to be so gung-ho on broadcasting the fact that I am a Canadian if PP and the Conservatives take over at the next national election, as is looking somewhat likely now.  If Ford is still running Ontario into the ground, I will be deeply, deeply disgruntled, and probably won't want the tattoo to remind me of how things used to be better.  Don't get me wrong, Canada is still leagues ahead of the States, even though I definitely think Trudeau would be best off stepping aside sooner than later.  But under those conditions, I won't be a particularly proud Canadian, that's for sure.  As it happens, I only had to live a couple of years under Harper (and I was leaving Toronto around the time that Harris came in!), so I don't have quite the same battle scars as liberals that have been around a lot longer...

Busy Weekend Recap

I already mentioned that I thought The Baltimore Waltz over at Factory Theatre was great.  What I wasn't so crazy about was that it snowed almost the entire day, starting around 10 am and only finally stopping around 9 pm.  There weren't huge snowdrifts, but the streets and sidewalks were pretty slushy, slippery and gross.  I sort of regretted getting on the Queen streetcar where there was a homeless guy throwing things all over the floor of the streetcar.  Then he decided to light up about a block away from his stop (Sherbourne of course).  So charming.

Sat. was pretty jam-packed.  I debated going to the gym, but I just cannot force myself to go right now when I have to wear boots and/or the bridge is slippery.  I was better about going during the wintery days last year, but I am just not in a great mental space right now (esp. due to work), and I just can't face up to it.  That does mean that I have even more work to start getting back in shape this spring, but so be it.  I decided to head downtown and try to drop off a package with UPS.  I was not helped out at all by the 72 bus, which wasn't going to turn up for another 15 minutes, which pissed me off.  So I walked up to Danforth, grumbling pretty much the whole way.  I barely made it to the UPS Store before it closed.

I decided to check out the AGO.  For some reason there was a very aggressive homeless man on the steps being very aggressive towards me and other people walking past.  I went inside and told them they should call security on him.  I also wandered over to the Bau-Xi galleries to see their new shows.  I stopped in at MEC on the way to 401 Richmond.  I thought the bike bells were all terrible, but I did get a replacement light for one that had been stolen off my bike a while back.

It was worth ducking into 401 Richmond.  Yumart had rescheduled the Leon Rooke opening from the previous Sat. (when the weather was even worse).  I liked this piece a lot, and was tempted to put in an offer, but I do shy away from truly figurative pieces, as I generally do feel they don't hold as much mystery (or my attention) after a while.  Also, I have virtually no empty spaces on my wall at home and we aren't allowed to put anything on the walls at work.

Leon Rooke, Two Moons, One Bull, 2022

Abbozzo Gallery was also having some sort of reception, and I grabbed some cheese and crackers.  Red Head Gallery was open this weekend (it was closed last Sat.), and I saw an exhibit called The Green Suitcase, which was interesting.

This was my favourite piece from the show, though I don't think it was labelled. 

I didn't really want to walk over to Union, but I also didn't want to pay the full TTC fare.  In the end I walked...

Later that evening, I made it over to the Bill Frisell concert at about 7:20 or so.  I found a seat and tried to read.  I think I already mentioned I wished he had been playing with his quartet, which includes the saxophonist Greg Tardy.  I have no idea how those shows go, but they would have to be more appealing than this concert.  No question I was a bit stressed because I wanted to get to the Skye Wallace thing at Cameron House, but I still would have hated this concert.  The drummer was pretty good, and I could generally appreciate what the bassist was doing, but Frisell spent the entire time doing some weird stutter-stop improv thing back and forth with the bassist.  A lot of people enjoyed it, but I didn't like his playing on any level.  It didn't flow, and frankly it all felt pretty amateurish, particularly when compared to Adrian Belew the week before.  Frisell can obviously play, based on his many records, but why he didn't choose to do more traditional songs is completely beyond me.  This piece finally came to an end, and I decided to bolt, even though I was in the middle of the row.  It had been an hour of freeform guitar wankery, and I was ready to go.  At least the streetcar turned up quickly, and I headed down to Queen and Spadina.  I managed to get there where the first opening act was still on.  I also managed to talk to Skye a bit.  She said she would consider fitting Dead Things, Part II into her acoustic set the following day.  I bought her new CD and got her to sign it.  One thing that was different -- and a bit concerning -- was that her regular guitar player wasn't there and Gina, her keyboard player, was also absent.  She had a couple of friends filling in, including the flautist who was the first opening act (she can also play keyboards).  I had been thinking about writing a short playlet about a band break-up, and I thought perhaps she would want to read it, depending on the exact circumstances.  Anyway, it was a pretty good set.  They played most of the songs off her new CD, plus "Swing Batter," "Coal in Your Window" and a few other older songs.  While the transit back wasn't too bad, I still didn't get home until just after midnight.

I did manage to finish Walker's The Moviegoer.  Unfortunately, this novel kind of ran out of steam about halfway through, and the ending was pretty disappointing.  The novel kept foreshadowing this major tragedy (probably a suicide) and just nothing of any importance happened.  This is a novel that skates by on its reputation but just isn't that interesting, at least not anymore.  

I had to get up a bit early on Sunday and get to Union by 10.  I got on the bus in time.  I mostly read this book on the pandemic's impact on transportation.  I got a bit more than halfway through, so I think I'm on track to finish it this week and start my review.  I also got 1/3 of the way through Tom Wolfe's Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.

St. Catharines was pretty rough (worse than Hamilton and pretty much at the same level as Buffalo's downtown).  I also was not at all impressed that the bathrooms were all out of order at the bus terminal, and there were no coffee shops or places with public washrooms (at least downtown).  I think on my last visit I stayed much closer to Brock.  It was still rough around the edges but not as desolate as the downtown.  I wandered around for about an hour.  

Surprisingly, I found a used record shop that was open.  I picked up a couple of CDs and 3 LPs.  Then I grabbed lunch at an Indian place.  The buffet, esp. the vegetarian dishes, looked pretty sad, so I ordered something off the menu.  My attention was split between some townies talking about the rundown bars and night clubs of Niagara and a medic coming in to check up on an alcoholic (and possible junky) who had fallen asleep for 45 minutes in the restroom.  He basically couldn't stand up, but he also refused to go to the hospital.  Finally a cop turned up and gently convinced him to move on.  I clearly would not last too long in such an environment, having to deal with so many down-on-their-luck types.

The good news is that the piece TorQ was playing, Wijeratne's Invisible Cities (yes, inspired by Italo Calvino), was quite good.  This was the world premiere of the orchestral version of it, so my recollection is correct that I probably heard a movement or two previously but that the whole piece was delayed by Covid and it wasn't just a matter of me missing an announcement or something.  I talked very briefly to one of the TorQ members, and he said they are trying to figure out how to get the piece recorded.

I was a bit nervous that the concert would run long, but I stayed for the second half where the orchestra was doing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony.  I had about twenty minutes to hit the restroom and walk back over to the bus terminal.  One thing I didn't like was that there was no one there to help with information, and there was no sign saying which bus bay Megabus would load from.  So I had to wait outside and keep my eyes out for the bus.  I was pretty pissed off when someone rode their bike down the narrow sidewalk where the passengers were waiting to board buses, missing me by inches.  Then this disturbed young woman wandered by, yelling at me not to look at her.  Then she came a bit closer and accused me of stealing her bank card.  I went inside the station to look for security.  Apparently, she was a bit of a known character, and the security guard told a bus driver to let him know if he needed to remove her from his bus.  It really was a pretty gnarly scene.  She had left the platform by this time, so I went back outside.  Fortunately, the Megabus turned up on time, and I hopped on.  I do suspect that if I had been inside or just late, the bus would have left without me.  In general, it was a bit more stress than I had bargained for, and I think it is highly unlikely I'll be back in St. Catharines or Niagara Region more generally anytime soon.

One positive was that even though it started snowing (again!) and the traffic got heavier past Hamilton, we actually got back to Toronto a bit ahead of schedule.  I headed up to Cameron House again.  I had hoped to grab a sandwich at Banh Mi Boys, but it closed at 7, so I went back across Spadina to Basil Box for dinner.  I made it to the show just as the first opening act was wrapping up, just as I did the night before.  I had a chance to ask Skye about her band, and she said it was all good.  Gina and Devon were just busy; they were still in the band and would be off to South by Southwest (today I believe).  She was not as interested in reading a piece about a band breaking up as I had anticipated (possibly even thinking it would be bad majo or would jinx her if she read the piece), so I didn't bother pressing her.  I think I'll still try to write it up and send it over to SFYS for May.  (No word still if they are going to take the piece I already submitted for April.)  The acoustic set was good, but obviously more laid back.  She mostly performed solo, though sometimes her bass player joined her (though playing electric bass...) and sometimes a violin player as well.  I was disappointed that she didn't play Dead Things, Part II.  She was on a bit of a roll with 2 or even 3 songs basically about death or near-death experiences, so I thought it would slot in well.  Oh well.  We were treated to a new song called "You Don't Still Have a Hold on Me," which I liked.  

I actually made it back home while the Oscars will still going on, and I periodically checked the newsfeeds to see who had won, but I wasn't in the mood to actually watch the telecast.  On the whole, it was a pretty full weekend (that took me most of Monday to recover from...).  I don't think I have anything nearly as packed coming up, though I am supposed to see 3 plays over at Stratford one weekend in August.  So that's it for now.

Everything Everywhere Every Award

Not quite literally true but close.  I think it's still pretty shocking that this film pulled off such an upset.  I enjoyed it, though agree it's a bit self-indulgent in places.  Mostly I really didn't want Tár to win anything.  I thought Peter Bradshaw's closing comments in his column were apropos: "everyone involved with The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans and Living will have experienced every injustice everywhere all at once."  Bradshaw also felt a bit queasy about giving the Oscar to Brendan Fraser for his swanning around in a fat-suit.*  Given where culture, especially cancel culture, is headed, in only a year or two this will be viewed as just as insensitive as giving an award to someone in blackface.  (As far as I know Robert Downey, Jr. didn't get any awards for Tropic Thunder.  And while I know the point was to show how wrong it was to do blackface in a very meta way, I still don't think it was the best vehicle.)  I already mentioned I hoped Bill Nighy would get the Oscar, but it was not to be.  Anyway, the backlash over The Whale is just beginning to ramp up.

Well, I have no intention of ever watching The Whale, so I can safely pretend this never happened.  I did see that several movie theatres around Toronto have already added some screenings of Everything Everywhere (an extended cut with 8 minutes of bloopers as if it needed to be longer!), and this second run might well be extended now that it has more or less swept the Oscars.  I actually saw this twice in the regular theatre, so I don't have to go again, but if my wife wants to see what the fuss is about I'd probably go.

* Bradshaw also agreed with me that Don Cheadle should have at least gotten a nomination for supporting actor for his role in White Noise, which was very unfairly shut out.

Short Notice-The Baltimore Waltz

I don't have time for a full review, but I thought I would mention that there are only two days left in the ultra-short run of Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz at Factory Theatre.  This is actually a student production (UC Follies), and Factory is also putting on a different student production of Cabaret this weekend as well, though the only day left for this is tonight!  I won't be able to get to that, but it is probably worth checking out.  I don't know if this is a compromise -- U of T quads are still a bit gun-shy of allowing people, particularly non-students, to attend theatrical events on campus, whereas the students are gung-ho on putting on plays again after so many years off.  And Factory decided to make the space available.  I know that I have been surprised that Hart House Theatre did not put on a full season, though it rented out its space to the Howland Company and they did some student play competition.  Here's hoping that this fall Hart House returns to normal.  There were just a few hiccups here and there in this production, mostly an actor jumping his or her cue just a bit.  But it really was quite well done.  The script does contain a reference to the famous Ferris wheel scene from the Third Man (also riffed on in There is Only Us by Zoe Ballering).  This director added his own touch with the cracked foreign doctor/quack being drawn directly from Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.  (I checked the play and the stage directions make no reference to that.)  It was brilliant and quite appropriate (after the Third Man references).  The lead actress could just barely hold it together and not break (as they do so often in Saturday Night Live).  Anyway, I would strongly encourage you to check it out if possible (tickets here).  I'm still hoping to see a couple more Vogel plays, namely Hot 'n' Throbbing and Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief, but this was very good.

This weekend is going to be crammed.  At least the snow has stopped.  I am actually double booked the next two evenings.  I will likely swing by some art galleries this afternoon (after getting the groceries).  Then I am seeing Bill Frisell.  I'm a bit annoyed that the tickets say 7, but then it turns out it is actually doors open at 7 and the show will start around 8.  Given there is only limited seating, I'll probably need to turn up fairly early.  Frankly, I wish the show was starting at 7 or 7:30 at latest.  I might even sneak out at 9:45, depending on how things are going and how I am enjoying things.  If this was his quartet with Greg Tardy I would stay for the whole thing for sure, but it his trio playing.  Anyway, then I walk down the street to Cameron House to see Skye Wallace.  What's quite odd is that the ticket itself says 8 but then the website says 9 (so I assume the doors are 8).  There seem to be 2 opening acts, so I can't imagine she'll get started until 10 or even 10:30, which is why I decided to get tickets despite the conflict with Bill Frisell.  My understanding is that Skye is going to be playing at South by Southwest very shortly, so this is a bit of a warm-up concert.  

What's quite curious is that Sunday she is playing an acoustic set.  If I am able to talk to her at the merch booth, which is not guaranteed given that I am coming in late, I'll see if she is going to play Dead Things, Part II, which is one of my favourite songs (by her) but one I don't think I've ever seen live.  It would fit an acoustic show pretty well, I imagine.

Anyway, assuming the roads clear up from Friday's snow (it snowed all day!), I am heading off to St. Catharines on Sunday to see TorQ.  I'll most likely get most of the way through this book on COVID and transportation which I am scheduled to review.  I may also bring my copy of Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, as it will fit in my coat pocket.  I should have a couple of hours to grab lunch and get ready for the concert.  There should be 30 minutes between the concert ending and getting back on the Megabus.  I'm supposed to get back to Toronto just before 7.  Fingers crossed!  Then Skye's acoustic set at Cameron House.  Again, I suspect this is doors opening, plus she has an opening act, so I don't think she'll be on before 9.  I don't like missing opening acts, but in this case I'm glad there is a buffer.

I probably won't report back until after this crazy weekend is over.