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...
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