Last Gasp of the Fringe

It looks like there are 4 shows left today (Sun July 20th) up in North York.

If you hustle, you could still make the first one at noon.

Line up here:
Playground - 12 pm
Things My Dad Kept - 2:30 pm
My Pet Lizard, Liz: The Shakespearean Existential Crisis that Led to his Ultimate Demise - 6 pm
Iris (says goodbye) - 8:30 pm

Tickets here.

I managed to see David Lynch's Seinfeld, and it was amazing.  Two of the actors really got the mannerisms and generally the vocal tics of Jerry and George.  The actor playing Kramer got the physicality of the character and sometimes the voice.  The Elaine role was not terribly challenging.  My main quibble is that they decided to stretch this out and ended up adding in a lot of Simpsons references, but cutting this to 45 minutes and dropping those would probably have been the better choice.  Nonetheless, a terrific show, and I'm glad I managed to get a ticket.

Many of the shows here dealt with grief, esp. Things My Dad Kept (which was very good) and My Pet Lizard, Liz.  My Pet Lizard, Liz had a fair bit of charm, but personally I couldn't connect with the way that the author was processing grief.  I also didn't understand why the lizard stopping hanging out with its poodle buddy long before the bad review came on (of its Fringe show).  This felt like a show aimed squarely at Gen Z creative types (who do more or less keep the Fringe going, along with Gen Y/Millennials), and certainly quite a few people liked it.  The one thing that spoke to me was the somewhat harsh 2 star review from the reviewer, which reminded me of my own Fringe show, which mostly got 2 star reviews.  (Indeed, ChatGPT brings this up every time I search for the show to confirm something-- fortunately not something I do often!)  And it is fair to say that it wasn't particularly edgy, and it was heavily inspired by Star Trek/Twilight Zone.  For me what matters is that we sold a fair number of tickets (thisclose to selling out a couple of times) and most of the people that went liked it a lot.  So you never know, and definitely don't let my nit-picking get in your way.  I think the only Best of Fringe that I didn't see was Playground, and I will just have to let this go.

I was, somewhat surprisingly, able to go swimming in the pool at the North York Civic Centre between Seinfelt and My Pet Lizard, Liz.  It is a big facility, with their lanes probably 50% longer than the Regent Park lanes.  And there really weren't that many swimmers, and we more or less stayed out of each other's way, which was incredible.  What isn't incredible is that there are all these concrete protuberances hanging out over the swim lanes, and I managed to smack my hand really hard against part of a "fun" slide into the swimming pool.  It really felt like I dislocated my finger.  It still hurts a bit one day later, but I'm pretty sure there is no permanent damage.  I ended up getting in 10 laps, which is probably the same as 15 in the Regent Park pool, and also their hot tub was open, so I soaked in that for a few minutes before getting back to the Fringe.  So my weekend exercise streak remains unbroken, and indeed I need to head out to the gym fairly soon.

I wasn't super impressed with the food options up there and just ended up with a snack from an Asian grocery store and ate when I got home...

I also came across the folders where I have been backing up the many, many art photos of my recent trips, so I think over the next few days I will finally upload some of those.