Boxing Day Blizzard

It may not be a full blizzard (yet), but we are getting plenty of snow and it is quite windy out.  And it is cold.  We only had a few patches of snow left on Christmas Day proper, but it is definitely going to be a very white Boxing Day!  That's a bit unfortunate, as I have a few things planned, and I'll just have to leave more time for the inevitable transit breakdowns.  (The cats are just fascinated, staring out the window at the snow.  It is tempting to let them out just to let them see it's not all it's cracked up to be, being outside in the cold, even if the snow is falling.)

I'm going to give a short rundown of the past week.  I'm already forgetting some of the details, so probably best to commit it to paper.

Last Friday I took Toby to the vet to be neutered.  I decided to work from home that day, and that was probably a wise decision.  Anyway, it was quite chilly out.  I actually had to go back out to meet someone for lunch.  We picked this place that had super cheap banh mi sandwiches, but it was cash only and there was no seating, so we went over to Gerrard Square.  We talked a bit about trying to convince Metrolinx to invest in upgrading their land use modelling (and that naturally we were the consultants best placed to carry this out).  I also came up with the idea that I will pitch as an abstract for TAC.  (Naturally, I am excited about this and want to do a lot of research on it, rather than just bearing down and finishing up a few other projects, including this poster that is going up at TRB Crossroads in Jan., though there was a corporate decision not to send me to present (and explain!) the poster.  I didn't really want to go to DC, but at the same time, it really rankles to have to do extra work (mostly off the clock) and then not present it.)

I was back at home, trying to focus on work when the vet called he said that Toby still had his baby teeth in, and it wasn't clear if they would come out on their own, so that would be a second surgery, and it would make more sense to do it all at once in two weeks if they still hadn't come out (or at least were loosening).  I wasn't at all thrilled by this, but I also didn't want to put him through surgery twice in one month, so we deferred the surgery, and I went to pick him up again.  (One of the reasons that I am rushing to have him fixed is that it turns out Rho is a female cat after all!  I guess that is burying the lede, though I mentioned that I had suspected this was the case...)

I picked up Toby and had a bit more time at hope, trying to refocus on work after a fairly disruptive day.  I then had to rush out to get to TIFF to see Yearning.  I think but am not entirely sure that I biked over.  Yearning is interesting in that it has a few aspects of The Shop Around the Corner portraying the ills of uncontrolled capitalism (in the form of big supermarkets opening and squeezing the small shop owners), though it is still early enough that families seem to have the assets to combine and open their own supermarket!  (There isn't much analysis in how they can actually drive prices down.  It's assumed that if they enlarge their store footprint, they will magically be more competitive...)  This is only a secondary subplot in favour of focusing on the younger son in love with a youngish widow (of his older brother!) still living in the household and keeping them all afloat through dint of her hard labour.  It was pretty good, though sentimental for sure.  The widow really was quite pretty. 

Sat. I stayed home quite a bit later, and then went swimming at Jimmie Simpson around 1.  It wasn't very crowded and I got in 25 laps!  Then I took the streetcar in and saw Late Chrysanthemums, which is quite a bleak film.  Basically it covers 3 former geishas.  One has become a moneylender (and a cold-hearted bitch) and the others are ekeing out a pretty miserable existence.  Almost everyone, including two former male clients, come begging the moneylender for money, and she ruminates on how everyone has disappointed her.  Not one I will likely return to any time soon.  In the evening, I spent a bit of time trying to clean out the back room in the basement where there was some flooding or something, and a lot of cardboard boxes ended up ruined.  I probably need to throw down some bleach.  In general, I haven't been too willing to clean up ever since I discovered a huge wasp's nest down there!  (I actually had a dream lately where one great big wasp had survived all the poison I had dumped on the nest and was going after me!  I think it may have been the same dream where Toby lost his front teeth.  And then a big black cat was riding a bicycle, though not my bicycle as it was still locked up.  So the cat had stolen a bike and learned to ride it!  Going one better than Bulgakov, I think.)

Sun. I managed to get over to the gym by 9.  I'm slowly getting used to the new machines, but generally don't care for them all that much, preferring the older set-up.  I cut things a bit short, hit Walmart for cat food, bought the groceries and still made it back by 11:45.  That was just enough time to hop on the bike and make it to TIFF to see The Secret Agent.  One of the more interesting aspects is that about halfway into the movie, the film suddenly jumps from 1977 to present-day where students are listening in on wire-tapped conversations (from 1977) then it switches back.  However, only a very small amount of what we see in the film would have been recorded, and oddly enough some of the deaths are shown "in real time" and some only reported in newspaper archives!  So it isn't clear if the students are trying to fill in the gaps from the newspapers and recordings, or if this is a broader commentary of how the past "is a foreign country."  I think in general, this should either have been explorer further, perhaps with different students arguing for different series of events (and watching this unfold and play out different ways -- to some extent this happened in American Fiction in the novel within a novel) or dropped entirely to make it a straight narrative film.

Then I hustled over to Aroma and managed to slip in before the buffet closed at 3.  It would have been better to have had another 15 minutes, as I wouldn't have had to eat quite so fast.  Anyway, it was fine.  I took the bike into the parking garage in HDR's building (as it is open on the weekend!) and dropped in to the office for about 30 minutes, then it was back to TIFF to see Sound of the Mountain, which is one of the very few Naruse films to really focus on a male character.  In this case, it is an older businessman, getting ready to retire with two adult children who have fallen far short of expectations.  The son in particular is a very poor excuse for a human being, cheating incessantly on his wife and refusing to take any responsibility.  One interesting note is that the older couple go on about how they would like grandchildren, but they do have a slightly snotty grand-daughter and then a baby grand-daughter, but these are from his daughter, not his son, so aren't even considered part of the family line.  Oh Japan...

My son was back from Ottawa on Sun., though he and his girlfriend had run off to get Tibetan food, so I got home while they were still out.  We talked a bit after then were done eating, and then he left with her for a while.  I'll probably see her again on Sun. the 28th when we may go over to the AGO.

I've been having a lot of computer issues, which is extremely frustrating as this is a fairly new computer.  I've got to restart very frequently.  Anyway, I will just outline the rest of the entries and finish this up later.

Monday I worked from home.  I didn't have many extracurricular events, though I did bike down and went swimming at Jimmie Simpson.  Twice in a week is what I aim for, though rarely achieve.

Tues. I actually had a pretty good TTC ride in to work.  I had debated biking in, and I wish I had, as the trip back home was horrendous, as someone pushed the emergency power cut button.  I'll go into that later.  I actually had seen Floating Clouds at TIFF.  This is a colour film and one of Naruse's very last films.  

Wed. (Christmas Eve) I ended up biking in to work and working pretty much a full day (aside from the time I carved out to send my e-cards!), and then I went over to TIFF to see Vertigo in 70mm.  I'm going to cut to the chase and say I don't like this film very much and don't plan on seeing it again.

Christmas itself was fairly low key, though we couldn't manage to get the kids to come out at the same time to open their presents.  I went off to Carlton to see Tokyo Godfathers (fortunately the original language version with subtitles, not the dubbed version that ran later on).  I happened to see that Tangerine was playing, and this was something I had missed out on at Paradise.  I decided to stick around, even though it was over an hour before it was going to start.  I finished up Powell's Angels on Toast during this time.  Tangerine is pretty dark, though it actually reminds me a lot of Egoyan's Exotica.

And with that, it is time for me to try to get over to the gym.  I'll be seeing Fargo later today (assuming the TTC doesn't completely break down under the snow), and the weather is extremely appropriate for watching the film.