Rainy Day

It looks like it will probably rain all day, which is always a bit depressing.  I had hoped to run out in the early morning and get an extra screw - and nut! - to fix my bike rack, as even the extra long screw shook loose without the nut on it, which is odd, as this doesn't happen on the other side.  Anyway, this will be the third time I've gone to Home Depot to deal with this, so it's getting rather annoying.  I also wanted to pick up my pants from the dry cleaners, but it looks like that will have to wait for Wed.

I'm finding that a lot of things are just creeping up on me, so I should sketch out what I plan to do this week and start pulling together the longer-term events, so I don't miss any of them.

Ideally, I am going to stop in a U Vic library on the way to work and drop off something that is due today and see if this Anne Carson book is actually on the shelves.  I did drop off another book at Robarts, and I am a little worried it got stuck in the book drop, so I'll be monitoring that this morning.  If my 4 pm meeting wraps up a bit early, I will see about stopping by The Rex to see the early 5 pm set for about an hour, and then head off to Press Vinyl Cafe* to get what is hopefully the last installment of LPs that I am replacing.  One of the slightly more expensive LPs is this Hal Willner set, Armarcord Nino Rota, celebrating Fellini.  

I suppose I am a bit more open to buying this, even though I have the music on MP3 because I liked Willner's Monk tribute, That's the Way I Feel Now, quite a bit.  I actually picked up That's the Way I Feel Now many years ago (and digitized it) but I have no idea what happened to it.  It wasn't in the stack of records that were "saved," nor was it in the pile that went off to the dump.  It's possible, though it seems unlikely, that I sold it off as I was downsizing for one of the cross-country moves.  Anyway, they had it for a decent price at Circus Books, so I picked it up, along with a Culture Club record.  It's a bit interesting that Circus Books and Kop's Records have very good prices on some 80s groups (Culture Club, Thompson Twins and Frankie Goes to Hollywood), whereas a few are very expensive, namely The Cure and Duran Duran.  And don't get me started on jazz.  There are only a few record stores that have any jazz records under $20, so I have to be extremely selective in what I pick up, though surprisingly I did get Andrew Hill's From California with Love (I think this was from Sonic Boom).  I am finding that for mainstream pop artists like Steven Winwood and Robert Palmer, you can pick those albums up super cheap.  In fact, I will get a couple more of those type of albums tomorrow, assuming that I make it to the store before it closes tomorrow.

Wed. the current plan is to hit the Music Library before 7 and then go see a free Steve Reich concert at Walter Hall.  That should be really cool.  I've invited a couple of people to see if they can make it, but it will probably just be me.  Now Wed. is also the day that the Art Museum is open late, so really I ought to try to get over there first.  It usually only takes about 30 minutes to check out those galleries.

I haven't entirely decided, as it is somewhat weather-dependent, but I am thinking on Sat. to drop by Corkin Gallery in the Distillery (there should be a new show up finally), and then bike over to Trinity and see a matinee performance of Richard III.  I'm glad that the college theatre collectives are starting to be more active again and put on shows in the colleges (rather than only Hart House Theatre, which has really fallen on hard times! or Factory Theatre).**  Then I might see an Ethiopian jazz show at Hirut in the evening.

Sunday, I will try to get to the TMU Image Centre (I had no idea it was open on Sundays, as I definitely could have hit it last week), maybe see Wallace and Gromit and the Were-Rabbit at Carlton, and then do Warm Reads in the evening.  (I just need to check out whether it starts at 7 or even earlier.)  I'm making decent progress on the 3 Witches play, and I should be quite a bit further along if I do make it to The Rex and Hirut this week. 

I need to grab another hour or two of sleep, so I think I'll list the longer term stuff for Oct.-early Dec. in a follow-up post.  Ciao.

 

* Interestingly, I ran out there for the first time a few weeks back to pick up Bill Perkins's Journey to the East, which was the first LP I replaced, but I didn't really do much digging beyond that.

** I may have been a bit optimistic on this front.  The various websites do not have any useful information, and most of the companies that are doing something are mostly renting over at Hart House (which shamefully no longer produces its own season!).  So if there are one-off productions, such as Richard III at Trinity, I will only find out about it by happenstance.  Sigh.

Back from Winnipeg

I was just out in Winnipeg for a conference.*  I was actually speaking twice, including on how to handle fact that university students in residence (1st and 2nd years mostly) will not be captured by the Canadian Census (as they are mostly back at their parents house by the time the Census rolls around) and are generally not present in household travel surveys either, which means that we don't have a very good understanding of travel that happens in the fall (the highest travel season) compared to the spring.  There was a decent crowd, certainly better than my second talk where there were perhaps 10 people in the room (and four of them were the other speakers and the moderator!).

I'd never been in Winnipeg itself, though we drove all the way around it on the ring road on my epic drive from Toronto to Calgary back in 1994.  I had come in a day early to look around a bit and found the downtown was pretty deserted.  It got a little busier during the week, but not by much.  Overall, it reminded me a lot of Edmonton, though with a more defined urban core.  I learned later at the Manitoba Museum that at one point Winnipeg was the third largest city in Canada, but its growth and prosperity did not survive the Great Depression and other economic slumps.

I managed to get over to the Winnipeg Art Gallery Sunday afternoon.

The collection is weighted very heavily towards First Nations artists and Inuit carvings, though they have a handful of Group of Seven paintings on view.  The most interesting thing there was a special exhibit on Abraham Ruben, who combines Inuit carving techniques with Viking/Norse mythology, apparently in reference to the fact that the Vikings did interact with the Inuit ages ago.

I had considered going back on Tues. during a break in my schedule, but it was closed Monday and Tuesday(!),** so I went to the Manitoba Museum instead.

Another highlight was that the Monday night reception was held at the Human Rights Museum, which is quite interesting inside.  It's sort of like a Cubist re-interpretation of the Guggenheim Museum.

I wandered along one of the rivers, and, as I said, I had a chance to run over to the Manitoba Museum.  (I was skipping the conference lunch, which was dire for vegetarians.)  Overall, it was a pretty decent trip, and I have a better sense of Winnipeg now.

On the trip, I finished Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, which was ok, but I had so many issues with the world-building, esp. how the mother thinks the Klara might "take over" from her ailing daughter (which is super creepy all the way around), but then only a few pages later we hear that AFs (Artificial Friends) go into this deep fade and are essentially useless as apparently solar power is no longer enough to keep them going, so that made no sense to me.  I'm leaning against seeing the upcoming movie now, though I may change my mind.  I also made it halfway through Huxley's The Devils of Loudun, which would have made a great 20-30 page magazine article, but is pretty insufferable as a 300+ page book.  I'm skimming large chunks and should be able to wrap this up fairly soon.  I finished it up in fits and starts, but I have now reread Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49.  Overall, it's pretty interesting, though I don't think he stuck the landing...

I probably need to switch over to Baldwin's Another Country, as my son returns home for Thanksgiving, and I wanted him to take it back to Ottawa (if he wants it now).  Then I will finally finish Thien's The Book of Records (I'm about 100 pages in).  Then I have a few books out from the library that will be next: Johnson's Train Dreams, Bradbury's The October Country, a book of plays by Daniel MacIvor and Masashi Matsuie's The Summer House, which is another Book Club selection, though not one I am really looking forward to, as it is too long (400 pages); then I will close out November with Thammavongsa's Pick a Colour (which I am looking forward to).  As ever, there are a few books I hope to squeeze in, but this is already a lot of reading to tackle.

 

* Getting there was a huge struggle, much harder than it needed to be, but I'll write about that later perhaps... 

** I did somewhat regret not picking up the Ruben catalogue, as it really is not available elsewhere (even on eBay), but I convinced a colleague who was staying through Wed. that the Art Gallery was worth visiting (fortunately, he agreed with me!), and I had him grab a copy.

Moderately Productive Weekend

Sat. I actually got to the gym by 11 or so.  I put in a pretty thorough workout, with even 15 minutes of cardio worked in.  (I restarted All That Monk Business and quickly remembered that I thought Buddy Monk, one of the central characters is an out-and-out jerk, making it somewhat painful to keep reading, but I don't have that much longer to go...)  I then brought the groceries home, getting everything except for tuna, which I forgot.

It was supposed to storm pretty hard, but wrap up by 7 or so, so I decided to risk biking to work, dropping my yogurt and frozen fruit off for the following week, as well as leaving the bike in a nearby underground garage.  Then I hopped on the streetcar to hit 401 Richmond.  Gagne was pretty much the same as the last time, but there was a new exhibit at Red Head Gallery with six artists and their take on modern abstraction.  I then caught the Spadina streetcar up to Bloor.  I decided to stop in at BMV first and actually managed to sell off a couple of books and two of the CDs I had picked up (for very cheap!) in Chicago, so that was a bonus.  It was about 3:15 by the time I got to Bathhurst station, and I was torn between just heading over to Hot Docs and seeing if I could just make it to Bau-Xi and back in time.  (Summertime was playing there at 4.)  

In the end, I went over to Bau-Xi, and made a super quick run through the gallery.  I thought the upstairs exhibition was more interesting with a few photos from Michael Woolf's Transparent City series, so I guess it was worth risking it.  

The transit gods were basically in my favour, with the exception of just missing an express bus on the way back.  I had almost 15 minutes left when I was back on Bloor and Bathhurst, so I stopped into Dollarama, though the lines seemed crazy long.  Then there was a pretty long line for tickets for Summertime, but there was a guy looking to sell an extra ticket, and I paid him $10 (in cash which I had from BMV - sweet).  I didn't love the film.  I did find it took some chances, making it clear that Hepburn's character not only has sex outside of marriage, but that her beau is already married, though separated and estranged from his wife.  So that was risky.  But the film hinges so much on coarse stereotypes of Americans and American morality that I found it painful to watch.  Granted the entire film was shot on location in Venice, and the scenery was often incredible, though also painful in reminding me that I will likely not make it back to Italy.

Anyway, I probably should have gone straight to dinner, but I decided to see if I could pick up some items from the hold shelf at Robarts.  Of course, I got there at 6:08, and the library closes at 6 on the weekend.  It was particularly annoying that two nearby cafes also were closed, despite one saying that it was open until 7!  So I hustled down to Queen and ate at Ginger.  I was extremely upset to find that I had misplaced my debit card, probably losing it either at Dollarama or Hot Docs.  While I was waiting on the food, I logged into my bank and put a temporary hold on the card.  As upsetting as this was, probably losing a debit card is less disruptive than a credit card, where all the auto-pay settings would have to be updated.

I made it to The Hole over at TIFF with 10 minutes to spare.  I had forgotten a lot about this movie, including how crazy it is for this district, which seems under quarantine and practically emptied out, to have a fully stocked mini-grocery store run out of a storage unit of some sort.  (This actually reminded me a bit of some of the stores in Seattle's Pike Place or indeed this Asian mall in Burnaby, BC.)  Only a single customer ever came by, and yet the stock looked like it was constantly being refreshed.  Weird.  I also forgot how little action or dialogue occurs in the movie.  I'm not sorry I saw it again, but I doubt I would make it through a third viewing.

I dropped by work afterwards.  I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did get my time sheet submitted, which is one major stressor every week. 

As far as I can tell, it might have rained a small amount during the movie, but nothing like what they expected, so the people that risked it were able to have a pretty decent time at Taste of the Danforth or Dusk Dances, and the grass should have been fine for Dusk Dances on Sunday.

Sunday started off with my daughter telling me that she was ready for me to swap out the curtains in her room, so I did that.  Then I grabbed a few more things at the grocery store, I went swimming (and the pool was almost empty, so that was great), and I stopped by Robarts to pick up those DVDs and books.  I was hoping to hear back from Hot Docs.  I thought I could probably take the Danforth back until Chester or so, but in fact, the Taste of the Danforth stretched all the way from Broadview to Jones, so I had to divert.

I got home and saw I had a message from Hot Docs that indeed they had found my debit card, which was an enormous relief.  They were going to be open until 7:30, so I could pick it up on the way over to the Warm Reads thing.  I got a bit more reading in (only 70 pages left in The Odyssey!), then headed out just after 6, again having to divert around the Taste.

I didn't see as many people as I had hoped at the Warm Reads thing, though one of the actors from my Fringe play was there, as well as the director.  I didn't quite get my piece ready for submission, though I think I'll have it ready today.  I also wasn't picked for the Writer's Challenge.  So I definitely wondered if it was worth showing up, though it is good to keep up my connections, I suppose.  I didn't care much for the kick-off piece, but the others were interesting or quite good, and the last piece ("Come Together" by Dave Healey) was just hilarious.  So the evening ended on a high note, and then I had to bike home.

2nd Show over

There is so much more I wanted to write, but I am running so late today (and I absolutely need to get my time sheet in before I run off to MOCA!).  I'll see if I can add more tonight after I am back from our 3rd show and You Choose.

We have our own mini Fringe tent right outside Alumnae Theatre. This does attract a few passers-by, which is great.  We're pretty close to the Fringe Hub, but Berkeley is still a little bit out of the way.

 

 

Last show of the night at Alumnae

Last night was always the lowest in terms of sales, but the Daily Discount helped.  In fact, we had been stuck at 9 for days.  Then I got word right before the start of the show that we were up to 20.  There were a few people buy tickets at the door and had two more volunteers get rush tickets (which is itself a good sign).  In the end, we had 27, which is not bad for an evening show on Sat.

It was a very good performance of the show, and the audience was engaged (and laughed at the funny parts).  It ran 54 minutes, which is incredible.  I think we're pretty much in the groove from here on out, and I'll see if we want to add in any shout outs tonight.  Still, it is tight, and there are always a few people that run out immediately after curtain call.  There was also one guy who left mid-show, which is a bit odd, though I wouldn't be surprised if he thought Eric Peterson was involved and then wasn't so interested after that...

Definitely looking forward to the rest of the run. Link with more info (and tickets) here. 

Edit: I really thought I would make it over to MOCA today, but I think it's just one too many things.  I'll get ready to go swimming, then see Medusa at Soulpepper and then make sure to run off a few more programs, as today's show will have close to 100 people!  I don't think I'll have time to hit MOCA.  I'll see if I can go another time, or wait for the first weekend in August when it will be free (again).

Arts Interlude

I'll be back to promoting my Fringe show any moment.  I was looking over all the things I ought to post about that I have been up to.  

Since I didn't enjoy it, it won't take too long to go back and discuss The Caged Bird Sings over at Tarragon, which I saw last Thurs.  I was supposed to see this, basically as theatre in the round at Aga Khan, but it was in the open courtyard in the middle of the museum, but that day there were storms all day and the show couldn't go on.  I couldn't make any other dates, so I got a refund (but still saw the rest of the museum...).  I don't think I would have liked it any better in that set-up, though it would have been more intimate.  I think it was just too chopped up and there really was no emotional payoff, largely because they were trying to illustrate various poems and legends that Rumi had written, so there was no connected story.  I might have been ok with 45 minutes of this, but it was 90 minutes without a break.  I will say I think generally the audience was on the same wavelength, as only one or two people rose to give the obligatory standing O.  There was also a talkback, which I had zero interest in attending.

I had tentatively planned to go over to Hirut on Friday, but ended up working until 8!  I got some Thai food over at the Well, though I didn't enjoy it as much as I usually do (maybe because I had anticipated having Ethiopian food).  I was really bummed that the Samosarie seems to have closed.

I was reasonably pleased that I made it over to the library and got my swimming laps in by noon.  Then on the way back, I picked up the second print from the framers, and I'll get that hung up tonight or tomorrow.  I'm about to hit up a few small art galleries and perhaps the AGO if there is time.

Then I'll probably drop by work for an hour or two, and then aim to get to the Rex at 7:30.  I have a ticket for a show that starts at 8 and runs until 9:15, though I'll probably split at 9:05, since I am seeing Pearle Harbour at the Royal York Fairmont at 9:30!  So it will likely be a fairly packed day after all.  I guess I better get going...

Edit (6-21): I did make it to Corkin Gallery and Thomas Landry over in the Distillery (though they didn't have much new on, so I needn't have bothered), then I decided to go up to Dundas to get to the AGO.  I remembered that there was something new at the Image Centre at TMU, so I ran in to see that.  The AGO visit was extremely brief, as it turns out it is next week that the big new exhibit (Impressionist masterpieces on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art) opens next week.  Oops.  So I'll have to go back right away.  Then I hit 401 Richmond for the last day of the Selling Canada exhibit at Red Head Gallery and there was a new exhibit at Gagne Contemporary, so definitely worth swinging by.  I went to work a couple of hours before the Rex and then the Royal York Fairmont for Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar.  So a pretty busy day in the end.

As I was biking home, I ran across some night bike ride, all glowing and having a good time.  Nonetheless, they acted far too much like Critical Mass for my taste, and I made sure to go in the opposite direction.  

I also stumbled across another Luminato installation called Pyramid Fields.  I haven't seen this during the day, but I think it must have a greater impact at night.

Blu Ray Days

I'll try to keep this brief.  I did a fair bit of zig-zagging over downtown yesterday, but it paid off in the end.

I started off with a slightly compressed visit to the gym.  I actually carried the Brandtner painting with me, along with a print I picked up last summer (I think) at TOAF.  So I went to the framers and talked through the options.  The pieces should be ready in two weeks.  I believe this is the same day as Primary Trust at Crow's, so maybe I'll grab the pieces and then head over to the show.  (I think they may well be closed after the show.)  I then went over to the mall and went to the gym.  I actually want to talk to Walmart about returning a nearly new pair of jeans (where the zipper broke) but of course, in a fit of efficiency, I had recycled the receipt.  Sigh.

I then biked straight over to Factory Theatre to see a presentation of Basbousa, which is a new work being developed by Obsidian.  I'll probably have a few more things to say about that later.  Then I backtracked to 401 Richmond and talked to John and saw a few other things at the galleries.

Then I biked up to BMV on Bloor.  I couldn't believe it.  A Blu Ray of Howl's Moving Castle turned back up, so I picked that up.  It probably isn't the fanciest version out there, but it is mine now.  I held off on getting a fancy Blu Ray of The Blues Brothers, though I may get that this afternoon (since I am seeing a concert at Trinity-St. Pauls -- and in fact I moved my Tafelmusik ticket to be able to make this concert).  

I then went in to Robarts.  I dropped off everything except Kirby Wright's Before the City, which I still hadn't finished.  I was very surprised that today I was able to download Rishi Dastidar's Neptune's Projects.  I also picked up two thin volumes by Tamar Yoseloff.

I biked over to BMV near Yonge-Dundas.  They still had the North by Northwest Blu Ray, which I picked up.  (This is probably my favourite Hitchcock film,* and I've managed to see it on the big screen twice!)  I also gave in and got Castle in the Sky.  I think I will probably try to get Spirited Away, but I think that will be it as far as Studio Ghibli purchases.  (I should see if I can borrow The Boy and the Heron from the library, now that all the hype has died down.)  And to think I hadn't seen any of them at all two or three years ago!  I also got Woolf's The Years, which is a bit shorter than I imagined.  Next door at Value Village, I picked up The Complete Stories of Lydia Davis and Woolf's Night and Day (even though I definitely felt this one was overpriced, given its condition).

I went down to work and did a bit of scanning, then biked back up to Queen and ate at Ginger.  Then I biked up to Bloor and saw the Tafelmusik concert.  Today will be a bit simpler.  I wanted to go up to the Danforth, but I think it's already too late for that, and I'll do that another day.  Maybe on Monday (if I don't have any late afternoon meetings) or Wed.

Today, I would like to swing by the Gagne Contemporary Leslieville annex, go swimming and then head downtown for an afternoon concert.  Then I am off to Aluna for a rehearsal of the Fringe show.  As I probably will mostly just be in the way, I will see about getting some work done. 

Edit (6/1): Things did basically work out the way I expected (after I gave up on trying to get up to the Danforth to Sleep Country).  I really liked the transit photos over at Gagne.  I was moderately successful in getting new pants (but not exchanging the old ones!) and picking up some slipper-like shoes for the rehearsal at Walmart.  I got in 25 laps at Jimmie Simpson, then biked over to the concert, making it there with about 20 minutes to spare.  The Enescu Octet was quite good.  Then I went to BMV and got The Blues Brothers.  (I tried it later on, and it plays fine, though I think one of the documentaries I was expecting is missing.)  I had planned on eating at the bahn mi place near Paradise but went to a sit-down Thai place that has recently opened.  Then I bought a replacement backpack at a place near Bloor and Bathhurst.  Most of them were too small, but this one is a bit too big.  I may never be able to take it into museums or even on a plane (I might have to gate check it).  So I may end up getting a smaller one after all, but I mostly had to do something because the one I had was tearing every which way, and I didn't want stuff spilling all over the street!  Then I biked off to Aluna for the rehearsal, which went quite well.  I'm starting to get excited about this, though mostly trying to stay out of the director's way...  

* I like though don't love Rear Window.  I finally had a chance to see Vertigo on the big screen, but I didn't actually like it that much, I think mostly because Stewart's character is such a controlling jerk for most of the picture.  There are flashes of this in Rear Window, but nothing to the same extent.  Anyway, there was a Blu Ray of Vertigo at BMV as well, but I decided I just needed to like the film far more before I would pick one up, so that is unlikely to happen.

The Day That Did Not Go As Planned

Yesterday did not go as planned at all, and aside from the ending, I guess it generally went ok.

I'm getting better at predicting just long it will take me to bike across the city, but I am not much better at actually leaving on time.  I really wanted to leave at 11:30 to try to make it to Abbozzo Gallery (and Bau-Xi on the way back) and then Howl's Moving Castle at 12:55 (though there is about 10 minute wiggle room due to trailers and so forth).  However, I got a late start at the gym, and I didn't actually leave the house for the galleries until 11:40.  It didn't help that I was riding into a strong headwind, which probably cost me another 5 minutes.

I really find it challenging getting out to Abbozzo, which has moved to a space along the rail path north of the GO Bloor station.  I certainly don't normally bike west of Dufferin (though I biked west of High Park to see the Bloor West Village Players on Thurs., and it took just under an hour to bike home!).  The exhibit did catch my eye, and it was interesting (embroidered elements from cityscapes from foreign cities, mostly Asian but perhaps Islamic as well).  But I might not have gone out there if I had realized quite how long it would take to get there.

Adrienna Matzeg, Late-Night Snack, 2026

Adrienna Matzeg, 7-Eleven, 2026

Since I was already so far west, I stopped at Bau-Xi on the way back.  I have tried two other times to get out there, and both times they closed a bit early on me.  I wouldn't say I saw a lot that was different from what they always have on view, but I saw a few things of interest. 

Casey McGlynn, Navigating the Layers of the Earth, 2024

Casey McGlynn, 11 Horses in the Round, 2024

Michael Woolf, Transparent City 02, 2007

I certainly didn't dawdle, but even so, the clock was ticking, and I had a sense I would be late.  I got to Avenue Road/Queens Park, which ultimately turns into University and saw that it was already 1:01.  There was no way to make it to Carlton in time, so I ended up turning down on Queens Park and then saw the art in Hart House and dropped in at Robarts.  I was trying to track down a misplaced poetry collection by Yusef Komunyakaa and searched up City and Selected or Collected Poems.  I ended up generating a fairly long list of collections to investigate, and then I went up into the stacks.  I ended up finding the missing book (though perhaps ironically Komunyakaa's Magic City is not a selected or collected volume).  I'll write up a different post about this extension of Poetry Month.

Then I dropped off my bike at the garage near work, then took the train back to Yorkville.  I picked up my painting and chatted a bit with the folks there.  I wasn't in the market for anything else (having spent enough on art for a while!), but this Ferron piece was nice.

Marcelle Ferron, Soleil Noir

I then hopped back on the train with my piece to try to get it to the framer in time.  It wasn't to be, however.  The framer closes early on Fridays and Saturdays.  Had I known, I should have used the time to try to call up RCM, as they are going to let me exchange my ticket to Hilary Hahn after all.  I'll just have to do it on Tues.

I was starting to work out all kinds of different combinations to see if I could see Howl later in the day or on Sunday.  (It's a bit tricky because apparently the programmers there think sufficiently highly of the English voice cast that they are alternating the subbed and dubbed version, whereas for Spirited Away they only programmed the subtitled version.)  Then I realized that I could simply go on Monday.  And in fact, the current plan is to go to the gym (and wrap up by noon or so), then head over to Carlton to catch the 12:55 showing.  Then I may stop in briefly at the AGO, though I may skip that as the AGO is only open until 4!  I should get at least a bit of work done and try to do some reading as well.  That's not a bad plan, I suppose, and perhaps I can actually stick to it for once.

At any rate, after I dropped my new painting off (just in the basement for the moment), I had just about an hour to "relax" before heading back out to the Rex.  I was planning on sticking around for the late night set as well.  However, I hadn't booked any seats -- and they were pretty full.  I could have sat in the back, but I didn't really want to.  I also wasn't entirely sure how well I could write, as the group that was on first had a vocalist.  I decided to just bail.  I ate at Ginger instead and read a bit more of Vera, then picked up my bike and rode home.  I ended up reading the rest of Vera that evening.  So it was a bit of a disappointment to not see the show at the Rex, but not such a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. 

Early May catch-up

I'll probably circle back and fill in a few more details, but this is what I have been up to over the weekend.

Sat. ended up being a very busy day.  I didn't get to the gym at 9:30, as I had hoped, but I did make it there by 10 (a recent record) and was home (with the groceries) by noon.  I left the house again to swing by some art galleries just before 1.  I went to Canadian Fine Arts and put down the cheque for the Brandtner piece.  It was too big to fit in my pannier, so I'll have to go back later, probably next Sat.  I went north and checked out Gallery Gevik, which I haven't been to in a while.  I came back south to get to 401 Richmond and ran briefly into Robarts to pick up a book on hold.  I saw that the cherry blossoms had all fallen.  Ah, transcience...

I didn't stay too long at 401 Richmond, though I was able to get into Gagne this time around and talked briefly to John.  Then I had about an hour at the OCAD GradEx.  I probably could have spent another 15 to 30 minutes there, but I think I got the essence of this year.  I think Chimemelie Okafor was probably the most interesting painter, for my tastes at least.

I then biked over to Carlton and was able to catch the 3:45 showing of Spirited Away.  I'll try to catch Howl's Moving Castle next weekend, maybe right before going over to Canadian Fine Arts, so hopefully they have a fairly early showing.

Then I swung by Union and picked up some sushi, hit the office for only about 10 minutes, then went to the Soundstreams concert.  I got there about midway through the pre-show talk.  I was not happy to find out that they had added a piece and an intermission, and now the whole concert was going to take just about 2 hours, up from the originally scheduled 90 minutes.  However, the piece I was probably most interested in (Britten's Lachrymae) was in the first half, so I decided I would leave at intermission and head over to the Rex.  So I ended up catching about half the first set of Don Byron in a large band setting.  Glad I caught this in the end, though Don was far more restrained than he has been on previous occasions.  I also stuck around for the late night set, though it was harder to focus and write in my journal, as this group was very heavy on the vocals.  The singer was quite good, however.

Sunday didn't get off to a great start when the bus wouldn't show up.  There were actually 2 headed south travelling in pairs, and there were 2 buses in pairs about 15 minutes away heading north.  Just terrible service, and the TTC seems to have completely abandoned any attempts at keep buses reasonably spaced through line management.  It was particularly frustrating as the weather was good, and I easily could have biked, but then I was heading all the way out to Old Mill for a Bach motet concert, and that was too far to bike.  So I abandoned my attempts to swim, and will do that tonight instead, and just read for a while, waiting on the bus to take me up to Pape station.  

I got to Old Mill with over an hour to spare, and I walked down to the Humber.  It turns out that the canoes and kayaks are now available to rent (this was the first weekend in fact) but there were no canoes available (they were doing some sort of clean up on the Humber).  It was tempting to rent a kayak, but I've never been in one, and I really didn't want my stuff to get wet.  Maybe some other time, esp. if my son is back in town, though that would probably mean renting a canoe again. 

Then I walked over to the church. I've definitely never been in this part of town before, as this is where the Kingway is (which is apparently still a nice movie theatre but run by a terrible grump, making it not worth going to, aside from the fact it is ridiculously far from my house...).

The concert was fine, but it's pretty clear that I am just not that into Bach's motets, and I think I will stop trying to force myself to appreciate them.

I then took the train back to Dundas West and spent a little time in the bookstores there, which were still open.  I debated going to the Indian place, but by the time I was finished with the book shopping, I only had time for pizza after all.  Then I watched Malle's Zazie Dans the Metro.  I didn't like the book that much because the little girl is such a brat.  The movie is essentially Tati on crack (though actually it predates Playtime by 7 years, though it came out a couple of years after Mon Oncle): non-stop visual gags and lots of camera tricks.  In the end it was a little too much.  Here is an interesting piece on the movie, and here is an essay from Criterion where they are flogging the film.  I'll have to decide at some point if I want to reread the book (which didn't do that much for me on first reading) and/or rewatch the film, but it is a relatively low priority.  I'm much more likely to rewatch Godard's Masculin féminin, which grabbed me more (right around the time I was thinking I didn't like any of Godard's films that much!).

I managed to make decent progress on Nabokov's Ada ✓, and I will probably finish it tonight.  Somehow I need to read Shteyngart's Vera or Faith ✓ and then still find time for Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness ✓ before the end of the month (as we are reading this for book club).  I looked several times and just couldn't find it, so I ordered the LOA set of her Hainish novels, which at least has the advantage of having some interesting additional material added to the novels and stories (even though I don't like buying stuff I already own or believe I own).  Then there are several other things I wanted to read, but this will probably end up getting pushed off until June (and of course I will have far less free time with Fringe roaring up!).  For instance, I ordered the remaining Blu-Rays of Breaking Bad, but I don't expect to get to any of them before the fall...

Ciao for now! 

Edit (05/12): I was able to get over to Jimmie Simpson and got in 23 or possibly even 24 laps, so that was positive.  I'm going to try to get over to the gym tonight, though I do need to swing by Robarts on the way home, and potentially swim on Wed.  (It's somewhat likely to rain on Wed., so maybe it is worth going to Matty Eckler instead if biking looks iffy.)  I also finally managed to finish Nabokov's Ada!  In general, the second half isn't quite as strong as the first half (and there is a somewhat painful 20 pages on space and time where Van more or less argues against Einstein's relativity theory because it isn't aesthetically pleasing), though the last 30 or so pages when Ada and Van are quite old (and reunited) recaptures some of the zany wordplay from the first half.  I may get around to writing a post just on this, but perhaps not.

Two Very Busy Days

I'm going to go ahead and post my calendar for April, which is quickly coming to an end. 

 
As always, I stay busy, but this is taking it to the next level.  Just listing some of what I have done is a bit exhausting, though I have few regrets.  Now it looks like I had the 27th and 28th free, but I added a poetry reading at Cavendash Booksellers on Monday (and an unsuccessful attempt to swing by Bau-Xi right before they closed, but they closed early!) and then moved the play* I was seeing with a friend from Wed. to Tues. because she was working on the 29th.  That sort of freed up the 29th (for me) on paper at least, but it ended up being an extremely busy day, as I'll explain in a moment.

For now, I will just go into what happened last Sat. and then on the 29th.  I wanted to get an early start on things and get to some art galleries before coming back to see Mary Mary Mary Mary at Crow's Theatre.  I think I finally left around 10:30.  I'd actually managed to ride in to work all that last week (20-24th), which was surprising.  (It looks like I might manage it this week as well, which is perhaps even more surprising, given that they were forecasting quite a bit of rain.)  

Anyway, last Sat. it was raining in the morning, so I was back at the mercy of the TTC.  I did make a major goof in that I went over the bridge, thinking I would take the streetcar to the Riverdale Library.  It was only when I was about halfway up the bridge I remembered that it was only a digital hold that had come in, so there was no point in going to the library.  I should have turned around, but had somewhat over-committed myself.  Then I got to the streetcar stop; it was 15 minutes to the next streetcar, so I just walked to Carlaw and caught the next Pape bus, so that was a huge waste of time.  

I took the subway to Yorkville (the Bay stop) and looked in at a few galleries.  There was a pretty interesting Basquiat at one of the galleries I don't usually frequent, so that was cool.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Phooey, 1982

I was actually there to see the Canadian Fine Arts Gallery, as there was an exhibition on Fritz Brandtner, one of the first Canadian modernist painters, that was ending that weekend.  I liked this exhibit quite a bit and was very taken with one of the pieces (though I will not post it here until I make up my mind whether to buy the piece).

This was a companion piece that had just sold.

Fritz Brandtner, City

They also had a few other interesting pieces, including a pretty nice Rita Letendre (which was a bit out of my price range).

Rita Letendre, A traverse l'espace, 2004

I was looking around for the Yorkville Library to drop off a book but just couldn't find it, and I was starting to worry a bit about the time.  I was going to take the Spadina streetcar down to 401 Richmond, which should have been simple.  However, as we neared College we heard that there was some accident ahead and all streetcars were going to divert down College to Bathhurst and then back on Queen.  This was incredibly frustrating.  I think maybe if they had decided to go down McCaul instead, which should have been possible, I would have stuck it out, but it seems kind of absurd to go over to Bathhurst, so I walked from College down to Richmond.  I suspect it took just as long to walk, but it felt a bit more productive, at least as far as exercise.  

Anyway, I went into the city-owned gallery (which has replaced Abbozzo), and my friend Andrea was working there.  We talked a bit about what was happening, and I reminded her that we were going to see How to Catch Creation the next week.  It had completely slipped her mind!  I tried to get into Gagne, but it was closed for some reason.  Maybe it's just as well, as it was definitely getting late, and if I had chatted with the owner, it would have really messed up my schedule.  I had just about 45 minutes to get back across town.  It would have been easy on a bike, and it should have been fine on the streetcar, but the Queen streetcar is making two diversions (one at Bay and then also between Parliament and Broadview -- the second is infuriating because they have finished the work near the Queen St. bridge and streetcars should be able to be using it, which would also improve the functioning of the King streetcar).  I started watching the minutes tick by.  We finally made it to Carlaw with just over five minutes before the play at Crow's started!  I had to run/jog/walk quickly up to Dundas.  (I really am not in shape to run, despite all the other exercise I get.)  I was 2 minutes late, but they let me in, and the play started a few minutes after that.  It took a while for me to get my heavy breathing (and coughing!) under control, but I finally did.  I won't go into great detail here, but this is simply a bad play.  I don't think I have any special grudge due to how hard it was to get back to it; indeed, the critics are pretty unanimous that this is a stinker.  I think word had gotten around as very few seats were filled.

After this, I ran over to Gagne's Leslieville outpost (basically a garage between Pape and Jones just off of Dundas).  It was kind of cool, comix-influenced art.  I also dropped off the overdue library book at the Jones library, then did just a bit of shopping at Gerrard Square.  I had a short stint of rest, and then I was off to see a jazz concert at Koerner Hall (Danilo Perez).  The second half of the concert was a big band concert with local musicians, including Kevin Turcotte and Allison Au (and in fact I mostly went to this concert for the big band portion).  As it happens, I documented this a bit already in this post.

If anything, April 29 was even more crammed!  I spent a huge part of the day finishing taxes.  I had done my son's about a week previously and my wife's wrapped up at some point over the weekend (possibly even after I had recovered from everything I got up to on Sat.).  I was not at all sure how they would go.  In years when my investments do well, then I often owe taxes.  On the other hand, I ended up taking far more unpaid leave than I normally do, and actually made less last year than the year before!  As I crunched through the numbers, it turns out I get a decent sized return (large enough that I feel I can go ahead and buy the Brandtner piece I liked at CFA Gallery).  I am nervous that the CRA seemed to have gotten something fairly wrong with my capital gains loss that I was carrying forward to this tax year, and I'll have to get on the phone to straighten that out at some point.  I also thought I was completely done, then learned that Box 85 on my T4 can get added to my uncovered medical expenses, which suddenly meant that my personal credits were a bit higher, and I ended up getting back another $75 or so in my refund.  So exhausting to go through everything, but so glad it is done for now, even if I do end up reaching out to the CRA in a month or so.

Anyway, as the work day was wrapping up, I scanned all the tax forms for my records, then got them mailed off at the post office near Union Station.  Then I went up to the Eaton Centre.  I picked up an additional hard drive from Best Buy, and picked up my glasses from Lenscrafters.  (That has quite an interesting back story, but I will hold off for now.)  I swung by BMV but they didn't have what I was looking for.  

I then biked over to AGO, as it was open late.  I finally managed to see the Paul McCartney photo exhibit.  It was fine, though something my parents would have appreciated a lot more.  His photos of New York in the early 60s were pretty nice.

Then I went back through the Edna Tacon exhibit, and then I headed home.  I made it back around 7:30.  It was starting to rain a bit, but the rain was pretty light, so I decided to force myself to go back out (on the bike).  I grabbed some cat food at Walmart, then biked down to Jimmie Simpson.  I was going to go a bit easy on myself, since I was relatively pleased with myself that I hadn't given in to temptation and went swimming after all, so I was going to do 20 laps.  However, once I got started (and I saw the pool was largely empty), I went ahead and put in 23-24 laps, so that was terrific.  I'm glad that I didn't dawdle because the Thai place I like at Queen and Logan was only open until 9:30 (not 10 as the website said!).  I ordered something and finally made it home.  I really was pretty exhausted (and I forgot to tune in to the last few minutes of Robyn Hitchcock's broadcast -- perhaps unfortunate, as he actually played my request, though I can catch it on repeat now).  And I finished the last few chapters of Maria Reva's Endling.  So yeah, a very busy, productive day.

 

* This was How to Catch Creation over at Soulpepper, which was actually a co-production with Nightwood and Obsidian Theatres.  It was very strong play and much funnier than I was expecting.  (In fact, I was expecting a fairly serious and/or experimental political play, but it was far more enjoyable.)  It runs for about three more weeks, and it might be extended if it becomes the hit it deserves to be; I'll try to do a bit of a review soon.

Super Busy Day

Friday was quite productive, though I had to work extra hours.  I finally got through my US taxes in the wee hours of the morning.  I still have a handful of the 8938 forms to fill in, but they won't impact the overall tax liability.  Indeed, I don't owe any US taxes and get some back that were withheld.  This isn't a huge surprise, but there are so many forms to fill out to get to that conclusion!  It's much more likely that I owe the CRA something, and after taking a few days off to recover, I will plunge into these as well.

I also delivered a final draft of a very long report to a client (in California).  I had promised I would get it over on Friday, and thus I had to keep working, along with some colleagues in Vancouver, long after everyone else had gone home.  I did make one weird mistake, moving the final chapter into the Appendix, but I decided that wasn't really a substantive problem, given they were still going to provide comments, so anyway that is a pretty big burden off my shoulders.

I had tried to finish up reading these George Szirtes poetry collections (and it is likely I would have finished up if I was stuck on the TTC, but I've been biking even in some less-than-ideal weather).  One issue is that Szirtes writes very long poems much of the time, so you don't have the situation where you can just flip through the pages.  (He also is quite committed to various rhyme schemes, which is a bit disconcerting.)  I had dropped in at Robarts on Wed. after a trip to the Rex.  It was just before 11, so the stacks were closing, but I was able to download some academic articles, and I turned in one of the collections.  I probably should have returned the other two.  They were due on Thurs., but there is usually a one day grace period before the fines kick in.  I had planned on reading more of them and turning them in before the Tafelmusik concert, but between taxes and report writing, I only just made it to the concert a few minutes before it started.  By the time it finished, the circulation desk was closed.  Given that I will now pay the late fee, I figured I might as well borrow them one more evening and see how far I get.

So tonight I have to try to push through these books and finish the very last of the IRS forms.

In the morning, I will need to get them signed and scanned, drop by the gym (as early as feasible) and do the main grocery shopping, though I am out almost every evening next week as well, so the grocery list will be on the short side.

Then I want to bike in to work, stopping by the Riverdale Library to pick up a book on hold.  Then I will spend a bit more time at work, then find a downtown post office open on Sat. (there is one on King near Blue Jay Way that I'll probably go to).  Assuming it isn't too late, I'll probably swing by The Well for lunch, then go up to 401 Richmond, then probably continue up to Bloor to see if I can sell off some stuff at BMV.  I may just come back to the office to crash for a while, as I have a concert at the Horseshoe that starts around 8.  I also should see about calling a bike shop and seeing if I can book a repair slot for Monday.  

Sunday should be a bit simpler, though it will be best if I can ride my bike.  I plan on getting some swimming in, then there is a concert at 2, and then there is the cold reading event starting around 7.  It is pretty important I go to this one, partly because they are reading a chunk of my script and I need to see how many actors the director has recruited and if this Fringe play is going to get off the ground or not.  I would say we will probably pull it off, but I am definitely a bit stress about it.

So no rest for the weary...  I better see if I can take a cat nap now... 

Edit (4/13): Sat. basically went the way I expected, though I left the house late and ultimately skipped lunch.  It was great to mail in US taxes four days early (not quite a record for me, but still a major accomplishment!).  I was glad that BMV bought a decent amount of stuff from me, so my bag was lighter, though they didn't want a fair bit of the poetry.  I wandered over to Seekers, but they had a huge sign saying that they were not buying anything at all, so I biked over to Robarts, though not before an upsetting period when I thought my phone was lost.  I actually went back into BMV and looked around, though it turned up totally buried at the bottom of my pannier!  I spent the late afternoon reading Szirtes in Robarts and finally dropped them off.  I had two choices: either to be early to the Hitchcock show at the Horseshoe but have the pannier (and work laptop) with me or drop that off at the office and be a bit late (for doors opening).  I chose the latter approach.  I grabbed some curry at an Indian place nearby and then went into the Horseshoe.  All the seats were taken, and I ended up leaning on this counter for pretty much close to 3.5 hours!  I'm really getting too old for this nonsense, and in particular I don't care for the Horseshoe because they have a pool table pretty close to the concert area.  I think unless there is someone that I just have to see, I will avoid it from now on.  I would say in terms of overall concert-going, it is worse than Lee's Palace!  The concert was good.  However, I don't think Robyn is mixing up the set lists very much now, unlike his solo gigs or his home shows on Bandcamp.  Here is the Toronto show, which looks identical to the Minneapolis and Chicago gigs.  (The Chicago show was at the Athenaeum, which means I could have sat down!  There were two people that collapsed during the show, so this approach to live music definitely needs to be rethought!)  Robyn is pretty lively for a guy in his 70s!  Anyway, the show didn't end until 12:15, so I got home late. 

Sunday I somehow did pull myself together.  I actually ran over to the mall and got some straggling grocery items I overlooked on Sat., and I bought a new door lock from Home Depot.  I had replaced the lock a while back, but the key needs to be pushed in so hard to unlock the door that one of these days we will break a key off in the lock.  I'm trying to do some preventive maintenance, even though I don't feel like I have a lot of free time these days.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to the pool until 12:20 when I had planned to start swimming by noon!  (I think the light rain did slow me down a bit, but the rain didn't prevent me from getting around the city, which was good.)  At least the fast swim lanes were pretty empty, and I managed to get 20 laps in.  I had planned on making it to 24 (and then 22 when I realized I had such a late start), but I also didn't want to be late for the ARC Ensemble Concert.  In the end, I had almost 20 minutes to spare, so I could have done at least two more laps.  Oh well.  It's just yet another reminder to stop trying to fit so much into each day.  After the concert, I swung by work and got a bit done, though not as much as I had hoped...  I then biked up to Queen, ate a quick meal at Ginger, then biked over to the social club where the readings happen.  Somehow it was double booked!  We waited around for a while, then went into the basement while a comedy show went on upstairs.  I wasn't thrilled about this, but the event itself was super productive.  I talked to a couple of the actors about casting people they knew, and then finally Jamie, who will be the director, showed up and said he was quite sure we could cast the show and he was going to take a bigger role in the casting.  So it looks like not only will we be going up during the Fringe, but we might have a couple of ringers (i.e. Equity or former Equity members).  Pretty outstanding turn of events!  Jamie did give me a few more notes and told me to rethink things more so there was more action and movement.  He thought the piece was far too static for a farce.  I don't love being pushed this way, but I need it, and I think the piece could really be fantastic if I make these changes and Jamie puts his secret sauce on as well.

Bubblings of Trouble

While I am definitely getting a bit nervous about various things, most notably whether I can actually participate in Fringe (as I'll get to in a moment), the weather is improving and my mood is lifting at least a bit. It was a long tough winter, particularly all of Jan.  But the weather was great on Monday and I biked a fair bit.  I did skip out on going to the gym, mostly because I stayed at work a bit longer than expected, I did so much biking over the weekend, and I am just generally depressed about things going on at home (to say nothing of the Orange One’s global tantrums).

Working backwards from that, Sunday was pretty good.  I managed to get in 16 or so laps at Jimmie Simpson, then had to bike to Little Italy.  I made it in 35 minutes, which was pretty good.  I was a bit early, though the bar at the Monarch Tavern wasn't open before the show and the line at intermission was moving so slowly.  Fortunately, the play itself – Galatea by John Lyly – is fairly short, and we were done around 4:30, even with the extra long intermission.  It is a weird play, with two young maidens, both disguised as young men, falling in love. Then at the end, the goddess Venus says she'll change one of them into a male, so they can marry (naturally), but they won't know who is transformed until they get to the church door!  So wild.

I had really wanted to rope in Steven Ho into my Fringe play (as Jasper), but he is directing another Fringe show, which rules him out.  I approached an older actor (with ties to Video Cabaret and their history plays) who might make a solid Frederick, and he said he would email and I would get him the script, but radio silence. I suspect he has decided he is not free during Fringe, but still it would be nice to hear directly and not just be ghosted.

I am getting very antsy at this point, and I am starting to wonder if I will have to pull the plug. I guess I’ll email Jamie over the weekend and try to have him put out a casting call, as this is just getting ridiculous…

After this, I was quite hungry, and I had planned to grab an eggplant Parmesan sandwich next door, but that restaurant closed permanently, which is a real shame.  The other Italian place across the street is nowhere near as good, so I biked off in search of an early dinner.  I found a pretty decent Thai place on College, though the service there was also slow.  I was definitely getting worried, but I biked hard and made it to the Paradise to see Foxy Brown (a notorious Blaxploitation film starring Pam Grier) with about 5 minutes to spare.  All I can say is they would never get away with this today, though the fashions were pretty great and over the top.  Then I biked home, so I was a bit worn out.

Sat. was considerably simpler.  I put in a fairly solid workout at the gym and brought home the groceries.  I then biked across on Dundas to the TMU Image Centre.  They have a good exhibit on early photos from Magnum Photos, which runs through this Saturday.  I went over to 401 Richmond and briefly dropped in at a couple of galleries.  It was already 5 by this point.  I then went over to The Well.  As my bag was pretty full, I just ate there rather than carrying it off anywhere.  Then I dropped in at work for an hour or so, trying to compile all the tax info, particularly the donations I made last year, as tax season is sneaking up on me!  (Especially my US taxes!)  Then I saw a TSO concert where Joshua Bell played Bruch's Violin Concerto and also conducted the orchestra.  Not only the Bruch, but Beethoven's 7th Symphony.  Then I went back to the office for about three more hours and tried to download all the account info I will need to do my taxes, though I didn't actually start in on them.  Then I finally went home.

Ok, I have to get at least some rest now…

Follow-Up on Art

It's looking less and less likely that I will run over to the gym for a cardio session.  I need to get over to Jimmie Simpson around 12:30 and the weather is pretty miserable (cold rain), so I will be trying to figure out how to do this all by TTC.  Probably head down to Queen, and then after swimming just take the Queen streetcar downtown.  I'm hoping there is enough time to drop in at work and pick up more printing (only a few pages printed after all), then go up to St. Mike's and drop off DVDs, see the concert, go to Robarts and drop off the rest of the DVDs and do a bit of research, then maybe see about selling some stuff to BMV (though this will only happen if I do manage to make it to work), and then perhaps see Project Hail Mary.

I did decide not to bother with the TO Bach Festival pass.  While there is some modest price savings, that is only if you go to all 4 concerts.  I am definitely skipping one and probably a second one of motets.  But I would like to finish booking everything else today.  I am very tempted to buy tickets to Penderecki Quartet on May 21, but I remembered just in time that I have tickets to see Hillary Hahn on that date at Koerner Hall.  It's a bit of a waiting game, as her recovery is not going that well unfortunately, and she's cancelled a lot of concerts, and I expect she will probably cancel this one as well, but hasn't done it officially yet.  I'd probably slightly prefer the Penderecki Quartet, but I'll just wait and see how it plays out.  Also, I don't think they let you cancel concerts just on a whim or the worry that an artist will pull out.  (I'm still a bit annoyed that they rescheduled the Music of Golijov concert so that it overlapped with the Amici concert they are also presenting, but I ended up using the price of the ticket to a jazz concert coming up at Koerner Hall.)

As a brief overview, yesterday I biked downtown.  I stopped in at the BMV near Yonge-Dundas Square.  I was mostly looking for Howl's Moving Castle, though there are a couple of Criterions I am always looking for.  I suppose there is a small chance I would pick up Buñuel's Él, as the bonus features are really good.  (I have a DVD on hold at TPL, but this is fairly recent release and it will take quite some time to work my way up the queue.)  Anyway, I saw Breaking Bad on Blu-Ray, the complete seasons 1, 3 and 4, so I got those.  Why not.  If I do make it to the BMV on Bloor, I'll have to see if they have season 2 or 5.  I was almost out the door, when I saw an interesting Max Beckman and Paris book for only $15, so I got that as well.

I went over to the AGO right after that, though I didn't have much time and decided to skip the Paul McCartney photo exhibit.  I saw the Edna Taçon exhibit instead (where the Naoko Matsubara exhibit had been , and this was definitely more up my alley.  Her early works are quite similar to early Kandinsky, and her later works are akin to Klee with perhaps a touch of Miro.  I'll definitely want to check this out a few times, and it runs through late August.  I'm not quite sure I want to pay $45 for the catalogue, as nice as it is, but the library appears to have a few copies, so I will check one out and decide then.

Edna Taçon, Untitled, 1941

Edna Taçon, Ecstasy (Black Accent), 1944

 

Edna Taçon, Improvisation No. 2, 1946

Edna Taçon, Green Organization, 1943

I also had a chance to stop by the contemporary sculpture garden by Ranbir Sidhu and take some photos, as the previous batch was lost.

Then I ran over to Gagné Contemporary where they have a new show called Mona Lisa with Moustache, which only runs one more week.  I think this piece, which involves cut-outs and interesting shadow play, was perhaps the most interesting.

 

I had a bit more time so I ran upstairs to the Red Head Gallery as well.  Then I grabbed a banana chocolate loaf slice and walked back over to No Frills.  Since my bag was completely full, I actually went to work to drop some stuff off, then biked back to The Well and grabbed Thai food, but ate it at work.  I didn't have a lot of time, but I did update a few things.  I would have finished my time sheet, but I haven't been given some of the codes, which is very frustrating.

I went to the concert at Soundstreams.  I liked some of the pieces a fair bit, though there were just too many pieces (9 premieres in total), and the quartet went offstage to retune between many of them, so the concert lasted well over 2.5 hours!  In the end, it was a bit too much.

I will close by saying this is the very last day to catch Jeff Wall at MOCA.  I was tempted to go again.  Though I went at least twice, and maybe a third time.  I probably would have if the weather had been better or if I could have scored a free pass through the library or if it had extended one more week, since I would have bundled it with a trip west to see Shakespeare Bash'd at the Monarch Tavern.  Anyway, here are a few of my favourite photos from the show.  (I'll circle back and label them tonight, but I'm running late again...)

 

Detail from Insomnia