I should state up front how tired I am of this weather. We are having long stretches where it rains at least for a while each day of the week. And the humidity makes things unpleasant even if it isn't raining. This is throwing all kinds of events into disarray and forcing the cancellation of most outdoor events, to say nothing of the Toronto Islands, which will basically be closed for business for the entire summer!
For instance, the long-range forecast is showing that Wed. and Fri. will have rain for the next two weeks, effectively wiping out the possibility of seeing Twelfth Night at High Park. Considering the way that the reserved seats from those rain dates spill over onto the other weeks, things really get hairy. There is a small chance that the rain today will have cleared out by 7:30, so they will go ahead tonight, but it is impossible to reserve any seats, and I am definitely not bringing a blanket to sit on the muddy slope... I suspect I just won't make it to Twelfth Night with my son under these conditions.
Anyway, I am far more upset by Harbourfront and its cavalier treatment of people who are trying to see the Thurs. night concerts. They are over in the Toronto Music Garden, which is a nice space but nothing all that special as parks go.
There is no legitimate reason for them not to move the concerts from the Music Garden to the covered stage right next to the main Harbourfront building in the event of rain. In addition, they make no attempt to come up with a rain date, so the concert is just completely cancelled. They say to call the information line, but it turns out if the weather is iffy, they don't make the call (on cancellation) until after 6 pm, but they don't have extended hours to actually speak to someone after 6 pm. So there were quite a number of us that showed up right before 7 (it was overcast and a bit damp but not actually raining) just waiting to see what would happen. There was no announcement, not even someone running over with a piece of paper to tape to the signboard saying that the concert was cancelled. I call that really shabby treatment. It really behooves them to at least notify people one way or the other. We waited about 15 minutes and then left. I suppose there is a tiny chance that either 1) the concert was delayed but ultimately went on (but again people need notification) or 2) official word was eventually passed along to the audience. But I am extremely disappointed in how disorganized they are -- and how disrespectful Harbourfront is of its audience. This will definitely colour how I think about them in the future and will make it far less likely that I attend concerts or other events that they sponsor.
Friday, July 14, 2017
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
11th Canadian Challenge - 1st review - Peacock Blue
This volume, Peacock Blue, contains all the poems that Phyllis Webb decided were worthy of being collected. It contains 6 previously published books (including Naked Poems, Wilson’s Bowl, Water and Light, and Hanging Fire) and a generous selection of unpublished poems. Webb is somewhat unusual in that she abandoned poetry in the mid-90s (more or less at the same time as her mother died) and turned to painting. Two reviews of Peacock Blue can be found here and here. I must admit that despite Webb winning a Governor General's Literary Award, she doesn't seem particularly central to Canadian poetry. My own biases certainly make it difficult for me to take her seriously, since most of the poems in her earlier books are formal (with only passable rhyme schemes) and largely deal with questions about the nature of religion (I would include Even Your Right Eye and The Sea is Also a Garden in this category though some might disagree). The only unapologetically Christian poet (past 1900) that I have ever really been able to stomach is Fanny Howe, and Webb just isn't in her league. I'm sure some critics would say that she is often inverting or undermining a traditional understanding of religious faith or indeed searching for a new one (she was interested in Buddhism), but I still find many of these poems steeped in a fairly traditional belief system (or search for spirituality) that the poet isn't able to escape (at least in these earlier collections). Along the same lines, Webb viewed herself as broadly feminist in her work, and yet acknowledged that almost all her early literary influences were male (and she had to be prompted to write a poem to Margaret Atwood as it didn't come of its own accord).
Curiously enough, I only came across Webb through Timothy Findley who was a close friend of Webb's. Findley praised the poem "Leaning" from Water and Light and said that it inspired him to completely rethink Not Wanted on the Voyage and complete the novel. Indeed, while the cues are subtle, Naked Poems (from 1965) is one of the first series of lesbian love poems, certainly in Canadian literature. Adrienne Rich became a major influence on Webb, perhaps as early as the mid 1970s, as Webb became more consciously feminist in her writing. Rich is also one of the key figures that drew Webb to the ghazal format that dominates Water and Light. Many critics feel that Water and Light is Webb's finest work, though personally I prefer Naked Poems, which seem far more compact and concise and seem reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff's best work (not that he appears to have been a specific influence on Webb).
Here is one particularly concise poem I liked from Suite I of Naked Poems:
"Tonight / quietness. In me / and the room. // I am enclosed / by a thought // and some walls."
I was a little surprised at "A Model of the Universe," the opening poem of Hanging Fire, since it seems to aim its ire at scientists who are trying to understand the world (or rather the nature of the universe): "The arrogance. The above it all. / ... / For instance, superstrings, / immense smallness of, tangled / spaghetti ..." Then she moves from the arrogant cosmologists to the medical researchers who ingest cancerous toxins into mice. I don't think one has to force people to side with science versus humility? or wonderment at the universe? or even an appreciation of arts. (I'm honestly not quite sure what point she is trying to make.) But if one does draw the line this way, then I would definitely be on the side of the scientists. I have to say Webb really lost me with this poem, and she relegated herself to being only a minor curiosity in my literary universe.
I'll close this review on "Edmonton Centre, Sept. 23/ 80" one of the uncollected poems that has just a bit in common with Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems. She is in the mall, listening to a concert being given by some members of the Edmonton Symphony. The music ends. "Man in cowboy hat wanders off. Chinese gentleman / moves urgently towards Exit. Maureen takes / the escalator, strolls into Mappins. / ... / Thirty / years later, almost, I am here / carrying nonbiodegradable plastic shopping bags / back / to the scary carpark / jangling my keys." I thought the casualness of this poem (slightly offset by the repetition of keys throughout the poem) served it well. I would have liked to see more poems in this vein (or in the very compressed, Reznikoff-like observations of Naked Poems) and far fewer rhymed poems about spirituality. But I can only review the Peacock Blue that exists (which didn't do a lot for me) -- and not some alternate universe collection I would have much preferred to read...
Curiously enough, I only came across Webb through Timothy Findley who was a close friend of Webb's. Findley praised the poem "Leaning" from Water and Light and said that it inspired him to completely rethink Not Wanted on the Voyage and complete the novel. Indeed, while the cues are subtle, Naked Poems (from 1965) is one of the first series of lesbian love poems, certainly in Canadian literature. Adrienne Rich became a major influence on Webb, perhaps as early as the mid 1970s, as Webb became more consciously feminist in her writing. Rich is also one of the key figures that drew Webb to the ghazal format that dominates Water and Light. Many critics feel that Water and Light is Webb's finest work, though personally I prefer Naked Poems, which seem far more compact and concise and seem reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff's best work (not that he appears to have been a specific influence on Webb).
Here is one particularly concise poem I liked from Suite I of Naked Poems:
"Tonight / quietness. In me / and the room. // I am enclosed / by a thought // and some walls."
I was a little surprised at "A Model of the Universe," the opening poem of Hanging Fire, since it seems to aim its ire at scientists who are trying to understand the world (or rather the nature of the universe): "The arrogance. The above it all. / ... / For instance, superstrings, / immense smallness of, tangled / spaghetti ..." Then she moves from the arrogant cosmologists to the medical researchers who ingest cancerous toxins into mice. I don't think one has to force people to side with science versus humility? or wonderment at the universe? or even an appreciation of arts. (I'm honestly not quite sure what point she is trying to make.) But if one does draw the line this way, then I would definitely be on the side of the scientists. I have to say Webb really lost me with this poem, and she relegated herself to being only a minor curiosity in my literary universe.
I'll close this review on "Edmonton Centre, Sept. 23/ 80" one of the uncollected poems that has just a bit in common with Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems. She is in the mall, listening to a concert being given by some members of the Edmonton Symphony. The music ends. "Man in cowboy hat wanders off. Chinese gentleman / moves urgently towards Exit. Maureen takes / the escalator, strolls into Mappins. / ... / Thirty / years later, almost, I am here / carrying nonbiodegradable plastic shopping bags / back / to the scary carpark / jangling my keys." I thought the casualness of this poem (slightly offset by the repetition of keys throughout the poem) served it well. I would have liked to see more poems in this vein (or in the very compressed, Reznikoff-like observations of Naked Poems) and far fewer rhymed poems about spirituality. But I can only review the Peacock Blue that exists (which didn't do a lot for me) -- and not some alternate universe collection I would have much preferred to read...
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Stratford 2017
I am still recovering a bit from the trip to Stratford. I think this is the first time that I saw two plays on the same day and caught the night bus home. Normally, I either binge on 3 plays in a weekend (2013, 2015), so I stay overnight, or I see a single play in the season (2014, 2016). I was particularly worried that the bus wouldn't get in until 1:30 or so, and I would miss the last subway from Union, so I actually biked down in the morning and left my bike in a locked bike area. That meant that when the bus did drop us off at Front St (just about 12:45), I still had to bike home! The traffic was very light, but I was still worried about being hit by a car not expecting to see a cyclist out that late. Obviously, I made it, and then slept in a little bit this morning. However, I had briefly contemplated adding one more Fringe show (a burlesque version of Lysistrata) to today's itinerary, but decided that would really be overdoing it.
Traffic was a little heavy, but we still managed to get in around 12:15. I had thought I would have a seat to myself, but at basically the last minute, a couple turned up, and a young woman sat next to me. I perhaps should have offered to switch seats, but that would have meant moving even closer to a fairly loud couple (and presumably the couple that I enabled to sit together would also have been far more talkative). Still, not one of my finer moments, though to be fair, no one actually asked me to switch. I was taking a break from Rousseau and his Confessions, and was reading Amit Chaudhuri's Odysseus Abroad, about a young student and his uncle living in London in the 80s. So far fairly interesting.
I decided since I was going to be eating lunch and dinner in Stratford, I would just grab something cheap (pizza) for lunch. I had about an hour to explore, and I looked at the shops, including the overpriced sale books at one book store, and then Fabricland. I didn't see anything that grabbed me, largely because the selection was about the same as the Toronto Fabricland, but I may make a bigger purchase next year.
I won't write a lot about the plays, but that was my main reason for going. And despite them being hundreds of years old, I will still be SPOILING the plots if you haven't seen them.
SPOILERS
I enjoyed Sheridan's School for Scandal, though I had a lot of trouble believing in Charles' reformation (or his uncle favouring him just because he wouldn't sell off his uncle's portrait). Is there really a good reason for Maria to see through his current dissolution to understand that he is a good person underneath? I guess one of the two brothers has to prove worthy (in a comedy), and Joseph is definitely the worse of the two, being a hypocrite and a liar. We don't really see Charles' getting rid of his entourage, partly because the playwright is in such a rush to end things at that point, but it might have helped make the reformation a bit more believable. Also, the whole side plot with Lady Sneerwell and the forged letters is kind of confusing and rushed. It is probably one complication too many, particularly when they decide that paying Snake twice as much to get the truth(!) will somehow brush the whole matter under the rug. This is definitely a subplot that could have been excised.
This makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the play, and that isn't the case. The scenes with Geraint Wyn Davies as Sir Peter Teazle are always delightful. Joseph Ziegler as Sir Oliver Surface is nearly always as good, notwithstanding his perhaps somewhat hasty positive judgment of Charles. The single best moment is when Lady Teazle is hiding behind a screen in Joseph's lodgings and Sir Teazle is almost convinced it is just a French milliner. This reaches French farce levels before all is revealed. Also, when the gossips are all sitting about gossiping about everyone, this was also very good.
I saw School for Scandal back in 1999 with Brian Bedford playing Sir Peter Teazle and Steven Sutcliffe in the Joseph Surface role. I have to admit, I simply don't remember too much about this production (and I so wish they were videotaping these productions! -- or more likely it was taped but hasn't been made available to the public), but I suspect they gave a bit more weight to the Joseph Surface-Lady Sneerwell scenes. This was a slightly livelier production (from what I do recall) and it is a bit more tied in with today's issues of people's reputations being smeared instantly on social media, so it does feel more relevant. I would certainly encourage people to go before the season is out (and I do hope they start releasing DVDs of the non-Shakespeare plays that Stratford mounts).
I had time to kill, since I didn't want to have dinner too early. I sat down in a new plaza they have built next to the city hall. This used to be a second row of parking, but it was often taken over by a mini farmers' market. I can't tell if the farmers' market comes back into the plaza on Sundays or if it was relocated. (They would have to watch out for the new fountains!)
I took the opportunity to read another large chunk of Rousseau's The Confessions. I was pretty disenchanted by the point, and I basically forced myself to get through book 9 (of 12) and then I threw in the towel. The book is pretty much unreadable at this point where he spends all his time talking about the many false friends who have turned on him (at least before you had some idea of what he was up to, though he still almost never really talks about his important philosophical ideas and how he came to them). I really never saw the charm of Rousseau in the first place, particularly after he gave away his 5 children to a foundling institution and then after he admitted going in halves to buy a girl of 11 or 12 to serve as a mistress! While in this particular case, he had to leave town before consummating the deed, he had sex with another underage mistress later on but made sure to confess to his main mistress (with whom he had those 5 children he abandoned to a life of poverty) and then of course to his future readers. Basically, he seems like an appalling hypocrite on all accounts who had a hair-trigger sensitivity to slights and argued with just about everyone he knew. What a guy...
I had dinner at the second Thai place (just off of this plaza). It is quickly becoming my go-to place for dining in Stratford. Then I wandered down to the river and the Tom Patterson theatre. I am still gathering impressions of the other side of Stratford in case I ever do write this pilot for a TV show set in Stratford (trying to balance between the glamour of the Festival and the everyday aspects of a small town (with a big tourist industry)). I saw the swans again, but this time there was a boat going up and down the river with a jazz trio playing. That was a bit different!
I was there to see The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. I keep trying to see more Middleton, but it is hard. His plays really aren't staged that often. I did see an adaptation of The Roaring Girl in Chicago and then Women Beware Women out in Vancouver. Unfortunately, I don't think ticket sales have been great for The Changeling, so I don't know whether Stratford will put on more of his work, and I may have to pin my hopes on UT student theatre and perhaps George Brown's Theatre School.
More SPOILERS
I'll just put down a few random thoughts on The Changeling now. I may circle back later. It is actually almost shocking in how daring it was for its time, with the henchman De Flores insisting on sleeping with Beatrice as the price of killing off her unwanted fiance (to clear the way for her to marry Alsemero). There are plenty of bed tricks in Shakespeare but I can't recall any where a man actually slept with someone he wasn't actually married to or at least was engaged to (or had some attachment to in the case of Measure for Measure). In this case, not only has Beatrice lost her virginity to the wrong man, but she performs the bed trick to not get caught out. And her finance actually does sleep with her maid Diaphanta, who enjoys it so much that she stays the whole night (for multiple performances) rather than leave at midnight as had been arranged!
It was a little odd that De Flores was made up to only have a hideous visage on half of his face, not the whole thing. I do wonder if they were going for a bit of a Two-Face effect here (the Batman villain), though De Flores is pretty much 100% villain. I thought the scenes in the madhouse were a bit drawn out, and I wasn't really convinced that Lollio would back off after he discovered his master's wife Isabella kissing one of the inmates. Probably too much doubling of the plot going on in The Changeling, and I think there could have been a better way to cast suspicion on Antonio for the death of Alonzo than have this long, involved subplot. The most confusing thing to me was that there didn't seem to be a scene where Beatrice's father rages about Alonzo running off and abandoning Beatrice, then pivots to marry her to Alsemero. It wouldn't necessarily be a long scene, but no one comments on Alonzo's disappearance at all, until his avenging brother turns up after the intermission. That was kind of weird. It's quite bloody and a lot of people die, but slightly fewer than The Revenger's Tragedy and perhaps also than in Women Beware Women. I'm definitely glad I saw it, and I think it is worth checking out, since it won't be coming to you soon in any other venue.
We had to wait quite a while for the bus, so that was a bit of a drag, but the ride back was quick. Someone on the bus commented that the changeling referred to the changes that the living people would make, based on the example of Beatrice and De Flores, but I don't think that is accurate. I think it is a reference to how a bad seed could be planted in a good house by imps or demons (and while the conventional reading would be that De Flores is the monster, it is more likely that Beatrice is actually the bad one). I had planned to read just a bit, but the driver never turned on the lights, so I think I actually caught up a little bit on my sleep. So this is my 2017 report on Stratford.
Traffic was a little heavy, but we still managed to get in around 12:15. I had thought I would have a seat to myself, but at basically the last minute, a couple turned up, and a young woman sat next to me. I perhaps should have offered to switch seats, but that would have meant moving even closer to a fairly loud couple (and presumably the couple that I enabled to sit together would also have been far more talkative). Still, not one of my finer moments, though to be fair, no one actually asked me to switch. I was taking a break from Rousseau and his Confessions, and was reading Amit Chaudhuri's Odysseus Abroad, about a young student and his uncle living in London in the 80s. So far fairly interesting.
I decided since I was going to be eating lunch and dinner in Stratford, I would just grab something cheap (pizza) for lunch. I had about an hour to explore, and I looked at the shops, including the overpriced sale books at one book store, and then Fabricland. I didn't see anything that grabbed me, largely because the selection was about the same as the Toronto Fabricland, but I may make a bigger purchase next year.
I won't write a lot about the plays, but that was my main reason for going. And despite them being hundreds of years old, I will still be SPOILING the plots if you haven't seen them.
SPOILERS
I enjoyed Sheridan's School for Scandal, though I had a lot of trouble believing in Charles' reformation (or his uncle favouring him just because he wouldn't sell off his uncle's portrait). Is there really a good reason for Maria to see through his current dissolution to understand that he is a good person underneath? I guess one of the two brothers has to prove worthy (in a comedy), and Joseph is definitely the worse of the two, being a hypocrite and a liar. We don't really see Charles' getting rid of his entourage, partly because the playwright is in such a rush to end things at that point, but it might have helped make the reformation a bit more believable. Also, the whole side plot with Lady Sneerwell and the forged letters is kind of confusing and rushed. It is probably one complication too many, particularly when they decide that paying Snake twice as much to get the truth(!) will somehow brush the whole matter under the rug. This is definitely a subplot that could have been excised.
This makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the play, and that isn't the case. The scenes with Geraint Wyn Davies as Sir Peter Teazle are always delightful. Joseph Ziegler as Sir Oliver Surface is nearly always as good, notwithstanding his perhaps somewhat hasty positive judgment of Charles. The single best moment is when Lady Teazle is hiding behind a screen in Joseph's lodgings and Sir Teazle is almost convinced it is just a French milliner. This reaches French farce levels before all is revealed. Also, when the gossips are all sitting about gossiping about everyone, this was also very good.
I saw School for Scandal back in 1999 with Brian Bedford playing Sir Peter Teazle and Steven Sutcliffe in the Joseph Surface role. I have to admit, I simply don't remember too much about this production (and I so wish they were videotaping these productions! -- or more likely it was taped but hasn't been made available to the public), but I suspect they gave a bit more weight to the Joseph Surface-Lady Sneerwell scenes. This was a slightly livelier production (from what I do recall) and it is a bit more tied in with today's issues of people's reputations being smeared instantly on social media, so it does feel more relevant. I would certainly encourage people to go before the season is out (and I do hope they start releasing DVDs of the non-Shakespeare plays that Stratford mounts).
I had time to kill, since I didn't want to have dinner too early. I sat down in a new plaza they have built next to the city hall. This used to be a second row of parking, but it was often taken over by a mini farmers' market. I can't tell if the farmers' market comes back into the plaza on Sundays or if it was relocated. (They would have to watch out for the new fountains!)
I took the opportunity to read another large chunk of Rousseau's The Confessions. I was pretty disenchanted by the point, and I basically forced myself to get through book 9 (of 12) and then I threw in the towel. The book is pretty much unreadable at this point where he spends all his time talking about the many false friends who have turned on him (at least before you had some idea of what he was up to, though he still almost never really talks about his important philosophical ideas and how he came to them). I really never saw the charm of Rousseau in the first place, particularly after he gave away his 5 children to a foundling institution and then after he admitted going in halves to buy a girl of 11 or 12 to serve as a mistress! While in this particular case, he had to leave town before consummating the deed, he had sex with another underage mistress later on but made sure to confess to his main mistress (with whom he had those 5 children he abandoned to a life of poverty) and then of course to his future readers. Basically, he seems like an appalling hypocrite on all accounts who had a hair-trigger sensitivity to slights and argued with just about everyone he knew. What a guy...
I had dinner at the second Thai place (just off of this plaza). It is quickly becoming my go-to place for dining in Stratford. Then I wandered down to the river and the Tom Patterson theatre. I am still gathering impressions of the other side of Stratford in case I ever do write this pilot for a TV show set in Stratford (trying to balance between the glamour of the Festival and the everyday aspects of a small town (with a big tourist industry)). I saw the swans again, but this time there was a boat going up and down the river with a jazz trio playing. That was a bit different!
I was there to see The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. I keep trying to see more Middleton, but it is hard. His plays really aren't staged that often. I did see an adaptation of The Roaring Girl in Chicago and then Women Beware Women out in Vancouver. Unfortunately, I don't think ticket sales have been great for The Changeling, so I don't know whether Stratford will put on more of his work, and I may have to pin my hopes on UT student theatre and perhaps George Brown's Theatre School.
More SPOILERS
I'll just put down a few random thoughts on The Changeling now. I may circle back later. It is actually almost shocking in how daring it was for its time, with the henchman De Flores insisting on sleeping with Beatrice as the price of killing off her unwanted fiance (to clear the way for her to marry Alsemero). There are plenty of bed tricks in Shakespeare but I can't recall any where a man actually slept with someone he wasn't actually married to or at least was engaged to (or had some attachment to in the case of Measure for Measure). In this case, not only has Beatrice lost her virginity to the wrong man, but she performs the bed trick to not get caught out. And her finance actually does sleep with her maid Diaphanta, who enjoys it so much that she stays the whole night (for multiple performances) rather than leave at midnight as had been arranged!
It was a little odd that De Flores was made up to only have a hideous visage on half of his face, not the whole thing. I do wonder if they were going for a bit of a Two-Face effect here (the Batman villain), though De Flores is pretty much 100% villain. I thought the scenes in the madhouse were a bit drawn out, and I wasn't really convinced that Lollio would back off after he discovered his master's wife Isabella kissing one of the inmates. Probably too much doubling of the plot going on in The Changeling, and I think there could have been a better way to cast suspicion on Antonio for the death of Alonzo than have this long, involved subplot. The most confusing thing to me was that there didn't seem to be a scene where Beatrice's father rages about Alonzo running off and abandoning Beatrice, then pivots to marry her to Alsemero. It wouldn't necessarily be a long scene, but no one comments on Alonzo's disappearance at all, until his avenging brother turns up after the intermission. That was kind of weird. It's quite bloody and a lot of people die, but slightly fewer than The Revenger's Tragedy and perhaps also than in Women Beware Women. I'm definitely glad I saw it, and I think it is worth checking out, since it won't be coming to you soon in any other venue.
We had to wait quite a while for the bus, so that was a bit of a drag, but the ride back was quick. Someone on the bus commented that the changeling referred to the changes that the living people would make, based on the example of Beatrice and De Flores, but I don't think that is accurate. I think it is a reference to how a bad seed could be planted in a good house by imps or demons (and while the conventional reading would be that De Flores is the monster, it is more likely that Beatrice is actually the bad one). I had planned to read just a bit, but the driver never turned on the lights, so I think I actually caught up a little bit on my sleep. So this is my 2017 report on Stratford.
Saturday, July 8, 2017
The plot thickens
I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about plot and plot requirements lately. Partly this is because the folks at Toronto Cold Reads want a quite formally structured plot for ThreeFest this year. While that in itself is not a huge issue, they also want to limit the characters to 2 or 3 and for the plot climax and resolution to be completely internal to those characters. That is a taller order of business, though I should be able to come up with something.
I'm not entirely sure I agree with all the strictures, particularly that all important characters need to be introduced early on. Maybe it is just I am more used to picaresque novels where the main character learns something along the way from each of the secondary characters he or she meets along the way (without the secondary characters taking over).
But this got me thinking about my short plays and then my longer ones, and many of them seem to suffer drawbacks in one way or another. The Corporate Codes takes a bit too long to get to the point (I already started cutting out scenes) and breaking the codes isn't itself that interesting to a general audience. I think I started to recognize this by having the main character raise some internal road blocks to the relationship by getting jealous, and that has to be overcome, though it is probably still too easy. I could make both mothers bigger roadblocks. Personally I think is quite amusing that one mother is only dealt with on the phone, though actors seem to hate this. I may be on the right track by making the boss more severe and reworking the second act to be more about can the relationship survive Ethan being laid off due to the screw ups of Li (plus a bit of interference from the mothers). Probably it is a good idea for Li not to understand or recognize his sacrifice for her at first, but then to flip it and say that he needed to consult with her, not just make decisions for her. I could get some mileage out of that. I'm mostly trying to rethink the whole booking a room in Paris thing, as it was a bit over-explained. It's probably salvageable, but I still need a lot of tightening in the next round of revisions.
I've kind of completely rethought Dharma Donuts with the main character, Parvati, actually wanting to get out of the store and away from her mother, so I really don't know where this is going, but it should succeed in generating a fair bit of conflict and probably resolving itself internally.
I'm a little worried about Straying South, though mostly it is whether the original ending was too open ended. You don't really have an ending for the lesbian couple, only Jonathan and the immigration officer who has been hounding him all through the play. Also, there is a limit to just how far I can push things on-stage, and I think I have scaled that back the right amount, but still it is largely a cliff-hanger. We hear that she is going to take him to Buffalo and thus his stay in Canada has unraveled (due to the lies that started off the play), but we don't have closure for others. I think that might work for a novel, particularly one setting itself up as potentially the first in a series, but it might be too frustrating for a play.
I'm definitely wondering if the conflict betweeen the school children along the way in Final Exam is really enough. Maybe this really just should be a short story. Also, the alien at the end is almost a perfect example of Deus Ex Machina, though in this case he causes problems rather than resolves them. We don't see enough of what happens after he turns up. (On the other hand, the aliens are discussed incessantly, so it isn't completely out of the blue. This is just the manifestation of the man against the universe conflict.) Do the characters stay firm to their resolutions or do they lose their principles? Maybe it doesn't matter for a Fringe show if things end on such an open note. Anyway, I'll have to deal with this some way or another.
Finally, The Study Group seems to have relatively low stakes throughout, though there are certainly tensions and attempted betrayals. It just isn't particularly amplified, and I have to decide if the characters really are interesting enough to stick around to see them showing off their knowledge to each other. And while I think the reference to time travel (at the Back to the Future level) might be amusing, it's hard to say if tonally it works with everything else. I mean I like the idea that they aren't able to humiliate the odd boy out, but did they really think this would work in the first place? That's my biggest issue. Well, I'll just have to sort it out after all these other plays I am working on.
Maybe I can't completely work these issues out, and they may or may not be fatal flaws for a specific play, but the more I work on them upfront (keeping in mind the strictures about plot), the better the final product.
I'm not entirely sure I agree with all the strictures, particularly that all important characters need to be introduced early on. Maybe it is just I am more used to picaresque novels where the main character learns something along the way from each of the secondary characters he or she meets along the way (without the secondary characters taking over).
But this got me thinking about my short plays and then my longer ones, and many of them seem to suffer drawbacks in one way or another. The Corporate Codes takes a bit too long to get to the point (I already started cutting out scenes) and breaking the codes isn't itself that interesting to a general audience. I think I started to recognize this by having the main character raise some internal road blocks to the relationship by getting jealous, and that has to be overcome, though it is probably still too easy. I could make both mothers bigger roadblocks. Personally I think is quite amusing that one mother is only dealt with on the phone, though actors seem to hate this. I may be on the right track by making the boss more severe and reworking the second act to be more about can the relationship survive Ethan being laid off due to the screw ups of Li (plus a bit of interference from the mothers). Probably it is a good idea for Li not to understand or recognize his sacrifice for her at first, but then to flip it and say that he needed to consult with her, not just make decisions for her. I could get some mileage out of that. I'm mostly trying to rethink the whole booking a room in Paris thing, as it was a bit over-explained. It's probably salvageable, but I still need a lot of tightening in the next round of revisions.
I've kind of completely rethought Dharma Donuts with the main character, Parvati, actually wanting to get out of the store and away from her mother, so I really don't know where this is going, but it should succeed in generating a fair bit of conflict and probably resolving itself internally.
I'm a little worried about Straying South, though mostly it is whether the original ending was too open ended. You don't really have an ending for the lesbian couple, only Jonathan and the immigration officer who has been hounding him all through the play. Also, there is a limit to just how far I can push things on-stage, and I think I have scaled that back the right amount, but still it is largely a cliff-hanger. We hear that she is going to take him to Buffalo and thus his stay in Canada has unraveled (due to the lies that started off the play), but we don't have closure for others. I think that might work for a novel, particularly one setting itself up as potentially the first in a series, but it might be too frustrating for a play.
I'm definitely wondering if the conflict betweeen the school children along the way in Final Exam is really enough. Maybe this really just should be a short story. Also, the alien at the end is almost a perfect example of Deus Ex Machina, though in this case he causes problems rather than resolves them. We don't see enough of what happens after he turns up. (On the other hand, the aliens are discussed incessantly, so it isn't completely out of the blue. This is just the manifestation of the man against the universe conflict.) Do the characters stay firm to their resolutions or do they lose their principles? Maybe it doesn't matter for a Fringe show if things end on such an open note. Anyway, I'll have to deal with this some way or another.
Finally, The Study Group seems to have relatively low stakes throughout, though there are certainly tensions and attempted betrayals. It just isn't particularly amplified, and I have to decide if the characters really are interesting enough to stick around to see them showing off their knowledge to each other. And while I think the reference to time travel (at the Back to the Future level) might be amusing, it's hard to say if tonally it works with everything else. I mean I like the idea that they aren't able to humiliate the odd boy out, but did they really think this would work in the first place? That's my biggest issue. Well, I'll just have to sort it out after all these other plays I am working on.
Maybe I can't completely work these issues out, and they may or may not be fatal flaws for a specific play, but the more I work on them upfront (keeping in mind the strictures about plot), the better the final product.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Indy Time
Summer always brings out the most interesting, experimental work. Not only is there Fringe (I have tickets to 3 shows and will probably be adding one more) but then Summerfest is the first two weeks of August, with many (most?) of the shows at the Factory Theatre. I've sort of tentatively penciled in two. Often these shows ignore the basic "rules" of theatre, which can make them really interesting but also increases the odds that they will flop. One of them is called "Reality Theatre" and it involves a number of interconnected sketches, which worked quite well for The Best Dad in the World at Red Sandcastle.
Speaking of Factory Theatre, I'm more interested in their line-up this year than last year. While it is quite long (unless the writer has trimmed it), The Fish Eyes Trilogy looks pretty interesting. Then Kat Sandler has a play called Bang Bang, which is mostly about a white male writer trying to write about the shooting of a Black man. While I assume much of the play is about cultural appropriation (and this is a debate I am frankly tired of having, since the local arts community has so heavily landed on one end of the scale), Kat Sandler plays are almost always worth watching. To get to the magic number 3 (for a half-season pass), I'm leaning towards Prairie Nurse, which is about 2 Filipino nurses coming to work at a Saskatchewan hospital, so it is a fish out of water comedy.
In other news, Unit 102 has apparently found a new home in Parkdale and will be launching their season with Miss, a drama set in a private school. I'll be giving this a miss, as I just am not in the mood for heavy dramas lately, but I am really glad they are back in business, and I'll loop back around to write more about them if they announce a full season.
I'm still waiting for Coal Mine to announce. I'm fairly sure they will be doing Annie Baker's The Aliens in the fall, but still no official word.
Somewhere in here, I have to find time to do the table read and staged reading of my pieces, and once I have the date for the staged reading, I will certainly post it. I was pretty bad this weekend in terms of the writing, but some ideas are now starting to percolate. More soon.
Speaking of Factory Theatre, I'm more interested in their line-up this year than last year. While it is quite long (unless the writer has trimmed it), The Fish Eyes Trilogy looks pretty interesting. Then Kat Sandler has a play called Bang Bang, which is mostly about a white male writer trying to write about the shooting of a Black man. While I assume much of the play is about cultural appropriation (and this is a debate I am frankly tired of having, since the local arts community has so heavily landed on one end of the scale), Kat Sandler plays are almost always worth watching. To get to the magic number 3 (for a half-season pass), I'm leaning towards Prairie Nurse, which is about 2 Filipino nurses coming to work at a Saskatchewan hospital, so it is a fish out of water comedy.
In other news, Unit 102 has apparently found a new home in Parkdale and will be launching their season with Miss, a drama set in a private school. I'll be giving this a miss, as I just am not in the mood for heavy dramas lately, but I am really glad they are back in business, and I'll loop back around to write more about them if they announce a full season.
I'm still waiting for Coal Mine to announce. I'm fairly sure they will be doing Annie Baker's The Aliens in the fall, but still no official word.
Somewhere in here, I have to find time to do the table read and staged reading of my pieces, and once I have the date for the staged reading, I will certainly post it. I was pretty bad this weekend in terms of the writing, but some ideas are now starting to percolate. More soon.
Monday, July 3, 2017
Changing of the plans
While it was a bit of a last-minute idea, I had hoped to canoe on the Humber River today (since I have the day off). However, my daughter really wanted to rest, since I had taken them several places yesterday. My son isn't that much of an outdoors person anyway, though he would have eventually been cajoled into going. We do have a few days that might work at the end of July, though today would have been particularly good since it has rained so much that the river should be high and it wasn't so hot. Oh well. I'll just have to see if the same conditions hold true at the end of the month.
On Sunday, I did take the kids to the Eaton Centre. I had hoped to get some headphones on sale at Best Buy, but that place looks horrible now. It should be called Last Legs. Anyway, they didn't have what I was looking for. We then went to the food court, and I managed to find something they could both agree to eat. While we were there, a major fist fight broke out right in front of the KFC, though I refrained from jumping up and being a rubber-necker. I still don't know exactly what happened.
We did just a bit of shopping in the mall proper, though I didn't see nearly as much Canada Day stuff (on major discount) as I had been hoping for. We then headed over to City Hall, so I could show them the fountain. There wasn't any band on at the time and it was too light out for them to do any kind of light display, so that was a bit disappointing. I took them over to the large yard in front of Osgood Hall. I told my daughter I would try to get her into the Hall soon (since it seems it is open to the public Mon-Fri, perhaps we can make a quick stop off after her camp in a few weeks).
We then got down to Harbourfront. We actually got out a stop early and walked, partly because I was getting tired of the crowds, and I wanted to make sure she didn't get sick. Maybe I am just not remembering how crowded it was at the water front (even a few years ago), but it seems jammed with people. (I suspect I never spent much time over by the ferry terminal, however, since even in years when the water front was kind of slow, plenty of people went over to the Islands.) Maybe it is a combination of Harbourfront Centre getting more interesting programming, plus they finally finished rebuilding the streetcar tracks and more or less connected the bike path along there. Anyway, it was crowded, maybe even a bit too crowded.
We were there to see the huge duck (and to compare how large it was compared to the one we saw in Vancouver -- well, really the Richmond Night Market). But first, we sat for a while on the boardwalk and watched a somewhat smug contortionist. He was pretty good, though I could have done without all the patter. Anyway, here's the duck.
We just didn't want to brave the crowds* any longer to go all the way around to see the face. We walked over to the street and just missed getting on a heritage street car. It was actually heading the other direction, but we probably could have still taken it, assuming it went up Spadina.
We then caught the next one going to Union Station and then headed home. At one point I had considered going back out for more of the Jazz Fest, but I didn't really feel like it (it was already 4 pm or so by the time we got back). Instead, I went to the mall and picked up a couple of t-shirts and then worked out for a bit.
So it was a busy day, and it wasn't such a bad idea to rest today. It's also true that my allergies are acting up a fair bit and two days spent entirely outside might not be the best idea... I did sit outside for a while, however, and caught up a bit on my reading. I didn't really write much this weekend, and that will catch up to me soon enough.
On the other hand, I sewed together two of the rows. It looks pretty nice, though I'll have to press everything when it is done. In this photo the top two rows are actually sewn together and then the next two are just laid down in the proper sequence.
I think it is looking good, but what an undertaking!
I also cooked a fair bit today. I made cherry pancakes, which turned out pretty well. (These weren't the most flavourful cherries, and I think the heat released some of the sugars.)
I also made a vegetable paella. I didn't really want to at this point, but I had promised, so I pushed on through.
I spent most of the remaining time trying to organize my music library and track down missing albums (or really the mp3s I ripped from the albums). I found almost everything this time around, except for some Barney Kessel. I hope that turns up. There are still some misplaced CDs, and I guess one of my big projects this August will be to try to go through the piles of data CDs I have and look for actual music CDs that may have slipped in accidentally. It's probably not the best use of my time, but if I don't do this, I won't really be able to get the basement organized.
Then I realized I had to run to the store to get snacks for the kids' camps, so I did that, and made one more trip to the gym. I realize it sounds I am a bit obsessed, but I won't be able to bike the next 3 weeks, and I would so like to make sure I get into the habit of going while it is nice out. If I start seeing results by the end of summer, then I am more likely to keep it up when it starts getting chilly (and dark!). All in all, a moderately productive day, even without the canoe trip.
I actually forgot to mention a few other changes of plans. I had hoped to go to High Park this Friday or next Friday to see Twelfth Night with my son, taking him there straight after camp, but both nights it looks like rain. Drat. We could attempt next Wednesday, but that may be a bit too inconvenient, given that he has to be up somewhat early on Thurs. Also, I found that this year, the Driftwood Bus Tour's residency in Withrow Park is down to just a single night (from 4-5 shows). While in general, I applaud their outreach to other parts of Toronto, the parks they have chosen are not really transit-friendly, so if it rains on the 29th, I'm not going.
* In terms of people I ran into, it was only about 25% of people who either made an attempt or wanted to see the duck, and the other 75% thought it was a fairly silly waste of money, particularly since it had nothing to do with Toronto or Canada more broadly. However, the festival organizers seem convinced that thousands of people came to see it and that the return on investment ($30,000 or $160,000 depending on what you count) was extremely high. Hard to say, but I guess perhaps I shouldn't have pooh-poohed this rubber duck quite so much, if in effect it stimulated tourism to more than pay for itself.
On Sunday, I did take the kids to the Eaton Centre. I had hoped to get some headphones on sale at Best Buy, but that place looks horrible now. It should be called Last Legs. Anyway, they didn't have what I was looking for. We then went to the food court, and I managed to find something they could both agree to eat. While we were there, a major fist fight broke out right in front of the KFC, though I refrained from jumping up and being a rubber-necker. I still don't know exactly what happened.
We did just a bit of shopping in the mall proper, though I didn't see nearly as much Canada Day stuff (on major discount) as I had been hoping for. We then headed over to City Hall, so I could show them the fountain. There wasn't any band on at the time and it was too light out for them to do any kind of light display, so that was a bit disappointing. I took them over to the large yard in front of Osgood Hall. I told my daughter I would try to get her into the Hall soon (since it seems it is open to the public Mon-Fri, perhaps we can make a quick stop off after her camp in a few weeks).
We then got down to Harbourfront. We actually got out a stop early and walked, partly because I was getting tired of the crowds, and I wanted to make sure she didn't get sick. Maybe I am just not remembering how crowded it was at the water front (even a few years ago), but it seems jammed with people. (I suspect I never spent much time over by the ferry terminal, however, since even in years when the water front was kind of slow, plenty of people went over to the Islands.) Maybe it is a combination of Harbourfront Centre getting more interesting programming, plus they finally finished rebuilding the streetcar tracks and more or less connected the bike path along there. Anyway, it was crowded, maybe even a bit too crowded.
We were there to see the huge duck (and to compare how large it was compared to the one we saw in Vancouver -- well, really the Richmond Night Market). But first, we sat for a while on the boardwalk and watched a somewhat smug contortionist. He was pretty good, though I could have done without all the patter. Anyway, here's the duck.
We just didn't want to brave the crowds* any longer to go all the way around to see the face. We walked over to the street and just missed getting on a heritage street car. It was actually heading the other direction, but we probably could have still taken it, assuming it went up Spadina.
We then caught the next one going to Union Station and then headed home. At one point I had considered going back out for more of the Jazz Fest, but I didn't really feel like it (it was already 4 pm or so by the time we got back). Instead, I went to the mall and picked up a couple of t-shirts and then worked out for a bit.
So it was a busy day, and it wasn't such a bad idea to rest today. It's also true that my allergies are acting up a fair bit and two days spent entirely outside might not be the best idea... I did sit outside for a while, however, and caught up a bit on my reading. I didn't really write much this weekend, and that will catch up to me soon enough.
On the other hand, I sewed together two of the rows. It looks pretty nice, though I'll have to press everything when it is done. In this photo the top two rows are actually sewn together and then the next two are just laid down in the proper sequence.
I think it is looking good, but what an undertaking!
I also cooked a fair bit today. I made cherry pancakes, which turned out pretty well. (These weren't the most flavourful cherries, and I think the heat released some of the sugars.)
I also made a vegetable paella. I didn't really want to at this point, but I had promised, so I pushed on through.
I spent most of the remaining time trying to organize my music library and track down missing albums (or really the mp3s I ripped from the albums). I found almost everything this time around, except for some Barney Kessel. I hope that turns up. There are still some misplaced CDs, and I guess one of my big projects this August will be to try to go through the piles of data CDs I have and look for actual music CDs that may have slipped in accidentally. It's probably not the best use of my time, but if I don't do this, I won't really be able to get the basement organized.
Then I realized I had to run to the store to get snacks for the kids' camps, so I did that, and made one more trip to the gym. I realize it sounds I am a bit obsessed, but I won't be able to bike the next 3 weeks, and I would so like to make sure I get into the habit of going while it is nice out. If I start seeing results by the end of summer, then I am more likely to keep it up when it starts getting chilly (and dark!). All in all, a moderately productive day, even without the canoe trip.
I actually forgot to mention a few other changes of plans. I had hoped to go to High Park this Friday or next Friday to see Twelfth Night with my son, taking him there straight after camp, but both nights it looks like rain. Drat. We could attempt next Wednesday, but that may be a bit too inconvenient, given that he has to be up somewhat early on Thurs. Also, I found that this year, the Driftwood Bus Tour's residency in Withrow Park is down to just a single night (from 4-5 shows). While in general, I applaud their outreach to other parts of Toronto, the parks they have chosen are not really transit-friendly, so if it rains on the 29th, I'm not going.
* In terms of people I ran into, it was only about 25% of people who either made an attempt or wanted to see the duck, and the other 75% thought it was a fairly silly waste of money, particularly since it had nothing to do with Toronto or Canada more broadly. However, the festival organizers seem convinced that thousands of people came to see it and that the return on investment ($30,000 or $160,000 depending on what you count) was extremely high. Hard to say, but I guess perhaps I shouldn't have pooh-poohed this rubber duck quite so much, if in effect it stimulated tourism to more than pay for itself.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Happy Canada Day 2017!
It looks like the weather will be a bit up and down today, but I'll try not to let it get in the way of any celebrating I happen to be doing. I'm not sure if we will actually head out anywhere early (my daughter wanted to go to the Eaton Centre for some reason), but I have plans to see a play by Video Cabaret (on the topic of Confederation -- how appropriate) in the early afternoon, and then most likely I will pick up my son so we can see a free jazz concert by the Claudia Quintet tonight. That sounds like a pretty good day, though it will be better if it doesn't pour on me while I am getting around. Assuming all goes well, and it doesn't rain, we might head over to the Pape bridge to watch the fireworks they are launching from the CN Tower.
Actually, yesterday the rain held off last evening, though the sky was "spitting" just a bit at the end of the concert and during the short firework show in Nathan Phillips Square. I was running a bit late and I really wanted to get my final review of the 10th Canadian challenge submitted before I headed down to face the crowds at Nathan Phillips Square. In the end, I missed all of Buffy Ste. Marie's set, which was too bad. I did see some First Nations dancers who performed between the sets. You can hear a bit of the drumming in the audio of this video of a light show they had at City Hall (the columns alternated between red and white).
It was interesting, but did seem to go on a bit long. I was fairly far back, but I could see the stage. (The dancers were in the fountain area actually.)
Of course, right as the show was starting, a very tall man scooted up a couple of people ahead of me and completely blocked my view. Then I moved over behind some moderately tall man, who kept moving his head in ways that largely blocked me. Kind of frustrating, though I mostly just focused on the music and sometimes the video screens. I also had to watch out for some large inflatable balls (red and white naturally) that bounced around the square. Towards the end, I did have to fend one off. (I was kind of glad that the young girl on her father's shoulders managed to touch the ball. She seemed to find it thrilling.) It was a good, though somewhat short show (maybe 1 hour 15 minutes). They played "Brian Wilson," "The Old Apartment," "Pinch Me," "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," the theme from "The Big Bang Theory." They may have worked in some newer material, but ended with crowd favourites "One Week" and obviously "If I Had a Million Dollars." This video was a fairly good representation of what it was like to be there. I liked the various impromptu raps they added throughout the show, including one about inflator pins (that could be used to pump up the sagging balls in the audience) and where they also riffed off Snow's "Informer"! I'm hoping that more of the show (and in better quality) surfaces soon. Anyway, it was a nice show, and they tried to pull out the stops for the hometown crowd. This is probably the fourth time I've seen them, having somehow missed their Massey Hall concert last year. The fireworks were nice too, though they didn't last a full 6 minutes!
Anyway, I'm feeling in a somewhat contemplative mood this morning. It's hard to believe that I've been living in Canada for five years (early fall will be the start of my sixth year). I was happy to make the switch, and of course since last November I have been completely convinced I made the right call to move north. Not that there aren't plenty of problems in Canada, including increasing inequality and child poverty rates, plus the difficulties with Reconciliation. But it doesn't feel like the entire country is moving backwards (of course, I may feel differently about Ontario if the Conservatives take over next year, which is quite likely to happen).
I managed to get through quite a number of classic Canadian authors during the 10th Canadian challenge. I kept track here, and the round-up for the entire challenge is here (plus the link for where to go to sign up for the 11th challenge, starting today in fact!). While it is a little surprising I didn't read any Atwood, I ended the previous challenge with her The Heart Goes Last. During the 11th challenge, I will almost certainly read Moral Disorder and perhaps The Stone Mattress and possibly I'll get to her dystopian trilogy. I'd like to try at any rate, and then start rereading Robertson Davies's trilogies. I'll bring over the Bissoondath and Vanderhaege and Skvorecky from my "possible entries" post, and I'll definitely be getting around to Mordecai Richler's early novels this time around. I also hope to read Miriam Toews's A Complicated Kindness before I decide whether to tackle any of her other novels. I think during this challenge, I'll read Laurence's The Tomorrow Tamer, and then during the subsequent challenge I'll read her major novels plus A Bird in the House. One of the few literary Canadian authors I haven't tackled at least once is Wayson Choy. I'll add his The Jade Peony and then the sequel All That Matter. Finally, as if this wasn't ambitious enough, I'll try to get to Vincent Lam's Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures.
One thing that I probably ought to do is read a bit of Canadian history. I mean, who knows, I might be filing for Canadian citizenship one of these days. (In fact, I just went and looked. Apparently the Liberals have not rolled back the changes to the citizen eligibility requirements that Harper pushed through. So the very earliest I could apply would be late fall 2018.*) In any event, I may start by reading the scripts for Michael Hollingsworth's The History of the Village of the Small Huts for Video Cabaret, as they really compressed Canadian history (up to Brian Mulroney) in a very digestible and often hilarious way. I have another general history of Canada. After that (though not necessarily for this next challenge), I have a 2 part biography of Pierre Eliot Trudeau.
Anyway, I should get a bit of rest before the day really gets underway. Happy Canada Day, y'all!
* (Added July 3) Apparently the residency requirements do get relaxed this fall, so I probably could apply for citizenship over the winter. I do plan on applying for citizenship, but maybe not at the very first opportunity. After all, I do need to read up more on Canada's history in order to pass the test. Probably the hardest thing is to name the politicians who head up the other political parties, since this is still very much in flux!
Actually, yesterday the rain held off last evening, though the sky was "spitting" just a bit at the end of the concert and during the short firework show in Nathan Phillips Square. I was running a bit late and I really wanted to get my final review of the 10th Canadian challenge submitted before I headed down to face the crowds at Nathan Phillips Square. In the end, I missed all of Buffy Ste. Marie's set, which was too bad. I did see some First Nations dancers who performed between the sets. You can hear a bit of the drumming in the audio of this video of a light show they had at City Hall (the columns alternated between red and white).
It was interesting, but did seem to go on a bit long. I was fairly far back, but I could see the stage. (The dancers were in the fountain area actually.)
Of course, right as the show was starting, a very tall man scooted up a couple of people ahead of me and completely blocked my view. Then I moved over behind some moderately tall man, who kept moving his head in ways that largely blocked me. Kind of frustrating, though I mostly just focused on the music and sometimes the video screens. I also had to watch out for some large inflatable balls (red and white naturally) that bounced around the square. Towards the end, I did have to fend one off. (I was kind of glad that the young girl on her father's shoulders managed to touch the ball. She seemed to find it thrilling.) It was a good, though somewhat short show (maybe 1 hour 15 minutes). They played "Brian Wilson," "The Old Apartment," "Pinch Me," "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," the theme from "The Big Bang Theory." They may have worked in some newer material, but ended with crowd favourites "One Week" and obviously "If I Had a Million Dollars." This video was a fairly good representation of what it was like to be there. I liked the various impromptu raps they added throughout the show, including one about inflator pins (that could be used to pump up the sagging balls in the audience) and where they also riffed off Snow's "Informer"! I'm hoping that more of the show (and in better quality) surfaces soon. Anyway, it was a nice show, and they tried to pull out the stops for the hometown crowd. This is probably the fourth time I've seen them, having somehow missed their Massey Hall concert last year. The fireworks were nice too, though they didn't last a full 6 minutes!
Anyway, I'm feeling in a somewhat contemplative mood this morning. It's hard to believe that I've been living in Canada for five years (early fall will be the start of my sixth year). I was happy to make the switch, and of course since last November I have been completely convinced I made the right call to move north. Not that there aren't plenty of problems in Canada, including increasing inequality and child poverty rates, plus the difficulties with Reconciliation. But it doesn't feel like the entire country is moving backwards (of course, I may feel differently about Ontario if the Conservatives take over next year, which is quite likely to happen).
I managed to get through quite a number of classic Canadian authors during the 10th Canadian challenge. I kept track here, and the round-up for the entire challenge is here (plus the link for where to go to sign up for the 11th challenge, starting today in fact!). While it is a little surprising I didn't read any Atwood, I ended the previous challenge with her The Heart Goes Last. During the 11th challenge, I will almost certainly read Moral Disorder and perhaps The Stone Mattress and possibly I'll get to her dystopian trilogy. I'd like to try at any rate, and then start rereading Robertson Davies's trilogies. I'll bring over the Bissoondath and Vanderhaege and Skvorecky from my "possible entries" post, and I'll definitely be getting around to Mordecai Richler's early novels this time around. I also hope to read Miriam Toews's A Complicated Kindness before I decide whether to tackle any of her other novels. I think during this challenge, I'll read Laurence's The Tomorrow Tamer, and then during the subsequent challenge I'll read her major novels plus A Bird in the House. One of the few literary Canadian authors I haven't tackled at least once is Wayson Choy. I'll add his The Jade Peony and then the sequel All That Matter. Finally, as if this wasn't ambitious enough, I'll try to get to Vincent Lam's Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures.
One thing that I probably ought to do is read a bit of Canadian history. I mean, who knows, I might be filing for Canadian citizenship one of these days. (In fact, I just went and looked. Apparently the Liberals have not rolled back the changes to the citizen eligibility requirements that Harper pushed through. So the very earliest I could apply would be late fall 2018.*) In any event, I may start by reading the scripts for Michael Hollingsworth's The History of the Village of the Small Huts for Video Cabaret, as they really compressed Canadian history (up to Brian Mulroney) in a very digestible and often hilarious way. I have another general history of Canada. After that (though not necessarily for this next challenge), I have a 2 part biography of Pierre Eliot Trudeau.
Anyway, I should get a bit of rest before the day really gets underway. Happy Canada Day, y'all!
* (Added July 3) Apparently the residency requirements do get relaxed this fall, so I probably could apply for citizenship over the winter. I do plan on applying for citizenship, but maybe not at the very first opportunity. After all, I do need to read up more on Canada's history in order to pass the test. Probably the hardest thing is to name the politicians who head up the other political parties, since this is still very much in flux!
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