I suppose of all the ways to go, drowning in music wouldn't be so terrible. It's a similar problem to having too many books (as discussed in this somewhat overlong post), though it seems somewhat easier to catch up by binge-listening to music than to try to read all the books on all the shelves! But at its root, it is the same issue, trying to cover too much ground, be too cultured and to experience ALL the best of music, of art, of cinema, of literature, etc. It simply can't be done in one lifetime.
But it is part of the sickness (of acquisitiveness) that that doesn't really matter. I have a few box sets I have never opened, and yet if the right deal comes along, I will buy a new one. And sometimes I am not even aware of already owning the music (so I have to check my old Amazon account and email trails to make sure I don't own something!). I'll then go on a jag (which I am in the middle of at the moment) where I try to organize things better (the more I am aware of where CDs are stored, the more likely I am to listen to them) -- and even to sell off the music which no longer seems to hold my interest (though it must be said it is much harder than it used to be to sell off used CDs). Currently, I seem to be missing a Sibelius set and a Tuby Hayes set from Proper,* and I don't think I will rest easy until I track them down.
One thing that has made things slightly better is that the Toronto library provides access to Hoopla (8 titles a month) and Naxos on-line (not sure if there is a monthly limit). Usually if I can listen to a piece once, that is sufficient for me to check it off my internal mental list and I no longer have to own a copy. I found it was possible to piece together the Klemperer Sacred Music box set through Naxos and Hoopla, so I was able to remove the actual CD set from my Amazon basket. (I suppose it also helps a bit that shipping to Canada usually costs enough that I have to think a bit harder before impulse buying.) I don't think I'll ever completely escape these obsessions, but I think (hope) I can keep it enough under control that I will not end up literally buried under a pile of CDs and LPs.
* I found them both after an hour of searching (neither where they were supposed to be naturally), but now I realized I am missing a Pierre Fournier set from EMI, but it is too late to look any more tonight. I have also pulled together a fairly long stack of CDs I will try to sell off. If can actually clear these out of the office (say by next week) I will definitely feel I accomplished something over the long weekend.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Friday, October 6, 2017
Stellar fall season
I've discussed The Aliens (at Coal Mine) at some length and briefly talked about The Fish Eyes Trilogy at Factory. I suspect I will come back around to a more in-depth post on Fish Eyes later this weekend. I thought Waiting for Godot was worth seeing, even though it wasn't the best production I've seen. There is apparently a spin-off play at Theatre Passe Muraille called Let's Go: A G_dot Prequel which runs through this weekend. I may go, though I am a bit exhausted from all the theatre. I would definitely recommend both The Aliens and The Fish Eyes Trilogy, though I suppose if you could only go to one, I would plump for The Aliens, though it closes this weekend! So many great choices this season!
Another quite amazing show (which I almost passed on) is Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Hart House. There's a show tonight at 8 (which admittedly would be hard to get to) and one on Sat. at 8. There may also be a 2 pm show on Sat. I thought they did a fantastic job. When Hedwig is singing in her female persona, the performer seemed to me just as good as the one on the cast album, and when singing as Tommy (and/or Hansel) the performer was actually better. It is an edgy show and definitely not for everyone. One of the more amusing (and a bit disturbing) moments is when Hedwig comes all the way out to row L or M and says, "You didn't think I'd make it back this far, did you?" I think it's unlikely that Hart House recorded this (professionally at least), but I'd be willing to splurge on a Bandcamp release (hint hint). I would say that overall, it probably makes the most sense to watch the show live (the best choice!) or the DVD rather than the album, as most of the plot, such as it is, is conveyed in between song patter that isn't on any of the soundtracks.
Another quite amazing show (which I almost passed on) is Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Hart House. There's a show tonight at 8 (which admittedly would be hard to get to) and one on Sat. at 8. There may also be a 2 pm show on Sat. I thought they did a fantastic job. When Hedwig is singing in her female persona, the performer seemed to me just as good as the one on the cast album, and when singing as Tommy (and/or Hansel) the performer was actually better. It is an edgy show and definitely not for everyone. One of the more amusing (and a bit disturbing) moments is when Hedwig comes all the way out to row L or M and says, "You didn't think I'd make it back this far, did you?" I think it's unlikely that Hart House recorded this (professionally at least), but I'd be willing to splurge on a Bandcamp release (hint hint). I would say that overall, it probably makes the most sense to watch the show live (the best choice!) or the DVD rather than the album, as most of the plot, such as it is, is conveyed in between song patter that isn't on any of the soundtracks.
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Fish Eyes
I'm running quite short of time this morning, so I'll keep this short. I am just back from seeing The Fish Eyes Trilogy at Factory Theatre. It's a very strong piece that fuses classical Indian dance (as well as Indian dance set to pop music) and theatre. The three pieces focuses on 3 different students in Port Moody, BC (two of South Asian heritage and one Caucasian). They interact in different ways (generally somewhat negatively), but generally it is the boys that really set them up against each other. The pieces were written by and performed by Anita Majumdar, who takes on all the roles, effortlessly shifting from the girls to their boyfriends and then to the Aunty characters who are teaching the Indian girls to dance. There is a lot going on in the pieces and I'll probably be thinking about this for a while. I would encourage anyone who is even a bit curious about them to go check it out. This is the first opportunity to see all pieces in one evening and in this particular order (in previous outings Fish Eyes had gone first). I think this code will work for a discount for tonight's (Thurs Oct. 5) performance but not sure: MEENA20.
I didn't realize it, but there was a talk back, and Anita came out afterwards and talked a bit about different issues. One thing that was interesting was that Port Moody (where she grew up) was so white that the ethnic students felt it was safer to assimilate rather than offer up a single target to the haters. This was very different from Surrey, for example, where the schools were largely Asian and it was more of a personal choice whether to hang in predominantly white or Asian or mixed cliques. I am not sure there will be more talk backs through the course of the run or not, but I wouldn't let that stop you from checking out the show. The only drawback was that it was a long evening (particularly with the talk back) and I am tired, but I still have to run to get to work.
I didn't realize it, but there was a talk back, and Anita came out afterwards and talked a bit about different issues. One thing that was interesting was that Port Moody (where she grew up) was so white that the ethnic students felt it was safer to assimilate rather than offer up a single target to the haters. This was very different from Surrey, for example, where the schools were largely Asian and it was more of a personal choice whether to hang in predominantly white or Asian or mixed cliques. I am not sure there will be more talk backs through the course of the run or not, but I wouldn't let that stop you from checking out the show. The only drawback was that it was a long evening (particularly with the talk back) and I am tired, but I still have to run to get to work.
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Recharging (& Cold Read Weekend)
I don't know that I truly successfully recharged this weekend, but I did get some rest. I decided fairly early on that I was going to skip Nuit Blanche, as I just haven't been that interested in the art since the first one I saw a few years back. I may still end up taking my son along for a few hours either next year or the one after, but I just wasn't feeling it this time around.
I actually had a few tedious chores this weekend, including trying to change the bulb on an obsolete ceiling light/fan. I finally managed it, though I needed the internet to step in where the original company failed me. I also had to dispose of a dead bird on my sidewalk. Blech.
Anyway, Sunday was the first night of the restarted Toronto Cold Reads series. Turnout was surprisingly low (and the main hosts weren't even in attendance). Ultimately, I was gang-pressed into taking a part, which I don't normally do. The main reason to go was 3Fest, where they did 3 of the plays (each written by 3 authors). I suspect mine will be up in 3 weeks' time, so I'll have to block out that spot on the calendar.
Another neat feature of Toronto Cold Reads is that they have added a musical guest each time around, and they have been quite amazing. This time it was Sabrina Soares, an Australian who has picked up and moved to Toronto, trying to make it into the entertainment business. She has a lovely voice and pretty good stage presence for someone so young, so I suspect she'll do well.
My favorite musicians from last season were Skye Wallace (and sadly her Toronto stop on her current tour competes with another TCR reading, so I'll have to skip that) and Abigail Lapell, but all of them were very entertaining.
While Monday evening isn't technically part of the weekend, in my mind it all sort of flowed together. I knew that they were going to put on Night Out, which was a short piece about modern cell phone usage. It's a bit of a cliche to moan about jerks on cell phones in restaurants, but I tried to mix it up a bit and to keep the piece very short (it runs 5 minutes or so). It went over really well.
I had been asked to submit another piece and I just finished up Mascots in time, but I never heard whether it was going to be on the line-up. I might have tried a bit harder to get people to turn out had I known it was on the line-up. At any event, I turned up and it had been added, which was super cool. The actors really sold the piece, even some of the corny jokes. So it was a pretty awesome evening to get two pieces on the line-up (plus there was some cake, since this was the 10th anniversary of the SFYS concept). The crowd slowly trickled in, though we still seem down from the glory days over at Storefront.
While SFYS doesn't have musical guests, they do have a mentalist who turns up. He's quite good, and this time around was particularly mind-blowing. He had these big books, and the audience wrote down numbers and put them in a box. Then there was some back and forth, shuffling the books. Then a volunteer wrote down a number from 1 to 4, which then selected one of the books. And the volunteer chose a number from the box, and opened the book to that page. It had been torn out, and then ended up in the hat he was wearing. This was perhaps the most impressive stunt yet, so I started to think how the mentalist could do it.
These are more theoretical SPOILERS than anything, but don't read if you don't want to ruin the magic.
I'm fairly sure that when drawing the number, it is fairly easy for a trained mentalist to distinguish a number between 1 through 4 that the volunteer/mark draws. Similarly, the mentalist can just keep going with the shuffling of the books (and subtly urge the audience to pick the numbers that bring the book into the correct position). So it shouldn't be that hard to pick the correct book. Getting the correct page number is much harder. Obviously, the single simplest way is to corrupt the mark and tell him or her which number to read. But assuming that isn't what happened, the second simplest way to rig the game is to mess with the box so that every slip of paper in there had the correct page number. (Generally, most of these mentalist things are a bit of misdirection, and no one really was paying any attention to the box of slips at that point.) I don't think the mentalist touched the slips after handing over the box (so the tampering would have happened earlier), but sometimes there is a bit of sleight-of-hand where the mentalist intercepts the random slip that the volunteer picked and substituted the correct slip before it gets opened. As I said, I'm fairly sure that didn't happen in this case. If it isn't one of those three options, then I admit I am baffled. At any rate, it was an impressive feat last night, and overall one of the more amusing SFYS I have attended.
I actually had a few tedious chores this weekend, including trying to change the bulb on an obsolete ceiling light/fan. I finally managed it, though I needed the internet to step in where the original company failed me. I also had to dispose of a dead bird on my sidewalk. Blech.
Anyway, Sunday was the first night of the restarted Toronto Cold Reads series. Turnout was surprisingly low (and the main hosts weren't even in attendance). Ultimately, I was gang-pressed into taking a part, which I don't normally do. The main reason to go was 3Fest, where they did 3 of the plays (each written by 3 authors). I suspect mine will be up in 3 weeks' time, so I'll have to block out that spot on the calendar.
Another neat feature of Toronto Cold Reads is that they have added a musical guest each time around, and they have been quite amazing. This time it was Sabrina Soares, an Australian who has picked up and moved to Toronto, trying to make it into the entertainment business. She has a lovely voice and pretty good stage presence for someone so young, so I suspect she'll do well.
My favorite musicians from last season were Skye Wallace (and sadly her Toronto stop on her current tour competes with another TCR reading, so I'll have to skip that) and Abigail Lapell, but all of them were very entertaining.
While Monday evening isn't technically part of the weekend, in my mind it all sort of flowed together. I knew that they were going to put on Night Out, which was a short piece about modern cell phone usage. It's a bit of a cliche to moan about jerks on cell phones in restaurants, but I tried to mix it up a bit and to keep the piece very short (it runs 5 minutes or so). It went over really well.
I had been asked to submit another piece and I just finished up Mascots in time, but I never heard whether it was going to be on the line-up. I might have tried a bit harder to get people to turn out had I known it was on the line-up. At any event, I turned up and it had been added, which was super cool. The actors really sold the piece, even some of the corny jokes. So it was a pretty awesome evening to get two pieces on the line-up (plus there was some cake, since this was the 10th anniversary of the SFYS concept). The crowd slowly trickled in, though we still seem down from the glory days over at Storefront.
While SFYS doesn't have musical guests, they do have a mentalist who turns up. He's quite good, and this time around was particularly mind-blowing. He had these big books, and the audience wrote down numbers and put them in a box. Then there was some back and forth, shuffling the books. Then a volunteer wrote down a number from 1 to 4, which then selected one of the books. And the volunteer chose a number from the box, and opened the book to that page. It had been torn out, and then ended up in the hat he was wearing. This was perhaps the most impressive stunt yet, so I started to think how the mentalist could do it.
These are more theoretical SPOILERS than anything, but don't read if you don't want to ruin the magic.
I'm fairly sure that when drawing the number, it is fairly easy for a trained mentalist to distinguish a number between 1 through 4 that the volunteer/mark draws. Similarly, the mentalist can just keep going with the shuffling of the books (and subtly urge the audience to pick the numbers that bring the book into the correct position). So it shouldn't be that hard to pick the correct book. Getting the correct page number is much harder. Obviously, the single simplest way is to corrupt the mark and tell him or her which number to read. But assuming that isn't what happened, the second simplest way to rig the game is to mess with the box so that every slip of paper in there had the correct page number. (Generally, most of these mentalist things are a bit of misdirection, and no one really was paying any attention to the box of slips at that point.) I don't think the mentalist touched the slips after handing over the box (so the tampering would have happened earlier), but sometimes there is a bit of sleight-of-hand where the mentalist intercepts the random slip that the volunteer picked and substituted the correct slip before it gets opened. As I said, I'm fairly sure that didn't happen in this case. If it isn't one of those three options, then I admit I am baffled. At any rate, it was an impressive feat last night, and overall one of the more amusing SFYS I have attended.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Regrets (concerts)
I do try not to have too many regrets, though it is surely impossible to go through life without having any. I am fortunate that I do have enough time and usually enough funds to see all the theatre that interests me in Toronto (though I did skip Burn This as the tickets just seemed too high to me). That might not be the case if I was still in Chicago (not having enough time) or New York (where even the off-Broadway ticket prices have become ridiculous). Concerts are a bit of a different story, as they have gone up (in my view at least) much beyond the rate of inflation and the scalperbots have gotten so good that it may be very difficult to actually get tickets at all, and then you have to decide about buying them secondhand (in addition to costing more the odds are reasonably high that you'll get scammed). So I do a lot more picking and choosing.
Anyway, all through high school I didn't live anywhere near a major metro area and didn't see any rock concerts at all. I was probably taken to a few classical and jazz concerts, but nothing that really sticks out in memory. (I do remember one boy in band managed to convince his older cousin or someone to take him to a U2 concert,* but that was quite the exception.) In university, I was close enough to Detroit (and it hadn't quite fallen on hard times to the degree it has today), so for major acts, we would go, though I still don't think I went to more than 6 or so concerts in Detroit (David Bowie, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Hornsby, 10,000 Maniacs and maybe one or two more). I liked music, but I just wasn't that much of a concert-goer. Maybe it would have been different had I grown up in a big city where all the big acts were passing through.
I won't go too much into all the concerts I didn't go to,** but just focus on a few where I had considered, but for one reason or another, decided not to, and then (too late!) had second thoughts.
Probably #1 is when Paul Simon played a small venue on Belmont, not that far from where I lived in Chicago. Definitely still kicking myself about that one.
Right around that time, I skipped the chance to see Toad the Wet Sprocket playing in the Lincoln Park Zoo. I think for both of these, I mostly didn't go because I was trying to adjust to having two small children and just wasn't sleeping all that well.
I think there was a Bauhaus reunion tour that passed through Chicago, and maybe I should have gone. I heard it was actually pretty good.
On a recent visit to Chicago, I could have see Jackson Browne playing an event. He was only backed by one slide guitar player, and I guess I just thought he would sound better with a full band. While I probably still should have gone, this won't be something I take to my grave regretting...
Similarly, I've been pretty interested in trying to catch Bruce Cockburn, but the last few times he's come through Toronto, it's been a solo show. I'd really prefer to see him playing with a band.
I wasn't a huge, huge Leonard Cohen fan, but I still should have tried to catch his final tour. Ah well.
Also, Prince kept hinting he was going to have a secret show in Toronto, and then he actually did a show (I believe he played piano only) and then less than a month later he passed away. For sure, that's one I would have liked to have attended.
More recently, my wife asked if I wanted to see Hall & Oates in Toronto. We saw them in Chicago, and they were quite good, but I wasn't sure I really needed to go again. What I didn't realize was that they were sharing the bill with Tears for Fears. Had I clued into that, I'm sure we would have gone.
I didn't like either of the venues that Collective Soul chose when they came to Toronto (and they came twice in 2016!). They aren't coming in 2017, but they have a new album coming out and perhaps they will come back in 2018 (and I'll make more of an effort the next time around).
I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of concerts that I would have liked to see, but these are the ones that kind of stuck with me. That's probably not so bad (not so many regrets) in the grand scheme of things.
* I still haven't found any U2 tickets that were any good on any of their later tours, so I may never end up seeing them. That's unfortunate.
** I don't really want to add jazz to the mix, though I was supposed to see David Fathead Newman in Chicago (taking my father-in-law) but he got sick and actually died just a few weeks after the cancelled concert. (And I probably should have gone to seen Elvin Jones at the Chicago Jazz Fest when it was pretty clear it was one of his last tours.) In terms of pure regrets, looking at the walls of the Jazz Showcase and just trying to imagine how amazing it would have been living in Chicago in the 1960s-80s (as an adult) makes me wish I had been a generation older. Life would have been a lot easier in a lot of ways (assuming I avoided the draft...), though on the whole I didn't mind growing up in the 80s.
Anyway, all through high school I didn't live anywhere near a major metro area and didn't see any rock concerts at all. I was probably taken to a few classical and jazz concerts, but nothing that really sticks out in memory. (I do remember one boy in band managed to convince his older cousin or someone to take him to a U2 concert,* but that was quite the exception.) In university, I was close enough to Detroit (and it hadn't quite fallen on hard times to the degree it has today), so for major acts, we would go, though I still don't think I went to more than 6 or so concerts in Detroit (David Bowie, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Hornsby, 10,000 Maniacs and maybe one or two more). I liked music, but I just wasn't that much of a concert-goer. Maybe it would have been different had I grown up in a big city where all the big acts were passing through.
I won't go too much into all the concerts I didn't go to,** but just focus on a few where I had considered, but for one reason or another, decided not to, and then (too late!) had second thoughts.
Probably #1 is when Paul Simon played a small venue on Belmont, not that far from where I lived in Chicago. Definitely still kicking myself about that one.
Right around that time, I skipped the chance to see Toad the Wet Sprocket playing in the Lincoln Park Zoo. I think for both of these, I mostly didn't go because I was trying to adjust to having two small children and just wasn't sleeping all that well.
I think there was a Bauhaus reunion tour that passed through Chicago, and maybe I should have gone. I heard it was actually pretty good.
On a recent visit to Chicago, I could have see Jackson Browne playing an event. He was only backed by one slide guitar player, and I guess I just thought he would sound better with a full band. While I probably still should have gone, this won't be something I take to my grave regretting...
Similarly, I've been pretty interested in trying to catch Bruce Cockburn, but the last few times he's come through Toronto, it's been a solo show. I'd really prefer to see him playing with a band.
I wasn't a huge, huge Leonard Cohen fan, but I still should have tried to catch his final tour. Ah well.
Also, Prince kept hinting he was going to have a secret show in Toronto, and then he actually did a show (I believe he played piano only) and then less than a month later he passed away. For sure, that's one I would have liked to have attended.
More recently, my wife asked if I wanted to see Hall & Oates in Toronto. We saw them in Chicago, and they were quite good, but I wasn't sure I really needed to go again. What I didn't realize was that they were sharing the bill with Tears for Fears. Had I clued into that, I'm sure we would have gone.
I didn't like either of the venues that Collective Soul chose when they came to Toronto (and they came twice in 2016!). They aren't coming in 2017, but they have a new album coming out and perhaps they will come back in 2018 (and I'll make more of an effort the next time around).
I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of concerts that I would have liked to see, but these are the ones that kind of stuck with me. That's probably not so bad (not so many regrets) in the grand scheme of things.
* I still haven't found any U2 tickets that were any good on any of their later tours, so I may never end up seeing them. That's unfortunate.
** I don't really want to add jazz to the mix, though I was supposed to see David Fathead Newman in Chicago (taking my father-in-law) but he got sick and actually died just a few weeks after the cancelled concert. (And I probably should have gone to seen Elvin Jones at the Chicago Jazz Fest when it was pretty clear it was one of his last tours.) In terms of pure regrets, looking at the walls of the Jazz Showcase and just trying to imagine how amazing it would have been living in Chicago in the 1960s-80s (as an adult) makes me wish I had been a generation older. Life would have been a lot easier in a lot of ways (assuming I avoided the draft...), though on the whole I didn't mind growing up in the 80s.
College productions 2017-18
I realized that we have gone a few weeks into the fall semester, and I haven't heard much about the various UT drama clubs. I am aware of what is going on at Hart House, though that doesn't precisely count as Hart House has a lot of student actors in their productions, but isn't truly a student company. That said, I am starting to lean towards going to Hedwig and the Angry Inch this Thurs. (on alumni discount night) and probably The Crucible with my son later in the season.
At any rate, I was going to update this post, and I realized that the Theatre Coalition hadn't updated their events page. And more than that, most of the individual websites are just not updating properly. You have to poke around on Twitter and especially on Facebook to find anything out. Not only do I think this is a lazy and incredibly discouraging trend (and one that ultimately profits corporations that already have too much sway), it really means these companies are moving further and further inward and are not that interested in connecting to the broader (non-Facebook enabled) public. Maybe that doesn't matter for the student theatre companies, but even the UT Drama Centre has not publicized its events very well.
At any rate, it doesn't look like there is much of interest for me at UT this season. One of the companies is doing Twelfth Night, which I've seen too many times. VCDS is doing the Drowsy Chaperone, which is quite strange as WINDS did it last season. (Sadly, WINDS has gone defunct, due to "internal conflicts.") In the spring, UC Follies should be doing Stoppard's Arcadia, and while I've seen it several times before, I'm fairly likely to go again. That's probably the only thing I will catch (not counting Hart House productions), unless the UT Drama Centre adds a really interesting alumni show in the spring, though it doesn't seem promising at the moment.
I mentioned briefly that for George Brown, I will see the shows in the spring repertory season -- The Provoked Wife and Brecht's Fear and Misery in the Third Reich. I'm still undecided if I want to see the update to Candide, but it is usually still best (for me) to subscribe for the 3-show package, so I'll probably do that.
At any rate, I was going to update this post, and I realized that the Theatre Coalition hadn't updated their events page. And more than that, most of the individual websites are just not updating properly. You have to poke around on Twitter and especially on Facebook to find anything out. Not only do I think this is a lazy and incredibly discouraging trend (and one that ultimately profits corporations that already have too much sway), it really means these companies are moving further and further inward and are not that interested in connecting to the broader (non-Facebook enabled) public. Maybe that doesn't matter for the student theatre companies, but even the UT Drama Centre has not publicized its events very well.
At any rate, it doesn't look like there is much of interest for me at UT this season. One of the companies is doing Twelfth Night, which I've seen too many times. VCDS is doing the Drowsy Chaperone, which is quite strange as WINDS did it last season. (Sadly, WINDS has gone defunct, due to "internal conflicts.") In the spring, UC Follies should be doing Stoppard's Arcadia, and while I've seen it several times before, I'm fairly likely to go again. That's probably the only thing I will catch (not counting Hart House productions), unless the UT Drama Centre adds a really interesting alumni show in the spring, though it doesn't seem promising at the moment.
I mentioned briefly that for George Brown, I will see the shows in the spring repertory season -- The Provoked Wife and Brecht's Fear and Misery in the Third Reich. I'm still undecided if I want to see the update to Candide, but it is usually still best (for me) to subscribe for the 3-show package, so I'll probably do that.
Friday, September 29, 2017
11th Canadian Challenge - 7th review - Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
I've been reading through Mordecai Richler's fiction in a very bizarre order. I read The Incomparable Atuk first and then Barney's Version. Duddy Kravitz makes a short cameo in Barney's Version, but he seems a much tamer version of his younger self, though still a bit of a hustler. Both Duddy and Barney seem determined to stick out and be fairly difficult (if not to say obnoxious) Jews who refuse to be assimilated into Montreal society (neither the Anglophone nor the Francophone culture). Anyway, I decided I really ought to just buckle down and read The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. I'll follow up very shortly with The Street. I haven't decided when to tackle St. Urbain's Horseman, which is centred on one of Duddy's schoolmates, Hersh (though I wouldn't be surprised if Duddy doesn't at least make an appearance, though maybe just in flashback form), but I will get around to it one of these days. At any rate, it is peculiar that I have held off from reading his best known work until now.
I think there is no question I would have liked the novel a bit more had I read it while I was younger, though it's possible that because I was a school teacher so early in my career, there wouldn't have been a time after I left university that I would have really been receptive to Duddy Kravitz, who terrorizes his teachers, particularly Mr. MacPherson. I myself was harassed by a number of students, all of whom loved exploiting weaknesses and weren't interested in teachers "taking an interest" in them and certainly had no interest in anything being offered up at school. Given this background, I didn't even enjoy the movie Ferris Bueller particularly much, and I think those negative feelings would have been even stronger had I encountered Duddy Kravitz and his ilk back then. Now I am simply too old to have much interest in juvenile delinquent antics. (I have to admit I didn't care much for Narayan's Swami and Friends either.)
I am actually more intrigued by some of the secondary characters in the novel, such as the alcoholic Mr. MacPherson and moreso Duddy's father, Max. While Max reveres his smart son, Lennie, who is studying to become a doctor, he is even more drawn to the antics of the Boy Wonder, Jerry Dingleman, who worked his way up from nothing to become a rich hoodlum. There seem to be two role models that urban Jews could look up to, either the bookish types who go on to become doctors and lawyers or the slick operators, who live the fast life. Duddy would surely have been tempted by the flashy, seemingly easy life on his own account, but the fact that his father also validated it pushed him further down this path.
I did find the novel more interesting after Duddy graduates (towards the bottom of his class) and starts scheming almost immediately. As a side note, the goings on at the Jewish resort, where he worked right after school, reminded me just a bit of Will Eisner's A Contract with God. Even Dingleman is somewhat impressed and perhaps a bit concerned at how frantic Duddy is to make money (actually in order to buy up real estate!).
What is interesting is that Duddy often but doesn't always come out on top in his interactions with other schemers. Montreal is a big place, with lots of con men around in the circles that he begins to frequent. Duddy hasn't been around the block as many times as they have, but he has pluck and determination and a willingness to get right back up after he has been knocked down. This does make him more appealing than the student who fairly pointlessly undermined his teachers, and perhaps I am rooting for him a bit (certainly far more than I would have thought at the start of the book). All that said, I still wouldn't want to have to deal with Duddy in real life, just as I would have studiously avoided Barney. I'm still undecided if I will watch the film that made a star of Richard Dreyfuss (or the film version of Barney's Version for that matter), but maybe I'll get around to it one of these days. A lot depends on how much of the humour of the book is captured. One of the funniest passages is when Duddy finally gets to screen the film of the bar mitzva that he had filmed (as an early money-making venture). It sounds like an absolute riot but one that satisfied the boy's father (shades of The Music Man perhaps?), and I'm just wondering if that made its way into the movie. I guess there's only one way to find out...
I think there is no question I would have liked the novel a bit more had I read it while I was younger, though it's possible that because I was a school teacher so early in my career, there wouldn't have been a time after I left university that I would have really been receptive to Duddy Kravitz, who terrorizes his teachers, particularly Mr. MacPherson. I myself was harassed by a number of students, all of whom loved exploiting weaknesses and weren't interested in teachers "taking an interest" in them and certainly had no interest in anything being offered up at school. Given this background, I didn't even enjoy the movie Ferris Bueller particularly much, and I think those negative feelings would have been even stronger had I encountered Duddy Kravitz and his ilk back then. Now I am simply too old to have much interest in juvenile delinquent antics. (I have to admit I didn't care much for Narayan's Swami and Friends either.)
I am actually more intrigued by some of the secondary characters in the novel, such as the alcoholic Mr. MacPherson and moreso Duddy's father, Max. While Max reveres his smart son, Lennie, who is studying to become a doctor, he is even more drawn to the antics of the Boy Wonder, Jerry Dingleman, who worked his way up from nothing to become a rich hoodlum. There seem to be two role models that urban Jews could look up to, either the bookish types who go on to become doctors and lawyers or the slick operators, who live the fast life. Duddy would surely have been tempted by the flashy, seemingly easy life on his own account, but the fact that his father also validated it pushed him further down this path.
I did find the novel more interesting after Duddy graduates (towards the bottom of his class) and starts scheming almost immediately. As a side note, the goings on at the Jewish resort, where he worked right after school, reminded me just a bit of Will Eisner's A Contract with God. Even Dingleman is somewhat impressed and perhaps a bit concerned at how frantic Duddy is to make money (actually in order to buy up real estate!).
What is interesting is that Duddy often but doesn't always come out on top in his interactions with other schemers. Montreal is a big place, with lots of con men around in the circles that he begins to frequent. Duddy hasn't been around the block as many times as they have, but he has pluck and determination and a willingness to get right back up after he has been knocked down. This does make him more appealing than the student who fairly pointlessly undermined his teachers, and perhaps I am rooting for him a bit (certainly far more than I would have thought at the start of the book). All that said, I still wouldn't want to have to deal with Duddy in real life, just as I would have studiously avoided Barney. I'm still undecided if I will watch the film that made a star of Richard Dreyfuss (or the film version of Barney's Version for that matter), but maybe I'll get around to it one of these days. A lot depends on how much of the humour of the book is captured. One of the funniest passages is when Duddy finally gets to screen the film of the bar mitzva that he had filmed (as an early money-making venture). It sounds like an absolute riot but one that satisfied the boy's father (shades of The Music Man perhaps?), and I'm just wondering if that made its way into the movie. I guess there's only one way to find out...
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