The mystery deepens

It turns out that my co-worker had his seat stolen/swapped as well.  In the end, he had my post and seat, though I didn't have his.  He still was willing to swap, as the seat was better.  Mine had a rip.  So someone went to the trouble of swapping at least 3 or 4 bike seats and posts.  Maybe they thought it was a funny April Fool's Day gag, but it was a total d-bag move (and in the end, my co-worker still lost his seat and got a worse one in exchange).  Don't touch stuff that doesn't belong to you.  It isn't really that hard to follow.

When I got home (I did bike home, but had to go more slowly than usual, since I hadn't brought a change of clothes, since I didn't expect to be able to resolve the bike issue until Wed.), I finally changed the seat for one I had bought last year.  That felt like a decent accomplishment, since it isn't something that I had ever done before.  I also did a bit more weeding, so the yard doesn't look great, but at least it isn't full of weeds.  That was pretty much all I accomplished, though I did run through the script for Final Exam one more time, as the first full rehearsal is today!  Hope it goes well.

Seat stolen!

This is so unbelievably frustrating.  I had the seat stolen off my bike yesterday.  This not the first time it's happened.  It happened in Chicago as well, after which I said I would never get a quick-release seat again.  So the thief actually had to take the time to loosen the bolts in front of Union Station.  Bold. 

What makes this so particularly strange is that this seat had a two inch tear in it, and I was planning on replacing it soon.  And that they left me with a different seat, which doesn't have a tear.  So it's sort of like a trade-up (and maybe since it looked like a repair they were easier in their minds about being so bold in a public place), but I think the real issue is that the seat was very wobbly on the post.  So they really wanted a post with tighter screws.  I may or may not be able to reuse the seat, but I'll certainly have to replace the post.

Anyway, it is a huge inconvenience, which made me late to the taping of the Stageworthy podcast (details about that soon), and it really spoiled the end of the day.  I just wish people would leave stuff alone if it wasn't theirs.  It only takes a few people to spoil everything (graffiti, tossing trash on streets).  This general asymmetry (along with the general increase in entropy over time vs. the energy it takes to fight entropy) explains why public spaces are often so run down.

Semi-productive weekend

I'm probably being a bit too hard on myself.  I did get a lot done this weekend, but there was one thing I should have tackled for work, which I simply didn't do.  Also, I had thought I would get more work done on my TRB papers.  I just let that slide, but before you know it, it will be late indeed.  I'll have to do better this week.

Anyway, Saturday I went and got some groceries and cleaned up some computer files.  Before I knew it, it was 11:30.  I decided to go to TCAF after all.  Since it still threatened to rain, I decided to take the TTC.  The ride to the Toronto Reference Library was pretty smooth (most of my TTC trips these last couple of weeks have been quite unpleasant).

Still, I didn't manage to get there (somewhat impeded by the crowds) until 12:15.  I was feeling a bit stressed, since I felt I should leave by 1 to get down to see a play at Soulpepper.  The crowds were pretty fierce (the picture doesn't quite do credit to how hard it was to get up and down the stairs), and I was definitely less receptive to pushing through them due to all the queuing at the AGO the night before .

I did a quick pass through the main areas, but didn't really stop to look closely at all the booths.  There were a few bargains that I probably should have picked up, but many of the comics were in the $20 range (or higher), and that wasn't really what I was looking for.  I did pick up a comic about 4 middle school kids with special powers that I thought my daughter would enjoy.  However, it was truly dire.  (I could barely get through it.  She took one look at it and recycled it.)

I was nearly out the door when I stumbled across the NYR Comics booth.  They had just published The New World by Chris Booth, and he was there signing.  While the book was a little more expensive than I wanted to pay, I decided to go ahead and get a signed copy.  On the whole, it was a weird TCAF visit.  Maybe next year I will be in a better frame of mind (or I'll skip it all together).

I had planned on grabbing a slice of pizza on the way out, but the line was out the door, so I just got back on the subway.  I was actually making pretty decent time when I got down to King to wait for the streetcar.  It was a pretty long wait, but it finally showed up a stop away.  Then it sat and sat and sat, and finally the doors opened and all the passengers disembarked.  That would have been bad enough (if it had just gone out of service and they cleared it out), but no the streetcar was just stuck.  It was a completely terrible place for it to get stuck, since there really is no where to divert the streetcar through the loop.  Basically, you have to change at Spadina and go down Queen and then come back to King around Parliament, which would completely skip all the important stops, and more to the point, any streetcars past Spadina couldn't go anywhere.  I was fuming.  There is no certainty about these things.  It is possible it would clear up in 5 minutes or 15 or 30.  Meanwhile the clock was ticking.  Had I been a few blocks closer, I would have just walked, but it was too far.  (To add insult to injury, the rain held off, so I could have biked after all).  In the end, I grabbed a cab and made it with plenty of time to spare but racked up another grudge against the lousy TTC service.

I didn't care much for the play at all - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and I'm kind of sorry I didn't leave at the intermission, since it didn't get any better.  I kid of feel like I am in bizarro land, since the few reviews that have come out have been pretty glowing (well, except for the Star, which is more on my wavelength).  I think August Wilson's play is right in the big details -- white record executives only want to use Black entertainers to make money, racism is pervasive and has twisted Black men, who mostly last out against their own (rather than the White Man).  However, in all the details, I thought the play was so false.  No way would the record executives have been that servile towards Ma Rainey (or been so bumbling that they didn't get her to sign the release).  No way would the cop have not locked up a mouthy, loud Black woman and her nephew, who had threatened a white cab driver.  Frankly, no way would the recording engineer have paid for Levee's songs without recording them.  Also, Wilson has left several dropped threads, particularly not having Ma Rainey know that Levee wanted to record his songs (and then threaten her manager about it).  The record executives say a couple of times that her records aren't selling that well any longer in the North, so why wouldn't they take a chance on Levee.  It makes no sense.  Anyway, I basically didn't like anything about the play, particularly the diva-like behaviour by Ma Rainey.  This is somewhat surprising to me, since I did like The Piano Lesson quite a bit (and will see that again if it turns up in Toronto).  Stepping back, this was an extremely disappointing Soulpepper season for me (with only Albee's A Delicate Balance a partial success), and I don't think I'll be subscribing again.

I finally finished reading Melville's The Confidence-Man.  This was actually a rereading, as I read it in grad school (and wrote a paper comparing it to the use of disguise in Spenser's Fairy Queen).  The first part is interesting, as you see the Confidence Man in various guises, trying to find the best way to gain people's confidence and thence their money.  There are certainly some interesting elements, but the second half drags, with some sections unclear who is really supposed to be spoofing who.  The book picks up again towards the end with a visit to a barber, whose "No Trust" sign on the wall leads into the last major con job of the book.  The last chapter is also a bit of a masterpiece with the Confidence Man blowing out the lamp and leading an old man who knows where.  Amusingly to me, this chapter partly turns on the fact that some Biblical quotes are from the Apocrypha* (rather than the Old Testament). 

I took a bit of a nap after that, but then managed to get to the gym in the evening.

Sunday I helped the kids make breakfast for their mother.  I had to go over to the mall to get some supplies for my daughter's school project.  We then weeded the front yard.  There isn't much left than dirt now, but at least the weeds are gone.  I'm debating getting rid of the grass entirely and replacing with more of a native flower coverage.  I really don't know why grass grows so badly here (compared to where I grew up), but I don't think it is worth the effort.

I then fixed the back gate (having to tear up and level out some paving stones as well!), so that was another substantial chore.  I'm glad it is done.  Probably I'll restain the fence over the summer, and possibly the lower porch, but that will have to wait for late May or early June (when we have a long stretch without rain).  It is always something.  So, as I said, a fairly productive weekend, though there were definitely things I wish I had gotten around to, but there always is too much to do.


* This recalls to mind a time when I mentioned the fact that I had a King James version of the Bible with the Apocrypha included and someone said that was impossible, as the King James translators didn't translate the Apocrypha.  I didn't really know how to respond, other than to show this person that it was in the book, and let him take it as he would.

Art in Toronto - Spring/Summer 2018

Last night my son and I checked out the hottest ticket in town -- Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the AGO. Basically, the advance tickets all went to members, so the only way the general public can go is to get rush tickets.  They have decided that the last two weeks they will extend the hours of the exhibit to midnight on May 17-19 and May 24-26, so I suppose that means there is a decent chance of getting rush tickets (starting at 10 am) for the late evening on those days.  It was an interesting experience, though it was about 2 hours of queuing for around 3 minutes in the various infinity rooms.  I wouldn't go a second time.  I will post some photos and video from our visit later.

There is still just under a month to check out Yoko Ono's exhibit at the Gardiner Museum.  See here.  I'll try to go next Friday after work.

What is even a bit more exciting to me is that the Gardiner is going to be hosting an Ai Weiwei exhibit in 2019.  The main event will be Sunflower Seeds, which are literally hundreds of thousands of ceramic replicas of sunflower seeds.  However, it is pretty clear that they won't be able to get the same scale as was achieved at the Tate Modern in London.  I managed to see this exhibit, and fortunately I was there in the first week or two, before health and safety protocols more or less shut down the exhibit (due to the porcelain dust from people walking through the exhibit).  Had I known how it would all play out, I would definitely have taken one of the seeds.  Maybe this time around, with the more compact setting, it will be possible to walk among the seeds again.  Ideally, they will sell the individual seeds at the gift shop, so one won't be so tempted to steal them.  Anyway, definitely something to look forward to.

MOCA was supposed to open up this summer, but now it looks like it will be the fall.  I haven't decided how often I will go.  It really is in a lousy location relative to transit, and it is far too far for me to want to bike there, so my guess is I won't go often.  In the meantime, there is an unauthorized Art of Banksy exhibit that will be right there.  I am tempted, but the ticket prices ($35+) are a lot higher than I think can be justified for his work.  Still pondering whether I want to go.

There is a photo exhibit being staged at the Unilever Soap Factory through June 3.  I might be able to make that today, if the rain holds off, though that will somewhat complicate my swinging by TCAF.  I don't actually have anything on the calendar for next weekend, so maybe I will hold off on that until next week.

This is the last weekend for the spring exhibit at Power Plant at Harbourfront.  I'm going to be honest that I haven't been all that impressed when I have made it down to Power Plant, and I don't plan on going out of my way to see these exhibits.  The summer-fall exhibit looks better, especially Ellen Gallagher's solo show Nu-Nile.  I'll try to go and should be able to squeeze it in, though I won't be crushed if I don't make it.

Inside the New Venue

As mentioned here, my Fringe production, Final Exam, is taking place at Matty Eckler in East York (Gerrard and Pape) in the first two weeks of July.  I'll be linking to the Fringe schedule once it is out.

I had a chance this morning to go by and double check on a few things.Things are coming together, which is good, as I have been stressing a bit over it lately.

Here is the outside again, looking a fair bit like a school.

Here is the inside (notice the very useful white board).

 

It would be ideal if the desks were smaller and the students/audience could sit at them, but they are so big that I think we'll only keep the one for the teacher.  That is one area where Danforth would have been better, but that's ok.  I also have decided that I will make Ms. Renard (the second teacher in the play) a music/art teacher rather than a math/science teacher as originally envisioned.

I'm running a bit behind on script revisions, so I'll stop here for now.

Super depressing Supreme Court decision

To be honest, I am a bit surprised with this decision, since it seemed like the legislative intent around the Constitution Act, 1867 was quite clear.  Basically, the question that came up was whether provinces could internally regulate trade, and more specifically whether the Gold Seal Supreme Court case from 1921 had got it wrong by allowing for internal trade barriers when the legislative intent seemed quite clear to not allow for restrictions between the provinces (similar to the absolute free trade between states in the US).  Here is a pro-business site with a number of supporting documents, including this persuasive paper.  On the face of it, it is hard to understand how Section 121 "All Articles of the Growth, Produce, or Manufacture of any one of the Provinces shall, from and after the Union, be admitted free into each of the other Provinces." doesn't explicitly mean Canada should be a free trade zone, much like the US.*  However, the decision at the time was incredibly narrow and said that it applied to tariffs only and that Provinces still could limit the quantity of goods crossing their borders, i.e. enacting internal trade barriers.  This has been the law of the land since 1921, even though many feel it was wrongly decided.

Anyway, there was a case about Gerard Comeau who "smuggled" too much beer back from Quebec into New Brunswick, and the lower courts found in his favour, until it finally reached the Supreme Court, where the justices unanimously found in favour of the status quo.   Here is a recent article about the decision.  I find this incredibly disheartening for several reasons.  Number one was that they basically admitted that they upheld the previous ruling simply because it would be too disruptive to too many existing laws and regulations.  And it is certainly odd to be so respectful of previous rulings when they are wrong.  (Note that when it comes to their own turf, the Supremes have no problem in throwing everything into disarray by setting strict limits on the time to trial, which will inevitably lead to thousands of criminal cases to be thrown out for instance; then doubling down when shown this was causing havoc.)  Nonetheless, in the States, if something is found not Constitutional, it will be tossed regardless of the scaffolding that has grown up around it.  More to the point, I find this weird balancing that always goes on in Canada, inventing stuff out of whole cloth that doesn't exist in the text (such as a particularly Canadian version of federalism) is unfortunate.  I certainly don't like how the Charter Rights are all balanced against each other, rather than there being near absolute freedom of speech (as one finds in the States).  I was particularly dismayed to learn about the Notwithstanding clause, which literally allows the government of the day to ignore the Charter Rights (and legal rulings against the government).  It basically means that Canadians' rights are always subject to legislative whim and political compromise.

It's this endless fudging at the heart of the political (and legal) system that does make it very difficult for me to wholeheartedly embrace Canada, since I don't think core rights should ever be negotiable.  I also think that when a document clearly says one thing (as Section 121 does) then it is really quite pathetic to try to interpret it a different way.  I guess we only have to wait another 100 years before the Supreme Court gets it right (and perhaps for the Constitution/Charter to be rewritten to remove the Notwithstanding clause).  Not holding my breath obviously.  It is a good thing, I guess, that I don't like beer or smokes and so don't have any interest in trying to smuggle them over the Quebec border.

* Not that there aren't some issues with unfettered (or nearly unfettered) free trade, as it generally undermines environmental protection in favour of corporate interests, as discussed in passing here.  That said, trade barriers often outlive their initial purpose and are simply maintained to benefit a small number of insiders and thus serve as a drag on overall consumer benefit and societal productivity.

Slowed-down Sunday

This is the first weekend that I am not running around like a madman.  I actually was fairly busy on Sat., but I still stayed fairly close to home.  I found out at the very last minute about a play at Assembly Theatre that sounded interesting, and I suppose I could have rushed off at 6:30 (and just made the 8 pm start), but I don't like going all that far, especially in the evening.  I'm already going to have to go that way Monday evening, and once per week is plenty.  If they had a Sunday matinee, I probably would have gone, but they didn't.

It's a slightly tougher decision to skip TCAF this year.  I go most years, but don't want to spend that much money, and it probably will start raining just about the time I turn up at the Reference Library.

Hold the horses, TCAF is next weekend!  Perhaps the date should be on the posters...  

Maybe I will go after all, especially as I have a Sat. matinee show at Soulpepper, so if the weather is nice I can bike to these various locations.  Anyway, this just confirms my decision not to head out today.

I do have some final edits to make to the script.  I probably will swing by the gym, and I have a fair bit of academic work to tackle, so it's not like this is a lazy Sunday, just not one where I am running around all over the place.  Maybe this evening I will even work a bit on my son's quilt, which has been on hold for quite a while now (as I was dealing with a bunch of deadlines).