Weekend Miscalculations

I could have sworn that when I looked up the Matty Eckler swim schedule, it said lane swimming was 1:30-3, but this is the time for leisure swimming, which is essentially useless to me for exercise, though I guess I could swim sideways laps in the deep end.  Obviously, I should have just run over to Jimmie Simpson at noon, but I think it will still be another couple of weeks before I am comfortable biking.  While I did get a few laps in midweek in Regent Park, I am far, far behind on my swimming, and without the biking, I am getting badly out of shape.  Sigh...

At any rate, I ran back to the mall and got a closet rod which I will attempt to install tomorrow and a couple of things from the grocery store that I had forgotten the day before.  I had just enough time to get a model run launched, then I headed over to Hirut.  I got there in the nick of time.  The back table was full (though honestly I think people were just hogging the chairs, and I probably could have squeezed in...), so I actually sat right at the front, but I did get in and wasn't shut out as has happened a couple of times now!  I knew I was only going to stay for the first set, though Dave Young and his group were really good, and it would have been terrific if I managed to get more of it.  Dave called a tune by Benny Golson, and we chatted briefly about Benny Golson and the fact that I had seen him twice in Chicago.*  Anyway, I went over to Thai Room and grabbed fried tofu to go and ate that on the train to Ossington.

I met my friend Annika at the Paradise, and we saw Rohmer's La Collectionneuse.  I liked the fact that it was in color, but this was actually a fairly hard film to swallow (even more than My Night at Maud's), as the men are even more pompous and vain (with very little reason to be in my view) and they are so appallingly sexist to the young woman, Haydee, who does seem to jump into bed with almost any inappropriate man (and only a very few who are at least age-appropriate).  I guess it is supposed to be a satire focused on the man who wants to open an art gallery (but shows no real affinity for the work that would be involved), but it is kind of an ugly one.  I'm a bit worried that I am not on Rohmer's wavelength after all, as I have so much of his work on DVD.  I guess I can slowly watch them and try to sell them off...  It took us a while to find a place to eat, as she wanted something a bit less spartan than many of the places around Dovercourt and the first Mexican place we went into had nothing I could eat, which was a surprising letdown.  We ended up at this place that was mostly a bar but with a limited Filipino menu (somewhat similar to the Zebra pub in Cambridge).  There was only one thing on the menu that either of us was willing to try (a tofu and kale dish), but it was surprisingly good.  I didn't appreciate the fact that they hustled us out the door, but I would be willing to eat there again, though it is pretty unlikely I will, in fact, go back.  I'll probably stick with Ethiopian or the bahn mi sandwich place, though it is very spartan indeed.

When I got home, I spent a bit more time organizing books and DVDs, as the package from my step-mother arrived!  I have an advance copy of Gwendoline Riley's The Palm House, but I want to check on this when the book is actually published in April, as sometimes the final published version is a bit different.

What is a bit more upsetting is that I simply cannot find a few DVDs that I was planning on watching.  They were "stored" near the TV, but then they were bundled up during a cleaning jag, and I can't locate them.  They should be upstairs, but they don't appear to be.  The next most likely place is in the back study, so I suppose I will just have to buckle down and straighten this room up.  I imagine there will be more (when I finally come across this missing stack), but I am currently on the hunt for Invader Zim Vol. 3, the Planet Earth DVD box set, and two of the films from Satyajit Ray's Calcutta trilogy: Seemabaddha (Company Limited) and Jana Aranya (The Middleman).  I actually had managed to watch the first film, The Adversary, which is about a young man struggling to find work in Calcutta, so it is back on the shelves where it belongs, but the others are in some mysterious place.  I do want to turn them up soon, but I really need to focus on getting this new bookcase put together and finishing up my Fringe script.  So the straightening up will have to wait for a while.
 

* I definitely wish that back when I was going to the Jazz Showcase I had a phone that recorded as well as the one I have now!  I would love to have saved some of those gigs for posterity.  I see that Joe Segal's heirs are starting to release recordings from the Jazz Showcase.  Maybe I should write and encourage them to release more shows by Andrew Hill, Benny Golson and Dave Holland, which are ones that grabbed me the most, though pretty much anything from the Jazz Showcase will potentially be of interest to me.

Cats and Chaos

I ended cutting it a bit close to getting to You, Always at Canadian Stage (because I decided I would take the replacement bus over) and then to the Arvo Pärt at 90 concert at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church (though this was because the copier at work was acting up on me and had to be restarted!).  I have been some other large church north of Bloor for a Soundstreams concert, but this was the first time at Yorkminster.  

The concert was good, though it's hard for me to really appreciate completely vocal pieces.  I was also pretty far in the back.  It was fortunate that 3 of the people in our pew left at intermission, so we could spread out a bit!  I nearly left Martry! there (on loan from the library) and had even left the church (after the encores) and had to fight my way upstream to get back in.  Fortunately, it was still there in the pew rack.  I just finished reading this last night, so am moving on to Faulkner's The Wild Palms next.*

Anyway, the kittens are basically feeling at home now, and I am sort of waiting for them to grow into full grown cats and cause less havoc.  Maybe I am being too optimistic about that.  On the positive side of the ledger, we still don't have mice in the house.  Also, Rho has definitely gotten friendlier, though she still doesn't like being picked up.  Both of them seek out attention, though on their own terms, but still a bit surprising, as this neediness is more of a canine trait.  Still, most of my cats have been pretty social.

But wow do they make a mess of things.  I have tried spraying, but they have really shredded the couch (despite the scratching post being right there, which they do use once in a while but not exclusively), and we'll probably have to replace this at some point, though again I might as well wait until they are a bit older and hopefully more sedate.  This cartoon is sadly quite accurate.

In addition, Toby loves jumping on shelves.  It is very upsetting that he keeps knocking down books from the poetry shelf in the upstairs bedroom.  I honestly don't know how many times he has to learn that this is just too precarious and not a place for him to perch.  Also, he jumped on the upstairs bookcase and knocked an entire shelf over!  It's tilted over at the moment, with the books ready to topple over at any moment, so I had to order a bookcase replacement.  I tried to find one that was sturdier, as, in general, I fill bookcases to their limit and beyond.  I have a bookcase in the basement that is showing signs of bowing dangerously, so I decided I would replace that at the same time.  This replacement showed up first, and I have moved it upstairs and tucked it behind the dining room table.  The bottom shelf is now handling the overflow art books.  And the other shelf has a bunch of DVDs, focused on the movies that I have been meaning to watch next.  So it has helped get things a bit more organized, provided that Toby doesn't try to jump on the bookcase and knock everything over.  (Also, when this box from my step-mother arrives, it will mean struggling once more to fit everything into place...)

I haven't quite gotten everything together for today's outing, but I think I am going to try to get some hardware at Home Depot, go swimming, come back and grab some dairy at the grocery store, then head over to Hirut to catch Dave Young's first set, and then take Line 2 all the way over to the Paradise.  

This evening, I want to finish watching Has's The Hourglass Sanatorium and at least start putting the new bookcase together downstairs.  Any remaining time needs to be spent on getting my Fringe script revised.  It's coming together, but I really need to just push through and get it out to the director and the actors, ideally tomorrow.

* I suppose this means it is time to get around to watching Varda's La Point Court, which was heavily inspired by The Wild Palms.  It looks like it should be reasonably simple to get from the library when I am through with Faulkner.

Squeezing in Even More on the Weekends

As indicated in the last post, weekends are usually pretty full for me.  This weekend, I am off to see a play at Canadian Stage, then see a Soundstreams concert (and I plan on going to the gym this morning).  I didn't have a lot planned on Sunday -- just swimming and then going to see a movie (Rohmer's La Collectionneuse) at Paradise.  However, I was just at Hirut for two evenings of great jazz with Mike Murley, Reg Schwager & Neil Swainson (and I managed to get quite a bit of work done on revising my Fringe play!).  I saw that they will have Dave Young playing a set on Sunday, starting at 4.  I don't have to be at the Paradise until 6, so I could probably stay as late as 5:20, but through the first set anyway, so I am leaning towards doing that.

But things get really crazy next Sunday.  I was trying to get to one of the Mooredale Concerts where the guest artist was going to play several Prokofiev piano sonatas.  The concert starts at 3:15, but I have to be over at TIFF to see another Buñuel film at 4, so that wasn't going to work.  I decided to try the "kids" version instead, which starts at 1:15 and wraps up by 2:15 or so.  (It might make going to the gym beforehand a bit challenging, so I need to really start on time next weekend!)  Now years ago, I took my son to one of the Mooredale children's concerts and it was interesting in how they really explained things to the kids, so it was very educational, but a bit annoying in how they broke the main piece up into separate movements and talked between each of them.  My guess is they won't break up individual sonatas, but I guess I'll find out.  I'm sure I would have preferred the full concert at 3:15, but this should still be entertaining.  Anyway, at 8, I then will mosey on over to the Rex to see a group led by Ewen Farncombe playing a couple of sets dedicated to Monk's music, so that should be great.  (Murley did one Monk tune on Thurs., and I believe 3 on Fri.  They even took requests!  I wasn't thinking quickly enough, so if I see him back at the Rex or Hirut and he takes requests again, I will ask for "Someone to Watch Over Me."  Murley played a bit of Kern and Cole Porter over the past two evenings, but no Gershwin; I don't think I've heard him play Gershwin.)  I don't think I need to worry about reserving a seat on Sunday, but I guess I'll find out.

I'm actually going to the Rex at least once and probably twice next week (before the Monk showcase).  I'll be seeing Gary Smulyan, backed by Neil Swainson and Terry Clarke.  I reserved a spot on Sat. (and I'll likely stick around for the late set).  I doubt I need to reserve on Wed., so I didn't do that.  Again, I'll find out...  I'm also seeing a movie at the Revue (De Palma's Blow Out) and another Buñuel at TIFF.  And seeing Some Like It Hot at Mirvish with my son.  So I am out virtually the entire week, aside from Monday.  (Maybe I'll run over to the AGO on Monday just for something to do...)  But I will be able to focus a lot on writing while I am at Hirut or The Rex, so it definitely doesn't feel like wasted time!

Sometimes you just can't make things work out, however.  I was supposed to see a RCM concert featuring the music of Golijov, but there was the big storm and they rescheduled it.  However, they rescheduled it to conflict with an Amici concert (indeed the only Amici concert I see all season!).  I wrote back trying to shame them into moving it, but I don't think I'll have much success.  I've also not managed to see Allison Au very often, as her gigs usually conflict with something else I am seeing.  I think I might manage to see her at the Rex in March, but even that is looking dicey.

My reading is going reasonably well, especially with all the time I am spending on the subway or streetcars.  I am halfway through Martyr! and will probably finish it over the long weekend.  I've read through more poetry, including two collections by Jana Prikryl.  I don't enjoy her work as much as Solie's, but there are some solid poems.  I've generally struggled to find poems about cycling.  Prikryl has written one short poem about cycling called "A Banquet" from her Midwood collection, and I could see including that in the anthology.  Once in a while, when I am feeling exceptionally ambitious, I also gather up poems about travel and tourism (for a second anthology!), and I thought "Jet Lag" would fit in with the others well.  So that's going along ok.  I have 5 or so poetry collections out from the library, and then I need to start going through the huge stack of poetry books I own and haven't read (probably half of which are from Brick Books).

But my main focus this week, when I have any free time is to get the second draft of At Home with the Bard done.  It's really shaping up, and I think I can circulate this by Monday.  That's the goal anyway.  At that point I need to get much more serious about casting and landing a stage manager and someone who can run the lights.

 

Over-stuffed weekend (Early Feb. 2026)

Virtually every weekend for me is a bit over-stuffed, and I likely have used that exact title before, so now I have to distinguish between them...

But this was one that had me seeing two plays (Mischief at Tarragon and Witch at Soulpepper), going to see the Cowboy Junkies at Koerner Hall, and then going to Warm Company (the successor to Toronto Cold Reads) on Sunday.  It would have been tight, but I attempted to go swimming at Regent Park, only to find that the lane swim was cancelled.  I was pretty upset, though in truth I mostly wanted to warm up in the spa pool area, and that hasn't even been open the last two times I went.  I think it would have been pretty disappointing all the way around had I been able to get in.  Nonetheless, I will see if I can get some swimming in on Tues. or Wed. evening this week.

Being blocked in that avenue, I took the Dundas streetcar over to Yonge-Dundas Sqaure and then popped into BMV.  I picked up Up and Alien on Blu-ray.  I don't think I have Up on DVD, but I might.  If so, I can try to sell that off.  I still regret not picking up Howl's Moving Castle on Blu-ray at the BMV on Bloor, so I will keep looking for that to turn up again.  Then I cut across on Queen, stopping in at City Hall to drop off More and More and More.  There was some Olympic Games viewing party at Nathan Philips Square, but it was way too cold and very few people were out.  I then continued on and made it up to Tarragon with about 15 minutes to spare.

I loved the set for Mischief (a small reserve store set inside a whale skeleton) and the video projections were first-rate.  The interactions between the store clerk and her uncle and aunt(?) were good, and clearly the playwright (who also played the store clerk) is going for something like Kim's Convenience (or even Corner Gas), but I felt that too much was subtext about her trauma of her mother disappearing and not grounded in the actual text that the audience gets to hear.  After all, she goes on and on about how she is fine and that she feels paying attention to this statue of Cornwallis just is allowing Cornwallis to live rent-free in the community's head, but then she explodes on her uncle, attacking him for no good reason, as well as, more justifiably though less plausibly, on a racist customer.  And she literally explodes the statue with fireworks from the store.  Mostly the interactions she has with the white customer and then a "good guy" in the woods aren't satisfying in the sense that she starts screaming at the customer, telling him that he stinks, and he glowers at her and then leaves the store.  Exqueeze me?  And then the "good guy" turns out, extremely implausibly, to be a cop, who says that she will be charged with criminal mischief, but then she just turns back up at the store, and we never find out if she has actually been charged and just let go to turn up later or if they don't think they can actually make the charges stick or what.  Basically, she writes herself into these corners and then doesn't do the hard work to get herself out.  I understand the challenges, facing some of these myself, but it doesn't change the fact that there are massive problems with the script.  Personally, I didn't like any of the interactions with the 300 year old spirit of her ancestors.  This was particularly lazy writing.  (Naturally, Joshua Chong over at the Star loved it, telling me once again that I will never enjoy a show that he likes and if he dislikes something, I will probably find a lot of merit in it.)

I spent a bit of time at work, mostly making some improvements to bid we are putting in for a project in Alberta, then I grabbed a sandwich at Subway, and took the train up Koerner Hall.  I've seen the Cowboy Junkies three times.  Once in their glory days (1990 or so) when they opened for Bruce Hornsby in Detroit, and then in 2023 at Danforth Music Hall and now at Koerner Hall.  I'm pretty sure I was supposed to see them at Massey Hall but the band came down with Covid and the concert was scrapped.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, though they are far more muted and a bit more depressed than they were back in the 90s.  The set list from Danforth is here, and here is the set list from this weekend.  They are broadly similar sets, though this time around they played several new songs, not even on an album!  In both cases, they played a lot off of Such Ferocious Beauty, and indeed the Danforth set was sort of a CD-release party.  In 2023, they played "Murder, Tonight, in the Trailer Park" and "Walkin' After Midnight."  This concert they played "Working on a Building," "'Cause Cheap is How I Feel" and "Fuck, I Hate the Cold" (so appropriate).  Combining the two concerts into one super live set would be incredible.  I have to track down the video I took from Danforth, but I should have it somewhere.  In both cases, Margo was drinking tea constantly, but her voice was fine under the circumstances.  I probably don't need to see them again, though never say never.  I would like to see Bruce Cockburn one more time, particularly if he brings a full band and it isn't just a solo show (as good as that was).

Sunday was generally smoother, though I got a bit of a late start going over to the gym.  I also spent a bit too much time looking for hardware over at Home Depot.  I didn't get back with the groceries until 1:20 (and somehow I didn't have the hamburger buns, which either got left at the store or perhaps fell out on the trek back).  Given that I obviously can't bike, as no bike lanes are truly cleared, and the Distillery is in this weird pocket with terrible transit service from the East End, I had to cab it.  I just cannot wait for it to warm up a bit and the roads to clear.  There have been a few times I skipped going down to Jimmie Simpson for the same reason, i.e. I can't bear taking 40 minutes to get somewhere on transit that would take 10-15 minutes on a bike.

Witch is a much stronger play than Mischief, though I still had a few issues with it.  I think they deliberately blurred the line between Edmonton (as a dukedom of some sort in old England) and the witch being from First Nations rural Edmonton.  That's probably mostly my spin, but the set did push me in that direction.  I think the script probably needed to give the witch a bit more to do to establish why the community thought she had any powers at all.  Did she ever heal anyone?  But overall, the conflicting needs of the characters were much stronger (and a bit of a lesson for me).  I am not entirely sure why they thought Frank should at least partially reciprocate Cuddy's barely suppressed romantic interest.  That made no sense to me.  Also, the extended (Morris) dance sequence after the explosive confrontation between Cuddy and Frank was way too long and self-indulgent.  I tuned out of that completely.  I kind of thought that Elizabeth's desire to tear it all down and start over was perhaps referring to the horrors of WWI and even moreso WWII, but that seems an extremely long wait, based on when the play was ostensibly set.  And I don't think the final, final scene worked (or even made much sense), but otherwise it was a strong piece and certainly worth checking out (whereas Mischief really needed a thorough rewrite).  I'm generally able to get through concerts and plays without too much coughing, though the Morris dance scene really tested my powers to stay the cough (and really was so unnecessary...).

I didn't have quite as much time as I had hoped at work, but I did get one thing done, then I went over to the Well.  I've been wanting decent Thai food for some time (and Thai Room was closed by the time the Cowboy Junkies set ended).  So I picked up something to go, and then suffered through a very slow streetcar trip (particularly on College) until I got to Dovercourt for the Warm Company reading.  I think next time I'll try to eat before getting there, as several people commented on how I had the only decent food in the place.  Oh well.  I hadn't actually eaten lunch and was pretty hungry by that point.

I had a chance to talk a bit more to Jamie, who is planning on directing (if I can improve the script enough), as well as Sam who would like to take the lead role, but isn't entirely sure he is up to it.  I liked most of the scripts though the first one was a bit too cliched.  My piece got some huge laughs, as the cast really sold the piece.  And at the moment the start is by far the strongest part of the script.  It's almost a bit of a problem, as it is quite tempting to leave things as they are and not put in the work to hone the script.  Nonetheless, it was great getting that positive feedback, and I think it makes it that much more likely they will start taking more of my pieces in the future.  I didn't make quite enough connections as I could have (I didn't have my cards with me), but I definitely laid the groundwork for next month.  Someone else asked if they could shift the date (as it conflicts with the Oscars), but they said no.  A bit unfortunate, as there was another concert I had hoped to go to, but this is more important, so I will be back with them in March.  Jane Smythe has agreed to come on board as well, probably as Abby, so I have even more motivation to get this done well.

So on the whole a good, though extremely cold, weekend.  Let's see what this week brings...

Feb. Reading

I'll start off with an announcement of interest only to me and that is I have finished booking all the out-of-town travel I am expecting for the near future.  Of course, work might take me somewhere (and in fact we just won more work in Calfornia).  I don't really want to travel to California at the moment, but I would be open to traveling west to Vancouver, as they are close to 20 degrees warmer than we are at the moment.  (This extended deep freeze is really bringing me down, including the fact that I can't shake this cough.)

I've had tickets to see Angela Hewitt in Ottawa for a while now, and I finally got around to booking the Via tickets and a hotel in Byward Market.  This should be fun.  I'm expecting to bring Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor on the train.  Then I am off to see Shaw's Heartbreak Hotel at the Shaw Festival in August.  I believe this is the only Shaw production they are putting on.  Last year, I was on the fence on seeing Major Barbara.  (I heard that the production in 2012 or so was much stronger.)  However, it was literally impossible to find a weekend matinee where the bus actually ran.  Such bad scheduling.  There were still several dates that I would have considered this summer, but the bus didn't run.  However, I did find a date in August that worked.  I read recently that the Shaw Festival is hoping to coordinate with Harbourfront and bring some Shaw productions to Toronto.  I'm all in favour of that, even if they probably will mostly bring the musicals over, which don't have a lot of interest for me.

As it turns out, this is going to be a major Stratford season in terms of what I am trying to catch.  I'm seeing three plays with my wife on one weekend (perhaps ironically right after Fringe has ended, so I won't be able to pick up any more material from our stay at a BnB).  I was a bit surprised when she told me she wanted to see Death of a Salesman and Othello and then probably Waiting for Godot.  I hadn't really planned on seeing Godot, as I just saw a good production at Coal Mine.  However, Paul Gross is in it, and I believe it is the only time he is acting at Stratford this summer.  Anyway, then I go back in Sept. for a long day to catch Saturday, Sunday, Monday by De Filippo and The Tao of the World, which is a modern version of The Way of the World, but set in Hong Kong.  It sounds interesting at any rate.  I have a few longer books including Skvorecky's The Bride of Texas and maybe Vanity Fair that I might take along on the bus ride(s) down.  I am going to skip Midsummer's Night's Dream and The Tempest, as they just put them on too often.

Anyway, I wasn't expecting it, but Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls turned up at the library.  I thought I had paused the hold for longer.  I decided I will hang onto it, but probably not get started on it until I have read a few other books, mostly likely Faulkner's The Wild Palms, O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find and McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (so a bit of a sweep through Southern literature).  But before I can get to this, I have some poetry collections to quickly read and return, as well as two novels by Slovak authors (including Mothers and Truckers!), which have to go back to Robarts soon.  So the Murakami might be waiting for a while.  Also, I didn't think it would turn up in time, but I am being sent a copy of Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!, which is the book our work book club is discussing in Feb., so I guess I'll also read that once it turns up.

I had tried to renew my copy of Jean-Baptiste Fressoz's More and More and More, which is an extremely depressing non-fiction account of how we never have managed any energy transitions nor stopped using coal or even wood as fuel, so the hope that we will suddenly start using renewables (and stop global warming in its tracks) is a complete fantasy.  We're clearly going to break through the 3 degree mark.  I really do regret that environmentalists haven't made any more traction and the world we are leaving for our children is going to be a fairly dreadful one as these bills come due.  I can only say that I have avoided owning a car or driving for most of my adult life, I stick to a vegetarian diet (which also is less carbon intensive), and I try to do most long-distance travel by train rather than flying.  And my work has generally been to support transit projects, though I have not worked exclusively in that domain.  Someone else had a hold on the book, so I couldn't renew it.  I'm skimming it right now and should be able to return it tomorrow, only a day late.  I also need to start reading a book on megaprojects, which I agreed to review for a journal.  

So certainly a fair bit of reading on deck for Feb., which will have to be balanced against revising my Fringe play.

Edit (02/08): I'm making decent progress through the poetry volumes, though I really need to focus a bit more on this megaprojects book.  I think this time around, my favorite poet has been Karen Solie.  She has several poems involving transportation (and my objective in reading this much poetry is at least ostensibly to finish up my transportation poetry anthology).  In her Griffin-winning collection Pigeon, there is a poem about a rough bus ride called "Medicine Hat Calgary One-Way" that I liked a fair bit (and would include if the anthology ever gets off the ground...).  I have made two extremely frustrating trips to try to look over Konchan's The New Alphabets at Fisher Rare Book Library.  I'm at the point I don't really care much any more.  If there is a Thurs. where I am coming up to see something at Koerner Hall (like an Esprit concert at the end of March), I might try again, but my interest is really low at this point.

Updates (Movies, Concerts and Fringe)

Last week I saw Buñuel's Viridiana.  There were moments I thought were very interesting or very creepy or both.  It was fairly obvious that her bringing a veritable raft of the wretched to stay on her uncle's estate was going to end badly.  It's only surprising that it didn't end worse for her.  (As far as I can tell, we are supposed to assume that the attempted rape was thwarted.)  Anyway, the scene with the paupers lined up just like the Last Supper was pretty daring, and you can certainly see why the film was banned in several Catholic countries.

I'm not sure how much I actually enjoyed the film (as a lot of it was stressful waiting for the paupers to turn on her), but I'm not sorry I saw it.  The scene where her crown of thorns falls out of her suitcase is classic!  I have another couple of weeks before the next Buñuel over at TIFF.

I already mentioned that I enjoyed Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, except for the portrayal of Bruce Lee.  I haven't entirely decided, but I might go see Reservoir Dogs at Carlton towards the end of the month.  I've never seen it, and while I don't generally enjoy ultra violent movies, I'm sure it's worth seeing.  I briefly debated going to see The Hateful Eight again, probably also at Carlton, but it didn't work out for some reason.  I did see Pulp Fiction there not so long ago, though my notes says this might have been back in August.  Good lord, how time flies!  I would like to see Jackie Brown again, which is perhaps the most enjoyable of his films to watch (for me), so I'll keep my eyes out for that.

I'm scheduled to see Rohmer's La Collectionneuse, De Palma's Blow Out and Wong Kar-wai's 2046 this month. I'd be up to try to catch Jarmusch's Father Mother Sister Brother, but I may have already missed its run at TIFF, and I don't think it made it out to The Fox or the Revue.  It's not my highest priority, but I'll see if it turns up somewhere close to me at some point.

It was quite overdue, and I finally found the time to watch Godard's Masculin Feminin.  I liked it far more than I expected.  I think it's a combination of the humour working with the material much better than in Breathless, and probably also I just like Jean-Pierre Léaud better as leading man; it was particularly droll when the girls told him to turn that trash off (when he put classical music on), and later he said his favorite musician was Bach.  (I wrote a play ages ago where the male lead wasn't much interested in music past Bach...)  I definitely wish this had been in the massive Godard box set.  I may still part with this box set (if I could find anyone to pay me even part of what it is worth), though I definitely need to watch Une Femme est Une Femme, though I expect I won't like this as much (it sounds like it might be more like Vivre sa vie, which was ok but not amazing).  Anyway, I kicked the idea around for a while and finally ordered a copy of Masculin Feminin, though it is being sent to my step-mother's house first, so I probably won't have it in hand for some time...

In terms of concerts, I saw a great concert by Tafelmusik where they did Bach's Brandenburg Concertos 1-4 on Sunday.  I cut it a bit close, and ended up running (in the snow!) and just catching the 72 bus.  Had I missed that bus, I would likely have been a few minutes late.  For some reason, they rewarded all the subscribers with their 1994 recording of all the Brandenburg Concertos.  I have a mini-subscription, so I also got the CDs.  Sweet!  I think I might already have a copy of this, but I'm sure I can find someone who would want it.

Then last night, I went and saw a percussion concert as part of the UT New Music Festival.  The first half were pieces by Vivian Fung and the second half were percussion pieces by Morton Feldman.  I didn't like the final piece, as it was too long and monotonous, but the other pieces were good.  Then last night I saw 3 pieces by Vivian Fung, including a very virtuosic flute concerto.  I left at the intermission, as I didn't really want to see the Unsuk Chin piece.  However, it made no difference in terms of getting home early.  The TTC was terrible.  Line 2 was shut down between St. George and Chester!  So I decided to try to take the streetcar.  As I made my move, they said that Line 2 service had been restored, but I wasn't able to jump off the train.  It might not have actually mattered, as there was suddenly another announcement about the security alarm being pulled on a train.  Definitely a bad night on the subway.  But it wasn't much better waiting for the streetcar at Queen's Park.  It was brutally cold out,* and the streetcar took forever to arrive.  When we finally got to the East End, we got stuck behind a very slow garbage truck around Degrassi, and of course the streetcar couldn't maneuver around it.  So a bad time getting home. 

On Friday, I am back to see a student orchestra at Koerner Hall.  They are doing yet another Vivian Fung piece, as well as Tchaikovsky Symphony 6.  Then I see Cowboy Junkies on Sat., which will be an interesting bookend, as I saw Sudan Archives the previous Sunday at The Great Hall.

It doesn't look like I am seeing any TSO concerts in Feb., though I went to see them three times in Jan., so it balances out.  I have two Soundstreams concerts, including one at Hugh's Room.  I also want to get over to Hirut a couple of times and the Rex two or three times in Feb.  Indeed, I might move my ticket at Coal Mine to a different day so I can see Gary Smulyan a second time.  I haven't entirely decided, and I don't want to then find out that those dates at the Rex are sold out.

At any rate, I probably can use this time productively.  I finally got feedback from a few people I sent my script to.  They basically agreed with me it was too talky.  The overall idea was ok, but there wasn't enough conflict driving the action, and the whole thing needed a lot of tightening up.  That said, one actor is leaning towards signing on for the main part, and I have landed someone who will direct the play, if I make significant improvements to the script.  While I have fond memories of this first draft, I agree it really could blossom more if I put in the work and don't get all defensive about what I have written and resist making these changes.  But still, it definitely means almost completely rewriting the piece, when it was only last Sat. that I got the whole thing down and formatted properly for the first time.  Still, I want to see if I can create something I can really be proud of.  

So that's the main news, and I really need to head off to bed now. 

* It looks like we have a solid seven more days of this terrible cold weather, so none of the damn snow will melt, and there isn't a chance in hell I am going to bike in this weather (which means I am definitely getting out of shape).  This has been a really bad winter, weather-wise at any rate.

Movies, Movies, Movies!

This is basically a continuation of this post.  This is a very good time in Toronto for art films.  It may even slightly surpass the mid 90s, which was a good time indeed.  I still don't like TIFF policies (which did indeed shift post-COVID, and they were far more reasonable pre-COVID).  Nonetheless, I was able to see pretty much all the Naruse I wanted.  If it had been scheduled differently, I would have tried to watch Repast, but I guess I can watch it on DVD at some point this winter.

I guess there are a few SPOILERS here and there, so be warned...

TIFF also started a very compact Buñuel retrospective.  As it happens, I was seeing Belle de Jour at the Revue (last night incidentally, and I'll include a few thoughts about it down-thread).  Ages and ages ago, I saw Un chien andalou (the film he made with Dali) and don't really need to see it again.  Now the first time through, I was only able to book a ticket to the late film Viridiana.  I was frustrated with TIFF as usual, but just now I saw a few seats had opened up at most of the screenings, so I booked tickets for Diary of a Chambermaid, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, which certainly covers all the major films.  I would have tried to see That Obscure Object of Desire (Buñuel's final film), but it only plays once, conflicting with Eric Rohmer's La Collectionneuse over at Paradise, and I expect I'll enjoy that more (and I already had tickets to see my 2nd Rohmer film!).

One of the more interesting things about the ending of Belle de Jour is that it is definitely a fantasy (not completely dissimilar to the "Love Conquers All" edit of Brazil, and I suspect that Buñuel was an important influence on Gilliam) but also that it could lead to a reading that the entire prostitution plot was a very elaborate fantasy (and none of it happened).  I mean probably not, but it's at least possible.  There are also two direct references to Godard's Breathless.  First there is the male New York Daily Herald paper hawker, who shows up right as the two thugs are introduced.  And then the shooting of Marcel is framed almost exactly as the shooting of Michel in Breathless, with the key exception that Marcel went out guns blazing and Michel is inadvertently caught up in his shooting death.  This can't possibly be accidental.

I think I mentioned that I did see Godard's Contempt at the Revue but didn't actually care that much for it.  I think I am basically immune to the charms of Godard...

It's possible that the single best movie I saw all month was Antonioni's La Notte.  It was over at the Fox, and I did break my semi-serious vow not to go over there again, but it was worth it.  And indeed hardly anyone showed up, so the shallow raked floor didn't matter.  This film came out one year after Fellini's La Dolce Vita, and I think there are strong parallels between the two movies, though it's hard to say how far along Antonioni was with La Notte by the time he would have been able to see La Dolce Vita.  Interestingly, apparently there was a version ready for the Italian censors in Nov. 1960, and La Dolce Vita was released in Feb. 1960.  Of course, Mastroianni is in both, automatically linking the two.  I think I actually like La Notte a bit better than La Dolce Vita, as it is just more focused.  It's one of the only Antonioni films I actually like.  After this screening, I stuck around and watched No Other Choice, a black comedy from South Korea about a fired factory foreman who kills off rivals for an opening at another paper company.  I think the director may have missed a trick in not having the AI machinery kill him off accidentally at the end, perhaps when he unnecessarily hit the paper rolls with his baton, setting off some chain reaction...

The funniest movie I saw was Bottoms as part of Queer Cinema Club at the Paradise.  This is basically Heathers mixed in with Mean Girls and of course Fight Club (though the point of starting the fight club is to get with hot cheerleaders, which is so Revenge of the Nerds...).  Even though the weather was truly horrendous, everyone showed up, and it was a sold out screening!  I'm certainly glad I made it.  The series has managed to show some incredible films (as well as a few I strongly avoided...).  I also enjoyed Mulholland Drive (which I barely got into), three or so Fassbinder movies, Zero Patience, 2 Almodovar films, and Touch of Pink.  Oh and Kajillionaire, which I almost certainly wouldn't have seen without the club, and I enjoyed this a lot.  (Same with Pat Mills's Guidance.)  

I found the relationship between the slightly butch lesbian and the artistic/theatrical gay male in Can You Ever Forgive Me? reminded me a lot of the lesbians in my mother's circle who ran the AIDS crisis line in Detroit, and I felt moved by that.  (Ah, memories...)   Once in a while I am not able to make a Queer Cinema Club showing but then catch the film later, which is what happened for Law of Desire and Tangerine.

Despite fighting off a cold that makes me miserable, stuffing myself with cough drops, I just saw Galaxy Quest, which is so terrific.  I'm going to make yet another trip out to the Revue on Friday to see Blake Edwards's Skin Deep, followed by Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  After that, De Palma's Blow Out at the Revue and 2046 at Paradise.  But the somewhat obsessive desire to catch up with films may taper off a bit by April (and I end up seeing a lot more concerts and plays).  I guess we'll see...

Edit (01/30): Just back from seeing Skin Deep, which was ok but not amazing.  John Ritter was playing quite a narcissistic womanizer who nonetheless triumphs in the end.  Apparently, this was going to be a sequel to 10 with Dudley Moore (called 11), but then they completely rewrote the entire thing after Moore dropped out and Ritter came aboard, trying to shed/shred his sitcom image.  However, I really enjoyed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with a few reservations, namely the portrayal of Bruce Lee as a schmuck and the ultra-violent fight scene where the Manson family attacks a different house (not Polanski's and Tate's) and are thwarted.  But it definitely made for a long night.  Transit back home from the Revue has been very poor both times this week.  I think I have one more night out at the Revue planned for Feb. 20, and I may scale it back after that until it is warmer out again.

I actually forgot that I had checked out a Blu-ray from Scorsese's Polish Movie Classics called The Hourglass Sanatorium directed by Wojciech Has, which indeed is based on Bruno Schulz's stories.  (I enjoyed these very much in my 20s and should find some time to return to them soon...)  Anyway, I simply ran out of time and returned it to Robarts half-watched.  But I learned that TPL did have this film after all, as well as Has's The Saragossa Manuscript, so I have just borrowed them.  I was looking at some of the other films that Scorsese had picked out and decided I was interested in watching Wadja's Ashes and Diamonds, as well as Night Train and Wadja's Innocent Sorcerers.  As it happens, I have all of these films already (on R2 DVDs), though I haven't watched them.  Well, something to consider come springtime...