Random, Somewhat Muddled Thoughts

I'm still emerging from a late afternoon nap.  I don't take all that many naps, and I had debated if I should set the alarm for 6 pm or so, and then possibly make my way down to the Rex to see Mark Murley.  I absolutely would have had Neil Swainson been on bass, but it was some other bassist.  I finally decided I would just pass and catch up a bit on sleep.  When I woke up, I assumed it was the middle of the night, but it was only 9 pm!  So I'm somewhat refreshed, but also still a bit disoriented.

I think I might as well start out writing down some thoughts on how my events calendar is still a bit in flux and then go from there, to see if I can catch up on any of the other blog posts I have been meaning to write.

At one point, I had thought I was going to see Hairspray over at Hot Docs.  It was a sing-along, which I would have found a bit hard to swallow, but I would have gone along with it.  It became apparent though that this was the movie of the musical, and not the John Waters original.  Even though the musical was filmed in Toronto (over in Roncy mostly, I believe), I had no interest in going.  Then I thought I would go to a preview performance of Last Landscape over at Buddies instead.  I had a note on my calendar that said Buddies was next Friday, though I wasn't sure if that was just a "note to self" or I had actually ordered tickets.  It turns out I had gotten a ticket but hadn't printed it out yet, so that ruled out Buddies for the evening.  And as I said, I ruled out the Rex and took that nap instead.

Yesterday (Sat.) I had managed to go swimming (though between the staff closing the spa pool early and terrible streetcar service, I was cheated out of a 5 minute soak in the spa) and then zigzagged across the city checking out small art galleries.  I got to work around 4 pm.  I had intended to put in a couple of hours, go home and eat and then come back to the Rex.  Instead I put in a few extra hours, and before I knew it, it was 7:30, so I just worked an extra half hour and walked over to the Rex.  Somehow I had got my wires crossed.  Alex Dean was last week.  I'm sure the group (not Mark Murley) was fine, but I decided I would rather go home.  I don't need to be out all the time.  I ate a late dinner and eventually watched Antonioni's La Notte, including a fairly interesting short documentary on the role of architecture (particularly all the glass that sometimes reflects and sometimes allows for voyeuristic moments in the film).  I'll circle back to this in an upcoming post, I promise.

This upcoming week is quite busy.  Monday is just about the only day I don't have anything scheduled.  I should run up to Robarts (to return La Notte and pick up a few more books on the hold shelf -- I'm currently intrigued by John Burnside and Michael Longley, as if I didn't have enough else on my reading list...).  While I could go to the Rex to see Murley after all, I think I'm going to pass.  I expect I will end up watching Almodovar's Matador instead (as I get closer and closer to seeing all of his films!).

Tues., I have a free ticket to the See the North series at TIFF, which is in fact always free to the public (not just TIFF members).  They are playing Pool's La femme de l'hotel.  While I don't expect her to show up, I guess you never know.  At one point, I had two tickets but in the very first row.  Quite a few opened up, and I moved back (but gave up the second ticket).  I told a couple of people about it, but I'm starting to get too stressed about coordinating these things, and I am probably not going to book second tickets from here on out.*

Wed. I am planning on running over to Paradise to see Can You Ever Forgive Me?, mostly to see a late career film by Richard E. Grant.  I haven't actually gotten my ticket to that, so I should do so.  I'm pretty sure I have a 15% off coupon.

Thurs., I am going to see Come From Away.  There was a big Boxing Day sale and I got the second ticket for a twoney (plus some fees), but my work colleague bailed, and then the two actors also bailed, and I finally found someone to go.  I had hoped to take my son over his winter break, though in the end we saw 3 movies plus the failed experiment of Sing-Along Messiah, which was actually a lot.

Friday I will be at Buddies to see Last Landscape.

Sat. it appears that I am going to see the matinee of Winter Solstice at Canadian Stage (I don't know anything about it, but the cast is amazing) and then I'll probably see this one-night only thing at Factory, though the last time I checked you couldn't get tickets, which does make me wonder if it felt through.  (Actually, now the website says it is sold out - Grrrr, so I will email just to get on the waiting list and see if it turns up as a full production down the road...)  There is a small chance I will set up a special viewing of some prints by Naoko Matsubara at Abbozzo Gallery over at 401 Richmond, but they may not want to do this over the weekend.  I guess I'll find out.  

Then Sunday, I am supposed to see Emanuel Ax playing a Mozart piano concerto, and then I'll head straight to the Paradise to see YiYi.  YiYi is a film I've been meaning to watch for a long time, but I simply find it easier to carve out the time to see films on the big screen.

I don't have a lot going on the following week, but I go expect to go to the Rex to see Brian Dickinson and Neil Swainson at least once and maybe twice.  I'm seeing something at RCM on Friday (apparently a song cycle based on poems from Margaret Atwood's Dearly).  I think I had been thinking of checking out Tafelmusik over at the McMichael, but this would be next to impossible to get to, which unfortunately is also the case for a June 5 concert.  I just might be able to work it to go on Sun. March 23.  It does appear that the Jan. and June concerts are repeated at the Toronto Botanical Garden, and I'll likely go on Jan. 25 and potentially June 15 as well.  If I can find the time on the 25th, I might see about catching Blade Runner at Carlton.

Now the last week of Jan. is when things get kind of fuzzy.  On the Sunday, I meet a friend for lunch and we then head over to Canadian Stage for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (kind of heavy stuff for a matinee!).  We currently don't have seats together, but I have asked the box office to see if something can be worked out.  Anyway, then I run over to catch the train to Bloor West and then walk over to the Revue to see La Dolce Vita, which is also pretty long and heavy in a different way (when we get to the intellectual and his children...).

Monday I will have to make sure I leave work on time and then hop over to the Revue to see Antonioni's L'Avventura.  I'm almost certain that I have seen L'Eclisse before, though I suppose I can borrow it from the library to make sure.  Anyway, watching L'Avventura should round out my viewing of his greatest films, and one day I'll get around to The Passenger and Zabriskie Point, but I'm not in a hurry.  I'm pretty sure that my favorite will be La Notte, which has more than a little in common with La Dolce Vita, though if anything it's even more jaded.

After this, things are up in the air, because I am supposed to head over to Edmonton for a work trip, but they haven't said what day it will be.  I'm kind of hoping it is Tues. in the late afternoon or Wed.  

I'm almost certainly going to be back in Toronto on the 31st, and I'm very close to booking a ticket to a TSO concert, and then I think I will book a ticket for a comedian on the 1st.  Maybe I will do that tonight.  Thurs. evening is a concert by the Jack Quartet, and I'd like to see that, but I do need to wait until this work trip firms up.

Then I am seeing Tafelmusik on Feb. 2 and I should be able to get over to the Revue to see The Conversation, but I think I will just try to get tickets at the door rather than book them and not be able to use them.

There's a fair bit going on in Feb. and March, but I think I'll just focus on events I haven't booked just to try to focus my attention and not forget anything.

I'll just check with my wife, but I think we'll go see this creepy show at Red Sandcastle on Fri. Feb. 7.

There is a show about ecological collapse (naturally) called Dimanche.  It looks like I can go on Feb. 22.  I don't think she'd want to go, but I will ask.  There is actually someone at work who might want to make it.

I asked around if any of the neighbours wanted to see Buena Vista Orchestra over at Danforth Music Hall, but apparently not, so I will book a single ticket for that, and likely I'll go see Age of Arousal at Alumnae the next day.

Then there is a show called Truck at Factory at the end of March that looks pretty interesting (about how self-driving trucks will put even more of the working class out of work). 

So that is definitely plenty to think about for the immediate future.  At some point, I'll get serious about booking a ticket to MacBeth at Stratford.  I think I had narrowed it down to one weekend where I could also see The Winter's Tale.

* I was able to bring a friend to Pain and Glory and my son to a couple other Almodovar films at TIFF, but somehow out of all the people that I sometimes invite to events (6 or so), no one could make All About My Mother!  In the end, I held the ticket too late to return through the website.  The woman at the box office said it would normally be a $3 fee, though she knew someone who could use the ticket after all and waived it.

Revue Thoughts in Early 2025

I'm making my way over to the Revue more often than I would have expected, but I still don't think I will really make a habit of it, and I don't think it would be worth it to get a membership there.  On New Year's Day, I saw Waking Life, which is an animated film by Richard Linklater.  I thought it was interesting but definitely too long.  Indeed, the main character "The Dreamer" starts commenting towards the end that he has been trying to wake up but just keeps ending up in a different dream.*  There is even a guy who turns up to explain what lucid dreaming is, and how one of the key "tells" is that you can't change the lighting level in a dream, so if you switch a light switch in a dream and nothing happens, then you know you are in a dream.  I think this is a movie I would have enjoyed a lot more in my 20s.  I don't want to get into a long discussion of my dreams, though I will say they have generally been a lot more involved in the last year or so, and usually are just crammed full of details, like me looking over full bookcases or tables full of stuff, as at a jumble sale.  It's kind of impressive just how much mental energy must go into that.

While I was there, I asked about getting tickets to Withnail and I on Friday, but they were sold out.  The young woman working the ticket booth said that almost everyone that showed up and got into the rush line eventually got in.  I debated it for a while, then decided I would do that.  I left work a bit early, though not when I had planned to leave, and caught the Kitchener train with 3 minutes to spare!  It was a cold evening.  I remember hoping that they would just take our info in line and then we could go somewhere else, and I was debating if I had time to make it over to MOCA and back or not.  Or alternatively, if they said there was no hope in getting in, I would have stopped in at MOCA.  I have seen the current exhibits at MOCA, so I didn't feel that it was critical I get back over there, but it would have been something to do.  That didn't happen, however.  We just stood in line in the cold for 45 minutes, but we did all get in in the end.  What was particularly frustrating is if it had been just a few degrees warmer, I could have gotten quite a bit of reading in while waiting in the line, and I would have finished the 3rd Maqroll novella Un Bel Morir.  I only just finished this up last night, so I would have been pretty deep into the 4th novella by now.

I will say that being quite cold, particularly in my toes, was probably good training for the film, where the characters are cold in London and then cold and wet and particularly miserable in the countryside.  I certainly thought it was an interesting though squalid film.  I'm pretty sure the reason I didn't want to see it back in the day was just how claustrophobic it all felt when Monty shows up and tries to seduce Paul McGann's character.  I may or may not have been aware back in the day (from other critics) just how much gay panic runs through the entire film, and this aspect of the film is still very hard to tolerate.  I had a bit of a toxic friendship that lasted into my early 20s, though I certainly didn't get up to the same sort of hijinks that these two did, but I hadn't broken away when the film had first come out, so it might not have spoken to me in the same way if I had seen it fairly early on after its original release.  Or indeed, maybe it would have hastened the breakup, but most likely not, as the events that really led up to our breakup didn't happen for years afterwards.  (I'm sure I had a few opportunities to catch the film at second-run theatres in Toronto or Chicago in the early to mid 90s, but there was a long stretch in the 90s when I didn't have a TV and obviously not a VHS player or DVD player, which is why I do have lots of gaps particularly for movies from this era.)

Towards the end of the month, the Revue is showing La Dolce Vita, and I already have my tickets for that, so no rush line for me!  It will be almost 10 years since I saw it (for the first time!) over at TIFF.  How time flies!  I noted back then that I had wanted to see Amarcord but couldn't make it work out.  I did see Amarcord over at the Revue in 2023, and this was likely the first time I had been over there.

They have been advertising a few other movies they are showing there, including Antonioni's L'Avventura.  I debated it for a while but decided it was worth checking this out as well, so I ordered tickets to that.  I have seen Blow Up over at the Paradise.  I am sure I saw The Red Desert, mostly likely out in Vancouver, though I am not sure if I did see this in a theatre or not.  I'm pretty sure I saw one but possibly two Antonioni films on the big screen while I was there.  If I had to guess, I would say it was L'Eclisse.  I don't think I have seen La Notte, which features Marcello Mastroianni, covering one day and night in his character's life.  I probably should watch it either right before or right after La Dolce Vita.  Or before Linklater's Before trilogy.  It turns out that the Revue is showing all 3 in a row in early Feb., and I decided I might as well go to that.  I do wish they had a special pass to see them together, but they aren't doing that.  Too bad.  This may well be too much of a good thing, but I've always been at least a little curious about these films, none of which I've seen.

I would say that the Revue is pretty much my ideal 2nd run movie theatre, though the bathrooms are a bit grotty and too small.  I do like the Paradise a bit more, but there are weeks when they are hardly showing any movies (and the bathroom situation isn't much better though at least the fixtures are newer).  The Fox now generally shows one or two movies for an entire week and nothing else, and it is just so far to get to on TTC and there really aren't many good dining options out that way.  The screens at Carlton are a bit too small.  The Royal has still not recovered from COVID and doesn't show many movies at all.  TIFF really does not show nearly enough older movies, and I am pretty fed up with their ticketing policies and how they never have enough seats available for older foreign movies.  But between all of them, there are definitely a lot of movies to be seen.  I have to run for now.  Ciao!

* It is worth pondering if this somehow inspired Inception...

Best Theatre of 2024

I have to admit, I didn't do a great job of keeping track of, and certainly not reviewing, what I saw this year, but I did see a lot of theatre, most of which was good or even great.  Let's see what I can reconstruct for 2024.

Jan.

i am your spaniel by We Quit Theatre @ Buddies.  (This was very good, but I did not like the other two plays put on by We Quit Theatre.)
Better Living by George F. Walker @ Alumnae
Diana and Casey @ Soulpepper.  (It was ok, but not really my thing.  I found many elements of the play to be predictable and/or emotionally manipulative.  A few critics put this on their best of lists.)
Two Noble Kinsmen by Shakespeare @ Shakespeare Bash'd (A good production of a minor play.)

Feb.

MacBeth: A Tale Told by an Idiot @  Eldritch Theatre/Red Sandcastle Theatre

(I saw something else at Theatre Centre in Feb., but didn't care much for it.)

March

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard @ Mirvish

April

The Inheritance @ Canadian Stage (Technically, Part 1 was in March...)
Staged reading of The Knight of the Burning Pestle - Shakespeare Bash'd
shaniqua in abstraction by bahia watson @ Crow's Theatre
Mad Madge @ Theatre Centre
El Terremoto @ Tarragon
Huff by Cliff Cardinal @ Crow's Theatre (This almost didn't happen because he had to cancel a performance, but I was able to catch one the next day.)

(I actually traveled out to Hamilton to see Lobby Hero, but it was so cliched, not a good play at all.)

May

First Métis Man of Odesa @ Soulpepper
The Wrong Bashir by Zahida Rahemtulla @ Crow's Theatre
Seven methods of killing kylie jenner @ Obsidian/Crow's Theatre (I didn't love this, and it would have spoken much more to my son who is deep into social media, but it had it's moments)

June

Age is a Feeling by Haley McGee @ Soulpepper (I liked this so much I went back a second time and saw nearly all of the segments I missed on my first viewing.)

July

Toronto Fringe - I liked Gringas (aside from the ending), James Roque in Champorado, the improv show Before We Go, All of Our Parents are Immigrants, and You Lost Me.

Aug.

Hamlet @ High Park/Canadian Stage (The acting was terrific, though the director's vision for the play was completely warped and made this an inferior experience.)

Sept.

Fierce by George F. Walker @ Alumnae
London Assurance @ Stratford
Twelfth Night @ Stratford
Girls Unwanted by George F. Walker @ King Black Box (Amazing.  Probably the single best thing I saw in 2024.)
Infinite Life by Annie Baker @ Coal Mine (This really dragged, and the plot was unusually thin even by Baker's standards.)

Oct.

1939 @ Canadian Stage (This was ok, though I couldn't believe how much attention they gave to the priest's flatulence.  I mean really?)
Who's Live is it Anyway @ Massey Hall (the improvising was amazing, but the seats were terrible)
This Feels Like the End @ Buddies/Toronto Fringe (I just couldn't get past the premise that the sun would disappear but plants would keep growing and the moon would still be in the sky.  In general, the acting was solid but the ending was completely confusing.  So I guess not a success but still interesting.)
Something Rotten @ Stratford (The bus ride was totally horrible, but we made it just in time and the musical was terrific!)
Goblin Macbeth @ Tarragon (Also terrific.)
Wonderful Joe by puppeteer Ronnie Burkett @ St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts (it is astonishing how much emotion Burkett conveys through his puppetry)

Nov.

Staged reading of Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy - Shakespeare Bash'd
I Don't Even Miss You @ Factory (Again, the SF premise was completely implausible and really took me out of the play.  Too bad...  And I really thought the talk-back would focus much more on environmental disaster and theatre and instead it was almost entirely about artistic process and making art as a couple.  Sigh.)
A Case for the Existence of God @ Coal Mine
Interior Design @ Tarragon
Playing Shylock @ Canadian Stage
Dead Broke by Will King @ Theatre Centre (I didn't feel this ghost story was sufficiently grounded, and the "internal rules" of the play kept shifting)
McNeal by Ayad Akhtar @ Lincoln Center, NYC (The main reason to see this was to catch Robert Downey, Jr. in the flesh, though Andrea Martin was also quite amusing.)
The Bidding War @ Crow's Theatre
Erased @ Theatre Passe Muraille (This piece had very strong connections to Caryl Churchill's Far Away.  I didn't see a single review that pointed this out, which seems bizarre.)

(I was supposed to see Timon of Athens at Theatre Centre, but I just had too many things to deal with before my trip to NYC and DC; I ended up forfeiting the ticket, which is extremely rare for me.)

Dec.

Big Stuff by Baram and Snieckus @ Crow's Theatre  (Very moving show about grieving for lost relatives and having trouble letting go of things that are reminders of them.  Suggestions from the audience are woven into the narrative.)
The Master Plan by Michael Healey @ Crow's Theatre/Soulpepper (I managed to score rush tickets to this remount of The Master Plan at Soulpepper.  Almost the entire cast returned, though Healey himself joined the cast and plays a tree!)
It Sees You When You're Sleeping by Phil Rickaby @ Red Sandcastle (A creepy cautionary tale on why parents should avoid bringing Elf on the Shelf into their homes.)

The single best play was Walker's Girls Unwanted, but Age is a Feeling, Goblin Macbeth and Big Stuff were also terrific, as was The Master Plan, though this was my second time 'round seeing it, so there wasn't the same element of surprise.  The best (and quite possibly the only) musical of the year was Something Rotten, which I saw at Stratford.  I just don't have the energy right now to do more fulsome reviews, but I do think I managed to track down pretty much everything I saw in 2024, with a few strategic omissions...

Sing-for-Your-Supper showed up for 3 months or so at Assembly Theatre (I made it twice), then the new custodians got burned out and pulled the plug right around the time of the Toronto Fringe (which was a pretty solid season, btw).  They may restart in 2025, but I'm getting a little tired of being jerked around and may just go off and do my own thing to have some sort of creative outlet.  Mostly, I just need to find the time to write down everything I've jotted down while at the Rex, and then I suppose I can worry about what to do with it all.  Not the worst problem in the world to have...

Last 2024 Updates

Generally, 2024 was a dumpster fire with the U.S. election just the icing on the cake, leading to what will clearly be a shitty 2025 and beyond.  I've certainly lost what remaining respect I had for Americans, and there certainly wasn't much left to begin with.  Probably it's just as well that Jimmy Carter passed away in time for Biden to give him a dignified farewell, since the Orange one would have been his typical graceless, asshole self.  I cannot wait for the day we hear of his passing.  I was going to throw a party when W. passed away, but it will have to be an even more massive party when Trump leaves this planet, hopefully soon.  I'll have to make more friends just to invite them...

I don't think I'm going to do a full year-end review of all the concerts I saw.  I'm just a bit too tired.  On the classical side, I saw Kronos Quartet (the last time with the classic line-up of Sherba and Dutt!), and they were amazing of course.  Laurie Anderson came to town in April, and she was incredible.  (I do hope she brings her new show to Toronto!)  I actually travelled to NYC to see Pacific Quartet, to make up for getting shafted and having to give up my tickets to see them in Toronto.  I was supposed to see Sheku Kanneh-Mason play at Koerner Hall, and, due to the idiocy of Air Canada, they had to cancel and reschedule the concert for June 2025!  This briefly hit the national news.  It certainly didn't help that the news of the cancellation went out at 5:30 pm that day, so I showed up with almost everyone else to hear the bad news.  

In other bad concert fiascoes, Neil Young cancelled his second show at Budweiser Stage.  I guess The Fixx cancelling their show due to a medical emergency actually happened in 2023, but Kronos cancelled a show in Montreal (that I had tickets for!), and then Perry Farrell essentially decided to break up Jane's Addiction in the middle of a concert, leading to the cancellation of the rest of the tour.  I didn't really care about seeing Jane's Addiction, but I did want to see Love and Rockets (again).  So frustrating!  Still no word if Love and Rockets will tour in 2025 or indeed if The Fixx will make up any of their concerts, let alone come over to Toronto.

The single best rock concert of 2024 was probably Squeeze with The English Beat opening, but I also enjoyed Spoon (as headliners at Danforth Music Hall), 54-40 (also at Danforth), Steve Earle (ditto), The The (Massey Hall), The Killers (though I hated having to stand for the full set!), Sarah McLachlan (the Fumbling Towards Ecstasy tour), Skye Wallace (once at the Great Hall and then 2(!) secret shows), Elvis Costello, and the Psychedelic Furs (though I definitely could have skipped The Jesus & Mary Chain).  Nick Lowe's show was surprisingly good, though I also had to stand for the entire set, partially made up by the fact I was standing near Rob Baker of the Tragically Hip!  I found out at the last minute about a Lowest of the Low gig at the Rivoli (I don't think I had been there before) and actually had to sign up for a spot on the wait list, and I got a ticket at the very last minute.

I really saw a ton of Pedro Almodovar films and enjoyed most of them a lot.  The best one (new to me) was probably Volver, followed by Broken Embraces and then I suppose The Flower of My Secret.  I liked the flashback scenes from Julieta but not the story set in present day, which pretty much matches my feelings about the underlying Alice Munro stories.*  (This more than made up for getting the TIFF membership, but I still fundamentally disagree with the way they run things there and won't be renewing for 2025...)  There are lots of interesting parallels when watching them back to back to back, and I'll try to mention at least a few of these connections at some point.

It looks like I have now managed to see all but 5 of Almodovar's films: Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Matador, High Heels and Live Flesh.  I suspect the best of the bunch is What Have I Done to Deserve This? (and I am definitely regretting that I went to see Sing-Along Messiah instead, as that didn't turn out particularly well, but I had no idea of course that my son would have gotten so stressed out over it).  I'll see if I can make a bit of a push to watch these in Jan. or Feb., just to wrap up my deep dive into his work early in 2025.  I keep looking to see about getting a t-shirt or magnet celebrating his work, particularly All About My Mother, but am really turned off by the shipping prices.  Maybe I should just bite the bullet and not think about it too much.  (I did save a lot by shipping several books and DVDs to my step-mother in the States, and I now have everything in hand except the massive Bergman box set from Criterion.  I just don't think it would be worth sending a t-shirt for her to bundle together would make a lot of sense...  Now it probably would make sense to send a Mosaic box set, but honestly I think I am done ordering from Mosaic.  I just don't listen to music obsessively the same way anymore, and it would just be a waste of money -- and shelf space.)

I bought a few pieces of art in 2024 and have my eye on one or two more pieces, though really I just don't have much free wall space any longer!

Probably the best art exhibit I saw was the Henry Moore-Georgia O'Keefe exhibit in Montreal in early 2024. 

I also went to Buffalo twice in 2024!  Early in the year to see the Clyfford Still exhibit at the Albright-Knox, and then back again late in the year to see Marisol.  (I had also seen Marisol in Montreal in 2023, but they did change it up just a bit in each venue.)

Marisol, The Jazz Wall, 1963

Marisol, ABCDEFG & HI (with The Family in background), 1961-62

Marisol, The Party, 1965-66

Somehow I keep forgetting that I made a lot of travel for work, including two trips to Edmonton (where the museums are generally dire, though the art gallery does have two terrific Alex Janvier paintings).

Alex Janvier, Lubicon, 1988

Alex Janvier, Grand Entry, 1980

I also made two trips to Vancouver (once for a conference), a trip to northern California, where I was able to take an extra day and hang out in SF (and of course  check out a bunch of museums) and then a trip to Baltimore for the TRB Equity conference.  The equity conference was terrific, but not only did I catch COVID at the end, though the symptoms passed quickly, but the Crowdstrike IT meltdown ended up stranding me in Atlanta!  Ultimately, I took a Greyhound bus back to Detroit and then Flixbus on to Toronto.  I may be conflating trips, but I think this is also the trip where my iPod finally gave up the ghost.  I tried several things to try to reboot it and resurrect it, but I think it is completely dead.  I'm not entirely sure if I would replace it even if I could.**  Generally, these trips are not documented very well, at least on the blog.  I do have well over 3000 photos from all these trips, and I could probably throw at least a few of them up here.  

I guess I sort of forgot that I went to the Banksy exhibit in the fall.  

Banksy, Grim Reaper, 2005

Banksy, CYW Green, n.d.

It was fine, but it certainly wasn't the most interesting local art exhibit.  That honor would go to Keith Haring at the AGO.  While it opened in 2023, I saw it several times, including in March 2024 right before it closed.

Keith Haring, Red Room, 1988

I haven't documented it well (yet), but the recent New York & Washington DC trip was completely over-stuffed with trips to museums of all sorts, and indeed my legs were really hurting by the third day, which is a new (and most unwelcome) development.  Getting old does suck...  Maybe I will soften my stance about not going back to the States, but it felt like a bit of a farewell trip, and I am assuming I won't go back until the Orange one is out of office, one way or another.

I guess this is the last day to give to charity, though I did hear that the feds may extend the deadline.  I gave to quite a few charities on Giving Tues.  I really had meant to give to Coal Mine, but then just missed the deadline for matching donations by a day.  I guess in the end it doesn't really matter, but it does irk me.  I should probably go back through the list of charities I typically give to and see if I missed any.  I don't make resolutions any longer (like to be more patient or understanding of others), though I have generally been keeping to my exercise regime (though I probably should add back one more trip to the gym or swimming pool per week now that I am barely biking) but not really to any sort of diet.  I am supposed to try to lose another 10 or 15 pounds, but that clearly won't happen until I buckle down and stop eating excessive carbs and/or junk food.  Sigh.

While I clearly have very low hopes for 2025, hopefully I am wrong and it ends up being a decent year after all.


* And of course, 2024 did Alice Munro no favours.  It was only a few weeks after she passed that we learned what a miserable mother she had been.  No question she is already cancelled in the hearts of many of her strongest admirers, and I expect her legacy will remain forever tarnished.  What this means in terms of her place in the Canadian cannon is yet to be determined, but it certainly can't help.

** I did have to replace my phone at some point.  While I did appreciate the much better camera (and storage for photos and video!), I do not like the fact that this messed up the interface between Ticketmaster and Google Wallet, which still isn't resolved and is a total drag.  At least Google Wallet works for other events that are not connected to Ticketmaster.

Best Books of 2024

2024 started off pretty well in terms of what I was reading but then I found quite a few books that didn't live up to the hype, including Koestler's Darkness at Noon.*

Top books for 2024:

Lucia Berlin A Manual for Cleaning Women
Tim O'Brien America Fantastica
Dawn Powell The Golden Spur

These two are just on the cusp, but I didn't really care for the way they ended:

Salman Rushdie Fury
Joy Williams The Quick and the Dead

Here are a baker's dozen of other novels that I found somewhat interesting and/or enjoyable throughout the year:

I.B. Singer Scum
Eric DuPont Songs for the Cold of Heart 
John Steinbeck East of Eden 
James Baldwin Go Tell It On the Mountain
Edna O'Brien August is a Wicked Month
Mary McCarthy The Group
Naguib Mahfouz Fountain and Tomb
Margaret Drabble The Ice Age
Camilo José Cela The Hive (perhaps a bit unfair to place it here as this was a second reading, though the first time reading the uncut version of the text)
Rebecca Rosenbaum These Days Are Numbered (more of a Facebook scroll/journal than a novel)
William Kennedy Ironweed
Kathryn Ma The Chinese Groove/Gish Jen Typical American (these two are almost the same novel!  I liked The Chinese Groove better)

The best book re-read was Barbara Pym's Excellent Women.

However, I also enjoyed going through Boccaccio's Decameron for a second time at least most of the time.  Some of the stories are very amusing, though if I recall it ends with Patient Griselda, and this is a tale I don't care for at all (nor does Margaret Atwood for that matter...).

I'm going to start off 2025 with Rulfo's Pedro Páramo after all, as I was able to dig it out of a box in the basement without too much trouble.  I'm also going to be alternating the 7 books of Mutis's Maqrol with short stories, wrapping up Munro's Runaway and then turning to Joy Williams's Taking Care.  

* I actually just wrapped up Yasmin Zaher's The Coin, and I did not like this at all, much like Han Kang's The Vegetarian, which was grossly overhyped and made for an extremely unpleasant read.  In both cases, they are at least were short novels.  In a general sort of way, I am glad to run across an immigrant novel that takes chances and shows the main character not as sort of a secular saint, but a fairly pathetic, often petty person, who in this case suffers some weird psychic meltdown generally reserved for WASPS.  To be completely fair, this passage near the end is solid:

I guess it {the button} had found its way into the locked park, into the roots of the bush, and then back to me. That’s what it was all about. It was karma. It was spiritual, but also physical. Whatever you put out there in the world, it came back to you. It was a closed system, a reinforced planet. Garbage circulated, the same people kept showing up on the subway platform. We think the possibilities are endless but it’s an illusion. The Federal Reserve keeps printing money, but otherwise there are a finite number of particles in this world. We are mortal, but matter is constant.

Anime for the Holidays

As mentioned, Toronto theares (at least the Revue and Carlton) have a bit of a tradition of showing Tokyo Godfathers at this time of year.  I took my son to it yesterday, and he enjoyed it.  I focused more on all the incredible near-death experiences the characters faced.  Anyway, it really is quite solidly entertaining.  No one I have been chatting with seems to be aware of this holiday tradition.  It's definitely worth checking out if you have never seen it.  Now whether I go myself for a third or fourth viewing, i.e. really making it a holiday tradition, is definitely up in the air.

Clearly, programmers at both cinemas have a strong interest in anime.  As far as I can tell, the folks at the Revue are not too interested in the Ghibli Studio films.  While Carlton Cinema was shut out of the 2023 Ghibli Fest (so I had to trek up to Richmond Hill to see several of the films!), they show the individual films once in a while.  I am still hoping that they will show Howl's Moving Castle in 2025, and will keep an eye out.

While I missed seeing Akira in its most recent showing at Carlton, I did catch Perfect Blue and Paprika there.  This may have been how I heard about Tokyo Godfathers in the first place, and then while researching it, I found that it was often shown in Toronto in Dec.  I watched it the first time at the Revue, but from here on out, I would most likely just see it at Carlton.

As far as I can recall, I have not seen Kon's Millennium Actress.  Somewhat surprisingly, Robarts (which does have a fair bit of anime in its collection) only has a link to watch it on Criterion on Demand, which I won't have access to.  So I will just have to see if Carlton (or the Revue) show it in 2024.  I would probably watch Paprika for a second time.  I'm not as sure about Perfect Blue.

I saw that Kon was involved in a TV series called Paranoia Agent.  I have to admit, the mini-review doesn't really grab me, and I am generally avoiding picking up any more TV series to watch.  

Now I keep missing the original Heavy Metal film from 1981, so will make a bit more of an effort the next time it comes around.  Heavy Metal 2000 is showing over at the Revue, but the reviews are pretty weak.  What is a bit intriguing is that the people involved in Heavy Metal 2000 then came up with a series (apparently on Netflix) called Love, Death & Robots that may be worth checking out.

One thing that I really do need to sit down and watch (maybe after I have wrapped up the last season of Futurama that is currently available) is Cowboy Bebop.  I picked up a box set of the series a while back, and I probably have the movie floating about somewhere.  I should see if I can dig everything out to have it ready to go (when I actually have some time...).  I have a note from Google that Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001) is set between episodes 22 and 23 of the original Cowboy Bebop series, so I'll keep that in mind as well.

Anyway, at the end of Jan., Carlton is showing The End of Evangelion.  Some Googling tells me that this is sort of a reworking of the conclusion Neon Genesis Evangelion series -- and that I would probably want to watch the clip show Evangelion:Death beforehand to really understand the movie.  I might do that, and Evangelion:Death seems to be on Netflix.  What is particularly strange is that the main creator then went back and redid the whole series as Rebuild of Evangelion.  I probably won't feel compelled to watch this, however.  Oddly enough, three of the four DVDs in Rebuild are in the TPL and the last one is available on Blu-ray at Robarts.  So never say never, I guess.  Anyway, I need to get some real work done today, so I had better split for now. 

Year Winding Down

I've been sort of updating my 2024 reading list in the background.  It's going to be a lot harder for me to recreate all the theatre (and concerts) I saw in 2024, but I can probably do it.

Unfortunately, work has not slowed down this week, though most of my co-workers did take off, leaving me to try to do a lot of error checking and rebuilding files that were not left in very good condition.  I was not happy about that at all.  Indeed, the receptionist and I were the only ones to come in to work today, though two of my team members were remote at least part of the day.  But no point dwelling on that.  I will try to do at least one fun thing tomorrow (aside from opening presents) and on Boxing Day.  As it happens, my computer is dying, and one of the things I did was buy yet another external hard drive to back up everything, which I have done now.  I might as well see if there are some Boxing Day sales on desktop machines.  I really don't want to have to transfer over all my programs and tweak them.  I remember that the "official" update of Kindle doesn't work for me, so I have to find on which version I finally landed on.  Maybe I will get lucky and the new version of MailStore will work with Bell.  Still, it's going to be a huge drag, and I am dreading it.  In addition, my wife's laptop died overnight, so this morning we ran over to the mall to get a replacement at Staples, then I headed off to work.

At least I don't have to scurry around wrapping presents.  I did all that Saturday evening, and then only had to get the last of the stocking stuffers ready and sign a few physical cards.  Most people get e-cards, of course.  Since we actually did put up the tree this year, unlike last year, I decided to show it off a little bit.

I have a fairly long list of former co-workers that get the cards, though I guess I have dropped a few people over the years.  It is kind of sad that very few people reach out to me first.  Anyway, most people got them in the first wave of cards that went out last Friday.  Then another wave over the weekend, and a few Monday evening.  I do blush to admit that the very last wave went out this evening.

I have convinced my son to go with me to see Tokyo Godfathers at Carlton tomorrow, as almost nothing else will be open.  I don't think I'll end up making this an Xmas tradition, but I guess you never know.  I think I mentioned already that I am taking him to an Almodovar film (Talk to Her) on Boxing Day, and then to see Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown on Friday.*  (I wish I could remember where/when I saw Talk to Her, though the most likely case is I watched it on DVD.)  I'm seeing All About My Mother on Sunday (after The Room Next Door!), and I even got an extra ticket to try to bring a friend, though unfortunately the seats are not together.

It's probably worth noting that Mirvish is running a Boxing Day sale on their main shows, including Come From Away, where if you buy one ticket you get the other one for $1 (though there are processing fees as well, of course).  So I bought two tickets (together) for Come From Away in mid Jan.  I plan on inviting someone from work, but I have a few other friends that might be interested if that doesn't work out.

I'm definitely starting to see a few more shows at the Revue, despite it being pretty inconvenient for me to get to, so I don't think I will get a membership there.  I'm definitely going to see La Dolce Vita.  And maybe Waking Life on Jan. 1 (when there is so little else that is open...).  And very possibly Linklater's Before trilogy in Feb., though I need to find out if there are any discounts for seeing all three films in one go.

I'm also intrigued to see that HotDocs is doing a few more screenings of regular films, i.e. not documentaries.  There is a small chance I'll go see Scott Pilgrim at HotDocs on Sat. and a very good chance I'll go see The Big Lebowski on New Year's Eve, most likely going from there to the Tranzac Club to ring in the New Year.

I'm almost certainly going to get through Kennedy's Ironweed and Osipov's Kilometer 101 by the end of the year.  I did finish Munro's For Love of a Good Woman, though didn't like the stories all that much.**  I've sort of put Mutis's Maqrol on the back burner.  I kind of hoped the misadventures of a grifter in Panama and various parts of the West Indies would warm me up (when I am struggling a bit mentally facing up to winter), but it hasn't done so.  It's not that I don't like it, but it doesn't demand to be read (and it's long).  I will probably finish up Zaher's The Coin next and the second half of Munro's Runaway before I return to and wrap up Maqrol.  After that, it will probably be Joy Williams's Taking Care and maybe something by Edna O'Brien and/or Craig Nova.  I should probably just go back to this reading list, and maybe pick a couple more from there like one of Gide's novels or Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time.  And before 2025 is over, I probably should try to get to Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, since I skipped over that to read Runaway.

I think between squeezing in a lot more movies than I have seen in years and some theatre here and there and then reading and essentially rebuilding my computer (and then working too much as always), I probably won't have too much time for anything else, but I guess we shall see.

Happy holidays...

* I don't want to dwell on it, but it turns out he really didn't enjoy Tafelmusik's Sing-Along Messiah because he wasn't really taught to read scores in choir and felt stressed out because he wasn't sure what (and when!) he was supposed to be singing.  I was also pretty lost.  I can read sheet music, though I am extremely rusty, but I was a bit more willing to go with the flow.  I wish I had known he wouldn't have liked it, since I could have seen an Almodovar film instead.  Qué mal...

** I also finished Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women and liked most of the stories, though some were very depressing.  Interestingly, I had also just seen a movie, Mary Go Round, about an alcoholic addiction counsellor who moves back to Niagara Falls to help her estranged father with his struggle against cancer.  The film overall seemed to pair well with Berlin's stories (and life).  Interestingly, Almodovar was supposed to direct a film based on A Manual for Cleaning Women, and it is a bit hard to know how that would have gone, though I suppose there likely would have focused on her reconnecting with her sister who was dying of cancer in Mexico, but it is really hard to say.  At least according to IMDB, Almodovar actually wrote a screenplay with Berlin but then withdrew from the project.  I wonder if he might return to it one day.