I think this looks pretty snazzy.
I'm off to try to get a bunch printed off and have them (and a huge stack of postcards) ready by Wed. Ticket sales aren't much higher than they were last week, but still decent for this far before Fringe starts. Still, if you want to make sure you don't lose out, tickets can be purchased here.
I'll be back to promoting my Fringe show any moment. I was looking over all the things I ought to post about that I have been up to.
Since I didn't enjoy it, it won't take too long to go back and discuss The Caged Bird Sings over at Tarragon, which I saw last Thurs. I was supposed to see this, basically as theatre in the round at Aga Khan, but it was in the open courtyard in the middle of the museum, but that day there were storms all day and the show couldn't go on. I couldn't make any other dates, so I got a refund (but still saw the rest of the museum...). I don't think I would have liked it any better in that set-up, though it would have been more intimate. I think it was just too chopped up and there really was no emotional payoff, largely because they were trying to illustrate various poems and legends that Rumi had written, so there was no connected story. I might have been ok with 45 minutes of this, but it was 90 minutes without a break. I will say I think generally the audience was on the same wavelength, as only one or two people rose to give the obligatory standing O. There was also a talkback, which I had zero interest in attending.
I had tentatively planned to go over to Hirut on Friday, but ended up working until 8! I got some Thai food over at the Well, though I didn't enjoy it as much as I usually do (maybe because I had anticipated having Ethiopian food). I was really bummed that the Samosarie seems to have closed.
I was reasonably pleased that I made it over to the library and got my swimming laps in by noon. Then on the way back, I picked up the second print from the framers, and I'll get that hung up tonight or tomorrow. I'm about to hit up a few small art galleries and perhaps the AGO if there is time.
Then I'll probably drop by work for an hour or two, and then aim to get to the Rex at 7:30. I have a ticket for a show that starts at 8 and runs until 9:15, though I'll probably split at 9:05, since I am seeing Pearle Harbour at the Royal York Fairmont at 9:30! So it will likely be a fairly packed day after all. I guess I better get going...
Edit (6-21): I did make it to Corkin Gallery and Thomas Landry over in the Distillery (though they didn't have much new on, so I needn't have bothered), then I decided to go up to Dundas to get to the AGO. I remembered that there was something new at the Image Centre at TMU, so I ran in to see that. The AGO visit was extremely brief, as it turns out it is next week that the big new exhibit (Impressionist masterpieces on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art) opens next week. Oops. So I'll have to go back right away. Then I hit 401 Richmond for the last day of the Selling Canada exhibit at Red Head Gallery and there was a new exhibit at Gagne Contemporary, so definitely worth swinging by. I went to work a couple of hours before the Rex and then the Royal York Fairmont for Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar. So a pretty busy day in the end.
As I was biking home, I ran across some night bike ride, all glowing and having a good time. Nonetheless, they acted far too much like Critical Mass for my taste, and I made sure to go in the opposite direction.
I also stumbled across another Luminato installation called Pyramid Fields. I haven't seen this during the day, but I think it must have a greater impact at night.
I'm having someone spruce this up a bit, but this was the early incarnation of the Fringe postcard for our show. (I actually tried to post on Instagram, but something keeps going wrong. I definitely won't last long there if I keep running up against these glitches.)
Anyway, here is the link for a bit more info and to book your tickets! Ticket sales are actually not too bad, given we are still about two weeks out. We had 70 tickets sold and 3 reviewers showing up (gratis). Every date has at least a couple of people so far, and two night already have decent-sized crowds. It's a hit! Hope to see you there!
Just a few shots taken during rehearsal last Sun. I didn't manage to get any from Wed. (tonight), but I'll see if I can get a few more (now that the set is really starting to shape up!) this Sun. However, we are going off-book, and I will be handling the line prompts, so I may be a bit tied up. Anyway, it's starting to come together, and I hope people can come out to see the show. Link here for more info and tickets!
I can't recall if I mentioned that I was at a concert (something that Tapestry Orchestra was putting on) and I was next to a young woman reading an interesting looking book. I finally figured out that she was reading Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. I had Nabokov's Ada with me. After the concert we talked just a bit about both authors. I mentioned that Desai had just been in town for TIFA, and she was disappointed to have missed out on that. I think I was planning on mentioning Reva's Endling to her, but we went our separate ways before I could do that.
I had an opportunity to plug the book another time, however. I was coming back from rehearsal on Sunday and stopped off at the burrito place near the Spadina TTC stop. A young woman was behind the counter, who I hadn't seen before, not that I go in there all that often. She certainly looked like she might have been a UT student, though hard to say. I was reading some of Jennifer LoveGrove's poetry. She asked me what the book was about, and I said it was poetry, so it wasn't really about anything or maybe it was about everything. She then asked if I read a lot, and I said I was a heavy reader since I was a child, and that I probably had read a couple of thousand books (which I think is true, not that I have ever tried to count). She then asked what was my favourite, and I said that was an impossible question and she agreed. I did recommend Reva's Endling, but she didn't seem too sold on it (perhaps the bit about the mail order brides or she just doesn't like stories about the war). Then I said she should read Atwood's Cat's Eye, and that interested her a lot more. She said she had been reading Dostoevsky, starting with White Nights, which was such an internet thing a few months (years?) back. Impressively, she had pushed on and read Crime and Punishment and something else. I told her she should read Demons, which was an underrated masterpiece.* She said she would check that out too. So this was all pretty amusing, and definitely one of the more interesting literary conversations I've had outside of a book club.
It was particularly a bit amusing how she kept the conversation going, but it can only have been because she was a bit bored and really liked to talk about reading. I have to go back close to 30 years before I can recall anyone flirting with me over books. It was at the Seattle hostel when a young woman said that reading a book in a semi-public place like the dining area of a hostel was like a flame to a moth. I have no idea what I was reading at that time. She said that she just adored the work of John Fante. (Years and years later, I read most of Fante's work but was left fairly cold...)
Maybe for my planning epic, I do have a young female employee of some sort who keeps trying to flirt (though on-going discussion of books) with a somewhat oblivious male planner. In addition to being a bit oblivious and not really thinking a woman would be all that into him, he also has been "trained" to think that retail employees 1) don't really want to be hassled and asked out at work (which is overwhelmingly true) and 2) that retail employees are always extra nice to customers in order to get larger tips (also true), which indeed makes it a challenge for a retail worker who truly is trying to flirt with a customer. This could be an interesting if low-key side plot. Let me think more upon it.
At any rate, I wonder if I will see the same worker if I stop by after rehearsal next week. In case she asks again about the best book I've ever read, I could prepare by going through this list, which is probably the equivalent of my all-time favourite books, though probably a list that needs a bit of revisiting, as I would definitely drop Powers's Morte d'Urban and possibly Beckett's Waiting for Godot...
* From my review, I see that I was really, really big on Demons 12(!!!) years ago. I suspect I was particularly primed to be reading Demons back then as I had see Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia back in April and then read quite a few Russian novels and even Herzen's memoirs. Looking over the list, it is pretty astonishing even for me! All this to say that I wonder if I would feel quite so positively towards Demons if I read it today (and should I continue to promote it so highly). I would hope so, and I would love to find the time to read it again in the near future, though that seems a bit unlikely.
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I guess I'll start with the cat. Last Sat. we saw that one of the cats had thrown up, and then it happened a second time. At some point we figured out it was Rho. Then Sun. she was extremely listless, barely moving. I was pretty sure the clinic would tell me to bring her back tomorrow or go find an emergency clinic if I was that worried about her. Over the course of the day, she threw up several times, basically every time she tried to eat. I let her drink some water and she threw that up! This was all very concerning obviously, but I still decided to wait until Mon. rather than try to track down an emergency clinic and probably have to cab her over to that. Somehow I was able to get her an appointment on Monday after my own visit to the (human) clinic.
To cut it short, she was very backed up and had a lot of gas in her stomach that made it hard to do the x-ray to see if she did have some obstruction in her intestine (like if she had swallowed string or a rubber band or even her own (or Tobey's) hairball. So I brought her back the next day and she still hadn't pooped enough, though I think she pooped a little. Trying to reconstruct what happened, I think I dropped her off yet again Wed. and they called and recommended exploratory surgery. I very reluctantly agreed, and in the end they couldn't find anything! It's as likely as anything else that she just reacted badly to this different cat food when I couldn't track down Kitten Chow. (I threw away this bag, as I figure it easily cost me several thousand dollars!) They somewhat reluctantly kept her overnight, and I picked her up on Thurs. morning. Then I had to bring her back for a temperature check on Fri. So I ended up going back and forth to the vet every single day this week, and now they want her to return on Mon. I hope that is it, but most likely I'll have to bring her back for one final check-up when they will take off this stylish onesie they have her in (instead of a cone).
It's been a lot of fun, trying to get her to take her medicine.
I had some slightly unpleasant news from the doctor on Monday, where my blood work wasn't great and I have apparently picked up another 3 or so kilos. I really thought I was starting to make some progress, but I just have to get far more serious about cutting out sweets, which is much harder said than done for me, though I have been a bit better. At least I am still getting plenty of exercise, especially with all this extra biking past Landsdowne! No point in fretting too much about it, however.
Gotta run now.
Edit: I've never been a fan of the scales at the doctor's. On the scale at home, I have lost 5 pounds and finally shed the extra weight I picked up during the long, long depressing winter after the blizzard. (Feb. felt like it would never end...) I think losing and keeping off 10 more pounds is quite reasonable, with a stretch goal of 20. I think around 15-20 pounds is where I was headed pre-COVID. It is also where I can wear a smaller size of jeans, which is the sort of tangible goal that actually motivates me. It is hard, however, as I crave the sugar already...
Update (6-15): So the vet called to explain the biopsy results and said that Rho had irritable bowel syndrome (IBL), which seems just as unpredictable as it is for humans. She recommended this long series of treatments and shots and probably an endless series of pills, etc., and I said flatly, "That's not going to happen." Most of the time I can't get her to take the pills they already want her to take, and if I manage to get one or two down she starts foaming at the mouth. I already regretted letting them operate on her, and I'll just monitor and try to keep her on kitty/cat food she can process. Maybe I'll change my mind if she starts throwing up everywhere all over again but likely not. I am not willing to be chained down to an endless medical regime for a cat. If that makes me a heartless, negligent pet owner, so be it...
I'll try to keep this brief. I did a fair bit of zig-zagging over downtown yesterday, but it paid off in the end.
I started off with a slightly compressed visit to the gym. I actually carried the Brandtner painting with me, along with a print I picked up last summer (I think) at TOAF. So I went to the framers and talked through the options. The pieces should be ready in two weeks. I believe this is the same day as Primary Trust at Crow's, so maybe I'll grab the pieces and then head over to the show. (I think they may well be closed after the show.) I then went over to the mall and went to the gym. I actually want to talk to Walmart about returning a nearly new pair of jeans (where the zipper broke) but of course, in a fit of efficiency, I had recycled the receipt. Sigh.
I then biked straight over to Factory Theatre to see a presentation of Basbousa, which is a new work being developed by Obsidian. I'll probably have a few more things to say about that later. Then I backtracked to 401 Richmond and talked to John and saw a few other things at the galleries.
Then I biked up to BMV on Bloor. I couldn't believe it. A Blu Ray of Howl's Moving Castle turned back up, so I picked that up. It probably isn't the fanciest version out there, but it is mine now. I held off on getting a fancy Blu Ray of The Blues Brothers, though I may get that this afternoon (since I am seeing a concert at Trinity-St. Pauls -- and in fact I moved my Tafelmusik ticket to be able to make this concert).
I then went in to Robarts. I dropped off everything except Kirby Wright's Before the City, which I still hadn't finished. I was very surprised that today I was able to download Rishi Dastidar's Neptune's Projects. I also picked up two thin volumes by Tamar Yoseloff.
I biked over to BMV near Yonge-Dundas. They still had the North by Northwest Blu Ray, which I picked up. (This is probably my favourite Hitchcock film,* and I've managed to see it on the big screen twice!) I also gave in and got Castle in the Sky. I think I will probably try to get Spirited Away, but I think that will be it as far as Studio Ghibli purchases. (I should see if I can borrow The Boy and the Heron from the library, now that all the hype has died down.) And to think I hadn't seen any of them at all two or three years ago! I also got Woolf's The Years, which is a bit shorter than I imagined. Next door at Value Village, I picked up The Complete Stories of Lydia Davis and Woolf's Night and Day (even though I definitely felt this one was overpriced, given its condition).
I went down to work and did a bit of scanning, then biked back up to Queen and ate at Ginger. Then I biked up to Bloor and saw the Tafelmusik concert. Today will be a bit simpler. I wanted to go up to the Danforth, but I think it's already too late for that, and I'll do that another day. Maybe on Monday (if I don't have any late afternoon meetings) or Wed.
Today, I would like to swing by the Gagne Contemporary Leslieville annex, go swimming and then head downtown for an afternoon concert. Then I am off to Aluna for a rehearsal of the Fringe show. As I probably will mostly just be in the way, I will see about getting some work done.
Edit (6/1): Things did basically work out the way I expected (after I gave up on trying to get up to the Danforth to Sleep Country). I really liked the transit photos over at Gagne. I was moderately successful in getting new pants (but not exchanging the old ones!) and picking up some slipper-like shoes for the rehearsal at Walmart. I got in 25 laps at Jimmie Simpson, then biked over to the concert, making it there with about 20 minutes to spare. The Enescu Octet was quite good. Then I went to BMV and got The Blues Brothers. (I tried it later on, and it plays fine, though I think one of the documentaries I was expecting is missing.) I had planned on eating at the bahn mi place near Paradise but went to a sit-down Thai place that has recently opened. Then I bought a replacement backpack at a place near Bloor and Bathhurst. Most of them were too small, but this one is a bit too big. I may never be able to take it into museums or even on a plane (I might have to gate check it). So I may end up getting a smaller one after all, but I mostly had to do something because the one I had was tearing every which way, and I didn't want stuff spilling all over the street! Then I biked off to Aluna for the rehearsal, which went quite well. I'm starting to get excited about this, though mostly trying to stay out of the director's way...
* I like though don't love Rear Window. I finally had a chance to see Vertigo on the big screen, but I didn't actually like it that much, I think mostly because Stewart's character is such a controlling jerk for most of the picture. There are flashes of this in Rear Window, but nothing to the same extent. Anyway, there was a Blu Ray of Vertigo at BMV as well, but I decided I just needed to like the film far more before I would pick one up, so that is unlikely to happen.
