May disappointments

The cats have been intensely watching this spot in the kitchen behind the garbage can and trying to pounce.  I hope it is just some hapless bug they found and not another mice invasion, which would be truly disappointing.  On the other hand, I am pretty sure without the cats we would definitely have more mice.

I guess it isn't a full-blown disappointment, but if I had perfect fore-knowledge, I would have gone to Hirut last Friday, as was my initial intent.  Instead, I went to the Rex two days in a row to see Rez Abbasi.  He and his group were very good, but they are such a young group that they just don't have that much to play, since they mostly want to play originals.  The standard they did play (Monk's Let's Call This) were the same on both nights, as was the encore (Ornette Coleman's Humpty Dumpty) and even some of the between song patter!  So I could definitely have gone off to see Ellington tunes at Hirut on Friday instead.  I did have the extra cash on me on Sat., and I picked up a couple of Abbasi's CDs and had him sign Snake Charmer (which has such a cool cover!).

What was a clear disappointment was that Toronto Hydro had scheduled a power outage Sat. evening -- and hadn't gotten around to telling all the building owners.  I asked the guy at the door, and he hadn't heard anything about it, and they finally got the owner to get in touch and, yes, the Rex was going to be impacted.  So they had to cancel the late night act and try to reschedule.  (They were very glad that I had warned them, however.)  I went over to the office for a bit.  I decided to leave my bike locked up on the street, since I wouldn't be able to get it out of the garage if the power did go out.  Anyway, I was able to get about 45 minutes of work in and then left for home.  Either our building wasn't impacted by the power outage, or Hydro just didn't actually start whatever they were doing that necessitated a power cut on time.

Monday was generally ok, though my phone acted up again and wouldn't record this underground concert I was at, which was super frustrating.  I did talk books with this young woman sitting next to me.  She was reading Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss and was a bit disappointed to find out (only now) that she was in town doing a book talk for TIFA.

Tues. was the most frustrating day so far.  There was free pizza from Pizzaola for lunch, which was good, though it then had this weird cascading effect.  I was off to see Tokyo Drifter at the Revue, and most days I eat at Pizzaola on Roncy.  However, I didn't want to do that, since I had eaten this for lunch.  I also was answering emails and trying to call RCM to move tickets (more on that in a moment), so I had to really run to catch the 6:04 train and didn't have time to grab anything at Union.  I find it astonishing how few take-out restaurants there are at Bloor West/Dundas, aside from a McDonalds and the Pizzaola and another pizza place (Pizza Nova).  There was one decent-looking Indian place on Bloor itself, but it was going to take too long (and there is a better Indian place on Roncy anyway).  I actually went two blocks west on Bloor and there just was so little, compared to how many restaurants there are between Dufferin and Ossington, to say nothing of between Bathhurst and Spadina!  (While overall I like the Roncy, the eating choices on this street are actually fairly limited, aside from pizza and one Indian place.  Otherwise, there is a terrible Thai place down the street and generally not much else that appeals to me.) 

That meant I was even more crunched for time before the movie started.  I ran into this place that said it had bahn mi sandwiches.  They didn't have any tofu, but they had a lemongrass mushroom one, so I ordered that and then waited impatiently.  I started eating it, while crossing the street to the Revue, but it had such an extremely weird texture that I thought it must be the chicken.  I went back in, and the guy swore up and down this was mushroom, but I simply didn't believe him, so I threw it out.  This put me in a foul mood, and the only thing I managed to eat before the movie were the substandard nachos.  The movie was good, however.  I had seen it a couple of years ago (I believe at TIFF) but had forgotten a lot of it.  Getting home was a drag.  The 506 had been completely blocked due to a bad traffic accident on Howard Blvd., but fortunately that had cleared up and I caught the streetcar back and finished a couple of poetry books (Krisztina Tóth's My Secret Life and Ronna Bloom's In a Riptide) and made decent progress on Nabokov's Ada.  (I really will need to post soon on the poetry I read recently for Poetry Month...)  But even though the sign said the streetcar was going to Main, somewhere around Parliament they said we would have to exit at Broadview, which pissed me off.  Then after waiting for the next one, it was crawling along Gerrard, stuck behind two different garbage trucks.  So definitely not the best evening.  Also, it didn't rain at all, so I could have biked, and instead it is raining this morning, which complicates my plans a bit.  Sigh.

But I also was frustrated at how difficult it is to switch tickets at RCM.  The Tafelmusik switch won't be too hard, though there is a $4 fee, which I think is bogus.  Second, if I switch the Hillary Hahn ticket, I can only get credit for another show this season, which I think is even more bogus.  If this is the case after talking to the supervisor, I guess I will just leave that ticket as is.  I'm sure Hahn will be fine (and indeed she may end up not touring much after this season), even though there is a different concert with Schubert's Quintet that I know I would enjoy more.  I had thought I could switch the Hahn ticket to Cassandra Wilson in late June, even though those tickets are more expensive than I really want to pay.  However, that date is the last full run through of the Fringe play, and I really ought to be there for that.  So this overall is pretty annoying.  

I also learned that I had double booked myself.  I had a Soundstreams concert for this Sat., but they hadn't sent it to me until pretty late, so I thought Sat. was open, and I booked a ticket to see Don Byron at the Rex.  I think I will go to Soundstreams after all, and then just bike as fast as I can to the Rex and catch the second set at 9:30 and perhaps stick around for the late night set.  Obviously not ideal, and it just shows how I really need to cut back on some of these extra-curriculars.  Anyway, I've got to get going to work now.

Two Very Busy Days

I'm going to go ahead and post my calendar for April, which is quickly coming to an end. 

 
As always, I stay busy, but this is taking it to the next level.  Just listing some of what I have done is a bit exhausting, though I have few regrets.  Now it looks like I had the 27th and 28th free, but I added a poetry reading at Cavendash Booksellers on Monday (and an unsuccessful attempt to swing by Bau-Xi right before they closed, but they closed early!) and then moved the play* I was seeing with a friend from Wed. to Tues. because she was working on the 29th.  That sort of freed up the 29th (for me) on paper at least, but it ended up being an extremely busy day, as I'll explain in a moment.

For now, I will just go into what happened last Sat. and then on the 29th.  I wanted to get an early start on things and get to some art galleries before coming back to see Mary Mary Mary Mary at Crow's Theatre.  I think I finally left around 10:30.  I'd actually managed to ride in to work all that last week (20-24th), which was surprising.  (It looks like I might manage it this week as well, which is perhaps even more surprising, given that they were forecasting quite a bit of rain.)  

Anyway, last Sat. it was raining in the morning, so I was back at the mercy of the TTC.  I did make a major goof in that I went over the bridge, thinking I would take the streetcar to the Riverdale Library.  It was only when I was about halfway up the bridge I remembered that it was only a digital hold that had come in, so there was no point in going to the library.  I should have turned around, but had somewhat over-committed myself.  Then I got to the streetcar stop; it was 15 minutes to the next streetcar, so I just walked to Carlaw and caught the next Pape bus, so that was a huge waste of time.  

I took the subway to Yorkville (the Bay stop) and looked in at a few galleries.  There was a pretty interesting Basquiat at one of the galleries I don't usually frequent, so that was cool.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Phooey, 1982

I was actually there to see the Canadian Fine Arts Gallery, as there was an exhibition on Fritz Brandtner, one of the first Canadian modernist painters, that was ending that weekend.  I liked this exhibit quite a bit and was very taken with one of the pieces (though I will not post it here until I make up my mind whether to buy the piece).

This was a companion piece that had just sold.

Fritz Brandtner, City

They also had a few other interesting pieces, including a pretty nice Rita Letendre (which was a bit out of my price range).

Rita Letendre, A traverse l'espace, 2004

I was looking around for the Yorkville Library to drop off a book but just couldn't find it, and I was starting to worry a bit about the time.  I was going to take the Spadina streetcar down to 401 Richmond, which should have been simple.  However, as we neared College we heard that there was some accident ahead and all streetcars were going to divert down College to Bathhurst and then back on Queen.  This was incredibly frustrating.  I think maybe if they had decided to go down McCaul instead, which should have been possible, I would have stuck it out, but it seems kind of absurd to go over to Bathhurst, so I walked from College down to Richmond.  I suspect it took just as long to walk, but it felt a bit more productive, at least as far as exercise.  

Anyway, I went into the city-owned gallery (which has replaced Abbozzo), and my friend Andrea was working there.  We talked a bit about what was happening, and I reminded her that we were going to see How to Catch Creation the next week.  It had completely slipped her mind!  I tried to get into Gagne, but it was closed for some reason.  Maybe it's just as well, as it was definitely getting late, and if I had chatted with the owner, it would have really messed up my schedule.  I had just about 45 minutes to get back across town.  It would have been easy on a bike, and it should have been fine on the streetcar, but the Queen streetcar is making two diversions (one at Bay and then also between Parliament and Broadview -- the second is infuriating because they have finished the work near the Queen St. bridge and streetcars should be able to be using it, which would also improve the functioning of the King streetcar).  I started watching the minutes tick by.  We finally made it to Carlaw with just over five minutes before the play at Crow's started!  I had to run/jog/walk quickly up to Dundas.  (I really am not in shape to run, despite all the other exercise I get.)  I was 2 minutes late, but they let me in, and the play started a few minutes after that.  It took a while for me to get my heavy breathing (and coughing!) under control, but I finally did.  I won't go into great detail here, but this is simply a bad play.  I don't think I have any special grudge due to how hard it was to get back to it; indeed, the critics are pretty unanimous that this is a stinker.  I think word had gotten around as very few seats were filled.

After this, I ran over to Gagne's Leslieville outpost (basically a garage between Pape and Jones just off of Dundas).  It was kind of cool, comix-influenced art.  I also dropped off the overdue library book at the Jones library, then did just a bit of shopping at Gerrard Square.  I had a short stint of rest, and then I was off to see a jazz concert at Koerner Hall (Danilo Perez).  The second half of the concert was a big band concert with local musicians, including Kevin Turcotte and Allison Au (and in fact I mostly went to this concert for the big band portion).  As it happens, I documented this a bit already in this post.

If anything, April 29 was even more crammed!  I spent a huge part of the day finishing taxes.  I had done my son's about a week previously and my wife's wrapped up at some point over the weekend (possibly even after I had recovered from everything I got up to on Sat.).  I was not at all sure how they would go.  In years when my investments do well, then I often owe taxes.  On the other hand, I ended up taking far more unpaid leave than I normally do, and actually made less last year than the year before!  As I crunched through the numbers, it turns out I get a decent sized return (large enough that I feel I can go ahead and buy the Brandtner piece I liked at CFA Gallery).  I am nervous that the CRA seemed to have gotten something fairly wrong with my capital gains loss that I was carrying forward to this tax year, and I'll have to get on the phone to straighten that out at some point.  I also thought I was completely done, then learned that Box 85 on my T4 can get added to my uncovered medical expenses, which suddenly meant that my personal credits were a bit higher, and I ended up getting back another $75 or so in my refund.  So exhausting to go through everything, but so glad it is done for now, even if I do end up reaching out to the CRA in a month or so.

Anyway, as the work day was wrapping up, I scanned all the tax forms for my records, then got them mailed off at the post office near Union Station.  Then I went up to the Eaton Centre.  I picked up an additional hard drive from Best Buy, and picked up my glasses from Lenscrafters.  (That has quite an interesting back story, but I will hold off for now.)  I swung by BMV but they didn't have what I was looking for.  

I then biked over to AGO, as it was open late.  I finally managed to see the Paul McCartney photo exhibit.  It was fine, though something my parents would have appreciated a lot more.  His photos of New York in the early 60s were pretty nice.

Then I went back through the Edna Tacon exhibit, and then I headed home.  I made it back around 7:30.  It was starting to rain a bit, but the rain was pretty light, so I decided to force myself to go back out (on the bike).  I grabbed some cat food at Walmart, then biked down to Jimmie Simpson.  I was going to go a bit easy on myself, since I was relatively pleased with myself that I hadn't given in to temptation and went swimming after all, so I was going to do 20 laps.  However, once I got started (and I saw the pool was largely empty), I went ahead and put in 23-24 laps, so that was terrific.  I'm glad that I didn't dawdle because the Thai place I like at Queen and Logan was only open until 9:30 (not 10 as the website said!).  I ordered something and finally made it home.  I really was pretty exhausted (and I forgot to tune in to the last few minutes of Robyn Hitchcock's broadcast -- perhaps unfortunate, as he actually played my request, though I can catch it on repeat now).  And I finished the last few chapters of Maria Reva's Endling.  So yeah, a very busy, productive day.

 

* This was How to Catch Creation over at Soulpepper, which was actually a co-production with Nightwood and Obsidian Theatres.  It was very strong play and much funnier than I was expecting.  (In fact, I was expecting a fairly serious and/or experimental political play, but it was far more enjoyable.)  It runs for about three more weeks, and it might be extended if it becomes the hit it deserves to be; I'll try to do a bit of a review soon.

I Can't Feel My Lips!

Only a very slight exaggeration.  I was heading out to see Danilo Perez at Koerner Hall, and, per usual, I left a bit late.  I had thought I might stop in at Slab Burger, just off Bay, and indeed was starting to look up the number (to place an order for pick up) and finally decided I just wouldn't have time for even that.

Since the rain had stopped, I decided to bike over.  I make it to campus with about 30 minutes to spare and decided to take another look at the cherry trees, now in bloom, next to Robarts.

It's just so much nicer going here, rather than High Park!

Anyway, the jazz concert was good, though not amazing.  There was a guy next to me whose phone kept going off.  So frustrating.  I generally liked the big band portion the best, though could definitely have done without the sung text, which was pretty lame.  Also, Danilo clearly needs to learn how to set up sing-alongs.  The audience was all set to do participate on a line like "Oya oya oya" but then there were 3 more lines in Spanish on top of that, and we collectively decided that was not going to happen.

I stuck around for a bit to see the post-concert, which was a trio led by drummer Evyn Berridge.  I'm almost certain the pianist was Nathan Tran, but they didn't introduce the band or any of the pieces they were playing!

It was 10:45 or so by this point.  There was an Indian place on Sherbourne I had considered trying, but it closed at 11.  There was a South Indian place around the corner of College called Madras Curry, and it was open until midnight, so I stopped in there and picked up something to go.  It was good, but so, so spicy to the point I don't think I will go back after all.

Last Minute Reviews

These will be incredibly short reviews, as there is almost no time left for anyone to actually act on them.

Knife over at Theatre Centre.  There should be a show this evening (7:30?) and then a matinee on Sunday.  I thought this was solid.  Actually one of the better shows I've seen so far in 2026.  The set-up actually was very similar to Annie Baker's The Aliens (which was at Coal Mine 8 or so years ago).  The playwright told me he indeed took Annie Baker as an inspiration but hadn't managed to see that show. 

I've mentioned Bonnes Bonnes at Factory already.  Very interesting take looking at Genet's The Maids through a Chinese-Canadian lens.  There are only two performances left of the French version of this show.

Same deal with The Book of Mormon over at Mirvish - two performances left.  A stunningly funny (though often very crass) show.  Glad I had the opportunity to check it out again, after seeing it in Chicago, probably close to 15 years ago.

I am sad to say that Mary Mary Mary Mary by Erin Shields at Crow's Theatre is a disappointment at basically every level.  Dont go. 

That's truly it, as I have to run now.

 

Carpe Diem (Photos)

Just the other morning, I was coming in to work and saw that one of the elevators was out of service and a repairman was working on it.  It was actually a pretty incredible image, and if my phone had been in my pocket (instead of buried in my pannier), I would have stopped to get the shot.  As I went up in a different elevator in the (elevator) bank, I found my phone and went back again, but of course, the shot was gone.  These are still interesting, but nowhere near as cool. C'est dommage. 

That evening, I was over at Factory Theatre to see Bonnes Bonnes (an interesting reworking of Genet's The Maids from a Canadian-Chinese perspective).  I may be able to write more about this production, including the intriguing fact that the same cast is performing it in English and then following up with performances in French!  (The English performances are over, but there is still a week to catch it in French.  More info here.)  

On the way in, I spotted what looked almost like a religious icon, but was a stuffed bunny on the wall.  I decided I should document this (and not do it later, when in fact it would be dusk by the time the play ended and the shot would look completely different, even though the bunny is not likely to keep moving and spoiling the shot like the repairman...).

I'll try to be better about capturing these fleeting moments, but there is always too much going on to capture everything, and I don't want to let it get to me too much if something slips by, undocumented.

Super Busy Day

Friday was quite productive, though I had to work extra hours.  I finally got through my US taxes in the wee hours of the morning.  I still have a handful of the 8938 forms to fill in, but they won't impact the overall tax liability.  Indeed, I don't owe any US taxes and get some back that were withheld.  This isn't a huge surprise, but there are so many forms to fill out to get to that conclusion!  It's much more likely that I owe the CRA something, and after taking a few days off to recover, I will plunge into these as well.

I also delivered a final draft of a very long report to a client (in California).  I had promised I would get it over on Friday, and thus I had to keep working, along with some colleagues in Vancouver, long after everyone else had gone home.  I did make one weird mistake, moving the final chapter into the Appendix, but I decided that wasn't really a substantive problem, given they were still going to provide comments, so anyway that is a pretty big burden off my shoulders.

I had tried to finish up reading these George Szirtes poetry collections (and it is likely I would have finished up if I was stuck on the TTC, but I've been biking even in some less-than-ideal weather).  One issue is that Szirtes writes very long poems much of the time, so you don't have the situation where you can just flip through the pages.  (He also is quite committed to various rhyme schemes, which is a bit disconcerting.)  I had dropped in at Robarts on Wed. after a trip to the Rex.  It was just before 11, so the stacks were closing, but I was able to download some academic articles, and I turned in one of the collections.  I probably should have returned the other two.  They were due on Thurs., but there is usually a one day grace period before the fines kick in.  I had planned on reading more of them and turning them in before the Tafelmusik concert, but between taxes and report writing, I only just made it to the concert a few minutes before it started.  By the time it finished, the circulation desk was closed.  Given that I will now pay the late fee, I figured I might as well borrow them one more evening and see how far I get.

So tonight I have to try to push through these books and finish the very last of the IRS forms.

In the morning, I will need to get them signed and scanned, drop by the gym (as early as feasible) and do the main grocery shopping, though I am out almost every evening next week as well, so the grocery list will be on the short side.

Then I want to bike in to work, stopping by the Riverdale Library to pick up a book on hold.  Then I will spend a bit more time at work, then find a downtown post office open on Sat. (there is one on King near Blue Jay Way that I'll probably go to).  Assuming it isn't too late, I'll probably swing by The Well for lunch, then go up to 401 Richmond, then probably continue up to Bloor to see if I can sell off some stuff at BMV.  I may just come back to the office to crash for a while, as I have a concert at the Horseshoe that starts around 8.  I also should see about calling a bike shop and seeing if I can book a repair slot for Monday.  

Sunday should be a bit simpler, though it will be best if I can ride my bike.  I plan on getting some swimming in, then there is a concert at 2, and then there is the cold reading event starting around 7.  It is pretty important I go to this one, partly because they are reading a chunk of my script and I need to see how many actors the director has recruited and if this Fringe play is going to get off the ground or not.  I would say we will probably pull it off, but I am definitely a bit stress about it.

So no rest for the weary...  I better see if I can take a cat nap now... 

Edit (4/13): Sat. basically went the way I expected, though I left the house late and ultimately skipped lunch.  It was great to mail in US taxes four days early (not quite a record for me, but still a major accomplishment!).  I was glad that BMV bought a decent amount of stuff from me, so my bag was lighter, though they didn't want a fair bit of the poetry.  I wandered over to Seekers, but they had a huge sign saying that they were not buying anything at all, so I biked over to Robarts, though not before an upsetting period when I thought my phone was lost.  I actually went back into BMV and looked around, though it turned up totally buried at the bottom of my pannier!  I spent the late afternoon reading Szirtes in Robarts and finally dropped them off.  I had two choices: either to be early to the Hitchcock show at the Horseshoe but have the pannier (and work laptop) with me or drop that off at the office and be a bit late (for doors opening).  I chose the latter approach.  I grabbed some curry at an Indian place nearby and then went into the Horseshoe.  All the seats were taken, and I ended up leaning on this counter for pretty much close to 3.5 hours!  I'm really getting too old for this nonsense, and in particular I don't care for the Horseshoe because they have a pool table pretty close to the concert area.  I think unless there is someone that I just have to see, I will avoid it from now on.  I would say in terms of overall concert-going, it is worse than Lee's Palace!  The concert was good.  However, I don't think Robyn is mixing up the set lists very much now, unlike his solo gigs or his home shows on Bandcamp.  Here is the Toronto show, which looks identical to the Minneapolis and Chicago gigs.  (The Chicago show was at the Athenaeum, which means I could have sat down!  There were two people that collapsed during the show, so this approach to live music definitely needs to be rethought!)  Robyn is pretty lively for a guy in his 70s!  Anyway, the show didn't end until 12:15, so I got home late. 

Sunday I somehow did pull myself together.  I actually ran over to the mall and got some straggling grocery items I overlooked on Sat., and I bought a new door lock from Home Depot.  I had replaced the lock a while back, but the key needs to be pushed in so hard to unlock the door that one of these days we will break a key off in the lock.  I'm trying to do some preventive maintenance, even though I don't feel like I have a lot of free time these days.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to the pool until 12:20 when I had planned to start swimming by noon!  (I think the light rain did slow me down a bit, but the rain didn't prevent me from getting around the city, which was good.)  At least the fast swim lanes were pretty empty, and I managed to get 20 laps in.  I had planned on making it to 24 (and then 22 when I realized I had such a late start), but I also didn't want to be late for the ARC Ensemble Concert.  In the end, I had almost 20 minutes to spare, so I could have done at least two more laps.  Oh well.  It's just yet another reminder to stop trying to fit so much into each day.  After the concert, I swung by work and got a bit done, though not as much as I had hoped...  I then biked up to Queen, ate a quick meal at Ginger, then biked over to the social club where the readings happen.  Somehow it was double booked!  We waited around for a while, then went into the basement while a comedy show went on upstairs.  I wasn't thrilled about this, but the event itself was super productive.  I talked to a couple of the actors about casting people they knew, and then finally Jamie, who will be the director, showed up and said he was quite sure we could cast the show and he was going to take a bigger role in the casting.  So it looks like not only will we be going up during the Fringe, but we might have a couple of ringers (i.e. Equity or former Equity members).  Pretty outstanding turn of events!  Jamie did give me a few more notes and told me to rethink things more so there was more action and movement.  He thought the piece was far too static for a farce.  I don't love being pushed this way, but I need it, and I think the piece could really be fantastic if I make these changes and Jamie puts his secret sauce on as well.

Go Blue!

I don't usually indulge in getting worked up over college sports, though I do remember when it mattered to me in my late teens and possibly early 20s.  After that, my interest waned a lot.  Nonetheless, I was fortunate that the Michigan Wolverines were quite good at football and basketball.  1989 was one of the all-time great years, starting off by winning the Rose Bowl and then also winning the men's basketball championship!!!  (As mentioned elsewhere, I am so glad that the recruitment scandals and subsequent wiping away of the team's accomplishments didn't touch the championship title.)

Anyway, lately Michigan athletics are again on an upturn, becoming national football champions for 2023 (winning this at the Rose Bowl, no less) and just over a week ago winning the men's basketball championship.  So cool.

(And it was also cool to be a grad student at Northwestern the year they ran the table on the Big Ten and made it to the Rose Bowl, losing unfortunately.) 

I'm not even sure if I still have any U Michigan gear (or anything that fits still) whereas I have a few Northwestern shirts and a UToronto shirt and sweatshirt.  So I decided I would break down and buy a shirt to show my (very faint) school spirit.  I just ordered it.  It should look a lot like this, though without the little Jordan silhouette.  (They also had it in black, which looked cool, but this is so much better, being close to the school colors.)

It's not the best time in the world to proclaim any sort of allegiance to a US university, but I'll risk it anyway.  Most people that know me will understand, and I can't worry about people who don't know me, can I?  Perhaps the more interesting question is how many of these players, assembled from a lot of transfer schools will stick around another year.  Not that many would be my guess, and some may not even have any years of eligibility left.  They made their mark and now have dramatically improved their odds in the NBA lottery.  College sports fans (and I don't even consider myself within their ranks) can't really ask for anything more than that these days.