Spring Thaw

It's way too early to say that winter is over, and we could well get another cold snap and perhaps even some sleet or snow.  (Please no more!)

But it was really nice out Sunday as well as Monday.  I was able to go out biking with no problems (I mean aside from the fact that the chain was still pretty rusty even after applying chain oil) and the derailleur is acting up a bit.  The roads were clear and even the bike paths with only a few exceptions were fine.  On Sunday, I actually biked to Jimmy Simpson.  I got there at 1:50, and the pool closed at 2:30, but I powered through 21 laps, which I thought was pretty good overall.  

I then biked to work.  In general, King was fine in terms of potholes in the outer lane (where bicycles are relegated) except for right at the BikeShare station at Church and King, where the pavement is in terrible shape.  I didn't have a lot of time, but I dropped off some food and did a bit of work, then I biked up to Carlton to see The Bride!, which I enjoyed, aside from the ghost of Mary Shelley.  It really is a total mash-up of Bride of Frankenstein and Bonnie and Clyde.

I got home and tried to power through Winterson's One Aladdin Two Lamps, which was overdue and I couldn't renew it.  I did finish it on Monday.  In fact, I could have biked to work but decided that 1) I wanted a tune-up before cycling in weekday traffic and 2) I could use the time on the TTC to finish the book.  I am already thinking ahead to how I really want to avoid taking the TTC as much as possible, but this will cut deeply into my reading time.  I generally sided with the NY Times reviewer who didn't care much for the book, as it mixes very short summaries of various tales from 1001 Nights with all kinds of philosophical observations loosely tied to the tales.  It really wasn't well organized, ostensibly by design.

Anyway, the bike is in the shop, and I should be able to pick it up on Thurs. in the late morning and probably ride in to work (and then stop off at Canadian Stage on the way home to see Little Willy).

So I have two more days (at least) on the TTC, but as I said, the weather has been really nice, so waiting outside on the bus isn't nearly as painful as it was in Jan. and Feb.

  

Bookcase Diversion

I think I had mentioned that Toby had jumped on one of the bookcase shelves and broke it.  I suppose way back in the day I installed this incorrectly, though I am not 100% sure that this wasn't actually a manufacturing defect (with the shelf support upside down).

It doesn't really matter whose fault it was (although most of the blame goes to the cat), but I couldn't leave it like that.  The bookcases showed up in two boxes, and I set aside time this weekend to assemble them.  

The white stripe to the left is where there was an odd triangular shelf.  I had to remove that because the two bookcases side by side will be slightly wider than the original bookcase.

On Sat. I did get the shelf down (as in the photo) and even did some painting.  I managed to get one of the bookcases started by Sat. evening and then finished it up on Sunday.  One thing I did this time, which I almost never do is install the anti-tip hardware that anchors it to the wall, in case the cats try to jump up again!

 

I really had planned to finish the second one on Sunday, but really didn't feel that well.  I was getting some strange sort of vertigo and was dizzy when I stood up; I actually fell over once or twice while walking!  That was very disconcerting, and I decided I just needed to go to bed.

I feel much better, and I managed to get most of the books onto the shelves.  (The objet d'art on the top is by Vancouver artist Vanessa Lam.)

I should definitely be able to get the other bookcase up tonight.  I have no idea if they will be as sturdy as advertised, but the span is considerably shorter, which should help.  One bonus feature is that I can use quite a bit more of the poetry shelf on the wall to the left.  I think between that and saving the top shelf of the second bookcase for poetry, I should be able to get this in decent shape.  (Right now there are poetry collections stacked all over the place!)

One of the more surprising things is that I banged the broken shelf back into place.  The boards were a bit bowed, but it was still a mostly functional bookcase if used more for display of a few books and vases and seashells and whatever else Ikea thinks should be on bookcases aside from books!  We left it outside with a sign saying Free on it.  I fully expected we would have to hang onto it until big trash day, but it was gone within 24 hours.  I hope its next owner appreciates it and can use it for a few years.  I'm pretty glad we managed to keep it out of the trash.  That was certainly unexpected.

It definitely was a big push, but I managed to get the second bookcase together by midnight and then got the last of the books out of the hallway.  It will definitely take a while to get this properly sorted, but I actually have slightly more space for books now, and I just have to hope that they hold up for a while.

 

Even the poetry shelf is more functional now, though it badly needs to be reorganized.  I've managed to get through a considerable amount of poetry in Jan. and Feb., and the piles in the living room are manageable.  There are several large piles of books in the back room that I will have to start tackling in the next tranche of reading.
 

 

Cheated!

There's really no other way to put it.  I was scrambling to get my final edits in for the Toronto Star Short Story contest, and in fact I made some of the edits on transit on the way back from Paradise (where I had seen Wong Kar-Wai's 2046*).  Clearly I should have done it the night before, but I had other things going on.  Of course, we were stuck on the 72 bus for a bit while the bus driver took a break!  I managed to get the last edits done at 11:50, but then my laptop acted up, so I sent it to the desktop and then logged in to upload the story. 

It was 11:56, but the server said that the contest had ended, even though the deadline was midnight!  I even took a screenshot (the time is in the lower right corner), as I was so frustrated.

It's not like I thought I had a chance of winning, but I had wanted to prove that I could get this material in shape and sent off.  One thing that is interesting (to me) is that the fact that I write almost nothing but playlets (and blog posts) is that my writing now consists of almost nothing but dialogue and stage directions.  Something I will have to work on if I ever move back to other forms of creative writing.  I guess now that it is done, I should see if White Wall Review or anything else is taking very short fiction and ship it off there, so it isn't a complete waste of time (when I need to finish my Fringe edits!).

 

* I'm glad I saw 2046, but I don't like it anywhere near as much as In the Mood for Love.  I guess I just don't like the main character turning into such a cad whereas he was a much more sympathetic character in Mood for Love.  Perhaps the events in that movie tainted him, but he had at least one and perhaps two chances at love and he threw them away for no good reason.  And the sci-fi novel that he was writing based on his experiences was naff, based on what was shot for 2046.

Quick Update (Mid Feb.)

Once again I cut things a bit too close.  I was supposed to meet my son at Yonge-Dundas Square right before Some Like It Hot.  Fortunately, in the morning I had checked and realized that this was playing in the theatre right there at Yonge-Dundas (across from the Jazz Bistro in fact) and not on King St.  The theatres on King would have been a lot more convenient for a few reasons, but it was not to be.

Anyway, I found out that I had to rerun a long model run.  I decided I really needed to push through and get it restarted, as it basically runs overnight.  So I didn't leave until 6:30, and I was to meet my son at 7!  And I hadn't eaten!  I decided with all the potential delays and waiting on the subway, it would be just as fast to walk, even on the slushy sidewalks.  I made it to Eaton Centre by 6:45, making pretty good time.  Sadly, there wasn't much I wanted to eat at the new southern food court and some of the restaurants had closed, which I thought was weird.  I ended up grabbing some passable sushi and quickly walked over to the Square (or rather under, as there is a TTC underpass I utilized).  I was only a couple of minutes late.  I ate the sushi, and we went in.  He enjoyed it.  I thought it was well done, though the set is (not surprisingly) on a smaller scale and less impressive than the Broadway run.  I definitely think a number or even two could be trimmed from the first act, but the second moves at a good pace.  My favourite number is "Let's Be Bad," which opens the second act.  

I've managed to get through a few more poetry collections.  I'm finding that I don't care as much for Wellwater as Karen Solie's earlier collections like Pigeon or Short Haul Engine, and I really didn't like The Caiplie Caves.  It's just as well that I read the earlier collections first, or I definitely wouldn't have continued.  I suppose this happens.  I found that my favourite Ronna Bloom collection was Public Works, and her other collections are ok but just don't speak to me the same way.  I'm not enjoying the early poems of Jack Spicer and all and generally find him very over-rated, but I'll push through.  I'm generally enjoying Phil Quinn's The Sub Way, which is all about the Yonge St. subway, which really did reshape Toronto.  I thought he was actually a subway driver (much like Chris Pannell was a bus driver and wrote several really good poems about driving the bus), but that doesn't seem to be the case after all.  I am finding it hard to pull out a subway poem that would work for the transportation anthology, but I'll keep trying, and maybe look over some of the poems here that didn't make the cut, whereas I can definitely find a bus poem or two that would slot in from Pannell's work (and in general, Pannell's work clicks more often for me...).

I'm halfway through Ben Jelloun's The Last Friend but actually am fairly disappointed in it, though I can't explain why without SPOILERS.

SPOILERS

Basically, half of the book is told from the perspective of one friend (Ali) and the second half from the other's (Mamed).  Towards the end of Mamed's life, he writes this terrible letter, saying that Ali was not a good friend and had cheated him (pretty much throughout their whole friendship).  Ali is incredibly hurt but thinks that probably Mamed is just lashing out due to his fear of death.  Then you read the second half, expecting to find out why Mamed has such a different view on their relationship.  I skipped ahead, and in fact Mamed clearly admits he is in the wrong, and then sends a letter set to reach Ali after his death, saying that in fact Ali was in the right all along.  Lame.  Such a missed opportunity.  It would have been a far more interesting novel if Ben Jelloun had explored the key differences in perspective of the two and how there can be such a gulf in the way two people view the world.  I'm fairly sure that Durrell's Alexandria Quartet explores this at some length, hinting that there can never be a single source of truth and that all narrators are unreliable.  I really ought to reread this, though I don't know when I would find the time.

I'm making decent progress through Faulkner's The Wild Palms, and I should finish it sometime over the weekend and then watch Varda's La Pointe Courte when it turns up from the library.  I think my current plan is to read Bruno Shulz's Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (inspired by finally watching Has's movie, which is extremely loosely based on these stories), Winterson's One Aladdin Two Lamps (inspired by Shahrazad and the Arabian Tales), Shulz's The Street of Crocodiles, O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find, then Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls and finally McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.  The Ottawa trip will fall somewhere in the middle of this, so I'll be reading Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor, and I'll probably just push through and finish whatever I haven't read on the train once we get back.  I'll tackle Shteyngart's Vera, or Faith after McCullers, and then I'll definitely be into the second tranche of books for 2026, which includes novels by Robert Maxwell, Narayan, Mahfouz, Amis and Thien and probably Offill's Weather.  And maybe rereading Murdoch's Under the Net, though that may end up in the third tranche.  

Weekend Miscalculations

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cats and Chaos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Squeezing in Even More on the Weekends

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

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

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

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

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

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