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.

Spoiled Fruit (and Fringe)

While this is not such a big deal in and of itself, it shows that I am operating at much less than my best these days, surely due to a combination of spreading myself too thin, being stressed over taxes and whether I will actually be able to get my Fringe play cast in the next two weeks and just not sleeping enough (and the state of the world, which is always pretty dire).  Hopefully things will turn around, though I'm not expecting much until both Putin and Pres. Agent Orange are both underground.

Anyway, I had a meeting in Toronto's East End, so I just worked from home until the meeting.  Afterwards, I thought I might as well drop by work to get the results of an overnight run and ship them off to a junior who is processing them for me.  I also had an event at the Toronto Reference Library (though it would have been almost as easy to get there from home as from work).  I thought I should take the opportunity to take some frozen fruit I had bought and drop it off at work, but when I got to work I was so distracted by things (and randomly opened the "wrong" side of my bag) and it was still in the bag when I got to the library hours later, so I tossed it.  I'm rather fortunate that the bag of fruit didn't leak, but it was all pretty frustrating.

I was over at the library to see Yann Martel.  The event had been sold out for ages, but the previous evening I took a look and a few tickets had been returned, so I grabbed one.  That meant a long look through boxes in the basement, trying to track down a copy of Life of Pi.  While I was there, I was also looking for my copy of Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man.  I may or may not own a copy of White Teeth, but I am sure I have The Autograph Man.  (I totally forget to look for Teju Cole's Open City, since he is going to be the interviewer at a TPL event next week, and I'm almost sure he will sign books.  So I guess I will go through this whole process again.)  I haven't decided if I will go see Zadie Smith when she comes to Massey Hall.  The tickets are quite expensive for an author reading, and I am pretty sure she won't be signing anything.  But I am still taking it as a bit of a sign that if the book(s) turns up, I'll go see her.  I'm starting to wonder if I should just replace the 3 shelf book case downstairs in the storage area with a 6 shelf bookcase, as I probably could display these books and not have to go hunting all the time for them.

I'll definitely want to go into more detail about the TPL event itself, as Yann is definitely a curious character.  In the end, I bought a copy of his new book Son of Nobody and a new copy of Life of Pi for him to inscribe to my son.

I'll close out by showing the Fringe blurb I put together.  I actually took a new set of photos for the Fringe poster, which I'll start working on.  

As can be seen, I had to go with the actors that have committed so far, though apparently in the on-line version, I can keep adding names.  The dates and times (over at Alumnae Theatre) are actually really good, and I certainly hope that helps me sign up the remaining actors!  More on this soon, I promise!

Finished (Almost) with First Pass on (US) Taxes

It really has crept up on me, but US taxes are due in just over a week.  What makes it particularly challenging is I have a chunk of investment income that just is "foreign income."  This is relatively easy to capture on CRA forms, but not the US forms, so I have asked for some clarification.

Anyway, I was up for hours getting downloading everything, and I think I have pretty much everything except I have to clarify a large dental bill my son incurred (and which insurance wouldn't cover).  This only really matters for the CRA, so I don't have to panic about it.

Nonetheless, because investment income was higher than usual, I will have to work my way through the Canadian taxes in order to get an estimate on what I paid in order to claim this as a tax credit against my US taxes.  So that means the next few days will get a bit hairy.

I did manage to get my Fbar form filed.  While the form itself is not that complicated, getting the information together to figure it out takes forever.  For some reason, the first time through it was rejected, likely because I was using a knock-off Pdf viewer and not Adobe, so it wasn't digitally signed correctly or something like that.  But I went back through and now it has been filed successfully.  This is the one with the highest penalties for non-compliance (potentially up to 10% of the foreign assets not declared!), so it is always the first thing I submit!

And now back to the rest of the tax forms.  Sigh...

A Few Positive Events

I definitely dwell mostly on the negative side of things, and there is certainly a lot to be negative about!

But I'll list a few positive developments, though a few are minor indeed.

I have had a few abstracts accepted to conferences recently.  It's nice to know I haven't lost my touch, even though I don't really have enough time allocated to this sort of thing at work, which means tackling it in the evenings, along with all the other things I am trying to juggle.

While I seem to be missing a lot of the Sun Ra music that I have downloaded or ripped in the last year or so, I did come across a folder of 8 albums and I have another 2 on another hard drive.  I know I have far more than that, so, hopefully, I will come across that fairly soon.

I have been filling in some gaps in my jazz collection.  For some reason I am interested in relatively early 1950s jazz from France.  Recently I picked up some CDs by Hubert Fol and Guy Lafitte.  I also managed to locate a re-issue of a rare LP called Jazz Boom No 1.  

I had assumed I had ripped this previously, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so I just ripped it now, which greatly increases the odds I can listen to it while at work!  I'm partway through ripping 2 box sets from Vogue records, and in a few cases trying to track down some of the sessions that weren't issued in the box sets.

I actually have quite a long ways to go with the ripping, and I probably should try to finish ripping several classical box sets I have lying around, but before too long, I would like to re-rip the Jazz in Paris box set.  (I ripped it back around 2005, but at a fairly lossy level, and I don't think I even captured song titles or the key performers.)

Between the original box and a bunch of follow-up re-issues, there are something like 120 CDs involved, which will clearly mean going to get another hard drive to back things up properly in multiple locations!  I have no idea what I paid for the set, though likely around $250.  I see the few complete sets on the market are running close to $2000!

We had quite a rain storm in the early evening, though it was just about done raining by the time the movie (The Dead Zone) ended.  The streets were, in fact, flooded, and I was very glad that our basement was fine, as I was half-expecting water to be seeping in.  

The last thing that has gone better than expected is that our dehumidifier in the basement had stopped working because the filter was jammed up with lint (and cat hair).  I cleaned this off and put it back together, but it wouldn't run.  I tried all kinds of resetting buttons and even just leaving it off for a day to let it cycle back to normal, but nothing worked.  I was very close to calling a repair man for a quote (though realizing it was probably just as cheap to buy a new one!), when it started working again spontaneously.  It's been running ok for a week now, and hopefully we won't have any other issues for a while.  It's certainly unusual for an appliance like that to self-repair, but it was definitely good news for me.

Bubblings of Trouble

While I am definitely getting a bit nervous about various things, most notably whether I can actually participate in Fringe (as I'll get to in a moment), the weather is improving and my mood is lifting at least a bit. It was a long tough winter, particularly all of Jan.  But the weather was great on Monday and I biked a fair bit.  I did skip out on going to the gym, mostly because I stayed at work a bit longer than expected, I did so much biking over the weekend, and I am just generally depressed about things going on at home (to say nothing of the Orange One’s global tantrums).

Working backwards from that, Sunday was pretty good.  I managed to get in 16 or so laps at Jimmie Simpson, then had to bike to Little Italy.  I made it in 35 minutes, which was pretty good.  I was a bit early, though the bar at the Monarch Tavern wasn't open before the show and the line at intermission was moving so slowly.  Fortunately, the play itself – Galatea by John Lyly – is fairly short, and we were done around 4:30, even with the extra long intermission.  It is a weird play, with two young maidens, both disguised as young men, falling in love. Then at the end, the goddess Venus says she'll change one of them into a male, so they can marry (naturally), but they won't know who is transformed until they get to the church door!  So wild.

I had really wanted to rope in Steven Ho into my Fringe play (as Jasper), but he is directing another Fringe show, which rules him out.  I approached an older actor (with ties to Video Cabaret and their history plays) who might make a solid Frederick, and he said he would email and I would get him the script, but radio silence. I suspect he has decided he is not free during Fringe, but still it would be nice to hear directly and not just be ghosted.

I am getting very antsy at this point, and I am starting to wonder if I will have to pull the plug. I guess I’ll email Jamie over the weekend and try to have him put out a casting call, as this is just getting ridiculous…

After this, I was quite hungry, and I had planned to grab an eggplant Parmesan sandwich next door, but that restaurant closed permanently, which is a real shame.  The other Italian place across the street is nowhere near as good, so I biked off in search of an early dinner.  I found a pretty decent Thai place on College, though the service there was also slow.  I was definitely getting worried, but I biked hard and made it to the Paradise to see Foxy Brown (a notorious Blaxploitation film starring Pam Grier) with about 5 minutes to spare.  All I can say is they would never get away with this today, though the fashions were pretty great and over the top.  Then I biked home, so I was a bit worn out.

Sat. was considerably simpler.  I put in a fairly solid workout at the gym and brought home the groceries.  I then biked across on Dundas to the TMU Image Centre.  They have a good exhibit on early photos from Magnum Photos, which runs through this Saturday.  I went over to 401 Richmond and briefly dropped in at a couple of galleries.  It was already 5 by this point.  I then went over to The Well.  As my bag was pretty full, I just ate there rather than carrying it off anywhere.  Then I dropped in at work for an hour or so, trying to compile all the tax info, particularly the donations I made last year, as tax season is sneaking up on me!  (Especially my US taxes!)  Then I saw a TSO concert where Joshua Bell played Bruch's Violin Concerto and also conducted the orchestra.  Not only the Bruch, but Beethoven's 7th Symphony.  Then I went back to the office for about three more hours and tried to download all the account info I will need to do my taxes, though I didn't actually start in on them.  Then I finally went home.

Ok, I have to get at least some rest now…

Cutting Things Too Close (Yet Again)

Always a constant problem with me, as I just try to fit too much in.  And it is a weird time when I've done a bit of biking, so have reset my mental clock to remember how much of the city I can cover on a bike -- but then not being able to bike and being stuck on the TTC instead.

This was definitely an issue last Sunday when I didn't have much on the calendar except for a Mooredale concert at 3:15.  I did some work and tried to get caught up on a few things and didn't make it to Jimmie Simpson until just after 1.  I had really thought I would swim 30+ laps, but in the end I was really struggling to get about 25, and it took me pretty close to 50 minutes.  Then there were quite a few delays on the TTC, and of course they had closed down Line 1 (when I really needed to get to the Museum stop!), so I literally ran from St. George to Walter Hall and made it with only 3 minutes to spare before the concert.  So frustrating.  The concert was fine though.

I had to drop off stuff at St. Mike's, so I did that after the concert, then walked back across Queen's Park to Robarts and dropped off the other Buñuel DVDs and did a small bit of research.  Then I decided to head over to BMV (though I didn't have anything with me to sell).  Once again, I cut things too close (and didn't have time to grab food), and I made it to Carlton Cinema as the trailers were rolling.  I was there to see Project Hail Mary.  On the whole I enjoyed this, but the faster-than-light travel really grated at me, particularly when the author wants to be so serious about the science behind his anthrophages, etc.  Most fans of the book are totally devastated that this isn't The Martian Pt. 2 with the whole movie spent on scientific experiments etc., but that just seems like it would have been intolerable.  They also didn't like that the main administrator wasn't the all-powerful pan-governmental agent who nukes the Antarctic in the book but not in the movie.  I think that was a change for the better.  Anyway, not really a hard science fiction movie, which was fine by me.

Tonight I will be facing the same sort of thing, and again the weather is just not right for cycling (too cold this morning).  I am off to the Jazz Bistro to see Kirk MacDonald and Pat LeBarbara play, but I am probably going to run off to the Paradise right after work, and I may end up regretting it, esp. if the TTC does not behave.  (It was quite bad last night, where a "medical emergency" at Castle Frank shut down St. George to Broadway yet again, and I waited around for a while, finally giving up and heading south to catch the streetcar.  It was only when I got to Museum that they said service had resumed!  Then the Carlton streetcar I was on decided to go down to Queen for some reason, so not good at all.  I was also extremely frustrated that my camera battery had died on me and spoiled some of the video and photos I was trying to take.  I think I needed only 5 more minutes of battery!  So overall not a great night.*)  I do hope tonight goes a bit better.

Edit (03/28): Last night actually worked out surprisingly well.  I made it to the Paradise and saw Petzold's Miroirs No 3, which I enjoyed, and then I ran back downtown to see Pat LeBarbara and Kirk MacDonald (and Neil Swainson!) doing their annual tribute to John Coltrane.  This is the first year it's ever been at the Jazz Bistro, but I certainly hope it goes back to the Rex next year.  It was great, and this time around my phone camera didn't break down.  After the gig, I saw a Carlton streetcar.  I actually had to run a couple of blocks, but it was not going very fast, and I managed to board it, so the trip back was surprisingly smooth.

* It really was frustrating not having a working phone while I was having these major TTC issues, and I was particularly annoyed that if Esprit had stuck to its original program (with only 1 and not 2(!) intermissions) this probably wouldn't have been nearly as much of an issue.  Also, right at the start of the viola concerto, the violist broke a string, so they had to change it and restart!  Not something you see every day, and this also pushed the concert end time even further out.

Frustrating Trip to Tarragon

For once the TTC travel wasn't so bad, but the lead-up was definitely annoying and then the station had lots of construction that forced all the passengers to make long detours.  Anyway, I'll get to that in a moment.

What really grates is that I ran up to Bloor with a moderate pile of stuff to try to sell off at BMV.  As I was getting closer, I wondered if it was too late to try to sell to them.  And indeed, they are only open until 7 pm on Mon-Wed., which seems frankly silly when they are open until 11 pm(!) on Friday and Saturday.  I could have checked, but 7 just seems so early for a Tues.  Then I thought well at least there is a decent chance Seekers will take the books, though not the CDs or DVDs, and they were closed for inventory!  Grrrr.  So that was really frustrating, and I am not sure when I will be able to haul all this stuff back with me for another go at BMV.

Not only was a huge chunk of the station off-limits, forcing everyone to cross Spadina and Dupont, but this section had been closed off for a few months before and now it is closed again?  The sign said it would be another 6 weeks, and indeed, I will probably try to avoid making the trip to Tarragon until this is resolved.  Then some condo construction forced a closure of a traffic lane and the sidewalk, and the pedestrians were forced into another lane of traffic.  It just was really annoying.

Anyway, I got to Tarragon not in the best of moods.  I thought Icarus did a good job with their production of Julie, which is an update of Strindberg's Miss Julie.  I'm pretty sure I saw Miss Julie (in a slightly modernized adaptation) at the Chopin Theatre in Chicago decades ago.  As it happens, I have a copy of Miss Julie, which I browsed after I got home.  I would say Miss Julie is still a fairly pathetic lost soul in this version, but she is a bit less passive this time around.  Also, I think there was a slightly larger role for Katerina the maid.  It's a fairly downbeat piece, however.*

I'm going to see an early Strindberg work, Creditors, at Canadian Stage next season.  Paul Gross is in it, which was one of the main draws.  I toyed with the idea of seeing Dance of Death at Stratford close to 10 years ago, but didn't go.  I can't remember if the travel was too much of a hassle or the reviews were poor.  I actually saw A Dream Play at Northwestern back in 1997, but I don't remember anything about it.  I suppose if it ever comes through, I would see A Dream Play again.  I would like to see The Ghost Sonata some day, and that might be enough Strindberg.  I am not a massive fan of his work.

There are quite a few other things I was going to discuss, but let's keep this post reasonably short... 

* And this is after a very downbeat movie, Fassbinder's Veronika Voss, at the Paradise on Monday, so back to back misery.  I sort of think of Veronika Voss as Sunset Boulevard but with morphine addicts.  It morphs into a neo-noir film about halfway in.  As I was thinking about it, I don't believe there is a single Fassbinder film with a truly happy ending, though Ali: Fear Eats the Soul has a somewhat open-ended ending that isn't completely miserable.  Just as with Buñuel (or Petzold for that matter), I've gone from seeing virtually none of his work to getting up to 5 films (almost all at the Paradise), though there are several key ones I still need to see (where I feel I've seen all the core Buñuel's).