I try not to dwell too much on things I passed on, since I follow so many different arts and it just isn't possible to do everything (this is certainly one reason that I am extremely resistant to add in anything new into the mix, particularly dance or opera).
I have a few minor pangs of regret that I didn't see the Banksy show last year, though I just thought the ticket prices were far too high. I did discuss checking out a play up at York U (Goodnight, Desdemona; Good Morning, Juliette) with a friend of mine, but she was too busy, and I didn't feel like trekking up there by myself. I had seen the play once before (at Brock actually), so I don't feel deprived.
I did debate going off to see TorQ two Thursday ago, in what would have been one of the very last evenings at Hugh's Room (I didn't even realize this was a jazz club, which doesn't speak that well of its abilities to get the word out!). I was starting to get a bit uneasy about being out for any events, so I passed. I have seen TorQ quite a few times, so it isn't quite as severe a blow.
There were a couple of concerts last year I got serious about too late and they were sold out.* This includes Antibalas at the Horseshoe and Bruce Cockburn at Koerner Hall (though he almost only comes through on solo tours, and I'd much rather see him and his band). I'll probably think of a couple more down the road.
I guess this is more like two years ago, but I didn't go see Collective Soul, since one time they were at the Phoenix, and I would have had to stand all night (and I am just too old for that!), and then they were at the Budweiser Stage, and I try to avoid that place. (That said, I am slated to see two concerts there this summer and early fall, and I will not moan about going out there if the world has returned to normal and the shows go on...)
Oh, that reminds me that many years ago I passed on a chance to see Toad the Wet Sprocket playing in Chicago, and that I was going to make up for it by seeing them this summer out at the Budweiser Stage (correcting that previous missed opportunity). The jury is very much still out if that will happen.
I had been hoping (and planning) to see the Sarah Sze exhibit at MOCA. In fact, there was one weekend where larger cultural institutions were shutting down, but the smaller ones were open. I went to The Power Plant at Harbourfront, and I would definitely have made the trip out to MOCA, but it closed along with the AGO. It's not my biggest regret (out of everything that is going on), but it is the one that I could have handled differently had I known just how quickly everything was going to shut down. It is true that the piece is being loaned to them by David Mirvish, so he may well let MOCA hold onto it for a couple more months after the quarantine has been lifted. Certainly I hope so, but I have a lot of other things to worry about at the moment.
That covers a lot of the cases I was thinking about. Some of the other things are wishing I had grabbed a couple more library books before the libraries all closed, but as I noted, I really do have plenty to read, and I might not actually get around to all the library books, regardless of how long I have to read them. I suppose if I had 100% foresight, then I might have grabbed Bottom's Dream by Arno Schmidt from the Pratt Library at Victoria College, as I would have the whole spring to read it. This is apparently the only copy of the book in the entire city, and there's no way I can read it in 2 weeks (when things get back to normal) as it runs just under 1500 pages. But this may well be a curiosity that I wouldn't actually like all that much, and really I have quite a few more pressing things to do first, like read Fante's Bandini Quartet or reread Durrell's Alexandria Quartet
A lot of the other stuff is out of my control. I don't know if Picasso is coming to the AGO this summer or not, though I would say probably not at this point, but it won't be a missed opportunity since no one in Toronto will have that opportunity. Most of my tickets through May have now been voided, but, again, everyone is in the same boat, and it isn't like I just forgot and missed a show. I do try to take advantage of things when they crop up, and, consequently, I don't have lots and lots of regrets about missing out on artistic events.** I certainly do regret there is almost nothing to do at the moment, though I suppose this too shall pass.
* To spin this a bit more positively, I did get tickets to the sold-out Laurie Anderson show, as well as Lowest of the Low at the Horseshoe. I believe Angela Hewitt's performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations was technically sold out, though there were a few no shows. Her upcoming (and rescheduled to October hopefully!) performance of Art of the Fugue is also sold out, and I have a ticket for that as well. And it was a major coup to get a ticket to see Salman Rushdie speaking at the AGO.
** In terms of what I did see before the curtain came down hard, two full weeks ago (already such a different world), I saw Knives Out at the Paradise (which was amusing but not a great movie by any means) and Good People by Lindsay-Abaire at Bloor West Village Players (with lots of seats between people in the largely empty theatre). While I have some quibbles about the way the character is written (it is not really convincing in the end why she doesn't fight harder for her severely disabled child), the performances were top-notch. I would have been upset at myself had I skipped these opportunities before the expert guidance tightened up and made such outings a thing of the past.
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