It's been an interesting summer so far. In general it's been very dry and lately quite hot, though not reaching the extremes seen in the UK and elsewhere in Western Europe. Now it was supposed to be a wet summer, and I suppose that may still happen, though in general they forecast a lot of rain for the week and then it only rains one or two days.
That said, I wasn't expecting any rain on the 11th, which was the Sarah McLachlan concert over at Budweiser Stage. I actually biked over and noticed a few clouds but didn't pay it too much mind. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they upgraded me to a seat that was right in the middle of the venue, though it still wasn't covered seating...
Sarah launched into her set with "Building a Mystery" and followed this with "In Your Shoes," which are two of her stronger songs (at least for me). The full setlist is here. At that point it started sprinkling. While I wasn't thrilled about it, I thought I could stick it out. But the rain kept up, getting heavier, and suddenly there was a bit of thunder and lightning; everyone in the uncovered seating moved en masse to the covered area. People were reasonably chill, and the ushers did their best and actually managed to find seating for almost everybody under the covered area (by the time she finished Adia). Though I was no longer at centre stage I certainly wasn't complaining, as this was a pretty significant upgrade. Part of me is a little sad that she didn't sell out the whole venue, even though that would have sucked for me and the rest of the attendees left out in the rain. (And I certainly can't expect this for the other concerts I am going to out there.) On the other hand, it was a Monday evening concert, and I don't think there was much promotion at all, so it was basically only die-hard fans that turned up. It was a great concert, and I imagine clips will start turning up on Youtube, though I haven't searched any of them up.
That Wednesday, we were going to have an office outing over to the Toronto Islands, but the forecast was for storms pretty much all afternoon. In the end, it was overcast, but I don't think it rained that Wednesday, or if it did it was much later in the day. That said, the weather wasn't great, and we postponed the outing to the following Wednesday. As the time drew nearer, the forecast was for a reasonably clear day but then a storm starting around 6 or 7, so we decided to risk it but to leave just a bit early (the 4:15 ferry back).
It was quite the fun trip. We went over to Ward's Island rather than the somewhat more popular/crowded Centre Island, which is where I went on previous trips. We spread out a few blankets and chilled out for a few hours. At some point a few of us went over to the beach, though I didn't get my feet wet.
The interesting thing is that the threatened rain didn't come at all, or at least not that I recall. To be honest, the forecasts have been a real crap shoot for a while now. The forecasts called for rain on Thursday and Friday, which bummed me out as I was supposed to be going to Barenaked Ladies on Thursday and then to outdoor theatre on Friday.
There is a quirky reason that I wasn't so disappointed in leaving a bit early, which is that I managed to get home by 6 pm. There was a Zoom event that I had planned to try to listen to on the way home on my phone, but for some reason it simply wouldn't connect (and kept trying to set up a new Zoom event!), but I was able to connect from my laptop once I was home. This event was a celebration of Gary Snyder's Collected Poems being published by the Library of America. Gary Snyder actually came on at the very end, which was cool. The event should be archived here. I have ordered the book and should be able to pick it up in another two weeks.
In the end, it didn't rain at all Thurs., and it doesn't look like it will rain tonight, and it may not actually rain until Sunday (so I'll have to water the garden yet again!). I kind of wish it had rained on Thursday after all, but that is only because the concert was postponed. Someone in the band came down with COVID! And they have rescheduled to August 30th, and I'll just have to hope that it doesn't rain on that date (or on any of the other outdoor concerts still on my calendar).
At any rate, I'll be heading over to the Shakespeare in the park soon and hope that the weather stays clear. I'm looking forward to it, especially as it has been so long since we've been able to hold these events, so it is worth taking advantage of them before there are any more shut downs (as unlikely as the current government is to go in that direction unless their hand is truly forced). While I don't think there were any site-specific pieces in this year's Fringe, I had a good time at the shows I did attend, which I'll write up a bit later. I haven't entirely decided, but I'll probably go see Dusk Dances at Withrow Park in early August, and there are a few other shows with outdoor components, such as this Caribbean circus at the Bentway and then Outside the March's joint venture with Factory Theatre, which should be a blast.
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