Originally, I had planned the Detroit trip around the Pacifica Quartet playing in Detroit. As it turned out, they were playing in the far suburbs, so I gave up on that idea and actually switched the trip to Friday, which made it possible to stay much longer at the the DIA. If I had gone on Sat., I would probably had 1-2 hours maximum at the DIA, which wouldn't really have justified the trip. If everything had gone right, which it certainly didn't, then I should also have made it to the Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art. However, the gypsy cab I took from the bus station dropped me at the wrong museum! I didn't think it mattered that much, but it turned out the contemporary art museum had some unannounced gala that made the museum off-limits in the evening, which pissed me off beyond belief. The rest of the evening didn't get much better. One thing that did work out ok was that I stopped in at John King Books, which was just a block from the bus station. I spent close to an hour in there, mostly picking up cheap John O'Hara books and Janet Hobhouse's November, which apparently I read before, though I don't recall this at all! I also got a William Burroughs omnibus and a signed edition of Robert Bly's The Light Around the Body.
I probably didn't bother looking up things to do on that Sat., since I had assumed I would be in Detroit (and indeed it was a reasonably close call that I did make it back to Toronto on the morning bus). At any rate, I probably could have seen the TSO doing Elgar's Enigma Variations and Vaughan Williams's Dives and Lazarus. It might have just been too much to try to squeeze that in. As it happens, on Sunday I saw Tafelmusik in the afternoon and then Esprit Orchestra with a very contemporary program in the evening. It was definitely a packed weekend! (This upcoming weekend is even more busy, but I'll go into details later...)
One thing that was a bit of a throwback was going to the UVic book sale, where I mostly picked up some poetry books. I found out at more or less at the last minute about the Trinity book sale, and I went on the last day (after getting back from Kleinberg in fact). In this case, going late had some advantages as you could fill up a box with books for $25. I picked up a number of interesting things, including some duplicates for the Little Free Library. I kept a copy of Russo's Nobody's Fool for myself, as well as Drabble's The Ice Age as well as several novels by Lawrence Durrell, which will all go outside after I have a chance to read them.
Early in the month, I was supposed to see the Cowboy Junkies, but someone in the band came down with Covid. They've rescheduled to Nov. 22. I can make the date, though this is the same time as a Hart House mixer. (It would have been a much tougher decision, but this year I wasn't assigned a mentee, so I'll just skip the mixer.) I did see The Lowest of the Low at Danforth Music Hall. This was actually a CD release party, and I picked up Welcome to the Plunderdome, which is a pretty good CD, though not as good as Agitpop. I find it really interesting that they have continued making new music, when by all rights they could have stuck to their music from the early 90s, as that is what are known for and their audiences generally expect. I generally find the classics and the new songs to be equally strong.
On top of all this other music, I did see the TSO. Most of the pieces were pretty challenging, but they ended with a solid performance of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Also, I saw Quatour Danel, both in a lecture over at UT where they were illustrating some aspects of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's string quartets. (He was a contemporary though not precisely a disciple of Shostakovich, and I really should dive a bit deeper into his works.) Then the next day they performed Weinberg's 16th String Quartet and Mendelssohn's Quartet in F minor. It was quite an interesting program, and I'm glad I went to both events.*
Kat Sandler's Wildwoman at Soulpepper was the best play I saw. (The Master Plan at Crow's Theatre was also amazing, but I saw that in Sept.) I really did not like Heroes of the Fourth Turning for all kinds of reasons, not least of which it was two hours without an intermission, but really I disliked all the characters. I don't need to spend that much time in the company of Catholic fanatics, particularly now that they have largely succeeded in bringing Atwood's Gilead to life. Plus, there were some exceedingly stupid elements to the play I hated, including one of the characters channeling a Black woman seeking an abortion (and presumably denied one by the character who worked at one of the those fake pregnancy counseling centres) and then this horrible unexplained screeching that was perhaps supposed to be a demon trapped in the proverbial woodshed. Anyway, I hated this play and don't think it was worth the effort of staging it. I didn't have such a strong reaction to Cliff Cardinal's A Terrible Fate, which had some interesting moments, but it definitely ran a bit too long. (Slotkin agrees.) The last thing I saw in Oct. was at Red Sandcastle where Doc Wuthergloom of Eldritch Theatre was doing his thing, mixing magic and the occult. That was pretty entertaining and was very much in the sprit of Halloween (just as Spirited Away will be, assuming I don't have any problems getting out there on Thurs.). The show at Red Sandcastle runs through this weekend, so catch it if you like magic tricks or the occult.
I did get out to the galleries including MOCA and the Powerplant, which were both ok. I swung by the KAWS exhibit at the AGO, which I found incredibly insipid and completely unworthy of the venue. I will definitely avoid those rooms on any future visit to the AGO.
As if this weren't enough, I managed to see a couple of 80s films back to back: Real Genius over at Tiff and Back to the Future at Carlton Cinema. And I finally signed up for a family doctor, which only took most of a day at the local walk-in clinic. So aside from a few deeply frustrating days where I was really let down by the TTC, it was a productive, if overstuffed, October. Let's see what November brings.
* I only went to the Rex once in Oct., whereas I was able to go a few more times in Sept. I am a little sorry I missed Charlie Ballantine, but he had the late night slot for only two days (and that was Sunday and Monday, and I expect I was doing something else). I think I'll get to the Rex a few times in Nov., though I am a bit bummed that Neil Swainson doesn't seem to be joining Pat LaBarbera in late Nov.
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