Anyway, on Monday I ran up to North York to see Heather O'Neill at the North York Library. She was being interviewed about the inspiration behind her latest novel, The Capital of Dreams, which is about an imaginary European country enduring a war, based largely upon WWII but much more fable-like. There is also a talking goose. So it might be considered a sort of fairy tale for adults. (During the question and answer session, she was asked if she was considering writing for children, and she said she might do, but it would be hard to take all the sex out of her writing...) More info on the novel here. They actually had a large stack of the book for sale, even though technically it wasn't supposed to be published until Tues. She only read a couple of pages from the prologue to the novel, but the interview and questions were quite entertaining, so it was worth making the trek north.
After the event, she was very gracious about signing the new book and an older book of short stories I had brought along. I don't know when I will find the time to read either, but I will try to make time in the fall/winter. I actually dropped in at work for a couple of hours afterwards.
Tonight, I saw Spoon over at the Danforth Music Hall. I left at 7:30 and walked there in exactly 27 minutes. If I had left earlier or walked faster, I probably would have stopped in at the Night Baker, but I didn't. I slid into my seat just as the lights went down and the opening act, A Giant Dog, went on. That was cutting it far too close. Now I might not have been quite as worried about getting there on time had I known who the opening act was. In fact, I wasn't sure there was an opening act, but I assumed there would be. A Giant Dog was ok, but not all that memorable.* I actually wandered down to the restroom during their last song.
Spoon was very good, generally a sort of heavy, layered guitar sound. This time around the band has 5 members. Squeeze was still a bit better, however. It's very annoying to find out that I am still having issues with Ticketmaster and Google Wallet. Basically, someone at TM has to go in and delink the Google account and I then sign in again and then set up Wallet again. But they generally can't be bothered. In the meantime, I had no issues using the Ticketmaster app, which does beg the question of why I upgraded the phone in the first place, since it was almost entirely because of Google Wallet. Sigh.
Anyway, the pictures and video are definitely better than on my old phone. Sadly, I hadn't realized how low the battery was. I did make it through the concert and filmed large chunks of it, though the battery completely died with about 2 minutes to go in the encore. Also, that meant I couldn't read anything on Libby while waiting on the TTC to get me home. Still, it could have been worse...
I think I had been vaguely aware of Spoon when I saw them opening for Beck in 2019. It is a bit unfortunate (that I wasn't more attuned to them before), as they played at Massey Hall in 2017 and played quite a few songs that I really like, including 'Do I Have to Talk You Into It,' 'Can I Sit Next to You,' and 'Hot Thoughts.' Now apparently, they did play 'Hot Thoughts' when they opened for Beck, but I didn't really remember this. It looks like they haven't played 'Can I Sit Next to You' or 'Hot Thoughts' since 2019, which is too bad, though I do like the newer tracks off Lucifer on the Sofa. Anyway, I saw them opening for Metric in 2022, but this was the first time I saw them as headliners, since I didn't go to see them at Massey Hall. I'm not entirely sure if I would go a fourth time. I suppose it would depend on how much I like their newest material. I would agree that they really have not made a bad album and have a lot (perhaps too much) good material to choose from for their setlists. I think wherever I read this, the writer was comparing them to The New Pornographers. That's probably not a terrible comparison, though I think Spoon is a much more compelling band live.** (For that matter, I think Metric is much better on record than live...)
I'll keep it much briefer for the rest of the week. Tomorrow I am off to Budweiser Stage to see The Killers. I have to say both the opening acts look pretty dire, so I don't think I will hurry to get there, especially if I have work to wrap up. At least the weather should be nice. Incredibly, this isn't even the last show I see out at Budweiser Stage. The following Wed., I am seeing Love and Rockets along with Jane's Addition.
Then Thurs., I am going over to Coal Mine to check out Annie Baker's Infinite Life. I'm certainly looking forward to this, though I should probably try to find some time to sleep between now and then!
While I have the opportunity to go do a meet and greet at Tarragon on Friday, I think I will skip that. I might, however, try to catch the GO Train up to Bloor West station and then walk over to MOCA. I think Fridays evenings are still free and the fall exhibitions have just opened up. (It's another couple of weeks before the Power Plant has its fall exhibitions open.) Now I had been trying to squeeze in one more Stratford trip on Sat., but there are no seats on the bus, so that makes it too hard for me to manage. I'm not willing to rent a car to make the trip. I guess I will check periodically to see if anyone gave back a bus ticket, but it certainly isn't looking promising. I already had checked the Shaw schedule, and it is literally impossible to find a weekend performance of Candida where the bus is actually running, so that completely dropped off my radar. But honestly, I may need the weekend just to recover from this week...
* One somewhat amusing thing is that they said they were going to play a Sparks' cover called 'Ants in Your Pants,' which certainly sounds like a Sparks' song. But I checked it later and no such song exists, and it is their own song called 'Angst in Your Pants.' Pretty cheeky...
** I actually went over to the CNE to see The New Pornographers performing back in late August. (I had considered but ultimately decided to skip their earlier shows at Danforth Music Hall.) I wasn't that familiar with the material, but I really liked 'Pontius Pilate's Home Movies,' which interestingly is on their latest CD, Continue as a Guest. There certainly aren't that many songs about Pontius Pilate, though he shows up in other art forms and is a major figure in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.
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