Circles

I would say that today (actually Saturday) involved a lot of going around in circles, which always puts me in mind of the Soul Asylum song, 'Circles.'  I ended up going over to the mall and back twice, and it looks like I'll probably have to go twice tomorrow as well.

Saturday I did get over to the Regent Park pool just before noon and swam 22 or so laps, which are their own kind of somewhat tedious circle.  At least the hot pool area was open, so I soaked in that for 10 minutes.

I had planned to go to Yonge-Dundas Square before the play, but then I got a text that my daughter needed something, so I biked back to Gerrard Square and picked up that for her.  I also stopped in at Staples to look at printer prices, since the home printer seems to have given up the ghost.  And I bought some dress loafers.

I then had about 20 minutes to make it back over the Don to Alumnae Theatre to see Fierce.  I only found about this play a few days ago.  It played at the Red Sandcastle in Feb. 2018, and I had debated going to see the play but finally didn't because I knew it would be a bit of a downer, plus I saw 7 other plays that Feb., so something had to give!  This production is actually directed by Walker, as is another production (Girls Unwanted in Parkdale), so the far west side of the city, then a production at the Campbell House Museum in Feb. 2025.  So Walker is staying extremely busy these days.

I had a bit of time before the show, so I read a bit more of Cela's The Hive.  I have finally gotten through it.  I'll write down my impressions of Fierce a bit later, along with any thoughts on The Hive.  (Briefly it is well acted but a downer in many places, and you also have to go with the flow of near strangers opening up so fully to each other, which is a bit of a hallmark of Walker's writing.)  The play was reasonably short, being 80 minutes long without an intermission.  So in the end, I did have time to get to Yonge-Dundas Square.  I didn't see anything I was looking for at BMV, and then no one in the mini-food court across the way had mango lassi.  I continued on to 401 Richmond.  Some new gallery has already opened up, taking the place of Yumart.  This time the Black Artist Network space was open, so I took a look at Audra Townsend's work.  DNA was my favorite piece of hers.

I took another look at The Blue Ladder upstairs at Abbozzo, but I wasn't quite ready to purchase it, and certainly not ready to take it home om my bike!  I'll think about it another couple of weeks.

Then I stopped in at work, having to make some major detours due to King St. being shut down for TIFF.  I guess I have managed to get the VPN working at home, but I still can't tell why I can't get ArcGIS working from home.  It's pretty frustrating, and it means, until this is fixed, I have to spend extra time at the office.  After putting in about an hour, I headed back home.

My wife and I had tickets to see Squeeze at Massey Hall, with the English Beat as the opening act.  Both acts were good, but I was surprised at how tight Squeeze was.

One thing that was surprising is that they did a very extended version of Black Coffee in Bed as their closer, and they didn't do an encore at all!  Here's the set list.  I think this is the best rock concert I've seen this year, though there will be some stiff competition coming up soon.  They announced on stage that they were going to play a number they hadn't been playing for a while and then proceeded to play 'Some Fantastic Place.'  Now it happens that this wasn't the very first time this made its way into the set list, as they played it in Chicago a few nights before, but it is still a relatively new entry into the set list, so that was cool.  One minor point is that they replaced the saxophone riffs in 'Hourglass' with shredding guitar.  Given that there is a pretty good saxophone player with The English Beat on tour with them, they might have brought him on stage.  Oh well.  

One other interesting thing is that they didn't have any vinyl (or even CDs) for sale at the merch booth, which is extremely common now, as it is the only way bands make money while touring.  Everything was just t-shirts or hoodies or pins.

I really liked the English Beat t-shirt, but not for $55.  I spent a little time looking on-line after the concert, and there are quite a few Etsy shops (mostly in the UK) that were selling something that looked similar (but is based on a different English Beat poster).  Anyway, one of the shops had a 50% sale, so I got one for me and my wife (after getting her to vow we would never wear them out at the same time!).  While shipping was high, it wasn't crazy high if you ordered two shirts.  Interestingly, it was cheaper to ship to Canada than the US,* which almost never is the case!

We ended up taking the Dundas streetcar instead of the subway, so we went right past the Regent Park pool, which is where the day's events started!  I got a fair bit of reading in, and I should be wrapping up Edna O'Brien's August is a Wicked Month on Sunday, i.e. later today.  There's more to write, but I really need to get some sleep.

* Also, curiously, this is also the case for Soundway Records, as I found out the other day when I decided to order a couple of CDs I am missing from my collection, including Nigeria Special Vol. 2 and Highlife on the Move.