Brushes with Fame

A few interesting things have happened in past week, but those stories will have to wait.  Last Saturday, I went out to Stratford to see Something Rotten.  The bus trip was quite terrible, but I think it deserves its own post.  The musical was very good, though I couldn't have helped think that I would have preferred to go out on the earlier date I had selected (but that the bus was sold out, then briefly available, then off-limits again...).  Not only I would have been able to see Get That Hope, instead of just hoping it will transfer to Mirvish or perhaps Soulpepper, but the bus ride would have been much smoother.  On the other hand, maybe I never would have finished work on the deck.  It's not looking that promising that I stain the other parts of the deck or tackle the fence, but I guess one never knows.

Anyway, on the way back, I was towards the back of the line, and two of the actors from Something Rotten were going back to Toronto.  That led to several exchanges where people would ask how they enjoyed Something Rotten, and then they would say they were actually in Something Rotten!  One of them was basically part of the chorus, but the other one was the actor who played Lady Clapham.  (She had also been in Kat Sandler's Bang Bang over at Factory Theatre.)  I talked to them a little bit, including about the issues we had faced on the way over and then the remount of The Master Plan because the husband of one of the actor's was playing Dan Doctoroff.  If the bus had been quite full, I would have probably sat next to one of them and perhaps even asked for background detail to help flesh out my idea of writing up something about Stratford (or even just asking them if they had seen Slings & Arrows, which is the main reason I never will bother writing this up...).  So a bit of a missed opportunity.  I did manage to read more on the way back, whereas the tension on the trip in made it extremely poor setting for getting any casual reading in.

The following day I was at Trinity-St. Paul's to see Tafelmusik performing.  I certainly didn't recognize her, but I was sitting next to Alison Mackay, who retired from performing as a bassist with Tafelmusik in 2019 but still often pulls together multi-media programming like Staircases or The Galileo Project.  She was just up in the balcony with the rest of the plebes...  She also had ridden her bike to the concert, and I almost commented on that, as I was a bit sweaty from my ride in.  However, I had not brought a shirt to change into (it was still sitting on the sofa when I got home), so I had just turned my t-shirt inside out to make it seem slightly more appropriate for the venue, and thus didn't want to call a lot of attention to myself...

While it would be somewhat challenging to top this in Toronto classical music circles, I was just at the Nick Lowe show over at TD Music Hall (next to Massey Hall).  I was going through the security check when a few older gentlemen just brushed by.  The guards almost stopped them but then realized it was Nick Lowe and some of his entourage!  If the woman scanning tickets had been a bit more on the ball, I would have been in the same elevator as Nick Lowe!  As it happened, I was in the following elevator with Rob Baker (guitarist for the Tragically Hip).  He had almost waltzed in without having the tickets for the rest of his guests scanned.  So they made fun of him for that on the way up.  I didn't intentionally do it, but I had moved over to where he was standing watching the concert (to avoid standing behind some tall people on the left side of the floor).  I actually heard him get excited as the band played some particular song.*  He really knew Nick Lowe's body of work, even the new material, and had apparently gone to see him when he played the Horseshoe a few years back.  There was even one song where he moved up and stood right next to me and we both did our terrible white boy dancing while the music played!  So that will be extremely hard to top.

I guess I could drop that I was at one of Skye Wallace's secret shows at The Only Cafe.  I have gotten to know her a little bit over the years and we usually talk before her gigs.  I had noticed one of the guys from Lowest of the Low is also at the vast majority of her shows, so definitely a fan.  We ended up sitting at adjoining tables at that gig.  I actually talked to him a bit during one of the breaks and asked him if he was indeed in the band.  He said yes.  (It was Lawrence Nichols.)  I said that I really liked the newer material and that it was great they didn't only tour off the hits from the 90s.  He said that it was great to hear that.  I didn't want to be a complete gushing fanboy, so I kept the conversation fairly short.  I did ask a bit about their plans to tour later in the year, but they don't have too many Toronto dates lined up yet.  I may well see him the next time at the next Skye Wallace gig, which is Nov. 1, rather than at his own gig.

* Unfortunately, no one has filled in the setlist.  The set was very similar to the Pittsburgh show a couple of days before, though I think Los Straitjackets did different instrumentals during their part of the show.  For instance, they ended with "Venus" not "Itchy Chicken."  I don't believe Nick sang "Different Kind of Blue," and he definitely did "Blue on Blue."  Hopefully, someone else can fill in the details.  For me the standout songs were "I Went to a Party," "Lately I've Let Things Slide," "House for Sale," "Half a Boy and Half a Man" and of course "Cruel to Be Kind."  The encore "When I Write the Book" was also great.  I liked the show a lot, but it would have been better (for me) if it had been at Danforth Music Hall where I could have sat down, even if that meant not getting close to Rob Baker.  And while he doesn't sing it much any more, it would have been cool to hear "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass," but only if he actually sang it, not just the instrumental version...

Wrapping Up the Book News

While I still have far too much actual work do to and not nearly enough time to do it in, the tasks that were really dragging me down, so I am mentally in a better place.  The remaining tasks are at least interesting, even if I still don't have enough hours in the day to get to them, and I am still working out whom I can delegate these tasks to (and have them done to a reasonable standard).  Consequently, it is slightly easier to balance work against other activities, like seeing plays or going to The Rex (which I just did).  It's a little harder to spend time on truly time-sucking activities like working on this long, long-delayed quilt or restarting the jigsaw puzzle, but I'll probably be able to get to them in Nov.

Anyway, I'll try to briefly wrap up the remaining book news.  As it so happens, I was able to get over to Word on the Street twice this year!  First, I went over just to see if there were any good sales.  I had to go back and forth several time to find Brick Books.  In the end, I didn't pick up anything from them, as I have been a subscriber for a few years, so have all of their recent back catalog items.  

I think but am not 100% sure that I saw Mayor Olivia Chow walking through the fair.  She did have a booth where people could tell her what they wanted changed about the city.  

I was a bit amused by the TPL signing people up for cards right there, but then also bringing a book mobile to Queens Park.  I haven't been inside a book mobile in years.

I ended up picking up several books from Exile Books, which is run by the grandson of Morley Callaghan, and they have a very tempting 4 volume set of his short stories.  However, they also make them available as e-books, and while I probably would actually read them sooner if I had them in print, I at least have access to his stories.  I settled on getting a volume of Callaghan's New Yorker stories, which I assume are among his best, and then his memoir of life in Paris in 1929 with all the other American writers in exile.  Also, I picked up Lisa Foad's The Night is a Mouth, which is a collection of short stories.

I seemed to be in a short story state of mind, as at other booths I got Alix Ohlin's We Want What We Want, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu and How to Pronounce Knife (the last being an extra-low cost item at the BMV booth).

I then went over to University College and checked out their book sale.  I picked up Billy Budd (as I mentioned) and then got a couple of Carol Shields' novel, another copy of Ian Williams's Reproduction and DuPont's Songs for the Cold of Heart.  I figured for $3, I could give a copy of these to friends.  As it turns out, the DuPont was a signed edition!  It turns out that the art books were upstairs, so I checked my bag and went up there.  I didn't see any art books that caught my eye, but I did get two poetry books, and they were both signed as well!  (Someone had cut the dedicatee out from the page, which was a bit annoying...)

The bad news was that it was very hard squeezing everything into the panier but I just managed it and came home.

Sunday I had wanted to get back to see a reading by Canisia Lubrin, though this was at 10.  I also needed to get through buying the groceries that morning!  I cut it far too close, and I really had to book over to Queens Park on my bike.  (At least the rain held off most of the weekend, but it warmed up too much, and then I was way too hot after biking over.)  I rolled up at 10:03, and they hadn't quite gotten started, so I grabbed a seat.  The morning slot was a bit of a challenge for Ms. Lubrin as well...

She read a short passage from Code Noir, her latest book, and then the rest of the time was an interview/conversation with the moderator.  I hung out and picked up a copy of Code Noir at the signing table and had it dedicated to my son.

I debated getting a graphic novel, but the cost was just too high.  It turned out that it was available on Amazon for much less, though in the end this set off a whole chain of events leading me to upgrading my Kindle software and then giving up and deleting this (because it essentially disabled Kindle completely) and finally finding a slightly older version of the software that does still work.  Had I known everything, I would not have bought the graphic novel; it certainly wasn't worth the hassle.

While I still debated getting the Morley Callaghan stories, I ended up just getting a bunch of poetry collections (mostly by Roxana Bennett but also Night Lunch by Mike Chaulk) from Gordon Hill Press, as they as one of the few presses that refuses to have anything to do with Kindle or e-books, so the only way to read the work is to read it in hard copy.

I think the next thing I did was head back to Regent Park to go swimming.  And I perhaps went to Gerrard Square to get a new pair of dress shoes and headphones for my daughter, and then I had a concert at Tafelmusik (actually playing at Koerner Hall).  So it felt like I went in circles a lot that day...

I'm making decent progress on Billy Budd now.  Not sure when I will get around to any of the other books I bought that weekend, though I am expecting to bring DuPont's long novel along with my on the next Stratford trip, which is coming up soon.

Book (Sale) News

It's not like I need more books.  In many ways it is a sickness that I have so many, but I will say I've been getting better at picking up cheap books that are not for me but for the Little Free Library out front.  This sort of satisfies the urge to hunt for books and have them in my hand (temporarily) and still not end up with one more book on a stack that I won't get to for years.  Or at least that's what I tell myself.

It turns out that I missed the UVic book sale.  It was Sept. 19-23.  Now the 21st, I was in Stratford all day, and then I was getting ready for a trip out to Vancouver.  But I probably could have stopped by on the 20th had I known about it.  I just didn't really see any signs about it and haven't been going to the UT campus (and definitely not UVic) as much lately.  This site helps keep track of the book sales, and presumably it will flip over to 2025 sale dates at some point.

I guess the St. Michael's book sale was the same time as University College's sale.  I didn't find out about the sale at St. Mike's in time, and this was the first time I dropped in to the one at University College.  Incidentally, I found out about University College due to a small notice pasted onto a Little Free Library in Leslieville!  It just so happens that University College's sale (and St. Mike's) are on at the same time as Word on the Street in Queens Park, which may be intentional or just a quirk of the calendar, as the book sales generally are all scheduled very early in the new school year.  I'll come back to a short report on the University College sale and Word on the Street shortly.  I haven't missed the one at Trinity, which is at the end of Oct., but the only day I can go check it out is the 24th, right before a concert I am attending, so I'll just have to hope this place doesn't have a strict bag policy...  (Or maybe I'll leave work early, go to the sale, drop books off at home and come back downtown.  A bit daft, but I've done odder things before.)

Generally most (non-rare) books at these sales are $3 to $5, which is certainly good, but not as amazing (for stocking up the Little Free Library) as the $2 books at St. Andrews.  I can't find a listing on-line.  They usually have one book sale that runs at the same time as the TIFF festival, but then there are other book sales throughout the year.  Perhaps one in the spring and one in summer.  I usually find a few things of interest there, so I'll try to figure out what sort of schedule they really are on.

I mentioned before that I had stopped off at the Toronto Reference Library for their rare book sale back in Sept. and picked up a few art books but passed on a John Marin book.  They said that the Winter book sale was the one with all the cheap, cheap books, so I'll try to go back to that.  This is supposed to be Nov. 14-6.  Now as it happens, I am debating going to NYC on Nov. 13, and if I do that, I would perhaps take the train to DC for a day, so I might not actually make it back by the 16th, but we shall see.  This is mostly about stocking up with books for outside, so it isn't completely essential that I go.

I also mentioned that I gave up on Powers's The Gold Bug Variations.  It was ultimately not sufficiently interesting for me to overlook how much Powers needed to show off to the world how clever he was.  I liked Joy Williams's The Quick and the Dead much more, though it was quite episodic, and I didn't think the ending made a lot of sense.  These shortcomings will probably keep it from being one of the best books of the year, though there have been a lot of generally disappointing books this year (2023 was generally a better year for reading).

That said, I am tackling Powell's The Golden Spur next, and this should be tres amusant.  I reread the last few pages of The Wicked Pavilion to help me get back into the right frame of mind.  And right after that, it will be Kilometer 101 by Maxim Osipov (from NYRB).  These should be pretty interesting, and neither is terribly long.  

I'm off to Stratford next weekend (to see Something Rotten in fact), and I'll be taking DuPont's The American Fiancée with me.  The following weekend I should be travelling to Raleigh, and I'll likely finish that book and take something I can leave behind with me (maybe Manu Joseph's Serious Men).  And then I fly the week to Edmonton immediately after that.  I have a few options, but probably I'll take Oliver Twist, though I'm wondering if perhaps I should consider Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.  As I said a bit before, I definitely want to tackle Atwood's The MaddAdam Trilogy soon, but it doesn't actually work as well as the others as a long travel read.

I see I have run out of time (largely due to the many, many times I had to try to restart the computer to upgrade Kindle, which still isn't working quite properly).  I'll try to fill in a bit more about Word on the Street when I get back.

I'll just end with some thoughts on shorter books.  I am mostly done with Freud's The Question of Lay Analysis and should wrap that up this weekend with a bit of a push.  I had planned on tackling Kennedy's Ironweed as the next very short book, but actually I picked up Melville's Billy Budd combined with The Encantadas for $1 from the University College books sale.  I have read a fair bit of Melville (including both The Confidence Man and Moby Dick twice!), but never Billy Budd.  So I'll read that next and then put it outside.  After this (from the "short list"), probably a collection of Orwell's lesser known essays and then perhaps Huxley's The Devils of Loudun.  I should be able to squeeze in Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 in there somewhere.  And then maybe Forster's Howard's End.  The only issue with that it is in an omnibus with A Room with a View, so it doesn't particularly feel like a short read.  Well, first world problems and all that.  Time to run.  Ta!

Sad Art Day

I thought about calling this Bad Art Day, but that would be unfair.  I just wasn't moved by a lot of what I saw on Sat., both during the day and at Nuit Blanche, but I don't think much of it was bad art, though I might make an exception for what is on at the Market Gallery, where almost everything on view is a bit of a rip-off of Norval Morrisseau's style.

Sat. did get off to a bit of a rocky start, when I turned up at the Regent Park pool and because nearly all the life guards had called in sick at the last minute, the hot tub wasn't open (sigh) and we had to wait in line until enough other people had left the pool, so that was quite annoying.  And even though there were slightly fewer people swimming laps than usual, the medium lanes were just as congested as ever.  I managed to get in 19 laps and finally bailed before I got even more frustrated.  It wasn't a complete disaster, but it wasn't ideal.

I ran over to the TMU Image Centre, since I hadn't seen this since the main exhibit switched over to one featuring Lee Miller.  Most of the images are fashion-oriented and not very interesting to me, though there is a room of her WWII images, some of which are grim indeed.  But this exhibit mostly feels like a missed opportunity.  They surely could have found a space for Lee Miller taking a bath in Hitler's tub on the day his death was announced, which is generally read as a way of mocking him.  (More on that story here.)

But her connection to the art world, particularly Picasso, is turned into nothing more than a footnote, and none of the 1000s of images she took of him and his work (or any of the published Vogue spreads) are included.  This seems like a very poor decision on the Image Centre's part.  Anyway, more on Miller and Picasso here.

After this, I tried unsuccessfully to buy a mango lassi, then went over to The Powerplant.  I wasn't particularly interested in the exhibits.  I ran next door and saw some of the exhibits there.  That paid off, as the Power Plant wasn't going to participate in Nuit Blache and the building next door was closing quite early (8:30!).  This is a far cry from the glory days of Nuit Blanche when many museums participated all night long (or at least that's how I remember it).

I went over to the St. Lawrence Market and ran upstairs to the Market Gallery.  As I already indicated, this was very disappointing, and I ran back home, stopping along the way to pick up some groceries.

I had real work to do in the afternoon and early evening, and I didn't actually head out for Nuit Blanche until 9:15 or so!  My path this time was the Lee Daniels Lightbox in Regent Park, then the Bentway (though I actually overshot it and ended up in Liberty Village!).  I think I actually saw a coy-wolf skulking around but didn't manage to get a picture.

It really did look almost exactly like this, however, and I did wonder if it was a wolf, though a coy-wolf (or Eastern Coyote) is certainly more likely.

The Bentway art was ok but nothing particularly spectacular.  There weren't all that many people around either.  I was disappointed that there was nothing in Fort York proper (and I guess there wasn't last year either), though there was an inflated light bulb (sponsored by Toronto Hydro) near Fort York.

It was quite challenging to get back to Stackd Market (because drivers on Bathurst were so terrible!) but that was perhaps the most interesting site of the night.  

There was some DJ playing as I biked past The Well, but it didn't look like there was actually any art on view, so I kept going.  I should have hooked right on Spadina, but the traffic was insane, even worse than Bathurst, so I went on to Blue Jay Way and finally got over to Harbourfront.  I guess I probably should have backtracked to the Music Garden, but I just didn't feel like it.  There wasn't all that much art where I was, but there was a great big space filled with multicultural food vendors.  At least there was quite the buzz of people out at night, having a good time.  (I also guess there was some stuff on at 401 Richmond, and I do regret not going back for that, but again it would probably have involving having to deal with Spadina traffic...)

Then I went over to Union and saw a few things, though again one exhibit had closed early.  There was something going on at King and Bay, but it was indoor art and the line to get in was far too long.  I was astounded that there was nothing going on at Nathan Philips Square, which is usually kind of the heart of Nuit Blanche.  There certainly wasn't much on on Yonge St., particularly compared to last year when Yonge was sort of the spine of the whole thing (pre-pandemic Spadina was more of the heart of things).  There was one last outdoor exhibit at Yonge-Dundas Square.  It wasn't all that interesting.  What was more interesting was I was there at the same time as the cyclists doing their own sort of art parade showed up, then they went to King and Bay and I went home.  

I think I spent roughly 2.5 hours out and about, which is probably a bit less than most years.  

I guess there were a few things of interest that I did miss, including some billboards that were "talking" to each other (not quite sure where that was), but I felt this time around things were too spread out and not very well coordinated.  I was really disappointed in how few art hubs and/or spines there were this time around, aside from the waterfront sites, maybe because the city didn't want to pay even more overtime to deal with traffic control (and deal with even more complaints from suburbanites who already hate driving around the city).  As far as I can tell, no streets were shut down for Nuit Blanche, and they usually are.  It was also a major disappointment that no or nearly no major art institutions or civic centres (with exception of Union Station) were participating.  I definitely found this a real missed opportunity.  So, as I said, a fairly sad day for art in the city...