Second Chances

This was going to be a much more positive post on how I am sometimes able to make up (at least partially) for things that I missed because of double booking or indeed things that were cancelled outright due to the pandemic.  Many of the shows that were cancelled came back eventually.  For instance, Come From Away is back in town, and I am hoping to get tickets to that shortly and probably bring my son along.  Squeeze eventually did come back to town (and were great!).  Hall and Oates split up, however, and only Daryl Hall came to Toronto.  While it was an entertaining show, his voice is not what it was, even from a few years back, so that wasn't nearly as satisfying.  I have yet to learn if The Fixx will tour again.  While I had previously been willing to go back to NYC to catch them, now I am not so sure, and I think I will write to see if they will come to Toronto or at least Buffalo.  (I might once in a while break my upcoming embargo on the US to visit Buffalo, but perhaps not.  I could pick some weekend in Dec. and catch the bus to Buffalo to see the Marisol exhibit at the Albright-Knox and then say that is my last visit for the foreseeable future.)  I have seen Love and Rockets in the recent past, but I think I would still go again if they pull off one more tour, since the Toronto date was cancelled due to that tool, Perry Ferrell.  So frustrating.

As I have already alluded, however, the US has idiotically given Trump a second chance, as well as the opportunity to wipe out all his criminal behaviour due to the horrible enablers in the Senate and the Supreme Court (as well as the nihilistic voters in those swing states).  Given that the GOP has also won the Senate and quite likely the House, the US is going to be a criminal cesspit for years to come, to say nothing of the impact this will have on climate change goals.  We're all fucked basically, and the best thing that can come out of this is a violent uprising and a civil war splitting the US into a few parts, so that the smart, productive people in the States can leave the rest of the troglodytes in the dust.  Yes, I am more than a little bitter, and I don't think I'll be travelling back to the States any time soon, so I guess I will think more seriously about travelling to Europe (my carbon budget will be shredded, but it's all pointless even trying anymore).  I probably will renounce my citizenship soon enough.

Back to the matter at hand, I was very frustrated at missing out on seeing the Pacifica Quartet in Toronto (due to a work trip).  I found out that they were playing largely the same program (but substituting Crumb's Black Angels for a Shostakovich quartet) at the 92nd St. Y in New York, so I decided to just go ahead and travel to see that, and then see some museums and then travel down to Washington DC.  I don't normally travel that far just for a concert, though I did travel across states for a few exhibits (mostly Norman Lewis and Romare Bearden) and will travel a bit out of my way to see Stoppard's Arcadia.  As I said, I generally stick closer to home for concerts, though I have been known to take the train (or bus) to Montreal for a concert now and again.

It was a combination of traveling for work and competing concerts that has caused me to miss out on many of the Queer Cinema Club offerings over at the Paradise, with the ones that were the most disappointing that I had to miss Almodovar's Law of Desire, though I also would have wanted to see Saving Face and Tangerine.  Fortunately, the last two were available on DVD, so I borrowed those.   I can't believe what a short run Rumours had both at TIFF and then at Market Square.  I had wanted to check that out but was getting ready for a trip to Edmonton.  It vanished in about two weeks!  My best bet is that it turns up at some point at The Review or The Fox, but I don't see it in either of their calendars.  I asked if they were going to bring Rumours back to TIFF, and the woman at the box office said no.

At any rate, TIFF decided to end 2024 with a major Almodovar retrospective.  Now it is as annoying as ever, with almost every seat snatched up by members who just might happen to see the movie or may not.  I've learned that you have to have patience and do some lurking but eventually you can usually see the movie you are interested in.  This was certainly the case for their Christian Petzold mini-feature where I managed to see three in-demand films, with my favourite (and his least characteristic) film being Afire.

Anyway, I just managed to snag the last seat (for now) for Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, which is a film I decided to avoid on first release because the sexual politics of it kind of appalled me (and indeed they remain appalling but I am ready to see the film now).  So I am making up for that now, as well as catching a lot of his other films.  In the end,* I am going to see quite a few of his films, and certainly his best:
Broken Embraces (tonight!)
Volver
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Pain and Glory (for 2nd time on big screen though I think I saw it somewhere other than TIFF)
The Skin I Live In (another one I missed at Paradise)
Law of Desire (with an intro by Peter Knegt! though I would still have preferred to catch this at Paradise)
Talk to Her (and taking my son!)
Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (my 2nd time seeing on big screen and my son's first time)
Julieta
All About My Mother (my 2nd time since this is one I did manage to catch at Paradise!)

This is really quite the program, with most of these falling late in December.  (I own many but not all of these on DVD, but just find it so much better to see his work on the big screen.)  I suppose this is a great way to go out of 2024 with a bang, and it is also a fine way to wrap up my membership, as I don't plan on renewing for 2025, unless they fundamentally overhaul the way that membership works at TIFF.

Here's hoping 2025 and beyond isn't nearly as shitty as I fully expect it to be.

* This is certainly a very full plate already, but I will try to keep Nov. 29 open for The Flower of My Secret and Dec. 22 for What Have I Done to Deserve this, and will check in every couple of days to see if a ticket opens up.  That's how I managed to score a ticket to Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!  I enjoyed Broken Embraces, particularly the film within a film, Women and Suitcases, which is sort of a parallel universe version of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, with several characters from that popping up in it.  They even showed The Cannibalistic Counsellor, which is essentially several additional minutes of this film.  Very droll.  I also managed to get a hard copy of my membership card to get my discount at the snack bar on my next visit.