Books (& Tariffs)

Virtually everything that I order on-line is used, though once in a while I order a dress shirt or even a pair of slacks, as essentially all of the mid-range clothing stores have closed down in Toronto (and America more generally).  So I probably will not be directly impacted by tariffs in that sense, though of course probably close to half of the produce we buy comes from the States, so our grocery bill will definitely go up.  As you probably know, the tariffs have been "paused" for 30 days, which helps Trump save face, but I suspect he will impose them after all, at least temporarily, in the early spring.

I've decided I am not going to North Carolina in March, and I don't see how I could go to upstate New York the first week of April.  This one is harder because The Fixx have rescheduled their cancelled concert for that weekend, and I probably could figure out some way to get between Rochester/Syracuse and NYC in time, but I just can't justify it.  The Orange One is too unpredictable, and his word doesn't mean anything,* so no one can count on the tariff threat (and other ways he is bullying Canada) being over by then and he will have moved onto something else, like hunting down minority hires in the government.  (I only wish I were kidding.)

On top of everything else, the uncertainty is causing the Canadian dollar to keep dropping against the US dollar, so I decided I really ought to bite the bullet and buy a few items before the Canadian dollar drops still further.  I had already ordered a Rohmer box set, and a Kieslowski Colours Trilogy, though the latter I had shipped to Toronto.

There are always a few books that catch my attention, particularly if it is particularly hard to find them in libraries or local book shops.  I have slowly been rebuilding my Craig Nova collection.**  I had ordered Incandescence, but eventually Amazon cancelled the order.  As I was searching for a replacement, I found a handful of copies of signed editions, generally of the original hardback edition.

But I have to say I am drawn to the first trade paperback edition, as it fits much better with the other books I have picked up lately, like Turkey Hash and The Geek.  

Nonetheless, I was quite surprised to find that shipping the signed copy (from the UK) was cheaper to Canada than to the States, so I went ahead and ordered that version and hope it turns up reasonably soon.  I'll start going through Nova's books again (just as I did in my 20s!), though I don't care nearly as much for his more recent forays into genre fiction.  I thought Wetware was quite bad, and I think he is trying to channel Eric Ambler in The Informer (which I am currently reading) with this tale of crosses and double-crosses set in Weimar Berlin, but I don't think he is really succeeding.  Anyway, I should wrap this up in another day or so.

I've been aware of Robert Coover for a long time, and actually read a handful of his racier short stories and Pinocchio in Venice.  When he passed away, several of the obituaries said that The Public Burning was more relevant than ever.  I have been looking in the local bookstores for a copy of this with no luck.  (Probably Elliot's books would have had a copy.)  So I broke down and ordered that.  (It does seem that DeLillo's Underworld may have some similarities to The Public Burning, but I am really not sure I want to reread Underworld.  Others have said that McElroy's Women and Men also has some connections to The Public Burning, and maybe this is the prompt I need to crack open the copy on my bookshelf.)  I don't know when I will have the Coover book in my hands, but I'll tackle it at some point and then McElroy in the not-so-distant future after that.

I also ordered a copy of the catalog for Southern/Modern, the exhibit at the Mint Museum, which just closed this past weekend.  At least this was on sale, to help make up for the slumping dollar.

Then I ordered a couple of other signed books by Maxine Kumin: Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief and Where I Live: New And Selected Poems 1990-2010.  I haven't read her work in quite some time, but I'm feeling I am going to be on a Kumin kick soon.

Interestingly, one book I have had in my basket for quite some time was currently unavailable, but the bookstore guy said he would be back on Thurs., and I could put in my order then.  That will likely be the last thing I have sent to my stepmom (in the States).  However, I'm sort of working my way through books that I found out about through libraries.  Somewhere along the way I must have seen a copy of Will Clarke's Lord Vishnu's Love Handles on a recommended read shelf (at a library), but this must actually have been in Vancouver or even Burnaby!  

TPL doesn't have a copy, which isn't a huge surprise, but Robarts doesn't either, which is unfortunate.  I did find a handful of signed copies online, and I thought I had found a copy where shipping to Canada wasn't outrageous.  However, I got all the way up to final checkout, and then the shipping price jumped up $10 or so, so I dropped it from my cart like a hot potato.  Since I actually would like to try to read the book this spring, sending it to the States (where there is no clear path for me to actually visit the States soon to pick my stuff up) seems a bit foolhardy.  While I generally don't like reading things completely electronically (and have fallen out of habit), I probably should just read the ebook in this case.  Still, I will try to remember to take a look for this at BMV and Circus Books and Seekers and maybe She Said Boom on Roncy (since I should get there before it closes this Saturday).

So after I wrap up this very short fable called Once a Greek by Durrenmatt (which seems a bit like some of Steinbeck's really short novels) and Nova's The Informer, I think the next thing to read will be Skvorecky's Two Murders in My Double Life, Gide's Lafcadio's Adventure, Lampedusa's The Leopard, Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time and Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods.  Oh, and maybe whatever the book club that just was started at work is reading!  (Surprisingly, a lot of Kundera and Murakami.)  That's definitely more than enough, but I also will probably tackle a few more books from the library, including O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster (which seems short) and The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellano (which seems long).

* This commentary by Gaby Hinsliff seems quite on point: "Since nobody voted to Make America Poor Again, maybe ordinary Americans will soon tire of this. But Brexit showed that voters’ reaction to realising they’ve been had is often to double down, because it’s too painful to think they have brought this on themselves."

** I have just decided that I need to put them up on the actual shelves, not in one of several piles of books in my study, so I will probably swap Nova and Alice Munro (where I am fairly unlikely to hang onto her story collections after I read them once for somewhat obvious reasons...).  I also have been very slowly adding Iris Murdoch books on the same shelf.  I think I now have 7 (though I seem to have misplaced Under the Net (which I enjoyed a lot, so I probably hung onto it)), but have no intention of buying all 26 or so of her novels.

Long Day's Journey Into Art

Depending on exactly how you count the week and whether it wraps or not, I have been incredibly busy.

Last Sunday, I saw Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf over at Canadian Stage.  I was not pleased when they said in the program that it was now closer to 3.5 hours (instead of 3), as I had to run back to Union Station and catch the Kitchener train over to Bloor (West) in order to see La Dolce Vita at the Revue.  I only had one regular train I could take, though I guess I probably could have taken the next UP Express, but it would have been cutting it close.  In the end, they got through the play in 3 hours and 15 minutes, so it wasn't that hard to get back to Union in time.  I thought the acting was good (interestingly some reviewers think only Martha Burns was amazing), but it is a hard play to actually enjoy.  Mac Fyfe who was playing the younger academic had some medical emergency, so they brought in an emergency replacement, but he had to carry around a script made to look like a personal notebook.  It is just an actor's nightmare to be thrown into that situation, particularly with a play as long as Virginia Woolf.  I thought he did well under the circumstances, but of course wish that Mac Fyfe was on stage.

Switching gears almost immediately to another long-form work of art (but one overall more palatable), I forgot just how cynical and awful Mastroianni's character is by the end of La Dolce Vita, once he succumbs to cynicism after the death of Steiner.  He certainly doesn't treat his fiancée well either, perhaps realizing that they are heading down the path of the couple in La Notte.  But overall it is still quite an interesting movie.  I think this time watching it, I felt the most compassion for Mastroianni's father, even though he is a bit of a letch.  Clearly the apple didn't fall far from the tree...

Monday, I was back at the Revue to see Antonioni's L'Avventura.  I wasn't quite sure how long this was.  It's another long film, only about 15 minutes shorter than La Dolce Vita!  I'll cut right to the chase; I didn't like this movie at all.  I never plan on seeing it again.  As I was digging through my DVDs (looking for Huston's The Dead, which still hasn't surfaced), I realized that I have 5 movies by Antonioni: L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert and Blow Up!  I think they are all Region 2 imports from the UK, no less!  Anyway, I will wait to see if the new Blu-Ray of La Notte shows up, and then I will try to sell off the DVD of La Notte and L'Avventura.  BMV will occasionally buy Region 2 DVDs, though you get peanuts for them.  I think it's pretty clear that I just am not on the same wavelength as Antonioni, with the partial exception of La Notte.

Tues. I ran over to the west side of town to see Talk is Free's production of For Both Resting and Breeding.  It's a play set in the future after society has been completely remodelled and made essentially genderless, and then a group of people decide to restore a house from the old days and act out these old gender roles.  I don't think it was quite as profound as it thought it was, but it was interesting, and it was a super intimate space.

Wed. was a heavy movie night.  I had to watch A Traveller's Needs because I wasn't able to see it last Sat.  Then I stuck around to see Blade Runner, which was amazing.  The special effects look like they have all been upgraded.  But it was a long night.

Thurs., I went to see the Jack Quartet doing contemporary pieces, including Philip Glass's String Quartet 5, which I believe was originally commissioned by Kronos Quartet.  I don't think I ever saw Kronos play this, but I did see them play Glass's 6th quartet out in Vancouver.  (It was amusing walking past the Meridian Centre to get to the concert.  The lines to get in to see Taylor Tomlinson were just huge!  I had wanted to squeeze this in, but it was essentially sold out and the few remaining tickets were all over $100, which I thought was just a bit over the top...)

Friday, I went to see the TSO performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and a Vaughan Williams's symphony.  In addition, I had to get there early because they were doing a pre-concert show - Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence.  (It was interesting that Jonathan Crow wasn't performing in the pre-show or in the main concert and Clare Semes filled in for him; she's at the very far left below.)  I enjoyed the Vaughan Williams's symphony.  While I am not going to get obsessed by it, I should try to see more of these symphonies when they come up.  (In fact, I found out the Hart House Orchestra was going to do Vaughan Williams Symphony #1 but because they added a full choir, there were literally no tickets available for the general public which seems incredibly daft.)  

Friday was actually a day that I risked biking because it was supposed to get above freezing.  I think when I left in the morning it was exactly freezing, but I stayed out far too late, and it was -3 on the way home and my hands hurt (and the bike lock kept freezing up!).  So I think I really need for a much longer stretch of warm weather (at either the tail end of Feb. or March before I try biking again).

Sat. was an extremely packed day.  I did get in my swimming, then went over to Carlton and watched Moonrise Kingdom, then went over to work for a couple of hours, then walked very briskly back to St. Lawrence Market to see The Last Showgirl.  Then I made a pitstop at Robarts to drop off a bunch of books on tourism, then headed out west to see Ripcord at Village Players.  I wasn't entirely sold on the play in the first half but the second half was stronger.  One of the actors had come down with COVID and they had a replacement who was reading directly off a script, but much more openly than the "understudy" in Virginia Woolf.  (I suppose two years ago or even last year, just the whiff of COVID in the cast would have caused the whole production to shut down, so I suppose in that sense we're fortunate that life doesn't completely grind to a halt due to COVID any longer...)

Sunday I wasn't quite as successful in squeezing everything in, but it was still a pretty busy day.  I started off going to the gym and getting groceries on the way back.  I got about halfway through making a red lentil dish when I had to leave.  I went over to Spadina to see Tafelmusik, which was incredible, including some Korean pieces to celebrate their successful tour of South Korea.  

After the concert, I ran into BMV (but they didn't have the titles I was looking for), Bulk Barn and then Seeker's Books.  I was able to sell my copy of Maqroll to them.  I made a quick stop at Dollarama, then hopped on the train to Dundas West.  It was back to the Revue to see The Conversation.  This was interesting as they had a Q & A about privacy beforehand.  (About the only thing I didn't get to in the end was stopping by Robarts to drop off Ginzberg's Family Lexicon, which I have just wrapped up.)

Aside from Hackman's very unconvincing miming on the saxophone, this was a very interesting film.  While I'm sure it was largely inspired by Blow Up, particularly the way the main character's evidence is stolen right out from under his nose, I just think it succeeds so much more (at least for me).  It looks like the Revue is showing Rashomon in March.  Now it is going to be another tight squeeze, since it is right after a Roy Thompson Hall concert (in fact it is the Vancouver Symphony on a cross-Canadian tour), so I have to hope that it doesn't run long!

Needless to say, I am a bit weary after running myself ragged this past week.  I don't have quite as much going on next week, but I'll probably run over to Carlton and see at least one TSO concert (and I'm still deciding on another...).  But Sat., I am seeing Linklater's entire Before trilogy in one go!  I guess I just never learn my lesson...  (And I'll probably see if I can make it over to Bau-Xi and 401 Richmond before the first movie.)

Small Frustrations

I did get a fair bit done today, though there were many small frustrations along the way.  I did make it over to Abbozzo Gallery and looked at a few prints.  I was very tempted by this dragon, and its compact size means I could hang it a few places, including in my home office.

But I think I would eventually exhaust its mysteries.  This one really grabs me much more, though trying to figure out where it would hang is a major dilemma.

Anyway, I then reversed direction and made it over to the Regent Park pool by about 11:20.  I really needed to leave by 12:25 or so to make it up to the Botanical Gardens.  I managed to get 19 1/2 laps in before nearly running into a guy doing an extremely slow backstroke in the medium lanes, and I got so frustrated I left.  I find the actual swimming at Regent Park to be really frustrating (compared to Matty Eckler), and it is completely hit or miss if the spa pool is open (far more often it is not open), so I may have to switch back to Matty Eckler on a more regular basis.

The streetcar finally showed up, and I made a pit stop at Dundas and Yonge.  I actually grabbed lunch as well, which I hadn't planned to do.  I did make it up to the Botanical Gardens with about 20 minutes to spare.  That was the last time the TTC really worked for me.  The concert was nice, but it ran long, which made me extremely anxious, and I ultimately left towards the end.  Still, this wasn't nearly as bad an experience as the time I tried to bike up to the Botanical Gardens and the refusal to actually put signs on the paths led me astray in the park and I took the wrong turn, which made me quite late -- and extremely pissed off.  (Getting back was no picnic either.)  So I do think it's time to just stop going to these concerts in the gardens.

I should have made it back to Carlton Cinema in time but the 54 bus was bunched horribly.  Two went past (in a pair) right as I got to the street, and then there wasn't a bus for close to 10 minutes.  (Quite frankly, the bus drivers know that driving like this is a complete disservice to the public, so I can only conclude they are just assholes.)  It didn't help that the TTC has redone all the bus stop info with a small sign saying that until the Eglinton Crosstown opens, ignore the current markings and assume previous bus routes are in place.  This doesn't actually help anyone who is new to the system.  Normally, this wouldn't matter too much, but the 54 makes a turn off Lawrence to Leslie, and it is completely unclear whether it makes the stop after the turn or not.  Certainly those two drivers that flew past didn't seem inclined to stop at that particular stop to pick up any passengers.  So I walked over to Lawrence, and once again there was no marking at the stop to say which bus would actually stop there, and there were no 54s anyway.  Finally, a 162 came along.  Now this is a very interesting route that winds its way through a lot of mansions in the Bridle Path.  I'm glad I saw them, but not on this particular day!  But I still should have made it in time.  Famous last words.  Once you get to the Lawrence (East) TTC station, they have closed all the entrances at Lawrence, and you have to walk two blocks to the northern entrance, but the buses don't divert up that way.*  Unbelievably shitty customer service (and the signage just rubs it in even more).  I missed at least one and probably two trains because of this, and then the slow zones kicked in and we just crawled from Eglinton to Davisville and then Summerville.  It was clear I was going to be 5 minutes too late for the start of the film (even taking trailers into account!), so I went home instead, feeling completely pissed off.  The TTC lets me down so many times, and I resent being stuck on it during the winter.  This wasn't even a shutdown or police activity causing havok but the general shittiness of their service and utter lack of communication and concern about the traveling public.

Now I can probably see the movie I wanted to see (A Traveler's Needs, which I got shafted out of seeing at TIFF) on Wed., and then stick around and watch Blade Runner, but it still totally messed up my day.  I did manage to finish Taking Care.  Many themes from The Quick and the Dead show up in these stories, and indeed one of the characters (a bit of a rustic simpleton that seems to have wandered in from Deliverance) in the story "Woods" uses the quote the quick and the dead, which is from the New Testament.  My favorite story was "Train," but I liked several of them, if they didn't erupt into gothic violence.  I have about 100 pages still to go with Maqroll and might wrap this up tomorrow.  I have put a hold on Ginzburg's Family Lexicon, so will probably read this fairly soon.  I think in the meantime I will read Nova's The Informer and Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods (which is likely a rereading so it may go a bit faster).  I may then switch over to another towering stack and read Animal Dreams, Cool Water and Russo's Empire Falls.  This will likely take me into Feb., and at that point I may pick a few more books off this list. 

I can kind of tell that I am going to have a tough day tomorrow as well.  I was expecting Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf to run about 3 hours, which means it would end at 5, but now they are saying it is closer to 3.5 hours, which is frankly ridiculous.  Anyway, I need to run over to Union immediately after the play and catch the Kitchener Line over to Bloor.  There is a 5:50 Kitchener train I should be able to take.  It should have been easy to make this connection, and now I am not at all sure I can make it.  I am supposed to see La Dolce Vita at the Revue at 6:45.  I will have time to make it and grab a slice of pizza or something fast, but only if I make this train or the 6:00 UP Express.  I guess there is no point panicking just yet, but I am not pleased that the production run time keeps creeping up.

I guess that's enough grumbling for one night.

* Don't get me started on how absurd it is that the Museum stop only lets people off in Queens Park, which is a solid 10 or even 15 minute walk to the ROM, and it will be probably two years before they reopen the entrance closer to the actual museums (and the music department building).

Come In from the Cold

As pretty much anybody living in Ontario and presumably Quebec knows, we had several days in a row of truly frigid weather.  I did my best not to leave the house, and I teleworked from Monday through Thurs. afternoon, though I did end up running in to work at the end of the day Thurs., partly because I was going stir crazy (and driving my daughter crazy with all the Zoom and Teams calls I was on) and partly because I wanted to see Brian Dickerson's jazz orchestra at the Rex (with Neil Swainson on bass!).  Now I think in the end, I did make a quick grocery run Monday evening (and more or less regretted it the minute I hit the bridge) and I went swimming Wed. evening.* 

I had actually expected to finish up Mutis's Maqroll novellas this week and probably finish Joy William's Taking Care.  But because I wasn't taking transit back and forth for several days (and I have been letting work squeeze out a lot of my personal time), I just didn't do it.  I'm down to the last 40 pages in Taking Care, though I have more like 180 pages to go in Maqroll.  I am taking transit a lot this weekend, now that the temperature is back up to merely cold and not bone-chillingly cold, and I may finish both up.  We'll see.

I haven't spent a lot of time thinking over what's next.

I am generally leaning towards books that are in my towering stacks of books to trim them down a bit.  That would argue for Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, or maybe Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods (which I probably read many years ago), or Denis Johnson's Angels or Craig Nova's The Informer.  Alternatively, I was starting to read through books with Edward Gorey covers (including a relatively recent pass through What Masie Knew, which I should discuss in the near future).  That would argue for Conrad's Victory or Gide's Lafcadio's Adventures.  Or I can read Ginzburg's Family Lexicon and cross it off two reading lists!  Or I can tackle a book that has been languishing forever on the shelves, like Lampedusa's The Leopard.  I just haven't really decided.

I actually do have a really busy day tomorrow, so I probably should sign off now.  Ciao.

* So this week I will finally be reaching my goal of 3 times at the gym and/or swimming pool, though next week is super stacked in terms of evening outings, and I will almost certainly be back to twice a week, which isn't quite enough.  Between not biking to work nearly everyday, and the winter blues/blahs and a raging depression about the state of the world and issues in my personal life, I just found I picked up 5 pounds.  Now I had thought it was worse and that I had gained 10 or even 15 pounds, but it isn't great, and I need to find a way to cut down on late-nite snacking, which is my greatest weakness in this arena.

Chasing Plays

Every so often, I try to remember to check what is playing at Dramatists Play Services or Concord Theatricals (which swallowed up Samuel French at some point), in the sense of which theatre companies have applied for rights to put on a play in the near future.  In addition to these two, there is yet one more significant company called Broadway Play Publishing.  I don't check their site nearly as often as I should.  Once in a while I remember that rights to Rivera's Cloud Tectonics are held here, and then I go look to see if anyone is putting it on.  (I seem to remember Concord Theatricals more because they have the rights to Stoppard's Arcadia, which is one of my favorite plays.)  This time, I did a bit of a search, and I realized that BPP happens to have the rights to a few Kushner plays, including Angels in America, as well as Overmyer's On the Verge, which I would like to see one more time one of these days.

I do have a bit of a running list of plays that I am hoping to see or see again for a second time.  Now sometimes when the hype (in my own mind at least) is too high, then I end up disappointed, esp. if I made a real effort to go see the play.  This was certainly the case for Lobby Hero over at the Little Dundas Theatre in Hamilton.  Nonetheless, I usually try to look up Miller's A View from the Bridge,* and Tennessee Williams, and American Hero and Yankee Tavern any time I am at the DPS Current Productions page.  I probably should add Ruhl's Eurydice to the list of plays I would see another time.  Those rights are with Concord. 

Now it is important to remember that sometimes, or even often, if a company has applied for the rights, the production may fall through.  I still recall being pissed off when East Side Players switched Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) for some very inferior play.  For some reason, Coal Mine keeps renewing the rights to Waiting for Godot, but I don't think this will actually happen.  I did see Little Dundas Theatre was supposedly going to put on a play called Omnium Gatherum in the next few weeks, and I probably would have ventured out for that.  Instead, they are putting on Much Ado About Nothing and then Bovell's Things I Know to Be True in late April (which I saw when Mirvish put it on a few years back).

Anyway, I was doing my standard searches, and I saw that Bess Wohl's American Hero is playing in Syracuse at the end of March and first weekend of April (at Le Moyne College).  Now I had practically sworn off visiting the US due to the stupidity of its citizenry, though somehow upstate NY does feel like a bit of an exception.  I doubt I will actually do it, but it does look like it would be possible to catch the bus to Rochester and see the museum there (with a particularly good Stuart Davis painting, albeit one I have seen before) and then continue on to Syracuse and catch this play (and even another comedy called Beyond Therapy) and then catch a night bus home after the second play.

I then did my scans of local productions.  In the next week or so, Ripcord by David Lindsay-Abaire is opening at the Bloor West Village Players.  I think I'll go if I can squeeze it in.  Now apparently a different local company in Hamilton is doing American Buffalo in March.  It's hard to imagine it would be better than seeing Steppenwolf do it, but I might possibly go.  Apparently, Randolph College here in Toronto is going to be doing Arcadia in March.  It's a student production, obviously, but I might go, though there really isn't information about the production year.  

I used to go a lot more to student productions in Toronto, but it's gotten harder to keep track of them (and Hart House Theatre barely puts on any of its own shows any more).  I do try to keep track of what George Brown is doing, and this season they are doing Romeo and Juliet in April.  I've seen it several times, but I might go again.  I rarely check the Brock Theatre website, and apparently I missed Mouawad's Scorched, though it is hard to imagine it being remotely as good as the searing version I saw in Chicago.  Now I also saw Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, which is an adaptation of Ovid, done by Lookinglass, which is of course where it originated.  I might be willing to check this out again in early March.  There is also a production of She Kills Monsters (all about D & D gaming) at U of T Scarborough in mid March.  I've never even gone over to that campus, so that might be its own adventure, if I do decide to go.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to see Truck at Factory in late March, which is about autonomous vehicles replacing human drivers (either cab drivers or truck drivers in this case).  I will try to round up a few co-workers, since we are often asked to consider the impact of AVs on urban travel.

One thing that I will definitely go to when more information comes out is Posner's Life Sucks, which is supposed to play here in May.  I only found out about a new player in the Toronto theatre scene, though they put on their shows at Meridian Centre in North York along with Harold Green Jewish Theatre.  They are going to doing the musical version of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in March!  While this does sound super intriguing, based on my reaction to clips from the Broadway production, I think this would just mess up my impressions of the actual movie.  However, they are supposedly doing Shange's for colored girls in June and then probably the musical Nine in Oct., which is based on Fellini's 8 1/2.  I don't love this movie the same way I love Women on the Verge, so I would be more likely to go, provided it is a full production and not just an in concert version, which is frankly a lot more likely.

As far as summer (fall) theatre outings, I plan on going to see LePage's Macbeth at Stratford, probably pairing it with The Winter's Tale.  I probably won't go to Shaw this year.  There is a play called 20th C. Blues being performed in Hamilton in Nov., which I might try to get over to, and Soulpepper is supposed to be staging The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins in Nov.  The plot summary of The Comeuppance doesn't grab me, but Jacobs-Jenkins wrote Gloria, which was really quite good, so I think I'll give this a shot.

In terms of traveling to the States, I probably do need to stop by North Carolina at some point to see family.  I see Continuity by Bess Wohl is playing in mid March at the Mint Museum in Charlotte.  (Sadly, there is a super interesting Southern/Modern exhibit that closes in Feb.  But I can't go just for that.  I should be able to pick up the catalog if I actually do make it to Charlotte.)  If I happen to make it an open-jaw visit and start in Raleigh (because I do occasionally work with folks in our Raleigh office), then there is a community theatre production of Morning After Grace at Raleigh Little Theatre, but I'm definitely getting too far ahead of myself, since I am not really sure I would make the trip at all.

So that's sort of what I am seeing about seeing in the next few months anyway (not counting the subscriptions I have at Crow's, Tarragon and Canadian Stage, which I may already have discussed).  We won't know much about the fall productions for a while (aside from these occasional sneak peaks from the rights' holders).  I think that's enough for now on the subject.

Update (01/22) If the Cheeto-in-Chief still has his unlawful tariffs running by March (and he likely will, since he is going to use this to fund tax cuts for the rich), then this is going to run the Canadian dollar even lower, and I definitely am not going to NC and probably not upstate New York.  Here's hoping this trade war is short lived.

* I did pass on a chance to see A View from the Bridge in Buffalo when the reviews were kind of middling.  I think Ayad Akhtar's The Invisible Hand was playing in both Buffalo and Hamilton, and I ended up not going.  I still kick myself for not getting out to Hamilton at least.  I'm sure if I am patient A View from the Bridge will show up in Toronto.  It looks like Death of a Salesman should be showing up in Hamilton this fall, and I might go.  And All My Sons is playing up in Richmond Hill in a few weeks.  I'm not as interested in All My Sons, since once you know the twist at the end, there isn't that much to the play.  That said, I might go.

La Notte at Night

As I mentioned the other day, I watched Antonioni's La Notte for the first time.  I was struck how the first half of the film really focuses on exterior shots of the city.  There are a few shots of Mastroianni looking out at other apartment dwellers that could almost have been lifted from Rear Window, though the film has far more similarities to La Dolce Vita (and apparently Antonioni did refine the concept of La Notte, specifically some aspects of Moreau's character, after talking with Fellini).  It just happens to be set in Milan rather than Rome.

I did think there were even some flashes of Tati's Playtime in the early hospital sequence and then the way glass reflected things differently at different times and Mastroianni being surrounded by copies of his own book at the book launch party (though since Playtime came out in 1967 the influence ran the other way...).

While the film isn't exactly uplifting, I found it visually gripping.  The Criterion DVD (and later Blu-Ray) has an overview of the film, which I didn't watch, and a visual essay on the role of architecture in the film, which I did watch, though I was probably half asleep.

I was hoping to see if there were any notes on interior design, specifically if this painting from the couple's apartment is a reproduction or a painting created for this film.

It's not an amazing painting, but it is an interesting one, and I would like to at least track down the artist who painted it.  I believe it is supposed to be a dead woman fallen out of her tomb, but it is hard to tell between the image quality and the fact it is black and white rather than in color.  I did a Google image search, but it wasn't able to find a reasonable match (one of the few times Google has come up completely short).  If I have the time, I'll see if I can do a more thorough search on Antonioni and artists when I am at the library.  (I suppose I could try to throw it up on Reddit, but I don't want to make an account just for this.)  If you do have any insights or ideas, do let me know in the chat.

As I also mentioned earlier, I have finally made it most of the way through his films (and certainly the more important ones).  I saw Blow-Up at the Paradise (and thought it was interesting though I found the ending a huge let down in its refusal to resolve any aspect of the central mystery).  I'm seeing L'Avventura in about a week over at the Revue, and I did track down proof that I saw Red Desert in Vancouver.  I'm pretty sure I saw L'Eclisse in the theatre somewhere, most likely Vancouver or possibly Chicago, but I did borrow a copy from Robarts, so I can be sure.  I'll get around to watching The Passenger and Zabreski Point one of these days, but they don't seem like something I would watch more than once.

There was a reasonably inexpensive Region B Blu-ray, and I decided to take the plunge.  I'll wait a few months and then see how it holds up on a second viewing.  I do hope at some point it turns up at the Paradise or the Revue (the two most likely places that would show it).

Random, Somewhat Muddled Thoughts

I'm still emerging from a late afternoon nap.  I don't take all that many naps, and I had debated if I should set the alarm for 6 pm or so, and then possibly make my way down to the Rex to see Mark Murley.  I absolutely would have had Neil Swainson been on bass, but it was some other bassist.  I finally decided I would just pass and catch up a bit on sleep.  When I woke up, I assumed it was the middle of the night, but it was only 9 pm!  So I'm somewhat refreshed, but also still a bit disoriented.

I think I might as well start out writing down some thoughts on how my events calendar is still a bit in flux and then go from there, to see if I can catch up on any of the other blog posts I have been meaning to write.

At one point, I had thought I was going to see Hairspray over at Hot Docs.  It was a sing-along, which I would have found a bit hard to swallow, but I would have gone along with it.  It became apparent though that this was the movie of the musical, and not the John Waters's original.  Even though the musical was filmed in Toronto (over in Roncy mostly, I believe), I had no interest in going.  Then I thought I would go to a preview performance of Last Landscape over at Buddies instead.  I had a note on my calendar that said Buddies was next Friday, though I wasn't sure if that was just a "note to self" or I had actually ordered tickets.  It turns out I had gotten a ticket but hadn't printed it out yet, so that ruled out Buddies for the evening.  And as I said, I ruled out the Rex and took that nap instead.

Yesterday (Sat.) I had managed to go swimming (though between the staff closing the spa pool early and terrible streetcar service, I was cheated out of a 5 minute soak in the spa) and then zig-zagged across the city checking out small art galleries.  I got to work around 4 pm.  I had intended to put in a couple of hours, go home and eat and then come back to the Rex.  Instead I put in a few extra hours, and before I knew it, it was 7:30, so I just worked an extra half hour and walked over to the Rex.  Somehow I had got my wires crossed.  Alex Dean was last week.  I'm sure the group (not Mark Murley) was fine, but I decided I would rather go home.  I don't need to be out all the time.  I ate a late dinner and eventually watched Antonioni's La Notte, including a fairly interesting short documentary on the role of architecture (particularly all the glass that sometimes reflects and sometimes allows for voyeuristic moments in the film).  I'll circle back to this in an upcoming post, I promise.

This upcoming week is quite busy.  Monday is just about the only day I don't have anything scheduled.  I should run up to Robarts (to return La Notte and pick up a few more books on the hold shelf -- I'm currently intrigued by John Burnside and Michael Longley, as if I didn't have enough else on my reading list...).  While I could go to the Rex to see Murley after all, I think I'm going to pass.  I expect I will end up watching Almodovar's Matador instead (as I get closer and closer to seeing all of his films!).

Tues., I have a free ticket to the See the North series at TIFF, which is in fact always free to the public (not just TIFF members).  They are playing Pool's La femme de l'hotel.  While I don't expect her to show up, I guess you never know.  At one point, I had two tickets but in the very first row.  Quite a few opened up, and I moved back (but gave up the second ticket).  I told a couple of people about it, but I'm starting to get too stressed about coordinating these things, and I am probably not going to book second tickets from here on out.*

Wed. I am planning on running over to Paradise to see Can You Ever Forgive Me?, mostly to see a late career film by Richard E. Grant.  I haven't actually gotten my ticket to that, so I should do so.  I'm pretty sure I have a 15% off coupon.

Thurs., I am going to see Come From Away.  There was a big Boxing Day sale and I got the second ticket for a tooney (plus some fees), but my work colleague bailed, and then two other actor friends couldn't make it, and I finally found someone to go.  I had hoped to take my son over his winter break, though in the end we saw 3 movies plus the failed experiment of Sing-Along Messiah, which was actually a lot.

Friday I will be at Buddies to see Last Landscape.

Sat. it appears that I am going to see the matinee of Winter Solstice at Canadian Stage (I don't know anything about it, but the cast is amazing) and then I'll probably see this one-night only thing at Factory, though the last time I checked you couldn't get tickets, which does make me wonder if it felt through.  (Actually, now the website says it is sold out - Grrrr, so I will email just to get on the waiting list and see if it turns up as a full production down the road...)  There is a small chance I will set up a special viewing of some prints by Naoko Matsubara at Abbozzo Gallery over at 401 Richmond, but they may not want to do this over the weekend.  I guess I'll find out.  

Then Sunday, I am supposed to see Emanuel Ax playing a Mozart piano concerto, and then I'll head straight to the Paradise to see Yi Yi.  Yi Yi is a film I've been meaning to watch for a long time, but I simply find it easier to carve out the time to see films on the big screen.

I don't have a lot going on the following week, but I go expect to go to the Rex to see Brian Dickinson and Neil Swainson at least once and maybe twice.  I'm seeing something at RCM on Friday (apparently a song cycle based on poems from Margaret Atwood's Dearly).  I think I had been thinking of checking out Tafelmusik over at the McMichael, but this would be next to impossible to get to, which unfortunately is also the case for a June 5 concert.  I just might be able to work it to go on Sun. March 23.  It does appear that the Jan. and June concerts are repeated at the Toronto Botanical Garden, and I'll likely go on Jan. 25 and potentially June 15 as well.  If I can find the time on the 25th, I might see about catching Blade Runner at Carlton.

Now the last week of Jan. is when things get kind of fuzzy.  On the Sunday, I meet a friend for lunch and we then head over to Canadian Stage for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (kind of heavy stuff for a matinee!).  We currently don't have seats together, but I have asked the box office to see if something can be worked out.  Anyway, then I run over to catch the train to Bloor West and then walk over to the Revue to see La Dolce Vita, which is also pretty long and heavy in a different way (when we get to the intellectual and his children...).

Monday I will have to make sure I leave work on time and then hop over to the Revue to see Antonioni's L'Avventura.  I'm almost certain that I have seen L'Eclisse before, though I suppose I can borrow it from the library to make sure.  Anyway, watching L'Avventura should round out my viewing of his greatest films, and one day I'll get around to The Passenger and Zabriskie Point, but I'm not in a hurry.  I'm pretty sure that my favorite will be La Notte, which has more than a little in common with La Dolce Vita, though if anything it's even more jaded.

After this, things are up in the air, because I am supposed to head over to Edmonton for a work trip, but they haven't said what day it will be.  I'm kind of hoping it is Tues. in the late afternoon or Wed.  

I'm almost certainly going to be back in Toronto on the 31st, and I'm very close to booking a ticket to a TSO concert, and then I think I will book a ticket for a comedian on the 1st.  Maybe I will do that tonight.  Thurs. evening is a concert by the Jack Quartet, and I'd like to see that, but I do need to wait until this work trip firms up.

Then I am seeing Tafelmusik on Feb. 2 and I should be able to get over to the Revue to see The Conversation, but I think I will just try to get tickets at the door rather than book them and not be able to use them.

There's a fair bit going on in Feb. and March, but I think I'll just focus on events I haven't booked just to try to focus my attention and not forget anything.

I'll just check with my wife, but I think we'll go see this creepy show at Red Sandcastle on Fri. Feb. 7.

There is a show about ecological collapse (naturally) called Dimanche.  It looks like I can go on Feb. 22.  I don't think she'd want to go, but I will ask.  There is actually someone at work who might want to make it.

I asked around if any of the neighbours wanted to see Buena Vista Orchestra over at Danforth Music Hall, but apparently not, so I will book a single ticket for that, and likely I'll go see Age of Arousal at Alumnae the next day.

Then there is a show called Truck at Factory at the end of March that looks pretty interesting (about how self-driving trucks will put even more of the working class out of work). 

So that is definitely plenty to think about for the immediate future.  At some point, I'll get serious about booking a ticket to MacBeth at Stratford.  I think I had narrowed it down to one weekend where I could also see The Winter's Tale.

* I was able to bring a friend to Pain and Glory and my son to a couple other Almodovar films at TIFF, but somehow out of all the people that I sometimes invite to events (6 or so), no one could make All About My Mother!  In the end, I held the ticket too late to return through the website.  The woman at the box office said it would normally be a $3 fee, though she knew someone who could use the ticket after all and waived it.

Revue Thoughts in Early 2025

I'm making my way over to the Revue more often than I would have expected, but I still don't think I will really make a habit of it, and I don't think it would be worth it to get a membership there.  On New Year's Day, I saw Waking Life, which is an animated film by Richard Linklater.  I thought it was interesting but definitely too long.  Indeed, the main character "The Dreamer" starts commenting towards the end that he has been trying to wake up but just keeps ending up in a different dream.*  There is even a guy who turns up to explain what lucid dreaming is, and how one of the key "tells" is that you can't change the lighting level in a dream, so if you switch a light switch in a dream and nothing happens, then you know you are in a dream.  I think this is a movie I would have enjoyed a lot more in my 20s.  I don't want to get into a long discussion of my dreams, though I will say they have generally been a lot more involved in the last year or so, and usually are just crammed full of details, like me looking over full bookcases or tables full of stuff, as at a jumble sale.  It's kind of impressive just how much mental energy must go into that.

While I was there, I asked about getting tickets to Withnail and I on Friday, but they were sold out.  The young woman working the ticket booth said that almost everyone that showed up and got into the rush line eventually got in.  I debated it for a while, then decided I would do that.  I left work a bit early, though not when I had planned to leave, and caught the Kitchener train with 3 minutes to spare!  It was a cold evening.  I remember hoping that they would just take our info in line and then we could go somewhere else, and I was debating if I had time to make it over to MOCA and back or not.  Or alternatively, if they said there was no hope in getting in, I would have stopped in at MOCA.  I have seen the current exhibits at MOCA, so I didn't feel that it was critical I get back over there, but it would have been something to do.  That didn't happen, however.  We just stood in line in the cold for 45 minutes, but we did all get in in the end.  What was particularly frustrating is if it had been just a few degrees warmer, I could have gotten quite a bit of reading in while waiting in the line, and I would have finished the 3rd Maqroll novella Un Bel Morir.  I only just finished this up last night, so I would have been pretty deep into the 4th novella by now.

I will say that being quite cold, particularly in my toes, was probably good training for the film, where the characters are cold in London and then cold and wet and particularly miserable in the countryside.  I certainly thought it was an interesting though squalid film.  I'm pretty sure the reason I didn't want to see it back in the day was just how claustrophobic it all felt when Monty shows up and tries to seduce Paul McGann's character.  I may or may not have been aware back in the day (from other critics) just how much gay panic runs through the entire film, and this aspect of the film is still very hard to tolerate.  I had a bit of a toxic friendship that lasted into my early 20s, though I certainly didn't get up to the same sort of hijinks that these two did, but I hadn't broken away when the film had first come out, so it might not have spoken to me in the same way if I had seen it fairly early on after its original release.  Or indeed, maybe it would have hastened the breakup, but most likely not, as the events that really led up to our breakup didn't happen for years afterwards.  (I'm sure I had a few opportunities to catch the film at second-run theatres in Toronto or Chicago in the early to mid 90s, but there was a long stretch in the 90s when I didn't have a TV and obviously not a VHS player or DVD player, which is why I do have lots of gaps particularly for movies from this era.)

Towards the end of the month, the Revue is showing La Dolce Vita, and I already have my tickets for that, so no rush line for me!  It will be almost 10 years since I saw it (for the first time!) over at TIFF.  How time flies!  I noted back then that I had wanted to see Amarcord but couldn't make it work out.  I did see Amarcord over at the Revue in 2023, and this was likely the first time I had been over there.

They have been advertising a few other movies they are showing there, including Antonioni's L'Avventura.  I debated it for a while but decided it was worth checking this out as well, so I ordered tickets to that.  I have seen Blow Up over at the Paradise.  I am sure I saw The Red Desert, mostly likely out in Vancouver, though I am not sure if I did see this in a theatre or not.  I'm pretty sure I saw one but possibly two Antonioni films on the big screen while I was there.  If I had to guess, I would say it was L'Eclisse.  I don't think I have seen La Notte, which features Marcello Mastroianni, covering one day and night in his character's life.  I probably should watch it either right before or right after La Dolce Vita.  Or before Linklater's Before trilogy.  It turns out that the Revue is showing all 3 in a row in early Feb., and I decided I might as well go to that.  I do wish they had a special pass to see them together, but they aren't doing that.  Too bad.  This may well be too much of a good thing, but I've always been at least a little curious about these films, none of which I've seen.

I would say that the Revue is pretty much my ideal 2nd run movie theatre, though the bathrooms are a bit grotty and too small.  I do like the Paradise a bit more, but there are weeks when they are hardly showing any movies (and the bathroom situation isn't much better though at least the fixtures are newer).  The Fox now generally shows one or two movies for an entire week and nothing else, and it is just so far to get to on TTC and there really aren't many good dining options out that way.  The screens at Carlton are a bit too small.  The Royal has still not recovered from COVID and doesn't show many movies at all.  TIFF really does not show nearly enough older movies, and I am pretty fed up with their ticketing policies and how they never have enough seats available for older foreign movies.  But between all of them, there are definitely a lot of movies to be seen.  I have to run for now.  Ciao!

* It is worth pondering if this somehow inspired Inception...