Down the (Music) Rabbit Hole

Every so often, I indulge myself and start chasing down obscure albums or even just songs.  In some cases, I end up buying the item, though I prefer to find the music on iTunes or Naxos.  This process usually takes a few hours, so I try not to indulge too often...

As one typical example, I stumbled across a Youtube channel, Cheap Heat, with 4 videos covering the Enja label, along with others (which I haven't played yet).  The first is here.  (Note that you absolutely need to put Enja in brackets, as otherwise you end up with an endless list of Enya videos...)  I believe many, though probably not all, of the recordings are on the Naxos Jazz app, so that is something that I will start exploring.  (And indeed at the bottom of the post, I will just make a list of all the records that I will see if I can listen to on Naxos or borrow at the library or decide if I do want to break down and buy them...)  I believe I originally came across the Youtube video, trying to find out more about Abdullah Ibrahim's Children of Africa.  I've certainly listened to some Enja in the past, mostly the Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy recordings, which may be their best known releases.  And probably I have the Mal Waldron somewhere, as I have an awful lot of his recordings.  The Chet Baker "Peace" album is actually on iTunes, though many Enja albums are not, so I'll go ahead and listen to that now.  

As a digression within a digression (a recursion?), I remembered that one Chet Baker album was left out of the massive Jazz in Paris box set, and I had misremembered it was Peace, but in fact it was Broken Wing.  I think it was probably a strange rights issue that kept it from being included, even though it was actually listed as part of the contents of the mega box!  Anyway, I was able to track down a copy fairly easily at that time (2004!).  I also got general advice from the Organissimo jazz board on replacing a different missing disc from the series.  In fact, I basically joined Organissimo back in the day based on finding advice on things like the Jazz in Paris set to be so helpful.

Sadly, they were not able to help me track down a Thelonious Monk compilation (that I listened to in college 20 years before then!), and oddly those posts seem to have been deleted, maybe because some posters use to flounce out when they quit and try to remove all the threads they had posted in!  At this point, I really don't remember the details, though I think it probably wasn't the Hal Willner project, That's the Way I Feel Now (as great as that was -- and I probably should find that* and listen to it again).  

I was trying to track down a cassette, and I think it probably had Nutty and Friday the 13th and then Monk's version of Gershwin's Nice Work If You Can Get it.  This Something in Blue cassette is likely not it, but may be close enough that after I burn a version of it (as I have the complete Monk London Collection from Black Lion where this material comes from) and combine it with That's the Way I Feel Now into a super compilation, I can finally rest easy. 😉

It was quite the nostalgia trip looking through those old Organissimo posts.  What was particularly weird was in one post, I said I was picking up Jazz in Paris from Best Buy, and then in another one, I said that it had taken me 6 weeks to get the box from France after I ordered it on Amazon.fr!  I suppose the most likely reason for the discrepancy is Best Buy didn't actually have the item in stock after all, back in those early days of internet shopping when there was a huge mismatch between what the computer and the storeroom thought was "in stock"...

Organissimo is only a pale shadow of what it used to be 10 or 15 years ago, but I still get tipped to some interesting new or old releases, as well as a bunch of LPs that never made it to CD.  There is a thread solely covering LPs that never made it to CD, which is particularly threatening to my wallet, though with the passing of time, some of them get added to iTunes or just Youtube (for instance I am currently listening to Buddy Montgomery ‎– This Rather Than That).  Not sure it has really been discussed in that thread, but there is a whole series called Jazz Slows, most of which are late night mood music from France's Black and Blue label featuring Buddy Tate and Milt Buckner, but sadly/oddly these have not turned up anywhere else or been digitized.  I might finally break down and order some, though I have to say the very risque covers makes it a bit of a challenge to send to family and friends (for those many cases where shipping to Canada is prohibitively expensive or just prohibited altogether).

To get back to the specific rabbit hole from this morning, which I have been chasing for a few hours, someone's Organissimo post tipped me off to Lloyd McNeill's Treasures, which is on iTunes, and this led quickly to McNeill's Washington Suite.  I liked this quite a bit.  One of the tracks, "Fountain in the Circle," opens with a blat from a bassoon.  While there have been a few jazz tracks that include bassoon, it's a fairly rare thing.  Anyway, this particular bassoonist, Kenneth Pasmanick, also played on a couple of albums by Charlie Byrd and some tracks by Mel Powell.  The Charlie Byrd albums are not available as stand-alone items, but the music itself is available through some PD (public domain) compilations on iTunes, so I'll listen to them tonight.  

But I was really struggling with the Mel Powell tracks; Powell is mostly known as a side man for Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, but he had a few recordings under his own name.  It turns out that most of his Capitol recordings are available in various places.  Avid actually has a 2-fer that covers 4.5 of his albums (and it is just within the realm of possibility that I actually own this!), but there is a compilation called Piano Prodigy that combines some Capitol recordings and some very early Commodore recordings.  (There is also weird compilation of Mel Powell and Mary Lou Williams called Two Cats and a Mouse (on Definitive) though this seems to lean on Capitol recordings which are still available.)  Piano Prodigy kicks off with three very early Commodore tracks, and two of these show up on the Commodore Piano Anthology, but "Hallelujah" (1943) was left off.  I mean I am a bit of a completist, but I am not going to buy a CD for a single track that I am sure I would only listen to a couple of times!  

What makes this extremely frustrating is that the Mel Powell bassoon tracks are on something called "Sketches," which apparently is more of a classical piece or maybe the precursor to Third Stream music.  While I am sure it is interesting, it isn't bassoon in jazz proper, and again I wouldn't listen to it more than a few times.  This doesn't seem to show up anywhere except in the Complete Commodore Recordings Vol. 3 box from Mosaic, which is long OOP.  (And "Hallelujah" (1943) is in the Vol. 1 box!)  I remember ages ago, some of these Commodore boxes were on sale at Reckless Records in Chicago, but I can't remember which (or indeed if they had all of them).  If it weren't for the fact these are LP only sets(!), I might have been more tempted.  Frankly, it is a bit inconceivable that Avid or some other PD company hasn't put out a Commodore set by now as it should be in the public domain in the States despite the shenanigans of periodically extending copyright, though I suspect it is simply the sheer work that would be involved in transferring these from LP to digital that prevents them from doing so.  So this sadly, seems like it will end as a dead end, as I can't see picking up these Commodore box sets any time soon (or indeed ever), though maybe in a few years if the trade wars wind down, I would at least consider it, though shipping that many LPs would cost an arm and a leg, even within the States.  So unless I run across a Canadian collector who decides to part with one or more of the Commodore boxes, I think I will just have to put this out of my mind, and focus instead on the vastness of the music that is available to me...

 

Enja Recordings of Note:

Bobby Jones “Hill Country Suite” (enja2046, 1974)
Hal Galper Quintet “Speak With A Single Voice” (Century Records CR-1120, 1979)
Franco Ambrosetti Quintet w Bennie Wallace “Close Encounter” (inner City 3026, 1978)
Bennie Wallace “Big Jim’s Tango” (enja4046, 1983)
Bennie Wallace Trio “… & Chick Corea” (enja4028, 1982)
Bob Degen Trio “Celebrations” (Calig CAL 30 602, 1968)
Bob Degen “Sequoia Song” (enja2072, 1976)
Bob Degen “Children of the Night” (Inner City IC3027, 1979)
Marty Cook & the New York Sound Explosion “Trance” (Circle Records RK31279/20, 1980)
Marty Cook Group “Red, White, Black & Blue” (Enja / Tutu Records 5067, 1988)
Marty Cook Group w/ Jim Pepper “Nightwork” (enja 5033, 1986)
Jim Pepper “Dakota Song” (enja 5043, 1987)
Abdullah Ibrahim “Mindif” (enja R1 79601, 1988)
Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) “Children of Africa” (Inner City 3003, 1977)
Kenny Barron “Scratch” (enja 4092, 1985)
John Stubblefield “Bushman Song” (enja 5015, 1986)
Reflexionen “Remember To Remember” (enja 5057, Germany — 1987)
Reflexionen - "Reflexionen"  (Timeless – SJP 199 Netherlands — 1984)
Reflexionen “Live” (Timeless  - SJP 234, Netherlands — 1986)
Marty Ehrlich “Pliant Plaint” (Enja 5056, Germany - 1988)
Mark Helias “The Current Set” (Enja 5041, Canada - 1987)
Mark Helias “Split Image” (Enja 4086, Germany - 1985)
Ray Anderson “It Just So Happens” (Enja 5037, Canada - 1987)
Aki Takase Trio “Song For Hope: Live at the Berlin Jazz Festival” (Enja 28MJ 3136, Japan - 1982)
Charlie Rouse “Upper Manhattan Jazz Society” (Enja 4090, Canada - 198?)
Attila Zoller “Memories of Pannonia” (Enja 5027, Canada - 1986)
Attila Zoller “Dream Bells” (Enja 2078, Germany - 1976)
Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) “African Space Program” (Enja 2032, US - 1974)
Elvin Jones “Live at the Village Vanguard” (Enja 2036, US - 197?)
Nana Simopoulos “Wings and Air”
David Friedman “Futures Passed”
David Friedman “Of the Wind’s Eye”
David Friedman “Shades of Change”
David Friedman “Winter Love, April Joy”
Bennie Wallace & the Biloxi Blues Ensemble “Sweeping Through the City”
George Adams, Hannibal & Friends “More Sightings”
Hannibal (Marvin Peterson) “Angels of Atlanta”
Hannibal (Marvin Peterson) “…in Antibes”
Franco Ambrosetti & Friends “Movies”
Barbara Dennerlein “Hot Stuff”
Benny Bailey “Islands”
Blue Box “Sweet Machine”
Blue Box “Stambul Boogie”
Chet Baker “Peace”
Mal Waldron "Black Glory"
Mal Waldron - “Mingus Lives”
Mal Waldron - “What It Is”
Mal Waldron - “…Plays The Blues”
Mal Waldron & Gary Peacock - “First Encounter” (Catalyst CAT-7906) not on ENJA!
Marc Levin - “Social Sketches”
Joint Venture - Joint Venture
Various Artists (Hutcherson, Shepp, Krog, Evans) - “Live at the Festival”
Karl Berger - “With Silence”; “Crystal Fire” (CD)
Albert Mangelsdorff - “Live in Tokyo”
Mangelsdorff w/Masahiko Sato - “Spontaneous”
Masahiko Sato “Trinity”
Yosuke Yamashita & Adelhard Roidinger - “Inner Space”
Yosuke Yamashita Trio - “Clay” and “A Tribute to Mal Waldron”
Takeo Moriyama - “Green River”
Terumasa Hino - “Vibrations”

 

* I actually found the 2 LP set in the first place I was looking for it, and I am sure at some point I digitized this, but don't see those files, so I may listen to it tonight and plan on digitizing it again in the nearish future.  The LP version has 6 songs missing from the CD version, so it is really the way to go.

Kurosawa Update

I was planning on pasting together a full list of Kurosawa's films and my progress through his films, but I see I did this over 10 years ago!  So I will just go back to that list and update there.  Interestingly, back then (2013), I had said I had only seen Ran and Dreams on the big screen, though I am fairly sure I actually had seen Rashomon as well at the Film Forum in NYC but had blanked on it at the time.  At any rate, even if I had missed it back then, I saw it at the Revue last March.  So this implies that I had only watched Ikiru on video up until that point, and I will see Ikiru over at The Revue tonight in a new restoration.  I adored this the first time, but was much less taken the second time.  Let's see how I feel tonight after the third go-around.

Having watched The Hidden Fortress, Seven Samurai and Stray Dog over the weekend at the Revue, I am up to 15 (of 30 films), with 2 more films new to me to come this week (Throne of Blood and Sanjuro).  It looks like I will then have managed to watch all or nearly all of his samurai films, depending on if one includes the late film, Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior.

I will say that after this major festival, I will have seen pretty much all of his best films (and on the big screen!) with the possible exception of The Bad Sleep Well and perhaps Red Beard.  (I think The Bad Sleep Well may have come around to the Paradise or more likely Tiff, but I just couldn't make it, so I will keep my eyes open for it if it comes around again.) 

As I mentioned way back when, I have the massive Kurosawa box set, which includes 25 of his 30 films.  It is pretty amazing, though sadly it is very bare bones, aside from a nice book that comes along with it.  I have to say, it really is a shame that It is Wonderful to Create (a 21 part documentary on Kurosawa specifically for his films for Toho Studios) was not made available on the box set.  One thing that I probably should do, especially as I do own Ran and Ikiru, is borrow the other DVDs with special features and just rip this into one place.  I will go back to the original post and make notes on which DVDs I would need to borrow to achieve this.  This sounds like a potential fall/winter project.  However, it will probably never be complete, as the episodes that correspond with movies that came out on the "budget" Eclipse series never had the documentary bonus features at all.  It really is surprising that Toho Studio won't license the whole thing to Janus.  I'm sure enough there would be plenty of buyers if it came out by itself on Blu-Ray or something.*

One other note about the box set is that 5 films are missing, mostly his later ones.  The ones not on the box are The Quiet Duel, Dersu Uzala, Ran, Dreams and Rhapsody in August.  Ran is certainly the most significant omission, but I wish the box had Dreams and Rhapsody in August as well.  I own a copy of Ran (picked up when it was only a bit OOP and not extremely expensive) and Dreams.  I believe I sourced Dersu Uzala and Rhapsody in August as well, though I will need to dig around to find them.  It turns out that Robarts has a copy of The Quiet Duel, so I requested that.

As it happens I had planned to go through the whole box back in 2013/14 (while I was on my own in Vancouver), but that didn't happen.  I actually don't remember much about those early films.  I think I did think No Regrets for Our Youth had some similarities to Bergman's Wild Strawberries, but that may be completely off-base.  I do recall that I thought the ending of One Wonderful Sunday was completely inane, though that wasn't why I stopped the project.  I just got busy with work. 

Maybe I will see if I can watch Drunken Angel and then The Quiet Duel** when I pick it up from Robarts.  I also would really like to watch Rhapsody in August before August is over!  (Speaking of work interfering with pleasure, I suspect the reason I didn't see Rhapsody in August when it came out in 1991 was that it was released in the US in Dec. 1991, and I was just barely keeping my head above water as a new teacher in Newark.  It would have been playing in Manhattan but certainly not anywhere where I was living.  Still a bit of a missed opportunity...)   Then this fall and winter, I may start making my way through the rest of the films.  It would be down to 10 or so remaining, which isn't so incredibly daunting. 

* Another fantasy wish project would be if the original cut of The Idiot was made available.  Apparently, Kurosawa delivered a 4+ hour movie of the whole novel which was then hacked down to under 3 hours (shades of Welles and The Magnificent Ambersons).  One can only dream. 

** Well, this is most amusing.  I tracked down Rhapsody in August, which I indeed own.  But it turns out I have a copy of The Quiet Duel as well!  I might as well leave my request in place to see if the Robarts copy has different bonus features.  I thought I had a region-free copy of Dersu Uzala, but maybe not.  It looks like there is a version from Kino floating about and is at the TPL, so I'll just request that as well.  What makes this even a bit droller, is that as I was putting the books back (my DVDs are mostly hidden behind the books), I ran across De Filippo's Four Plays, which I had assumed was in a box in the basement, but is actually a compact version up on the main floor.  So another mystery solved...

Too Much Heat!

Just a relatively short post to cover some of the weekend events.  Sat. was quite packed.  It started off well as I got my laps in at the Regent Park pool.  I got over to UT with about 15 minutes before the 1 o'clock concert started.  There was a new piece by Alice Hong and then Brahms's 2nd Piano Quartet.  In fact, they were doing the 3rd Piano Quartet at 4 and they had done the 1st on Friday (paired with a Shostakovitch cello piece).  I think tickets were not available on Friday, and in the end I ended up working too late and then spending some time with my son and his girlfriend (and then after they left I sat out on the deck and finished rereading Calvino's Invisible Cities), so I can't have too many regrets about missing the concert.  That said, I will try to make an effort to catch his first Piano Quartet the next time it comes to town.  (I am still possibly going to try to see Schubert's String Quintet on Thurs., though I suspect something will come up or there will be no tickets at all...)

The concert wrapped up in just about an hour, and then I biked over to BMV and sold off a few books and CDs, though they said no one was buying Billie Holiday any longer, so I had to bring that back.  Then I swung over to 401 Richmond and poked my head into a couple of galleries.  Then I went over to the AGO and saw the Naoko Matsubara exhibit. 

Naoko Matsubara, Self-Portrait, 1966

It's basically two rooms in the back corner of the first floor, but it is still pretty cool that I have one of her pieces.  It was a bit odd that many of the prints were somewhat geometric and even abstract, though I think her better prints are much more detailed, like this one.  

Naoko Matsubara, Inner Strength, 1966

They did have a wall dedicated to her In Praise of Hands series.  

I'll definitely go back a few more times when I have the chance.

Then I stopped at Staples to pick up another USB drive.  I needed to free up a lot of space to finally get this stupid Windows 11 update to complete, and in general I need to keep more space free on this computer.  (And I wasn't quite sure if I would be able to get to the one in Gerrard Square on Sunday because their hours are strange...)  I made it back but not with a lot of time to spare.  I was already starting to overheat, but went back in for the second concert.  In addition to Brahms's 3rd Piano Quartet, then performed a Schoenberg String Quartet, where the 3rd and 4th movements had sung lyrics!

This concert ran a bit longer, but I still was able to get over to Robarts by 5:30.  Now I couldn't get in, and Robarts was supposed to stay open until 6, but it turned out that they had just turned off one of the doors, as it was close to closing time.  I managed to pick up my books.  I'm pretty frustrated with Robarts because I turned in a book (on Norman Lewis).  As it was falling apart, I told them it had to go off to the bindery for repairs.  I thought it was implied that it needed to be checked in, and in general books pulled out of circulation like that need their status updated.  Nonetheless, the book is currently still charged out on my account (though with a claimed return note attached), and fines are accruing.  I'm sure they will eventually be waived, but it is completely annoying (and unnecessary), and it is possible at some point the fines will get so high that I won't be able to take out any books in the meantime until the book turns up.

Then I went over to Slab Burger and had a black bean burger and sweet potato fries.  It's sort of my go-to meal when I am in the area.  I was still pretty hot, so I got a coconut slushy from an Asian bakery.  It was fine, though these things are not designed for take-away (unlike the bubble tea which is usually fully sealed), and they had no seating available, which is such a poor business model that I don't plan on going back.

I tried to get a bit more reading done, but there was just a lot of noise in the concert hall, and I couldn't really focus, particularly on something like Walden...

The last concert was good.  They did Schubert's String Quartet #14 (Death and the Maiden) which was very stirring.  Then a different group did Elgar's Piano Quintet, which is a bit of a rarity these days.  I actually had the chance to see Jonathan Crow twice during the Regeneration concerts and Philip Chiu once.  Indeed, when you factor in those two concerts I couldn't get tickets to and the Alison Au concert I blanked on, I only am seeing the New Orford String Quartet on Wed. and a bunch of Regeneration concerts and just possibly a noontime concert on Thurs., and that is it, which is much less than I anticipated at the start of the summer...

Anyway, the last concert ran a bit late, not ending until 9:10 pm, so the No Frills on Broadview was already closed.  I biked home and dropped in at the grocery store on Danforth near Pape for a few things.  It was a somewhat exhausting day, and ultimately I paid for it on the Sunday.

Sunday started off fine.  I managed to get over to the gym and got in my workout, though I had to skip any cardio.  Then I biked over to Carlton.  I had thought about going to the Thomas Landry gallery over in the Distillery but just didn't have the time.  I did have time to stop in at Bulk Bark before the movie.  It was Thelma and Louise, which I've never seen, though I knew the broad outlines of the movie before so it wasn't a surprise or anything.  I have to agree with one reviewer who commented that Thelma makes one poor decision after another, and the movie wouldn't have been so needlessly tragic if she wasn't such a dope.  Towards the end, I was not feeling well at all.  I thought I could hold on but just felt terribly sick and had to run out to the restrooms.  I'm not sure this has ever happened to me at the movies before.  (I am sure it is just partly how badly I was feeling, but I thought the last 15 or so minutes kind of dragged with just one more bad thing after another cropping up as they made their way to Mexico; definitely 10 minutes could have been cropped out of this section.)  I was able to make it back for the final couple of minutes with the big standoff and then the great leap into the Grand Canyon, so I guess it wasn't a complete waste.  I hadn't realized that Michael Masden, who just passed away, was in the film, playing Louise's boyfriend.

I had planned on running over to the Revue to see That Man From Rio, which is an adventure type movie that may have inspired Indiana Jones.  But the weather was too hot, and I realized I was suffering from heat stroke or something.  I just went over to work and dropped a couple of things off and went home to rest, though I did stop in for a few minutes at Thomas Landry.  (I was bummed to miss the film, but it turns out that the library has a copy, so I have requested that.)

For once I didn't moan when my wife ran the AC on Sunday.  Indeed, I came very close to asking for it to be turned on last night too, as it was just so hot on the main floor.  (I was still recovering a bit and worked from home on Monday.)  It really has been several days of intense, oppressive heat.  At this point, I won't be sorry for autumn to arrive.

The Swimmer

Last Sunday, I been debating going out and seeing Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion at the Revue.  It's a pretty dark movie, and I might or might not have appreciated it.  Anyway, I decided it really was just too far to bike in the heat.  I went to the gym (on the late side) and then went to a late afternoon screening of Paprika instead.  This anime is so weird.  It's the second time I've seen it, and perhaps I will go once a year as Carlton cycles through animated features as part of its $5 movie showings.  (Same thing with Tokyo Godfathers and Night is Short, Walk On Girl.)  Then I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up and preparing for the BBQ (and somehow forgetting about the concert on Monday!).

I'm trying to really focus on not missing any more concerts.  I have 3! today, all back to back over at Walter Hall.  I do hope there is enough time between them to run over to Robarts (almost certainly) and maybe sell off some books and CDs to BMV (less certain).  I'll most likely eat over at Slab Burger on Bay, though I won't wait until after the last concert, as they have a fairly early closing time, which I have learned to my sorrow.

Then I have a concert to go to on Wed.  I had planned to see Jonathan Crow and Philip Chiu on Monday, but I waited too long, and the remaining tickets were quite expensive, so I decided to pass.  At this point, it is sold out.  I mean I might swing by to see if they do rush tickets, but I probably won't bother.

On Tues., I am going to a screening of an Atom Egoyan movie at Paradise, Speaking Parts, where he will be in attendance, so I probably ought to book those tickets right now.

Thurs., I am going to attempt to work remotely and catch a noontime concert at Heliconian Hall, though I don't have super high hopes of this working out.  I will probably check out another anime film on Thurs.  After this, it is nearly a solid week of Kurosawa films at the Revue.  I did the math, and it still isn't quite worth it to me to become a member, but it was a pretty close thing.  No question had I lived a bit further west, I would be a member there, as it is my favorite second-run movie house.  Paradise could be #1, but they just need more screenings.  Far too often they are dark or having a candle-light concert instead of showing a film...

Anyway, last Wed. I biked over to the Revue.  Had I made slightly better time, I would have gotten a slice of pizza, but I only had about 10 minutes before the movie.  I was there to see The Swimmer, which is a very unusual movie based on a short story by John Cheever.  The guy introducing the film tried very hard not to spoil it, as so few people had seen it, but even his limited remarks got some people in the audience riled up.  I thought it was interesting that Burt Lancaster didn't know how to swim!  Consequently, he needed a stand-in for most of the swimming bits.  Curiously, he did not mention that Cheever actually has a cameo in the film, playing a party guest.*  That would definitely have been worth mentioning!

I can't say I really loved the movie.  There was so much cringe, esp. when the Burt Lancaster character started putting the moves on a former baby sitter he ran across.  (That thankfully was not in the original short story.)  Also, the bit where he is racing a horse was just ridiculous.

SPOILERS!!

I can't really discuss the difference between the story and the film without SPOILERS, so you have been warned.  Both end up at basically the same place.  This guy is a Walter Mitty-type guy who simply refuses to accept reality, i.e. that he's in dire financial trouble and he's lost his house (and presumably his whole family has split on him).  What's odd is the story is probably even more misleading, with the narrator saying several times that his wife was at the party where the action kicks off, whereas in the movie he says she is just back at home with his daughters, which is clearly not true.  It's possible and even likely this simply isn't true (in the story), but there is no way to know this.  Certainly taken at face value, there is no reason to expect the narrator is such deep denial from the start.  The film certainly lays it on much thicker, with several more opportunities for reality to smack the narrator in the face, but it is a gradual build-up.  I liked the party scenes in the movie, but overall it was a bit too painful to watch and I probably won't watch it a second time.  I did sit down and read the short story that evening, and it was pretty good.  I'll definitely have to make time at some point to read The Stories of John Cheever and then The Wapshot Chronicle and The Wapshot Scandal.  I've read a few of the stories and bits of The Wapshot Chronicle at NELP, but not the whole thing.  I'm sure I should try to read Falconer as well, but that is a much lower priority.

Oddly enough, I ran into Skye Wallace, who was also there to see the movie.  She thanked me for coming out to her show.  (Her last one for some time, as she is on the verge of having a baby!)  I tried to get pizza after the movie, but Pizzazola was closing up.  (There is an Indian place open a bit later, and I will likely explore that once or twice in a couple of weeks...)  So I went back to the box office to get a few more tickets for their Kurosawa series.  At the moment, they still have seats available, but I suspect a few of these will sell out, like Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai.  I was surprised that they didn't promote it more during the previews.  I biked back kind of hungry, but at least there was still food in the house.

Just a couple of days ago I was able to go swimming Thurs. after work, and I am heading out now to go again.  I don't know if I'll be able to swim twice a week, but I'd like to try.  I am finally back at the weight I was last fall.  I was supposed to lost 15-20 pounds back then, but the winter was hard, and I was just so depressed over Trump and the horrible state of the world.  I guess the good news is that losing weight at this point will have the most direct impact on dropping another clothes size.  So the goal is within reach (again), and my eating habits are finally slightly better, so we'll see.  But now I have to run. 

* My understanding is that Cheever generally liked the film, though he thought the fairly over-wrought score by Marvin Hamlisch should have been replaced, and I agree with him.

Missed Concert

I had a very disconcerting/disappointing thing happen just the other day.  I somehow had it in my head that the Allison Au concert was next Monday when it was actually last Monday.  I only realized this on Wed.  So yes, I completely missed the concert.  This almost never happens to me, as I have a pretty good warning system.  I think one of the reasons this happened is that the calendar was off the wall for a while, as I was trying to figure out my SummerWorks events.  (I don't like SummerWorks nearly as much as the Fringe, but it does have a few things of interest this year.)  Also, I really overdid it on Fringe this year, seeing 22 or so productions!  

But probably the thing that really drove this concert out of my mind was all the preparations for the BBQ.  On Monday, I had wanted to run over to Walmart and grab a couple more deck chairs, which it turned out I needed (as the webbing in one of the older chairs was pretty ancient and gave way when someone sat down on it!).  And I did use a fair bit of time Monday evening straightening up and getting ready.  Now had I been completely organized, I should have been able to do everything, including run out to the concert and back, but sadly that didn't happen.

Of all the concerts to miss, probably better this than the New Orford String Quartet for instance.  I believe the price was on the low side, though it still stings.  Au is performing a few places around town, including next week at the Jazz Bistro, but I believe I have a conflict and unless that concert runs short, I won't want to try to swing by only to catch the late set at the Jazz Bistro.  I'll just have to keep my eyes open for the next big concert she has.

Now I did completely miss a performance at Tarragon (After the Rain) but that was because of bad TTC performance, not because I had forgotten.  And while my son never got to see the show, they were able to fit me in a few days later.

I do think there were one or two times I realized I couldn't make a show on the day of or only just remembered that a show was coming up, but generally I have been a subscriber and was able to do a last-minute switch.  So this is certainly a rare event for me (completely blanking on an event), and I hope it will not happen again for many years to come.

Cleaning Break

I am taking a slight pause in the house art tour to mention that I finally made some decent headway on straightening up the back room, which was extremely cluttered.  I definitely have some issues with letting things go, though I don't think I am a full-fledged hoarder.

Anyway, I was having some people over for a BBQ last night, and they needed to be able to get from the deck to the kitchen (and bathroom...).  So this meant I had to buckle down and make real progress on cleaning up.

The next photo is actually the state of the room when I was mostly done, not when I was starting.  You have to imagine over on the left a row of banker boxes, piled high with old newspapers (some from over a year ago, which may speak to some hoarding tendencies after all) and then a stack of books and DVDs to the right.

 
At this point, I had relocated the boxes and stacks and just was dealing with the residue, trying to sort and discard what I no longer had any use for.

This is how far I managed to get to by the start of the BBQ, so a substantial improvement, though still a bit of clutter here and there.

Now it is not all sweetness and light, as I still need to go through the newspapers (currently in the basement!), but I think mentally it will be easier to devote a couple of hours each week to tackling these stacks, and then perhaps taking on a storage room in the basement, which is an absolutely disaster right now.  I would say that it should be easier to get other work done in the office now, and I can maybe finally settle down to transcribing all the bits and pieces of my planning agency epic, which I typically write out during trips to the Rex.

This is the computer desk area after this clean up (again, still on the cluttered side, particularly at the desk itself).

You can just see a new woodcut print that I picked up at TOAF.  The full image, 'Nido' by Antonio Gomez-Palacio, is below.  (Nido means den in Spanish, which is certainly appropriate...). As you might imagine, the combination of books and books and books and a cat lazing around in a chair was irresistible to me.

Antonio Gomez-Palacio, Nido, 2025

The BBQ itself was fun, though a couple of people from the office weren't able to make it.  I also invited people that I used to work with, and fortunately a handful of them were able to make it.

Here we are at the end of the evening.

 

House Art Tour - Pt 1

One thing I have been meaning to do for a long time is to document the art in the house.  This is somewhat related to documenting the value (for insurance purposes) though I am not going to note the value here in the blog.

On the upstairs floor, I mostly have work picked up in Chicago over the years.

On the left is probably my earliest purchase from 1998 or so.  It was an abstract painting from an artist in Chicago who had her own studio.  Most likely the studio was in the Gold Coast, but it could have been Lincoln Park.  I do remember her saying that the price would have been at least twice as much if I had gotten it from a conventional gallery.  After some quick internet sleuthing, I see this is Kathleen Patrick.  Most of her recent work is perhaps aimed a bit more at the tourist crowd (skylines), but it appears she still has some abstract work for sale.

The print (actually lithograph) on the right was picked up at an antiques shop.  If my memory is not completely failing me, the shop was on Southport in Lakeview.  I was really having trouble making out the signature (which is repeated very abstractly in the sigil just above the signature).  

But Google really came through, finding an eBay auction where it appears the same lithograph, "Le Lac," is for sale (though mine is 171/250).  Hoi Lebadang was an artist born in Vietnam who eventually emigrated to France and died in 2015.

If you turn around in the hallway, there is a painted plywood panel with some somewhat abstracted birds.

There is no signature, and not even anything written on the back, so unless I turn up a receipt, this will likely remain an unknown Chicago artist...  I do remember that I saw this piece during Around the Coyote many years back.  It wasn't in the main Flatiron building but a furniture showroom just down the street, perhaps on Damen. I went back a couple of times and finally decided to pick it up, but then the artist had taken it back, and I had to arrange to get it somewhere in the south, probably in Pilsen!  Sadly, Around the Coyote folded in 2010 due to declining local support, though presumably COVID would have killed it just as effectively.  I had many good experiences at AtC back in the day, particularly when there was theatre going on at the same time, often at the Chopin Theatre.  Good times...

In the master bedroom, there is an artwork made almost entirely from pressed lint!  This is a piece I inherited from my mother.  The artist was actually her tenant in Ferndale, MI, just north of Detroit.  This is likely the oldest piece I own.

Then in the spare bedroom/study, I have several pieces.

This photo was taken of the inside of the Art Institute of Chicago, looking out.  The photo was part of a show held at the Chicago Cultural Center.  

It turns out this was taken by Jon W. Balke.  His show at the Cultural Center was held in 2010, and I must have bought the photo right at that time.

Over my poetry shelf, I have a small piece I picked up at the Chicago Art Fair held in the Merchandise Mart.  It was part of a series of 9 by a somewhat known artist, whose name escapes me.* 

Then to the left of the window, I have a piece by an Canadian artist who used to be a bit of a regular at Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, though I don't think he's been back for a couple of years.  It won't take too long to track down his details, but I don't have them at my fingertips.

It turns out this painting ("Hardboiled") is by Ivano Stocco, but I kept searching for Ivan and Ivor, which is why nothing was turning up.  He had some very nice large pieces, but most of them were just too large for my walls.  This one is a nice combination of "the urban" (slightly stylized but still figurative) combined with a wall (presumably an overpass) covered with (largely abstract) graffiti and then a very heavily textured bottom to the painting.  I bought it in 2019.  (Super embarrassingly, I actually blogged about Ivano back then but just forgot that.)

I believe that covers all the art upstairs, aside from two small pieces I painted myself, as a bit of a homage to Franz Kline. This is probably the better of the two.

I will circle back soon with more details on the artists as I dig them out, and then will post about the main floor and then the pieces downstairs.

* Tracking down this artist was particularly challenging.  The back of the frame only says "4," as in the fourth of the series.  After digging through several hard drives, I did find the photos from the exhibit, and they were from 2007.  This one shows the full series, albeit at a relatively low resolution. 

The floating upside down house (probably linked to Eastern European folklore) shows up in most of the images, though not mine.  Mine features several Medieval cities printed on top of each other in different color ink, with some kind of scroll coming out of the top and then musical notes in the background.  I also liked the ones with ships, but I only could take one home...  If money had been no object back then, I probably would have picked this one up, which has the cityscape, some castle turrets, a couple of floating ships and even a very small floating house.

Anyway, these were only labelled DH1, DH2, etc.  Doh!!  So I tried reverse image searching, and this didn't really help until I put two into the same search, and suddenly Google was able to identify the style of David Hochbaum, even though he has moved on into a new direction (and included the human form in some of his work now!).  I'm glad this mystery is finally solved, as it was seriously weighing on me.  

I have two other paintings on the main floor that I picked up in Chicago, and tracking down the artist detail is likely going to be challenging, but hopefully Google will come to the rescue again.  I'll find out soon enough...

 

Last Gasp of the Fringe

It looks like there are 4 shows left today (Sun July 20th) up in North York.

If you hustle, you could still make the first one at noon.

Line up here:
Playground - 12 pm
Things My Dad Kept - 2:30 pm
My Pet Lizard, Liz: The Shakespearean Existential Crisis that Led to his Ultimate Demise - 6 pm
Iris (says goodbye) - 8:30 pm

Tickets here.

I managed to see David Lynch's Seinfeld, and it was amazing.  Two of the actors really got the mannerisms and generally the vocal tics of Jerry and George.  The actor playing Kramer got the physicality of the character and sometimes the voice.  The Elaine role was not terribly challenging.  My main quibble is that they decided to stretch this out and ended up adding in a lot of Simpsons references, but cutting this to 45 minutes and dropping those would probably have been the better choice.  Nonetheless, a terrific show, and I'm glad I managed to get a ticket.

Many of the shows here dealt with grief, esp. Things My Dad Kept (which was very good) and My Pet Lizard, Liz.  My Pet Lizard, Liz had a fair bit of charm, but personally I couldn't connect with the way that the author was processing grief.  I also didn't understand why the lizard stopping hanging out with its poodle buddy long before the bad review came on (of its Fringe show).  This felt like a show aimed squarely at Gen Z creative types (who do more or less keep the Fringe going, along with Gen Y/Millennials), and certainly quite a few people liked it.  The one thing that spoke to me was the somewhat harsh 2 star review from the reviewer, which reminded me of my own Fringe show, which mostly got 2 star reviews.  (Indeed, ChatGPT brings this up every time I search for the show to confirm something-- fortunately not something I do often!)  And it is fair to say that it wasn't particularly edgy, and it was heavily inspired by Star Trek/Twilight Zone.  For me what matters is that we sold a fair number of tickets (thisclose to selling out a couple of times) and most of the people that went liked it a lot.  So you never know, and definitely don't let my nit-picking get in your way.  I think the only Best of Fringe that I didn't see was Playground, and I will just have to let this go.

I was, somewhat surprisingly, able to go swimming in the pool at the North York Civic Centre between Seinfelt and My Pet Lizard, Liz.  It is a big facility, with their lanes probably 50% longer than the Regent Park lanes.  And there really weren't that many swimmers, and we more or less stayed out of each other's way, which was incredible.  What isn't incredible is that there are all these concrete protuberances hanging out over the swim lanes, and I managed to smack my hand really hard against part of a "fun" slide into the swimming pool.  It really felt like I dislocated my finger.  It still hurts a bit one day later, but I'm pretty sure there is no permanent damage.  I ended up getting in 10 laps, which is probably the same as 15 in the Regent Park pool, and also their hot tub was open, so I soaked in that for a few minutes before getting back to the Fringe.  So my weekend exercise streak remains unbroken, and indeed I need to head out to the gym fairly soon.

I wasn't super impressed with the food options up there and just ended up with a snack from an Asian grocery store and ate when I got home...

I also came across the folders where I have been backing up the many, many art photos of my recent trips, so I think over the next few days I will finally upload some of those.

Last Day of Fringe (almost...)

This was going to be a longer post, but I'm running a bit late.  Yesterday was my last day of the Fringe.  I ended up seeing Emilio's A Million Chameleon's at the last minute, at least partly because of a quick chat I had with the creators on the Fringe Patio (still way, way too small, and hopefully they can figure out something better next year).  It was a kid's show but genuinely entertaining for slightly older crowds and adults.  I tried something similar one or two Fringes ago and it was pitched just a little too young for me.  That was their last show, however.

Same thing with Milk Milk Lemonade.  This was a clown show, mostly focusing on children's experiences at school, but towards the end, they had a gym coach giving a sex ed pep talk and then the parent teacher conferences.  I remember being on the parent side of a large number of these with my kids, but oddly I cannot remember if I actually had parents come check in with me when I was teaching in Newark.  I wonder if we even had a structured night or not.  That seems a weird thing not to do, but also I think I would have remembered if we did them.  Anyway, this show was side-splittingly funny.

In general, it looks like I picked reasonably well.  5 of the shows I went to ended up as Patron Pick's: Jimmy Hogg, Iris (Says Goodbye), A Sexy Pigeon Show, Adam Bailey: My Three Deaths and Hoody.  No idea if any of them still have tickets left at this point.  I had briefly debated going to see Galen's Grocer, but by the time I went to look, the tickets were gone.  I had hoped that A Cigarette That's Good for You would somehow add another show today, but that didn't happen, presumably at least in part because they already had an evening show on Sunday, which has been sold out for ages.

So between the originally scheduled Sunday programming and then a few Patron picks, there is still a lot to see, though I personally am Fringed out.

It is also the Toronto Outdoor Arts Fair, and it looks like the rain that came through will cool things down.  (It was absurdly hot yesterday!)  I'll circle back with some photos of TOAF tonight.  It was a pretty good year, though I am going to try not to buy anything, as tempting as it is sometimes...

Anyway, as I said, while the Fringe is winding down, this year they have brought back Best of the Fringe where 5 shows get two encore performances up in North York at Meridian.  (Tickets available here.)  Of the five, I had seen two: Iris (Says Goodbye), which I enjoyed but not quite to the same extent as the judges, and Things My Dad Kept, which was quite good.  One of the ones I had hoped to see was David Lynch's Seinfeld, so I grabbed a ticket to that for next Sat., so that will be interesting.  There is a small chance I will go ahead and see My Pet Lizard, Liz right after, but then I need to get back because I have a concert that evening.  My wife might have come along to the Seinfeld show, but she is actually off in Chicago that weekend.

I hope that the Fringe was rewarding for you, and do take advantage of this last day (and then bonus time shows next weekend)!

 

Fringe Winding Down

I liked the Adding Machine a lot.  I didn't realize that this is actually the Leroy Street Theatre sneaking into the Fringe through a non-conventional site (actually a puppy yoga salon!).  They have come back with a full season in 2025-26 (I think Acting Unit 102 may have bit the dust).  So that's all quite exciting, though they are kicking things off with Mamet's Oleanna, which I have zero intention of seeing, so I won't be doing a full subscription.  The reviews for this have been great (here and Glenn Sumi made it a Critic's Pick here (but behind paywall)).  It is mostly sold out, but does have some tickets remaining for the 13th.

I've generally enjoyed things I've seen with the exception of one where the concept was fine but the acting was shaky and one that was way too much ritual and nowhere near enough clowning.  I did enjoy Adam Bailey's My Three Deaths at Aki Studio in Regent Park but not as much as the leather-lunged woman sitting behind me who just was howling and cackling the whole time and frankly did detract from the experience.  I'm on the fence on Oh! I Miss the War, though this has been getting strong reviews, so I may go in the end.  It's also at Aki, so is fairly close to home, which is nice.

There are a few shows I've seen where they really committed to the bit, like Very Shady Arab Ladies and Hoody, though I was clearly not entirely on the same wavelength as the creators.  The Star reviewer (Chong) really liked Hoody, so I wouldn't want to discourage you from going.  

In general, I have picked shows that correspond with things that critics have enjoyed and/or have largely sold out, so I think I picked reasonably well this year.  I won't see it until Friday, but Stealing Home at Alumnae has generally gotten good reviews and still has seats left.

I'm running quite late at this point, but I thought I would mention that I finally finished Dombey and Son.  I didn't care much for it in general, particularly after the son exits the picture, and I thought the reconciliation scenes rang a bit false.  As with most Dickens's novels, it would be so much stronger if it were 100-200 pages shorter!  I should be able to wrap up Zhu Wen's I Love Dollars soon, and then on to The Leopard and Invisible Cities and maybe Lord Vishnu's Love Handles and perhaps Walden on the train to Montreal.  So much to do...

Edit (10 pm): Oh! I Miss the War was very good.  I'm glad I went in the end.  Two more performances at Aki Studio, and it seems like there is still good availability.  Anyway, I realized that while Leroy Street Theatre is back from the dead, it isn't clear just how active they will be going forward.  The new season (announced in The Adding Machine program) is Icarus Theatre and not Leroy Street Theatre itself.  Not entirely sure what the connection is...  I will say, I am not entirely sure I am going to go all in on a new theatre company, given they are picking shows that do not do anything for me.  I saw Lobby Hero in Hamilton, and while I imagine the acting at Icarus was better, it still was an extremely cliched script.  And they also did Payne's Constellations, which is just a completely empty pomo exercise.  And then they follow this up with Oleanna, which I will not go to.  So maybe I won't go to the other two shows.  We'll see closer to the time.

Almodovar Rankings

I had a chance last week to watch Matador.  I did not care for this at all.  I'm so glad that I didn't break it out while my son was visiting.  I would say this is probably my least favorite Almodovar film of all time, though his first film Pepi (which I've only watched part of) could overtake it for last place.  (Pretty much everyone says this is a very raw, not great film, but you have to start somewhere...)  Although no Almodovar film is completely bad.  In Matador, Pedro himself shows up in a cameo as a controlling and not very nice fashion shoot director.

Now these ranking could shift a bit, as I still have 4 more films to watch: Pepi (in its entirety...), What Have I Done to Deserve This?, High Heels and Live/Flesh.

The best:
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
All About My Mother
Pain and Glory
Volver
Law of Desire

The worst:
Matador
Pepi, Luci, Bom
Kiki
The Skin I Live In/Talk to Her (tie for creepy situations where people are powerless*)
Parallel Mothers

The rankings might shift a bit after I watch the last few films, but not likely in a major way.  

Almodovar must be the director I've seen the largest percentage of his films (and maybe the only one where I will see everything he directed**), though probably one day I will get there with Kurosawa and Ozu and perhaps Hitchcock and Aki Kaurismäki, given that I have so much of their work on DVD.  I think there are quite a few films by Lynch, Cronenberg and even Scorsese that I am just never likely to watch. 

Edit (07/09): I managed to borrow a copy of High Heels from Robarts.  What I hadn't remembered was I did this back in Dec. as well!  And quite a few scenes look very familiar (and in particular this character of a cop going so deep undercover he loses his own identity).  I think this must mean I watched the DVD back in Dec., but then forgot about it!  So weird.  I'll likely have a bit of time this weekend (assuming I don't add even more Fringe shows to my schedule), so I'll try to watch it again before returning it at Robarts.

* Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down! also belongs in this general category, though somehow the film's exuberance and the victim's ultimate reconciliation with her captor make it a bit more palatable.

** Almost immediately after I wrote that, I realized that I have seen all of Tati's films, as well as those of his sometime friend and disciple, Pierre Etaix.  But we are talking about 5 or 6 feature films and a handful of shorts and/or documentaries in both cases.  Maybe I should qualify this by saying I mean watching all major films by a director who has directed over 10 films.

More Fringe

I actually had a Fringe-free Sat.  I first had to run over to Walmart to have a prescription filled and to buy a new bike light (as mine had been stolen on Friday evening).  Then I briefly hit the library, and then I went swimming.  It was surprisingly easy to get my laps in without bumping up against slow swimmers in the medium lanes.  I had hoped to finish up by 12:15, but it was actually 12:30 by the time I finished.  So I biked over to Carlton Cinema and saw Whispers of the Heart.  This is one of the relatively few Studio Ghibli films directed by someone other than Miyazaki (though he did write the script and generate the storyboards!).  It is also one of the relatively few Ghibli movies without fairy tale or supernatural elements, aside from a bit of a dream sequence.  (I guess one could also saw the same about Grave of the Fireflies, which I only just learned is officially a Studio Ghibli movie as well, and also not directed by Miyazaki.)  Anyway, it is a good film, once you get past the kind of icky feeling of watching two 14 year olds pledge undying love to each other...

Then I had a chance to see the Joyce Wieland exhibit at the AGO.  I'm glad she's getting the exposure (she also had a small show, more like a room of her art, at the National Gallery), but in general she doesn't excite me all that much.

Joyce Wieland, Betsy Ross, Look What They've Done with the Flag That You Made with Such Care, 1966

After this, I ran over to the Rex and saw a group called Waleed Kush Afro-Jazz.  As I probably have mentioned before, I like the Rex a lot, but it mostly presents jazz played by older, white men.  This group was a bit younger, though, I guess this being Canada, still the majority of the musicians in the group were white...

Sunday, however, I saw two Fringe shows.  The first was A Canadian Explains Eurovision to Other Canadians.  My wife got a kick out of this.  She is a pretty big Eurovision fan, and she said the guy knew his stuff, and she even learned a thing or two.  I have never really gotten that into Eurovision, probably mostly because I don't like watching TV for long stretches, no matter how "worthy" the subject.  And quite frankly, I don't have a lot of time for Eurovision until they do the right thing and kick Israel out, at least until they stop their all-out attacks on Gaza.  The show's creator, Matti McLean, sort of dances around this uncomfortable topic but doesn't let it spoil his appreciation for the spectacle of it all.

The last thing I watched was a sketch show by the Rhinoceros Collective.  One of the more distinctive aspects of this show was that it was broken in three parts.  Every skit in the first part dealt with cave men and prehistoric times.  The second part was all about chess.  And the last third was about the Illuminati (who knew that college students were still reading about the Illuminati these days!).  I thought the middle section was best, though the Illuminati dance was pretty funny as well.

I'm glad the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse is being used again.  I think it had one Fringe show in 2022, but generally hasn't been used that much since COVID days.  Maybe this means it will be back in circulation for other UT productions, just as I am hoping Hart House Theatre will start putting on full seasons again.

That was pretty much the extent of my Fringing this weekend.  I have a couple shows lined up for Monday (In the Diving Bell and The Adding Machine) and then two shows up at Tarragon on Tuesday.

I might be able to make it out to one or two more shows, but I think I've kind of hit my limit this year.

 

Day 3 of the Fringe

To celebrate Day 3 of the Fringe, I saw 3 shows back to back to back.  That wasn't intentional on my part, but I really wanted to check out what was going on at Video Cabaret (and to see anything I wanted to see there at one time), and the timing worked out well.  

This is the only official Fringe venue east of the Don.  I was told Crow's just wanted too much money.  I'm trying to remember if Soulpepper was part of Fringe before.  I definitely remember Tarragon and TPM being much more central to Fringe in the past.  (And I'm quite sure the Fringe patio was much further west, first in Mirvish Village, and then after that was torn up, either at the skating rink area behind the library at Bathurst or near Trazac.  Now it is tucked away in the Distillery and frankly is absurdly tiny...)  Interestingly, TPM pulled out of Fringe, but then someone came along and put up a whole bunch of musicals there and linked them back to Fringe.

Some years there have been several site specific shows in the East End.  I didn't notice that there were that many this time around, but I didn't look that hard either.  (It looks like there is one show up on Danforth near Chester, which I might check out.)

The shows I was seeing were #1 Clown Comedy, Very Shady Arab Ladies, and Jimmy Hogg: The Potato King.  

I was able to bike over from work just after 6.  I had time to get over to stop in at Queen Books (sadly the book I was looking for had sold out), Craig's cookies and then got in line.

I happened to run into Nina Kaye, who was one of the writers of #1 Clown Comedy.  Our paths crossed a bit at Sing-for-Your-Supper and Toronto Cold Reads, though we weren't super close.  In terms of other celebrity sightings, I ended up sitting next to Peter Tabuns, who is MPP for the district.  (He actually came out to my Fringe show in 2018, as it was one of the very few shows in the East End that year.)  

After the #1 Clown Comedy, I had a chance to chat with Nina a bit more and one of her friends.  We talked a bit about the fact that Video Cabaret really isn't doing the History of the Long Boats any longer and may or may not return to that.  It's really a shame that they never got the funding to record the full series in a proper way, though I imagine they may have archival copies.  We stopped in briefly at a pub, but I had to get back right away.  I mentioned that I was thinking of doing something like Sing-for-Your-Supper East, and she thought that was a great idea (though it means I now need to follow through).  We agreed to get back in touch after Fringe was over.

The #1 Clown Comedy was very funny and got positive reviews.  It looks like there are 4 or so shows left, so go check it out.

I had mixed feelings about Very Shady Arab Ladies.  I was surprised Glenn Sumi liked it a fair bit.  I liked bits of it, but some parts dragged, particularly the running around in the underground tunnels.  And the jazz-playing cops were an interesting touch.  What this reminded me of the most was one of George F. Walker's stranger plays (Beautiful City).

I had basically an hour between this play and Jimmy Hogg, so I did go over to Eat BKK Thai around the corner.  I have not been disappointed at this location, though the one on Bloor near Bathurst once served me a terrible meal, and I haven't been back.

It's good that I managed to eat something, as long stretches of Jimmy Hogg's show were about food preparation, and how he would never again date a woman that turned up late, resulting in spoiled risotto.  This was quite polished and a very entertaining show.  It is basically sold out, though there is a good chance they will add a Sunday show as a Patron's Pick, so keep your eyes out.

However, the evening was definitely spoiled a bit when I picked up my bike and realized someone had nicked the front light.  Come on, Toronto.  Do better!!!

Belated Posts

There are so many missing posts it is hard to even know where to begin.  I might as well start with the more recent events and go backwards.  I actually stumbled across several folders of old photos, quite a few of which need to be backed up onto a second hard drive.  Now I don't have time at the moment to upload photos from the L.A. trip (or the other museum trips), but I will see if I have some time over the weekend.

One interesting fact is that I was riding home and realized that this small food court area on Parliament (near Queen) actually had a name, which is "Hangout Street"!

I suppose this means I really will need to eat there once.  I've tried a couple of times to get tamales at Tamalmex, but one time they didn't have any tamales without meat (shades of my recent bad experience at the Cuban sandwich window), one time the woman seemed incapable of taking my order when she was talking with someone else hanging around by the stall and then one time I didn't have any cash.  But probably one day the stars will align.  I'm not really sure if this is a "permanent" food court or if it is planned to be wiped away by condo development as soon as the market comes back.

The other photos in the LACMA folder are from the Griffin poetry prize reading a few weeks back.  I have written about this at some length but only in longhand and not on the blog.  In short, it was a fairly disappointing event.  Or rather the ending of the evening really colored the overall experience in a negative way.  The main draw was that Margaret Atwood was being given a lifetime achievement award, and probably half the books for sale were by her (more on that later).  I had brought along my copy of her selected poems with the cool UK cover.  

I did, however, spring for a couple of books by Diane Seuss, who was also reading.  She was basically the only poet there I was familiar with, aside from Atwood of course.

I realized something was a bit off when Seuss made a point of saying when she removed her mask to read that this was the first time anyone had seen her mouth since the pandemic!  She was very wary of being around strangers with her presumably compromised immune system.  I suppose this was a bit of a game-time decision, but in the end she didn't come out to do any signings.  Neither did the young poet who had won for best first book.  But I found it pretty inexcusable that Atwood didn't do any signings.  They could have put some rules in place, like she'll only sign two items or whatever, but it just felt wrong to me.  To top it off, it was complete chaos for 30 minutes after the event ended, and staff could definitely have come around saying that Atwood and Seuss weren't going to be signing, so that only the people wanting the remaining poets to sign their books would have stuck around and the rest of us could leave right away.  As I said, it really spoiled what was a generally entertaining evening.  (In some ways, I am still annoyed that Sharon Olds didn't make the cut a couple of years back.  I will definitely never commit to going to the Griffin awards until I know who is on the short list!)

Start of the Fringe

It looks like a moderately busy Fringe for me this year.  I started off seeing a musical called Iris (Says Goodbye) which seems inspired by Haley McGee's Age is a Feeling in that the possible lives that Iris could take over (after being reborn) are selected by the audience, so each performance is different.  Though in this case, each night you only see 8 out of 20 or so, which means it is extremely unlikely you would see them all, even if you went three times.  I lucked out and saw all (or maybe all but one) of the Age is a Feeling episodes.  It was a good idea and generally entertaining, though the band often overpowered the singers.  I don't feel obligated to rush back and see it a second time.

Friday, I am seeing three things at Video Cabaret (the first time they have been part of the Fringe), and if things go well, I should be able to sneak out and grab Thai food between the second and third plays of the evening. 

I actually don't have anything scheduled on Sat., and I might just take the time to recharge, or I might go to the Rex.  Hard to say at the moment.  I probably should swing by the AGO, as the Joyce Wieland exhibit has opened.

Sunday, I am going with my wife to a show about Eurovision (she's quite the fan) and then I need to bike over to UT to see a comedy sketch show.

It turns out that one of the Fringe sets would have interfered with yet another TO Summer Music concert, so I guess it is just as well that I waited until nearly the last minute (though I do have pretty sucky seats to see the New Orford String Quartet...).

Anyway, I have been up way too long today, since I did indeed wake up early and got that second coat of stain on the deck between 7 am and 8:30 am when I had to break and join a webinar.  (I suppose now I just need to dedicate a few hours each week to getting the back room straightened up to the point I won't be completely embarrassed if people tromp through it on the way to the bathroom, as I am tentatively planning on having people over for a BBQ on the 22nd, assuming it doesn't rain!  I am a bit frustrated that the city didn't take away this broken Adirondack chair, so I still need to deal with that, but otherwise the outside of the house is not too bad...)

As ever, global news just pisses me off, watching how the Orange One pulls off one heist after another (and the Supreme Court comes out with something else outrageous).  I really think any decent person needs to think seriously about leaving the U.S., though I realize that is easier said than done.  Given how thoroughly those scumbags are looting the Treasury, there won't be any Social Security funds left in 20 years, so I might as well renounce my citizenship.  I've looked into it but not that seriously, but I think it is time.  However, rather than dwell on this any longer, I think it is time to call it a night.

Frustrating Weekend

I suppose many, indeed most, weekends could be categorized as frustrating, given how many terrible things continue to go on in the world while truly terrible people remain in charge.  As one home-spun philosopher put it, people are no damn good.  

But in a nutshell, I managed to get my swimming in last Sat. (even though there was a very slow swimmer that got into the fast lane and then ran into me going the wrong way(!) and then there was a super aggressive swimmer that tried to swim up the middle when there was not enough room), but that was practically the highlight of the weekend, which should be taken as a warning sign that things continued to deteriorate.  I biked all the way over to High Park in order to meet up with some Hart House mentors.  I did see the Carlton streetcar sitting in the very countrified loop, which never fails to amuse me.  It is possible that I will take it all the way to the Shakespeare in High Park performance this summer, though unfortunately this loop is not well connected to the rest of the park, so I will have to think about that carefully.

I had assumed that this event had a bit more official backing, but in fact it was a totally casual thing organized by one mentor as a bit of a get-together.  Had I known this, I definitely would not have bothered, as there was a much more interesting event happening at 401 Richmond.  Anyway, I was exhausted by the time I got there and then was more than a little annoyed at how hard it was to find anyone.  Even though the directions said it was at the High Park Outdoor Pool, it wasn't there but across the road in a large picnic area.  I called and managed to find the organizer but a few others gave up and a few people cancelled.  So it was just the two of us, but I wasn't in the mood to hang out very long or do the poetry exercise that had been discussed.  To top it off, while I was cleaning up, it appears I managed to toss my bike gloves in the trash (on top of the pair I lost at The Fox, this has been a bad season for biking gloves).  

I turned around and biked back downtown.  (I will say the southern route, via the Queensway and then finally getting back to Queen via a bunch of detours was pretty sucky, compared to coming via Dundas or College to Howard Park Ave. and then finally over to High Park.)  I made decent time, but it was still 3 by the time I showed up and the event had ended.  Darn it.

Fortunately, the artist that I was most interested in meeting, Emily Zou, was still there.  I slowly cooled down from the ride, and we chatted for a while.  It appears that she was at the Outdoor Art Fest last year, though I have to admit I don't recall seeing her booth.  It looks like the Outdoor Art Fest is coming back in about a week and a half, so I'll have to leave a bit of room in my Fringe schedule for that.  (I have (finally) booked nearly all the Fringe shows I was interested in, though Cigarettes are Good for You has apparently sold out its whole run, and I might have to try to catch it as a Patron's Pick on the 13th...)  Anyway, Emily's artworks are currently made of recycled materials and reclaimed trash, including paintings that she felt were not up to snuff.

This piece was in the show at Gagne.

This piece was sort of held back in reserve.

Anyway, I did regret missing the artists' talk, but I did have a nice time meeting Emily.  I told her that she was on the same wavelength as Athena Papadopoulos's The New Alphabet from MOCA back in 2023, though she had not managed to catch that show.

Where things really got off track after that was I decided to try this hole in the wall sandwich shop on Spadina.  I was very clear that I wanted the cheese sandwich, as it was the only vegetarian option.  I got this sandwich that was sort of sealed up like a panini.  Within a bite, I realized something was dreadfully wrong.  The jerk had given me a cubano with ham.  So I spit that out, and then went over to the office to try to throw up as much as I could.  However, my stomach was already getting quite upset.  I have yet to do it, but I plan on giving that place a one-star review.  The rest of the day spiraled downhill from there.  I did swing by the Rex, and they weren't sure if there were any cancellations for the sold-out Ghost Note show, and I didn't feel like coming back.  Maybe it is just as well.

I decided to at least try to do a bit of the outdoor side of the jazz fest.  I wasn't that taken by the Anthony D'Alessandro Quartet but I did like this steel drum led trio.  (They started off with St. Thomas (one of Sonny Rollins's features) and ended with Caravan.)  

Then I went home to take a Tums and see how I felt the next morning.

Not surprisingly, I ended up making a very late start on Sunday.  I decided maybe I ought to sand the deck, but then I had to go buy safety goggles, as I just couldn't find the pair I used last time around.  I also bought one more can of stain in case I ran out halfway through.  One minor positive is that they finally reopened the cut-through from Home Depot (and the Planet Fitness) to Jones Ave.  This will slightly increase the likelihood that I go to the gym in the evenings after work, since I won't have to take the bridge twice.

Anyway, I did manage to get through the first pass at sanding.  (I had thought about going one last time to the jazz fest for a show at 4:30, but I wasn't feeling up to it, and I also didn't want to deal with any overspill of the Pride Parade onto Bloor.)  I went back to the mall around 7.  Almost everything was closed, but Home Depot was open, and I got finer grain sanding belts and some wood filler.  (It looks like there are two boards in the middle deck that really ought to be replaced, but I am going to try to wait for one more year...)  Then I went to the gym.  So it was a moderately productive day, but not really the end of the weekend that I had planned out...

Monday, I finally finished reading The Book of Lamentations.  It had its moments, but overall I didn't care for it all that much.  I did like the last few pages where one of the servants is retelling the story of the uprising but compressing it and distorting it in weird ways.  This also happens at the end of Melville's Billy Budd and is the entire point of Mr Burn's, A Post Electric Play.  (More and more, I kind of kick myself for skipping this when it was playing in the neighbourhood, and then I also missed on a chance to see it in Raleigh...)  I ended up biking to work just after noon!  I thought it was only going to be a light rain, but on the way home I got soaked.  Needless to say, I was in no mood to go swimming that evening, so I just read for a while.

Today, I did get to the gym early.  It was fairly busy and getting even busier when I left (it was closing at 1 today).  I'm currently partway through the sanding and should be able to finish sanding and staining the deck.  If I can accomplish that, then I won't fuss too much if I don't get much else done today.  So I'm off to try to wrap that up.  Anyhow, Happy Canada Day!

Edit (9 pm): Perhaps I should have gone a bit easier on the workout this morning.  I ended up sanding for 90+ minutes, and then it was 2 1/2 hours of staining the deck.  

A quarter of the way there (counting the railing)

 

About 2/3 done

Finished for now

My left arm is a bit sore, and who knows how it will feel tomorrow.  Now the forecast is changing so there is a threat of rain, which is super frustrating, but my current plan is to let this coat set, and then try to put on a second (and final) coat Thurs. morning.  (My neighbours are probably even more relieved that there is no more sanding in the near future!)  I'd say there is a reasonable chance I can get this done in 90 minutes on Thurs., as I won't be repainting the posts or side boards, only the top of the railing and the middle deck planks.  This should keep for another year or so, though I do think there are a few boards that will probably need to be replaced next year. 

I think that was more than enough activity for one day, though I did pump up my bike tires a bit, and I'll probably trim my hair.  I haven't decided if I am just going to read more Dombey and Son (still about 4 more hours to go) or watch Almodovar's Matador.  Whatever I do, I need to keep in mind the local fireworks show that will last for almost an hour!