I suppose many, indeed most, weekends could be categorized as frustrating, given how many terrible things continue to go on in the world with 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 high light 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 know 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 Tums and see how I felt in the 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. 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. Happy Canada Day!
