Quick Ottawa Trip

As I mentioned a few days ago, once in a while, there is just too much going on.  I'm trying to throw in a few book readings here and there (in fact there is one next Monday), and I saw that Madeline Thien will be at Queen Books in Nov., but this is the same date as The Beaches concert.*  It's a bit of a toss-up, but I think The Beaches will be more interesting/appealing overall, though of course more expensive (even assuming I bought a hard cover and had Thien sign it).  But it is a close thing, and I wish somehow I could do both, for instance if the reading is shuffled to a different day.

One of the droller instances of this was that I had booked a ticket to see the TSO playing Korngold (on a Thurs. I believe) when I had really wanted to go to the North York venue because of the scheduled pre-show concert, but it was completely sold out.  Eventually, I checked again and seats had miraculously opened up, but I just bought a new ticket and didn't transfer the old one.  That was a mistake of course.  

Anyway, I was looking through the TSO booklet to see if there was another concert to go see instead, I saw that NAC Orchestra was coming to town in Feb., and they were playing Morlock's "My Name is Amanda Todd" (which I've seen one but would like to see again) and Beethoven's 3rd Symphony.  This sounded like a pretty good concert, and I was getting ready to call the TSO when I decided I really ought to check first if I already had something booked for that day.  It turns out that is when I am seeing The Cowboy Junkies, so that ruled the NAC Orchestra concert out.  I still haven't settled on what I will see instead, though possibly Beethoven's 5th, which weirdly enough is only playing up in North York!

Then I started looking around to see what were the other dates in the NAC Orchestra's national tour.  If for instance they were playing in Hamilton or Kingston, but it is surprisingly hard to track this info down.  Eventually I was redirected to their shows in Ottawa, and I saw that next week they have a couple of concerts where they are playing the Morlock piece, as well as Shostakovich's Violin Concerto #1 and Sibelius's Symphony #2.  I debated it for a while and decided that I could get a fair bit of work on the train, so I would run up to Ottawa to see the concert!  As a bonus, my son and his girlfriend decided they would go as well, so that sort of makes the trip worth it.

Coming back, I will be on the Red Arrow bus.  (If you get the cheapest ticket with no exchanges possible, it is only $25!)  I probably will get much less work in, though there is one work call I can take.

I'll probably stop by the National Gallery, though there are a couple of exhibits that don't open up until mid Dec., so I'll probably have to go again (in the winter!) to check those out before they close.  Presumably, this trip will be over some weekend...  I had started thinking about what I would read.  If I had the luxury of reading in both directions, I would probably take Skvorecky's The Bride of Texas (and then Fontane's After the Storm in the follow-up winter trip), but I'll pick something a bit shorter (and with bigger print, which rules out Canetti's Auto-da-Fé) for the bus ride back.  I'm sort of torn between Russo's Empire Falls (which has been waiting for a while) and McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (which I picked up only a few days ago).  I might read just a few pages of each and decide which grabs me more.

Anyway, it is completely silly to drop everything and run up for a concert, but I decided to do it anyway.  I will need to try to hit the Rex either on the Friday after I get back or more likely on Sat.  Then I realized that the following week is booked absolutely solid so that I can't see Pat LaBarbara, Kirk MacDonald and Neil Swainson doing some Coltrane tribute concert.  I think I'll have to switch my tickets for Waiting for Godot to the following week and see the Sat. set.  I'll probably do that, assuming Coal Mine doesn't hassle me too much over the ticket exchange.  For whatever reason, Sept. is insanely busy, but Oct. and Nov. are much more reasonable.

 

* I actually swung by Scotiabank Arena to see if I could stop in at the box office and avoid some fees (for that Beaches concert).  However, their ticket windows are only open on the days when there are events, which then means there are enormous lines of people trying to see the show.  Basically, it is a way of claiming to have an alternative (to TicketMaster) but then not actually following through.  Plus, most venues don't mess around with paper tickets anyway, so they still funnel you through TM even if you are standing right in front of them, and you still pay all the fees.  Last night happened to be a Lady Gaga concert, and the lines were so long (despite the fact that there has been almost no advertising of this concert) that I just gave up.

On the other hand, just before this I was able to deal with getting a refund on a Via ticket by going over to Union Station, and the woman said that this had to be handled in person, despite their website saying to call some customer service number!

Edit (9/12): Maybe it is just as well that I held off, deterred by the long lines.  I probed a bit more into The Beaches back catalog and listened to a couple of their live performances, and it is all a bit flat to me in the sense that most songs sound like the others; I think I probably would be better off at the Thien reading after all. 

I have booked the Ottawa getaway.  Naturally a bunch of work meetings popped up at the last minute, and I will see how many of them I can do on the train or hanging out at the Via station in Ottawa.  Otherwise, I will just have to miss them.

I did get my ticket switched for Coal Mine, so will go to the Rex instead on the Sat.  I'm pretty sure it's going to sell out.  I had hoped to get the cheaper seat behind a post (the view is actually fine surprisingly) but those seats were gone, so I reserved a seat off to the side where I normally sit.  It's just that it was a bit more than I had hoped to pay...  I'll see about going to Barry Elmes as well at the tail end of next week, but I don't plan on reserving, as I don't think these shows will completely sell out.  Hopefully that's the right decision...

Fall Reading

We are definitely in that transitional period where it is cooling down (and most of the time I throw a fleece on before biking around the city), though then it suddenly gets hot again.  Nonetheless, there are other markers of autumn.  School is back in.  Cherries are basically gone from the market, and if they do show up the price is quite high.  What does get me down a bit is that it is already starting to get darker sooner, and soon biking home will be completely in the dark (and more dangerous naturally).  On the flip side, it is also the time to start making soups and stews, and I do enjoy fall cuisine.  I just made a big pot of chili and am hoping it turned out ok.

Of course there already have been a slew of articles on what to read for the fall or TV shows and movies to watch.  I have to say that I saw a trailer for it, and Rental Family looks pretty dire (and the Guardian agrees), though there was a home-town reviewer at TIFF that said it was a festival highlight!  I am looking forward to Honey, Don't, though I don't know where or when I can actually see it.  And I will probably give Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest a shot when it opens in Canada.

But mostly I am thinking about fall reading already.  This cartoon is so perfect (original source here).

I finished The Scarlet Letter.  I still cannot actually remember having read this before!

In terms of stone-cold classics, I would like to get around to Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables, though I am not in a rush, and this can get pushed to 2026 or so.  I have an omnibus edition of Howard's End and A Room with a View, and I would like to get through both of those by 2026 or so.  Perhaps I should tackle Maurice soon after Howard's End (at least the play The Inheritance links the two), and Zadie Smith's About Beauty is also a bit of a riff on Howard's End, so maybe should be looped in at the same time.

I picked up a copy of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.  This might make for good October reading, in the lead up to Halloween... 

Finally, I already alluded to the fact that Dec. 16 is Jane Austen's 250th birthday, and I am going to try to have read Persuasion in late November.

I don't think it is likely to happen, but I might attempt to read Shteyngart's Vera, or Faith in December, though because this novel draws upon Nabokov's Ada, it is probably a step too far for the fall.

I have a number of shorter books that I will try to get to this fall, including Kundera's Ignorance, Gibbon's Ellen Foster, Kaysen's Asa, as I Knew Him, Jelloun's The Last Friend and Azuela's The Underdogs.

I'm not sure if I really have a long book I am going to tackle, though if I do take the train up to Ottawa, I had been considering Skvorecky's The Bride of Texas, though perhaps I should switch this for Fontane's Before the Storm.

I had been sure I owned the LOA edition of Carson McCuller's Collected Novels, but maybe I only have this electronically.  Anyway, I picked up a copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.  I was going to put it outside, but now I think I probably should try to read it first, and ideally alternate with some books by Flannery O'Connor (I've only finished Wise Blood) and potentially even Eudora Welty, though I suspect that won't happen.

Somewhere on my list, I am trying to wrap up Dawn Powell and William Maxwell, only to then turn to Mahfouz and Narayan (as another pairing I am working through though slowly) and then Sinclair Lewis and Maritta Wolff!  And Far Tortuga in there somewhere, as well as Canetti's Auto-da-Fé, and many others...  As always, I have plenty of books to keep me busy!

 

Out of Shape

The good news is that I do get a lot of exercise, specifically biking and swimming.  It's now relatively easy for me to do 6 laps without a long break, when it was only 3 when I got back into swimming, a year or so before the pandemic.  And I can pretty easily bike across the city now.

But it has been years and years since I have done regular jogging, and I am not sure I ever was much of a runner per se.  I usually end up with heel and/or knee problems when I try to jog.  Anyway, I decided to give it another go, as I am trying to mix up my exercise routine a bit more and get rid of the next 15-20 pounds I am trying to lose.

I had about an hour window to fit in some jogging tonight, but it wasn't pretty.  I basically could only manage a block or two, followed by a block of walking, then back to the jogging.  I made it up to Danforth, stopping in at the grocery store up there for some black beans, and then (intermittently) jogged back home.  It is downhill the whole way, so it was a bit easier.  I guess there is no point in getting too down on myself.  I will just see if jogging a bit more each week eventually gets a bit easier.  Either that, or my knee gets blown out again, and I just give up...

Mixed Up Weekend Events

I debated whether to write out the post and circle back with photos later, or just hold off on posting altogether (until I had downloaded the photos off my phone).  However, my tendency is just to delay, delay, delay, so I will post now and see if tonight I can slot the photos in.

I guess on the whole it was a decent weekend, but there were a few things that really threw me off my balance.  I had planned on leaving work at about 5:15 and catching the 5:34 Kitchener line train to Bloor West to get over to the Revue to see Out of Sight.  As happens pretty much without fail, someone got in touch with me at 5 sharp and wanted some rush job.  Since this is was to try to get additional work out of a client, and the client was on Pacific time and sort of expected to see things before their end of day, I came up with a quick response and fired it off, then left at 5:22.  I made it over to Union quickly.  In fact, maybe too quickly, as it looked like I had a couple of minutes to spare, so I grabbed something at Kibo, then ran up to the platform, only to realize it was an extremely short train and the cars were at the far end of the platform.  The doors closed while I was still running to reach the train.  I should have been able to make it had it been a full train.  So there was a lot of blame to spread around, but it didn't really matter.  (I think GO has also changed the schedule and the time for that used to be closer to 5:45, which just worked far better for me.)  In fact, I had initially planned to just bike, but the rain cleared up early on Thurs. and I biked all the way out to the Theatre Centre to see a musical called Connections, so I was a bit tired of really long distance trips across the city and then coming back so late...  The next local Kitchener train wasn't for half an hour, and I would likely be late for the movie.  So I ran over to the TTC and took that over.  There was a bad moment up at St. George when Line 2 was clearly struggling, recovering from some shutdown (that would have clearly put my plans in jeopardy) but I made it with about 10 minutes to spare.  I even bought tickets in advance to Midnight next week and Naked Lunch on the 25th.  There was one guy ahead of me who had been slouching down during the trailers and then straightened up as the movie started and I couldn't change my seat.  It was certainly annoying and this generally doesn't happen to me at the Revue, but I guess I will have to pay a bit more attention going forward.  (Also I will likely have to call Presto to reverse the charge, as they charge you full fare, something like $20, if you don't tap off.*)  So all in all, it was a very frustrating experience, and maybe I should just stick to biking over until it gets too cold. 

I enjoyed the movie, though I had a lot of trouble believe that Jennifer Lopez's character would really fall for the chronic bank robber George Clooney, no matter how charming he was.  I will say that I had even more trouble recognizing the Albert Brooks character without the wig and then with that ridiculous toupee (and the other ones stored in the safe!).  He didn't even look like the same person, which I guess was the point.  I do think Jackie Brown is the better Elmore Leonard movie, and I should try to catch that the next time it makes the rounds at the Revue or the Paradise.  I'm not sure it's a better movie, but I remember liking Get Shorty better as well.  I grabbed a slice of pizza after the movie, then catch the Carlton streetcar home.  At least the ride back was a lot better, and I managed to get a fair bit of The Scarlet Letter read.  I probably have one last push to get through this, then I will return to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and then Kundera's Ignorance for the work book club.  Ignorance is fairly short, so that's good. 

In contrast, Sat. started off pretty well, but then kind of went downhill from there, though it ended reasonably well.  The weather was ok, so it wasn't a problem biking around.  I got going at about 10, and hit the Jones library to pick up that Kundera book, then swung by the Riverdale library to pick up some DVDs on hold, including Ozu's The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice.  Then I went by the Corktown Art and Craft Fair, which is in a park just west of Riverdale Farm, which I haven't been back to in years.  I didn't have a lot of time, but I strolled through the park and saw a few interesting artists.  I'll try to link to their websites later on.  It was tempting to run into the Farm to grab some baked goods, but I held off.  

Riverdale Farm

It was about 11:45, and I then biked over to the Regent Park pool.  It was cutting it tight, but I figured I still could get in my laps, then head over to Carlton Cinema to see The Breakfast Club.  I got there, and there was a sign saying the pool was closed!  A couple of us went inside, and they said not enough lifeguards had turned up and that they wouldn't be able to open.  How unbelievably frustrating.  Even though they were trying to call in some extra staff, it wasn't going to do me any good, as I needed to be through with my swimming by 12:30 or so.  I asked if they would be open tomorrow, and they didn't know.  For whatever reason, Matty Eckler's pool was also closed, and Jimmie Simpson's lane swimming didn't start until 1, which was also not helpful for me.  I was pretty steamed at this point, but I decided to head over to 401 Richmond, and then circle back to Carlton Cinema.  Oh, I also briefly hit the BMV just north of the Eaton Centre.  They didn't have the Ozu I was looking for.  I picked up a few $1 books to put out front and decided to get Planet Earth Series 1 on blu-ray.  Assuming Disc 1 of my DVD set shows up some day (it is still missing), I'll try to sell off the DVD set, though I would guess there would be few takers at this point...  On the other hand, people are finally realizing what a rip-off it is to be completely reliant on the streaming sites (that yank content without warning) and physical media is starting to make a comeback...

I also ran by Nathan Philips Square.  There was some Trinbago celebration.  Nothing completely grabbed me and I didn't have any cash with me either, so I didn't buy any lunch.  I then ran over to 401 Richmond, but all the galleries that I had planned to hit were changing their exhibits open, so there was nothing to see!  So frustrating.  I just biked back over to the Carlton Cinema.  At least I enjoyed The Breakfast Club, which I haven't seen in some time.  (It actually wasn't that long ago that we saw Simple Minds in concert with an extra long version of "Don't You Forget About Me.")

At this point, the day was all messed up.  I came home and hit the gym.  However, I was also going to call a friend in Vancouver, and this was in the same time window.  So I chatted with him (and the reception kept dropping while I was in the mall!), and then my workout was really squeezed down to just 25 minutes!  And I still needed to buy groceries and then head back out to King to meet up with someone before the Haim concert.  So this all was a bit stressful (esp. trying to maneuver around all the TIFF traffic restrictions), but I made it and was only about 5 minutes late, and they hadn't been waiting too long. 

We grabbed dinner and drinks, then split up to head over to the Haim concert.  I had to drop my bike off near work, since I wasn't going to risk it getting stolen closer to Union Station.  When I got in, there was a pleasant surprise.  I guess the ticket sales hadn't been quite what they had hoped for and there were a bunch of empty seats in the lower sections, so they moved a lot of people from the upper sections to the lower section, and my seat was only 9 rows back from the front.  (I think I'll see if the same thing happens for The Beaches in Nov...)  I actually made it to my seat just as the opening act flowerovlove started.  She was ok, though not really my type of music.  I guess I wasn't surprised but was a little bummed that the audience decided to stand for nearly all of the Haim concert.  The other thing that was different was that the setlist for this tour is very different from what they had been doing just a month earlier at Glastonbury and elsewhere.  They played 11 (of 15) tracks off the new I Quit album. 

Apparently, they had an even longer concert in Philadelphia where they played 13 of the tracks.  Unfortunately, for that audience, there was lightning in the area and the encore was cut short.  For better or worse, Haim is putting two of their best songs (or at least best-known songs) in the encore, so that was a long wait for me!  (There was a dad behind me with two daughters who was grumbling a bit about wanting to leave early, though I think he mostly just wanted to hear his own voice, and ultimately he had an ok time at the concert.**)  Nonetheless, it was a long time before they got to "Summer Girl," and then it wasn't until the encore that they brought out "Now I'm In It" and "Down to Be Wrong."  It was a good show, but I would have been just as happy with a slightly shorter concert.

I ended up sleeping in a bit on Sunday.  I do wonder if I have just run myself a bit into the ground over the past couple of months.  It also might be related to the changing weather and starting to move into hibernation mode.  Anyway, I got over to the Regent Park pool just before noon, and this time it was open, fortunately.  It was pretty crowded, and it was hard to get in my laps, though I did in the end, switching between the medium and fast lanes.  They finally have the hot tub area open most days, though the schedule is still a bit unpredictable and the water isn't really all that hot, at the moment at least.  It was a lot hotter in North York, not that I would travel up there just for that.  I then spent about 40 minutes back at the Cabbagetown Art and Crafts fair.  I ended up getting a samosa and mango lemonade.  This was good, though the samosa didn't have enough structural integrity and sort of fell apart in my hands.  There was also a wasp that just wouldn't leave me alone!  

I ran around the tents one more time, and I ended up giving in and buying a watercolor piece from this artist, Dinesh.  He has a whole series of urban watercolor painting, many of which were painted en plain air, i.e. out somewhere in the city and not from photos later on in the studio.  

Some of his very best he turns into prints and posters, but the smaller ones are true one-offs.  I liked many of them, particularly the ones featuring streetcars, and finally bought one.  I have no idea where I will even hang it, but I guess I'll figure out something later on.

I made it home from Cabbagetown at 2.  I had planned on eating soup and heading over to the Fox, but I just didn't have time.  So I emptied out my bag and set out again.  I made decent time and stopped in at a different coffee shop near the Fox.  I had wondered if they had soup, but they only had baked goods of various sorts.  I bought a date square, which was really good, and some apple juice.  Then I went in to pick out my seat for Playtime.  I had a good seat, when some couple came in and the tall guy sat in front of me, so I moved over.  As things got closer to the start time, someone with a huge afro then sat in front of me, so I moved quite further back, only to have someone else sit in front of me.  In the end I moved 4 times, and even then I was settled and two minutes into the movie, someone sat in front of me.  (Maybe it wouldn't really have mattered, but not one of these people even looked behind them to see if they were sitting right in front of someone, whereas I always at least see if I am about to sit in front of a shorter person.)  I was about to freak out, but this late-comer sat with her head over to the side, probably trying to see around someone in front of her, and I was able to see the full screen.  Nonetheless, this really is the last straw.  I don't think I will go back to the Fox again; I don't even want to look at their website in case there is something that tempts me to break my vow.  As far as the movie itself, it is just so stuffed with visual gags and sly commentary on "modern life."  I do find that I find the nightclub scene starts to drag until the chaos after part of the ceiling falls down, but it still is one of truly unique movies of all time, and one that really does need to be seen on the big screen for full effect.  I was a bit disappointed that Book City on Queen West closed at 5 sharp on Sunday, so I didn't have a chance to stop in there.  Once home, I ate dinner and took a fairly long nap, as it had been a packed weekend (and one that used up a lot more mental energy than it should have!).

Fortunately, this upcoming week isn't too busy, just seeing The Welkin on Tues. and then a movie (Midnight) at the Revue on Thurs.  But the following week is very busy with two concerts (James and Pulp) and a movie at the Paradise (Kajillionaire).  Oh, and a reading at TPL, and I probably should try to catch Barry Elmes, Mike Murley and Lorne Lofsky at the Rex later in the week!  So I will need to rest up the weekend before... 

Just a final note that mostly I have been able to fit everything in, though I see there is a movie up at Paradise that conflicts with a free show Tafelmusik is putting on (and I really wish Pearls of the Deep was flipped with the next one in the series, which doesn't interest me at all - sigh).  Also, I have been trying to catch Allison Au at a show (having messed up and actually missed a concert of hers where I had a ticket!), and she is playing in a group at Hugh's Room in late Sept.  However, this event conflicts with a major Tafelmusik concert, and the other dates are already full (so I can't switch the Tafelmusik ticket).  It turns out that, after this show, she has a few dates at Hirut, which is apparently an Ethiopean cafe and music venue on Danforth and Woodbine, so not all that far away.  I should be able to make it to one of those shows.  As I was looking at the calendar, it seems that their shows are not that different from the Jazz Bistro, though the cover is lower.  I had almost convinced myself to go see Mike Murley and Neil Swainson this Sunday, but I do have conflicting show at the RCM, and I don't think I should try to skip that at the last minute, esp. as I did already buy that ticket.  But I will now have to keep Hirut on my radar and check it out soon.

 

* Apparently I was charged $3.70, which is certainly annoying but not worth calling to try to reverse the charge, though I would have if it had been $20. 

** I do wish I had taken my daughter to a few of these sorts of concerts.  I did take my son to jazz clubs in Chicago and once in a while still do in Toronto.  On very rare cases, I take him to classical concerts, though the Sing-Along-Messiah was a total bust!  But for whatever reason, I don't think I ever took him to a pop or rock concert.  I ended up taking them to a few Pixar movies (the last one I think was The Incredibles 2) but no Studio Ghibli films (I did try to bring my son to The Boy and the Heron, but we just couldn't make that work).

Minor Updates on Japanese Directors

This is largely a bit of house-keeping on this post.  

I see that relatively recently Criterion added two more Mizoguchi films to their collection: A Story from Chikamatsu and The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum.  I was definitely debating ordering these, but then I dug around and saw that it does appear these came out years and years ago on Artificial Eye.  I basically own everything Artificial Eye put out from Mizoguchi including a box set of 4 films.  What is interesting is that 3 of the 4 films from Criterion's Mizoguchi's Fallen Women box set are covered by Artificial Eye, but not Women of the Night.  As tempting as it is, there is just too much overlap (to order that set as well).  I must have borrowed Women of the Night from the library, and indeed it is still available, so I probably should just borrow it again before I begin any march through Mizoguchi.  I may see if I can borrow the recent Criterion titles just to see if the extras are interesting.

It does not appear that Naruse is any better served by Criterion or even Artificial Eye/Eureka/BFI than he was 10 years ago.  Criterion still only has the Silent Naruse box, which I did watch, and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, which I have not.

However, there does seem to be some slight improvement for Ozu.  On Criterion, in 2016 they released The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice and paired it with What Did the Lady Forget?  This is convenient, as BFI pairs it with Early Summer, which I already have from Criterion.  A few years back, I would have leapt at the chance to get this release.  Now I would like it, but I will poke around and see if it happens to be at BMV or if I can find a used copy elsewhere.  In the meantime, it is available at the library.  In terms of what BFI have been up to, they have a blu-ray set that combines Record of a Tenement Gentlemen, A Hen in the Wind and Dragnet Girl.  Unfortunately, I already have Dragnet Girl on the BFI Gangster set.  Still, I decided to go ahead and buy this.  (What would have made this an almost perfect set is if they included The Munekata Sisters in the place of Dragnet Girl.  As far as I can tell, The Munekata Sisters doesn't exist on any physical media and you have to watch it online through the Criterion Channel or Kanopy, which is a total drag.)  I was sorely temped by another blu-ray with significant upgrades to I Was Born But and There was a Father.  However, I have the Criterion box set, and I have never gotten around to watching this, so paying for an upgrade, however justified, is just not on the cards right now.

I remember back in the day, I ended up getting 3 Imamura sets from Eureka.  I pondered but ultimately passed on Profound Desires of the Gods and The Ballad of Narayama.  Of course, which are the ones that are now OOP and very pricey...  Nonetheless, I suspect these are movies I would watch once and never again.

I don't remember borrowing this - Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties - from the library back in the day, though I likely did.  It looks like Robarts has a copy.

In terms of somewhat obscure movies that I did order back in the day (back when the exchange rate wasn't so terrible and shipping wasn't extortionate...), I have Ichikawa's The Makioka Sisters and Kawashima's Bakumatsu Taiyô-Den and need to get around to watching both.  (It sounds like the second one should be paired with Mizoguchi's Street of Shame.)  Bakumatsu Taiyô-Den is now completely unavailable, so I guess in this case, I picked a good one to pick up.

I'm going to end with a Chinese director.  I finally got around to seeing Edward Yang's Yi Yi in the theatre.  It was good though a bit exhausting by the end.  It looks like there is a 2 disc set of his out from Criterion with the films A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong.  This certainly looks pretty interesting, though I am not sure I would watch the films more than once. 

It doesn't appear that either TPL or Robarts has this set.  I might be able to at least suggest that Robarts pick up a copy.  What makes it worse is that this is only coming out on blu-ray!  Anyway, I don't often go into the video area of BMV, but I will keep an eye out for this and a couple of other things, like Ozu's Green Tea Over Rice and maybe Howl's Moving Castle, when I am there again.

 

What's On the New Season (2025-26)

As hinted at a few times, this is my mega post on what I find interesting and worth checking out this fall and beyond.  I've booked almost all of these, though in a few cases I have open-ended subscriptions and still need to book specific dates (and can't afford to slip up here).  I'll just add an asterisk for events that haven't been booked at all to remind me to get around to this sooner rather than later.

In terms of art exhibits, most of the interesting shows have already opened at the AGO, such as Light Years (open through Nov. 2), Joyce Wieland (open through Jan 4) and then Moments in Modernism on floor 4 stays open through late April, 2026.  After many, many years in storage, they have put the Rothko back on display.

Mark Rothko, No.1, White and Red, 1962

 
This is sort of a teaser for whenever the new wing/tower, which will feature modernist art as well as First Nations and Inuit art, opens.  (At least that is my understanding of what will go in there.)  Presumably the Rothko (and maybe Oldenburg's Floor Burger) will then have a permanent home.

Claes Oldenburg, Floor Burger, 1962

Interestingly, Floor Burger was also a controversial addition to the AGO's collection (just as the Rothko was) according to this article (and they should have acquired the art students' ketchup bottle...).  On my last visit, I noticed they have removed the post-Impressionist works from the 1st floor and moved just a handful including a Picasso and a Chagall up onto the 4th floor as precursors to Modernism.  I'm not sure what is going there next on the 1st floor, though potentially they might move a mix of post-Impressionist, pre-Modernist and Modernist works down there as they start construction on the new wing/tower.  It will be interesting to see.  I was a little sad that on the 2nd floor, they have mixed things up again and one of my favourites, Fabo's The Craft of the Contaminated has gone back into storage.  C'est la vie.  Hopefully something like this and some of the large-scale Denyse Thomasos paintings they own will find a home in the new wing/tower.

In terms of other exhibits of note, I am really looking forward to the Jeff Wall extravaganza at MOCA this fall/winter where all three floors will be given over to his work.  I've seen an earlier retrospective of his work in Chicago (and indeed in London) and will make sure to go a few times after it opens in Oct.  I'll have to circle back if it turns out Jeff Wall will be in town for a workshop or something or even if he comes around to sign copies of the new catalogue.  I probably don't need another book of his work, but I'll just have to see what was added since the last book (from 2007 or so), the price and indeed if there are signed copies available.

That excursion into art lasted a bit longer than I expected, but I will press on, mostly focusing on theatre but interspersing a handful of interesting musical events.  I'll just do this chronologically rather than group by theatre company.  However, here are the key links if you are inspired to check out one of the plays or concerts I mention (and want to get tickets).

Concerts:
TSO
RCM
Tafelmusik
Esprit Orchestra
Sound Streams

Theatre:
Soulpepper
Crow's Theatre
Tarragon
Coal Mine Theatre
Canadian Stage
Buddies in Bad Times
Theatre Centre
Factory Theatre
Theatre Passe Muraille (TPM)

There are definitely a lot of smaller companies, like Obsidian, Icarus and Howland, though they are mostly partnering with Soulpepper and Crow's.  Once in a while something slips through the net, like the Life Sucks from last year, which I'm still bummed/burned that I missed.  Two quite unconventional companies are Outside the March (OTM) and Talk is Free Theatre or TIFT (which splits its time between Barrie and Toronto!).  I've seen a lot of Outside the March's site specific pieces, though I skipped OTM's last one, Rainbow on Mars; according to most critics, this was a wise decision.  Outside the March hasn't announced anything for 2026 so far.  TIFT has hints on what is coming up but details for the Toronto shows are not all in place yet, so I may need to add that in later.

I think I mentioned elsewhere, Canadian Stage is so hit-or-miss for me.  Most of the plays (except Soulpepper's Tartuffe!) that I've really hated have been put on by Canadian Stage (and you would have to pay me at least $500 to go see Slave Play), but I've seen some very good productions as well.  I'm also going to skip the new adaption of Ibsen's A Doll's House. 

I had planned to not subscribe to Tarragon this year and just do rush tickets here and there, but I realized there were 4 shows I would likely see, including The Caged Bird Sings, which I had tried to see previously at Aga Khan, so I bit the bullet and subscribed and will bring a friend along to see one of the shows.

I was very much on the fence with Coal Mine but ultimately I subscribed again.  I'm not even sure if this is the third or fourth time I've seen Waiting for Godot, not counting the time in Vancouver I got lost on the way to the Cultch and missed a show (obviously) or the staged reading we did instead of a final exam in our Honors English class in high school.  But it's probably worth seeing one more time to bookend the season with Happy Days at the very end.  Not sure about Eureka Day, which is about a school board torn between public health issues and anti-vacc'rs.  I guess what finally swung it was the chance to see Dance Nation, which will probably remind me strongly of my time on the East Coast volunteering and chaperoning a high school color guard.

And I just realized that musicals are so far off my radar, I didn't even list Mirvish higher up.  The only thing I am considering seeing is Some Like It Hot in early 2026, and I am going to hold off until their Boxing Day sale to get tickets for that.

Whoops.  I also forgot about Alumnae Theatre. I usually find something of interest, but never want to subscribe to the whole season, and this year is no exception.  Public Enemy looks pretty good.  New by Pamela Mala Sinha ticks a lot of boxes: the Indian diaspora, newcomer to Canada, arranged marriage, etc., but I probably will not go unless there are really good reviews.  And while I like Annie Baker's work quite a bit, I find Circle Mirror Transformation to be one of those plays that are far more interesting to actors than to the general audience...

It doesn't even look possible to subscribe to Buddies this season, and there are only a couple of things I may see.  Factory Theatre also looks pretty thin this year, and I may only see Public Consumption, which was also playing at Summerworks this summer, but I decided to hold off and see a slightly more polished version in the late fall.  And nothing at TPM really grabs me, though I will check again later on and see if the spirit so moves me.  It doesn't look like Video Cabaret has announced anything at all, but they will likely add some indy shows later on.

I don't make it to that many shows from Le Théâtre français de Toronto, as I am not always in the mood for supertitles or trying out their translating goggles.  I might go see Camus's Le malentendu and maybe Bonnes bonnes, which is riffing on Genet's The Maids, but also comments on Asians living in Canada.

Finally, it is always hard to tell what is going on at the Theatre Centre as stuff is usually announced pretty late, though I do expect in Jan. or Feb., they will host Shakespeare Bash'd's main production -- and hopefully it won't be cancelled due to a snow storm this year!

So these are the shows I expect to see, with more to be added in 2026, as more things are announced.  (I will use a different post to talk about the upcoming Stratford and Shaw seasons.)  I think I am most excited about Happy Days and Summer and Smoke, as I've never seen them.  

Sept.

Harold Pinter's Old Times - Soulpepper (ends this weekend!)
Lucy Kirkwood's The Welkin - Howland Company/Soulpepper/Crow's
King Gilgamesh - Soulpepper (I saw this before and enjoyed it a lot but probably won't go a second time)
Dave Malloy's Octet - Crow's
Olivier Choinière's Public Enemy - Alumnae
Beckett's Waiting for Godot - Coal Mine

Oct.

Goblins - Oedipus Rex (Out in Stratford)
Bremen Town - Tarragon
Souvankham Thammavongsa Discusses Pick a Colour @ TPL
* David Harrower's Blackbird - TIFT
 
Nov.

Jacobs-Jenkins's The Comeuppance - Soulpepper 
Kanika Ambrose's The Christmas Market - Crow's
LePage's Far Side of the Moon - Canadian Stage (saw this years ago in Vancouver with LePage in the role (!), but he won't be performing this time around)
Abe Koogler's Fulfillment Centre - Coal Mine
* Little Library of the Damned - Red Sandcastle
* Camus's Le malentendu - Théâtre français
* Dennis Kelly's DNA - Icarus/Theatre Centre

Dec
 
Lowest of the Low @ Lee's Palace
* Public Consumption - Factory Theatre
Bad Hats' Narnia (a musical) - Soulpepper/Crow's
Gary Shteyngart Reading from Vera, or Faith @ TPL
Michael Healey's  Rogers v. Rogers - Crow's

Jan 2026

Nasson's Mischief - Tarragon
* Sondheim's Company - TIFT/Theatre Centre (don't usually go to musicals but will likely see this)
Bach Brandenberg Concertos - Tafelmusik
Vivaldi's Four Seasons - TSO

Feb 2026

Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke - Crow's/Soulpepper
Cowboy Junkies @ Koerner Hall
Natasha Mumba's Copperbelt Soulpepper
Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day - Coal Mine
Erin Shields' You Always - Canadian Stage (saw an early run-through of this already)

March 2026

Bach Afternoon Concert - RCM @ Koerner Hall (with Brandenberg Concertos 2 & 5†)
Joshua Bell plays Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 (and Beethoven's 7th) - TSO
Ronnie Burkett's Little Willy (puppetry) - Canadian Stage
* Some Like It Hot - Mirvish
* One Block Shop - TIFT
* Jill Connell's The Herald - Buddies
 
April 2026

Orchestra Baobab @ Koerner Hall
Erin Shields's Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary - Crow's
Lynn Nottage's Clyde's - Canadian Stage
* Bilal Baig's The Beggin Brown Bitch Plays - Buddies
* Bonnes bonnes - Théâtre français
Shostakovich's Symphony 9 - TSO

May 2026

Cicadas by Chris Thornborrow and David Yee - Tarragon
Clare Barron's Dance Nation - Coal Mine
Hilary Hahn plays Ravel and Fauré - RCM @ Koerner Hall
* Susanna Fournier's Take Rimbaud - Buddies/Howland Company
* Zombocalpyse - Red Sandcastle (The Breakfast Club mashed up with zombies)

June 2026

Eboni Booth's Primary Trust - Crow's
The Caged Bird Sings (a radical revision of Rumi's Masnavi) - Tarragon.  (I was supposed to see this at Aga Khan in their indoor (uncovered) pavilion, but it got rained out, and I couldn't get back for another performance.  I hope they do this in more or less the same theatre-in-the-round style.)

July 2026

Erin Shields's Medusa - Soulpepper  

August 2026(!)

Beckett's Happy Days - Soulpepper

† After Tafelmusik and this concert, I will only be missing out on Brandenburg 6 for this season.  Not bad...

Return to Reviewing?

I'm kind of sorry I stopped reviewing books.  If I note down my thoughts, even in a vestigial fashion, I'm much more likely to remember I actually read the book.  However, I am just not sure how I would find the time.  I actually have no idea if the folks behind the Canadian Review Challenge are still going strong, though I suppose if I really cared, I could find out.  This became too much of a burden.  But maybe somewhere between the one-line reviews that I've been doing lately and then the long-form reviews I used to do, I could write out a couple of paragraphs, maybe of my top 10 or so books of the year.  We'll see.  

I think I am somewhat likely to write down some thoughts on Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.  I'll hold off for the moment, as I am only a quarter of the way into it, but I will say that I like the fact that it is about intelligent and somewhat driven people (characters that I could recognize as peers at any rate, and who grew up roughly in my era) who still make mistakes and hurt each other, though generally not intentionally.  There aren't a lot of books like that, though, thinking back, Zadie Smith's White Teeth is in the same vein.  I do wonder if maybe Zevin should have tried to make an on-line version of the video game that her characters develop, Ichigo, but likely it could never match up to the mental version that the readers have of the game.  The internet being what it is, there is a whole thread of people pissing all over the book, so I think I'll avoid that.  There is also someone who has compiled a list of games that are somewhat similar to the games described in the novel.

Now apparently for at least a few months or even years, there was a working version of PsychicCow, the game that features heavily in Lord Vishnu's Love Handles where you guess what color the cow's udders are.  Supposedly, this game was used to identify and then recruit psychics into some secret spy agency.  Given that the game concept is pretty simple (just some random number generator would drive such a game), I can see how setting up a website that actually served as an ad for the book might have been worth it, though this wasn't maintained in perpetuity, which is certainly another notable feature of the internet.

I brought down another short book and added to the piles in the study.  This is Kaye Gibbons's Ellen Foster, which is apparently about a foster mother.  I definitely wish I had a copy with the original Vintage cover.

There's a decent chance I would have held onto it for the cover alone.  But my copy has a much less interesting cover, and I will have to really love the book to hang onto it, given the whole point these days is to read books that I can part with... 

I was surprised at how quickly Kaysen's Asa as I Knew Him turned up (from the UK no less), and it fortunately does have the correct cover.  Both the Gibbons and Kaysen are very short, so I will promote them fairly high in the current reading list.

End of Summer

Yesterday definitely felt like the last official day of summer, though I suppose technically we have almost 3 more weeks to go, but school has just restarted.  When kids are back in school, it does feel that fall is here.  I'm not sure I watched it end to end, but there was a double episode of Phineas and Ferb called Summer Belongs to You! where the gang raced around the world trying to make the last day of summer last extra long.  I actually had been somewhat refreshed and recharged at the end of the day, but then I ran out to see Mike Murley at the Rex and now I'm dog-tired again.  Sigh.

Anyway, I did get to the gym by 10:15 yesterday, and I put in a full workout, then biked over to Queen West (or Queen West West as I sometimes name it).  Almost all the restaurants and cafes and ice cream shops were open, and it was so hard to show even a bit of restraint.  In the end, I did get a croissant with apricot filling.  Summer Wars (at the Fox) was pretty interesting.  It was much more about this odd family and only somewhat incidentally about trying to prevent an AI agent from taking over the internet.  It was definitely longer than I was expecting.

I decided since I was already there, I would hit the beach.  I had to avoid some busker fair (no idea what that was about but they wanted $10 to get in!).  I finally got there and parked my bike just off the bike path near the beach volleyball courts.  The courts were full of people playing volleyball, trying to squeeze in that last bit of summer.

Then I headed over to beach proper.  In this photo, I managed to snap an actual bird checking out two bird kites.  (They are quite small, but there are actually a couple of sailboats in the background.)

There were not a lot of people in the water, but a few, including some people playing water polo or something similar.  I don't think I've ever swam in the lake, though I probably have gotten my feet wet.  (I snapped another bird in flight...)

This woman has the right idea, reading on the beach.

I didn't have a beach chair and there weren't many public ones in that spot.  (There are more further east.)  After a bit more trudging around, I retreated to the boardwalk and read a bit more of Denis Johnson's Angels.  (It is a compelling read but very, very bleak.)  There were some kids playing Frizbee-tag, and I watched them for a while, then headed for home.

I had been hoping to find a Thai or Chinese restaurant on that part of Queen, but I settled for Freshii.  I rested a little bit, but before too much time had passed, I headed out to the Rex.  I had been planning on taking the TTC, but decided it really was just too unreliable on its holiday schedule and biked over instead.  I was a bit surprised to see Neil Swainson and Alison Au in the audience.  I had half expected Mike to call them up to sit in, but that didn't happen. Too bad.  Anyway, it was a pretty good day, though ultimately not as relaxing as it probably should have been.