If I had gotten around to it, I'm sure I would have written about how disappointing I was in myself, letting one thing or another keep me from swimming. It's certainly true that I don't push through to exercise as much as I used to, particularly when it is cold and/or I am wet. (And I got hit with snow out of nowhere on the bike ride home on Monday.) But things have generally taken a bit of a turn for the better at work, though I need to press one guy to see if he did the extra tasks I assigned him. And I was really disappointed to hear that a few senior staff had been let go (though nothing like last year) and that the woman in charge of our Social Equity team had been let go, esp. as I was trying to do more work on the technical side of supporting equity analyses. I think it is incredibly short-sighted and shows just how cowardly U.S. based companies are. Sigh.
But the weather may have finally gotten to the point where boots are no longer necessary, and we probably won't have any snow that sticks. Famous last words of course. I was able to bike on Thurs., though it rained a fair bit Friday morning, so I was back on the TTC. I'm making pretty decent progress on this mega-projects book for the review, though I've decided it just isn't a very good book, which is a shame of course. I'm still only a bit further than 1/4 of the way through Ada, but I'll try to read another big chunk this weekend.
I don't have too many library books out, though I do need to get to Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls, right after I am finished with Ada. In addition to the other books I have planned to read, I decided I should read Kathy Acker's Don Quixote (and probably before I get that much further with my play, which has Don Quixote and other fantastical dreamers as a running subplot). I've certainly read excerpts of her works and probably some short stories, but I don't think I've ever read an entire novel, though I may just be forgetting. She is certainly one of the most transgressive authors out there, along with the Marquis de Sade and Henry Miller! I think I would pair this with Coover's The Public Burning, and, while I hope my copy sitting in North Carolina, makes it here in time, I may just borrow a copy from Robarts. This is all probably happening late April/early May.
I have sat down and watched several more Buñuel films, so between the Revue and TIFF (and Ann Arbor ages and ages ago) and home viewing, I have gone through the following:
1929 Un Chien Andalou
1930 L'Âge d'Or
1953 Él
1961 Viridiana
1962 El ángel exterminador (The Exterminating Angel)
1964 Le journal d'une femme de chambre (Diary of a Chambermaid)
1965 Simón del Desierto (Simon of the Desert)
1967 Belle de jour
1972 Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)
1977 Cet obscur objet du désir (That Obscure Object of Desire)
In addition to being influenced by The Exterminating Angel, I think Gilliam was clearly cribbing from The Obscure Object of Desire with all the explosions when he started work on Brazil (and also the radical openness/uncertainty at the end of Belle de Jour).
I think this is quite a good overview of Buñuel's work (up from only seeing Un Chien Andalou prior to this year!), though it looks like I can (and probably will) borrow the following from the library (though I am no longer in such a rush):
1969 La voie lactée (The Milky Way)
1970 Tristana
1974 Le fantôme de la liberté (The Phantom of Liberty)
I won't write a lot about it, as I am already pretty late for the gym, but I am leaning towards ordering a Rita Letendre piece from a gallery in Montreal. It's on the small side but surprisingly affordable.
Anyway, today I am off to the gym, will need to help my daughter with some math homework, and then I should have just enough time to get to 401 Richmond (and possibly the AGO). Then I'll grab some Thai food at The Well, drop in at work to pick up some printing and then go over to a Soundstreams concert in the evening.
Tomorrow, I plan on swimming a bit longer (30+ laps) to make up for missing out last week, going to see a Mooredale concert at 3, and dropping off the Buñuel DVDs I have borrowed from Robarts. I will see if it is feasible to catch Project Hail Mary at Carlton, but it isn't urgent. But overall, it should be a slightly less frenetic weekend than usual, even though I am off to a late start, per usual...
Ciao!
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