Minor post-move updates

Well, I have sent the hard drive off to a data recovery site.  They haven't provided a quote yet.  It will be high, but perhaps I shall pay it.  I may be able to get work to cover a portion of the cost, since roughly 25% of the files are related to work, though they are all concentrated on a single client/project.  And this is probably 50% of what I would ask to recover.  I can safely have them skip some mp3s and such that are backed up elsewhere.

I'm always running a day or too late at work, but that's pretty normal for a consultant.  It looks like Sept./Oct. might be pretty busy for us, which is generally good.  I tend to respond better when the work is a bit more continuous and at least a bit interesting.  (And of course I mostly respond to deadlines, and I have to get at least some work work done today to hit a deadline next week.)

I've sort of hit a wall with unpacking various boxes, but I think once I accept that some of the art books have to get boxed up, that will help.  I may scan a few images from a few to make the transition a bit better. I do want to get a bit more done today, since I will be away almost all day Sunday at Stratford watching King Lear. (It's been getting really solid reviews whereas the two versions of Midsummer's Night's Dream do not sound like my cup of tea at all.)  I should be able to get a bit more of the art work hung.  (It was kind of a sad day when they all came down in Vancouver.)  And make more progress tying up boxes and getting them out of the way.

We've basically planned out a trip to New York in March to see relatives (but most likely my wife's best friend will have moved back to Chicago by then).  Ideally, I will also be able to get a ticket to The Iceman Cometh at BAM, though I suppose I had better be willing to pay through the nose for it.  I'll find out if we decide to take the whole week of Spring Break off if my wife wants to try to loop through Boston (another place Porter flies, though it may not be cheapest overall to go on Porter) on the way back or if that is just asking for trouble.

I'm having a little trouble figuring out a short trip to Detroit, but what I am leaning towards is something in April or May (or even June), where we take the train to Windsor and then the bus over to Detroit and perhaps just have my wife's relatives meet us downtown after we visit the DIA.  On the other hand, if I push it that far back and we pick a non-holiday weekend, then maybe I would drive it after all.  I won't ever try to drive across the border on a holiday weekend again.  (While I would like to bundle the trip with a side trip to Cleveland (very cheap from Detroit on Greyhound) this makes for so many logistical challenges that it could only happen if I took a bunch of days off (and spring break is already largely spoken for) and/or went over a long holiday.)

We've have already booked our trip to Chicago in Oct., which is sort of my wife's birthday present, since she didn't get to Chicago this summer.  (Next summer we will probably be there for a couple of weeks in August, assuming I can get permission to work remotely from the Chicago office.)  In another week or so, I'll book the tickets to the two plays I want to see.  Curiously, I am not that interested in anything on at Goodman or the Steppenwolf main stage.

There is a small irony in that I had kind of counted on seeing the TSO perform Dvorak's 9th Symphony, since I had skipped out of an amateur performance in Vancouver as recounted here.  Well, the dates that the TSO perform Dvorak 9 coincide exactly with the Chicago trip.  Oh well.  Perhaps U of T Symphony will do it (their schedule isn't up yet) or it will pop up the following season.  It's a warhorse I've seen a number of times (including in Prague!) but I always enjoy hearing it.  Anyway, I should go ahead and put together my season soon with TSO, being mindful that their tickets are a bit more expensive than the VSO's, and also being a bit mindful of these future short trips I am mapping out.

What was a bit of a shock was just how much Soulpepper's tickets are, even for students.  The base adult ticket is $75 with only small discounts for being up in the balcony or having quite poor sight lines.  That seems considerably more than The Cultch.  In Chicago, the main floor tickets are often in that range, but both Goodman and Steppenwolf have more balcony seating at a more reasonable price (and certainly this is the case with the Chicago Symphony).  My general impression from the paper is that there are quite a few theatre companies that are priced more in my comfort zone, but Soulpepper is definitely on the high side, so I suspect I'll only go to a show or two each season and not plan on subscribing. I'll still try to make it to Tartuffe, especially as they added some shows in September, but I am going to pass on The Crucible.  There will be a university production before too long, and that's what I'll take my son to.  There's no rush, and he'll probably understand it better in a couple more years anyway.

I was able to bike to work yesterday, and the shed looks like it will work out pretty well.  I just need to paint it soon.  If rain wasn't in the forecast, I would do it today (probaby), but at this point I will aim for next weekend.  So it turns out it isn't too bad of a ride, though there is a rough stretch on Richmond downtown where all the bike lanes end (this is somewhat equivalent to getting dumped into the Loop though not quite as busy).  If they actually do surface Richmond and paint on some bike lanes, I think I'll be set.  I just need to figure out where to store the bike and if I want to try to shower at one of these bike station places.  The ride itself looks like it will take 25 minutes each way, which is a bit less than I was biking in Vancouver, but still useful exercise (that has slipped greatly since the move) and it seems like biking will be faster than the streetcar and obviously cheaper.  However, it will take 115 days where I don't take the streetcar or subway to pay off the shed!  The only real downside is that I will read less when not on transit, though I was typically finding I couldn't read on the streetcars anyway due to crowding and trying to carry too much here and back.

In general, the reading is going well, though it does feel I will never get through these various lists, to say nothing of the books that are getting stuffed back into boxes.  I didn't care much for the second half of John Williams' The Man Who Cried I Am, but I am not sure whether it merits an entire review post.  (The short version is that the novel devolved from one that was more or less a typical Harlem renaissance novel with the character occasionally going to Paris and then became a paranoid screen on the order of Chester Himes' Plan B.  While both can be great, stuffing the two into one book doesn't work very well.)  I'm starting Dostoevsky's The Demons now and then will tackle Von Rezzori's An Ermine in Czernopol.  Then I think I will move up Faulkner's As I Lay Dying just a few positions to be next after that (I mistakenly said in the comments that I had read this already, but it just feels like I have given that I had restarted reading Faulkner last summer...).  So many great books to tackle, so few years to do it in.

I haven't actually scheduled a specific time each day to do creative writing, but I will do that soon.  It's the only way to stick to it, I find.  At the moment, I just can't until the boxes are more under control.  Ok, I am off to work on that for a while.

Modernism in the Pacific Northwest

I made a quick trip to Seattle -- literally there and back in one day on the bus.  While I booked the 6:45 pm return trip, I even managed to get everything done in time and came back on the 5 o'clock run.  It worked out well, as the weather was just gorgeous in Seattle but overcast and a bit rainy in Vancouver.  (I was even able to catch the local bus up to the Seattle Asian Art Museum to catch the Deco Japan exhibit, which was quite nice, but I won't be reviewing that here.)

While I expected to review this a long time ago (sorry about that), there are still three weekends to go if anyone wants to make the Pacific Northwest modernism show (it closes Sept. 7).  The overwhelming feeling is that this is SAM's chance to put many* of its Mark Tobey paintings on display at one time.  (And nearly all but one make their way into the catalog.)

Now this isn't quite as overwhelming as the Tobey show at the National Gallery of Art in 1984 (no, I didn't make it to that), but it is probably the next best thing.  While many of Tobey's pieces are fairly abstract ones that scale up or down reasonably well, his work from the 1940s is more representational, and it helps to get close to see all the details in Rummage or the many faces in E Pluribus Unum.  There's even a tiny white cat in Electric Night that kind of pops out when viewing this painting in person.  One thing I learned from the show is that Tobey actually started his move into abstraction independently from (and a bit earlier than) Jackson Pollack.

Mark Tobey, Rummage, 1941

Mark Tobey, Electric Night, 1944

I really went for the Tobey, and I wasn't disappointed.  In general, I wasn't that interested in Morris Graves, who seems to have the second most paintings in the exhibit, though Dove of the Inner Eye was ok, and I liked The Genesis of Life...

Morris Graves, The Genesis of Life Lay Deep and Anticipant under the Sky II, 1944

About mid-way through the exhibit, you encounter Leo Kenney's art, which seems to tackle isolation.  His palate is dominated by blues and greys.  Most of the paintings have a dominant figure in the middle, but otherwise I found myself somewhat reminded of De Chirico.  Lamentation and Third Offering are in the catalog, but Muse III is not, so I will post it below.

Leo Kenney, Muse III, 1948

The last rooms have a wider mix of artists who were a bit younger than Tobey and Graves and in many cases learned from them. Of these, my favorite were Guy Anderson's Search for the Morning and Kenneth Callahan's Riders on the Mountain.

Guy Anderson, Search for the Morning, 1950-52

Kenneth Callahan, Riders on the Mountain, 1956

So all in all, a solid exhibit that is definitely worth visiting if one is in the region and worth traveling for if one is a major Mark Tobey fan.

* Incredibly, there are probably 10-15 more paintings and prints by Tobey not on display, as these are generally even earlier in his career and are more representational.

Drowning in books

The cartoon in this earlier post sums up how I feel at the moment.  I have to be careful that I don't do anything drastic like purge any book that won't fit on a shelf.

I think or at least strongly hope that I have unpacked the last of the art books.  Those go upstairs, which was a bit of a relief, though I think with this last batch, I will have totally filled up the bookcases in the living room.  However, at the back of my mind, I am thinking I have at least one more book on De Chirico...

Any book on transportation, planning, suburban sprawl and even environmental justice goes onto my bookcase at work.  While it is a total pain hauling them to work on the streetcar, it is great getting them out of the house.  I'll probably be done with these in another week or so, which will free up some more room.

Still, I just don't see how everything that used to fit on the shelves will go there now.  I guess I have to remember that I had 6 or 7 boxes of overflow books even then, and I've probably added about a half box since coming to Toronto (but how could I pass up the complete Greek tragedies, I ask you?).  So some triage is called for.  I think I will take all the marginal books that I know I won't read for another year, box them up and stick them under the printer (as before).  The books on the TBR pile that I expect are read once and then donate will go on a brand new bookcase to be bought next week.  And then I'll see if I can get the rest of the books on the main shelves.  I'm definitely going to have to go through another round of selling off CDs and DVDs.  Hopefully, I can get at least a little something something for them in Toronto.  I wasn't able to get much in Vancouver, often just ending up with trade credit.  (It is a shame that it costs so much to mail to the U.S., as it really rules out eBay and even selling through Amazon.)

The good news is that I did manage to find the modernism in the Pacific Northwest book, so I think I can wrap up the post on the Seattle Art Museum exhibit tonight or tomorrow.  What I am still looking for is a notebook or series of notebooks with two short stories written out in longhand (one nearly done and the other mostly an outline).  I am slowly retraining myself to spend less time on the internet, and it is time to start back on the creative writing.  I was able to retrieve the last versions of my novel in progress and my plays (thankfully I wasn't keeping the only copy on that damaged hard drive), but I want to start with some short stories as a way of easing myself back in.  Hopefully it will be an easy win that will lead me to revise the plays and start in on a new chapter.  That's the plan anyway, though I think I need to clear out a few more boxes to make this a space a bit more conducive to creative work.

Robin Williams, RIP

Well, there is not much point in rehashing Robin Williams' career or his death.  I generally am not a fan of the type of movies he thrived in, mostly broad comedies.  I suspect that of the movies he made, I would like Good Morning, Vietnam the best, but I've never seen it all the way through.  Will I be inspired to watch it anytime soon?  Not really.  The truth is I'm just not really in a movie-watching place at the moment, though I made an exception to see a couple of films by Satyajit Ray at the TIFF Lightbox and then Terry Gilliam's film The Zero Theorem (basically a rehashing of Brazil) because it was only going to be on the big screen for two weeks and then vanish forever into VOD-land.  While this Sat. looks totally oversubscribed, I might break out Aladdin to watch Robin Williams as the genie, which is probably my favorite Williams' performance.  (Actually, now that I think about it, I also really liked Moscow on the Hudson, and will look into renting that this fall.)

I guess it is just one more reminder of how difficult it can be to cope with truly overwhelming depression.  I get low-grade depression from time to time, but it is mostly being depressed over the idea that I will never get through my collection of books (and almost certainly not all the movies I've gathered up over the years).  I'm trying to be more careful about only taking in new things that will stand the test of time and/or be of interest to the kids, and then I inevitably slip up.

I regret that Robin felt that he couldn't cope any longer, as I think the world lost an incredible talent, but I am not going to judge him or say that his premature death diminishes his legacy, just as I didn't think that about David Foster Wallace.

Nearly set up

Well, one day too late to prevent catastrophe, but I have the computer set up downstairs (and the internet works, which was a pretty major concern).  I still need to make a few adjustments, as it still isn't very comfortable to type (and the better keyboard needs a bit of repair -- it also was damaged when the monitor fell on it).  Once I figure that out, I should be able to write more (both blogs and some creative writing), particularly as I am feeling that I want to cut way, way back on all other kinds of internet activity.

I kind of wish I had taken some time-lapse photos of filling up the garage and then filling up and emptying this basement.  I do have a few photos showing the process (and progress) that I will try to add in the next day or so.

I'm feeling a little stuck though, as even if I manage to get half of the remaining boxes up on the shelves, I still have a large number that don't have anywhere to go.  We really do need a bigger storage area.  I think what will have to happen is that the random junk will have to go into better, stronger boxes, then that will go under the Christmas decorations under the stairs.  That's about the only thing I can think of.  But it's definitely going to be a challenge.  I think I really do need to commit to getting rid of another box or two of CDs and DVDs -- and to keep working on my plan of reading books and then donating them if they aren't "keepers."  I have gotten only marginally better at not buying new things -- I've slowed down but not completely stopped.

A very dark day

It is almost impossible to believe, but my precariously perched monitor fell this morning (and only one more day before it was put onto a proper desk).  The monitor didn't suffer any damage, but it clipped a portable hard drive, which now seems inoperable.  This had almost all of my recent work files on it, and I don't seem to be able to restore it.  I am just beside myself with anger about the unfairness of it all.  I'll see if I can get the hard drive working at work and perhaps have the IT guy look it over, then take it to one of those data retrieval people who charge an arm and a leg to basically tell you "It's dead, Jim."  This has just ruined my entire weekend and potentially a lot longer than that.  It could be one of those data losses you never recover from.

Update: So the IT guy at work can't help and says I have to contact one of those data recovery places that charges between $500-2000 for this work.  It just seems so incredibly unjust, and that one thing that is close to pushing me over the edge.  The very minor silver lining is that the single most important set of files are the back-up email files, and those are still with my former employer, as are most of the work-related files (from my previous employer).  So I can probably rebuild those.  But probably not all the tifs of things I had scanned over the past year, and some other things that were too recent to be backed up.  I'm really not sure what I am going to do, but there have to be some changes, starting with me ceasing to tape radio off the internet, since I almost never listen to it anyway.  I might as well go cold turkey.  Maybe I'll make some other changes now (even though I suppose anything coming out of such a bad place can't be completely healthy).  I definitely need to cut even further back on visits to Slate.com, and maybe I should go cold turkey there are well.  I'm also cutting back on my visits to this jazz website and discussion board as it is just nowhere near as fun as it used to be.  I'm finding that a lot of on-line stuff is just too much of a headache now, even news sites that I used to visit and now are throwing up pay walls.  I guess the silver lining there is I think I'll start cutting way back on the internet aside from occasional blogging and just try to do more creative writing.  Tending my own garden and all now that I am pretty thoroughly sick of most of what is on-line nowadays.  (Boy, I guess I really am in a tremendous funk...) 

Looking way forward - 2014/15 Season

I know it is ridiculous how I can't quite seem to get around to reviewing a couple of museum exhibits or three Canadian novels (and a bunch of poetry collections).  In my defense, I am still looking for the Modernism in the Pacific Northwest catalogue, which would help me finish up one review.  Second, until I finish putting the desk together, it is extremely difficult to lay here on the floor and type up long blog posts, so somewhat shorter is better.

Anyway, I will use this post to try to keep track of longer term things I'd like to see, both locally and out of town.  (Some of the theatre listings are being brought forward from this post.) I probably won't use it to keep track of TSO concerts unless they are very special (like Yo-Yo Ma coming to town May 29, 2015 -- Holst's The Planets is also on the bill, so I probably ought to get my tickets for that soon).  I'm not sure whether Beethoven Symphony 9 counts as special, but that is coming up  quite soon (late Sept.), so I have to decide if I want to go.  I'm probably going to skip Messiah (again) unless there is a cheaper more family-oriented version, which there sometimes is.  I do like how so many churches are pressed into service by some of these smaller outfits, and I might go to see Thomas Tallis' Spem in alium in such a space on April 3.

So without too much further ado:

August 2014
Tartuffe - Soulpepper

Sept. 2014
The Importance of Being Earnest - Hart House (mostly if my son is interested)
Tartuffe - The Crucible

Oct. 2014
Trip to Chicago to see some theatre and catch the last weekend of the Magritte exhibition at the Art Institute.  (Unfortunately, we would just miss The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles,which runs through mid Jan.  In the somewhat unlikely event we go back to Chicago a second time that closely spaced together, I will make sure to go)

Nov. 2014
Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (the Shaw Festival version is being transferred here)

Dec. 2014
Helen Frankenthaler exhibit at Albright-Knox (Buffalo) (I guess I'll give it another chance).  

Jan. 2015
TRB meeting in D.C. (maybe a side trip to Philly this time rather than New York, which has become a bit of a routine)

Feb 2015
Yankee Tavern @ American Blues Theatre, Chicago (though March) -- probably just wishful thinking.  (Apparently the play was produced in London, Ont. last season but hasn't made it to Toronto as far as I know.)
Toronto - East Side Players - Andrew Bovell's Speaking in Tongues (though March)
Brooklyn Academy of Music - O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (through March though tickets will be a bear to get).

March 2015
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit @ the DIA (this runs through mid July and will be a good excuse to go to Detroit if we haven't made it before then -- it might even be the spring break trip).
Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead - Ryerson (not entirely sure I want to see this (I passed up a chance to see it at Langara in Vancouver, but I might go)
Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike - Mirvish Productions (what an odd thing for Mirvish to be putting on; incidentally, Goodman in Chicago is also doing this play this season).
Harper Regan - Canadian Stage Company -- I'll probably pass on this, having seen it in Chicago a few years back.

April 2015
Thomas Tallis/John Tavener - Mendelssohn Choir
Yankee Tavern (in Vancouver) - now this is pretty ironic...

May 2015
Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly (in London, ON) (while I would prefer to watch Fifth of July first, that doesn't look like it is in the cards)

Aug. 2015
ASA meeting in Chicago (I think I will see about making this an extended stay, working out of a satellite office in Chicago.  I'd also like to get to the Milwaukee Art Museum in part to check out the Treasures of the Albright Knox Museum that we didn't get to see last weekend -- ironic.)

Shaw's 2015 season has just been announced and there are a few interesting plays, but the must-see for me is a new play by Tony Kushner!  I'm so there. 

In the near future, I'd like to get back to Ottawa, Boston, St. Louis, Minneapolis (with the family if possible to most of these) and Cleveland (basically by myself).  I'm not sure there are any upcoming events that would really inspire me to go to one sooner than the other.  When the kids are a bit older (and more appreciative), we will look into Philadelphia and D.C.

One thing that I just noticed is the these potential trips to the U.S. are spaced out very evenly.  My passport expires at the end of April, so I will have to plan this very carefully.  Right now it looks like if I renewed early (say late October) that might be for the best, but it would mean not seeing my family in North Carolina around Thanksgiving.  Drat.  I'll have to double-check processing times and the fees to expedite passport handling. (It looks like I might actually be able to do this by mail rather than booking an appointment at the U.S. embassy.  That would be sweet.)