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)!