I was taking a look at my progress on my somewhat absurdly long reading list -- and realized that I have three more to go in order to have knocked off 100 from the list (just not in precisely the order that I had laid out). It definitely goes in periods where I am enjoying quite a few of the books and then times (like now) where I am finding fault with most of the books.
At any rate, after I get through these three (ending on Laferrière Heading South), I think I will take a bit of a break to read some non-fiction. I have vast number of urban studies books which I have mostly skimmed. I might pick just a handful to read. They would probably be on a separate list, since I don't think I will want to be completely prescriptive in how I interlace my fiction and non-fiction reading.
Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle is a book I have been meaning to read for literally decades. It is probably more like 15 years for DeVoto's selection of the Journals of Lewis and Clark. I think it is time to fit them in somehow.
However, I am going to start by rereading* Calder's Einstein's Universe and then tackle Hawking's A Brief History of Time. (Some study put this at the number one or two spot of books that were purchased and never finished -- or even begun. In my defense, I didn't actually buy the book...) I did, however, buy Neil Degrasse Tyson's Death by Black Hole while at the planetarium side of the Natural History Museum on our recent trip to New York. I am probably going to enjoy Death by Black Hole more than Hawking's book, but if I read Tyson first, then I will never read the Hawkster. I expect that it will take me a while to get through all of them. I may post on more scientific topics for a while, or I may use the break from fiction as a chance to catch up on a number of reviews and musings that I have simply not gotten around to over the past month.
* I actually had read up on quite a bit of Einstein's theory of relativity in my teens, and recently thought that it might be something my kids would be interested in as they got into more serious science at school (you never know). I happened to be in the science section at Powells (on my only trip to Portland while living out in Vancouver) and picked up a few books on the subject.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Shadowy weekend
It's been interesting watching how the 80s revival (in music and to some degree in fashion) is giving way to the early 90s. That's particularly good for those interested in Canadian alternative music, as to me the highlight of that period ran from roughly 1991-1995, and many of the Canadian bands of the time are reforming and playing Toronto at least.
The Lowest of the Low have reformed on a semi-permanent basis and have played a couple of shows. One I waited a bit too long, and it sold out (this was a busy period at work, however, so I was working quite late those days). Then we were out of town for the other show. Still, I'll keep my eyes open and may make it to one of their gigs.
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet have been playing occasional reunion shows since 2012, though one band member died, so there is a replacement bass player. I found out that they played Lee's Palace Friday night, but I had seen two concerts back to back, and I just didn't want to be gone another evening. Anyway, it was sold out. It appears there is another show tonight, which is also sold out, though there may be tickets available through the usual (shadowy) channels.
Potentially more interesting is that for Sat. April 16 only, there is a 4 LP box set coming out that collects their 3 albums and a fourth LP of rarities. This is part of Record Store Day 2016. Some details here (scroll down to the bottom). I'm just not that interested in the artificial scarcity of these sets, particularly for a vinyl-only release. If it comes out on CD next year, I might consider it, though I have to admit I find there is a certain sameness to their songs, and I don't think I am really the target audience. I'm more interested in the idea of Shadowy Men than in actually going to a gig or listening to an entire box set of their music. I'd probably be better off picking up one or two of their CDs at BMW for example. Still, for those that are interested, today is the day to go record store hunting.
How could I forget to link to "Having an Average Weekend"? This version is from one of the reunion shows.
The Lowest of the Low have reformed on a semi-permanent basis and have played a couple of shows. One I waited a bit too long, and it sold out (this was a busy period at work, however, so I was working quite late those days). Then we were out of town for the other show. Still, I'll keep my eyes open and may make it to one of their gigs.
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet have been playing occasional reunion shows since 2012, though one band member died, so there is a replacement bass player. I found out that they played Lee's Palace Friday night, but I had seen two concerts back to back, and I just didn't want to be gone another evening. Anyway, it was sold out. It appears there is another show tonight, which is also sold out, though there may be tickets available through the usual (shadowy) channels.
Potentially more interesting is that for Sat. April 16 only, there is a 4 LP box set coming out that collects their 3 albums and a fourth LP of rarities. This is part of Record Store Day 2016. Some details here (scroll down to the bottom). I'm just not that interested in the artificial scarcity of these sets, particularly for a vinyl-only release. If it comes out on CD next year, I might consider it, though I have to admit I find there is a certain sameness to their songs, and I don't think I am really the target audience. I'm more interested in the idea of Shadowy Men than in actually going to a gig or listening to an entire box set of their music. I'd probably be better off picking up one or two of their CDs at BMW for example. Still, for those that are interested, today is the day to go record store hunting.
How could I forget to link to "Having an Average Weekend"? This version is from one of the reunion shows.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Beaver Hall in Hamilton
As a bit of a respite from all my tax calculations, I went down to Hamilton on Sunday to see the Pacifica Quartet playing Beethoven. (On the Hamilton Express bus in fact, which was pretty smooth after we got past the huge line of cars trying to get into the city for the Jays game.) I had thought it was going to be 3 Beethoven string quartets, but, ultimately, they didn't have enough time for that. They did one movement from one of the early quartets, and then Quartet #7 (Op. 59, no 1) and Quartet #14 (Op. 131) after the break. It was pretty incredible. Of the two, I did like #7 a bit more, I think because of a long section where the cello was plucking the strings. At one point, the concert they were doing in London, Ont. a couple of days earlier was more different, but in the end, it was basically the same program, but #8 instead of #7. For those in Chicago, they have a quite different concert coming up on April 24th, where they are doing Beethoven's Op. 131 with Mozart's Quartet in G Major, K. 387 and Shostakovich String Quartet #11. That would be something worth checking out, and there are more details here. I should say that they pretty much sold out the room in Hamilton, which is fairly impressive. I have no idea if they advertised widely and tried to pull more people from Toronto, or if it is strictly a local crowd, but it was a good turnout for a great afternoon of music.
Since Chamber Music Hamilton puts on their shows in the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the tickets actually allow admission into the art gallery as well. I got there in time to look around for close to 40 minutes, as well as looking at the main exhibit again during the intermission.
I had thought that the upstairs gallery would be more or less the same as during my visit about a year ago, but it was quite different. This time around, the paintings were hung salon-style and they generally skewed a bit earlier, sort of ending with some of the Group of Seven painters, with a few exceptions. Probably the biggest exception is that they had Alex Colville's Horse and Train back up on the wall.
Looking back at the previous visit, they had relatively little Lawren Harris upstairs. While Ice House is part of the large Lawren Harris exhibit and should be moving from Boston to Toronto soon, I only remember seeing Hurdy Gurdy this time around. They did not have In the Ward, Toronto (1919) or Icebergs and Mountains, Greenland (1930) upstairs (and it is unclear when they have had either on view, so I may write to ask if they will bring out these two to celebrate getting Ice House back in the fall). They did have Harris's Waterfall, Algoma (1920) on view, which wasn't out on my previous trip. They did have their key paintings by Tom Thomson and Emily Carr on view, so that was nice to see them again. I do wish they had T.R. MacDonald's One A.M. on view, as I quite liked that from before. On the other hand, they had a different painting by MacDonald called The Red Skirt.
The main reason to visit the AGH right now is to see the main exhibit on the first floor, which is a show on Canadian art linked with Beaver Hall. It appears that all the paintings are from the 1920s and all are associated with Montreal in some way, though some of the painters left Quebec. While there is a bit of sameness to the portraits after a while, many of the urban landscapes are quite nice. I think my very favourite was Adrien Hébert's Saint Catherine Street, but I liked Saint Denis Street as well (in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Quebec). It reminded me just a little of Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day in terms of the scale.
Not every painting was of an urban scene. There were also a series of paintings of nuns by Sarah Robertson. This painting is from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, though I must admit I don't recall seeing it on view on our last trip. It's possible of course that I have simply forgotten it.
I'll end this review of the show with more of a rural view by Anne Savage.* This painting is also in the the Musée national des beaux-arts du Quebec, though it may or may not be commonly on view (when not on loan). I haven't yet made it to Quebec City, but one of these days I am sure I will drop by and see what is going on in the museum.
The show runs through May 8, so there is still time to make a trip, and it is certainly worth seeing once. There is an associated catalog, though the Gift Shop has currently run out of stock. I put a hold on it through the Toronto Library, but it might be many months before it turns up.
Anyway, it was a nice interlude from a long day of going through tax forms...
* I didn't really think too much about it either way, but some of the critics are pleased with the gender balance in the show. In addition to Savage and Robertson, there are quite fine paintings by Prudence Heward and Kathleen Morris, but I don't have any more space in this post for their work.
Since Chamber Music Hamilton puts on their shows in the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the tickets actually allow admission into the art gallery as well. I got there in time to look around for close to 40 minutes, as well as looking at the main exhibit again during the intermission.
I had thought that the upstairs gallery would be more or less the same as during my visit about a year ago, but it was quite different. This time around, the paintings were hung salon-style and they generally skewed a bit earlier, sort of ending with some of the Group of Seven painters, with a few exceptions. Probably the biggest exception is that they had Alex Colville's Horse and Train back up on the wall.
Looking back at the previous visit, they had relatively little Lawren Harris upstairs. While Ice House is part of the large Lawren Harris exhibit and should be moving from Boston to Toronto soon, I only remember seeing Hurdy Gurdy this time around. They did not have In the Ward, Toronto (1919) or Icebergs and Mountains, Greenland (1930) upstairs (and it is unclear when they have had either on view, so I may write to ask if they will bring out these two to celebrate getting Ice House back in the fall). They did have Harris's Waterfall, Algoma (1920) on view, which wasn't out on my previous trip. They did have their key paintings by Tom Thomson and Emily Carr on view, so that was nice to see them again. I do wish they had T.R. MacDonald's One A.M. on view, as I quite liked that from before. On the other hand, they had a different painting by MacDonald called The Red Skirt.
 |
| T.R. MacDonald, The Red Skirt, 1939 |
The main reason to visit the AGH right now is to see the main exhibit on the first floor, which is a show on Canadian art linked with Beaver Hall. It appears that all the paintings are from the 1920s and all are associated with Montreal in some way, though some of the painters left Quebec. While there is a bit of sameness to the portraits after a while, many of the urban landscapes are quite nice. I think my very favourite was Adrien Hébert's Saint Catherine Street, but I liked Saint Denis Street as well (in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Quebec). It reminded me just a little of Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day in terms of the scale.
 |
| Adrien Hébert, Saint Catherine Street, 1926 |
 |
| Adrien Hébert, Saint Denis Street, 1927 |
Not every painting was of an urban scene. There were also a series of paintings of nuns by Sarah Robertson. This painting is from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, though I must admit I don't recall seeing it on view on our last trip. It's possible of course that I have simply forgotten it.
 |
| Sarah Robertson, Old Fort, Sulpician Seminary, c. 1931 |
I'll end this review of the show with more of a rural view by Anne Savage.* This painting is also in the the Musée national des beaux-arts du Quebec, though it may or may not be commonly on view (when not on loan). I haven't yet made it to Quebec City, but one of these days I am sure I will drop by and see what is going on in the museum.
 |
| Anne Savage, The Red House, Dorval, ca. 1928 |
The show runs through May 8, so there is still time to make a trip, and it is certainly worth seeing once. There is an associated catalog, though the Gift Shop has currently run out of stock. I put a hold on it through the Toronto Library, but it might be many months before it turns up.
Anyway, it was a nice interlude from a long day of going through tax forms...
* I didn't really think too much about it either way, but some of the critics are pleased with the gender balance in the show. In addition to Savage and Robertson, there are quite fine paintings by Prudence Heward and Kathleen Morris, but I don't have any more space in this post for their work.
A tale of two taxes
Now that tax time has come around again, I decided to put together a post on various tax regimes and their rules (and how things might look under a more sensible tax regime). Like probably everybody else subject to U.S. taxes, I find them extremely draining and needlessly complex, and I am just recovering from preparing the U.S. taxes. I also found I made a major mistake on my Canadian taxes (and probably have to amend the 2014 taxes!), so I am going to take a day or two to recover and then fix them. Fortunately, I hadn't mailed them off yet.
What may be a bit surprising is that in terms of the top two tiers of detail (basic income and basic investments like dividends), the U.S. taxes are only slightly more complex than the U.K.'s and are written in a bit more straightforward fashion than Canada's (where they just don't give enough examples to make it clear that yes, your children count as eligible dependents for example). Also, while it is nice there is some responsiveness on the part of Canadian tax authorities, they made a fairly substantial change to Schedule 1 this year, and I nearly made a major mistake because of it. However, the U.S. quickly delves into completely ridiculous arcane rules and a certain point I do just give up and start zeroing out some of the rows on the Schedule D tax calculator for instance.
In any case, I would definitely prefer a system like they have in Europe, where income is only taxes where it is earned, rather than the system for both Canada and the U.S. where all income is taxed and then there are some exclusions and deductions for the tax paid to other countries. While it is true that there is a tax treaty in place between these two countries, it is also true that if you are a high earner (essentially anything over $100,000), then you absolutely are being doubled taxed in the U.S. at least on a portion of your earnings. I find it difficult to accept that as being fair, particularly given the high tax rates in Canada, which come extremely close to 50% marginal tax rate once you approach $150,000 in global income. One of the inevitable consequences of such high marginal tax rates is that high income people look into tax shelters, legal or not, and then more of the burden falls on people in the $75,000-$150,000 range.
Anyway, it doesn't seem that these issues will ever be resolved. It is interesting and more than a little shocking how low the U.S. sets taxes on investment income. I don't even recall when they cut the rate from 15% to 0% on a wide host of investment income categories, but certainly by 2014. (What's even weirder is how this very important calculation is buried in Schedule D and not directly reported to the IRS.) In contrast, Canada basically says that capital gains are taxed at 50% of the overall tax rate, but on the other hand, more people can deduct standard investment expenses, while this is only available to people who itemize their deductions in the U.S. (and then usually this is still taken away due to the machinations of the AMT).
I would certainly prefer that the U.S. eliminate the 0% rate, which seems completely unjustifiable on any grounds, but allow standard investment fees to directly offset capital gains. That would be an improvement, and would almost certainly raise more revenue, though I am sure someone would still try to game the system.
What I am not crazy about in Canada, and particularly Ontario, is that they pretend to have sort of moderate tax rates (11-13% for higher income individuals) and then they come up with crazy accounting rules, particularly a surtax (so you literally are paying a tax on your tax) that raises the effective rate to 20% and thus 47.5% or so when combined with the federal tax. If being progressive is so important to decision makers, then one should not try to hide the fact that this is embedded in the tax code.
I think more than anything, I do believe that households should be taxed as households, rather than individuals. Not only is it silly for all adults to file separate tax forms, I personally don't think it is just for a tax system to tax an individual earning $120,000 differently from 2 people earning $60,000, and yet it is so. (This is the whole impetus behind the tax sharing adjustment (Schedule 1A) that Harper brought in in 2014, and decided to label the "family tax cut." By making it such a blatantly political adjustment to the tax code, that increases the odds that the Liberals decide to undo this for 2016, which will just exacerbate the problem.) The flip is also a problem. In the U.S. married couples do get a bunch of tax breaks that two unmarried people do not get. There is no perfect treatment that works for all situations, but I do think that household income should be pooled and taxed just once, rather than the extremely complex Canadian system where literally all deductions and tax credits have to be parcelled out across household members. That seems extremely rife for mistakes -- and malfeasance, since it would be very hard for Canada Revenue to keep track and make sure there was no double-counting. Aside from the attempt to tax individuals as completely independent entities (and not part of households) and the tax surcharge, I generally do think Canada's tax rules are a bit fairer. They certainly are simpler than the U.S., which has incredibly and I think needlessly complex rules on investment income. That said, there are definitely a lot of places Canada could provide more examples or just use more straightforward definitions in their tax terms. I guess that really is all I feel like writing on the subject.
What may be a bit surprising is that in terms of the top two tiers of detail (basic income and basic investments like dividends), the U.S. taxes are only slightly more complex than the U.K.'s and are written in a bit more straightforward fashion than Canada's (where they just don't give enough examples to make it clear that yes, your children count as eligible dependents for example). Also, while it is nice there is some responsiveness on the part of Canadian tax authorities, they made a fairly substantial change to Schedule 1 this year, and I nearly made a major mistake because of it. However, the U.S. quickly delves into completely ridiculous arcane rules and a certain point I do just give up and start zeroing out some of the rows on the Schedule D tax calculator for instance.
In any case, I would definitely prefer a system like they have in Europe, where income is only taxes where it is earned, rather than the system for both Canada and the U.S. where all income is taxed and then there are some exclusions and deductions for the tax paid to other countries. While it is true that there is a tax treaty in place between these two countries, it is also true that if you are a high earner (essentially anything over $100,000), then you absolutely are being doubled taxed in the U.S. at least on a portion of your earnings. I find it difficult to accept that as being fair, particularly given the high tax rates in Canada, which come extremely close to 50% marginal tax rate once you approach $150,000 in global income. One of the inevitable consequences of such high marginal tax rates is that high income people look into tax shelters, legal or not, and then more of the burden falls on people in the $75,000-$150,000 range.
Anyway, it doesn't seem that these issues will ever be resolved. It is interesting and more than a little shocking how low the U.S. sets taxes on investment income. I don't even recall when they cut the rate from 15% to 0% on a wide host of investment income categories, but certainly by 2014. (What's even weirder is how this very important calculation is buried in Schedule D and not directly reported to the IRS.) In contrast, Canada basically says that capital gains are taxed at 50% of the overall tax rate, but on the other hand, more people can deduct standard investment expenses, while this is only available to people who itemize their deductions in the U.S. (and then usually this is still taken away due to the machinations of the AMT).
I would certainly prefer that the U.S. eliminate the 0% rate, which seems completely unjustifiable on any grounds, but allow standard investment fees to directly offset capital gains. That would be an improvement, and would almost certainly raise more revenue, though I am sure someone would still try to game the system.
What I am not crazy about in Canada, and particularly Ontario, is that they pretend to have sort of moderate tax rates (11-13% for higher income individuals) and then they come up with crazy accounting rules, particularly a surtax (so you literally are paying a tax on your tax) that raises the effective rate to 20% and thus 47.5% or so when combined with the federal tax. If being progressive is so important to decision makers, then one should not try to hide the fact that this is embedded in the tax code.
I think more than anything, I do believe that households should be taxed as households, rather than individuals. Not only is it silly for all adults to file separate tax forms, I personally don't think it is just for a tax system to tax an individual earning $120,000 differently from 2 people earning $60,000, and yet it is so. (This is the whole impetus behind the tax sharing adjustment (Schedule 1A) that Harper brought in in 2014, and decided to label the "family tax cut." By making it such a blatantly political adjustment to the tax code, that increases the odds that the Liberals decide to undo this for 2016, which will just exacerbate the problem.) The flip is also a problem. In the U.S. married couples do get a bunch of tax breaks that two unmarried people do not get. There is no perfect treatment that works for all situations, but I do think that household income should be pooled and taxed just once, rather than the extremely complex Canadian system where literally all deductions and tax credits have to be parcelled out across household members. That seems extremely rife for mistakes -- and malfeasance, since it would be very hard for Canada Revenue to keep track and make sure there was no double-counting. Aside from the attempt to tax individuals as completely independent entities (and not part of households) and the tax surcharge, I generally do think Canada's tax rules are a bit fairer. They certainly are simpler than the U.S., which has incredibly and I think needlessly complex rules on investment income. That said, there are definitely a lot of places Canada could provide more examples or just use more straightforward definitions in their tax terms. I guess that really is all I feel like writing on the subject.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
9th Canadian Challenge - 15th Review - How to Make Love to a Negro
I decided to knock this review off quickly, even though I have two other reviews waiting in the wings. (If I put the Alice Munro review off much longer, I'll have to reread large chunks of it! Nonetheless, I don't think I can focus on this until my taxes are done.) The title is a bit of a Rorschach test. If you are put off by it, then this is not a novel for you. Perhaps more specifically, if you appreciate or are open to literature focused on the seamier side of life, you might like this novel. Otherwise, don't bother. More specifically, Dany Laferrière name-checks Henry Miller several times and Charles Bukowski as well. If you like Miller or Bukowski, then this novel might appeal to you. While it is certainly not a reboot of Bukowski's Post Office, there are strong similarities between the two, and indeed both are first novels by their respective authors.
There is really no plot to speak of. The narrator lives in a fairly squalid one-room apartment on rue St-Denis in Montreal with a roommate, who more or less lives on the couch and is often described as a kind of Black Buddha. He finds romancing young white women in Montreal (essentially all of them are Anglophone students attending McGill) to be a breeze and he seduces one after another. That's pretty much the plot. Laferrière spends far more time talking about the jazz music that his roommate plays or different writers that the narrator has read than actually advancing the plot.
The narrator wants to become an artist and settles for becoming a writer, and in a bit of a postmodern twist, the novel that he writes is How to Make Love to a Negro, i.e. the book that is in the reader's hands. It isn't at all clear how the two come up with any money for the rent, though it is strongly implied that they are taking money from their white girlfriends. As I said, it is sort of a book designed to elicit strong reactions and is certainly not for everyone. For some reason, the book seems to be published in English with a truncated title -- it is actually supposed to be How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired!
One thing that is not in this book, though is omnipresent in Alain Mabanckou's Blue White Red, is the hassling from immigration officers. (I'm finding Mabanckou and Laferrière to be quite similar, though Laferrière naturally focuses more on Quebec, whereas Mabanckou is more interested in an Africa-Europe axis.) This probably implies that the two did immigrate to Montreal legally. It isn't even clear whether they came from Haiti (as Laferrière did) or Africa. The narrator tells one or two of his dates that he comes from Africa, but this seems designed to impress upon them that he is the "real thing," a Black man from Africa, and is probably not true. The narrator has found that when people want something (particularly if they are looking to be transgressive and cross some boundary, particularly the color line), they are living out some fantasy in their head and don't want to be bothered by reality. I don't really have much more to add to that.
There is really no plot to speak of. The narrator lives in a fairly squalid one-room apartment on rue St-Denis in Montreal with a roommate, who more or less lives on the couch and is often described as a kind of Black Buddha. He finds romancing young white women in Montreal (essentially all of them are Anglophone students attending McGill) to be a breeze and he seduces one after another. That's pretty much the plot. Laferrière spends far more time talking about the jazz music that his roommate plays or different writers that the narrator has read than actually advancing the plot.
The narrator wants to become an artist and settles for becoming a writer, and in a bit of a postmodern twist, the novel that he writes is How to Make Love to a Negro, i.e. the book that is in the reader's hands. It isn't at all clear how the two come up with any money for the rent, though it is strongly implied that they are taking money from their white girlfriends. As I said, it is sort of a book designed to elicit strong reactions and is certainly not for everyone. For some reason, the book seems to be published in English with a truncated title -- it is actually supposed to be How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired!
One thing that is not in this book, though is omnipresent in Alain Mabanckou's Blue White Red, is the hassling from immigration officers. (I'm finding Mabanckou and Laferrière to be quite similar, though Laferrière naturally focuses more on Quebec, whereas Mabanckou is more interested in an Africa-Europe axis.) This probably implies that the two did immigrate to Montreal legally. It isn't even clear whether they came from Haiti (as Laferrière did) or Africa. The narrator tells one or two of his dates that he comes from Africa, but this seems designed to impress upon them that he is the "real thing," a Black man from Africa, and is probably not true. The narrator has found that when people want something (particularly if they are looking to be transgressive and cross some boundary, particularly the color line), they are living out some fantasy in their head and don't want to be bothered by reality. I don't really have much more to add to that.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
The very busy week
It feels like last week is still not over, or at least there are still just a few things hanging over my head.
Unlike the previous vacation, when we came back from Chicago, we (or rather I) only had a few hours to recover before going back to work. The kids had Monday off from school.
Monday was a slowish day fortunately. Most of our Canadian clients had Easter off, though actually a few were open. I had a few things to take care related to the new position. I had half-thought I would manically stay up and write a short piece for SFYS (begun on the Chicago trip) and get it out before midnight. That is the equivalent of slipping something under the professor's door. In the end I was just too exhausted but more importantly I was feeling guilty about undone work, particularly the write-up for a modelling project that was due a month or so ago. Normally, we would not be that far behind, but this is a case where the client grossly underpaid for the amount of work done, and I ended up doing almost all the work in the evenings on my own time and was somewhat resentful. It certainly ended up as the last thing I would work on when I did have time, though I knew the day of reckoning was looming.
The first part of the week was wrapping up another big documentation job, and then finally notifying the PM that I was leaving. It's more than a little ironic that another consultant is coming in and arguing that they have to completely revamp the model, so the shelf life of the model we developed might be extremely short. I would be far more upset about this were I not moving on.
The middle of the week I tried to close out a long-term project that has been dragging on for well over a year. I made a bit of progress and handed over my notes, but this is one that is going to be hard to salvage. I also was furiously sorting and scanning documents to try to clean up the office. In the end, I think I did a pretty good job.
Towards the end of Wed. I got the email from the client I had been dreading and I proposed that I send draft documentation on Friday and then clean things up next week. Not unreasonably, the client felt that I might just vanish, so he counter-proposed that I get a solid draft to them Thurs. and they would provide comments and we could wrap things up on Friday. That meant that I finally had to get going on the documentation. I should say that it was not the case that I had done nothing -- I had a decent outline and a few sections already written, but there was a long ways to go. I pretty much locked myself in my office and started working.
As it happens, I did have to head out Thurs. for my farewell lunch, but otherwise I did almost nothing but write this report. I stayed much later than I wanted (I honestly can't remember if it was 11:30 or after midnight). On the flip side, this forced me to take a cab, and I brought back both pieces of art, rather than doing one each evening on the train (and as it rained very heavily, I would have been out of luck on the second day). While there were still a few holes in the documentation, I did get a solid draft out before I left.
Friday, I had a surprise urgent question from a different client, so I dealt with that in the morning. (And let them know afterwards, that they would have to work through my colleagues after that, though hopefully that was the last major loose end for that project.) I made a few edits to the documentation, pasting in some missing charts. Then I got the comments back. The good news is that there were relatively few comments and no major ones. However, it was almost the end of the day. At this point, the client felt that they had something in hand that they could work with, whereas before the documentation was essentially vaporware. So the client agreed to wait until Monday for the final, final version. I almost forgot that I stopped everything at 4:15 to take 7 boxes of books from my old office to the new one. That was a bit of an adventure, but it just made so much sense not to have to bring them all back home and then lug them over to the new office.
I discussed it with my colleagues and we agreed that I would keep the work laptop over the weekend and drop it off on Sunday. While my wife was kind of appalled when she found out, I decided this was the best solution.
What I forgot to mention was that he had a HVAC technician in to deal with an issue, and it turned out, he needed to go through the wall right where a bookcase was! So I spent a big chunk of Saturday moving books and boxes. The basement is still all messed up. I did take a few breaks to bike over to the library (there was snow on the way back!) and to get groceries. While I didn't find the hair clippers I have been looking for, I found a few more missing jazz CDs (still not the Zoot Sims or Brubeck Take Five discs though). More importantly, I found the hard drive I used at work in Vancouver and it did have quite a few missing scanned files. Not absolutely everything, but enough that I decided not to stay up all night trying to restore my missing email files (and thus I got a bit of sleep!).
Sunday we had the HVAC technician come back around and handle the problem. I have no idea why he wanted to schedule for Sunday, but I guess that was for the best. It took him a couple more hours than expected, but the job got done. Then I headed into work for the very, very last time. I had one small issue to review for the on-going job and then the final edits to the documentation. And I took the opportunity to do some final scanning and sorting, though eventually I just got sick of it. (I might well have a lot more time free in the evenings now that this phase of backing up documents is finally over.*) It didn't really help my mood that it snowed quite a bit that afternoon, and I hadn't expected it, so I didn't have the right kind of footware. I'd also hoped to make a stop at the AGO, but that was just a pipe dream. I probably won't go this weekend either, but perhaps the weekend after that I can check out the newish Outsiders exhibit.
The problem was that this took up a bit more time than I expected and I was really scrambling Monday morning to pull everything together for the new position. I couldn't find some documentation, and I couldn't find the signed copy of the offer letter (fortunately, I had scanned and sent one the previous Monday). Most importantly, I hadn't realized that the on-line training would take quite so long, and I was chastised (mildly) for this. Nonetheless, I got through most of the day reasonably well.
The biggest adjustment will be to try to come in to work earlier, but then I also get to come home much earlier. Over time, I am hoping that my sleep schedule will get more reasonable. Right now I've woken up in the middle of the night, though that is really because I am worried about taxes. I have put that off too long, and I'll have to scramble to get it done. After I sign off, I need to gather up anything that seems relevant. If I can find everything, then I will probably reward myself my going to see the Goldberg Variations tomorrow evening (unfortunately playing up in North York). If I can have the first draft of the taxes done by Friday, then I think I will go to Hamilton on Sunday to see the Pacifica Quartet (I don't even know if there are still tickets, but I imagine so).
It is kind of silly to still be procrastinating so much at my age (both on that documentation and on the taxes), but I really have been extremely busy. And for better or worse, I have almost never really suffered the consequences of putting things off until almost the last moment. In the back of my mind, I know how long it will take me to do something in "crunch time," and while I don't like to work that way, when I am dealing with multiple projects as I was most of the last two years, something is going to be pushed off until nearly the last moment. That said, I could have given up some of my weekend activities had it ever felt like a true crisis. That would have made me even more resentful of how much my previous job sucked out of me of course, but I could have done it. Probably it would have been more beneficial for me to really suffer once or twice due to procrastination. (I have done half-assed jobs on paper abstracts and not gotten to go to conferences I wanted to attend, but that hardly counts.) At this point it may be too much to expect me to change too much. The tiger not changing its stripes and so forth...
Anyway, I am kind of exhausted just looking over my last week at the old job, and now I have to go scrounge around, looking for my tax records. See ya.
* Certainly, I have a file cabinet worth of material remain to be scanned eventually, though I got through a lot of files. One of the more amusing was a file from my senior year of undergrad where I was part of a study group that pulled together a guide to English literature ahead of our comps. Also, apparently I read DeLillo's The Names back in my early 20s. I have no recollection of this, so I will keep it on the reading list. If I ever come across my reading log (which I maintained until my mid 20s), there probably will be a few other books that really surprise me.
Unlike the previous vacation, when we came back from Chicago, we (or rather I) only had a few hours to recover before going back to work. The kids had Monday off from school.
Monday was a slowish day fortunately. Most of our Canadian clients had Easter off, though actually a few were open. I had a few things to take care related to the new position. I had half-thought I would manically stay up and write a short piece for SFYS (begun on the Chicago trip) and get it out before midnight. That is the equivalent of slipping something under the professor's door. In the end I was just too exhausted but more importantly I was feeling guilty about undone work, particularly the write-up for a modelling project that was due a month or so ago. Normally, we would not be that far behind, but this is a case where the client grossly underpaid for the amount of work done, and I ended up doing almost all the work in the evenings on my own time and was somewhat resentful. It certainly ended up as the last thing I would work on when I did have time, though I knew the day of reckoning was looming.
The first part of the week was wrapping up another big documentation job, and then finally notifying the PM that I was leaving. It's more than a little ironic that another consultant is coming in and arguing that they have to completely revamp the model, so the shelf life of the model we developed might be extremely short. I would be far more upset about this were I not moving on.
The middle of the week I tried to close out a long-term project that has been dragging on for well over a year. I made a bit of progress and handed over my notes, but this is one that is going to be hard to salvage. I also was furiously sorting and scanning documents to try to clean up the office. In the end, I think I did a pretty good job.
Towards the end of Wed. I got the email from the client I had been dreading and I proposed that I send draft documentation on Friday and then clean things up next week. Not unreasonably, the client felt that I might just vanish, so he counter-proposed that I get a solid draft to them Thurs. and they would provide comments and we could wrap things up on Friday. That meant that I finally had to get going on the documentation. I should say that it was not the case that I had done nothing -- I had a decent outline and a few sections already written, but there was a long ways to go. I pretty much locked myself in my office and started working.
As it happens, I did have to head out Thurs. for my farewell lunch, but otherwise I did almost nothing but write this report. I stayed much later than I wanted (I honestly can't remember if it was 11:30 or after midnight). On the flip side, this forced me to take a cab, and I brought back both pieces of art, rather than doing one each evening on the train (and as it rained very heavily, I would have been out of luck on the second day). While there were still a few holes in the documentation, I did get a solid draft out before I left.
Friday, I had a surprise urgent question from a different client, so I dealt with that in the morning. (And let them know afterwards, that they would have to work through my colleagues after that, though hopefully that was the last major loose end for that project.) I made a few edits to the documentation, pasting in some missing charts. Then I got the comments back. The good news is that there were relatively few comments and no major ones. However, it was almost the end of the day. At this point, the client felt that they had something in hand that they could work with, whereas before the documentation was essentially vaporware. So the client agreed to wait until Monday for the final, final version. I almost forgot that I stopped everything at 4:15 to take 7 boxes of books from my old office to the new one. That was a bit of an adventure, but it just made so much sense not to have to bring them all back home and then lug them over to the new office.
I discussed it with my colleagues and we agreed that I would keep the work laptop over the weekend and drop it off on Sunday. While my wife was kind of appalled when she found out, I decided this was the best solution.
What I forgot to mention was that he had a HVAC technician in to deal with an issue, and it turned out, he needed to go through the wall right where a bookcase was! So I spent a big chunk of Saturday moving books and boxes. The basement is still all messed up. I did take a few breaks to bike over to the library (there was snow on the way back!) and to get groceries. While I didn't find the hair clippers I have been looking for, I found a few more missing jazz CDs (still not the Zoot Sims or Brubeck Take Five discs though). More importantly, I found the hard drive I used at work in Vancouver and it did have quite a few missing scanned files. Not absolutely everything, but enough that I decided not to stay up all night trying to restore my missing email files (and thus I got a bit of sleep!).
Sunday we had the HVAC technician come back around and handle the problem. I have no idea why he wanted to schedule for Sunday, but I guess that was for the best. It took him a couple more hours than expected, but the job got done. Then I headed into work for the very, very last time. I had one small issue to review for the on-going job and then the final edits to the documentation. And I took the opportunity to do some final scanning and sorting, though eventually I just got sick of it. (I might well have a lot more time free in the evenings now that this phase of backing up documents is finally over.*) It didn't really help my mood that it snowed quite a bit that afternoon, and I hadn't expected it, so I didn't have the right kind of footware. I'd also hoped to make a stop at the AGO, but that was just a pipe dream. I probably won't go this weekend either, but perhaps the weekend after that I can check out the newish Outsiders exhibit.
The problem was that this took up a bit more time than I expected and I was really scrambling Monday morning to pull everything together for the new position. I couldn't find some documentation, and I couldn't find the signed copy of the offer letter (fortunately, I had scanned and sent one the previous Monday). Most importantly, I hadn't realized that the on-line training would take quite so long, and I was chastised (mildly) for this. Nonetheless, I got through most of the day reasonably well.
The biggest adjustment will be to try to come in to work earlier, but then I also get to come home much earlier. Over time, I am hoping that my sleep schedule will get more reasonable. Right now I've woken up in the middle of the night, though that is really because I am worried about taxes. I have put that off too long, and I'll have to scramble to get it done. After I sign off, I need to gather up anything that seems relevant. If I can find everything, then I will probably reward myself my going to see the Goldberg Variations tomorrow evening (unfortunately playing up in North York). If I can have the first draft of the taxes done by Friday, then I think I will go to Hamilton on Sunday to see the Pacifica Quartet (I don't even know if there are still tickets, but I imagine so).
It is kind of silly to still be procrastinating so much at my age (both on that documentation and on the taxes), but I really have been extremely busy. And for better or worse, I have almost never really suffered the consequences of putting things off until almost the last moment. In the back of my mind, I know how long it will take me to do something in "crunch time," and while I don't like to work that way, when I am dealing with multiple projects as I was most of the last two years, something is going to be pushed off until nearly the last moment. That said, I could have given up some of my weekend activities had it ever felt like a true crisis. That would have made me even more resentful of how much my previous job sucked out of me of course, but I could have done it. Probably it would have been more beneficial for me to really suffer once or twice due to procrastination. (I have done half-assed jobs on paper abstracts and not gotten to go to conferences I wanted to attend, but that hardly counts.) At this point it may be too much to expect me to change too much. The tiger not changing its stripes and so forth...
Anyway, I am kind of exhausted just looking over my last week at the old job, and now I have to go scrounge around, looking for my tax records. See ya.
* Certainly, I have a file cabinet worth of material remain to be scanned eventually, though I got through a lot of files. One of the more amusing was a file from my senior year of undergrad where I was part of a study group that pulled together a guide to English literature ahead of our comps. Also, apparently I read DeLillo's The Names back in my early 20s. I have no recollection of this, so I will keep it on the reading list. If I ever come across my reading log (which I maintained until my mid 20s), there probably will be a few other books that really surprise me.
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Early (Theatre) Warnings - (mostly) Fall 2016
Since this blog is all-jumbled up at the moment -- and I am still thinking about theatre and other live productions -- I'll list a few things that I have come across that are a bit further away, predominantly events that should occur in Toronto in the fall. Almost all of these have come from the DPS website.
The rights for Annie Baker's The Aliens lapsed (today in fact), but Company Theatre may put it on in the summer or fall or in 2017. Hard to say.
Alumnae Theatre will be doing August: Osage County in April in fact (so this is actually fairly short notice), but I will not be going. I think the play is quite interesting (if a bit exhausting), but I saw the original Steppenwolf production, and I just don't want anything to blur my memories of that.
I really haven't had a chance to reflect on A Man Vanishes over at Videofag, but the fact that the space is closing soon does sadden me a bit. There are three or four events in April and May (so again, sort of short notice -- sorry). I'm thinking seriously of going to Perfect Gays in late April, but then skipping Ana, which is only on for a single day (April 30). I'm fairly likely to go see Sheets, which is apparently the last production that will be put on in the Videofag space. I suspect I will be challenged and feel a bit squeamish about these pieces, but that is kind of the whole point about Videofag and its mission, and it is definitely the kind of thing I don't expose myself to all that often.
Harold Green will be doing Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment in May. At first, I didn't plan on going, but I've dug a bit deeper and this is a bit of a subversive play, so maybe I will try to squeeze it in. (Oh, I see Eric Peterson will be performing in it. That makes it even more interesting, as I've wanted to see him in something in Toronto; it may mean the tickets will actually become a hot item. Too bad they are performing up in North York...)
Tracy Letts' Bug will be coming to Toronto in late May, but I will pass on this one. And Coal Mine has already launched into Letts' Killer Joe, but it's another play I just don't want to see. If you do want to go, the run will probably sell out, so try to get tickets now. I'm a lot more interested in Letts' later work, not his early plays. I was a bit bummed out to miss out on his latest play at Steppenwolf -- Mary Page Marlowe -- but it will probably start making the rounds over the next few years. I should eventually catch it.
Similarly, Albee's The Goat or Who is Sylvia will be coming through in early June, but I did not like this play at all, since I found the characters' actions unconvincing on every level. Still, most Albee plays are worth seeing at least once.
Perhaps the strangest production yet is some space called "The Garage" on Augusta plans to put on Beckett's Play in early July. I have doubts that this will happen, but I will keep monitoring the situation (I'm starting to think it may be this Fringe show that caught my attention). I've never seen this (nor Happy Days), so I would want to go. Though I am considerably more interested in watching Happy Days, so hopefully it will be mounted here within a few years.
I've already talked about Soulpepper's upcoming 2016 shows here, and there are several interesting plays. I'm most interested in Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy and Susie-Lori Park's Father Comes Home from the Wars. These are must see plays for me (and indeed I already have my tickets...).
I talk about Tarragon next season here, and I may see The Watershed (though I am going to feel less compelled if I see Eric Peterson in The Model Apartment) and almost certainly Sequence and Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses. Upon further reflection, I probably will be subscribing for the season -- it looks like a particularly strong one.
Coal Mine continues to be a bit hit or miss for me. I think in the 2016-17 season I'll probably only go see Dennis Kelly's Orphans, which will run for most of April.
The Howland Company was supposed to be doing The Glass Menagerie in early Sept., or at least they secured the rights, but it does not appear to be on their website. I suspect this is another phantom production. They seem most interested in putting on plays relevant to Gen X and/or the Twitter Generation (which seems to be the goal of RedOne as well, though they have a slightly grittier aesthetic). I am not completely uninterested in this kind of work, so I will try to drop in periodically on their website and see what they are up to.
Bloor West Village Players* are supposed to launch their season with Les Belles Soeurs in Sept. I hope that comes to pass! It does appear to still be on, though I am not at all familiar with the other plays in their upcoming season. Indeed in late April-early May (the last play of this season), they are doing a comedy called Fox on the Fairway. I might go, though it is all about golf, which bores me terribly. Still, it is not really about the game per se, but madcap antics at the golf club. Some critics are comparing it to a Marx Brothers farce, though I wonder if that raises expectations a bit too high. (Note: it definitely did...)
Someone has the rights for Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon in early Sept. It would be worth seeing if they actually pull off a full production. Wallace Shawn writes in a very idiosyncratic style and it is aimed at a very specific audience (New York intellectuals), but I've found seeing his work quite rewarding in the past.
Speaking of phantom productions, Alumnae has put down markers on 3 plays for the same time slot in late Sept. That may mean they don't know which they want to do, and it depends on the directors' availability, or they will do all three in the season, but change the timing. I'm not sure. The first is a fairly recent (2005) play called Colder Than Here by Laura Wade. It is supposed to be an offbeat comedy about a woman dying of cancer and trying to arrange everything for her funeral ahead of time, both to ensure her funeral is "green" and as a bit of a coping mechanism. I'd probably go.
The second is Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive, which I have no interest in seeing. I've already passed up an opportunity to see this in Chicago and I'll pass it up here as well. It's kind of frustrating, since this is the Vogel play produced the most often, whereas I want to see Hot and Throbbing or even Desdemona (though I don't think that is remounted very often).
They are also considering Melissa James Gibson's This, which I am 95% sure I saw in Chicago at Theatre Wit (one of the last shows I would have seen before decamping for Vancouver in fact). I might go see it again, though it isn't a particularly high priority.
On the other hand, Hart House is known for sticking to their announced schedule. They just put that up. I'll definitely see Wajdi Mouawad's Tidelines in mid Sept. I'll probably skip Much Ado About Nothing in Nov., since I saw a version recently at Tarragon, though I might change my mind.
In late Sept. Tafelmusik is doing Handel's Water Music, which I'll probably go see. I've listened to their recording so many times that it would be cool to see live. In mid Oct. they have an interesting concert programmed around the cello. But that is pretty much it. I doubt I will see any other concerts in the 2016-17 season, and I don't plan on subscribing.
In November, Canadian Stage will be doing Payne's Constellations, though I won't be there. I thought the script was terrible.
What Canadian Stage should be doing is Caryl Churchill's Love and Information. Astonishingly, they are going to be scooped by a high school production! Etobicoke School of the Arts is doing this show, next weekend in fact. I am kind of torn. I have no problem going to see a college production of some play, but I just can't see travelling an hour out of my way to see a high school production. Someone in Toronto will surely put on the play in the next year or so, right? If so, I will post it here.**
On a more positive note, I was checking out what rights have been applied for at DPS, and apparently Stupid F***ing Bird is coming to Toronto in March 2017, so I will definitely keep an eye out for that.
This is perhaps the strangest coincidence. I was updating the post about Shostakovich, and there is a short blurb in there about how I try to catch Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time whenever possible. Apparently, a group performed it last year in Toronto, but quite under the radar. To prevent that from happening again, I did a bit of searching, and apparently the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Chamber Soloists will be performing this on Dec. 10, 2016, but all the way out in Kingston! That's quite a ways to go, though I suppose I could manage it if there was something worth seeing at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Still, I will see if there is someone to contact in the fall to find out if they will also be doing this same concert programme a bit closer to home. Today I just saw that Amici will be doing the Quartet for the End of the Time on April 30, 2017, which should be pretty incredible, and I probably don't need to hear it in Dec. and then 4 months later, so I'll basically wait to see how soon I can order single tickets for next season. I may also see if anyone from work is interested in going.
In terms of very long-term planning, the Moordale Concerts look pretty interesting. I may not subscribe to the entire 2016-17 series, but Jan 22, 2017 the Heath Quartet is doing Dvorak's String Quartet 13, and on April 23 the New Orford String Quartet will be doing Schubert's String Quintet, which is always worth seeing, so I will try to pencil that in as soon as I get a 2017 calendar! And then just a week later Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time as I mentioned above. So April is already looking busy!
The Royal Conservatory has their new dates up, and it looks like I would pick and choose. I may or may not be able to get to 4 dates to make it an actual subscription. The most interesting is Nicola Benedetti playing Baroque hits including Vivaldi's the Four Seasons on March 3; I'm pretty sure this would be a higher order of professionalism than the concert at Casa Loma, but the outdoor setting is also nice and has its own attractions. Another interesting concert on Feb. 10 features the bassoon, though not Mozart's Bassoon Concerto (I'm not sure I've ever seen this live.). In addition to Villa-Lobos’s Ciranda des sete notas, they will be doing Sibelius’s Symphony 5. I'll probably go to this concert. I'm somewhat torn over the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble concert on Oct. 21 where the highlight is Schubert's Octet but they are also doing Mozart's Quintet for Horns and Strings K 407. I just saw the Schubert and it isn't one that I want to see over and over. Still, I may go in the end. Nov. 13 there is an all-Bach concert (and indeed it is all-Bach, all-violin) featuring Viktoria Mullova, which is intriguing. The JCT Trio concert on Jan. 21 looks worth attending as well, though I hope I'll be at TRB in D.C. around then. Finally, while this is a bit pricier, Gidon Kremer and his chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica will be in town Feb. 4 doing an all-Russian program ending with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. If I pick up one of the jazz concerts, I can probably get to 4-5 events. Anyway, there is still quite a bit of time to think about this.
I think that's enough long-range planning for one post. Back to catching up on my blog backlog. Ciao.
* My interest in this troupe has declined dramatically, and I currently plan on skipping all their future productions, including Les Belles Soeurs. C'est dommage.
** There really are no professional or semi-professional productions of Love and Information anywhere nearby. In April 2017, it will be put on in Philadelphia by the Theatre School at Temple University. I probably would not travel just for that, but if the dates happen to mesh with Spring Break, perhaps a trip to Philadelphia and Washington DC next year would round out the East Coast cities that the kids really ought to see.
The rights for Annie Baker's The Aliens lapsed (today in fact), but Company Theatre may put it on in the summer or fall or in 2017. Hard to say.
Alumnae Theatre will be doing August: Osage County in April in fact (so this is actually fairly short notice), but I will not be going. I think the play is quite interesting (if a bit exhausting), but I saw the original Steppenwolf production, and I just don't want anything to blur my memories of that.
I really haven't had a chance to reflect on A Man Vanishes over at Videofag, but the fact that the space is closing soon does sadden me a bit. There are three or four events in April and May (so again, sort of short notice -- sorry). I'm thinking seriously of going to Perfect Gays in late April, but then skipping Ana, which is only on for a single day (April 30). I'm fairly likely to go see Sheets, which is apparently the last production that will be put on in the Videofag space. I suspect I will be challenged and feel a bit squeamish about these pieces, but that is kind of the whole point about Videofag and its mission, and it is definitely the kind of thing I don't expose myself to all that often.
Harold Green will be doing Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment in May. At first, I didn't plan on going, but I've dug a bit deeper and this is a bit of a subversive play, so maybe I will try to squeeze it in. (Oh, I see Eric Peterson will be performing in it. That makes it even more interesting, as I've wanted to see him in something in Toronto; it may mean the tickets will actually become a hot item. Too bad they are performing up in North York...)
Tracy Letts' Bug will be coming to Toronto in late May, but I will pass on this one. And Coal Mine has already launched into Letts' Killer Joe, but it's another play I just don't want to see. If you do want to go, the run will probably sell out, so try to get tickets now. I'm a lot more interested in Letts' later work, not his early plays. I was a bit bummed out to miss out on his latest play at Steppenwolf -- Mary Page Marlowe -- but it will probably start making the rounds over the next few years. I should eventually catch it.
Similarly, Albee's The Goat or Who is Sylvia will be coming through in early June, but I did not like this play at all, since I found the characters' actions unconvincing on every level. Still, most Albee plays are worth seeing at least once.
Perhaps the strangest production yet is some space called "The Garage" on Augusta plans to put on Beckett's Play in early July. I have doubts that this will happen, but I will keep monitoring the situation (I'm starting to think it may be this Fringe show that caught my attention). I've never seen this (nor Happy Days), so I would want to go. Though I am considerably more interested in watching Happy Days, so hopefully it will be mounted here within a few years.
I've already talked about Soulpepper's upcoming 2016 shows here, and there are several interesting plays. I'm most interested in Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy and Susie-Lori Park's Father Comes Home from the Wars. These are must see plays for me (and indeed I already have my tickets...).
I talk about Tarragon next season here, and I may see The Watershed (though I am going to feel less compelled if I see Eric Peterson in The Model Apartment) and almost certainly Sequence and Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses. Upon further reflection, I probably will be subscribing for the season -- it looks like a particularly strong one.
Coal Mine continues to be a bit hit or miss for me. I think in the 2016-17 season I'll probably only go see Dennis Kelly's Orphans, which will run for most of April.
The Howland Company was supposed to be doing The Glass Menagerie in early Sept., or at least they secured the rights, but it does not appear to be on their website. I suspect this is another phantom production. They seem most interested in putting on plays relevant to Gen X and/or the Twitter Generation (which seems to be the goal of RedOne as well, though they have a slightly grittier aesthetic). I am not completely uninterested in this kind of work, so I will try to drop in periodically on their website and see what they are up to.
Bloor West Village Players* are supposed to launch their season with Les Belles Soeurs in Sept. I hope that comes to pass! It does appear to still be on, though I am not at all familiar with the other plays in their upcoming season. Indeed in late April-early May (the last play of this season), they are doing a comedy called Fox on the Fairway. I might go, though it is all about golf, which bores me terribly. Still, it is not really about the game per se, but madcap antics at the golf club. Some critics are comparing it to a Marx Brothers farce, though I wonder if that raises expectations a bit too high. (Note: it definitely did...)
Someone has the rights for Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon in early Sept. It would be worth seeing if they actually pull off a full production. Wallace Shawn writes in a very idiosyncratic style and it is aimed at a very specific audience (New York intellectuals), but I've found seeing his work quite rewarding in the past.
Speaking of phantom productions, Alumnae has put down markers on 3 plays for the same time slot in late Sept. That may mean they don't know which they want to do, and it depends on the directors' availability, or they will do all three in the season, but change the timing. I'm not sure. The first is a fairly recent (2005) play called Colder Than Here by Laura Wade. It is supposed to be an offbeat comedy about a woman dying of cancer and trying to arrange everything for her funeral ahead of time, both to ensure her funeral is "green" and as a bit of a coping mechanism. I'd probably go.
The second is Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive, which I have no interest in seeing. I've already passed up an opportunity to see this in Chicago and I'll pass it up here as well. It's kind of frustrating, since this is the Vogel play produced the most often, whereas I want to see Hot and Throbbing or even Desdemona (though I don't think that is remounted very often).
They are also considering Melissa James Gibson's This, which I am 95% sure I saw in Chicago at Theatre Wit (one of the last shows I would have seen before decamping for Vancouver in fact). I might go see it again, though it isn't a particularly high priority.
On the other hand, Hart House is known for sticking to their announced schedule. They just put that up. I'll definitely see Wajdi Mouawad's Tidelines in mid Sept. I'll probably skip Much Ado About Nothing in Nov., since I saw a version recently at Tarragon, though I might change my mind.
In late Sept. Tafelmusik is doing Handel's Water Music, which I'll probably go see. I've listened to their recording so many times that it would be cool to see live. In mid Oct. they have an interesting concert programmed around the cello. But that is pretty much it. I doubt I will see any other concerts in the 2016-17 season, and I don't plan on subscribing.
In November, Canadian Stage will be doing Payne's Constellations, though I won't be there. I thought the script was terrible.
What Canadian Stage should be doing is Caryl Churchill's Love and Information. Astonishingly, they are going to be scooped by a high school production! Etobicoke School of the Arts is doing this show, next weekend in fact. I am kind of torn. I have no problem going to see a college production of some play, but I just can't see travelling an hour out of my way to see a high school production. Someone in Toronto will surely put on the play in the next year or so, right? If so, I will post it here.**
On a more positive note, I was checking out what rights have been applied for at DPS, and apparently Stupid F***ing Bird is coming to Toronto in March 2017, so I will definitely keep an eye out for that.
This is perhaps the strangest coincidence. I was updating the post about Shostakovich, and there is a short blurb in there about how I try to catch Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time whenever possible. Apparently, a group performed it last year in Toronto, but quite under the radar. To prevent that from happening again, I did a bit of searching, and apparently the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Chamber Soloists will be performing this on Dec. 10, 2016, but all the way out in Kingston! That's quite a ways to go, though I suppose I could manage it if there was something worth seeing at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Still, I will see if there is someone to contact in the fall to find out if they will also be doing this same concert programme a bit closer to home. Today I just saw that Amici will be doing the Quartet for the End of the Time on April 30, 2017, which should be pretty incredible, and I probably don't need to hear it in Dec. and then 4 months later, so I'll basically wait to see how soon I can order single tickets for next season. I may also see if anyone from work is interested in going.
In terms of very long-term planning, the Moordale Concerts look pretty interesting. I may not subscribe to the entire 2016-17 series, but Jan 22, 2017 the Heath Quartet is doing Dvorak's String Quartet 13, and on April 23 the New Orford String Quartet will be doing Schubert's String Quintet, which is always worth seeing, so I will try to pencil that in as soon as I get a 2017 calendar! And then just a week later Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time as I mentioned above. So April is already looking busy!
The Royal Conservatory has their new dates up, and it looks like I would pick and choose. I may or may not be able to get to 4 dates to make it an actual subscription. The most interesting is Nicola Benedetti playing Baroque hits including Vivaldi's the Four Seasons on March 3; I'm pretty sure this would be a higher order of professionalism than the concert at Casa Loma, but the outdoor setting is also nice and has its own attractions. Another interesting concert on Feb. 10 features the bassoon, though not Mozart's Bassoon Concerto (I'm not sure I've ever seen this live.). In addition to Villa-Lobos’s Ciranda des sete notas, they will be doing Sibelius’s Symphony 5. I'll probably go to this concert. I'm somewhat torn over the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble concert on Oct. 21 where the highlight is Schubert's Octet but they are also doing Mozart's Quintet for Horns and Strings K 407. I just saw the Schubert and it isn't one that I want to see over and over. Still, I may go in the end. Nov. 13 there is an all-Bach concert (and indeed it is all-Bach, all-violin) featuring Viktoria Mullova, which is intriguing. The JCT Trio concert on Jan. 21 looks worth attending as well, though I hope I'll be at TRB in D.C. around then. Finally, while this is a bit pricier, Gidon Kremer and his chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica will be in town Feb. 4 doing an all-Russian program ending with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. If I pick up one of the jazz concerts, I can probably get to 4-5 events. Anyway, there is still quite a bit of time to think about this.
I think that's enough long-range planning for one post. Back to catching up on my blog backlog. Ciao.
* My interest in this troupe has declined dramatically, and I currently plan on skipping all their future productions, including Les Belles Soeurs. C'est dommage.
** There really are no professional or semi-professional productions of Love and Information anywhere nearby. In April 2017, it will be put on in Philadelphia by the Theatre School at Temple University. I probably would not travel just for that, but if the dates happen to mesh with Spring Break, perhaps a trip to Philadelphia and Washington DC next year would round out the East Coast cities that the kids really ought to see.
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