Sketching Out the Boston-NYC Trip

Had I booked everything a few weeks back, I probably would have made a few different choices.  Anyway, I am supposed to land in Boston around 10:30 on Thurs.  I'm assuming an hour or more to get off the plane and through customs.  I think I'll head over to the Gardner Museum first (it's supposed to be free for me) and then to the Museum of Fine Arts, which is open quite late on Thurs.  I haven't entirely decided whether to book tickets to Hokusai in advance or when I get there.   I'm leaning towards just getting the timed ticket when I get there, as my schedule is a bit unpredictable.  I've gone ahead and booked a night in a youth hostel(!), but everything else was crazy expensive.  I might have stayed somewhere nicer with free breakfast but I have to leave for the airport at close to 4 am, so there just isn't any point.  If it were allowed, I would probably just go to the airport and crash there.  I'm actually a bit annoyed that there are essentially no hotels near Logan, and at this time of day, I'll have to cab it.

Assuming I make my flight, I'll be in Newark early and will then head into Manhattan.  Friday will be the big day for museums.  I know that I want to see MOMA, the Met and the Sarah Sze exhibit at the Guggenheim.  Sometime in the late afternoon, I'll stop by the hotel and drop off my bag.  If there's time I might squeeze in something else. Then I head over to Brooklyn to see Love & Rockets.  I hope it is worth it.  I had hoped to stay in Brooklyn but there just is nothing in that general area.  Once I have to get back onto the subway, I might as well just stay in one place in Manhattan.

Sat. I am planning on watching Stoppard's Leopoldstadt and Some Like It Hot.  I probably can squeeze in a trip to the Whitney before one show and possibly the Frick or something like that between the shows. We'll see.  I had thought seriously about seeing the revival of Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, but the timing just isn't great.  Also I see that it is a 3 hour play(!), and I have so little patience for these overstuffed plays these days.  I did see that Chris Jones loved it when it played the Goodman, and I generally agree with his views, but others have been much harsher.  Anyway, it isn't worth changing my plans to stay another day.  If this production transfers to Toronto via Mirvish or some other company in Toronto tackles it, then I'll go see it.

Sunday, I head in to the Brooklyn Museum (in part to see It's Pablo-Matic), and then will spend some time with my cousin and his wife.  I haven't seen them in several years.  And then I'll probably just head back to the hotel to rest and make sure I head out in time to catch my flight on Monday.  This time it's at noon, so it will be a much less stressful experience.  I'm sure I'll enjoy myself (assuming I don't miss that early flight out of Logan!), but I wouldn't exactly call this a relaxing trip.  Anyway, I should finish booking a few more things tonight.

Super Grouchy

I'm generally pretty cranky and grouchy most days, but it's going to be a lot worse for the next month or so.  There are three primary reasons.  First, they are reconfiguring our space at work, and my team is being shuffled over into a different area.  While I am a "tethered" employee with a guaranteed space, my colleagues are not and are going to be tossed into the maelstrom of hot-desking.  It's pretty much guaranteed that I won't be sitting near any of the people on my team, and generally I'll be a lot less happy at work (and my happiness quotient there is already pretty low...). 

Second, I decided there was no way I could write all the broken sestinas I need (45-50) to make a unified project out of them, or at least by my self-imposed deadline.  I decided that I might be able to get up to 15 by May 31 (though even that will be a stretch) and combine them with my last draft of my second chapbook and send that off to Brick Books.  (This will be my first foray into submitting my creative writing work in some time, excepting the mini-scripts that go off to SFYS.)  But maybe this is for the best.  While some of the sestinas work better than others, perhaps a whole book of them would just be too much.  Anyway, I started typing up some of the ones I wrote while at various gigs at The Rex.  But I just realized that one of them is missing!  This was written back in mid-April when I was wrapping up a book review, and I wrote out a sestina on a separate piece of paper.  I'm such a packrat that it is almost impossible that I simply tossed the paper out (after I had typed up my book review), but it might still be another day or two before I can lay my hands on it.  So this makes me pretty grouchy, and I'll either find it tonight (and have one less thing to be grouchy about) or I will give up the search and be quite livid indeed.

Finally, I have been trying to lose weight in a somewhat passive way for a while.  I've pretty much stabilized my exercise routine to 2 evenings/week at the gym and swimming on Tuesday or Thursday (and I'll be swimming tonight).  On top of biking to work or somewhere downtown 4-6 times/week.  So my minutes of vigorous exercise are way above the recommended level, and I can't quite imagine how heavy I would be without this exercise.  But the real issue is I don't sleep enough and I get hungry and snack at night.  Throughout my late 30s I was probably eating essentially 4 times a day -- and the body gets used to that and packs on the pounds.  My eating habits are a bit better now, but not quite where they should be.  The only time I have been able to lose weight was when I started skipping a meal, typically breakfast.  (This was pre-COVID days.)  I'm going to try that again and see how it goes this time around (despite my stress levels being elevated).  It will get easier around the 2 month mark, but I am going to be super cranky the first month.  Not really looking forward to this change, but hopefully I'll get down off of the weight plateau I'm at right now.

To feel slightly better, I did just make a few donations to the Star's Fresh Air Fund and some other charities, but I'm still pretty glum overall.  That's really all I have to say at the moment.

Update: It looks like I tracked down the missing sestina.  It was in a notebook and not on a loose piece of paper, which is a surprise, as that isn't quite how I remember it.  What was a bigger surprise is that I have two complete sestinas in the notebook, and that I don't remember at all but is good news (assuming I still like them on second reading...).  So I guess I can only grouse and gripe about work and dieting.

Actually one other small positive thing just came up (and I probably should try to dwell a bit more on the positive than the negative).  I never did get around to booking the other parts of my NYC trip (which I really have to do tonight!) and then I learned that Love and Rockets has apparently decided to tour again -- and they will be in Brooklyn on the Friday I am in NYC!  Since I haven't booked anything for that evening, I can see if there are still tickets (and just possibly stay overnight in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan).  I'll have to see if it all comes together (and doesn't cost an arm and a leg), but this might be a pretty cool update to my plans.  It actually reminds me a bit of one of the first Camper Van Beethoven reunion shows I managed to see in New York on a business trip through a combination of serendipity and some grifting...

Victoria Day Outing

I tried pretty hard to make this a busy Victoria Day.  I started out at the gym.  It was supposed to close at 1 pm, but then they announced they needed everyone out by 12:30 to close at 1.  I get where they are coming from, but this definitely should have been communicated better.  I would have turned up a bit sooner.  In the end, I got in a reasonable workout but I would have liked another 10 minutes (and not have felt so rushed at the end...).  I also managed to get my hair cut.

I had decided a while back that I would watch Fellini's Amarcord at The Revue on Roncesvalles.  I don't think I've ever watched a movie there.  There was another 2nd run movie theatre I went to on Bloor (west of what is now Hot Docs, though I don't think it was the Paradise) in the 90s.  But I surely didn't go all the way to Roncesvalles. 

I had sort of hoped to combine this with a trip to MOCA, but only one of three exhibits is actually open.  The other two open next week, but I might as well try to make it on June 4, when MOCA will be free.  Since I wasn't going to be biking over to MOCA, then it made more sense to just take the TTC (even though I have been avoiding it), since Amarcord was going to end pretty late and the drivers out that way aren't great to say the least.

Anyway, the Powerplant hasn't reopened with its next set of shows, and the Textile Museum was also closed.  I'll probably go to the AGO next weekend.  In the end, I decided to go to the first set over at The Rex (Tim Posgate on banjo!) and then mosey on over to The Revue.  The first Queen streetcar was short turned, and the next one was quite delayed.  I thought I was going to miss the opening of the movie,* though ultimately I did make it with 10 minutes to spare.  (Unlike the total mess the TTC has made of the Gerrard/Carlton streetcar causing me to miss Shakespeare Bash'd staged reading of The Revenger's Tragedy -- I'm still pretty pissed over that.  If it hadn't just been pouring out, I wouldn't have been in the position of depending on the TTC when in most cases it is just thoroughly unreliable.)

Amarcord was pretty incredible.  Maybe not as "significant" as La Dolce Vita or 8 1/2, but certainly funnier and warmer than either.  I'm glad I made the trek out to see it, but in general getting over to Roncesvalles in too much of a pain, and I'm not going to make a habit of it!

I didn't get quite as much reading or writing done as I would have liked, but overall it was a pretty good day.

* I actually was 5 minutes late to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, but this meant that I slipped in just as the last preview was starting.  Still, I cut it much, much closer than I would have liked.  I guess I am going to the movies a lot more often than I have in years.  I'm sort of looking forward to Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (mid-June) and the new Indiana Jones movie (late June).  There is actually a new Studio Ghibli film called How Do You Live? coming out in mid July, but no word yet on whether there will be a US/Canada release.

Recent Adjustments to the Reading List

As I just mentioned in the last post, I will bump up Faulkner's The Wild Palms though I still don't imagine I'll get to it before the fall.  In honor of his passing, I will probably add Martin Amis's Time's Arrow and move it up to hit over the summer.  It's a relatively short novel, so that helps.  I was also considering adding The Information, though some consider it part of the "London Trilogy" with Money and London Fields.  I was definitely considering tackling those again, but that would be more of a 2024 or even 2025 venture, so that's when I will read The Information.  (It's not a full review, but I do talk a bit about Other People in this ancient post.)

I don't often read works in the proper months.  So I read George Lamming and Sam Selvon too early, i.e. not in Feb.  I'm not sure how much Asian fiction I'll get to in May, though I have been reading a fair bit of Evelyn Lau's poetry recently.*  There is a small chance I'll wrap up Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March in time, and I'll at least start in on All About H. Hatterr in May, but it is hard to say.  I did request Murakami's latest collection of short stories, First Person Singular, from the library, and I should be able to start in on that as well. 

I actually need to finish booking some things tomorrow for my upcoming trip to NYC, but I have spent some time thinking over what books to bring on the trip.  My ideal books are ones that I think I'll enjoy but could part with at the airport...  I'm leaning toward taking Shields's Larry's Party and Hamsun's Mysteries and maybe Shamsie's Home Fire.

Edit (6/12): I actually managed to get through all 3 books on the trip, on top of wandering through museums for hours and catching a play and a musical!  I didn't much care for Hamsun's Mysteries for reasons I may get into at some point.

* There is quite an interesting tangent here, but I think I'll hold off until I review her recent collection, Cactus Gardens.

Theatre for Book Lovers or Music Junkies

I just saw two completely different plays this weekend.  Boom X is over at Crow's Theatre.  It is a one-person show that delves into music and the main current events between 1969 and 1995.  Rick Miller does a very good job in mimicking the sound of the different bands and occasionally substitutes his voice for political figures on screen.  I will say his George H.W. Bush was more on point than his Reagan, though his take on Thatcher was surprisingly good.  He also interviews four Gen Xers that were part of his life.  It's hard to really describe it, but if you have any interest in the 80s at all, you should go.  It runs for one more week.

Coal Mine's The Sound Inside is a hot ticket over at Coal Mine, and I've read that they just added a few more shows.  The playwright, Adam Rapp, also wrote Red Light Winter, which was about two men and a prostitute.  (Apparently, I just missed seeing this at Steppenwolf, as I had either moved to the UK or was getting ready to do so and wasn't able to get out to the theatre.  But I did manage to see an interesting production in Toronto in 2016.)  Anyway, I appreciate that the plot flipped around in a few unpredictable ways.  While the professor (of creative writing!) ended up in an inappropriate relationship with her student, it didn't turn out the way I imagined it at all.  I did enjoy this, but it felt so aimed at the type of theatre-goer who is immersed in the New York Review of Books (or at least the NYTimes book section) and considers things that happen in books to be just as important as what happens in real life.  The play namedrops Salinger and David Forster Wallace naturally.  At one point, the professor talks about how she collects first editions of great novels.  There are a fair number of inside jokes aimed at audience members who have read Salinger or Dostoevsky or, a bit more esoterically, James Salter's Light Years.  I actually have read Light Years, though I seem to be one of the few who wasn't completely blown away by it.  I may reread it one day, but it is a pretty low priority.  I will say that this play will probably move Faulkner's The Wild Palms up on my reading list a bit and also lead me to add Wharton's Ethan Frome to the list.  One thing that did appeal to my somewhat snobbish nature is that within the novel-within-the-play written by the student, the main character is going to see a Caryl Churchill play in New York, but Cloud 9 (my favourite) and not Top Girls, which is the one that always seems to be revived.  Even from this short discussion, you can probably tell if The Sound Inside is for you or will just feel it is too precious and even a bit pretentious.

Hating on TIFF

I really do have a love-hate relationship with TIFF, both the international festival and then the TIFF Lightbox where foreign films play the rest of the year (and way more hate than love...).  I've seen a few cool things there, but more often than not, the movies I want to see are in a smaller theatre and are sold out.  That happened to me several times last year.  I probably should get a membership, which would cut down on some of this frustration.  However, I really don't feel I can "reward" them with any membership fees when I am so totally opposed to the TIFF board asking the city every year to reroute streetcars away from their precious festival.  In fact, I will boycott the TIFF festival itself until the day that they stop making this request.  This will be an "interesting" year, since the streetcars would have to be sent up from King to Dundas.  I am hoping that the city will finally have the balls to say no.  Not exactly holding my breath though...

But even beyond that, I think I just wish TIFF Lightbox was better.  It is amazing to me how cruddy their website is.  How hard would it actually be to have a true on-line calendar with everything in one place, instead of having to scroll down a huge list of movies?  I'm particularly peeved because the entire building including the box office was closed last Sunday for some private event.  This just reminds me of how ridiculously elitist TIFF is (and so unconcerned with regular folks like those on the King streetcar!)  So I tried to buy an advance ticket or two, but the backend of their website sends you to Ticketmaster!  Completely unacceptable at every level.

I think at the end of the day I don't think TIFF Lightbox is quite as adventurous with the small foreign movies compared to Facets in Chicago, and I think it certainly doesn't really do enough retrospective series compared to the Siskel Film Center (also in Chicago) or Film Forum in NYC.  Basically, I just wish TIFF was better than it actually was, or conversely I wish that more of the Fellini, Truffaut, Tati, Varda, etc. retrospectives played in other theatres.  (The Paradise up on Bloor is slowly getting there, but it seems to only show a few great movies mixed in with concerts and other odd things to try to pay the bills.)  But TIFF is more or less the only game in town, so I'll probably keep going back.

Update: So I swung by after work.  There was a sign saying the box office was open but there was no one working, and in fact the ground floor was completely empty (even the gift shop was closed).  I waited close to ten minutes and was getting ready to call (probably just to go straight to voicemail) when someone finally showed up.  Of the three movies I wanted to see, two were sold out.  Sadly, this is so typical of TIFF.  She did say that some of the Japanese films would be getting second screenings.  Hopefully this included Spirited Away.  The extra screenings will be announced Wed. and go on sale to the general public on Friday.  So frustrating dealing with TIFF.

Update 2: I ran over to TIFF today right after a lunchtime concert at St. Andrews.  I managed to get a ticket to an extra showing of Tokyo Drifter and then one to The Wind Rises, but the new screening of Spirited Away was already completely sold out!  This was the film I wanted to see the most.  Sigh...  As part of the Ghibli Fest, Spirited Away will be screening at the very tail end of Oct. (perhaps appropriately quite close to Halloween), so I will certainly try to go then but also sign up at Cinemaclock to see if it screens anywhere else locally before then.  Kiki's Delivery Service should be up next in mid-June, and I'll try not to miss that.

Some Book (Buying) Notes

I am trying, generally successfully, to not buy nearly as many books as I used to (and use the libraries more).  I did see a short while back that Jhumpa Lahiri has a new, short novel out called Whereabouts.  I found a fairly cheap copy on-line (with free shipping!) and ordered it.  I'm still waiting on that.  Of course, then a week later I dropped into BMV and found a copy that would have been a buck or two cheaper.  Not quite cheap enough to buy and put in my Little Free Library, however.  I guess if my copy is lost in the mail, I can go back soon and see if it is still there.

I did pick up a copy of Ralph Gustafson's Winter Prophecies, one of his last books.  I also found a signed edition of a different poetry collection, Configurations at Midnight, but with the shipping it was just better to have it sent to the States.

I tried to order a signed copy of one of Joy Williams's short story collections, but the bookseller asked for an extra $20 for shipping to Canada, which I thought was absurd.  Anyway, I may weaken at some point and order it but have it shipped to the States.  (I think what is holding me back is I am still smarting from the idea that I could have picked it up in person if I had made that trip to SF to see the Kronos Quartet...)

There was a bit of a mix-up with my recent order of P.K. Page's The Hidden Room where I had asked for signed copies.  This seemed pretty clear to me from the order, but apparently I should have been clearer with the bookseller.  Now he is going to send the correct order.  At the moment, he isn't asking for the original books back.  I feel badly though and will see if there is some way to return them* (that doesn't cost me too much).

Finally, the last book in this reading list is Koestler's Darkness at Noon.  I'm not entirely sure I have even owned a copy, though probably I did at some point.  Anyway, as I was investigating this, I saw that, quite amazingly, the original German version of Darkness at Noon had been discovered.  There were even a very few edits to the manuscript that hadn't made their way into the translation that Koestler's partner had made at that time, so the entire thing is now available in a updated translation.  Perhaps less incredible but still amusing, the cheapest version I could find was from an English-language bookstore in Tokyo, and this is now winging its way to me across the Pacific.  I'm blanking on it a bit, but there are a few other cases where the late translators can benefit from recent discoveries and generally late adopters (or rather readers) are better off.  I think the argument could be made for the recent Grossman translation of Don Quixote, the new Womack translation of Cela's The Hive (NYRB) and perhaps the Donougher translation of Hugo's Les Miserables.  On the other hand, I wasn't blown away with the more recent Kafka translations and will stick with the ones I grew up with.

* If the weather cooperates, we've agreed to meet up at Word on the Street at the end of the month, and I'll hand over the unsigned copies.

Edit (05/10): I haven't decided if I will update this page or maybe even pin it, but it is starting to feel a little long in the tooth.  I saw 5 upcoming books from NYRB that caught my eye, though I will try pretty hard just to borrow them and not buy them:
Stronghold by Dino Buzzati - a new translation of The Tartar Steppe apparently already out
Ariane, A Russian Girl by Claude Anet
The Limit by Rosalind Belben
Chevengur by Andrey Platonov
The Skin of Dreams by Raymond Queneau

I already read the Buzzati though in the earlier translation.  Still, I would probably consider reading it again.  I'm probably the most interested in the Platonov and the Queneau, though they won't be coming out until Jan. 2024.

Edit (05/18): I have been keeping Saba Sams's Send Nudes in my Amazon wishlist, but then not actually pulling the trigger.  I saw that I could get a fairly reasonably-priced copy from Blackwells.  I then went and did some digging into the reviews.  It is getting decent reviews but not that many raves.  Many of the stories are about young women craving sex, mostly from older men.  This storyline completely icks me out.  Recently, I barely forced myself to finish Mavis Gallant's "In the Tunnel," which was on these same lines.  I think I would still probably read it if it ever turns up in a library over here, but there is no point in buying it, as I would just be too frustrated over the foolish choices of these young women and girls.