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This Wed. evening at Toronto's Jazz Bistro - Bernie Senensky with Stefan Bauer backed by Neil Swainson on bass. Not a huge fan of the Jazz Bistro, but I'll turn out and see how it goes. https://jazzbistro.ca/event/bernie-senensky-with-stefan-bauer/

Somehow slept on this one. Will take a listen tonight and see if there is anywhere to pick up a copy. As it turns out, this inspired me to check and Swainson is playing a set on Wed. at the Jazz Bistro in Toronto, and I might be able to get him to sign it. So this is extra awesome! Still looking forward to the show, but I just don't think there is anywhere to get a physical CD without ordering it through Amazon (and I would need one more day lead time). Sonic Boom only stocks new vinyl and used CDs. The last HMV closed a while ago. I'll call She Said Boom, but I can't imagine they'll have a copy. I guess there is a tiny chance they'll have some for sale at the venue, but Swainson is third or even fourth on the bill. I guess it's worth finding out.

Well, except for Jacques Rivette and Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr and a few others.

Seeing The Hateful 8 in the snowy Western thread reminded me that I actually did see the "Road Show" version in the theatre and that there was an intermission, though I am pretty sure I didn't leave, not sure if Quentin was going to pull a fast one. This is the only recent movie or indeed the only movie since Gandhi (1982) that I recall having an intermission. I'm wondering with so many movies pushing the 3 hour mark (a lot of the Marvel movies as well as Blade Runner 2049) that we might see a return of the intermission. Again, I may be wrong and if anyone has any other examples do let me know. What I'm having a bit of trouble reconstructing is whether HBO (back in the old days) actually included the intermission during various rebroadcasts of Gandhi. I think they actually did, though at some point they would have phased it out. In the streaming era, I wouldn't imagine anyone would program in an intermission.

I was in Sonic Boom (on Spadina in Toronto) over the weekend. It was a bit touch and go, but they weathered the pandemic. I'd say 70% of their floor space is vinyl. (What a change...) An awful lot of it is vastly overpriced new vinyl, but they have a reasonable amount of used LPs for $5, 8 and 10. (I was somewhere else where the cheapest used LPs were $15 or so, and I just walked out.) I got three LPs, but I think it was a bit of a mixed bag. I only recently set up my system to play LPs. Up until then I was just transferring LPs directly to my computer to digitize them. I thought I would enjoy John Lewis The Golden Striker on the new set-up, but sadly there was a ton of surface noise, even though I had checked that there were no scratches. Then I turned to John Handy's Hard Work, and the sound was great, but I didn't like the music at all. It seems to me in the spirit of Adderley's r&b-infused jazz of the 70s, but nowhere near as good. I've heard this was a modest hit at the time, but it is not for me. Interestingly, the cheapest one sounds great and it is a keeper: Joe Newman & Joe Wilder – Hangin' Out (My copy has this exact same promo stamp!) So I guess one out of three isn't so bad? 🙁

Wrapped up Farrell's Troubles. I got about 1/3 into Hamsun's Hunger, then for complicated reasons switched over to reading (and comparing translations) of Gogol's Dead Souls. I defer to Nabokov who thought Guerney's was the best translation, though I also like Reavey in the Norton critical edition, which has the best notes and probably the best reconstruction of Book II. I do not care for Rayfield's recent translation, which is the one that NYRB is publishing.

That's an interesting point. There are quite a few novels that just don't make much sense unless you remember the internet and cell phones don't exist for the characters. Perhaps it is the way DeLillo seems to be writing in the eternal present rather than in a specific era. I grabbed Hunger from the library and will try to start it this week, though I have to wrap up Troubles first. Also, will likely be getting to Reuss's Horace Afoot soon. While this was published in 1997 it also seems to be set in a time before the internet (or at least the narrator has rejected the internet (not the same thing of course)). In fact, he spends most of his time dialing strangers on the phone (another thing that is considerably harder in today's era of cell phones screening out and rejecting unknown callers).

I reread this back in 2018, and I enjoyed it but it didn't strike me as quite as amazing as it did in my 20s. I remembered large chunks of it (as I was watching the movie) but actually had forgotten the ending! (I still enjoyed the movie though.) I'm thinking that if I reread it in 2023 (or more likely 2024), it will stick a lot more this time around.

Halfway through Farrell's Troubles. Living up to the high praise it received. Will try to get to the rest of the trilogy in Jan/Feb. Also about halfway into Al-Aswany's The Yacoubian Building, which is also entertaining. This reminds me a bit of Mafouz's mid-career novels. Probably will read Knut Hamsun's Hunger after these two.

Just starting J.G. Farrell's Troubles, which is the first book in his loosely defined Empire Trilogy. These books have gotten so much praise that it makes me a little leery, but I'm enjoying Troubles so far. It's set in a very run down hotel just outside Dublin and takes place during the "Troubles" of the 1920s. The novel focuses mostly on how the English ruling classes fail to adapt to said "Troubles." I'm seeing some parallels to some of Molly Keane's early novels such as The Rising Tide or Two Days in Aragon. Time After Time is more directly about the decaying English ruling class in Ireland, but was actually written over a decade after Troubles was published, so if anything the influence ran the other way in this case. I'm hoping to get to the rest of the trilogy in Jan. and Feb., though I have a few other novels I'm working my way through, like Knut Hamsun's Hunger and Al-Aswany's The Yacoubian Building.

I actually liked this better than Knives Out, maybe because the hype machine wasn't in overdrive before I got around to watching it.

I enjoyed it. It's very similar to other recordings by Barbara Thompson & Paraphernalia. This is the last recording by Paraphernalia.

Over last couple of days I went through the Bobby Hutcherson Select for the first time in a long time. Also Barbara Thompson's The Last Fandango.

Only stumbled on this recently. Note there are only 4 more days to listen. Sorry! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001dzch 3 interviews: Art Blakey in 1961, Oscar Peterson in 1959 and Sarah Vaughan in 1977.

In the end, I felt The Ministry of Utmost Happiness veered dangerously close to the category of torture porn. The first third was the most successful for me, probably not coincidentally that was the section that had almost nothing to do with Kashmir. It's also a bit interesting that 9/11 is almost a blip to these characters. The aftermath of the train burning (and riot) in Gujarat impacts several characters more, though it still is treated mostly off-screen, as it were. I gather A Burning by Megha Majumdar is not based on this tragedy (as I had assumed) but is more of a fictional composite. I've been thinking of reading A Burning and will move it up a bit on my list. I'm not really enjoying Cosmopolis either, but at least it's short. I've never been that interested in reading about people who think they are "masters of the Universe," even if their feet of clay are on display. I am a bit curious if the character, Eric, is just as insufferable in the movie (likely so) but I'm not sure I am curious enough to find out. However, I am curious if the movie of White Noise (a much, much better novel) is well-done, and I'll have a chance to watch it on Sunday.

After a fairly long hiatus, I've started listening to BBC Radio 3 again, specifically to the J to Z and Music Planet programs. I've been exposed to a few interesting and new-to-me artists like Snarky Puppy (who remind me of Acoustic Ladyland) and Kokoroko.

I liked Glass Onion a fair bit, in fact better than Knives Out (as I thought one of the twists in that one was silly and uncovering it would rely on knowledge that Craig's character really wouldn't have known). Maybe I mostly liked it because it was a fairly savage critique of today's tech billionaires, specifically Zuckerberg and Musk, who are venerated by millions at a level that grossly exceeds their actual talents. I do think it is unfortunate it won't be in theatres for long. Basically just one week, then on to Netflix. Same deal with White Noise, but I have secured my ticket for that.

Just saw a restored print of The Lost Boys. While some of the special effects are only so-so and the "vampire rules" aren't internally consistent, it was still pretty entertaining. Made me pretty nostalgic for the 80s... Going to check out Glass Onion over the weekend, and then probably White Noise the following week (and yes it is based on the DeLillo novel). TIFF is going to screen it for one week.

What did you think of this? It looks like something I might try to get to next year. After Ministry, I might read Cosmopolis by DeLillo and then probably Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald.

I went ahead and bought the LP, since the CD cover (at least the version I had) is pretty terrible. This is clearly a Romare Bearden collage. Now whether it was commissioned or they just repurposed an existing collage, I am not sure. Will see if I can find out later.

Enjoyed this, even if the ratio of happy to unhappy endings (for the 10 or so main characters) was suspiciously high. One might almost say Kurkov had mellowed out... Am just starting The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy.

Toronto 55

I just finished rereading Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, partly inspired by the terrible attack on him a few months back. 😢😠 I'd say I liked it more this time around (not that I can really remember my reaction from the early 90s...). Probably at least one of the subplots could have been excised, however. (No, I'm not talking about the subplot that caused all the trouble in the first place...) Currently, about one-quarter of the way through The Milkman in the Night by Andrey Kurkov. I suppose I was simply feeling that I should read some Ukrainian literature. Kurkov is best known for Death and the Penguin and the sequel Penguin Lost, which I read a while back. I'm finding The Milkman in the Night quite interesting. One of the better novels I've read in 2022, at least so far. I have this same edition. Been meaning to get to it forever... I might tackle it next year. I did manage to read some of Fante's short stories though.

It was more of a general comment. Faulkner struggles with race in a way that I think will make him still relevant in 50 or 100 years. Arguably Fitzgerald has interesting things to say about social climbing, elite society and "looking in" that will matter more and more as the class divide deepens in North America. I personally don't think what Hemingway has to say about being a man are that interesting. Obviously that is a gross simplification of what he was up to, but I think with today's trends he will be seen as less relevant, but he will still speak to some. I'm not calling for banning him, by any means.

Mostly reading poetry for a larger project, but I have read some shorter works. Am midway through Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. I don't have too many issues with the hard-bitten anti-hero. (I don't believe I've ever seen the movie version with Bogart, but I can imagine him in the role.) But almost every page, Hemingway tosses around the n-word plus Chinese slurs, etc. (It's something like 5 chapters in when the reader is even told the name of the Black crew member. Sheesh.) It really detracts so much from the experience. I don't think time will be very kind with Hemingway, as so many of his characters embody toxic masculinity.