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After all the travails of the first pressing, I was pleasantly surprised to get a shipping notice right away. When it actually arrives (and whether it makes it here by Canada Day) is an open question. (Also, whether I have to pay duty on it or not.)

I used to live in Brooklyn almost at Coney Island. I always had a seat coming in to work, so often used that for writing (pretty sure I finished a couple of dissertation chapters on the inbound train) but stood all the way going home, so would read then. In Toronto I virtually never get a seat on the bus or train (except for weekends) back when I was still taking transit, so that was generally fine for reading (unless the bus was really crowded).

I've actually enjoyed it when I've sat down and read (despite it hitting a bit too close to home) but have been very distracted by work creeping into all other aspects of my life (Zoom calls ending at 7:30, etc.) as I do my part in planning to help the recovery up here. The two places I do the most sustained reading (while riding transit or stationary bikes at the gym) are both off limits for time being.

In queue at the library. Let us know what you think. Thanks. Finally buckling down and finishing Camus's The Plague. Probably will wrap up tonight.

Sounds like some promising news on the vaccine front, though the early signs are that it may not be as effective for seniors. Quite a long road still to go, however. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/covid-19-vaccine-may-not-work-for-at-risk-older-people-say-scientists Am pleased that Toronto has just moved into Stage 2 of recovery, so more retail, barbershops, easier access to dentists(!), and probably art galleries and museums opening up. No indoor concerts or theatre yet. For several weeks, Toronto was the last really locked down major metro area in North America, but our metrics have been moving in the right direction. Hopefully the second wave won't be as bad as the experts fear. (Not looking great in the States, but a bit more under control up here.)

Finally put in my order. Was having bad internet connection issues but pretty sure it finally went through. (I mentioned in comments I only wanted 1 set just in case the first failed attempt ultimately went through!)

I can't speak for others, but the VV stream started off very choppy. It does seem to have settled down, so we'll see. Dropped twice and had to restart browser once, but actually ended up being stabler stream than I expected, so I will consider tuning in in the future.

Didn't get home in time and set is basically over. Shoot. Will try to get my act together for the Sunday matinee (2 pm). I think I must be a bit slow. When I go to Keystone Korner site it looks like they are actually selling in-person tickets, which is both unexpected and definitely unwanted (by me at any rate). Is there a direct link to the Wolf-Jones performance or a way to buy access to the stream. Thanks.

Wishing the best for everybody. I certainly don't think I contracted it, though I work at the main commuting hub for Toronto, so most likely would have been in contact with someone with COVID but then everything shut down. At some point when the antibody tests are better and more widespread, I may take one just to see. Remove if necessary, but the dumbness is just so overwhelming... President Donald Trump’s campaign says six staff members helping set up for his Saturday night rally in Tulsa, Okla., have tested positive for coronavirus. The campaign’s communications director, Tim Murtaugh, said in a statement that “quarantine procedures” were immediately initiated and no staff member who tested positive would attend the event. He said no one who had immediate contact with those staffers would attend, either. Murtaugh said campaign staff members are tested for COVID-19 as part of the campaign’s safety protocols. Campaign officials say everyone who attends the rally will be given temperature checks before they pass through security. They will also be given masks to wear, if they want, and hand sanitizer at the 19,000-seat BOK Center. The rally is expected to be the biggest indoor event the U.S. has seen since restrictions to prevent the coronavirus from spreading began in March. (Emphasis added)

There was a very big push for more community mailboxes up in Canada (started under a Postmaster General appointed by Harper). In fact, the plan was to replace all individual mailboxes throughout Canada with community mailboxes. It was certainly a challenge trying to understand where these would even go in the moderately dense parts of Toronto (condo towers were not covered as they more or less have community mailboxes watched over by a doorman -- or not). Trudeau called off the project before they got around to implementing it in Montreal or Toronto (and I believe Vancouver as well). But he didn't pledge to restore people's individual mailboxes if they had lost them... Anyway, yes there are lots and lots of complaints about these community mailboxes, particularly in the winter time. It doesn't take much for flaps to warp or locks to start malfunctioning or one key can open other boxes so people steal other people's mail, etc. It does sound dreadful, and I am glad that my block was spared.

A good reminder. I must have at least one or two sets where I have left at least something in shrink wrap. I know, I know... I think I'll go ahead and put in my order, expecting an early July delivery at this point probably.

Looks like the VV is live-streaming Vijay Iyer Trio Sat. evening and a Sunday matinee. I'll try to remind myself to check out at least one of the shows.

Apologies if I missed seeing this in this thread. I just stumbled across this a very new release -- Brad Mehldau's Suite: April 2020. He discusses the inspiration for the music (mostly new compositions that capture his reactions to the COVID crisis) here - https://www.bradmehldau.com/suite-april-2020/ You can also click and zoom in on the album cover (way too small for me to read on iTunes). NPR's coverage of the album here - https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/875102958/brad-mehldau-and-his-piano-outline-the-resolve-and-yes-the-anxiety-of-our-moment And a link to the Nonesuch page explaining which editions will benefit which causes: https://www.nonesuch.com/journal/brad-mehldau-suite-april-2020-signed-deluxe-vinyl-jazz-foundation-america-covid-emergency-fund-2020-06-12

The last time I was at Leona's in Chicago (the one way north, probably Edgewater) there was still ice in the urinals. This was 2018 or so! I think at this point it's just a tradition with them. It's been a long time, but I do remember the long metal urinals with no dividers. Probably some dive bar but I can't remember where or when.

I've definitely seen this before, though this sounds like you have a long section of endnotes rather than footnotes per se. Generally this is something that would be done if you have more than 1 page of endnotes per chapter. Otherwise you just navigate through based on chapter numbering.

Was just thinking about this today. I read Ulysses once in university and once for fun. May read it again at some time in the future. Dubliners is probably Joyce's most accessible and, dare I say, finest work. I doubt I'll ever actually read Finnegan's Wake, but I have acquired an audiobook version of it (really) and that is likely the way to go. I did make it to Dublin once and saw a small Joyce exhibit (I think it was at the main library) but we didn't try to follow in Bloom's (or Stephen's) footsteps.

Will definitely be checking it out. May need to put a reminder in my calendar...

I read about half the stories right away but it took a surprisingly long time to get through the rest of them. "The Insignia" is fairly clever though quite short. I liked "Nuit Caprense Cirius Illuminata" where it is just a bit unclear whether the narrator runs into an old flame in Capri or does he run into a phantom of a different sort from the past. I'm still mulling over "Silvio in El Rosedal" which has some Borgesian touches (a code hidden in a rose garden) but ends in a much more melancholy key. This might actually be the strongest story in the collection, but I'll give it some time and reread it and see if I still feel the same. One story I did not care for was "For Smokers Only," which I hope for Ribeyro's sake was fictional and not auto-biographical when he discusses becoming deeply addicted to cigarettes and, at one point, selling off his entire book collection to allow him to buy more cigarettes. And then talks about sneaking cigarettes, even when under medical treatment. Though it seems this was largely true to life, and he did ultimately die of lung cancer at the age of 65. Sad...

Aristophanes The Clouds & The Birds (trans. Arrowsmith & Parker) I know it is a truism that comedy translates rather less well than tragedy, but I was still astounded at how hard it was to get through these two pieces. Just did not enjoy either of them at all, aside from a few moments here and there. (The amount of physical violence played for laughs in The Birds was pretty close to the Three Stooges, and I've never been one that liked that sort of thing at all, though it is true I can be a bit more forgiving if combined with clever wordplay a la Shakespeare.) For me at least, I think I would have been better off with translations that were looser translations or even adaptations than these quite faithful translations. Going to put this aside for quite a while before getting around to Lysistrata. As the libraries are now taking book returns, I need to prioritize getting through these books anyway, so that means finally sitting down and getting through the second half of Camus's Plague and Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being.

I'm well aware of that. Businesses need to do what they reasonably can, but will inevitably be sued anyway when people catch COVID. Probably most of the time they will not be held liable (for one the difficulty in proving a person caught COVID from a specific store) but it's always a gamble with juries and, no matter what, dealing with the legal system is draining. However, it is one thing to cautiously open up and have reasonable protocols in place. It is another to be encouraging rallies where, even if outdoors, there will be lots of bad behaviour from people not social distancing (particularly among right wing populist followers who seem to take special pride in not following medical guidance). So it really is a perfect storm for virus transmission, and the people involved should know better but just don't care, so then they slap on this legal fig leaf. No point in dwelling any further on it. Museums in B.C. getting ready to open. Definitely jealous. The Toronto area is about two weeks behind the rest of Ontario in terms of loosened restrictions, but the signs are positive that the new infection rates are dropping and deaths from COVID are pretty low, as these things go. Our medical system was never overwhelmed and that was really the main benefit of the lockdown. I think there's a reasonable chance we'll have barber shops, salons and hopefully museums open by July. Still not sure what schools will look like in Sept.

In Toronto, I believe urgent dental care is now being provided and they are starting to make appointments for general cleaning/check-ups. I'll probably schedule something soon. I am glad that the orthodontists are starting to see patients, as it can be a problem to not check up on the various adjustments in treatment. My daughter went this week, and my wife had to wait outside the office. Of course because coffee shops, etc. are all closed, she ended up walking up and down the street for half an hour. Maybe this hasn't really been thought through, or they are just making these policies somebody's else's problem... We've been able to start returning books to the libraries, and you can sign up for a 10 minute slot to pick up books from the hold system, but you can't go in and browse the books. I'm a little bit worried about people getting there early and hanging out around the library (as it is pretty hard to time a 10 minute slot!), but we'll just have to see how it goes. It's a small thing, but it's still kind of exciting.

Making sure the base is covered. From the Guardian but originally in NY Times: Trump rally attendees can't sue if they contract virus People attending an upcoming Donald Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have been told they cannot sue if they contract coronavirus. The sign-up page for the president’s upcoming rally includes a disclaimer about the possibility of contracting the disease. The president has implemented a policy that states rally attendees cannot sue the campaign or venue if they contract coronavirus at the event, the New York Times reports: ‘By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to Covid-19 exists in any public place where people are present,’ a statement on Mr. Trump’s campaign website informed those wishing to attend his June 19 rally in Tulsa, Okla. ‘By attending the rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to Covid-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.’

With a few exceptions, I'd prefer the old normal back too, but I'm not going to just close my eyes and pretend that we can wish Covid-19 away. Populist political parties (mostly on the right but also the left) have engaged in anti-science and anti-expertise rhetoric for decades as part of a broader anti-elite discourse. The seeds have been present in the US basically from the very beginning but certainly more prominent since the mid-1970s. What is worrying is basically an embrace of magical thinking and perhaps most worrying is that more and more party leaders are recruited from the ranks of the anti-science crowd. In my mind it's marginally better to have politicians that just use their followers as part of a cynical ploy but still "believe" in science to having leaders who are fundamentally anti-science, which seems to be where the US has landed. It's a bad place to be right now.

I think it also depends on what one really means by defunding. I'm sure in some advocates' minds it literally means spending nothing on police and everything on social welfare programs. Which is its own kind of nihilism, since I am quite sure a city with no police force would not really be a place where most people would want to live. Anyway, in Toronto at any rate, BLM has positioned defunding the police as a minimum 10% cut in the police budget to be reallocated in various ways. This is something that I could plausibly get behind, though I still think "defunding" is a pretty loaded term that probably does more harm to the cause than gets people thinking about what we could spend the funds on if we did make modest cuts to the police budget. Also, because it sounds so ambiguous, I'm sure some individual members of BLM insist that they really want cuts of 25% or 50% or more.

As already mentioned in the Bandcamp thread, I went a little wild and ordered 4 albums by Alexander Hawkins, including Unit[e] and No Now is So. I also picked up some digital downloads from Eugene Chadbourne: The Lost Eddie Chatterbox Sessions (which is basically Chadbourne on solo steel guitar playing jazz standards (so a real departure for him)) and Jungle Cookies, which is a more typical experimental sound collage. They can be purchased here -- https://eugenechadbourne-documentation.squarespace.com/?category=digital+downloads I'm tempted by Chadbourne's Roll Over Berlusconi, but this is only available as a vinyl + mp3 download on Bandcamp, and the shipping price of the vinyl to Canada (or the US) is on the steep side. I would definitely order just the download if that becomes available down the road.