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Speaking of surreal, there is this British show (not sure how influential it was, but it seems a precursor to Monty Python, etc.). I have to admit, I have the Region 2 DVD but haven't watched all the way through, but I will one of these days!

Barney Kessel perhaps?

I saw very little jazz in 2014, at least that I paid for, so it really comes down to Rudresh Mahanthappa and Alexander Hawkins (2 different shows) at the Vancouver Jazz Festival and a few free gigs around that time. I believe that included The Partisans, a group from the UK. I really focused on classical concerts in 2014, really too many to sort through, though I do recall a pretty rousing Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the TSO. Also a couple of Nielsen symphonies at the TSO. The last concert of the VSO of its 2013/14 season was also quite good, including Britten's Passacaglia from Peter Grimes, Elgar's Violin Concerto (played by James Ehnes) and ending with Respighi's Pines of Rome. Definitely a Vancouver highlight. The Toronto highlight so far would be Anne-Sophie Mutter and her group doing Mendelssohn's Octet and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

$30 is the most I can remember* spending on a few ultra-rare (at the time) BN imports -- most likely Andrew Hill and Bobby Hutcherson. Of course these were later reissued, but that only applies for BN. Other stuff disappears forever, so you just never know. * If I did spend more than $30, I must be blocking it out...

It's somewhat interesting that I have been thinking a lot about high school education and testing for this creative writing project I am working on. Obviously 8th grade isn't quite there, but it is close, and I have been having some strong flashbacks to my youth. I remember clearly when we had to give oral reports in either 7th or 8th grade, and these were video taped. (Probably for some initiative where the school was trying to get a grant -- things were simpler in those days when teachers weren't really questioned about what they were up to.) Mine was on Wolfe and Montcalm and the Battle on the Plains of Abraham. This is a case where I knew it was an important turning point, but I didn't know enough about the larger geopolitics to realize that France probably would have lost their North American colonies at some point or another, simply because they couldn't convince enough French people (peasants?) to come over and settle. Still, looking back, I thought it was a pretty decent topic for middle school. It is going to be very interesting seeing what my children learn and how much U.S. history I have to teach them on top of the Canadian history they will be learning.

I think it varies quite a bit. It would be very rare for 8th graders to have to pass a history exit exam to graduate, but they might well have to pass a history course, and this looks like it might be a pop quiz from such a course. Most of the time these things are not expected to show off demonstrated mastery of a subject, but just that the kids were paying at least some attention. Usually my history classes from middle school to high school would have had a part that was multiple choice, some matching (or even more frequently sequencing of key events) and then some short essays. The final exam (by high school) would have leaned towards more essay questions. You have to remember that teachers have so many students and only so many hours in the day to grade, so some multiple choice testing is pretty much inevitable. In 10th grade, I had a history teacher who was far more into discussing causes than memorization of names and dates. I think he would have been totally on board with the idea that you look those things up (a la Wikipedia), but it is understanding sequences and how history develops that is important. He also handed out the final exam on the first day of class and made us take it, and he joked that anyone who could pass didn't have to stick around. I got a B on it, but still had to stick it out...

28/30. A couple were guesses, and I had the tip about Jamestown. But I feel good knowing that I could still pass 8th grade. It actually won't be that long before I have to help my son study for social studies/history.

I've generally had trouble getting through Penelope Fitzgerald's books, even though many of them are on the short side. I may try again some day. I was going to say the only one I really liked was City of the Mind, but that's Penelope Lively (oops). I think she is a bit more to my taste, though I don't know if she goes into postmodernism or not . I'm planning on reading more by Elizabeth Bowen and Elizabeth Tayor and rereading Pym in the next couple of years. I'm actually just starting Bowen's To the North today. One interesting novella by Tess Slesinger ("The Answer on the Magnolia Tree") is collected in On Being Told That Her Second Husband Has Taken His First Lover and Other Stories. "Magnolia Tree" can be read as a bit of a bookend to Spark's Miss Jean Brodie, though you end up in the heads of more characters -- teachers and students. I guess I'd describe it as High Modernism lite -- a bit easier to follow than Djuna Barnes' Nightwood, for instance. Worth reading once for sure. Inspired by Leeway, I just picked up a copy of Murdoch's A Word Child, but it will be quite a while before I get around to reading it...

Happy New Year!

I'm reading a pairing of philosophical pieces: Tolstoy's A Confession where he discusses being a miserable free-thinker/atheist and he is gradually coming back to religion (sort of like C.S. Lewis's The Case for Christianity or Mere Christianity or even more so Surprised by Joy -- blah and one more strike against Tolstoy) and James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, which goes into predestination and features a character who sees the folly of his ways (in believing in predestination). In its purest form, predestination is a pretty awful philosophy as it seems to remove any meaning from the concept of Free Will. Both are a bit of a slog, but they are both relatively short. Then I turn to Soviet-era literature, starting with Krzhizhanovsky's Autobiography of a Corpse (another book I would know nothing about if it were not for NYRB). Then Platonov's Happy Moscow. Hard to believe I am looking forward to Soviet realist literature as a balm for reading Tolstoy. Zoo City was ok, but as I said, getting past the set-up required a bit too much "faith" on my part. Not surprisingly, it has been optioned as a movie.

It has been very bad trying to get into the States by car the last two times I've tried it -- multi-hour delays and watching as the Customs inspectors went through quite a few items for the cars ahead of us. There is no better way to effectively shut down the border than to enforce everything strictly... I often get hassled a bit for why I am working in Canada (from US agents). I've generally had better experiences crossing over by bus. Going back into Canada, things have basically always been smooth.

Well, it's a shop in Canada, so they do the US photos frequently but not every day. But really I am upset at the clear contradiction in the on-line instructions, the form itself and their little graphic. I hate situations that end up at the discretion of the clerk who ends up processing these things. On a good day, you get your passport. On a bad day, out comes the ruler... I was going through some on-line forums to find out where to have the photo taken up here, and there are more horror stories than you might imagine, photos rejected because the forehead has too much glare, slightly incorrect measurements, etc.

So I am renewing my passport, and I have to say I think this is a case where the State Department is no help at all. I think they have added a new requirement for the photo (half inch from top of head to top of photo), but then this doesn't square at all with their official sample photo, where the top of the head to the top of photo is roughly 1/8 inch or 1/4 inch at most. My photo looks almost exactly like this (ok not as much hair): I think I'm just going to have to send it in as is and see what happens.

Nothing really new here (http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/29/news/companies/radioshack/index.html?hpt=hp_t4), other than a strong likelihood RadioShack won't make it out of 2015. Interesting to hear that the exec who helped on the 80s themed ad has gone on to greener pastures. No RadioShacks in Canada as far as I can tell. The alternative here is The Source which seems to stay afloat mostly by selling customers cable/internet bundles and wireless phone contracts.

Far too many to go through. A major factor in the move to Toronto from Vancouver was the theatre scene here (slightly behind Chicago but not by too much). In Nov. I saw Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. Then a new play at Tarragon called Sextet. Then a storefront theatre* tackling Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? All very good. I generally go to live theatre twice a month, though this summer it will be much higher than that, as I am already booking tickets for shows at the Shaw and Stratford Festivals. * Actually, this same group has come up with a once a month cold reading session, and I submitted an extract from a play I am working on, so I may get to see them perform my piece. That would be very exciting.

Have you read his Bleeding London? I've been meaning to read that forever (and moved it like 4 times). I think I'll finally get to it this spring. I'm also taking a bit of break from the serious stuff and am reading Lauren Beukes' Zoo City, which is sort of a future fantasy novel where people who commit terrible crimes are paired up with animal familiars -- and are then ostracized. It is notable mostly for being set in Hillbrow, South Africa. The set-up is hard to swallow, but it moves along quickly.

Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

I've found that I have nothing remotely profound to say to a jazz musician, so I will occasionally say I enjoyed the set and that will be that. One time I did have my son at the matinee series at the Chicago Jazz Showcase, and Dave Holland talked to him just a bit, mostly about how hard it was to travel with a bass...

They've been discussed extensively. This is a European PD label and generally the reviews have been poor in the sense that the sources are at best CDs and sometimes even MP3 sources (or MP3s of needle drops). Probably not worth your money.

Really enjoyed the visits there years ago - in particular the Lawren Harris's. Nice location too.. Actually, I saw a show dedicated to Lawren Harris in Vancouver last year. He's my favorite of the Group of 7, so it was nice to see, though the really great paintings from AGO and the McMichael didn't make it out there. What was quite interesting is that in the last 1/3 or so of his career Harris started moving into abstraction. He also did an awful lot to promote younger artists in BC. Sounds like a really great guy, in addition to being a good artist. In addition to the other Toronto shows I listed, there is a pretty interesting show at a brand new museum of Islamic Art here in Toronto. The show is called The Lost Dhow and features many artifacts brought up from a recently discovered ship that was wrecked roughly 1000 years ago off the coast of Indonesia. It was pretty good, as these shows go. More info here: https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/exhibitions/lost-dhow-discovery-maritime-silk-route

Last year I finally tackled Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy and enjoyed it quite a bit. Late 2013 and early 2014 was devoted to Proust, and as I went into some detail here found it a complete slog and not worth the effort. Fairly early in 2015, I will start in on Dos Passos' USA Trilogy. Not entirely sure what to expect. At my current rate of reading, I'll get around to Musil's The Man Without Qualities in 2016. That is probably the last really long, high literature series I expect to tackle, aside perhaps for Lessing's Children of Violence series.

It doesn't look like I will be able to make this show, but I am fairly sure that all the cut-outs were at the MOMA Matisse blockbuster show in 1992. They even constructed this smallish room with the proper dimensions to display them. Pretty amazing. If anyone is coming to Toronto in the winter or early spring, there is a decent Art Spiegelman retrospective at the AGO. It's pretty much the same show that was in New York and later Vancouver. In Feb., AGO also opens up a Basquiat exhibit, which I am quite interested in. Obviously I haven't seen this yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what is coming. What is more surprising is that the Douglas Coupland exhibit is going to be coming to Toronto in Feb-April, but it is being split up between ROM and MOCCA. I'm still trying to figure out which pieces will be going where. Here is my blog post covering the Vancouver version of the exhibition: http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2014/08/douglas-coupland-exhibit-in-vancouver.html It's actually pretty thought-provoking, so I'll certainly swing by MOCCA at least to see what they have up.

I know. I am halfway through their edition of Platonov's Soul. I even have a short post (http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2014/08/publishers-of-note.html) going into some of the books that I find particularly worthy. I just visited your blog. An impressive list. I joined their book club and received as one of the bonus books My Face for the World to See. A very impressive book by Alfred Hayes, with an economic style of writing. The prose is taut and he explores some ideas that ring true for many of us. I became initially interested in reading NYRB Classics by reading Zweig's Beware of Pity, his only full length novel. That was soon followed by his Chess Story, Post Office Girl and Confusion, all highly recommended. I like Zweig as well, though I have mostly read his short stories. It's definitely worth checking out Pushkin Press. I am toying with the idea of getting their Collected Stories of Zweig, though there would be a lot of duplication. Also, as nice/impressive as this is, I would never read it on the train! http://pushkinpress.com/book/the-collected-stories-of-stefan-zweig/ Speaking of subscriptions, I am definitely looking into Melville House's subscription to their Art of the Novella series, though in my case I'd have to opt for the ebook version: http://www.mhpbooks.com/merchandise/novellas/ For me, it looks like April - July 2015 would be perfect.

I know. I am halfway through their edition of Platonov's Soul. I even have a short post (http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2014/08/publishers-of-note.html) going into some of the books that I find particularly worthy.

I think I've run through those three times now, foolishly getting rid of them each time so I have to rebuild the set when the urge hits again.I'm back up to twenty-three... I guess that's what the Kindle was made for......... Maybe so, but I'll be getting a Kindle about five years after it's adopted by the Amish community. I managed to handle CDs, and even MP3s, but I guess the printed word is where my inner curmudgeon takes over. I hear you on the Kindle per se, as I think the screen is just too small and the whole thing too likely to be stolen. I've started getting pretty interested in epub files though, particularly when they are for older books out of print and thus free. I have just moved too many times (with one last move this spring) to not want to start going digital for at least some things. But it's true -- for reading on the subway, not much beats an old paperback or even a used trade paperback with a forgiving spine. I've reached Platonov's Soul (the NYRB edition). It's quite interesting seeing that a fair number of these stories actually were published in Communist journals, i.e. he wasn't really a Samizdat author, though uncensored versions of his works were not published until much later. It's a key question whether social realist writing can reach the level of art. Here we have a bunch of engineers in love with their trains and so forth. Or peasant women who get up in the middle of the night to shovel ashes and love it... My understanding from the introduction that most of the secret ironies are so slight that non-Russian audience would never understand his very small acts of rebellion in these stories, so not even rising to the level of say, Shostakovich. So far I find his stories curious rather than great, but I'll report back if I really love the short novel Soul or Happy Moscow.