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Lots of Tilda Swinton this month. She (and Julianne Moore) are in Almodovar's The Room Next Door. I'm seeing that towards the end of Dec. at TIFF Lightbox. Then next week, I see her in Joshua Oppenheimer's The End (also at TIFF). It's a post-apocalyptic tale about a wealthy family living in a salt mine when an outsider arrives. And it's a musical! It sounded too bizarre to pass up.

A lot of short stories this Dec.: Lucia Berlin - A Manual for Cleaning Women Joy Williams - Taking Care Alice Munro - Runaway

I was hoping Toronto would pull it off, so I decided the best thing to do would be to pull for the Bombers instead, as my sports bets never pay off... 😉 Anyway, way to go, Argos!

Scored a real bargain on Dorati's complete Haydn Symphonies (re-issued as a Decca box set) at a library book sale. Worked out to less than $1/CD. Now when I'll have listened to the whole thing is another story.

RIP. What a legacy! I saw him once in NYC in the early 2000s and then again in Chicago in 2007. There may have been another time, but that's likely it.

Winnepeg 50

I'd hoped to check out Guy Maddin's Rumours, but it lasted in theatres all of 2 weeks then vanished (during a time I was extremely busy at work). It isn't on any streaming services yet. Anyway, TIFF is doing an Almodovar retrospective. I have tickets to 10 of his films and hope to sneak in to two screenings that are currently sold out.

Argos definitely the underdogs now, but I suppose stranger things have happened (than them pulling it off...).

I saw him just a few months ago and he declined requests to play "Rocket Launcher." Maybe he'll have a change of heart tomorrow. I should try to catch him on his next Toronto show. As fine as he is as a solo artist, I would also like to see him backed by a band.

>>Next will be Eric DuPont's Songs for the Cold of Heart. (Which is much better known as The American Fiancée.) I'm mostly done with this. I'm liking the second half (in modern era) more than the parts set in Quebec in the 50s and 60s (pre-Quiet Revolution). I decided to take something different on a trip out to Edmonton. I got almost all the way through Oliver Twist (never tackled it before) and read a bit into Manu Joseph's Serious Men.

I saw The Shining for the very first time last week. This must be one of the most spoiled movies of all time, as I knew all the main plot points. That was fine. I'm not a fan of scary/eerie movies, though I obviously made an exception here, and it helped not wondering when the next scary scene would be.

An awful lot of the stores I went to are gone (Dr Wax and Rose Records - sigh) but Reckless Records is still around. It carries both CDs and vinyl. It doesn't specialize in jazz like Dusty Groove, but the one in Wicker Park (in Milwaukee just off the Blue Line) has a fair selection of everything. https://www.reckless.com/

Wrapping up Dawn Powell's The Golden Spur. I believe this is the last of her "New York" novels. Quite droll. Next will be Eric DuPont's Songs for the Cold of Heart. (Which is much better known as The American Fiancée.)

Just saw Dave Young in a quintet at The Rex with Reg Schwager on guitar and Brian Dickinson on piano. The first set they played quite a few of Young's originals. The second set was mostly standards, like Blue in Green, some Cedar Walton tunes and then Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy." I left a bit early as they were digging into another Cedar Walton tune, Shaky Jake.

Caught Beetlejuice Beetlejuice today. The parts with Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder are not nearly as interesting as those involving Jenna Ortega, at least until we are dropped back into the underworld. Overall, quite entertaining though perhaps more fake gore than I was expecting...

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I'm not sure when this happened, but Patton's Soul Connection hit Bandcamp. https://bigjohnpatton.bandcamp.com/album/soul-connection I guess it was still vinyl only, which is sold out, but the DL is still available, which is close enough for my purposes.

PM sent on Akiyoshi and one of the Wilens (More from Barney)

I gave up on The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers as I was nearing the halfway mark. I'm really enjoying The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams, and incidentally am also near the halfway mark.

Just saw a film called DiDi, which is about an Asian-American boy growing up in the early years of the internet (2008). It felt a lot like Boyhood at times. Parts were certainly tough to watch, even a bit triggering for somewhat who was extremely socially awkward in middle school and high school. Here's a pretty good review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/30/didi-movie-coming-age-internet Fun fact, Didi's mother is played by Joan Chen, who also played the mother in Saving Face (2004).

RIP. So fortunate for me, I was actually able to see him on a couple of different times he was passing through Chicago and playing at the Jazz Showcase.

He came kind of near me (Richmond Hill, ONT) and I seriously considered it, but, not having a car, it is a huge drag to get there from where I am, and I was definitely worried about being stranded after the transit system stopped. I probably should have just figured it out (or maybe even Ubered it). I would have done so the following year(s), but I think the closest he has come lately is Albany. ☹️ Anyway, I just saw Pat LaBarbera with Neil Swainson and Terry Clarke at the Rex. It was a sold out show. Which is terrific! This is their annual John Coltrane birthday celebration. This time around they did Giant Steps, Blue Trane and part of A Love Supreme, in addition to other material that Trane played. Very good show. I also managed to get Neil's latest CD from him, and he signed it for me. 👍

Fair, though I don't know that this is actually an misunderstood masterpiece. Still debating but I may end up seeing it in the end. Curiously, I have been reading up a bit on Altman's Quintet which had very poor reviews at the time, but a small number of critics are viewing it more positively these days. But I think that is still a minority view...

There is a 4K restoration of North by Northwest making the rounds. I wouldn't say it was advertised well here in Toronto. I found out about it completely by happenstance and saw it last night. It looks fantastic! I think there were only about 20 people in the theatre. Had this been playing over at TIFF as part of their regular showings, it would have sold out. I am hoping to see Cronenberg's The Shrouds soon when it gets a general release. I didn't attempt to watch it as part of the TIFF Festival. Has anyone seen Coppola's Megalopolis? It sounds like a complete mess, but maybe worth watching (once) as a fascinating trainwreck?

Just stumbled across this while looking up something else: https://shop.bluenote.com/products/blue-spirits-85-years-of-blue-note-records-2cd Looks like it is out Sept 20, though it may already be available for pre-order. It's a little more adventurous than a typical compilation, particularly Disc 2 (though this does contain one Norah Jones track...). I would have liked to see if they could have squeezed Andrew Hill and/or Bobby Hutcherson onto Disc 1 (and 'Ghetto Lights' from Dialogue might have been just the ticket)... I'm relatively unlikely to pick this up, but I will follow up on some of the music on CD2 that I am not as familiar with.