CIRQUE DE SOLEIL: DELIRIUM;
NATIONAL BALLET: BALANCHINE TRIPLE BILL;
TORONTO ART EXPO 2006;
MAGIC PONY: MAMECHIYO THE ART OF KIMONO;
CIRQUE ELOIZE: NOMAD;
NATIONAL BALLET: SHORT PROGRAM SPRING 2006;
BLUE MAN GROUP;
AGO: ANDY WARHOL SUPERNOVA: STARS, DEATHS AND DISASTERS, 1962-1964;
GARDINER: JEAN-PIERRE LAROCQUE CLAY SCULPTURES AND DRAWINGS;
SPAMALOT;
THE LORD OF THE RINGS THE MUSICAL;
CIRQUE NIAGARA;
ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM: NEW ASIAN SECTION;
GARDINER MUSEUM;
SHOJO MANGA! GIRL POWER!;
TANG CONCUBINES;
SANKAI JUKU: KAGEMI;
WICKED;
FOUND IN TRANSLATION INTERPRETING ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE DESIGN;
NATIONAL BALLET: SONG OF THE EARTH/SYMPHONY IN C;
BILLY CONNOLLY: TOO OLD TO DIE;
AGO: ANSEL ADAMS | ALFRED  EISENSTAEDT;
THE ROCKETTES: RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR;
ROM: ITALIAN ARTS & DESIGN: THE 20TH CENTURY

OTHER

January 1, January 19, June 2, 2006

For trips to the Toronto zoo, see detours2006_1.htm

For Canada Day fireworks, see detours2006_4.htm

For the Chinese Lantern Festival, see detours2006_10.htm

CIRQUE DE SOLEIL: DELIRIUM

Monday, February 20th, 2006

The show i'd come to see was Cirque du Soleil's Delirium. I can't say i was happy about the seating. It's not nearly as intimate as their regular 'big top' performances, with about 10,000 rather than 2,000 seats. Plus, the seats at ACC are tiny! I'm sure my shoulders were wider than the seats, and there was no space in front of the knees (no sliding by anyone).

The show itself was stunning. Not in the usual acrobats and clown way (although there was some of that), but it was sheer spectacle. More of the theatre and music than the 'usual'. The arena was divided in two by a long stage, often covered on each side by sheers which had light shows projected on to them, and at either end were extensions, into which you couldn't see (spaces for the performers to get changed, etc), but also had screens for projections, sometimes of what was also happening on the stage, sometimes separate, but thematically linked, usually a combination of the two. On the stage were dancers/acrobats and musicians doing live performances. The term multimedia gets thrown around a lot, but here's a case where it really applied. The theme of the performances changed every ten minutes or so.

In none of these shots can you see the sides with the projections.

That's a skirt everyone's under!

The theme for this segment was 'music' (the projection is of a moving soundwave, matching the beat of the performance).

I think i prefer the usual Cirque shows, but Delirium is amazing on its own terms.

NATIONAL BALLET: BALANCHINE TRIPLE BILL

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

Yesterday was another trip into the city, traffic was fabulous, and i made it down to the Hummingbird Centre with time to spare. For those of you who don't know Toronto, it's not a centre for hummingbirds, but a performance hall named after a company (used to be known as the O'Keefe Centre). L, R and the girls made it in time too, even though poor Min has been sick the past few days.

The performance we saw was the National Ballet's The Balanchine Triple Bill, starting with the Four Temperaments, then Apollo, and finally Themes And Variations at the Hummngbird Centre.

The first is based on the four types of human character (melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic and choleric), set to Hindemith's suite of the same name. It was my least favourite - i wasn't able to distinguish the different humours that well, but i did like the stripped down, more modern feel (modern here being 1946).

Apollo started with his birth from his mother Leto (allegorical, of course), with the help of some maidens. Then Apollo was taught by three muses (i guess 9 would be too many), Calliope (muse of 'poetry'), Terpischore (muse of song and dance) and Polyhymnia (muse of mime). Okay, the mythology isn't exactly authentic, but it was beautiful. Plus one male dancer romping around with three young ladies has its appeal. The music for this was Stravinsky. This was my favourite piece.

Themes and Variations was set to Tchaikovsky, and very classical in its approach, even in costume, with the froufrouiest of tutus.

TORONTO ART EXPO 2006

Thursday, March 16th, 2006

I went to see the Toronto Art Expo. It's a huge space, one that's also used for comics conventions. There are a number of aisles, however many P represents, and perhaps 12 down each aisle? Maybe more - they say 300 artists. There's some really neat stuff, and some really boring stuff. Okay, people, it's time to stop imitating the Group Of Seven, or French impressionists, and get your own style. A lot of flowers, nature scenes, etc, which look like a lot of lame calendars out there. There was even a Chinese woman with Inuit-style soapstone sculptures - you could at least have done something other than polar bears. Anyway, instead, i'd rather just go to the next aisle, and buy from an actual Inuit artist. But a lot of good ones too - if i had a few grand to throw around, and some wallspace, i'd consider buying a few. I was there about an hour.

MAGIC PONY: MAMECHIYO THE ART OF KIMONO

Thursday, March 16th, 2006

Then i went to Magic Pony, on Queen West of Bathurst, "a shop for creative animals," that is, a collectibles store with artistic pretensions. That's not meant to be a slam, it's just what they are. The back of teh store is a small gallery space, where they had the Mamechiyo The Art of Kimono exhibit:

"Mamechiyo is a contemporary designer who has been revolutionary in redefining traditional Japanese dress. Her use of modern intertwined with tradition has resulted in a refreshing and unique interpretation of the kimono. Pulling inspiration from all around her, Tokyo-based Mamechiyo sources vintage fabrics, creates her own textiles and styles whimsical Kimono creations that are enthusiastically embraced by a new generation. Mamechiyo's flair for creating cutting-edge fashion centered around the Kimono has resulted in a resurgence of popularity in both the Kimono and traditional Japanese dress."

Lookit this one - gothic lolita kimono!

It was smaller than i first thought, so didn't take too long.

CIRQUE ELOIZE: NOMAD

Thursday, April 13th, 2006

The show i saw was Cirque Eloize's Nomade. Different than the Cirque du Soleil shows which i've seen, which have been large spectacles in big tops, or the one arena show, this was an intimate thing in a theatre, the Canon (formerly known as the Pantages). It's an awesome-looking place, and i had an amazing seat - i was surprised there were seats left, although maybe because it was a school day in April (the crowd was fairly old and touristy).

Nomade is great - it uses far fewer players than CdS, so they are pretty multitalented, and a much more integrated 'story' line, and integrated acrobatics, dancing and clowning. I wasn't too surprised to find out that its director was the same as CdS's Corteo - it explains the lithe young women in frilly undies, which may or may not be your kind of thing. In particular, the jugglers, and the (female) contortionist were stunning.

The audience was groaning as she wrapped herself into impossible positions. She was, ostensibly, washing herself with that sponge, as the lads behind her watched.

I liked how the trapeze artist spoke (breathlessly, of course, in her cute French accent) with the audience - she appeared to fall, then caught herself, asking, "Did i scare you?"

The 'nouveau cirque' movement is apparently quite big in Quebec, but spreading - when i worked in Toronto 2000-2001, it was across the street from the Toronto Circus School.

NATIONAL BALLET: SHORT PROGRAM SPRING 2006

Tuesday, May 9th, 2006

LMC and i went to Toronto to see the National Ballet. What we're actually attending was a dress rehearsal, so it was a little different than usual - not as crowded (they only had seats in the balcony, and even that wasn't full), they kept asking for quiet during intervals (for the orchestra to practice), and we saw the dancers being directed, especially during the bowing/applause stage. The performances themselves were great 9although i think one didn't have it's stage lit properly).

We saw 4 pieces:

A Delicate Battle, which was kind of aggressive (for ballet), and sombre - costume was minimal, sometimes with tuxes and dresses.
There, below, which was my favouritre bit, modern and lyrical, almost abstract, with costumes with these patterns on that tended to meld the pairs of dancers together.
Grand Pas Classique, which was as its name suggests, a classical short piece (i think 3-4 bits) - this was interesting, because it turned out we got to see both pairs of dancers for this - turns out they had very different costumes.
Petrouchka, the longest piece, and a narrative, by Stravinsky - as LMC said when the stage opened, "Can you tell it's Russian", because it was a huge hodgepodge of costumes, people and colour. As Italians are to lawn statuary, so are Russians to Ballet. I thought the crowd scenes were overlong and distracting.

There below (totally odd point-of-view)

BLUE MAN GROUP

Wednesday, July 5th, 2006

I went to see Blue Man Group which is a very theatrical performance group for the few of you who haven't heard of it, named for the main characters, three men with a blue paint head. They use music, multimedia, paint and paper in their act. It was pretty good.

After, i'd planned to take some photos, but i was feeling kinda tired, so (after grabbing a hot dog on the street - PIGGY!) i took photos holding the camera on my steering wheel. Some interesting results, but i need time to process them.

AGO: ANDY WARHOL SUPERNOVA: STARS, DEATHS AND DISASTERS, 1962-1964

Friday, July 14th, 2006

"Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches."

Today i went to see the Warhol exhibit at the Art Gallery.

It wasn't huge, just 3 rooms, 35 pieces, mostly silk screens (with a fair amount of repetition), and films. You also got these TV-remote style listening devices, to hear recordings of people talking about the pieces (one for each display). Mostly it was narrated by Cronenburg, but with other guests, such as Dennis Hopper. There was some interesting stuff, but it didn't take me long to get annoyed by Cronenburg. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, which would've been funny as a performance piece, but probably would've got me expelled. Most of the time in art galleries, there's little information, and viewers are expected to think for themselves (sure, you can get tours, or books, but whatever). What Cronenburg should've done was describe the themes first and then spoke only about the pieces in question, not keep repeating himself ad nauseam. And he needed an editor - don't say the same thing 3 different ways.

Aside from that, the show itself underwhelmed - i'm just not impressed by Warhol.

"I am a deeply superficial person."
"When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships. "

More interesting were the shows upstairs. There's not a lot space open right now, because the gallery is undergoing a huge expansion. There are the Swing Spaces, which they fill with offbeat and more contemporary stuff wherever they can - last year they had Seth in one area. Upstairs was samples of their permanent collection, curated into new shows. One was called The Future Now, which doesn't explain the 3-4 themes they had. One was on the idea of gender portrayal, which included samples from all different eras. Another was about urban spaces. Oh, and there was also an exhibit of a handful of Matisse prints. I know the AGO has a HUGE print collection, most of which never sees the light of day (you can actually request to see them in a special room).

GARDINER: JEAN-PIERRE LAROCQUE CLAY SCULPTURES AND DRAWINGS

Sunday, July 16th, 2006 11:34 pm: Gardiner, Jamie Kennedy

Today, i was out of the house around 9, to get to the Museum when it opened. I had a little over two hours before my lunch reservation. Well, it turns out, while the renovated Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts has reopened, most of the exhibits have yet to be installed. They didn't require admission, but the bigger issue was only 1 exhibit, plus the shop (which had interesting stuff!).

I like the stuff in the show, Jean-Pierre Larocque: Clay Sculpture and Drawings - there were these giant head shapes, full-bodied soldiers (looking like the ancient Chinese ceramic warriors), horses, and birdhouses. But i really like the drawings, which i can't find a picture of.

I really wish i had my camera with me - the new place does look great, largewindows everywhere, but i could've got neat shots of things still under construction. There was a gallery that was totally empty - it looked neat. I was done at 10:45, and lunch was at 12:30. Oy - i killed some time in Indigo.

Jamie Kennedy Gardiner is the restaurant. Jamie Kennedy is a famous Toronto chef (not that he cooked it). Lunch was amazing. The crusty bread came with butter and an eggplant dip. I got the Potato and Sorrel Soup, which was oddly green, and didn't taste much like potato or mushrooms. My main was Roasted Loin of Pork with Spiced Prunes (& raisins). The sauce is yummier than it sounds. It came with potato, spinach and fresh peas.

SPAMALOT

Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Silly English ka-niggits!

Last night i went to see Spamalot, which was lots of fun. It was actually most fun when it deviated from The Holy Grail. Most of the audience (which was surprisingly old, although i guess they wouldn't have been when Monty Python first came out). Also fun were the cheesy effects - teh audience was expecting certain things, so everyone was waiting for things to happen, like "How are they going to do the Black Knight, or the Killer Rabbit. It was really Vegassed-up, with lots of dancing girls, plus bits of spoofs of shows like Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Fiddler on the Roof. I liked the voice of Arthur - sounded a lot like Brian Blessed and Eddie Izzard (if he shouted, and wore chain mail dresses instead of regular ones).

I was thinking it was a shame Bright Side of Life was so prominent in this, because Life Of Brian could be tuned into a musical too (Jesus Christ!! Superstar?). It's Eric Idle's show, and he did the intro voice (not live), and John Cleese was the voice of God. Something that was slightly weird is that they turned some characters into other characters - peasants became knights, Lady of the Lake became Guinevere. They also used the Python conceit of the same actors playing a series of roles (so a knight would have to leave the stage to play the other).

What i missed was the line, "No, let's not go to Camelot -'tis a silly place," and you could just barely hear the line "That rabbit is dynamite!"

THE LORD OF THE RINGS THE MUSICAL

Sunday, August 6th, 2006

The show i saw was The Lord Of The Rings the Musical. It's a good thing i'd seen the movies, because otherwise i don't think i'd've known what was going on. The run has been cut short for retooling, before it goes for London (in fact, it's not odd that a show gets retooled after its preview showing, and this was a long one). The reviews have been weak, and i wasn't grabbed by it, but the audience was enthusiastic, and the place was full. I thought the songs should've been more a part of the plot, rather than, "Having serviced the plot, it's now time to sing". Also, maybe they should've focussed on just one part of the story, rather than telling the trilogy from beginning to end in three and a half hours - like the Iliad, which isn't the story of the Trojan War, just an important episode. I will say, the actor playing Gollum was pretty good.

CIRQUE NIAGARA

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

I did a tour of the Niagara area, because i had tickets for Cirque Niagara, across from Marineland. I didn't take any photos - you can't inside anyway, so i'm going to borrow some. The Cirque is actually Russian, and was fairly different from Cirque de Soleil and its like, which, while the cast is international, come from Quebec.

The show is named Avaia. The crowd was pretty small, which explains all the advertsing i've seen. Also, the show was small, a very small ring. It's not anywhere near the level of Cirque de Soleil's Vegas shows.

The most obvious difference is the use of horses. CdS uses none, and they were a big part of Avaia's act. I was realizing at one point that i was 20 feet away from a horse racing directly at me at very high speed, with a man standing on it. Luckily, the horses to kept to running in circles. Also, most of the performers did many different acts, such as the knife act above, horseriding tricks, and gymnastics. It was a really good show - it finished at 10.

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM: NEW ASIAN SECTION

Sunday, August 20th, 2006

Yesterday, before the movie, i decided to do a little tour of the Royal Ontario Museum. It's in the middle of a big renovation (still), so not a lot is on display, yet. Amazingly, the museum actually allows photography.

The only dinosaur i saw, in the main hallway.

This is the entrance into the new Asian section, looking into China i think. Korea is to the left, Japan to the right.

Samurai costumes - sorry the pic is fuzzy, but most of the time i was working with very little light, and having to hold the camera still for 1/2 to 1 second, which is very difficult.

There's also a hallway with Chinese pieces, like this giant soldier.

Demon!

Chinese mermaids don't look so enticing - too Buddha-like.

Giant Haida totem pole, looking way up.

It's actually four storeys high - this is looking down from the 3rd to the basement. None of the photos from the Native Peoples gallery worked out, but i'm glad to see it looked a lot better than last time i was there.

Some Greek statuary.

Early bronze age swords from Greece, about 2500-1800 BC.

Aphrodite, oh yeah.

An Egyptian model of the dead being taken by boat.

Mummy - and maybe she was a mommy.

Some armour from 1500 or so.

Back to the High Middle Ages.

Romanesque, about 1200.

A small statue fro the Lalique exhibit, which is what brought me. I like Deco, but these were kinda, eh.

I wish she weren't fuzzy - i like this better than the Lalique.

Whee!

GARDINER MUSEUM

Saturday, August 19th, 2006

Last time i was at the Gardiner, i hadn't brought my camera. This time i snuck a few shots while no one was looking. Taken around 10:30 am.

I went to the Jamie Kennedy restaurant at the Gardiner Museum, across the street. I had no wine, but i didn't have the summer greens salad with citrus vinaigrette, the corn, spianch and goat cheese frittata, and plum sorbet, sitting in champagne, for dessert. I was sitting at the table behind people sitting at the bar. They've got many more tables to the left, and a function room to the right of that red thingy.

Much of the Gardiner is still empty space, while they reinstall everything.

I like the architecture of the place.

More empty space. This should be my condo.

SHOJO MANGA! GIRL POWER!

Saturday, September 9th, 2006

"...winning love by daylight..."

I went to see the SHOJO MANGA! GIRL POWER! exhibition at the Japan Foundation on Bloor Street, a place i've been meaning to check (now that i have their brochures, i'll probably end up seeing more of their shows and events - they have a monthly film screening in think). The show, in town until October 4 (the tickets for the opening talk were 'sold out', although it and the show are/were free) was pretty good. There are large posters from various shoujo manga and anime down a main hallway, but the real show was in three galleries. Organized chronologically and by artist, there were brief biographies and histories beside the artwork, which was for the most part actually working artwork. Especially in the early ones, you could see the pasted bits and non-repro marks and guide marks. Mostly pencil and ink, with a lot of watercolour. My favourite piece was a spectacular piece by CLAMP, which looked more like a print than a drawing, of Watanuki and Yuuko from xxxHolic, which i think was 24 by 18 inches. Oddly, while they had Sailor Moon and Inu-Yasha posters, they didn't have any works from their creators in the galleries.

TANG CONCUBINES

Friday, September 15th, 2006

The show i saw was Tang Concubines. It was called an 'action-musical', but most people would call it dance (there were a few songs). Both based on true stories, the first act was about a Tang-era concubine who rose to become China's only female 'empress' (as opposed to 'empress-consort'), the second was about a later Tang concubine who involved in a legendary love affair, and who was blamed for the Emperor's decadence, and who was forced to commit suicide to save the regime. It was pretty good, although i think they each could've been a story on their own - the real empress was very interesting to read about after. Stories told by dance do tend to be pretty shallow. "Sexy Concubines Dance" - i guess that works. Yeah, a lot of cute dancers.

I think the audience must've been at least 90% Chinese, the rest divided among whites and other Asians.

SANKAI JUKU: KAGEMI

Tuesday, October 18th, 2006

Butoh!

I saw Sankai Juku performing Kagemi. I'd heard about the show from when i went to see the Shojo Manga Girl Power show at the Japan Foundation, but i really didn't look into it before i went. I'd assumed it was some avant-garde theatre group. It sort of is, but it's part of a tradition that's almost half a century old. Sankai Juku is a butoh group. In fact, when i got back home, i took another look at my Japan tourist guides, and it's turns out they're one of the top butoh groups.

Anyway, it was really neat and very interesting. There was a talk beforehand, by a young woman who was visiting Japan (she must be some kind of dancer), and took some classes with Sankai Juku performers. It's often very slow, and it's almost a little difficult to call it dance. It reminds me of a bit of Blue Man Group, tai chi, and 'voguing'. The music varied from piano to thumping rhythms with didgeridoo-like sounds, to industrial-sounding music, to ambient noises (like dripping water echoing in a room). My favourite portion was relatively quick posing. They even kept 'in character' at the end, striking poses rather than waving and smiling.

The piece with the most emotive faces, and the most light-hearted (the male dancers acting a bit girly).

WICKED

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

There's no place like home...

The show i saw was Wicked, which is a prequel of sorts to The Wizard of Oz (the movie more than the books), focussing on the relationships among three of the witches, Glinda, Nessarose (the unnamed-in-books-and-movie Witch of the East), and most importantly, Elphaba (the also-unnamed-in-books-and-movie Witch of the West), the Wicked Witch. It was a lot of fun, although it was the Glinda character who stole the show. Elphaba was almost too sympathetic and too earnest - she needs to be a little more wicked...

Some people believe that the witch seen by Dorothy in the cyclone (in the movie) is actually the Witch of the East, which makes sense from the story point-of-view, as she's the one who gets hit with the house. Also, Margaret Hamilton's hair is worn differently than her appearances as West and Miss Gulch.

No mention is made of the fourth Witch in the musical, or in the movie. Interestingly, in the books, young and beautiful Glinda is the Witch of the South, and the (unnamed) Witch of the North whom Dorothy meets in the books is elderly (like a fairy godmother). They could've used the same conceit as the other characters, and had the same actress portray the Good Witch and Auntie Em. Baum later names the Witch of the North Locasta in a play, although the women who wrote the series afterwards called her Tattypoo (thank Wikipedia for much of this info), which is oddly close to Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf.

"Lemons and melons and pears, oh my!"

FOUND IN TRANSLATION INTERPRETING ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE DESIGN

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

Today i went to another exhibition at the Japan Foundation, called FOUND IN TRANSLATION Interpreting Elements of Japanese Design which was pretty interesting (all about washi and cloth). The pics are actually too close, and don't give you a good idea of the pieces.

Oooh! Ahh!

NATIONAL BALLET: SONG OF THE EARTH/SYMPHONY IN C

Tuesday, November 21st, 2006

Tuesday evening i went to a dress rehearsal of the National Ballet at their new home, the Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts ("Opera House").

AJR (née M) and i rushed to get to the Opera House to make sure we got seats (for some reason, my emailing and phoning to get my name in was ignored). They still haven't finished out front for some reason, but it was nice if spartan inside - they didn't have any promotional material for either the ballet or opera.

We were able to catch the ballet talk, which was by... not sure his position, sounded like the choreographer for Symphony In C. The place was packed - it's not like in some crummy basement with bingo hall chairs - they built a landing especially for it, but there were people all over the place.

The first piece was Song Of The Earth (music by Mahler), which had vocal accompaniment (apparently Chinese poems translated into German). The set and costumes were minimalist. The Toronto Sun called it, "...a deeply moving reflection on life and love, created by an artist near the end of his life, painted in shades of black, white and grey by designer Nicholas Georgiadis. On it, MacMillan has floated his episodic reflections, embracing all the days of our lives as he follows a man (Nehemiah Kish) and a woman (Xiao Nan Yu) as they frolic and occasionally stumble through life and beyond. Throughout, they are, at first stalked, and then partnered by the graceful spectre of their own mortality, personified by a masked Guillaume Cote as the Messenger of Death."

The leads were two men and a woman - i'd assumed they were rivals for her. AJR assumed the one in black was the other's 'evil side'. We checked the info sheet during the break, and turns out he was 'the Messenger of Death'. I leaned over to AJR and said, "Death looks pretty gay", and then, in the appropriate voice, "I'm not Death, i'm the Messenger of Death..." and then started snapping my fingers in the way people do now to put others down (right and left), at which point one of the ushers came over to remind us that they were still working on the stage.

At which point i got AJR to go out to the lobby areas (i think she might've stayed there until the next piece). Which was good, because she was able to do some celebrity spotting, including Kurt Browning
(Andrea said his wife was apparently in the ballet), and Rex Harrington (retired ballet dancer), there with his low-rentish boyfriend.

The second piece was Symphony in C (our favourite of the two), by Balanchine (music by Bizet). It was intentionally story free, based on pure dance. "A massive work for 50 dancers, this is Balanchine at his icy best, as he fills the stage with layer after layer of classical movement and geometric form until it finally creates a critical mass that is nothing short of breathtaking."

It was a little odd in that they started in the middle of the 3rd movement, with lots of instruction, then went through the 3rd and final movements, and then just kinda stopped, going on with more instruction, opening up the backdrop, without ever saying to anyone it's time to go. By this time, it was close to 11.

BILLY CONNOLLY: TOO OLD TO DIE

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006

"I used to be a Catholic, but I paid the fine and got out."

Thursday night i went to Massey Hall to see Billy Connolly's very funny Too Old To Die Young show.

The Sun did a good review:

"...nearly two-and-a-half, exhausting hours of hilarious free-association and extended storytelling, punctuated by F-words rendered sweet by his twinkly grin and Glaswegian accent..."

"...the sweet stories about buying his daughters mood bracelets, or dealing with his son getting a driver's licence ("you'll feel really good walkin' around with tha' in yer pocket!")... are mere extended frameworks for bouts of comic outrage... including an impromptu sketch of an aromatherapist at a car accident, and the warning from a local that the Scottish castle he bought was haunted by a headless ghost dog. 'Poor thing. Can't smell, can't see, can't bark ... we need to get another ghost dog just to lick his balls for him.' "

"Through it all, the winning grin shone. Connolly is an example of the upside of ADD (a condition he claims to have). He's a force-of-nature comic who meanders far afield, but never misses the point."

Pretty accurate description, although interesting to note there was different material on the two nights.

Massey Hall is a beautiful old place, though i got annoyed at the time it takes to get out of there, and it doesn't help the lobby is puny and there is no entrance on the street - it just opens into a ordinary small sidewalk, with people to stupid to get out of the way of the rest of the people coming out after them.

AGO: ANSEL ADAMS | ALFRED EISENSTAEDT

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

Saturday started off with a trip to the AGO to see the Ansel Adams | Alfred Eisenstaedt exhibition. It was pretty good - most of the photos were originals, so they were pretty small. It was only in later years that Adams started reproducing larger pieces, with higher contrast. I also took a wander around the other exhibits (such as they are - the place is knee-deep in reno).

THE ROCKETTES: RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR

Thursday, December 14th, 2006

Kick it!

The show i saw today was The Rockettes' Radio City Christmas Spectacular at the Hummingbird Centre. It was a lot of fun! Sure schmaltzy in places, but not too much. Technically the Rockettes were only about half the show - Santa did the most singing, and there was a mixed group of singer-dancers, male and female, a couple of children, and 5 'little people'. Sometimes the singing was live, sometimes recorded (but i couldn't tell which). Especially good was their take on the Nutcracker, with dancing bears of all descriptions (teddy bears, polar bears, Russian bears, panda bears), the ragdoll dance and the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (which really was spectacular). Their precision is better than i've seen in classical ballet.

Everything was great until the last piece, where they suddenly stopped dancing, and dealing with Santas, elves and toys, and got very religious. One reviewer said, "the final number, the Living Nativity, makes us feel as if we've been transported to a southern-states Bible theme park." That's exactly what i was thinking. I mean, where was the dancing? They didn't even come out for a bow, because they were in all their religious costume. The show just stopped dead. It was pretty jarring, and just plan weird. I mean, they had live camels, sheep and a donkey. Huh?

I wondered why they had so many 2 pm show during the week - the place was filled with grey-haired people, and only a smattering of others, including a few kids. Okay, girls.

ROM: ITALIAN ARTS & DESIGN: THE 20TH CENTURY

Monday, December 18th, 2006

I was in the city to see Italian Arts & Design: The 20th Century at the ROM, a pretty interesting show. I would've liked a few more Vespas, and more fashion, but that's me.