Ok, a long time since my last post. Sorry! I've had a busy spell at work, though it's settled down now and the next few weeks are looking relatively sane.

Hard to believe September's almost over, and fall is here. The temperature plummeted this week, pretty much right at the official first day of fall, just to let us know that summer really was over. But what a long, long summer it was... Really nice. The leaves have started turning, and the weather is cool and crisp. I love autumn!

Lots of little news items to report. Two weeks ago, Anne and I went down to Roy Thomson Hall for to see a Film Festival showing of a spanish film, "El otro lado de la cama" (The Wrong Side of the Bed), a wonderfully fresh and sweet little sex comedy. Not a sophisticated film, but the characters were all sympathetic and easy on the eyes, and the plot was a lot of fun. Plus, at seemingly random intervals the actors broke into hilarious musical dance routines, which effectively dispelled any sense that the situation was at all serious. All in all, a great little movie, well worth your time.

Last weekend we rented A.I., something of an antithesis to The Wrong Side of the Bed. A big special effects budget, over-serious attempts to moralize, an overly complicated plot (but with big, unexplained holes), and bad acting. We didn't even bother going through the second disks bonus materials -- it was basically poor. Which is a shame, because it could have been good: American science fiction has a lot to say about defining and respecting intelligence, although with a strong bias towards anthropomorphic forms. It's clear Isaac Asimov's robot books were a source of ideas for A.I., but his approach relied on clear text, uncomplicated characters, and a healthy respect for the reader's intelligence, all things missing in the movie. A shame.

It was a pretty big weekend for Anne. Roy Thomson Hall, where she works, had a massive gala reopening on Saturday. They spent 22 weeks and $20 Million (Canadian) on renovating the acoustics of the hall, and Saturday was the first time that the public could hear the results. The Toronto Symphony and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir pulled out some "big bang" music, and the sound was, in fact, greatly improved over the rather poor qualities of the last 20 years. Anne's patron services teams did an excellent job with an absolutely full house, and the champagne and desserts afterwards capped a very successful event.

Sunday RTH followed up the gala with an open house, so Anne had to go back to work. I went off to church, and we met up afterwards at a garden party for the choir at Sheila MacAdams' house. It was a lot of fun: a potluck lunch, a beautiful garden, and a game of croquet.

Coming up: Friday is our first opera concert for the Canadian Opera Company's season. And, weather permitting, we're going sailing with Bruce Hill on Saturday.
posted by Tom at 10:36 AM | link |