Mayoral farce in Toronto

Toronto’s 64th mayor, Rob Ford, was inaugurated on 7 December 2010 in an eccentric, even bizarre event without precedent in the Council chambers. The mayor’s chain of office, symbol of his authority, was presented to him not by a personage such as Chief Justice or Lieutenant Governor of the province, but rather by flamboyant tv commentator, CBC’s Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada, noted for bigotry and unabashed redneck sentiment.

Attired in ludicrous pink Cherry took the occasion to praise his mayoral protégé and to lash out at people he would marginalize, pinkos, left-wing weirdos, and bike riders.

“Bring on the clowns”, commented Councillor Pam McConnell (Centre Rosedale, ward 28).

When the mayor inaugurates his term by turning the podium over to a mean poseur "dripping sarcasm and hatred in all his soul",✶ what does that presage for the city?
✶ see: Jack Todd, Montreal Gazette, 13 December 2010

Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov
Modest Petrovich Musorgsky
1872 version, with scenes from 1869 original
Metropolitan Opera, New York
cinema broadcast in HD live, 23 October 2010
cond. Valery Gergiev
production Stephen Wadsworth
with René Pape (Boris Godunov)

I am far from being an opera buff, and found the four hours of performance a bit of an ordeal despite the wonderful voice and acting presence of bass René Pape in the title role. I was most impressed, if not moved, by the death scene of the hallucinating Tsar, and the poignant closing lament for Russia of the Holy Fool (yurodivy, sung by tenor Andrey Popov).

If the libretto was more historically accurate the opera would have lost its main premise. It is doubtful that Boris, then regent, murdered the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Dmitri.

Out of Context — for Pina

Out of Context — for Pina
dir. Alain Platel (2010)
les ballets C de la B
Fleck Dance Theatre
Harbourfront, Toronto
16 October 2010

A highly intricate and ultimately brilliant piece, it flows through many transitions, with movements and sounds ranging from spastic and animal to more normal and casual, but with constant surprises. With six men and three women mostly in skivvies, sometimes covered with blankets, there are many levels of relationships, but mostly they are individuals in an uncertain continuum.

A Disappearing Number

A Disappearing Number
conceived and directed by Simon McBurney (2007)
performed by Complicite *
Theatre Royal Plymouth
cinema broadcast 14 October 2010

mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan and Godfrey Harold Hardy collaborate in 1914 (theme)

* Théâtre de la Complicité
(original name of the experimental company)


A Disappearing Number is a decidedly clever, imaginatively experimental, but problematical and in many ways puzzling play. I was unable to get emotionally involved in what passed for a plot, with separate but intellectually intersecting individuals. I can inherently appreciate the beauty of elegant mathematical proofs, yet that hardly makes for drama to this remote observer. The play kept harping at the significance of infinity — awesome in imagination, less so on stage. Given the origin of the one genius, a fair dollop of Indian mysticism was interjected by the end of the day. It felt gratuitous.

Pirates

Pirates of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean
Somali pirates at the moment are holding about 18 vessels and their crews hostage for ransom in what has become a lucrative, if dangerous activity in recent years, causing havoc in international shipping channels among the busiest in the world. The presence of 30 warships of NATO, the United States, and many associated countries has only slightly deterred the pirates who mostly are let go even after capture. In April 2009 the Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleev (above, top) captured 29 pirates and destroyed their mother ship. On 9 September 2010 24 U.S. Marines dramatically scaled a hijacked German cargo vessel and arrested the 9 pirates on board. Pirates have seized more than 30 vessels this year so far, however.

NYT archives 3, 9, 10 Sept 2010

The Census politicized and undermined

With minimal consultation and little notice Canada’s national government has recklessly compromised the reliability and integrity of the quinquennial census that, since Confederation and before, has been a principal source of accurate information on the demographic, economic, and social composition of the nation. Ignoring the protests and remonstrations of statisticians, historians, genealogists, professionals of all kinds, and even major provinces, the cabinet in Ottawa has removed some questions from the key long form on dubious grounds of privacy and made remaining answers voluntary. A short form of eight questions has been maintained and still compulsory for the census scheduled for May, 2011.

At a stroke the usefulness of the exercise has been badly undermined, introducing serious doubt about the reliability of voluntary returns, and making comparisons with previous data uncertain. There seems to be total incomprehension in the Conservative cabinet of what this is all about, given the scorn and scoffing of Minister of Industry Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka).

Repairing the damage as best they can will be a priority task for future government. Modern societies require more than fanciful statistics and anecdotal information to function in any sense rationally.