As Sunday evening rolls...

I'm trying not to look too closely at the calendar since we're pretty much halfway through August, which means the summer is quickly rolling to an end. That in and of itself doesn't get me down, especially since autumn is my favourite time of year - not to mention I have a number of things to look forward to, especially my week-long jaunt to Paris - but mostly because this idea I had of having a "summer romance and/or fling" hasn't exactly panned out as planned! I did have a mini-fling (about two weeks in duration) in early June, so I suppose I should be content with that. I won't bore you with my dating stories, mostly because I'm bored just thinking about them. No horror stories to tell, just that there's been a general flatness to these encounters of late. I think I need a respite.

One exciting I did do this weekend was order a mini subscription to the Canadian Opera Company for the coming season. I was a COC subscriber for a number of years back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, after I first discovered how much I loved opera and when I had some disposable income to play with. But then I went through a period when I didn't have very much disposable income... I would still go to the opera once in a while, but I didn't shell out big bucks for a whole season. Now that I'm back on fairly firm financial ground, the time seemed right to resubscribe. I didn't go in for a whole season, largely because the seat that kept popping up for when I wanted to subscribe (Wednesday nights) was one I didn't like. (It was way off to the side in the orchestra.) I had better luck with a smaller subscription when I could pick and choose areas of the house I wanted to sit, so I went with that option. Unfortunately most of the operas I bought are for 2013, and there's only in the coming months to look forward to (Il Trovatore in October). I also only bought a single a ticket - this saves me from having to scramble to find a companion that's actually interested in opera to accompany me (not to mention it's a lot less expensive). I decided that I simply need to take myself to the things that interest me in the city rather than always waiting for a suitable "date."

In the coming week I'm going to tackle my list of favourite films, in tribute to Sight and Sound's poll of the Greatest Film of All Time list they released a couple of weeks ago. I've been following this poll since I discovered the 1982 list when I was a teenager (albeit in a back issue - I wasn't quite a teen in 1982, after all). I love the controversy this poll seems to generate. I find it's just in good fun, not to mention it's a great resource for discovering films. (The magazine publishes a list of every film mentioned on its web site, along with the list of every contributor, although I don't think the current lists are up yet.) Anyway I know nobody really cares that much about my list, but it's a fun exercise for me. Stay tuned!