3 Fun Things, 15 Not-So-Much

I did something that I haven't done in a while and that I hate doing: I gave up on a book. Now that I'm a big kid, I allow myself to do that, but I don't like to. I was so looking forward to reading Fifteen Dogs, but alas 90 pages were enough.
It started out great. As a classicist, I loved the premise of the intervention of Hermes and Apollo. I enjoyed the dogs' perspective of co-resident cats (p. 65). My heart strings were yanked taut about animal neglect, pain and death (p.18–19). I had enjoyed listening to interviews on CBC radio with the author. But my god, was I bored otherwise! I can't offer much of a critique, because I'm not even sure where it fell flat for me, but blech. 

What I did like—love—was Fiona Barton's The Widow. Wa-hooo, what a ride! [At this point, I hope you aren't drawing the conclusion that I just don't understand literature and only like commercial page-turners. That ain't the point.] Actually, this book had its downish side, too, in that serious themes were the background to the plot: the desperation of wanting children; co-dependent relationships; the hell of addictions and the self-loathing they can create. But if you have to have a story on this topic (don't worry: no spoilers), this one was well-crafted, and the character development was excellent and still allowed for twists and turns. 5 Wine and Cheeses, for sure! See sidebar if you don't know what that means.
The other fun things I wanted to point out come from the current issue of The WholeNote magazine from the Toronto music scene. One point is that this month's DISCoveries section (starting at p. 69) covers several CDs which reference famous art works (as well as poetry and history). Also, there are a couple of fun entries in the listings about sing-along movies beyond Rocky Horror and The Sound of Music! On April 16 and 23, the Randolph Theatre is screening captioned Moulin Rouge and Chicago respectively (see page 63 of the online mag for deets). I've been trying to get people excited about a certain film sing-along for ages. Hmm... maybe I'll contact presenter Joseph Patrick about that. Can we have way more of this at more Toronto cinemas, please? Bril. 
I'm currently reading a post-apocalyptic novel, which I will report on next time, as well as on a dystopian film and one wild performer. But no spoilers now.