March 1, 2011

    Dreamed of an upcoming movie about Virginia Woolf meeting a World War I soldier called Homer who kept the British establishment supplied with morphine; a character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger saying "I had a good prom, loved all the people there, but I wanted to burn that school to the ground!"

    Dinner was roast beef.

    Went to Siuseppe's masterclass at the Bickford Centre. (Someone sang a song from Les Miserables--P.U.!) I've never sung Schumann's "Widmung" at so fast a tempo before.  I also sang "Le Veau d'Or" from Gounod's Faust, which impressed the others.  It was thrilling to notice my voice echoing in the auditorium.

    Finished the biography Merchant of Dreams.  Louis B. Mayer is still something of a mystery to me.

February 28, 2011

To a policeman: "Search his car, hit him with your flashlight, do whatever you people do!"

--Weeds

Sign: 

"Welcome to Manhattan

Home of the World-Weary Poseur"

--The Simpsons

    Dreamed of sailing northwest in the Gulf of St. Lawrence past some tiny islands that had official monuments; learning in Grade 7 geography [as I actually did] about remote places in Australia where children got their school lessons over the radio.

    Saw the DVD of a Ken Burns documentary about artist Thomas Hart Benton (for the second time).

    Dinner was tortellini.

    At choir practice we got into the rest of Rigoletto and started Theodore Dubois' oratorio The Seven Last Words of Christ again.

February 27, 2011

"I thought you said you were completely impervious to pain."

"Not my own!"

--A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

    Dreamed of a military school where the male and female cadets were trying to exterminate each other!

    Performed Madama Butterfly.  Moira saw it, but the parents will come later because Father's under the weather.

    Saw the DVD of the BBC production of Ibsen's Little Eyolf, with Diana Rigg and Anthony Hopkins.  I got sleepy once again.

    Then I saw the DVD of Richard Lester's movie of the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  It's a frantic, uneven adaptation.

Feburary 26, 2011

    Dreamed of Peter Brook's movie of Gurdjieff's Meetings With Remarkable Men (which I've seen); trying to find an entry on Gurdjieff in my biographical dictionary (he isn't in there).

    Dinner was curried pork.

    Performed Die Fledermaus.  Sandra (my dance partner at the start of the second act) wants to rely on me to remind her whenever it's time to go onstage, but that wasn't in my job description!

February 25, 2011

    Last night I baked gingerbread for the opera lobby refreshment sales.

    Dreamed of a fire in the fireplace of our old house in Sackville, N.B.

    Baked whole wheat bread.

    Dinner was KFC.

    Performed Madama Butterfly. (They had so much stuff to sell that my gingerbread didn't go out just yet.)

February 23, 2011

    Yesterday I saw the DVD of Jacques Tourneur's The Cat People (for the second time). Great scene in the swimming pool!

    Dreamed of reading the showbiz magazine Variety at the York University library (which I used to do in the 1990s); 1930s movie star Jean Harlow (whom I was just reading about in the Louis B. Mayer biography); shopping for an HD TV set. (The night before I dreamed of Debussy's Arabesque #1.)

    Dinner was pork roast.

    Performed Die Fledermaus.

    Tried some new computer games like Treasure Isle and Yoville, but they didn't interest me much.

February 21, 2011

"The guy who kills me--I want him to do it because he hates my guts, not because it's his job"--Dog Day Afternoon

    Dreamed of the actual Warner Brothers cartoon Big House Bunny, where Yosemite Sam fired the prison cannon and ended up launching Bugs Bunny, who said "Bon voyagee!"

    Dinner was pork chops.

    Saw the DVD of Sidney Lumet's tour de force Dog Day Afternoon (for the third time). It's perversely funny and very believable.  The moral is that Americans are crazy, especially New Yorkers in the summer heat. (See also Do the Right Thing.)

    I've finally decided to quit the online game Cityville.  I've built just about all the structural types that are available, except for stuff that costs over 500,000 coins. (Having only three neighbours limited what I could do.)

    I've started the Frontierville game again. (They now have the giant homestead size I was waiting for.)