November 3, 2011

"Back in San Pedro, I was just a captain.  At sea, I am the captain!"--The Ghost Ship

Homer: "Is he Ray J. funny or O.J. funny?"--The Simpsons

    Dreamed of a TV show about a man who marries into a family of brutal drug dealers; reflecting that it was insensitive of Perchik, the young radical in Fiddler on the Roof, to say "I am not a beggar" next to an actual beggar; seeing a New York skyscraper with a small plume of smoke.

    Dinner was Chinese food.

    Saw the DVD of the Val Lewton-Mark Robson production The Ghost Ship.  It's a sea story with a sense of paranoia.

November 2, 2011

"I'll tell people you gave it to me, and it'll be good for your business.

"Yes, but bad for my wife."

--The Leopard Man

Cemetery caretaker: "I have many good friends, and they don't bother me with talk"--ibid.

    Dreamed of being in a group of tourists who had to get out of their bus, run into a storeroom, find an object and bring it back to the bus in two minutes, before it left; being a ghost returning years after a devastating nuclear explosion, looking for the ghost of my soulmate; being stuck in a twisted tube and slowly descending to the bottom.

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was the rest of the stew.

    Went to a talk about Back at the Runnymede Library as part of a Classical Music Meetup.  I was hoping that Father would drive me to the subway but he was out, so I arrived later than I hoped and it was SRO. (I didn't meet anyone from the Meetup group.) The talk was basically Bach 101, and I left early.

    Saw the DVD of the Val Lewton-Jacques Tourneur thriller The Leopard Man.  It's sexy as well as scary.

November 1, 2011

"Cops aren't lawyers, Mr. Wyler.  We just bring 'em in, we don't cook 'em"--Murder One

    Dreamed of Britain's tabloid press reporting a non-existent story on the Duke of Cambridge getting into a fight in his school days, in Canada during winter.

    Started spading the garden. (Yesterday I spread peat moss on it.) Next year I think we'll focus on potatoes.

    Dinner was beef stew.

    At opera rehearsal, we went through all of Lucia di Lamermoor.  Giuseppe's concerned that we're behind schedule. (Adolfo's a bit of a perfectionist, which can slow things down.) Next week we'll finally get started on The Merry Widow.

October 31, 2011

 Dreamed of a sequel to Grease with the children of the high schoolers now in high school themselves.

    Baked whole wheat bread.

    Dinner was pork chops.

    At choir practice we did the rest of the first act of Norma.  Quite a few people were missing, but Giuseppe praised us at the end of the rehearsal (which he doesn't often do!).

October 30, 2011

    Went on a morning Walking Meetup.  We passed through Casa Loma, Wychwood Park and Wychwood Barns.

    Father nad I were going to bundle up the branches from the cedar we cut down yesterday, but a neighbour took a lot of them off our hands.

    Dinner was the rest of the fettucine.

October 29, 2011

Don Giovanni: "Do you like that music?"

Leporello (his servant): "You deserve it!"

--Don Giovanni

"To be faithful to one woman would be cruel to all the others!"--ibid.

    Saw the cinemacast of the Met production of Don Giovanni at the Sheppard Grande.  I liked the long pitchforks some of Massetto's posse were carrying!

    John and Kathrine came over and helped with some chores like cutting down a cedar growing next to the house which allowed a squirrel to climb into the attic.  They stayed for dinner, which was Indian food.

    The Omnivore's Dilemma is an interesting book indeed.  It's showing me a new way to look at food.

    Kathrine had to borrow my computer to send an email to arrange the placement of a dog she'd help buy off an abusive owner for $80 and a pack of cigarettes.

October 28, 2011

    Dreamed of the Shirley Temple musical Captain January; a new movie multiplex in Aulac, near my hometown Sackville, N.B.

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was roast chicken.