May 8, 2011

"I sent you some messages."

"And I ignored them.  That's my message to you."

--Mad Men

"You've crossed the line from lubricated into morose"--ibid.

    Dreamed of one of the lenses in my glasses being cracked and not fitting in its frame; reflecting on the tragedy of President Ulysses Grant being forced to abandon black civil rights at the end of Reconstruction; the Nik Kershaw song "Wouldn't It Be Good" (which I've never liked).

    I've lost my opera screening tickets! (Or rather, Moira misplaced them when she cleared my room without me asking her.  I'd known exactly where they were before.)

    Dinner was scalloped potatoes and ham.

May 7, 2011

    Dreamed of the song "Beyond the Sea."

    I've started using sleeping pills again.

    Went on an art walk on Queen Street.  We met at Analogue Gallery, where some actors performing in The 21st Annual Puttnam County Spelling Bee did a number for us. (They also did an audience participation thing, and I spelled the whaling slang word "caterjunes" correctly.) I left the walk early.

    Dinner was spaghettini.

    Had a games night with Nepeta's Fun & Boardgames group. (She's off meetup.com now.) We played The Amazeing Labyrinth, Ticket to Ride and a new Scrabble-like card game called Do I Have to Spell It Out For You? (It was pretty fun.)

May 5, 2011

Don Draper: "I come from the Midwest.  People there are taught that it's rude to talk about yourself"--Mad Men

"It was all going great, until it wasn't"--ibid.

    Dreamed of a non-existent story in the comic strip Mary Perkins on Stage set in rural Canada and culminating in a barn being set on fire; the scene in the Fiddler on the Roof movie where the Fiddler comes down to the ground.

    Dinner was roast chicken.

    Went to Blockbuster and rented the DVD of the first episodes of the fourth season of Mad Men.

May 4, 2011

"Dan is the only man I know who had the guts not to commit suicide"--The High and the Mighty

Drug cartel man: "Either you eat the bear, or the bear eats you"--Weeds

    Dreamed of the song "You'll Never Walk Alone"; a strategic game involving a civil war in the region of Angola; recalling the actual workplace comic strip Lolly (from the 1960s and 1970s), where my favourite character was the boss' tipsy son Junior.

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.

    Saw the DVD of William Wellman's The High and the Mighty.  Entertaining '50s hokum with John Wayne in his element.

May 3, 2011

"Insignificant molehill sometime more important than conspicuous mountain"--Charlie Chan in Egypt

    Dreamed of the western High Noon; reflecting that the townspeople balked at supporting Gary Cooper because the plot required them to; the TV show The Sopranos.

    Poor Michael Ignatieff!  He even lost his own seat. (The NDP should set up a coalition with the Liberals and Greens.)

    Dinner was fettucine alfredo (which I cooked).

    Saw the DVD of Charlie Chan in Egypt.  I always liked Warner Oland in that role. [Rita Cansino later became Rita Hayworth!]

May 2, 2011

"Hope for sun, get ready for rain"--Weeds

    Dreamed of a murder mystery set in Shanghai's International Settlement; a square couch with an ad promoting a breed of apple.

    Voted [in Canada's federal election] early in the afternoon.  I thought my health card would be enough, but I had to go back and bring a bank statement with my address on it.

    Went to a clinic near College & Euclid and got an abdominal ultrasound and a chest X-ray.  All the doctors there seem to be Chinese.

    Dinner was pork steak.

    At choir practice I told Giuseppe I was putting my singing lessons on hiatus for now.

May 1, 2011

"You shouldn't be here."
"That's not what you said last night."

--Troy

    Dreamed of visiting the junior high school in my hometown Sackville, N.B., with Moira; telling her "I'll never be doing lab experiments in there again."

    Dinner was McDonald's.

    Saw the DVD of Wolfgang Petersen's Troy.  A pretty intelligent script, though I wish the Achilles-Briseis relationship had been fleshed out a bit more.