April 9, 2011

"If language is what makes us human, it is languages that make us superhuman"--preface, Empire of the Word

    Dreamed of meeting Anthony Hopkins in London; hearing a long-winded speech from him about being Brad Pitt's mentor and being delayed on the way to the airport; joining a Meetup-type group that was going to grow crops.

    Went to the NDP campaign office and got a sign to put up on the lawn.

    Dinner was roast pork.

    Finished the book about Scottish-Canadians and started reading Nicholas Ostler's Empire of the Word:  A Language History of the World.  Looks fascinating.

    Went to a Kaaoke Meetup at Bar Plus.  I sang the duet "I Got You, Babe" with a woman.

April 8, 2011

    Dreamed of walking through a park near the Pacific coast with fast-changing weather; lying on the ground naked with a thin layer of powdery snow.

    Headache!

    Baked multigrain bread.

    I've found out where the NDP campaign office is (the old place on Vaughan Road), but it isn't open yet.

    Dinner was pork steak.

    Went to Mary's games night.  I played Agricola and scored 29 points (personal best!).  Then I played a new game called Say Anything (finished last).  A woman in a purple dress provided some good cupcakes.

    In the online game Glory of Rome I've joined a new alliance called Bharatiya. (My old alliance was moribund.) The other members are largely East Indian.

April 7, 2011

Ned Flanders: "Science is like the blabbermouth who ruins the movie by telling you how it ends"--The Simpsons

Homer: "Trying is the first step to failure"--ibid.

    Dreamed of the Laurence Olivier movie of the Harold Robbins potboiler The Betsy (which I haven't seen); saying how much I liked the Gary Cooper Quaker movie The Friendly Persuasion. [IMHO it's better than his High Noon.]

    Went to the clinic near Bathurst station and did a blood sample and a heart test.

    Dinner was undercooked salmon.

    Wanted to visit the NDP campaign office, but I couldn't find the place.

    I tried to practice all my songs for the first time since June, but I wasn't quite up to it.

April 6, 2011

"If you ask me, a cross that big is for a Lord with a tiny dick!"--Weeds

    Saw a DVD in a series of early avant-garde films, devoted to amateur auteurs (i.e. home movies). It included a film showing Chaim Gross carving a big wooden sculpture of a woman's head.

    Dinner was goulash fettucine (which I cooked).

    Went to the Wednesday Games Meetup for the first time in months.  I RSVPed that I was going, then decided I didn't have the time.  But we had to have dinner early (Father had an appointment to replace a dental filling), so I decided to go after all.  Then I couldn't find my Metropass so it looked like I couldn't go anyway, but it soon turned up.

    I played Smallworld--where my races were bivouacking trolls, forest elves and flying wizards-- and a new game called Castle Ravencroft.  It's a board game in the style of a D&D campaign, and I was a ranger human.

April 5, 2011

"I like to see you cry.  Men like to see women cry, it makes them feel superior"--The Spiral Staircase

"Doug, we need a word."

"OK, how about 'Die'?"

--Weeds

    Yesterday I was telling Giuseppe, my singing teacher, about how Velazquez' Rokeby Venus painting got slashed by a suffragette a century ago. [She didn't like how men were leering at it.] And now it turns out that some madwoman attacked a Gauguin in a Washington gallery! [It was "Two Tahitian Women" at the National Gallery, but she was stopped by its plexiglass cover.]

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was shrimp linguini.

    Saw the DVD of Robert Siodmak's thriller The Spiral Staircase.  Pretty scary. (I had to see most of the last third a second time because George Brent's voice made me sleepy!)

    I remembered the doctor in The Spiral Staircase [Kent Smith] from some role where he was older, and it turned out I was thinking of his role (also a doctor) in the TV series of Peyton Place.

April 4, 2011

    Had another singing lesson. (Again I quit a bit early because of dizziness.) It snowed last night so I wore my fall coat, but by afternoon it was mild again!

    Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.

    Skipped choir practice to attend the St. Paul's riding's NDP nomination meeting. (The nominee looks a bit preppy.)

    Saw the DVD of "Influenza 1918," a PBS American Experience documentary about the epidemic at the end of the Great War.

April 3, 2011

    Dreamed of going to a second-rate Al Pacino movie in Halifax, N.S.; sleeping in a non-existent woodshed near our old house in Sackville, N.B.; thinking "J'aime la Canada."

    Didn't do much today. (I still have a headache.)

    Dinner was fish.