January 17, 2004

Dreamed of being unable to complete a crossword puzzle in a magazine; one clue involving a plug on another page of the magazine's sponsor; reflecting on the smug tone of the relentlessly disdainful coverage of the Carter presidency in the magazine The Economist. (An actual memory.  If you ask me, The Economist is the world's most overrated magazine.) [They raise tendentiousness to an art form!]

Father got some salt and I baked raisin bread.

Saw Yasujiro Ozu's silent masterpiece Tokyo Inn.  It was a heartrending story aout poverty, desperation and decency.  Reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights.

Donald came over for dinner, which was lasagna.  He stayed to help set up the Emac. (In the later stages, I ended up watching.)

Headache.

January 16, 2003

"Do you enjoy school?" "We like going there, and coming home.  The only part we don't like is what comes in between"--I Was Born But...

Dreamed of British actor Colin Firth.

I was going to bake raisin bread, but noticed we were out of raisins.  So I went out in the cold and bought some raisins.  Then I realized we were out of salt too!

Dinner was pork chops (which I fried).

Saw Yasujiro Ozu's silent I Was Born But... at the Cinematheque.  It was a cute comedy that became surprisingly profound, about two brothers who move into a new suburb and notice that their father toadies to his boss.

Went to a dance party at the studio.  I told them about how I'd been learning the minuet in the opera chorus.

January 15, 2003

Dreamed of waiting in Mississauga for a train to Toronto; a group of missionaries coming home from China with an inaccurate list of the people returning; seeing a celebrity family passing by and getting the crowd's attention, but not recognizing them myself.

Went to the Forest Hill library and took out Graham Greene's Brighton Rock and a CD of Lucia di Lamermoor (with la Sutherland!).

Dinner was steak (which I fried).

Wore my contact lenses for the first time in a while. (They don't fog up in cold weather.)

Went to the first meeting for the Asperger's support group.  Unfortunately, I went to the Geneva Centre's old location and had to go home and check the internet to remember the new one.  But Father gave me a lift, and I caught the last half hour.  Not that I really regret missing the first part; they were mostly talking about what they're going to talk about.

January 14, 2003

Dreamed of walking along Main Street in Sackville, N.B., and seeing a new cinema and a new disco(?); reading the newspapers at Goodenough College [where I stayed in London in 1995 researching my Ph.D. thesis].

Went shopping.

Dinner was fettucine with pesto sauce (which I cooked). We needed parmesan cheese and Father was willing to go out in the freezing cold and get it.  I wasn't in the mood for arguing.

We managed to carry the new computer upstairs.

Saw Andrew Jarecki's devastating documentary Capturing the Friedmans at the Music Hall.  It's about a Long Island family torn apart by accusations of mass pedophilia in the 1980s.  It's appalling what a community's hysteria can do. [The most interesting family member was the clown brother.]

January 13, 2004

Dreamed of the Peter Pan musical; a handkerchief crawling with insects; a documentary about filmmaker Otto Preminger; receiving a free porcelain dish as a promotion; an old issue of movie magazine Premiere, with a big seasonal preview feature.

We went to CPUsed and bought an Emac computer.  Setting it up should be fun.

Started reading a Gothic comic book titled The Preacher.  Looks nice and twisted.

Dinner was spaghetti.

The heating conked out in the auditorium so we had to rehearse the operas in the school cafeteria at the Bickford Centre.  We also had to tote the sets there.  We learned to dance a minuet for Don Giovanni.

January 12, 2004

Dreamed of a western set in Civil War Texas, with a guy coming to a town whose sheriff had been in the same gang as him and now held a grudge against him; the sheriff pouring liquor on him and his assistant to frame them for drunkenness, just as a Confederate army appeared; the sheriff saying, "Asshole is as asshole does.  By this fine measure, the Confederate leaders were assholes."

Met Dann at Mission:  Possible.  We're now at the job search stage.  We went out to Indigo Books and found an issue of Quill and Quire.

Saw Jim Sheridan's In America with the parents at Canada Square.  It's a very original, Irish take on the familiar subject of poverty-stricken immigrants in New York.

Afterward we ate at the Mandarin restaurant.

January 11, 2004

Saw the Sopranos episode where Tony learned of his ex-mistress' suicide.

John and Rae came over for dinner.  It was fettucine in pesto sauce (which I cooked).

Ran out of nasal spray. (I'm still not completely over my cold.)

I've been reading a couple of later Dick Tracy adventures from after Chester Gould retired.  It's sad how the strip has declined. [It's improved somewhat since Joe Staton and Mike Curtis took over.]