May 10, 2011

"We can take the boat up the Hudson."

"I'll take the train--water doesn't agree with me!"

--She Done Him Wrong

"One of the finest women who ever walked the streets!"--ibid.

"He's the kind of man a woman has to marry to get rid of!"--ibid.

    Dreamed of reflecting that the neoliberal magazine The New Republic isn't worth the worms to eat it!

    Baked multigrain bread.

    Dinner was ham quiche.

    Went to the Toronto City Opera board's annual meeting (for the first time) at Barbara's house in the Annex.  We managed to make a profit!  Seems that our ticket sales vary with the size of the chorus. [A big chorus means lots of friends and relatives coming to see the show.]

    Saw the DVD of the Mae West vehicle She Done Him Wrong (for the second time).  I have a feeling some of the off-colour jokes went over my head.

May 9, 2011

"This country has a religion, and it's business"--Mad Men

    Dreamed of taking a music course in a place in the American west; missing a whole morning class because I'd taken a sleeping pill and overslept. [I'd just started taking sleeping pills in real life.]

    Went to see Dr. Ang, and after a long wait it turned out that last Monday's tests were unclear. (The heartscan turned out to be negative.)

    Dinner was the rest of the scalloped potatoes.

    At choir practice we basically just review everything we've learned in Nabucco. (There wasn't much time for learning new stuff.)

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!]