May 30, 2003

Dreamed of going on a field trip to a Catholic church presided over by a woman(?); telling myself, "Everything in my life has led to this moment"; writing a short essay on film star Montgomery Clift; going home by the Scarborough RT.

Got up at 9:55.

Moira and I went to see  the spelling bee documentary Spellbound.  It was quite good, and so suspenseful that I often squirmed in my seat.  One of the kids they were profiling got eliminated when he spelled "distractible" as "distractable." [Moira thought he was the smartest one of all!] His brother said afterward, "I still think he was right," and I would have made the same choice.  The weather was nice so we walked down to the cinema.

Afterward we ate at the Swiss Chalet restaurant.  I got a discount because of my ROM membership.  As usual, I ordered the grilled chicken breast with side orders of corn and cole slaw.

This week the male teachers organized the dance party.  It had a Russian theme.  There was another casino, with a dance called a Catherine, which is like a Russian square dance. (Would that be a trapezium dance?) I was dancing with one woman and she choked.  Fortunately, it was nothing serious.  Someone brought some caviar. (Some well-off people come here.) It's just the second time I've tried it, the first bering at a Goodenough Association meeting in October, 2001.

May 29, 2003

Got up at 9:49.

Dreamed of walking through Halifax streets; providing an audible laugh in a TV skit's recorded laughter.

Father and I agreed on a job application letter to the National Post.

Dinner was chicken curry.

Went to the library and borrowed Freddy Goes to the North Pole.

Finished reading the Arab history.

Went down to the Pauper's near Bloor and Bathurst, because I'd heard that some of the Central Tech night school students were meeting there.  I didn't see any, but it did get me out of the house.

May 28, 2003

Dreamed of the family driving somewhere in the winter and picking up Donald; a 1965 magazine article on daredevil culture illustrated with a still from The Great Race (a 1965 movie I saw when I was four).

Got up at 9:24.

Another dance lesson.  I bought five more lessons, but that's the last. (It'll take me through July.)

Father and I moved a couple of heavy objects out to the sidewalk for collection.  One was a TV set, and the other was a Queen Anne's chair we'd had almost forty years.

Dinner was roast chicken.

In the acting class we delivered our monologues with our audience's back to us.  Then we performed each other's monologues.  I did my Enchanted scene with Donna this week.  They said we had good chemistry.  It turns out they are going to have night school courses again next year.

I stopped at the local karaoke and sang "The Age of Aquarius," "Come Together" and "Blue Moon."

May 27, 2003

Dreamed of a group of bank robbers kidnapping me and my siblings and holding us hostage; visiting Pickard Place, a street near our Sackville home, and seeing the houses replaced by a superstore; a TV show featuring skaters [remember Stars on Ice in the '70s?]; fellow acting student Donna and I visiting Mel's Tea Room, an actual place in Sackville; a Europe issue of Granta magazine with French comic-book Gaul Asterix on the cover; a high desk (like in my room) with a light on somewhere inside; a new class in school.

Got up at 8:26.

Went shopping.

Another dancing lesson.  I relearned some salsa steps I'd forgotten.

Dinner was fish.

I was rehearsing my drama lines and the others in the family said I was too loud. (Moira accused me of overacting.) They should just be glad I never do it in the middle of the night!

Went out to the karaoke place in Scarborough.  But it turned out the karaoke was delayed an hour by the hockey final (if they had it at all). That was too long, so I went home.  Yet I don't really mind travelling three hours for nothing:  getting out of the house is important to me.

May 26, 2003

"I'm going to correct certain inequities"--Willem Dafoe in Spider-Man

Got up at 9:29.

Dreamed of rolling loose coins, and trying to put different coins in the same roll; Paul Gauguin.

We finally got the spuds planted.

Baked whole wheat bread.

Dinner was spaghetti (which I cooked, for a change).

Rented the DVD of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.  The action was pretty conventional, but Willem Dafoe was a great villain.  The scene wher ethe Green Goblin attacked a street festival with helium floats owed a little something to the Batman movie...

May 25, 2003

Got up at 10:00.

Dreamed of visiting Los Angeles.

Moira and I visited the TTC car barns and the Casa Loma stables.

The London Review of Books has some interesting articles on the Iraq war.

Dinner was pork chops.

Took Anne of Avonlea over to Puitak's so she can read it. (I renewed it Friday.) She loved Anne of Green Gables...

Saw the Sopranos episode where Tony said to Jackie Jr. "You've bottomed out!" then "I haven't decided what to do with you."

May 24, 2003

"When incognito, do as the Cognitians do"--The Dick's a Dame

Got up at 10:23.

Dreamed of mhy parents finding me in a motel room; searching a suitcase.

It's Open Doors weekend, so I visited the Canadian Opera Company theatre on Front Street.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Went to Second City to see The Dick's a Dame, a zany "everything but the kitchen sink" private eye mystery spoof.  It was directed by Sue Miner, whom I met before the show. [She taught the previous term's drama class.] I liked the Peter Lorre-type creepy character and the gamblers, all yelling "Don't mention Guido!"

May 23, 2003

Got up at 10:33.

Dreamed of walking across a parallel series of railroad tracks; watching the opening of Matinee at the Bijou, a PBS series showcasing old B-movies and shorts (an actual series I watched back in the mid-'80s).

Dinner was roast chicken.

Got some strawberries for the dance party.  I stopped at the library and glanced at an issue of Premiere magazine with the headline "10 new horror movies that will scare you silly." Scared silly ten times in the same season?  It's a good year for horror movies!  It reminds me of their summer preview headline from a few years ago, "57 must-see movies." (What if you only see 56?)

The dance party had a Caribbean theme, organized by the female dance teachers.  We did a merengue casino, which involved moving in a circle and constant;y changing partners.  Dawn led a line dance with a lot of paddle steps.  There was also a couples contest of musical chairs. (Cynthia and I finished fourth.) Unusually, there were more men than women and I sat out several dances.

May 22, 2003

Got up at 9:16.

Dreamed of trying to describe the plot of Only Angels Have Wings (the scene where Jean Arthur had a fit because Cary Grant was eating the dead pilot's steak); a bookshelf with a paperback of L.M. Montgomery's Rainbow Valley (which I haven't read).

Deposited an interest cheque worth over $2000.

Got our Cinematheque membership renewed, and ordered some tickets too.

Finished Anne of Avonlea.  Did I say Lucy Maud Montgomery was a clever writer?  She's a wonderful writer!

Dinner was fettucine alfredo, which I cooked.  I'm a dab hand at it.

Tony taught a tango class with puerta, Argentine links and double corte.

Started reading the last part of Hourani's Arab history, about the period since 1939.

May 21, 2003

Got up at 9:54.

Dreamed of seeing a color(!) photograph of Anne of Avonlea character Davy Keith (looking like a present-day kid) in a bicycle race [that's a still of the character in the TV series The Road to Avonlea up top]; reading of a "real life" woman who reminded me of July's wife Peach in Lonesome Dove.

Another dance lesson. Afterward I recited my Bethune monologue for Cynthia.

I've been having a problem with diarrhea so I switched to lactose-free milk for a while.

Dinner was halibut.

In the drama class I did an exercise where I delivered my Bethune monologue to a group of underground conspirators, with quiet furtiveness.  It was very useful.  

Then Zita and I worked on a scene from Barefoot in the Park, playing a newlywed couple having their first quarrel.  When we performed our  scenes, they were full of bloopers.  Tijuana said I have natural comic timing. [Zita was a Hungarian-born model taking the acting course to improve her English!]

Visited the new karaoke place near our house.  Hardly anyone was singing.  I sang "Can't Help Falling in Love," Hey, Jude" and "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head."

May 20, 2003

Got up at 7:27.

Moira's been listening to our Royal Family of Opera records, and some of the music has been going through my head, especially Pilar Lorengar's "Depuis le Jour" (from Charpentier's Louise). [On our record, there's a scratch right where she sings "L'amour etend sur moi ses ailes."]

Went shopping.

Had an afternoon nap. [This was before I started doing that all the time!]

Dinner was spaghetti.

Went to karaoke.  There were so few people that the first round was double songs!  I sang "Burning Down the House," "Dancing in the Dark," "If I Were a Rich Man," and "Folsom Prison Blues."

Read a Harper's article about how ecological reverses caused the collapse of Mayan civilization, suggesting the same thing could happen in today's world.

May 19, 2003

Dreamed of travelling on a train; TVOntario showing a "director's cut" of the western True Grit and interviewing director Henry Hathaway's widow; being worn out from travelling, in our Sackville house; having Lilliputian miniatures of animals and machines in my pocket.

Got up at 10:29.

We had a picnic at Sunnyside Park and took Merle and Rae, except that when we got to their house they were out walking the dog. (They should have been waiting for us, but we should have phoned before leaving.) So Father dropped us off at the park and went back to get the girls, but when he brought them back there was no place to park.  At least we got together in the end.

Dinner was ham and scalloped potatoes.

I did a puzzle involving perfect numbers. [That's composite numbers that equal the sum of their proper factors.] After 6 and 28, there aren't any for quite a while.

I was going to see the movie 25th Hour, but I completely forgot it. [I eventually saw it on video.]

May 18, 2003

Dreamed of turning off a Sopranos episode because it got too frightening; looking for a later broadcast to record it; visiting Port Elgin near Sackville; seeing a highway flooded out; looking for a toilet.

Got up at 10:14.

John and Rae came over for dinner, which was lasagna.

Saw a bit of a 1969 all-star movie remake of David Copperfield.  It was cheesy, with a dumb framing structure putting it into flashback. (Come to think of it, I tried to watch it before and couldn't then.)

Not much to talk about today.

May 17, 2003

Dreamed of the Disney movie Banner in the Sky [a.k.a. Third Man on the Mountain], which I saw on TV when I was young, about a team of mountaineers trying to climb a peak in the Swiss Alps; passing the road outside Sackville, N.B., and seeing the nearby tidal dam structure in ruins; reading a Slate article on TV coverage of the Olympics.

Got up at 11:51.

Another headache.

Got my hair cut at the Hungarian barber shop across the street.

Got the new Vanity Fair.  It has a good James Wolcott article on the subservience of the American news media under Dubya.

Moira and I had dinner with Pui and Gordon and some other people to celebrate Gordon's and Moira's birthdays.  We went to an Indian restaurant.

May 16, 2003

Dreamed of being a doctor about to examine two men; driving a Segway scooter to our Sackville house; looking for work in the are of Cumberland Terrace; visiting London.

Got up at 10:46.

We found a little cherry outgrowth (with a big root network), and today I planted it in the yard.  It was raining heavily.

Donald came over for dinner, which was takeout churrasco chicken.

Cynthia and I did our swing routine at the dance party, which had a rock & roll theme. Some people said I did quite well, but I was just glad to have it over with.  Cynthia had a 1950s ponytail.  David didn't show up. (Maybe he'll come next week.)

Trying to figure out a puzzle in which you cut three squares into nine pieces to make one big square. (It's called Wafa's Dissection.)

May 15, 2003

Dreamed of acquiring a huge pile of videos for $1 apiece or even less; early Elvis singles tied in to his movies ("Love Me Tender," "Loving You"); a large necropolis mausoleum with basement passageways.

Got up at 9:52.

Planted the parsnips and the beets.  We searched everywhere for the parsnip seeds, and it turned out they were in my jacket!

Baked gingerbread for the dance party tomorrow night.

"I See You Never" is a beautiful little Ray Bradbury story about a Mexican immigrant in California overstaying his visa and being deported. [I read it in The World's Best Short Short Stories.]

Dinner was spaghetti.

Don taught a waltz lesson with progressive steps and the streamlined twinkle.

May 14, 2003

Got up at 10:12.

Dreamed of taking the northward bus on Bathurst Street; Bathurst Street to be replaced (?); being in a car with the windshield wipers on.

Went shopping.

Baked rye bread.

Dinner was boiled ham.

Got the Cinematheque schedule for the summer.  I'm likely to see a lot of the Carl Dreyer series.  I'll probably see some of the Marlene Dietrich movies too.

In the drama class I did my scene and my monologue.  I also played Charon describing Bethune after hearing the monologue when he was rowing him across the River Styx.  I also watched the others performing their scenes from The Gingerbread Lady and California Suite.  I invited David to the dance party Friday.

May 13, 2003

Dreamed of new bath towels; Sopranos actor Steven Van Zandt playing an older man.

Got up at 7:16.

Started translating the Ray Bradbury story "I See You Never."

Another dance lesson.  Our swing routine is now ready for Friday.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Read 72 pages of Anne of Avonlea.  Wonderful stuff.

Went out to karaoke.  Jim brought Genny and we stayed till just past midnight.  I sang "My Way," "Consider Yourself," "Danny Boy" (Genny really likes that one) and "The Green, Green Grass of Home."

May 12, 2003

Got up at 9:15.

Went to our MPP's constituency office around the corner to see if he'd call for restoring the Toronto schools' continuing education program. (Jennifer in the drama class has been organizing to fight its elimination.) They said the Liberals will come out with an education platform in a few weeks.

Finished translating the Jalna passage.

Another dance lesson.  When I got home, there was a "thank you" letter Cynthia wrote during Customer Appreciation Week.

Father and Moira came back from Kingston.

Dinner was pork chops.

Writing crossword puzzles is pretty frustrating, even with automatic filling.

May 11, 2003

Got up at 9:57.

Dreamed of visiting a French-language bookstore where they were also showing movies; a female acquaintance criticizing my manners on a previous occasion and not seeing that I was ignoring her; walking on a sidewalk marking the border between suburbia and farmland; looking out at the seacoast and seeing haze.

Puitak came over and brought Mother some flowers for Mother's Day. (She has no mother.)

Got a start on writing my first crossword puzzle.  John, his new girlfriend Kathrine and the girls came over.  They brought a rice-chickpea casserole.

Saw the Sopranos episode where Jackie Jr. started dating Meadow and Anthony Jr. joined in trashing the school swimming pool.

May 10, 2003

Dreamed of Dondi, one of many children's picture books we have in our attic, which I read when I was young (based on a comic strip).

Got up at 10:21.

We've planted the peas, the beans and the carrots.

Started reading the Anne of Green Gables sequel Anne of Avonlea.  Lucy Maud Montgomery was a clever writer indeed.

Dinner was steak (which I fried).

Saw Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still on TV.  Slow and preachy, but Michael Rennie was a pretty cool alien.  It's remarkable that there'd be so few guards around the spaceship, and that they didn't think of using "Wanted" posters...

John's bringing over supper tomorrow, but we don't know what it is.

May 9, 2003

Got up at 10:34.

Father drove Moira to Kingston so she could run in a marathon.

Gave the garden another hoeing before we start planting. (I left the pea seeds to soak overnight.)

Dinner was fettucine (which I cooked).

I'm now reading the puzzle book while waiting for the computer to boot.

Dawn taught a samba lesson involving the Buttafuoco (how do you spell it?). [It's botafogo.] Davis did a line dance with several sore-foot steps.

Finished the Christopher Hibbert book.

May 8, 2003

Got up at 9:56.

Dreamed of being in a bookstore and seeing Nancy Drew mysteries and Ladybird children's books about English history, including ones about Dukes Nicholas and Richard(?).

Went to the big Canadian Tire and another store near Keele & St. Clair and bought our seeds and stuff.  We're planting peas, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beans, onions and tomatoes.

We also bought two blueberry plants and a grapevine.  I planted them after we got home.

Dinner was stir-fry (which Moira cooked).

That book of a thousand puzzles is fascinating!  Just now I'm doing puzzles about circles, spheres and polygons.

Tony taught a foxtrot class with the grapevine and some twinkle steps.

Stayed awake till past 4:00!

May 7, 2003

Got up at 9:30.

Dreamed of being in a cynical comedy with Richard Gere (like Chicago), realizing I was going to be the butt of the humor, and trying to leave before the ending; meeting two women (one in military uniform) and trying to draw them into a menage a trois.

Had a dance lesson with Dawn.  She's really pleased with my progress.  On the way home, I picked up the molasses.

Dinner was salmon.

Another drama class.  I went through the Bethune monologue quite a few times, but only the first time from memory.  I did the Enchanted scene with the teacher, Liz, because Danielle wasn't there.  People say I'm very good. (Tijuana was with me in the beginner course and says she's impressed with how much I've grown.) I'm getting to enjoy that Rob and Tijuana scene from Otherwise Engaged with repeated viewings.  Two other students performed a scene from Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady. ("If you don't give a crap, I don't give a crap." "Hey, watch your goddamned language!")

May 6, 2003

Dreamed of the tidal dam outside Sackville, N.B.; a subway stop in Sackville (?); an adventure inside a haunted house.

Got up at 7:28.

Showed Dr. Hassan the photograph of me dancing with Cynthia.

Went shopping.  Forgot to get molasses.

Baked multigrain bread.

Cleaned the windows in my room, which took a while.  The nerve-racking part is making sure you don't put them back in the wrong way.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Finished memorizing my Bethune monologue.  It's quite a challenge.

Went to the Fossil & Haggis karaoke.  There's a smaller crowd now that the students have gone home, and I had time to sing three songs: "Hey Jude," "Memories Are Made of This," and "Can't Help Falling in Love." 

Jim sang a couple of Springsteen songs, and two people did a duet of the Grease song "Summer Nights," with the line "I wonder what she's doing now" having "what" changed to "who"! Someone sang "White Rabbit," and "The Red Queen's off with your head" became "The Red Queen's giving me head"!

Forgot to shave till I came home from karaoke.

May 5, 2003

Got up at 9:22.

Dreamed of finding a coded message in a New York Times Sunday Magazine article with the key that the first word began with "A," the second with "B," etc.

Hoed the garden in the morning.  I'm glad I got it done then because it poured rain in the afternoon.

Another dance lesson.  We almost have the rumba routine down pat, and we've put the swing routine together.  At one point I pulled Cynthia too hard, which shows I'm getting strong arms.

Dinner was lasagna.

Finished printing out this diary's March entries.

May 4, 2003

Dreamed of finding a bathtub in a house near our Sackville cottage; meeting a man with a dog brain-damaged in the back of his head; the movie The Great Race, which I saw when I was four; Shelley hosting a waterfront screening of The Scorpion King.

Got up at 10:56.

We drove down to Humber Bay Park.  People were racing remote-controlled boats.

Finished the spading.  Next comes the hoeing.

Donald, John and Rae came over for dinner, which was roast beef and macaroni.

Saw the Sopranos episode where Tony wouldn't invite Ralph to Thanksgiving dinner.

Memorized the first half of my Bethune monologue.

May 3, 2003

Got up at 9:57.

Started spading the garden.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Went to a Mensa games night.  I played a game of Upwords in which I was stuck with a surfeit of consonants for almost the whole game.  Then I played Balderdash, in which people make up fake definitions for a word, then guess the real one.  It was pretty fun.

May 2, 2003

Dreamed of a piano book from the time when I played the piano; visiting my parents at a hotel; going to return some videos; noticing they were on the watch for counterfeit currency.

Got up at 8:36.

Father and I went to Canadian Tire and bought a new shovel and a spatula.

Finished shovelling the garden.  Spading it with the fork comes next.

Dinner was pork chops.

Moira bought the first issue of Radar magazine, with its list of loathsome celebrities.  Pretty mean.

Sergei taught a swing class with new stuff like the throwaway.  Lisa led a new samba line dance.

May 1, 2003

Dreamed of downloading a page with an ad for the musical Annie; meeting some of Rae's pre-adolescent girlfriends in Sydney, N.S.; going out on the streetcar to a British movie wearing a bathing suit; a magic well; being pursued by a large airborne object.

Got up at 10:17.

Started typing out the diary entries for March.  Finally got started with shovelling the garden.  After adding on the bottom layer from the compost (I think the smell is still faintly on me), I came back and spread on a layer of peat moss.  Of course, it'll still have to be dug in.

Baked brown bread.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Went to see Leo McCarey's The Milky Way, with Harold Lloyd, at the Cinematheque.  It was one of his few sound movies, and pretty funny. (It's about a milkman who gets packaged as a champion boxer.) [The host mentioned that we're lucky we can see it today, because when Samuel Goldwyn remade it a decade later as the Danny Kaye vehicle The Kid From Brooklyn he bought up and destroyed every print he could find!]

I also saw three hilarious silent shorts in which McCarey directed Laurel and Hardy.  I was also going to see McCarey's Six of a Kind, with a cast that included W.C. Fields, but the print had shrunk so much that they couldn't run it in the projector.  Oh, well.