September 26, 2003

Dreamed of starting my diary in the middle, reaching the end and continuing in the beginning.

Finally finished the poll reports at the campaign office.

Baked cheese bread.

Dinner was takeout churrasco chicken.

September 25, 2003

Dreamed of the 1975 Mohammed Ali- Chuck Wepner bout which was the inspiration for the movie Rocky; reading dialogue quotations from the 1970s sitcom Good Times.

Entered the election day volunteer slips in the database and managed to do some of the poll reports.  But it's still pretty frustrating.

Went to the Hummingbird Centre and bought a ticket to see Peter Grimes Sunday afternoon.

I was really exhausted late in the afternoon.

Dinner was lasagna.

Saw the video of the movie of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.  It was rather coy by today's standards.

I also saw a video of John Candy sketches from SCTV.

September 24, 2003

Tried to enter some poll reports on the campaign office database.  But it was too frustrating for me.

Eric finally took me out to lunch. (We went to Harvey's.) He says I'm the best volunteer he's worked with.

Went shopping.

Went to the dentist's office and rearranged next month's appointment so it won't conflict with the Mission:  Possible program.

Phoned Mission:  Possible and confirmed that last week's fax had arrived.

Dinner was meat pies.  We probably won't get them again.

Saw the Brazilian gangster movie City of God at the Music Hall. (It's the first time I saw a movie wearing my contacts.) It's a terrific, funny epic:  really brilliant storytelling.  Well before it was over, I was already thinking that I wanted to see it again. [Still haven't...]

September 23, 2003

Robert Hughes on Goya: "We expect a great artist to change over his lifetime.  But this much?"

Dreamed of getting a whole batch of Cinematheque tickets (which I'll bet doing shortly) and noticing that some of t the tickets were for movies shown months ago; seeing a fox hunt from a distance, led by a middle-aged woman who was an army officer.

Worked three hours straight at the campaign office.  Eric, the campaign manager, has invited me to lunch, but we can't seem to get together at the right time.

Read a Robert Hughes article on Goya in Vanity Fair.

Dinner was spaghetti.

Went to karaoke for the last time before my drama course gets in the way.  I sang "Back in the U.S.S.R.," "Burning Down the House" and "Up on the Roof." There were a lot of students and they didn't applaud much.

Had my contacts in for over six hours.

September 22, 2003

Dreamed of reading a magazine with a pay-TV schedule; going through the clothes in my closet and deciding what to wear.

Started entering the volunteer locations on the campaign office database.  I just about finished it too.

Dinner was lobster rolls.

Put my contacts in twice and even wore them at the campaign office.  My eyes will need a while to adjust:  I've been having slight headaches.

The cool fall weather is here.

September 21, 2003

Dreamed of being in a record store unable to find any music that interested me.

Put on my contact lenses for the first time.  The left one took quite a while. (I need a lot of practice.)

We drover down to Humber Bay.  My contacts feel so comfortable that I didn't feel sure I had them on!

Donald came over for dinner, which was salmon.

On Six Feet Under, Nate met Brenda's parents for the first time.

Lincoln's Virtues takes a rather one-sided view of Lincoln's 1840s "pragmatism" in opposition to the abolitionists. [He blamed the abolitionist candidate for tipping the balance in favour of pro-slavery expansionist James Polk in the 1844 election, like later liberals scapegoating Nader for Gore's defeat.]

September 20, 2003

Stan Laurel: "Promiscuously!"--Flying Deuces

Dreamed of being in Sackville and going out to buy the Saturday edition of The Moncton Times and Transcript; seeing a report that Mr. Cranky [at mrcranky.com] had published his last movie review; going to an airport to catch a plane, being unsure where to go, calling Moncton and finding it was just a short distance behind me; heading to the gate over a sand dune. (I'd seen a news report about people walking on a sand dune during the hurricane.) I may have dreamed more vividly than usual because I forgot to take my Celexa.

Finally finished entering the sign locations onto the database at the campaign office.

I'm reading in Lincoln's Virtues about his opposition to the Mexican War, which reminded me of Howard Dean opposing the Iraq War.

Dinner was roast chicken, which came out quite well in our convection oven.

Baked multigrain bread.

Rented two videos, both for the second time.  Laurel & Hardy's Flying Deuces was an amusing Foreign Legion comedy.  Fred Zinnemann's famous High Noon was rather repetitious, especially the music.

September 19, 2003

What's left of Hurricane Isabel arrived this morning, but it was pretty mild by the time it reached Toronto.  I like this kind of misty weather:  it reminds me of London.

Got my contact lenses.  My problem in putting them in is that I tend to do it too quickly.

Went to the Royal Ontario Museum preview of their art deco exhibit.  Pretty colourful.

Dinner was McDonald's.

September 18, 2003

Hardly any dreaming the last couple of nights.

Updated my C.V. so I could bring it to Mission:  Possible with my signed contract.

Spent several hours on the database at the campaign office.

Dinner was pork chops.

September 17, 2003

Finally got started entering sign locations in the database at the campaign office.  There were a lot of false starts, and I only got underway in the evening.

We're finally close to finishing the freezer's crushed ice for the summer.

Dinner was steak.

Finished translating the scene from Jean Giraudoux' The Enchanted.  Now I've started translating my Classics Illustrated comic book about Benjamin Franklin into Chinese. (I did it in Japanese last year.)

September 16, 2003

Dreamed of being left to watch an opera diva's string bass at the stage door while she performed inside; going out for a ride on a London bus and ending up hired by some Burmese owners to run the line.

Went to see Dr. Hassan and went back onto the antidepressant Celexa. (I've also resumed taking Palafer because my blood-iron level is low.)

Went shopping.

Dinner was halibut.

September 15, 2003

Dreamed of staying alone for a whole weekend in an apartment we were about to sell, and finding the new family that was about to buy the place in the downstairs room.

Leaving the campaign office, I was waiting for a streetcar, but there were none because of some accident, and while I was waiting a downpour started and I got soaked!  It was the first big rain in weeks, and I noticed that my shoe soles were no longer waterproof.  So I bought a new pair at Zeller's.

Dinner was spaghetti.

We have about 40 videocassettes in the house, but a bad habit of taping shows we may or may not want to see, then shelving them away and forgetting them.  Today, Father wanted to buy some new cassettes, but I said no way!  Instead, in the evening we went through all the tapes and decided which ones we wanted to see and which could be taped over.  We're going to try to see at least one taped show every night.

The Mensa people want some samples of my writing, so I sent them some film reviews I'd posted in the mrcranky.com forums a few years ago.

September 14, 2003

Dreamed of taking a ship to Quebec City.

More of the same at the campaign office.

Dinner was roast chicken. (John and the girls came over.)

Six Feet Under was about a Chicano gangbanger's funeral.

September 13, 2003

Julian Heller made a special public appearance at the campaign office in the morning.  Afterward I entered a whole lot of sign locations.

Missed Go Further at the film festival to attend a Mensa board meeting in the afternoon. [I eventually saw it on video, I think.] I took the TTC to the meeting, which was in Markland Wood, in the far west of Etobicoke.

Afterward I was interviewed about becoming the Montage editor.  I may have a leg up over the other four applicants because I was the only one who showed up! (Not that I blame the others:  the meeting went on well over two hours and was pretty boring.) After the interview we stayed for dinner, which was Swiss Chalet takeout.

September 12, 2003

Still not much to do at the campaign office.  I brought soome 200 poll maps to a photocopying shop.

Saw End of the Century at the Royal Ontario Museum.  It's a pretty fun documentary about the punk rock band the Ramones.

Then I went to the Elgin theatre to see The Merry Widow, a silent movie directed by the great Erich Von Stroheim, screened with a live orchestra!  A great sex comedy, especially in the first half.  As I expected, it was my favourite movie at the festival.

Dinner was McDonald's, after 21:00 due to the movies.

Baked rye bread overnight.

September 11, 2003

Dreamed of visiting Copenhagen; starting to preach spontaneously like the crazy brother in Carl Dreyer's Ordet; hearing the CBC morning news in the basement of our Sackville house; taking a train to the United States but leaving my suitcase behind.

There wasn't so much to do at the campaign office today, just a little sign location stuff.  I brought home a sign and put it up.

Dinner was steak.

Saw Nell Shipman in Something New at the Cumberland.  That was a film to promote the Maxwell (later Chrysler) automobile.  So she and the hero drove their car through rugged terrain (a bit like in today's commercials!) with a posse of mounted Mexican bandits in hot pursuit.  Unfortunately, the bandits' horses were clearly moving faster than the car!  There was also a short titled A Boy, a Bear and a Dog, a title that explains itself.

September 10, 2003

Dreamed of returning to our Sackville house from our cottage, by the Amherst road.

Went shopping.

Went to the Geneva Centre again and met Stephanie Moeser.  They're forming a new group focused on Asperger's adults.

Did some more sign location work at the campaign office.

Dinner was meat pies and the rest of the lasagna.

Saw Nell Shipman's The Grub-Stake at the Cumberland.  It was a silent melodrama about a woman who comes to a place they call Alaska, but seems to be the Klondike. (They have things like Mounties!) 

My favourite part was the sequence where she wandered into a hidden valley and made friends with the bears and other beasts, which was cute in a proto-Disneyesque sort of way.  It was filmed with real animals from the huge menagerie Shipman kept on her Idaho estate.

September 9, 2003

Finished entering the sign requests at the campaign office.  I met Julian Heller for the first time.

Went to the optometrist and picked up my new glasses. They're very comfortable, almost like they aren't there!  I also did a test for contact lenses.

Saw L.A. Plays Itself at the Royal Ontario Museum cinema.  It's a brilliantly filmed essay about the portrayal of Los Angeles itself in Hollywood movies.  The disaster movie footage was especially funny.

Dinner was Harvey's after the movie.

Finally saw that Six Feet Under episode, in which Claire stole a foot from a corpse to get back at her loose-lipped boyfriend.

September 8, 2003

That weed in the garden gave me a rash on my left hand and the doctor prescribed a cream. (Fortunately, it looks like it's going away.) I also got my blood-iron level checked.

My glasses turned up on the rocking chair. (I could have seen them except that I wasn't wearing them!)

Went to the campaign office and sorted and entered a batch of sign requests.  The campaign's just a week old, and we're already posting a lot of signs!

Dinner was lasagna.

Finished Return to Jalna and started William Lee Miller's Lincoln's Virtues:  An Ethical Biography.  I hope it isn't as didactic as the title suggests.

Saw four Nell Shipman movies at the Cumberland.  The first three were silent shorts filmed on her Idaho estate with her menagerie, and were kind of cute.  The fourth was a B-movie she made in the late 1940s, which was more like D Minus.  The last 10 minutes were lost, as if I cared.

While I was in the queue someone gave me a free DVD of a short titled Laundry.

September 7, 2003

Dreamed of the German movie Fitzcarraldo, with Claudia Cardinale.

We drove down to Humber Bay.

In the late afternoon my eyes got really watery, probably because of a weed in the garden.

Dinner was meat pies (something new).

Saw Mario Van Peebles' Baadasssss! at the Varsity.  It's the story of how his father Melvin (whom he plays) made Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,  the low-budget hit that started the blaxploitation wave back in 1971.  Pretty entertaining.  

It started half an hour late, so I left about ten minutes before the end so I could get home in time for Six Feet Under. (That's how much of a fan I am!) But after I got home my glasses disappeared overnight.  Fortunately, we always tape it. [I later saw the whole movie on video.]

September 6, 2003

Hope I'm not getting a cold.

On my way to the film festival I saw a big parade by Asian Christians opposed to gay marriage (Ignorant!)

Saw Errol Morris' Robert McNamara documentary The Fog of War at the Uptown.  RM's account of the Vietnam War etc. was predictably self-serving yet revealing.  Perversely fascinating.

Saw Alien (for the first time!), also at the Uptown.  For some reason horror movies leave me cold.  There was a long Q&A session afterward with director Ridley Scott and costar Yaphet Kotto.

Dinner (which I didn't eat until 21:30) was McDonald's.

September 5, 2003

Dreamed of getting up in the morning and looking for a computer file before anyone else in the house was awake; driving along a scenic road in rural California.

Dropped brochures in mailboxes in the Lambert Lodge-Melita area. I skipped the mailboxes with "No flyers" signs. (Maybe I'm too conscientious for politics.)

Dinner was spaghetti, which I cooked, using our [temporary] convection stove for the first time.

In the evening I went to the campaign office and drew up some more precinct sheets.

Sore throat.

Went to karaoke, but I was up to only one song: "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic."

September 4, 2003

Baked half-white, half-whole wheat bread overnight.

Went to see Stephanie Moeser at the Geneva Centre about the Asperger's group, but she was occupied.  I left a voice message.  I'll be meeting her Wednesday.

Went to an eye doctor.  My eyesight has actually improved in the eight years since my last prescription!

Helped set up some big posters for the Julian Heller campaign. [St. Paul's NDP]

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw last night's episode of Counterspin, discussing gay marriage. [This was the year that US presidential candidate Richard Gephardt dismissed it as "not feasible"!]

Went to the local karaoke and sang "In a Big Country," "Rock Around the Clock" and "Back in the USSR." (The last song should have been "Get Back," but the book had the wrong number.)

September 3, 2003

Dreamed of an internet blog written by British actress Wendy Hiller before her recent death.

Went shopping.

We received a new stove, but it was the wrong model.

Did some office work for the St. Paul's NDP campaign.  I created five precinct sheets with bristol board, a pencil and two straight edges.

We ate out at the Swiss Chalet.

Saw the video of John Frankenheimer's curious Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate (for maybe the third time). A taut production with some great dialogue, it's about brainwashing and assassination, but mostly about paranoia.  With Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury at their best. (But what was Janet Leigh doing in that movie?)

September 2, 2003

"Stop acting like you have a choice!"--Dirty Pretty Things

Dreamed of visiting a gymnasium; receiving in the mail a message from The Nation on the Bush administration written in several languages.

Dr. Hassan was enthusiastic about my plan to form an Aspergers adult support group.  He promises to give what support he can.

Finally got around to seeing Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things, about the underworld of illegal immigrants in London.  It was well-made and disturbing; every shot had visual interest. (It was photographed by the great Chris Menges, who won Oscars for The Killing Fields and The Mission.) It shows the cosmopolitan London I lived in and enjoyed years ago.  This could be New York City, Los Angeles or maybe even a future Toronto.  The script was reminiscent of Ken Loach's movies (and urban legends). There were very few "English" people in it.  

Afterward I picked up my film festival tickets.  I got all ten of my first choices!

Dinner was KFC.

Saw a bit of Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love on video.  Couldn't get into it. (I couldn't watch his Magnolia either.)

Went to karaoke and sang "The Heart of Rock & Roll," "Life's Been Good" and "Eat It."

Read 88 pages of Return to Jalna!

September 1, 2003

Dreamed of a large group of strangers coming to our Sackville house uninvited, for  a meeting, and waiting at the door without ringing the bell; remembering the actual quote "Chet Huntley cried when he reported Martin Luther King's death.  I never noticed him crying when he reported the latest Vietnam body count like it was a grocery list."

Gave the trees some pruning.

Dinner was shepherd's pie.

Saw Six Feet Under again.  I notice even more details on second viewing.

The Salon series about documents promoting free speech is excellent.  Last week they discussed Martin Luther King's "Letter From a Birmingham Jail"; this week was about how Benjamin Franklin's grandson Benjamin Bache opposed the federal government and became a martyr for American democracy.

August 31, 2003

Dreamed of a theme park where the big attraction was a surprise.

Saw Bend It Like Beckham at the Paradise.  It was pretty entertaining.  I liked Juliet Stevenson in a small role.

Donald and John came over for dinner, which was Chinese food.

On Six Feet Under there was a client who seemed to be really rich but turned out to have died broke.

August 30, 2003

Dinner was roast beef.

Saw Sergei Eisenstein's silent classic Battleship Potemkin at the Cinematheque (for the second time, at least). This print had an orchestral score by Dmitri Shostakovich.  It's entertaining by shamelessly didactic, especially the part where a priest urges passivity. (In the true story, the priest was a key supporter of the mutiny.) The movie ends with the mutinous crew escaping to Rumania but doesn't mention that the Rumanian government arrested them and sent them back to Russia and prison.

Got the Cinematheque's fall schedule.  They have a big Fassbinder series.  I probably won't see many films this time.

August 29, 2003

Dreamed of meeting a girl at Dr. Hassan's office; having something to write down for him, but no paper; arriving late at the Cinematheque to see Dances With Wolves, but the movie hadn't started; bringing the wrong ticket, but nobody was collecting them anyway; walking on the streets of Sackville and seeing fireworks (I heard fireworks at the Canadian National Exhibition last night); making an effort to wake up (in the Sackville house) by moving toward the light; waking up in a strange home and meeting a strange family; asking them whether this was a dream or real; hearing a girl whisper something and saying, "This must be a dream.  If it were real I wouldn't hear her so clearly" making them laugh; going outside and seeing cars with Alberta licence plates.

Woke up at dawn, then went back to sleep because I hadn't remembered any dreams to write down.

Moira and I went to see Dirty Pretty Things, but the subway line was stopped because of a power failure somewhere.  I went home, but she waited out the interruption and managed to get to the movie on time.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw Carl Dreyer's Gertrud.  It was a Max Ophuls-type story, with characteristically stunning direction, about a cabinet minister's wife who used to love a poet and now loves a self-destructive composer (played by Baard Owe, the same actor who played the liver-obsessed Dr. Bondo in Lars von Trier's Danish miniseries The Kingdom).

Went to karaoke and sang "Burning Down the House" and "Stepping Out." There was a smaller crowd than usual.

August 28, 2003

Michael Moore: "If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?"

Marilyn Manson: "I wouldn't say a single word to them.  I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no-one did"--Bowling for Columbine

Dreamed of being cast in a play of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as Charlie's unemployed father (who didn't even appear in the Gene Wilder movie version); an episode of The Flintstones about a man and a woman being brainwashed into becoming cat burglars by a doctor brought into the country by Johnny of Johnny and Luther Htoo, the real-life twins who used to lead God's Army in Burma. (They were on my mind because I noticed in the film festival schedule a movie directed by Johnny To.)

Went out to see an eye doctor, but my old one is out of business.  I found a new one, but he's closed until after Labor Day.

Dinner was chicken curry.

We rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine.  I'd seen it before, but I did look at the bonus features, including a part where he talked about his anti-Bush Oscar acceptance speech.

Return to Jalna gets off to a slow start.  It doesn't help that Renny and Piers, my two favorite characters, are off fighting in World War II. (They both return later in the book.)

August 27, 2003

Dreamed of playing a computer game with a map showing your location (inside a castle, in the courtyard, on a nearby marsh).

Turned in my film festival choices.  Afterward I visited the Royal Ontario Museum.  A lot of the exhibits are closed for renovation.

Another headache.

Dinner was spaghetti.

My email applying for the editing job got bounced back, so I left a phone message.

Sent an email to the Geneva Institute saying I wanted to start a social-interaction group for people with Asperger's Syndrome.

August 26, 2003

Dreamed of the Terence Rattigan play In Praise of Love (which I saw in London in 1995--its closing line is "We don't have all night!  Then again, I guess we do..."); people in the land of Oz climbing tall trees; a martial-arts heroine in a movie scene playing tennis against a group of men, with deadly darts; Montgomery Clift appearing in the scene; remembering that Clift was long dead, and wondering how he got into the scene. (CGI?)

Moira and I picked up our film festival stuff in the morning.  They're showing Erich Von Stroheim's The Merry Widow!

Baked raisin bread.

Went shopping.  They've renovated the whole supermarket [No Frills at the Dufferin Mall].

Montage, the local Mensa bulletin, is looking for a new editor.  I think I'll apply. [Didn't get it because I wasn't considered "proactive"...]

Made my film festival selections.  Most of them are either old movies or documentaries.

Dinner was salmon.

Saw Christopher Guest's A Mighty Wind at the Paradise.  It's a mock documentary about '60s folk music.  An uneven comedy, often droll but oddly creepy.  Fred Willard had the funniest moments as a smarmy manager.

Went to karaoke and sang "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," "Feelin' Groovy" (in an overly fast tempo that missed the song's point!) and "Consider Yourself."