Dreamed of a computer game that starts with kissing a foot that turns out to belong to a monster; being in a float in a garbage collector's parade where everything smelled a bit garbagey.
Went out to a Chinese Language Meetup at a Second Cup on Steeles Avenue. There were about seven people there. Father also came. (He drove me there.)
John and Rae came over for dinner, which was vegan lasagna.
Dreamed of travelling on a ship, going through the north Atlantic and passing the New Shetland Islands(?); noticing that the ship was passing through a channel only five feet wide(?); seeing the enactment of the Gwyneth Paltrow movie A Perfect Murder (which I haven't seen), except that this time it was the wife scheming to kill the husband. (I recently glanced at a Viggo Mortenson profile that mentioned his role in that movie.)
The cool weather came back with a vengeance!
Bought a roll of film for my camera. I'll have film for 36 pictures when I'm in England.
Had dinner with Pui and Gordon, who served roast chicken. I brought along a tape of the Oscar show, but they'd seen it already so we only looked at the first hour.
Dreamed of travelling to Halifax by ship; losing track of which day of the week it was (while watching Brigadoon I wondered what day of the week it was in the village); arriving there and realizing that I'd failed to take any pictures; disembarking and meeting Moira; a TV critic's actual line, "Captain Kirk's inability to dominate a situation was paralleled by William Shatner's inability to dominate a scene."
Saw Josef Von Sternberg's silent The Last Command, about a Tsarist general who (improbably) ends up an extra in Hollywood. Some realistic studio scenes. Emil Jannings often played a big bug who ends up ground down and humiliated. (See The Blue Angel.)
The weather today was incredibly mild! I wore my spring shoes for the first time.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Saw Yasujiro Ozu's silent The Lady and the Beard, a comedy about a bearded samurai who doesn't fir into 1931 Japan. It had an interesting insight into Japan's old vs. new schizophrenia.
Never a Day So Bright is an enjoyable book. I've been telling the parents some of its stories.
"Aye, laddie, do nae be ashamed. 'Tis the hardest thing in the world to give up everything, and it's usually the only way we can get anything"--Brigadoon
Dreamed of holding the actual Monty Python album Matching Tie and Handkerchief (a record with three grooves instead of two); looking at the range of courses available at my old high school (stuff like costume design!) and thinking, "They didn't have stuff like that when I was there."
Saw Days of Thrills and Laughter, a compilation of clips from silent comedies and cliffhangers. Too much narration.
Finally started typing up my November diary entries.
Dinner was chicken.
Saw Vincente Minnelli's film of the Lerner & Leowe musical Brigadoon, about a Scottish village frozen in the 18th century that rises out of the mists once every century. Too cute by half. It reflects the post-World War II zeitgeist, with a sense of vague disappointment in the here & now and nostalgia for a more "innocent" time. Today's stars aren't sexy like Cyd Charisse was in the '50s. (It's in the moves!)
Dreamed of being alone in Sackville while the rest of the family was away, then the parents coming to bring me to join the others in Halifax; seeing the sitcom Friends (which I've never watched) [and still haven't!] and finding it to be loud, raucous, frantic and unfunny. (I think it's more subdued...)
Started reading Never a Day So Bright, a memoir by CBC radio personality Kate Aitken, describing growing up in an Ontario town at the turn of the last century. [It was published by Harlequin in the 1950s, before they came to focus on romance novels.]
We drove to Revue and rented some videos.
Finally got my hair cut! The barber said I looked like a mad composer.
Dinner was steak (which I fried).
Saw the Anne Boleyn episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII. I also saw the first hour of Kingdom Hospital, Stephen King's remake of the Danish miniseries The Kingdom. Couldn't get into it.
"Because if they all think Dust is bad, it must be good"--The Golden Compass
Dreamed of Moira being about to marry a man she didn't love; feeling alone in the world[I emphasized this bit]; searching a map of Washington state near Seattle to find a place in a valley between parallel mountain ranges.
We finally transferred our Fullwrite files onto the new computer, so now I can resume typing out my diary.
Dinner was spaghetti.
Saw Yasujiro Ozu's silent A Mother Should Be Loved, about a widowed mother who favours one of her sons more than the other. Of course, it's the favoured son who becomes rebellious.
Finished The Golden Compass. Marvellous.
Went to the Fossil and Haggis karaoke for the first time in months. I sang no new songs, but just "Hold Me Now," "Can't Help Falling in Love," and "My Way." Someone borrowed my hat [it was a Tilley Endurables fedora] to sing "Just a Gigolo."
"Ask not what your nursing home can do for you, ask what you can do for your nursing home." "You stole my best line!"--Bubba Ho-tep
Dreamed of being so angry (I don't remember why) that I hit Father several times. [We still get along well.]
Went shopping. Afterward I got a new pair of shoes for the spring, and a pair of slippers.
Today was Father's birthday. We went out to dinner at Red Lobster, along with Donald.
Saw Don Cascarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep at the Royal. (The place was packed!) It was a low-budget comedy about an aging Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) and an aging John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis--that's right, the black actor!) living in a nursing home and fighting a mummy who sucks away people's souls. It was pretty funny. (The credits included an Elvis consultant!)
Dreamed of the '60s pop group the Monkees; getting a chance to photograph Charlize Theron; going to a clinic for people with superpowers because of my ability to grab flies instantly; meeting some unfriendly superheroes, including movie star Bruce Campbell. (In real life I avoid swatting flies.)
Baked white bread.
Performed Lucia di Lamermoor for the last time. (I almost went there without my contact lenses!) Moira was there, and I spotted her in the audience. She really liked it, even my costume and hat, which I found rather dorky. We had one of our biggest crowds.
Afterward we had a cast party at the Bedford Academy. The finger food included chicken kebabs, and eating them reminded me of Leporello serving Don Giovanni a feast, and scrounging a bite for himself.
I love this kind of weather, where there's still a bit of snow but it's melting, and ice cracks under your foot.
They say that next year the opera group will be putting on Madama Butterfly and The Barber of Seville. That doesn't really interest me. [I skipped it the following year.]
Dreamed of arriving at Goodenough College and walking along several staircases. [That's where I stay in London.]
Today it was warm enough to wear my spring jacket! I like this weather where there's still a lot of snow on the ground, but it's well above freezing and you can almost feel it melt.
Dinner was salmon (which I fried).
Performed Don Giovanni for the last time. I walked down to the Bickford Centre for the first time since the fall.
Dreamed of the How and Why series of children's books.
Did a search at workopolis.com and found a proofreading position at Harlequin Romances!
It's got warm enough for strolling. I've also put away my long johns.
Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs.
Performed Lucia di Lamermoor. The audience was really supportive this time. I bought three tickets for Sunday's raffle. I also told Giuseppe that I'd join his choir in April after I return from London. [I did!]
Dreamed of reading that Judy Garland had an older sister who performed some numbers in the first part of Meet Me in St. Louis, and that she was married to Vincente Minnelli until he left her for Judy (not true, of course, though Minnelli actually was married to Judy!).
Saw The Triplets of Belleville at Canada Square. It's an incredible animated movie, with almost no dialogue but lots of style. Very imaginative. Before it was over I already wanted to see it again.
After the movie I went out to dinner with the Asperger's group. We went to the Pickle Barrel, where I ordered the red Thai curry chicken and shrimp--which was quite good--and a banana split. I decided I'd take some pictures in London to show them afterward.
Got the new Cinematheque schedule. There's a whole series of Victor Seastrom silents! (Thank goodness there are no conflicts with my London visit...)
Dreamed of reflecting on the characters in An American in Paris and how you didn't see any of them voting!
Went shopping.
Baked multigrain bread.
Dinner was pork steak.
Performed Don Giovanni. I figured out another cryptic composer: "Lure cooker" was Beethoven (bait+oven). Moira and the parents came to see it. Moira thought the soloists were uneven. Someone forgot his shoes and I let him borrow my boots.
Saw the last two episodes of the fourth season of The Sopranos, in which Tony and Johnny schemed against Carmine, and Carmela walked out on Tony. This DVD player doesn't have the feature where you can rewind and fast-forward a little at a time. (That's what happens when you buy the cheapest model they're selling!)
Headache.
Actually, it turns out that this DVD player does have the search function. (I couldn't find it because the buttons were tiny.)
Dinner was fettucine with pesto sauce (which I cooked).
Saw Yasujiro Ozu's Early Spring, about a Tokyo salaryman who has an extramarital affair. The story was told from several perspectives.
Dreamed of an ice puddle in the same shape as Labrador; walking along Bloor Street with Mother, telling her that Canada's government had been overthrown in a coup d'etat, but saying, "There's nothing we can do about it"; someone recalling how Americans had protested the Canadian government under Diefenbaker(?); meeting an old teacher from the past whom I didn't want to meet again.
Father and I went out and finally bought a DVD player. (We also looked at bread machines.)
When we set it up, the picture was in black & white at first. Then I figured out that I'd connected the cable the wrong way.
Dinner was chicken (which I fried).
Rented a couple of The Sopranos DVDs. I saw the episodes where they organized an intervention to get Christopher into drug rehab, and A.J. had a seance with Bobby's children.
Downloaded Fullwrite software onto the new computer. Now we can download my Fullwrite documents too.
Dreamed of returning home to Sackville, N.B., by train, and my luggage getting out of order; two different editions of the first of Enid Blyton's Noddy books, with two different stories (neither the actual one).
Performed Don Giovanni. Several people had missed me last night. I can now do all my own makeup except the eyelid stuff. (That's hard to do by yourself anyway.) They posted some more cryptic clues to composers, and I guessed three: "Frequently spring beer" was Offenbach (often+Bock); "Dog-like leg joint" was Puccini (poochy+knee); "Hone a level of seats was Charpentier (sharpen+tier).
Donald came over for dinner, which was East Indian takeout.
Saw the last episode of The Forsyte Saga. The actress playing Fleur [Emma Griffiths] was really gorgeous. (Unlike Jon, I would have run away with her.)
"Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction"--The Golden Compass
"Money! I hate, loathe, abominate and despise money!" "You also spend it"--Meet Me in St. Louis
Teenage Daughter: "It was really hot on the tennis court!" Mother: "A bit too hot, if you ask me"--suggestive exchange in ibid.
Dreamed of playing the board game Risk; getting lost in a stairwell.
Saw Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis for the second time. (Father drove me down, and first we had to push the car out of the ice.) It's a shrewd, sentimental piece of wartime nostalgia. Judy Garland made it work: this is definitely one of her best performances.
Dinner was spaghetti.
Baked raisin bread.
Saw "Dion Conflict: Trailer Trash" at the Royal. (That's why I missed the opera.) It was a show with about fifty movie trailers, mostly B-movies from the '70s and '80s. It was really funny, and it was over in a flash.
Dreamed of planting little fruit-bearing plants (like bunchberries, but with bigger berries) at our cottage near Sackville.
Dinner was salmon.
Performed Don Giovanni. I told Kate I couldn't make it to tomorrow's show. I guessed another of the cryptic composers: "It is encountered within one" was Smetana ('smet+in+a). We had our biggest audience yet: about 140 people. (The place was half-full.)
Giuseppe told us about the Giuseppe Verdi Chorus, a choral group that meets every Monday night and puts on concerts. (Some of the people in the opera are also in it.) I may be interested in joining after I get back from England. [I did join, and stayed in the group for over a decade.]
"I hate films. When I have two hours to spare, I'd rather spend them by myself than up there with those people"--Two Weeks in Another Town
Dreamed of the brutality of the Spanish Civil War (Loyalist politicians failing to escape the Nationalists and doomed to die); driving home to our Sackville house and seeing a group of Australian Aborigines performing a traditional dance in the front yard; getting to sit in on a meeting of the defence teach after presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was charged with murder(?); the US Congress appointing a new president and vice president after the existing ones were forced out; hoping to play King Lear.
It's warmed up.
I forgot my belt at the opera, and had to buy a new one today.
Baked whole wheat bread.
Dinner was chicken curry.
Saw Yasujiro Ozu's I Flunked, But... a comedy about college students. It brought back some uncomfortable memories of my time in university.
I stayed for Vincente Minnelli's Two Weeks in Another Town, in which washed-up movie star Kirk Douglas comes to Rome to help out washed-up director Edward G. Robinson with an ill-starred Italian production. Mostly over the top, though it had some insights into life in the movie business. [It bears comparison to the better-known The Bad and the Beautiful.]
Dreamed of seeing our Sackville house and noticing that the new owners had added a second storey to it!
Went out and got my blood checked. There were really busy, and I had to wait over two hours!
Fortunately, I had The Golden Compass with me, and read over fifty pages. It's a really great book, with a better plot than Harry Potter.
Headache.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Performed Lucia di Lamermoor. Someone finally figured out that the clasps in the middle of my costume were supposed to be linked to ones on the right side. Someone posted some cryptic clues to opera names, and I figured out that "Pretty small" was Bellini (belle+eeny) and "Barriers exists" was Mozart (moats+are). My parents saw the show and liked it more than they expected.
"Bad table manners, Gigi, have ruined more marriages than infidelity"--Gigi
Dreamed of playing with a toy World War I tank with those lozenge-shaped caterpillar treads.
Read the Classics Illustrated comic of The Downfall, Emile Zola's novel of France's disastrous 1870 defeat by Germany. It's a terrific story.
Went shopping.
Moira hated Paris. The service was lousy (hotels, etc.) and everything was a ripoff. [When you pay admission to the Louvre they don't give change--like on a bus--and Cabbies yell if your tip isn't big enough.]
Dinner was pork roast.
Saw Vincente Minnelli's Gigi (for the second time). Back in '50s America it was the height of sophistication. Today it seems vaguely unwholesome--maybe it did to some viewers at the time-- especially Maurice Chevalier's "Thank Heaven for Little Girls." ("Without them what would little boys do?") I kept thinking about what Moira said about Paris. Leslie Caron was cute as a button, and subtler than a present-day equivalent like Britney Spears.
"'Lyra, if you behave in this coarse and vulgar way, we shall have a confrontation, which I shall win'"--The Golden Compass
"Lyra's knowledge had great gaps in it, like a map of the world largely eaten by mice"--ibid.
Dreamed of letting a plastic frame for leaving dripping dishes over the sink touch a hot stove element and partially melt away; trying to address a direct-mail envelope on the last night of a political campaign.
Went to the Geneva Institute and handed that opera ticket on to Stephanie.
Mother found our old Classics Illustrated comics down in the basement! I got around to reading the comic of Ouida's French Foreign Legion novel Under Two Flags (actually one of the ones I bought the other week).
Did a matinee of Lucia. Just as Lucia stepped out into dead silence at the start of the mad scene, I let out a sneeze. Fortunately, it wasn't loud and she didn't mind.
John and the girls came over for dinner which was vegetarian lasagna.
Dreamed of a Harry Potter story where they met a talking ape grateful for their environmental efforts, then Hermione returning from Halifax, N.S., to Sackville, N.B.; losing my place in the story; the movie Tom Jones, recalling the last lines which quoted John Dryden's "Imitation of Horace" (and reflecting that the movie was full of life):
Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own; He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.
We ate out at Swiss Chalet.
Another Don Giovanni performance. I'm still having trouble learning to put on makeup. When half of my face has foundation, to me it doesn't look much different from the other half. [I've since learned to go by feel!] My favourite part is dancing the minuet. They gave me a free ticket and I'll probably give it to Stephanie Moeser at the Geneva Institute.
Dreamed of being on a swimming team; being about to move house and using up the last flour and yeast to bake bread (I just finished the white flour baking cheese bread); driving across the Mackay Bridge in Halifax and starting on a Munchausen-like trip to the moon; blond actress Elizabeth Berkley; seeing a film of my mother when she was a little girl, with her father (who died before I was born).
Moira left for Paris.
Went shopping.
Dinner was fish.
We had the Lucia di Lamermoor premiere. My suspenders had disappeared and I borrowed Gerald's belt, but it wasn't really good enough. I didn't have time to get my makeup put on before Giuseppe's pre-show rehearsal, but I didn't really care. [I wish they'd had a tutorial for new singers like me so we'd know for sure how to put on our own makeup!]
At the time of the curtain call, I had to rush offstage before the others because my nose was running. (These costumes have no pockets for a handkerchief!)
