November 14, 2004

"Most beliefs sound nutty if you think about them"--Modesty Blaise

Saw the first two episodes of Maurice Pialat's French miniseries The House in the Woods at the Cinematheque.  It's about the family of the gamekeeper on a French Marquis' estate during World War I, including three Parisian refugee boys.  Pretty good.

Headache!

Won 15 Menomonee Falls Gazette issues in the latest auction. (I wasn't expecting to win all of them!  Hope the seller won't mind waiting a few weeks for the payment.)

Dinner was lasagna.

I've finished my story "Lessons," except for revisions.

November 13, 2004

"The river was deep and swift, and at night when it was very still you could hear it chuckling quietly to itself as it hurried by.  But in the spring the chuckle grew to an angry roar, and the river rose higher in its banks and sometimes overflowed them, and snatched and tore at hen-coops and gates and woodpiles and carried them down with it"--The Clockwork Twin

Dreamed of crossing a brook near the quarry near our Sackville house; clearing away the damp snow that was clogging the brook's channel, and being swept away by the resulting flood.

Started another Freddy the Pig book, titled The Clockwork Twin.

Dinner was pork roast.

Hosted a Games Meetup at my house.  Two people came:  John, the video artist from the Geneva Centre group; and Greg, who knew about this Meetup from being a member.  We played The Amazeing Labyrinth and Scrabble.  It was a lot of fun.

November 12, 2004

Closing lines of Eastern Condors: "Fuck America!  God Damn America!" "Where will you go if the plane arrives?" "To America."

"A hero must rise from his sofa.  The biggest zombie comedy in British history"--trailer for Shaun of the Dead

Dinner was steak.

Dreamed of our Sackville cottage; walking on my knees on the sidewalk.

Saw the punk rock documentary The Ramones:  End of the Century (for the second time) at the Royal with Moira.  It was the first time I used my prize pass, which I can do for two at Festival cinemas.  Still fascinating.

On the bus on the way there, we were talking to a couple of Mormon elders who also spoke Spanish. (I resisted the temptation to say, "One of the only things I believe in is not being Mormon.") During their two-year ministries, they don't even read newspapers!

Stayed for Colin Geddes' Kung Fu Fridays presentation Eastern Condors.  It starred Sammo Hung, the plus-size Jackie Chan, as the Man of Few Words in a Deer Hunter-Rambo type adventure involving a guerrilla mission in Vietnam.  Enjoyably artless subtitles like "Nonsense, masturbator!"

November 11, 2004

Vacuumed my room.

Dinner was salmon.

Saw the Opera Atelier production of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Elgin.  It was a cute production, with a commedia dell'arte look.

Finished The Amber Spyglass.  Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is a triumphant trilogy.

Baked rye bread overnight.

November 10, 2004

"As Mary said that, Lyra felt something strange happen to her body.  She felt as if she had been handed the key to a great house she hadn't known was there, a house that was somehow inside her, and as she turned the key she felt other doors opening deep in the darkness, and lights coming on"--The Amber Spyglass

Dreamed of using a computer and not knowing how to shut it down.

Went shopping.

Dinner was chicken curry.

At the drama class Ettie and I improvised a scene in Frankenstein's lab, bringing the monster to life.  We also improvised a scene in a grocery store where I played an unbalance shoplifter who ended up doing a dance for the TV news camera that arrived at the scene!

Saw the first episode of the serial Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.  It has something to do with Ming the Merciless uniting with the Queen of Mars to steal all the nitron from the earth's atmosphere for use in their war against the Clay People...

November 9, 2004

"Being in love was like China:  you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would.  I'd spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit....  And then someone passed me a bit of some sweet stuff and I suddenly realized I had been to China.  So to speak.  And I'd forgotten it"--The Amber Spyglass

Saw the DVD of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of The Pod People (for the second time).

Dinner was spaghetti.

At the start of my writing class I suddenly figured out how to end my story.

The "Marzipan" chapter in The Amber Spyglass is phenomenal!

November 8, 2004

Dreamed of recounting the detailed story of my triumph against crooks on a cruise ship. (Comic strip heroine Modesty Blaise was also involved.)

Met Puitak and Gordon in the morning and we visited the Royal Winter Fair.  I got some P.E.I. sample potatoes, as usual, and a sticky Mennonite loaf.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Baked raisin bread.  Unfortunately, the loaf came out small again.

At the choir we did two new songs:  Brahms' Lullaby as an Italian Christmas carol, and Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." Unfortunately, the latter was poorly photocopied and us baritone-basses couldn't see our notes for the last part.

November 7, 2004

"Let's have a row, but could we please have a quiet row?"--The Entertainer

"It's destroyed my garden!  I'll never forgive that monster!"--Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

John and crew came over for lunch to celebrate Merle's birthday (a week late). We had a vegan birthday cake.

Saw Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah at the Cinematheque. (I considered seeing Before Sunrise instead, but I chose action over talk.) There was a time machine that took the heroes back to a World War II battle in the Pacific, so there was one American naval officer saying to another, "Tell it to your son after he's born, Major Spielberg." In this one, Godzilla was up against a three-headed dragon.

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

Saw the DVD of Tony Richardson's film of John Osborn's play The Entertainer (for the second time). Osborn's plays have dated, but Laurence Olivier is brilliant as music-hall performer and desperate sneak Archie Rice. (The first time I put on stage makeup for the opera group, when I looked in a mirror I reminded myself of him.)

November 6, 2004

The Mangler: "First thing to do is get some travel folders.  Those nice, crisp green ones!"--Rip Kirby

Pagan Lee (losing Rip to the thrill of Montana prospecting): "I hope he drops the shovel on his foot!  Amy, darling, never forget that men were created to light our cigarettes and open car doors!  Beyond that, they're a total loss!"

Fagin to Oliver Twist: "If you keep on like today, you'll end up the greatest man of all time"

Read an old Rip Kirby comic book.

Saw the DVD of Carol Reed's Dickens musical Oliver! for the first time since I was a kid.  I still love it.  What really makes it work is the empathy Shani Wallis brings to the role of Nancy.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Went to a Karaoke Meetup at the Gladstone Hotel.  There was one other guy there.  The place was crowded!  In two hours I had time for only two songs ("Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Ring of Fire"). Naturally, I didn't stay for a third.

November 5, 2004

"There was a strange sound, like the murmur and crackle you hear before you realize that what you're hearing is your house on fire"--The Amber Spyglass

Went shopping.

Went to see Gail at Mission:  Possible, but she was out.

Dinner was roast beef.

Saw the original Godzilla at the Cinematheque.  I would have liked more Godzilla. (I could almost see the outline of the stuntman inside the rubber monster suit!

November 4, 2004

"When an Arab sees a woman that he wants, he takes her!"--The Sheik

"Out of here, first born of a mule!"--Son of the Sheik

Dreamed of walking from the freeway to the subway and getting caught in the rain while waiting for the lights to change; participating in a marathon walk in London named for the Manchester United soccer team.

Saw the DVD of the silents The Sheik and Son of the Sheik.  Corny Hollywood hokum, of course.  Rudolph Valentino had a face like an exclamation mark.

Dinner was halibut.

Brought my Apples to Apples game to the Geneva Centre group.  We had a lot of fun with it.

Got narrowly outbidden on a set of 13 Menomonee Falls Gazette issues, but I felt relieved. (I've been spending too much on Ebay...)

November 3, 2004

Dreamed of a couple of people sneaking into the garage of our Sackville house at night to tap into our Internet connection and upload pornography; a movie being filmed at a mall in Moncton; John and I visiting Moncton; a topless woman alone on a beach.

Dinner was spaghetti.

It turns out that the Indigo Books place has 600 job applications!

At the drama class I impersonated a 14-year-old and got into a confrontation with a bigger kid.

November 2, 2004

Big headache.

Saw the DVD of Stella Maris, a silent with Mary Pickford in two roles:  a sheltered rich girl and a homely orphan. (They used early split-screen effects in a couple of shots!) An oddly masochistic melodrama.

Dinner was fettucine with pesto sauce (which I cooked).

At the writing class I recited the first part of my story, and it went over well.  The teacher things it may be publishable!

November 1, 2004

"And it was worse than that.  It was as if he'd said, 'No, don't kill me, I'm frightened; kill my mother instead; she doesn't matter, I don't love her,' and as if she'd heard him say it, and pretended she hadn't so as to spare his feelings, and offered herself in his place anyway because of her love for him.  He felt as bad as that.  There was nothing worse to feel"--The Amber Spyglass

Dreamed of performing the West Side Story number "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way."

Dinner was chicken curry.

At the choir we did the new songs "Bethlehem Wind" and (gak!) "White Christmas."

October 31, 2004

Dreamed of seeing an obituary of my actual acting teacher Roxanne(?).

Headache!

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw the DVD of Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley, a silent comedy with Mary Pickford as a tenement washer-woman who gets introduced to upper-class society.

Saw the Sopranos episode where Tony lent Artie money for a venture capital scheme.

I was going to see a documentary about the Cambodian holocaust at the Cinematheque, but decided I wasn't up to it.

October 30, 2004

Dreamed of hearing a John Kerry rally awaiting the results of the upcoming election. (They sounded like he was winning.)

Saw Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush yet again, at the Cinematheque.  Unfortunately, it was the 1942 re-release version with a lame sound narration in place of the titles. (The titled silent version, hard to find, is better.)

I won a two-month pass to Festival Cinemas! (I'd won a contest in which I figured out that the still published in their previous schedule was of Stanley Tucci in The Terminal.) It's a pass for two, so Moira will be able to use it too.

Dinner was the rest of the stew.

Saw the DVD of The Beloved Rogue, a silent movie with the great John Barrymore as Francois Villon, the thief-poet of Renaissance Paris.  It was pretty fun.

October 29, 2004

Dinner was lamb stew.

Saw Charlie Chaplin's The Kid at the Cinematheque, for the third time.  It still brings me to tears.  They also showed The Pilgrim, where he plays an escaped convict masquerading as a preacher.

I've just about finished reading a pile of thirty Menomonee Falls Gazette issues.  Steve Canyon is lame, but Mary Perkins On Stage is well written.

October 28, 2004

Still under the weather.

Dinner was roast chicken.

October 27, 2004

Dreamed of watching a movie on TV; someone turning off the set; then when it was turned back on, being unable to find the channel the movie was on.

Didn't get out of bed till after 13:00.

Under the weather. (Glad the drama class was cancelled this week.)

Dinner was salmon.

Saw the DVD of Daddy Long-Legs, a silent movie with Mary Pickford as an orphan girl with an unknown benefactor.  The orphanage scenes were really funny.

Didn't get to sleep till 03:00. 

October 26, 2004

Dreamed of Moira giving me a costume for a party as Dict Tracy's spy enemy the Brow; seeing that the indoor swimming pool on the Mount Allison campus was now an outdoor pool.

Saw the DVD of John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a 1980s teenage comedy with Matthew Broderick playing hooky from high school.  Pretty goofy.

Dinner was pork steak.

At the writing class, I got stuck on my story.  But by the end I'd figured out how to move forward.

October 25, 2004

Dreamed of going back in time to the late spring of 1982 (when I was briefly living in Toronto), and reading of a movie I had no memory of. (I was already keeping close track of movies then.)

I was late for my appointment with Dr. Hassan because I thought it was the next day.

Moira returned from Kingston.

Dinner was shepherd's pie.

At the choir, we spent most of the time on "Goin' Home" again.  When we did "The Little Drummer Boy" Giuseppe relied on me to keep the other baritone-basses strong with the prum-prums.

October 24, 2004

Dreamed of reflecting that the first President Bush (the one with the "kinder, gentler" soundbite) was a fink.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw the Sopranos episode where Tony bought a share in Ralph's racehorse and Janice grew closer to Bobby.

October 23, 2004

This week the dance class was quickstep and foxtrot. (That's what the others wanted.) They kept playing "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing," over and over and over ad nauseam.  I don't think I'm right for this course.

Spread the compost over the garden.

Dinner was the rest of the lasagna.

Saw the Verdi opera La Traviata at the North York Centre for the Performing Arts.  It's a classic opera, especially good in the first act.

October 22, 2004

Dreamed of a "Dick and Jane" type school reader (with all the visual details labelled) about a suicidal woman who meets a couple of dwarfs; trying to find the stop button on an unfamiliar VCR; visiting the Mt. Allison campus and noticing that the chapel had been replaced with a new building in a Disney-medieval style.

Got an Australian comic with a Rip Kirby story.

Went shopping.

Dinner was lasagna.

There was going to be a Comics Meetup but it got rescheduled.

October 21, 2004

Dreamed of filming a remake of Moby-Dick, where they added a youthful son of Captain Ahab as an extra character, except that the studio changed him to a daughter so they could cast Gwyneth Paltrow.

Didn't get out of bed till after 13:00. (It's the extra warm blanket I put on a couple of days ago.)

Dinner was roast beef.

There were a dozen people at the Geneva Centre group!  We met a new supervisor called Eunice.

Baked whole wheat bread overnight.

October 20, 2004

Dinner was McDonald's.

At the drama course, Patricia and I decided against doing the scene from The Glass Menagerie. (My photocopy was a page short.) Instead we're trying a scene from a Tennessee Williams play titled Moony's Kid Don't Cry.  I performed my monologue from Bethune, which took a couple of weeks to memorize.  It went over pretty well.  A couple of new students came in from the Burnhamthorpe school's class, which had too few to continue.

October 19, 2004

Dreamed of a paint store where the pain was stored on brushes(?); insisting that Ronald Reagan was a despicable president [that's still my opinion]; the march from Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges; the Woodstock concert.

Got several Menomonee Falls Gazette issues (from Jerome Sinkovec, the guy who originally published it!) and a publication featuring the best comic strips from 1958. [The pic above is a scan I just made for this blog!]

Headache.

Went to the dentist for a checkup.

At the writing class I enlarged my story somewhat.  Some of the students are quite talented.

Dinner was pork steak.

Sold two superfluous Gazette issues on Ebay.

October 18, 2004

Dreamed of reading a magazine with a feature on a TV show, including several stills of the Filipina star topless; spending a long period at our old cottage near Sackville and getting sick of it.

Dinner was fish.

At the chorus, we sung a new song:  the spiritual "Goin' Home," with the melody from the largo movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony.

I feel exhausted.