October 19, 2005

"I will kill him for you!"

"Have you finished packing?"...

"It runs in my family.  My father killed a man just before I was born!"--Top Hat

"I will not listen to any excuses--not even the truth!"--ibid.

Dreamed of reading a 1950 hardcover annual edition of a boy's magazine in the style of Boy's Own Paper or Chums (we owned several of those annuals, but the lates was from the 1930s); a reprint inside of the comic strip King of the Royal Mounted (I have some reprints of that strip, but not in those annuals); a map inside of the Maritimes, showing the Northumberland Strait as far too narrow; some women telling me that I was going to be sent to the United States shortly; a woman poking her nose into my forehead.

Saw the DVD of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical Top Hat (for the third time). That's the one where she mistakes him for his married producer (Edward Everett Horton in a funny role). My favourite of the Irving Berlin songs is "The Piccolino."

Another taijiquan class.  We've learned several steps by now.

October 18, 2005

Dreamed of being on a tour in Nevada; seeing a cruise ship on a lake (how did it get that far inland?); reflecting on why Eisenhower ordered Patton to apologize to the whole Third Army for slapping a soldier he wrongly suspected of malingering; the family going out somewhere and Father deciding to return because Moira was sick; the tour entering Utah, and my mentioning that Mormons like Jello and candy bars (which is true).

Started the DVD of Sister Wendy's "Grand Tour" of famous art museums.

Dinner was spaghetti.

We did some pretty difficult stuff for the first time at the opera rehearsal.  Most of us were rather overwhelmed. (I almost was!)

October 17, 2005

Dreamed of visiting our old cottage near Sackville, N.B.; Father tearing down the cottage's walls, revealing no foundation; finding out that British artist Francis Bacon (whom I heard Sister Wendy discussing in her history of painting) was affected by the years he spent in Ghana(?) and a poltergeist he witnessed in Sackville's Central School(!).

Finished reading Something Wicked This Way Comes.  Very impressive.

Went shopping.

Moira returned from Kingston.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Started reading a paperback reprint of Dick Tracy's pursuit of the Nazi spy Pruneface.  The latter's development of a mass-murder weapon brings today's terrorists to mind.

My choir had the dress rehearsal for Friday's concert.

October 16, 2005

Dreamed of the Parker Brothers toy Soma, in which you put together different Tetris-type block combinations to make structures such as a 3*3*3 cube; imagining a bigger toy in which you could combine the blocks to make a 4*4*4 cube, including combinations of three in a row and four in a row, which weren't in the real game; an actual song from one of our old 78 RPM records, "What Did You Do Before They Had TV?"; the actual line the physics course marker wrote to me during my Grade 10 correspondence courses, "Remember that it is better to do it right the first time than to have to do it over again," which I still resent. (Did he think I wasn't trying?) The real problem was that my parents had put me in a Grade 11 physics course that I wasn't ready for.

We had a choir rehearsal on Sunday afternoon for a change.

Dinner was the rest of the pork.

On Six Feet Under Nate and Lisa went camping with friends.

Baked rye bread overnight.

October 15, 2005

Saw Harold Lloyd's silent comedy Safety Last at the Cinematheque (for the third time). That's the one where he climbs the wall of a skyscraper.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw Mervyn Leroy's 1930s comedy Three Men on a Horse.  It was funny, but we couldn't get the last part because it was taped during a rainstorm.

October 14, 2005

Dreamed of walking along Moncton's main street in August; passing a store displaying coffins; feeling my mouth full of phlegm and wanting to go outdoors to expectorate; the song "Down Among the Sheltering Palms" and its lines 

"How my love is burning, burning, burning,

How my heart is yearning, yearning, yearning..."

Dinner was more turkey pie.

Got a start on spading the garden.

Saw Harold Lloyd's silent comedy The Kid Brother at the Cinematheque.  It's a skilful slapstick romance.  There's a great scene where he climbs a tree and the camera keeps climbing with him!

October 13, 2005

Dreamed of winning a lottery; going through a big warehouse where every space contained something magical; trying to poach an egg but finding I'd put in an orange instead.

Went to Dragon Lady and picked up some Heart of Juliet Jones and Steve Canyon comics.

Dinner was the rest of the lasagna.

Went to a Chinese Linkup.  But I didn't stay long because I suddenly lost my energy. (I had a strawberry smoothie and it went down wrong.) I was going to go to a Salsa Dance Meetup afterward, but that was definitely out.

Instead, I went home and saw the DVD of The Snow Walker, based on "Walk Well, My Brother," a Farley Mowat story about a bush pilot who crashes with a consumptive Eskimo woman and learns from her how to survive in the Arctic.  A wonderful tale, with dramatic scenery! (It was directed by Charles Martin Smith, who starred in the similar movie of Mowat's Never Cry Wolf.)

October 12, 2005

"So that man, the first one, knew what we know now: our hour is short, eternity is long.  With this knowledge came pity and mercy, so we spared others for the later, more intricate, more mysterious benefits of love"--Something Wicked This Way Comes

Dreamed of Margaret waking me up in the morning to talk about something I didn't want to talk about; me getting angry and refusing to have any contact with her; seeing a museum display win which a woman was knocked out by gas then tied up by a dwarf.

Went shopping.

Dinner was lasagna.

Went to the taijiquan class.  The instructor's voice isn't quite loud enough.

Saw the start of the DVD series of the history of world art as told by Sister Wendy.  She has a unique perspective.

October 11, 2005

Dreamed of visiting Sackville, N.B., and seeing a new house being built where our old one had been; the opening credits of Marilyn Monroe's last movie The Misfits, showing animated jigsaw puzzle pieces failing to come together; an undercover cop trying to catch a con man working at a beach; the con man sitting on him; an art display with a lot of photographs, including composer Gustav Mahler (without his glasses).

The parents came back from Kingston, and we found the missing DVDs.

Dinner was turkey pie.

Mailed out the last of the items I sold on Ebay.

At the opera rehearsal the men went to another room to learn their notes from Adolfo.  There are more baritones and basses than tenors, the reverse of my choir.  One line has the words "ne s'appessi," which to me sounded like "messy Bessie"!

October 10, 2005

Dreamed of visiting the British estate of the late filmmaker Stanley Kubrick; imagining improvising a spoof of Kubrick movies featuring the Three Stooges; improvising a live-action version of the Warner Brothers cartoon "Claws in the Lease" (the one that starts with Sylvester sharing bony fish carcasses with Sylvester Jr. and saying "One for you, two for me....  One for you, three for me...") [I once saw a commercial for mini-ravioli or something with a grandmother giving her granddaughter that line!]

The parents went to Kingston.

Dinner was KFC.

I intended to look at some of the DVDs we own, but they've been hidden away!

October 9, 2005

Dreamed of traveling in a car with a hillbilly family obsessed with the TV show Bewitched.

Went on a hike in Edwards Garden and Sunnybrook Park.  It was supposed to be with a Meetin group, but I couldn't find them so I went with a Single Horizons group instead.  Afterward I had a devil of a time finding my way out!

Donald, John, Kathrine and the girls came over for Thanksgiving dinner, which was turkey and macaroni.

On Six Feet Under Claire became assistant to the art school's big artist in residence; Nate ran into his ex-fiancee Brenda.

October 8, 2005

Dreamed of telling Mother that Malahide Court (a minor character in a couple of Mazo de la Roche's Jalna novels) was based on Cape Breton author Hugh MacLennan (he wasn't); being a fugitive in southern Ontario and unable to figure out where I was.

Spread the compost on the garden.

This week's New York Times Saturday crossword puzzle was tough! (The Sunday was hard too.)

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw Hayao Miyazaki's anime Howl's Moving Castle at the Paradise.  The story was unusually convoluted, but it was clever and emotionally affecting in the Miyazaki way.  The dubbing was pretty lame. (I'll have to see the subtitled version someday.)

October 7, 2005

"May I sit down?"

"Not there!  There."

"In a peculiar way--I don't know why--I appreciate your straightforwardness."

"And I do not appreciate your fawning."

--Fanny and Alexander

Got the very first issue of Menomonee Falls Gazette!

Finished Fanny and Alexander and the latest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. [Fanny and Alexander lost me in the scene where they were in two places at once!]

Dinner was spaghetti.

Baked whole wheat bread.

We had a choir rehearsal on Friday, because next Monday is a holiday.  We managed to get through the whole concert program.

October 6, 2005

Alexander: "I hope the damned cathedral goes to hell!"

Fanny: "What if God punishes you for saying that?"

Alexander: "If a big know-it-all like him punishes a runt like me for so little, then he's just the dirty bastard I've always suspected he was!"

--Fanny and Alexander

"You ain't got no etiquette, motherfucker!"--Curb Your Enthusiasm

Dreamed of waiting on Carlton Street for a bus to take me west to the Carlton Cinema; realizing that it was just a short walking distance away.

Got a big batch of comic strips from Barry King and others. (I bought some more Ebay stuff from the proceeds of my sales there.)

Dinner was roast pork.

Went to the Geneva Centre group's first meeting of the new season.  We have new supervisors called Svetlana and Dineese.

October 5, 2005

"I'm sure the children will soon realize how fun it is to perform one's duties conscientiously.  It's to be like a game."

"My children don't like that kind of game, and neither do I."

"Time will tell, Emilie"

--Fanny and Alexander

Dreamed of going to meet someone in Ontario Place near the western entrance; part of a symphony by Borodin.

Dinner was scallops.

Went to the first class in my taijiquan course.  The inhaling and exhaling will take a while to get right.

October 4, 2005

Dreamed of being in London; feeling worn out; deciding to do nothing for a while.

Went shopping.

Saw the first episode of the DVD of Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, in the 5-hour version they showed on Swedish TV. (I'd seen the 3-hour version released in America, but I didn't remember much about that.) It's a real treat.

Headache!

Dinner was steak.

Went to the first opera rehearsal.  We did the opening chorus from Elixir of Love.

October 3, 2005

"He wanted to be near and not near [his parents], he saw them close, he saw them far.  Suddenly they were awfully small in too large a room in too big a town and much too huge a world.  In this unlocked place they seemed at the mercy of anything that might break in from the night....  Including me, Will thought.  Including me....  Suddenly he loved them more for their smallness than he ever had when they seemed tall"--Something Wicked This Way Comes

Dreamed of the whole family going to a World's Fair in New York; the others deciding later in the evening to stay a few hours longer; unleashing chaos; wishing we'd left earlier; deciding that the US needed more eccentrics like me; being an inmate character in an Oz-like prison drama.

Went to a job interview in the morning at the Northern District library.  They gave me ten minutes to sort a bunch of cards numerically and alphabetically, and I did it in about two minutes.  Looks hopeful.

Dinner was chicken curry.

At choir practice they gave us concert tickets to peddle.

October 2, 2005

Dreamed of trying to drive from Sackville to Moncton airport for a flight to Toronto (I don't know how to drive); not knowing how to work my car's signals; moving back to our old Sackville house permanently; realizing that my recent purchase of a TTC Metropass was a waste of money; seeing some tall trees growing in the back yard garden of that house and suggesting that we sell them.

In the afternoon I was digging in our garden when I heard people singing Puccini live!  It was coming from Ellington's cafe around the corner.  Adolfo de Santis (who accompanies my choir) was doing the piano accompaniment.

Dinner was scalloped potatoes with ham.

On Six Feet Under there was an opera-themed funeral and Lisa organized a birthday party for Ruth.

Translated Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" (which I've memorized) into Chinese and Japanese.

The first Ebay auction is over.  I sold the They'll Do It Every Time package but not Judge Parker.

October 1, 2005

Dreamed of seeing a dramatic cloudscape in the sky turn into a dramatic vista of the sea next to the desert (seen from above); waking up in Halifax.

Baked raisin bread.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Didn't sell the Gasoline Alley package on Ebay, or Mickey Finn or Joe Palooka.  But I did sell Mary Worth at the last minute, to the same Spaniard who bought Rex Morgan, M.D.

September 30, 2005

Dreamed of the song "I Know Where I'm Going"; the mercenary movie The Wild Geese; going home on a TTC bus late at night; seeing the first flock of birds flying south; trying to do a crossword puzzle but being too sleepy to concentrate.

Dinner was boiled ham.  We also ate the potatoes from the garden.

Sold the Peanuts package (for US$30!), Smitty and Smokey Stover on Ebay.  Didn't sell Beetle Bailey, Winnie Winkle, Henry or the second Moon Mullins package.

Saw the first episodes of the third season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD.  It's as funny as ever.

Mailed four packages.

September 29, 2005

Dreamed of passing by Keith on Six Feet Under and thinking he knew me.

Got phoned by a librarian about the page position.  I have an interview on Monday morning!  But Kathrine says the architectural research job isn't on just now.

Dinner was a recipe Moira got from a magazine, for boneless chicken with rice, peas and corn.

The cool autumn weather has arrived. (I wore a sweater for the first time since spring.)

Went to a second Canadian Sovereignty Meetup (for those who missed the first one Tuesday). This time there were five people there.

Sold the Out Our Way and Rex Morgan, M.D. packages on Ebay. (Didn't sell Broom Hilda or Doonesbury.)

September 28, 2005

"There's nothing in the living world like books on water cures, deaths-of-a-thousand-slices, or pouring white-hot lava off castle walls on drolls and mountebanks"--Something Wicked This Way Comes

Dreamed of a cryptic quiz in which the answers were Danny Kaye movies; the Danny Kaye song "Civilization," which Father used to sing.

Went shopping.

Baked multigrain bread.

Went to Dragon Lady and picked up a batch of Steve Roper & Mike Nomad comics I won on Ebay.  I also got several Menomonee Falls Guardian issues to add to my collection.

Dinner was halibut (which I marinated).

Saw the DVD of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version of Boggy Creek II:  And the Legend Continues.

Sold the Abbie an' Slats package (another "buy it now" purchase with a fixed price), along with some Dick Tracys and Prince Valiants.  But my first Moon Mullins package didn't sell.

September 27, 2005

Dreamed of an actual, disturbing Steve Canyon comic strip episode from 1958 in which Steve spanked his female teenage ward Poteet Canyon (teenagers got spanked in the '50s); reflecting that nostalgia can be a way of soothing painful memories; the 1990 movie Ghost, which I haven't seen. [Still haven't.]

Mailed the first two Ebay packages I sold.  I have half a dozen more I was going to post, but I think I'll wait a bit until the next round, when I'm putting up my extra issues of Menomonee Falls Gazette and Menomonee Falls Guardian.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Went to a Canadian Sovereignty Meetup at Butler's Pantry.  There was only one other person there, but we conversed for an hour.

Sold a package of There Oughta Be a Law comic strips to a son of one of the strip's creators.

We rented the miniseries version of Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, but they only sent us one DVD when we were supposed to get two together.

September 26, 2005

Dreamed of a Japanese official discussing Holland's less than absolute monarchy with me; my mentioning that for centuries Dutch kings weren't called kings but stadholders; the Expo '67 song "Ca-Na-Da"; getting into a quarrel with Father and yelling "Fuck you!"; waking up at that moment and saying it out loud.

Sinus trouble (no doubt due to the remnants of Hurricane Rita).

Dinner was spaghetti.

Started reading Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.

That Croatian bought two more packages on Ebay:  The Heart of Juliet Jones and Apartment 3G.

At choir practice there were a couple of songs where the rest of the basses and I were singing completely differently. (But I think I was the one who was right.)

September 25, 2005

"Young man, you will learn... your... lines!"--The Corpse Bride

Dreamed of meeting my singing teacher Giuseppe in a laundromat; visiting our old Sackville house and thinking "I've dreamed this a lot, now I'm actually here"; the saying "You can't go home again."

Saw Tim Burton's gothic animated fairy tale The Corpse Bride at Market Square with the Movie Meetup. (The matinees there are still cheap, even on weekends!) Pretty imaginative, with an oddly Disneyesque sensibility playing off its macabre atmosphere.

Donald, John, Kathrine and John's daughters came over for dinner, which was ratatouille.  I ate just a little, but enough to burn my mouth.  Afterward I sneaked out to McDonald's.

Four more Ebay packages posted.

On Six Feet Under, Lisa's boss finally pushed her over the edge, causing her to quit; David and Keith went to a straight resort; Ruth found out that her friend Bettina was into shoplifting.

September 24, 2005

Dreamed of Dave Brubeck's jazz piece (in 5/4 rhythm) "Take Five."

Bought some large envelopes for selling the Ebay items I'd sold.

We finally did the August accounts for our book business.

Dinner was salmon.

Posted eight more Ebay packages.  I've sold four more items, including three to someone in Croatia!

September 23, 2005

Dreamed of the World War I patriotic song "Over There"; reflecting on how the song almost makes me wish I were American; urinating.

Dinner was KFC.

Posted eight more packages on Ebay.  I now have over twenty for sale.

September 22, 2005

Dreamed of recalling that the actual war movie Memphis Belle was full of war-movie cliches, such as a pair of waist gunners nicknamed Virgin and Rascal (guess which one has more sex?); an inspector finding that the ditches along the shore of Manhattan(?) were inferior.

Picked up Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes at the library.  It's our next novel in the Book Club Meetup.

Dinner was microwaved chicken curry that I got at the supermarket. (We're trying new foods while the parents are away.)

Posted seven more Ebay items for sale. (I've already sold the Our Boarding House and Dennis the Menace packages!)

The parents returned late in the evening.  They brought Gravenstein apples from the Maritimes!

Baked rye bread overnight.

September 21, 2020

Dreamed of looking at my photo ID and seeing that I was wearing a goatee and holding a beer in it.

Dug up the potatoes from the back yard (for what they were worth). Next year we'll try head crops.

For dinner, Moira made Mediterranean chicken with penne, except without onions (which I don't like) or olives (which neither of us like).

Posted the first of the comics I hope to resell on Ebay.  I could get a few hundred dollars.  I now have Dick Tracy, Prince Valiant, Pogo and Moon Mullins comics for sale.

Saw the DVD of Richard Brooks' movie of Truman Capote's true crime "non-fiction novel" In Cold Blood, about a couple of losers who murdered a whole family for nonexistent loot and ended up being executed.  A real knockout! [The format was presented as something original, yet our oldest literature combines fact with fiction:  Homer, The Epic of Gilgamesh...]

September 20, 2020

Soviet commissar Cyd Charisse: "Back in America, are you one of the oppressors or one of the oppressed?"

American impresario Fred Astaire: "I'm an oppressor."

"Aren't you ashamed?"

"Speaking as one oppressor to another, it's the best place to be!"--Silk Stockings

Dreamed of watching ventriloquist Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy; noticing that Bergen's lips were moving; telling Father about an actual report on China's railway to Tibet (which I'd read on the online Guardian the evening before).

The parents went on a short trip to New Brunswick.

Picked up some Menomonee Falls Guardian issues I'd won on Ebay, at Dragon Lady.

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

Saw the DVD of Silk Stockings, Rouben Mamoulian's movie of Cole Porter's musical of Ninotchka.  Since this was a 1950s Hollywood movie dealing with the Soviet Union, there were plenty of insensitive Cold War cheap shots.  Some nice dance numbers, especially "All of You."

Finished The House of the Seven Gables.

September 19, 2020

Went shopping.  I also got a pair of winter boots.

Saw the DVD of High Society, Cole Porter's 1956 musical remake of The Philadelphia Story.  It was pretty dated, and needed more of Louis Armstrong's band.

Dinner was McDonald's.

At the choir we started the pieces "Quando Naceste Voi," "Vola Vola," Santa Lucia," I Battitori di Grano," O Marenariello" and "Funiculi, Funicula." (They had no spare scores for the last song.)

September 18, 2005

Dreamed of going from Sackville, N.B., to Moncton to catch a train; going to a movie while waiting for the train; getting the feeling I'd waited too long; being in a choir so huge that I had nowhere to sit; going to our box in the Sackville post office; using my TTC Metropass on a London bus, and actually getting it past them!

We had a Book Club Meetup at Allen's on the Danforth.  We talked about James Joyce's The Dead and Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, both of which I'd read before but didn't have time to reread.  I didn't have much to contribute.

Dinner was roast chicken.

On Six Feet Under they had to deal with a workplace massacre.  The third season so far is more low-key than usual.