Got some more comics packages from Ebay. There's just one left.
Went shopping.
Dinner was spaghetti.
It turned out that we hadn't recorded the "Ideale" accompaniment after all, because I'd just pressed the play key without the record key! (I'm kicking myself...)
Saw the DVD of the first episodes of the Buster Crabbe serial Buck Rogers.
Baked raisin bread.
Got my hair cut.
Moira recorded the accompaniment for the Tosti song "Ideale."
Dinner was halibut.
Went to see Michael Mann's Miami Vice movie at the Yorkdale Silvercity with Anthony and some friends of his. The plot seemed unimportant, but the film was kinda cool in a slick, forgettable way (not unlike Mann's original TV series).
My singing lessons are on Monday again. I would have gone in the morning but Giuseppe changed the schedule at the last minute so he could have his hearing checked some months after he had an earache problem. (It's fine now.)
Started rereading Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth for the Book Club Meetup. It's remarkably free of sentimentaliy.
Dinner was scalloped potatoes and ham.
Saw the DVD of Destroy All Monsters, in which an all-star Japanese monster cast led by Godzilla (but no Gamera) started attacking big cities all over the world because they were being manipulated by invaders from outer space. Needed more of the monsters, who in the end didn't get destroyed...
Saw the DVD of the first of the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons. Classic stuff.
Dreamed of a remake of the 1984 Sean Penn movie Racing With the Moon; a promo for a TV version of Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire.
The Book Club Meetup went to the Toronto Islands to discuss Emily of New Moon and The Blue Castle. As usual, Karen ended up doing most of the talking. The conversation slid into child abuse. (I mean, we ended up talking about it, not doing it!)
Dinner was McDonald's.
Prepared six more comics packages to sell on Ebay.
I'm now posting comments on the Comics Curmudgeon website, full of comic-strip history.
We went to Niagara-on-the-Lake and saw the Shaw Festival production of The Crucible, Arthur Miller's play about the Salem Witch Trials. It's a great play, though in a very 1950s way, including its existential turn in the last act.
Dinner was pizza.
My way of dealing with my headache was to have a long bath.
We finally went shopping, and bought the new pitcher.
I was worrying that my money was running low, so Father wrote me a $500 cheque. But just after depositing it, I got two interest cheques worth over $200 each!
Dinner was linguini with shrimp sauce.
Posted a group of Terry and the Pirates Sundays for sale on Ebay. (They all have appearances by the Dragon Lady.)
Dreamed of meeting a group of young people from both the North and the South at the start of the US Civil War.
We were going to go shopping, but someone parked his car so we couldn't get ours out, and Father couldn't find him and get him to move it.
Baked whole wheat bread.
Dinner was ham.
Saw the DVD of some early episodes of The Flip Wilson Show.
Helped Father attach a new ceiling section in our sun room. (It had to be replaced because of leaking water.)
Dinner was roast chicken.
Saw Kenji Mizoguchi's A Geisha. (I was going to give my ticket to Moira because there was going to be a Karaoke Meetup the same night, but the latter got rescheduled. Fortunately, Moira didn't mind me being an Indian giver!) A masterpiece. In the end it reminded me a bit of Vittorio de Sica's dramas. Too bad Mizoguchi wasn't around to direct the movie of Memoirs of a Geisha.
Found a hilarious website called The Comics Curmudgeon. (I learned of it from James Wolcott's blog.) It's a blog by a guy commenting on current comic strips, few of which meet his approval. Lots of comments as well. [15 years later, I still read it daily!]
Had another singing lesson. Giuseppe signed Masami's get-well card. (He told me he has sleep apnea.)
Mailed the card to Masami.
Finished reading The Blue Castle.
Started reading Larry Gonick's Cartoon Guide to Physics. So far it's pretty easy to understand.
Got a reprint of the comic strip of The Lone Ranger.
Headache.
Dinner was salmon and couscous.
Saw the DVD of the 1979 film Richard Pryor Live in Concert. Vulgar but funny.
Saw the DVD of two early episodes of the 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man. Pretty mediocre.
Dreamed of noticing that an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus used stock footage of Canadian highways (recognizable by the towns named in the signs); being told that I didn't know what I was talking about and realizing I didn't; Baby Bear (from the British comic strip "The Three Bears" in The Beano) becoming so tall that he cast a shadow in five counties; writing down these dreams on any loose paper.
Got my last Ebay package from Barry King. There were a lot of Rick O'Shay Sundays.
Dinner was lasagna.
Went to a Chinese Meetup at the Duke of York. (There was a Chinese guy there who looked like Hong Kong movie star Chow Yun-fat.) Didn't stay long.
My Coro Verdi choir sang in an afternoon mass at the Villa Colombo. We only had a small organ for accompaniment.
Dinner was ham.
Went through my new Terry and the Pirates Sundays till past midnight. I've been pretty lucky in plugging one-week holes and not having too many duplicates.
I miss having a reason to get up early now that my six-month job position is finished.
Dinner was McDonald's. (Only Father and I were home.)
Saw Kenji Mizoguchi's Street of Shame at the Cinematheque. (I'd misplaced the ticket and was going to see Woody Allen's Manhattan with Moira and Mother, but the ticket turned up again at the last minute!) It's a devastating "social realism" drama about a group of hookers working together in 1950s Tokyo, at a time when the country was close to banning prostitution. The Japanese have this overly acute sense of cleanliness that can make them intolerant of "indecent" people!
Dreamed of Tom Cruise filming a movie on the campus of my alma mater Mt. Allison University, including a shot where a whole building got blown up; an actual panel from the "Work Is Hell" series in Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip, in which Akbar and Jeff are Binky's bosses, with one of them saying to him "Move it!" and the other saying "Yeah, move it!"
Became a member of the website youtube.com allowing me to download a wide range of short movies.
Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.
These days when I sing I always seem to end up with the hiccups!
Dreamed of someone saying that SCTV costumer Juul Haalmeyer had been murdered and me pointing out that I'd processed a contribution by him to a recent NDP campaign I was doing volunteer work in. (Which is true!)
Father and I did the book accounts for May through July. We made a consistent profit of about $200/month.
Got a big load of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon Sundays. It's the last big Ebay purchase I'll be making for a while.
Dinner was fish.
Went to a choir rehearsal for the mass Sunday. (I got some more signatures for Masami's get-well card.) Giuseppe couldn't make it and Oksana conducted instead.
Dreamed of trying to finish lacing my shoes.
Went shopping.
Went out and bought a get-well card for Masami.
Dinner was pork chops.
Dinner was reheated chicken.
Saw the DVD of the Russian fairy tale movie Father Frost. Kinda cute in an odd, oversized way.
Baked rye bread overnight.
Cut back the bushes growing near the fence.
I think my singing voice is improving.
Went to a Low-Key Social Meetup at the Bishop and Belcher, where we played board games. I played Scrabble and Apples to Apples.
Dinner was Arby's.
Saw Kenzi Mizoguchi's Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, a sad tale of a kabuki actor and his muse. I saw it at the Cinematheque with several others as part of a Linkup event.
Dreamed of going to see our old home in Sackville, N.B., around sunrise when nobody was awake; seeing a new clump of trees that we hadn't planted; preparing to write a thesis on Chinese folklore.
Went to see my shrink Dr. Hassan. I mentioned that he resembled Erland Josephson as the husband in Scenes From a Marriage.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Saw the DVD of Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies (for the third time). The rest of the family loves it, but I only like it.
Started to leave for karaoke, but I had a headache and realized it would just get worse if I went, so I returned home.
Finished Emily of New Moon. It's even better than Anne of Green Gables.
This week's singing lesson was on Wednesday. Giuseppe compared the opening note to holding a tomato.
Started reading L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle for the Book Club Meetup. I read over 50 pages!
Got a big pile of Ebay comics from Barry King in Korea.
Afternoon nap.
Dinner was spicy KFC. (I had only two pieces.)
In the evening there was a lightning storm with hardly any thunder! I rehung the dreamcatcher on my wall so that it covered the hole.
