September 23, 2006

Saw the DVD of the first episode of Richard Pryor's short-lived 1977 TV show.  Remarkably unfunny. (I spotted Robin Williams and Sandra Bernhard in the cast.)

Dinner was McDonald's.

Edited my dating profile.

September 22, 2006

Dreamed of the family visiting my hometown Sackville, N.B., in the winter and staying at a house owned by Dear Abby(?); the episode of Good Times where the youngest son brought home a school bully who'd been stealing his lunch, and the father gave him a beating after he said "Studying is for suckers!" (a beating which ultimately straightened him out).

Saw the DVD of The Best of the Andy Williams Show. (He was about a year before my time.)

Dinner was pork steak.

I was going to go to the Karaoke Meetup, but once again I had a headache.

Saw the DVD of the silent Civil War movie The Coward, about a deserter from the Confederate army (a fine cause to desert from) who redeems himself by stealing a Union map and bringing about a Southern victory. (But the South lost the war anyway, thank goodness!)

September 20, 2006

Dreamed of walking along the highway from Aulac to my hometown Sackville, N.B. and running into a stretch where the water was too deep for easy wading but too shallow for easy swimming; being part of the making of a long documentary about Sackville of the type they show at film festivals.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw a silent German movie about the life of Wagner with Enoch of the Opera Lovers Meetup. (I offered to share the DVD of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia with them, so it'll be a while before it gets returned.)

Baked whole wheat bread overnight.

September 19, 2006

Dreamed of urinating until the toilet bowl was full and still not being finished.

Didn't get out of bed until around 13:00!

Started reading Jack London's Martin Eden.  Vividly romantic. (I'll read the second half of Dad later.)

Went to see Dr. Hassan my shrink.  I brought my diary and read some of my dreams to him.

Baked rye bread. (I got the new flour yesterday.)

Dinner was the rest of the stew.

September 18, 2006

"When the water gets up to your ass, everyone learns to swim"--Giuseppe's mother

Dreamed of a movie version of The Confessions of Nat Turner with a sympathetic white servant boy(?).

Another singing lesson with Giuseppe Macina.  We went over the song "Nina," which was attributed to Pergolesi but was actually composed by Ciampi.

Dinner was lamb stew.

Headache.

At choir practice we did a new folksong called "Nanne." Giuseppe was fretting that after spending so much time on "Amara Terra Mia" last year, we'd forgotten a lot of it.

Picked up Martin Eden at the Northern District library. (I hope I get a job there!) [I didn't.]

September 17, 2006

Bullwinkle: "When I nod my head, hit it with your hammer."

Dreamed of John and I visiting New York City; getting separated on the subway.

Went to the Book Club Meetup at the Bright Pearl restaurant in Chinatown.  We ate dim sum (which I don't care for as much as Chinese dinners) and talked about The Good Earth and Dad, the latter of which I'd read a third.  New month is Dragana's choice, and she chose Jack London's Martin Eden and a couple of other books.

Dinner was lasagna.

Finished the Jet Fuel Formula story in the Rocky & Bullwinkle DVDs.  Some brilliant 1950s satire!

Subscribed to King Features' Daily Ink for just US$15/year.  I got it mainly for its old comic strips like Rip Kirby. (It also gives quick dailly access to several strips The Comics Curmudgeon frequently discusses, like Mary Worth and Apartment 3-G.) [I still subscribe to it today.]

September 16, 2006

"Photography is truth, and cinema is truth 24 times a second"--Le Petit Soldat

Dreamed of visiting the front lawn of our old Sackville house and wondering if I should have my ashes interred in New Brunswick; watching The Godfather on TV; a bandit heroine like Xena; attending churching wearing a T-shirt!

Went to the historical bicycle exhibit at the St. Lawrence Market. (On the way there, I finally got those Ebay packages mailed.)

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw the DVD of Jean-Luc Godard's Le Petit Soldat, an existential quasi-thriller about rival terrorist factions connected to the Franco-Algerian War.  Sort of the anti-James Bond, it's food for thought.

Did I say that the latest season of The Sopranos was finished?  There was one more episode, which I was lucky enough to catch.

September 15, 2006

Tony (on their difficult, worrisome son): "Maybe he'll surprise you."

Carmela: "Aren't you the sunny optimist when you want to go back to sleep!"

--The Sopranos

Dreamed of being at a cabin with the family; my sister Margaret ruining our game with death threats; wanting to punish her.

Went out to the post office and got some more big envelopes for mailing out my Ebay packages. (First I had to print out the Emails showing receipt of payment--one copy for our records, one for the buyer--and Father had to refill the ink cartridge.)

Dinner was shrimp linguini.

Saw the last episode of the sixth season of The Sopranos.  It's been getting rather dreary.

My comic strip sales have got me over $200!  I transferred most of it to my bank account.

The New York Times Saturday crossword this week had a rebus!

September 14, 2006

Dreamed of looking through my diary and finding only a few weeks of empty pages left; Pauline Kael's The New Yorker review of the movie California Suite, in which she accused a slapstick storyline with Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor of racism; Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant.

Sold the latest Ebay Prince Valiant package to a German who'd brought one from me last year.  I also sold an unofficial Rick O'Shay package.

Dinner was salmon.

Went to the first Opera Lovers Meetup, at the Queen Mother.  It turns out that Shek and Enoch both know my singing teacher Giuseppe Macina!

Read a salon.com review of The Black Dahlia that called Josh Hartnett "the Roach Motel of actors." (He can reflect the feelings of others, but feelings go in and don't come out.)

September 12, 2006

Dreamed of walking along a road at dawn; telling myself that it wasn't a dream; coming to a ridge so steep that I couldn't see what was on the other side; wondering what would have happened when Christopher asked Tony Soprano to kill Adrianna for her if Tony had said "No, you'll have to kill her yourself."

The Steve Canyon package I posted on Ebay didn't sell.  But Rick Norwood sent me a list of Rick O'Shay Sundays he's looking for and I can supply 22!

Dinner was spaghetti.

Posted another Juliet Jones package and another On Stage package.

Baked whole wheat bread again (because the other flour was short).

Emptied the summer ice compartment.

Took an online test for Asperger's Syndrome symptoms.  I matched on less than 40% of the questions! (Most Aspies get 90% or more.)

September 11, 2006

Dreamed of the actual episode of Get Smart where neighbours of Max, who were actually enemy agents, gave Max and the Chief food poisoning and tied up Agent 99 in the closet. (One of the neighbours was played by Tom Bosley.)

Another singing lesson.  I borrowed the score of the song "Nina" and made a copy. (I returned it to Giuseppe at the Coro Verdi rehearsal.)

Dinner was roast chicken.

Went to the first Coro Verdi rehearsal for the new season.  We're putting on a concert of folk songs next month.  Tonight we learned the new song "Vent' e Lampare."

Masami Emailed me and got me to tell Giuseppe that she wouldn't be starting in the Coro Verdi right away. (She was pleased about the get-well card she got.)

Saw a Sopranos episode with a flashback of Christopher coming to Tony and getting him to kill Adrianna for her.

September 10, 2006

"As children, Joan and I developed our own world, fighting what I now call the poverty mind.  This poverty mind constantly suspects anything out of the ordinary, anything not known or accepted; also if it isn't practical, it isn't good"--Dad

Dreamed of travelling to the western tip of PEI to visit the house that was the real-life model for the LM Montgomery book Anne's House of Dreams. (It's actually in the island's central part.)

Went to the first local Walking Meetup.  We were going to walk around the Toronto Islands, but I couldn't find the rest of the group.

Instead, I went to a Toronto City Opera meeting at Giuseppe Macina's house.  This year we'll be doing Verdi's La Traviata and Il Trovatore.

Dinner was the rest of the fettucine.

September 9, 2006

Dreamed of the novel Last of the Mohicans; a non-existent scandal in the 1950s US Congress involving corruption in Alaskan road-building.

Dinner was takeout Chinese food. (I ate egg foo young for the first time in years!)

At 20.00 I had an hour-long interview with Sarah of e-cyrano.com. (The family disapproves of my dating through the internet.) I encouraged her to take her time writing my profile.  Afterward I sent her an email adding that fearless women appeal to me.

Found the website trashfan.com, which has a lot of music videos I remember from the early 1980s.  Heaven!

September 8, 2006

Dreamed of climbing very steep stone steps to the door of a building; reflecting that I like the feline Warner Brothers cartoon character Sylvester because he has no redeeming virtues; writing in my diary that I'd dreamed about the actor Eli Wallach but not finishing the observation.

Went down to the Film Festival place and considered buying some last-minute movie tickets. (But I wasn't up to it.)

Dinner was fettucine alfredo (which I cooked).

My interview with Sarah from e-cyrano.com was delayed a day. (Some personal emergency on her part.)

Posted Li'l Abner and Dondi Sunday comics packages for sale on Ebay.

September 7, 2006

On Las Vegas: "We were wrapped in the cloying atmosphere of this warped, hopeful, hopeless world"--Dad

Dreamed of looking for a book on the top floor of the Robarts Library, but not being sure where to look; going outside the library along a path through debris to a place for launching to the moon.

Baked whole wheat bread.

The parents were in a car accident at the St. Clair Avenue & Avenue Road intersection.  Someone slammed into their right side, damaging a door, but our car was still in good enough shape for Father to drive home. (The other car was totalled.) Nobody was hurt.

Dinner was Moira's turkey pie.

September 6, 2006

I was going to finish our corn on the cob for lunch, but it had been lying around so long that I was afraid I'd get sick again!

Went shopping.

Dinner was another turkey.

Saw the DVD of the first couple of episodes of the '70s black sitcom Good Times. ("Dy-no-mite!") On the cheesy side.

Posted a Rick O'Shay package and another of Prince Valiant on Ebay.  Meanwhile, someone in Spain bought my On Stage and Juliet Jones packages at "Buy it now" prices:  that's about $80 between them!

The William Wharton book Dad finally arrived.  I won't be able to finish it before the book club meets, but maybe I can get halfway.

September 5, 2006

Finally got a date to meet my shrink Dr. Hassan again.

Dinner was salmon.

Posted packages of Steve Canyon and The Heart of Juliet Jones Sunday comics for sale on Ebay.

September 4, 2006

Boris Badenov: "Somebody down there likes me!"--Rocky & Bullwinkle

Dreamed of writing an essay about (inter alia) what I thought of the movie After the Dust; writing that the Colin Farrell character was annoying.

Another singing lesson.  I've been learning to focus on my nasal passage.

Dinner was more turkey.

Started reading the big pile of Prince Valiant Sunday comics I got from Barry King.  There are a whole lot from between 1987 and 1995.

September 3, 2006

Dreamed of living in Britain with my parents, and wishing I had come alone.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw the DVD of the 1930s MGM movie The Good Earth (for the second time). To think I actually liked it the first time!  Second time it seems an obvious, awkward adaptation, best for its realistic look and the large-scale scenes.

Baked white bread overnight.

The Meetin event at the zoo was rescheduled for tomorrow, so I couldn't have made it anyway.

Someone in Portugal paid $40 for my Prince Valiant Ebay package!

September 2, 2006

Dreamed of finding out the name of an artist who drew adventure stories in the British comics Dandy and Beezer. (An actual artist whose name I don't know.) [I've since found out he was Jack Glass!]

Went to the Toronto Zoo for a Meetin event.  Couldn't find anyone else from the group, but I visited the zoo anyway, staying for four hours.

On the 90-minute trip back, I started reading Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the United States.

Headache!

Donald came over for dinner, which was turkey.

It turned out that the zoo event was for the next day! (And it got cancelled anyway.) But I'm glad I went.

September 1, 2006

Dreamed of Father and me driving in a car that had been made out of a huge TV set; the Vietnam War movie Casualties of War; Joseph Goebbels.

Saw the rest of Martin Scorcese's My Voyage to Italy.  Don't think I care for Antonioni...

Dinner was roast chicken.

Got the last comic strip package from Barry King.

Finished Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth.  It's an astounding novel!

Deposited two interest cheques worth $430 between them.

Posted packages of Prince Valiant and On Stage Sundays for sale on Ebay.

August 31, 2006

Dreamed of taking pictures; wondering whether I could use a tripod for my camera; boot camp.

The Pape-Danforth library branch has finished renovations and reopened, so I went there and gave them another page application. (I went to my shrink Dr. Hassan's again, but he's still away.)

Dinner was spaghetti.

Went to another Arthouse Meetup at the "Centre for the Arts" on Adelaide Street.  We saw a program of educational shorts, including classic stuff like What About Juvenile Delinquency? and some weird 1970s stuff.  I also bought a couple of cheap DVDs with more shorts on them.

August 30, 2006

Dreamed of seeing a movie on a screen so huge that its borders were outside the range of my vision; the movie starting with the logo for the homepage on some websites (an image of a house) coming into focus; the (actual) critic's line terming Dakota Fanning "an efficient little actress whose efficiency has been mistaken for talent."

The parents and I drove to Orchard Home Farm north of Cambridge and we picked almost 30 pounds of Gravenstein apples, which are hard to find here in Ontario.

Dinner was fish.

Went to the Arthouse Meetup at Fiddler's Green Pub. (I had a hard time finding the place because the webpage's map link just showed the corner of Yonge & Bloor.) I went to see if anyone had any coupons for sale, but nobody did.

Moira taped the "Ideale" accompaniment again and this time it came out for real.

August 29, 2006

Dreamed of a comic book about the serial killer in Hitchcock's Frenzy, in which he described his modus operandi with the repeated catchphrase "They always care to miss..."

Went shopping.

Dinner was steak.

Saw the DVD of the first half of My Voyage to Italy, Martin Scorcese's documentary about Italian cinema.  Fascinating stuff, and some of it I still haven't seen! (Moira expected to stay awake only for the first half hour, but she lasted through the whole thing.)

We finished in time for The Sopranos at 21:00.  Those dream scenes were odd.

August 28, 2006

Villain "Killer" Kane: "Rogers, you've caused a lot of annoyance for me"--Buck Rogers

Tony Soprano's son A.J.: "You have a really low opinion of people"--The Sopranos

Another singing lesson.  Giuseppe says my voice is improving. (People from the city were cutting down a dead branch in his front yard.)

Mailed off my Terry and the Pirates package.

Dinner was lasagna.

Started clipping up my Chicago Tribune Sunday comics.

Saw the first episode of the latest season of The Sopranos.  It's America the Unbeautiful.

Baked multigrain bread overnight.

August 24, 2006

Rocky: "Were you scared, Bullwinkle?"

Bullwinkle (talking to a bush): "Shucks, no!  I was as cuke as a coolcumber."

Dreamed of being about to board a Cunard ocean liner; the Canadian actor Paul Soles changing his line so it would end with the word "I'm" (in a Yiddish accent).

Went to my shrink Dr. Hassan to schedule a new appointment, but the place was closed.

Dinner was steak.

Went to the Documentaries Meetup at the Victory Cafe.  We saw The Secret, about a philosophy of life that sounds a lot like "the power of positive thinking." There were a good 30 people there! (I left during the intermission.)