October 22, 2006

"Are you trying to look like a prince?"

"What do you mean, 'trying'?"

--The Deer Hunter

Dreamed of going to high school; thinking how the afternoon was easier but the morning got to me (not an actual memory of mine!); getting into a fight and wrecking some school property; thinking "I knew I didn't want to go to school this morning"; being about to go abroad for a year with the parents; "waking up" in our old house in Sackville, N.B.; a Time-Life coffee-table book about Shakespeare spending five days in Mainz(?).

I was going to participate in the Walking Meetup in High Park, but I misplaced my Metropass and by the time I found it I was sure to be too late to find the rest.  Anyway, I got to practise my singing instead.

Saw Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (for the second time) at the Cinematheque.  It's reach exceeds its grasp, but it's a near-great epic.

Dinner was Burger King.

The rest of the family returned from Kingston.

October 21, 2006

"You're nothing but a little poop, and that's the way the poop poops!"--Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

"She couldn't speak English, being from Texas"--ibid.

Dreamed of a bully stealing a game from me; me hitting him but finding he just laughed at me; bicycling in the streets of my hometown Sackville, N.B.; asking Father if we had any Sackville property left to sell; the Burt Reynolds movie The Longest Yard (which I haven't seen).

Finally mailed the Rick O'Shay package I'd sold on Ebay. (The payment took a while to clear.)

Saw Frank Tashlin's Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? at the Cinematheque.  It's a 1950s satire of advertising and celebrity, with Jayne Mansfield as a spoof Marilyn Monroe (or a spoof Jayne Mansfield?). Hit and miss but often funny.

Dinner was KFC.

Then I saw Oliver Stone's Platoon (for the second time), again at the Cinematheque.  The first 40 minutes, that is:  too lugubrious for me.  Come to think of it, I didn't care so much for it the first time.  Full Metal Jacket and Casualties of War are greater Vietnam War movies, but Platoon came first and got most of the attention. (Dreamworks had some nerve selling Saving Private Ryan as a totally new kind of war movie, considering that Platoon had done essentially the same thing just 12 years before, and even that wasn't completely original.)

October 20, 2006

"I grew up thinking my mom was pissed at me.  It wasn't me.  It was life"--Symptoms of Withdrawal

Dreamed of "waking up" and finding myself lying on the grass outdoors.

Started a new Book Club Meetup for non-fiction books.  We'll have the first meeting November 23rd and discuss Christopher Kennedy Lawford's Symptoms of Withdrawal.  I sent out a truckload of invitations to people on the local Book Club Meetup alert list.

The rest of the family went to Kingston for the weekend.

Saw the DVD of the Busby Berkeley musical Gold Diggers of 1935.  The "Lullaby of Broadway" sequence is a real classic!  Adolphe Menjou has a funny role as a theatrical director on the make.

Dinner was McDonald's.

The Coro Verdi had an extra rehearsal where we went over the new songs.  Leonard says I know my stuff.

October 19, 2006

    Dreamed of considering the Patricia Hearst case and asking "If you were kidnapped and kept tied up in a closet for weeks, would you have behaved differently?"

    Baked cheese bread.

    The Miss Peach package I posted on Ebay was bought by a Toronto guy, so I delivered it to his office in Liberty Village and refunded his payment for shipping costs. (He works for the Nelvana company that makes animated cartoons!)

    While I was out I also went to the Four Seasons Centre and exchanged my Faust ticket for one earlier in February to escape a conflict with the operas I'm performing in.

    Headache.

    Dinner was pork chops.

    Went to a Games Meetup at a high-rise apartment just north of Jane & Eglinton.  We played Apples to Apples and a discussion gamed called The Gender Gap. There were eight people and they were pretty friendly. (We were also introduced to a gunfighting card game called Bang, but didn't get around to playing it.)

    Sold Rex Morgan MD, but five other packages didn't sell.

October 18, 2006

Had my first Wednesday singing lesson.  I brought Giuseppe a few of our apples, since we'd picked so many.  He gave me a new Tosti song called "Pour un Baiser" (my first French song).

On the way home I bought some Cinematheque tickets.  I'll be seeing several Roberto Rossellini movies, thought not most of the ones I would have liked. (Bloody schedule conflicts!)

Dinner was lasagna.

Saw a DVD with musical numbers by Marvin Gaye.

Posted three new comics packages on Ebay. (I also posted the On Stage package again, in case my luck improves.)

October 17, 2006

Dedication: "For David, Savannah, and Matthew [his children]

So that you know who I am"

--Symptoms of Withdrawal

Dreamed of finding a book by an author with a close connection to my uncle Danny.

I'd lost the card showing the time for my appointment with Dr. Hassan so I got Father to drive me there in case I was late.  But it turned out that I was over an hour early!

In the meantime I went to the Deer Park library and borrowed Symptoms of Withdrawal, a memoir by Christopher Kennedy Lawford, son of a Kennedy and a Rat Packer.  It's hard to put down.

Dinner was salmon.

At opera rehearsal we did the gypsies and bullfighters number from the second half of La Traviata.  I'm lucky I've sung the drinking song and that number in Coro Verdi, as I haven't found the time to practise them.

Sent Masami a Japanese email inviting her to the Halloween party on the 28th.

October 16, 2006

Dreamed of going into a small cinema and seeing a Martin Scorcese documentary about movies with only one other person; seeing a huge lineup of people waiting to get into the next show as I was leaving.

Another outing to Orchard Home Farms.  We got a huge pile of Jonagold, Mutsu and Golden Delicious apples, as well as some pears and honey. (Mother didn't realize that the Gravensteins were finished.)

Dinner was steak.

At choir practice we got the list of the songs we'll be singing at the next concert, and I put my scores in the right order beforehand.  Too bad we aren't doing "In Mezzo al Mar" again.

My Ebay packages of On Stage and Hagar the Horrible comics didn't sell.

October 15, 2006

Went to the Book Club Meetup at the James Joyce pub.  I talked more than usual, since I was one of the few who'd actually finished Martin Eden.  Next month is mystery novels, so I think I'll skip it.

Dinner was turkey pie.

Saw the DVD of the Fred Astaire musical Broadway Melody of 1940.  Mildly entertaining, best for "Begin the Beguine."

October 14, 2006

Dreamed of eating a slice of pie outside the entrance to a museum.

Saw the DVD of the original Norwegian version of Insomnia.  It's a brilliantly creepy neo-noir.  Stellan Skarsgaard is way cool!

Dinner was McDonald's.

Went out to the new Waking Meetup organized by the Stroll in the Park singles organization.  We were going to see a movie together, but I couldn't find the rest of the group.

October 13, 2006

"Life was to him like strong, white light that hurts the tired eyes of a sick person"--Martin Eden

"Lord, if your world is full of sin, I want to sin.  Let the birds nest in my hair"--Smiles of a Summer Night

"I'm an honest old rattlesnake.  Be warned"--ibid.

"You're a boring, normal person and I'm a great artist"--ibid.

The weather was damp, cool and gloomy so in the afternoon we watched the DVD of Ingmar Bergman's comedy Smiles of a Summer Night.  It's one of the sexiest movies I've ever seen!

Dinner was spaghetti.

The choir rehearsed tonight [Friday] because Monday was a holiday.  We did a new song "La Madre dell' Alpino."

Finished Martin Eden.  A wonderful book, with a convincing portrait of burnout.

October 12, 2006

Dreamed of acting in a TV play with Ronald Reagan(!).

Went shopping.

As I was out mailing the Dennis the Menace package I'd sold on Ebay, I saw it snowing for the first time since spring.

Dinner was ham.

Baked whole wheat bread.

Posted eight comics packages for sale on Ebay!  Batman and Robin sold just a short while after being posted. (Our New Age and Smitty didn't sell at all.)

Spent some time at onlinepetition.com and signed some petitions calling for stuff like reducing the US drinking age to 18.

October 11, 2006

Dreamed of trying to start a computer game, but being unsure how; discussing it with a guy from Ireland; the parents saying it was the wrong way for me to spend my time.

Finally refilled my Celexa prescription. (I finished the last batch on Friday, but it was Thanksgiving weekend and I had several other things to do.)

Dinner was turkey pie.

Went to the We Don't Do Mainstream Movie Meetup.  We saw Manufactured Landscapes at the Varsity.  It's a terrific documentary about Edward Burtynsky, a photographer who depicts places transformed by industry (mostly for the worse) in countries like China.

Afterward we discussed the movie at the Bishop & Belcher. (I didn't have much to say.)

My package of Rick O'Shay comics sold on Ebay.

October 10, 2006

Dreamed of seeing successive Harry Potter movies; having a bunch of loads to tote but not knowing what to move first.

Mailed off six comics packages I'd sold on Ebay. (The Smokey Stover package sold overnight.)

Dinner was salmon.

At opera rehearsal the boys went downstairs again for the first half.  We also heard an audition by a remarkably talented girl of 17.

Saw the DVD of the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown (for the second time). It's a wonderful film about the Funk Brothers instrumental team that worked on the classic Motown records.  It makes me see the music in a new way!

October 9, 2006

Mendacious cub reporter: "No decent reporter needs to bother with notes"--Martin Eden

Dreamed of dividing up a wad of chewed gum to make party decorations(?); making up a song making fun of Charlton Heston to the tune of "Billy, Don't Be a Hero"; trying to hang up all my shirts and pants.

Had my last Monday singing lesson.  Giuseppe says he'd rather teach a mediocre talent who took it seriously than a brilliant flake.

Donald, John and the kids came over for Thanksgiving dinner, which was turkey and other stuff.

Posted three more comics packages for sale on Ebay.  The Dennis the Menace package was up for about ten minutes before someone snapped it up for $20!  My latest On Stage package was too expensive to sell, so I divided it in two and reposted one half. (I later did the same with the Rick O'Shay package.)

October 8, 2006

Dreamed of having a mountain of research (involving TV interviews) to turn into a Ph.D. thesis soon; seeing the new Idi Amin movie The Last King of Scotland and finding it too gruesome to watch; the actor James Coburn; shaping a wire into coils to make a TV antenna.

Went to a New Urbanism Meetup.  There were four of us, and we met at Dufferin Grove Park and looked at the community-built structure made of straw and mud and stuff. (I invited Ela from truematch.com there, but she didn't show up.)

John and Kathrine came for dinner, which was vegan lasagna. (Once again, I sneaked out to McDonald's afterward.)

Didn't get to sleep till after 04:30! (I guess I'm worried about the library page applications.)

October 7, 2006

"I didn't linger for the song of the bedstead"--Deadwood

Dreamed of visiting my grandfather's home in Campbellton, N.B.; colouring a drawing; the scene in All of Me where Victoria Tennant was riding a horse in jodhpurs and tall boots.

It's getting cooler.

Another games afternoon with Nirav.  We played Cranium, The Amazeing Labyrinth, Apples to Apples and Pictionary.

Dinner was KFC.

Saw the DVD of the first episode of the second season of Deadwood.  I love the dialogue with its mixture of vulgarity and erudition.  That Schwearengen guy needs to get laid! (I could use it, too.)

October 6, 2006

Dreamed of going on a holiday to a grungy sex retreat; not wanting my parents to know where I'd been; working in a job where they put puzzles on the blackboard for us to work at if we'd finished our work; trying to type an "A" but typing a triangle pointing down instead.

Father got the car back from the repairman and we went shopping.

The Tales of the Green Beret comic strip package I posted on Ebay also sold. (I've posted ten of them, and five have sold already!)

Dinner was McDonald's.

Went to the Karaoke Meetup at the Groundhog.  I sang "Johnny B. Goode" and "We're Not Gonna Take It." There was a huge crowd there, and I had to wait 2 1/2 hours to do my second song, and didn't get home until almost 02:00.  Some guys there were playing a card game called Lunch Money, where you enact schoolyard bullying with cards like Kick, Dodge, Bite, Run, Grab, Hide and Pimp Slap ("Look at me while I'm hitting ya!").

October 5, 2006

Dreamed of going to a shop and trying to exchange one board game for another; being told that the other game was coming out in an updated version soon; saying "Pray for Ronald Reagan's worthless soul"; admitting that I didn't have much use for Catholicism but it was convenient in this case. [In the Ken Loach movie Raining Stones a priest said about a murdered loan shark, "Pray for his worthless soul."]

Dinner was lasagna.

Posted three more comics packages for sale on Ebay.  I've sold four already:  Dark Shadows (which sold just a few hours after being posted), Brenda Starr, Long Sam and Our Boarding House.  They sold at "Buy it now" prices for a total of over $100!

We're finally going to get our car back! [It had been damaged in a collision and required repairs.]

October 4, 2006

Dreamed of seeing on TV a non-existent 1987 movie with Tom Cruise and Colin Firth working at home renovation; wondering why I'd never heard of it before; a Harry Potter story in which the new teacher turned out to have been in a pop music group with Harry's late father.

Dinner was pork steak.

Baked whole wheat bread, which turned out to be white bread!

Posted three more comics packages for sale on Ebay.

Saw the DVD of the first episodes of Fractured Flickers, a TV show that took silent movies and gave them funny dialogue.  It didn't make me laugh.

October 3, 2006

"The Republicans are foes to equality, though most of them fight the battle against equality with the very word itself the slogan on their lips.  In the name of equality they destroy equality"--Jack London, Martin Eden

Dreamed of the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame; watching something on TV and noticing that the parents were watching it too; wondering how, since this was a dream, they could be watching the same show, as you can't expect two people to have the same dream at the same time; concluding that this must be real; the actual 1958 episode of the comic strip Steve Canyon where he spanked his teenage ward Poteet.

Dinner was steak and the rest of the Chinese food.

Went to the first Toronto City Opera rehearsal.  There were a few soloist auditions, including someone singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" from Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!  We did the first act of La Traviata as far as the drinking song, which I'd sung before in my Coro Verdi choir.

October 2, 2006

Dreamed of meeting Sharon Stone on a beach and noticing that she had a sharp, V-shaped tan line on her chest.

Another singing lesson.  We agreed that after next week the lessons will move from Monday to Wednesday so they won't be the same day as choir practice.

Dinner was spaghetti.  I don't like No-Name Spaghetti Sauce.

At choir practice we did "Lu 'bbene che'j te Vuje."

Spent a long while going through the comics on my floor.  I posted four packages on Ebay because they were having a special day when Canadian members could post for free. (The fourth was posted just after midnight so maybe it missed the special.)

October 1, 2006

Dreamed of sad songs that made me choke up, like "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" and "Society's Child."

Went to my first Walking Meetup.  We met at the Cafe Next Door and walked to the Riverdale park with the Sun Yat-Sen statue.  After we started out, it started raining a downpour so we went back until it was over (we were going the wrong way anyhow!) and started again when it was clear.  I'd quipped earlier "Only wimps care about rain," then had to admit I was a wimp.

Dinner was takeout Chinese food.  My fortune cookie said people are deeply moved by my presence.

I now have quite a few comics packages ready to post for sale on Ebay, or close to it. (My Peanuts package has over 80 episodes!)

September 30, 2006

Baked raisin bread overnight.

Dreamed of having a big laugh over the actual bit in Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey memoir where he revealed that Killer was based on a fellow soldier he knew who greeted every woman with "Wanna fuck?"; reflecting that my dreams about my hometown of Sackville, N.B., are like the end of Peter Pan where Wendy visits Never-Never-Land and realizes that Peter is becoming invisible.

Went to a Meetin Indian buffet at Indian Flavour.  The food wasn't the greatest, but it was cheap. (I ate too much!)

Saw the DVD of the Donizetti opera Lucrezia Borgia, in a 1980 Royal Opera production.  Joan Sutherland is something else!

Saw the DVD of I Vitelloni last night (for the second time). It's a wonderful movie, my favourite Fellini!

September 28, 2006

Went over to Staples and bought a new binder for my Coro Verdi music. (The old one was too small.)

Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.

Saw a DVD of the first episode of Hee Haw, from back in 1969.  Loretta Lynn was singing "You're Squaw's on the Warpath Tonight." I hadn't realized it was produced by Yongestreet Productions!

September 27, 2006

Dreamed of being in a science fiction adventure similar to Planet of the Apes, in which the hero accidentally induces suspended animation and the apes have no sense of smell(?); wishing that when I read a book I could finish it faster.

Moira and I joined Puitak and we walked down to Harbourfront, then we had dinner at a Korean restaurant near Bloor & Christie. (I ate a dish whose name, like the restaurant's, I couldn't remember.)

Headache!

September 26, 2006

Dreamed of composing an opera of King Lear, with a finale from the lines "The weight of these sad times we must obey/Speak what we feel not what we ought to say"; writing the script for a drama about a liberal running for mayor of a big US city against an incumbent who plays dirty, with a teenage son who's fallen in with criminals.

Dinner was fish.

Took some career quizzes at web.tickle.com  (They found I was best suited to architecture and worst suited to underwriting.)

Finally got those Rex Morgan, MD Sundays in order.  I have at least 78 of them! (I also have over 50 Smokey Stover Sundays.)

September 25, 2006

Dreamed of a punk who sneaked into the Vatican by pretending to be the Pope(!) but now can't get out of bed; the sound of sizzling; "waking up" and seeing that the time was 10:30, making me too late for today's singing lesson.

But I actually woke up in time.  At today's lesson, however, I forgot that Giuseppe Macina was due another payment!

Dinner was pork roast.

At choir we did the new song "Arvi." (I belatedly gave Giuseppe his cheque.) The pianist was new so there were a lot of delays.  I'll have to promote our 10:29 concert on the Opera and Classical Music Meetups' messageboards.

My dating profile is already getting some responses!

September 24, 2006

Diane Lane: "You know, I don't mind when a man drinks before breakfast, but it really is rude not to offer me any!"--Hollywoodland

Dreamed of considering that Woody Allen is still so prolific at his age because he realizes he only has a short time left and had a lot of stories he wants to tell while he still can; the family driving in a car and wanting to pick me up, but I fell behind so they had to park and wait for me.

Saw Hollywoodland at the Carleton.  It's a sleazy, depressing neo-noir, best for the flashbacks with Ben Affleck and Diane Lane. I saw the movie mostly for the latter actor.  She's always been an interesting actress, but she's got even more interesting--and sexier!--as she approaches middle age.  Moira says, "She's like a beautiful woman who doesn't know she's beautiful."

Dinner was pizza.