March 24, 2008

"The more Goodnight thought about human incapacity, of which he had witnessed a great deal, the more he warmed to his subject"--Streets of Laredo

"Hell is where you're going if you question me again!"--The Great Debaters

Dreamed of a display encouraging people to recycle their used vinyl to build winter shelters for stray animals(?); being lost in Brooklyn; the movie Flirting With Disaster [which I still haven't seen].

Dinner was shrimp and rice.

Another double trip to Dundas Square for another free movie. (Getting the ticket in the afternoon, seeing the movie in the evening.) I'd planned to see Elizabeth:  The Golden Age, which had been on the original list, but it got replaced.  Instead I saw Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters.  It was conventional but nicely performed.

March 23, 2008

"'There's one sure thing about my reputation,' Call said. 'It won't stop a bullet'"--Streets of Laredo

Dreamed of rereading the Art Linkletter picture encyclopedia we had when I was a kid, including the page on the French Revolution that showed a guillotine.

I've been looking at two "spotlight" DVDs showing classic Warner Brothers cartoons.  They get even better with age!

Dinner was ham.

Saw the George Clooney legal thriller Michael Clayton at the free preview of the new AMC Yonge & Dundas cinema. (I got the ticket there in the afternoon and saw it in the evening.) It was intelligent and efficient, a grade above the usual John Grisham fare.

March 22, 2008

"Westward looks my heart, eastward sails the ship"--Tristan und Isolde

"He's not sick, he's married"--Streets of Laredo

Dreamed of coming back from England early(?); a music video with clashing oranges and blues; being late for school because I had to furrow a couple of rows for planting in the planter next to our old house in Sackville, N.B.

Saw all four hours of the Metropolitan Opera cinemacast of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Grande.  It's arguably the first modern opera, but not for all tastes. (Wagner can seem monotonously passionate!) Didn't care for the video director's multiscreen gimmicks.

I'm now reading Streets of Laredo, the sequel to Lonesome Dove.  Larry McMurtry's incomparable!

Dinner was McDonald's.

Read the chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber where Daiyu shows a precocious flair for writing inscriptions.  Bill told me he can't keep up the group, but I'm going to finish the novel anyway! [I didn't.]

March 19, 2008

"Bluto's Window Cleaning Co.:  The Only Dirty Window Cleaner in Town"--sign in the Popeye cartoon The Paneless Window Cleaner

Baked raisin bread.

Phoned the Visa people and ensured that my credit card would be operative in England next month.

Dinner was salmon.

Went to the Toronto City Opera excerpts concert.  Barbara told me that the short list for next year's operas was Carmen and a couple of Puccinis.  I told her I'm definitely interested in doing Carmen, which must have pleased her because she was afraid I'd be disappointed.

The Popeye DVD I've been watching had as extras some of Max Fleischer's silent Out of the Inkwell cartoons with Koko the Clown.  They're very imaginative for their early period.

March 18, 2008

"This would be easier if you didn't think I was stupid"--There Will Be Blood

Dreamed of being in a Yemen hotel with a first-class tour; attending a mass but leaving early [I'm Protestant]; reflecting that Robert Louis Stevenson's novels were kinda gay [Treasure Island having almost no women]; correctly recalling that Kidnapped had the expression "locking the stable door after the horse was stolen."

Went shopping.

Dinner was turkey pie (which Moira made).

Saw Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood at the Varsity.  It was a little much.  Daniel Day-Lewis should make a teenage sex comedy and loosen up a bit.

March 17, 2008

The organizer of the non-starter Graphic Novels Meetup group has finally quit, so I took over.  We'll have our first event at the end of April, when I'm back from England, and we'll discuss Alan Moore's Watchmen.

Dinner was turkey.

Went to a karaoke marathon for St. Patrick's Day at the Bow & Arrow.  It started before 19:00 and I sang "I Just Can't Help Believing," "The Wild Rover" and "Sway."

Just before I left I got my signature analyzed for $10.  She basically hit the nail on the head! [Among other things, she said that I'm proud of my family and ancestors.]

March 16, 2008

"Can you shoot?"

"Like an angel!"

--Tarzan, the Ape Man

Attended the Lunch Club Meetup at Kama's.  I was expecting eight people but only five showed up.  They were quite grateful for my efforts.

Afterward I bought Pippi Longstocking at Indigo Books in the Eaton Centre, along with the 1955-6 volume of Peanuts reprints. (They gave me a $5 coupon on online toy purchases...)

Saw the DVD of the first Dr. Who episode involving the Daleks. (They only showed a small part of one, at the closing cliffhanger.)

Dinner was steak.

Performed The Seven Last Words of Christ at the St. Clair Church.  It'll be 10 days before the next rehearsal, because Giuseppe Macina is having cataract surgery tomorrow. (Afterward I told him a joke I'd heard as a schoolboy where a hotel desk clerk asked a Mexican guest "One sheet or two sheets?" and got the answer "You sheet in my bed, I keel you!" He liked it anyway.)

Saw something on the net about how you should start a dating profile by saying what's most compelling about you.  I've been wondering what's most compelling about me. (My ideals?)

March 15, 2008

"Some people aren't cut out to be farmers."

"I don't know if this land is cut out to be farmed."

--O Pioneers!

"His song could sour beer"--Peter Grimes

Saw the Met production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at the Sheppard Grande.  I noticed that "Old Joe Has Gone Fishing" is in 7/4 rhythm!  Love the chorus at the beginning and the end.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw the DVD of the handsome TV movie of Willa Cather's O Pioneers! starring Jessica Lange.  Now I want to read the book.

March 14, 2008

 Warmer weather.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Went to Mary's games night. (I brought the Mouse Trap game, but nobody played it.) I played Apples to Apples, Jenga and Scrabble, the latter with a Malaysian-born half-German called Marcel.  He got the big breaks and won with 290+ points, but I still managed 260+.

Read David Mamet's article about why he's ceased to be a "brain-dead liberal." What a pseud! (Straw men galore...)

March 13, 2008

French cook: "People who aren't French are very weird!"--Faerie Tale Theatre

Dreamed of getting into a quarrel with Mother because she misunderstood a question as a criticism; seeing a new version of the last season of The Sopranos, where Adrianna came back from the dead only to be murdered again!

Didn't get up until after 14:00!

Saw the DVD of the first episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre.  Quirky and cute.

Went to the Games Meetup at the Emmett Street apartment. (It had been delayed twice.) A lot of people said they'd come, but only three showed up.  The organizer may quit, which is understandable.

Installed Global Writer and the printer softwar on the upstairs laptop.  The I realized it didn't have a drive for floppy disc files!

Baked multigrain bread overnight.

March 12, 2008

Went shopping.

Dinner was pork chops.

The Coro Verdi dress rehearsal for Theodore Dubois' oratorio The Seven Last Words of Christ was at the Holy Rosary church near St. Clair & Bathurst.

March 11, 2008

Dreamed of an actual 1987 interview with the executive editor of The New York Sunday Times where he candidly admitted that up-to-date sports news was more important than an up-to-date "The Week in Review" section!

Got another Ebay comic strip package from Barry King, with some full-page Prince Valiants!  I also got a package of Dick Tracys from Switzerland with all the 1976 Sundays, most of which I remember reading at the time, and one of Alley Oops.

Dinner was shrimp and rice.

Tried to get to the Chinese Literature Meetup event again, but this time nobody showed up!

March 10, 2008

Dreamed of Pippi Longstocking; a cabin at the top of a hill in a non-existent park on the road between my hometown Sackville and the city of Moncton.

Headache.

Dinner was spaghetti.

At choir practice we learned an introductory part for the Prayer from Rossini's Moses. (It's in addition to the main part which we already know.)

I thinking I can print the second chapter of Wandering Youth on the upstairs computer, if I install Global Writer on our laptop up there.

Checked on the internet where to get a copy of Pippi Longstocking.

March 9, 2008

Assembled my Mouse Trap game for the first time. (It should be fun!)

I missed an NDP rally for the Toronto Centre byelection. (Bloody Daylight Savings Time!)

Donald came over for dinner, which was roast lamb.

I tried to use my computer's printer with an ink cartridge Father had filled, but it still wouldn't work.  Then I put the file onto a floppy disk and installed Global Writer on Moira's computer, and that did work!  I've printed out the first chapter of my translation of that Chinese novel Wandering Youth. (I've translated the second chapter too, and I'd have printed that one except that Moira's printer ran out of ink.)

I've finished re-reading the first chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber, and drawn up a genealogical table, and now I'm reading four new chapters for Thursday night.

March 7, 2008

They say there's going to be a snowstorm well into tomorrow, so I postponed the Lunch Club Meetup until a week Sunday.

Sore throat.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Baked rye bread overnight.

The Cinematheque is showing a whole series of Josef Von Sternberg movies. (Too bad I'll be away in England for some of them...)

March 6, 2008

 Went shopping (before lunch).

Dinner was steak.

I was going to go to the Architecture for Humanity Meetup, but when I got to St. Clair West station the subway had stopped because of a fire in the tunnel!

I've started rereading the first chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber and listing all the characters.  It's made things clearer!

I'm trying to read the book club selecion Don't Believe Everything You Think, but I've ended up skimming all the way through it.

March 4, 2008

Marge Simpson: "Maggie, when you grow up you can suck on your pacifier all you want."

Dreamed of being unsure whether when we sold our old house in Sackville, N.B., we also sold the adjacent ground. (Of course we did!)

Dinner was Chinese food.

Saw the first episode of the BBC documentary series How Art Made the World.  It was about the emergence of visual style in the ancient world.  Gimmicky but interesting.

Stayed indoors two days in a row.

March 3, 2008

Homer Simpson: "If I tell you, will you promise you won't get mad?"

Marge Simpson: "I promise I will get mad, because that's what I do whenever you ask me to promise not to!"

Dreamed of visiting the downtown store selling newspapers in my hometown Sackville, N.B.; Bugs Bunny framed in a Hollywood paternity scandal(?).

Warmer weather has arrived!

Went to the Maria Shchuka library and borrowed the Non-Fiction Book Club's next book.

Dinner was spaghetti.

Headache!

At choir practice we rehearsed the Easter concert. (Giuseppe Macina's getting cataract surgery!) Now that the TOR season is finished, Leonard's back.

March 2, 2008

Bart Simpson: "Mom, you know why these shirts are on sale? Because people who wear them get beaten up!"

Marge Simpson: "Well, anyone who beats you up because of a shirt isn't your friend."

John and Kathrine came over for dinner, which was pizza.

Went to bed early in the evening, and woke up later.

March 1, 2008

Saw the Metropolitan Opera production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Sheppard Grande.  (I'd like to see the Massanet version someday.)

Dinner was McDonald's.

Spent the whole evening sorting through the new additions to my Steve Canyon Sunday comics collection. (I plugged several one-episode holes.) It kept me up till almost 03:00!

February 29, 2008

Bones: "Spock, that 'child' is about to wipe all human life off the face of the planet!  What are you suggesting we do, spank it?"--Star Trek:  The Motion Picture

"The story took so long to unfold--it was awesome!"--audience member overheard afterward

Dreamed of visiting my hometown Sackville, N.B., and seeing that York Street had become a divided highway(?).

Called Elaine to arrange about a second tarot reading to make use of the discount I won in the draw.  But she can't do it at her place and I can't do it at my home until the others are away. (They'd have a fit if they knew I was spending good money on superstition!)

Got my hair cut. (The barber took my coat off for me!)

Dinner was roast chicken.

Put my comic books in order.

Saw Robert Wise's Star Trek:  The Motion Picture (for the second time) at the Bloor.  Kinda fun in a slow, pedestrian way.  The opening scene with the Klingons was cool. [Unfortunately this print had lost the best line, Bones' "Engineers love to change things!"]

I'm starting to get ideas for my blog, but just now I can't open blogger.com!

February 28, 2008

Dreamed of the Mt. Allison University library.

Got an Ebay package of Phantom reprints from Australia.

I was thinking of seeing There Will Be Blood, but I ended up staying in all day.

Dinner was chili con carne.

Finally posted that blog entry about the comic strip Teen-Wise last night.  But once again the pictures don't fit in the space and I'll have to make special thumbnails again.

February 27, 2008

Dreamed of an old viaduct outside Amherst, N.S. (near my hometown of Sackville, N.B.) being about to fall down; people gathering nearby, waiting to see it happen.

Got an Ebay package of Steve Canyon Sundays, and another of Alley Oop strips.

Brass-monkey weather! (And barely three weeks from spring...)

Went shopping.

Dinner was fish.

Went to the Toronto City Opera production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.  It was quite good, with some very talented singers.

Lapham's Quarterly has a lot of interesting stuff.  The other day I was reading Thucydides' Melian Dialogue, and I ended up reading about he Pelopponesian Wars on Wikipedia till past midnight.

February 26, 2008

There was supposed to be a big snowstorm today but it turned out pretty light.

Went to see my shrink Dr. Hassan. Mary asked Moira to ask him if he knew of any specialists in obsessive-compulsive disorder (for some big court case), but he didn't.  Afterward I bought three Lois Lane comics at the nearby Paradise Comics, on sheer whim.

Dinner was shepherd's pie.

Once again, I tried to meet with the other Dreams of the Red Chamber readers, but this time Bill was held up at school.

Saw the DVD of a Saturday Night Live show hosted by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, who were doing routines like the one-legged actor auditioning for the role of Tarzan.

Baked whole wheat bread overnight.

February 25, 2008

Homer Simpson: "Only in America could someone like me get a job!"

Mr. Burns: "What good is money if you can't terrorize your fellow man?"

Dreamed of a levitation experience that turned out to be a big hoax; a sequel to the Broadway musical Annie [there actually was one, though it only played off-Broadway]; bouncing a ball lighter than air against the side of a house.

Did the book business accounts for the last four months of 2007.

Dinner was meat loaf.

Went to an Architecture for Humanity panel discussion at the Gardiner Museum. (This week, I skipped choir practice.)

February 24, 2008

Dreamed of trying to remember what day of the week it was; meeting a woman who looked like journalist June Callwood at the shore of Lake Ontario; her saying that she'd swum in that water and it made her sick.

The Coro Verdi performed a mass for patron Tony Fusco's golden wedding anniversary at the St. Francis church near the Columbus Centre. (I was barely on time because I thought it was at Villa Colombo like our other masses.) Giuseppe actually praised our performance afterward!

Dinner was roast beef.

Finished the Undeclared DVDs.  Quite a good sitcom.

Ralph Nader's announcement of his new presidential campaign has brought out the Progressive Solidarity Police on The Huffington Post.  I've written several posts defending him. (Scapegoating is ugly!)

February 23, 2008

"I'm not going to hurt him!"

"That's what I keep saying, but I keep doing it."

--Undeclared

Dreamed of being invited to attend a lecture at West Point; arriving there and finding out they wanted me to launch a surprise paintball attack on the cadets to test how prepared for action they were.

Dinner was McDonald's.

February 22, 2008

Dreamed of reflecting that Utah's actual nickname "The Beehive State" was appropriate because Mormon society is like bees in a hive.

Saw the last of Big Love.  It's just about my favourite current show.

Dinner was salmon.

Went to a Linkup event at an apartment building near Victoria Park Station where I got a tarot reading by a woman called Elaine whose favourite movie is A Clockwork Orange.  I asked how I should go about getting a job, and most of the cards were upside down, which can spell difficulty.  The card indicating my past was "The Hermit." She read into another card that I should be careful about spending money. (I paid $20.) The clarification card was the Two of Cups, which might mean that I'll find a job and a girlfriend this fall! [I found neither.] Afterward I spent an hour playing Seahaven Towers solitaire with a real deck for the first time. [I'd previously played it on computers.]

February 21, 2008

"You've been playing the field while dating my daughter!"

"Who told you that?"

"My wife."

"Which one?"

--Big Love

"I can't tolerate you.  You're my daughter!"--ibid.

Went to a Linkup event, meeting several graduate students at the Starbuck's near College Station.  There was a Hungarian-Canadian, a Russian-American, a Hispanic, a Chinese-Australian and another Chinese. (I was the only WASP!) The Russian learned English when he was a kid by watching Tom & Jerry cartoons over and over.

On the way back, I bought the game Mousetrap at a shop in Cumberland Terrace. (I've always wanted to try that game.)

Dinner was steak.

Baked white bread overnight.