April 22, 2008

Today's outing was to Kew.  First I took a walk past the National Archive where I did much of the research for my Ph.D. thesis 12 or 13 years ago.  I'd forgotten how ugly the building looks from the outside!

Then I visited Kew Gardens for the first time in almost 20 years. (I'd done so much work nearby, yet I never got around to visiting the place at the time!) Part of my visit was to Kew Palace on the grounds.

In the afternoon my feet gave out on me, for a change, and I left earlier than I might have, without seeing the whole place.  For the previous three days I'd had egg & cress sandwiches for lunch but this time I had a tuna & cucumber sandwich, after removing the cucumbers.

On the way back I took the wrong train and ended up on a detour to Willesden Junction in the northwest.  But it cost me no more than 10 minutes or so.

Dinner was lamb stew.

I thought of seeing Never So Good, a one-man show about Harold MacMillan playing at the National Theatre, but it wasn't on tonight.  Just as well, really.

April 21, 2008

"He broke the law when he was born!  His parents were not married"--Major Barbara

Knocked my forehead against the wall in the middle of the night.

Met Mrs. Vickers and took a picture of her. (She also took one of me.)

Went to the Hayward Gallery and saw an exhibit of photographs by Soviet avant-gardist Alexander Rodchenko.

Took a train to Hampton Court, which I'd only been to once before.  Among other things, I explored the famous hedge maze. (Frankly, the whole place is like one big maze!) I'd bought a new issue of Private Eye magazine, but I left it there somewhere.

Dinner was KFC.

Went to see the George Bernard Shaw play Major Barbara at the National Theatre, directed by the great Nicholas Hytner.  It's a very smart, knowing satire.

My TV set conked out Friday night.  Today I told the desk clerk and he came to may room and fixed it. (It had something to do with the cable connection, I think.)

April 20, 2008

Dreamed of the folk song "Shenandoah."

Went out and bought the four upmarket Sunday papers to bring home. (I didn't read them until I came home in the evening.)

Stopped at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park for a minute.  There was a group handing out balloons, who wanted the World Health Organization to recognize Taiwan.

Spent the afternoon at the London Zoo.  They have some new attractions there:  a gorilla enclosure, a bird pavilion, a walk-through butterfly hall.

Afterward I went back through Regent's Park and took some more pictures. (I'd also taken some at Primrose Hill.)

Dinner was lamb stroganoff.

Checked meetup.com online, and my next lunch club event is already fully booked.  Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to add my own RSVP! (I'm sure I can find room for one more when I get back...)

April 19, 2008

Dreamed of being in Leo DiCaprio's entourage and getting to act in a movie.

Spent the day in South Kensington.  First I went to the Science Museum, then the nearby Natural History Museum.  They were both crowded and noisy. (Serves me right for going on a Saturday!) I had to queue for a little while to get into the Dinosaur Gallery.

Afterward, I walked through Kensington Gardens a bit, and saw Princess Di's memorial wading pool.  I appreciated the quiet.

Sure spent a long time on my feet today! (I hope they don't fall off...)

Dinner was steak.

Phoned home.

April 18, 2008

In the morning I did the laundry again.  And I read more of Watchmen.

Spent the afternoon at the British Museum.  They had a special exhibit of prints by American artists from the early 20th century.

For once, I had enough time to go back to my room before dinner.  I ended up dozing off.

They borrowed Mecklenburgh Square to film a couple of scenes for the TV show Sleep With Me.  I took a couple of pictures of the crew from my room, using the camera's zoom-in feature for the first time. (I wish I'd known how to use it on some of my earlier photos.)

Dinner was swordfish.

In the evening I saw the Chinese silent movie Song of the Fishermen at the Linbury Studio Theatre in the Royal Opera House, with live Chinese musicians!

April 17, 2008

This morning, for a change, I went to Chancery Lane station to get my London Underground day-pass.

Then I went out to West India Quay and visited the Docklands Museum depicting the history of the port of London.  They had a special exhibit on slavery (in which they referred to slaves as "enslaved people").

In the afternoon I went to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. (For the first time here, I ended up skipping lunch.) Afterward, I went up to the hill where the Greenwich Observatory is, but only to take pictures:  this time I wasn't interested in seeing it from inside.

On the way back, I went to Oxford Street and tried to find scissors to trim my fingernails.  In the end I got them at the Boots drugstore in the Brunswick.  Oh well, I got to visit Oxford Street anyway.

Dinner was salmon.

Phoned home.

April 16, 2008

Dreamed of a thriller where the world was endangered by a race of bees larger than people.

In the morning I visited the National Portrait Gallery again and saw the post-1837 sections, as well as an exhibit about bluestockings.

In the afternoon I took the bus to Lambeth and visited the Imperial War Museum.  The new exhibit about Ian Fleming and James Bond doesn't open till tomorrow. (I wasn't that interested in it anyway.) I did see the exhibits of wartime posters and the World War II experiences of British children.

Dinner was spinach canneloni.

In the evening I saw Brief Encounter:  Not the Film at the Cinema Haymarket. (I could have paid a lot less for my ticket at Leicester Square's reduced ticket booth, but I wasn't up to standing in line today.) It's a droll, gentle sendup combining stage and film, broad and subtle, straightly dramatic and comic and musical.  Rather hard to describe, really.

April 15, 2008

Dreamed of visiting our old house in Sackville, N.B., and telling the present owners that the thing I missed the most was gardening.

I've started using small coins to provide exact change when paying for my daily transport pass, to keep my surfeit of coins down.

In the morning I went to the Courtauld Gallery and saw a special exhibit built around Renoir's famous "La Loge."

In the afternoon I took the bus up to Hampstead Heath and walked around there quite a bit.  I also went to the Kenthill estate building, which had a collection of some great art.  Took lots of pictures there.

Afterward I went to Foyle's and bought a guild to worldwide comics, a reprint of Little Lulu's first comic adventures and two entries in the Bluffer's Guide series, involving Paris and opera.

Dinner was lasagna with ham and spinach.

Had a lazy evening for a change.

April 14, 2008

Got to the Royal Opera at 08:45 and waited over an hour, so I got a stall circle seat for tonight's Carmen performance for 39 pounds.

Afterward I went to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.  I love those old buses and such, but it's a bit too noisy for my taste.  Then I would have visited the Theatre Museum because it was close by, but it turned out they've closed it. (Can't blame them, really.)

Took lots more pictures, including three Thames bridges.

In the afternoon I visited the Tate Gallery, but I skipped the special exhibits this time.

Dinner was Burger King.

The opera was grandly entertaining, with flamenco dancers and the toreador making his entrance on a horse!

Phoned home.

April 13, 2008

"This city is dying of rabies.  Is the best I can do to wipe random flecks of foam from its lips?"--Watchmen

Dreamed of boarding a Toronto bus and realizing I couldn't pay the far because I only had British money.

Did the laundry at London House in the afternoon.  At that time, I started reading my graphic novel Watchmen.  It's really brilliant!

Afterward I visited the Foundling Museum just north of Brunswick Square. (They have some excellent paintings there.) Then I went to Waterstone's and bought a couple of books about classic British TV, along with The Big Questions, which claims to provied an overview of philosophy.

Dinner was steak.

Saw My Brother Is an Only Child at the Renoir.  It's a funny movie about a young man in '60s Italy whose brother is a communist. (It cost ten pounds, and I almost skipped it.)

April 12, 2008

"That's not education, Sir, that's culture!"--The History Boys

Went to the Royal Academy in the morning.  I saw a great show of Russian and French art from the turn of the century, from Russian collections.  I also saw an exhibit of the German Renaissance artist Cranach.

In the afternoon I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum.  I saw special exhibits of new Chinese design; a Regency gentleman called Thomas Hope who introduced many exotic elements to English design; and one about theatrical designs. (My choir director Giuseppe Macina would have liked that last one.) At one point, I heard some heavy rain on the roof and it reminded me of the top floor in our Toronto home.

Today's photos included the Rubens statue in front of the Royal Academy; the inner garden at the V&A; and a group of Swedish fans of the English soccer team the Tottenham Hotspurs!

Dinner was chicken "supreme" with mushroom sauce.

Saw Alan Bennett's play The History Boys at Wyndham's.  Or at least I saw the first half, then I left because I felt too tired to pay attention.  Anyway, the movie version, which I have seen, seemed pretty close to it.

April 11, 2008

 Slept in a bit.

Today was less ambitious:  I just walked to the Museum of London and back. (Over half of that place is being renovated, but they still have the pre-Elizabethan section.)

Took several pictures:  the statue of a queen in Queen's Square (they used to think it was Queen Anne, but now they think it's Charlotte of Mecklenburg, wife of George III), a statue of Peace near Smithfield's meat market, the Barbican complex, Gray's Inn, St. Paul's Cathedral seen from an alleyway.

Went to see if the Barbican Centre had an interesting art exhibit, but it was just contemporary art as seen by an extra-terrestrial(?). I felt safe missing it.

Dinner was turkey scallops with spaghetti.

Phoned home twice.  The first time only Moira was home; second time I spoke to the parents.

Bought the book 101 Forgotten Films at High Stakes, a store full of books on gambling.

April 10, 2008

In the morning, I opened the manual for my new camera and installed the memory card.  I also took my first picture:  Mecklenburgh Square seen from my window.

In the morning I returned to the National Gallery and saw the rest of it.

In the afternoon I visited the National Portrait Gallery.  I saw the pre-Victorian portraits on the top floor, and paid 10 pounds to see a special show of Vanity Fair celebrity photographs from both the early magazine of the '20s and '30s and the more recent version. (Of course, the earlier photos were of far greater interest.)

I stayed at the NPG till past 18:00, so instead of returning to the Dining Hall I ate at McDonald's.

I only took one more picture today:  at Leicester Square there was a huge crowd of people waiting to see (I think) Kate Hudson arrive for the Fool's Gold gala premiere, so I shot the throng itself.

At the Duke of York's I saw an imaginative South African version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, with xylophones and bongo drums and a lot of dancing.  Good fun.

April 9, 2008

In the morning I met Noelle Vickers, who thought I was the brother of the guy she knew when I was there a dozen years ago! (I guess I've changed a bit...)

Walked down to Trafalgar Square, then viewed two-thirds of the National Gallery. (I saved my favourite--the post-1700 art--for tomorrow.) I remember quite a few pictures from my past visits.

Dinner at the London House dining hall was Thai chicken with rice. (Yesterday's dinner was butter chicken with rice, while lunch was sausage casserole with rice.  Maybe I should go easy on the rice for a while...)

I haven't been able to find that brochure the theaters used to put out listing all the plays and musicals being put on.  In the evening I looked up their webpage and found out a lot.

"The Brunswick" has been gentrified, including its name.  My beloved Safeway supermarket is now called Waitrose, and has moved into a northern extension.  I went there and bought some apples, oranges, carrots and detergent.

April 8, 2008

While waiting to board my flight, I skimmed through the money issue of Lapham's Quarterly.  It turned out I'd forgotten to sign my passport!

I think I saw Toronto Star Ottawa columnist Richard Gwyn on the plane.

Finally arrived at the Goodenough Club around 16:30.  I realized I'd left my organizer at Victoria Station!  Fortunately, when I phoned it turned out it was found, and I went back right away and got it back. (Oh well, it's best to get your big goof over with at the start of the undertaking. For a perfectionist like me, it breaks the tension.)

I'd expected to sleep through dinner, but by now it was dinner time at the London House dining hall.  They were having an Indian night.

Went to sleep for about six hours, then I woke up and spent about three hours watching late-night TV and going online in the Club's basement den.  Then I slept for about six more hours.

April 7, 2008

Dreamed of a tall NYC skyscraper collapsing, as seen from above; attending a religious service with a group of lesbians.

Being about to travel a long distance can certainly concentrate the mind.  Among everything else, I had to decide where to have the Lunch Club Meetup and set it up. (I chose the Mandarin Restaurant.) I also found the time to read two chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber so I'd have an even twenty behind me.

Dinner was shrimp and rice. (Father was so distracted that he cooked it an hour early!)

My passport and my glasses case both disappeared at one point, but they turned up eventually.

Before leaving I found the time to put multigrain dough in the bread machine and write these notes in my diary.

Here's a twist!  My flight was delayed four hours, so I returned home for a while.  I finished printing out the second chapter of my Chinese novel translation, and found my missing travel organizer! (I also took out the bread that was finished baking.)

April 6, 2008

"All work and no play--"

"Makes Jack!"

--I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang

Went to the Lunch Club Meetup at Euro Crepe Cafe. (There were five people there.) I had the mini waffle special of four mini waffles, two with poached eggs, one with ham and cheese and one with fruit.  It was quite good.

Afterward I went to Black's and bought a new camera. (The battery connection doesn't work on the old one.)

Saw the DVD of Mervyn LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.  A bluntly effective reworking of Les Miserables.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw the DVD of Fritz Lang's lynching melodrama Fury. (Two realistic 1930s dramas in one day!) A bit heavy-handed.

April 5, 2008

Gangster in a tuxedo: "What are you looking at?"

Society lady: "I'm looking at nothing, and it's wearing a tuxedo!"--Thunderbolt

The New York Times Saturday crossword was really tough this week!  I had to cheat a lot.

Dinner was lobster rolls.

Sweater season is over!

Saw Josef Von Sternberg's Thunderbolt at the Cinematheque.  It's a very early talkie, a gangster melodrama with some surprising black humour in the death row scenes.

Father's paying the whole amount for my Goodenough Club stay in London! (I only expected he'd pay half or so.) That means I'm ahead of the game, and in May my bank account should be close to $4000. I think I'll start taking singing lessons again.

April 4, 2008

Dreamed of beig about to travel in a hot-air balloon; being concerned that my clothes weren't warm enough for high altitudes; a movie with Owen Wilson as a balloon pilot confronting soccer hooligans; seeing Owen and his brother Luke Wilson surrounded by an entourage (including several girls); planting a tree near our old home in Sackville, N.B.; Sharon Stone with her hair cut short.

Went to the bank and cashed Father's cheque for our money from the used-book sales.  Then I went to the drugstore and renewed my prescription. (I also bought some more cheap post-Easter chocolate!  Mother in particular likes it.)

Baked cheese bread.

Got another Ebay comic strips package from Barry King.

Saw the DVD of a PBS documentary about Emma Goldman. (The world needs dreamers like her.)

Went to the Karaoke Meetup.  I sang "Memories Are Made of This" and "December '63."

April 3, 2008

Dreamed of recalling my resentment of English people who are too quick to judge others; imagining a thriller in the style of the Danish TV series The Kingdom, but set in an old folks' home with a lot of ghosts around.

Finished the big "Paint by Numbers" puzzle in Games magazine! (It's a couple of deer in a forest.)

Finally managed to put away all the comic strips lying around my room! (I took the opportunity to vacuum under the bed.) Mother gave me some new sheets.

Dinner was spaghetti.

Went to a Writers Meetup, which was pretty interesting, through everyone else seemed to have written a lot more than me.  One of the people was Barry Bailey, a voice actor who once did K-Tel Records commercials!  Beforehand, I tried to play pool. (Mr. Bailey gave me some unwanted advice.)

Headache!

April 2, 2008

Exposition for Peoria: "Palazzo--that's a palace, isn't it?"--Three Coins in the Fountain

Went shopping.

Dinner was pork chops.

Saw the DVD of Jean Negulesco's Three Coins in the Fountain.  Corny fun. (The song makes me blush.)

April 1, 2008

"All you beautiful people, shut the fuck up"--Someone to Watch Over Me

Dreamed of being a psychopath on the run (I guess it was a nightmare) a non-existent story in the western comic strip Rick O'Shay where the hero went back in time and changed history to prevent a wrongful hanging; trying to work with mowers; a world where everything was turned upside down and people no longer knew which direction was north.

Went to see my shrink Dr. Hassan.  Since I was early, I went into Paradise Comics and bought a 1966 Action Comics issue with a Supergirl story!

Two new magazines arrived in the mail:  Lapham's Quarterly (this issue's about money) and Games.

Dinner was lasagna.

Saw the DVD of Someone to Watch Over Me.  A pretty routine New York story, rather gloriously overdirected by Ridley Scott (in Blade Runner mode!).

March 31, 2008

Dreamed of a poetry thread starting in one of the mrcranky.com forums I used to frequent; deciding to post the Elizabeth Bishop poem "The Fish."

Puitak came over in the afternoon.

Dinner was shepherd's pie.

Went to choir practice for the last time before going to London. (Afterward I told Giuseppe Macina that I'd probably be in the opera next year.)

March 30, 2008

"'At least I get paid in cash,' Pea Eye said....  'I don't care if you get paid in cash,' Lorena said. 'Cash can't hug me.  It can't make me a baby.  It can't be a father to Augie and Georgie and Ben and the girls"--Streets of Laredo

Dreamed of being about to perform in a band concert in Amherst, N.S. (near my hometown Sackville, N.B.) on a tenor saxophone which I'd never played before, but not minding; meeting some friendly East Indian girls; assembling my Mouse Trap game and finding some parts missing.

Saw Josef von Sternberg's silent Underworld at the Cinematheque.  It's the original gangster movie, an atmospheric classic.

Puitak and Gordon invited me over for dinner.  We ate spaghetti.

Found a website full of dime novel covers!

March 29, 2008

"He had too much to do, keeping alive, to worry about dying"--Streets of Laredo

On train delays: "My great-grandfather built this railway to serve Titfield, not Greenwich!"--The Titfield Thunderbolt

Dreamed of the actual 1979 police detective series Paris, with James Earl Jones, which I heard about but never saw.

I started to watch the DVD of Kanal, Andrzej Wajda's war movie about a unit of resistance fighters about to be slaughtered in the last days of the Warsaw Uprising, but it was too grim for me.

Instead, I watched a DVD with several episodes of Patrick Troughton as Doctor Who.  Some of it was pretty outlandish.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw the DVD of Charles Crichton's Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt (for the second time). Definitive English whimsy.

I forgot all about he hour between 20:00 and 21:00 when we were all going to turn our lights off!

March 28, 2008

"Can't you see?  This is history!"

"History, my foot!  It's money."

--Passport to Pimlico

Dreamed of college students during World War II; wondering what life was like when a narrower range of food was available at the grocery store; "waking up" and finding the time was only 05:00 or so.

Saw the DVD of the classic Ealing ensemble comedy Passport to Pimlico (for the second time). It's a clever satire of postwar British austerity and officialdom in which a London borough secedes from the United Kingdom.

Dinner was Chinese food.  My fortune cookie said, "You see everything that happens in terms of the larger picture." I guess I do.

The choir had another rehearsal to make up for missing last week.  Giuseppe Macina told me the Toronto City Opera might be doing La Cenerentola instead of Carmen, but that also sounds fun.

March 27, 2008

"Even as he crushed her into the dirt, Ramon was eager to let Maria know that his intentions were good"--Streets of Laredo

"Let's go down to the bar.  You can cool off while we try to impress each other"--Out of the Past

Dreamed of visiting my hometown Sackville, N.B., walking down West Avenue to our old home, but going so slowly that I still hadn't reached it by nightfall; recalling that I'd dreamed about Toronto before moving here and wondering if there was a connection with dreaming about Sackville now.

Baked whole wheat bread.

I misplaced the Cinematheque tickets I'd bought the other week, so I went and got new ones today. (Fortunately, I'd only bought four.)

Saw the DVD of Ridin' the Rails a Johnny Cash documentary about the history of American railroads, in which he sang a lot of songs.

Dinner was salmon.

Saw the DVD of Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past yet again. (I almost figured it out this time...)

March 26, 2008

"The man was incompetent, and he usually despised incompetence, but for some reason, Brookshire's incompetence made him more likeable.  There was something brave in it.  For a man who could neither ride nor shoot, to be willing to travel over some of the roughest stretches of the West in pursuit of a young killer who had already accounted for nearly forty lives, took guts"--Streets of Laredo

Dreamed of looking at a bunch of old copies of Time magazine from the 1970s, including a non-existent issue with a big essay purporting to show the present course of the world (including illustrations).

Father totalled up the annual book business accounts the other day (only a bit over $1000 in profits this year), and today I did my taxes.  This year I should get a full $100 refund.

Dinner was pork roast.

Choir practice was on Wednesday this week because of the Easter weekend. (Giuseppe Macina wasn't wearing his glasses because of his cataract operation.) We're now rehearsing the mixed concert that I won't be in.

March 25, 2008

Dreamed of visiting my hometown of Sackville, N.B., and being overcome by pangs of nostalgia; reflecting on where it all went wrong as I was working on my Ph.D. thesis; overhearing someone speaking Japanese on the telephone; "waking up" in our old Sackville house and wondering why it wasn't Toronto; trying to splash water on my face to wake up; asking people outdoors what province this was; going to Atlantic City to interview someone but losing the key that explained where to find him; the Elliot Gould character in The Lemon Sisters who insisted on expanding his Atlantic City saltwater taffy business only to find out that the casinos were giving it out for free, leaving him ruined.

Went shopping.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Went to a conservation exhibit at the Holy Rosary church hall, where I got an application form for a solar water heater. (Afterward I stopped at Loblaws and bought some cheap post-Easter chocolate.)