Aspiring TV producer (Howard Hessemann) on his newest network pitch: "Forget it, it's a lousy idea.... But don't steal it!"--The Bob Newhart Show
Went around the Little Italy festival with the Social Network Meetup group. The organizer is a Turk born in Germany. (I also met a woman from Shanghai.)
Donald came over for dinner which was turkey.
Dreamed of a high-ranking female official in Washington, D.C., who received a pair of diamond-encrusted slippers in a blatant case of corruption; a TV reporter admiring the slippers' beauty; touring an Irish pub.
Dinner was scallops.
"I need you, Kyle." "I'm Kevin"--ibid.
"I'm a patriot!" "Yeah, you're the Milli Vanilli of patriotism"--ibid.
"Go tell the world what happened." "What happened?" "I don't know, but you gotta tell them something!"--ibid.
Went shopping.
There's a pretty big pumpkin growing in the garden!
Baked multigrain bread.
Went to the Reference Library and found two music books with Beethoven's "Ich Liebe Dich" and Schubert's "Wohin?" in lower keys. They even let you borrow them! (Afterward I went to Chapters in Eaton Centre and bought a new volume to continue my diary.)
Dinner was lasagna.
Saw Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder at the Yorkdale. Not for the easily offended, but it made me laugh a lot. (I didn't recognize Tom Cruise!)
"A Chinese assumes the rules are made for others. This is how citizens carry on in a nation of rules. That is how they survived years of Communist dictatorship"--Jan Wong, Beijing Confidential
"I don't have a jealous bone in my body any more."
"I wonder how you can walk"--The Bob Newhart Show
Dreamed of visiting my hometown of Sackville and seeing that a flood had just left our old home underwater. (Does that mean I'm starting to let go?)
Saw the DVD of a documentary about America's polio epidemic.
Dinner was spaghetti.
I'm enjoying that documentary series about World War I.
I've rediscovered some of the surviving basement threads at mrcranky.com, including those in the forums for the movies The Wild Bunch and The Full Monty.
"Being beaten like this is humiliating. At least when you're killed you save face"--Conversation Piece
Went shopping.
Dinner was pork chops.
Started reading Jan Wong's latest Chinese memoir Beijing Confidential.
Saw Luchino Visconti's Conversation Piece at the Cinematheque. It wasn't bad. I imagine Giuseppe my singing teacher would like it.
Did some pruning and got a little blister on my middle finger.
Dinner was salmon.
There were just four people at the Walking Meetup (Julie had laryngitis), but I had a good time anyway. We walked east along Danforth then took a new route to the north back to Broadview.
I've been reading more of the posts I wrote at mrcranky.com a decade ago. I sure miss those days! (We'll see what the new version is like.)
Dreamed of being about to start writing another Ph.D. dissertation, and being afraid; seeing the skyline of Sydney, Australia, at a distance (including the famous opera house); entering a boarding school with Flashman from Tom Brown's School Days; Colonel Sanders; Soames from Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga.
Went to Remenyi's and bought the score for Schubert's "An die Musik." I got it as part of a big book of 50 German songs, which they sold at half price because it had some pretty minor water damage!
Then I went to the Lillian Smith library and borrowed five books of Encyclopedia Brown mysteries. (That's my new nostalgia craze.)
Dinner was KFC.
Went to a Coro Verdi rehearsal for our mass next Sunday. (This time, I will be there.)
For a while it looked like I'd have ten people coming to this Saturday's Lunch Club Meetup, but the number's dribbled away to four! (Not encouraging.)
Saw a Barcelona production of Verdi's Aida in an Empress Walk cinemacast. The "Addio Terra" finale leaves me teary-eyed!
Started reading Bill Bryson's short biography Shakespeare: The World as a Stage. It's hard to put down.
Dinner was lobster rolls.
Dreamed of the musical theme from the film noir Out of the Past; visiting the campus of my alma mater Mount Allison University and seeing a new radio tower(?); the actual line from the movie Mad Dog Time "I judge a man by the way he dies. Your life was one note" (Gabriel touched a piano key as he got shot dead); seeing future entries in this diary where I described legal battles over military protection for third world health clinics I was helping to establish(?).
Went to see the Aida opera cinemacast at the Empress Walk. But it turned out that it started at 12:30 instead of 13:00! I'll have to see it tomorrow instead. (And miss the Brunch Club Meetup.)
Dinner was scalloped potatoes and ham.
John and Kathrine came over for dinner, which was the rest of the corn. Father didn't pour cold water over it before serving, as I usually do, and I burnt my mouth!
Went out to a singles event organized by someone at plentyoffish.com , at Eton House. Unfortunately, the few women who showed up kept to themselves. I sat there for two hours listening to loud music before getting fed up and leaving.
Dreamed of a non-existent article in The New Yorker about the first Star Trek movie.
Went shopping.
Dinner was corn on the cob (which we got at Whittamore's farm.)
Saw Alain Resnais' Stavisky at the Cinematheque. Jean-Paul Belmondo was suitably charismatic as the title character, an actual crook who bribed his way to influence the French establishment in the 1930s, causing a serious crisis. Charles Boyer was in fine form as a baron friend.
Bart--'What's the point of this story...' Homer--'I like stories...' Bart--'I have a story that's so scary you'll wet your pants...' Grandpa--'Too late...' [The kids move away.] --The Simpsons Baked white bread. [I actually lost count of which type to bake next and had to check in this diary what I'd made previously.] At today's singing lesson I told Giuseppe I'd like to learn some lieder and he suggested Schubert's 'An die Musik.' [I hope I can pronounce German.] On the way home I picked up Michael Moore's Stupid White Men at the Palmerston library. [It's the next book we'll be discussing at the Book Club Meetup.] I also borrowed a book of Encylopedia Brown mysteries. Dinner was ham. I was going to attend the Walkers Meetup, but I was stuck 20 minutes waiting for a bus and would have been too late. Finished Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke. It leaves you with a lot of questions.
Dreamed of the Australian singer Rolf Harris [later convicted of pedophilia]; reflecting that Britain's New Labour is despicable; a comedy about an FBI father and his young athlete son; waiting in a long supermarket line to buy some jelly only to spill it just as I reached the front. Drove to Whittamore's farm market and bought corn and strawberries. [On the way back we stopped at Cedarbrae library and Father bought a couple of the book they were selling there.] Dinner was pork chops. Went to another Writers Meetup. This time we were talking about chapter titles. I came up with a chapter title list for the non-existent western novel Chaos in Taos. We ended up talking about the off-colour humour in Warner Brothers cartoons... Practised my singing for the first time in three days. I had to compete with reggae music from a nearby restaurant, but my voice was in good form.
'Tonight's forecast--dark...'--Al Sleet Dreamed of visiting a farm in Alberta and seeing crude oil risen to the surface of the ground; seeing a small industrial building struck by lightning and catching fire. [It turned out that there'd been a loud explosion in the city that night.] Saw the DVD of a 1978 George Carlin special. I was glad he redid his routine as Al Sleet the hippy-dippy weatherman. [I showed it to the parents, who don't like his dirtier stuff.] Dinner was haddock. [For some reason, the guy who sold it said it was halibut.] Saw the DVD of Grandpa's Treasure of Wonderful Stories, an animated production from India based on the Hitopadesha stories, their equivalent of Aesop's fables. [One story was about two friends called Goodie and Baddie...] Checked out the National Film Board's new website [still in the beta stage] and saw a couple of World War II documentaries.
Dreamed of my official record claiming that I'd been expelled from school for throwing something at a teacher. Saw Aram Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus at the Empress Walk. It was a Bolshoi Ballet production staged in Paris, with a Cuban lead who bore a rather appropriate resemblance to Che Guevara. Great music. [I recognized the adagio that became the theme music for the 1970s British TV series The Onedin Line.] Dinner was churrasco chicken. Saw the DVD of City of Gold, the National Film Board documentary about Dawson City and the Klondike gold rush, narrated by native son Pierre Berton.
Went shopping. Baked multigrain bread. I noticed that the mice had got into the multigrain flour and moved it into a sealed plastic box and the rest into an oatmeal jar. [The oatmeal I moved into another sealed plastic box.] Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.
Went shopping. Dinner was bass fish. Finished Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Really funny. Started looking at a DVD of rare one-reel silent movies from the early days of film. They included a D.W. Griffith film The Country Doctor, about a doctor whose daughter dies while he's out treating another kid, and the earliest surviving film of The Wizard of Oz.
Dreamed of googling 'north Atlantic islands.' Baked raisin bread in the morning. Singing lesson. I sang 'Ideale' after 'Pour un Baiser' and ended up confusing the two. [They have similar opening tunes.] Went to Tequila Bookworm and bought a ticket to Trash Palace's educational films show Friday night. Dinner was the rest of the Chinese food. Started reading Human Smoke, Nicholson Baker's controversial history of the beginning of World War II. [I started it before finishing the Bill Bryson book. Who says you can't do that...] Went on a tree tour of Black Creek between Weston and Jane streets. There were some 30 people there.
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'Where are you going...' 'To avenge all husbands'--The Marriage of Figaro [Maidservant] 'Women of my rank don't have ailments like that'--ibid. Saw a Royal Opera production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro being broadcast at the Empress Walk. I concentrate on the music and don't try to follow the plot. Well staged. Dinner was McDonald's. Dreamed of trying to finish high school, even being willing to go to phys-ed classes, but finding I had no sneakers with me; telling my sister I was upset about high school and finding out she was upset too. Rented the DVD of John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln at 2Q Video. [It must be the fourth time I saw it.] Superb Americana, with Henry Fonda at his best.
