October 24, 2008

 Moira made dinner, which was stir-fry.  She thought it was terrible, but I didn't mind it.

Coro Verdi did a dress rehearsal for Sunday's concert.  John George sits next to me, and I heard him sing a low D at one point!

October 23, 2008

Dreamed of being in a Hollywood musical combining Last Exit to Brooklyn with Harold Robbins' The Lonely Lady; a group coming together for a parade in one scene; a non-existent old film of Pierre Trudeau playing college football; wanting to write a diary entry but being unable to remember the date. (I thought it was August...)

Baked multigrain bread.

Saw the DVD of Becoming John Ford, a documentary about the great director's early years at 20th Century Fox studio.  Of course, it made me want to see movies like The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley again.  The disc's extras included Ford's World War II documentary shorts about Pearl Harbor and Midway.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Went to the Socratic Philosophy Meetup at Aroma Espresso, but there was only one other person there, possibly because of confusion about the location. (The webpage map showed the wrong place.)

Saw the DVD of the first episodes of the fourth season of The Bob Newhart Show.

October 22, 2008

For the second time, I forgot that my singing lesson was at 13:00 instead of noon!  This time I waited inside Giuseppe's house because it was cool outside.

On the way home, I bought some Cinematheque tickets and the "Il Balen de Suo Sorriso" score, which had arrived at Remenyi's. (The "Vagua Luna" score still hasn't.)

At mrcranky.com, Riding Fool changed his avatar to a Halloween pumpkin, so I posted "It's the Pumpkinification of Riding Fool!" (Coaster actually understood my reference to the Roman satire "The Pumpkinification of Claudius.")

Dinner was steak.

The opera chorus had an acting session.  We did an exercise imagining individual characters for ourselves at the start of Carmen. (I'm Ferdinand Gonzalez, a Valencian peasant who joined  the army for excitement but finds army life boring and is preparing to desert and join a smuggling band...)

Looked at another George Carlin concert DVD.

Finished and returned Freakonomics.  Enjoyable, pretty light reading.

October 21, 2008

 Went shopping on Tuesday, for a change.

I made a dessert out of a pureed squash and three of our remaining Gravenstein apples.

Dinner was the rest of the fettucine alfredo.

First cold weather of the fall. (It looked close to snowing!)

The Carmen rehearsal was on the demoralizing side.  I was late, which I'm not usually.  The male singers are so far behind the women that it's embarrassing.  We sang "Compagnon Ecoute" and "Le Douanier" for the first time.

Father seems to have figured out what was causing the background noise on the upstairs DVD player:  a faulty surge protector(?).

October 20, 2008

 Dinner was fettucine alfredo (which I cooked).

Saw the first half of the Canadian Opera Company production of Don Giovanni. (It was a Classical Music Meetup event.) I left in the intermission because I'm going to see it agains this weekend anyway.  It was a strange production, with the minuet scene including a conga line at one point.  I liked Leporello's hopping.

October 19, 2008

Leporello after the duel: "Who got killed, you or the old man?"--Don Giovanni

"Did you ever notice that women who oppose abortion are never the sort that you'd want to fuck in the first place?"--George Carlin

Dreamed of getting up in the morning and being about to leave for school, but letting the time drag and deciding not to go because I couldn't see any point; getting involved in a deadly left vs. right struggle like the Spanish Civil War (on the left side).

Went to the Brunch Club Meetup at the 33B Bistro.  It looked expensive, and it was. (They do a big tourist trade there.)

Dinner was scalloped potatoes and ham.

Saw the DVD of a 1976 Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman star Louise Lasser.  Was she on drugs, or just weird?

Another headache.

October 18, 2008

Last night at choir practice (it was Friday instead of Monday because of Thanksgiving) we did "Din Don." I really like our song "Lu Piante de le Staggiune."

Father and I both bought mustard separately!

Saw the Doctor Who adventure "The Pirate Planet" on DVD.  Written by the famous Douglas Adams, it's the one about a hollow planet that teleports through space and surrounds other planets, which it crushes for their precious minerals.  I guessed the twist:  the nurse treating the captain turned out to be a new version of the planet's ancient queen. (Don't ask...)

Dinner Was McDonald's.

Used the vegetable chopper to puree one of the squashes from our garden.  Mother made it into an applecrisp-like dessert.

October 16, 2008

"Just because you've sold your sold to the Devil doesn't mean you need be teetotal"--The Devil and Daniel Webster

"Shall we... dance, Belle?"--ibid.

Dr. Who (using a bobby pin to open a high-tech door): "Sophisticated systems are the most vulnerable to primitive attack."

Went shopping.

Baked raisin bread.

Dinner was salmon.

Went to 2Q Video and rented William Dieterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster (for the second time). It's a classic!

Headache!

October 15, 2008

We drove out to Orchard Home Farm and picked apples.  In addition to Jonagold, Mutsu and Golden Delicious, we got some Macintoshes for Donald.

Dinner was Moira's turkey pie.

Went to the Davenport library and borrowed Freakonomics.

Went to 2Q Video and rented Sir No Sir!  It's a documentary about American soldiers who opposed the Vietnam War, a group who aren't remembered as much as they should be.

October 14, 2008

Dreamed of wearing a set of pajamas that didn't match; watching a weak comedy sketch that was clearly improvised; Miami Vice actor Don Johnson; the movie Spartacus.

Voted in Canada's federal election around 13:00. (Mother isn't voting this time!)

Cleared the garden of vines.  What a tangle!

At the opera rehearsal for Carmen we did the Toreador song and "Over the Hill."

Dinner was turkey casserole.

October 13, 2008

Joined the Walking Meetup for a walk from Riverdale Park to the Distillery.

Started reading Don't Know Much About Mythology.

Donald made it for Thanksgiving dinner, which was turkey.

Used the new printer's copy function for the first time, to copy the "Vi Ravviso" score.

October 12, 2008

Computer:  "Voice approval is required."

Spaceship captain: "Uh..."

"Accepted."

--Wall-E

"Try blue, it's the new red!"--ibid.

"I don't want to survive, I want to live!"--ibid.

Saw the animated sci-fi feature Wall-E at the Revue.  Pretty clever and imaginative.  I liked best the early scenes set of a deserted earth; the later part in the space colony was more conventional.

Dinner was steak.

Saw the DVD of the famous Whacking Day episode of The Simpsons.

Saw the Rin Tin Tin canine adventure Clash of the Wolves on an American Film Archives DVD It owed a little something to Jack London.

October 11, 2008

"I don't believe in miracles.  I've seen too many"--Salome

Didn't get to sleep till after 04:00.

Dreamed of taking a shower with a bundle of clothes I wanted to wash; hiking to a small meadow on a really steep hill.

Saw the Met production of Richard Strauss' opera Salome at the Yonge & Eglinton.  No pleasant.  It embodies a subtext of sexual hysteria, which I suppose goes back to the gospel.  Sort of the Girls Gone Wild of its time.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw another DVD of rare silent movies from the American Film archive, including some really early colour films and a modernist documentary showing life on the streets of the Bronx.

Started reading the summer issue of Lapham's Quarterly, whose subject is nature.

October 10, 2008

Harold Lloyd: "I know it's good.  I wrote it myself"--Bumping Into Broadway

Leafletted between Winona drive and Atlas Avenue, north of St. Clair Avenue.

Dinner was spaghetti.

Saw the DVD of Carlos Saura's movie Blood Wedding, a flamenco ballet based on Federico Garcia Lorca's writing.  Pretty arresting.

October 9, 2008

Dreamed of "waking up" on a university campus and not remembering how I got there.

Went shopping.

Dinner was fish sticks.

Saw the DVD of the Harold Lloyd silent comedies The Freshman and The Kid Brother (both for the second time).  

October 8, 2008

"I will kill him for you!" "Have you finished packing?"--Top Hat

"If I'd forgotten myself in the park I'd remember it"--ibid.

Dreamed of a non-existent chapter of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer involving existentialism.

At today's lesson we started on Bellini's "Vi Ravviso." Giuseppe was impressed that I'd written out the simple "Wohin?" score by myself.

Returned to labelling pamphlets at the St. Paul's NDP campaign office.

Dinner was the rest of the stew.

Saw the DVD of the Astaire-Rogers musical Top Hat yet again.

Baked whole wheat bread overnight.

October 7, 2008

Dreamed of meeting a girl on a bus and starting to write down my experience as graffiti; forgetting to shave under my lower lip; the non-existent term "Dudley ditch," meaning a shallow ditch with upright objects based in it.

Headache!

Wrote a new score for "Wohin?" with a simpler accompaniment for Giuseppe. (It occupied me till midnight.)

Dinner was lamb stew.

Tried Tina Brown's new website thedailybeast.com  Doesn't look very interesting.

At the opera rehearsal we divided into girls and boys for the first time.  We also started with the "Vivat le torero!" chorus.

October 6, 2008

Dreamed of walking along St. Clair Avenue (south side, eastward) just west of home; someone telling me I had a stylishly uneven gait (I don't really); discoursing on South Carolina's Citadel military school, its culture of upperclassmen bullying plebs, and pointing out that they were given a rationale for it as well as carte blanche; trying to imagine translations into various languages of Dante's "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

Finished the first season of Mad Men.  I'm eager to see the second.

Dinner was pork steak.

At choir practice Frank (after Giuseppe's suggestion) gave me a copied score of an aria from Bellini's La Sonnambula for me to try.

Installed the software from an Iwork CD-ROM that came with the Imac. (It does word-processing and spreadsheets and stuff.) 

October 5, 2008

The new Lunch Club Meetup organizer had an event at the Boathouse Grill, but she was unwell and had to cancel.  Unfortunately,  I only read the message after I'd already gone out there and waited.

I've been reading Albion's Seed, in the last section where it talks about the legacy of the four regions in the USA.  It's getting pretty interesting here.

Leafletted the area in my riding south of Davenport Road and east of Ossington Avenue.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight at the Bloor.  It was very effective at building a sense of dread--so much so that I ended up leaving halfway through! (Maggie Gyllenhaal could be in a pie fight and still seem smart...)

October 4, 2008

Dreamed of realizing I'd spent $20 or so on tickets to some upcoming movies, then forgotten to see them!

Saw the Cuban National Ballet production of Don Quixote at the Empress Walk.  The thing about these opera-ballet cinemacasts is that they attract moviegoers who see themselves as going to the theatre, and get annoyed by the noise when you dip into your popcorn too much.

Afterward I went to Remenyi's, ordered two song scores and bought score paper so I can rewrite them in a lower key when they arrive.

Dinner was McDonald's.

October 3, 2008

"I can't bring you down to earth."

"What's so wonderful about earth?"

--It Should Happen to You

I finally managed to remove the partitions from the lower part of my computer desk, so now it has room to fit the new printer properly. (All it took was a hammer.)

Leafletted again in my neighbourhood, around the St. Paul's riding's southwest corner.

Dinner was salmon.

Saw the DVD of George Cukor's It Should Happen to You, the one where Judy Holliday spends her savings to rent a billboard in New York City and put her name on it, and end up famous for being famous.  In the end, of course, she rejects fame for Jack Lemmon's love.

Finished the money issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

October 2, 2008

"When God closes a door, he opens a dress"--Mad Men

Dreamed of trying to figure out a computer game involving wild apes and nuclear weapons; Donald figuring it out and winning a huge cash prize; trying to bake bread without any flour; a song that went "Papa was a Casanova but you ain't seen nothing yet!"; seeing a Vincent Price horror movie on a palm-sized TV screen.

Went shopping.

The campaign office ran out of pamphlets to label, so I leafletted in my neighbourhood along Greensides Avenue. (There are several home renovations happening around here.)

Dinner was steak.

October 1, 2008

Last night was the Toronto City Opera's first rehearsal.  We learned the first part of Carmen, including the part Coro Verdi did last spring. (I like the "drole de gens" part.)

Baked rye bread.

After my singing lesson I did more labelling at the campaign office.  I was talking to the campaign manager about Mad Men, and it turned out her father had had a job much like Don Draper's!

Dinner was spaghetti.

Moira saw a Czech movie and brought home her unfinished popcorn, which I got to finish off.

I recently dreamed about the late Merv Griffin; and leaving a cup of green juice in the freezer.