March 24, 2009

Dreamed of moving into a new apartment in Philadelphia; rearranging the furniture in my room to make it more space-efficient; going for a walk outside and getting lost; trying to think of famous Philadelphians besides Benjamin Franklin; taking a bus in China.

Looked at Send in the Idiots, a book by a guy who was in a special ed class for people with Asperger's Syndrome, about his erstwhile classmates in their adult lives. (Ljiliana thought I'd be interesting in the one who became a Democrat speechwriter.)

Dinner was more rice & lentil pie. (Afterward I sneaked out to McDonald's.)

The advanced drama course was cancelled for having too few people.  So I moved my book club back to April second so I wouldn't miss the choir's dress rehearsal.  They weren't thrilled.

Saw the DVD of Woodstock (for the fourth time). It was a "director's cut" with over 40 minutes that weren't in the original release (including numbers by Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin). It gets even groovier with age.

March 23, 2009

Dreamed of the family travelling from my hometown Sackville, N.B., to Toronto; the story becoming the basis of a burlesque comedy in sections.

Saw the DVD of "The Armageddon Factor," the last of the stories in the Key to Time season of Dr. Who. (It was six episodes long, instead of the usual four.) The Shadows' repetitive evil laugh was pretty cheesy.

Moira and I had dinner with Puitak and Gordon. (Pui made some Chinese-type food.) I had to leave early for choir practice, where it turned out I'll have to miss the dress rehearsal for the Palm Sunday concert because it's on the same night as my book club!

March 22, 2009

Dreamed of the movie of the comic-strip musical Annie (which I've never seen); the wartime mentality of Allied nations in World War II, with its demand for uniform enthusiasm for fighting; that recurring dream where my family is in my hometown of Sackville, N.B., in September and I'm eager to return to Toronto, but the parents keep delaying; watching a video of a 1930s Warner Brothers movie that seemed to go on forever.

Saw the DVD of the last episode of The Strauss Family.  Then I went online and read all about Strauss and his music on Wikipedia, as well as hearing a few MIDIs and YouTube clips. (Earlier today I was reading on Wikipedia about Norman Thomas and the Socialist Party in the United States.)

Dinner was Moira's lentil-rice pie. (Later I supplemented it at KFC.)

Went to a concert given by Mary's Allegria chamber music group.  Jonah (whom I knew from the Karaoke Meetup) also performed some guitar numbers, including that music from The Deer Hunter.

Finished Maxed Out.  It's a must-read, though pretty depressing. (I imagine Moira will want to read it.) I think the government should take over Visa and Mastercard and the credit reference agencies, and provide consumers with consistent services.

March 21, 2009

"I do not understand how we can hope to escape our dark days if we do not first acknowledge that we are living in them"--Maxed Out

Went to the Met cinemacast of Bellini's La Sonnambula.  I got there 55 minutes early, and still ended up in the front section! (That's because of all the people who don't just take seats for themselves but save them for people who haven't arrived yet, which seems unfair to me.) The production was set in a rehearsal hall, which I couldn't really get into.  I got a headache and had to leave in the intermission.

Dinner was lobster rolls.

Went to a DBE Meetup.  I played Trivial Pursuit for the first time in years (and won, of course).

Finished transposing "Di Provenza," except that I haven't figured out how to add the pause signs.

March 20, 2009

Dreamed of an underground lodge in the bank of a lake, accessible through the lake's depths, with a skylight decorated on the surface with an Inuit sculpture of a seal's head with walnuts for brains.

Dinner was roast beef.

Saw Zach Snyder's Watchmen at the Yonge & Eglinton with a Movie Meetup group.  Competent but conventional, not close to the original comic book.  Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach was the best role, of course. (He was my favourite character in the comic.)

Before Watchmen they showed a trailer for Michael Mann's Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp as Dillinger.  Looks pretty good. [I recall the actual movie as so-so.]

March 19, 2009

Dreamed of counting the number of Woody Allen movies. (He's made a lot!) 

Now that I've found my song scores again, I'm using the Finale software to transpose "Di Provenza" from D flat to A flat.  I can just sing the higher key, and I'd like to use the lower one till I'm used to it.

Dinner was frozen Thai food.

Baked cheese bread overnight. (First I went out and bought a new supply of white flour.)  

March 18, 2009

Dreamed of a Wonderful World of Disney version of Tom Sawyer, which eliminated the drunk Muff Potter; the actual Disney "kids hunting treasure" movie Treasure of Matecumbe.

Went shopping.  I also got a new pair of shoes. (An appropriate time, what with the warm spring weather today.)

Dinner was roast chicken.

I forgot where my song scores were, but now they've turned up in a bag in my room.  Now I'm going to resume singing practice and have some more lessons with Giuseppe.

March 17, 2009

"The enemy wants us to live in fear, but it is they who should be afraid of us"--Che

Met Ljiliana, the psychology student who was examining my autism for her doctoral dissertation, to return Born on a Blue Day.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring it!  Bue we did get to talk about some stuff from last time where she wanted elaboration.

On the way home, I stopped at a Toronto Public Health office near King station and got a kit to test our tap water for lead.

Dinner was shrimp.

Saw Steven Soderbergh's Che (all four hours) at the Yonge & Dundas.  It was intelligent and well-directed and didn't seem overlong.  Then I went home and wrote a review of it for mrcranky.com. (My first line was "Che Guevara was an asshole.")

March 16, 2009

Cartman: "It isn't my fault that Iraqis are full of hate"--South Park

Dreamed of walking on a high rampart at Fort Beausejour near my hometown of Sackville, N.B.; walking off the edge and falling into a pile of pine boughs; reading a book about mythology including a legend of a prophet who rejected the earlier system of myths and created a new one.

We finished the 2008 accounts for our used book business.

Dinner was pork chops.

John George (the one who looks like Grandpa Jones) is in Florida, so the basses were thin at choir practice.

I checked the Toronto District School Board night school spring schedule to take another acting class.  In addition to the basic course, this year they also have an advanced course like the one I took six years ago!  I registered for both courses, on Tuesdays and Thursdays respectively.  The only catch is that I had to move my book club event from 4.2 to 4.1.

March 15, 2009

Dreamed of a romantic comedy (with the man played by actual actor Brian Donleavy) about a man and woman who come to Germany to see the Nuremberg war crimes trials; putting on my coat, sweater and gloves before getting off a bus but taking forever; confusing the binoculars I was carrying with someone else's pair.

Went to a Brunch Club Meetup at Fionn MacCool's.  We were joined by a Forest Hill walking group.

Started reading Maxed Out, about America's household debt problem, written just before the mortgage bubble burst.  Pretty appalling.

The South Park parody of Lord of the Rings was actually pretty good!

Dinner was spaghetti.

Went to a Classical Music Meetup, where the subject was Handel.  I brought our Wynton Marsalis-Kathleen Battle CD, and one of the pieces we played was its "Eternal Source of Light Divine."

March 14, 2009

"Mr. President, are you high, or just incredibly stupid?"

"I can tell you right now, I am assuredly not high!"

--South Park

Went to a DBE Meetup brunch at Cora's near Blue Jays Way.  I had a strawberry crepe and plugged my book club.

Then I went to a Walking Meetup.  We walked south on Roncesvalles through Little Poland, all the way to Parkdale.  We had a Greek buffet lunch at a place called Abstract Tree.  I was the only male there. (They called me a gentleman.)

On the way home, I stopped at the Wychwood Library to pick up Maxed Out for the non-fiction book club.  I met Moira there, and we walked home together.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw the DVD of some more Fatty Arbuckle comedy shorts from the silent era.  They're really lunatic:  back then they'd do anything for a laugh!

March 13, 2009

Dreamed of the Titanic; killing time in a Moncton park.

Went to the Karaoke Meetup's dinner event at the Golden Griddle near Lawrence station.  We all had the buffet special (I can take it or leave it) and the singing started just after 19:30.  Over the next three hours, I got in seven songs!  One member was surprised by my singing voice since I'd been quiet during dinner.

March 12, 2009

"Hey, come on wake up." "Just let me stick to what I'm good at, yeah?"--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"What's up?" "I don't know.  I've never been there"--ibid.

Dreamed of driving in the countryside near Dover, England, with the car radio playing a Puccini opera being sung in German instead of Italian.

Went shopping.

Dinner was more turkey pie.

Went to the Toronto City Opera excerpts concerts. (They had seven female soloists and only one male.) I helped put away props afterward.  They don't yet have the short list for next year's operas.

Finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Funny in a pretty silly way.

Baked whole wheat bread overnight.

March 11, 2009

"Life," said Marvin dolefully, "loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it"--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"People want to be shocked, so why not shock 'em?"--Mae West

"I can't unbuckle the Bible Belt"--Louise Brooks

Dreamed of sleeping in till around 17:00! (I didn't sleep quite that long...)

Saw the DVD documentary Why Be Good? about censorship in early Hollywood.

Dinner was turkey pie.

Went to a Fair Vote Canada mailing session.  For almost three hours we stuffed envelopes for the spring fundraiser, attached adress labels and stamps and sealed the envelopes shut. (There's still some sealing left, but that'll be easy.)

March 10, 2009

Dr. Manhattan: "We're all puppets, Laurie.  I'm just a puppet who can see the strings"--Watchmen

Katherine Hepburn's father (to her fiance Cary Grant): "I beg your pardon?"

Kate (interjecting): "I should think you would!"

--Holiday

Dreamed of saying about the actual newspaper The Moncton Times and Transcript (which I remember from when I lived in New Brunswick), "There are cheesier newspapers, but most of them are distributed free of charge."

Saw the DVD of George Cukor's Holiday.  Lots of cleverness.

Dinner was turkey.

March 9, 2009

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"Arthur blinked at the screens and felt he was missing something important.  Suddenly he realized what it was.... 'Is there any tea on this spaceship?' he asked"--ibid.

"Hey, this is terrific!  Someone down there is trying to kill us!"

"Terrific."

"But don't you see what this means?"

"Yes.  We're going to die."

"Yes, but apart from that."

"Apart from that?"

"It means we must be on to something."

"How soon can we get off it?"

--ibid.

Dreamed of the story of a young East Indian woman widely seen as a heroine; coming to see an opera but being enlisted at the last moment to play a small solo role and being unhappy about it; trying to recall a non-existent 1959 movie with Audrey Hepburn set in a beach cottage; being at the top of a tall skyscraper but surviving its collapse.

Dinner was steak.

At choir practice Giuseppe put Cavalleria Rusticana aside so we could concentrate on the Requiem and The Seven Last Words of Christ.

March 8, 2009

"A second later, and they would have been dead." "Yeah, so if you'd taken the trouble to think about the problem a bit longer it would have gone away"--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"Everyone's onto the hollowness [of modern life], but it takes real guts to recognize the hopelessness"--Revolutionary Road

Dreamed of playing the board game Risk; Donald largely winning the game on his first turn; writing a new Ph.D. dissertation.

Went to a Games Meetup at Whistler's. (There were about 40 people!) I played Balderdash and Apples to Apples.

Dinner was lasagna.

They cut off the water in this area just before I was going to take a shower! (I'd thought it wouldn't happen till tomorrow...)

March 7, 2009

"I repeat, all planet leave in cancelled.  I've just had an unhappy love affair, so I don't see why anybody else should have a good time"--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"You'd better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace.  It's unpleasantly like being drunk."

"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"

"You ask a glass of water"--ibid.

"Usually, as soon as I mention ornithology, folks sort of switch off and--" "Shhh!"--Watchmen

Dreamed of being in the fourth-floor reading room of the Robarts Library and seeing the floors lined with maps of oceans and islands; the library closing at midnight by playing a fanfare on the P.A.; being in a music group with Keira Knightley; considering giving her my raincoat because it was pouring outside but seeing she already had one.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Went to the Karaoke Meetup, at Groundhog's this month.  I sang "Sundown" and "Can't Help Falling in Love." One guy was brave enough to sing a random song! (They call that "Russian roulette.")

March 6, 2009

Lewis J. Lapham: "I don't know anybody who questions Obama's willingness to perform the labors of Hercules, but where does he find the lionskin and the club?  The redistribution of the society's rich and poor require the hiring of domestic help willing to move the furniture"--Harper's

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't"--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Dreamed of waking up really early in the morning; noticing that a Mennonite couple had moved into a house at the end of our street in my hometown of Sackville, N.B., but not wanting to meet them just then because I was naked; finding some old magazines with information about my father when he was young; a new Pee-Wee Herman movie.

Baked raisin bread.

The warm weather has returned!

Got my hair cut.

The parents and I saw Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road at the Carleton.  Believable but very depressing.

Afterward we ate at the Golden Griddle.

March 5, 2009

Dreamed of making a cellphone call that cost $35. (We don't even have any cellphones!)

We did some more book accounts for the middle months of the year.  One month was a loss but overall there was a steady small profit.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw the DVD of the first episode of the British bio-musical The Strauss Family.  A bit cheesy, in an early '70s sort of way.

At mrcranky.com they're starting a new system with a whole community of members posting reviews, so I offered to review Valentino:  The Last Emperor. (What am I getting into?)

March 4, 2009

Went shopping.

Dinner was frozen Chinese food (which we bought today).

Headache!

Saw the DVD of George Stevens' wartime romantic comedy The More, The Merrier.  Very much of its time.

March 3, 2009

"I've got a nice house but no fire insurance"--Pinky

Dreamed of writing in a diary that I'd been in a Hawaiian restaurant with tiki torches; realizing I'd written it on the book's cover; a movie where the bad guys put Henry Fonda inside a bomb they were about to launch; finding out we had a bit more of the Carmen chorus to learn before the last two performances!

Started re-reading the graphic novel Watchmen since the movie's coming out soon.  It's even better the second time!

Dinner was scalloped potatoes and ham.

Saw the DVD of Elia Kazan's Pinky, a daring (for 1949) drama about race relations.

March 2, 2009

Dreamed of a fortune teller who made predictions by pouring ashes on a plate and looking at the result (like tea leaves); seeing a map of the world in one formation but noticing that it was actually printed on the plate; Tony and Carmela Soprano riding a ski lift where you faced sideways and crossed your legs; meeting a sexy woman.

Donald came over and we went out to dinner at the Red Lobster.  I ate lobster-stuffed tilapia, for the first time.

Afterward they dropped me off at the Columbus Centre, a few blocks to the south, for choir practice.  Giuseppe and the pianist went through the whole piano role in Cavalleria Rusticana, in addition to the chorus parts, so we cooled our heels quite a bit. (When it was finished I quipped "One more time!") When we sang the Requiem too loudly, Giuseppe said "If it were your funeral how would you like it if people were noisy?" but I don't think I'd mind it.

Finished reading Born on a Blue Day.  Daniel Tammett has an unusual yet valuable eye for detail.

March 1, 2009

"Every city has two places:  uptown, where people are cursed with having money, and downtown, where people are cursed with not having money"--For Heaven's Sake

"What happened in the following days between the man with the mansion and the miss with a mission--is none of your business!"--ibid.

Performed Carmen for the last time.  I forgot to bring my camera, but I'd taken enough pictures already.  I managed to attach my uniform's loose buttons with safety pins. (Barbara thanked me for coming back this year.) We sold 408 tickets, surpassing the number from the final Madama Butterfly performance four years ago.

Afterward we went to a cast party at Opera Bob's on Dundas Streets, which is actually owned by an opera singer!  Giuseppe left early and so did I. (Yvette was driving hgim home and dropped me off too.)

Dinner was KFC.

Saw the DVD of the silent Harold Lloyd comedy For Heaven's Sake, about a young millionaire falling in love with a woman working in her father's street mission.

February 28, 2009

Homo sapiens "are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea"--The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"Obviously somebody had been appallingly incompetent and he hoped to God it wasn't him"--ibid.

Dreamed of bicycling to Canterbury, England; adding the Cotswolds to a list of English tourist sites; a Stratford-type English theatrical festival that included a play about Caractacus, the actual British chief who resisted Roman conquest.

Went to Spadina Library and borrowed Douglas Adams' The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  It's pretty funny.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Performed Cenerentola for the last time.  And I took lots of pictures. (Only William was camera-shy.) I'd cleared some space from the camera disc earlier.

February 27, 2009

Dreamed of the Band performing "Nazareth" at Fort Louisbourg; skating on the frozen quarry near our Sackville home; meeting a movie projectionist.

Father and I drove out to Future Shop near St. Clair & Keele and found some lithium batteries for my camera. (We also stopped at Metro and got a nice strawberries and cream cake.)

Dinner was steak.

Performed Carmen.  For this performance the chorus came out for the final bows (ditto the last performance Sunday), which meant we had to switch back to our military uniforms.  This time the camera batteries worked, and I took quite a few pics, but this time I ran out of disc space.  Attendance was 463 people, the most since they started keeping records! (About a third of them were school groups.) My uniform has now lost three buttons, and I can't figure out how to pin them back on.  Unfortunately, two of them are consecutive so their absence is a bit conspicuous.

February 25, 2009

Went shopping.

Dinner was spaghetti. (I ate too much.)

Performed Cenerentola.  I got some new batteries for the camera, but they still weren't strong enough.  Yet I did get a few pictures.  I was talking with Giuseppe about the documentary series The Power of Art, and he told me he's looking to buy the DVD.  On the way back there was a stoned guy on the bus, and a cop got him off.

Watched some 1970s horror movie trailers on YouTube.  The Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things trailer was so funny that I posted it on mrcranky.com.

Baked multigrain bread overnight.