Dreamed of being in Halifax, N.S.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Went to a Classical Music Meetup at Java Mama. This month, the letter was K so the subject was Bach's Coffee Cantata. (Both words start with "K" in German.) Yossi played a recording and gave a presentation explaining what it was about. Fewer people than expected came because of the rain.
Picked up my new bifocals. It feels odd wearing clean new glasses, almost like they aren't there (like looking through a really clean window).
Dinner was KFC. Saw the DVD of the first half of Fritz Lang's quasi-serial double feature The Spiders. Silly fun.
Dreamed of a gun becoming so hot from firing that it was dipped into water with a hiss of steam.
Dinner was sausage and mash.
Went to a Games Meetup at the Ryerson student centre. As planned, we played Puerto Rico. I got a bad start but managed to get 41 points in the end, just 11 points behind the winner. (It was the first game I was in that ended when the victory points ran out, rather than the colonists.)
Then we played a new game called Endeavor, which was definitely not planned. If only I'd known we were going to play it, I'd have read all about it online. As it worked out, I still don't understand it completely. (Sara's explanation wasn't quite good enough.) Jackie won both games.
Preacher-soldier Ward Bond: "Amen. That means you get no pay."--The Searchers
Dreamed of finding out that Moira had gone to China unexpectedly.
Went shopping.
Dinner was roast chicken.
Saw the DVD of Peter Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford (in a new edition). Ford was a great artist and a character!
Dreamed of meeting a woman in a bank who'd just won over $8 million in a lottery; the actual Lawrence of Arabia quote, recalling that when he returned to London after five years away "I could have eaten every stone in the Strand."
Moira recorded the accompaniment for "Avant de Quitter Ces Lieux." It took long enough that we left the other song for another day.
Dinner was shrimp with rice.
Saw Steven Soderbergh's The Informant at the Yonge & Dundas with the Introvert Meetup. It may seem like a conventional melodrama at first, but a jaunty comedy quickly emerges. Matt Damon was in fine form.
Saw the DVD of the first chapter of the silent serial The Master Mystery, starring Houdini.
"What is there to do in New Jersey but go to New York?"--Rhoda
Dreamed of setting up a computer to view an internal forum, but John thought it was being set up to play a game.
At today's singing lesson we did the Macbeth aria for the first time. (When I arrived Giuseppe had been watching Bette Davis in The Corn is Green.)
Dinner was fettucine alfredo (which I cooked).
At choir practice we did the next act in La Traviata, but didn't have time for the last bit. (Earlier today I recorded our lines for Gianni. The parts we hadn't done yet were ragged in places.)
Newspaper headline: "Parade to distract joyless citizenry"--The Simpsons
Dreamed of a new cinema at a non-existent mall in Yorkville; recalling that the 1978 Neil Simon comedy The Cheap Detective was rather thin; a dying John Wayne tossing a lit Catherine wheel and killing a group of Native Americans who'd been hanging people.
Walked on the Leslie Street spit with the Travel Meetup group. There were almost 30 of us, and we mostly walked on off-road trails, which meant a long single-file procession. I left early to be on time for my next event.
That next event was another Games Meetup at the Foxes Den. I played Ticket to Ride and managed 111 points, but Lawrence got an incredible 141! Then I played Carcassone, of course. There was a new player and I wanted to do the simple version, but Lawrence insisted on the expansion version, so the game moved slowly.
Dinner was Chicken McNuggets.
Marge (to Lisa): "I've told you I don't like you using the word 'hotbed'"--The Simpsons
Dreamed of showing Giuseppe my singing teacher the area around the cottage near our old New Brunswick home.
Went to a Shyness Meetup for the first time, at the Fox & Fiddle near Wellesley Station.
Dinner was churrasco chicken.
"I screwed up. That's what I do"--Dirty Sexy Money
Dreamed of the comic strip Alley Oop.
Went shopping.
Dinner was roast chicken.
Saw the DVD of parts of the ghoulish 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows, dealing with Barnabas Collins' 18th-century origins. Pretty corny and very cheap.
Dreamed of the song "I Wanna Be Loved by You"; the stove in our old home in Sackville, N.B.; the beatitude "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
Baked multigrain bread.
Dinner was pork steak.
Went to the election night party at the Hungarian Centre. People came in slowly, which didn't bode well for the poll. But the NDP wasn't too far behind the Conservatives.
Dreamed of being in a high apartment that swayed in the wind; starting to fill out a form near the end of a long flight and not knowing the date.
Went to the eye doctor west of Oakwood Avenue and got a prescription for bifocals.
Dinner was fish sticks.
Went to a Games Meetup at 401 Games. I played SmallWorld and Carcassone, and finished last in both. (My SmallWorld races were spirited sorcerers, stout humans and fortified elves.)
Homer: "Marge, I'm bored."
"Well, find something to read then."
"But I want to be less bored!"
--The Simpsons
Went to get my eyes checked, but the place was closed.
Dinner was curry (with the leftover roast).
Went to the Documentary Meetup at Butler's Pantry. We discussed Hoop Dreams, but I didn't have much to say.
Saw the DVD of Dvorak's opera Rusalka. Really sad.
"There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor's life"--ibid.
Dreamed of a cartoon in which Daffy Duck died in the end; being about to fly to England, but the flight got delayed several hours; following someone across Main Street in my hometown Sackville, N.B., in unusually heavy traffic; trying to remember what the date was, and finding out it was March.
Had my first singing lesson since Giuseppe's knee operation. We went over "Avant de Quitter Ces Lieux" for the first time.
Afterward, I went to the Reference Library and borrowed the score for Verdi's Macbeth, which has an aria Giuseppe suggested for me.
At the NDP campaign office I stapled division sheets and paired them with poll maps.
Finished The Duke of Deception. The story has some eerie parallels with This Boy's Life, a memoir by the author's brother.
Started Richard Henry Dana's sea account Two Years Before the Mast. It's a cracking good read.
Dinner was spaghetti.
At choir practice, we went over the choruses of the first act of La Traviata. It came back to me pretty quick.
To an adopted child: "In this house, we pay rent in honesty. Don't make us raise your rent."--Dirty Sexy Money
"Paying for stuff sucks!"--ibid.
Dreamed of the railway station in my hometown Sackville, N.B.; Princess Anne.
The Coro Verdi did a concert at Villa Colombo. I had a headache and basically just went through the motions.
Dinner was roast beef.
--Dirty Sexy Money
"We're all capable of anything"--ibid.
Dreamed of being a pioneer on the Prairies; whittling; a controversial black preacher.
Went to the Brunch Club Meetup at Insomnia. I thought I was pretty sure it was at 11:00, but everyone else came closer to 10:00. (It turned out to be at 10:00!)
Then I went to see the Last Night at the Proms broadcast at the Yonge & Eglinton with the Classical Music Meetup. I had a bit of a headache, so I left in the intermission before the patriotic music. (We were too close to the screen.)
Dinner was McDonald's.
Saw the DVD of the first episodes of Dirty Sexy Money. Glossy fun.
Princeton saying: "Be yourself at all times, and if that isn't good enough--be someone else"--The Duke of Deception
Dreamed of the BBC series The Pallisers; reflecting that Mad Men wasn't credible when nobody at the office noticed Peggy's pregnancy.
At the campaign office there was more sorting of poll lists and maps. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath came in and I got to shake her hand.
Dinner was ham quiche.
Headache.
Went to a Games Meetup. This one was at Mary's apartment building at the foot of Church Street. I hadn't seen her for quite a while and she was pleased to see me again. For the first time, I won a game of Puerto Rico! Then I played Carcassone with a group squatting on the games room's raised stage. (For once, there was ample room for the tiles.) Derek annoyed me by giving the less experienced players unsolicited advice, again and again.
"He's only gonna see us once"--ibid.
Homer: "I couldn't find any aspirin so I got you some cigarettes"--The Simpsons
Dreamed of the movie The Sound of Music; trying to carry a big, unwieldy load of porno mags.
Went shopping.
Skipped the campaign office today.
Baked rye bread.
Dinner was curry.
Saw the DVD of Robert Siodmak's The Killers. A rather unnecessary expansion of Hemingway's great story, but a stylish, efficient noir. (Ava Gardner was hot!)
Lisa (on meeting her long-lost grandmother): "This is weird, like something in Dickens, or Melrose Place"--The Simpsons
Dreamed of sneaking out of a boring university lecture.
At the NDP campaign office I did more bundling.
Today was my parents' 55th wedding anniversary, so we ate out at Red Lobster.
Went to choir practice. (I'd forgotten there was a rehearsal the week before, and there'd been no bassi then!) We did the dress rehearsal for Sunday's concert.
While translating Wandering Youth, I got stuck for quite a while on three words, only to figure out there were someone's name!
"My life was no unbroken series of humiliations, only an almost unbroken series of humiliations"--The Duke of Deception
Dreamed of trying to put on old long johns but finding them full of holes.
I've started translating the third chapter of the Chinese novel Wandering Youth.
At the campaign office I put leaflets into brochures. (I did 500 in total.)
Dinner was salmon.
Finished translating the Spanish Mortadelo & Filemon comic The Atomic Sulfate.
Went to a Games Meetup at the Foxes' Den. I played two new games: Masons and Alhambra. They were both a bit complicated for my taste. (On the towers die in Masons the black and grey sides look too much alike.)
"I don't know exactly what happened, but it's always my fault."
--Homer Simpson
Dreamed of visiting Great Britain with Father and being about to spend a few days on a cruise ship; the Stephen Heller piano study piece "L'Avalanche"; the Robert Ludlum-Sam Peckinpah movie The Osterman Weekend; "waking up" at 13:00. (I actually woke up at noon.)
A car parked on the street nearby has been playing reggae music annoyingly loud.
Donald came over for dinner, which was boiled ham.
Dreamed of the TV show Six Feet Under.
Went to the Brunch Group Meetup at Le Select. I had the eggs & sausages course.
At the NDP campaign office I sorted volunteer slips into alphabetical order, unstapled shredder-bound paper and bundled more leaflets.
Went to a DBE Meetup at the Jester on Yonge. (Basil's still trying to make it work.)
Dinner was McDonald's.
Returned This Boy's Life to Deer Park library, and borrowed The Duke of Deception by Tobias' brother Geoffrey Wolff.
At the NDP campaign office I bundled leaflets into 38 sets of about 50.
Dinner was curry. (I liked the chickpeas.)
Saw the DVD of the documentary Maria Callas: Living and Dying for Art and Love.
Went to another Trash Palace program of educational shorts. (I bought a ticket earlier today.) Stuff like Focus on Uppers and How to Choose a Class Film, which had a clip from the classic Manners in School!
On the Bathurst bus on the way home, I was reading The Duke of Deception and ended up staying on way past St. Clair Avenue! (I had a long walk the rest of the way home.)
"Knowing that everything comes to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation gift for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end"--This Boy's Life
Dreamed of carrying a large foldout knife and trying to throw it so that the blade would pierce the ground; feeling anger about Julian Barnes' deferential 1994 profile of Tony Blair in his "Letters From London" series in The New Yorker (where he concluded "You'd have to be right-wing not to wish him well").
At the campaign office I went through the list of polling stations to find any mistakes, then printed out some Google maps showing each of them.
Finished This Boy's Life in four days!
Dinner was roast chicken.
Went to a Games Meetup at Sara's apartment. I played Thurn und Taxis for the first time: it's pretty fun, something like Ticket to Ride. Afterward we went out to Charlotte's Cheesecake Cafe in Yorkville, where I had a berry cake.
"The human heart is a dark forest"--This Boy's Life
Dreamed of writing a paper on Hammurabi's law code, including details about the "an eye for an eye" provisions; writing some of the text in the Babylonia map; reporting the arrest of Osama bin Laden; paratroopers landing in shallow waters with large leaves attached to their backsides so they could steer to shore; Mahatma Gandhi.
Went shopping.
Skipped the campaign office today. Instead I got my hair cut and went to the bank.
Dinner was steak.
Baked rye bread.
--This Boy's Life
Dreamed of the original ending of An Officer and a Gentleman where Richard Gere drove off on his motorcycle past Debra Winger's factory. (They replaced it, of course, with an audience-pleasing ending where he carried her out!)
Puitak took Moira and me to lunch at the big semi-cafeteria restaurant at BCE Place, whose name I can't remember. (It used to be Marche.)
At the NDP campaign office I cut sheets into flyers. I had to use scissors because the big cutting machine was already in use, and it got tedious after a while.
Dinner was spaghetti.
Saw The Boys, a documentary about Richard and Robert Sherman, at the Yonge & Dundas. They were a great songwriting team.
Read about 80 pages of This Boy's Life!
Went to the NDP campaign office and stapled regular volunteer slips to special ones for election day.
On the way there I stopped at Deer Park library and borrowed Tobias Wolff's memoir This Boy's Life. It's even better than the movie!
Dinner was pork chops.
Saw the DVD of M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, the one where Bruce Willis realizes he's a superhero. A curious blue-collar fantasy, with the director's usual atmospherics (including several upside-down shots!).
"Tom, if irony were strawberries we'd all be eating smoothies just now!"--South Park
Dreamed about the TV show Marcus Welby, M.D., which I almost never watched.
At the NDP campaign office I put a pile of poll maps in order, cut sheets and assembled signs. (Because this is a byelection, the provincial party is providing us with greater resources than in regular elections.)
Dinner was turkey a la king.
Saw the second disc in the Verdi gala set. I like Ruggiero Raimondi.
Dreamed of walking home in the winter in a T-shirt; starting to assemble a bridge by hand in my father's hometown Campbellton, N.B.
Father made blueberry pancakes for lunch.
Went to the NDP campaign office, where I made bundles of 100 flyers (like yesterday), unstapled contact sheets from file folders, and prepared a whole bunch of sheets for shredding (making sure there were no staples etc.).
Started reading the spring issue of Lapham's Quarterly, which is about crime. (Christopher Hitchens has an anti-death penalty essay in it.)
Dinner was McDonald's.
Saw Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds at the Varsity with the Movie Meetup. Shrewd and entertaining, but for me it ultimately left a bad taste in the mouth. Brad Pitt at his best.
Dreamed of visiting Australia; feeling a cold wind from the mountains.
Finally found the NDP campaign office. I'd thought it was at 343 Eglinton Avenue, but it turned out to be at 434!
Finally finished the sex issue of Lapham's Quarterly.
Headache!
Dinner was trout.
Saw the first half of the two-DVD set Verdi Gala, a Parma concert showcasing the composer on the centenary of his death. Lots of famous singers.
Finished translating into English, Chinese and Japanese the first part of Julius Caesar's book about the Gallic Wars (dealing with the Helvetian War). The next part is about the German War.
To a woman in advanced pregnancy: "When's the happy day?"
"Nine months ago."
--Rhoda
Went shopping.
Went to see the NDP campaign office, but it hasn't opened yet. (It's near the former Eglinton cinema.)
Dinner was turkey pie.
