Mother: "I don't want you seeing him."
Daughter: "We were only, only--"
"That's how it starts!"
--Peyton Place
"Morality? What does that have to do with the law?"--Barchester Chronicle
Dreamed of the Spanish legend of El Cid.
Headache! (I had to take a nap in the late afternoon.)
Dinner was turkey pie.
Saw the DVD of the first episodes of the TV series of Peyton Place.
Baked multigrain bread overnight.
Dreamed of a movie about young vandals who break into an airport and ultimately cause the collapse of Western civilization, with Virginia Madsen as a hooker; meeting actor Ken Howard.
Got my hair cut.
Donald came over for dinner, which was turkey.
Dreamed of explaining the plot of the opera Cavalleria Rusticana.
In the morning I went to the Bickford Centre and helped them move the opera costumes out. One box that I packed had to be repacked. (Next year they can do the packing themselves!) They don't yet have the short list for next year's operas.
Went shopping.
Dinner was a curry (and the rest of the Chinese food).
Saw the DVD of the first episode of Barchester Chronicles (for the second time).
Saw James Cameron's shrewd adventure Avatar at the Yonge & Eglinton. Enjoyable but ultimately pretty conventional, not unlike the director's other movies. He embodies Americanness in a way only a native of Canada can.
Dreamed of getting mad at Father because he bought ice cream even though our freezer wasn't working.
Saw the DVD of the early Doctor Who adventure "The Romans."
Since it's now March, I've stopped wearing long johns. (It was warm enough to do so yesterday, but I didn't notice till I got outside and it was too much trouble to change out of them.)
Today's Father's 80th birthday, so we ate Chinese food. (Moira baked a chocolate cake.) My fortune cookie had no message inside, so I ate a second one, which was also empty! The third one had the message "You tend to express yourself passionately and courageously."
At choir practice we went over Theodore Dubois' oratorio The Seven Last Words of Christ. (Now that the opera season's finished, a few of the opera people have joined.)
Dreamed of a movie that ended with Brad Pitt driving his motorcycle into a lake (faraway splash on the soundtrack, followed by fade to black).
Yesterday they gave me that chorus photo of me Barbara's husband took. Today I showed my family and they were impressed.
Performed Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci for the last time. (Our stage manager Enza was at her grandfather's funeral, so Beatrice substituted for her on the last couple of shows.)
Afterward we went to a cast party at Barbara's house on Rathnelly Avenue. There was lots of lasagna and chicken. Some of us watched the last part of the gold-medal hockey game. I also saw part of a video of today's performance, which Barbara's husband recorded.
A consumptive Ruby Gillis: "I'm dying for a good talk with you"--Anne of the Island
Dreamed of being in a high-rise hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia, wich access to an indoor lake for swimming.
Went to an Aspergers Meetup at Wynford Heights. I brought some games, but we just talked.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Performed The Marriage of Figaro for the last time. (My dance partner was a no-show.)
Started reading L.M. Montgomery's Anne of the Island, for the second time. I read over 80 pages!
Dreamed of going to a romantic opera; hearing the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffmann; returning to the theatre (on Roncesvalles Avenue) and finding my glasses case where I'd left it.
The latest online computer game to obsess me is Yellow Out, in which you shift cars parked in a small area so the yellow one can get out.
Dinner was roast pork.
Finished the medical issue of Lapham's Quarterly.
Performed Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.
Father: "Have I ever lied to you?"
Son: "Yes."
--Dirty Sexy Money
Dreamed of being on a June vacation that stretched into over a month. (I think I've had that dream before.)
Dinner was fettucine pesto (which I cooked).
Last night I sent Jackie He a greeting, saying that I was thinking of her and hoped to see her at another Games Meetup. Today she replied that she hoped to come in a few weeks.
Went to a Movie Meetup at the Yonge & Dundas and saw Reel Injun, a documentary about movie treatment of First Nations. Two of our group were Native Canadian women.
Finished a DVD of Pluto cartoons. IMHO, he's the most underappreciated Disney character.
Dreamed of being at a beach with a steep slant; recalling that in the film noir Out of the Past Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming looked a bit too much alike, causing confusion in an important sequence.
Saw the DVD of the last part of The Age of the Medicis. Every shot looks like a classic painting.
Dinner was roast chicken.
Performed The Marriage of Figaro. I felt unwell but managed to get through it since the chorus had only a few scenes. (Thank goodness we weren't doing Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci!) For once I didn't take any photos. I'd broken into a sweat on the bus, leaving my shirt soaked, so I hung it on a chair while I was in costume, and the dressing room air must be pretty dry because it dried out in no time!
I rewatched the part of The Age of the Medicis dealing with the plans for the Rimini church, because I dozed off the first time!
"Ever read the Bible? It's full of aggravating people who get the job done!"--Dirty Sexy Money
Goth kid: "To be a non-conformist, all you have to do is dress exactly like us and listen to the same music as we do"--South Park
Dreamed of being a fugitive in Moncton, N.B., and trying to catch a bus early in the morning; Jonathan Winters' old lady character Maude Fricker; a movie trailer that went on for over 10 minutes.
Visited Dr. Hassan, my shrink. He says he's proud of me.
Dinner was a vegetarian recipe Moira made with vegetable protein she found in a health food store.
"The strongest man is the one who is most alone!"
--An Enemy of the People
Dreamed of playing a piano accompaniment to Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" by ear; playing the accompaniment to Schubert's lied "Wohin?" but ending up changing it into Liszt's "Liebestraum."
Saw the DVD of a BBC production of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, curiously updated to 1970s Scotland. It reminded me of the global warming debate. (The newspaper publisher resembled Gordon Brown.)
Dinner was pork steak.
At choir practice we did "Miserere" from the last act of Il Trovatore.
When I got home, I finally got a chance to shovel the snow on our sidewalk.
"If you're right and I'm wrong, then life isn't worth living"--The Wild Duck
"I don't want to spend any more time with those people than I have to."
"Then let me remind you: you have to."
--Dirty Sexy Money
"Nick, I don't have a problem with you."
"You didn't, but you do now."
--ibid.
Dreamed of the scene in Rumblefish where Nicolas Cage tells Matt Dillon "Nobody would follow you into a gang fight, because you'd get people killed..."
Performed The Marriage of Figaro. The family attended the show and really liked it.
Dinner was the rest of the lasagna.
Saw the DVD of the BBC production of Ibsen's The Wild Duck. I got sleepy in the last part.
Dreamed of part of The Sopranos being filmed on York Street in my hometown Sackville, N.B.
Went on a downtown Walking Meetup from Castlefrank station through Allen Gardens (including the greenhouse) and Queen's Park to the Kensington Market area.
Discovered another online game called Plumber. You rotate pipe connections to link the water source and the overload drain. I'm pretty good at it.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Performed Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. (A few of the mezzos couldn't make it.)
Dreamed of being at a class and not knowing where my shirt was; writing fiction set in the town of Sunnyside.
I got through all eight levels of the Train video game in a single game! (I got almost 30,000 points, my second-best score.)
Dinner was spaghetti.
Finished reading It's All Greek to Me.
Performed The Marriage of Figaro. Adolfo was late starting the downstairs rehearsal so there was a delay in styarting the show. I think I'm finally getting the last chorus part right.
"Hali-what?"
"Bad breath to you."
"Same to you too!"
--Sabotage
"I guess putting my fist in your face didn't get the message through."
"No, it did, I swear!... What was it again?"
--Dirty Sexy Money
Dreamed of walking from my hometown Sackville, N.B., east to Aulac, N.B., to catch a train (the train actually stops in Sackville, not Aulac); falling into a river and getting delayed; catching the train with John just before it left; being about to fly to London for more Ph.D. dissertation research; telling father I was quitting the dissertation because I'd spent too many years on it already and didn't know what more to do. (I actually finished it in 2009.)
Baked raisin bread. Then I baked gingergread to sell at the opera.
Dinner was spaghetti.
Saw the DVD of Hitchcock's Sabotage (based on Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent). A good old-fashioned nail-biter.
Dreamed of the exposition mazurka from the first act of Il Trovatore; relating it to Spain's long tragic history; the Scottish resort on the Isle of Islay (which we visited years ago).
Went shopping. (The sliding back door's broken so we'll have to bring the groceries in the front door for the next while.)
Dinner was scallops.
Performed Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. We managed just over 100 admissions despite the Olympics (and Wednesday usually being a thin night).
Dreamed of avoiding a Cavalleria Rusticana performance because I couldn't find the right clothes; hearing the chorus singing a foreign-language version of "Jingle Bells"; using a wide umbrella to glide distances.
Dinner was a curry.
Went to an Aspergers Meetup at a Starbucks near Yonge & Englinton. There were only three people, but we exchanged some ideas for future events!
"Maybe you can't."
--A Single Man
(in Spanish) "Many ugly things can have their own form of beauty"--ibid.
Santuzza's aria in Cavalleria Rusticana is going around in my head!
Saw Tom Ford's movie of Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man at the Cumberland. (I was going to see it with a Movie Meetup group, but didn't find them till the movie was over.) Colin Firth was the film!
Dinner was Wendy's.
There was no choir practice this week. Instead, I went to a committee meeting at Gerrit's townhouse in New Toronto. At one point I suggested we survey the audience about what kind of music they want to hear, at the next concert. They gave me an official form to decipher about registering a charity, and I said I might be good at that and I might not.
"Since you're so humble, we won't ask your opinion."
--Seven Years in Tibet
Dreamed of seeing a reunion concert with David Gates of Bread singing their hit "Baby I'm-a Want You."
Performed Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. The family attended the performance. Barbara said they'll give me a print of my closeup with the season's over!
John and Kathrine came over for dinner, which was pizza.
Saw the DVD of Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet (for the second time). Competent but conventional. Unfortunately, it wasn't letterboxed!
Baked whole wheat bread.
Saw the DVD of a 1986 BBC production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts. It's a stunning play. When they decided not to insure the orphanage, I knew it was going to burn down. (Natasha Richardson had beautiful eyebrows!)
Dinner was McDonald's.
Performed The Marriage of Figaro. (I apologized to Brad for snapping at him Wednesday.) Adolfo was unhappy about the chorus performance in Cavalleria Rusticana last night, though some of us thought we were better then than in Pagliacci.
Every year Barbara's husband takes pictures of the show and they get posted in the downstairs dressing area. He must have heard that I mentioned I hardly ever got in them the other night, because he got a dramatic detail of me, which Barbara says looks like a Rembrandt!
Dinner was roast chicken.
At the Cavalleria Rusticana-Pagliacci premiere I took some pictures. The girls said the hat I'd chosen "rocks!" (Carrie hates seeing herself in photos because she's afraid she looks fat.)
Dreamed of being so angry that I wouldn't do what my doctor wanted; the street in front of our old home in Sackville, N.B., engulfed in a flood.
I told Mother about my socks falling down at last night's performance, and she thought my pants had fallen down!
Dinner was curried pork.
Dress rehearsal for Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. In Pag's commedia dell'arte scene Nedda took loo long changing into her costume and the other Nedda had to substitute for part of it.
Started reading It's All Greek to Me, all about ancient Greek civilization. (Moira borrowed it from the library and figured I'd be interested in it, which I definitely am!)
Dreamed of visiting a library run by a fringe Asian religious gorup; finding some comic strip reprints published by Gimmick Press; staying near a minor airport in rural Nova Scotia.
Went shopping.
Opening night for The Marriage of Figaro. My socks have a mind of their own, and won't stay up in the back. When a stage assistant pointed this out to me (I'd tried to fix them before, but evidently failed) I ended up in a bad mood for the rest of the evening.
Lay awake past 03:00.
Dreamed of being about to go on a spying expedition to Russia with a group that included Leo di Caprio; seeing a Marlene Dietrich movie on video and temporarily stopping it in the middle; the Berceuse from Benjamin Godard's Jocelyn.
Father found me a black clip-on tie! (The other day he got a bow tie, but that's not what I need right now.)
Dinner was linguini with pesto sauce (which I cooked).
Tonight was the dress rehearsal for The Marriage of Figaro. (Since the chorus is small, we didn't get full makeup.)
Narrator: "Well, why is Fearless Leader watching them? Maybe we'll find out next episode..."
Fearless Leader: "Over your dead body!"
"...and maybe we won't."
--Rocky & Bullwinkle
Dreamed of rehearsing the operas were doing now; hearing Ralph Nader making a speech in a supermarket; passing over a floor that was a lot colder in one place.
Dinner was roast pork.
At choir practice we did the second act of Il Trovatore. This part is pretty challenging for the male voices.
Saw the DVD of the first episode of the third season of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Classic stuff! (I saw it toward midnight, because I wanted to have something more to write about today.)
"I'm the player to be named later."--ibid.
Dreamed of meeting my former dance teacher Cynthia in Port Elgin, N.B.(!); comedian Larry David.
Dinner was linguini primavera.
Saw the DVD of Ron Shelton's Bull Durham (for the second time). Classics sports-romance comedy.
"OK, you win... this one"--Dirty Sexy Money
Dreamed of falling asleep on a train and missing my stop.
Went to the first meeting of the new Coro Verdi committee. I suggested that we start a webpage and that if we do two opera concerts a year, one of them should have a relatively small role for the chorus.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Sawt hte DVD of the first episode of Roberto Rossellini's Age of the Medicis. (I've seen that first episode before.) I got sleepy toward the end.
"Does your boyfriend know you're a stripper?"
"Yeah, but he works for the government. It's, like, the same thing..."
--Saint John of Las Vegas (which I saw the trailer for)
"You're the darlingest darling of them all!"--Dirty Sexy Money
Dreamed of a non-existent song about travel from the 1920s that was sharp and brisk in the Cole Porter style; a 1972 issue of The Moncton Times, a newspaper I read when I was young.
Baked cheese bread. (I stepped out of my usual order because I had to buy white flour.)
Dinner was Chinese food. (My fortune cookie said "Quality is more important that quantity. Do a good job."
Went to a Karaoke Meetup, this time at the Sports Center Cafe. I sang "If I Were a Rich Man" and "I Just Can't Help Believing." There were almost forty singers and I didn't get to do my second song till after 1:00! But this place is on the St. Clair Avenue streetcar line, so getting home didn't take long.
Doctor: "Rubbish! There are far too many of them already."
--Creation
"Youth is wasted on the young."
"I'd go farther than that. Life is wasted on... people!"
--Greenberg
Husband to drunk wife: "I'm going to have a shower and wash off what's left of our marriage. Try not to trip"--Dirty Sexy Money
"I have a husband now."
"Whose?"
--Desperate Housewives
Dreamed of travelling in Oregon; acting in a play in Halifax, N.S.
Went to see Jon Amiel's Creation at the Varsity. Poignant. (The bit with the girl doing cartwheels on the beach was borrowed from The Piano!) I also saw the trailer for Greenberg.
Dinner was the rest of the stew.
Saw the DVD of the first episode of the second (and last) season of Dirty Sexy Money.
Dreamed of watching the Kids in the Hall perform in person; saying I didn't like their comedy, and becoming the butt of their slapstick jokes. (I actually haven't watched them much.)
Dinner was lamb stew.
We rehearsed The Marriage of Figaro. Gerald's surtitles include lines like "Traitors, I'll punish you to the max!" Britney is really funny as Cherubino.
Went to the Bickford Centre in the morning and helped Barbara and Gerald unload the opera costumes. (Part of one costume is a four-in-hand tie, so I'll have to get a black clip-on since I can't remember how to tied that knot!)
Went shopping. We looked around Dufferin Mall but couldn't find that black clip-on tie. (Walmart now has escalators for shopping carts!)
Dinner was spaghetti.
I waited 20 minutes for the bus. But it didn't matter because opera rehearsal started late, what with everyone trying out their costumes. (I'd done that earlier.) We did Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. The Bell Chorus from Pag is still giving us trouble. We went till past 23:00!
Dreamed of a non-existent thriller subplot in the Marx Brothers comedy A Night at the Opera involving a wife killing her husband.
Dinner was the rest off the churrasco chicken.
At choir practice we started learning Il Trovatore for our spring concert. First we had a discussion about the choir's future. (Tony Fusco didn't show up.) I ended up joining an incipient committee.
Dreamed of reading that someone had published background stories about all the supporting characters in the Hitchcock thriller The Lady Vanishes; recalling the 1986 version of The Fly and wondering why someone as gorgeous as Geena Davis would get into a relationship with someone as creepy as Jeff Goldblum; a mine becoming a deep hiding place for refugees in France during the Nazi occupation.
Went to another Games Meetup at Foxes Den. This time I played Kingsburg and Ticket to Ride. (It was the first time playing the North American version of Ticket to Ride that I completed all my tickets!)
Donald came over for dinner, which was churrasco chicken.
Someone from the Aspergers Meetup emailed me a link to an old computer game called Train, which involves laying track so a train can have a complete path from a starting point to a finishing point. (My game The Amazeing Labyrinth reminded her of it.) It's as addictive as she says! [I eventually learned to put the train on a closed loop where it can go around forever and accumulate an infinite number of points...]
Dreamed of seeing a New York City parade that went on for days; filling out a form on web searches showing their advantages and disadvantages, and under one image search putting "Shows images," under both "Advantages" and "Disadvantages."
Went to a Games Meetup at the Ryerson Student Centre, where I played Ticket to Ride and Puerto Rico. In the former game, If I'd just completed the Las Vegas to San Francisco link I'd have scored 146 points, but time ran out and I only got 60.
Dinner was a rice and beef recipe that Moira made.
Went to a Classical Music Meetup and heard a musicologist's lecture about Mozart and his piano concerti. (My streetcar took forever to arrive so I was was late.)
Dreamed of a movie where Owen and Luke Wilson's food supply business was endangered by people bullying Luke; sending our piano's damper pedal out for repairs.
Today I remembered to cook the fettucine alfredo, which was our dinner.
Started reading the essays at the end of the Lapham's Quarterly medicine issue.
Saw Crazy Heart at the Varsity with the Movie Meetup. Quite good.
"The reputation of the just alone shall be immortal among gods and men"--Greek saying
Baked rye bread.
I was going to cook fettucine alfredo for dinner, but I was working on learning Greek and lost track of the time. (Mother says I get my one-track mind from her!) We ate KFC instead.
Finished Seven Years in Tibet. (Now I want to see both the movie version and Kundun again.)
We had a Marriage of Figaro rehearsal on Thursday instead of Wednesday, because Beatrice and several others were in the Coro Verdi concert last night. I was disappointed that I had to miss a Movie Meetup where they saw Creation, but I did get to see parts that the chorus isn't in.
Clint Eastwood: "Well, are you going to pull those pistols or whistle 'Dixie'?"--The Outlaw Josey Wales
Woke up early because I was angry about semi-mature games teenagers play with you when you're 13.
Went down to the College Park office and finally got my health cared renewed.
Dinner was roast chicken.
Performed the Coro Verdi concert. There were about 100 people, a lot more than I expected. We did two pieces from Lucia di Lamermoor, making me hope Giuseppe's thinking of doing it again at the opera next year.
Read over 60 pages of Seven Years in Tibet!
A DVD of a Lenny Bruce concert film arrived in the mail, but it was broken in two!
Record label: "Rat stampede
to fool cats on the other side of fences"
--the Porky Pig cartoon Paying the Piper
Dreamed of lying next to the entrance to Mt. Allison University's Physics & Engineering Building where Father worked and watching the Disney movie Superdad on TV; seeing some equestrians ride by and quickly taking pictures.
Dinner was the rest of the lasagna.
We rehearsed Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana, in the reverse order (so the child extras could leave early). Afterward I helped bring up some big objects for the set from the basement.
Private eye Daffy Duck: "Then, what did you do?
Femme Fatale: "Search me..."
"Business before pleasure!"
--The Super Snooper
Dreamed of joining President Obama in a trip to Hawaii to visit his rich in-laws(?); wondering which direction was north; seeing snow on the ground; watching the cartoon George of the Jungle on local TV.
Dinner was steak.
At choir practice we went through the dress rehearsal for Wednesday's concert. The choir members have only sold 18 tickets so far. (I was hoping to sell some, but once again the rest of the family isn't interested.)
Howard Hawks on Sam Peckinpah: "I can kill three men and sent them to the morgue in the time it takes him to get one to the ground!"--quoted in the Warner Brothers documentary You Must Remember This
Bugs Bunny: "What is it with you?"
Daffy Duck: "I can't help it! I'm a greedy slob! It's my hobby! Save me!"
--Ali Baba Bunny
Dreamed of the house next to our old home in Sackville, N.B., being decorated with Japanese characters, including a katakana vowel and the kanji 本 for "hon" (root); President Eisehower noticing me tightening the tiny screw on my old glasses; the Stephen Foster song "Hard Times."
Went to an Aspergers Meetup at the organizer's apartment in Wynford Heights. I showed them how to play The Amazeing Labyrinth, but we mostly just talked.
Dinner was lasagna.
Dreamed of visiting Vancouver; riding in its mass transit system.
Saw the cinemacast of the Metropolitan Opera production of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann. This version had the act set in Venice in the end rather than the middle.
Dinner was McDonald's.
"Real life isn't movies. It needs better writers"--You Must Remember This
"The only problem with silent films was that people's mouths would open and nothing would come out"--Alfred Hitchcock
Dreamed of taking a Bible study class; a religious zealot loudly citing the Book of Hieronymus(?); meeting English women from the Victorian era and thinking of telling them the result of their next election.
Dinner was salmon.
Saw the DVD of the first episode of You Must Remember This, a documentary series about the Warner Brothers studio. Fascinating stuff.
"Is it wrong to wish your parents dead?"
"Not our parents!"
--Big Love
Dreamed of being so weak in the legs that walking uphill became a struggle; seeing Cary Grant in a school corridor; overrated New York Times columnnist William Safire.
Dinner was ham.
Went shopping.
Baked whole wheat bread overnight.
We finally finished the 2009 accounts for our used book business. (We bought a lot of books to add to the stock, which ate up most of our profit, but they should pay for themselves before long.)
Dinner was spaghetti with primavera sauce made with soy milk. (I can take it or leave it.)
We staged The Marriage of Figaro for the first time. (Beatrice is directing this opera.) I get to be in the five couple performing a courtly dance at the end of the first act! Since the chorus only has a few numbers, we finished in just two hours, making up for last night's length.
Saw the DVD of Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, with Timothy Spall as one of Britain's last hangmen. A disquieting, very English story.
"How is she?..."
"You stay away from her is how she is!"
--Big Love
"Sometimes, the Indians and the renegades do win"--ibid.
Dreamed of "Ledbetter" insects fossilized in shale; the song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
Dinner was fried rice with pork and bean sprouts.
We rehearsed Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci for almost four hours! (The soloists stayed even longer...)
A tense moment: "Put down the carrot and the grater."
--Big Love
Dreamed of waking up in a motel room; wanting to hang up my pants but being unable to find them; Vincent Canby's New York Times review of Bo Derek's Tarzan remake, which he called "the kind of movie you could only enjoy after a few cocktails."
The internet link was off for most of the day.
Dinner was steak.
Our patron Tony Fusco was supposed to appear at choir practice to discuss the choir's future but he stood us up.
I've started translating the passages in the Teach Yourself Ancient Greek book (and its online supplement) into Chinese and Japanese as well as English, like I was doing with Julius Caesar's Latin history of his wars in Gaul.
Dreamed of being in Seattle at the time of a crisis when people expected nuclear missiles to be sent everywhere; wanting to move to Canada; seeing a blackface jazz band in the street; writing this down on a street in Father's hometown of Campbellton, N.B.
Went to a Games Meetup at the Yellow Griffin. I played Smallworld, Apples to Apples and Puerto Rico. (My Smallworld races were stout ratmen, berserk skeletons and dragonmaster humans.)
John and Kathrine came over for dinner, which was vegan spinach lasagna. (Then I sneaked out for KFC.)
Went to a Breakfast Club Meetup at Eggspectations outside Eaton Centre.
Dinner was McDonald's.
In the afternoon I went to a Bowling Meetup at Newtonbrook Bowlerama. My first game was a disaster, my second slightly better.
Dreamed of a remake of The Crying Game; the song "You're a Builder-Upper"; Scooby Doo (a cartoon I've never watched).
Baked raisin bread.
Dinner was curried pork.
Saw the episodic movie of Cormac McCarthy's curious dystopian novel The Road at the Revue. Viggo Mortensen was in fine form.
"We're not Mormon Mormons."
Bruce Dern on his newest wife: "She sits, fetches--and rolls over!"
--Big Love
Dreamed of a limousine chase on rural Greek roads; the scene in Oliver Twist where Bill Sikes murders Nancy; reflecting that it's a disgrace how long England's workhouse system lasted.
Went to Blockbuster and rented the DVD of the first episodes of the third season of Big Love. It's still a wonderful show, both dramatic and funny.
Dinner was salmon.
Went to an Aspergers Meetup at the Second cup near the Kingsway station. We ended up talking about The Simpsons!
Homer: "Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974!"
Introductions: "Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins."
"Homer Simpson, smiling politely"
--The Simpsons
Dreamed about Marilyn Monroe.
Went shopping. (Our back door is frozen shut, so we had to take the groceries in through the front door!)
Dinner was primavera pasta.
Went to my last Wednesday night Games Meetup for a while (before opera rehearsal interferes). I played Puerto Rico and Smallworld. My races in the latter game were seafaring amazons (again!), underworld giants and fortified orcs.
The other day Mother mentioned that her father may have been unfaithful to her mother.
Dreamed of complaining that Christopher Hitchens says what the people in power want to hear. (On waking up, I realized that wasn't fair.)
I completely forgot I had an appointment with my shrink Dr. Hassan! Lucky Father was able to drive me there.
Dinner was spaghetti.
Started reading Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet.
At opera rehearsal we staged Pagliacci for the first time. At the climax one of the pillars got knocked down! (Kenan was doing a funny dance.)
Went to Indigo Books and got a cheap calendar with 1960s designs. (I almost bought one with Tate Gallery self-portraits, but the Stanley Spencer on the cover looked depressing!) I also got a reprint of Jules Feiffer cartoons from the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Dinner was boneless pork roast.
At choir practice Giuseppe read us a letter from our patron Tony Fusco asking us to redouble our promotional efforts. (The Christmas concert had a small audience, but I think that's because we raised the ticket price to $25; at $15 we'd have had twice as many people and a bigger take overall.)
Alex North's excellent Rich Man, Poor Man theme is still an earworm in my head.
Saw the DVD of William Hartnell-era Dr. Who adventure "The Keys of Marinus." (The later "Key to Time" season was a retread of that one.) There were a total of six episodes!
Dinner was vegetarian chili. (I was tempted to sneak out to KFC afterward, but I felt full.)
Dreamed of a story about a filmmaker witnessing World War II.
In the morning there was a big Jack Frost creation on my window.
Had breakfast at Cora's with the Walking Meetup, then we walked along Little Italy. (I bought seven books from the dollar bin at Balfour Books.)
Finally started our book business accounts for 2009.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Saw the DVD of the first episode of the Upstairs, Downstairs spinoff Thomas and Sarah. They're a funny pair.
Dreamed of the Chinese Dance from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet; jigsaw puzzles with pictures of characters from British comics.
Finished watching Rich Man, Poor Man, except they hadn't posted the 11th of its 12 hours, which I also missed the first time around.
Dinner was pork chops.
Saw the DVD of a documentary about Cole Porter. What a mysterious talent songwriting is!
I mistook "tekno^n" for "techno^n" and mistranslated the Greek saying "Breeding children means self-inflicted grief" as "Self-inflicted grief breeds wisdom"! Which is pretty good too...
