February 23, 2010

"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.

February 22, 2010

"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.

February 21, 2010

"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.

February 20, 2010

   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.)

February 19, 2010

    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.

February 18, 2010

Toothpaste shill: "...and cures halitosis!"

"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.

February 17, 2010

    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).

February 16, 2010

    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!

February 15, 2010

"How can you live in Los Angeles when you're afraid of cars?"

"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.

February 14, 2010

"In my humble opinion, this is ridiculous."

"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!

February 13, 2010

"Do we have the right to happiness?"--Ghosts

    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!

February 12, 2010

    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.)

February 11, 2010

    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!)

February 10, 2010

    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.

February 9, 2010

Fearless Leader (quoting Mr. Big): "A watched plot never thickens"--Rocky & Bullwinkle

    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.)

February 8, 2010

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.)

February 7, 2010

"It's like ants.  Put three of them together and they can't do dick.  But 300 million of them can build a cathedral!"--Bull Durham

"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.

February 6, 2010

"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.

February 5, 2010

"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.

February 4, 2010

Darwin: "I'm writing a book."

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.

February 3, 2010

    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.

February 2, 2010

    Dreamed of an actual 1979 Charles Addams cover of The New Yorker showing the many residents of a farm, all staring; thinking that I might as well quite my Ph.D. program because I hadn't worked on my thesis for years (only to wake up and remember that I did finish it a decade since).

    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!

February 1, 2010

    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.

January 31, 2010

    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...]

January 30, 2010

    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.)

January 29, 2010

On fatherhood: "I wasn't there, even when I was"--Crazy Heart

    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.

January 28, 2010

"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.