August 28, 2010

     Dreamed of the World War I song "Hinky Dinky Parlee Voo"; seeing the face of the moon in closeup detail.

    Went to another NDP Meetup.  We went through Mount Pleasant Cemetery again, then had lunch at the Fox and Fiddle. (I had a lamb curry.)

    The rest of the family were here for dinner, which was churrasco chicken.

    Saw the Garbo documentary DVD.

    Then I saw a couple of episodes from the DVD Treasures of the Twilight Zone.  Pretty imaginative in a middlebrow way.

    IKEA delivered us a new sofa for the sun room we've rebuilt.

August 27, 2010

    Dreamed of being about to sing a soloist role in an opera of Oliver Twist, as a female character; the start of the bank-robbery movie Dog Day Afternoon; getting up the nerve to climb the side of a building and get into a rooftop position to observe the robbery.

    The Garbo documentary DVD showed up after all!  Now I'll have to unreport the problem somehow...

    Katie came to Toronto to see Sarah's band camp in performance.  She was here for dinner, which was pizza.

    Went to see Puccini's opera Girl of the Golden West with the Classical Music Meetup group.  It was a free open-air screening on the lawn in front of the Italian consulate.  The La Scala production was good enough, but the opera was only so-so, and I left after the first act.

August 26, 2025

"Plymouth... a town of a thousand souls--and a few heels"--Pilgrim Porky

    Dreamed of the comic strip Alley Oop; that sticky stuff that connects coupons inside magazines coming out of my mouth.

    Baked cheese bread.

    Dinner was chicken curry.

August 25, 2010

    The Greta Garbo documentary zip.ca sent us on the 16th still hasn't arrived!  I've reported it missing.

    Dinner was KFC.

    Went to the Games Meetup. (I found a cloth bag at Loblaw's that carries all of my games!) I played The Amazeing Labyrinth twice--the second time by the slower official rules--Kingsburg and Ticket to Ride.

August 24, 2010

Porky Pig: "Come back, you left a little bear behind!"--Polar Pals

    Dreamed of the actual Bette Davis movie The Great Lie (which I saw almost 30 years ago and don't remember much about); actor Geoffrey Rush.

    Saw the T.A.M.I. concert DVD two more times before returning it.  Gerry and the Pacemakers' "It's Gonna Be Alright" and Lesley Gore's "Hey Now" are keepers. A twelve-year-old with Mick Jagger's expression is a twerp; a grownup with the same expression is a star!

    I also dreamed of Smokey Robinson as an executive at a record company. (According to T.A.M.I. DVD commentary, he's actually a vice-president at Motown Records.)

    Dinner was fettucine alfredo (which I cooked).

August 22, 2010

    Dreamed of a non-existent movie with Groucho Marx as the patriarch of a marginal mining family (and Harpo and Chico as their sons).

    Father and I vacuumed my room for the first time in a long while.

    Dinner was macaroni.

    Started the sports issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

    Tried to attend another dance class at Mel Lastman Square, but when I got there it was raining. (The Meetup event was cancelled, but I was glad to get out of the house.)

    Saw the last episode of Playing Shakespeare.  Some brilliant actors in it!

    Late in the evening my niece Sarah arrived here to spend a week at a circus camp!

August 21, 2010

    Dreamed of the comedians Wayne and Shuster; travelling in the U.S.A.; being given the costume of a Greek army officer; the actual old-fashioned practice of ladies communicating with their fan (e.g. dropping your fan on the floor so a gentleman can pick it up and get to know you).

    Saw the DVD of the T.A.M.I. pop concert (for the third or fourth time). Great fun, though Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas have not stood the test of time...

    Dinner was pizza.

    Went to a Games Meetup with a new group at the Starbuck's near Runnymede Station. (It's the same group that posted the wrong Starbuck's for the last event.) I played Monopoly, where I was the first to get busted, and The Amazeing Labyrinth.

    Finished the first half of Little Dorrit.  Awkward and uneven, but it's still Dickens!

August 20, 2010

    Dreamed of crossing a foot bridge over the Bering Strait with Mother to visit Siberia; finding the place dirty and smelly; seeing smoke coming out of small volcanoes.

    Dinner was tortellini.

August 19, 2010

"And as to that, they may live for ever.  My dear, they are just the kind of people to do it"--Little Dorrit

"Now here's one of the advantages, or disadvantages, of knowing a disappointed man.  You hear the truth"--ibid.

    Dreamed of spending the night in a Korean home; actress Victoria Tennant (Steve Martin's ex-wife); a tourism ad that said

When New York was a village, London was a town

When New York was a town, London was a city

When New York was a city, London was a great city

(I could be a Mad man!)

    Baked whole wheat bread.

    Dinner was roast chicken.

    Went to an Introvert Meetup.  We met at the corner of Spadina and College and went to the Moonbean [sic] coffee house.  I had a lemonade with honey instead of sugar (quite tart!).

August 18, 2010

    Dreamed of the actual scene in The Van where Colm Meaney is learning to fry ships, and when his wife asks for an example of a simile he says "Me chips are burnt as fuck!" and has to feed the swear jar.

    Dinner was salmon.

    Saw the cinemacast of the Metropolitan Opera production of Carmen at a Sheppard Grande rescreening.  I met Mary and the Classical Music Meetup group, but sat at a different place.  This production was well-staged, anc Elina Garanca is hot!

    While I was there, I bought a ticket to the Proms cinemacast next month.  It was my first purchase using the Scene card I got the other day.

    There was a huge crowd in my neighbourhood around midnight.

August 17, 2010

    Dreamed of inheriting a Spanish kingdom along the Persian Gulf from my brother and awaiting the effects of a nuclear explosion upriver; going to see a double bill at the cinema in my hometown Sackville, N.B., that included a Marx Brothers movie [when I was a kid I saw a Marx Brothers double bill there]; the Peary expedition that discovered the North Pole.

    Dinner was a lentil pie Moira baked. (I sneaked out to McDonald's afterward.)

    Went shopping in the evening for a change.

August 16, 2010

Wife-killer Rigaud (posing as gentleman Blandois): "...and chivalry towards the [female] sex is a part of my character! ...but without appreciation I could not be Blandois"--Little Dorrit

    Moved my bed from the south wall of my room to the west. (I was going to wait for Father and John to finish rebuilding my window, but their work got interrupted.)

    Dinner was the rest of the churrasco chicken.

    Went to the Columbus Centre to see if there was a Coro Verdi meeting tonight, but it seemed to be the wrong time.

    Read 45 pages of Little Dorrit.

    Saw the documentary Babies at the Carlton. (It's the first time I went there since it reopened under Rainbow Cinemas.) Pretty cute.

August 15, 2010

"They rode to the top of Oxford Street, and there alighting, dived in among the great streets of melancholy stateliness, and the little streets that try to be as stately and succeed in being more melancholy, of which there is a labyrinth near Park Lane....  Everybody in these streets seemed... to be gone out to dinner, and nobody seemed to be giving the dinners they had gone to"--Little Dorrit

    Dreamed of a non-existent Lenny Bruce sketch satirizing the United Nations; learning of a paint store supplying the foreign community in Chongqing [the subject of my Ph.D. thesis].

    Went to a Games Meetup at the Ryerson Student Centre. (We were going to have it in High Park, but got rained out.) I played the dice game Ra and Agricola.  We use a deck of cards to determine who'll go first, and for Agricola the card said it would go to the one with the loudest voice, which I got hands down--I also scared the whole place!  I got my highest Agricola score ever at 26. (The occupation cards went my way.)

    Donald came over for dinner, which was churrasco chicken.

August 14, 2010

"They believed that foreigners had no independent spirit, as never being escorted to the poll in droves by Lord Decimus Tite Barnacle, with colours flying and the tune of Rule Britannia playing"--Little Dorrit

    Dreamed of reading a magazine describing upcoming movies.

    Dinner was Indian food. (John and Kathrine weren't here, so we ordered lots of meat!)

    Went to a Karaoke Meetup at Bar Plus.  Toward the end, the neighbouring booths got really loud!  Jonah said my rendition of Sid Vicious' "My Way" is quite scary.

August 13, 2010

"There are men who say 'Those kind' who make $100,000 a year!"

"There are guys who say 'Stick 'em up!' who make even more!"

--A Letter to Three Wives

"It was Brad who gave me my first black eye and... and my first kiss"--ibid.

    Dreamed of living in Halifax, unsure what to do next; a British drama about two guys murdering someone and pinning the crime on a third guy.

    Saw the DVD of Joseph Mankiewicz' A Letter to Three Wives.  Juicy.

August 12, 2010

    Dreamed of being driven into Moncton to perform in a band concert only to realize I'd left my instrument behind; a non-existent comic novel by Evelyn Waugh about gambling.

    Baked raisin bread.

    Dinner was beef stroganoff.

August 11, 2010

Allen Barra (reviewing Andrew Morton's Angelina Jolie biography): "Much of Morton's research seems to have been done while standing in supermarket lines"--salon.com

    Dreamed of someone leaving a burning building and diving into the nearby water in time to escape the force of the blast when the whole building exploded!

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was half the corn we bought yesterday.

    Went to the Games Meetup.  I played The Amazeing Labyrinth (introducing Sarah to it), Stone Age and Bang!  We did two games of Bang, and in the first I was an outlaw and managed to kill the Sheriff.

    I've subscribed to some new classic comic strips they're now offering online at Daily Ink [now Comics Kingdom], including The Heart of Juliet Jones and Mandrake the Magician.

August 10, 2010

"When I hold Helene in my arms, I'm holding all the women of the world"--Chloe in the Afternoon

    Dreamed of the parents leaving me at a motel room for a few days; a famous actual photograph of the future Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret playing a piano in their childhood. (I think we had a print of it.)

    We drove to Orchard Home Farm and picked some Gravenstein apples.  But only a few were ripe enough. (We also bought some corn nearby.)

    Dinner was curried scallops.

    Saw Eric Rohmer's Chloe in the Afternoon at the Cinematheque. (It was the last Cinematheque movie I'll see at the Art Gallery of Ontario, before they move into their new building.) Tasty talk typical of Rohmer, though the story is something of a tease.

August 9, 2010

"Nothing would have been wanting to the perfection of his character as a fraternal guide, philosopher, and friend if he had only steered his brother clear of ruin, instead of bringing it upon him"--Little Dorrit

"Use your little noggin!"--Harry Brown

    Dreamed of writing a facetious poem as a postscript in a letter:

  The Erie Canal has pike and bluefin

  If I don't get my fortune, prepare to move in!

    Saw Grandpa's Treasure [sic] of Wonderful Stories, a DVD of animated fables from India. (One was about two friends called Goodie and Baddie!)

    Dinner was spinach lasagna.

    Saw Harry Brown at the Underground. (Fifteen years ago I saw the Chinese epic The Great Conqueror's Concubine there with Puitak, back when it was called the Golden Classics.) A familiar, unpleasant vigilante story, though Michael Caine was well cast.  There were only four of us there, making the place look even bigger!

August 8, 2010

    Went to an NDP Meetup.  We walked through Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

    Dinner was the rest of the corn.

    Went to a Dancing Meetup at Mel Lastman Square.  I participated in a free group class in chacha and jive but couldn't find the other Meetup members.

    Saw the start of the first in a new video series of the original Popeye cartoons by Max Fleischer!

August 7, 2010

    Dreamed of Will Geer, the actor who survived the McCarthyite blacklist and went on to play Grandpa on The Waltons; the TV series The White Shadow.

    We went to Whittamore's Farm (this time in the afternoon) and picked some autumn strawberries.  But most of them are still unripe.

    Dinner was corn on the cob (which we got at Whittamore's Farm).

    Went to a Karaoke Meetup at the Gladstone Hotel. (I'd forgotten how weak some of the Gladstone singers are.) The crowd was so big that I only stayed for one song: "Battle of New Orleans."

August 6, 2010

"He took it as it came, therefore; he tumbled into all kinds of difficulties, and tumbled out of them; and by tumbling through life, got himself considerably bruised"--Little Dorrit

    Dinner was vegan stew and the rest of the pizza.

    Went to a new Games Meetup at the Golden Griddle on Laird Avenue.  It wasn't suited to me.  Half of them played poker and other half played Taboo and Pictionary.  I found just a few people to play Scrabble and The Amazeing Labyrinth with me.

August 5, 2010

    Dreamed of visiting the cottage near our old home in Sackville, N.B.; seeing some signs the Taliban left on the lawn indicating that they'd come back and burn the place down; gathering some old books to save from their fire; playing a computer game involving using a shepherd's crook to gather a flock of sheep.

    Went to see my shrink Dr. Hassan.

    Dinner was pizza.

August 4, 2010

"Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving how not to do it!"--Little Dorrit

    Dreamed of researching about a woman married to a Londonderry magistrate, sued in a case of patent violation involving an invention that revolutionized international trade.

    Baked multigrain bread.

    Had lunch at Mandarin Restaurant with the Movie Meetup group.

    Dinner was roast chicken.

    Saw the cinemacast of the Metropolitan Opera's Aida 

production, re-screened at the Sheppard Grande. (Moira was going to come too, but I'd misplaced the E-ticket printout.) That finale gets to me!  I met a couple of people from the Classical Music Meetup afterward.

August 3, 2010

 Dreamed of watching an old-fashioned TV set where you change the channels by fiddling with a knob; the movie Dog Day Afternoon.

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was spaghetti.

    Mixed the ingredients tonight to bake bread tomorrow. (We'll see if it always turns out as well as last week.)

August 2, 2010

"It was evident from the general tone of the whole party, that they had come to regard insolvency as the normal state of mankind, and the payment of debts as a disease that occasionally broke out"--Little Dorrit

Professor Peabody: "Have you tried a knife?"

Jim Bowie: "No, I wouldn't take the coward's way out."

    Dreamed of assembling a model of Daffy Duck breaking into the coffin of a vampire just coming to life.

    Went to the Games Meetup.  I played The Amazeing Labyrinth, Acquire (finished last), Tsuro and Ticket to Ride (the American version).

    Dinner was steak.

    Saw Kurosawa's last movie Madadayo at the Cinematheque.  It's about a retired professor at the start of Japan's postwar era, still worshipped by his ex-students.  Interesting character.

August 1, 2010

On a birth in a debtor's prison: "...and at length one little life, hardly stronger than theirs, appeared among the multitude of lesser deaths"--Little Dorrit

    Dreamed of losing track of the time; going outdoors and seeing a clock showing that it was evening, when I thought it was mid-afternoon!

    Went to a Games Meetup at the Ryerson Hub, but it turned out to be tomorrow!

    My browser's upgrade to Safari 5.0 has been working erratically, but I made a change in the network preferences recommended online and upgraded to 5.0.1.  That seems to have solved the problem.

    John came over to work on changing my door to the ex-balcony into a window.  He and Kathrine had vegan dinner with us, except that Moira got me KFC. (She's guessing what I think!)

July 31, 2010

"He had a certain air of being a handsome man--which he was not; and a certain air of being a well-bred man--which he was not.  It was mere swagger and challenge; but in this particular, as in many others, blustering assertion goes for proof, half over the world"--Little Dorrit [Sound like President Trump?]

    Dreamed of being in the movie Jaws; wanting to get out before it got unpleasant.

    Finished Larry Gonick's Cartoon History series.  Amazing!

    Went to John Vince and got rye flour.  Then I baked bread. (It came out even better than usual!)

    Saw the DVD of a Schwetzingen Festival production of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri.  Pretty cute, though the dwarf in an ape suit was kinda disturbing.

    Dinner was McDonald's.

    Started reading Dickens' Little Dorrit.  It has an unusual beginning, only gradually opening up the story. (I read over 50 pages!)

    Went to another Games Meetup at the Starbucks west of High Park.  This time, nobody else showed up at all! (Cheat me twice, shame on me...)

July 30, 2010

 Dreamed of assembling a cardboard figure of a woman.

    Wanted to bake rye bread, but it turned out Moira had used up the rye flour.

    Dinner was shrimp curry.

July 29, 2010

Rocky (on being brought to Washington, D.C., with Bullwinkle): "Captain, why are we here?"

Peachfuzz: "Why are any of us here?"

    Dreamed of coming out of a fallout shelter years after a nuclear apocalypse (our hold home in Sackville, N.B., had been Ground Zero); finding several British comic annuals I didn't know we had; reflecting that Pete Seeger's antiwar song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" is refreshingly angry.

    Saw the DVD of the first episode of the last season of Mission:  Impossible--the one where they rigged a pool table so Jim could be a pool shark. (I remember seeing that episode back in 1972.) That show had some pretty women.

    Dinner was salmon.

    Went to a Dance Meetup at Chalkers.  Betty Colon gave us a salsa and merengue lesson. (We paid $10 each.) I was too tired to stay for the dance party afterward.

    Finished the Arts & Literature issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

July 28, 2010

Narration: "Bullwinkle was 100% right, except that he was wrong."

    Dreamed of Batman and Robin; a reunion of my whole family (and three guests) at our old house in Sackville, N.B.; reading in the weekend edition of The Moncton Times about a successful history publication by someone remembering what life was like in 1949 (with Rita Hayworth on the cover).

    Dinner was KFC.

    Went to the Games Meetup.  I played a new game called Ingenious, along with Ticket to Ride and Blue Moon City.  I finished last at Ingenious, but won Ticket to Ride by a street (147 points!) and managed a narrow win at Blue Moon City.  Jeffrey brought Big City, but to my disappointment I didn't get to play it again.

July 27, 2010

    Dreamed of a man swimming from Florida to Cuba to bring back a monkey and becoming a hero; film director Stanley Kubrick occupying our old house in Sackville, N.B.; a non-existent Kubrick movie with scenes in reverse chronological order and one scene involving two normally friendly couples getting into a fight; the basement of our Sackville house becoming an office for MTV.

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was spinach lasagna.

    The Bear Family Records intro on the Town Hall Party DVD had the start of the Johnny Horton song "Ole Slew Foot," which I hadn't heard before (rockabilly version).  It's pretty cool!