June 14, 2011

Younger woman: "I felt sorry for him.  He's an old man."

Michael Caine: "With an old bank account."

--Pulp

"His name was Di Nuccio.  That was the nicest thing about him"--ibid.

    Dreamed of travelling across Canada with John; taking the train to Gaspe, then proceeding on foot; seeing a horse as large as a camel; actress Jayne Mansfield.

    John and Kathrine came over and bought dinner, but it was vegan again.

    Went to a party at Boccone's for the volunteers who'd worked on the St. Paul's NDP campaign. (The provincial election is coming soon.)

    Afterward I ate a Wendy's hamburger and it immediately disagreed with me. (Serves me right!)

    Saw the DVD of Mike Hodges' Pulp.  It's a witty film noir spoof, with Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney in fine form.

June 13, 2011

    Baked rye bread.

    They're going to change our water pipes soon, so Father and I cleared space in the basement.  There was a bag of cement that had gone hard in the damp, but when I brought it upstairs and put it down, it split into pieces. (Dust galore!)

    Dinner was sausages and quinoa.

    At choir practice we rehearsed Nabucco from start to finish, including the soloists' numbers. (Paradoxically, it seemed shorter.) I flirted with Carmen, asking what music she was playing in the car on the way here.

June 12, 2011

Quint: "Here's to Swimmin' with bow-legged women!"--Jaws

    Dreamed of meeting Desiree McGraw, whom I knew at my Goodenough College stay in London in 1995.

    In the morning I went on a Walking Meetup in the Forest Hill area.

    Because I'd woken up early, I napped after getting back home.

    Dinner was beef stroganoff.

    Saw Steven Spielberg's Jaws (for the second time) at the Underground.  It's best to ignore the fact that a real shark does not lurk around a beach waiting for hunters to chase him.  Quint does a lot for the movie:  Robert Shaw plays him with just the right degree of ham.  If they were making it today, they'd show the shark a lot more and it wouldn't be as good.

June 11, 2011

    Dreamed of trying to play a saxophone; finding a coupon that entitled me to a free Volkswagen; the song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls."

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was pork steak.

    Moira and I got most of the seeds planted. (Only the potatoes are left.)

    Saw the DVD of Raoul Walsh's They Drive by Night (for the second time).  It's a realistic Warner Brothers trucking melodrama, which happily costars Humphrey Bogart.  The second half, with Ida Lupino as the boss' dangerous wife, got pretty silly.

    Saw Dion Conflict's Trailer Trash show (for the second time) at the Underground.

June 9, 2011

    Dreamed of the song of the William Butler Yeats poem "Down by the Sally Gardens."

    Visited my shrink Dr. Hassan.

    I'm ready to start planting the garden, but just don't have the energy!

    Dinner was spaghetti.

    Saw the DVD of the TV play Bang the Drum Slowly.  Compared to the movie, it did more with less.

    The city turned off our water for a short time in the evening because they're replacing the ancient pipes that connect us to the water main.

June 8, 2011

    Dreamed of the children's book Heidi; an episode of the comic strip Alley Oop with a cameo appearance by characters from other comic strips (including the Phantom) concerned about Oop's fate; getting teary-eyed.

    I now have a fifth Kingdoms of Camelot city, which I called Sandby.

    Got my hair cut, then went to the Tim Horton's doughnut shop near St. Patrick station and met some of the people in the Aspergers Meetup group.

    Dinner was chicken curry.

    Saw the DVD of Rod Serling's TV play Requiem for a Heavyweight (the version with Jack Palance).

June 7, 2011

    Dreamed of writing a test that asked how I'd organize a protest against car dependency for maximum impact; wanting to write that I'd stage the protests near places with high traffic, but writing erratically, skipping to different pages of the test paper, changing pens and crossing out many words; driving in southwestern Ontario and seeing an explosion that seemed to be an A-bomb but turned out to be a space shuttle launch; stopping in a town called Jughead; gathering large piles of leaves.

    Baked multigrain bread.

    We went to Fiesta Gardens and bought some more seeds.

    Dinner was stir-fry (using the leftover pork).

    Moira and I bought some more seeds at Canadian Tire, near St. Clair & Keele. (She wants to plant kale this year, and we finally found some kale seeds.)

    Saw the DVD of the first episode of the Kevin Brownlow series D.W. Griffiths:  Father of Film.

June 6, 2011

    Dreamed of trying to explain the cleverness of the script for the murder mystery The Last of Sheila.

    Father and I walked to the nearby No Frills and bought some seeds for the garden.

    Finished the ditch, and started evening the garden surface with the hoe.

    Dinner was McDonald's.

    At choir practice Giuseppe was saying that we should sculpt our words, and that even when you throw your chisel it'll leave a mark!

June 5, 2011

    Dreamed of "waking up" at about 08:30, in plenty of time for today's concert. (I actually woke up at around 10:00, still in enough time.)

    Took part in a Coro Verdi concert as part of the festivities marking the sesquicentennial of Italian unification.  We sang several folk songs, along with a few opera classics.

    Dinner was pork roast.

    I've been posting a lot in a Huffington Post forum about Pentagon whistle-blower Bradley Manning. (I was this active three years ago in a form about Proposition 8 and the African-American victimology.) Some of the posters are really full of hate!  But there was one who said that the question wasn't whether Manning had the right to leak the information but whether the U.S. government had the right to keep it secret!  I fanned him and added "Couldn't have said it better."

June 4, 2011

    Dreamed of the Bergman movie Fanny and Alexander (which I have seen).

    Went to a Games Meetup at Jeffrey's townhouse.  I played 7 Wonders, Incan Gold and a new game called Betrayal at House on the Hill.  The last is a game where we're all exploring a haunted house and after a while someone goes insane and tries to kill the others with some supernatural help.  I managed to kill the traitor because I was the one with a spear and a suit of armor.

    Dinner was stir-fry.

    Saw the DVD of the first episodes of 500 Nations, a documentary series about North American Indians.

    Then I saw the DVD of the uneven Concert for Bangladesh.  Goodness knows it isn't as fun as Monterey Pop or Woodstock, but Billy Preston has a show-stopping number. (And you can't get too much of Ravi Shankar...)

June 3, 2011

"Jan, what will it be like if we can't talk to each other any more?"

"The boat is here now."

--Shame

    Dreamed of being called on to join a high school play at the last minute; riding a bicycle without a safety chain and with only one brake around the streets of my hometown Sackville, N.B.; opening a bag of jelly beans.

    Yesterday Father and I went to Scotiabank and I got an interest cheque they'd failed to send me.

    I've been redigging the ditch around the garden.

    Finished the DVD documentary series Monarchy. (Moira missed half the episodes because she can only watch for a while in the early evening before getting sleepy.)

    Dinner was shrimp curry.

    Saw the DVD of Ingmar Bergman's Shame.  A curious meditation on the debasement of humanity in wartime, it feels pretty real.

June 1, 2011

    Baked raisin bread.

    Went shopping. (We bought ice for the hot weather.)

    Dinner was KFC.

    Started the work issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

    We had an extra choir rehearsal for Sunday's concert.

May 31, 2011

 Dreamed of a non-existent Australian movie about a family leaving on an airplane, a story retold with the adults played by children, then by pet animals.

    Finished the book Empires of the World.

    Dinner was spaghetti (which I cooked).

    Finally finished forking the garden. (Rainy weather delayed me.)

May 30, 2011

    Dreamed of being introduced to scuba diving in the Pacific Ocean; walking on a semi-outdoor trail south of Amherst, N.S.; waking up in a car driving eastward on the Trans-Canada Highway in western New Brunswick toward dawn.

    Dinner was pork steak.

    At choir practice we went through all of Nabucco.

May 29, 2011

    Dreamed of a squadron of cavalry horses on the Titanic.

    Went to a Games Meetup at the Yellow Griffin.  I played Guillotine and Seven Wonders. (Still can't figure Seven Wonders out...)

    Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.

May 28, 2011

    Open Doors Toronto weekend!  I visited the St. James Cathedral bell tower (I was hoping to meet some of the Classical Music Meetup people, but didn't); the King Edward Hotel's unrestored but historic top-floor ballroom; Hotel Victoria; the Church of the Holy Trinity (I walked along the nearby Trinity Square maze); and the Gilbert Studio (where I saw a darkroom demonstration).

    Dinner was the rest of the Chinese food.

    We started looking at the DVD of David Starkey's documentary Monarchy, about the kings of England.  The first disc wouldn't play, so we started with the second. (It's sixteen hours long, and it's due back at the library in a week.)

    Went to a Karaoke Meetup at TKO's, near Coxwell Station.  I sang "Hold Me Now" and "Sway."

May 27, 2011

    Dreamed of showering in the back yard of my old home in Sackville, N.B. through a hole in the garden hose; the cuff on my pants getting undone; visiting a junior high school locker room; looking off a cliff to some nearby islands that turned out to be a lot closer than I thought.

    Sent an email to Henson Trust Associates inquiring about propert arrangements before applying to the Ontario Disability Supports Program.

    Dinner was Chinese food.

    Went to the Trash Palace's latest classroom film show.  Their longest film was a 1979 evangelical production Cult Explosion. I won a free DVD of classroom films in a raffle.  At the end they said the Trash Palace in its current form is ending after this summer.

May 26, 2011

    Dreamed of Father getting a bank loan to open a bakery in a New York City neighbourhood called Truro.

    Went shopping.

    Dinner was roast chicken.

    Saw the Vietnam War documentary Sir No Sir! (for the second time) on DVD.

    The Huffington Post has a new Canadian section!  They were interviewing Arianna Huffington on CBC Newsworld.

    Headache!

May 25, 2011

 At choir practice last night we did the Nabucco finale. (I was going to compliment Carmen on how well-dressed she was, but didn't get the chance to speak to her.)

    Suffered cramps in both my legs when I woke up in the morning. (Maybe it resulted from a sleeping pill.)

    Dreamed of a non-existent 1950s movie with Laurence Olivier and Grace Kelly; beggars approaching us for food at my old home in Sackville, N.B.; reflecting on the strange feelings caused by changes in life, where even old things seem new.

    Started forking the garden.

    Dinner was salmon.

    Saw a DVD documentary about Marco Polo.

May 23, 2011

Mae West (responding to a marriage proposal with dice): "I'll roll you whether I do or not!"

MW to a Russian gigolo: "Cigarette me, cossack!"

--Goin' to Town

    Dreamed of visiting Mexico [which I've never done]; a family business with goods to sell; the song "You'll Never Walk Alone."

    Saw the DVD of Goin' to Town, another Mae West vehicle.  This one came out under the Production Code and was a bit milder than her earlier movies.

    John and Kathrine came over for dinner, which was vegan pizza. (I sneaked out to KFC afterward.)

    In the computer game Glory of Rome, in addition to Megalopolis and Basilopolis, I've started a third city called Drudunum (Celtic for "oak hill.")