October 7, 2008

Dreamed of meeting a girl on a bus and starting to write down my experience as graffiti; forgetting to shave under my lower lip; the non-existent term "Dudley ditch," meaning a shallow ditch with upright objects based in it.

Headache!

Wrote a new score for "Wohin?" with a simpler accompaniment for Giuseppe. (It occupied me till midnight.)

Dinner was lamb stew.

Tried Tina Brown's new website thedailybeast.com  Doesn't look very interesting.

At the opera rehearsal we divided into girls and boys for the first time.  We also started with the "Vivat le torero!" chorus.

October 6, 2008

Dreamed of walking along St. Clair Avenue (south side, eastward) just west of home; someone telling me I had a stylishly uneven gait (I don't really); discoursing on South Carolina's Citadel military school, its culture of upperclassmen bullying plebs, and pointing out that they were given a rationale for it as well as carte blanche; trying to imagine translations into various languages of Dante's "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

Finished the first season of Mad Men.  I'm eager to see the second.

Dinner was pork steak.

At choir practice Frank (after Giuseppe's suggestion) gave me a copied score of an aria from Bellini's La Sonnambula for me to try.

Installed the software from an Iwork CD-ROM that came with the Imac. (It does word-processing and spreadsheets and stuff.) 

October 5, 2008

The new Lunch Club Meetup organizer had an event at the Boathouse Grill, but she was unwell and had to cancel.  Unfortunately,  I only read the message after I'd already gone out there and waited.

I've been reading Albion's Seed, in the last section where it talks about the legacy of the four regions in the USA.  It's getting pretty interesting here.

Leafletted the area in my riding south of Davenport Road and east of Ossington Avenue.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight at the Bloor.  It was very effective at building a sense of dread--so much so that I ended up leaving halfway through! (Maggie Gyllenhaal could be in a pie fight and still seem smart...)

October 4, 2008

Dreamed of realizing I'd spent $20 or so on tickets to some upcoming movies, then forgotten to see them!

Saw the Cuban National Ballet production of Don Quixote at the Empress Walk.  The thing about these opera-ballet cinemacasts is that they attract moviegoers who see themselves as going to the theatre, and get annoyed by the noise when you dip into your popcorn too much.

Afterward I went to Remenyi's, ordered two song scores and bought score paper so I can rewrite them in a lower key when they arrive.

Dinner was McDonald's.

October 3, 2008

"I can't bring you down to earth."

"What's so wonderful about earth?"

--It Should Happen to You

I finally managed to remove the partitions from the lower part of my computer desk, so now it has room to fit the new printer properly. (All it took was a hammer.)

Leafletted again in my neighbourhood, around the St. Paul's riding's southwest corner.

Dinner was salmon.

Saw the DVD of George Cukor's It Should Happen to You, the one where Judy Holliday spends her savings to rent a billboard in New York City and put her name on it, and end up famous for being famous.  In the end, of course, she rejects fame for Jack Lemmon's love.

Finished the money issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

October 2, 2008

"When God closes a door, he opens a dress"--Mad Men

Dreamed of trying to figure out a computer game involving wild apes and nuclear weapons; Donald figuring it out and winning a huge cash prize; trying to bake bread without any flour; a song that went "Papa was a Casanova but you ain't seen nothing yet!"; seeing a Vincent Price horror movie on a palm-sized TV screen.

Went shopping.

The campaign office ran out of pamphlets to label, so I leafletted in my neighbourhood along Greensides Avenue. (There are several home renovations happening around here.)

Dinner was steak.

October 1, 2008

Last night was the Toronto City Opera's first rehearsal.  We learned the first part of Carmen, including the part Coro Verdi did last spring. (I like the "drole de gens" part.)

Baked rye bread.

After my singing lesson I did more labelling at the campaign office.  I was talking to the campaign manager about Mad Men, and it turned out her father had had a job much like Don Draper's!

Dinner was spaghetti.

Moira saw a Czech movie and brought home her unfinished popcorn, which I got to finish off.

I recently dreamed about the late Merv Griffin; and leaving a cup of green juice in the freezer.