October 29, 2008

"All we ever do is fight!"

"That reminds me, I need to phone Emily."

--The Bob Newhart Show

Dreamed of some old non-existent films of Louis Armstrong.

At today's singing lesson we worked on "Il Balen de Suo Sorriso" for the fits time.  I'm still standing. (I cracked Giuseppe up with a dirty joke about four nuns about to enter heaven...)

Dinner was salmon.

Saw the DVD of Erich von Stroheim's silent melodrama Blind Husbands.  There's a great nightmare scene.

I added a quote I remember from over 30 years ago to the webpage for Cool McCool (a 1960 TV cartoon) on the Internet Movie Database!

Prison Warden: "You'll get ten years for escaping, Jack in the Box!"

Warden's Wife: "And twenty years for stealing my lunch!"

October 28, 2008

District Commissioner: "Now all we have to do is--" (caught in noose, choking noises)

George of the Jungle: "That not easy thing to do!"

Father and I finally moved the old washing machine up the cellar door and out in front of the house for picking up. Definitely a two-man job!

Finished transposing "Il Balen de Suo Sorriso." Alas, it looks a bit of a mess.

Dinner was scalloped potatoes and ham.

At the opera rehearsal we did the bullfight climax in Carmen. (This time the men were together.) Next week we start La Cenerentola!

Wrote about the opera at my mrcranky.com blog. (The headline was "Toreador-ah, don't spit on the floor.")

Now that we've finished watching the Carmen DVD, I lent it to David Roche at the opera. (I also copied some pages from The Good Opera Guide on Carmen and La Cenerentola for him.)

October 27, 2008

Dreamed of a non-existent airplane disaster on the Japan-Alaska route where everyone's air supply was cut off; going back in time to July 1970 and seeing a newspaper with the disaster on the front page; my mouth being full of pegs.

With today's singing practice I tried singing more softly than usual.  I think there was some improvement.

Dinner was steak.

At choir practice we started on the Christmas program.  We didn't do any new songs tonight, just ones we started on last year.  The tenors were even weaker than usual because all their best singers were missing.

Started a new DVD of George of the Jungle cartoons!

I had a headache in the afternoon, but it went away in the evening.

October 26, 2008

Howard (hearing the phone ring): "I'm not here!"

Bob: "No kidding..."

--The Bob Newhart Show

Performed in the Coro Verdi concert in the afternoon.

The parents attended the concert, but Moira saw the Don Giovanni broadcast instead. (She couldn't see it yesterday because she was at a talk with some Irish writers.) She says the lead sang the serenade more quietly than me.

Dinner was fish and chips.

Indian summer weather.  There was even a clap of thunder in the evening!

October 25, 2008

That stir-fry I ate last night really disagreed with me! (It must have been the tofu?) In the morning I had the runs again and again.  I was going to see a Royal Opera cinemacast of Don Giovanni at the Empress Walk, but I wasn't up to going.

Started transposing my Verdi aria from B flat to F.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Started looking at the DVD of the 1988 Met production of Carmen with Agnes Baltsa and Placido Domingo.  We just saw the first act, but there's so much great music in just that part!

The two episodes of The Bob Newhart Show we saw tonight ("The Longest Goodbye" and "Here's Looking at You, Kid") were ones I remember seeing 30 years ago!

October 24, 2008

 Moira made dinner, which was stir-fry.  She thought it was terrible, but I didn't mind it.

Coro Verdi did a dress rehearsal for Sunday's concert.  John George sits next to me, and I heard him sing a low D at one point!

October 23, 2008

Dreamed of being in a Hollywood musical combining Last Exit to Brooklyn with Harold Robbins' The Lonely Lady; a group coming together for a parade in one scene; a non-existent old film of Pierre Trudeau playing college football; wanting to write a diary entry but being unable to remember the date. (I thought it was August...)

Baked multigrain bread.

Saw the DVD of Becoming John Ford, a documentary about the great director's early years at 20th Century Fox studio.  Of course, it made me want to see movies like The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley again.  The disc's extras included Ford's World War II documentary shorts about Pearl Harbor and Midway.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Went to the Socratic Philosophy Meetup at Aroma Espresso, but there was only one other person there, possibly because of confusion about the location. (The webpage map showed the wrong place.)

Saw the DVD of the first episodes of the fourth season of The Bob Newhart Show.