November 11, 2005

Drunk Nazi: "We Germans don't realize that all people want to be free"--Rome:  Open City

Dreamed of going on a long winter hike away from Halifax; passing a parade of a huge brass band with a Macy's parade-type helium float of the head of Teddy Roosevelt; the Halifax cinemas called Casino and Cove, which closed years ago.

Saw the DVD of Rome:  Open City (for the second time). A bluntly powerful drama about Nazi-occupied Rome, with Anna Magnani's first great performance, which launched the "neorealist" genre of postwar Italian movies.  Too bad it gets didactic toward the end.

Dinner was pizza.

Went to see the Russo-Cuban movie I Am Cuba at the Cinematheque.  Couldn't get into it.  I left after half an hour.

November 10, 2005

"Sassoon didn't want to talk about the nightmares.  He was feeling distinctly cheerful.  Exactly the same feeling he had had on board ship going to France, watching England slide away into the mist.  No doubts, no scruples, no agonizing, just a straightforward, headlong retreat towards the front....  

Rivers seemed to read his thoughts. 'Don't take unnecessary risks.'

'No, of course not,' Sassoon said.  Though he thought he might."

--Regeneration

Gordon and I went to the Royal Wiunter Fair.  I couldn't find any Mennonite food, but still got some PEI potato samples.

Finished Regeneration.  Masterful.

Dinner was ham.

I was going to attend the Salsa Meetup, but I couldn't find the place!

November 9, 2020

Dreamed that the TV show Six Feet Under was based on a series of Warner Brothers cartoons made by Chuck Jones around 1960 involving a family of rabbits(!); of creating a remake of the movie The Great Race, giving the Natalie Wood character a girl sidekick aged 12 or so; the girl mistaking "automobile" for an "Ottawamobile" railway line; a sequence showing growing boredom as the racing cars travel westward.

Dinner was halibut.

At the taijiquan class we learned a group of moves called "stork cooling his wings." I think maybe I'm getting better at the breathing.

Baked multigrain bread overnight.

November 8, 2005

Dreamed of an idea for a comedy sketch called "Bad Irish Accents Theatre" (brought to you by Irish Spring soap, Shirriff instant mashed potatoes and Lucky Charms cereal--it's magically delicious!) with characters saying things like "Top o' the mornin' to you!" and "I'll be the judge of that!" and "Begorrah!" and "Yes I said Yes I will Yes"; a Warner Brothers cartoon with a classic gag involving ping pong balls(?); a comedy with the exchange

"I'm a hot liquor!"

"You'd better lick it!"

Dinner was spaghetti.

At the opera chorus we started preparing for the fundraising concert.  I have most of my lines memorized already!

November 7, 2005

"Look, Sarah, he's an officer.  What do you think he wants you for?"

"How should I know?  Breath of fresh air, perhaps."

"Bloody gale."

--Regeneration

Dreamed of a really complicated puzzle involving figuring out a long quote; Mother getting the answer; getting another package of comic strip reprints.

Went shopping.

Dinner was chicken curry.

The choir started the Bach chorale "Sheep May Safely Graze." (Two chorales are better than one, I guess.) 

November 6, 2005

"To think that dolled-up poodle-faker used to be one of us!"--Triumph of the Rat

Dreamed of looking for Tevye and His Daughters, the collection of Sholom Aleichem stories that the musical Fiddler on the Roof was based on; trying to DVDcap the shot in Horse Feathers where Harpo Marx orders a scotch by doing a Scottish dance; finding that I'd put on a second sweater over my shirt!

Saw the silent British movie Triumph of the Rat at the Cinematheque.  It starred Ivor Novello as a Paris gangster who gets accepted into high society, then loses everything. (The title's ironic.) Another movie about how nasty Parisians can be.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw the DVD of the pilot episode of the ca. 1980-set high school comedy Freaks and Geeks.  It's pretty believable.

On Six Feet Under the family went to see an art show where Claire had a piece for sale.

November 5, 2005

"Where's the boy?"

"Dodger's minding him.  They're as close as Cain and Abel!"--Oliver Twist

Dreamed of wanting to look through a large collection of documents John had accumulated; considering how to translate Robert Burns' "To a Field Mouse" into Chinese and Japanese.

Saw the DVD of the screwball comedy My Favorite Wife.  That's the one where Cary Grant's wife has been lost at sea for seven years and returns just after he's married someone else.  Grant could do awkwardness like nobody! (There was also the Robert Benchley short Home Movies.)

Baked raisin bread.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist at the Paradise.  The umpteenth adaptation of the Dickens book, it's familiar but not boring:  some scenes are quite frightening.