October 26, 2009

    Dreamed of an issue of Rolling Stone magazine with the comic strip The Family Circus on the cover(!).

    Had another singing lesson.  Giuseppe's not happy about the shortage of Pagliacci scores.

    Started reading the crime issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

    Dinner was tortellini with pesto sauce.

    At choir practice Giuseppe put us through the Traviata choruses once, then let us leave early so he could rehearse the soloists.

    Saw the DVD of the early cinema verite documentary Primary,  about the 1960 Wisconsin primary where JFK beat Hubert Humphrey.  I think I saw it before.

October 25, 2009

"This is the United States and I'm obligated to make as much money as I can!"--Amelia

    Dreamed of a reprint of the comic strip Prince Valiant drawn with crayons.

    Went to see Mira Nair's biopic Amelia with the Movie Meetup.  Hilary Swank and Richard Gere had weak chemistry.

    Then I went to a Depressed But Enthusiastic Meetup.  Basil and I were there. (He mentioned that his religion is Mandaean, which I'll have to Google!)

    Dinner was KFC.

    Finished Studs Terkel's Great Depression oral history Hard Times.

    Saw the Ken Burns documentary Congress on DVD.  Breathless.

October 24, 2009

Robert Downey Jr. (about to perform drastic surgery): "Aren't you afraid?"

Meg Ryan: "Your leaving me, I fear.  Nothing else."

--Restoration

    Dreamed of trying to write an academic thesis involving the Rolling Stones and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    Went to a Walking Meetup in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.  Afterward I went to the Shyness Meetup but left early so as not to delay dinner.

    Dinner was only McDonald's anyway.

    Saw the DVD of Restoration.  A wonderful period piece, with Robert Downey Jr. at his formidable best.

October 23, 2009

"Joe, why don't you do what I do when my wife and I have a fight?"

"What's that?"

"Lose."

--Rhoda

    Dreamed of being visited at my old home in Sackville, N.B., by two friendly people who turned out to be ghosts; saying I was sorry that they were dead.

    Dinner was spaghetti.

    Saw the Fred Astaire musica Swing Time again.

October 22, 2009

Daughter (explaining her attitude): "I'm bored, as usual."

Father (seeing her new sweetheart): "Who's that?"

"The opposite of boring!"

--Fame

    Dreamed of the British school-themed TV series To Serve Them All My Days (and an escapade that wasn't in the actual show where a schoolboy hid in some sheets and ended up being washed with the laundry); the English city Canterbury.

    Went to dinner with the VITAL Meetup group (Variety In The Art of Living) at Il Fornello.  The others were female and talked a lot about their travels.  I ate spaghettini bolognese.

    Afterward I saw the Fame remake at the Yonge & Dundas.  It was less excessive than the original, more on the bland side. (While most of the original cast seemed a bit old to be playing high schoolers, some of these actors seemed twelve or thirteen!)

    

October 21, 2009

"How often do guys like Vince Mazuma come along?"

"Every three seconds."

--Rhoda

    Dreamed of going through a whole videocassette to see what was taped on it (there was an episode of David Letterman's late-night show and the movie Shanghai Noon); the war movie The Dirty Dozen.

    Dinner was another turkey pie.

    Indian summer weather.

    The opera group had an acting class.  We drew slips for characters to play and I got one who scrimps and saves to see the theatre in Pagliacci.  There's a new girl from Nova Scotia called Meredith Nicholson. [Nicholson was my mother's maiden name.]

October 20, 2009

    Dreamed of sleeping on a mattress that was coming apart one spring at a time; bicycling east to New Brunswick; having a nervous breakdown due to anger; seeing a tall tower from a distance; comedian David Steinberg.

    Saw the DVD of Ken Burns' documentary The Statue of Liberty.  It got a bit gnomic in the second half.

    Dinner was turkey pie.

    At opera rehearsal we started on Pagliacci.  I was late and they didn't have enough Pagliacci scores, so I had to share Gianni's.