April 12, 2009

Dreamed of reflecting that the Republican Party depends on Americans hating other Americans; E.T.'s sister.

The others returned from Kingston.

Saw a DVD documentary about the first five years of Saturday Night Live. (They didn't mention "The Mr. Bill Show"!)

John, Kathrine and Donald came over for dinner, which was ham and vegan wraps.  John's 50th birthday is in two days, and they brought a chocolate birthday cake.

Spent a couple of hours online checking the genealogies of the people who didn't succeed Queen Anne because they were Catholic.

 

April 11, 2009

Dreamed of moving into a new house with surroundings a lot like our old house in Sackville, N.B.; upbeat calypso music; discussing Coco Chanel while walking through heavy snow in the back yard of the Sackville house; writing this diary on foolscap sheets instead of in the usual book.

Saw a simulcast of a Cambridge performance of The Messiah at the Empress Walk.  I liked the aria "A man of sorrow, with grief acquainted." There was sound trouble during "A trumpet shall sound," causing a 20-minute delay.  I'd planned to borrow a book from the Northern District library, but by the time I got there it was closed.

Dinner was Wendy's (for variety?).

Saw the rest of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution on DVD.  I'm sorry I did--it got even more depressing!

April 10, 2009

The others went to Kingston for the weekend. (It's my niece Katie's birthday.)

Dinner was the rest of the fettucine.

The choir performed The Seven Last Words of Christ at St. Peter's church in Vaughan. (John George drove me there and back.) Some people were there who'd been in a choir with Giuseppe decades ago, and at the reception afterward they were singing Italian folk songs a capella!

April 9, 2009

"'You ought to be thankful to get a home anywhere.  Remember you're not of much importance.' 'I am important to myself,' cried Emily proudly"--Emily of New Moon

"The voices of the gentle spring night called to her all unheeded--unheard the Wind Woman whistled by the eaves.  For the fairies dwell only in the kingdom of Happiness; having no souls they cannot enter the kingdom of Sorrow"--ibid.

Dreamed of having been elected to the British Parliament.

Baked whole wheat bread.

Father bought a new computer mouse for just twenty bucks.  It works fine.

They're now laying the new streetcar rails near our avenue.

Dinner was fettucine alfredo (which I cooked).  

April 8, 2009

Mr. Burns (on what the Republican Party wants in a candidate): "... a true leader, who'll do whatever we tell him."

Dreamed of a cryptic puzzle where the answer was the movie Husbands and Wives, revealed through the names of cast members like Woody Allen and Mia Farrow; being late for a math class in a music school.

Went shopping.

Dinner was frozen Indian food (which we'd bought today).

Took back the old computer mouse.  Now I can't drag and have trouble clicking.

Went to the Non-Fiction Book Club Meetup.  It's grown to over 20 people, so Ian moved it to the Ferret and Firkin.  We discussed Maxed Out, but I didn't have much to add.

April 7, 2009

Saw the DVD of Jim Henson and Frank Oz' The Dark Crystal.  Dorky acid-trip fun.

Dreamed of visiting our hometown Sackville, N.B., in an invisible spaceship that allowed me to hover near the ground; a non-existent episode of Six Feet Under where they get attacked by rioting mourners.

My computer's Mighty Mouse was acting up, so I borrowed the mouse from the upstairs computer.

Dinner was ham.

The second acting class had no drop in turnout.  We did an exercise where we improvised skits with everyone shouting, and my Idea was to do something involving Tarzan, but Eva didn't know who Tarzan was! (Instead we were people scattered around a house and nobody wanted to answer the phone.) We also did some master-slave skits, and in one I was a toady slave who killed one of the less-favoured slaves.  I'm disturbed by how well I fit into that role...

Yesterday I picked up Emily of New Moon at the library and started rereading it.  Wonderful.

April 6, 2009

Bart: "Why the crap do I have to go to church on Sunday?"

Marge: "Young man, you answered your own question with that commode mouth of yours!"

--The Simpsons

Dreamed of my anger that Britain's "New Labour" government, hiding behind a false consensus, has passively preserved the Thatcher government's disastrous privatization of utilities, because they're determined not to offend big business. [I'm still angry about that!]

It snowed!

Dinner was the rest of the stew. (There wasn't quite enough.)

Went to the Coro Verdi dress rehearsal for The Seven Last Words of Christ. (We also rehearsed Cavalleria Rusticana, and once again we came in late on "A casa" the first time around!)

Wrote a mrcranky.com review of the Joan Crawford movie Possessed. [One line was "If you can't guess what happens next, you haven't seen Mildred Pierce!]