FAR OUT ISN'T FAR ENOUGH

Last night I saw Far Out Isn't Far Enough at the Bloor.  It's a documentary about Tomi Ungerer, who was a well-regarded artist and writer of children's books but then turned to kinky erotica and got banned from American libraries.  The children's book reviewer at The New York Times refused to review his books.  One of his books, No Kiss for Mother, got the DUD award for the year's worst children's book!  It's quite a coincidence that I saw this just before an ROLT event devoted to banned books.  Maybe I'll read No Kiss for Mother.  

I do know that I want to reread all his books.  I remember reading books like The Three Robbers and Zeralda's Ogre in my youth.  The latter was about a child-eating ogre who gets tamed by a little girl with advanced culinary skills.  On the last page he shaved off his beard, became respectable, and married the girl when she grew up.  After seeing the movie Beauty and the Beast, which ended with the Beast overcoming his curse and becoming a normal man, Greta Garbo said "Give me back my beast!" I felt like saying, "Give me back my ogre!"

The other night I dreamed about getting on a bus to take me downtown, falling asleep and waking up only to find that the bus had taken me out into the country. (John Lennon said, "Life is what happens when you're making other plans.")

KICK-ASS 2

"My superpower is, I'm rich as shit!"--Kick-Ass 2

Yesterday I went to the Yonge & Eglinton and saw Kick-Ass 2.  Yeah I know, I was slumming.  It was pretty tasteless and predictable, as I expected.  I did like the bit at the end when he said that the world needs real heroes. (People like Chelsea Manning!) 

At the end they had a big fight between a mob of masked superheroes and a mob of masked supervillains and I was wondering how they told each other apart.  Wouldn't they end up attacking people on their own side?  At least in the Star Wars movie the Imperial soldiers wore masks while the rebels didn't.

Afterward I bought my tickets for the Last Night at the Proms concert and the Met opera broadcasts. (I'm seeing Rusalka, Prince Igor, Werther, Cosi Fan Tutte and Cenerentola.) I ended up with over a thousand Scene Points.  If I'd bought these tickets beforehand, I could have spent them on Kick-Ass 2.

The night before I saw a documentary about Lon Chaney Sr. on Netflix.  I remember when I was a kid seeing a big comic book ad for Aurora's monster models series. (Donald made an Aurora model of the Lost in Space robot.) Anyway, the image of Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera caught my eye:  you could see that he wasn't just a simple monster but a creature in pain.

PEANUTS

Yesterday I went to The Beguiling and bought a new entry in the Fantagraphics series of Peanuts reprints. (I also got a few more Mad magazine paperbacks, including Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.)

I'm now up to the mid-'70s in the Peanuts series.  It's now past the years that I read in past paperback reprints, but I remember it surprisingly well from reading it in the newspaper.  I remembered the very odd story of Sally conversing with the school building, as well as the one where Charlie Brown got so obsessed with baseball that he developed a rash like the stiches on a baseball (which his round head already resembled) and went to summer camp with a bag over his head and people called him "Mr. Sack" and elected him camp president!

Yesterday afternoon I went to the memoir slam and the two subjects were "The joys of senility" and "Forbidden fruit." On senility I talked about how I wasn't yet old, but visiting London last year my feet got sore from all the walking.  On forbidden fruit I mentioned how my parents kept me away from scary stuff, but I wasn't sure that was best for me.  I mentioned that Nick Nolte in Rich Man, Poor Man put a snake in his son's crib so he wouldn't be afraid of snakes when he was older and said, "Sometimes I wish someone had put a snake in my crib."

THE ASCENT OF MAN

Betty finished her draft of the play, and I printed it out before Friday's rehearsal, where we had our first run-through. (She liked the portentous sound with which I quoted the newspaper headline.) There's no rehearsal on Labor Day weekend, so it's time to start MEMORIZING my lines!  I improvised a line for the closing scene, and Betty likes it enough to include it.

Moira borrowed J. Bronowski's BBC series The Ascent of Man from the library, and we've been watching it again. (I remember seeing the whole thing in a Sunday afternoon presentation in the university auditorium, two episodes per Sunday, when I was twelve.) Like Kenneth Clark's Civilization, it's a very entertaining "personal view" of mankind's onward & upward progress.  I remember it in much detail. (I was thinking of renting the Danish version of The Killing from Suspect Video, but that can wait till we're finished with this.)

This afternoon I went on another Professor's Walk.  This time we met near Spadina station and took a circular route that led us to the Chinatown festival.  It was pretty noisy, especially the Falun Gong drummers. (When I got home I had a headache.) I was talking to a woman from mainland China who teaches about polymers and was interested in our house renovations.

A new blog

As previously considered, I started a new blog at memoirslam.blogspot.ca to post my memoir pieces from the Monday afternoon group.  I've already posted three or four pieces, but then I got lazy.

Yesterday I visited Dr. Hassan and told him about the group and the blog.  He seems impressed about how active I am, but it doesn't impress me.  People who work from 9:00 to 5:00, they're the ones who are active!  I've got into the habit of having lunch at the Burger King near Eglinton station after visiting my shrink. (Maybe I should break that habit.)

Last night I went to a new Karaoke Meetup organized by Lillian Zepeda.  (We went to Freezone Karaoke in Koreatown near the Christie station.)  She and I were the only people who showed up, but maybe it'll grow.

I still haven't bought any tickets for the Met opera screening next season.  I think I'm interested in Prince Igor and Rusalka and even seeing Cenerentola again, but I just don't feel motivated at the moment.

Tina Brown's Daily Beast finally got interested in the Bradley Manning case when he renamed himself Chelsea. (Typical!) I've tried to get into that site, but it's just too thin.

BLUE JASMINE

Puitak came over yesterday and brought us lunch from a Vietnamese place. (She brought me curry chicken and rice.) There was enough left over for another lunch!

In the afternoon Moira and I went to see Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine at the Varsity.  I'd accumulated enough Scene card points to get both of us in free! (I'm glad they let me share the points from my card.  You never know when there might be a snag.)

The movie was a pretty scathing satire, to the point of grimness.  Cate Blanchett was in rare form in the title role. (One actor, Bobby Cannavale, looked a whole lot like Colin Farrell.) They put on a commercial in the middle of the trailers, which bugged me.  I can accept commercials before trailers, but this is a step too far!

Bradley Manning got sentenced to 35 years yesterday.  I've been commenting about it a lot on The Huffington Post.  The homophobic glee of some people is getting on my nerves.  People keep calling him "the little twerp" or "the little punk." One guy wrote, "I hope he serves his full 35 years, then gets hit by a truck on the day of his release." But I still think he's a bigger hero than I've ever managed to be.

Three classic movies

"I shall hang you twice, I think"--The African Queen

"Suppose Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks divorce!"--Some Like It Hot

On selling drugs to Negroes: "They're animals anyway, let them lose their souls!"--The Godfather

Over the last few days I've seen three classic movies.  I'd seen them several times before, and saw them again with Classic Movie Meetup groups.

Saturday night I saw John Huston's The African Queen at the Fairview screening room.  It's a great romantic adventure, with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn achieving a nice quirky chemistry.

Monday night I saw Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot at the Event Screen.  Jack Lemmon had a great scene saying "I'm engaged!" It occurred to me that it wouldn't have worked as well in color as it does in black & white.

Last night I saw Francis Coppola's The Godfather at the Revue, as part of their series of movies based on books.  During the scene where Michael visited his father in the hospital, I remembered visiting Mother in her last week.

Geoff Pevere introduced the movie and talked about it afterward.  When he asked for audience comments, I mentioned that the scene where Barzini got assassinated on the big steps resembled the ending of The Roaring Twenties where a mortally James Cagney climbed the church steps.

Yesterday I went to Dufferin Mall and a found a shoe repair place that sold me a new watch battery. (I also replaced my threadbare watch strap.)

Memoir slam

Yesterday I went to Matthew's Movies and Outings Meetup at Just Desserts near Wellesley Station.  I also saw a documentary about Mary Pickford on Netflix.

This afternoon I went to the memoir slam.  The first subject was "Trouble with customs and immigration officials." I haven't had any real trouble with them, but I wrote about my trouble getting into the Ontario health care system a year after returning from my eight months in London researching my Ph.D. thesis.  In that system applicants wait twenty minutes in a preliminary queue, then after they tell you your papers are in order you get to wait in the main queue for two hours.  

In my case, I thought my papers were in order--I had a passport to prove my citizenship--but when I came to the front of the second queue it turned out I needed more documentation to prove residency. (They were afraid I was a Canadian citizen who'd become a British resident and was now sponging off Canadian health care.) So I got more documentation and returned the next day.  But once again, they let me past the first stage only to tell me it still wasn't good enough.  This time I put up a fuss because I'd wasted so much time in queues, and luckily they relented.

The second subject was "Clocks and watches." I talked about our antique clock from Berlin, Ontario--before it became Kitchener in World War I--and how I missed owning a watch I could wind up because now they only sell battery watches. (Coincidentally, my watch battery died today.) Then I talked about how I had no trouble learning to tell time, but was a long time learning to tie my shoes, leading to a long digression.  But the others didn't mind:  when I was finished, one woman asked if I had any more to say!

I enjoy the memoir slam so much, I think I'll start a second blog of my writings there. (Maybe other members will do the same!)

Finished THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP

Yesterday I finished The Old Curiosity Shop.  Kitschy and all over the place.  The notes had a Greek quote from The Odyssey which Dick Swiveller alluded to, and I managed to translate it! (It goes something like "At once she put the drug into the wine, then he drank it.")

Last night we had another rehearsal.  There's a new actress called Sheila.  The writer finally printed out the first act, which I have a bigger role in.  I was afraid I'd have to leave early, but there was plenty of time.  It's time to get serious about memorizing my lines.

Then I went to the Karaoke Meetup.  It was supposed to be at Jingle's, but it turned out they weren't having karaoke that night.  But Jonah can think on his feet, and decided to move the location to Kramer's, which was having karaoke.  I went first while he waited at Jingle's for other people who showed up there.  As a result, I got to be first in the rotation!  I sang Dean Martin's "Sway"  and The Moody Blues' "Ride My See Saw."

With the Dickens book finished, I've started reading the sea issue of Lapham's Quarterly.  Looks like it'll be entertaining! (I wonder if they'll publish an issue on death one of these quarters?)

HDTV

For the past twelve years, we've subscribed to satellite TV with its myriad channels, but recently we let it lapse.  So I went out and bought an indoor HDTV antenna at the Futureshop near Keele & St. Clair.  We now get Toronto's local stations free in all their HDTV glory, and Buffalo stations when the weather is good.  Moira was pleased, because Margaret was worrying that Father would get bored without TV.

After finishing the second-last season of Breaking Bad, we watched Ken Burns' two-part documentary The Dust Bowl on Netflix.  It made good use of first-hand accounts from people who were children at the time. (Moira's only problem with these shows is that she has trouble staying awake in the evening.)

This evening we saw Ron Howard's movie Frost/Nixon.  It was better than I expected.  Lately I've been a bit curious about the year 1974 and reading about that year's news items and hit songs. (I recall that Mother felt sorry for Nixon.)

John fixed up the new overhead light for my room. (All that was left to do was some plastering around the old light's fixture.) The new light's very convenient.

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE

"I like cats.  They're always up to something!"--The Postman Always Rings Twice

This afternoon I went to the memoir slam.  Our two subjects were "bargains" and "looking through windows." On bargains I wrote that I've never really got into consumer culture or watching for bargains, but that Giuseppe Macina's singing lessons have good value for money.  On windows I mentioned staring out the back window when I was little, which Mother called "foxing"; looking out my window in early fall after a frosty night and seeing green grass covered in a temporary white blanket (something I miss from my New Brunswick days); looking out the window from my first Toronto home twenty years ago and seeing the old buses and streetcars at the Wychwood Barns; looking my window today and seeing a firehouse tower, and wishing I could get access to the top and see the view.  I really enjoy this group!

This evening I saw the 1948 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice at the Classic Movies Meetup at the Central. (I'd seen it on TV before, but I recorded it on video and didn't get the last ten minutes.) John Updike got it right when he wrote in The New Yorker that it isn't a great movie but has great moments.

After I got home I saw the last episode of the second-last season of Breaking Bad.  Pretty stunning.

Walking from Eglinton to Bloor

This afternoon I went on a Walking Meetup organized by Matthew.  We met near Yonge & Eglinton and walked down to Yonge & Bloor.  And we were pretty brisk:  it only took about an hour.

A dozen people came, with some nice variety. (One mother brought her son.) I was talking to a German girl wearing sandals, with a ring on one toe.  I was also talking to an Iraqi girl who's been reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a feminist critical of Islam.

At the end of the walk, we had lunch at Hue's Kitchen.  I ordered the butter chicken with brown rice, and the girl sitting next to me ordered the same thing.  I got served first, but I gave her the first serving and waited for the second. (Gentleman or what?)

You wouldn't expect to meet people you know by chance in a city as big as Toronto.  But that happened twice to me last week!  On Wednesday I went to a second meeting of the bereavement support group (I had a headache and had to leave early), and on the subway on the way there I met Sara, organizer of the Board Games Meetup.  It was a bit awkward because I haven't been to that group for a while.  

Then on Thursday, I went to Beguiling in Mirvish Village tp buy another volume of Fantagraphics' series of the complete comic strip Peanuts, from  1971 to 1974--I remember seeing some episodes at the time! I also got some cheap reprints of Mad magazine, including Dave Berg Looks at the U.S.A., and Dennis the Menace Rides Again. What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, just afterward I met Alex, organizer of the Life Begins at Forty Meetup.  And I reminded him I'd be attending his screening of The Postman Always Rings Twice on Monday.

In a Lighter Vein

Today was the latest ROLT event:  In a Lighter Vein, devoted to humorous writing.  Fifteen people said they were coming, I made a reservation for ten, and seven showed up. (Four were new.)

I read James Thurber's "The Night the Bed Fell" (Mother liked Thurber) and Stephen Leacock's "My Financial Career." They're from the books My Life and Hard Times and Literary Lapses respectively.  Last Sunday I bought them at the World's Biggest Bookstore, which had only one copy each.  I also bought a discounted book showing Gustave Dore's famous drawings of 19th-century London.

In the evening I went to the Karaoke Meetup at BarPlus.  There were just three people, but one was a new girl with whom I sang the "Summer Nights" duet from Grease.

The annual week for commemorating banned books is in September, so for next month's ROLT, I think I'll make it about censored and challenged writing.  Besides reading censored works, we could also read writing about censorship, like Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the book-burning in Cervantes' Don Quixote.

BREAKING BAD

"Walter, just because you shot Jesse James... don't make you Jesse James"--Mike, Breaking Bad

"Boys shave, and girls say 'You cut yourself!'"--Eva Gabor, Green Acres

My failure to post this last week hasn't been due to anything like my earlier earache.  I simply couldn't think of anything to say!

In recent days Moira and I have been watching the second-last season of Breaking Bad, which just came available on Netflix.  It's a really brilliant show. (It's the one about the high school chemistry teacher who gets into the crystal meth business.) As Moira says, Bryan Cranston is an actor who can do two things at once.  We watch an episode every evening. (There are eight.)

I've also been watching some old TV shows on Hulu.  I just discovered Green Acres there.  Every episode I've seen--I'm starting with the last season--has a detail I remember from seeing the show back in 1970!  Eddie Albert did a great slow burn.  

I also saw the first episode of Blake Edwards' Peter Gunn, which is cool in a 1958 sort of way, especially Henry Mancini's theme music. (Crazy, Daddyo!) But I can't quite get into Night Gallery, Rod Serling's early '70s horror followup to The Twilight Zone.  Maybe it's his hairpiece.  I couldn't quite get into Ric Burns' documentary Death and the Civil War either, which I saw the first part of on Netflix.

Two new TV shows

Last night Moira and I saw the first episode of the original Danish version of The Killing.  It built into something pretty gripping.  We watched it on Youtube, where someone posted it one quarter-episode at a time. (We tried to see it on our HDTV, and I did manage to find it there, but I couldn't figure out how to change it to a full-screen format.)

Later I saw the first episode of Jenji Kohan's prison series Orange Is the New Black.  The central character in it was a bit annoying.  I still get angry about the War on Drugs ruining lives.

I've been watching Mission:  Impossible on Netflix.  There are still a few episodes from the sixth season that I didn't rent from zip.ca because the disc needed replacement.  But I don't remember seeing any of these episodes at the time.

We got the first peaches of the season.

Non-fiction book club

Last night I attended the Non-Fiction Book Club Meetup at the reference library, where we discussed Guns, Germs and Steel.  It was pretty lively.  Some people speak more than others, of course.  I only spoke a couple of times, but I'm just as happy with listening as talking.  I met Jane, and afterward I was explaining to her about our VPN.

Last night I saw an episode of Night Gallery where a character was reading Charles Dickens' Bleak House, and the book was part of the green Centennial Edition of Dickens' complete works that we own!  (I'm now reading the Centennial Edition of The Old Curiosity Shop.)

My earache has mostly gone away.  And the ear drops have almost run out.

I'm running short again.  Maybe I should put my comic-book collection into better order.  My Megapolis city now has a population of over five million.  I got the August schedule for the Bloor Cinema, but it doesn't look so interesting.  And I got new razors at the drugstore.