SAVING MR. BANKS

P.L. Travers on the Mary Poppins script: "Where is the gravitas?"--Saving Mr. Banks

Last night I saw Saving Mr. Banks at Canada Square.  That's the movie about P.L. Travers and Walt Disney collaborating (combatively) to make the movie Mary Poppins.  The psychology was pretty middlebrow, and Travers' dissatisfaction with the final movie gets glossed over.  But Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks are uncanny in the lead roles.  I also liked Colin Farrell as Travers' alcoholic father in the flashbacks.  Now I want to learn more about Travers' life.

I love the Mary Poppins movie--the Sherman Brothers became Hollywood's most prolific songwriting team, but they never surpassed their early work there--but I didn't care for the first of the books when I read it some years back.  Presumably, the books read better when you're one of the few people who haven't seen the movie.  (Maybe I should try them again.)

I've returned to translating those Portuguese booklets about the lives of the saints.  I've been working on the story of Sao Tomas de Aquino, but it took me a few days to realize that's the Portuguese name for St. Thomas Aquinas!

Father found a book of Pindar's odes, in both their original Greek and an English translation.  I'm likely to spend some time on that.

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

Record producer F. Murray Abraham (hearing Llewyn's audition): "I don't see any money here"--Inside Llewyn Davis

Last night I went to Jonah's Karaoke Meetup at BarPlus.  I sang quite a few songs, including the Alan Parsons Project's "Don't Answer Me," which I'd only sung once or twice before.

This afternoon I saw the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis at the Lightbox with a Movie Meetup group.  Pam was there too, and we always have interesting conversations. (She spent a year in New Guinea, which I'm now interested in after reading Guns, Germs and Steel.)

The movie was set in the New York folk music scene of the early 1960s, but was really about that scene's second-rate talents, sort of like the Christopher Guest spoof A Mighty Wind.  It was rather odd, part droll and part downbeat, with a far from likeable hero.

Because it's Christmas time, I've been playing Candy Crush Saga and Pet Rescue Saga again.  (I'm up to level 86 in Candy Crush Saga.) Now I have several Facebook friends who are also playing them.  After you play a level both games sometimes offer you a fun-o-meter to rate how much you liked it.  But the way I see it there's no point in rating each level, because what makes those games so fun is that all the levels are different!  If some levels are less fun than others, that's still better than if you only got to play the most fun levels.

Merry, merry

Roger Sterling: "You know Detroit [the auto business].  All fun and games, until they shoot you in the face"--Mad Men

Yesterday our internet connection got restored.  So I'm back to playing all those Facebook games.

Yesterday morning I noticed that I'd forgotten to move my outside window pane so there'd be two layers of glass during the winter (unlike in summer, when I can open it completely).  One of the panes was frozen shut and I used some boiling water to get it moving.  I had to take the panes out to rearrange them and put them on the corner of my bed, leaving a wet spot there that I could feel between the sheets.

Donald, John and his family came over for Christmas dinner.  We had both turkey and vegan food.

For lunch today I had a tuna sandwich for the first time in a while. I noticed that I bake good whole wheat bread!

This evening I had dinner at the Golden Thai restaurant with ten other people from the Asperger's Meetup.  I splurged and had both Golden Thai chicken and Golden Thai fried rice.

Ice palaces

We have a couple of trees in our front yard and yesterday they were covered in ice.  It would have been a good day for a Photography Meetup event.

Saturday night I saw the Alistair Sim version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL for the first time since I was a kid, with the Classical Movie Meetup at the Fairview screening room.  It's a great psychological movie.  When we get back online I'll be eager to learn more about it at the Internet Movie Database. (What else did Brian Desmond-Hurst direct?)

Yesterday I saw a broadcast of the Royal Ballet production of Tchaikovsky's NUTCRACKER at the Yonge & Eglinton.  My favorite costumes were the women in the Spanish Dance.  I would have seen it with Mary of the Classical Music Meetup, but she couldn't make it because of the ice storm. (What a shame:  I haven't seen her for a few months.)

The streetcars weren't running yesterday so I walked to St. Clair West station.  But I still had to take a shuttle bus north to Eglinton station because a tree fell near St. Clair station. (I arrived with little time to spare.)  On the way back I took the bus to Eglinton West station and hoped to take the Ossington bus south to St. Clair, but there turned out to be a detour so that bus was no longer coming all the way to Eglinton West!

I've finished ONE SUMMER, which I enjoyed greatly, and let's hope the Byzantine history arrives soon so I can start reading that one.  In the meanwhile, I've resumed reading the book with 50 things I need to know about architecture.

When I bought a drink yesterday at the Yonge & Eglinton they gave it to me in a reusable cup with a bendable straw, illustrated with a New Jersey Devil.  I guess I'll be reusing it.

It took quite a search this morning to find a library computer. (There have been some blackouts nearby, so more people must be depending on libraries for their net connection.) In the end I found one at the Gladstone library.

A week off line!

I'm posting this through the facilities of Wychwood library, since our modem conked out Thursday and can't be replaced till Christmas day. (I hope technicians get paid extra for working then.) To tell the truth, I needed a break from those Facebook games.

With the web unavailable, I've been reviewing my Greek.  If I get really bored, I might even watch TV!

Father and I have been watching the sixth season of MAD MEN on DVD.  The fifth and sixth seasons aren't quite as good as the first four:  Megan isn't as fascinating as Betty.  But I guess diminishing returns were inevitable. (Consider how diminished SIX FEET UNDER was in its last two seasons.)

Wednesday night the choir performed again, for the Earlscourt Rotary club.  Again, they treated us to dinner!

Another dream

I had a vivid dream last night.  It was about a non-existent Twin Peaks-type show about a group of people in a New England town.  They found themselves transported to a parallel universe that was exactly like theirs, except that they themselves were tiny and inconspicuous, like in the Irwin Allen series Land of the Giants.  

But then it gradually emerged that some scientist had found the mode that transported them, and they could transport back to their regular world.  And that there was a way for them to increase their size to one that was normal in this world, and become the same people as in their regular world, except that they could change things.  And that they were coming to this parallel universe to make Groundhog Day-like changes to avoid some big tragedy.  And that the group had originally just been the scientist, but had gradually grown to include more and more others.  And that the people in the group had developed a brotherhood among each other, with an initiation ritual for new people joining, involving dancing a mazurka in a circle around a circular table.  And that the storyline was gradually moving toward their making the changes that would fundamentally transform the outcome.

Maybe I could go to Hollywood and sell that concept.  But then I'd have to watch the show!

You might be an Aspie if...

I belong to some Facebook groups.  The main one is for the Autistic Spectrum Community.  I sometimes post news articles there on Asperger's Syndrome and autism that I've found on The Huffington Post and Salon and such.

Another of my Facebook groups is called "You might be an Aspie if..." Just lately that group's become pretty active.  One post was about how we often remember commercial jingles, and that got a whole lot of comments. (I get an email every time someone comments in a thread I've commented in, and I got quite a few from that one.)

Another one was about how we study foreign languages, and when we learn some way a foreign language is different from English, which for most people makes it a headache, sometimes causes us to think "If only English were like that!" We got talking about languages and I mentioned how German is full of tricks (like English). For example, "Lass singen" means "Sing on," while "Lass das Singen" means "Stop that singing."

Just today there was a post about how we often can't stand something like the noise from a vacuum cleaner. (My family used to have a really annoying Dirt Devil.) I mentioned that I can't bear to hear balloons burst, and get nervous when there are balloons around.

This evening I contributed a post myself mentioning how I recognize a musical chord in the game Candy Crush Saga as the opening chord in "Anitra's Dance" from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite. (Since it's yuletide, I've relapsed into playing that game and Pet Rescue Saga, for a little while.) The tune that starts every CCS game also reminds me of "Getting to Know You" from The King and I.

THE PERVERT'S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY

Yesterday afternoon I went to Bev's Asperger's Meetup at an espresso place north of Eglinton station.  The snow interrupted the streetcars and I ended up walking all the way to St. Clair West station in the blizzard!  I was late, of course, but so was everyone else.  I had a scone and a pineapple-orange smoothie with Greek yogurt.  I also mentioned my new theory that Charles Lindbergh was an Aspie.

Last night I went to a party for the opera people at Frank Dejong's house near Lansdowne station.  About ten people made it despite the snow.

This afternoon I saw The Pervert's Guide to Ideology with the Sunday Afternoon Movie Meetup group at the Lightbox.  It's a documentary with radical intellectual Slavoj Zizek discussing ideological themes in movies. (Moira says his name is pronounced "zhizhek,"-- from the Cyrillic letter that looks like a spider--which you wouldn't know just from reading it.) They'd show a Taxi Driver scene with Travis Bickle sitting on his bed, then show Zizek discussing the movie sitting on a bed that looked just the same.  A lot of what he said was over my head, but I liked his setting Titanic next to a Soviet romantic propaganda movie called The Fall of Berlin, in which the hero gets romantic advice from Comrade Stalin!  Zizek pointed out that Rose tells Jack's corpse "I'll never let go of you," just as she pushes him off the raft!

Christmas dinner

"Sing it again, Mommy." "I don't want to torture the mice"--Boardwalk Empire

I've finished the third season of Boardwalk Empire.  Saw five episodes between Tuesday and Wednesday, so I managed to return the discs a day before they were due. (I noticed an anachronism: the song "Happy Birthday to You" only appeared in the 1930s!) Funny how I ended up liking Al Capone.

Last night the choir performed part of our Christmas concert at the Blythwood Baptist church.  They included us in their Christmas dinner too!

Tonight I went to a social gathering of the Non-Fiction Book Club Meetup at the Fox & Fiddle near St. George station.  Rose brought us together to discuss what directions to take the group in, but we're pretty satisfied.  We had an interesting discussion on a lot of different things.

I'm really enjoying One Summer.  Bill Bryson has an eye for telling, amusing details.

Christmas concert

Yesterday would have been the December ROLT Meetup, but after half an hour nobody else came so Moira and I went home.  It turned out that two people came later, so it bugged me that Moira had been pressuring me to leave.  Then again, maybe I would have left anyway.

At the memoir group today the two subjects were "Telling lies" and "A teacher or relative." One the former subject, I recalled this Mormon public service ad with singing and dancing kids telling real kids not to lie.  For the latter subject, everyone else  wrote about teachers they'd known, but I wrote about Aunt Alma.  Selia was away and the organizer who replaced her noticed a subject card that I'd submitted for the subject "Semi-maturity" that she wanted to throw out, but I insisted it was a good subject.

I was a bit late to the event because I'd seen an episode of Boardwalk Empire before leaving since I want to make sure of seeing all twelve episodes before the set gets due for return Friday.

This evening was the choir's Christmas concert. ("Mille Cherubini in Coro" has been going through my head.) There was such a big crowd that they had to find extra chairs and seat some people in the mezzanine.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

Mob executioner: "Certain people you do not steal from!"--Boardwalk Empire

I rented the DVDs for the third season of Boardwalk Empire.  It's giving the feeling of diminishing returns. (They may run out of characters to kill.) The show still looks like a million dollars anyhow.

Yesterday afternoon I was under the weather and cancelled on the last Acting Meetup before the Christmas break. (It's the first one I've missed.) Instead I went to an Asperger's Meetup at the Starbucks north of Lawrence Station.  I met Bev for the first time in a while.  She says I'm amazing with my reading and activity.  There were also some young Aspies there.

In the evening I went to a party for the opera people at Frank Dejong's house.  I was afraid I'd be late, but I turned out to be a week early!

The other night I accidentally knocked a glass off my desk and it broke on the floor.  I picked up most of the broken glass, but there are still some tiny pieces to vacuum, once I get around to it.  Until then I'll have to be careful with bare feet!

Am I getting a cold?

Yesterday morning when I went to see Dr. Hassan, I had a huge headache.  It must have been due to the sudden mild weather:  big temperature changes seem to give me headaches.  But I found that when I started to talk to him, the headache eased somewhat.

Last night I went to Lillian's Karaoke Meetup at the Fox & Fiddle near Wellesley station.  But there was a long wait because of a fundraiser for the Philippines, and the noise got to me.  So just like when we went to Mayday Malone's, I quit after one song: "Every Breath You Take." (It seemed to be an audience favorite, and people were singing along with me.)

Today I woke up with a big sore throat.  Later I went to make a reservation for Sunday's ROLT Meetup, but it turned out that in the winter months the Central doesn't open till 4:00.  So I changed the location to Victory Cafe, like in October. (This December I'm doing children's stories, like I did last December.  And when I did it the first time, I was burdened with a cold.  I hope history doesn't repeat itself!)

In that Facebook Game The Tribez I finally made the breakthrough of building marble pits on the new Marble Fiord island.  First I had to upgrade Marble Fiord's main building, which meant constructing and upgrading a couple of mansions, all of which took a lot of cut stone, much of which I shipped from the Isle of the Ancients.  Now I can ship marble back for higher-level construction there.  But producing cut marble will require sand from Mystery Shore island, which I've now also entered.

ONE SUMMER

Bette Davis (noticing a hole in her sock): "Well, there's one piggy who'll be going to market in a shocking state of nudity!"--Dangerous

I finished One Summer yesterday and started reading One Summer, Bill Bryson's account of America in the summer of 1927. (Emerson said you shouldn't read a book that's less than a year old, but what the heck!) The first part is all about the race to be the first to fly nonstop from New York to Paris, which made Charles Lindbergh an instant celebrity, and the tabloid obsession with the case of the Window Sash Murder.  Bryson's writing is characteristically entertaining. (I've read a lot of his books.)

Last night I went to see Dangerous, Bette Davis' first Oscar-winning role, at the Lightbox.  I would have seen it with a Movie Meetup group, but I couldn't find them there.  It's about how successful architect Franchot Tone--a bargain basement Leslie Howard--falls for Davis, a broke stage actress with a "jinx" reputation, and commits all his money to putting her on Broadway, not knowing that she has a husband who won't divorce her. (If she told him it would be bad for the plot, of course.) It's conventional and boring, stuffed with the precious dialogue you often got in 1930s movies.  Frankly, it's the mannered performances that have tended to win Oscars.

Getting rid of those cookies

I brought some of my cookies to the memoir slam yesterday afternoon. (They were popular enough.) Our first subject was "What a way to die!" We put it back to choose another subject, but then we drew it a second time!  It was meant to be, and we had a lot to say about it.  I ended up musing about how I might like to die and what to do with my body.  The second subject was Walt Disney (a subject I'd submitted) and we had a lot to say about that too.  Among many other things, I mentioned that my house key is on a Goofy key ring, and that visiting California's Disneyland is on my bucket list.

I also brought cookies to the choir dress rehearsal.  Pablo from the opera came to sing solo in the concert.  Adolfo will be playing the Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and Vince Guaraldi's "Lucy and Linus" from the Peanuts TV specials.  And Giovanni and some woman will be singing the duet "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

Next month the Non-Fiction Book Club will be discussing A Concise History of Byzantium.  It's in short supply in the libraries and on the Chapters and Indigo bookshelves, so I ordered a used copy online.

I had to quit that online game Anno because I ran out of money and couldn't figure out what to do next.

Cookie exchange

Sig Rumann:  "She looks like the healthiest woman in the world to me!" Groucho Marx: "And you look like you've never seen an unhealthy woman!"--A Day at the Races

Yesterday afternoon at the Acting Meetup the more experienced actors performed some scenes they'd been working on.  One guy did a standup comedy routine he's working on!  I didn't perform but I enjoyed it greatly.

Yesterday evening I saw the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races yet again with the Classic Movies Meetup at the Fairview screening room.  Granted that it's pretty uneven:  Allan Jones, in the Zeppo role, has a couple of horrid songs, and the moment when the brothers disguise themselves in blackface will make you squirm.  But it's very entertaining overall, with Groucho in rare form.

This afternoon I went to a cookie exchange at the Bereaved Families of Toronto place.  I was reading the current death issue of Lapham's Quarterly--which has some fascinating texts on bereavement--and they were interested in it.  I ended up being back a huge pile of cookies, so many that I'll have to share them with the choir tomorrow night.