THE GOOD EARTH

"Everyone has some tension with his family.  But not everyone turns into Danny!"--Bloodline

I've finished the book about the Mongols and started rereading Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth for the Classic Book Club.  What a great book it is!  I'm already a third of the way through it.

Blanche Klein let me write a guest post on her blog How Do We Spend Our Free Time at http://klein169.blogspot.ca .  I described what I did Thursday when I bought the seeds for our garden.

Friday we started watching the second season of Bloodline, which has been released on Netflix.  I'm glad Chloe Savigny turned up again!  But I'm so busy in the evenings that I'll have to watch most of it in the day by myself.

Saturday afternoon I went on an Art Walk in the Junction. (We visited a studio that teaches realistic painting.) In the evening the choir performed at Carassauga so Ronaldo drove me and several others out to the Mississauga place.  We sang in a converted hockey arena with lots of echoes and a steadily murmuring audience.  It made me appreciate our other venues!

Today I went to John Snow's book club and we discussed Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum.  I didn't have time to read it in its new translation, but I did read the Ralph Mannheim translation sixteen years ago.  We're now convening in a "heritage room" at the big United Church at the corner of Queen and Church streets.

The choir was going to sing the national anthem at Carassauga this evening, but at the last minute things got changed.  I was late learning this because I didn't read my emails in the morning. (I'll get dozens overnight and not always feel like going through them.) I ate in a hurry at Burger King just beforehand.  But at least I was wearing my choir outfit--suit and black turtleneck--to the book club, and looked pretty fancy!

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

(on having burned the wrong village) "A village betrayed us, a village was burnt.  Point made!" "Your point, their village"--Doctor Zhivago

Saturday afternoon I went on another Art Walk.  Betty-Anne and her husband brought a load of vegan cupcakes!

I'm kicking myself!  I thought I'd scheduled the Classic Book Club event, discussing the I, Claudius sequel for Sunday at 2:00 as usual.  But it turned out I'd somehow put the time as 7:00, so two of us came in the afternoon and the other three in the evening! (But Malcolm and I did get to discuss about videos I might borrow from him to screen for the History Discussion Group.)

Saturday I bought a garden spade at Canadian Tire.  I'm now finished preparing the garden for planting!  So of course it's gonna rain tomorrow...

Tonight the History Discussion Group screened David Lean's Doctor Zhivago at Debi's place near the Distillery District, with a DVD I'd borrowed from 2Q Video, which also has the Keira Knightley miniseries! (I brought some Timbits.) It was at least the fifth time I'd seen it.  The book was a lot more complex, but of course that's inevitable.  Afterward Leon from Moldova gave me a ride home.

For some reason I can't think of much to write about just now.

A new Facebook group

Margaret Dumont: "Your Excellency!" Groucho Marx: "You're not so bad yourself!"--Duck Soup

I've started a new Facebook group!  It's called Toronto Bookshelf and it's for lovers of reading in the Toronto area and elsewhere.  One thing I intend to do is show upcoming events for all the public book clubs in the Toronto area, starting with my own.  I've started doing a Book Club of the Day feature.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/553940368099770/

Puitak came over Tuesday morning and she, Moira and I spent a couple of hours colouring my DoodleArt poster.  It was really fun!  Then we went to the Dragon Pearl Chinese buffet out near York Mills & Leslie and had lunch with Gordon.  Afterward we got a peek at a Korean supermarket next door. (Those were some big apples!)

Tuesday night the choir performed a few numbers for a private function given by our patron Tony Fusco.

Wednesday night I went to John Snow's lecture about The Pilgrim's Progress.  It was out at the Coxwell library, so getting there was an adventure.  Maybe we should read it in my book club!

Thursday night I saw Leo McCarey's Duck Soup at the Revue.  Today many people consider it the Marx Brothers' masterpiece but at the time it flopped and ended their contract with Paramount.   It's definitely "all over the place." (Afterward they went to MGM, minus Zeppo, and had a big comeback with the more conventional A Night at the Opera.) Funny how the Marx Brothers were all different while their vaudeville contemporaries the Ritz Brothers were all the same!

I'm starting to get excited about visiting New York at the end of July!  I want to see the musicals Fiddler on the Roof and An American in Paris, and our travel agent is arranging some block bookings. (Hope I have time to visit Cloisters...)

Sore throat.

Interpretations

"Maidens aspiring to godheads..." "And vice versa..."--Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

(seeing a man in a red jacket) "Who's the fire hydrant?"--Fargo

Friday night we started watching the TV version of Fargo on DVD.  It's a brilliant faux true crime comedy-drama, even better than the original movie!  It's a pretty loose reworking of the TV show, but the style and sensibility are much the same!  There's a policewoman and a weaselly salesman and a thug and a pregnant woman and a businessman to rip off, but they're each different from their movie counterparts in various ways.  Billy Bob Thornton is in great form as the thug!

Friday I finally bought new shoes at Mark's near St. Clair & Keele. I also bought a spring jacket but it was too small:  the next day I got a better-fitting one at the Walmart in Dufferin Mall.  I wanted to get a new pair of pyjamas too, but the only ones Walmart had were extra large!

Sander I went to the Play Reading Meetup, where we read Tom Stoppard's absurdist comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  Very unusual--I couldn't really get into it.

Sunday afternoon was Reading Out Loud.  The topic was translations from foreign languages, so the event's title was "Interpretations."  I read several pieces I'd translated myself, including the famous Greek passage in Xenophon's Anabasis where they come within sight of the sea; chapters 12 through 14 of Julius Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars, where he attacked the Helvetians as they were crossing the Saone River, then had unsuccessful negotiations with a Helvetian chief; and the Italian fairy tale "The Love of Three Pomegranates." And I also read the passage from Doctor Zhivago about the doomed demonstration.  

Other people were reading a Rumi poem, parts of a book by Eduardo Galeano, selections from The Divine Comedy and some Chinese and Japanese poems.  The group included five Brazilians who came to improve their English.  They had a good laugh when I told them I knew the Portuguese expression "Ola bonitinha!" which means "Hi, cutie!" I hope they come again.

Out to lunch

Paranoid rock star: "Look at him!  He's taking notes with his eyes!"--Almost Famous

Sunday afternoon the choir did a Mother's Day concert.  We sang several Italian folk songs, along with "Que Sera Sera." Rehearsal was changed from Monday night, so I went to see Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (for the second time) at the Royal.  It was one of CHUM-FM's free screenings so there was a huge queue.  The movie's pretty funny, but a bit too predictable.  Philip Seymour Hoffman has a great cameo as legendary rock critic Lester Bangs.

Tuesday night I went to the new Learn Something New Meetup at a Starbuck's on Mt. Pleasant Road.  There was a lot of discussion of genetics. (One guy got his DNA tested!)

I've finished Claudius the God and can now concentrate on the Genghis Khan book.  He was a real revolutionary, turning Mongolia's tribal society into a nation-state all at once. (The closest parallel I can think of is Mohammed.)

Yesterday John Snow treated me to lunch at the Schnitzel Hub.  Thanks, John, the food was great!  We discussed how to arrange our book clubs to avoid conflict. (He has a new one to focus on American writing!) I've figured out a scheme in which in every month with a fifth Sunday I'll take the fifth month, and also the first Sunday of the next month but one. (That'll mean alternating between five-week books and eight-week books!) John can take the leftover first Sundays for his American book club.

Last night I went to another Coloring Meetup, this time at Spadina Road library.  Debi showed up and we shared my Doodle Art poster. (She did most of the dragon and Mother Goose!) Afterward several of us went to the Country Style Hungarian restaurant, where I had a good custard square.

Gardening season

It's warm enough for gardening now.  It's been a couple of years since we cut down the old cherry tree in our back yard, but two saplings grew from its roots in the garden, so the other day I transplanted them to the side yard.  If they live on, that means the old tree lives on!

I've started spading the garden, which now has a bigger area than last year, and today I moved a continuous line along its edge.  As well as potatoes, this year I plan to plant carrots and cabbage and such.

My nephew Alec came to Toronto for his SAT exam.  I remember going to Montreal to do my SAT when I was seventeen!  I took a train with my brother John and we stayed at a hostel.  We met a porter who supported Canada's Communist Party (not the Marxist-Leninist sect).  On the way there and back I think I was reading I, Claudius and Brave New World.

Now that my finances have been cleared up, I've submitted an online application for OSDP support over my Asperger's condition. Don't know how long before I'll get an interview.

The other day I joined a group I met through Meetup that's going to take a weekend tour of New York City at the end of July!  The base cost (before extra stuff) is $600 and some, which isn't too heavy.  I'll see if I can get a ticket to the Broadway production of An American in Paris.

Thursday night I dined at the Pickle Barrel with the Colouring Meetup, and did some colouring too.  They were pretty impressed by my Doodleart fairy tale poster. (So far I've mostly been colouring in flesh, using red, yellow, pink and orange.)

History Discussion Group

Sunday I visited my old singing teacher Giuseppe out in Scarborough. (I hadn't seen him for a while.)

Tonight was the History Discussion Group. (I had to miss the dress rehearsal for Sunday's choir concert, but I couldn't very well miss this event because I'm the organizer!) The subject was the English language, and we discussed Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue, which I'd finished reading a day or two before.  It looks like Debi will be able to arrange the room for our first screening about three weeks from now.  

Over twenty people said they were coming, so I raised the reservation from twelve to fifteen at the last moment, but that was a mistake:  only nine people showed up! (There were a whole lot of last-minute cancellations.)

The other day I completed my online application for ODSP support.  Don't know how long before I'll get my interview.

Today was warm enough for spring cleaning.  I helped Moira clean one window by standing on a workbench and reaching the top part! (Not a huge contribution, I admit, but it's better than nothing.)

I'm in a good mood because Bernie Sanders won the Indiana primary the other day and still has a shot at winning the nomination.  The  Clintonites are in a state of denial that there's any possibility their champion could fail!  I couldn't help thinking of the Catherine Keener character on Show Me a Hero as a potential Sanders voter.

In that Facebook game I've been playing called Klondike, I decided to let the rabbits breed and breed till they overwhelm the place! (The weak link is the supply of flax for the cables to bind the stacks of hay that feed them.) I don't know how much longer I'll continue with it.