Square dancing

My new interest is square dancing.  They started a Square Dance Meetup group, and I went to the first event on Thursday night at the community centre near Church & Wellesley.  Then I went to a second event last night at Dovercourt House, with live country music!

To someone who's taken ballroom dancing lessons, square dancing isn't so complicated.  The main thing is to keep in step with the music, left-right like in marching.  I've been learning stuff like promenade and allemand left and peekaboo, and of course do-si-do.  The Thursday night group had enough people for three rings (at eight dancers each), but back twenty years ago when there was less competition, they got over a hundred people!

I've been learning Portuguese on duolingo.com .  I learned that in this language cobra means any snake, not just one breed.   The word "banana" must come from Portuguese because it's the same in that language.  Xicara means cup, while copo means glass, which can be confusing.  They say I'm now 17% fluent, whatever that means. (Did you know that there was a period in the 16th and 17th century when Portuguese was a lingua franca in a lot of Asian commerce, like English today?)

This afternoon the Play Read-Through Meetup did Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.  That was pretty fun, and we got almost ten people!  Next month we're doing Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

I've started re-reading Ten Lost Years, Barry Broadfoot's oral history of Canada in the Great Depression.  This is what reading history should be, full of compelling stories about people trying to survive unusually hard times. (Maybe we should do Six War Years too.)

I finally got around to buying a new set of pajamas.  I'd tried to buy one at Walmart, but they only had them in extra-large size!  This evening I went to Yorkdale Mall--had to take a shuttle bus because the subway's being serviced--and found a pair at the Bay.  They're a bit tight, but cost only twenty bucks!  I'm wearing them right now.

Two TV shows

I've been looking at two new series on Crave TV.

Deutschland 83 is a German miniseries about a 1983 East German who gets manipulated into spying in a West German general's office under a stolen identity, so the East German government will give his mother priority for a kidney transplant operation.  It's a terrific show, intelligent and exciting. (We rarely appreciate how lucky we were to survive the irresponsibly hawkish Reagan presidency.) Those little East German cars looked curious.

I've also started the remake of Roots.  It isn't as cheesy as the 1977 original, but it still lacks subtlety.   Alex Haley's book is way better than either version.  Forrest Whittaker has a good role as Fiddler. (It was a good role for Louis Gossett.) At least it lacks the bad acting of white stars like Edward Asner!

Last night I found a puzzle at brilliant.com where you have to figure out x where (x+1)^1/2 - (x-1)^1/2 = (4x-1)^1/2.  I think their answer is that there's no x that fits the equation, but that assumes that these are all positive square roots.  x=5/4 works, when the second term is a negative root while the others are positive, or when the second one's positive while the others are negative!

Odds & ends

Monday night we saw the movie of August:  Osage County, which Moira borrowed from the library.  The cast included Dermot Mulroney, whom she calls "my favourite goon." Unfortunately, the video skipped several times in the second half. (She says library DVDs are notorious for that.) The soundtrack included the Eric Clapton song "Lay Down, Sally," which I always thought went, "Way down south"!

Tuesday night we saw Rene Clair's And Then There Were None, from the Agatha Christie play, also from the library.  It's pretty scary, with a tasty cast. (Moira said, "The cat did it!") It turns out that the play has a different ending from the book!

Wednesday I had lunch with Pam at Butler's Pantry.

Yesterday I finally got my eyes tested at a clinic near St. Clair & Dufferin. (I tried to wait until after my OSDP interview, in hopes that a new health care plan would pay for it, but it's been taking forever!) My long-distance sight is still improving, so I got a new prescription.  The eye doctor expects that my headaches will be reduced, but they never seem to go away.

Today I got my hair cut.  When she was finished, the Hungarian barber said, "Now you look ten years younger!" My gray hairs are a bit more visible near the temple, but I find that look dignified!

I saw a video on Youtube by someone talking about the best and worst national flags.

Last night I dreamed about meeting an American fundamentalist and pointing out that Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson was a deist.  I said, "Deists think that God is like that rich uncle who never takes you out to dinner!"

Several Meetups

"Actually, 'forsook' is acceptable usage too." "Forsook you and the horse you rode in on!"--August:  Osage County

Sunday afternoon was Reading Out Loud.  The subject this month was science fiction.  My earlier efforts got weak attendance, but this time there were seven people.  One attendee had some copies of a zine he'd published, and the other had a manuscript of a fantasy novel she'd been working on!  I read the penultimate chapter of Tom Swift and His Giant Robot, along with the closing passages of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.

Tuesday I had another singing lesson with Andriy.  Not only is he really cheap, he'll continue for an hour and a half, until I get tired!  I've figured out that Route 1 on York Region Transit will take me along High Tech Road (they actually have a street with that name!) to Silver Linden Drive, not far from Andriy's house.  His focus is on technique, and I think I'm learning a lot.

Wednesday afternoon I went to the Play Reading Meetup at Annette library.  We read through August:  Osage County, which was really fun.  Now I'll have to see the movie!

Wednesday night I went to the Political Discussion Meetup at the Fox & Firkin near Eglinton station.  Much talk about the Trump campaign.  I still wish they'd find a somewhat quieter place.

Last night I went to Rose's Non-Fiction Meetup for the first time in a while.  Our book was History's People, the same book my history group will be discussing in a couple of weeks!  Afterward we hung out at Jack Astor's, where I had a cream soda float.

I've finally finished the winter issue of Lapham's Quarterly (on spying), and started the spring issue on disasters.

I think I need to get my eyes tested again.  The place where I went before is gone, so I'll have to find a new optometrist.

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and INHERIT THE WIND

"The only man who can strut while sitting down"--Inherit the Wind

Sunday afternoon I saw the Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera at the Revue.  It was their first movie without Zeppo, having moved from Paramount to MGM.  It was their biggest financial success, but it isn't my favourite of theirs. (That's Horse Feathers!) Parts of it are very funny, but there's a really lame romantic plot between Alan Jones (in the Zeppo role) and Kitty Carlisle.  There's also a bad-guy opera star who slaps Harpo around, as annoyingly obvious as Billy Zane in Titanic. (Part of the movie is set on an ocean liner.)

Thursday night the History Discussion Group watched the video of Stanley Kramer's movie of Inherit the Wind, a fictional play based on the Scopes Monkey Trial.  It's a pretty good adaptation, with veterans Spencer Tracey and Frederic March in fine form as veteran lawyers.

Today I went to a history walk in High Park.  It was hosted by Trevor, who has a video company in the Junction that emphasizes the Steam Punk fashion.  I met Martha, whom I haven't seen since we were in Nancy's acting class.  That reminded me of how we did the exercise in that class of creating a character from scratch, and I came up with a socialist revolutionary from 1914. (Trevor's character was from 1880 or so.)

Singing lessons

I've started taking singing lessons from Andriy Kartuzov, whom I know from the choir.  He charges even less than my first teacher Giuseppe Macina did!  We had our first lesson today, and he takes a more technical approach than Giuseppe did.  I've taken to moving my arms around like an Egyptian dancer while singing to keep them relaxed.

Getting to Andriy's place in Richmond Hill was an adventure in itself!  The first lesson was supposed to be on Tuesday, but I went to Caymus Street instead of Callowhill Street!  Today I carried a printout of his location from Google Maps, as I should have done previously. (There's a lot of my mother in me--she could be goofy about finding places too.) His neighbourhood has some exotic street names like Far Niente and Monet and Iron Horse...

I finished Margaret MacMillan's History's People the other day.  I didn't care for the part about politicians, but liked the part about diarists.  Now I'm reading Hemingway's In Our Time for my book club, and the spying issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

Tonight I saw a documentary about the making of Marilyn Monroe's The Misfits on Youtube.  A sad, poignant story.

We finished the second season of Fargo.  It was even more brilliant and original than the first season!

FARGO

"You're a Gerhardt!" "That's like Jupiter saying to Pluto, 'You're a planet!"--Fargo

I wasn't quite finished with NYC when I got home.  On Tuesday night we watched the documentary Six by Sondheim, about Stephen Sondheim's career as a Broadway composer, focusing on half a dozen of his songs.  Then I went to the Bloor and saw another documentary, Norman Lear:  Just Another Version of You, about the '70s sitcom creator who created the anti-Moral Majority movement People for the American Way.  The Bloor showed the giant ant movie Them! on Thursday and I would have seen it, but I thought it was at 9:00 when it was actually at 7:00.

Wednesday night the History Discussion Group met at Scallywag's for a Roaring Twenties event discussing Bill Bryson's One Summer:  America 1927. (Jane didn't care for the book so I lent her the 1929 book What a Year! which she liked better.) For the occasion I wore my fedora with my green cardigan and a tie.  There were just three of us but we had a good time.  Margo from Belarus (not to be confused with Margo from Poland), who'd suggested the idea, couldn't be there because she's visiting the Maritimes.  She passed through my hometown of Sackville, N.B.!

We've started watching the second season of the TV version of Fargo, which Moira borrowed from the library.  This is a prequel to the first season, set back in 1979, back when the policewoman's father who runs the diner was a cop himself.  This is how movies should be adapted for TV:   loosely similar, with somewhat parallel settings and characters, but with the same sensibility. 

We're getting into corn season and I had some corn on the cob for dinner! (It's good to have an oblong butter dish so you can roll the cobs in the butter.)

I've been watching some interesting videos on Youtube talking about languages.  Today I actually took a stab at learning Korea's Hangul alphabet!  I also saw the hilarious Gavin McInnes video "Don't Move to New York City."  I just took a free personality test at visualdna.com which concluded I'm a "stargazer" type.

Weekend in New York

When I get stressed, my mouth goes dry.  I noticed that on a weekend tour of New York I took with a group of 50 people whom I hooked up with through the People Over 50 Meetup.  It was all a bit overwhelming.  I made the mistake of entering the Times Square area, where there's now street repairs going on, forcing people into an even tighter squeeze than usual.  I ended up not going to any shows but returning to the hotel early.

We left Friday morning and were on the bus almost around the clock.  There were about six women for every man.  The most scenic part of the drive was in New York State southeast of Syracuse, in James Fenimore Cooper country.  We stayed at the Empire Meadowlands hotel in Secaucus, New Jersey.  I was in a room with Peter, who'd coincidentally been sitting next to me on the bus.  I heard that the rooms on the eastern side had a view of Manhattan, but we were on the west.  He and I and a woman whose name I've forgotten (I warned her I was terrible at remembering names!) had dinner at a Japanese buffet in Secaucus.  On both Saturday and Sunday I took a New Jersey transit bus back to the hotel, which was an adventure in itself. (Route 129 can drop you off just around the corner from the hotel!) At the hotel breakfast I ate yogurt for the first time in years.  It isn't that I didn't like yogurt but that I'd just lost interest in it.

Saturday we took on a tour guide and drove around Manhattan.  He was talking about a public dance Friday nights at the Lincoln Centre Plaza (A Midsummer Night's Swing) and said, "Young men and women come together to spawn." Classic New Yorkese!  We got behind schedule because of heavy traffic and only got a short time at the 9/11 Memorial Park, but no complaints from me about that.  We ate at an upmarket food court in Rockefeller Center, where I had a lobster roll that was a lot pricier than back home.  In the afternoon we did a walking tour of Central Park, where we saw a crowd of people staring at their iPads, playing Pokemon Go!  I had dinner at Carnegie Deli:  a corned beef and egg sandwich so huge that I ended up skipping dinner on Sunday.  American food can make me feel unclean.

On Sunday morning it was raining sore. (Thank goodness I took my raincoat!) In the morning we visited Ellis Island but didn't get to stay there long.  I could have stayed with the main group, had lunch at Chelsea Market and walked through the High Line Park, but like a couple of others I let the bus take me on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  My lunch was a hot dog--a New York dog, with sauerkraut as well as relish--which I ate outside the Shakespeare in the Park theatre, where they were performing Troilus and Cressida with snatches of heavy metal music.  My favourite part of the Met is the American Wing, but I went through some other areas and saw stuff like a 17th-century French painting where a young woman asks an old gypsy for her fortune as her entourage picks her pockets!  And there was this bust of the young Roman emperor Caracalla, with an unimperial perplexed expression like Hamlet.

One of the group went home by train, so on the way back the bus had one empty seat, and guess who got extra space to stretch? (I was born lucky!) I was talking to a very friendly Italian-Canadian called Pena, who'll now hook up with me on Facebook.  As I took the TTC home I saw Toronto in a new way, since my extra alertness wasn't relaxed.

I'm not really one for group tours.  Next time I'll go to NYC alone, stay for a week and try to do things a bit more slowly.  It's the seventh time I've visited that city, but I always feel like I've only scratched the surface.  Great cities are fine for visiting, especially London, which I lived in for eight months so I got below the surface a bit.  But it's better to live in a near-great city like Toronto!

HISTORY'S PEOPLE

I finished reading Bill Bryson's One Summer last week, and started reading Margaret MacMillan's History's People:  Personalities and the Past, based on the Massey Lectures she gave last year.  It's about leaders and such.  I noticed that when she talked about Mackenzie King she dated Canada's conscription referendum at 1940, when it was actually 1942! (You'd think an editor would have caught that goof.)

Wednesday night the History Discussion Group screened the video of the MGM movie The Good Earth, which I saw for the third time. (I'd borrowed it from the library.) Debi the host and I were the only people who saw it, because I was careless and forgot to post the event till a few days before!  But we had a good time anyhow.

I've started watching The Adventure of English on Youtube.  It's a British documentary series about the history of the English language, hosted by The South Bank Show host Melvyn Bragg. (The puppet satire Spitting Image made fun of Bragg's post-nasal drip, always showing him with nasal spray!)

I just figured out that I can do a zoom-in on the window of my Safari browser by pressing the plus sign with the command key. (I discovered it by accident, pressing the minus sign with the command key and getting a zoom-out!) So I reduced the browser's minimum font size from 24 to 18, and when I read the movie box-office figures at http://boxofficemojo.com --I'm a geek about things like box-office figures, though I pay them less attention than I used to--now I can see the movie title and its budget at the same time without shifting the scroll bar.

I finally finished reading Why Read Moby-Dick? a book John Snow gave me by Nathaniel Philbrick (In the Heart of the Sea). Moby-Dick, I imagine, is one of those books whose meaning deepens with each successive reading.  He might have talked more about Elijah, the old sailor they meet in Nantucket who warns them that Ahab is nuts and the Pequod is doomed.

brilliant.com

I've been getting lazy in this July heat!  Even doing one thing takes an effort just now.

Today was Reading Out Loud.  There were nine people, more than usual.  I read some of the character descriptions at the start of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Orwell's essay "Decline of the English Murder." Jane read Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and a couple of Hamlet's soliloquies. (I borrowed her book and read Polonius' speech to his son!) Some other girls read Coleridge's "Kublai Khan" and Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot."

I have a Facebook app for the website brilliant.com , which sends me a challenging puzzle every day.  There was one involving Fibonacci series, where the first two entries are 1 and the later ones the sum of the previous two:  1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597... This puzzle asked what the sum would be for 1+1/2+2/4+3/8+5/16+8/32+... I figured out that it must be 4. That's because this sum equals 1+1/2+(1+1)/4+(2+1)/8+(3+2)/16+... which equals 1+(1/2+1/4)+(1/4+1/8)+(2/8+2/16)+... which equals 1+ (3/4)*(1+1/2+2/4+3/8+...) (I never look up the answer:  either I know it or I don't.)

Just the other night there was another question where we know that a+b=a*b=3, so what does a^3+b^3 equal?  You can figure out the answer through simple algebra: a^3+b^3=(a+b)^3-3*a*b^2-3*b*a^2=(a+b)^3- 3*(a*b)*(a+b)=27-27=0.  

But I like to do things the hard way, so I imagined the complex numbers that a and be could be.  I figured out that a would be 3/2 +i*[3^(1/2)/2] while b would be 3/2 - i*[3^(1/2)/2] (or vice versa!). Alternatively, you could say that a= 3^(1/2)*e^[i*pi/6] and b=3^(1/2)*e^[i*-pi/6].  And I noticed some other interesting things:  a^2+b^2=3, a^4+b^4=-9, a^6+b^6=-54, a^8+b^8=-81, a^10+b^10=243, a^12+b^12=1458!

That's the sort of puzzle that keeps me awake late at night!  Imagine the puzzle where a+b=a*b=1...

Salsa weekend

This weekend was the Salsa on St. Clair festival, so my neighbourhood was pretty noisy again.

Wednesday night I saw The Free State of Jones at the Yonge & Dundas with the History Discussion Group.  It was pretty good despite being overlong.  Matthew McConaughey is getting meatier roles these days.

I was going to see another Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest, on Thursday night but it was on early and John and his family were coming over for dinner, so I had to cancel.  Today I planned to go to The Man Who Knew Too Much ('50s version), but again dinner was late so I cancelled again.

Yesterday the History Discussion Group met at Black Creek Pioneer Village to discussion Pierre Berton's Canada.  Getting there was an adventure: I took the express bus to the York University campus, then walked west.  I'd never noticed that the two places were so close together!

This afternoon the Classic Book Club discussed The Good Earth.  Which reminds me that I'll have to get Moira to order the library copy of the movie because I've misplaced my card!

Malware

Friday the internet connection went out on the downstairs computer.  Sunday it went out on mine!  Nothing like internet interruption to make you appreciate how important the web is.  I needed to set the location for tomorrow night's History Discussion Group screening so I went to the library.  I couldn't find my library card but Moira brought hers and I got online through her assistance!

Monday night my techie brother Donald came over and solved the trouble quickly.  It turned out that the downstairs computer had some malware that got downloaded a couple of years ago and only became active now.  And Father was fiddling with the connection Saturday night and lost mine too!

I'm now re-reading Bill Bryson's One Summer:  America 1927 for the History Discussion Group.  It's still a really entertaining read!  Lindbergh sounds like an Asperger's Syndrome case like me.

Thursday night I saw Hitchcock's Psycho again.  Only just now did I notice that when Anthony Perkins starts smiling at the end of his last scene--just before the last shot of the car being towed out of the swamp--for a few frames Hitch superimposes his mother's skull on his face!  Why didn't I notice that before?

I've started rereading my Menomonee Falls Gazette collection.  That's the paper from the early '70s that reprinted story strips like Secret Agent Corrigan and Modesty Blaise and Rip Kirby.  I've started compiling an index of it, listing the strips and their main characters and the stories covered in the MFG reprints.  It's one of those projects of mine that's easier to start than to finish!

More on my Ph.D. research

Some of my Ph.D. research material was missionary writing.  I did some research at the United Church archives near the U. of T. campus. (The Methodists, later the United Church, took over a mission from David Livingstone's London Mission Society shortly before the revolution of 1912.) 

The Protestant missions in Sichuan came together to form an organization for joint efforts.  I don't remember the exact name, but they had a great motto: "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." (The NDP should adopt that motto!) One of the things they did was put out a monthly journal, but after the Japanese started a full-scale war in 1937 there was such a paper shortage that they had to print it on tissue-like paper that could only be printed on one side!

One book I read was Test Tubes and Dragon Scales, written by someone who'd been a medical missionary in Chongqing in the 1930s.  He mentioned a colourful if shady foreign businessman, but not by name.  But I guessed that he was probably G.D. Lichfield because he had a motor-car in the city before anyone else did!

After finishing my thesis I actually went on a tour of China, which included Chongqing.  The city was smaller than I'd imagined it, of course. (Just like when you meet celebrities they're never as tall as you expect, except for basketball players and models.) One interesting thing in today's Chongqing is that they have a network of sidewalks that go over the street!  We should get something like that in Toronto too.

I just read that the Chinese are making a movie about the Japanese bombing of Chongqing, the Nationalist Chinese capital, between 1938 and 1943. (It was comparable to the Blitz of London, including death tolls.) It'll star Bruce Willis.

If this subject interests you, my thesis has been posted online.  It's at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ56244.pdf

LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY

The other night I finally finished the fashion issue of Lapham's Quarterly.  Now I've started reading the spying issue from last winter. (After that come the disaster issue and the gambling issue.)

I also finished Pierre Berton's Canada.  Next I'll be rereading Bill Bryson's One Summer (about America in the summer of 1927) for the History Discussion Group.

Saturday afternoon I went on a march in Bloordale, from Jane to High Park stations.  It was a march to show support for Moslem refugees, in response to one by the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA the week before.

Sunday afternoon I saw King Vidor's Show People at the Revue, a Marion Davies silent comedy (for the second time).  What with her reputation as William Randolph Hearst mistress, it's easy to forget that she did have talent!  But in the sound era he ended up putting her in overproduced musicals.

I've recently started rereading my Menomonee Falls Gazette collection.  It's a weekly magazine from the early 1970s that reprinted the finest daily dramatic comic strips from the time.  (Stuff like Modesty Blaise and Rip Kirby and Secret Agent Corrigan and Tarzan...) I accumulated the collection by buying it on Ebay about a decade ago, and have all except a few issues at the end of its run of over four years.  There are still a few parts of it that I haven't read!  My new ambition is to compile an index showing all the strips the magazine carried, along with the writers and artists and capsules of all the reprinted stories for each strip.  The story strip was past its 1930s peak by then, but the art and writing were still way better than today!

Researching my Ph.D. thesis

Since John Snow is curious, I decided to do a blog post describing the research I did on my Ph.D. thesis twenty years ago.  It was on the treaty port of Chongqing in Sichuan, which was only opened in 1891.  And it was among the only treaty ports that hadn't been overrun by the Japanese when the system of extraterritoriality was ended in 1943.

The first thing I looked at was reports issued by the Imperial Maritime Customs, a department created by the Qing dynasty to handle the empire's foreign trade, including trade between treaty ports, which was mostly staffed by foreigners. (After the 1912 revolution it was just the Maritime Customs, and gradually got taken over by Chinese officials.) They issued five ten-year reports between 1891 and 1931, but also a long series of annual reports.

For me the summer of 1994 was the Summer of The North China Herald.  I spent the whole summer reading reports by that Shanghai-based English newspaper's Chongqing correspondents, on microfilm at the Robarts Library.  By the time I was finished, I had opera music going around in my head! (Wagner in particular, like "Elsa's Dream" and the Prize Song.)

Between May of 1995 and January of 1996 I was in London, staying at Goodenough College. (Lucky for me that my sister had stayed their the year before and put in a good word for me!) Most of my research was consular reports at the British government archives in Kew, which was quite a commute.  I also found some stuff at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

I often found interesting details in "throwaway" comments.  Like when they showed figures for passengers on the foreign ships sailing between treaty ports, they mentioned that some of the Chinese passengers were actually Japanese who passed themselves off as natives for the cheaper fare!

Some of the individual "characters" were interesting too.  Chongqing got "opened" as a treaty port, then opened to steamship trade, through the efforts of a merchant called Archibald Little, who wasn't so successful but did play the pioneer role.  His wife Alicia  was a travel writer, and one of the leaders of China's first anti-footbinding movement!

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT

"What a strong little sugar plum you are!"--Smiles of a Summer Night

Wednesday was another History Discussion Group screening at Debi's place.  I was going to borrow a DVD of Tony Richardson's 1968 version of Charge of the Light Brigade from Malcolm, but we couldn't get together, so at the last minute I changed it to Ingmar Bergman's 1950s sex comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (which I saw for the second time).

It went over pretty well.  I was thinking that the '50s was the last time when they made subtly sexy movies. (After that came the '60s, and sex got obvious, especially in the movies.) This was about the time of the summer solstice, which was appropriate enough.

So the British have taken the plunge and voted to leave the EU!  It seems a boneheaded move:  the EU will still dominate the British economy, but now Britain will have no input!  Yet if I'd been a British voter, I would have been tempted to vote Yes just to "shock the system," as they said in the 1960s. (Sort of like heaving a rock at a beehive...)

Last night I had an unusually vivid dream in which I visited Chongqing (the Chinese treaty port I wrote my Ph.D. thesis about) just before World War II, and told a Chinese girl some of the things that were about to happen!

Tonight the choir did a concert at an old folks' home near Keele and Sheppard.  When we sang "Que Sera, Sera" I did the second verse solo! (That's the one that starts, "When I grew up and fell in love...") Oksana drove me and Clotilde up there and back.  Paolo always pulls a surprise or two, and this time we sang "You Are My Sunshine," which I didn't know except for the chorus.  Gary from my memoir group has now joined!

While I was there I also arranged to take singing lessons from Alexei, another choir member.  He lives up in Richmond Hill and could come to my house on Monday afternoon, but that's the time of the memoir group, so I'll have to come to him, on another day.  He charges $30 a lesson, which is very reasonable! (Even Giuseppe charged $50!)

BILLIONS & MANHATTAN

"What's the point of having 'Fuck you' money if you never say 'Fuck you'?"--Billions

Daughter: "It's Kafkaesque!" Mother: "At least she's reading"--Manhattan

We've started watching some new shows on Crave TV.  One is Billions, a really sharp show about Manhattan prosecutor Paul Giamatti about to take on Wall Street billionaire Damian Lewis.  The kinky opening scene seemed a bit gratuitous.

The other one is Manhattan, about the World War II scientists developing the first A-bombs, and their families living in top secrecy at Los Alamos.  This subject interests Father since he's been a nuclear physicist.

Tuesday we watched Listen to Marlon, a documentary built around the voluminous voice recordings Marlon Brando made over his lifetime. (I read Peter Manso's Brando biography some years back, but I couldn't quite finish it because it got too sad!)

Wednesday night I went to John Snow's lecture on Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt at the Gladstone library.  I ought to do his Main Street in my book club someday.  He asked me to become assistant organizer of his two book clubs, for what it's worth. (I take a much more casual approach than he does, and maybe we need to combine both approaches!) I've just been shipped half a dozen books to read for his upcoming American book club.

Six days since my last post and I can't think of anything more to write about!  It's one of those weeks...

A chip off the old tooth

Barbra Streisand: "Don't you know who I am?" Officer Bar Brady: "Well, if you aren't Fiona Apple I don't give a rat's ass!"--South Park

Wednesday night I chipped a back tooth.  It happened when I was flossing. (Maybe it happened because I was using waxed dental floss for the first time in quite a while.) Yesterday morning I went to my dentist and Dr. Hrabalova gave me a filling to replace it.

Wednesday night I went to the Politics Meetup at the Fox and Firkin near Eglinton Station.  It was interesting enough, but the place was so noisy that it was hard to follow conversations!  Thursday night I went on the Art Walk, back on Queen Street for the first time in months.  Friday night I went to the Scottish Meetup, which was at the Piper's, just a short distance from my house!

I've been binge-watching South Park on Crave TV.  It's no big revelation that the show is highly uneven.  Funny about suspension of disbelief:  I can accept that Stan's goldfish keeps sneaking out of his bowl and going around killing people, but I can't accept it when he brings the bodies back to Stan's room!

Since we still have Netflix till the end of the month, I started watching Aquarius, a series with David Duchovny as a square 1967 LAPD detective whose investigations involve Charles Manson.  It's pretty scary, of course:  I don't know how many more episodes I'll see.

I'm really appalled about the DNC's systematic vote suppression in the Democratic primaries! (Just because The New York Times doesn't report something doesn't mean it isn't happening.) They're asking Bernie Sanders to run as an independent.  If I were American, I'd vote for him!  The Clintonites are acting like "sore winners."

Crave TV

(to Brigham Young) "Did those golden tablets teach you to lie like that, or were you born a sonuvabitch?"--Hell on Wheels

Saturday I planted the rest of the potatoes and the peas, sunflowers, beans, carrots and onions. (I did all this just before a big downpour that night.) All that's left is some head crops like cabbage and broccoli.

After Monday night's choir rehearsal I saw a big rainbow in a full arc from left to right, with a dim second arc!

We've finished Bloodline and Hell on Wheels so I ended our Netflix subscription.  But we'll continue to receive it until July 6.  If we'd cancelled it a day earlier we'd have saved an extra month's payment, but them's the breaks!

We're going to subscribe to Crave TV for a while.  They have a lot of interesting shows, including the Clair Danes series My So-Called Life from the early '90s.  They even have Twin Peaks!  I've already started watching South Park again. (It's a guilty pleasure, a subject I was just writing about in my memoir group.)

Tonight the choir and the Columbus Centre band did a concert together, including the big "La Grande Guerra" medley. (Those are pretty good songs:  I'd like to learn more about them!)

I'm depressed about Hillary Clinton winning the California primary.  Be afraid of November, Democrats, be very afraid.  If Bernie Sanders decides to run as an independent he'll get no objection from me.  At the very least, he'll quickly overtake Mrs. C in the polls, then she'll be the spoiler! (Will the "pragmatists" practice what they preach and get behind Sanders to defeat the Republicans?  Or will it be "Hillary or bust"?)

Pax Mongolica

Tuesday night the choir did a rehearsal with the Columbus Centre band for the first time, before next week's concert.  They seemed impressed by us.

Sunday I got a message from the Schnitzel Hub that they wanted a $300 prepayment before Wednesday's History Discussion Group event, so I provided the payment through my credit card.  Maybe it was the wrong decision, but I didn't know what to do so close to the event, and didn't want to screw things up.

When we met on Wednesday night, there was a big kerfuffle, and in the end they refunded most of my payment and we moved to the Jester nearby.  The event, titled "Pax Mongolica" was a discussion about the Mongolian empire and its legacy, starting from Jack Weatherford's book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.  It was a very interesting discussion that went on for almost three hours.  There was a new Chinese guy with the name Mega. (His parents saw a Megabucks sign in Las Vegas and decided that would be a good name--would I lie to you?) We'll have future events at Scallywag's, where I've gone for the Political Meetup.

Netflix has some new episodes of Hell on Wheels, with the hero overseeing the building of the railroad from California east to the prairies, and dealing with Chinese workers. (I guessed that the Chinese boy was actually a girl because the lead cast included a Chinese female!)

I started planting the garden today, and did half the potatoes. (I would have started yesterday, but I was feeling unwell for some reason.) Moira's going to plant some herbs as well!

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.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

"Why did you have to kill them?  I just told you to scare them!" "People scare easier when they're dyin'"--Once Upon a Time in the West

Sunday afternoon I went to John Snow's book club where we discussed Doctor Zhivago.  John asked me to lead the discussion, which was simple for me since I take a casual approach to these things.  He was grateful enough to give me a present:  the book Why Read Moby-Dick? (Afterward we went to Booster Juice and I tried acai juice.)

Sunday night I saw The Devil's Horn at the Bloor, a documentary of the history of the saxophone.  To think that I tried to play it at one point in my youth!

Yesterday I went to a colouring session I'd found through Meetup, at the Leaside library. (Just getting to these unfamiliar places is an adventure.) I started colouring in that DoodleArt fairy tale poster.

Today I saw Sergio Leone's spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West at the Carlton (the last in their Wednesday western series), for at least the fifth time.  It's a western about westerns, and really fun.  Henry Fonda's cleverly cast against type as a ruthless assassin, and Claudia Cardinale does a great pout!  One of Ennio Morricone's finest musical scores.

Sometimes I come up with original thoughts when I'm dreaming.  The other night I was dreaming of that scene in Life of Brian where he tells the crowd "You're all individuals," they drone "WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS..." and one guy says "I'm not!" In my dream I thought of commenting, "The first schism!"

I heard that there may be a library strike next week.  I should borrow that book about the Mongol empire this week!

CAROUSEL

"Julie's going to have a baby!" "So what?... My mother had a baby once"--Carousel

Wednesday night I saw Henry King's movie of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel at the Event Screen. (It was a combination of my History Discussion Group with Mathew's Meetup.) I'd seen it twice on video, but you really have to see it in a cinema!

This musical really grows on me.  It's deeply moving, though in a '50s sort of way:  it ends with a pretty conformist message, "If people don't like you,  solve your problem by liking them!" Gordon MacRae is a perfect Billy Bigelow, which is rather surprising since he was a last-second replacement for Frank Sinatra.

Thursday I went on another art walk on Dundas West, with an emphasis on Portuguese establishments.

I finally got my taxes done the other day.  They no longer mail you forms so we had to print them off the net.  Next year I should be able to do the whole thing online.

Rereading I, Claudius increased my admiration for it, but I'm staring to admire Claudius the God even more!  Very efficient writing.

We forgot to see Broken Blossoms and I ended up returning it a day late.

COVER GIRL

Chorus girl (answering the phone): "Sure, I'll marry you.  Who are you?"--Cover Girl

Sunday afternoon was Reading Out Loud.  The subject was love, and I titled the event "Spring Is For Lovers"! The weather was so warm that I walked down to Victory Cafe!  I read a section from Doctor Zhivago where Yuri was riding between his wife and his mistress, as well as the early Yeats poem "The Cap and Bells, " and "Nora, the Maid of Killarney" by the World's Worst Poet William McGonagall.  Some other people lent me their material so I also got to read W.H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" and Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach." (I noticed, more clearly than before, that "Dover Beach" is about aging.)

Choir practice was cancelled this week, so I went to the Revue and saw Charles Vidor's Rita Hayworth-Gene Kelly musical Cover Girl.  That's the one about a chorus girl who appears on a big magazine and goes on to Broadway stardom, but what about her sweetheart?  I liked the subplot about her grandmother going through a parallel story.  Phil Silvers (playing a character called Genius) did a number about wartime rationing with the classic rhyme "I'll keep on eating artichokes until the Nazi Party chokes!" The most famous song was "Long Ago and Far Away."

Tonight I went to a Storytelling Meetup, this time at Free Times Cafe.  I talked about my eight months in London twenty years ago (which I'd written about at the memoir slam the day before) and visiting the Canadian National Exhibition back in 1975.  Most of them were telling specific stories, but I was basically just doing brief rambles.  Oh, well...

For some reason, my back feels really stiff these days.  I had to nap a couple of times this afternoon because of it.

Library videos

(I wrote this post three days ago, but posted it on the wrong blog!)

"What do you want, scorpion?"--Twentieth Century

"Where are you going?" "Where Whitey isn't allowed!"--In the Heat of the Night

I've finished Doctor Zhivago and started on two books.  One is Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue, for the History Discussion Group. (I should finish it pretty quick.) The other is Robert Graves' I, Claudius sequel Claudius, the God, which I borrowed from the North York Centre library Thursday.  I could have got it at the closer Deer Park library, but I went here because I wanted to find "He," a Katherine Anne Porter story of mother love which I was thinking of reading at tomorrow's Reading Out Loud.  But it turned out to be a bit too long for that.

While I was at North York Centre I also borrowed some DVDs for us to look at.  One was the silent movie Broken Blossoms, but I'm not sure I can bear to see it again, it's so sad!

Another was Howard Hawks' Twentieth Century, from a play by Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur, which we saw last night, me for the second time. (Moira got too sleepy to watch it to the end.) It's a classic screwball comedy with obsessive theatre man John Barrymore scheming to get his star Carole Lombard to resume working with him.

The third, which we saw tonight (me for the second time), was Norman Jewison's Oscar winning civil rights-themed mystery In the Heat of the Night.  Rod Steiger was something else!

Friday afternoon I saw From Scotland With Love at the Bloor. (I also bought one of their stainless steel bottles!) It's a feature made from documentary footage of Scotland in the 20th century, from as long as over a century ago.  They had curling, but no golf.

The other night I dreamed of visiting Prince Edward Island, which I've dreamed of before, but this time it was the late fall!  Now the idea of travelling at that time of year has a strange attraction for me...

THE WILD BUNCH

"We all dream of being a child again, even the worst of us.  Perhaps the worst most of all"--The Wild Bunch

Saturday night I saw The Winding Stream at the Bloor.  It's a documentary about the Carter Family and their legacy.  At the end they showed a flash mob in Portland, Oregon singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" Real classic music.

Mathew cancelled the Meetup this weekend where we were going to do some more colouring.  Pity!

The Carlton cinema is showing westerns on Wednesdays this month. (Missed The Good, the Bad & the Ugly last week.) This week I saw Sam Peckinpah's brutal classic The Wild Bunch for at least the fourth time.  It just gets better and better!

The graphic violence feels honest rather than exploitative.  Peckinpah has a particularly unsentimental attitude toward children, who are seen torturing scorpions at the start of the movie.  The scene where the Mexicans lose control of the machine gun may strike some people as racist:  a modern weapon in primitive hands.  And his view of women is hardly P.C.:  they tend to be whores.

Aging actors like William Holden and Robert Ryan are at their considerable best here as aging outlaws. (Ryan plays a particularly sympathetic character, despite being the gang's turncoat, and achieves redemption in the end.) Lucien Ballard's cinematography is masterful, especially the scene where the bridge blows up and the horses and riders fall into the river.

Old letters

I've been looking for my birth certificate to make an application for Ontario Disability Support Payments.  I was looking through some stuff in my room the other day and found a slew of old letters that were written to me when I was researching my Ph.D. in London in 1995.  The birth certificate search got derailed as I read all through them.

Letter writing is a dying art, alas.  Many of these letters were written by my sister Moira, including a couple from the Czech Republic where she was finishing a teaching job.  I remember how her letters had a Czech stamp showing Miroslav Ondracek, the cinematographer who shot Milos Forman movies like Amadeus.  At Goodenough College where I was staying there were some kids who collected stamps and posted envelopes you could put your used stamps in!  They got quite a few Canadian stamps from me.

I'm sure glad I saved these letters!  When I told Moira I still had  her letters she said, "Throw them away!" But she was a really good letter writer, not just funny and readable but also with very neat handwriting.  Father's letters, on the other hand, are barely legible.  There's also part of a letter from Mother, which means a lot to me since she's no longer with us.  And there are a few from friends I made in London who wrote to me afterward.

There was also a letter I wrote back in 1991.  Here's part of what I said:

"The Allies are betraying the Kurds twice:  firstly in not supporting their rebellion; and secondly in trying to force the refugees to return into Saddam Hussein's loving arms.  The problem with Americans is that they think they can bomb Iraq back into the pre-industrial age and still not 'get involved' in the region's political problems.  Some people say that by not supporting the Kurdish rebellion the United States lost her moral advantage in the region.  I disagree.  What America's cowardice proves is that this moral advantage was bogus from the beginning.  

"One thing that bothers me is American liberals hedging their opposition to the war by praising Bush for articulating America's 'moral purpose.' In fact, he was simply propagating a straightforward lie.  If we accept the argument that Kurdistan has to remain part of Iraq to protect the latter's 'territorial integrity' and the the Kurds can go jump, how much of an extension is it to apply the same rationale to Kuwait?  If anything, Kurdistan with her longstanding unique identity--and three times Kuwait's population--is even less a legitimate part of Iraq than Kuwait, which was only separated less than a century ago.

"What's remarkable is that most Americans accept so easily that it's a jungle out there and they can no longer afford moral commitments, now that Iraq is crushed and 'morals' have served their strategic purpose.  This doublethink over morals isn't limited to the American government:  I fear the general population has connived in it.  In their thinking, they way to a happy world is through Pax Americana, so anything that promotes Uncle Sam promotes the general good, and is therefore moral automatically.  

"It all comes down to Lookin' Out for Number One.  America's true purpose is obviously to protect the region's strategic status quo ante, first by reducing Iraq to rubble, then by preventing her destabilization.  Divide and conquer, in other words.  Uncle Sam's greatest nightmare is that someday the Middle East will be united by some political force that the U.S. obviously won't be able to control.

"You should reread Christopher Hitchens' article in January's Harper's.  He prophesied exactly what would happen to the Kurds."

I'm glad that letter got saved too.

Meetups

"I'm too hot for this old folk's home!"--Why Be Good?

On Sunday afternoon the Classic Book Club met and we talked about I, Claudius.  Malcolm has been attending so steadily that I made him assistant organizer! (He has a big video collection, including some historical movies that I might show in the History Discussion Group screenings.)

Wednesday night was the History Discussion Group, where we discussed Herodotus and ancient Egypt.  Margo was afraid I might see her as usurping my authority, but I've made her assistant organizer as well.  If it turns out Debi can't arrange the screenings at her place, Margo's apartment building has a similar place.

We got some interesting ideas going about future events.  For July, we'll read Pierre Berton's Canada and talk about it near Canada Day, maybe even at Black Creek Pioneer Village!  For August, I'll reschedule the Roaring Twenties event that didn't get off the ground in December, and Margo would like to host a 20s-themed party at her place!  I'm already thinking of movie posters and such that I could print off the internet for decorations.

Speaking of the '20s, tonight I saw the formerly "lost" silent movie Why Be Good? at the Royal with the Classic Movie Meetup, as part of the latest Toronto silent film festival. (To answer the question:  Well, being good may not be easier than being naughty, but it tends to be a lot simpler!) It starred jazz baby Colleen Moore, and silent-era star Neil Hamilton, who later played Commissioner Gordon in the '60s TV series Batman! ("Is this the end of the Dynamic Duo? Tune in tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel!") Some great '20s slang like "See you in jail!" CM's speech near the end had an early feminist message about how men want women to be fun, then blame them for not being "nice girls"!

Dreamland

I've been having vivid dreams lately.  The other night I dreamed of meeting New York wit Fran Leibowitz in the local No Frills supermarket and finding her friendlier than I expected. (They were interviewing her in that Tiffany's documentary.) 

When I dream, I remember things that I've dreamed before as if they were real memories.  I have a repeating dream where I'm considering starting a new university course and wondering whether I'm up to the challenge.  In another one I've been trying to finish my Ph.D. thesis but there seems no hope.  Then I wake up and remember that I did finish it over 15 years ago.  And I often dream of being in Halifax, where I spent a lot of time in the '80s. (For someone from a small town, it was a "starter city.") The other day I was wondering, Is my dream world better than my real one?

This week I saw two movies at the Carlton Magic Lantern cinema.  They were exhibiting some paintings by Jeannie, whom I know from the Classic Movie Meetup. (She likes cats!)

Sunday I saw 45 Years, with Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as a couple approaching their 45th anniversary.  It occurred to me that men don't understand all the things that can make women insecure. (We're just not equipped for it!)

Monday I saw the Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar, an odd comedy about a Hollywood studio trouble-shooter in the 1950s.  It's a bit like their earlier Barton Fink.

Tuesday, with the Easter weekend over, I went to Shoppers Drug Mart and bought a ton of chocolate at a discount.  Best of all was the Ferrero Rochers, my favourite candy. (I brought some to choir practice on Wednesday.)

I'm in a good mood!

James Cagney (to his veteran brother): "You didn't get those medals by holding hands with them Germans!"--The Public Enemy

Why am I in a good mood?  Because Debi in the History Discussion Group told me that her apartment building has a common room with a DVD player that we might be able to use for screening historical movies as I planned! (Malcolm in the Classic Book Club has several DVDs we can show.) But we'll have to see how things work out, of course.

I'm also in a good mood because Bernie Sanders has been winning several state caucuses and can't yet be counted out of the race. (If the Democrats nominate Hillary Clinton, they'll be taking a big risk!)

Wednesday night we had choir practice and Paolo was pleased by my list of our past material.  That evening we tried some new folk songs, some of which I remember doing in past years.

Thursday night I saw William Wellman's The Public Enemy yet again with the Classic Movie Meetup at Eton House.  It's one of those movies I can see over and over!  Besides James Cagney and Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell has a supporting role. (She's one of my favourite '30s actresses.) That's when I met Debi, who mentioned the room.

This afternoon I went to John Snow's book club.  I didn't have time to read Camus' The Plague or the Wilde story "Birth of the Infanta," but I did finish the Mann story "Little Herr Friedemann"!

Afterward I saw the documentary Crazy About Tiffany's at the Bloor.  Luxury kind of depresses me.

Danny Boy

I mentioned that I sang "Danny Boy" at the History Discussion Group the other week.  Since this is the season of St. Patrick's Day, I got to do it a few more times.

Last week I sang it to the memoir group and they were charmed.  The room where we meet has a curved ceiling which causes echoes.  That's an obstacle to hearing conversation, but it's well suited to singing.

Saturday I sang it at the Play Readthrough Meetup, which I hadn't been to for a while, at the Annette library.  We had fun reading through J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World, which I saw on the stage back at age eight! (I was a bit late because the St. Clair streetcar wasn't operating, but that didn't matter.) I think I can speak with a brogue!

Sunday I sang it for the Reading Out Loud Meetup, where the topic was Irish writing.  I read the chapter in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels where he visiting the grand academy of Lagodo (he was making fun of the Royal Society, I now realize); the section of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes where he made good money selling a banned magazine page on birth control; the introductory verses of the first three cantos of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen; and W.B. Yeats' "A Prayer for My Daughter."

I've made a list of all the music the choir's done since I joined it a dozen years ago, and printing it out took a dozen pages!  (I'd saved all the scores they gave me.) I was going to give it to Paolo at Monday night's rehearsal, but it got delayed to tomorrow night!

Tonight I went to a Theology Meetup with a pastor talking about translating and codifying the Torah.  This stuff fascinates me!

Reading Doctor Zhivago, I've found myself slipping in and out of it. (I felt the same way reading a long essay by fellow Russian Joseph Brodsky.)

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

"He invited Mama, but Mama could not go, she was indisposed.  Mama said, 'Take Lara.  You're always cautioning me, "Amalia, see to Lara." So go now and see to her.' And he saw to her all right!  Hahaha!"-- Doctor Zhivago (whoopee, a triple-iterated quotation!)

(after a handshake) "You have quite an imagination!  That's what comes from writing movies." "You have quite a grip!  That's what comes from counting cash"--In a Lonely Place

I finally finished the philanthropy issue of Lapham's Quarterly and now I've started the fashion issue.  I've also started reading Doctor Zhivago in its new translation, for John Snow's book club.  In the first chapter he introduces two important characters who aren't in the movie!

I've had mixed feelings about the movie--beautiful but a bit superficial--but the novel is starting to grow on me.  The description of the protest march is pretty vivid. (When I was reading it I missed my subway stop and had to get off at Eglinton West to return to St. Clair West!)

Sunday afternoon I was going to see the movie of South Pacific at the Event Screen, but I was an hour late! (Bloody Daylight Savings Time...) But at least I wasn't late for a Meetup event.  That evening I saw the documentary Guantanamo's Child:  Omar Khadr at the Bloor.  He clearly should have been treated as a child soldier instead of being railroaded for murder and subjected to a show trial.  His case reminds me of a classic Apocalypse Now! line: "Charging a guy with murder here was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500!"

Last night I saw Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place (for the second time) at the Lightbox with the Movie Meetup.  It has one of Humphrey Bogart's scariest performances, and great dialogue by Andrew Solt.  Today they'd put Bogey in "anger management." Which reminds me, it's always seemed to me they should have something like anger management for people who make other people angry!

History Discussion Group

"If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one"--Spotlight

Wednesday night I finally saw Spotlight at Canada Square. (There were only half a dozen people there!) It's a pretty intelligent look at the newspaper business.  Journalists are a bit like lawyers and soldiers:  some people would consider their work unsavoury, but society ultimately depends on them.  In her famous profile of Joe McGinnis in The New Yorker, Janet Malcolm asserted the paradox that reporters play con games to get to the truth.  Now I want to read the book it was based on.

Thursday night at the History Discussion Group we talked about mass emigration from Ireland and Ken McGoogan's Celtic Lightning.  There was a bit of confusion because we got confused with another reservation for just two people!  But we got straightened out and got the big room in back. (I'd made a reservation for ten people, and eleven showed up.) I didn't do much talking, but toward the end I sung "Danny Boy" a cappella!

Last night I saw The Revenant at Canada Square.  The photography was breathtaking!  The land was almost a character in itself.

I finished I, Claudius yesterday.  Now it's time to start getting caught up with Lapham's Quarterly:  I still haven't finished the fall issue!  John Snow mailed me a copy of Thomas Mann's short story "Little Herr Friedemann," which we'll be discussing at his next book club, so I'll have no excuse not reading it.

This afternoon one of my Movie Meetup groups had a colouring session! (Mathew rented a space near Glad Day bookstore.) I coloured a design of roses and one called "Secret Garden."

Just now I've been watching Peanuts specials on Youtube.  I like the jazzy music and the sound that indicates teachers' voices!

THE FORCE AWAKENS

"Women always figure out the truth.  Always!"--Han Solo

We've put both operas to bed.  Elixir finished Saturday night, Fledermaus Sunday afternoon.  At the last performance, before coming onstage in the second act I felt unusually sleepy.  Moira and our friend Pui-tak came to see it. 

Beatrice didn't announce what we're doing next year like she did at the final show last year.  On Thursday night the opera group is coming together to take turns with informal singing, which sounds fun, but that's the same night as my History Discussion Group!

I like the weather just now, with some snow still on the ground but the temperature above thawing. (I've come to see March as a favourite month of mine.) I've put away my winter coat and brought out my spring jacket.  This afternoon I visited the Davenport and Wychwood library branches to see if I could spot any books suitable for my Classic Book Club or my History Discussion Group.  I didn't find anything, but I really just wanted to get out of the house!

Since I have some free time now, I went to see J.J. Abrams' Star Wars sequel The Force Awakens tonight at Canada Square.  Lots of plot elements from the earlier movies getting put together in a new way.  It was competently made, but meh.  I think I'm too old for the fantasy adventure genre. (In middle age I've come to understand how my parents felt about this kind of entertainment--or didn't feel--back when I was young.) It was a bit sad to see Harrison Ford reprising Han Solo:  unlike Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, he outgrew this kids' stuff.  I could have seen it in 3-D, but didn't bother.

Super Tuesday

In case you're wondering, I've proved well enough for the last week of the opera.  I even managed to bake the gingerbread for them to sell as I'd promised. (It sold out completely!) Before tonight's performance of Elixir, while putting on my makeup, as usual I put a kleenex over my peasant costume's neckline to keep it from being smudged.  Only tonight, I forgot to take it off and wore the kleenex onstage!  And the twist is, it actually improved the costume a bit.

After Super Tuesday, some Clintonites have been claiming that the Sanders campaign is finished.  They remind me of General Santa Anna in Texas Rising saying about Sam Houston's Texan army, "They're too stupid to realize they've lost the war!" (He says this after taking the Alamo but before being routed and captured at San Jacinto.)

Last night I finally finished Celtic Lightning and can now focus on finishing I, Claudius.  The battle scenes are tightly depicted, reflecting Robert Graves' own experience in World War I.  The depiction of Rome's war with Germany surely has a subtext about that conflict.  No doubt there's also a subtext about the uneasy British Empire between the world wars.

After really warm weather on Sunday, it got really cold again for the last few days.  I can't wait to be finished with my winter boots!

Our cable company is now offering a la carte channel subscriptions, so I'm now considering what we might pick up.  The CBC and BBC news channels are our highest priorities, and al-Jazeera and CNN International also sound interesting.  I'm also thinking of Turner Classic Movies.

Leap Day

I'm almost over my cold.  It's past its peak and is now in the final headache phase.

I'm finished with "hell week." I warned Beatrice that I might not be able to make the last week of shows, but I'm still hopeful that I can.  Sunday Moira came to see Elixir and afterward we walked home together. (The weather was nice, but today the temperature dropped sharply.)

At Thursday's opera show, I ended up putting on way too much shade and had to add a whole lot of powder to blend it.  But overall I've got pretty good at applying my own makeup.  For me the hardest part isn't being onstage but waiting in the wings.  When a task is impending it looks really big, but it doesn't seem so big once you're actually doing it!  In my spare time backstage I've been reading I, Claudius.

Moira borrowed the miniseries Texas Rising from the library, about the 1836 Texan War of Independence.  She seemed to lose interest when she found out how long it was, but I've started watching it.  It doesn't stint on brutality. (Crispin Glover, an actor who's always interested me, has a supporting role.)

At today's memoir group there were eighteen people!

I'm depressed about Hillary Clinton winning the South Carolina primary.  If she gets nominated Trump will crush her for sure! (She's the sort of "establishment" figure who'll be convenient for him to run against.) The online people who keep denouncing Bernie Sanders with talk of "free stuff" and "unicorns" remind me of Joseph's brothers saying, "Here cometh the dreamer.  Let us slay him, then we shall see what happens to his dreams!"