Punk Rock Karaoke

            The wi-fi from the donut shop downstairs went down late Tuesday morning, just before I'd finished writing a journal entry that I wanted to upload to my blog and to Facebook. So I finished the writing and then I went to bed around noon. I had to work that afternoon and evening at OCADU, so an early siesta was what I was going to need to stay fresh. Once I got up I made a quick lunch. Chopped cabbage, a can of tuna and some creamy roasted garlic dressing actually made for a pretty satisfying midday meal. The internet was still off, so before getting ready to leave I watched a few minutes of the first episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour from 1962. I started downloading it a year ago but less than 70% of it came through. Since it's been a year I figured I'd better watch it and delete it. I could still get most of the story through all the paused video and the audio repeats. The story is about a successful lawyer who is also a professional gambler. He promises his wife he's going to quit but then he discovers that his brother (played by Robert Redford) is trying to get into the same life that he's leaving so he plays one last game with the intention beating him so bad that he won’t want to continue. He breaks his brother but his game mates discover that he did so with a marked deck, so they shoot him. I didn't find out if he died because I had to leave.

            I worked for Diane Pugen, but for almost the whole first hour of class they looked at their homework and each student explained what they were trying to convey with the piece they'd drawn or painted. One student did a very colourful and well-drawn portrait in oil pastel of himself in the middle of a circle-jerk, surrounded by penises and covered in cum.

            I did short poses for the whole class, the longest being five minutes. There’s certainly little danger of falling asleep during quick poses and it’s good exercise.

            During the break I heard three young women of about 18 talking. One of them mentioned another friend that was using edible paints. The second one asked, “Why would such a thing exist?” The first said, “I’m afraid that they might be for … intimate times. You know where people might paint each other’s bodies and then lick the paint off.” The third said, “Excuse me, what? I think it’s for children so they can paint cookies and things like that.”

            After Diane’s class, by coincidence I worked for Diane’s former protégé, Thomas Hendry. Thomas’s class was part of OCADU’s continuing studies program, so most of his students were just old enough to be the parents of the student’s in Diane’s class.

            I’ve known Thomas for almost as long as I’ve known Diane Pugen, and Diane was the first instructor I’d ever posed for back in 1982. A little later Diane helped start a small school called Art’s Sake where Thomas was a student. They went bankrupt though and they still owe me $30.

            This session started off with even shorter poses than the previous class as I did thirty second and one-minute gestures.

            There was a very loud party going on downstairs in the atrium of the building. It was so loud that it sounded like it was happening in the studio next door and it seemed to be a karaoke party with mostly young women enthusiastically screaming off key to punk rock standards.

            I took a little nap at break time and then did one long pose until Thomas let me go ten minutes early. He told me he still has drawings of me from the days of Art’s Sake.

            On the way home I was very much aware of the fact that I didn’t have my heavy wool socks on underneath my Kodiaks. I’d forgotten them at home and hadn’t even noticed my boots being loose while pedaling to work.

            I watched a couple of episodes of the Big Bang Theory. In the opening for one they talked about how Edison was kind of a fake, and that he got the idea for the light bulb from other inventors. They didn’t mention though that that two of those were Canadian, namely Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans.

            In the second one the guys remembered having mined a lot of bitcoin when it was worthless and then they realized that they could have a fortune. They spent the whole show trying track it down. Sheldon knew where it was all along but wouldn’t tell them. They had to track down Leonard’s old laptop, which Penny had given away but they found there was no bitcoin. Finally Sheldon told them that as a joke he’d taken the bitcoin off the laptop and put it onto the Batman flashdrive on Leonard’s key chain, which he always carried around. The thing is though that he lost it a few years before. Then there is a flashback to Stewart finding it on the floor of his comic shop, deciding to delete the contents and resell it for $10.