Smoke on the Water

            On Tuesday morning I found another set of chords for “Le complaint de progres” by Boris Vian. One more set and I'll just choose between them or work out my own.

            I memorized two verses of “Pamela Popo” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I typed some more of my Monday lecture notes.

            I took an early siesta because I had to work in the early afternoon.

            I had a piece of chicken and some yogourt before leaving.

            I worked for Nick Aoki on the third floor of the Village by the Grange campus.

            The walls of the little changing room for the models in studio 316 have all been filled with dynamic artwork in black and white. I was also pleasantly surprised to see an electrical outlet that had been put in the change room. I had brought my laptop and was setting it up to sit in the change room during my breaks when I realized that the electrical outlet was just painted with the artwork on the wall. I found somewhere outside the change room to plug in.

            I did the standard sets of gradually lengthening poses from ones to threes to fives to tens and finished with a twenty-minute pose. I had longer breaks than usual because Nick lectured for about ten minutes a couple of times. Near the end he gave his students an analogy relating to Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. I asked the class if anyone had actually gotten the reference but none of them had. Nick said it’s too bad because there aren’t any three-chord guitar riffs now that are iconic enough to reference.

            When class was over I commented to Nick that “Smoke On The Water” was way before his time but he said it was only ten years before. He went to high school in the 80s. I guessed correctly that his era was Grunge. He said that “Smells Like Teen Spirit" came out when he was in Grade Seven and Nirvana was enormous. They used to have air guitar competitions and guys would lose it. But there’s actually nineteen years between “Smoke On the Water” and "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I guess Nick is about twenty years younger than me. He looks like a kid.

            I had a potato and the rest of the whole chicken I’d cooked on Sunday with some gravy for dinner while watching Zorro.

            In this story the new commandant Don Juan Ortega arrives at Los Angeles. He turns out however to be another agent of the Eagle feather and not even the real Ortega, whom he killed. Ortega and the magistrate discuss their leader whom neither has seen but whom they agree pays well. In his efforts to find new revenue the magistrate learns that Franco Barbarosa, one of the wealthiest ranchers in Los Angeles, does not own his property, which belongs to the king. Living on the king’s land and improving it is a legitimate way to eventually own it but the magistrate said that has changed and arrests Franco for trespassing, sentencing him to hard labour turning a millstone while being whipped. Meanwhile Don Diego becomes reacquainted with his childhood friend Rosarita. When she learns of Franco’s arrest she asks Diego to intervene. He speaks with the magistrate but to no avail. Rosarita is angry that Diego only uses words. Later as Zorro he returns to rescue Franco and has his first swordfight with Ortega. He defeats him and makes him promise to never treat a man like a mule again.

            Rosarita was played by Sandy Livingston, about whom there is very little information online.