Broken Class

            On Wednesday morning I started working out the chords for the intro of “Bourrée de complexes” (Buried in Complexes) by Boris Vian and also for one of the instrumental breaks in “Variations sur Marilou” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            Around midday I finished washing and scrubbing the area between the bathroom door and the hallway in the kitchen. I moved the ugly little filing cabinet out of that area and had it trade places with the ornate little stand with the broken marble top that’s always been in front of the window beside the kitchen table. The stand looks very good in its new home but the cabinet needs to be somewhere else. I think I’ll eventually put it at the other end of the credenza.

            For lunch I had a cheese and lettuce sandwich without toasting the bread because I was running late.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story the Kingfish's brother in law Leroy has moved out to California. He sends Kingfish a beautiful picture of a cemetery with the caption, “Wish you were here." Leroy wants Kingfish to arrange to have his car sent out west. He had left it in storage in the shed behind the lodge. But unknown to Leroy or to his sister Sapphire, Kingfish wrecked Leroy’s car a long time ago. He first tries to replace the car by getting accident insurance and then claiming that the car was wrecked five minutes after he signed the contract. Then he goes to a used car salesman named Generous Gerry who has a car just like Leroy's. Kingfish asks how much but Gerry says, “Oh, we don’t set prices around here! You're doing business with a trading fool! The customer makes his own deal!” Kingfish says, “What about $500?” Gerry says, “Well I paid $800 but I got no willpower! It's a deal!" Kingfish asks, "What about monthly payments?" Gerry says, "Anything you say my friend! You’re the boss!" Kingfish says, “I think I can afford $25 a month”. Jerry asks, “How long do you want to take to pay it back?” Andy tells Kingfish he should take twenty four months. Gerry says, "Oh, don't be silly! Why rush yourself! Why not spread it out and pay me $25 a month for thirty six months?” “That sounds wonderful! You sure is a nice fella!" He makes Kingfish sign a chattel mortgage on his furniture, a lien on his life insurance, an attachment on his bank account, a garnishee on all future salaries, and in case of legal action a waver of all writes as a United States citizen. Kingfish puts the car in the shed so it can be shipped to California but later Sapphire says she knows that he wrecked Leroy’s car and so she called a junk collector to come and pick it up.

            I took a bike ride to Bloor and Yonge, south to Queen and then west. The homeless guy at Bay and Queen has a TTC sign against his tent with the words “Port Eaton".

            I moved some music and movie files to my external hard drive and deleted them from my computer so as to make more room.

            I reviewed the first two videos of my rehearsals of “One Hundred Hookers” and on both of them I screwed up some chords. I'm pretty sure I have some good versions of this song on video.

            I took another lengthwise  slice out of the frozen loaf of multigrain bread and made it the crust for a sauce and cheese pizza. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Sir Richard of the Lea and his wife Leonia have their twenty fifth anniversary celebration with Robin and Marian as guests. During the festivities a knight shows up at their gate asking for hospitality. As part of a family tradition Richard cannot refuse to provide for any night that comes to his door. But Sir Adrian turns out to be a gambler who engages Sir Richard in a game of dice that results in Richard losing his land and castle to Adrian. But Adrian rolled thirteen with a set of four dice ten times in a row and we see that he quickly drew the dice from his pocket on each throw. Richard and Adrian must go to the sheriff to complete the transfer of property . Adrian engages the sheriff in a game of dice, wagering Sir Richard’s estate but the sheriff has a quicker eye and catches him slipping the loaded dice from his pocket. The sheriff cuts a die open and sees that it is leaded so that it always turns up on the same number. He orders his men to escort Adrian out of town. Sir Richard thanks the sheriff for giving him back his estate. The sheriff asks, “Your estate?" and declares that it is his now. He argues that he has only proven that Adrian cheated him but not that he cheated Sir Richard. Robin takes Adrian away from his escort and forces him to confess to the sheriff that he did cheat Sir Richard. The sheriff is forced by law to release his claim on the property.

            In the second story Robin’s enemy Bolbec has been plotting to find a way to bring him down. Acting on the belief that everyone has a double he has searched long and hard to find Robin's and he has found him in the criminal Luke Tanner. Luke is physically identical to Robin in every way other than that Luke has a birth mark on the upper part of his arm. Bolbec and the sheriff want to use Luke to turn the people against Robin. They set Luke up in a cottage near the London Road on the edge of Sherwood Forest and he is told to rob only the poor. When Friar Tuck sees what he thinks is Robin knocking over an old woman’s apple cart he calls him Robin and chastizes him for his behaviour. Although Luke shows some respect for the cloth he clearly does not know Tuck. The friar reports this to Robin. Meanwhile the sheriff learns by having Luke receive a letter addressed to Robin Hood that young Prince Arthur, the heir to the English throne will be passing through the forest with his mother and that Luke is to approach him and since their guard will be down he can kill the prince. Luke says he won’t commit murder but the sheriff warns him he will hang otherwise. The intercepted letter is resealed and delivered to the Blue Boar but Robin detects that it has been opened and resealed. Luke finds Tuck and tells him that they want him to kill Arthur. Tuck finds Robin and reports this to him and so Robin decides that the sheriff should be made to believe that Arthur has been murdered. Robin meets with Arthur and gets him to play act his own death by his hand. Luke is arrested as Robin Hood but even if they knew he was Luke they would hang him for betraying the sheriff and so Robin must rescue him. Robin comes to the sheriff and Bolbec as Luke demanding his payment. While he is there Luke is brought in. Robin has a fake birth mark to match Luke's. Bolbec says, "Let's hang them both!" The sheriff says, "I was going to anyway!" Robin throws a sword to Luke and together they fight the two men. Luke receives a scar on his face in the battle but they both escape. Luke thanks Robin and Tuck for helping him and he points out that because of the scar he’ll never be able to play Robin Hood again.