I decided to get up and post the five year journal that I hadn’t been able to do without the internet the day before. On my way to Facebook I saw an email from my Canadian Literature professor telling me she’d reviewed my essay and changed the mark from 70% to 76%. I thanked her and told her that I felt less unfairly assessed.
I went back to bed but still couldn’t sleep and so I got up again and posted yesterday's blog before going back to bed at 3:00. Sleep continued to evade me and so I got up at 4:00 and posted my thirty year journal before returning to bed until my alarm went off at 5:00.
I finished translating “A la pêche des coeurs" (Fishing for Hearts) by Boris Vian and started memorizing the song in French.
I completed memorizing “Sparadrap" (Plaster Wrap) by Serge Gainsbourg and looked for the chords. I didn't find them and so I'll have to work them out myself.
Around midday I headed for the supermarket but stopped to pay for my November phone service at Freedom Mobile. The clerk appreciated the fact that I had the exact $28.25 because he said they have no change since they were recently robbed. My neighbour Benji had told me about that yesterday. I asked what was taken and the guy said thousands of dollars of cash from the phones. I looked puzzled and he just said it was complicated.
At No Frills the grapes were in bad shape but the grapefruit was cheap if one bought three so I got six. I also picked up a bag of Macintosh apples, a pint of strawberries and a pack of pork chops. While I was in the personal needs aisle I felt the urge to sneeze. Since I didn’t want to do it inside my mask I pulled it down, then lifted the front of my hoody over my face to sneeze inside. I was the only one in the aisle. I grabbed mouthwash, but on my way to get three bags of skim milk I felt the urge to sneeze again. I stepped off to the side, put my basket down and prepared to let it go, but the urge subsided. I got a can of coffee and some honey.
I had saltines and old cheddar for lunch.
In the afternoon I worked on my research essay outline for Canadian Literature. I established my thesis and my main points but I still need to figure out what kind of research I’m going to do to support my argument.
Title: Nostalgic Songs That Bookend the Emotional Range of David Chariandy's Brother
Thesis: The songs “Feeling Good” and “Ne me quitte pas” bookend the emotional range of David Chariandy’s Brother.
Rationale: “Feeling Good” written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the musical “Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd”, expresses hope while “Ne me quitte pas” by Jacques Brel deals with the despair of loss. “Feeling Good” is the musical background in this story for the memory of a family briefly together and uplifted in joyful dancing harmony ." The title “Ne me quitte pas” is also the repeated refrain of the song, meaning “please don't quit me now." It is used in Brother to address losses with which one has not yet come to terms, such as the loss of a father by abandonment, the loss of opportunity and the loss of a brother's life. I will show how these two songs as sung by Nina Simone are returned to throughout the story to establish vital moments of connection and disconnection for the main characters.
Major Points:
1. Brother is grounded in nostalgia that serves as its foundation for hope. The very last line of the prologue establishes this with the declaration that, “If you can’t memory right … you lose (1).”
2. “Feeling Good” and “Ne me quitte pas” embody the nostalgia, the hope and loss of Brother. “Feeling Good” plays during Michael’s earliest memory and only recollection of his father (84) and Michael’s mother unconsciously quotes a hopeful line from the song in the end when she declares, “It is a new day (176).” “Ne me quitte pas” is used symbolically as a shared experience of loss between the two characters who will be lost to everyone else (110, 173-174).
3. Nina Simone’s sweet and sad voice is the connection between these songs and therefore between their themes of hope and loss being essentially bound together. “Nina Simone, her opening to ‘Feeling Good’ … forever looping back (97).” “We must have played Nina Simone’s version of ‘Ne me quitte pas’ at least a dozen times (174).”
I only noticed one happy group of children in costume out with their parents for Halloween. I don’t know if they were trick or treating or if they were on their way to a socially distanced party.
I sliced the bottom from a round loaf of cranberry-raisin-nut bread and used it as pizza crust with sauce, cheese and sliced ham. I had it with a beer while watching Interpol Calling.
Anita Ballard comes to an auction of the work of her husband Hugo Ballard who committed suicide two years before. But when she sees his painting of “The Girl With Grey Hair” she declares it a fake, pulls a knife from her purse and slashes the painting. She is placed under arrest but when Duval comes to investigate Anita informs him that if the painting is not fake it belongs to her as Hugo’s wife and if it is fake it is worthless. Either way she can’t be held for slashing the painting and Duval agrees.
But since very few women would carry a knife in her purse, let alone a brand new one, he concludes that Anita came with the intention of slashing the painting. But the expert says the painting is genuine and so Duval concludes that what must be fake is Ballard’s death and the reason would be because now his paintings are worth ten times what they were before. Duval questions the dealer in San Remo who sent the paintings to auction. He says a girl brought them in. He identifies the house in one of the paintings as being in Chariana in the mountains. Duval leaves to go there but from the back of the gallery we see Anita emerge, having heard the whole thing. Duval meets Anita in Chariana and gets her to admit that Hugo faked his suicide. But she says he stopped corresponding with her three months ago and so she thinks he might be dead. In the café Duval sees a young woman wearing a shawl exactly like the one worn by the girl with grey hair in the painting. She says she is from Beaulieu, across the mountains in France and all the women wear that type of shawl there. Duval goes to Beaulieu and informs Anita. He finds Michele, the girl with grey hair working in an inn. She denies it at first but finally admits the painting is of her but denies knowing Ballard. Anita arrives and Duval pretends to leave. Anita asks Michele for a room and when they are alone she reveals she is Hugo’s wife. Finally she convinces Michele to bring Hugo to her so she can see him one last time. When Hugo comes Anita asks him to come back to her but he says he can’t. She pulls a gun an is about to shoot when Duval comes in and takes the gun. At the same time Anita sees that Hugo’s hand is injured. He tells her that Michele has only been his nurse. Anita and Hugo embrace. Duval reveals that he had previously removed the bullets from Anita’s gun.
Anita was played by New Brunswick actor Mary Laura Wood, who achieved some success in British theatre, film and television before retiring and returning to New Brunswick.
According to the Internet Movie Database Michele was played by Elizabeth Wilson but she would have been 38 then and Michele looked much younger than that. Wilson played supporting roles in “The Graduate”, “Catch 22”, “The Day of the Dolphin”, “Regarding Henry”, “Quiz Show” and “Picnic”. Wikipedia says she was in this episode as well so I guess she was just a very young looking 38 year old. I still don’t buy it because the pictures don’t seem to match. Then again she was known as a very good actor so maybe she could pull it off.
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