Johnny Cash

            Having gone to bed very early the night before I woke up at 3:00 on Monday. I decided to get up and finish writing my blog, then I went back to bed at 4:00. But I still couldn't sleep and so at 4:45 I got up and did a search for bedbugs. I found one healthy one on the western wall just above the baseboard and about halfway between the north and south ends of my bed. It was fat with my blood inside. I wonder if it was just sitting there because after feeding it was too big to fit into any holes. The majority of the ones I've found have been in close proximity to the electrical outlet so I wonder if they are living inside. Maybe I can get plastic plugs to fill up the plug holes when I'm not using the outlet. 

            I revised my translation of the sixth and seventh verses of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian: "Quite discrete without pretension / during their interrogations / they assist the prosecution / give weight and swing to their wisdom / With full respect for the cadence /they break in their joyous dance / the bones of all the resistance / so thugs will give good confessions." 

            I finished working out the chords for "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it once in French. I'll run through it in English tomorrow and then upload it to Christian's translations. 

            I weighed 89.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            I called Amy at Topcuts and made an appointment for a haircut for tomorrow at 13:00. 

            I went out to the hardware store to buy some safety plugs to cover up the plug holes in my bedroom electrical outlet, but they were out. I walked over to Fullworth but they didn't have them. The Dollarama didn't have them either. But I found a pack of eight for a dollar at Budget One Stop on Queen at the foot of Brock. I plugged two into my outlet but they don't cover much more than the plug holes. There are still cracks around the plug holes and so I put duct tape over the whole thing. 

            I finished cleaning the top of the first of my two muffin pans while listening to more of Johnny Cash's discography from 1960. It's interesting that Cash's best known songs, such as Folsom Prison Blues and I Walk the Line were on his first album. As one of the early rockabilly performers he was far more "billy" than the rest. His appeal came from the fact that he had an everyman voice albeit a very deep one and wrote extremely simple songs that anyone could sing. That characteristic train rhythm beat of his songs also had universal appeal. His lyrics tended not to make for very good poetry but his choices of subject matter had wide appeal because he often brought forward the plight of the unsung. Some of his stuff really stands out while other songs about farming and Jesus and guns and bad women are just kind of annoying. But it is often the songs by others that he chose to sing that made him stand apart from other country singers, especially the songs of and his collaborations with Bob Dylan. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I weighed 89.1 kilos when I got home. 

            I worked on my poem series "My Blood In A Bug." 

            In the Movie Maker project of the video that I'm making for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy" I trimmed the four minute segment of "Rosemary's Baby" that I'd cut yesterday down to one minute. I only need about ten seconds and so next time I'll cut out all the parts that show Mia Farrow's face and that of anyone else. All I need is something to match the line "undress the patient and then lay them down just like a sacrifice" and so faces are not necessary, especially recognizable ones. Not that I care about the legality of it but recognizing a face diverts the viewer from the message of the song. 

            I made a new batch of gravy out of the drippings from the chicken I grilled on Friday. It turned out a little too thick so I might have to add some more drippings the next time I grill meat. 

            I worked on editing the graffiti in my photo "Anti Gravity's Rainbow" but instead of trying to figure out what it says I started just trying to make it say something. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story an attractive woman has won the title of Miss Camp Henderson. Sergeants Carter, Hacker and Lubik as well as Corporal Boyle are admiring her photograph when Hacker comments on her unattainability. Carter offers his theory that every woman is approachable. Hacker bets him $50 he couldn't make time with her. Carter says not him because he'd get in trouble with Bunny but assures Hacker he could coach someone else to get a date with her and end up with her at Lookout Point. Hacker gets to pick the man Carter coaches and chooses Gomer. Carter starts working on Gomer by telling him that Julie Myers must be sad inside because men only want to hug and kiss her. He arranges for himself and Gomer to visit her under the pretense of an interview for the camp paper, then Carter leaves them alone. As soon as Carter leaves, Gomer confesses he's not a reporter and he only came to tell her she has a pretty mind. He's about to leave but she asks him to stay. They sit and have a great time talking and then Julie asks Gomer to take her out on Saturday. Carter lends Gomer his car and tells him to take Julie to lookout point. He does so which makes Julie suspicious but then Gomer doesn't make a pass but rather sits back to listen to the silence. She's so impressed with Gomer that she kisses him on the cheek. But Carter and Hacker are watching and Hacker has lost the bet. The next day Hacker shows up at Julie's door thinking that if Gomer has a shot then he must have a better one. But Julie rejects him immediately. He tells her about the bet and Julie then invites Gomer over to tell him off. Gomer has Carter explain the whole thing and now that she knows Gomer is blameless she only throws a beer on Carter. The next time Gomer and Julie go to Lookout Point Julie tells Gomer he can kiss her if he wants to. He tells her he'll kiss her real good but first he wants to wait and listen to the 9:05 train go by because he can't kiss and listen to trains at the same time. 

            Julie was played by the lovely Susan Oliver. 

            In the second story Gomer is walking on a bridge at night when an old guy sees him coming and pretends he's going to jump. Gomer stops him and listens to his made up story about having once been rich, thinking it's real. He takes Mr Sinclair for a meal. Sinclair asks Gomer to call him "Dad." From then on Sinclair keeps on coming to Gomer for handouts. Carter notices this and thinks rightly that it's a scam but when Carter goes to Sinclair's room to straighten him out Sinclair acts like he's trying to jump out of his window. Carter stops him and falls for his story of having once been a Marine and leading Sinclair's Raiders during WWII. The next day Sinclair comes to see Gomer and Carter and learns they have to do a special Marine operation that night. But later the operation is canceled and so they go looking for Sinclair. When they can't find him Gomer is worried Sinclair might try to jump again so he drags Carter to the bridge. But since Sinclair thinks that Gomer and Carter are away, they see him now scamming a sailor and changing his story to having been in the navy. Carter goes to the cops and finds Sinclair's mug shot. He's a well known con man with several aliases. Sinclair tries the suicide trick again but this time he's arrested.