Tuesday 6 September 2022

Doris Day


            On Monday morning I memorized the sixth verse of "Volontaire" by Serge Gainsbourg and almost nailed down the last verse but couldn't quite get it. Tomorrow, I'll have it done and I'll start looking for the chords. 
            The Dollarama parking lot was full when I got up, I guess because the parkers knew the Dollarama would be closed on Labour Day. Around 7:30 groups of people started returning to the cars. They were all young and mostly Asian and they looked like they were coming from a party. 
            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. 
            Around midday, I finished cleaning the grooves that hold the sliding windows of the lefthand living room window set. I cleaned the outer sliding window but had a hell of a time installing it. It just wouldn't lift over the inside grooves to fit into its proper place. After about twenty minutes I had the idea to stick the bottom outside the building first and then put the top in the groove and then try to slip the bottom in. After a few tries, it finally worked. So now I have one window in, but the rest still need to be cleaned. If my hairdresser Amy is in at Topcuts tomorrow afternoon, I'll be going up to St Clair and Yonge and won't have time to wash the other left-hand windows until Wednesday. Then school might be starting on Thursday and in that case, I won't be able to start the right-side windows until Friday or Sunday. 
            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. 
            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. There were over a hundred U of T Engineering students in yellow helmets and some with their faces painted purple out for Frosh Week marching down Yonge and along Queen, shouting appreciatively at cars that honked for them.
            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 17:08. I was caught up on my journal at 18:18. 
            I reviewed three videos of me playing "L'accordion" and four of "The Accordion". For "L'accordion" June 14 was not bad; June 17 was the best of the French ones so far because the pop screen was not in my face; on June 19 the B chord was a bit twangy. For "The Accordion" on June 15 I was still not enunciating enough on the "in and" in the chorus; on June 16 my enunciation was slightly better but not enough; on June 18 the enunciation problem persisted; on June 20 my enunciation was better but not quite there and my playing was a bit off. 
            I downloaded a clip from the 1931 Dracula movie, converted it to AVI, imported it into Movie Maker, and converted it to WMV, then imported it into my Movie Maker project for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". I copied it to the end of the timeline and cut out everything but the brides of Dracula standing at the threshold, then a fade to a young man standing at the threshold and fainting. I'll fine-tune that tomorrow and then insert it into the main video to correspond with the line, "either the threshold has not been found or a delayed attack is coming around." 
            I continued trying to chronologize the last fifteen pages containing my transcripts of the Gumby Bible group poem. It's difficult because they are scattered over seven years and eight documents. I did discover that one of the pages is not actually a transcript but rather an attempt by me to make a poem from the lines that I added to the Gumby Bible. So now there are fourteen pages left. I found one page from year three but I didn't date it yet. 
            I had a potato with gravy and my last pork chop while watching the last five Bugs Bunny features in the Bugs Bunny Mega Pack that I downloaded. 
            The first story is a 3:21 minute short called "Chessmaster" on the file but it's officially called Grandmaster Rabbit. It's from 2005 and made specifically for the internet by the Webtunes branch of Loony Tunes. Bugs Bunny is painting a pastoral scene in the park while Daffy Duck is playing chess with Cecil Turtle. Daffy makes an illegal move and Cecil challenges it and so Daffy hits the board sending the king into Bugs's painting and knocking the tree he's painted onto the fisherman he was painting. Bugs interrupts Daffy's game with Wile E Coyote by bringing back the king. Wile E says "Checkmate" and leaves. Daffy insists on playing with Bugs but somehow Bugs checkmates him in one move. Daffy keeps challenging Bugs to different games: The first is whoever swings highest on the swing. Daffy cheats with rocket sneakers and tangles himself at the top. Then there is a pedalboat race across the lake. Daffy has motorized his but he hits a lighthouse. Daffy disguises a bomb as a soccer ball but Bugs kicks and juggles it with no incident. Daffy grabs it and it explodes. They play badminton and while Daffy runs all over the court, Bugs stands in one place and effortlessly returns the bird. The giant Baby Bear from the three bears comes up to Bugs to ask if he can play. Bugs gives him his racket and tells him to whack the birdy, so Baby Bear knocks Daffy far out of the court. 
            The second short is on the making of the "Bugs Bunny 51 and a Half Anniversary" special. Clips are shown and someone is speaking about how and why it was done that way. He explains that the characters had gotten too nice to each other over the years and so they wanted to break it down and return things to a funny state of animosity. 
            The third story is a mix of animation and live-action called "My Dream is Yours". But it's actually a small segment of the 1949 movie called My Dream is Yours starring Doris Day and Jack Carson. Bugs Bunny appears in what seems to be a dream sequence. A little boy named Freddie is sleeping and Bugs is trying wake him up to go to the Easter Parade. Doris Day and Jack Carson appear in Bunny suits and they all sing and dance to a song called "Freddie Get Ready." 
            The fourth story is Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes from 1992. Marvin the Martian has filed a case against the planet Earth with the Intergalactic Court. Bugs Bunny has been selected at random to defend the Earth. Marvin makes his case first. He says the Earth is guilty of crimes against the universe. In violation of the Neptune Accord, Earth has shot lower lifeforms into space. Marvin shows the clip from the story of when Bugs was sent to the Moon where he encountered Marvin and inadvertently blew up the Moon. Bugs argues that they have sent up signals to space but no one ever writes back. The judge says, "How do you suppose your evolution started?" Marvin continues to argue that Earth creatures have a high degree of aimless activity. They don't know where they are going but they are in a hurry to get there. Their progress causes pollution. They squander their resources to manufacture unnecessary products. He says that the universe experienced secondary pollution from the hole in the ozone layer. Marvin says they tried to make contact but Earthlings were either too afraid or they were incredulous. Aliens that make contact are seen as monsters. A surprise witness is brought in and it's Duck Dodgers. Marvin shows the clip of his first contact with Dodgers on the Planet X. Dodgers claimed it for Earth and then blew it up. Dodgers is shrunk down to the size of a mouse as punishment. The prosecution rests and Bugs is given a chance to offer a defense. Bugs tells the story of his first encounter with Marvin when Marvin came to force him to come to Mars as a sample of an Earthling life form. Then Bugs tells of how he accidentally went into space and caught Marvin trying to blow up the Earth. The judge says, "Case dismissed. Arrest the prosecutor." 
            The final story is "Bugs Bunny's Valentine" from 1979. It opens with the story of when Bugs competed with another rabbit for the affection of Daisy Bunny. 
            After that, we see Elmer Fudd as Cupid. He meets Bugs Bunny, who tells him people don't need Cupid to fall in love. 
           Then we see the story of when Bugs went to the racetrack and fell in love with the mechanical rabbit that the dogs chase. 
            Cupid says that even the world's greatest lovers need Cupid. 
            We see a Pepe le Pew story in which he tries to join the foreign legion but when the soldiers smell him they abandon the fort. The fort mascot is a female cat who rubs up against a painted ladder and gets a white stripe, so Pepe thinks she's a skunk and tries to sexually assault her. He pursues her to an oasis where she faints. Then Cupid hits her with an arrow and when she wakes up she has fallen for Pepe. She chases him and he runs away. 
            Then we see a Foghorn Leghorn story in which the Widow Hen has fallen for Foghorn. He rejects her but the barnyard dog tells her how to win Foghorn. First, she has to stimulate his curiosity by playing hard to get, then she has to make him jealous. For that, the dog dresses as a rooster who is courting her. Foghorn immediately decides to marry her so the other guy can't have her. 
            Bugs tells Cupid he's a meddler. Then Bugs gives an example of the right way to bring people together. He tells of his first encounter with the Tasmanian Devil and how he ordered a female Tasmanian Devil for him. 
            Then we see the story in which Yosemite Sam tried to hook up with Granny because she was rich, and Bugs thwarted his plans. 
            Then we see a Duck Drake detective story starring Daffy Duck. Duck enters a mansion and then asks, "Where's the body?" A voluptuous female-shaped redheaded duck in a red gown says, "Was someone asking for me?" She starts sexually assaulting Daffy but he asks, "Why did you do it?" She says, "I'm innocent!" He says, "Guilt is written all over your face!" She looks in her compact mirror and guilt really is written all over her face. She puts on some makeup to conceal it. Daffy says, "No one is gonna stop Duck Drake from solving this crime!" She says, "No one's committed a crime." He asks, "Then why was I summoned here to the Axhandle estate?" She says, "The Axhandle estate is a couple of blocks up the street." "Then you are innocent!" "I'm guilty of being crazy about you!" Daffy says she has that old ball and chain look in her eyes, and she does. He runs and she pursues him, and the holes they make in the door are the silhouettes of a bride and groom. 
            Then we see two Elmer Fudds: the Cupid version and the human one. The human Elmer tells Bugs a continental beauty is dying to meet him. Bugs goes with Elmer and it's the story of Bugs meeting the big Slobovian female rabbit. 
            Then we see part of a Pepe le Pew story as the female cat with the painted stripe escapes from Pepe in a hot air balloon but it turns out that Pepe is in the basket. He sexually assaults her and she gives in. 
            Then we see Bugs Bunny shooting Cupid in the ass with his own arrow, and that's the end. 
            Doris Day started out working towards becoming a professional dancer but in 1937 a car she was riding in met a freight train and her leg was shattered. While recovering she passed the time by singing along with the radio and realized she had talent as a singer. The singer who most influenced her was Ella Fitzgerald. 
            Doris started singing on local radio programs and caught the ear of band leader Barney Rapp, who asked her to audition. After hiring her he suggested that she change her last name to "Day" because "Kappelhoff" was too long for marquees. She went on to sing for Bob Crosby and Les Brown and did three movies singing with Brown's Band of Renown. 
            Her first big hit was "Sentimental Journey" in 1945, which became an anthem for demobilizing soldiers hoping to return home. Over the next year, she had six more top ten hits. 
            Her first movie was Romance on the High Seas directed by Michael Curtiz and it was a success despite her lack of acting experience. In the film she sang "It's Magic" and it was a number 2 hit. In 1950 US servicemen in Korea voted her their favourite star. Her 1951 film "I'll See You In My Dreams" broke box office records. Then she starred in "Calamity Jane" and the song from that movie, "Secret Love" was not only a number one hit, but it won the Academy Award. Most of her next few movies were hits in the theatre with hit songs as well. From 1952 to 1953 she starred in the "Doris Day Radio Show." In 1955 she tried a dramatic role in "Love Me or Leave Me" and it was her biggest hit so far and she considered it to be the best performance of her career. Her performance of "Que Sera Sera" in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" won another Oscar. She returned to musical comedies in the late 50s with The Pajama Game, Teacher's Pet, and The Tunnel of Love. She was Billboard's number one female vocalist from 1949 to 1958. In the early 60s, she starred in Please Don't Eat the daisies and That Touch of Mink. 
            As the sexual revolution began taking off her movies became less popular. She turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. 
            Her managers put her in debt and so she was forced against her will to star in "The Doris Day Show" on TV. It was a hit for five years. 
            In 2011 at the age of 89 she released the album "My Heart" in the UK and it was a top ten hit in Britain. 
            A great line by George Michael in his song "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" is "You Make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day". 








            

            I searched for bedbugs and amazingly I didn't find any for the fifth night in a row. My sense of hope and dread are in a deadlock.


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