William Joyce

            On Wednesday morning I worked out the chords for the third verse of "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. I think the rest of the verses use the chords from the first three verses. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. There's only one verse left. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Kramer electric guitar. Kramers have a Floyd Rose tuning system that locks the strings in tune and it usually works. But today my high E string dropped down three times and I had to stop, unlock it, tune it and lock it again. I was halfway through part B of the camera's charge before it started staying in tune and so I only ended up with three completed songs on video. Most of the session was spent on Sixteen Tons of Dogma because of the tuning problem and because the tuning problem made me frustrated and caused me to make more mistakes. I got through it eventually. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            As I am advised to apply for grants before applying for the MA in Creative Writing I saw on the School of Graduate Studies website that I'm supposed to register with the Government of Canada Research Portal. I used my U of T email address and selected a strong password. I received a verification of my account by email but when I tried to log in I got a message that I had the wrong email or password. 

            I tried to call the Help Desk but got a message from Freedom Mobile that my account had been suspended. I went over to Freedom and paid for my September plan but when I got home it still said my account has been suspended. I went back to Freedom and the clerk said he'd made a mistake and charged me too little for my plan, so I had to pay an extra $5 and change but hadn't expected to and so I had to walk home again to get some cash. The guy admitted he'd made a mistake but didn't apologize. 

            I called the Help Desk and got through right away. The guy was very helpful but it took a while for him to find a solution to my problem. I had initially tried to register with my Gmail address and Google was remembering it and applying it despite me typing in my U of T address. I had to go to the portal in incognito mode, then he sent me a temporary password to use. That was successful but I didn't have time to change my password because I wanted to have lunch. I'll do that tomorrow and hopefully there will be no more problems. 

           Marguerite Perry still hasn't emailed me back to answer the questions about transcripts that I asked yesterday. I get the impression she finds me annoying. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. I had whole wheat crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I chiseled some more black quartz and amethyst from a piece of the rock that I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 17:35. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:50. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. Megaphor and Time of the Yo-Yo seemed to come through okay. I'm not sure about Sixteen Tons of Dogma. The ending wasn't horrible. 

            I downloaded a 1956 Frigidaire commercial, converted it to WMV and imported it into my "Sleep in the Snow" Movie Maker project. I edited it down to just showing Bess Myerson partially opening and closing the fridge and inserted it just before my line "But it takes a pretty big charge to refrigerate a bed of snow". Next I need to cut out enough of the clip so the concert video is synchronized with the studio audio. 

            I scanned a few of the loose, individually cut negatives that I dug from the bottom of a file folder in my photo drawer. There's a wide mix. One is from the mid 80s, another is a shot from my daughter's first Halloween, another is a naked self portrait of me aroused and trying to look sexy, and another is of my ex-girlfriend Brenda. It's time consuming scanning single frames because I have to remove the easel and mount the neg inside. Just running whole strips through is a lot quicker. I figure I'll do all the singles first and get them out of the way. 

            I made pizza on naan with basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 5, episodes 12 and 13 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Bobbie Joe tells Betty Joe that according to her psychology book in the first four weeks of marriage one partner will establish dominance over the other. Then Billie Joe announces that the three sisters have a chance to sing on the radio on Saturday. Betty doesn't think she should do it because she wants to share Saturdays with Steve. Bobbie says that's proof that Steve is dominant. Meanwhile Steve is talking with Joe and Sam who tell him hunting, fishing and playing cards are things of the past now that he's married. Steve wants to prove them wrong and so he agrees to play poker with them on Saturday night. Betty is upset and talks to her mother. Kate says she thinks Steve is a victim of male peer pressure and he'd really rather be with her. So Betty agrees to do the radio show. Steve shows up to play poker but hears that after the radio show the girls will be singing for a group of men. He leaves the card game and finds the girls singing for wounded air force men. Betty and Steve go home together. 

            In the second story Homer Bedloe returns and says he's there to supervise a prize race horse being transported on the Cannonball from Hooterville to Pixley. Then Mr. Rogers the owner of the horse checks in. But later Kate overhears Bedloe plotting with Rogers. Then Kate learns from Sam that the horse is not a prize racehorse but just a mangey old horse. She learns from Floyd that Bedloe has insured the horse for $10,000. Then she reads from the freight manual that anything worth more than $1000 being transported on a train must be accompanied by a baggageman at all times. At this point Kate realizes Bedloe's plot. Now that Charlie is gone, with Floyd also serving as engineer he can't be in the baggage car while driving the train. The only other person in the valley who knows how to drive the Cannonball is Betty Joe, but Steve doesn't want her to do masculine things anymore. He wants to see her in a pretty dress when he comes home from work. That sounds fucked up. So Kate finds an alternative solution. The horse is not transported on the Cannonball. Joe rides the horse to Pixley.

            Rogers was played by William Joyce, who got into acting, writing and producing in the army. His first movie was as a dancer in Top Banana. He had also appeared in the theatrical version on Broadway. He played the lead role in a television version of Johnny Guitar. He starred in the zombie movie I Eat Your Skin. He was a lifetime member of the Actors Studio.