Deacon Jones

            On Monday morning it was the beginning of the twelfth year of this journal. I translated the second verse of “D’où reviens-tu Billy Boy?” (a translation by Boris Vian of “Where Have You Been Billy Boy?): 

Oh oh where have you been Billie boo Billie boo? 

Oh where have you been Billie boo? 

Oh oh where have you been Billie boo Billie boo? 

Oh where have you been Billie boo? 

I went for a promenade in the grove with Maybelline 

She wanted to pick an apple from the tree 

To avoid her getting fatigued from stretching 

I chopped down the apple tree and then gifted her thirteen 

            I finished working out the chords for “Un amour peut en cacher un autre” (One Love Can Serve to Cover Another) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in English and French before uploading it to my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            We haven’t had hot water since Saturday morning so I had to take a very uncomfortable and as quick as possible cold shower. I turned the water on enough to wet my hair, then off to apply the shampoo, then rinsed, then conditioner, then wetting the soap, turned it off to soap my body, then on to rinse my hair and body. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I weighed 87.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            At 11:15 I rode my bike up to Top Cuts at Yonge and St. Clair. They were busy and so I had to wait for Amy about half an hour. I finished reading the prologue of Marshal McLuhan’s Guttenberg Galaxy. I was scheduled to meet Brian Haddon out front at 13:00 and I think he only had to wait five minutes. We walked down to The Quail in Rosedale and sat on the patio, We shared a pitcher of Creemore and both had the fish and chips. It was very satisfying. He gave me a book he made of the six songs he wrote when we were making music together in the late 1990s. I told him the most worn out book I have is the book of guitar chords that he gave me about twenty five years ago. We were there for about three hours chatting about movies, TV shows, music and various other topics. We’ve arranged to meet again around Queen and Spadina at the end of August and to just wander around until we find a place to have lunch. 

            When I got home I took a late siesta and got up at 18:35.

            I went out and took a walk to Sorauren, then east to Elm Grove, then home. Still no sign of Whispering Ghost with Wings of Silver. I’m still hoping to reshoot that video of him for my project. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos at 19:30, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since May 7. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:41. 

            I compared the videos of my song practice performances of “Baby Pop” on August 9 and 15 of 2023. I think the August 9 video looks a little better. I compared August 27 to August 9 and I think the latter looks a bit better, plus I like my sly expression at the end. I compared September 6 to August 27 but I think I need to listen to and watch them both again to make a decision. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching the first two episodes of season 6 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Tabitha overhears her mother and father discussing names for the upcoming baby. Samantha suggests Darrin will be disappointed if it isn’t a boy. She says all men want a little boy. Tabitha asks, “Don’t you like little girls anymore?” They try to convince her otherwise but she walks away unsatisfied. She goes to her room and brings to life Jack from Jack in the Beanstalk. He says she shouldn’t have done that and concludes girls are dumb. Tabitha says maybe her parents want a boy because they’re smarter. Jack says boys aren’t so smart and then tells her about his stupid move of trading the family cow for a handful of magic beans. Tabitha asks if he has a daddy and he says no. She says he can have hers and leaves him to take her place while she goes into the storybook and climbs the beanstalk. Samantha finds Jack in Tabitha’s bed and learns where Tabitha went. She goes into the book after her. She climbs the beanstalk and meets the giant’s complaining wife who is not a giant. Samantha heads for the castle. Meanwhile Tabitha is already at the castle and knocking. She asks the guard if she can see the giant. He says no and so she puts him to sleep. She introduces herself to the giant but he says there’s no Tabitha in this story. She says she ran away from home. He says he doesn’t adopt children and only eats them. She asks if they are delicious. He says they can be. She asks if he is going to eat her. He asks if she’s a nut. She says you don’t like me either. He says, “I’m a Medieval giant. I don’t like anybody”. She says her mother says she’s sugar and spice. He says, “You’re making my mouth water! But I’m only allowed to eat storybook children”. He tells her to get lost but she says she is lost. Meanwhile Darrin asks Endora if she isn’t concerned about her daughter and granddaughter being in a storybook. She says she used to zap herself into Shakespeare plays all the time. When Samantha knocks on the giant’s door the guard tells her she should be ashamed to raise such a wicked child. Samantha discovers that Tabitha has turned the chicken that lays golden eggs to an ordinary chicken, she’s made the magic harp play rock and roll and she shrunk the giant down to the size of a doll. Tabitha appears in handcuffs but only because she thinks they are fun. Samantha makes Tabitha change everything back. 

            In the second story Endora hires a maid named Esmerelda for Samantha. Esmerelda has lost most of her powers. Samantha admits they need extra help. Esmerelda arrives but she is invisible because she vanishes when she feels insecure. Samantha asks her if she has had experience and she says no because she’s never been married. She says she worked as a maid for Henry VIII. Esmerelda’s witchcraft acts up when she sneezes and she never knows what the spell will be but the spells don’t last. She says one day the king tried to kiss her but she sneezed and it took two days to find him. She then sneezes and a unicorn appears in the back yard. Meanwhile Darrin is at work when the client Mr. Hampton comes by. He wants to see the campaign layouts but Darrin says they’re at home. Larry says they’ll look for them there. When they see the unicorn Darrin says that was meant to be a surprise for Hampton because the Unicorn is his idea for a name for the new car his company has developed. Hampton loves it. Later Samantha decides not to keep Esmerelda full time. She’s agreed to be a yoohoo maid. She’ll appear when she’s called. She demonstrates but then Esmerelda sneezes and an elephant appears in Tabitha’s room. So far I don’t like Dick Sargent’s acting as Darrin compared to Dick York. York had a much more expressive face. 

            The giant’s palace guard was played by football star Deacon Jones. He was a defensive end for the LA Rams and a member of football’s Fearsome Foursome with Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen and Roosevelt Grier. He played for the Rams from 1961 to 1971. He became a radio sports broadcaster and formed the Deacon Jones Foundation to help out poor students who volunteer in their communities. He made several small guest roles on TV shows. He’s considered to be one of the greatest defensive players of all time. In his early days of football he was also a singer for the band Nightshift, which later became War. He was the inspiration for the Steely Dan song Deacon Blues.