I memorized the third verse of “L'impression du déjà vu” (A Sense of Déjà Vu) by Serge Gainsbourg and almost nailed down the last. I should have the whole song in my head tomorrow.
I tried to play my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice but I couldn’t get any sound. I tried shutting off the amp and restarting, I tried replugging the cables, I tried unplugging the guitar from the volume pedal and plugging it directly into the amp. I tried plugging the Kramer in but it didn’t work either. I was starting to worry that my amp had died after recently being repaired but then I saw that the volume bob on the amp was off. I always keep it at the same level and only adjust the volume with my guitar and the pedal but I’ve started tilting the amp in towards the centre of the living room before rehearsal and when I moved it I must have grabbed the volume nob and turned it down accidentally.
I’m still trying to get the hang of using the volume pedal in conjunction with the switches for distortion and reverb. It’s going to take a while to make the transitions smooth and to move my foot quickly from component to component.
I weighed 87.85 kilos before breakfast.
The landlord has started building a new deck. He’s already got the framework of the floor built. It looks like it won’t be any bigger than the other deck.
I finished moving all the pictures from my main hard drive to the Samsung SSD and then started on the videos.
I weighed 88.4 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 87.75 kilos at 17:00.
It was another day that was sunny for most of the day but too cloudy in the evening for me to shoot the videos I want to make. It’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow evening.
I was caught up on my journal at 17:40.
I compared the video of my electric performances of “The Wooden Leg” on August 14 and 18 of last year. I think August 14 looks better and I play better in that take as well. I compared August 20 to August 14 and August 20 is by far better in sound and look, plus that session is already a project in Movie Maker. I compared September 5 to August 20 but on September 5 to the guitar doesn’t sound as good and there is a lot of traffic noise. So the electric take I made on August 20 will be the one I upload to YouTube.
I opened the Movie Maker project for my September 6 song practice and copied and saved it as “La jambe de bois (acoustic)”. I cut out part A of the session and started working on synchronizing the audio with the video. They were already a lot closer than they usually are and when I stopped they were just a few seconds apart. I should have that done tomorrow.
I opened in Audacity the digital copy of the cassette of the multiple takes of “Seven Shades of Blues” that I recorded at Mike’s Place. There was a blues band recorded in the first few minutes and so I deleted that. There was an early recording of "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" but it was mostly drums with my voice very faint. Several takes of “Seven Shades of Blues” were also dominated by drums and only the last two takes had my voice at a decent level. I extracted three separate files from the recording.
I made a digital recording of “Heckle Night” by Rob Siciliano. It was from his tour of England before I met him and one night when the audience was hostile and he was hostile back. I might put this recording online if no one else has.
I had a potato with gravy and a piece of roasted pork tenderloin while watching season 4, episodes 16 and 17 of Bewitched.
The first story is a Christmas episode similar to one that was done in season 1, except that in that story the person who didn’t believe in Christmas was a little boy. It’s the day before Christmas and Darrin has a meeting with a client named Mr. Mortimer of Mortimer Instant Soups. Darrin says this is supposed to be a get acquainted meeting and he will present the advertizing campaign to him after the holidays. But Mortimer considers Christmas to be just another day and wants to see the campaign. He says they are to come to a business dinner at his house on Christmas Eve. After the dinner though Darrin refuses to discuss business and says he’s getting a tree and then he’s going to decorate it with Samantha. Darrin leaves but later Mortimer and Larry show up at Darrin’s house and again insist on discussing the campaign. Darrin says he will discuss it on the day after Christmas. Mortimer says he will take his business elsewhere. That night after Darrin has fallen asleep Samantha visits Mortimer. He recognizes her as Mrs. Stevens but she says to think of her as the spirit of Christmas. She takes him on a broom ride to the North Pole and Santa’s workshop, where Santa greets Samantha by name. Santa takes Samantha and Mortimer on his gift giving trip. The last stop is the home of Mortimer’s butler Hawkins who Mortimer watches through window and wonders why he’s so happy with his wife and child. The next day Mortimer shows up at Darrin and Samantha’s house happy and with a big present of Mortimer soups. He sent Hawkins and his family to Lake Placid for the holidays. Later the real Santa shows up with a doll for Tabitha.
In the second story Clara drops in and finds Samantha painting the trim on the house in the back yard. Clara decides Samantha needs help and conjures a painter but it turns out to be Leonardo Davinci. He will have to stay until Clara remembers her spell so she can reverse it. Samantha says she’ll put Leonardo in one of Darrin’s suits so he doesn’t look conspicuous. Clara casts a spell for that purpose but ends up switching Darrin’s clothes with Leonardo’s. At work Darrin suddenly finds himself in 15th Century clothing just as an important client steps in to meet him. Mr. Pritchfield recognizes Darrin’s attire as the style of Davinci and suddenly has the idea to use Mona Lisa’s smile to sell his toothpaste. Darrin rushes home to change. He learns that Leonardo is a guest in his home but he’s left and gone exploring. Samantha finds him in an art gallery taking a hammer and chisel to a piece of modern art. The sculpture is called “Man in Motion” and it just looks like a big block of stone. A guard comes to stop him just as Samantha arrives. She fixes the sculpture and takes Leonardo away. Meanwhile Larry has gotten the McMann and Tate art department to realize Pritchfield’s idea of the Mona Lisa smile being used to sell toothpaste. Larry and Pritchfield come by to show Darrin and it depicts Mona Lisa with a ridiculous brilliant white grin. Darrin says it’s in bad taste to tamper with a masterpiece. Pritchfield is angry and says he’ll follow through with his idea without McMann and Tate. Samantha freezes Pritchfield on his way out the door. Samantha shows the ad to Leonardo and he is offended. Samantha tells him he needs to come up with a brilliant idea for selling toothpaste so they don’t use the Mona Lisa. Leonardo sets up a lab and works on an idea. When it is finished Samantha unfreezes Pritchfield. Since they can’t very well say it was Leonardo Davinci’s idea, Darrin takes the credit and presents Pritchfield with multi-flavoured tooth paint so that children can brush their teeth and have fun at the same time. Pritchfield loves the idea. Clara remembers the spell and sends Leonardo back after he paints her portrait.
Leonardo was played by John Abbott, who was working as a commercial artist when he substituted for a sick friend in an amateur production and was discovered by Sybil Thorndike. He did repertory work before joining the Old Vic in 1936. He made his film debut in Conquest of the Air in 1937. His first Hollywood picture was The Shanghai Gesture. Tennessee Williams wrote the play “Auto-da-Fe” specifically for Abbott. He played Ayelborne in the Star Trek episode Errand of Mercy. He became an acting teacher.
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