Richard Haydn

            On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for the second verse of “S'il pleauvait des larmes” (If Our Tears Made the Rain Come) by Boris Vian. I may need a couple of notes to transition to the next verse but after that I think the whole song follows the chord pattern of the first two verses. 

            I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “A Sense of Déjà Vu”, my translation of “L'impression du déjà vu” by Serge Gainsbourg. I also posted the lyrics on facebook. There are twenty one Gainsbourg songs left in his oeuvre. I memorized the first verse of his song “Asphalte”. 

            I finally got a response after a year and a half from Richard Olafson of Ekstasis Editions after sending him my poetry manuscript of Paranoiac Utopia a year and a half ago. I met him eight months ago and he asked me to re-send the book, which I did twice. Two months ago I sent another email asking for a response but I think it’s only after being egged twice by Albert Moritz that he finally responded this morning. But the response was that he can’t find my manuscript and he requested that I send it yet again. I guess it’s progress. 

            I weighed 88.35 kilos before breakfast. 

            I re-sent my poetry manuscript for Paranoiac Utopia to Richard Olafson of Ekstasis Editions. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. I checked my phone for the prices for cherries and grapes at other stores and it didn’t look like anybody had any better deals. I bought five bags of cherries, a pack of raspberries, bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a big bag of Café Verrona, a jar of salsa, and a pack of Sponge Towels. 

            I weighed 87.4 kilos at 18:00. 

            Out on the roof at the back they’ve laid the floor of the new deck and put up some of the vertical posts to support the railing.

            I got an email from Richard Olafson telling me he’d received my manuscript and he liked what he’d read so far. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            The sunset light was looking pretty good so I went out with my camera and tripod to look for people to put on video. I walked to Sorauren and back before it clouded over. There were a couple of interesting people but nobody that looked engaging at that time. I shot three videos on Saturday because the energy was right and so I’m looking for that vibe again.

            I’ve selected August 26, 2023 as my best acoustic performance of “The Wooden Leg” from the videos I shot last year. This session was not already a project in Movie Maker and so I had to start a new one. I imported part B of the video for that session because the first song is “The Wooden Leg” and imported the whole audio recording. Then I cut out the beginning of the audio until just before The Wooden Leg. I worked on synchronizing the audio and the video. For a while the video was slightly behind but then for some reason the audio fell behind by a split second. I’ll finish lining them up tomorrow. 

            I had a potato with gravy and the last piece of roast pork while watching season 4, episodes 28 and 29 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Samantha and Darrin leave a French restaurant but then Samantha realizes she forgot her gloves on their table. Darrin goes back inside to get them and while he is gone a drunk tries to pick Samantha up. He is obnoxiously persistent and Samantha warns him that he’ll be sorry. He says, “My spirit cannot be dampened”. She says, “That’s what you think” and conjures a barrel of water above his head, then makes it tip over and drench him. Darrin returns just as this is happening and for some reason is mad at Samantha for using witchcraft to defend herself. He nags her about it all the way home and while they are getting ready for bed. In bed Darrin finally declares that he gives up. He says, “Let’s tell the whole world your true identity”. Samantha makes Darrin go to sleep right away and conjures a dream in which he tells the world that Samantha is a witch. They start with Larry Tate, who doesn’t believe it at first but after a few demonstrations he’s convinced. He wants Samantha to help him conquer the world. When she refuses he fires Darrin. Then they tell their next door neighbours Gladys and Abner Kravitz. When Samantha says she’s a witch Gladys says, “I don’t believe it”. Darrin confirms it’s true and then Gladys says, “I knew it!” Abner asks her to explain and Gladys says she didn’t believe Samantha would tell her. But they are immediately frightened. Later Gladys and Abner set up bleachers on their front lawn and sell admission to those who want to see the witch. When Darrin comes home from looking for a job he is mobbed. Then a brigadier general and a top secret agent come to call. They say they’ve uncovered a plot to burn Samantha at the stake. She agrees to serve her country and so Samantha, Darrin and Tabitha go to a remote, guarded facility in the desert. Then they take Samantha and Tabitha away leaving Darrin alone. He wakes up in a panic and has changed his mind about telling the world. 

            In the second story Aunt Clara comes to stay for a while because she just broke up with Ocky again. Darrin is away and Larry comes to ask Samantha to entertain a client from Japan named Mr. Mishimoto. She wonders what to serve him and Larry says he found out from his secretary in Japan that his favourite dish is hon i won goo rash. I figured out right away that the joke is that it’s a mispronunciation of Hungarian goulash but that is not revealed until the very end. Clara dresses like a geisha and when Mishimoto sees her he is smitten because she looks like his late wife. They begin dating and Clara occupies all of his time, much to the frustration of Larry who wants to do business with him. Samantha causes Ocky to call and Clara immediately goes to him. But when Mishimoto learns of this he is humiliated and immediately wants to return to Japan, saying business with Larry is no longer possible. Samantha pretends to bump into him at the airport and says she’s looking for a job because she lost face with Larry. She’s trying to make him identify and understand he’s being petty to leave, but he heads for his plane. Samantha causes a flight attendant who is walking by to say, “Well hello there”. He stops to chat and then she’s disappointed he’s leaving because she now has two weeks off in New York. He decides to stay and they begin dating. They do have dinner with Samantha and Larry but Larry still doesn’t get any business time. 

            Mishimoto was not played by a Japanese actor but by Richard Haydn, who started out as a ticket seller in London’s Daly Theatre. He then became overseer of a Jamaican banana plantation before it was wiped out by a hurricane. His first movie was Red Peppers in 1938.His first major role was as Charley in Charley’s American Aunt. He co-starred in The Late George Apley and The Sound of Music. He directed Mr. Music starring Bing Crosby, Mr. Tatlock’s Millions and Dear Wife. He played the caterpillar in a 1951 production of Alice in Wonderland. He guest starred in the Twilight Zone episode “A Thing About Machines”. He was engaged to Maria Riva the daughter of Marlene Dietrich.