November 20, 1994: My daughter was eating and told me to go away

Thirty years ago today

            Sunday was the day of the Santa Clause parade. I met Nancy and my daughter in the early afternoon upstairs at Licks. My daughter’s friend Amanda was also there. When I arrived my daughter was eating and she told me to go away, so I left and went downstairs to buy some fries. Nancy sent Amanda after me because she thought I was leaving. We went downtown to Nathan Philips Square and watched the parade. I carried my daughter the whole time so she could see it but she seemed pretty bored. After the parade my daughter had a pee at Eaton centre and then they left. I checked my messages and there was one from Adina. I called her at home but she’d gone to the Café Verité. I called there but they said she was out shopping and so I went home and got through to her later. That evening Mistress Maria called just to confirm my appointment with her slave on Monday so we didn’t talk long.

Strawberry Fields Forever

            On Monday morning I uploaded “Allons z'enfants” by Boris Vian to my Christian’s Translations blog and began preparing it for publication. It’s a long song so it may take a few days. 

            I published “Delirious”, my translation of “Flagrant délire” by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and also posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are only eight songs left in my Serge Gainsbourg project to translate all of his songs from 1958 until his death in 1991. 

            I memorized the first verse of his song “Au charme non plus” (The Charm is Gone). I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. The action is still high and though that makes it more difficult to play it’s not enough yet to motivate me to ride all the way out to the Twelfth Fret at Danforth and Woodbine to have it adjusted. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I packed my laundry into my two bike trailer bags. The packing wouldn’t have been as much work this time if I hadn’t included my comforter. I hadn’t planned on washing it this time but since I’ve started seeing bedbugs again it seemed necessary. I put my stuff in the washer and headed home to wash the dishes. I went back to load my things into the dryer and while I was doing so a woman came in with a rolled up carpet and asked if she could wash it. The attendant said no and the woman got very angry, saying that she’d done it lots of times when there is no attendant at all three laundromats in the area. She referred to the people who run laundromats as “You fucking people”. While waiting for the drying to be done I went to No Frills where I bought a big box of Earl Grey tea, two boxes of baking soda, and two containers of skyr. A woman was holding up two cashier aisles because she wanted cash back in a $50 bill but her cashier didn’t have it and so she asked my cashier. But the $50 my cashier gave her wasn’t the kind she wanted. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos at 15:00, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since October 29. 

            I took a siesta at 15:30 and didn’t wake up until 17:45 when it was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:18. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Vomit of the Star Eater” from October 5 to 7. On October 5 and 6 I played it on my Kramer electric guitar. On October 5 the take at 30:30 didn’t sound horrible. On October 6 the take at 9:30 was okay. On October 7 I played it on my Martin acoustic guitar and the take at 20:15 wasn’t bad.

            I managed to get in fifteen minutes of practice playing my song “Paranoiac Utopia” but I need to put in some at least one hour rehearsals with only 12 days until my book launch. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last two chicken drumsticks while watching episodes 33 and 34 of The Beatles cartoon series. Episode 33 is the second season finale and episode 34 is the third season premier. There’s no difference in the intro between the two seasons but in the third they try more experimental backgrounds for the animation. 

            In story 1 of episode 33, the Beatles are hiking in the mountains when they come across a hermit’s cave. They just walk in without a by your leave as if other people’s privacy means nothing. The hermit wants to be alone and tries to get rid of them with his shotgun and with rolling boulders but everything he tries backfires on him while The Beatles sing “Nowhere Man”. In the end the Beatles fly away in a helicopter while the entire mountain that housed the hermit’s cave collapses. 

            The first singalong is to “And I Love Her”, which was written mostly by Paul. The second singalong is to “Michelle”, which was also written mostly by Paul. It won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967. McCartney asked Jan Vaughan, a French teacher to come up with a French name and a phrase that rhymed with it. Vaughan came up with "Michelle, ma belle", and a few days later McCartney asked for a translation of "these are words that go together well" and that’s the source of “sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble”. McCartney sang the song to Michelle Obama in 2009. 

            In story 2 of episode 33, a publisher wants each of the Beatles to write the story of how they met each other and he’ll turn the best one into a best selling paperback. Ringo fantasizes that he wrote, directed, and played all the parts in a musical version of Hamlet and John, Paul and George were three poor fans who came to get his autograph. They sold his autograph on the black market and bought guitars so they could start a band. Paul fantasizes that he had just been knighted for finding a malaria cure and was starting on yellow fever. He came up with a serum and needed to test it on some prisoners named John, George and Ringo who were serving life sentences. If they survived the injection they would be set free. The Beatles do a concert and sing “Paperback Writer”. While playing, George fantasizes about being a James Bond type hero with a beautiful girlfriend and a sports car. He beats the enemy spies and they turn out to be John, Paul and Ringo. John imagines himself as a WWI flying ace who boards a dirigible and captures three German officers who turn out to be Paul, George and Ringo. They take their stories to the publisher and he throws them out. 

            In story 1 of episode 34, The Beatles visit Scotland Yard and meet England’s greatest detective, James Blond. His code name is OO because he makes all the girls scream “Oh Oh!” A mob of screaming fans come running towards the Beatles and they think it’s for them but they trample them to get to James Blond. The Beatles are jealous. Then while passing an alley they overhear some crooks plan on robbing Penny Lane. They head for Liverpool to stop the theft. While waiting for the crime to occur they sing “Penny Lane” as the animation depicts all the characters described in the song. In the end there is no robbery at Penny Lane and it turns out that James Blond saved the beautiful heiress Penelope Lane from having her jewels stolen. 

            The first singalong is to “Good Day Sunshine”, which was written mostly by Paul. In 2005 Paul played it live to the crew of the International Space Station. The second singalong is to “Rain”, which was written by John. Ringo considers it his best recorded drum performance. The recording made the first use by the Beatles of vocals played backwards. The animation for this singalong used photographs as the background. 

            In story 2 of episode 34 The Beatles are riding in their coloured limousine through a poor neighbourhood portrayed in black and white. They stop in front of an orphanage and all of the children are also in black and white. They try to visit the children but they run and hide. The Beatles decide to change the children’s environment by singing “Strawberry Fields Forever”, which was written by John. John used to play in the garden of the Strawberry Field Salvation Army Children’s Home in Liverpool. John considered it his best Beatles song. The animation during the song borders on psychedelic. Near the end the Beatles begin flying and they cast shadows that turn the black and white world beneath them into colour, rendering the children happy. 

            “Strawberry Fields Forever” was highly influential on the development of the genre of psychedelic pop. The accompanying film also influenced what became the artform of music video. Pete Townsend was blown away by the song and Brian Wilson was frustrated because “Strawberry Fields Forever” did everything he’s planned on doing with “Smile”.

November 19, 1994: After our first rehearsal the new bass player said he wasn't interested

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday I had a rehearsal with Steve Lowe, Mike Martin and this new guy Derek at the space near Main Station. I rented a bass for three hours for Derek to play. I brought my daughter with me and I had ear plugs for both of us to muffle the drums. Derek was very good at keeping Mike’s drumming in line and I thought it went well. But at the end Derek said he wasn’t interested, gave me back my $5 for renting the bass, and left. Nancy picked up our daughter from me when we were done and then Steve, Mike and I went across the street for coffee.

Carol Corbett

            On Sunday morning I saw three bedbugs. For the last few months I’ve been seeing about one a week. My neighbour David told me that the landlord told him the exterminator was a coming a few weeks ago. On top of that my kitchen drain is starting to back up again. Hopefully I can clear it without getting into another war with the landlord full of blaming me because nobody else has the problem.

            I finished running through singing and playing “Be All You Can Be”, my translation of “Allons z'enfants” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog and begin preparing it for publication. 

            I finished running through singing and playing “Delirious”, my translation of “Flagrant délire” by Serge Gainsbourg. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and almost finished preparing it for publication. Tomorrow I’ll post it and then start on his next song. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar. 

            I weighed 87.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 87.85 kilos before lunch. I had Swiss cheese flavoured crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

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

            I weighed 87.25 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Vomit of the Star Eater” from October 2 to 4. On October 2 I played my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar and the take at 19:00 was one of the best. On October 3 and 4 I played it on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On October 3 the take at 25:00 sounded okay but I was a little slow with the volume pedal. On October 4 the take at 30:45 wasn’t horrible. 

            I managed to put in a little over half an hour of practice of my song “Paranoiac Utopia”. Although I still can’t play the song all the way through I feel like I made some progress. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Italian sausage pasta sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 5 and 6 of The Beatles cartoon series. There’s some glitch in the videos of episodes 5 and 6, making it so although I can play the audio and video from the beginning with my VLC Media Player I can’t skim through it and still get the audio. I had to use Windows Media Player to do that. 

            In story 1 of episode 5, the Beatles are staying at the Beverly Beverly Hotel in Beverly Hills and they all sleep in the same bed side by side. Suddenly a frog jumps into their bed and Ringo immediately makes friends with it much to the discontent of the other Beatles. He names it Bartholomew and walks it on a leash. But when they enter a fine dining room and Bartholomew causes panic, the others convince Ringo to release Bartholomew into a pond. But then a movie producer says he was impressed by Bartholomew in the restaurant and wants to make it the star of his next picture. He’ll pay $100 a day and so now all the Beatles want Bartholomew back. They go looking for him while playing “I Call Your Name”, which was written mostly by John before the Beatles were formed. He gave it to Billy J. Kramer who recorded and released it in the summer of 1963, but John didn’t like Kramer’s version and recorded it with The Beatles. They find Bartholomew and take him to the producer but now he doesn’t want him. He’s going to use instead a parakeet dressed in a frog costume because the studio is going to pay him $100 a day to use his bird. 

            The first singalong is to “I Feel Fine”. The second singalong is to “Wait”, which was written by Paul, although both John and Paul sing the song. 

            In story 2 of episode 5, The Beatles are in Egypt to entertain the harem of a sheik. The three harem girls have removed their veils, which the sheik forbids. The Beatles arrive by camel and enter his tent and see the women’s faces and so the sheik condemns them to be thrown to the crocodiles. But the harem requests that they be allowed to sing one song before they die and the sheik agrees. The girls whisper to the Beatles that their father has sent a spy to help them escape and he will come forward at the mention of the password “Love”. The Beatles include the word in their song, which is “The Word”, written by both John and Paul. One girl who is not considered conventionally beautiful is chasing George while the sheik is pursuing them both with his scimitar. The song is finished but no rescue has occurred and so the Beatles are being taken to be crocodile food when Ringo says, “Goodbye love” to the camel. The camel turns out to be a French foreign legion bugler in a costume who calls for the troops and they charge in. 

            In story 1 of episode 6, The Beatles are visiting India on a good will trip and travelling by elephant. Ringo is complaining a lot and the others tell him that as a guest in India he has to be more charming. They see a sign that reads Indian Charm School and decide to sign Ringo up without reading the fine print. It’s really a school for learning to charm snakes and other creatures. Inside, the teacher has lost his students after asking them to upgrade from charming snakes to charming a tiger. When the Beatles walk in he immediately sends George and Ringo through the door into the tiger cage. He says they need to use music to charm the tiger and so they sing “All My Loving”. The tiger gets out of the cage and chases them during the song. Then the teacher charms a rope for them to climb out of the tiger’s reach. 

            The first singalong is to “I’m Looking Through You”. 

            The second singalong is to “Nowhere Man”, which was written by John and is sung in three part harmony. Paul says that John was writing about himself in the third person. 

            In story 2 of episode 6 the Beatles are just leaving a science fiction movie about aliens when a flying saucer lands in front of them. From out of the ship a big, beautiful woman emerges and says she heard some of their songs on the radio and asks for their autograph. John gives her his autograph and then she asks if they’d like to take a little trip in her fleagle. They do and she gives them four tickets for the ride. She takes them to a strange planet 37 billion km from Earth. There is at least one planet at that distance, which orbits Proxima Centauri, the nearest star. But Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf and it is unlikely that its planets would support life. She says she’s saved the universe from the Beatles and god will be so pleased, then she reveals herself to be a gloopy grobby creature with seventeen arms and long fuzzy claws, and then leaves them there. They all look at their tickets and they read “one way trip”. They play “Day Tripper” while creatures peek out at them from all around. The creatures are enjoying the music and start popping out but also keep disappearing. The Beatles are surrounded and start running even though the creatures seem friendly. Then some small, blonde, closer to human beings with a gurgling language guide the Beatles into a multi coloured crystal sphere that turns out to be a teleporter that sends them back to Earth, but for a moment they emerge looking like the furry creatures until they are themselves again. 

            Female voices for The Beatles cartoon series were done by Julie Bennett and Carol Corbett. Carol Corbett started on The Ernie Kovacs Show and the Garry Moore Show promoting Spring Cigarettes. She hosted two New York City based children’s TV shows: The Mighty Hercules / Carol Corbett Show and The Patchwork Family. She was the voice of Friday on the Cool McCool animated series. I checked for bedbugs before bed and they are definitely back but the nests I found didn’t seem to contain healthy ones. They were all black and greasy.

November 18, 1994: I made arrangements to be initiated as Mistress Maria's slave

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I was kind of down about Adina breaking up with me. Mistress Maria called and had phone sex with me then we arranged for my initiation as her slave on Monday. I waited around until Nancy brought my daughter and then I took her downtown with me to pick up my paycheques. My daughter spent the night.

Anne Joliffe

            On Saturday morning I ran through singing and playing the first seven verses of “Be All You Can Be”, my translation of “Allons z'enfants” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through the other half of the song. 

            I finished working out the chords to “Flagrant délire” (Flagrant Delirium) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it in French. I ran through singing and playing the first half of my translation and on Sunday I’ll figure out my translation of the two variations of the third verse that are alternately repeated by the chorus at the end. I’ll then probably have time to upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll play the Kramer electric. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went down to No Frills where only three bags of grapes were firm enough. I bought a pack of chicken drumsticks, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, deodorant, dental floss, a bag of Miss Vickie’s sweet chili chips, a jug of orange juice, and a jug of low sugar iced tea. I just realized I forgot top buy skyr. I’ll have to pick some up early next week. Later it occurred to me that I also forgot to buy Earl Grey tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and on O’Hara I found a large amount of black fabric, plus a kind of netted black and white material with fringes. I took them home and then headed out again. On Seaforth I found two really nice black oven mitts, a wooden handled scrub brush and a wooden handled mixing utensil. I’d been looking for a new oven mitt so this was a great score. I rode downtown and back. 

            I weighed 86.85 kilos at 18:12. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:17. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Vomit of the Star Eater” from September 28 to October 1. On September 28 and October 1 I played my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar. On September 28 the take at 6:15 was not bad. On October 1 the take at 25:15 was one of the best. On September 29 and 30 I played it on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On September 29 the take at 14:00 wasn’t horrible. On September 30 the take at 8:00 didn’t sound bad. 

            I managed to squeeze in a little practice of playing my song “Paranoiac Utopia” but with two weeks to go before my book launch I need a lot more because I still haven’t nailed down how to play it.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 3 and 4 of The Beatles cartoon series. In story 1 of episode 3 The Beatles are getting a tour of a French vineyard when Ringo accidentally causes a month’s worth of wine to be spilled. The winemaker says that the wine needs to be replaced that day or everybody will be out of work. The Beatles decide to help by providing motivating music and they play “I’m Down”, which was written by Paul. Somehow they manage to replace the wine in a few hours but that’s ridiculous since even the cheapest wine would take at least five days to ferment. 

            The first singalong is to “Eight Days a Week”. The second singalong is to “Paperback Writer”, which was written mostly by Paul. It was inspired by his Aunt Lil who complained that he never wrote about anything but love. 

            In story 2 of episode 3, The Beatles are getting a tour of the Palace of Versailles. After being shown a portrait of Marie Antoinette, Ringo knocks a sculpture over that lands on his head and knocks him out. He dreams that he is back in time with Marie Antoinette while the palace is being stormed by revolutionaries. One man with a scythe is about to kill Ringo when he sneezes and knocks the man out. The Beatles try to revive Ringo with “Run For Your Life” but it becomes the soundtrack of his dream as Louis XVI catches Marie kissing him and attacks them with his royal mace. A suit of armour falls on Ringo’s head in the dream and he wakes up in the real world. 

            In story 1 of episode 4, The Beatles are visiting a hot rod racetrack in the US. A couple arrives in a car that can only go 5 km an hour. The boy asks the Beatles to be in the race with them to help. So John is riding and playing “Drive My Car” while the others push. The song was written mostly by Paul. Supposedly this song was inspired by the relationship between Cilla Black and Bobby Willis. Apparently Cilla didn’t want Bobby to have his own recording contract because she needed him to drive her car. Ringo plugs their instruments into the racetrack sound system and when the girls in the audience hear that the Beatles are there they rush the track and cause the competitors to crash. Then Ringo plugs the music directly into the car’s motor and it finishes the race ahead of the others. 

            The first singalong is to “Yesterday”, which was written by Paul. The melody came to him in a dream. It’s one of the most covered songs in history. By 1986, 1600 recordings of the song had been made. A BBC2 radio poll in 1999 voted it the greatest song of the 20th Century. The second singalong is to “We Can Work It Out”. 

            In story 2 of episode 4 The Beatles visit the Man of a Thousand Faces who is the most famous Hollywood master of makeup and disguise. The disguise master loves Ringo’s face and makes a mask of it but Ringo doesn’t recognize himself and thinks it’s the ugliest thing he’s ever seen. They step into his disguise machine and all come out looking like Ringo. Then Ringo comes out looking like Frankenstein’s monster. They sing “Tell Me What You See”, which was written mostly by Paul. Ringo goes back into the machine and comes out looking like Sweepea from the Popeye cartoons. After many crazy transformations the Beatles run away from the studio. 

            Anne Jolliffe was the animator for the “I’m Down” and “Tell Me What You See” segments. She was the first Australian female animator. She earned her diploma in the Art of the Book because at the time there were no courses in film and animation in Australia. When she applied to work for Bob Godfrey in London she was told that women don’t animate. She had to learn animation from books and got a job for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial research Organization in Australia, creating scientific and educational films. She got a job in the animation department of Fanfare Film. She moved back to London and started working for a small animation studio. She did bits of The Beatles cartoon series and Yellow Submarine. After much struggle she eventually became the top paid animator in London. She worked on Bob Godfrey’s Great and shared with him the Academy Award that it won. She started her own studio in Australia called Jollification. She created The Tale of the Space Travelling Housewife and Bunyip.

November 17, 1994: Adina broke up with me because she wasn't ready to lose her virginity

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I posed from 9:00 to 16:00 at the Ontario College of Art. After work, since I was broke I just hung around OCA until 17:00 and then walked over to model for the Harold Uplis Studio until 21:00. Then I went to the bank but I had to go all the way to Bay and Queen to find a bank machine that would issue only a $10 bill. Then I headed back west to the Indigo Café. Tanya was there and we chatted a bit. Adina showed up with her hair in beaded cornrows and told me we should break up because she didn’t feel that she was ready to lose her virginity. I walked her to the bus and then went back to the Indigo for Nik Beat’s open stage. I was the final performer and after leaving, as I was getting on the streetcar a guy got on who told me that he’d enjoyed my set. His name was Derek and it turned out that he was a bass player. He rode all the way to Woodbine and I got his number before he got off.