On Wednesday Brian Haddon and I rehearsed for our upcoming feature performances at Fat Albert’s and the Art Bar reading series.
Saturday, 11 April 2026
Friday, 10 April 2026
Paul Giamati
I continued to try to figure out if the lyrics that I got Sonix to transcribe yesterday are really for the song “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” (Black Shoes and Funeral Parlours) by Serge Gainsbourg. On the album “Zizi je t’aime” these lyrics are just listed as “Finale” but also that they are written by Gainsbourg. There’s no song with the title “Finale” by Gainsbourg. I listened to the song a few times and organized the lyrics into verses and then used a search engine to see what comes up for each verse. The third verse revealed that the song is actually “Dessous mon pull” by Serge Gainsbourg, which I have never learned. I’ll work on that but I still want to find out if “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” is available in any form. I’ll try one more search tomorrow and if nothing turns up I’ll just work on “Dessous mon pull”.
I weighed 87.75 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it went out of tune about three times. An old man with a walker crossed the street wearing an old boot on his right foot and a worn out sneaker on his left.
I deleted several images from my hard drive.
I weighed 88.35 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since March 31.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and didn’t need to wear a scarf or gloves. On the way back I stopped at Freshco where I bought four bags of grapes, two packs of raspberries, some bananas, two packs of Full City Dark coffee, and out of curiosity a bottle of cherry tomato sauce.
I weighed 88.45 kilos at 18:30.
I was caught up in my journal at 19:26.
I tried for a fifth day to record from the cassette tape two poems that I chanted at Fat Albert’s, one of them being “Watching Mom and Dad Make Love”. It has come through distorted every time and with extreme fluctuations in volume and my first couple of tries tonight were no exception. But then I tried it with the gain knob fairly low with its white line directly left and didn’t try to adjust the gain through the whole recording. The digitization had to be played at plus 12 but there wasn’t much distortion. I tried recording again with the gain slightly higher and this time there was some distortion so I think I’m satisfied with the low gain recording and so I can move on to side 2 of the tape, which I think is a Christian and the Lions concert for Sedated Sunday at the El Mocambo. I’ll find out tomorrow if I need to record at low gain for this one as well.
I had a potato with gravy and four pork ribs while watching episode 6 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Caleb and Tarima have become lovers and their connection results in the two going to her safe place, which is a field of flowers in her mind. But this also automatically connects her to Caleb’s mind and when she touches a toy among the flowers she accesses his trauma when at the age of 6 he saw his mother taken from him. He is upset that she accessed his mind without his permission and it puts a rift between them.
The Starfleet cadets join the War College cadets in a training exercise in a starship graveyard. One team consisting of Caleb, SAM, and Kraag from the Academy; and B’Avi and Kyle from the War College board the derelict USS Miyazaki to try to power the ship. Meanwhile Genesis and Darem are assisting from the bridge. Caleb is able to power up life support systems in record time using programmable matter.
Suddenly thirty power signals begin circling the Miyazaki followed by ten transporter signals boarding the ship. They reveal themselves to be Furies and they capture the cadets, threatening to eat Caleb if a ransom is not paid. Led by War College commander Tomov, the cadets break free of the Furies and make their way to the bridge while Tomov holds the Furies back. The cadets take command of the bridge but Tomov is jettisoned into space. The Furies try to force their way onto the bridge while the cadets try to wake up the Miyazaki’s security systems in order to activate a force field. But the ship’s computer sees the cadets as invaders. SAM is able to directly access the computer with her Photonic abilities and begins to try to reassemble the broken code.
Meanwhile Admiral Vance suggests to Captain Nahla Ake that her enemy the pirate Braka has a weapon that has in the past successfully defeated the Furies. Nahla is reluctant but gives in and Braka is contacted. He makes several demands before agreeing to help.
B’Avi has a comic book about the death of the crew of the Miyazaki and teaches the ship’s computer the fate of her crew, then convinces the computer that the cadets are its new crew. The computer then puts up a force field to temporarily keep the Furies out.
The Furies are blocking the Athena from communicating with the cadets. But because of her connection with Caleb, Tarima can appear to him on the Miyazaki and speak with him. But it’s temporary. With the Doctor’s help she is able to turn off her psionic inhibitor so she can communicate directly with Caleb.
The Furies are highly sensitive to sound and Braka previously used a sonic weapon to subdue them. Starfleet has a ship called The Sargasso that is experimenting with sonic disruptions and so they send for it.
Tarima is instructed on guiding Caleb to get the Singularity Drive on the Miyazaki online. She connects with him and tells him he can access engineering from the bridge. He does this and then brings B’avi to help activate the singularity drive because it was the War College cadets that created the program but never had time to finish. Tarima tells Caleb to wait for her signal.
The Sargasso arrives.
The bridge crew decrypt a message to the Furies vessel that reads, “They took the bait”. The vessel uncloaks and it’s not a Furies vessel after all. It’s a Braka’s Vanari Ral ship and they realize that Braka has been working with the Furies the whole time. The Sargasso is disabled.
Tarima gives the signal and the singularity drive is activated. The Furies break through the force field. Tarima rips out her inhibitor and her physical body goes into convulsions but her mind is even stronger as she reaches to help Caleb. B’avi is killed by one of the Furies and SAM is damaged. Braka steals the Singularity Drive. Tarima takes Caleb to her safe place and then she begin screaming. Her screams destroy the Furies.
SAM is repaired but Tarima is now in a coma.
Braka is played by Paul Giamati, who earned a Masters Degree in Fine Arts Drama from Yale. He made his TV debut in She’ll Take Romance in 1990. He made his Broadway debut in Arcadia in 1995. He starred in American Splendour, Sideways, Win Win, Private Life, Barney’s Version (for which he won a Golden Globe), John Adams (for which he won an Emmy), The Hawk is Dying, The Holdovers (Oscar nominated), and Lady in the Water. He co-starred in Past Midnight, Man On the Moon, Duets, Shoot em Up, The Nanny Diaries, Ironclad, John Dies at the End (which he produced), Cosmopolis, Turbo, The Illusionist, Fred Clause, Cinderella Man (for which he was nominated for an Oscar), Winchell, Big Fat Liar, Pretty Bird, and Jungle Cruise. He co-starred in Too Big to Fail for which he was nominated for an Emmy. He won an Emmy for guesting on Downton Abbey.
April 10, 1996: As always I hosted my writers open stage
On Tuesday night as always I hosted my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art Bar of the Gladstone Hotel.
Thursday, 9 April 2026
Kerrice Brooks
On Wednesday morning I revised my translation of the first chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian.
In my Movie Maker project containing all the songs from the Zizi Je t’aime concert by Zizi Jeanmaire at the Casino de Paris I created a new project called “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” (Black Shoes and Funeral Parlours) and isolated the song. I uploaded the song to Sonix and got a transcript of the French lyrics. I actually don’t know if it’s the song I’m looking for because the title doesn’t appear in the lyrics. On the album the song is just listed as “Finale” but also that they are written by Gainsbourg. There’s no song with the title “Finale” with authorship by Gainsbourg so this might be it. “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” is also the name of an unfinished screenplay by Gainsbourg that I found the transcript for. I’ll look at that tomorrow and see if any of it fits with the lyrics to this song.
I weighed 87.85 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time.
Around midday, with the pinkish purple wall paint I worked on evening out the area where the bathroom wall meets the blue trim that separates the wall from the wall tiles. It’s delicate work and it’s still uneven.
When I was leaving for my bike ride, my upstairs neighbour David was standing outside. He wants to go for lunch on Friday so I guess I won’t be painting again until Tuesday.
I rode downtown and back.
I weighed 87.9 kilos at 18:15, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since last Wednesday.
I was caught up in my journal at 20:01.
I tried for the fourth day to digitize the cassette tape in which I chant two poems at Fat Albert’s. I tried it at the MME setting but there was still some distortion. I’ll try again tomorrow.
I made pizza on a slice of seven grain bread with marinara, tomato pesto, three slices of bacon, five-year-old cheddar, and an egg. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching episode 5 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Sam’s name is an acronym made from Series Acclimation Mil. She is only 217 days old. She was created on Kasq and is a hologram or as her people prefer to be called, a Photonic. She’s been sent to Starfleet Academy as an emissary and a diplomat. Her makers are also Photonics but they have never left Kasq. She has to report to them once a week to explain what she has learned about physical beings. Organics created her species a long time ago to be servants. Photonics became sentient and independent and now want to connect with organics but don’t trust them and so they need to learn about them first. She tells her makers she is still struggling with the intangible behaviours and sexual desires of organics. Her makers tell her to enrol in a course called Confronting the Unexplainable.
She finds a section of the course that intrigues her: The Fate of Benjamin Sisko Emissary of the Prophets. The Cardassian Professor Illa says she can’t join the class this late in the semester but she’s welcome to try to solve the mystery. She gets in trouble for disrupting a meeting of Bajoran students.
She goes to the Sisko Museum where she activates the hologram of Sisko’s son Jake (played by the now grown up Cirroc Lofton, who played Jake on Deep Space 9). He says he didn’t know his father as an emissary.
Illa says Sisko expressed himself through his gumbo recipes. Sam does not eat and so she needs to serve gumbo to her friends so they can describe their experience. They are in ecstasy. Caleb tells Sam that if she gives him access to her primary system he might be able to figure out a way for her to taste food. He’s not successful.
Sisko used to go to a bar called The Launching Pad, which is long gone but in the same place is a bar called The Academy and it’s cadet night every Friday during midterms so Sam and her friends decide to go.
When Sam’s makers contact her, time freezes. They tell her if she fails in her task she will be brought back to Kasq forever. She has one more week to succeed.
At the bar Caleb accesses Sam’s system and says he can help her feel the way organics feel after drinking alcohol. He tells her one tap of the holographic screen equals one shot but she taps several times and gets uncontrollably drunk.
They are confronted by the War College cadets who say this is their bar. The friendly war cadet named Kyle starts flirting with Kraag, and Kalem is jealous.
Caleb meets Tarima outside and they talk for a while but suddenly she starts kissing him.
On the dance floor Romulan War Cadet Dzolo tries to pick a fight with Sam and gets punched out then tossed out. Everyone is shocked that Sam could do that.
When they get back to the Academy Caleb makes Sam sober again. The Doctor tells Sam that he knew Jake Sisko who was a brilliant writer.
Sam goes back to Illa to tell her she failed. Illa lends her Jake’s book “Anslem” about his father. While reading the book Sam sees and talks with Jake as if he is there. He tells her that Sisko served the prophets but did it his way and didn’t always take their advice.
Illa comes to get the book and tells Sam she expects to see her in her class next semester. She can find her under her full name of Illa Dax. It turns out she’s the host of the Dax symbiont, which when hosted by Jadzia Dax was a close friend of Benjamin Sisko and so Illa has all of those memories. SAM is played by Kerrice Brooks, who started dancing at 3 and began her career as a back-up dancer for acts like Billie Eilish. She made her film debut in 2020 as a dancer in The Prom. She appeared in the film My Old Ass.
April 9, 1996: My landlady and landlord saved money by keeping the furnace turned off
On Monday I probably worked someplace but I don’t know where.
It was still cold outside sometimes but my landlords Helga and Peter had made a decision to not have the furnace on most of the time to save money. They’d been doing this all winter and into the spring. I had a space heater going all the time in my apartment.
Wednesday, 8 April 2026
Karim Diané
In my Christian’s Translations blog I published “Fishing for Millionaires”, my translation of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg and posted the lyrics on Facebook. The next unfinished translation on my Gainsbourg list is “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” (Black Shoes and Funeral Parlours). I don’t see the song on YouTube but it might be part of the Zizi Jeanmaire concert at Casino de Paris that I’ve downloaded. It’s also the name of an unfinished screenplay by Gainsbourg that I found the transcript for. I’ll look a little closer tomorrow.
I weighed 88.15 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Martin acoustic during song practice and it only stayed in tune for one song near the end.
Around midday I did some touch-ups on the bathroom walls with the pinkish purple paint. I covered the blue overlaps where the shelves meet the walls. I also evened out the places where the wall meets the trim that divides the wall from the wall tiles below and where the doorframe touches the wall. It’s still a bit uneven and so I’ll try again tomorrow to straighten it out.
I weighed 88.55 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. The heat is on in the apartment and so it was nice to be out in the cool air. I stopped at Freshco to buy seven bags of red grapes and price matched them with the Real Canadian Superstore’s price of $3.95 a kilo.
I weighed 88.55 kilos at 18:30.
I was caught up in my journal at 20:10.
I tried again to digitize the cassette tape of me reciting two poems that has come out wrong for the last two days of trying. It either came out distorted or with extreme fluctuations of volume. This time it seemed relatively clear and I was able to control some of the volume changes with my hand constantly on the gain knob. Afterwards though I decided to try to even out the volume in Effects but the result was distorted and so I undid all the amplifications and decreases but afterwards the distortion seemed to still be there. Next time I’ll avoid effecting amplifications and see if that helps.
I made a new batch of gravy with pork rib drippings and had some with a potato and three ribs while watching episode 4 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
The cadets are on their first space trip on the Starship Athena as part of their Academy Studies. The Doctor creates a debating competition and Caleb turns out to be a natural debater while Kraag freezes because of his fear of public speaking. Then Kraag is called to Captain Nahla’s office where he is informed that there has been a crash of a Klingon ship carrying most of the members of the eight houses and his parents may have also been killed. Kraag does not react and says he said his goodbyes to his parents a long time ago. But now he suddenly wants to debate and asks that the subject be a Klingon diaspora. He will take the position against the Federation providing assistance to the Klingons while Caleb will argue for it.
In a flashback Kraag remembers his life as a refugee on Krios Prime. His brother Thar is a traditional Klingon warrior and hunter but Thar sees in Kraag that he has a different path as a healer and encourages him to contact the Federation to help him realize that goal. Thar dies because his father refuses to seek the medical help of the Federation. Kraag’s father takes him hunting and urges him to kill his first bird of prey but Kraag refuses. He believes that bravely pursuing non-violence is also a warrior’s path. His father aims his bow and arrow but misses the bird and appears angry. Shortly after that Kraag’s parents leave Krios and abandon him there. Kraag contacts Starfleet and we return to the present.
Starfleet finds an uninhabited planet that is very similar to the lost Klingon homeworld of Kronos but the problem is that the Klingons would not accept it as a gift from the Federation.
Kraag argues there is no protection from loss. It is an existential right for Klingons to define themselves. Caleb says Kaarg stabbed his family in the back. They begin to get personal and so they are both disqualified from the debate.
Thok comes to talk with Kraag. She is Klingon on her mother’s side and Jem Hadar on her father’s. He tells her the story of his father missing the bird after Kraag refused to shoot it. She says a Klingon’s aim becomes sharper when angry and so his father deliberately missed in order to secretly honour Kraag’s chosen path of peace and to let him go.
Kraag asks to be allowed to return to the debate. He argues that the Federation loses its identity if it insists on Klingons losing theirs. The Klingon problem requires a Klingon solution.
With the Athena at the front, Starfleet pretends that they are challenging the Klingons for possession of the planet Faan Alpha. A battle for the planet takes place with Starfleet holding back when they could easily win against the weakened Klingon forces. Starfleet surrenders and the Klingons take the planet as their new homeworld.
Kraag is now a warrior because of his victory and he can now eat the spicy warrior stew.
Kraag is played by Karim Diané, who was born in LA but descended from the Mandingo tribe of West Africa. He competed in the X Factor USA singing competition. He developed a following on YouTube by posting videos of himself singing in the shower. He co-starred in the series One of Us is Lying. As Kraag on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy he is the first gay Klingon.
April 8, 1996: My daughter and I went to the playground
On Sunday my daughter and I went to the playground on Dundas.
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