November 11, 1996: I spent the day writing

Thirty years ago today 

            On Monday there was no work so I just worked on my writing.

Brock Peters

            On Monday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and the pillow and picked up a few of bedbugs from the curtains and one or two from the bed. I went to bed at 1:35 and slept right through to the 5:00 alarm. After yoga there were quite a few bedbugs stuck to the carpet tape on my mattress and some on the walls and on the baseboards around my bed.

            I’ve almost finished memorizing “C’est ici (It’s Right Here) by Boris Vian. I might have it done on Tuesday. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse of “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg. I’m pretty sure the rest of the verses have the same chords but I’ll find out tomorrow. 

            I weighed 90.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time. 

            Yugi came and installed a new thermostat. There’s no off switch. He set it at 21.5 degrees. The temperature in the hall hasn’t gone below that all day but it has in my place. 

            I weighed 91.1 kilos before lunch. 

            At 14:00 I had a phone meeting with a student lawyer about the bed bug situation. She said she thinks I have a pretty good case to file a tenant form with the Landlord Tenant Board. She says I could get up to $25,000 but I think that’s only if I lost property because of the bedbugs. I did buy two new mattresses years ago because of bedbugs. If I still have the receipts I could maybe get reimbursed but I don’t know if I do. The main thing for me is that the Board forces the landlord to treat the place until the bedbugs are gone. She was going to email me the form by the end of today but didn’t.

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

            I weighed 91.05 kilos at 18:15. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:37. 

            I digitized a cassette recording of my first CIUT interview. This was promoting the launch of Orgasmagazine. I didn’t get to perform but the beautiful Kelly Lynn Grace interviewed me a bit and said that she’s heard me perform and it left her breathless. The next cassette I digitize will be one of me rehearsing my song “Seven Shades of Blues” with Yehudah Culman on cello. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last chicken leg while watching episode 10 of Daniel Boone.

            The show opens with a deep voiced man named Pompey singing the spiritual “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?” Then we see that the man singing is chained with leg irons and linked to several other men. His singing has put the guard to sleep and at the same time it is somewhat masking the sound of the filing that he’s doing on his leg irons. He cuts through the chain but has to pretend he’s still chained as Calhoun the boss angrily wakes up the guard. Calhoun then goes to every man to check that his chains are secure. But when he gets to Pompey he is knocked down as the man runs for freedom. 

            Daniel and Yad are in Salem buying supplies for Boonesborough when Calhoun approaches them with a plea to help him recapture Pompey. Boone says he’s not interested but later discovers that some of the contents of a box of tools he bought is missing. 

            Boone and Yad follow the tracks of a man dragging a chain and catch up with him outside of town. They find him flutily trying to get the chain off. Boone tells Pompey they just want their tools back but will use them to get his chains off first and then he can go free. They remove Pompey’s chains but then Calhoun shows up pointing a rifle. Pompey says he can shoot him but he’s not going back. Calhoun is getting ready to wound Pompey when Boone kicks the gun away. Calhoun tells Boone he’s now committed a crime to help a slave escape. 

            Then Calhoun mentions his master and we learn that he is an indentured servant to Pompey’s master for three years. His time is almost up and then he can send for his wife in Ireland but if Pompey gets away Calhoun will have to continue being indentured to work off the 500 crowns the master paid for him and that would take years. 

            Suddenly they are attacked by Shawnee who want to steal their horses. Calhoon takes an arrow in the leg. Yad takes the horses away while Boone stands off against the Shawnee, but Pompey grabs his length of broken chain and swings into action, taking out several Shawnee until all that is left is the chief Tabuka. They stand off for several minutes until Tabuka smiles and walks away calling Pompey “Waka Boka”. 

            Pompey and Calhoun go with Boone back to Boonesborough. Calhoun reminds Boone that the Carolina Militia will come to arrest him for helping Pompey. Boone tells Pompey to take a rifle and leave but he refuses. He says he can’t let the man who removed his chains hang so he will go back with Calhoun in two weeks when he recovers from his wound. 

            During those two weeks Pompey comes to work for Boone and becomes close to him and his family. 

            When the time is up Calhoun has had two weeks to weigh it all in his conscience. He decides to let Pompey go but demands satisfaction from Boone for the trouble he has caused him. They fight and it’s pretty equal until Calhoun holds Boone in a bear hug and whispers for him to let him win. So Calhoun punches Boone one more time and he pretends to be knocked out. 

            The Shawnee are approaching the fort and everyone runs to battle stations. But Tabuka approaches alone and says they will give back the horses they stole but they invite Waka Boka to have a home with them and become a member of their nation because he is a great warrior. Pompey likes the name and the opportunity and so he goes with the Shawnee. 

            Calhoun is given enough furs to pay his master for his lost slave and perhaps even to buy his own freedom. 

            This story is a bit of a fantasy considering that the real Daniel Boone was a slave owner could very well have been on the other side of this dispute. 

            Pompey (Waka Baka) was played by Brock Peters in his TV debut. He attended the Music and Arts High School in New York. He made his film debut in Carmen Jones in 1954. He made his Broadway debut in Mr. Johnson in 1962. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for his performance in Lost In the Stars and reprised his role in the film adaptation. He co-starred in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Pawnbroker, The L-Shaped Room, Major Dundee, The McMasters, Black Girl, Slaughter’s Big Rip Off, Framed, Alligator II, He played Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek IV and Star Trek VI. He played Sisko’s father on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. He played Darth Vader in the radio adaptation of Star Wars. He sang backup vocals on harry Belafonte’s recording of “Banana Boat”. he had his own production company in Delbro Enterprises.

November 10, 1996: I took my daughter to her mother at the mall

Thirty years ago today 

            My daughter and I played on the back roof. In the evening we went to Eaton Centre to meet her mother. Then she went back to her place.

Don Megowan

            On Sunday after midnight I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and the pillow and picked up a few of bedbugs from the curtains. I went to bed at 1:33 and slept fitfully. I dreamed of a young and beautiful eastern European woman named Cilia who was serving as a cultural diplomat. She immediately fell in love with me even though I was my current age but we could not get enough of each other. I woke up and kept dreaming of her over and over again until 4:30 when I got up to pee, turned the heat on, then slept until the 5:00 alarm. After yoga there were a couple of bedbugs stuck to the carpet tape on my mattress but quite a few on the walls and on the baseboards around my bed. 

            I worked the chords to the first two lines of “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 90.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time. 

            I weighed 90.6 kilos before lunch. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

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

            I weighed 90.35 kilos at 18:20. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:28.

            I digitized a cassette recording of my interview on CIUT promoting the launch of my chapbook Vomit of the Star Eater. The next cassette is another radio interview, this one promoting my 20,000 Poets Under the League poetry slam. 

            I digitally enhanced a bit more of the old photo I’ve been working on. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, potato wedges, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching episode 9 of Daniel Boone. 

            Yad is in Salem when he stops to get a drink at a tavern where an indentured servant auction is going on. The Irish sisters Kathleen and Molly O’Hannrahan are placed on the block. Their three year contract states that they have to be sold together. The auctioneer tells Yad he’ll pay him ten pounds to bid for the sisters until the price goes up to 100. Boone arrives and asks Yad what he’s doing and when he tells him, Boone shouts out in surprise, “100 pounds?” and ends up purchasing the two women. He takes the matter to a magistrate but is told that he has to honour the transaction and so he and Yad bring the sisters back to Boonesborough. 

            His wife Rebecca is not happy about her husband buying two attractive women that are going to be living with them for three years. But when she hears their sad tale her heart melts and now Daniel has to sleep on the floor. He can’t sleep but she tells him he should be used to it since he sleeps on the ground all the time. He says he chooses soft ground and then leaves the house to look for some. 

            But he can’t sleep and so he goes to Yad’s cabin to tell him he should marry Kathleen and take care of Molly. But Yad rejects that idea so they both go and talk to various bachelors and convince several that they need a wife. 

            Hermann the blacksmith shows up at Boone’s cabin with some gifts he made and he’s clearly interested in Kathleen. 

            While Boone and Yad are still out promoting Kathleen, several of the hopeful grooms show up at Boone’s cabin. Rebecca tells them to run along and Hermann attacks them. There is a big fight amongst all the men. Boone and Yad show up and they get knocked down as well. The only one left standing is Hermann. 

            After supper Hermann comes calling with a bouquet for Kathleen but when they look for her they find a note telling them that Kathleen and Molly have decided to go back to Ireland and left on their own. Boone, Yad, and Hermann go looking for them. 

            Meanwhile the sisters are captured by Shawnee. The men find the sisters’ bags and Shawnee footprints. They catch up with them and it’s mostly Herman who takes them all out with just his fists. Then he tells Kathleen she’s going to marry him and he’s going to be the boss. They are arguing at the end and it looks like it will be that kind of marriage. 

            Hermann was played by Don Megowan, who won a heavy weight boxing title in the army during WWII. He made his film debut in The Mob in 1953. He starred in The Creation of the Humanoids, Snowfire, and Guns of the Black Witch. He co-starred in Hell Canyon Outlaws, The Werewolf, A Lust to Kill, The Creature Walks Among Us, and Tarzan and the Valley of Gold. He co-starred in the TV series The Beachcomber. He managed apartment buildings in North Hollywood and owned Megowan’s Clubhouse, specializing in burgers and lasagna.

November 9, 1996: My 5 year old daughter spent the weekend with me as usual

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday my 5 year old daughter came to spend the weekend with me as usual. We played video games.

Darby Hinton

            On Saturday after midnight I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and the pillow and picked up a few of bedbugs from the curtains. The camera tripod that was holding up one end of the bedroom curtain rod fell off the shelf. I propped the rod back up with another tripod and secured the leg with carpet tape. I shook out my sheet and comforter on the deck. I went to bed at 1:30 and slept until 3:30 when I got up to pee, then slept until the 5:00 alarm. After yoga there were a couple of bedbugs stuck to the carpet tape on my mattress and a few on the walls and on the baseboards around my bed. 

            I memorized the sixth verse of “C’est ici (It’s Right Here) by Boris Vian. There is only one verse left to learn. 

            I searched online for the chords to “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg even though I knew no one would have posted them. It’s a habit. I worked them out for the intro and the first note of the first line. 

            I weighed 89.95 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since October 10. 

            I got a text from my upstairs neighbour David claiming that he talked to all the other tenants and they say they don’t have bedbugs. He also claims that he no longer has bedbugs even though he was complaining about them just a few days ago. I told him I’m happy for him if he doesn’t have bedbugs but it may be just the space between the bedbugs’ hatching cycles. He’s suggested that I have bedbugs because I don’t clean my room even though he’s never seen my bedroom. This is not a housekeeping problem. The bedbugs are inside the walls. This has gotten out of hand because the landlord is extremely negligent about hiring pest control. It’s now been 2 and a half years since the last treatment.

            Around midday I rode to No Frills where there were some firm grapes for a change though not cheap. I got five bags of red grapes, three packs of blueberries, some bananas, two packs of New Zealand grass fed beef, ground in Canada, a jug of orange juice, a jug of lemonade, two containers of skyr, a bag of potato wedges, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. 

            I weighed 90.55 kilos at 14:40. That’s the kindest I’ve been to the scale in the early afternoon since September 25. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade.

            I took a siesta at 15:15 and slept until 17:00. It was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 90.65 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:14. 

            I digitized a cassette tape of Steve Lowe and I polishing up our performance of my songs “Angeline” and “Calendar Girl”. One can hear my then 3 or 4 year old daughter Astrid commenting that she liked the first take of “Angeline”. The next cassette I digitize will be of one of my interviews on CIUT radio.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, potato wedges, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching episode 8 of Daniel Boone. 

            Yad is on the way to Boonesborough with some furs to sell when he is stopped by Simon Girty and his three sons. They string Yad up by his feet and make off with the furs. Boone comes along and frees him then they head for Boonesborough to stop the Girtys. 

            Simon and his boys are just about to steal all the furs from the market when Boone and Yad arrive and start fighting. The Girtys are tossed in the river. 

            Boone and Yad are heading out by canoe to Salem to sell the furs. Daniel convinces his wife Rebecca to let him take their son Israel along so he can learn some things that aren’t in schoolbooks. She’s worried about her child’s safety but gives in. After they leave she says to herself there’s no harm in being sure. 

            That night when Boone, Yad, and Israel make camp, the Girty’s arrive with rifles they’ve stolen from the Cherokee. Boone shouts for Israel to run and so he heads west with the north star at his right hand like his father taught him. When he’s exhausted he is found by Mingo who was sent by Israel’s mother to make sure everyone would be safe. Mingo and Israel go back to the camp where they find Boone and Yad staked to the ground. Their canoe has been sabotaged with a big hole but Boone patches it with birch bark and they take to the river to catch up with the Girtys who are following the longer trail. The canoe has to shoot the rapids but they make it. 

            They come ashore near the Girtys’ camp but they know that they only have one rifle to the Girtys’ four. They are near a Cherokee graveyard and Boone gets an idea to scare the Girtys and throw them off their guard. They rob the grave of a Cherokee who was buried with his war paint. Mingo is done up to look like a Cherokee ghost and scares some of the brothers while the others make spooky noises. One of the brothers on guard is knocked out. Finally they are disarmed and sent away. 

            Israel was played by Darby Hinton, who made his debut as a baby on Playhouse 90. His father died when he was 14 months old. He made his film debut at the age of 4 in Hero’s Island. When he was 6 years old his mother dropped him off to audition for The Sound of Music and then went to park the car. He was mistakenly standing in line to audion for the role of Israel in the Daniel Boone series and he got the part. He co-starred on Daniel Boone for six years. He then went to high school at the American School in Switzerland. He went to college on World Campus Afloat and went around the world three times. He then studied and performed with The Groundlings. He played Ian Griffith on Days of Our Lives. He co-starred in Goodbye Franklin High, He starred in Malibu Express. He’s been starring in The Manor at Theatre 40s in Beverly Hills for the last several years. He is a “Master Trainer” for Tony Robbins. He wrote Growing Up Israel.

November 8, 1996: I posed all day at Central Tech

Thirty years ago today 

            On Friday I posed from 9:00 to 15:00 for Michael Gerry’s classes at Central Technical School.