February 5, 1996: I found a new apartment

Thirty years ago today 

            Around this time, perhaps on Monday I posed for a class at the Ontario College of Art that had a model at each side of the studio. The other model was Helga Schlatter who was very outgoing and socially fearless in a manner that rendered her both extremely charming and (I would find out later) somewhat Machiavellian. I mentioned that I was looking for a new apartment and she told me that she and her partner had one available in the house they rented. She invited me to come and look at it after work. As we waited for the Dundas streetcar she told me she was four months pregnant. I commented that there was a glow about her and she strangely responded, “I am in an open relationship”. Their house was on Sheridan Avenue just south of Dundas and I met Helga’s partner Peter Bird, who seemed nice. The apartment was two big rooms with a bathroom in the front of the main floor and we would be sharing the kitchen. The price was lower than the place I’d been living and so I said I’d take it.

Albert Salmi

            On Tuesday morning I went to bed at around 1:08. For at least the next hour my upstairs neighbour was blasting music, jumping on the floor, and shouting out the window. 

            After yoga I finally memorized the eleventh verse of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. There are six verses left but some have repeated lines I already know and so it’s more like four more verses to learn. 

            I ran through singing and playing “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg in French. I started working on revising my translation, which might take at least a couple of days. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune for almost every song. 

            Around midday I touched up the blue paint on the frame and the front of my bathroom exhaust fan. There had been a pink smudge on the front from when I painted the vent. It’s been two steps forward and one step back with that exhaust fan. I fixed the pink smudge but ended up getting some blue paint where the pink is supposed to be. I’ll try to fix that on Friday. 

            I weighed 90.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride up to Bloor. The bike lane is still full of snow but I wanted to go to Freshco so I rode west on Bloor without the benefit of the bike lane and went south on Gladstone. When Gladstone stops at the park I rode on the pathway through to where Gladstone picks up again and the pathway was clearer than Gladstone. South of Dundas it was treacherously slippery. 

            At Freshco I bought a pack of raspberries and five bags of cherries. I price matched the cherries with No Frills’ much cheaper price of $6.59 a kilo. 

            I weighed 90.05 kilos at 18:20. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:10. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side 1, tape 2 of my second Slamnation poetry slam. 

            I created some more sub-folders for photos in my SSD and deleted several images from my hard drive. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork with skyr while watching season 1, episode 9 of Combat. 

            Saunders is sent to work with another unit on a reconnaissance mission to find out what the Germans are up to. He ends up with the reckless Sergeant Jenkins who resents Saunders coming along. As they make their way through the woods one of Jenkins’s men is killed by a sniper. Jenkins sends the men forward one by one to be shot at until they can figure out where the sniper is hiding. Saunders says they should just bypass the sniper rather than sacrificing men to flush him out. Finally Jenkins spots the sniper and takes him out. As they continue Saunders falls behind. Jenkins finds him dismantling a mine. Then one of Jenkins’s men is killed by another mine and Jenkins admits they should go more slowly now. 

           They find a mill and Jenkins decides the upper floor would make a good lookout point. He asks for a volunteer to go in with him and Saunders says he’ll go. While they are inside, a German patrol arrives and kills all of Jenkins’s men. They hide and keep quiet with their boots off as the Germans search the building and then they realize the Germans aren’t just passing through but moving in. There is a colonel in charge as they set up the mill as a German command post. Saunders tries to radio their own nearest command post but they are out of range. 

            They wait until dark and then plan to escape near the water wheel. But then Jenkins deliberately gets himself captured. He pretends to cooperate under threat but gives the colonel false information. He asks for a map to point out the Allied positions. From hiding Saunders can see the German positions clearly marked on the map. Saunders’ boots are discovered and then Jenkins knocks out the lamp and shouts for him to escape. Jenkins is killed and Saunders is able to take out several Germans from his hiding place. He escapes and makes it back to command only to be told the information he has is unnecessary because they already cracked the German code. Saunders is upset that so many men died pointlessly to get useless information. He’s told it wasn’t pointless because they had to use every necessary means. 

            Jenkins was played by Albert Salmi, who served in the army during WWII then studied under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Workshop on the GI Bill. He made his Broadway debut in End as a Man in 1953. In 1955 he starred as Bo Decker in Bus Stop on Broadway and was offered to reprise his role in the film version but turned it down because he didn’t want to do movies. His film debut was in The Brothers Karamazov for which he turned down an Oscar nomination. He co-starred with Julie Newmar in the Twilight Zone episode Of Late I Think of Cliffordville. He played Alonzo P. Tucker on Lost in Space. He co-starred in the TV series Petrocelli. He co-starred in the films Burned at the Stake, Near the end of his career he taught drama classes. In 1990 he and his wife were found dead from gunshot wounds. The best guess by the police was that he committed a murder suicide.

February 4, 1996: It was very cold out so my daughter and I played inside

Thirty years ago today

            Sunday was a very cold day and so my daughter and I played inside.

Tab Hunter

            On Monday morning I finished working out the chords for “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and then I’ll begin revising my translation. 

            I weighed 89.75 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning in over a year. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune about every other song. 

            My upstairs neighbour was stomping on the floor several times and knocking pieces of my ceiling down. Sometimes he does it while I’m playing music but more often he just does it because he’s nuts. He was also screaming out his window and then down on the street shouting into the traffic. 

            I made more sub-folders for photos in my SSD and deleted several images from my hard drive. 

            I weighed 90.3 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Brock and Bloor and then turned around because the Bloor bike lane is still blocked with snow. 

            I weighed 90.4 kilos at 18:15. That’s the most I’ve pushed the scale in the evening in a few years. The recent snowstorm has really cut into my bike riding.

            I got a message from my daughter that she’d been billed over $50 by FedEx for the poster I bought her and had shipped from Oregon. It turns out it’s a border tax the Canadian government charges because of that asshole Trump’s tariffs. I called up FedEx Logistics and paid the bill over the phone.

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

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive tape 1, side 2 of my second Slamnation poetry slam, hosted by Cad Lowlife. Tricia Postle on hurdy gurdy and Peter Fruchter on Baroque flute played the background music. 

            I created more sub-folders for photos in my SSD and deleted several from my hard drive. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork while watching season 1, episode 8 of Combat. 

            A famous baseball player named Del Packer is transferred to K company. He’s worshipped as a hero by the men but he lives in fear of injuring his million dollar pitching arm. His first time in combat they are ambushed. He and Sgt. Saunders are being covered by Kelly and Billy but Saunders sees a German soldier circling around to get to Kelly and Billy. Saunders tells Del to take out the German while he goes after the machine gunner. But Del freezes and Billy is badly wounded. Later word comes in to Del that he can go to Special Services in London or he can stay there with K company. He chooses London but stops off at the field hospital to give Billy an autographed baseball. He finds Billy’s bed empty and it hits him hard. K company is on a mission to take out the Germans who have occupied a French winery. Saunders needs a volunteer to go with him to the winery and Del steps forward. There is a machine gun shooting at them and Saunders gets hit. Del throws a grenade from a long distance with his million dollar arm and takes out the machine gun. 

            Del was played by Tab Hunter, who made his film debut in The Lawless in 1950. He co-starred in Island of Desire, That Kind of Woman, They Came to Cordura, The Pleasure of His Company, City In the Sea, Birds Do It, Polyester, The Steel Lady, Gun Belt, Gunman’s Walk, Cameron’s Closet, Hostile Guns, and Pandemonium. He starred in Return to Treasure Island, The Burning Hills, Damn Yankees, Lafayette Escadrille, The Girl He Left Behind, The Golden Arrow, Troubled Waters, Operation Bikini, The Fickle Finger of Fate, The Last Chance, Bridge Over the Elbe, Sweet Kill, Lust in the Dust, Grotesque, and Hollywood on Horses. He had a number 1 hit with his version of “Young Love” in 1957. He starred in the sitcom The Tab Hunter Show for one season, which didn’t grab audiences in North America but was a hit in the UK. His 2005 memoir Tab Hunter Confidential revealed his years long love affair with Anthony Perkins. He also had a sexual relationship with Rudolf Nureyev.

February 3, 1996: I performed my song naked

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday evening I went to Club Saturnalia at 183 Bathurst to perform in the Partying Into the 21st Century event. Nancy brought our daughter down to see my show but regretted it because she thought my performance was inappropriate for her to see. 

            I did three songs. The organizer who’d invited me to perform asked me to make a political statement and so I took his request to heart. After some thought I concluded that the most political statement one can make is to be oneself. I began by saying I wanted to express myself by being natural like the way Anne Murray used to perform in concert and so I took my shoes off and sang my song “The Next State of Grace”. Then I said it would be closer to me if I was savagely free like Iggy Pop and so I took my shirt off and sang my song “Megaphor”. Finally I concluded that I should be entirely myself and stripped fully naked to perform my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy”. A big guy in a black suit with a white tie who looked like a Mafia hitman was security for the event. Why would they hire that kind of person for an event full of positive artists? He tried to get up onstage to grab me but I pushed him off. The organizers were also trying to shut me down but the audience protested and demanded that they let me finish. So I finished my song naked. Later I was chatting with Tricia Postle and she said I had a nice body.

Joyce Vanderveen

            On Sunday morning at about 4:45 my upstairs neighbour Jacob stomped hard on his floor. 

            I worked out the chords for the first two verses of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s only one verse left plus the monologues and I don’t think I need chords for the monologues. If not I might have the song done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning in over a year. 

            At around 9:30 I was watching an old episode of Last Week Tonight when Jacob stomped on the floor several times. My volume level was minus 14 and didn’t seem loud. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I cleaned the warm mist humidifier that’s been working all week and set the other one going. 

            I was typing on my keyboard when Jacob started stomping again. 

            I weighed 90.35 kilos before lunch. I had four slices of baguette with peanut butter, five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and ventured up Brock Avenue for the first time since before the storm. When I got to Bloor the bike lane was totally filled in with snow. I’ve never seen it that bad since they built the lane a few years ago. I turned around and rode home. I will definitely have to go downtown on Thursday because I’m having lunch with Brian Haddon at The Artful Dodger on Isabella. If the lane isn’t cleared by then I’ll have to ride on Bloor with the cars like I used to. 

            I weighed 90.1 kilos at 17:25.

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:24. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side 1, tape 1 of what I think was my second Slamnation poetry slam, hosted by Cad Lowlife. The first Slamnation was at We’ave and it was hosted by Kevin Subliminal White Trash Pierce. Background music was provided by Tricia Postle and Peter Fruchter. 

            I put several photos in sub-folders in my solid state drive and deleted quite a few from my hard drive. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with tomato pesto, oven french fries, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 1, episode 7 of Combat.

            Lieutenant Hanley is the only survivor of a battle that was won by the Germans. There is no explanation why no one we recognize from his unit is there and they will be all alive in the next episode. German soldiers come to inspect and rob the bodies while Hanley plays dead. But he is discovered and taken prisoner. 

            He is interrogated for a while and then General Von Strelitz takes him into his custody. He is placed in the passenger’s side of a car with Strelitz in the back. After a while the driver is told to turn off the road. While holding up a map the general pulls out his gun and shoots the driver through it. Then he forces Hanley to change clothes with the driver. The driver’s body is dumped in a river and Hanley is told to drive. 

            He has to pose as the general’s captain. He must open doors for him, sit when he sits, and stand at attention when he stands. They go to an officer’s night club where a young woman comes out and sings in German. Strelitz writes a note and tells him to pass it to her. An SS officer named Colonel Kleist in plain clothes gets a phone call and then comes looking for Strelitz, only to find him gone.

            Strelitz has Hanley drive to an abandoned house where they spend the night and Strelitz explains the situation. He was part of a movement called Operation Valkyrie and was involved in what came to be known as the 20 July plot by several German generals to assassinate Hitler and to liberate Germany from Nazism. The plot failed and Colonel Kleist is already on Strelitz’s tail. Strelitz and Hanley are going to meet the woman from the club at the train station and escape into Allied lines. Hanley asks how he knows he can trust his girlfriend and Strelitz reveals, “Because she is my daughter”. 

            The next day they leave the house but are confronted by armed French children who plan to assassinate them. A French priest intervenes and is accidentally shot. The children are upset and forget about Strelitz and Hanley. 

            They make it to the train and Maria meets them. Strelitz tells Maria what he has done and that he wants her to come with them. But she is certain that Germany will triumph and refuses to betray Hitler. She says she will turn him in and leaves. Kleist and his men have followed Maria to the station and she talks to them. 

            There is a cat and mouse game as they evade the soldiers and finally escape in a car but Strelitz is wounded. By the time Hanley reaches British lines Strelitz is dead. 

            Maria was played by Joyce Vanderveen, who was a child prodigy and at the age of nine conducted a children’s orchestra, as well as danced ballet and played violin at festivals. Anne Frank had clipped her picture from a magazine and had it pinned to the wall of her hiding place. When the Nazis invaded Amsterdam, Joyce and her mother escaped to Northern Holland. After the war they returned to Amsterdam. As a teenager she was a well known ballerina in the Royal Netherlands Ballet. She later joined the Monte Carlo Ballet in Paris. Joyce was not identified as the ballerina in Ann Frank’s picture until 1996. In the late 1950s a member of the Kennedy family arranged for her to come to the US on a special artist’s visa. Her first acting job was in the Live General Electric Theatre. She was given a contract with Universal and appeared in The Ten Commandments and The Singing Nun, as well as making guest appearances on several TV series like Combat and Peter Gunn. She became a dance teacher.

February 2, 1996: I promoted my Feb 3 feature at Club Saturnalia

February 2, 1996 

            On Friday evening I performed on the Spit Fridays open stage in the back room of the Cameron and promoted my feature at Club Saturnalia on February 3.