On Wednesday I posed at Central Technical School from 9:00 to 15:00, then I immediately went down to the Ontario College of Art to work from 16:00 to 19:00. It was my first nine hour day this school year.
Friday, 6 November 2026
Thursday, 5 November 2026
Kathryn Hahn
I memorized the fourth verse of “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation of all but the last line. There are two verses left.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune about half the time.
I weighed 90.9 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since October 13. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride but it started raining and so I only went as far as Bathurst and Bloor. It stopped raining while I was going south on Bathurst but it started again when I was almost home.
I weighed 90.55 kilos at 18:00.
I was caught up in my journal at 18:38.
I digitized a cassette recording of a rehearsal of my songs “Spool of the Moon” and “Snow on a Poppy” with Steve Lowe. We spent a lot of time on “Snow On a Poppy” because it was hard to communicate with just my voice how I wanted the song played on guitar.
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 while watching the first episode of Wanda Vision with my daughter Astrid on Discord.
The first episode is styled like a 50s sitcom other than the fact that Wanda is a witch and Vision is an android who can pass through walls. In many ways it’s like the 60s sitcom Bewitched.
The opening segment has them in their wedding clothes arriving at their new house in Westview, New Jersey. Vision tries to carry Wanda over the threshold but he walks through the wall and she hits it and falls on the outside.
Like any 50s sitcom housewife Wanda doesn’t work. She offers Vision a big breakfast even though he doesn’t eat. They notice on the calendar that today’s date has a heart on it but neither wants to admit to the other that they don’t know what it signifies.
Vision goes to work at Computational Services where he is known as “Vision” but no one knows he’s a super powered android even though he works at super speed. He is exceptionally proficient at his job although he has no idea what his company does and neither does anyone else. He learns that the heart on his calendar is there because he has invited his boss Mr. Hart and his wife home for dinner.
Meanwhile Wanda’s neighbour Agnes comes to welcome Wanda to the neighbourhood. She helps her conclude that the heart on the calendar means it’s hers and Visions anniversary although they don’t seem to remember when they got married. Agnes gives Wanda some anniversary hints and so when he comes home with his boss and his boss’s wife she comes out in her night gown. Vision fumbles an explanation that Wanda’s dress and behaviour is Sokovian as she’s from Europe. Mrs. Hart finds it exotic.
When Wanda realizes she now needs to cook dinner for four, Agnes shows up through the kitchen back door with raw ingredients. Wanda pushes Agnes out and begins to magically float ingredients and utensils around the room. Wanda doesn’t seem to have full control over her powers as she burns a chicken, tries to correct that and turns it into a basket of eggs. The lobsters escape and the steak fails and so Wanda instantaneously serves breakfast for dinner.
Hart begins asking questions about their past but they are silent and so he gets frustrated with them and begins choking on his food. After Hart collapses Vision uses his powers to reach inside of Hart and pull out the obstruction. The Harts leave happy. Wanda and Vision decide to make this date their anniversary.
We see them from the point of view of someone watching Wanda Vision on TV and taking notes.
The second episode is still in black and white and set in the 60s.
Wanda and Vision are sleeping in twin beds when they hear noises outside the house but are too frightened to investigate. After the noises go away Wanda magically makes the two beds into one.
The next day they rehearse their magic act for a neighbourhood talent show with Vision as the magician and Wanda as his lovely assistant.
Vision goes to a neighbourhood watch meeting. After Wanda kisses him goodbye she sees a red toy helicopter on the hedge. It’s the only colour we or she has seen in this black and white world.
She runs into her neighbour Agnes who takes her to a planning committee meeting at the home of Dottie Jones who is the dominant personality of the neighbourhood, kind of like an adult Mean Girl.
At the neighbourhood watch meeting Vision is offered a piece of gum which he accidentally swallows, gumming up his inner android mechanisms. It causes him to behave as if he is drunk.
After the planning committee meeting Dottie’s radio suddenly asks Wanda who is behind her situation. Dottie’s wine glass breaks and we see red blood on her black and white hand.
As Vision arrives to perform the magic act with Wanda he is too stoned by the gum in his works to not use his powers and so Wanda has to secretly use magic to cover up his powers and make it appear like they are tricks. Such as when Vision starts to fly she conjures up cables attached to him. Their act is a big hit with the neighbours. Wanda uses magic to detect the gum in Vision’s body and remove it.
When Wanda and Vision get home they discover that she is suddenly pregnant. They hear noises outside and see a beekeeper climbing out of the sewer cover outside their house. Disturbed by this Wanda rewinds the story to before they heard the noise. Suddenly their world becomes a 70s colour sitcom.
Agnes is played by Kathryn Hahn, who earned a bachelors degree in Theatre from Northwestern University. She then studied at the Yale School of Drama. She made her TV debut on the children’s puppet show Hickory Hideout. She made her film debut in Flushed in 1999. She was noticed by an NBC casting director while performing at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the character of Lily in the TV series Crossing Jordon was created for her. She appeared in all but two episodes of the series. She appeared in 10 episodes of Parks and Recreation, She co-starred in the series Transparent, I Love Dick, Happyish, Wanda Vision, The Studio, The Shrink Next Door, She starred in the series Mrs. Fletcher, Agatha All Along (for which she won an Emmy Award), Tiny Beautiful Things, She starred in Afternoon Delight, Private Life, She co-starred in The Last Mimzy, Revolutionary Road, The Goods, Wanderlust, Len and Company, The Do Over, Flower, We’re the Millers, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Bad Words, This is Where I Leave You, Tomorrowland, The Visit, She’s Funny That Way, Captain Fantastic, Glass Onion, Bad Moms, A Bad Moms Christmas, Hotel Transylvania 4, Into the Spiderverse, and Fixed. She made her Broadway debut in Boeing Boeing in 2008.
November 5, 1996: Our featured writer was Hamish MacFarlane
(drawing by Rob McPhail)
On Tuesday I posed from 9:00 to 11:45 at Central Technical School.
In the evening, as always, I hosted my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art Bar of the Gladstone Hotel. Our feature on this night was novelist and short story writer, Hamish MacFarlane. Hamish had this enigmatic smile that was non-distinguishable from that of the Mona Lisa. He also had a tendency to play coy whenever anyone asked him personal questions, like when Cad kept on asking him if he was gay even though he wasn’t.
Wednesday, 4 November 2026
David Brian
On Tuesday after midnight I put down fresh carpet tape on 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 couple of bedbugs from the curtains. I shook out my sheet and comforter on the deck. I turned the heat on before going to bed at 1:30. I slept until almost 3:00 when I got up to pee and turned the heat off. I slept until 4:00 and got up to pee again, then I slept until the 5:00 alarm. After yoga there were a lot of bedbugs on the walls and on the baseboards around my bed.
I memorized the fifth verse of “C’est ici (It’s Right Here) by Boris Vian. There are only two and a half verses left to learn.
I wasn’t quite able to nail down the fourth verse of “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg but I should have it in my head on Wednesday.
I weighed 90.2 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since October 21.
I played my Martin during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time.
I called Toronto City Bylaw Officer Jamal Logan and finally got through. He says he’s yet to reach my landlord. I pointed out that the landlord is way past the thirty days he was given to comply with the order to treat my place for bedbugs. He surprised me by saying that the invoice the landlord sent him from Orkin saying they were in the building knocking on doors on a certain date may fit the compliance requirement, in which case he would close the file. That’s pretty fucked up since the landlord is legally required to give tenants notice before pest control comes and Orkin was only in the building for 14 minutes. Neither myself or David in unit 7 heard any knock on the door. Jamal said if it is determined that the landlord isn’t complying it’s a long process before he would be fined and it could take up to a year. I’ve obviously got to find an alternative to going through the bylaw officer. He told me what he would do in my position is just hire pest control myself and then bill the landlord. He must make a lot of money. He’d mentioned Rent Safe but I looked it up and it’s only for buildings with ten or more units while mine only has 7. The only other option may be to file a complaint with the Landlord-Tenant Board. I emailed Parkdale Legal to make an appointment to get some advice on how to proceed.
I weighed 91 kilos before lunch. That’s the kindest I’ve been to the scale in the early afternoon since October 13.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco where I bought four bags of red grapes and one bag of green grapes and price matched them to the Real Canadian Superstore price of $4.14 a kilo.
I weighed 90.35 kilos at 18:25. July 15 was the last evening when I was that light.
I was caught up in my journal at 19:52.
I digitized a cassette recording of Tom Smarda and I rehearsing several of my songs, for some of which I don’t think there are other recordings. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t recorded on my little tape machine so maybe we did it at Tom’s place at the time near Coxwell and Queen. The next cassette I digitize will be of a rehearsal of my songs with just Steve Lowe.
I grilled four chicken legs and had one with a potato and gravy while watching episode 5 of Daniel Boone.
Boone takes his daughter Jemima on a camping trip to show her the land he’s set aside for her when she grows up and gets married. But while marking a tree his hatchet slips and he severely wounds his leg. She goes out with his rifle and kills a bear for food and for fat to put on the wound. But when she gets back the wound has become infected. Jemima has to build up the courage to cut the infection out of his leg.
Meanwhile back near Fort Boonesborough Tad and Mingo find the tracks of a man’s military boots and they go to the fort to tell Boone. But they find only Rebecca and Israel. Rebecca is worried because Daniel and their daughter are overdue. She begs Tad and Mingo to look for them.
Boone still can’t travel because of his injury. Then a man walks into their camp and Jemima is happy because she thinks he can help. But it turns out he is Major Horton, a British officer there to recruit the 5 nations to fight for the British when the colonial war comes. He is accompanied by Tice Fowler, a disreputable man to serve as an interpreter and a handful of Wyandot. Horton says his mission is a secret and he can’t leave any witnesses. Boone is clubbed with a rifle and left to die while they take Jemima who Horton intends to drop her off at Fort Detroit. But the Wyandot warriors have other ideas for Jemima. Horton tries to defend her but is stabbed.
Boone makes a splint for his leg and uses another stick for a cane and heads after his daughter. His canoe has been sabotaged and so he enters the river and floats while clinging to a log. The kidnappers have gone down river but overland and so he takes the shorter route by going through the rapids and over the falls. he reaches their camp and begins to pick off the Wyandot by hand. Jemima gets hold of a fallen pistol and points it at Fowler but he knocks it away. Horton however is still alive enough to shoot him before dying. One last Wyandot is aiming at Boone when Mingo shoots him.
Horton was played by David Brian, who entered show business as a song and dance man on vaudeville and in night clubs. He made his film debut in Flamingo Road in 1949. He starred in Intruder in the Dust, The Great Jewel Robber, Inside Straight, Fury at Gunsight Pass, Accused of Murder, The White Squaw, and Ghost of the China Sea. He co-starred in The Damned Don’t Cry, Beyond the Forest, This Woman is Dangerous, Springfield Rifle, Dawn at Socorro, Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, Million Dollar Mermaid, A Perilous Journey, Ambush at Tomahawk Gap, Timberjack, No Place to Hide, Castle of Evil, The Destructors, and Childish Things. He starred in the radio series Mr. District Attorney and then reprised his role in the TV series.
November 4, 1996: I posed for Central Tech
Thirty years ago today
On Monday I posed from 9:00 to 11:45 for Michael Garry’s class at Central Technical School.
Tuesday, 3 November 2026
Donald Losby
On Monday after midnight I woke up and realized I’d been sleeping while sitting at my computer. I got ready for bed. I reset my alarm clock to the time change. I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room and picked up a few bedbugs. I turned the heat on before going to bed at 1:30. I slept until 3:30, got up to pee and turned the heat off, then I went back to sleep until the alarm went off at 5:00. After yoga I searched for bedbugs and found a few stuck to the carpet tape on my mattress and a few crawling freely around the baseboards.
I memorized the third verse of “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation of verses 2 and 3. That’s half the song.
I weighed 90.75 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 tried several times to reach the City of Toronto Bylaw Officer Jamal Logan but it always went to voice mail.
I weighed 91.95 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since October 19.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 91.15 kilos at 18:05.
I had a potato with gravy and my last piece of roast beef while watching the fourth episode of Daniel Boone.
Boone and Yad are finding that someone’s been stealing the beavers from their traps. Yad catches a boy in the act but gets bitten and the thief escapes. They track him to a makeshift shelter in Shawnee territory.
Yad gets his hat blown off and a woman with a rifle warns him away. Two of her three children are ready to club Yad while Boone comes up behind her.
She’s a widow but says she can take care of her family. She’s warned that even if she can fight off the Shawnee she won’t survive the winter without a proper cabin. Boone invites her to winter back in Fort Boonesborough. She asks if there are bailiffs there and he says no, so she reluctantly agrees. They give her the cabin abandoned by a family that left for Pennsylvania.
Zerelda Fluellen is suspicious of her neighbours and worries that Mr. Greenbriar is a bailiff. Her oldest son Rhys is curious and asks Greenbriar if he’s a bailiff. He says he’s a cooper. Rhys is fascinated by Greenbriar’s telescope and when he picks it up Greenbriar thinks he’s stealing it and in fear Rhys runs away with it. Thinking that he is going to be killed Rhys leaves the fort and is cold and frightened in the woods at night.
He is attacked by Shawnee but saved by the half Cherokee Mingo and taken to his camp. Boone finds him there. Mingo says he can stay with him if he wants but Boone convinces him to come back.
Greenbriar lets Rhys keep the telescope, carves a doll for Rachel and provides a spinning wheel and a rocking chair. They have a community feast and the Fluellens are starting to feel at home. But then two bailiffs arrive from Salem with a warrant for Zerelda and Rhys’s arrest.
Zerelda’s husband had borrowed 700 pounds for their trip from Wales to the colonies but had died on the trip. The debt was transferred to Rhys even though he is 12. He might have to serve as an indentured slave until the debt is paid off.
Zerelda escapes with her children but she is injured when they try to shoot the rapids. She seems to be dying but Greenbriar asks her to marry him because if the children change their name to Greenbriar they will be free of the Fluellen debt. Zerelda agrees and Boone as the magistrate for Boonesborough has the power to marry them. We don’t see her die so I guess we can imagine whatever outcome we want.
Rhys was played by Donald Losby, who had some success as a child actor but not as an adult and so he retired from acting in 1971. He made his film debut in Raintree County in 1957 at the age of 6. He played a young Hank Williams in You’re Cheatin Heart in 1964. He guest starred on the Lost In Space episode Return from Outer Space in 1965.
The old Polish guy who wears a swastika and goes around shouting “Opa!” and “Corva!” got arrested. I guess he caused a disturbance in the Pope yes restaurant downstairs. There were six cop cars ganging up on one crazy old man. I think they eventually let him go. One of the cops sarcastically said, “I love Parkdale!” Cops who don’t live in or at least really try to understand Parkdale shouldn’t be allowed to make arrests there.
November 3, 1996: My daughter and I played Doom
Thirty years ago today
On Sunday my daughter and I played video games and played on the back roof until in the evening when I took her back to her mother’s place in Scarborough.
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