February 23, 1996: Brian Haddon didn't want to perform with me until everything was right

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I performed on the Spit Fridays open stage in the back room of the Cameron. I invited Brian Haddon to accompany me but he was a bit of a perfectionist and wanted us to rehearse a few more times.

Curt Conway

            On Saturday morning I continued gathering images for my photo-video of “Les Millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I weighed 91.05 kilos before breakfast.

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune during almost every song. The new tuner is more accurate but has no magical effect on the guitar.

            Around midday I went to No Frills where I got a refund for the zero alcohol mouthwash that I accidentally bought last week. The grapes were very cheap at $4.14 a kilo but I could only find five bags that were relatively firm. I also bought a pack of raspberries, some bananas, mouthwash, a carton of coconut milk, a jug of iced tea, a jug of orange juice, and a container of what I thought was non-dairy coconut ice cream but it was dairy coconut ice cream. I’m pretty sure I’ve bought non-dairy ice cream at No Frills but there’s none there now. They have it at Freshco so maybe I’ll pop by there tomorrow. 

            My upstairs neighbour David called and said he forgot to buy bread so I gave him three slices of Bavarian sandwich bread. 

            I weighed 90.95 kilos at 14:35, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since last Saturday. 

            I took a siesta from 15:30 to 17:00. It was too late for a bike ride. 

            I weighed 91.25 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:38. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity, then extracted to my hard drive a recording of my daughter Astrid making pre-verbal sounds. It’s only on the beginning of side A. I have another tape that has more of her on it that I’ll digitize tomorrow. 

            I created more sub-folders in my SSD for photos including one for Kitten Natividad. I deleted several images from my hard drive. 

            I used the remainder of some tofu I cooked a few days ago, added water, some broccoli, and two Szechuan flavour packets. I cooked them for a while, then added two servings of ramen noodles. I had two bowls of the soup with a glass of Creemore while watching season 1, episode 27 of Combat. 

            Kirby is on trial for desertion and if found guilty the punishment could be the firing squad. Saunders and Caje attend his trial.

            He had been separated from K Company when they were under heavy mortar fire. He was found by Sgt. Metcalf of F Company and ordered to help take Hill 256. But on the way up Kirby saw that they were under machine gun fire and ran. Metcalf saw no machine gun and his word has more weight because he’s a decorated soldier while Kirby has a reputation for being a troublemaker. 

            Saunders points out that he’s fought beside Kirby many times and he’s never run but he’s told that one only needs to run once to be a coward. 

            There is one German prisoner from that battle and Saunders tries to get him to confirm that there was a machine gun but he refuses to give anything but his name, rank, and serial number. 

            Saunders and Kirby’s lawyer Captain Dugan check the records and find there has only been that one battle on Hill 256 so if machine gun shells can be found there it could save Kirby. Saunders and Caje decide to go on a private mission to Hill 256 but they only have one night because Kirby will be on the witness stand in the morning. They enter British lines and are captured but after a few hours their identities are confirmed and they are allowed to continue because the Brits sympathize with their situation. 

            They see German soldiers as they make their way to the hill and strangle two of them. At the top of the hill Caje falls into a deep man-made hole and inside finds a spent machine gun belt. But a truckload of Germans arrive to start cutting down trees in the area. They kill one of them who gets too close to the hole and then sneak away. 

           They give the shells to Dugan who brings an ordinance expert into court to identify the shells as German. The prosecution drops the charges and Kirby is free to go. Metcalf still insists he saw no machine gun.

            Saunders concludes that Metcalfe is so conditioned to be brave that he can’t even see danger when it’s staring down his throat. 

            Captain Dugan was played by Curt Conway, who was a member of the Actors Studio. His film debut was in Singapore in 1947. He played Hitler in an episode of the Twilight Zone. He appeared on four episodes of The Odd Couple. He founded the Conway Theatre Studio in Hollywood in 1962. He was on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts and taught at the Civic Light Opera Musical Theatre Workshop in LA. He taught acting at the University of California from 1970 to 1972.

February 22, 1996: It was so much easier to teach another musician my songs now that I could play them

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday Brian Haddon started learning to play my songs on the recorder. It was so much easier to teach another musician my songs now that I could play them on guitar. Rehearsals were chaotic with the earlier ensemble of Christian and the Lions when I would just try to sing them my songs.

Hendrik Vallaerts

            On Friday at about 3:00 my upstairs neighbour Jacob was banging on something. 

            At 3:45 the fire alarm started bonking and continued for half an hour until the firemen came. I could hear them in the hall but I didn’t get up to check on whether there was actually a fire. I fell asleep and dreamed that I went out to talk with them and saw that unit 2 was totally gutted and black. Of course it wasn’t. 

            After yoga I gathered more images from the internet for my photo-video of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 91.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice and it didn’t stay in tune as well as yesterday but it wasn’t too bad. 

            Around midday I painted the underside of my top bathroom shelves with “blue bliss”. I also straightened out the lines where the top shelves meet the walls. It looks good but it’ll need at least one more coat, which I’ll add on Tuesday. 

            I weighed 91.8 kilos before lunch.

            I took a siesta at 14:30 as usual but didn’t wake up until 17:15. My body was probably making up for its loss of sleep while the fire alarm was sounding. It was too late for a bike ride.

            I weighed 91.95 kilos at 17:40. 

            I called my periodontist Dr. Xia and left a message to let him know I was almost finished with the Peridex mouth rinse and wondered if I could go back to regular mouthwash. He got back to me an hour later and said I could use warm salted water instead. He also said I could lightly brush the area of surgery now. I’m looking forward to getting the twenty stitches out. I can feel the ends of the threads and it feels like I’ve got a spider in my mouth. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:41. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side 2 of the Bomb Shelter Light demo tape. The next tape I’ll digitize is one containing pre-verbal sounds my daughter made when she was small. 

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

            I boiled a potato in vegetable broth, added spinach, and five-year old cheddar. I put in a little too much salt. I ate while watching season 1, episode 26 of Combat. 

            K Company is battling the Germans in what is supposed to be an evacuated French town. Then they notice a beautiful young woman sitting in a rose garden oblivious to the gunfire and the explosions. Oddly the garden has been untouched while outside its gate the streets are torn up. The Germans retreat but will be back and they outnumber K Company. Saunders enters the garden to try to get the woman to leave. The young woman’s name is Jeannine and she is with her caregiver, the elderly Celeste. Jeannine has lost her family and now lives in a delusional fantasy of peace in the garden. Celeste speaks English and tells Saunders that divine intervention is protecting Jeannine and her garden. She says that Jeannine will die if she leaves. 

            Later Saunders comes back to try again. Although Jeannine cannot speak English she has taken a liking to Saunders and follows him when he leads her to the gate. But then she sees the devastation outside and has a panic attack. She retreats to the garden. 

            Saunders goes back to his company. The Germans begin to shell the town and Lieutenant Hanley tells Saunders to try again to get the civilians out. Jeannine is playing a record and wants Saunders to dance with her. Celeste points a rifle at Saunders and forces him to do so. He doesn’t really have to be forced. After a while Jeannine becomes very calm in his arms and he picks her up to carry her out of the garden with Celeste following. He lays her down in a stable at the command post but when she wakes up she panics. Doc gives her an injection that puts her to sleep. 

            The Germans stop firing for the night and everyone goes to sleep. Jeannine wakes up and wanders back to her garden. Saunders finds her there as German troops occupy the town. A machine gun nest is holding K Company down. There’s an abandoned tank nearby with the big gun out of commission but the machine gun works. Caje tries to get to it but is wounded. Saunders successfully gets into the tank and uses the machine gun to take out the nest. The Germans are gone from the town for now. Jeannine and Celeste are back in the garden and Jeannine gives Saunders a rose before he leaves. 

            This story was written by Hendrik Vallaerts, who started as a writer for Frank Sinatra’s radio show. He wrote the Star Trek episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”. He wrote six scripts of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and created the minisub they used in the series. He wrote the two episodes of Batman for which he created the villain the Bookworm.

February 21, 1996: Brian Haddon joined my band Christian and the Lions

Thirty years ago today 

             On Wednesday Brian Haddon brought his recorder to work and afterwards we went back to my place to jam. He decided he was interested in learning my songs and we made plans to start busking together as well.

J.D. Cannon

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

            I continued to search online for vintage photos to add to my photo-video of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. I’ve got 74 so far. 

            I weighed 90.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice and after having to retune following the first song and then the second, it stayed in tune for the rest of the session. 

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

            I weighed 91.05 before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and for the first time since before the big storm the Bloor bike lane was clear enough for me to ride all the way downtown. I was almost disappointed because I’d gotten used to these shorter bike rides over the last few weeks. It was quite tiring riding downtown and back without practice. I stopped at Freshco on my way back where I bought seven bags of grapes but stuffed them all into four bags just in case the cashier wanted to be strict about the four item limit for price matches. I also got two packs of raspberries, some bananas, a carton of soy milk, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, two cans of kidney beans, Sensodyne toothpaste, and shaving gel. 

            The price match on the grapes was with the No Frills price of $4.14 a kilo. For some reason Jeremy the cashier disputed that and got out his calculator to work out a much higher price per kilo. I said, “You didn’t get $4.14 a kilo?” He said that’s not what $2.99 a pound works out to. I informed him, “It’s not $2.99 a pound, it’s $1.88 a pound!” When he looked at my flyer he’d been looking at the price for the item below the grapes. He fixed his mistake but I’ll probably avoid Jeremy’s counter from now on. 

            When I got home I saw that I’d forgotten the bananas and they weren’t on my receipt. I took them out of my basket when I was putting the seven bags of grapes into four bags and then must have forgotten to put them back in.

            I weighed 90.95 kilos at 19:15. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 20:35.

            There was no time to work on any projects tonight. 

            I boiled the good parts of two potatoes in vegetable broth. On another burner I heated what was left of the chicken and potato soup I’d made yesterday and added two slices of five-year-old cheddar. To the main soup I added spinach and after about ten minutes added yesterday’s soup. The finished product was delicious. 

            I had supper while watching season 1, episode 25 of Combat. This story had the feel of a back door pilot. The star, Rick Jason did very little while the episode was driven by the guest star, J.D. Cannon, playing superspy Ted Slocum. AI says that there is a considerable group of fans and critics that agree with me that this was probably a back door pilot. Espionage shows were very popular at that time but it would have been unique to have one set during WWII.

            In the middle of being shelled by Germans in France, Lieutenant Hanley gets orders to report to a cocktail lounge in London. They fly him out still dirty from night patrol. He gets cleaned up at the hotel and soon he’s in uniform enjoying a drink in the lounge. 

            At the bar two men are debating and then finally betting on how many companies a German infantry regiment has. The British man says 15 and the Middle North American argues it’s 12. They see Hanley and recognize by his uniform that he would know and so they agree that he can settle the bet. Hanley says 15 so the Middle North American pays a pound. He sits with Hanley and asks what outfit he’s with but he won’t say. The Middle North American shows his credentials and he’s Ted Slocum of the Washington Foreign Press but Hanley still won’t give out any information.

            Slocum leaves and then Hanley gets a phone call to go to a certain address. He enters a dark room lit by one candle where a man named Williams at a table tells him to sit down and look at a photograph on the table. Hanley recognizes the Barole family. There is Raymond, who was Hanley’s college roommate, Raymond’s little sister Marie and their father Dr. Barole the physicist. Williams says that Dr. Barole is in hiding in occupied France to avoid being forced to serve the German war effort. He is hiding in a town near the Swiss border. 

            An attempt was made to help him escape but it failed because someone tipped off the Gestapo and Raymond was killed. Barole needs someone he can trust so he will cooperate with a new escape plan. Williams says that Hanley would be accompanied by an experienced spy who has jumped into occupied territory many times. Only Marie knows where her father is but the Maquis would lead them to her. 

            Hanley agrees to the mission and then a light comes on revealing that nearby is sitting Ted Slocum, the spy who will lead the mission. Hanley is impressed because he found Slocum very convincing as a news correspondent when he met him in the bar. 

            Slocum takes Hanley to get their papers. A man who was recently in prison for counterfeiting is now the expert in charge of that department. They get suited up with French citizens’ clothing of the region in question. 

            They jump and are met by two men and one woman of the Maquis. Two Germans are approaching and Slocum immediately tells the other men to hide, then he grabs Lily, throws her down on the ground and begins kissing her. The German soldiers just think it’s a couple of French lovers and they let them go. 

            They go to Marie and she is happy to see Hanley again. It turns out that Dr. Barole is hiding in Marie’s cellar. Slocum tells him they have to leave tonight. Barole says he needs his notebook, which he’s hidden in the wine cellar of a local bar that is frequented by German soldiers. 

            Slocum burgles a uniform store and dresses as a German officer. He walks into the bar and asks for wine but acts disgusted by what he tastes. So the bartender takes him to the basement where Slocum “accidentally” breaks the wine bottle the bartender hands him and while the proprietor goes upstairs for a mop, Slocum finds Barole’s notebook. On his way out the other German officers are leaving and he learns that they are going to the church where he, Hanley and the Baroles are supposed to rendezvous. He goes back to Hanley and says there is a traitor among the three Maquis they are working with. Slocum tells each of the three a different location for their next rendezvous. Then later he says they are going to the church tower to watch and see which location the Gestapo go. That way they will know who the traitor is. Lily suddenly jumps out of the car and runs. Slocum drives after her but she runs into an area under curfew and the Germans shoot her. 

            Slocum, Haney, the other two Maquis and the Baroles make it across the Swiss border and then Hanley and Slocum head back to London so Slocum can buy Haney a drink. 

            Slocum was played by J.D. Cannon, who started his studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before WWII and finished them after. He was a founding member of the New York Shakespeare Festival. His TV debut was on the Phil Silvers Show. He starred in the original off-Broadway production of Blood Knot in 1964. His film debut was in An American Dream in 1966. He co-starred in Cool Hand Luke, He appeared in 5 episodes of Alias Smith and Jones. He played Police Detective Peter B. Clifford on McCloud from 1970 to 1977 (a role that his producers said was the closest thing to a living Dick Tracy).

February 20, 1996: I met my fellow model and musician Brian Haddon

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I took my guitar to work with me at the Ontario College of Art. Sometimes I would pose with it for paintings. At lunchtime I would sit in the models’ lounge and in those days the school had a nice one with a big couch where models could hang out and get to know each other. That day I met Brian Haddon who it turned out was also a musician and had studied at the Royal Conservatory. He said he played recorder and we talked about getting together and playing to find out if he’d like to join Christian and the Lions.