February 15, 1996: I got my phone connected

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I got my phone connected at my new place.

Dan O'Hirlihy

            On Friday morning swelling had definitely gone down in my right cheek. During yoga I was able to put the right side of my face on the floor for the first time since the bone graft. There’s still a bruise on my cheek but supposedly that will go away. 

            I started looking for vintage images related to the idea of broken millionaires. I found a few images but I’ve got to change the wording of my search. 

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune almost half the time. 

            I painted the tops of my upper bathroom shelves with Blue Bliss. 

            I smudged the northern wall in a few places. I’ll touch that up on Tuesday and after that I might be finished with the ladder for the bathroom as I start painting the rest of the shelves. 

            I weighed 89.95 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Shaw and Bloor where the bike lane further east is still blocked with snow. I don’t think they are going to bother clearing that section. I went down Shaw to Harbord, west to Ossington, south to Queen and then west to home. 

            I weighed 90.3 kilos at 17:40, which is the most I’ve weighed in the evening since February 2. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:55. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity, then extracted to my hard drive side 2 of tape 1 of my fourth and last Slamnation poetry slam, hosted by Cad Lowlife. The tape ends about halfway through the readings by the finalists. 

            I deleted about 65 images from my Photos folder. 

            I boiled a potato and added it to the ground beef soup that I’d made with the pho broth a few days ago. Earlier at lunch I added a can of butter chicken soup and it was quite good. I ate supper while watching season 1, episode 19 of Combat. 

            Doc is caring for a very badly wounded Lieutenant Hanley, plus Braddock and Corporal Cording. Jackson is driving them to a hospital according to the directions he’s been given but they arrive at a French chateau. The owner Count de Gontran resents their presence because he wants to keep the war far from his home. He lets them take the wounded in his ballroom but tells them they only have two hours. 

            Jackson tries to speed away to get help but is killed by German soldiers led by Major Richter who then arrives at the chateau and impresses Gontran with his gentlemanly manner and cultured ways. He encourages his daughter Gabrielle to be nice to Richter. When the US soldiers are discovered Richter allows doc to continue to treat his wounded but reminds them they are now prisoners of war. Doc can leave the room for medical purposes but if the others leave they will be shot.

            Braddock and Corporal Cording plot for one of them to escape to get help. They do rock paper scissors and Cording loses. He strangles their guard and tries to make it out but gets caught in the foyer and Richter shoots him. 

            Meanwhile Gontran sees Richter’s soldiers removing the priceless paintings from the walls of his chateau and complains. Richter claims he is only protecting them because the chateau is now a military target. Gabrielle begs Richter to at least leave the most precious painting. Richter finds Gabrielle charming and desirable and when he makes a list of the paintings for Gontran to sign he leaves out the one that Gabrielle mentioned. 

            But Gabrielle finds her father beside the unsigned list and he has committed suicide. Gabrielle comes to Richter’s room and behaves seductively but she has a knife in the pocket of her dress and stabs him when he comes to kiss her. She takes Richter’s gun and puts it beside her father’s body, then she tells Richter’s secretary that Richter does not want to be disturbed but has asked him to allow the US medic to look at her father, who is not feeling well. When Doc comes she secretly passes him the gun to transfer to his med kit. Doc, Hanley and Braddock are taken to a cage vehicle to be transferred to a prison camp. 

            On the road Braddock shoots the driver and the lock and they escape. They notify Allied command of the occupied chateau and bombers are sent. Gabrielle sits there smiling while her home comes down on top of her. It’s a fucked up ending. Neither side has respect for history. 

            Richter was played magnificently by Irish actor Dan O’Hirlihy. He studied architecture and published political cartoons. Although he earned the architectural degree his interest shifted towards acting and he found work on the stage as both actor and set designer and on the radio as a voice actor. His first lead was in Red Roses for Me in 1944. His film debut was in Odd Man Out in 1947. He co-starred in Orson Welles’ Macbeth in 1948. He starred in the Luis Buñuel production of Robinson Crusoe in 1954 and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. He co-starred in Kidnapped, Invasion USA, Sword of Venus, That Woman Opposite, Home Before Dark, A Terrible Beauty, The Young Land, Imitation of Life, One Foot in Hell, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Big Cube, The Carey Treatment, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Robocop, Robocop 2, The Dead, He co-starred in the TV series The Travels of Jamie McPheeters and The Long Hot Summer.

February 14, 1996: I moved the rest of my stuff to the new place

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday Scooter and his car helped me move the rest of my things from the old apartment to the new one. Then we probably went to the Art Bar reading series for the open stage.

Ben Cooper

            On Thursday morning I gathered more images of Zizi Jeanmaire for my photo-video of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. I changed the wording of the search and found pictures from some of her movies like Guinguette. 

            I weighed 89.65 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the last of four sessions and it went out of tune during every song. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my electric guitars.

            I finally put away my laundry. 

            I weighed 90.1 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Shaw and Bloor where the bike lane is still blocked with snow. I went south to Harbord and west to Ossington, then south to Queen. I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought five bags of cherries, a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a pack of hot Italian sausages, a loaf of multigrain sandwich bread, two packs of Full City Dark coffee, some pho broth, some chicken broth, two packs of gourmet ramen noodles, and a can of generic tomato soup. I tried to show my Scene card at the cash but couldn’t find it because I typed the search wrong and people were waiting so I gave up. Afterwards I found it right away. 

            I weighed 90.15 kilos at 18:40, which is the most I’ve weighed in the evening since February 2.

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:27. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side 1 of tape 1 of my fourth and final Slamnation poetry slam, hosted again by Cad Lowlife. There was a small turnout that year. 

            I made two sub-folders for photos in my SSD. 

            I boiled a chicken leg with a potato and had them with gravy while watching season 1, episode 18 of Combat. 

            K Company is cornered by a tank that is closing in but suddenly it bursts into flames and from behind it walks a US soldier with an anti-tank gun. He introduces himself as Corporal John Cross and he’s been sent as a new recruit for K Company. As a corporal, Cross would be in command if anything happens to Saunders. 

           They are sent to occupy a farmhouse at the top of a hill and Saunders has Kirby and Cross come with him to check it for Germans. It’s empty above and seems to be unoccupied in the wine cellar but then Cross sees a German bayonet come from the shadows behind Saunders’ back. He aims his rifle but doesn’t fire. Then Kirby arrives and shoots the enemy. There are other Germans that Saunders now kills. Saunders confronts Cross about his failure to fire and he says his gun jammed but Saunders checks and Cross’s weapon is fine. His second explanation is that he froze. Since Cross already showed himself to be brave Saunders doesn’t buy it and there’s a suspicion that Cross wants to be in command. 

            Later they see two German soldiers with a donkey arrive to bring supplies for the soldiers they think still occupy the farmhouse. Saunders sends Cross into the barn after one of them but the German sees him and tries to sneak away in the dark. Cross has a clear shot as the German leaves through the back door but doesn’t fire until after he’s gone so as not to arouse suspicion. 

            Later Saunders finds Cross drunk in the wine cellar. He tells him that he was transferred because he accidentally killed his sergeant. Then he confesses that he let the German soldier go and so more will be coming. The Germans come and are shooting mortar shells at the house, tearing it apart. Cross sneaks out with a rifle and crawls until he flanks the mortar cannon nest. He takes out most of the men but is shot multiple times. Saunders takes out the rest. 

            Kind of boring coward turned hero in the end trope they’ve done before. 

            Cross was played by Ben Cooper, who made his Broadway debut at the age of 9 in Life With Father and was in the play for 4 years. He had his own horse by the age of 12 and practiced stunts. He rehearsed his quick draw for 90 minutes a day for four years. Between 1946 and 1952 he worked on several popular radio soap operas and serials. He made his screen debut in 1950 at the age of 17 in Side Street. He co-starred in The Woman They Almost Lynched, Outlaw’s Son, The Eternal Sea, The Headline Hunters, Duel at Apache Wells, A Strange Adventure, The Fighting Chance, Rebel in Town, and Chartroose Caboose.

February 13, 1996: I brought some friends to my new place

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday night after my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage, since I now lived fairly close by, I brought some of my friends like Raven, Scooter, Cad and Anna back to my new place for coffee.

Jonathan Bolt

            On Wednesday morning I woke up at 5:05 having missed the 5:00 alarm. I shortened one of my yoga poses to get caught up.

            My right cheek was even more swollen. According to medical sites online though it’s normal and the swelling should peek today. 

            After yoga I gathered a few more images of Zizi Jeanmaire for my photo-video of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. I’m going to change the wording of the search to see if I can get some different pictures of her. 

            I weighed 88.45 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since January 21. 

            During song practice I played my Martin acoustic for the second of four sessions. Only two or three times was it still in tune when I ended a song. 

            I finished touching up the area around the bathroom exhaust fan with the purplish paint that for some reason is called Pink Parade. On Friday I will probably start painting the bathroom shelves with Blue Bliss. 

            I weighed 89.95 kilos before lunch. I had a can of spicy tomato soup with garlic chicken broth, some melted five-year-old cheddar, and saltines. I recall Campbells tomato soup tasting better than it does now. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and the Bloor bike lane was clear until Shaw and Bloor. At that point I turned around and went home. 

            When I got home I went back out to buy a six-pack of Creemore. 

            I weighed 89.9 kilos at 17:45. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:30. 

            I finally solved the problem of recording from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity. A few days ago I was recording tape 2, side 1 of my third Slamnation poetry slam and in the middle I lost the waveform and most of the audio. I’ve been trying to correct the problem for two days and finally discovered that somehow the microphone volume had gotten turned down in my settings. So tonight I re-recorded that part. There is nothing on side 2 of the tape and so once again the finale was not recorded. 

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

            I sautéed the two packs of ground New Zealand grass-fed beef, added pho broth and cooked some Japanese noodles in the steamer while it was boiling. I had my soup with a glass of Creemore while watching season 1, episode 17 of Combat. 

            A new recruit for K Company is Mosely Lovelace from Georgia. Lovelace comes having been issued a pair of boots that make everyone jealous. Saunders offers him $60 for them, which would be over $1000 now. Lovelace says it’s bad enough that he had to join the Yankee army but his Civil War grandfather would climb out of his grave if he sold his boots to a Yankee. 

            Lovelace resents digging foxholes because he thinks brave solders should fight out in the open. They go out on patrol and Lovelace asks Saunders what patrols are like. Saunders says it’s like s turkey shoot except that we’re the turkeys. They are just there on recon to see how far back the Germans have pulled so they are not there to fight. When two German soldiers pass on motorcycles Lovelace shoots them. Lieutenant Hanley tells him if he fires his rifle one more time he’ll be shot. 

            Lovelace falls behind because he removes his boots to cross a stream. By the time he catches up he finds his company under machine gun fire. He ambushes a German soldier takes his machine gun and then takes out the other Germans including the one with the big machine gun. 

            They are moving out but Lovelace says he has to go back for his boots. A group of German soldiers laying mines has found his boots. Lovelace captures them all and brings them back to K Company although two of them die because of a mine on the way back. 

            Lovelace was played by Jonathan Bolt who made his stage debut as a scenic designer in 1956. He made his Broadway debut in Look Homeward Angel in 1958. He made his TV debut in The Verdict is Yours in 1960. He made his film debut in Captain Newman MD in 1963. His play Threads debuted in 1978 and was published in 1981. He directed the world premier of Arthur Miller’s Archbishop’s Ceiling in 1984. His other plays are Eye and the Hands of God, Teddy Roosevelt, First Lady, Plotline, and To Culebra. He became the director of The American Academy of Dramatic Art’s Third Year Company Program.

February 12, 1996: People didn’t want to get too close to me

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I was still in the process of moving to my new place. It was a secret because I was actually skipping out on the rent at the old place. I carried large pieces of furniture onto the streetcar and got to know one driver in particular who picked me up during several trips. At one point I wanted to write but had no journal to write in and so I grabbed a February copy of a free black culture magazine called Word I found on a streetcar seat and wrote this down on top of the text: 

            So I’m back on the streetcar on my way to the new place. The driver is the same one who took me east. He went around the loop and came back while I went to the old place to pick up a tabletop and a dresser mirror. When he saw me fishing for my Metropass he told me not to worry about it. He went as far as Connaught and it was the end of his shift, so now there’s a different driver. Now we’re at Pape, no, Leslie and I’m lost again. I can’t find my correct temperament. Where’s my friendship ring? The thing that gets me most is the fact that I’m on my own again. I thought that I’d found a group of friends and now I realize that was my mistake and it was only a non-profit business association. Like Marc Brandeis says, “People don’t want to get too close”. I think what is really true is that people don’t want to get too close to me. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ve been accused of justifying my behaviour but all I can say is what I see. I recognize my own innocence unless there truly is some form of universal behaviour towards women that’s appropriate. Who says a man or woman can’t get a spanking on stage if they want it?