On Camera in and Around the Tranzac

           

            On the Monday morning of August 1^st, the ice in my freezer had melted enough so I could remove it by hand. It was nice to have room in there again.

I watched an episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy and Ricky are trying to decide on a name for the coming baby. Ricky is okay with anything but Lucy keeps changing her mind. She says that babies can’t just have any names. They have to be unique and euphonious. Ricky says, “Okay, “Unique” if it’s a boy and “Euphonious” if it’s a girl. Later she decides on John and Mary but then says, “Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named John!”

            I rode through another of the many soft and warm evenings we’ve had this summer to the Tranzac. I arrived half an hour earlier than usual because I’d arranged to meet Eugene Styles in front of the club. He’d called me up earlier that day, telling me that he wanted to shoot some video of me performing one of my songs about Parkdale. He said the ideal locations would be to shoot me under the railroad bridge at Dufferin and Queen and or in front of the globe sculpture in front of the Parkdale library. I was okay with the locations but he added that the ideal time would be between 3:00 and 5:00 and I told him that I wasn’t interested in leaving home at that hour of the morning to go out shoot some video. We were discussing when would be a good time to hook up when I mentioned that I would be going to the Tranzac that night. He got excited and said that it would be awesome if he could get some footage of me in a nearby alley that he knew of where there was some great graffiti.

            Eugene was sitting outside the Tranzac when I arrived. I went inside to sign in. The Southern Cross Bar was packed for Verry Terry Jones with Susan Cogan and Bob Cohen. Terry was singing some sentimental song about “daddy’s farm” or something like that. The bartender was just in the back numbering a sheet of paper for the open stage list when I came in, but had to try a couple of pens before he found one that worked. I put my name down beside the number 3 and went back outside to meet Eugene.

            We crossed Brunswick and went into the alley south of Bloor Street. He was disappointed that the graffiti had changed since he’d been there last and that the mural of the woman in front of which he’d wanted to film me had been replaced by a different mural. He had me climb to the top of the fire escape and play my song while he shot me from various positions on the ground and also while climbing the stairs towards me. I sang my song “The Next State of Grace”. When I was finished, he wanted me to do it again from the fire escape landing and this time he shot me from above and from ground level.

            We went back to the Tranzac, where Eugene bought me a beer. We had to sit at the back, by the bar and far from the stage because Terry Jones’s concert was still going on and there was no room at the front.

            A woman with white hair was playing guitar and singing a song, the chorus of which was praising the “goddess” and the “god”, while the verses sounded like they were in Yiddish.

            When Terry and Bob joined her for one last song, they did Richard Farina’s “Pack Up Your Sorrows”, and lots of people, including me, joined in on the chorus – “ …If somehow you could pack up your sorrows and give them all to me, you would lose them, I know how to use them, give them all to me …”

            Cad Gold Jr. came in and found a seat.

            I asked Eugene when I’d be able to see the footage he shot and he confessed that he didn’t have a computer with which to upload it yet and that he was working on getting one.

            Chris Banks got the sound set up for the open stage, but the people from the previous show kept hanging around and chatting like it was a cocktail party that was never going to end.

            Ben Bootsma arrived with his guitar and signed up at around start time, but we didn’t start on time. One guest musician from the Terry Jones show stayed behind and put his name down. It was Wayne Neon, who I’d heard perform with flute and guitar on a few occasions at Fat Albert’s.

            Isaac Bonk showed up just before the open stage got rolling, which was at about 22:30.

Eugene had told me that he was only going to shoot video of me and that he couldn’t stay till the end. He wound up recording everyone and was still there at the end after I left.

            Ben Bootsma was the first performer, with a cover of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me” – “ … When my earthly trials are over carry my body out in the sea, save all the undertaker bills, let the mermaids flirt with me … The only reason I work at all is to drive the world from my door …”

            Ben then did, “I’m Satisfied”, which is another Hurt cover – “ … Pull your dress to your knees, Give your total to who you please, I’m satisfied that it’s gonna bring you back …”

For his last song, Ben moved to the piano. Eugene asked him to wait while he reloaded a card on camera. It took a couple of minutes, and so Ben just played the piano softly while he was waiting. Then he did his own song, “On the Most Lonely Night”, as he’s been doing lately, each time he comes to the open stage, but this time he sang it in a much higher key. When He was done I told him that it worked better in the lower range. He sincerely appreciated the feedback.

Next, Wayne Neon performed what he said was a true, but sad original song – “I went to see my Bell today, I asked her for a phone … She said my stock is down on Bay Street … I’m not plugged into the system, my love life’s on the shelf …”

Then Wayne sang “Alcohol and Pills” by Fred Eaglesmith – “Hank Williams, he came up from Montgomery, with his heart full of broken country songs. Nashville, Tennessee didn’t really understand him … When he finally made it to the Grand Ole Opry, he made it stand still. He ended up on alcohol and pills … Fame doesn’t take away the pain, it just pays the bills …”

His third song was an original – “The lake may freeze and the dogs may howl … My pickup truck just won’t start at all and the snow plough is frozen to the ground … In the winter time I plan to devote some time to you …”

After Wayne, it was my turn. I started with my translation of Boris Vian’s “Le Déserteur”, explaining that the song was banned until the early 60s because it was considered unpatriotic. During the Folk revival though, which corresponded to the anti- Vietnam War era, it became popular for singers like Joan Baez to sing in French – “Dear Mr. President, I’ve put some thought in my note, so you will read it I hope when you’ve a spare moment. I have recently received my military papers to join in the invasion before next Wednesday eve. Dear Mr. President, I don’t want to fight in your war. I don’t think that I was born for the killing of other men …”

My second song was my own “Next State of Grace” – “ … And my mind hangs above this emotional wreck, like a scavenger looking for parts, and it lives in a mansion that’s built from the sweat of my tarpaper third world heart. Oh when, oh when will I ever learn, I’ll freeze here on Earth with a heart that won’t burn …” Ben told me it was really great.

Eugene had been filming everything, but the one piece he wanted to record was “Paranoiac Utopia”, which he’d heard me do at Shab-e She’r the week before, so that’s what I did – “A painful shedding of skin today as Parkdale’s paranoiac armour has been circumcised, only later to be reattached with the brain tissue solder of airplane glue. I tap politely on its barrier gate, but and riddled with accusations, as the writhing blinded beast defends itself from the mirror of my patience …”

Then came Isaac Bonk, with his response to the Orlando shooting – “Way down in Orlando town there’s fifty people gone … Who did condone the sale of arms to this man … Perhaps the manufacturers of war … the citizens who demand it as a right … and people getting scared of what they do not know … Pride in religion drove this man to kill …”

Isaac’s second song continued his parallel earth recreation of the career of Bob Dylan with his own very “The Times They Are A Changing”esque song which is probably called “The Ground Beneath Us Is Shifting” – “Oh come all my friends, my foes … The hopeless kings will die … leaving this darkened path … The hour now speaks, so peer through your drinks, your frightful eyes will know that the land beneath us is shifting … The burning flash will put to flames the sash …”
            His third song was his lament for a lost lover – “ … I sit here upon my broken seat dreaming of … she who I once held so dear … I see now the raven’s empty home … The compass has nothing left to show …”

            Since at the end of Isaac’s set we’d reached the end of the list, Chris called for a lightning round of one song each to finish up.

            Ben Bootsma once again sang “On The Most Lonely Night”, but in the lower key, as I’d suggested. It sounded much better. Wayne Neon played along from his table on the flute.

            I had planned on doing a quieter piece but there were a couple of non-participants that were also not interested in the open stage. They were sitting at the bar and having a loud conversation, so I had to sing something louder and more upbeat to counterbalance their lack of consideration, so I did my English adaptation of Serge Gainbourg’s “L’accordion” – “ … When sometimes he massacres her buttons of pearl, he’ll rip one of his own for his accordion. When her support is in danger he’ll lend his suspenders, so what holds his pants on is an accordion. In accord with chords, all tune in and turn on, then afford what you horde to the accordion …”

            Wayne Neon got almost everyone involved in his song. He invited Ben to play piano and Isaac to play harmonica. He said they’d be playing a skiffle song called “Wild About My Lovin” that was recorded by Jim Jackson in the 1930s and The Lovin Spoonful in the 1960s. I’m pretty sure it was actually written by Jim Jackson – “ … I’m wild about my lovin, I like to have my fun, If you’d like to be a girl of mine you’ve got to bring it with you when you come …” Wayne gave Isaac and Ben each a solo. During the song, Chris came over to my table, leaned down and asked me what was up with the guy with the camera. When I told him he’d just come to film me and then decided to shoot everyone else, Chris nodded and explained that he’d just wanted to know what was going on.

            Isaac was the last performer. He did his “Ballad of Sammy Yatim” – “ … Did they judge him by race … Nine bullets … The cops make you think they weren’t at fault …”

            Eugene was still in the room, talking to Isaac when I left the Tranzac.            

            One side of Bloor Street was closed off with safety cones. A cop stopped me and the rest of the westbound traffic while a tow truck hauled away a car. I think that the cones were there because they were creating the new Bloor Street bike lane.