Love in Remission

            On Friday I published the video that I’d edited of the three that Nick Cushing shot of me singing my song “Love in Remission”. For some reason after rendering it came out crackly in the louder parts, though it didn’t beforehand.

            It was direct deposit payday from the photography-modelling job I’d done a couple of weeks ago, plus I got my monthly tax refund. So in the late afternoon I went looking for a cable converter jack so I could plug a microphone into Nick Cushing’s drift cam. On College just west of Spadina, Modcom had a jack that might have fit the camera’s mic input but it wouldn’t go fully in because it was stopped by the rubber casing of the camera. Across the street at Canada Computers they had the same kind of converter jack. I went to Staples but they didn’t have any converters at all. The employee that I spoke with suggested that jacks for that camera are proprietary in design and so it probably wouldn’t accept any converter.

            I rode to Yonge and Dundas just in case Future Shop was still there, but it wasn’t. I turned south, past a small protest of Tamils demanding a homeland in Sri Lanka. I went down to Queen and then west to Steve’s Music, but they didn’t have a converter as small as what I needed. I could only conclude that what I wanted does not exist. I guess I might have to record the voice and guitar directly into my computer while shooting the video with the camera. I wonder if there is a way to shoot video with my Kodak without having to press down on the shutter button.

            I went into the Horseshoe Tavern to pee. I don’t think I’ve been in there for at least a decade. It still looks like a dive but I assume that’s deliberate and not because the place is broke. I wonder if it’s considered a heritage site and if it receives financial support from the government.

            Going west along Queen I was trailing one of the stupid busses that are replacing the streetcars this summer. Luckily though, when it stopped at Bathurst, so many people were getting on that I was able to walk my bike in front of it and continue on.

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home. None of the fruit is very interesting there right now. Besides a deal on strawberries they were selling the ratty dregs of last year’s Ontario apples, there were no navel oranges and the grapes were too expensive. It’s that period before the fruit harvest when there’s nothing but peaches and nectarines from the States that have hardly any flavour. I bought a bag of embassy apples and a bunch of green bananas. The meat section didn’t have any great deals either. There was a package of eight drumsticks with half the $5 sticker torn off. I asked two shelf stockers if that meant it was only $2.50. They thought that was funny and one of them said he wished that was true. I got three containers of zero fat yogourt, one of cappuccino flavour and a can of peaches to have the yogourt until the bananas ripened.

            On the corner by my place was a tall guy of about thirty, panhandling with a skateboard under his arm. I don’t know why it seemed odd to me seeing a guy with a skateboard begging. Maybe it’s just because I’d never seen it before or maybe it’s because all skateboarders have a middle-class look about them even when they’re dressed poor. Hours later I heard shouting and the guy was alone, walking west on Queen Street, still carrying but not riding his skateboard.