Light Plays on the Guitars

            On Saturday morning I finished memorizing “Vu de l’extérieur” (From the Outside) by Serge Gainsbourg and did a search for the chords. I found one set but didn’t check to hear if they fit.

            I did a bit more work on gathering historical data on Shiktehawk for my Indigenous Studies essay.

            I washed another six-board wide section of my bedroom floor. Now my feet hit the light part when I get out of bed.

            I went to No Frills where I bought three bags of grapes, twp pints of strawberries, three bags of milk, a bag of kettle chips, liquid detergent, Murphy’s oil soap, mouthwash and a big bottle of ketchup. My cashier was the young woman with the weaponized eyelashes and she had her very short hair dyed with a hint of green.

            I had cheddar cheese on toast for lunch.

            I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Kingfish’s sister-in-law Floresca comes from the country to stay with them and Sapphire says she’ll have to stay until she gets married. Kingfish tries to marry her off to Andy but he doesn’t find her attractive because she’s very big and doesn’t war shoes. Kingfish finally takes her to the beauty parlour and she suddenly becomes attractive and popular. Andy wants her now but now she has better choices.

            I finished my goal for today of gathering a page of historical information on the Beautiful River people around Shiktehawk.

            I heated some blue corn tortillas with some cheese whiz on top and turned off the oven, figuring the food would stay warm while I posted my blog. I think the text that I pasted into my blog came from websites with different colour codes in the HTML and so I had to spend about half an hour correcting it. By the time I was done my food was cold an on top of that the chips turned out to be stale. I had them with salsa and a beer while watching two episodes of Wanted Dead or Alive.

            In the first story two hobos hop a boxcar. One of them is a teenager named Slim. The older tramp takes him under his wing and gives him money to bribe the brakeman for both of them. But while the older hobo is sleeping in the boxcar Bruner the brakeman wakes him up, says he got his money but clubs him anyway. He takes his money and wallet and it turns out that the tramp is a Pinkerton agent. Bruner tosses his body from the train and at the station, to collect the $200 reward, he has Slim arrested for killing the Pinkerton agent. Josh happened to have been a paying customer on the train and he sees the arrest, thinking it a bit fishy. Pop Michaels, the livery stable owner who's been watching Josh's horse, informs him that there have been a lot of cases of brakemen collecting rewards lately but he also warns him about investigating that railroad people stick together. Josh doesn’t listen, goes to the railroad telegraph operator and forces him to tell him the name of the brakeman that collected the reward and where he’s located. As soon as Josh leaves the telegraph operator sends a message to Bruner. When he gets to the town it's night and her hears a woman call his name. He follows the voice down an alley where he is clubbed over the head. He wakes up at a campsite with Pop looking after him. Josh finds Bruner’s girlfriend Francie dealing blackjack in a saloon. She gives a verbal signal to the bartender, “House is buyin!” and he pulls a shotgun but Pop draws Josh’s gun from under his coat and holds him off while Josh talks with Francie. When he hears Josh say Bruner murdered someone she's shocked and wants to find out if it’s true. She takes Josh upstairs to stand outside the hotel room door while she confronts Bruner. He admits it and tells her to keep her mouth shut about it. Josh busts in and takes Bruner to the sheriff.

            Francie was played by Kasey Rogers, who got the nickname Casey in grade school because of how far she could hit a baseball. She played Irene Tate on the show Bewitched and her best-known film role was in Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train. She later took up competitive motocross racing and started PURR (Powderpuffs Unlimited Riders and Racers). 

                                        

            In the second story Josh is hired by Stella Winter, a famous opera singer whose sister Amy has been kidnapped. She wants Josh to deliver the $5000 that is being demanded. Josh goes to the location and meets a man named Mason who says he’s only the middleman but demands the money. Josh insists on giving the money to the kidnapper after he’s sure Amy is safe. He leaves, waits outside and follows Mason to a saloon where he talks with a piano player named Henri. After Mason leaves Henri plays “10,000 Cattle" even though this is 1871 and the song would not be written for another 35 years. Josh approaches Henri, buys him champagne and requests him to play Chopin’s E flat Nocturne. He tells Henri that he thinks the opera must be in town because he just saw Stella Winter's sister get on a stage for Denver. Henri looks surprised. Josh leaves and shortly after Henri exits the saloon. Josh follows him to a women’s rooming house where inside a room he finds Henri and Amy smooching. Josh breaks it to Amy that Henri sent a ransom note to Stella. He gives Henri the $5000, he leaves and Amy goes back to Stella with Josh.

            Stella was played by June Vincent, who started out at seventeen as a model for Harper's Bazaar, where she became friends with Lauren Bacall. Most of her film work was in B movies.