Reclaiming the Walls

            On Friday morning I finished memorizing “Chez Max, Coiffeur Pour Hommes" by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords and wasn’t surprised that I couldn’t find them. Actually I think that this song has the exact same chords in the same progression as the previous song on the album, “L'homme à la tête de chou". The first two songs aren't even sung and so the music just plays in the background for both recitations even though the verses are structured differently.

            Around midday I cleaned the storage container that holds all of the artwork that I used to have on my walls. I decided that since it was out and open I'd take one of my collages out, clean the dust off, photograph it and put it back on the wall. I took most of my artwork off the walls several years ago during the first bedbug infestation but maybe it's time to put it all up again. It would be nice to properly frame my stuff but that’s down the road and so meanwhile I'll just put it up raw.   

            I had barbecue flavoured sunflower seeds and yogourt for lunch. My mouth was very dry because of the sunflower seed spices when I woke up from my siesta.

            I did my exercises in the early afternoon while listening to Amos and Andy. This story begins with another argument between Kingfish and Sapphire. She complains that he's not romantic enough. Later a magazine salesman slips a sample copy of “Forbidden Romance" under their door. When Kingfish finds it he thinks that Sapphire bought it and becomes worried. he reasons that one doesn’t buy a roadmap if one isn't planning on going someplace. He decides to try to be more romantic with Sapphire but it doesn't work out. When he takes her dancing he throws his back out. The next day he comes home by the back way because the steps aren't as steep but before opening the door he hears a man inside. It's the magazine salesman trying to sell Sapphire on a subscription but all Kingfish hears is a man trying to sell his wife on romance. He decides to leave her. Two weeks later he tries to get used to single life by joining a "getting acquainted club". They interview him and take his psychological profile to find a compatible companion. Meanwhile Sapphire and her mother get the same idea and join the same club. A date in the park is arranged between Kingfish as "Hernando" and a woman going by the pseudonym of "Juliette". But when Kingsish meets her his compatible date turns out to be Sapphire's mother.

This show featured a performance by the Four Knights, one of whom did the

instrumental with some amazing whistling.

I took a bike ride. It was quite chilly out compared to the way it's been lately. I wore a scarf and my spring gloves but I could've worn an extra scarf.

On Bloor a voluptuous woman in make-up and a tight red, floral, vintage dress was strutting up the street with her coat open. She looked like she was on her way to perform an old style burlesque show.

I rode to Yonge and then south to Queen and home.

I got caught up on my journal but my Word program started to misbehave again. I switched to Open Office and it had its own glitches, although they were more manageable. Open Office keeps numbering my lines but I just keep writing and correct it all afterwards rather than fiddling with it each time it screws up. I notice that when these programs get glitchy, even any online writing that I do has it's own hassles and an HTML editing window pops up, forcing me to close it each time I needed to continue writing.

I had a potato, a carrot, a chicken leg and some gravy for dinner while watching two episodes of Robin Hood.

In the first story the serfs on the property of Knight Templar Sir Ambrose are being impossibly taxed while he is away in the Holy Land. Sir Watkin, who has been left to manage Ambrose's estate claims that he is following his master's written instructions. The instructions were brought from the Holy Land by Ambrose's chaplain, father Ignatious. But Ambrose is known as a kind hearted man and so this cruelty seems strange. Friar Tuck catches Watkins's soldiers making an example of a peasant that can't pay by burning his hut. He then travels through a storm to report this to Robin Hood and arrives soaking wet. Robin provides Tuck with some dry clothing and something strong to drink. Robin does not believe that Sir Ambrose would condone such treatment of his serfs.

The next morning Tuck stirs in his sleep and is awakened when his movements knock the bottle of booze over to spill all over him. He finds that there is no one in the camp and his friar’s robes are missing and so he leaves wearing the clothing that Robin had leant him. 

Meanwhile Robin is wearing Tuck’s robes. Under the pretence of begging for alms he stops Sir Watkin, his soldiers and Father Ignatious as they are travelling through the forest. Then Robin's men emerge and take the money from the saddlebags. Robin then tells Father Ignatious that when he returns to the Holy Land he must tell Lord Ambrose that until his intentions are made more clear his money will be well looked after by Robin Hood.

After leaving Robin Sir Watkin meets Tuck on the road. Watkin stops him and accuses him of being an impostor and a spy. Tuck assures him he’s a friar but Watkins challenges him that a friar has no business out of the habit of his order. Tuck had come to Watkins dressed as a friar the day before to argue against his treatment of his serfs and the next day another man dressed as a friar robbed him. Watkins also notes that Tuck reeks of booze and so he says he’s taking him to the sheriff. Marian sees Tuck with his hands tied being escorted to Nottingham and she demands that he be freed. Watkin ignores her demands and continues on. In Nottingham, since Watkins formally accuses Tuck of being in league with Robin Hood and because Tuck smells of drink, the sheriff says there must be a trial and Tuck will remain in the dungeon. Meanwhile Marian tells Robin that Tuck has been arrested.  Then Will reports that Father Ignatious is travelling through the forest with two soldiers. Robin and his men stop them and Ignatious is as surprised as Robin that the saddlebags are full of apples. Ignatious says he's had all he can stand. He returned from the Holy Land to find Watkins, a man he does not trust in charge of Ambrose's estate. Ignatious admits that he has not read the orders that Ambrose gave him to deliver from the Holy Land. He knows where they are kept at Watkins’s castle and he agrees to help Robin get to them. They find the scroll in an iron chest. Ignatious brings the scroll to the deputy sheriff. It reads that because the men of the village once saved his life all Ambrose asks of his serfs is that they provide one bushel of apples to the local abbey. Tuck is set free by the deputy sheriff because Watkins, his principal accuser will be in the dungeon, thus rendering his testimony null and void.

The second story is from the first season. Edgar, who was caught poaching deer in the first episode and forced to leave his family behind to become an outlaw, sneaks away from Robin’s camp in the early morning to see his wife Matilda and their baby. Humphrey, their next door neighbour is a spy for the sheriff. He sees Edgar and goes to inform the sheriff. The sheriff knows that Jack the Wagoner was murdered in their village and so he offers a reward for Humphrey to accuse Edgar of being the killer so that the townspeople will deal with him. Humphrey spreads the rumour that Edgar killed Jack and so a trial by ordeal is arranged to see if he is innocent. The ordeal will involve Edgar removing an iron bar from the bottom of a cauldron of boiling water. If he is not scalded then he is innocent. But since everyone would be scalded, wouldn’t that mean everybody killed Jack the Wagoner? Marian was at dinner with the sheriff when he made the proposal to Humphrey and so later she goes to tell Robin. Humphrey plants evidence under a stone in Edgar’s cottage and then pretends to find it. It is the bag of gold that belonged to Jack the Wagoner. Robin, Little John and Tuck come to the village unarmed. They say they are there to make sure that Edgar gets a fair trial. While the cauldron is coming to a boil Robin does some detective work. Robin interviews Helen, the niece of Jack, who found his dead body and saw that his gold was missing. Robin finds it suspicious that Humphrey would first accuse someone of murder and then later discover the evidence. Robin takes the gold from Humphrey and tells Tuck to give it to Helen to win her confidence. The cauldron is now boiling and the iron bar dropped inside. Edgar is being told to submit to the ordeal. Robin says that at least one other person is suspect. Suddenly Tuck comes forward with Helen, who says she knows who killed her uncle. She saw Humphrey attack him and then tell her that if she told anyone he would have his friend the sheriff brand her as a witch. The men of the village attack Humphrey and he falls with his hand plunging into the boiling cauldron.