A Bedroom for Books

            On Wednesday morning I finished posting my translation of “Ma lou Marilou" by Serge Gainsbourg. The next song I work on will be his “Variations sur Marilou”.

            Around midday I finished organizing all my papers from school on the bedroom shelves and I washed the two bottom shelves. I’m going to add another shelf further down on the southern wall because the papers make too high a pile on the other shelves.

            For lunch I made mini pizzas on two halves of a ciabatta bun, using pasta sauce and cheese slices.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This story was another rehashing of a previous script. Kingfish, Sapphire and Andy go to a lodge convention in LA. Sapphire wants to keep their money pinned to her camisole but Kingfish says he doesn’t want her Gypsy Rose Leeing herself every time he needs to buy a cup of coffee. He takes the money but later a guy named Richards approaches Kingfish and says he’s with the welcoming committee. He says there are a lot of sharpies around and so he’s doing some of the brothers the favour of taking their money and putting it in the hotel safe. Kingfish gives him his $1200 but when he goes to the desk to get some money the clerk says no one put his money in their safe. Kingfish is too embarrassed to talk with Sapphire and so he leaves her a note to wire her mother for money and he and Andy hope a freight train back to New York. But when they get there Kingfish finds out that it was she that got Richards to get the money from Kingfish and she had it all along.

            I took a bike ride to Bloor and Yonge, down to Queen and then home. The guy who lives in a tent at the corner of Queen and Bay was bumming a cigarette in his underwear. The briefs were a few sizes too big for him and so he had them pulled up with the top rolled down about three times.

            Before dinner I checked two microphone with the voice recorder. The one I used for my 2017 recordings worked fine but I also have a headset microphone that my neighbour David gave me and that I’d yet to try. I found the sound to be of a very poor quality and so for now I’ll just use the old one.

            I had a fried egg over easy and a toasted ciabatta bun for dinner with a beer while watching The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story a friar named Wooten who is an old friend of Friar Tuck seeks out Robin Hood. He wants help starting a school on the edge of Sherwood Forest to educate the children in the nearby villages. Robin is all for it and so an outdoor school begins. Wooten teaches the children how to spell new words every day by having them complete the sentence that begins, “The sheriff is a …” Every day they choose the next letter of alphabet. It begins with “The sheriff is an ape." One of the sheriff's men while on patrol finds a parchment dropped by one of the children and it reads, "The sheriff is a beetle.” He shows it to the sheriff and the next day two soldiers come to arrest Wooten but to also take the children in as evidence. Wooten tells them he will go willingly but they cannot touch the children. When they begin grabbing the children Friar Wooten blows his top and as he is as big and strong as Little John and on top of that has anger issues, he easily knocks out both soldiers. Filled with remorse over having lost control, Wooten sends the children home and is trying to revive the soldiers when two more arrive and arrest him. The sheriff is happy to capture Wooten, whose reputation had preceded him. Wooten is placed in the dungeon. When Robin hears of this he decides to break him out. He comes to the sheriff’s castle disguised as a serf telling the man at the view hole that he has a written message from Lord Germain to the sheriff. The guard tells him to read it but Robin says that he can’t read either and so Robin asks if there is anyone inside that can read, The guard says, “Only a prisoner.” Robin convinces him to let him in so Wooten can read the message and then he knocks the guard out. He lets Little John in and they go to Wooten’s cell where he is teaching the other prisoners the alphabet. The guard doesn't have the key and so with Little John pulling the door and Wooten pushing it they manage to break it down. Wooten refuses to leave unless they free the literate prisoner who is chained to the wall so he can teach the other prisoners how to read. Little John pulls the chain from the wall. Later Little John is attending Wooten’s class with the children. Earlier Wooten had given his students a riddle to solve: "What grow in a white field from black seeds but cannot be bound?” Little John has been thinking about it all this time and finally answers that words are black seeds and parchment is a white field. The language that grows from it cannot be bound.

            The second story is based on Cain and Abel. Sir Loren Duquesne is getting a sword made by a blacksmith. He grabs the blacksmith’s wife and tells her to entertain him while he’s waiting. The blacksmith comes towards him and so Loren draws his sword. His father Lord Duquesne sees this and, based on this and on previous behaviour he finally disowns Loren. He tells his other son Sir Abelard to escort Loren to the limits of the manor. Loren and Abelard ride to Sherwood Forest where Loren accuses Abelard of turning his father against him. Abelard tells him he is mad and Loren draws his sword but Abelard refuses to raise a hand against his own brother. Abelard tries to walk away but Loren stabs him in the back and kills him. Robin and Little John have been watching and try to save Abelard but too late. Loren rides away. Robin wants to take the body to Duquesne castle and to expose Loren as a murderer but Little John says it would be suicide. They agree to let Friar Tuck decide as he is at that moment rehearsing the Shrovetide play at Duquesne Castle. Loren goes to his father to tell him that Abelard has been murdered by Robin Hood. Loren wants to lead a posse to capture Robin and Lord Duquesne is fine with that but he says the tradition of the Shrovetide play must take place first. Because Loren will be reluctantly attending, Robin surmises that the play itself would be the perfect tool for revealing Loren’s guilt. First the play deals with the story of the temptation of Eve and Adam but then Little John enter for the final part as Cain and Able. Since they witnessed the murder they use the exact words that were spoken by Loren and Abelard. It is too much for Loren and he draws his sword and charges the stage to fight with Robin. The coffin containing Abelard’s body is on the stage and at one point Robin opens it and Loren falls to his knees, asking forgiveness.

            At the beginning of this third season Patricia Driscoll replaced Bernadette O’Farrell at Lady Marian. She was not quite as good but the main difference was their accents. Despite the fact that both actors were Irish, O'Farrell played an English lady with an English accent whereas Driscoll couldn't seem to mask her Irish accent.