Amanda Randolph

            On Friday morning I memorized the first three verses of “Ma Lou Marilou” by Serge Gainsbourg. It was fairly easy because there is one line that is repeated twice in each four line verse.

            Around midday I cleaned the radiator at the south side of my kitchen and its casing. First I reaches in and pulled out as much cat hair as I could, scratching both hands on nails sticking out on the inside of the casing. Then I used the vacuum cleaner to suck most of the rest up. I took out enough cat fur to make a cat. I washed the casing and the radiator but I don’t know if it looks any cleaner because the white paint on the casing is faded and I ended up washing a lot of dried white paint chips off of the radiator. Nonetheless it is a lot cleaner and now I can begin cleaning the kitchen floor again.

            I had sunflower seeds for lunch.

            I did my exercises in the afternoon while listening to Amos and Andy. This was similar to a previous story. Kingfish’s mother in law, Ramona Smith has fallen in love with Percival Jackson and Kingfish is all for it because she will finally move out. He and Sapphire have been promised that Ramona will continue to give them $100 of the $300 a month that she receives from her late husband’s estate even after she is no longer living with them. But then Kingfish, while moving Ramona’s trunk, reads her late husband's will and sees a clause that says that if Ramona were to remarry she would no longer receive the $300 a month. Kingfish decides to prevent the marriage from happening and so he gets four men to pose as Ramona's ex-husbands and to go and see Percy. Percy hears that Ramona was married to them all at the same time and had a total of twenty eight children and so he calls off the wedding. Sapphire tells Kingfish that it’s too bad because in the second clause of her father's will it says that the $300 a month would go to her once her mother remarries.

            Sapphire's mother on the radio and on television was played by Amanda Randolph, who was the sister of Lillian Randolph, who also played on the series as Madame Queen. Amanda was the first African American to star in a regularly scheduled television series. The show was a sitcom called “The Laytons” which aired for ten episodes in 1948. Later the same year she had her own fifteen minute music show called "Amanda", which ran for almost a year on the same network. Before that she had made several recordings and acted in many films. She became a popular radio performer as well and was the star of "The Beulah Show". She did the voice of Petunia on the animated series Little Audrey. She had a regular role as Louise on The Danny Thomas Show. In the 1940s she married Harry Hansberry who was the owner of Hansberry's Clam House which was a most famous gay speakeasy in Harlem. In 1955 she opened a restaurant in LA called Mama’s Place where she did the cooking.

            I took a bike ride. On young street a middle aged man wearing a spray painting respirator also had on a t-shirt that read “I Hate Rubber Boots” but he was wearing rubber boots.

            When I came home I got caught up on my journal.

            I made a video of my rehearsal of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” from my August 3, 2017 rehearsal and I deleted the rest. I have two more videos to make before starting to shoot some more rehearsals and this time with the new guitar.

            I grilled eight chicken drumsticks and had two with a potato, a carrot and some gravy while watching The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story, a prisoner of war from the Crusade  is being escorted by the Baron back to the Holy Land as part of a prisoner exchange for the uncle of Sir James. Sir James wants he and his squire Lucas to be Ali’s only escort because James aims to kill Ali before he can leave England. In Sherwood Forest James stages an ambush by fake outlaws but Ali escapes. He comes upon a camp of locals and says he comes in peace but they attack him. He is fairing well against them but he is outnumbered. Robin Hood stops the fight and takes Ali back to his camp. When Robin meets the Baron he hands Ali over and Ali goes willingly because he trusts the baron. But James has the baron killed and blames Ali for the murder. He takes him to a local constable who puts him in jail. Meanwhile James incites the villagers against Ali, connecting his religion to mercilessness. The villagers want to hang Ali but Robin arrives and suggests there be a trial by fire. If Ali can walk across hot coals without harming his feet then he can go free. He suggests this because Ali had mentioned that he could perform this feat. But when Marian talks to Ali from the back of the jail she learns that Ali can’t walk on coals without putting an ointment on his feet made from sulphur, alum, mercury and borax. Marian rushes to a nearby abbot who serves as the local apothecary to get the mixture. She acquires it and it works in the lab but before she can get back the villagers make Ali walk on the coals. Ali declares that Allah will protect the innocent and then he walks on the coals with no pain. Ali is declared innocent and Robin points out that James and Lucas are the guilty ones.

            In the second story Robin is waiting for Ned Carter to bring him a list that has been compiled of all citizens of Nottingham that are faithful to King Richard, so that the king can know who his friends are when he returns to England. But Ned Carter is still in Nottingham and trying to evade the sheriff’s men, who are seeking him out to attain the list. Ned runs into the shop of Ezekiel the master tailor because Ezekiel is on the list. The tailor gives Ned a place to hide. But the soldiers come and Ned slips the list into the cloak Ezekiel is sewing and then leaves by the back door. The soldiers have come for the sheriff of Nottingham’s new cloak. Ned is arrested and Ezekiel's assistant Waldo tells Ezekiel that the list is inside the sheriff’s cloak. Ezekiel goes to tell Robin. Robin returns with Ezekiel to his shop where the tailor’s assistant Waldo threatens to go to the sheriff for the reward of telling him where to find the list. Robin ties Waldo up and then posing as the tailor’s assistant he and Ezekiel go to the sheriff's castle under the pretence of making alterations to the cloak. Meanwhile Marian has dinner with the sheriff to try to access the cloak. The sheriff is wearing it and Marian “accidentally” spills wine on it. She takes it from his shoulders and says she has a secret method of removing wine stains. She takes it to the next room and puts it on a table. Robin reaches from behind a curtain and takes the cloak. Seconds later he returns it. Robin, with the help of Ezekiel sets Ned free. Waldo comes to the sheriff insisting that the list is inside his cloak. The sheriff opens it and finds Ezekiel's bill for the work.