David Cronenberg

            On Thursday I translated the first verse and chorus of "Mozart avec nous" (Mozart Is With Us) by Boris Vian. But my translation could change once I start singing the song. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Enregistrement by Serge Gainsbourg but I'll need to run through it to make sure. 

            Around 11:00 I called Harold at Remenyi and he told me that Oscar Schmidt would be sending a new machine for that guitar. He also said that Washburn had gotten back to him and rather than have that guitar shipped to them, they are also sending a machine for my B string. Since the replacement that Remenyi had installed was not from them they say that need to assume that it might have been malfunctional before having to deal with receiving the whole guitar for inspection. He said both machines might arrive this afternoon but I decided I’d wait until Saturday rather than going downtown too late. That way I could bring the Washburn and pick up the Oscar and then come back to get the Washburn on Monday. If everything goes right I might end up with two functional guitars in the first week of January. I could hire a roadie to tune one guitar while I’m practising with the other. 

            I washed most of the spice containers for the bottom shelf above the stove. I still have thirteen small ones left to clean. While I was working there was a knock on my door and it was my upstairs neighbour David. He said he’d been knocking on both of my doors for the last two weeks with no answer. He always knocks so timidly that I was probably here without hearing. He gave me a $50 gift card for Metro like he’s done every year around this time for the last few years. We discussed the pandemic for a while and hoped it would be over soon. 

            A little after noon I went to Freshco to beat the New Years Eve rush. The grapes were all too soft so I decided that afterwards I would go across the street to Metro with the card that David gave me to see if they had some better fruit. I hadn’t planned on going there until Saturday but I felt fruit deprived. Freshco did have raspberries and blueberries and so I grabbed some of those. I also got some five year old cheddar, a can of peaches, a box of spoon size shredded wheat, a jar of honey, a tin of coffee, some Sunlight dish detergent and one roll of paper towels. I’d never seen the paper towel shelves so empty and there was a sign telling customers they could only buy one each. 

            At Metro there was one bag of red grapes that seemed firm, but when I got them home most were squishy. I also bought three bags of black grapes, two bags of cherries, two steaks and some lean ground beef. After paying with the gift card I still had to pay $21.50 in cash. The cashier gave me back the empty gift card, which seemed odd, since they usually just dispose of the cards themselves. 

            I had kettle chips with salsa and sour cream for lunch. 

            I listened to and watched all my performances of “One Hundred Hookers” from this summer’s recording sessions and decided that the one from July 3 would be the one I’ll upload to YouTube. 

            I worked a bit on my poem series “My Blood in a Bug”. 

            I scanned some more of my black and white negatives from the 80s. 

            I heated a turkey drumstick, the rest of my stuffing and some gravy. I threw away the rest of the turkey because I didn’t want to get food poisoning a week after roasting it. I had dinner with the rest of my cranberry sauce and two beers while watching Star Trek Discovery. 

            Spoiler Alert! 

            Discovery finally finds and arrives at Federation Headquarters . Their welcome is cordial but not as warm as they'd expected. Starfleet has a lot of enemies and so they have trust issues. Since all records of Discovery and its crew had been wiped from history in order to protect the future from Control, there is no way for the Federation to corroborate anything about them. Each crewmember is interrogated individually by holographic investigators. Georgio somehow figures out that if she blinks her eyelashes at a certain rate it disrupts their programming. Their creator Kovich calmly matches wits with Georgio and they seem to hit it off. But he also seems to get into her head. The admiral in charge of Starfleet orders Discovery to be refurbished and its crew reassigned to separate units. This is obviously something the Discovery crew does not want and they need to look for a way to prove how valuable they are together. A certain species of members of the Federation is experiencing a pandemic but the Federation is at a loss. Michael knows their planet and also knows there is a ship that serves as a safe containing seeds from every planet. She proposes that Discovery locates the safe and retrieves the seeds from the planet to find a cure. The admiral reluctantly agrees to let them go but says they will keep Saru there while they are gone. The safe is manned every generation by a different family from a different Federation membership. This time the crew are Bazarians. Discovery enters an ion storm to pull the safe out with a tractor beam. Michael, Hugh and Nahn beam on and discover that there is only one surviving crewmember. He is in mourning because his family has died and he is clinging to them. He is also somehow phasing in and out. He won’t let anyone access the data. The transporter is used to beam him out and reassemble him in a solid state. Michael convinces him to let them have access to the seeds. He needs to be taken for treatment. Nhan decides to stay on the safe And complete her people's mission. She’s not a very interesting character so it's no loss. 

            Kovich is played by Canadian film legend David Cronenberg, who directed The Fly, Dead Ringers, and Crash, and many other great films. He says, “I don’t have a moral plan. I’m Canadian.”