Filippo Lippi

            On Saturday morning I memorized the second verse of “Dépressive" by Serge Gainsbourg and made more adjustments to the translation and the rhymes. 

            In the late morning I went to the supermarket. There are two bike posts in front of No Frills. One is straight and the other one has been leaning at a seventy degree angle for the last couple of years, I assume because it got hit by a vehicle at some point. There was another cyclist locking his bike on the street side of the straight one and so I stood there waiting for him to be finished so I could attach mine on the inside. He looked at me and told me I could use the other one. I said I wanted to use that one and then he unlocked his bike and said he’d move. I reminded him that there are two sides to the bike posts but he took his bike to the leaning one anyway, locking it on the street side again. I pointed out that there is danger of car doors hitting a bike when one locks it on that side. He stood there and looked, and what I'd said seemed to make sense to him but he just said, “Next time." and went into the supermarket.

           I got four bags of navel oranges, a half pint of blueberries, a pack of four tomatoes, a pack of chicken legs, a carton of soy milk and a jug of orange juice. 

           I re-read Tennyson’s “Ulysses" a couple of times. For lunch I had saltines with five year old cheddar. 

           I read a little more of “Ulysses”. Dylan Thomas’s later poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” has a similar theme of continuing to explore forcefully even into old age until the point of death. But I think Tennyson’s poem might have a bit of the British Empire in it. Ulysses and Britain as a kingdom that has nothing to do but maintain what it has won. He wants to go west and explore some more to revitalize the spirit of the nation. Or for the people of Britain to regain that spirit and not settle for the complacency of comfort in British privilege.

            I re-read “Fra Lippo Lippi" by Robert Browning about the 15th Century painter Filippo Lippi. The character says “Zooks” a lot. It's a minced curse that comes from “Gadzooks" which was a way of saying “God's hooks", a reference to the nails on the cross. 

            I re-read Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” a couple of times. In addition to the sexual undertones in the poem I’m picking up some xenophobia and racism as well as a “buy local” argument. 19th Century anti globalism. Who are these goblin merchants that are selling foreign fruit that one cannot find locally? The portrayal of some of the goblin men as having animal bodies can find parallels in anti-Semitic propaganda of the early 20th Century in which Jews were presented as various animals such as dogs, cats, monkeys, snakes and even poison mushrooms. 

            I made naan pizza with salsa for sauce, topped by ground beef and cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching Andy Griffith. 

            In this story John, the director of the Mayberry choir that Andy, Bea, Thelma Lou and several other citizens belong to comes to Andy and tells him that they’ve lost their second tenor. Barney tells him that he is a trained tenor and so he happily takes Barney on. Andy doesn’t point out in front of Barney that he has a horrible singing voice because he doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. Everyone else including Barney’s girlfriend Thelma Lou knows that Barney can’t sing but no one wants to say anything. John learns the truth at the first practice but Andy won’t let him dismiss Barney even though they have a concert in two weeks. Andy eventually comes up with the solution of telling Barney that he is going to be the soloist but that the mic he will be using is extremely powerful and so he has to sing very quietly. One of the choir members sneaks off to the back and sings Barney’s part into another microphone. Barney wins a $10 prize and so Andy tells him that now that he is a paid professional he is disqualified from being a member of an amateur choir.