Leonid Kinskey

            On Saturday morning I memorized the first verse of "Manu Manuréva" and was surprised that it's musically the same song and done with the same production as "Adieu California" albeit longer. That explains why "Adieu California" is not on Alain Chamfort's "Manuréva" album. I assume Chamfort and his co-composer worked out the melody before hand and applied them to both sets of Gainsbourg lyrics to see which would fit best. I prefer "Adieu California." But at least the chords are pretty much already worked out. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning, since it was hazy outside and the sun wasn't harsh I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. When I got home I only stopped to pee before heading back out to the supermarket.

            At No Frills the Ontario peaches were back in season so I bought a plastic basket. I also got five bags of grapes, a pint of blueberries, shaving gel, Irish Spring soap, a can of coffee, three bags of milk, a tub of skyr, a jug of orange juice, a jar of mango and lime salsa and a pack of toilet paper. 

            I weighed 88.1 kilos before lunch. I had wheat thins and five year old cheddar with a glass of raspberry lemonade. 

            It was raining hard in the afternoon when I woke up from my siesta. 

            I pulled the couch out and removed a wingnut and a large washer that I'd improvised years ago to hold the right end of the base of the wooden frame to the right end of the back. The part that broke last night was the part that the screw had gone through. I put the couch back against the wall and then sat down in front of it on the floor to push the base with my feet as far back as it would go. It seems to be okay for now with the back propped against the wall. 

            I worked on my poem series "My Blood In A Bug." 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos at 18:00. 

            I tried to upload the videos that I'd shot yesterday but when I stuck the uploader into the usb port my computer kept asking me to insert a device into the drive. I tried restarting my computer but that didn't work. I tried other ports but got the same message. I started my laptop and finally was able to install the videos there, then I copied them onto my flash drive, which my computer still acknowledges. I copied the files from the flash drive to my computer. But then the videos were on their side because I'd shot them with the camera sideways since that was the best view. I imported the first file into the video editor and flipped it upright, then exported it, which took about twenty minutes. When I tried to import the second video the editor said there wasn't enough memory and that I'd have to restart the app. By this time I'd been working on the problem for two hours and decided to flip the other two videos and export them on Sunday. But then I realized that since I couldn't open the memory card in my PC I couldn't delete the contents in order to shoot any new videos next time, so I inserted the uploader back into my laptop. But the laptop started giving me the same message as the computer until after several tries the files finally appeared and I was able to delete the contents of the memory card. All that work and I still haven't had a chance to look at the videos to determine what few seconds of them would best fit into the main video I'm making for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." 

            I colourized a couple of damage spots on my photo of the skateboarder. 

            Just before dinner I realized that I'd forgotten to buy beer and so I rushed out and got to the liquor store just in time. I'm lucky to live half a block away. 

            I grilled four hot Italian sausages in the oven and had one between two half pieces of toast topped by ketchup, mustard, sliced pickle and piri piri sauce. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of Mayberry RFD. 

            In the first story Sam is looking for someone to paint his house. Howard gets the idea to apply the pioneer spirit of barn raising to make painting Sam's house a community effort. He gets Goober and Emmett on board and breaks the news to Sam. Sam has already found a professional who can do the job in a few days but Howard is so insistent and Sam doesn't want to be rude. His three friends show up the next morning and dawdle for at least an hour before finally starting to work. After several hours they've spilled paint where it shouldn't go, gotten paint on the window glass and remixed the paint in the wrong shade so that one side of the house is brown and the other tan. Finally Sam blows up and tells them to go home. Then Sam hires a professional to paint the house properly. The next day Sam is about to go into town and apologize to his friends for getting angry when they all show up to also say they're sorry. But not knowing that the house has been painted over by a professional they take a look and think that they did a pretty good job after all. Sam generously allows his friends to remain blissfully ignorant. 

            In the second story, while looking in an antique shop for something to make into a lamp, Alice finds a harp. She has always loved the harp and now on a whim she gets it. She looks for an instructor and finds the eccentric Professor Radetsky from Europe who believes the harp is the only instrument. He hasn't had a student in three years but gives the impression he is fitting Alice into his busy schedule. But having not had a student for so long he becomes overzealous and frustrates Alice until she wants to give it up. When Sam points out to the professor that Alice wants to quit Radetsky realizes his mistake and asks her to take him on again. This time he is more patient and Alice improves to the point that he wants her to do a recital at the music school at which he is employed. The other students are all children and Alice is embarrassed because an older student is always expected to be better because they look like they should have been practicing for years. The little kid who performed on the violin before Alice encourages her and says, "Don't be chicken! If I can do it you can do it!" She plays "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" and plays beautifully. 

            This story seems to ignore the fact that Alice is already an accomplished musician as was established when she played trumpet on the episode in which she was introduced.

            Professor Radetsky was played by Leonid Kinskey, who left Russia after the revolution and began to work as an actor in Europe. His first film was "Trouble In Paradise" in 1932 and then he played an agitator in "Duck Soup." Most of his career consisted in playing supporting parts as comedic foreigners, such as Genflou in Les Miserables, the snake charmer in "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer", an Arab in "The Garden of Allah", Ivan in "The Big Broadcast of 1938", and Pierre in "That Night In Rio." He played Rick's bartender in "Casablanca" and claimed he got the part because he was Bogart's drinking buddy. In 1948 he starred in the first television sitcom, "The Spotlite Club." He sang "I'm An Old Cowhand" in "Rhythm of the Range" with Bing Crosby. He was offered a part in "Hogan's Heroes" but he turned it down because he found it implausible. He said Nazis were seldom dumb and never funny. His final film role was as Dominwski in "The Man With The Golden Arm."