Tig Notaro

            On Monday morning I worked out the chords for the intro and the first two verses of “Overseas Telegram” by Serge Gainsbourg. All the verses will have the same chords and so if the instrumentals are the same as the intro, I may be done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast. 

             Around midday, I finished taking everything out of my third kitchen drawer, then I washed the space where it rolls, and put only the nails, nuts, screws, washers, bolts, and brackets back in. Then I pulled out the big bottom drawer and started sorting its contents. Some of the stuff can go in the tool drawer and I don’t think that I’ll keep most of the bike parts. I might have that finished on Tuesday. Next, I’ll give the outside of the doors and drawers below the counter a wash, and then I can return to cleaning the kitchen floor. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 17:00. If the scale is accurate it must be the heat that knocked a kilo off since the morning. 

            I finished updating my journal at 18:00. 

            I opened my Movie Maker project to do some editing but the playback was freezing again because of incompatibility between the main video and the one of the magic show levitation that I’d inserted yesterday. I had no choice but to publish the movie and then import it back into the project. I deleted the version on the timeline and replaced it with the published movie. Everything was fine after that. I still had time to shave a little more off the magic show clip, but I need to lose about five more seconds. I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I worked on the poem “Monsters in the Dark” from my series My Blood in a Bug. 

            I worked a bit on adding colour to my photo “Anti-Gravity’s Rainbow.” 

            I made gravy from the roast beef drippings that I’d saved. I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching the penultimate episode of the most recent season of Star Trek Discovery.

            Tarka has taken Jett Reno prisoner on Book’s ship, which is cloaked and hidden on Discovery’s hull. But so far no one on Discovery knows that she is missing. She tries to convince Book that Tarka is a psycho. 

            Discovery is 200 kilometers from Species 10-C’s barrier. Michael initiates communication with 10-C by sending several drones to spray the barrier with some of the 0-C’s hydrocarbons that represent peaceful emotions. In response, a luminous wormlike finger of liquid light emerges from the barrier and pulls Discovery inside. Discovery’s next move is to offer a gift and since the only thing they know the 10-C want is boronite, they beam some outside the ship. This works and 10-C begins projecting holograms of molecules. The Discovery delegates learn to read them as simple equations and Zora sends them back. Then 10-C sends the same back to them. It seems 10-C is waiting for Discovery to do something more than mimic. Discovery sends a more complicated equation and in response, the 10-C sends a pod for them to enter. Inside they find a replica of Discovery’s bridge. The 10-C sends a disarmed replica of the isolytic weapon that Tarka used to destroy their dark matter mining mechanism, along with a symbol for the mechanism and the symbol for curiosity. Discovery sends the same symbol for the DMA and the symbol for terror. The 10-C sends back the symbol of sadness. 

            Meanwhile Zora communicates to Dr. Culber that something is wrong with her that she can’t figure out. She says it began when Reno used the replicator. Culber tries to contact Reno and Zora says she is in engineering but the staff in engineering say she is not there. Reno’s com badge is found but it has been rigged to give off her bio signs as if she is wearing it. 

            On Book’s ship, Reno tells Book that she has seen that Tarka’s calculations for destroying the DMA could destroy Discovery and Earth. Book confronts Tarka and suddenly the defenses Tarka has designed kick in. Tarka immobilizes Book and imprisons him with Reno. Tarka is able to send a burst that penetrates the 10-C barrier and he flies the ship in. This act of aggression causes the 10-C to break off communication with Discovery. Reno is able to send a message warning Discovery that they need to destroy Book’s ship to stop Tarka. 

            Jett Reno is an interesting character because she’s a genius who is blunt and funny and doesn’t engage in as much touchy-feely language as the rest of the Discovery crew. She is played by superstar deadpan comedian Tig Notaro, who has been nominated for a Grammy for her comedy album and two Emmy Awards for her specials. She started out managing rock bands and when one of those gigs took her to Los Angeles she tried stand-up for the first time. 

            For the fourth night in a row, I didn’t find any bedbugs before bed.

May 31, 1992: My daughter and I sat on some rocks while the lake swirled around us

Thirty years ago today

            Tom Smarda was supposed to come over on Sunday, but he called to cancel because he had a cold. Nancy’s parents brought my daughter down around 11:00. She fell asleep at 12:22 until almost 14:00. She seemed a little cranky when she woke up, so I carried her down to the beach. She was fascinated by the living water and so we sat on some rocks while the lake swirled around us. I bought her a treat on the way home. She fell asleep again at around 18:00 and Nancy came to pick her up not long after she woke. She looked at me and cried as I closed the car door. Was she sad to leave me?

Phumzile Sitole

            On Sunday morning I finished memorizing “Overseas Telegram” by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords and found one set so far that a few sites have copied. I transcribed those and I’ll look some more tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I finished sorting out my tools and batteries to store in the drawer beneath my cutlery drawer. I put all the batteries, the Allen keys, and the ratchet attachments into separate baggies so they wouldn’t scatter all over the drawer. Next I took out the drawer beneath that one and began to remove the contents into separate piles on the floor. I decided that this will be my nail, nut, washer, screw, bolt, and bracket drawer. Everything else will go into the bigger bottom drawer. I didn’t have time before lunch to take everything out so I could wash the drawer. I’ll do that tomorrow and then start on the last drawer. It looks like I’ll be able to get back to my kitchen floor project before the beginning of June. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before lunch. I had my last Popeyes biscuit with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of raspberry lemonade. 

            I took a siesta and slept twenty minutes longer than planned. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 85 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up on my journal by 18:20. 

            I downloaded the YouTube video of the 1932 silent movie of Howard Thurston’s magic show. I imported it into my Movie Maker project of making a video for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy.” I placed a copy on the end of the timeline and edited out everything but the part of the show when he creates the illusion of levitating a woman. I inserted the clip into the main video to correspond with my line, “Slip a pillow underneath the back to reduce the spinal motion.” The clip is about ten seconds too long and so I’ll shave it down tomorrow. 

            I searched for torrents of TV shows from the 1960s to download, starting under the letter “A”. There’s a series called “Arrest and Trial” that seems to have only run for one season but it had a lot of stars such as William Shatner in guest roles. I initiated downloads of all the ones on the list and two of them have begun slowly. I also started downloading the complete series of Atom Ant, but so far it hasn’t moved past 0.2%. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with roasted garlic sauce, a few French fries, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 11 of the latest season of Star Trek Discovery. 

            In this story Discovery has passed into the next galaxy and approaches the home of Unknown Species 10-C. But they are behind an impenetrable barrier and so Michael needs to find a diplomatic way in. There is a planet near the outside of the 10-C forcefield that Michael thinks may be the ancestral home of the 10-C. She, Saru, Culber, and Detmer take a shuttle to the planet where they explore some ruins and some enormous bones. The bones are more like cartilage and the away team suspect that 10-C lived in the gas layers above the planet. On the surface is a lot of hydrocarbon dust.

            While exploring outside the ruins Saru suddenly sees hallucinations and is stricken with the terror of impending death. When Culber tries to talk him down he has the same experience, and then later so does Michael. The only one unaffected is Ditmer. Inside the structure they figure out that the dust is different and that the different kinds of dust seems to have served for 10-C the function of pheromones. The emotions are very different inside the structure and there is a sense of love. They conclude that this was a nursery while outside they experienced the terror of death of some who were perhaps killed violently. They find sixteen different types of the hydrocarbon dust and conclude that this is the key for making first contact with 10-C. Saru observes that although the 10-C clearly experience deep connecting emotions, it does not explain how their DMA could so indifferently destroy the lives of billions in its mining operations. 

            Meanwhile, Book and Tarka still plan on destroying the DMA but need a way to get to it. Tarka has a plan to attach Book’s ship to a section of Discovery’s hull. But first they need to sneak onto Discovery in order to dull Zora’s sense of that section of the hull. While on the ship Book takes the chance of contacting General Ndoye of Earth, who voted to destroy the DMA. He gets her to agree to feed information to him. She agrees that if Earth enters into the red zone then the DMA must be destroyed but insists that if diplomacy begins before that he must stand down. But we know from past experience that Tarka is going to try to destroy the DMA anyway. 

            But if 10-C had the ability to replace the DMA effortlessly within hours of its destruction, why would destroying it do any good? I guess they plan on destroying it at its power source, but this is an astronomically more advanced species so I can’t imagine that they would be as vulnerable as Tarka seems to think they are. 

            Tarka is able to successfully dull Zora’s sense of that one section of the hull so Book’s ship can piggy back on Discovery. But one thing goes wrong, as Jett Reno catches Tarka on Discovery. In the final scene Book’s ship is attached to Discovery but Book beams on board only to discover that Tarka has taken Reno as a hostage. 

            General Nedoye was only a captain just a year or so ago. That’s quite a promotion. She is played by Phumzile Sitole, who is from South Africa. She played Akers on “Orange is the New Black”; she had a recurring part on “The Good Fight”. She starred in the South African film “Rights of Passage” and played a supporting lead role in the US movie “Lostfound.” 

            Before bed, I did my usual search for bedbugs and didn’t find any for the third night in a row. That broke the every-two-days pattern that has persisted for a few weeks, and hopefully it will be a trend.

May 30, 1992: Mike Copping and I wrote a crazy letter to his sister Maureen

Thirty years ago today

            Just after midnight on Saturday, Mike Copping came in through my window while I was sleeping on the couch. After I shook the fuzz out of my head, we went downtown in his car to check out the hookers. We had coffee at Jarvis and Wellesley and wrote a crazy letter to his sister Maureen. We were out until almost 3:00 and once we were back at my place Mike went to sleep fairly soon. 

            Nancy called later in the morning to cancel our plan to check out lawn sales because it was raining.

            I took a collage downtown to be copied. I was almost broke again. 

            I’d cleaned up the bathroom.

Shawn Doyle

            On Saturday morning I memorized the first verse of “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian.

            I finished posting my translation of “Alice hélas” (Alice Alas) by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the lyrics for his song “Parisiana” but they aren’t posted anywhere that I could tell. There is a YouTube file of Zizi Jeanmaire singing the song and I started trying to write down the lyrics by listening, but that has never worked out. I just don’t have the ear for understanding sung French unless I have the words in front of me. Gainsbourg.net lists the song and they have the lyrics to almost everything, but no one has posted them there either. 

            I decided to move on to Gainsbourg’s song “Overseas Telegram” and I memorized the first verse. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I went down to No Frills where the grapes were too soft, so I bought a watermelon instead. I also got a 5.5 kilo bag of potatoes, a bottle of Sunlight dish detergent, a box of Ziploc freezer bags, three bags of skim milk, a large container of skyr, and a bottle of pomegranate lemonade. 

             When I got back from the supermarket I had time to clean out the drawer beneath my cutlery drawer. Most of what is in there are tools and rechargeable batteries, so after washing the drawer I decided to make it my tool drawer and put all the other stuff in a separate pile. I didn't have time that day to put the tools back in though and so I left them on the floor to put away on Sunday. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before lunch. I had a Popeyes biscuit with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemon iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I wore shorts for the first time in a week. Yonge Street was partially closed off from Gerrard to Queen. It took a while to find out why after I got home. Apparently, it’s the annual Gumball 3000 Car Rally. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 17:10. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I looked for some kind of pillow-related video that I could insert into my Movie Maker project to correspond with the line, “Slip a pillow underneath the back to reduce the spinal motion.” I would have just settled for old footage of someone holding a pillow and moving it towards the camera. I searched for almost two hours but I couldn’t find anything no matter how I worded it. Finally, I decided on a clip that doesn’t have a pillow in it at all but shows silent movie footage of a magic show in which the illusion is created of levitating a woman. I think that the sense that she is floating in the air on her back with nothing under her will work in the video. I only need about twelve seconds of the woman floating. I bookmarked it and I’ll download it tomorrow. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with fire-roasted tomato pasta sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 10 of the most recent episode of Star Trek Discovery. 

            In the previous episode, Tarka had unilaterally destroyed the Dark Matter Anomaly to stop it from indifferently killing billions, but mostly so he could go to a special dimension where he thinks his friend has already gone. But the DMA he destroyed was replaced shortly after by a more powerful mining machine. 

            The energy source for the DMA is on the other side of the galactic barrier, so that’s where Book and Tarka need to go to destroy it and that’s also where Discovery needs to go to make first contact with Species 10-C. Because of this, delegates from various Federation member worlds as well as the president of the Federation herself are coming along for the mission. 

            The Enterprise’s and Book’s shields need to be fortified with programmable anti-matter in order to survive the passage through the galactic barrier. The Enterprise already has access to anti-matter but Tarka needs to take Book to the abandoned site of an Emerald Chain base where he and a fellow scientist named Oros were slaves for a few years. Oros had theoretically developed a means of transporting out of the prison and into another dimension. He and Tarka had hidden extra anti-matter in their cell, so Tarka retrieves and uses it to fortify Book’s shields. 

            Meanwhile Enterprise is approaching the barrier beyond which communication with their galaxy will be impossible. In the last transmission from Earth, they learn that the DMA has moved into the Alpha Quadrant and in a matter of days will destroy Earth and Navarre. 

            For some reason the space between galaxies would destroy Discovery in minutes and so Stametz has a plan to hitch a ride inside one of the cells that travel across the barrier. Apparently, the grey cells are inert but if they get inside a coloured one they will travel. They make it inside one just before their shields give out. But then the cell joins a cluster and so they have to leave and pass through some other cells to protect themselves before they reach another one that will take them across. Of course, they make it with even less time to spare this time. 

            This was kind of a nothing episode with a lot of therapy style communication between Michael and the president. 

            Tarka is played by Canadian actor Shawn Doyle who is from Newfoundland and studied acting in Toronto at York University. He won three awards for his performance as Dennis Langley on “The Eleventh Hour”; he co-starred as Ronnie Lobell on “24”, and Mr. Hartley on “Desperate Housewives”. He played Arkady Balagan on “Endgame”. He won a Canadian Screen Award for his performance as John A Macdonald in the CBC drama “John A: Birth of a Nation”. He won an ACTRA award for his performance in “The Disappeared” and a Gemini for his role in “The Robber Bride”. I did my usual search for bedbugs before bed, and for the second night in a row I didn’t find any. If the sad pattern holds though I will find one tomorrow night.

May 29, 1992: I called a lawyer to fight my eviction

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I got in touch with Jerry Gold the lawyer about my eviction case and made an appointment for Monday.

Rachael Ancheril

            On Friday morning I started memorizing “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Alice hélas” (Alice Alas) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song in French and English. I uploaded it to Christian’s Translations and will probably have it published on the blog tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast. That's almost a kilo more than two days before but I ate a lot on my birthday yesterday. 

            Around midday, I removed some of the nails from the bottom drawer of my living room dresser and glued the front on. For the last few months, it’s just been wedged in to make it look aesthetically complete. But after I glued the sides and the drawer slats of the dresser yesterday, the front of the bottom drawer couldn’t fake it anymore and it had to be attached for real. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon, as I was getting ready for my bike ride I saw that my gluing job on the bottom drawer of my dresser was not complete. The right side had not been glued, and so I quickly put some glue there and put my concrete block doorstop on top. I left it there and went for my bike ride downtown. 

            On the way back I stopped at Freshco where I bought three bags of cherries, four bags of black grapes, a pint of strawberries, a pint of blueberries, two jugs of orange juice, one jug of limeade, two bags of kettle chips, and a can of peaches. At the checkout, a man in an electric wheelchair behind me asked with surprise, “Why did you buy all that fruit? Are you going to eat it?” I said, “Yes, I like fruit.” “No kidding!” he exclaimed. Then he showed me the two bags of clementines he’d bought and described to me how good and cheap they are. I didn’t tell him I have a bag of those clementines rotting in my fridge.

            I weighed 85.4 kilos at 17:45. 

            I got caught up on my journal a little after 19:00. 

            In my Movie Maker project I shaved down the clip of the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest shock therapy scene that I’d inserted into the video I’m making for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy.” I only needed the part that shows the mouthguard being placed into McMurphy’s mouth to correspond with my line, “Insert and fasten the mouthpiece so the patient won’t bite their tongue. 

            Then I went earlier in the timeline and copied the first time that the concert footage shows Brian Haddon singing “Shock Therapy.” I then pasted that directly after the Cuckoo’s Nest clip and synchronized his mouth movements with the studio audio. Since I have only two parts in any concert that show Brian by himself and singing that response, I use a different special effect each time to make it look different. This time I used “3-D Ripple” so that he kind of looks like he’s reflected in moving water as he sings the response. 

            Next, I need a video clip to correspond with the line, “Slip a pillow underneath the back to reduce the spinal motion.” But there are no videos that I could find that directly fit the reference. I’m going to have to find something pillow-related that indirectly suggests it. Maybe just something from an old horror or suspense movie that shows someone moving a pillow towards the viewer. 

            I had a potato and the last of my chicken gravy with a slice of roast beef while watching episode 9 of the most recent season of Star Trek Discovery. 

            In this story, as Discovery tracks Book’s ship, Starfleet assigns former Discovery security officer Nahn to be on Discovery for this mission. Her job is to possibly take command if she deems that Michael’s feelings for Book have compromised her making a hard decision to stop Book and Tarka from blowing up the Dark Matter Anomaly and causing war with a superior species. 

            They find Book’s ship on the threshold of the DMA and send a cloaked shuttle commanded by Saru, along with Culber and two other members of the bridge crew. The plan is to sneak aboard, but Tarka, without telling Book, has booby-trapped Book’s ship so that the shuttle is destroyed. Discovery beams everyone back at the last second. Book finds and disables the tracking device that Michael planted and jumps his ship into the DMA, while Discovery follows. Meanwhile, Tarka finishes building the bomb. 

            Michael has Stametz work with the ship’s sentient computer Zora to analyze the amount of boronite in the area and the speed with which the DMA is mining it. That way they will know how long before the DMA jumps to the next location. 

           Meanwhile, Michael and Book use old pirate tricks to outmaneuver one another. Michael keeps jumping Discovery between Book’s ship and the DMA. They fire warning shots at one another but neither sees it as a threat until Tarka goes against Book and fires torpedoes at Discovery. Nahn thinks it is time to destroy Book’s ship but Michael offers one more plan. 

           They have found that the DMA will be in that location for one more week, which is enough time to make first contact with Species 10-C. She pilots a shuttle by herself to Book’s ship and communicates the information. Book agrees to stand down and Michael leaves, but Tarka refuses to accept that decision and beams the bomb into the DMA controller anyway. They jump away just as the DMA is destroyed. 

            Tarka’s whole purpose was to use the DMA power source to gain the energy required to send himself back to his home dimension, but he discovers after the explosion that the power source is projected from the other side of the wormhole. Shortly after the DMA is destroyed, another one appears in the exact same place. 

            Nahn is played by Canadian actor Rachael Ancheril, who was born in Toronto. She played a recurring character on the CTV series “Played”; Lisa Younghusband on CBC’s “Republic of Doyle”; she was a regular on “Rookie Blue”; she appeared in ten episodes of “The Art of More”; she played Blacksmith and her evil twin Gretta on “Wynonna Earp”; she had recurring roles on “Killjoys” and “Mary Kills People”; and she co-starred on the second season of “Nurses”. Before going to bed I checked the usual holes and cracks for bedbugs and found none.

May 28, 1992: We went to the beach where my daughter crawled all over the place and ate sand

Thirty years ago today 

            On Thursday I lazed around until 11:30 to make up for my busy birthday. I saw my daughter today instead of Friday because Tom Smarda was in town and staying with Nathalie and her son Yukon, so we got together in the afternoon. Nancy wanted to join us, but I told her no. They came over at around 14:00 and my daughter was sleeping when they arrived. When she woke up and saw Yukon she smiled shyly. They played together until Yukon poked her in the gums with a straw and made her cry, and after that Yukon held back. We went to the beach where my daughter crawled all over the place and ate sand. I received a lift to the subway from Nathalie and got her number.

Gemma Chan

            On Thursday morning it was my birthday. I did yoga without the radio on. 

            I finished working out the chords for my song “Chalkboard Serenade” and ran through it. This is also the last poem from my book Paranoiac Utopia, which I sent to Exile in September in hopes that they will publish it. Michael Callaghan sent me an email in December acknowledging my submission and saying he had sent it for editorial review. So far I haven’t heard anything more. But since I sent the manuscript to them I’ve made changes to most of the poems. Not major ones but some lines have been changed. I’ll have to make a list of all the changes I’ve made and send it to them if they decide to publish it. 

            I listened to “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian and tried to sing along in French and with my translation. It’s very fast in parts. I downloaded the lyrics to his song “Sermonette.” 

            I tracked down the lyrics to a couple of Serge Gainsbourg songs that I’d previously had to set aside. I haven’t translated them yet. 

            I did a different song practice than usual in that I skipped some of the usual songs and added some that I like but don’t do every day. 

            I had planned on having Popeyes biscuits for breakfast but I looked up their hours and found out that they don’t open until 11:00. I went out to the new bakery, which is in the space where Bike Pirates used to be. The person I asked must be European because when I asked for biscuits she pointed to some bags of cookies. I went to the other new bakery on Brock Avenue and they had more exotic and original items, but I had my heart set on biscuits. I settled for one of my Montreal-style bagels with five-year-old cheddar sprinkled with maple sugar. 

            I spent way too much of my birthday trying to get caught up on The Daily Show’s Twitter posts. It was already after 16:00 when I finished and I had skipped lunch. 

            I wanted to get something accomplished and so I glued the sides and the drawer slats of my living room dresser. I put it on its side and placed my jazz Chorus amp and my concrete block on top.

            While it was drying I rode to Dave’s Hot Chicken for the first time. When they first opened there were line-ups but today there were only two customers in the restaurant. Two more came later to pick up orders. I ordered the #1, which is two chicken tenders with fries. The staff wore t-shirts with the company slogans, such as “Rise and Brine.” I guess because the tenders are brined before they are spiced and fried. I had to wait ten minutes for my food. After bringing it home I went to the Popeyes downstairs for the first time since they opened almost two years ago and bought a six-pack of biscuits. 

            I put my dresser upright and it didn’t fall apart, but I didn’t put the drawers back in yet. The box from Dave’s came with two slices of white bread, dipping sauce, and some slices of pickle, I guess for putting the tenders in a sandwich. I didn’t eat the bread but had the chicken, the pickles, the dip, and two biscuits with a beer while watching Eternals. It was a little before 18:00 when I sat down to view it, but it was a 2.5-hour movie so it was a good thing I started early. 

            The story begins with text telling a creation story. Before creation was the Celestials. Arishem, the Prime Celestial created the first sun. Then the Deviants arrived from deep space and began to feed on intelligent life. Arishem sent the Eternals from the Planet Olympia to destroy the Deviants. 

            Ten of the Eternals were sent to Earth 7000 years ago to stop a Deviant invasion. They are Ajak, Sersi, Kingo, Ikaris, Sprite, Phaestos, Makkari, Druig, Gilgamesh, and Thena. After the last Deviant is killed in 1521 they receive no more instructions from Arishem and drift apart from each other, most of them blending in with the human population in various locations. 

            In modern London, Sersi is a museum curator and lives with Sprite who is eternally an adolescent. Sersi’s boyfriend is a professor named Dane Whitman. One night they are attacked by a Deviant and must reveal their powers to Dane. Sersi can transmute matter while Sprite has the ability to create illusions. But the Deviant Kro has developed new abilities. It can heal itself and can almost talk. It is too strong for them but suddenly Ikaris arrives to fight it. He can fly, is very strong, and shoots powerful beams from his eyes. Kro is chased away. Sirsi and Ikaris were married for 5000 years but he went away and Sirsi moved on. 

            They go to South Dakota to reunite with their leader Ajak but find she has been killed by a Deviant. As Sirsi mourns over Ajak, a luminous sphere emerges from her body and passes into Sirsi. That means Ajak has chosen Sirsi to replace her and so now she has the ability to communicate with Arishem. 

            They go to India where Kingo is a Bollywood star. Kingo’s valet is a human named Karun who knows they are Eternals. He comes with them to film their exploits. 

            They next go to gather Thena and Gilgamesh. Thena is the goddess of war but she sometimes loses control of her mind and begins to try to kill her friends. For all these many years Gilgamesh has cared for her and helped her remember. 

            They go to South America where Druig has lived for centuries illicitly controlling the lives of a group of humans so they will live in peace. They are attacked by Deviants and defeat all but Kro who kills Gilgamesh and absorbs his power, and suddenly begins to talk and look more human. 

            Sirsi is finally able to speak with Arishem, who reveals to her that the Eternals and the Deviants are both artificial species that he created. The Eternals on Earth are essentially shepherds for protecting the humans until they reach a certain population and energy level to feed the Emergence of the Celestial Tiamut. The earth is basically an egg that will break open and be destroyed when Tiamut is born. 

            Sirsi does not want the Earth and its people to be annihilated and so she and most of the other Eternals plot to find a way to stop Tiamut from coming into being. But Ikaris opposes this and we learn that it was him that killed Ajak because she also wanted to stop the Emergence. Ikaris is determined to stop them from going against Arishem’s plan and when he leaves, Sprite goes with him. Despite being trapped in a child’s body she is in love with Ikaris. Kingo does not want to oppose Ikaris but he also does not want to go against the others, so he and Karun leave. 

            Sirsi and the others seek out the super-fast but mute Makkari, and Phaestos. Phaestos is in a relationship and he has a child now so he is reluctant to get involved, but his partner encourages him to save them all from dying. He says that using the sphere that passed from Ajak into Sirsi he can construct a mechanism that will allow them to form a group mind that will be powerful enough for Druig to control Tiamut. Ikaris tries to stop it but they form a group mind anyway. 

            However, Druig is unable to put Tiamut to sleep and so Sirsi is determined to use the group mind to complete the mission. Sprite stabs her but she continues. Kro arrives and Thena battles and kills him. Ikaris tries to kill Sirsi but he can’t bring himself to do it and so Sirsi is able to turn Tiamut into Marble. 

            With the remaining power of the uni-mind Sirsi offers to make Sprite human so she can grow up to be a woman, and she agrees. She becomes the ward of Kingo and goes to school. But what could they teach someone with thousands of years of knowledge? 

            Thena, Makkari, and Druig travel into space to warn other Eternals about the Emergences. Their ship is boarded by Starfox, accompanied by Pip the Troll. I remember both Starfox and Pip as being associated with Adam Warlock, especially Pip, who was Warlock’s companion. But apparently, Starfox first appeared in Iron Man. He is also called Eros and he is the brother of Thanos. He introduces himself to Thena, Makkari, and Druig as a fellow Eternal. So that makes Thanos an Eternal as well. 

            For obvious reasons, Arishem is angry at Sirsi, Kingo, and Phaestos for their betrayal. He returns them to their lives on Earth but they are now on trial. 

            It does not say so in the story but Sirsi’s boyfriend Dane Whitman will become The Black Knight. He is about to pick up the sword that he has inherited but someone we don’t see asks if he is really ready. The silver age Black Knight first appeared in Avengers comics and became a member of the Avengers. But there was a character in the 1940s Marvel Comics called The Black Knight and I think Whitman is his descendant. The original Black Knight lived in the time of King Arthur. Dane Whitman’s Black Knight has a genetically modified horse with wings named Aragon. 

            The star of this movie was definitely Gemma Chan, who plays Sirsi. Chan had many supporting roles in British film and television before she landed the part of Astrid in Crazy Rich Asians and gained more world recognition. She played Minnerva in Captain Marvel and she was the voice of Namaari in Raya and the Lost Dragon. 

            Before bed, I dug one bedbug out of one of the old black nests in a groove to the left of the frame of the old exit door at the head of my bed.

May 27, 1992: I was getting a blowjob in an alley but a pimp shouted "Here come the cops" so she finished me off with a standing handjob

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday night after Nancy picked up my daughter, I went out. I had a beer at Jilly’s at Broadview and Queen. Then I went further east to Filmore’s, but they wouldn’t let me in because I was carrying a camera, so I went downtown to the Zanzibar. They were almost closed. Then I went into the red-light district where I found a $40 blowjob. She took me to an alley where she sat on the fire escape and put the condom on me. I thought about the architecture and as many other non-sexual things as I could to keep me from coming too fast. Some guy came up and said, “You’re under arrest!” I said, “Whaddaya mean?” He said, “Just kidding.” She explained that he was a pimp and then she went back at it. Then he shouted, “The cops are comin!” She was so nervous that she finished me off with a hand job while we stood close together with my hand on her bustier. 

            I was running a little late on Wednesday morning and so instead of taking the streetcar to Lansdowne to work at West Toronto Secondary, I took the subway to Lansdowne Station. After getting off the Lansdowne bus at Dundas, I stopped at the donut shop to get a coffee. I went to the House of Lancaster for lunch and then went there again after work. I went downtown and had a beer at the Rivoli. I went by Teasers, but it was closed. I went to the Bermuda and then checked out the sex magazine shops. The mags were expensive and so I bought a companion mag called Psychodrama. Then I put my camera in a locker and went to Filmore’s. What a circus!

Daniel Kash

            On Wednesday morning I finished translating “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. I’ll start memorizing the French song on Friday. 

            I finished memorizing “Alice hélas” (Alice Alas) by Serge Gainsbourg and looked for the chords, but no one has posted them. I worked them out for the intro and most of the first verse. It’s fairly simple and so I might have it done on Friday. 

            I was in the good mood during song practice and in general. Probably because my birthday is tomorrow. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around 12:30 I pulled out my cutlery drawer and washed the drawer and all its contents. Next, I’ll clean the drawer below it and hopefully get it better organized. All three drawers beneath the cutlery drawer are junk drawers, but it would be nice to arrange the contents of each one so they make sense in each their own context rather than all of them being a jumble. Some stuff has got to be thrown away but I have to be careful because sometimes an odd little useless item that I’ve hu ng onto for years has turned out to be just the thing I need for a project. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. 

            I had the last of my caribou-fig paté on a toasted Montreal-style bagel with a glass of lemon iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 85 kilos at 17:45. 

            I used the 4K Video Downloader to download the shock therapy clip from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” I imported it to my Movie Maker project for a video of my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” and put a copy of it at the end of the timeline. There I cut out everything but the part where the nurse puts in the rubber mouthguard. I inserted that part into the video to correspond with the lyric, “Insert and fasten the mouthpiece so the patient won’t bite their tongue.” There’s too much of the clip and so I’ll shave it down in the next session. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with fire-roasted tomato pasta sauce, hot Italian sausage, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 8 of the most recent season of Star Trek: Discovery. 

            In the previous episode, the genius Tarka revealed plans for a weapon that would destroy the Dark Matter Anomaly. But the council voted against his proposal because the species behind the DMA, which they have named Unknown Species 10-C is far in advance of their own and they opt instead for Michael’s proposal of establishing first contact. Because the DMA destroyed his home planet, Book wants to destroy it at all costs and so he allies himself with Tarkas, steals the spore drive and escapes with Tarkas in his ship. 

            In this episode, the president of the Federation and the admiral both tell Michael she is too close to this case and is forbidden to follow Book. But later the admiral tells Michael to use any means in her power to stop Book and Tarkas. Michael knows that Tarkas needs isolynium to complete his weapon and she also knows they need to buy it on the black market. She tries to second guess Book based on her experience of working with him as a courier in the interplanetary underworld. 

            Michael and Operations Officer Owosekun take a shuttle to the planet Parathia to ask the casino owner Haz Mazaro for a star map of the 10-C, but when Michael finds that Book and Tarkas are there she tries to buy the isolynium before they can. But Mazaro has already told Book he will sell them the isolynium if he and Tarkas can find the cheater in his casino. Mazaro sets a price Michael needs to meet before he’ll give it to her. She doesn’t have it and so Owosekun enters a cage match to win the money. She loses twice but keeps on getting rematches until she unrealistically wins. But when they have the money, Book and Tarkas catch the shapeshifter who has been cheating. Mazaro calls it a draw and says they have to settle it in a poker game with two others from the Emerald Chain. 

            Michael and Book work together to eliminate the other two but then have to face each other. Book is the better player and wins the isolynium. But unknown to him Michael has placed a tracker on it. Back on Discovery, the star map is analyzed and it is discovered that the DMA is a mining machine to extract boronite. 

            Haz Mazaro kind of looks and talks like an alien Jay Leno. I almost expected to find the former Tonight Show host behind the prosthetics, but the actor is Daniel Kash, who is the son of Canadian opera icon Maureen Forrester. He directed the short superhero film “Germ Girl”, written by and starring his wife Haley Tyson. He plays the main villains in the video games Watchdogs and Thief.

    Before bed I searched for bedbugs and for the second night in a row I didn't find any. 

May 26, 1992: On my birthday I had a goat cheese omelet at the Queen Mother and bought some red sneakers

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I got up around 8:30 and just relaxed into my birthday. I decided I didn’t want the TV on, and I went out to get a fresh grapefruit juice. I called Nancy and of course, she said there would be a delay in bringing my daughter to me. I made coffee and read some old newspapers, then I went out for coffee and read that day’s Globe and Mail. I went home and waited and waited for Nancy. The mail came with $550 I wasn’t expecting and so it looked like my birthday was gonna be okay. Nancy finally showed up at 11:30 with the baby and some empty beer bottles. I took my daughter down to Spadina and Queen and she fell asleep on the way. I went to the Queen Mother and had a goat cheese omelet while the baby slept. She woke up after an hour and a half. I carried her up Yonge Street and bought some sneakers.

Madame Ching

            On Tuesday morning I finished translating the fifth verse of “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished posting my translation of “Oh Soliman” by Serge Gainsbourg and memorized the first verse of his “Alice hélas” (Alice Alas). This is the last song of the album he wrote for Catherine Deneuve in 1981. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I tackled the stuff that I pulled out from under the kitchen yesterday. Some of it I threw away, some of it I cleaned, some of it I put elsewhere, and I organized everything that I put back under. Next, I’ll wash the cutlery drawer and its contents. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal by 18:20. 

            In my Movie Maker project of making a video for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy”, during the first instrumental I finished replacing the clips from the 1940s shock therapy video with others from the same video that show convulsions. I alternated those clips with parts of the concert video that show me playing guitar. Next, I need a different clip that shows a mouthpiece being inserted. I did a search and the only one seems to be the shock therapy scene from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” 

            I re-downloaded 4K Video Downloader because I hadn’t done so yet on this new computer. Tomorrow I’ll download the YouTube video. 

            I went through another folder of my writing but only found two pages of superfluous material. Once I’ve gone through all the folders for that I’ll have to start from the beginning and start separating the material chronologically. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching the most recent Doctor Who Easter special episode, “The Legend of the Sea Devils.” 

            This story begins in 1807 somewhere on the coast of China. In a small village, there is a statue of a monster. A female stranger named Madame Ching arrives and a father Ying Wai and his son Ying Ki know that she is after the statue. The father tries to stop her but she cuts it open to get a certain stone that’s inside, but the monster Marsissus emerges to kill the father and then begins slaughtering the village. 

            The Doctor arrives and recognizes his species as the Sea Devils. She, Yasmine, and Dan trap him in a net but then a flying ship arrives. He easily frees himself and jumps aboard. Ying Ki sees Ching standing over his father’s body and thinks she killed him. The Doctor tells him she couldn’t have because his death was caused by poison from a Sea Devil sword. 

            When Ching introduces herself the Doctor is excited because she is a real historical figure, having been the most successful female pirate in history. She is searching for the treasure of Ji-Hun who died looking for the treasure of the lost historical Portuguese ship the Flor de la Mar. 

             Dan and Ying swim out to Ching’s ship because Ying still thinks she killed his father and he wants revenge. She captures them and strings them up by their feet. Since her ship has no crew, Dan offers his and Ying’s services, and she agrees. Her crew and her two young children are being held for ransom and that is why she needs the treasure. 

            The Doctor and Yasmine go into the past and see Marsissus betray Ji-Hun. They return to 1807 at the bottom of the ocean where the Tardis is grabbed by the mouth of a sea monster controlled by the Sea Devils. They are taken to the Sea Devils’ lair at the sea bottom where Marsissus shows that he has held Ji-Hun captive, in stasis in a transparent case for almost 300 years. The Doctor, Yasmine, and Ji-Hun escape to Ching’s ship. Ying is in possession of the Keystone that Marsissus seeks to shift the poles and flood the Earth so his people will rule it again like they did millions of years ago. Marsissus steals the stone. There is an old-fashioned pirate sword fight with the Doctor and her friends against the Sea Devils. 

            The shift of the poles has begun and so the Doctor and Yasmine go to sabotage the Sea Devil technology so they are trapped. But the cable comes apart and so someone has to hold it and be trapped as well. The Doctor says for Yasmine to leave but then Ji-Hun says he will do it because he is already out of his own time, so the Doctor and Yasmine escape. 

            The Doctor tells Yasmine she can’t be romantically attached because time always runs out but if she could it would be with her. She tells Yasmine she is the greatest person she ever met, and that includes her wife. That’s a reference to the amazing River Song from three Doctors ago. 

            I wonder if Yasmine will still be in love with the Doctor after she regenerates as a male. It could create some interesting dynamics. It looks like whatever sex the Doctor becomes, on the rare occasions when the Doctors show a romantic attraction, they are always only attracted to women. 

            Madame Ching, more formally known as Zheng Yi Sao was a sex worker on a floating bordello when she met her future husband, the pirate Zheng Yi. After he died she took over his pirate confederation, which included 400 junks and 60,000 pirates. They fought battles with the East India Company, the Portuguese Empire, and Qing China. She negotiated a surrender with the Qing authorities in 1810 that allowed her and her stepson Zhang Bao to avoid prosecution and to retain a fleet. She personally commanded 24 ships and 1400 pirates. After retiring from piracy she ran a gambling house in Guangdong.

May 25, 1992: There was a picture of a drawing of me in the West Toronto Secondary School Yearbook

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I caught the streetcar at 7:30 and took it all the way to Lansdowne, where I got a coffee and then took the bus up to West Toronto Secondary. For the senior class, I posed nude, and for the juniors I wore trunks. I went to Mr. Submarine for lunch and then had a coffee at the donut shop at Dundas and Lansdowne. The teacher showed me a picture from five or six years before, of a drawing of me that had been published in the school yearbook. He made a copy for me. I finished work around 15:00. I had planned on bringing a collage to copy while I was downtown, but I forgot. 

            It looked like I would have to draw from my rent money to celebrate my birthday on Tuesday. Nancy said she would bring the baby to me that day around 8:30, but who could trust her? I got my place cleaned up.

Sex Dwarf

            On Monday morning I finished working out the chords for “Oh Soliman” by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through the song in French and English and uploaded it to Christian’s Translations where I started preparing it for blog publication. It should be published very early tomorrow and then I’ll start learning his next song. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I took everything out from the storage space under the sink and washed the area, top, back, sides and bottom. I threw away a few items that had been under there, such as plastic planters that had cracked. I haven’t put everything back because I still want to go through the stuff and get rid of a few more things, clean what needs to be cleaned, and then organize everything in a less cluttered way. 

            While I worked I listened to “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” by Soft Cell. It was lots of fun and a nice change from the hard bubble gum of Bon Jovi that I just finished going through. It was great hearing “Tainted Love” again, which I used to go wild dancing to. Most of the songs were new to me, such as “Sex Dwarf”: 

“Isn't it nice, sugar and spice 

Luring disco dollies to a life of vice 

I can make a film and make you my star 

You'd be a natural the way you are 

I would like you on a long black leash 

I would parade you down the High Street 

You've got the attraction 

You've got the pulling power 

Walk my doggie, 

walk my little Sex Dwarf …” 

            The original video for the song was banned before it could be officially released. It’s still forbidden on UK television and on YouTube. https://vimeo.com/429915379

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:50. 

            In my Movie Maker project of creating a video for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” I found the 1940 shock therapy clips I wanted to replace in the video. They are the ones that show the nurse securing the patient’s jaw and putting a wad of cloth in his mouth to keep him from biting his tongue. I can maybe use that later, but what I’ve found from further on in the timeline of the same video are clips of the actual seizures that the patient is experiencing. That fits better as something to alternate with the guitar during the first and most energetic instrumental. I only had time to insert two convulsion clips this time but I might be able to get all the rest added tomorrow. 

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

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching the last two episodes of Astro Boy that were in the package that I downloaded. These two were in Japanese, with English subtitles.                  One of them was one I’d seen twice before, once in English, and another time before it was fully downloaded and so there was no sound. It was about Moon monsters. 

            The other one was especially interesting because it was the real final episode of the original four-year series, and it was one of the ones that did not air in North America. In this story, the sun has begun to heat up and living things will not survive. All of the humans, with some animals and plants, will travel into space for one year and leave the robots in charge. 

            The robot president says they will care for the Earth until the humans return. But there is one human who does not leave the planet. His name is Napolitan and he can survive the increasing heat on Earth because he is a cyborg with a human brain. He does not want robots to be in charge and so he declares himself to be the emperor of Earth. He kills the robot president, who passes his title on to Astro Boy, or Atom as he is called in the original series. Atom’s sister, who became Astro Girl in English is Uran in Japanese; and his brother who became Jetto in English is called Cobalt. There is also a baby robot sibling that must have appeared in the series after the final English episode. 

            There are various disasters that Atom must deal with, such as using dry ice bombs to stop the sea from boiling. When volcanos erupt he leads a force of flying robots to fill them up with rocks. Napolitan has his hooded robot army wake a monster jellyfish from the ocean floor that begins to suck up all the water. Atom defeats it by pouring a vast amount of salt on its body. 

            Napolitan abducts Atom’s family and threatens to dissolve them in acid unless he surrenders. When he tries to save them he is trapped in a magnetic web. Napolitan is about to drop Atom’s family in the acid when Atom fires his ass cannons and breaks a wall that holds back the water. The water floods the acid. Napolitan attacks Atom with a high voltage whip but Atom sends even higher voltage through the whip to electrocute Napolitan. He falls back and smashes his head open, revealing to his own surprise that he is really a robot. Now he feels bad for everything he’s done and offers a solution to the heating sun. He has developed a nuclear weapon that if it is thrown into the sun will act as a fever reducer and save the Earth. Then Napolitan commits suicide. 

            Atom flies the weapon into space to release it into the sun from a distance but its progress is impeded when it collides with a meteor and so Atom must leave the ship and carry it into the sun with his own body. Atom saves the world but he does not return. Then the producer announces this is the end of the series and thanks everyone for watching. Atom also appears and bows in gratitude. And that’s the end of the original series. It comes back in colour, with better animation in the 1980s, with an English version and a movie as well. 

            I did a search for bedbugs before bed and didn’t find any.

May 24, 1992: I collected all the letters I'd written to Whitefeather in prison

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday I didn’t have much money. I dried my laundry, worked on projects, cleaned up, watched TV, and read old news. I’d gotten as far as Frank Capra in my transcription of excerpts from the encyclopaedia. I was sure I would be speeding along quicker now that the book was filling up. In my autobiography, Nancy had just lost her virginity and was already initiating sexual adventures. I had all the letters that I wrote to Whitefeather when she was in prison set aside, and in a month or so I planned on putting all the best writing from those into their own book. I planned on looking up Sebastian on Monday to see about getting my song lists back from her. I was almost finished reading “Green City in The Sun.” I was looking forward to my birthday in two days.

Ass Cannons

            On Sunday morning I finished my translation of the fourth verse of “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords to all the verses of “Oh Soliman” by Serge Gainsbourg and one of the instrumentals. I think the other instrumental might be the same, in which case I’m done. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I finished cleaning the bottom left cabinet under the kitchen counter. Tomorrow I’ll do the area under the sink, and after that, the big job will be cleaning the four drawers under the counter on the right side. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before lunch. I had a toasted Montreal-style bagel with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemon iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. On the way home along Queen Street, a pigeon flew under my wheel. I heard someone on the sidewalk gasp. I didn't stop to check but I didn't feel any kind of slight bump and so I assume that what I ran over was its wing. That's what happens after hundreds of people in the city come out to feed the pigeons every day. They cause millions more pigeons to be hatched, thousands of which come out too dumb to steer clear of a thin bicycle wheel. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:40. 

            I was caught up on my journal by 18:40. 

            I experimented with using Audacity to eliminate hum and discovered that if I ran the recording that has been noise reduced through the process again I can eliminate even more of the hum. 

            In my Movie Maker project, I removed most of the clips of shock therapy that I’d inserted yesterday into the video I’m making for my song Instructions for Electroshock Therapy. I had alternated them with one-second segments of the first instrumental in the concert video, but yesterday I realized that they made the instrumental too long, when the studio audio of the instrumental is already shorter than the concert video. Next, I’ll look at the shock therapy clips that are still in the video and decide if they are too similar to one another. If so I’ll cut some out and replace them with clips that are further on in the timeline. 

            I worked on editing the first poem from my series “My Blood in a Bug.” 

            I grilled five hot Italian sausages in the oven and had one between two halves of a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with ketchup, mustard, pickle, and hot sauce. I ate it with a beer while watching some extras that came with the Astro Boy episodes I’d downloaded. 

            The first was a tour of the Mushi studio where Atom (which became Astro Boy in North America) was created. There were a lot of people involved to create a single episode. After the animators made the drawings, they were taken to a “room full of girls” where they were traced onto acetate and then coloured. Then they were photographed on stock backgrounds. Then the actors would be recorded as they stood together voicing the scenes while watching the animation being played on a screen. 

            The second extra showed several episodes from the series in English and then in the original Japanese, to show what scenes were deleted. The US version would often diminish the violence by not showing the bad guys killing people. There was also a scene of a father slapping his son’s face that was not kept in English. Also, they often cut out the scenes that showed Atom using his butt cannons. What kid wouldn’t want to have butt cannons? They also eliminated any scenes that showed Japanese lettering on signs, documents, or anywhere else. 

            The third extra was an interview with Fredd Ladd who organized the production in English of the 104 episodes of the Japanese series. He said they initially only planned to use 52 episodes because that was the standard for any cartoon. But after Astro Boy became a hit, Mushi brought NBC an additional ninety-two episodes but they didn’t want them. It was only after Mushi threatened to sell the second season to another company that NBC gave in and bought an additional 52 episodes. 

            The fourth extra showed all of episode 34 while subtitles were shown of the animators discussing that episode as they watched it many years later. These animators were part of an independent company and it was the first time Mushi had outsourced. One of the animators said their company had six executives and one employee. The different animators recognized which animators had drawn which scenes because they had characteristic styles. One of them was more expert at drawing dinosaurs for instance. They would work on the manga during the day and then go to the studio at midnight to draw the animation. They didn’t get much sleep that month.

            I found three bedbugs before bed. One looked sick, one looked dead, and one that I found under my mattress was alive but bloodless.   

May 23, 1992: When I put my daughter's cap on her she thought it was a game and kept taking it off

Thirty years ago today 

            I picked up my daughter on Saturday and took her to my place where we hung out together. I took her to the supermarket, and she smiled while riding the cart. She refused to wear her cap and thought it was a game to have me put it on so she could take it off. She tried to don it after removing it, but she didn’t have the coordination. She liked it when I put it on my head. She slept a couple of hours at my place, and I got her back to her mother early. 

            I watched TV. 

            I’d been going through old newspapers. Now that I’d waxed the floor, I was starting to clean out the closet and I pulled out the old blaster.

Robots Will Replace Everybody But The Poets

            On Saturday morning I seemed to be coming out of whatever was making me feel sick, whether it was pollen, a cold, influenza, or covid. 

            I finished memorizing “Oh Soliman” by Serge Gainsbourg and looked for the chords but no one had posted them. I worked most of them out for the intro. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I headed out to No Frills but I thought I’d stop to pick up a prescription first. But the door was locked and the sign said, “Back in fifteen minutes.” I decided to go to the supermarket and then come back on the way home. At No Frills I bought seven bags of red grapes, a pint of strawberries, a half-pint of raspberries, a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread, a pack of chicken drumsticks, a pack of sirloin steaks, a large container of skyr, and a tub of vanilla bean Haagen Das. 

            In the aisle, an elderly woman that had a little dog in the basket of her rollator greeted me. I’ve seen her in Parkdale for more than thirty years since she was also a supermarket cashier. I said, “I remember when you used to work here.” But she corrected me that she had worked at Price Chopper, which is the former name of Freshco. I didn’t argue with her because she should know better than me where she worked, but I could have sworn she had been a cashier at whatever supermarket was at King and Jameson before No Frills, and it wasn’t Price Chopper. I remember that she was the friendliest cashier I’d ever encountered and that she had engaged every customer in conversation. I recall that she always wore her hair in a bun and decorated it with accessories. Today she had an artificial flower on the bun at the very top of her head. 

            Later she was ahead of me at the cash and tried to sell me on the benefits of having a PC Points card. She said I could get discounts, and pointed at the paper towels on display for $7.99, telling me that with points I could get the pack for $5.99. She said I could also use it at Shoppers Drug Mart. She did a price match on a couple of containers of Chapman’s ice cream and was instructing the cashier on how to do it. She was conversing happily with her little dog on her way out. 

            On my way home I stopped to get my prescription and realized as I approached the pharmacy that I hadn’t gone there on my way to No Frills. The drug store would never have had a sign that said, “Back in fifteen minutes.” I had gone to Freedom Mobile because that’s where I’m more used to going and it had totally blacked out of my head that it wasn’t the pharmacy. I’d say it was a senior moment but there were times in my twenties when I might have done something like that. Anyway my Betaderm prescription was all prepared and waiting for me. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before lunch. I had a toasted Montreal-style bagel with caribou paté and a glass of lemon iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. It had felt cooler in my apartment and so I’d worn my jeans, but out on the street it was hot enough to wear shorts. 

            I weighed 83.9 kilos at 17:45. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I worked on the Movie Maker project of making a video for my song Instructions for Electroshock Therapy. I continued alternating one-second clips of the concert footage of the first instrumental with one-second clips of the 1940s documentary showing real shock therapy. But when I was done I realized that I’d put way too many clips in. There was even too much concert footage of the instrumental to match the shorter instrumental from the studio audio. Plus, after the instrumental in the concert video I am not even shown singing until after I’ve sung, “Insert and fasten the mouthpiece so the patient won’t bite their tongue / Slip a pillow underneath the back to reduce the spinal motion.” I’ve got to cut out a lot of the clips I’d inserted and move them back to the end of the timeline. I’ve also got to delete some of the concert video of the instrumental. I need to add some new videos to correspond with the mouthpiece and the pillow references. Then I’ll have to try to synchronize the studio audio with the concert video when I sing, “Now turn the shock power switch on.” 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread, with marinara sauce, a cut up chicken burger, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the last two anglicized 1963 to 1964 episodes of Astro Boy. 

            In the first story Astro Boy and Dr. Elefun are traveling in a spaceship outside the Earth’s gravitational pull, when their ship breaks down. They are drifting with no way to get home. Suddenly they are pulled inside a spaceship shaped like a squid. Elefun is pleasantly surprised when the captain turns out to be the renowned scientist Roger Sowbelly. But it turns out that they are Sowbelly’s prisoners and he has no intention of returning them to Earth. He hates the Earth because the people are greedy and warlike. His ship is travelling at the speed of light far away from Earth. When he sees a transport ship carrying uranium to Earth he aims to destroy it because he thinks the cargo will be used for war. Astro Boy tries to stop him but is caught in an electromagnetic field. 

            Sowbelly has found and plans to develop his own planet. On his ship they produce their own food in capsules. They stop on an asteroid to hunt monsters for meat and Astro boy has to save one of the men from a monster. They have monster for dinner and it is delicious. They approach the planet Sowbelly plans to settle, which he calls Sarabon, after his wife Sara, but something hits their ship. It is a small, alien vessel. Astro Boy goes out and brings it on board. One of the alien crew is hooked up to Sowbelly’s psychoscope and it reads his mind. They see the image of a tower and the creature explains that it is a hydrogen ion cannon that turns hydrogen into water and will destroy everyone on Earth. Sowbelly doesn’t seem to care that the Earth could be destroyed. 

            When Astro Boy tries to persuade Sowbelly to help stop the attack, he uses another electromagnetic field to drain Astro Boy’s energy. When Sowbelly’s ship lands on Sarabon he finds that his base has been bombed. Elefun and Astro Boy are prisoners but the aliens attack the ship and blast a hole in their cell. Elefun escapes to get more energy for Astro Boy. The aliens are attacking Sowbelly and his crew and so Astro Boy destroys their ships. He tries to destroy their cannon but it’s too strong so Sowbelly rams it with his ship and saves Earth. Sowbelly says he will send for his wife and child when he has finished preparing the settlement. Meanwhile Elefun and Astro Boy’s ship is repaired and the two return to Earth. 

            In the second story an alien ship is approaching Earth and communicates that it is a diplomatic mission from Ursa Minute. A crowd gathers at the spaceport to greet the aliens but are surprised that the flying saucer that lands is the size of a toy. The aliens inside are the size of little dolls. 

            Before they leave, the aliens give Elefun the gift of a robot design that is superior to any robot on Earth. When the robot is assembled it is very efficient and helpful. So much so that Elefun decides to take a vacation while his robot-double runs the Science Institute. 

            An industrialist hoping to get wealthy asks Elefun’s robot about copying him in his factory. The robot claims it has Elefun’s authority, then draws up and signs away permission. The world is overrun with these efficient robots that begin to do every human’s job. 

            The alien robots decide that the Earth’s robots are now useless and so they should be drained of energy and destroyed. When the robots are arrested Astro Boy escapes. When the humans protest their doubles’ behaviour, the doubles order the humans arrested. Astro Boy frees the robots and he and his brother Jetto go to destroy the robot factory. The robots form one giant robot and so Jetto uses his jet boots as bombs to destroy it. An army of robots face off with an army of humans and it seems to be a draw until the outlawed Earth robots join in. The alien robots realize they are defeated and not wanted and so they form into one giant rocket ship to find another planet. 

            Industry experts predict that robots will replace 40% of jobs currently held by humans in the next 15 years. Robots will probably take over manufacturing, transportation, courier work and even some medical diagnostics and surgeries. When I went for my physical recently, for the first time a machine and not a nurse took my blood pressure. The only thing they wouldn’t be able to replace are jobs that require creativity. 

            When I was getting ready to turn in I found one sick looking bedbug in a crack on the wall about a meter above the head of my bed.

May 22, 1992: I got my Legal Aid certificate and soaked my laundry

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I got a call about some work next week at a high school. 

            I received my Legal Aid certificate in the mail and so I called Goldstar. The guy said he’d get back to me about what lawyer they would refer me to. 

            I talked to my daughter on the phone. 

            I finished a collage. 

            I finished washing my whites and dried them at the laundrymat. I started soaking my coloured clothes in the tub.

Orphans of War

            On Friday morning I still felt under the weather, as if I had the flu, but it also felt milder than the day before. 

            I translated the third verse of “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Oh Soliman” by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation. There’s only half a verse left to learn and so I should have that done on Saturday. 

            During song practice, I was still playing short of a high E string because I hadn’t had time to change it the day before. Hopefully I would later this day. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I got caught up on yesterday’s journal. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I was feeling a lot better than I did in the morning, but I started to feel like sneezing, although it didn’t happen. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 17:00. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I finally found time to change my high E string. 

            In my Movie Maker project I continued alternating one-second clips of the first instrumental in the concert footage of my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” with one-second clips of the 1940s documentary video of shock therapy being administered. I have just a few seconds more to insert and then I’ll need to shorten each clip considerably until the audio of the next verse is synchronized with me singing in the video. 

            I worked on editing the first poem from “My Blood in a Bug.” 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching two episodes of Astro Boy. 

            In the first story the country of Halvah has withdrawn from the World Peace League. Astro Boy is sent along with Mr. Pompus and Dr. Quad to investigate why. Halvah’s capital is surrounded by a wall and defended against visitors with planes and tanks. Even in the woods there are automatic weapons that attack. The only way in is a natural log bridge over a waterfall but they fall in the water and so Astro Boy takes them into the country through the falls. 

            On the other side is a desert where they are attacked by a boy shooting a homemade cannon. When Astro Boy confronts him the boy says his name is Vodka and he is an orphan of war. He says he’s declared war on the world for always making war. As Astro Boy and his companions disguise themselves as natives of Halvah, Vodka follows along. 

            In Halvah it is against the law to laugh and a woman gets arrested for inventing a clothes-pin. Our heroes are hiding and watching but Vodka decides to shoot a stinging propellor weapon at one of the soldiers. Also watching from a window is the soldiers’ leader General Ahmod, who is disguised as a barber and decides to add to the chaos by throwing a bomb so our heroes will be blamed. They escape and set up camp outside the city. Pompus guesses correctly that it was a high-ranking officer that threw the bomb because they survive on confusion. 

            Vodka asks Astro Boy if he can look inside him, then he memorizes the parts and starts collecting robot parts so he can build his own. 

            The soldiers come to arrest them again but a merchant named Ahmod intervenes and says he will take responsibility for them. They are taken to a palace where Astro Boy is suspicious and discovers that there are hidden soldiers there. They escape to the desert but are caught in some boobytrapped sand that sucks them down into a prison. Dr. Quad is sick and Ahmod tells them that Quad ate a slow-acting poison that can only be countered by sub-zero temperatures. Astro Boy breaks them all out and flies them to Mount Flurry where Quad is buried in the snow and cured. 

            Then they are attacked by planes and tanks. Astro Boy fights some off but then uses up all his energy. Suddenly Vodka introduces his robot and tells it to attack. It looks like a very awkward combination of Astro Boy and Pompus, but it’s clumsy and starts falling apart as it advances. The soldiers begin laughing but have to stop because laughing is against the law. Vodka’s robot is used to recharge Astro Boy. Astro Boy defeats the army and sends Ahmod running, and now Halvah is free. Vodka has already made several funny-looking robots out of the tanks that Astro Boy destroyed. 

            In the second story a planet named Planet Thirteen has entered our solar system and is probably on a collision course with Earth. Dr. Elefun wants his country to use an anti-proton bomb on the planet but the general says it’s the only anti-proton bomb in the world and they need it to keep the peace. He will need absolute proof that Planet 13 is headed for Earth before he agrees to use it. 

            Astro Boy has been sent with a crew of robots into space to investigate the menace. But his ship is damaged while orbiting the planet and it can’t leave. Meanwhile Elefun learns that Planet 13 is definitely on a collision course and so the general gives in and agrees to launch the bomb. Astro Boy tells Elefun they are in range of the bomb and can’t get away but to save Earth they must send the bomb. The bomb arrives and hits the planet but doesn’t explode. The general explains that the bomb was only experimental but that was top secret information. 

            Astro Boy lands a crew on the planet and they discover that the entire planet is made of ice. As it approaches the sun it will begin to melt into the shape of a convex lens, which will orbit the Earth and magnify sunlight to cause destruction all over the Earth. The only solution is to force the planet into the Earth’s atmosphere where it will evaporate before it reaches the Earth. For that they need hundreds of rockets and so Elefun goes to the World of Nations to ask all the countries of the world to donate rockets, but each country has an excuse not to do it. But as the lens begins to burn the Earth they give in and all launch rockets. As they approach Planet 13 Astro Boy collects the rockets and puts them nose down on one side of the planet. Then he wires all the rockets together so they respond to one firing mechanism and launches them with his last bit of strength. Astro Boy loses consciousness but wakes up in bed after having saved the Earth. Elefun says the World of Nations is shouting Astro Boy’s praises but when they tune in on TV the leaders are all arguing over which of their countries had the most effective rocket.