Ron Dante

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the third and fourth verses of “Toi mourir” (Then You Die) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I video-recorded a little over half my song practice and audio-recorded the whole session. I tried playing “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” three times and screwed up at some point each time. I was about to give up when I decided to try it one more time and I made it all the way through without a major fumble. The only really annoying flaw was that on the very last word I started singing it before playing the chord, but that may not be a big deal. I’ll review it later. 

            My plan was to spend the month of June recording my song sessions but for the first week there were technical problems because of the webcam causing humming and clipping. Since the month of June has thirty days I’ll extend recording my practices into July until I’ve got thirty recordings without clipping and humming. I can’t record on June 30 because the exterminator is coming in the morning and I will have to shorten all the songs. 

            Yesterday evening I noticed there had been a call from the Parkdale Community Health Centre. I assumed it was about me getting another appointment for teeth cleaning to replace the one that had been canceled when the clinic closed down because of the fire six weeks ago. There was a voice message, but when I punched the number I got a message from a debt collector. Maybe there was more than one message and I could have accessed the one from the clinic but the other message made me want to hang up. 

            Today at 8:45 I decided to call them because I was expecting them to give me an appointment in a few weeks or months, but I found out that I had one for 9:30. I rushed to shave, shower, floss, mouthwash, brush, and dress and then headed down there. I was surprised that the mask mandate is still in effect in clinics. Apparently this was their first week of being back in operation after the fire. 

            I had to wait about half an hour before the dental assistant called me in. She was not the same person as on the previous times I’d seen Dr. Lake. The other person was nice enough but this woman was more personable, less nervous, and easier to talk with. Her accent sounded eastern European or Slavic. She commented, “You’ve just washed your hair! It smells”, but I think she meant that it smelled good or at least that it smelled like I'd just washed my hair. Not the negative connotation that a natural speaker would give to those words. 

            Dr. Lake said she would be cleaning my teeth, polishing them, and then giving me a fluoride treatment. She said that I should wait thirty minutes to eat after the fluoride treatment but it would be better if I could go for two hours. The cleaning was an uncomfortable and sometimes painful process. There was water flowing into my mouth constantly and I sometimes had to stop to cough or swallow. Because my gums are in such bad shape they were very sensitive in certain areas. Dr. Lake recommended that I let her refer me to a gum specialist at U of T. It wouldn’t be covered by my plan and she didn’t know how much it would run up, but she thought it would help me save my teeth and so I agreed. By the time we were done with the cleaning and polishing there was no time for the fluoride treatment. She gave me a prescription for a chlorohexidine gluconate oral rinse. 

            Natasha the assistant gave me a new toothbrush and recommended that I get a sulcabrush as well. She demonstrated on a model the proper way to floss. I’d asked about the Waterpik because I’ve gotten conflicting advice about it. One dentist advised me to get one and another told me not to use one. Dr. Lake said that if I floss I wouldn’t need a Waterpik. But later she said that it would help to have a Waterpik as long as I don’t use it to replace flossing. The seniors plan allows a cleaning every four months and so I made a tentative appointment for 9:30 on October 7. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos before a late breakfast. In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. When I got back to Parkdale I went to the Vina Pharmacy to fill my prescription. I was told there would be a ten-minute wait and so I left my bike there and went down the street to Freedom Mobile to pay for my phone plan. 

            Back at Vina I waited half an hour. At first the druggist told me the mouth rinse was not covered and I would have to pay over $20. But later she said she found out it was covered and I would pay less than $5. The pharmacist told me that the Peridex would discolour my teeth if I rinse for more than thirty seconds. He also said that it shouldn’t be used for more than two weeks for the same reason. I asked if it was two weeks on and two weeks off but he said I’d have to ask my dentist. I looked this up and found that I just shouldn’t use the stuff at all after two weeks. I guess I’ll just hold onto what’s left over and use it if it’s recommended again. The bottle says it expires in December 2024 so there’s no reason not to store it. When I paid for the rinse I also bought a new razor and a Sulcabrush. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 17:45. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 19:30. 

            I decided not to upload the videos of my morning song practice or recharge my camera battery because I won’t need the memory card or the camera tomorrow, since pest control will be coming in the morning and I won’t have time for a full song session. 

            I imported the Fifth Estate video about the CIA experiments conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute into Movie Maker. I made it into a movie in AVI format and then imported the converted video back in. I placed a copy of it at the end of the timeline of the video I’m making for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” and edited out everything but the segment that runs from the aerial view of the Allan Memorial Institute to the approach to it on the mountain, and finally to the front door of the main building. I’ll insert it into the main video tomorrow to fit between the lines “raise the church” and “of shock therapy.” 

            I made pizza on a roti with French fries and four-cheese sauce. I had it with a beer while watching episodes five and six of The Archie Show. 

            In the first story, Riverdale High is having a masquerade dance with a prize for the best costume. Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica all want to work together to dress according to a common theme. But Reggie is so sure that his gorilla costume will win that he refuses to participate. He does however spy on his friends to see what they come up with, and when he sees them following a flying saucer theme he decides to eliminate the stiff competition. Archie and his friends dress up as extraterrestrials and Archie’s hot-rod is made to look like a flying saucer. The night of the dance, Reggie calls the police to report a UFO sighting. They are stopped by the cops in front of the school, but they win first prize. When the police learn that Reggie fed them a hoax, he is kept in his gorilla costume and put behind bars at the zoo. 

            The Dance of the Week is “The Stick Shift”: Jump once straight ahead and now you’re in first, jump twice straight back and now you’re in second, jump straight to the right and now you’re in third, then twice straight back and now you’re in fourth, now jump to the middle and that’s neutral. 

            The Archie’s song of the week is “Ride Ride Ride” by Jeff Barry. 

            In a short segment Jughead is doing his homework. He has to use “defeat”, “defense” and “detail” in a sentence. He comes up with “Defeat of the cat went over defense before detail.” 

            In story two, the science class goes on a field trip to the mountains and Hotdog stows away on the bus. Miss Grundy tells the class that the first prize will go to the student who finds the most unusual phenomenon of nature. Reggie decides to play tricks on everyone. He labels a tray of gnats as “tse tse flies” and fools Jughead. Veronica tells Jughead they are gnats and they argue. Archie and Betty go to the stream to look for fish eggs. Reggie sneaks up and pushes Betty in then hides, making her think that Archie did it. Reggie hides and makes bear noises until a bear comes up behind him and then he runs. Miss Grundy learns that Reggie has been playing tricks and so when she sees the bear she thinks it’s Reggie. She turns the bear over her knee and spanks it until she learns it’s real and runs. Then, the bear realizes who is really to blame and begins spanking Reggie. 

            The first story in episode six begins with Veronica talking about the Riverdale marathon. Above her bed there is a big portrait of Archie. Then we see Reggie’s bedroom and he also has a picture of Archie, but it’s on a dartboard. He also has a replica of Archie’s head on a spring for a punching bag, but even that beats him up. 

            Everyone is training for the big race except for Reggie, who it turns out is super fast and very confident that he’ll win. But the night before the race Betty asks Reggie to show her how fast he can run and so he runs all over town three times. The day of the race Reggie is ahead but then gets tuckered out and loses to Archie and Jughead. 

            The Dance of the Week is “The Veronica Walk”: Walk with your nose in the air like you don’t have a care, give a little wiggle, go into a strut. 

            The Archies song of the week is “La Dee Doo Down Down” by Jeff Barry. 

            In the second story Veronica Lodge’s father hires his daughter’s friends to work on his dude ranch. Betty is handling the switchboard and Veronica is in charge of the front desk. But the guest in room 13 keeps occupying a lot of their time by constantly ordering lemonade, magazines and records. With the switchboard and the desk always tied up serving room 13, all the other guests are dissatisfied and the functioning of the ranch falls apart. Reggie decides to exit the room and leaves the door open. When Jughead walks by he looks inside and can’t resist the bed, so he goes to sleep. When Mr. Lodge learns that the troublemaker is in room 13 he says no one ever uses room thirteen. When he goes there he finds Jughead sleeping and he gets blamed for all the trouble. He is going to be punished by having to ride the unbroken horse Thunder Streak. Hotdog exposes Reggie by serving him lemonade and when he says he’s had enough everyone knows he was the one in room 13. Reggie is forced to ride Thunder Streak and after that his butt is so sore that he does all the chores because he doesn’t dare to sit down.

            The real lead singer of The Archies was Ron Dante, and through overdubbing he was also his own backup singer. He was also a member of The Cuff Links and The Detergents. In October of 1969 Dante was the lead singer on two top ten songs: “Tracy” by the Cufflinks and “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies. From 1973 to 1981 Dante was the producer of all of Barry Manilow’s records. In 1978 he produced the Tony Award winning musical “Ain’t Misbehavin” on Broadway. He was the publisher of The Paris Review from 1978 to 1985. In 2018 he replaced Howard Kaylan (Eddie) on the Turtles’ “Happy Together” tour. 

            Before bed I used the Peridex for the first time. One is only supposed swish it around in one’s mouth for thirty seconds, but I forgot that and did it for a lot longer. My tongue felt numb afterward. 

            I looked for bedbugs before retiring and for the second night in a row I dug one out of a crack in the upper right corner of the old exit door at the head of my bed. I assume they go that high to escape the dust that pest control spread below. It’s possible there are more living inside the door with the passage being that one or other cracks.

June 30, 1992: I spent $30 on a cab to pick up my daughter but when I arrived, her mother had taken her

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday at 8:00, I called Nancy to tell her I was on my way up to get the baby, but she said she was just getting ready to take her out with her. When I protested, she hung up. I got ready and grabbed a cab. I spent $30 getting up there but when I arrived, she was gone. I went home and just sat fuming for the rest of the day. I couldn’t function because I was so pissed off. I tried to reach her by phone later on, but she wasn’t home. I really wanted to slap her and fantasized about beating her up. When she finally called back, I told her she was a cunt for what she’d done, but she didn’t seem to understand what I was mad about. She thought the world revolved around her and couldn’t think of anyone but herself.

Mark Barkan

            On Tuesday morning I started working out the chords for “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. I memorized the second verse of “Toi mourir” (Then You Die) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded the whole session. I made it through my song “Megaphor” after two or three tries. I even got through all the main verses of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” but I lost track of the chord sequence for the epilogue which is sung to the tune of the song “Sixteen Tons.” Maybe I was so excited about having gotten through the song I became distracted at the end. I think I did pretty good with most of my translated songs. 

            I weighed myself four times before breakfast and twice my weight was 85.2 kilos while two times it was 85.5 kilos. I’ll go with 85.2. 

            In the late morning finished scrubbing the final open section of my kitchen floor in the northeast corner of the room. I still had a bucket of fairly clean water and so I used it to wash the east end of the counter. I did an initial wipe of the north wall where that area of floor ends and knocked a lot of paint chips onto the section I’d just cleaned. I vacuumed them up later. There will be more paint chips, since washing that wall is my next project, all the way up to the ceiling, including the two shelves. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:15. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 18:40. 

            I uploaded the two videos that I shot of my song practice this morning and skimmed through them. Sometimes I play parts of songs too fast, so I’ll have to work on that. 

            I searched for videos that show notorious mental hospitals and found an edition of the Fifth Estate hosted by Adrienne Clarkson in which she does a report on the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal. It shows a video of the hospital from above and from the front, so I think that will work. I downloaded it with 4K Downloader. Tomorrow I’ll import it into Movie Maker to convert it into the format of the video I’m making for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy”. While it’s there I’ll try to crop out the Fifth Estate watermark. It’s not actually on the image but rather in the black outside the frame, so I wouldn’t be losing anything if I can crop it. 

            I made gravy with my chicken drippings from yesterday. I had some with a potato and a chicken leg while watching episodes three and four of The Archie Show. 

            In the first story, the gang takes a tour of the local Navy base. Reggie is very knowledgeable about nautical talk but Jughead says that when he uses nautical talk he gets his mouth washed out with soap. The boys fall into the water and find a laundrymat on the base to dry their clothes. They borrow three sailor suits from someone’s laundry and Reggie wants to go out and walk around in them. Archie doesn’t think it’s a good idea but Reggie insists that it’s fine. On the dock is Principal Weatherby in his Naval Reserve uniform. He is there to meet the commodore. But Hotdog is running and slams into Weatherby, knocking his glasses off. His uniform hat lands on Hotdog’s head and through his dim vision, Weatherby thinks Hotdog is the commodore. When he encounters Archie, Reggie, and Jughead he does not recognize them and can only make out the uniforms. He commands them to board the Commodore's hydrofoil. Despite Reggie’s nautical knowledge, he gets seasick. Archie takes over but doesn’t know how to drive a hydrofoil and so they have a crazy ride. Just as Weatherby starts to recognize the names the sailors are calling each other, like “Jughead” and “Archie”, he gets knocked out. They get him back on land and find his glasses. Weatherby is about to punish them when the Commodore compliments him on his exhibition of hydrofoil manoeuvres and promises him a unit to train in the handling of hydrofoils. 

            The Dance of the Week is “The Beanie”. Put your right hand on your head and your left hand in your baby’s left hand. Then switch hands. The Archie’s then perform “Truckdriver” by Jeff Barry. 

            In the second story, Reggie has been taking advantage of Jughead’s easygoing nature to play mean tricks and practical jokes on him but Jughead is oblivious. Jughead passes the bus station and meets his double, a young man named John L Sullivan Jackson, Junior State Karate Champion. He goes by the nickname “Jughead”. He’s just visiting town and is waiting for his bus. He asks Jughead where he can get a malted and he directs him to Pop’s Choclit Shop where Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie are hanging out. When Reggie sees what he thinks is the Jughead he knows, he tries to play more dirty tricks. This tougher Jughead lets him get away with it once but when he ties his shoes together and makes him trip, he starts spinning Reggie around and finally tosses him in a garbage can. Reggie promises never to pick on him again. Then when Reggie sees two Jugheads he runs for the hills. 

            In the first story of episode four, Archie, Jughead, and Reggie learn the circus is in town and go there to get part-time jobs. But Reggie thinks they should become circus performers. He dresses Jughead as a lion tamer and Hotdog as a lion. Then he and Archie dress as trapeze artists. But as Archie and Reggie are climbing the ladder to the trapeze we learn that Reggie is afraid of heights. Meanwhile, Jughead mistakes a real lion for Hotdog. When he realizes his mistake he runs, with the lion in pursuit. Archie starts swinging on the trapeze and Reggie doesn’t want to be left alone on the platform so he grabs the bottom of Archie’s tights. Reggie is swinging so low to the ground that he snags Jughead and Hotdog and inadvertently rescues them from the lion by lifting them up. Reggie and Jughead land on horses and then end up between elephants that toss them in the air and they wind up on the trapeze again. Then all three fall, but Hotdog pushes a big container of water under them and they fall safely, except for Reggie who lands in the cannon for the human cannonball, which the lion fires. 

            The Dance of the Week is The Hamburger. Hop on one foot, then the other, then both, then stop. Rotate one arm and then the other, then hop, hop, hop. Stop, then hop. 

            The Archies then perform “Catching Up on Fun” by Ritchie Adams and Mark Barkan. The song was recorded the same year by The Love Generation. 

            In the second story, Reggie is trying to stop Jughead from tagging along when he and Archie go out with Betty and Veronica. So he buys an old wreck of an airplane for a dollar and gets a DJ to announce on the radio that Jughead won it in a contest. He thinks it will occupy all of Jughead’s time but then Archie decides to help Jughead fix it up and the girls hang out to watch. Reggie goes off to take a nap. Jughead takes the plane for a spin and it turns out Reggie is asleep in the back. The plane goes through a crazy ride, sometimes with Jughead not even steering. They almost crash several times and fly upside down for a while. The engine conks out and the plane loses parts in the air. They have to land Flintstones style by sticking their legs through the bottom of the plane. 

            Mark Barkan started as a Brill Building songwriter. His first hit was The Writing on the Wall for Adam Wade in 1961. Then he co-wrote “I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter” for Connie Francis, and “She’s a Fool” for Leslie Gore. His song “Pretty Flamingo” was a hit for Manfred Mann and he co-wrote the Banana Splits theme “The Tra La La Song”. In 1966 he produced the album Psychedelic Moods by The Deep. It was the first album with the word “psychedelic” in the title. Collaborating with Ritchie Adams he wrote songs for The Archies and The Monkees. They also wrote all of the songs for the Science Fiction musical “Toomorrow” starring Olivia Newton John.

June 29, 1992: I told Nancy I wanted to see the baby on Tuesday because I had to work Wednesday but she said Wednesday was better for her and hung up

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I called Nancy and we argued about whether or not I could see the baby on Tuesday. Since I would have to work on Wednesday, Tuesday was more convenient, even though I might also be getting together with Mike Copping. Nancy said Wednesday was better for her and then she hung up on me. 

            I continued to look for an apartment.

Jeff Barry

            On Monday morning I finished posting my translation of “Shush Shush Charlotte” by Serge Gainsbourg and memorized the first verse of his song “Toi mourir” (Then You Die). 

            Song practice didn’t go well, mostly because I broke my G string early on. I tried to pause the audio recording on Ableton but when I restarted it the program tried to record over everything from the beginning. I stopped it and held the “right” arrow on my keyboard until the needle on the Ableton timeline was past the point where I’d left off. This time when I hit record it didn’t try to start over again.

            It seems like my song “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” is jinxed. I made it through again to the final verse with no extreme mistakes but then suddenly I hit a wrong chord again. There’s nothing different about the last verse from the others and so it’s weird that it falls apart at that point almost every time since I’ve been recording it. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning, I continued scrubbing the final uncovered part of my kitchen floor at the northeast corner of the room. It’s quite a squeeze getting at the last few floorboards near the northern wall, especially when I’m reaching under the radiator to the eastern wall and the corner where they meet. It’s also a particularly black area and I dirtied four buckets of water. It’s going to take at least one more session to finish that part of the floor and then I’ll clean the end of the counter and the wall in that corner. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. The city did a pretty good job cleaning up after the Pride parade. There was no trace of it on Yonge Street, even though when I walked through there yesterday the street was littered with cans and bottles. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:25. 

            I was caught up on my journal just before 19:00. 

            I cut up a whole chicken and coated the parts in olive oil, salt, paprika, and chili flakes, then roasted it in the oven. 

            In the Movie Maker project of creating a video for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” I synchronized the concert video of me singing the words “raise the church …” with the studio audio. After that, in the concert video, I spend a little more time strumming the guitar before singing “… of shock therapy” and so I need to delete that and insert a quick clip, perhaps of a notorious mental hospital to represent the church of shock therapy. 

            I had a potato with margarine and a chicken leg while watching the first four episodes of The Archie Show. 

            The intro of all the episodes had The Archies singing a type of roll call, “Archie’s here, Betty’s here, Veronica too, Reggie’s here … Hey Jughead where are you? We wanna dance and we wanna sing, have some fun and some adventuring. All our friends are here but it ain’t complete. We ain’t the Archies without the Jughead beat.” Then the first part is repeated until “Hey Jughead where are you?” is replaced by “Here comes Jughead and Hotdog too.” The thing is there are drums playing on the song from the beginning before Jughead shows up. 

            Each story is introduced with Archie talking to the audience to set it up. 

            In the first story, the gang is dancing while they think of how to raise money to hire entertainment for the school dance. They decide to go to a local island to look for treasure. Meanwhile, Reggie is jealous that Archie is getting all of Veronica’s attention and so he uses dried-up grass and disguises himself as a hairy monster. Then he chases Veronica, Betty, and Jughead. His plan is to take off the disguise and pretend to save them all from the monster but he can’t get it off. Then a female monster sees him and starts to chase him with amorous intentions. Archie saves the day by banging out a beat on an old barrel and the female beast begins to dance. Then a real male monster arrives, punches Reggie out, and begins to dance with the female. 

            After each story, there is always a dance of the week and in this episode Jughead demonstrates the Bubblegum. It just consists of making little circles with the index finger, followed by a bigger circle with the hands and then the biggest circle with the arms. 

            The dance is followed by a song by the Archies, and I remember loving this one when I was thirteen. It’s “Bang Shang-a-Lang” written by Jeff Barry. 

            In the second story, there is going to be a talent contest at Riverdale High and everyone is practicing but Jughead. He’s in the lab trying to develop an enlarging paint to make the food he eats twice as big. But he turns out to develop by accident an invisibility paint. Reggie steals the paint so he can make the others disappear and then win the talent show. Reggie paints Archie’s bottom half and Jughead’s top half except for his crown hat. So when Principal Weatherby walks by they have to put their visible halves together. Then he paints Veronica’s bottom half and Betty’s top half so they have to come together for Weatherby as well. But then Weatherby looks and sees a top half floating and a bottom half without a top and he thinks he might need new glasses. In the end, Reggie performs as an Indigenous person and recites, “Behold the vanishing American” just as an invisible Jughead comes out and paints him so that he vanishes. 

            In the third story, Veronica is on a chivalry kick and so Reggie challenges Archie to a joust on unicycles holding lances with boxing gloves at the end. But Betty distracts Archie by telling him to be careful and so he turns his head and gets punched off his steed. Reggie wins a date with Veronica and so Archie ups the ante by putting on a suit of armour and riding Bess the old plough horse. But Reggie attaches a stick to Bess’s collar with a carrot dangling on a string and so she takes off out of control through the town with Archie on top. Veronica says it was a dirty trick but Reggie assures her he washed the carrot. Finally, Archie gets grabbed by a magnet and dumped in the junkyard. Veronica runs to him and covers his face with kisses and so he feels it was all worthwhile. Jughead says it’s a flaky way for a knight to end a day. 

            The dance of the week this time is The Jughead. Close your eyes like you’re half asleep, and hardly move your body while you shuffle your feet. 

            Then the Archies sing “Boys and Girls” which was also written by Jeff Barry. Betty has some sexy hip motion while playing that tambourine. 

            In the fourth story, Reggie enters Fou-Fou, his aunt's prize-winning poodle in a dog show. Fou-Fou can dance and act. Jughead thinks that Hotdog could do just as well. Reggie is so arrogant the gang decides to give Hotdog a beauty treatment. It’s a fight to get him to take a bath but they are successful. At the show, Fou-Fou looks like she’s going to win as she balances on a beach ball but she loses control and is about to crash when Hotdog comes to the rescue and catches her. Hotdog not only wins first prize for his heroism but he also wins Fou-Fou. 

            Jeff Barry was born Joel Adelberg in Brooklyn. He quit engineering school to become a singer and changed his name. He signed with RCA and also began writing songs. His first success was "Teenage Sonata" for Sam Cooke, but then he had a big hit when he co-wrote “Tell Laura I Love Her” with Ben Raleigh. His next songwriting partner, Ellie Greenwich eventually became his wife. In the 60s the pair joined forces with Phil Spector to become the powerhouse songwriting trio that wrote, “Da Doo Ron Ron", "Then He Kissed Me", "Be My Baby", "Baby I Love You", "Chapel of Love", and "Christmas (Please Come Home)". Then Barry and Greenwich wrote "Hanky Panky", "Leader of the Pack", "Doo Wah Diddy", and "Look of Love". Barry and Greenwich divorced in 1965 but continued to work together. They discovered Neil Diamond and produced and sang backup on his first hits. Teaming with Spector again they wrote "River Deep, Mountain High", and "I Can Hear Music". Barry became the musical director and the main songwriter of the Archie Show, writing the theme song, the dances of the week, and their biggest hit, “Sugar Sugar”. He continues to collaborate with others, writing songs for movies and TV. His most recent project was writing songs for the Lego Movie in 2019. 

            Before bed, I searched for bedbugs but found none.

June 28, 1992: Nancy was screaming at me on the phone

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday I picked up my daughter and, on the way home I stopped to look at an apartment at Greenwood and Gerrard. Later when she went to sleep, I left her in bed and went out to look at a few local places. When I got back, I called Nancy to ask if she wanted the baby brought up. She said that maybe she would get a driver’s lesson and pick her up on the way, so she told me she would call me back. She didn’t call until 22:00 and asked me to bring her back. I protested because at that hour I wouldn’t get back from her place until the subway was closed and I would be stranded. She was screaming at me but then half an hour later her sister Susan said she would meet me at Warden Station. Nancy came with her but waited beside the bus.

Celia Rose Gooding

            On Sunday morning I played and sang my translation of “Shush Shush Charlotte” by Serge Gainsbourg and then I uploaded it to Christian’s Translations. I should have it published on the blog tomorrow. 

            I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded the whole session. I managed to get through most of the songs without screwing up, sometimes after screwing up a couple of times. I was also doing well while playing my song “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” until almost the very end. There’s no logical reason why it is often near the end where I fumble since the chords aren’t any different. I’ll keep trying. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I scrubbed about half of the section of the kitchen floor that extends from the far end of the kitchen counter and under the radiator to the wall. I went over it twice and the water was dirty the second time so I’ll go over that part again tomorrow. Now one would have to walk to the fridge and look to the left to see a black part of the floor. I’ll start washing that final section on Monday. All that’s left after that is what’s covered by the fridge and the tall filing cabinet. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. I had extra old cheddar on spelt bread with a glass of lemon iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and when I reached Yonge and Bloor I got snagged in the Gay Pride Parade. I guess I could have just taken a different route home but I’d never been at the Pride parade so I decided to walk south and check it out. Even though I had to weave through a very thick crowd of spectators I was still faster than the people walking in the parade. At first there wasn’t much to see because I could just view the heads of paraders over the backs of the heads of spectators. There were people in the crowd spraying marchers with water guns to help cool them off. The Liberal Party and Carolyn Bennet had a car in the parade. As I got further down, the parade looked more interesting as there was a section of people in animal fetish costumes. There were other people in colourful fuzzy mascot-style animal heads but I don’t know if that’s a fetish or just for fun. Anyway those people were pretty brave to deal with the heat all covered up like that. There were people on balconies along Yonge Street who had the ideal viewpoint of the parade. Somebody was spraying a hose at participants. It was a festive atmosphere and everyone in the parade and those watching were having a good time. At the Gay Parade, the gay people were not only gay but they were also gay. Even the straight people are gay at the gay parade. Around Gerrard, I saw a sidewalk ambulance making its way through the crowd to an emergency. I wondered if one of the animal people had fainted from the heat. The parade turned at Dundas and I was free to ride my bike again. I was surprised that it was only 17:19 when I got home, after having walked so slowly from Bloor to Dundas. I had expected it to be later. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 17:20. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 18:35. 

            I uploaded the two videos of my song practice that I’d shot this morning. I think I got a pretty good version of my song “Megaphor” but my song “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” fell apart again near the end. It’s funny how that happens since there’s no particular reason why it would. 

            In the Movie Maker project for making a video of my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” I cut a clip of electroshock being administered from the 1940s shock therapy documentary. I inserted it into the main timeline to correspond with the line, “Let’s burn up the temples …” Next I’ll see if I can synchronize the concert video of me singing, “… and raise the church of shock therapy” with the studio audio. 

            I started going through the third file folder from the second drawer of the filing cabinet that holds hard copies of my writing. I pulled out and discarded some of the pages that I know have been digitized several times over. 

            I made pizza on a roti with four-cheese sauce, the cut-up last slice of roast pork, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode eight of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. 

            SPOILER ALERT! 

            In this story, Dr. M’Benga continues to be frustrated as he tries to find a cure for his daughter’s terminal illness. He still keeps her suspended in the pattern buffer of a transporter and lets her out for a few minutes every day for storytime. He reads her the same fairy tale every time and has done so a hundred times. She loves the story but wants to change the way it ends. 

            Meanwhile, the Enterprise is studying a nebula and when the data has been collected Pike says to set a course for the nearest star base. But when they try to go to warp the ship does not move. When they try to leave with impulse engines, the ship lurches and Ortega the pilot falls unconscious. M’Benga is called to the bridge. 

            The doctor is feeling dazed and when he arrives on the bridge it has been transformed into a strange combination of the actual futuristic bridge of a starship and a Medieval throne room. The bridge crew is dressed in Medieval robes and M’Benga notices that he is as well. He is addressed as King Riddly. M’Benga recognizes that the crew is dressed as characters from the book he reads to his daughter. Ortega is Sir Adia, and Pike is the Chamberlain Sir Amandroth. M’Benga asks the computer if the readings on the bridge are abnormal and the message on the screen is that all systems are normal.

            He goes to sickbay which is full of plants and candles and is greeted by Nurse Chapel but she is also living like a character from the book. Sickbay is her sanctuary and she is more of a healing witch. M’Benga uses the tricorder on Chapel and finds her dopamine levels are highly elevated. 

            Then M’benga encounters Singh, who is now an over-the-top flighty and feminine character named Princess Talia. Talia is carrying a little dog that is dressed in the same sparkly fairy tale dress that she is wearing (and apparently it really is the actor Christina Chong’s dog). Talia talks of Queen Nev, who is seeking the Mercury Stone to harness its power. Everyone thinks that King Riddly is in possession of the stone, and so he says he is. 

            Then they see Queen Nev’s Red Guard arresting Chief Engineer Hemmer, who M’Benga recognizes as the sorcerer Castor from the book. But it turns out that despite the change of clothing, Hemmer is unaffected by whatever spell everyone else besides M’Benga is under. M’Benga says they must rescue Castor because he knows where the Mercury Stone is. On the way to do that they meet Spock, who thinks he is Castor’s brother, the wizard Pollux. He says he will lead them to Castor but he betrays them and leads them to the clutches of Queen Nez, who is Uhura. 

            They are placed in the dungeon with Castor where Hemmer explains to M’Benga that he felt a consciousness try to invade his mind but his telepathic training allowed him to block it. Hemmer suggests the consciousness pulled the story from M’Benga’s mind. He senses that the entity is part of the nebula. 

            Hemmer uses a device to cut the lock on their cell and they go to engineering. They fight the red guard on the way out with Ortega engaging in swordplay. But what turns the tables is the sudden appearance of Una as a master archer known as Sir Mira the Huntress who is also apparently Sir Adia’s lover. This is a deviation from the story that M’Benga knows because Adia and Mira are not supposed to know each other. He remembers that their being together was his daughter’s wish for a change in the story. Hemmer suggests then that the scenario in which they are all trapped has been drawn from Rukiya’s mind rather than from his. 

            M’Benga goes to take his daughter from the pattern buffer but discovers that she has been transported out. He figures that she must be in the place she most wanted to go, which is her father’s quarters. Meanwhile, Pollux has been eavesdropping and figures out that Rukiya is the Mercury Stone. Queen Nev and her entourage, including a traitorous Sir Amondroth are stopping M’Benga from reaching his daughter. Hemmer has the lot of them transported away. 

            Inside his quarters M’Benga finds Rukiya and also discovers she is fully cured of her disease. Hemmer offers to use his telepathic abilities to communicate with the entity. The consciousness says M’Benga must not take Rukiya because they are alike and have bonded. If the entity leaves, Rukiya’s disease will return. In the story, King Riddly learns that the Mercury Stone has a soul and it will lose its magic if he does not let it go. He says he will let Rukiya go if she wants. Rukiya is enveloped by energy and disappears. A few seconds later the energy returns and a young woman appears. Seconds have passed but it has been years for Rukiya, She says she is happy and promises they will meet again. 

            The Enterprise returns to normal and the crew, including Hemmer, has no memory of the five hours that have passed. They just know that there are five hours missing. Only M’Benga remembers and he begins telling it to Una as the story ends. 

            I was particularly impressed with the performance of Christina Chong as Princess Talia. She really fell back on her Shakespearean theatrical training. 

            Uhura is played by Celia Rose Gooding, whose father Calvin died in the 9-11 attack when she was one and a half years old. Her mother LaChanze won the Tony Award for her role in the Colour Purple on Broadway. Celia originated the role of Frankie in the musical Jagged Little Pill and reprised that part on Broadway. For this performance, she won the Atonyo award and was nominated for a Tony. There’s no doubt that Gooding is a good actor, but she’s not the same body type as Nichele Nichols, who played the original Uhura. The other cast members fit the characters they portray in that way and so her casting as Uhura feels off. 

            Before bed I did a search for bedbugs and found none.

June 27, 1992: I took my daughter with me to look at apartments

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I picked up my daughter and took her with me to look at apartments.

Paul Norris

            On Saturday morning I finished working out the chords for “Shush Shush Charlotte” by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song once in French. 

            I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded the whole session. I didn’t stress out as much over mistakes. I redid a few songs when I hit the wrong chords but for some of them I just let them go. Often doing them over doesn’t help and if I get it right I get it right. Redoing them just causes frustration and I screw up more. I almost got all the way through my song “Megaphor” without a mistake but hit a wrong chord near the end. I didn’t do it over. It was similar to my song “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” in that I almost got it but then the end fell apart. I’ll try again tomorrow. It could be that those songs are just not going to be ready for YouTube this year, even though I’ve been practicing them every day for more than two years. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went down to No Frills where I bought a watermelon, two bags of grapes, a half-pint of raspberries, a pack of three striploin steaks, a pack of 100 garbage bags, a tub of margarine, a jar of mango and lime salsa, and a container of skyr. When I got to the cash I saw that the half-pint of raspberries had opened up and spilled in the bottom of my basket, and so I went to get another. Lately I’ve been using those larger, two-wheeled baskets to collect my groceries and so at the cash I had to bend down and bring the items up to the belt, rather than putting a smaller basket on the edge of the belt and putting the items down onto the counter. While lifting an item I scraped my second finger on the metal end of the counter and it started bleeding a bit. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before lunch. I had five-year-old cheddar on spelt bread with a bottle of ginger beer. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It looks like preparations are underway for the Pride Parade tomorrow. There were lots of cops blocking streets, perhaps for some side events that might be happening tonight. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:45. 

            I spent about an hour searching for video clips that could fit thematically with the line, “Let’s burn up the temples and raise the church of shock therapy.” A few days ago I saw a clip from a TV series in which someone received shock therapy and smoke was coming out of their temporal lobes. That technically fits for the video I’m making for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” but it would look tacky. I think I might settle for the video I already have of 1940s shock therapy and just let burning the temples be implied by the real footage rather than overtly shown.

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

            I made pizza on a roti with a cut-up slice of roast pork, four-cheese sauce, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the last five episodes of the 1960s Aquaman animated series. 

            In story thirty-two, NASA has discovered planet Q-344 and since it is a world covered entirely by water, they ask Aquaman and Aqualad to explore it. They go there in an interplanetary rocket with a water environment so they won’t dehydrate. The writers throw all credibility out the window with no explanation as to how it doesn’t take years to get there. Shortly after arriving, they are captured by the Quatix, a civilization of fishlike creatures, because they suspect them of being spies for the Bimphabs, with whom they are at war. They are taken to the cave of the Criole, which is the same as a monster squid on Earth. Aquaman is able to bend the bars of their cage but they are grabbed by the tentacles of the Criole before they can swim away. Then the Bimphabs attack them and Aquaman fights them with water balls but the pair are stunned by a ray gun. The Bimphabs capture Aqualad and the Quatix revive Aquaman, now seeing him as an ally. The Bimphabs tell Aqualad that to rescue Aquaman he must help them fight the Quatix. The Quatix say the same thing to Aquaman and he agrees to help. But as the armies advance on one another, Aquaman communicates with Aqualad electronically, telling him to break away. Aquaman spins to create a water wall that keeps the combatants apart. Then he captures one Quatic and one Bimphab and gives them to the Criole. Since the Criole is exactly like an Earth squid, Aquaman is able to control it. He has given it the command to attack if ever the Quatix and the Bimphab make war. They promise to work out an agreement and Aquaman and his sidekick head back to Earth. 

            In story thirty-three, Aqualad and Mera play a prank on Aquaman. They build a fake alien submarine and pretend they are being menaced by a death ray. When Aquaman arrives he realizes it is a prank but then the boulder that Aqualad pushes off the cliff bounces and really threatens Mera. Aquaman blocks it with his own body. Meanwhile, Stick Men from the Planet Stygia plan on capturing Aquaman and making him their slave. They use an eye-shaped weapon to hit him with an immobilizer ray, but Aquaman commands a giant octopus to knock the eye weapon out of the way and he is freed. Then a swordfish severs the eye’s power source. The Stygians try to blast off but Aquaman ties their ship down with seaweed so they can’t take off. The Stygians fire their torpor torpedo guns. Aquaman has sharks, whales, and dolphins destroy the guns. The Stygians leave their ship, armed with force guns, and confront Aquaman. He says they must surrender or face his reverse force beam. A beam from Aqualad and Mira’s fake ship shines on boulders that fall on top of the Stygian ship. The stick men believe Aquaman possesses a powerful ray but it’s only a flashlight and the boulders are pushed by hidden dolphins. The Stygians blast off in fear. 

            In story thirty-four, Aqualad finds an ancient bottle in an undersea junkyard and when he opens it a genie comes out. It grants him three wishes. He wishes for a powerful robot and when it appears he tells it to clean up the junkyard. It creates suction to pull everything into its mouth but doesn’t stop with the junk. Everything is being sucked in, including coral but Aqualad can’t stop it. He wishes for a robot smasher, which crushes the robot. Aqualad tries to get the genie to go back in the bottle but the genie reminds him that he still has one more wish. He wishes to have sea creature controlling powers like Aquaman. But the sea creatures he summons are all large mutants from a dark hole in the sea floor. Aquaman commands his own native fish to attack the mutants and shove them below. Then he has a puffer fish suck the genie inside its body and then blows it back into the bottle. 

            In story thirty-five, from a crevice that divides the lands of the Lizard People and the Tortoids emerges a silver sphere. It has the ability to stimulate rich plant growth. Both the Lizard People and the Tortoids claim it as their own. They begin to fight over the sphere and declare war. Aquaman intervenes and stops the fighting with his hard water balls. Aquaman suggests a peaceful competition for possession of the sphere. He tells each side to select their best athlete to compete in a series of tasks. The winner gets the sphere for their people for a year and then there will be another competition, and so on. But at the beginning of the competition Mantamen attack and steal the sphere. In the attack, the Tortoid athlete is injured and so Aqualad takes his place. Aquaman steals the sphere back from the Black Manta. Manta and his men attack and the Lizard People and the Tortoids join forces to fight him. The Black Manta escapes in his ship down a hole. The Lizard People and the Tortoids agree to share the sphere. 

            In story thirty-six, Tusky is hit by a ray and vanishes. Aquaman goes to see Oceanis the Old Man of the Sea to ask if he knows Tusky’s whereabouts. The old man lives inside an oyster shell. Oceanis says to find Tusky they must go to where the sea burns. Aquaman goes to a place where an underwater volcano makes it appear like the sea is on fire. They find Tusky trapped in a rock but when they free him he turns out to be a toy. The trap was set by the Fisherman who shoots a harpoon that pulls the lava and then weaves a cocoon of lava around Aquaman and his sidekick. But there is a hole at the top that Aqualad fits through. The Fisherman fires depth charges and Aqualad appears to be stunned. But he only pretends to be injured to fool the Fisherman. Aqualad goes to Oceanis and finds him tied up with Tusky. He frees Tusky but Oceanis tells him to go help Aquaman and that a two-legged fish can only be captured by a two-legged bait. Aquaman has two whales ram his lava cocoon and he breaks free. The Fisherman holds them off with a bomb until Tusky drops the toy-Tusky on his head and knocks him out. 

            This was a very weak series. It’s weird that in these stories Aquaman is the king of Atlantis and yet Atlantis is populated by air breathers. How is it that Aquaman, Aqualad, and Mera can breathe water? 

            The co-creator and artist who created the image of Aquaman was Paul Norris, who quit college to try to become a comic strip artist. In 1940 he created the comic book “Yank and Doodle” about two young twins who are super strong and invulnerable but only when they are together. In 1941 he began collaborating with Mort Weisinger and they revamped the original Sandman into a superhero. The same year they created the character of Aquaman. In 1952 he took over the comic strip “Brick Bradford” and drew it for 35 years. Later he created the Jungle Twins comic and drew Magnus Robot Fighter for Gold Key Comics. 

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

June 26, 1992: I viewed a big, bright, two-room place with a balcony, but the kitchen and living room were in one room

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I looked at some apartments. I viewed a big, two-room place with a balcony at Main and Gerrard. It was certainly bright but the kitchen and living room were in one room. I said I’d think about it. 

            I called Mike Copping, but he couldn’t get together. 

            I worked on projects, watched TV, and goofed off.

Hal Sutherland

            On Friday morning I searched for the chords for “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian and I found one set. I copied and pasted them below the text and started transcribing them into the lines. 

            I reworked parts of my translation of “Shush shush Charlotte” by Serge Gainsbourg and then I looked for the chords to the song. No one had posted them and so I worked them out for the chorus and the first couple of lines of the first verse. 

            I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded the whole session. I got through some of my translations without a noticeable glitch, but my song “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” continues to be difficult. A restarted it several times and then made it through most of it before screwing up. If I’d practiced guitar more seriously when I was a kid I would probably make very few mistakes now, but then again I probably wouldn’t be the same person I am now, who I am quite fond of. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I took my clothing and bedding to the laundrymat. While my stuff was dancing in the machines I went home and washed a pair of shorts in cold water and then put them out on the deck to dry. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:47. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” I synchronized the studio audio with the concert video at the first word of the line, “Let’s burn up the temples and raise the church of shock therapy.” It took about 45 minutes to get them lined up because I had to keep matching the frames in the original concert video with those in the project timeline and listen to the concert audio so I would know how much I could safely cut from the timeline. At one point I thought I’d matched them because I had the same facial expression in both frames but then I realized that the camera was a different distance from my face. I found the right match a second or so later. But the concert video after “Let’s …” can’t be synchronized with the rest of the line because I’m singing the words at a different speed. I’ll try to find a video clip that fits in some way with “burn up the temples and raise the church …” 

            I worked on one of the poems from my series “My Blood in a Bug.” 

            I had a potato with margarine and a slice of roast pork while watching five more episodes of the Aquaman cartoon from the 1960s. 

            In story twenty-seven a sea sorcerer wants to rule all the oceans and so he must destroy Aquaman. First he conjures a sandstorm, then Aqualad is shocked by a giant frog’s tongue and then snagged and dragged by it. Aquaman severs it. Then a fire breathing dragon attacks. Two swordfish ram it but it vanishes. Aquaman finds a fallen old man who says he escaped from the Sorcerer’s magic cave. Aquaman tells Aqualad to take the man to Atlantis while he looks for the magic cave. But of course the old man is the sorcerer and he captures Aqualad, taking him to his cave. Then with his crystal ball he watches Aquaman being caught in an undersea storm. Aqualad is bound by vines but he tells Tusky to smash the crystal ball. When he does so it breaks the spell and Aquaman is free. Aqualad kicks the Sorcerer and knocks him down, then has Tusky chew his bonds to free him. Aqualad reunites with Aquaman. The Sorcerer traps them in an ice cube surrounded by fire. But Aquaman calls on two whales to break the ice and free them. Aquaman spins around the fire and puts it out. He throws a water ball at the Sorcerer and knocks him off a cliff. 

            In story twenty-eight, two Scooba divers plant a timebomb on the ocean floor. Then nearby they hang two invisible curtains at the entrances to the canyon where the bomb has been placed. They return to a ship and report to Captain Sly. He orders them to lure Aquaman into the trap. The bomb goes off and Aquaman investigates, ramming into one of the invisible barriers and stunning himself. Then Aqualad swims into the other barrier and it surrounds and traps him. A globe descends by a cable from Sly’s ship to surround Aqualad and pull him up, but Aquaman throws a clam shell and slices through the cable. He then controls sucker fish to help open the globe and free Aqualad. Sly has his men attack on scooters, shooting ray guns. Aquaman stops the men with water balls and by spinning to create a water wall. Aquaman pursues Sly and his ship takes off but Aquaman fires the ray gun on the scooter and causes Sly’s ship to crash. Sly escapes but Tusky catches him in a paralyzing ray from one of the scooters. Sly will be turned over to mainland authorities. 

            In story twenty-nine, Dr. Lamprey attacks Aquaman and his sidekick with robot swordfish. Aquaman destroys one with a water ball while Aqualad is on top of another but unable to stop it. Aquaman tells him to cover its robot eyes and when he does it crashes into a rock wall. Meanwhile Lamprey is advancing towards Atlantis in his man o war ship. Aquaman summons torpedo rays to jam the signal from the ship that controls the robots but it has no effect because Lamprey is using a remote signal. Lamprey fires robot torpedo fish at Atlantis. Aquaman stops some but not all. Then Tusky finds the remote and bites into it, breaking the signal and the torpedoes explode before impact. Lamprey escapes. 

            In story thirty, Mermaid Queen Vassa has her ships drill under Atlantis to attack it from below. Geysers begin to erupt and the population must head for the rooftops. A laser drill ship attacks Aquaman and Aqualad but a shark rams it and it crashes. Mera goes to check on Aquaman but is captured by a controlled vortex and pulled up into Vassa’s ship. Aquaman comes to rescue her but is also caught in a vortex. He spins in the opposite direction and burns the vortex out. They are attacked by four more laser drill ships. One of them is closing in on him but Mera breaks free from her guards and pushes a button to destroy one of the laser drills. Aquaman boards Vassa’s ship and frees Mera, then he captures Vassa. Vassa is forced to do hard labour in Atlantis, pumping out the water out that flooded it. 

            In story thirty-one, the Brain has invented a computer that has been programmed with all information about Aquaman. He asks it how to destroy Aquaman and the computer says to make a positive-buoyancy ray that will bring Aquaman to the surface where he will die without water. The ray gun requires oxymite that is mined from deep sea emeralds. Aquaman’s ocean surveillance system detects something happening out in the gem depository. He finds the Brain’s Brain Men digging for oxymite. They fire ray guns that trap Aquaman and Aqualad in bubbles of energy. Aquaman has dolphins use high frequency sound waves to free him. The Brain tries to fire the positive buoyancy ray at Aquaman but he swims around and they are unable to hit him. Aquaman commands a cyclops fish to approach The Brain’s ship, then when the Brain fires his ray the fish opens its eye and it is like a mirror that bounces the ray back at the Brain’s ship. Then a whale rams the ship and it explodes. 

            The Aquaman cartoons and many other Filmation productions were directed by Hal Sutherland, who started out as a Disney animator. Along with Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott, Sutherland was one of the founders of Filmation. He directed the first sixteen episodes of Star Trek the Animated Series, the New Adventures of Flash Gordon, The Adventures of Batman, and The Batman/Superman Hour. He also directed Pinocchio and the Emperor of Night. When he retired he became a fine art painter. 

            Before bed I used my trusty toothpick to do my usual search for bedbugs. When I poked it into a crack in the plaster above the head of my bed between the upper right-hand corner of the old exit door and the frame, I dug out and killed a baby.

June 25, 1992: I got fries with no salt from McDonald's and my daughter loved them

Thirty years ago today

            Since I only saw my daughter for three hours on Wednesday, I got to take her again on Thursday. I picked her up in the morning so I could be sure I’d get her before her mother had a chance to think of something else. We took the long way around back to my place so I could use the same transfer, and took the Queen car home from Yonge Street. She wasn’t walking as much as she did on Father’s Day. I brought her back to Nancy fairly early, but she asked me to take her out again because she and her sister Susan had something to do. I took her to McDonald’s where I got her some saltless fries and she enjoyed them. Then brought her back, kissed her goodbye, and went home fairly late. I watched TV and went to bed.

Ted Knight

            On Thursday morning I finished memorizing “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll look for the chords but earlier I’d done a quick search and no one seemed to have posted any, so I suspect that’s the case. 

            I also finished memorizing “Shush shush Charlotte” by Serge Gainsbourg and then started adjusting my translation. I’ll finish that tomorrow and then look for the chords. For this song I think probably at least one person has posted them. 

            I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded the whole thing. It went better today, with fewer mistakes, especially at first. It seemed to help to just focus on the camera while singing and playing rather than looking at myself in the mirror behind it. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I scrubbed again the area of the kitchen floor just to the left of the fridge. The water in the bucket got dirty so I’ll go over it again on Sunday. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was quite warm but not hot like yesterday. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 17:30. 

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

            In my Movie Maker project of a video for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” I inserted the clips from “Welcome to the Quiet Room” into the main video to correspond with the line, “But if you want to make it work use a tight rubber belt to hold those spastic jerks.” Then I deleted the part of the concert video in which I sing that line because I couldn’t synchronize it with the studio audio. Next, I’ll try to synchronize the concert video with the line, “Let’s burn up the temples and raise the church …” I should at least be able to line them up where I sing “Let’s …” and if the rest doesn’t fit I’ll try to find some more video clips to insert there. 

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

            I had a potato with the last of my gravy and a slice of roast pork while watching six more episodes of the Aquaman cartoon from the 1960s. 

            In story twenty-one, a Gill-Man pursues Tusky but Aquaman stops him by putting a shell over his head and then having two giant octopuses secure him. But the Gill Man says he was not trying to hurt Tusky but to follow him to Aquaman. He has come asking for help because a giant half-human, half sea-mastodon from the subterranean ocean is attacking his village. Aquaman lures the monster away from the village. Aqualad attacks while riding a swordfish but the creature shoots a jet of water that knocks him off so he hits his head. They escape to a cave but the mastodon man sticks its trunk in and tries to suck them out. Aquaman throws a big rock that plugs its trunk. But then the monster blows and shoots the rock like a missile towards the Gill men’s village. The monster grabs Aqualad and is about to throw him on some sharp stalagmites. Aquaman ropes the creature’s tusks with strong seaweed and ties the other end to two whales who pull the monster away to sink him back into the subterranean ocean. 

            In story twenty-two, after collecting a large rock of phosphorus to light Atlantis, Aquaman sees that Tusky has been captured by animated seagrass. The grass has been hit by the animator ray of the Sea Scamp, whose purpose seems to be mischief rather than conquest. Aquaman has thresher sharks cut through the grass to free Tusky. The Scamp uses his ray on the phosphorus and turns it into a giant glowing Golem that attacks them. They can’t fight it directly because it is poisonous to the touch. Aquaman has a school of stargazer fish shoot electricity at the thing, causing it to explode. The Scamp sends his half human half monkfish minions to attack, but they are easily beaten. Scamp tries to get away but a whale rams his ship, causing it to crash and explode. Scamp is captured by Tusky and he’ll be forced to invent things for Atlantis. 

            In story twenty-three, Aquaman rendezvous with test pilot Mark Bartholomew to supervise the sea trials of the US Navy’s latest development, the Devil Fish. It can travel underwater as fast as a jet in the air, outmanoeuvre a shark and smash through rock. But Black Manta’s spies have learned of this boat and he aims to possess it. He has his mantamen attack to get their attention and then retreats to lead them back to his lair, which is the ruins of an ancient civilization. Mark trails Black Manta in the Devil Fish and Aquaman follows. Mark uses the Devil Fish to knock Manta into the water and they escape. Aquaman has a whale push a big boulder into the whirlpool entrance to Manta’s lair and closes it off. 

            In story twenty-four, Scavo the scavenger wants to destroy an oil rig that is too close to his hideout. It’s not much of a hideout if you publicly threaten people to stay away from it. He has his giant submarobot attack the rig. Aquaman has the biggest sea creatures attack the robot but it shoots razor-sharp pinwheels from its fingers. Aquaman throws compressed water balls to hit the pinwheels and send them back into the robot’s fingers to explode and somehow destroy the whole robot. I guess because these stories are only seven minutes long there’s not a lot of time to write them so they make sense. Scavo and his men attack with guns that shoot compressed air bubbles that are hard as steel. They are all stunned but Aquaman recovers and attacks from behind. The scavengers retreat to the surface where Scavo shoots a ray to overheat the ocean. Aquaman creates a tidal wave that stops them and they are captured. 

            In story twenty-five, the crystalline Jewel People who mine the ocean for precious gems are attacked by Captain Barracuda and his steed Starro the giant starfish. When Aquaman and Aqualad arrive Barracuda stuns Aqualad with a ray gun. Aquaman summons two stargazer fish to shock Aqualad back to consciousness. The Jewel people hide in their domed city but Starro begins to use suction to crack it. When Aquaman arrives, Starro blinds him with ink but Aquaman has blowfish absorb it. He then commands octopuses and sharks to get Starro off the dome. Aquaman disarms Barracuda with a ball of compressed water and then captures him. He is put in a ball and chain and forced to mine jewels with a pickaxe for the Jewel people. 

            In story twenty-six, the Brain has formed an alliance with the people of the planet Imago. They have created a Mirror Man who is an exact replica of Aquaman, right down to his powers. The Mirror Man commands sea creatures to attack each other. But when Aquaman telepathically orders them to stop, they are confused and respond chaotically. Brain Men attack Aquaman and stun him, then carry him onto Brain’s ship where he is bathed in a heat beam to dehydrate and kill him. The Mirror Man poses as Aquaman and is about to open all the doors to allow the brain to invade Atlantis. But Aquaman uses a magnifying lens to concentrate the heat ray and burn a hole in the floor of Brain’s ship to escape. Aquaman fights Mirror Man but even though Brain doesn’t know which is which, he stupidly fires upon one of the two identical combatants and hits Mirror Man. Brain tries to escape but Aquaman creates a wall of concentrated water into which Brain’s ship crashes and explodes. The Mirror Man says the Mirror people were deceived by Brain that Aquaman was evil, and then he disappears. But clearly in the beginning Brain was talking with Reflecto the leader of Planet Imago about stealing the riches of Atlantis. 

            The announcer for the Aquaman stories was Ted Knight, who earned five Battle Stars during WWII. After the war, he learned puppeteering and ventriloquism and became a children’s show host for a local station. After hosting more children’s shows he was told he was too talented for local TV and that he should go to Hollywood. He played supporting roles in several movies and TV shows and did voice work for a lot of animated series. He became a star when he was cast as Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He played Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack. He starred as Henry Rush in the sitcom Too Close for Comfort in which he made use of his early training with ventriloquism and puppets. 

            I searched for bedbugs before bed and broke the pattern of finding one every other day. There were none this time.

June 24, 1992: I stood my daughter by the front door, kissed her goodbye, and waved as I walked away

Thirty years ago today

            Nancy was supposed to bring my daughter down on Wednesday morning but then called and said I’d have to meet her someplace. We arranged for Eglinton station, but she said she would phone me when she was leaving. She didn’t call until around noon. I got there at 13:00 and waited for her until after 14:00. The problem was that I had to work at 19:30, so I only had time to take the baby to my place, play for an hour, and then pack her up to take her back to her mother. She slept in my arms all the way up and didn’t wake until I tried to put her to bed. I brought her back downstairs, stood her by the front door, kissed her goodbye, and waved as I walked away. 

            I worked at a new place, and they were impressed with my modeling.

Lou Scheimer

            On Wednesday morning I tried to figure out the lines that repeat at the end of “Valse Dingue” (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian and I got all but one. These repetitions are not in any of the lyrics posted online and so maybe they were just added by Serge Reggiani in his rendition. I’m not going to bother with them for my translation. 

            I memorized the third verse of “Shush shush Charlotte” by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s just one verse left to learn and I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I video-recorded about half my song practice and audio-recorded the whole rehearsal. I made a lot of mistakes and spent the first half-hour on three songs. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I washed and scrubbed more of the floor to the left of the fridge. I finished removing most of the old glue that was still stuck on the floorboards that I’d scrubbed yesterday. Then I reached under the radiator to the wall behind it. I’ll give that part another scrub tomorrow before scrubbing the next seven dirty boards to the left. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. I had a slice of spelt bread with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of pomegranate lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I ventured out into the heat and took a bike ride downtown. It was a sweaty ride but not unbearable. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 17:00. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 17:52. 

            I finished looking at the collection of torture clips on YouTube and settled on the clip from the Japanese film “Welcome to the Quiet Room”, which is the one I was drawn to in the first place. I downloaded it with 4K Downloader, then imported it into Windows Movie Maker. I published it there to change it into a compatible format and then imported the converted clip into my Movie Maker project of making a video for my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy.” I copied the clip to the end of the timeline and then removed everything but the parts that show the patient restrained. I’ll insert it into the main video tomorrow. 

            I worked on one of the poems from my series “My Blood in a Bug.” 

            I made pizza on a roti with four-cheese sauce, French fries, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching six more episodes of the Aquaman cartoons from the 60s. 

            In story fifteen, Aquaman notices icebergs have drifted south and are melting, which will raise the sea level. It may mean the polar caps are melting, which would submerge all the continents. Aquaman and Aqualad head for the North Pole to investigate and find a ringed spherical spaceship using heat rings to melt icebergs. They are invaders from Saturn and their plan is to flood the earth before conquering it. Aquaman has sharks sever the cables that power the rings. The cables are now live wires and Aquaman’s pet walrus Tusky bites into one. Because of the electrical shock Tusky can’t let go as he is pulled up into the ship. The Saturnians send mini-subs to attack but Tusky hides in one of them. The subs shoot rings of light that are harder than steel. They surround Aquaman and trap him, then begin to shrink. But Tusky pulls a lever in the sub he’s in to turn off the rings. All but one sub is destroyed and when Aquaman opens it up he is surprised to see Tusky. Aquaman has whales ram the Saturnian ship and their leader decides to blast off back to Saturn. 

            In Story sixteen, the Brain wants to conquer Atlantis and from his underwater ship activates his sonic brainwave gun. When Aquaman comes to investigate the strange sub, several missiles are fired. Aquaman has whales and dolphins knock them off course. The Brain fires the sonic brainwave and takes control of the sea creatures. The Brain sends his minions to attack with ray guns but Aquaman, his sidekick, Tusky, and the seahorse steeds easily dismiss them. But Aquaman is stunned and Aqualad is captured and brainwashed to attack Aquaman until Tusky slaps him in the head with his tail and the mind control is broken. The Brain tries to turn his weapon on Atlantis but two whales ram his ship and it explodes. 

            In story seventeen, the Fisherman and his half-human-half-hammerhead minions plant a bomb in the Aquacave inside of the remote control that Aquaman uses for his ocean monitor. When Aquaman, Aqualad, and Tusky return to headquarters, Tusky senses something wrong with the remote and he grabs it to take it out of the cave. After the explosion they find Tusky buried in coral but safe. The Fishermen has his hammerheads attack Aquaman while he uses his sonic cannon to crack the dome around Atlantis. But Aquaman has two whale sharks destroy the cannon. Then the Fisherman uses his signature weapon, his fishing rod. Aquaman is snagged by the steel-hard line and so he has a giant clam come to sever it. The fisherman shoots a net at Aquaman but it is intercepted by a large tuna. They become tangled together and descend but only the tuna comes up. 

            In story eighteen, a villain named Mephisto, who wears a devil costume plots to drop a sleep gas ball into the machine that extracts oxygen from the sea and pipes it to Atlantis. His plan is to put the people of Atlantis to sleep and then conquer it. But Mephisto’s two marauders encounter Aqualad and Tusky, who take the sleep gas ball away from them. Aqualad is hit by a vibro-beam and a marauder grabs the sleep ball again. Aquaman stops the men but not before they drop the pill in the oxygen machine. Since the entrance to the machine is too small for Aquaman, Aqualad goes in to grab the ball before it dissolves. Aquaman destroys the minion ships and then goes after Mephisto. Mephisto aims to destroy the Atlantis dome with a vibro-beam, but Aquaman has a whale knock the gun out of commission. Mephisto catches Aquaman and Aqualad in a tangler net but a sawfish comes to free them. Aquaman has a whale ram Mephisto’s ship and it explodes. 

            In story nineteen, The Black Manta, Queen Vassa, and The Brain meet to plot combining their powers to defeat Aquaman. The Brain’s plan is for Vassa to attack Aquaman’s detection system, while Manta attacks Atlantis with his new gas weapon, and The Brain will destroy Aquaman. Vassa’s whale-sub shoots torpedoes at Aquaman and Aqualad. Aquaman destroys them by throwing hard water balls but Aqualad is stunned by an explosion. The whale sub retreats. Mera sends a message that Manta is attacking Atlantis with bubbles that burst into flames. Aquaman has dolphins come to catch the bubbles on their noses and divert them. Aqualad puts out the flames on the dome by having a lot of fish sweep past them twice. I don’t know what that was supposed to do. The Brain’s men stun Aquaman and capture him. The Brain plans to entomb Aquaman in a rock of salt. But Aquaman has a whale ram Brain’s ship and then Aquaman breaks out of the trap. Manta destroys Brain’s ship and then Vassa destroys Manta’s. Vassa gets away. 

            In story twenty, Mera and Aqualad are returning to headquarters when they see Torpedoman. Aqualad tells Mera to get Aquaman while he trails Torpedoman. But Mera sends Tusky to fetch Aquaman while she follows Aqualad. In an undersea junkyard Torpedoman meets two other metal villains, Magneto and Claw. They plot to defeat Aquaman together. When Aqualad sees them his seahorse steed is spooked and throws him. He hits his head on a rock and is stunned, but Mera sweeps down to save him. However, Claw captures both of them and they are imprisoned. When Aquaman comes, Torpedoman attacks him with a giant wrecking ball. Aquaman spins and creates a wave that sweeps Torpedoman away, then he rescues Mera and Aqualad. Octopuses cover Magneto in junk and he can’t get out. Aquaman defeats Claw simply by stretching his arm and snapping it back. Aquaman and his sidekick escape Torpedoman in a cave and when Torpedoman attacks, Aquaman pushes him into an endless maze of caverns that he won’t get out of. 

            Both Mera and Vassa were voiced by Diane Maddox. 

            The Aquaman series was developed by Lou Scheimer, who started out as a voice actor, beginning with the voice of N’Kima, Tarzan’s monkey companion in “Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle”. He co-produced the Star Trek animated series, for which he won a Daytime Emmy. He was executive producer of “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” and also co-wrote the theme song. He did many of the voices for the shows he produced because voice actors were contractually obligated to do no more than three voices on a given episode. 

            Before bed, I checked for bedbugs and didn’t find any. If the pattern holds though I’ll find one next time.