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.