Willoughby the Dog

            On Saturday morning I finished posting my translation of "Valse Dingue" (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian and sang along a couple of times with his song "Sermonette". I'll start translating it tomorrow. 

            I finished working out the chords to "Moi j'te connais comme si j' t'avais défaite" (My translated title: I Know You as if I'm the Sky That Snowed You) by Serge Gainsbourg, but I still have to position them on the last two verses. I'll probably have the song uploaded to Christian's Translations tomorrow. 

            I weighed 86 kilos before breakfast. All of the milk was sour and so I threw it out and opened a can of coconut milk that I found in a box a few months ago. It was just enough for my coffee and cereal but very rich. 

            Around midday, I went to Freedom Mobile and paid for my August phone plan. Then I headed down to No Frills where I bought five bags of cherries, a basket of peaches, some bananas, a toothbrush (because the one the dental assistant gave me a few weeks ago started losing its bristles within two days), mild salsa, three bags of milk (after checking and finding that the best-before date this time is August 18), a bag of kettle chips, and a container of skyr. 

            On the way home a pretty young woman, scantily clad in a gold Caribana costume, smiled at me.

            I weighed 86.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

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

            I weighed 85.8 kilos at 17:00. 

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

            I reviewed the six remaining videos of me playing my song "Megaphor" as I tried to find the best of a month of sessions. I flushed the wax out of my ears so I could listen better. I took June 23, June 28, and July 13 out of the running. So July 9, 11, and 12 are all that are left. I should be able to pick the best of those three tomorrow. 

            I continued to sort through the fifth folder of my writing and divided the pages mostly into writing before and after the Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy, the pages that contain the Gumby Bible and pages that just have commentaries on the Gumby Bible. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1951 and 1952. 

            In the first story, Bugs is enjoying his life in an underground den on the prairie when suddenly a house is built on top of it. Inside the house, Yosemite Sam is playing banjo and singing, "Oh I can't get a long little dogie, I can't even get one that's small, I can't get a long little dogie, I can't get a dogie at all." Bugs comes up through a hole in the floor to tell Sam that he's on his property. Sam kicks him out, so Bugs takes it to court. The judge rules that they have to share the property equally until one of them dies. They share the same bedroom with separate beds. Sam keeps sneaking across the room to try to kill Bugs in his sleep. Then Sam tries to poison Bugs's carrot juice but Bugs spins the table and Sam drinks the poisoned stuff. He ends up blasting off. When Sam comes back, Bugs jumps down in his hole. Sam fills it with dynamite and lights the fuse. The house soars in the air while Bugs's home beneath it is still intact. 

            The second story takes place in the Klondike where the character we know as Yosemite Sam is now Chilkoot Sam, the claim jumper. While Sam is cashing in a small amount of stolen gold he sees Bugs Bunny walk in carrying a boulder of solid gold. Bugs asks the clerk for two carrots and tells him to keep the change. After Bugs leaves, the clerk tells Sam that Bugs has a funny feeling whenever there is gold nearby. Sam decides to take advantage of that ability. He goes after Bugs and offers to make him a partner. They go into the mountains and suddenly Bugs goes into convulsions and points at the ground, telling Sam, "That's the spot." Sam begins digging and says the partnership is dissolved. But he's digging on a jutting cliff and so Sam breaks through and falls from a great height. When Sam climbs back up he finds Bugs digging a hole and grabs the shovel from him to get the gold for himself. But the dirt where Sam's digging is in a dump truck, which Bugs drives and dumps over the cliff. Sam chases Bugs while shooting at him from Alaska, down through Canada, and across several states until Bugs gets that feeling again. Sam begins to dig and comes up with several golf bars, not seeing the sign behind him that reads "Fort Knox". The authorities grab Sam and arrest him. 

            In the third story a fox hunt is underway and when the dogs are released a big, dumb dog is the last one in the chase. We don't see the fox but Bugs Bunny decides it would be fun to put on a fox costume and get chased by the dogs. He calls to them and they come after him but he goes behind a tree and they run off in the wrong direction. When the big dog stops to ask the disguised Bugs for directions, Bugs asks if he's sure he knows what a fox looks like. The dog chases Bugs but then he takes the costume off and the dog is confused. Bugs lays down fake fox tracks with a stamp kit. The dog follows them until they turn into train tracks. The dog follows them to the opening of a tunnel where Bugs is standing in costume. The dog grabs him but Bugs asks what kind of tracks he was following. He says, "train tracks" so Bugs says, "You must be trying to catch a train. It went that way." The dog runs into the tunnel and gets hit by the train. Bugs gets cornered by the other dogs and so he reveals that he's a rabbit. But the dogs decide then that they are now hunting rabbits. They chase him through a hollow log and Bugs does the old spinning log trick, sending the dogs over a cliff. While Bugs is watching them fall the big dog comes up behind him and cuts off his tail. 

            The big dog first appeared as Willoughby the Dog in "Of Fox and Hounds" in 1940. He is based on the character of Willie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. He originated the catchphrase, "Which way did he go?" Willoughby's last appearance was in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" 

            In the fourth story, Bugs has a hole in the ground at the airport and a new, giant plane parks on it. Bugs goes inside to look around. Meanwhile, Yosemite Sam has just robbed a bank and escapes to the airport. Bugs has just put on a captain's hat and is pretending to fly the plane when Sam comes in, and thinking that Bugs is a pilot, forces him to take off. Bugs has no idea how to fly the plane but manages to avoid hitting a skyscraper by going straight up. They are almost at the Moon by the time Bugs is able to turn it around. Now the plane is on a crash course with the Earth while Bugs is casually reading a book on learning to fly. He manages to avoid crashing at the last second and says he's going to radio the authorities. But Sam says to give him the book. Bugs drops it and kicks it outside the plane and Sam runs after it. He treads air, drops the book, and gets back on the plane. Sam confronts Bugs with his guns but Bugs opens a bomb bay door and Sam falls. He climbs back up through the air and tells Bugs to give him the steering wheel so Bugs rips it out of the controls and throws it out the window. The plane begins to crash again. Sam pushes the robot pilot button but the robot grabs a parachute and jumps out of the plane. There is one parachute left and Sam takes it along with the stolen loot but he lands in a police car. Meanwhile, the plane is coming closer to crashing when Bugs pulls on the brake and it stops just before it hits the ground. He says he pulled the air brakes. 

            Before bed, I searched for bedbugs and found one sick looking one with dark guts in one of the old nests halfway up the left side of the door frame at the head of my bed. I smeared another perhaps already dead one out of a crack in the plaster just to the left of the bottom of the right side of the frame.

July 31, 1992: I took trip after trip on the streetcar moving stuff to my new place until all of the drivers knew me

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I got up at around 10:00 and put everything into trying to move the rest of my stuff to the new place. I took trip after trip on the streetcar until all of the drivers knew me. I called Mike Copping to see if he could come and help me move the darkroom table, but it was a long weekend, and he was going home, so I did it myself. I called Nancy and asked her to bring the car down to help me and so her sister Susan came, and we moved all of my newspapers in bags.

Daffy Duck

            Friday was the beginning of the tenth year of this journal. In the morning I finished memorizing "Moi j'te connais comme si j' t'avais défaite" (My translated title: I Know You as if I'm the Sky That Snowed You) by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords online but no one had posted them. I worked out the first chord and I'll continue tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before breakfast. Heavier than yesterday but still light for the morning when compared to the last twelve days. 

            The first of the three bags of milk that I bought last weekend has gone sour. The others might be too as I see that the best before date was July 4. I thought I could trust No Frills to check those dates but now I remember that once I almost bought some skyr that was past its date and would have if the cashier hadn't pointed it out to me. 

            Around midday I pulled my fridge out from the wall again, removed my aloe vera plant from the top and cleaned that area. I washed the pan the plant sits on and added more soil to the pot. I also cleaned the right side of the fridge. I need to pull the fridge out one more time to clean the back of its left side. Then I'll wash the front and move on to the southeast corner of the kitchen. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. The clouds were the ragged tent roof of a circus. The woman who usually preaches in front of old city hall was on Yonge Street this time. She said that the atheists say that everything came from nothing. I don't think any atheist ever said that. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:10. 

            I finished the third round of reviewing the videos of me playing my song "Megaphor". July 12 was a little twangy at first and a little dull on the B near the end, but I'll let it through to the next round. On July 13 the first one is better than the second. Beginning the fourth round, June 11 after a fourth listen sounds even more off than before and so it's out. June 23 sounds dull near the end but I'll let it through to the fifth round. June 28 doesn't really sound cleaner than June 23 but I'll listen a fifth time to try to hear why I thought so before. So today I only eliminated one video from the competition and there are six left. It feels now like I'm looking more for the least bad than for the best. When I find that one I'll see how it sounds when I add the audio from the microphone recording. I might put an imperfect one up on YouTube and practice the song for another year, then record it again to hear if I've gotten any better. 

            I did another search for videos to fit with the slow instrumental of my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". I looked for lightning striking kites, balloons, parachutists and planes but found nothing I could use. I'll try again tomorrow. 

            I finished sorting through the fourth folder of my writing and started the fifth. I'm going to separate the pages containing parts of the Gumby Bible from the poems that are responses to the Gumby Bible. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken drumstick while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons.

            The first story is set in Spain in 1492. Columbus is arguing with the king of Spain about whether the Earth is round or not. For some reason, the king has a Mexican accent. Queen Isabella talks like Mae West and says she'll give Chris her jewels if he can prove the world is round. Bugs Bunny pops out of the ground and starts to help Columbus out. He proves the Earth is round by throwing a baseball around it. Next Bugs sets sail with Columbus and his crew but some crewmembers argue that rabbits are bad luck. As the journey drags on, the crew is getting more and more disgruntled. Chris tells Bugs he's sure they'll find land tomorrow and so Bugs relates that news to the crew. But weeks later there is still no land and the crew wants to kill Bugs. Bugs puts a picture of a tropical island on the bow and the men jump through it and start swimming. Bugs and Columbus are alone with one bean to eat. Chris starts chasing Bugs when they hit land. 

            The second story is a flashback episode. Bugs is showing a photo album to his nephew and relating the stories of some of his adventures. We see parts of the baseball game episode; we see a clip of the story of when Elmer Fudd chased Bugs onto a circus and Bugs tricked Elmer into doing a high dive; we see some of the boxing match between Bugs and the Crusher; and we see a segment of Bugs's trip to the Moon. In the end, Bugs's nephew is skeptical and so Bugs says, "If everything I've told you isn't true, I hope I'm run over by a streetcar." Suddenly a streetcar crashes through the living room. 

            The third story begins with Bugs rotisserie-roasting carrots over a fire and singing, "Carrots are a dime, you get a dozen for a dime, you know it's magic. They fry, a song begins, they roast and I hear violins, it's magic. Why do I kid myself? Other loves that I have are all really few. When in my heart I know the magic is my love for you." Meanwhile, Yosemite Sam smells carrots and knows it leads to rabbits. But then Sam sees the silhouette of someone leaving their seat in the audience and making their way to the aisle. Sam says, "Oh no you don't!" and points his gun, telling him to get back to his seat. Sam points his gun down Bugs's hole and Bugs pokes his head out through the loading end. Sam ejects the cartridge with Bugs in it and aims to shoot. Bugs quickly chews bubble gum and sticks it over the mouth of the barrel. Sam fires and is covered by a backfiring bubble. Bugs blows the bubble with Sam inside off a cliff. Sam digs up Bugs's hole and sifts Bugs out of the dirt. He takes Bugs back to his cabin and hangs him by his feet while he gets the stove ready. Sam tells Bugs to get in the oven and so he does. Seconds later Bugs comes out to get some lemonade and a fan and goes back in. Then Bugs asks Sam for a bottle opener. Then Bugs comes out to get cracked ice and a few more chairs. Then Bugs pokes his head out again and he has lipstick kiss marks all over his face. He asks Sam, "Aren't you coming in? The girls have been asking for you." Sam changes into his party clothes and goes into the oven. Bugs closes the door behind him, but then feels bad about tricking the little Nimrud. He opens the door to let Sam out but sees that there is a big live action New Years Eve party going on. Bugs says, "I don't ask questions, I just have fun!" and gets in the oven too. 

            In the fourth story, Daffy Duck puts on fake rabbit feet to make rabbit tracks leading to Bugs's hole. Elmer Fudd follows them. Elmer points his gun at Bugs but Bugs tells him it's not rabbit hunting season but rather duck season. Daffy comes out of hiding and says it's rabbit season. Bugs and Daffy argue back and forth until Bugs tricks Daffy into saying it's duck season and Elmer shoots him. This goes back and forth a couple more times and each time Bugs tricks Daffy into saying it's duck season and causing Elmer to shoot him. Bugs puts up a Duck Season sign and so Daffy disguises himself as Bugs. But Bugs disguises himself as Daffy and changes the sign to Rabbit Season and so Daffy gets shot again. Daffy tells Bugs, "You're despicable!" Then Bugs starts reading duck recipes out loud and so Daffy begins reading rabbit recipes. But Elmer says he is a vegetarian and only hunts for sport. Elmer begins shooting at both of them. Bugs tells Elmer he's using an elephant gun and so he should be shooting elephants. But suddenly an elephant says in a stereotypical gay voice, "You do and I'll give you such a pinch!" Then Bugs does drag and tries to flirt with Elmer and it works for a few seconds until Elmer realizes it's Bugs. Bugs and Daffy go to the tree where the rabbit season sign is and Bugs tears it off to show duck season. They keep taking turns tearing off the signs until one reading "Elmer Season" is revealed. They both put on hunting gear and have guns as they say, "Be very very quiet, we're hunting Elmers." 

            Daffy Duck was one of the first nutty lead characters meant to counter the fairly ordinary manner of Disney protagonists. After Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, he is the third most frequently appearing Loony Toons character. He debuted in "Porky's Duck Hunt" about a year before the first Bugs Bunny feature. Daffy was a new type of character because he was unrestrained and argumentative. In the first cartoons he looked more like a duck, but later became anthropomorphic. At first, he did not lisp and that speech characteristic developed gradually over time. 

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

July 30, 1992: I didn't take my couch to the new place because it was infested with cockroaches

Thirty years ago today 

            On Thursday I worked until noon and then went home. I had the baby at my place for a while until her mother picked her up, and then I focused on finishing the move to my new apartment. The kitchen was pretty well all moved. I decided not to take the couch because it was infested with cockroaches. I made about three trips on my own and then late in the evening Mike Copping came by and helped me move my credenza. I was surprised when he refused to take some boxes because he was afraid of getting cockroaches in his car. I couldn't believe it and I was a bit pissed off.

Antoine's

            On Thursday morning I memorized the first chorus and the third verse of "Moi j'te connais comme si j' t'avais défaite" (My translated title: I Know You as if I'm the Sky That Snowed You) by Serge Gainsbourg. That's about half the song. It will probably take a couple more days for me to finish it. 

            I called my landlord to ask him to call for a pest control treatment and as usual he started blaming me. Although other people in the building have seen bedbugs he says they tell him they haven't. He keeps suggesting that I'm bringing them in. I said, "How? I don't go anywhere but the supermarket and on my bike." He suggested that I should look under my bike seat for bedbugs. I said, "You think they can jump on my bike while I'm riding?" He said he has to talk to the other tenants because he doesn't want to just pay for my apartment being treated every month. He is so hard to deal with. He usually puts up an argument but tends to just call pest control anyway. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast. That's the lightest I've been in the morning in twelve days.

            In the late morning I pulled the fridge out from the wall and gave the floor another scrub. The water in the bucket was black again when I finished, but I got all of the glue and most of the paint off the floorboards. I think that's enough cleaning for that part of the floor since it will always be covered. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a siesta and slept for an extra forty minutes. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On the Bloor bike lane I passed an old man who was sitting on a tree planter and let out a very loud fart as I went by. 

            On the way home I stopped at Freshco where I bought five bags of cherries, a pack of raspberries, a pack of blueberries, a pack of Ontario peaches, a bunch of bananas, a container of skyr, a jug of orange juice, a jug of limeade, olive oil, and shaving gel. 

            I weighed 85 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:09. I continued the third round of reviewing videos of me singing my song "Megaphor". On June 28, the one that starts at 5:30 feels a little cleaner than the ones from June 11 and 23. July 2 is off a little too much to make it to the fourth round. July 8 is off enough at the end to take it out of the running. On July 9 the one that starts at 2:30 may be less off than the others so far. On July 11 the one that starts at 2:45 is a little off but can go to the fourth round. 

            I researched videos to take clips from for the Movie Maker project of creating a video for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". I tried typing "piano struck by lightning" but found nothing I could use. "Electrocuted by piano" also turned up nothing. I looked at "electric eels" but found their voltage isn't visible. I found a collection of the best movie electrocution scenes and bookmarked it. I'll finish looking at it tomorrow. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1951. 

            In the first story, Yosemite Sam is running for mayor and Bugs overhears that part of his platform is to wipe out all the rabbits. So Bugs decides to run against him. Bugs imitates Teddy Roosevelt and says he speaks softly and carries a big stick. Sam says he carries a bigger stick and hits Bugs over the head with it. Then Sam begins to kiss babies but Bugs poses as a baby and accuses Sam of biting his nose. Several ladies are upset and one beats Sam with her umbrella. Bugs gives out free cigars but Sam takes over just as Bugs switches the cigars to ones that explode. Sam gets punched. Bugs sets up a picnic but Sam releases ants to carry all the food back to him. Bugs puts a lit stick of dynamite in a watermelon. Sam points a cannon at the front door of Bugs's headquarters and rigs the trigger so it goes off when the door is opened. Sam then knocks on the back door and tells Bugs he wants to make peace. Inside, Sam makes a knocking sound and says someone's at the door. Bugs goes to the door and comes back to say it's an old girlfriend there to see Sam. Sam opens the door and gets shot by the cannon. Sam rigs one key on a piano with explosives and challenges Bugs to play a certain tune. But Bugs always misses that note until Sam steps up in frustration to show him how to play the song and gets caught in the explosion. Sam begins chasing and shooting at Bugs until they both hear the sound of celebration and see that the city has elected a horse for mayor. 

            In the second story, the star performer at the circus is Bruno the Magnificent, the acrobatic bear. But then Colonel Corny the circus owner hires an acrobatic rabbit to be Bruno's partner, but Bruno does not want to share the spotlight. So Bruno sets about to sabotage Bugs's part in the act. In their first stunt Bruno is supposed to drop down on one side of a see-saw to send Bugs up into the air through several paper targets. But on the other side of the last target is an anvil and so Bugs hits his head. On the trapeze, Bruno is supposed to catch Bugs but he reaches out with false arms that look like handlebars with gloves. Bugs should fall but he doesn't and instead pedals back to the platform. Bruno thinks he can do it too but falls. Each of them argues that they can jump from increasingly higher elevations into less hospitable targets going from a bucket, a damp sponge and finally Bruno says he'll dive head first into solid concrete. Bugs lets Bruno go first. In the end Bugs shoots Bruno away with a cannon. This was not a particularly clever story. 

            The third story is a wrestling match that begins between The Crusher and a parody of the famous wrestler Gorgeous George called here Ravishing Ronald. Part of Ronald's act is Bugs Bunny as a display on a platter. But when Crusher easily rolls Ronald up into a ball, Bugs decides to intervene and challenge Crusher as the Masked Terror. At first Bugs jumps on Crusher's neck and tries with all his might but can't budge him. Bugs is easily tossed head first into a post. Then Bugs is caught in a leg lock but Bugs rips his own mask to make Crusher think he's ripped his shorts. Then he poses as a tailer to fix them and gets Crusher in the behind with a needle. Crusher charges at Bugs but there is now the door of a safe in the ring. Bugs steps aside and opens it so Crusher runs through and hits the ropes, then on the rebound Bugs closes the door and Crusher hits his head. Crusher is now stunned and Bugs simply tells him to lie down and Bugs wins. Crusher tries to shake Bugs's hand but Bugs gives him a false hand with a stick of dynamite and Crusher is out. Once again, this wasn't very funny. 

            In the fourth story, Bugs has gotten shipped to Paris in a case of carrots. While Bugs is walking around, two chefs are standing in front of their restaurants at opposite sides of the street and each decides they will be serving rabbit tonight. Francois and Louis compete to have Bugs for their menu. Bugs encourages them to fight. Then Francois catches Bugs and takes him into his kitchen, placing him in a pan on his stove. Bugs asks what's for dinner and he says, "Rabbit a la Francois." But Bugs suggests a "Louisiana Back Bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise a la Antoine". Francois asks, "You mean Antoine of New Orleans?" Francois insists that Bugs show him how to cook it, so Bugs dresses Francois to look like a rabbit, marinates him in wine, stuffs him with hot spices, coats him in flour, kneads him, and puts him in a pot. Then Louis comes and also insists on learning the recipe. Both chefs end up in the oven and Bugs throws in a stick of dynamite. So far most of these 1951 stories are not that great but this was funnier than the others. 

            Antoine's is a real restaurant in New Orleans established in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore. He ran it until 1875 when he died and then his wife took over. After his son Jules finished culinary training in France in 1887, he became the chef until 1934. It has passed down and remains in the control of the family to the present day. It is the birthplace of the famous dish "Oysters Rockefeller" and has served many famous customers, including several US presidents and Pope John Paul II. It has fifteen dining rooms able to accommodate 800 diners and a 25,000-bottle wine cellar. During prohibition, Antoine's served alcohol in coffee cups in the Mystery Room. 

            Before bed I did a search for bedbugs and found one sitting under my pillow. It was alive but didn't have my blood inside when I killed it.

July 29, 1992: I dropped some stuff off at the new place on my way to work

Thirty years ago today 

             On Wednesday morning on my way to work, I dropped some stuff off at the new place. I worked until 13:00 and moved a few more things when I got back. Nancy had me pick up the baby later on.

Bill Melendez

            On Wednesday morning I published my translation of "Valse Dingue" (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian. I still have to post it on my Boris Vian Facebook page. 

            I memorized the first two verses of "Moi j'te connais comme si j' t'avais défaite" (I Know You as if I Was the Sky That Snowed You) by Serge Gainsbourg and made some adjustments to my translation.

            I weighed 86 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I pulled the fridge out and scrubbed the floor where it sits. The first bucket of water was black before I changed it. There was paint on the floor near the wall and one floorboard had glue left over from when there were tiles. I got most of the paint and glue removed but I'll need another session tomorrow to get the rest. 

            I weighed 86 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

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

            I weighed 85.6 kilos at 17:00. 

            There was an email response to the one I'd sent to my MPP Bhutila Karpoche's office. I was told that the Ontario Seniors Dental Program will probably be phased out next year anyway when the federal dental plan kicks in, which will include seniors in my economic category. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:10. 

            I reviewed the last two videos from the second round of competition between sessions of me playing my song "Megaphor" to decide which one I'll upload to YouTube. On July 13 both tries were okay but not great. I'll let this session through to compare in the next round. On July 14 the one that starts at 5:30 was the best of that day. It was a little off in places but I'll let it through for now. That left ten videos to review again for the third round. I listened again to June 11 and June 23 and they both feel slightly off in moments. I'm hoping for one that's a little cleaner. 

            In the Movie Maker project of creating a video for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I was able to synchronize the concert video with the studio audio when I sing "golden mean of shock therapy". This is followed by a slow instrumental, but the instrumental in the concert video is about five seconds shorter than the one in the studio. So now I need to find some outside video that somehow relates to shock therapy but also fits the slow and spacey atmosphere of the instrumental. This might take some time involving various word choices for web searches. 

            I sorted through some more pages from the fourth folder from the filing cabinet that holds the hard copies of my writing. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1950. 

            In the first story Bugs decides to buy a monkey and a crank organ, but the monkey tries to steal the profits. Bugs goes it alone, pretending to be a monkey while knocking on windows, but is not successful. Meanwhile, the monkey complains about Bugs to his friend the gorilla at the zoo. The gorilla breaks out to get revenge on Bugs. The gorilla confronts Bugs on the ledge. Bugs shows he can put his finger in his mouth and blow to levitate. The gorilla tries it and floats, then Bugs pushes him away from the ledge and tells him he's a big boy and should take his finger out of this mouth. He does so and falls. Then Bugs shows how he can jump from the ledge and bounce back up from an awning. The gorilla tries it but breaks through the awning and the sidewalk. When the gorilla gets back up Bugs pushes him down again. Bugs tries to escape on a ladder but the gorilla keeps pulling him down or up to his level. Bugs tells him, "I never forget a face but in your case, I'll make an exception." Bugs escapes into an apartment where he finds a violin. When the gorilla arrives Bugs plays and the gorilla begins to dance. Bugs gets an idea and next we see that Bugs and the gorilla are in business together with the crank organ and the gorilla replaces the monkey. The dollars roll in. 

            In the second story, Shanghai Sam's ship is at port where the last of his crew has quit. He sets about to attract a new crew with signs offering a free trip around the world. The only person attracted to the offer is Bugs Bunny. Shortly after setting sail Sam hits Bugs over the head with a club and puts a ball and chain on him, forcing him to row the ship in the galley. When Bugs asks Sam to get rid of the ball, Sam throws it overboard and it takes Bugs with it. In the next scene Bugs is back on the boat without the ball and chain. Sam makes Bugs swab the deck but when Bugs writes graffiti on the deck that insults the captain, Sam grabs the mop and cleans the deck. Bugs shouts that the ship is sinking and Sam wants to be first on the lifeboat but Bugs reminds him that the captain goes down with the ship. Sam makes Bugs the captain and paddles away. Bugs dresses the anchor in baby clothes and shouts for Sam to catch the baby. Sam rows back and of course his life boat sinks. When Sam climbs back on board he sees Bugs with digging tools and a map. Bugs says it's a treasure map. Sam steals it and follows the instructions; he digs a hole in the ship and it sinks. Sam patches the ship at dock and it sails again. Sam shoots a cannon down in the hold where he thinks Bugs is and sinks the ship again. After repairs they are back at sea and Sam shoots the cannon up at Bugs in the crows nest but the ball falls and sinks the ship again. After the ship sinks one more time Sam gives up and paddles Bugs to Rio in a rowboat. 

            In the third story Elmer Fudd is hunting Bugs, and Bugs escapes onto the set of an outdoor production of The Barber of Seville. Bugs becomes the barber and sings, "Welcome to my shop, let me cut your mop, let me shear your crop, daintily, daintily." Bugs forces Elmer into the chair and continues singing while he gives him a painful shave. Elmer goes after Bugs with his gun while also singing. Bugs appears in drag as a dancing senorita and using scissors instead of castanets, she cuts Elmer's pants. Elmer shoots but the gun is tied in a knot and he shoots himself back in the barbers chair. Bugs puts various lotions on Elmer's head, massages him with all fours, and makes a salad on his head. Bugs makes like a snake charmer with the snake being an electric razor that attacks Elmer. Elmer gets wonked on the head by a sandbag and Bugs puts him back in the chair. He gives him a fertilizer treatment and Elmer is excited when hair begins to grow on his bald head but then it blossoms with flowers. They begin to come after one another with increasingly more powerful weapons until Bugs gives Elmer flowers, chocolates, and a ring. They get married on stage, climb a high stairs to a fake house, Bugs drops Elmer over the threshold to a big cake on the stage below. Then Bugs says, "Next."

            This was voted as number 12 in a list of the 50 greatest cartoons by a thousand entertainment professionals. 

            I was exposed to a lot of classical music as a child just from watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. 

            In the fourth story, Bugs is a Hollywood star and a reporter calls to ask for his life story. He tells how he was born a rabbit in a human world. He showed musical and dancing talent from an early age and after graduation got a role in Girl of the Golden Vest as a member of the chorus singing, "Oh we're the boys of the chorus, we hope you like our show, we know you're rootin for us, but now we have to go." He is cast in several shows doing the exact same thing. When he gets a starring role he bombs and doesn't want to go back to the chorus. We next see him homeless on a bench along with several out of work stars like Al Jolson and Bing Crosby. The famous vaudeville star Elmer Fudd comes by and asks Bugs what he's doing with these losers. He invites him to becomes partners in his act. Bugs would be the straight rabbit and get the pies in his face. But then one night Bugs changes things and when Elmer asks, "You know how to make antifreeze?" Bugs delivers the punchline, "Yeah, hide her nightgown" and throws the pie in Elmer's face. The angry Elmer goes after Bugs with a gun and Bugs asks, "What's up doc?" Suddenly the audience is laughing and Bugs realizes they've got something. They become a smash hit. They get their first movie and Bugs sings the song, "What's Up Doc." Then Bugs gets his first big movie and he's back in the chorus. 

            The main animator for What's Up Doc was Bill Melendez, who after graduating from art school in 1935 was hired by Disney and worked on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. After the 1941 Disney animators' strike, he was hired by Warner Brothers. In the 1960s when Charles Schulz was offered to make TV specials of his Peanuts characters, he only wanted Melendez to be in charge. Melendez directed, animated, and did voices for the first four Charlie Brown specials. He also did the first two Garfield specials. 

            While searching for bedbugs before bed I found two black ones on the floor by the baseboard to the right of the head of my bed. Later I found a baby on my arm and a few more babies on the pillow and the mattress. It looks like I'll have to call the landlord and get him to call pest control again. The spores have been sprayed twice, so I don't know why they haven't killed these monsters off yet. I guess Steve from Orkin would say it's because uninfected bedbugs are coming from another apartment. Only a couple of the bugs I killed had blood inside.

July 28, 1992: I only made three trips taking stuff to the new place

Thirty years ago today 

            On Tuesday I had the baby with me and so I only made three trips carrying stuff to my new apartment.

Stan Freberg

            On Tuesday morning I finished editing "Valse Dingue" (Mad Waltz) by Boris Vian on Christian's Translations and it was ready to be published on the blog, but I wanted to find the name of the composer. For most of Vian's songs he wrote the lyrics and someone else wrote the music, but in this case I couldn't find a co-author, so it looks like Vian wrote the music. I'll find an audio file to post with the lyrics and publish my translation tomorrow. 

            I ran through my translation of "Strike" by Serge Gainsbourg and then uploaded it to Christian's Translations. I edited it and published it. This was the last Gainsbourg song from 1981, and so tomorrow I'll start learning the first of his ten songs from 1982. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            That's the lightest I've been in the morning in a week. 

            Around midday, I pulled my fridge out and washed and scrubbed the wall behind it. Tomorrow I'll pull it out again and scrub the floor underneath it. That might be hard because there is some paint splattered there. After that, I'll pull it out again so I can wash the sides of the fridge. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a siesta and slept more than twenty minutes longer than I'd intended. 

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

            I weighed 85.7 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:30. 

            I reviewed five more videos of me playing my song "Megaphor". July 8 was mostly pretty good and can go to the next round. July 9 was definitely one of the best. July 10 was pretty good but the B was a little off in a couple of places. Compared to some of the others it doesn't make the cut. July 11 was not perfect but I'll let this one squeeze through to see how it compares with the others in the third round. On July 12, the last try that begins 6:30 minutes in is pretty good but maybe a little off a time or two. I'll let it through to the third round to be sure. There are just two more videos of this song to review in this round. 

            In the Movie Maker project of creating a video for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I cut the hallucinatory images from Ken Russell's "Altered States" down from a minute and fifteen seconds to five seconds. I only kept the part where a red eyeball is being zoomed in on. I inserted it into the main video to correspond with the line, "Let's meditate on the golden mean of shock therapy" and placed it between "Let's" and "golden mean" because I think I can synchronize the concert video of me singing "golden mean" with the studio audio. I'll try to do that tomorrow. 

            I sorted through about half the fourth file folder of writing from the big filing cabinet. I found quite a few pages that were written before or after the Gumby Bible. I put those in one pile but I'll eventually have to put them in two separate folders. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1950. 

            The first story takes place during the American Revolution, but there are only two combatants. Bugs Bunny occupies a wooden fort with one cannon to defend the revolutionaries while a Hessian mercenary named Sam von Schmamm is in charge of and the only soldier inside of a heavily armed stone fortress. Sam charges and is shot by Bugs's cannon. Then Sam and Bugs both charge past each other to occupy the other fortress. Then they charge again to re-occupy each their own stronghold. Then Sam charges again and suddenly Bugs has a much bigger cannon which Sam runs inside of before it fires. Sam throws a spherical bomb and it becomes a baseball game, as Bugs hits it with a bat and Sam snags it with a catcher's mitt just before it explodes. Sam fires a cannonball and Bugs catches it in his cannon and shoots it into Sam's cannon, which he fires back. This goes back and forth until Bugs shoots it into Sam's cannon and then shoots a plug which Sam pulls out just before getting shot by his own cannon. Sam tunnels into Bugs's fort but winds up in the explosives hut in the dark. He lights a match and the obvious happens. Sam carries a barrel of gunpowder to the front of Bugs's fortress but the powder is leaking into the trap door of his underwear and also leaving a trail behind him. Sam lights the fuse to the barrel but Bugs puts it out and then lights the powder trail to Sam's behind. After the explosion, Sam gives up and joins the revolution. 

            In the second story, Bugs is in the park in San Francisco when a large man selling balloons asks him to hold them while he ties his shoelace. Bugs holds the strings but he is too light and the balloons carry him into the air. Days pass and Bugs floats over Hawaii. Bugs sails into a cloud just as a stork flies in carrying a baby kangaroo. Inside the cloud, there is a mix-up and the baby kangaroo winds up holding the balloons while Bugs is in the stork's bundle bound for Australia. Bugs is delivered to the mother kangaroo but when he tells her he's not her baby and walks away she starts to cry, so he decides to let her be his mother. A screaming Aboriginal, portrayed in a racist way, begins to attack with a boomerang, a spear, and then a blowgun. Bugs frustrates the hunter's efforts for a while but then the hunter chases Bugs up a mountain where the mother kangaroo is at the top. Bugs jumps in her pouch and then she kicks the hunter off the mountain. Just then the baby kangaroo, still holding the balloons floats into his mother's pouch. Next we see Bugs and the baby in the pouch while the mother has a motor attached to her tail and her feet act as water-skis while they take Bugs back to San Francisco. 

            In the third story, Bugs is on vacation in the Ozarks, singing "I Like Mountain Music" by James Cavanaugh and Frank Weldon, when he is confronted by a hillbilly named Curt Martin with a very long rifle. Curt asks Bugs if he is a Martin or a Coy. Bugs says his friends say he is very coy. Since the Martins and Coys are feuding, Curt sees Bugs as his enemy. He pulls his trigger but the gun takes a long time to fire and so Bugs ties it in a knot. Bugs walks away but finds another rifle pointed at him, this one by Curt's brother Punkinhead. Punkinhead fires but Bugs has time to walk around and remove the stock end of the gun and place it at the barrel end so it shoots Punkinhead. Then both Martins join forces to hunt Bugs. They chase him into an explosives hut but it's dark and so Bugs lends them his lighter and leaves before the hut explodes. They continue to pursue Bugs past a square dance hall where Bugs is in drag as a hillbilly woman and calls them in to dance. The square dance begins as normal until Bugs grabs a fiddle and begins to do the calling, which guides the Martin brothers through ridiculous instructions: 

           "Promenade across the floor, sashay right on out the door, out the door and into the glade, and everybody promenade. Step right up you're doin' fine, I'll pull your beard you pull mine; yank it again like you did before, break it up with a tug of war. Now into the creek and fish for the trout, dive right in and splash about; trout trout pretty little trout, one more splash and come right out. Shake like a hound dog shake again, wallow around in the old pig pen; wallow some more you all know how, roll around like an old fat sow. Allemande left with your left hand, follow through with a right and left grand; now lead your partner the dirty old thing, follow through with an elbow swing. Grab a fencepost hold it tight, whomp your partner with all your might; hit him in the shin hit him in the head, hit him again, the critter ain't dead. Whop him low and whop him high, stick your finger in his eye; purty little rhythm, purty little sound, bang your heads against the ground. Promenade all around the room, promenade like a bride and groom" This leads them to a hay bailer and Bugs continues: "open up the door and step right in, close the door and into a spin. Whirl whirl twist and twirl, jump all around like a flying squirrel; now don't you cuss and don't you swear, just come right out and form a square" at this point they come out of the bailer, each inside a bound square bail. "Now right hand over and left hand under, both join hands and run like thunder; over the hill and over the dale, duck your head and lift your tail. Don't you stray and don't you roam, turn around and promenade home; corn in the crib and wheat in the sack, turn your partner promenade back. And now you're home; bow to your partner, bow to the gent across the hall, and that is all." This episode has always been one of my very favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons and since childhood I've remembered that song as hilariously clever. 

            The voice of Punkinhead Martin was done by Stan Freberg. He started out on radio in 1943 doing impressions on Cliffie Stone's show. In 1944 he was hired as a voice actor by Warner Brothers cartoons. He voiced many characters and was often paired with Mel Blanc for characters that played off one another like Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier. 

            He starred in The Three Little Bops, voicing all the characters and singing the song. 

            For Disney, he played Busy the Beaver in Lady and the Tramp. He sang the part of the Jabberwock in Disney's Alice in Wonderland. In the 1950s he was hired by Capitol Records to produce satirical recordings. He had hits with parodies of several popular records. His St George and the Dragonet was a number one hit for four weeks in 1953. 

            The popularity of his recordings led to him being given The Stan Freberg Show on CBS radio but he had trouble getting a sponsor because he refused to advertize tobacco or alcohol and so the show did not last. In the late 40s, he was a puppeteer and did voices for the hit show Time For Beany. He made many guest appearances on Ed Sullivan. He later formed his own advertizing company, making several successful TV commercials.

            The fourth story begins with a steam shovel at the construction site of a skyscraper digging up Bugs's home. Bugs asks him to put him back but the man drops Bugs and his home on a dump truck. Bugs drops a brick with a note on the man's head and it reads, "You asked for it." Then a girder falls on the worker's head. The man gets in the elevator but Bugs causes it to rise and drop suddenly at incredible speeds until he is finally catapulted high above the buildings to fall from a great height. Then Bugs poses as the man's boss and gives him a bunch of instructions that lead to him having built himself onto a plank that is teetering on a small point at a great height with only a few bricks keeping the balance. Bugs comes out and removes the bricks so the man falls. Then the man swings a girder into Bugs's head and Bugs wanders in a daze along the top of the unfinished building, stepping off onto girders and pipes hoisted by cranes in a complicated but very lucky journey. Bugs sends a hot coal down a series of pipes that eventually cause a trailer to fall on the man's head and he gives up. Bugs's home is made part of the building. 

            Before bed I searched for bedbugs and for the second night in a row I found none.

July 27, 1992: Nancy wanted me to take the baby every day while she prepared for her trip to Mexico

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday, Nancy brought my daughter down, but I had to meet her at the Eglinton subway station. She wanted me to take the baby every day as she prepared for her trip to Mexico, but I couldn't go up to Scarborough every time to get her. I only got a few more things moved to my new place.

Warren Foster

            On Monday morning I reworked my translation of "Strike" by Serge Gainsbourg in light of a better understanding of the rhyme scheme and the meaning. Tomorrow I'll run through playing and singing the song in English and then upload it to Christian's Translations. 

            I weighed 87 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I cleaned and scrubbed as much rust as I could off my handsaw and then put some oil on it. 

            Around midday I cut most of the dead parts off my hanging aloe vera. I also clipped the deceased leaves from the top of the other aloe vera that sits on top of the fridge, but left the dead hanging leaves on it because they look good. I gave the same treatment to my amaryllis and turned it around because the leaves were leaning too far into the window. 

           Tomorrow I think I'll pull the fridge out from the wall and scrub the floor underneath it. 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 86.5 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:11. 

            I reviewed five more videos of me playing "Megaphor". On June 27 the B chord was definitely slightly off a couple of times, so this rendition is out. On June 28 I looked a little angry but it wasn't bad, so this can go through to the next round. July 2 was definitely not too bad and it will compete in the next round. July 3 was off enough to be out. July 4 really wasn't horrible but I was off enough on the B chord at times for it to be pushed out of the running. 

            In the Movie Maker project for creating a video for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I edited the psychedelic segments from the Ken Russell film "Altered States" down to just a minute and fifteen seconds. I might only need between one and two seconds, so I've got more cutting to do.

            I went through a fourth folder from the filing cabinet where I keep the hard copies of writing. This one is almost all original pages of the Gumby Bible, on the back of which I tended to write my commentaries. So I started to go through the other folder of my poetry to separate all the poems that were also commentaries on the Gumby Bible. It looks like the Gumby Bible folder is going to be stuffed and so I'll probably have separate that further into just the Gumby Bible pages and the poetry that I wrote that wasn't on the original pages. 

            I had a big potato with gravy and my smallest chicken drumstick while watching two Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1949 and two from 1950. 

            In the first story, the Three Little Pigs are reading the story about the Three Little Pigs and so they know what is going to happen. They know that the big bad wolf is going to blow down one pig's straw house, and the second pig's wooden house, so they decide to all move into the third pig's brick house. But since the first two pigs are going to lose their houses they decide to make a profit from them beforehand. The first pig sells his house to Bugs Bunny and after the wolf blows it down, the second pig sells Bugs his wooden house. When the wooden house is blown down, Bugs says, "Of course you know, this means war!" The wolf is in the woods reading the book and learning that he can't blow the brick house down, when Bugs skips by dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. Bugs hands the wolf the story, tells him to read it and goes away. The wolf reads it and realizes he's late to do what the story says and so he rushes to grandma's house, kicks grandma out and waits for Red Riding Hood. When Bugs arrives he pokes the wolf in the eyes and pulls his ears. The wolf pulls Bugs's ears. Bugs stomps on the wolf's foot. They each remove the other's disguise. The wolf chases Bugs and Bugs runs to the basement. The wolf is at the top of the stairs with a baseball bat and he turns on the light switch to reveal that Bugs is at the bottom, also with a bat. Bugs switches off the light at the bottom. The wolf goes back up to switch it on. This happens a couple more times and then Bugs just says "click" and the wolf switches the light off before descending the stairs and getting hit over the head. Bugs leaves the house and escapes on a bike but it's a tandem bike and the wolf is at the back until he gets yanked off by a clothesline. Bugs says it serves him right for blowing his houses down. The wolf says he was blowing the pigs' houses down and explains he has to follow the book. Bugs realizes he was conned by the pigs and so he tells the wolf to blow their brick house down. The wolf says he can't because of the book. Bugs says, "Book shmook, blow the house down!" The wolf blows and then there is an explosion that leaves the brick house in ruins. Bugs is standing nearby with a detonating plunger. 

            The second story is a bit racist. An African witch doctor is drawn to follow certain stereotypes. He's following a recipe for a medicine and uses lizard tongues, fish eyes, gnats eyebrows, leopard spots, bee stingers, and frogs legs, but he is missing the last ingredient, which is rabbit. Bugs is walking through the jungle and the doctor uses his spear to force him back to his hut. As he has in the past, Bugs mistakes the cooking pot for a bath and gets in. But this time there is a cover that the doctor locks. Bugs has to break out in a panic. Bugs escapes to the river and swims to a riverboat. The doctor jumps in after him but gets swallowed by an alligator. Bugs doesn't like that and so he beats up the alligator, turning him into a suitcase, inside of which is the doctor, alive and in one piece and wearing alligator shoes. 

            In the third story, the Ice Frolics show closes down and leaves behind its star, the skating penguin. The penguin, while chasing after the convoy falls down a rabbit hole. Bugs feels sorry for the bird and decides to help him get home. He reads that penguins are from the South Pole and so off they go. They hop a freight car headed south on which Bugs has to save his friend from a hungry hobo. In New Orleans Bugs puts his friend on the Admiral Byrd to take him to the South Pole. But after it sets sail, Bugs learns it's headed for Brooklyn. Bugs swims to the boat and finds his friend in the kitchen hanging with the meat. Bugs rescues him and they swim to Martinique where Humphrey Bogart asks for a handout but Bugs tells him to hit the road. The penguin builds them a boat and they drift. Bugs goes ten days without food. They trek through South America and end up in another cooking pot surrounded by dancing natives. But the natives all run when "Bwana" is approaching. It's Bogie again asking for a handout. This time Bugs gives him a coin. After a treacherous journey Bugs delivers his friend to Antarctica. Bugs starts to walk away but the penguin begins to cry. Bugs learns that the skating penguin was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. 

            In the fourth story, while trying to find shelter from rabbit hunting season, Bugs tunnels into a prison. The main guard, Sam Schultz sees Bugs in a hole and thinks he's trying to escape. He puts Bugs in a ball and chain and forces him to break rocks. Bugs tells him a prisoner is escaping over the north wall. Bugs puts his ball in a cannon and then Schultz fires it at the north wall, sending bugs flying over it. Sam recaptures Bugs and puts him in a cell. Bugs asks why he locked him outside and locked himself inside. Sam then locks himself in the cell and Bugs outside. Sam confronts Bugs with a gun. Bugs says you wouldn't be so tough without your uniform. Sam takes his uniform off. Bugs takes his striped clothing off, then he puts on Sam's uniform and blows a whistler. The guards come, beat Sam up and put him in a cell. Bugs brings Sam a loaf of bread containing an escape kit and a map. Following the map, Sam digs a tunnel that leads to the warden's office. The warden chews Sam out and tells him to get back to work. While chasing Bugs, Sam winds up hanging from a noose. The warden shouts for him to come to his office but now the warden is Bugs in disguise. He tells Sam to pull up a chair and it's an electric chair. Bugs pulls the switch and Sam is electrocuted. Sam chases Bugs with a club out of the warden's office and then back in. The warden is sitting at his desk but Sam thinks it's Bugs and hits him over the head. After being chewed out by the warden again, Sam tells Bugs to get out of the prison. But then Sam is imprisoned for helping a prisoner escape. 

            The "Which is Witch" story was the last Bugs Bunny cartoon to contain caricatures of black people. 

            The Windblown Hare fairy tale story was written by Warren Foster, who started out as a writer on the surreal "Porky in Wackyland" cartoon. 

            He also wrote the banned cartoon "Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs." 

            He wrote Tweety Bird's theme song "I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat." 

            In 1959 he joined Hanna Barbara and became a writer for Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and The Flintstones. Before bed I searched for bedbugs and found none.

July 26, 1992: Nancy talked her mother into taking a load of stuff to my new place

Thirty years ago today 

            On Sunday the baby was brought to me early and so I didn't get completely set up for my sidewalk sale until she was asleep. I sold a few more magazines, the percolator, and all of the fans except for Big Mary, which was the one I really wanted to sell. I got $10 for the other turntable. I made about the same as on Saturday. When I called Nancy, I got a message that she'd call me back, so I didn't bring my daughter back to Scarborough. We played until she went to sleep again, and I persuaded Nancy to come and get her. When she arrived, she talked her mom into taking a load of stuff over to my new place. So, I got a lot of clothes, Big Mary, the stereos, and three or four boxes moved. I put some of the stuff away and then went home to the old place.

Nicolai Shutorev

            On Sunday morning I finished working out the chords for “Strike” by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song in French. Tomorrow I’ll sing and play it in English and then upload it to Christian’s Translations. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I worked on trying to scrub the rust off my big steel square rule. I used baking soda, Comet, steel wool, and a metal brush, and I got a lot of the rust off but after almost an hour I decided it wasn't worth spending all that time. Tomorrow I'll do the same thing with my handsaw and then try to sharpen it. After that, my next project will be cleaning above, on, behind, and under my fridge. I guess it's due for cleaning inside as well. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

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

            I weighed 86.4 kilos at 17:00. 

            I got caught up on my journal just before 18:00. 

            I reviewed five of the seventeen videos of my performances of "Megaphor" that I had narrowed down from all of the recordings I made since June 8. On June 9, I was off on the B chord more than once and so I can eliminate this one from the next round. June 11, upon a second listen, was still pretty good. June 17 was definitely not better than June 11, so I can scratch it out of the competition. June 19 was up there but probably not as good as June 11. However, I will keep it in for the next round. June 23 was at least equal to June 11, so I'll definitely keep it in for now. 

            I found two videos featuring hallucination segments from the Ken Russell movie "Altered States" that have images that might work for my video project. I downloaded them both with 4K Downloader, but when I tried to import the videos into Movie Maker it couldn't do it. That was weird because I've done it several times in the past with 4K downloads. But I used Total Video Converter on the downloaded videos and converted them to AVI, and Movie Maker accepted those. I put both videos together and had Movie Maker render them as one movie. Then I imported that movie into the Movie Maker project for creating a video for my song Instructions for Electroshock Therapy. I copied it to the end of the timeline and started cutting out the parts that don't feel like they'd fit my vague imagining of what should correspond with the line, "meditate on the golden mean of shock therapy". I'll continue editing the video tomorrow. 

            I finished going through another folder of writing. This was mostly my own handwritten poetry. Now I have three folders for the pages from the filing cabinet: one for my poetry, one for my non-poetic writing about myself and relationships, and another for other people's writing. The next folder I free up will be for holding all the poetry I wrote and referred to as "commentaries on The Gumby Bible" during the seven years I hosted and ran the Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, a cut-up beef burger, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1949. 

            In the first story, Bugs is in what looks like the Hollywood Hills playing banjo and singing, "A Rainy Night in Rio" by Leo Robin and Arthur Schwartz. 

           But nearby in a bungalow, an opera singer named Giovanni Jones is trying to practice "Largo al Factotum" from The Barber of Seville. He finds Bugs's singing and playing very distracting and so he comes out and destroys Bugs's banjo. Jones goes back to his rehearsal, but then Bugs begins singing "My Gal is a Highborn Lady" by Barney Fagan and Gustav Luders while playing the harp. 

            Jones goes out and sticks Bugs's head between the strings and then collapses the frame on him. Jones returns to practice but then Bugs begins playing "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba" on a sousaphone. Jones reaches into the bell of the sousaphone and out through the mouthpiece to grab Bugs and pull him through the horn. Then he ties Bugs's ears to a tree limb and pulls his body down and releases it so that his head repeatedly hits the limb on the return. After Jones walks away, Bugs says, "Of course you know, this means war!" That night at the amphitheater, while Jones is giving his concert, Bugs begins to sabotage the show by sitting on top of the shell and hitting it with a hammer. It causes the stage to vibrate until Jones is lodged in a tuba. Bugs pulls Jones out, takes him to the dressing room, and sprays his throat with alum, causing him to sing in a high voice. During an intermission, Bugs comes in drag as an adoring bobbysoxer asking Jones for his autograph, but the pen is a stick of dynamite. Then Bugs walks onto the stage disguised as a famous conductor that everyone recognizes named Leopold. The other conductor respectfully steps aside and Bugs proceeds to direct Jones through a roller coaster ride of vocal gymnastics and leaves him on a high note that causes his tuxedo to rip off and eventually collapses the amphitheater. 

            Giovanni Jones was played by Nicolai Shutorev, who was not known to have had any formal training but sang with the San Francisco Opera Company and the Los Angeles Opera Company. He was un-credited for this cartoon until it was released on DVD. In the late 1940s, he joined the Comedian Harmonists, and they began a world tour, but in Norway, he died of a stomach rupture. 

            In the second story, Bugs Bunny winds up on a Riverboat where he disguises himself as a southern gentleman and meets the poker challenge of the gambler Colonel Shuffle. Shuffle starts out with all the chips but soon Bugs has them. At the end of the next hand, Shuffle has five aces but Bugs has six. Shuffle challenges Bugs to a duel. They stand back-to-back but when told to take ten paces, Shuffle walks forward while Bugs steps backward. Shuffle turns and shoots over Bugs's shoulder and Bugs kisses him on the mouth and then puts an exploding cigar there. Bugs gets the stunned Shuffle to dance to Camptown Races and then guides him through a gate in the railing of the boat to fall into the Mississippi. Shuffle is lifted back on the boat by the rotating paddle and then comes after Bugs with a pistol. But Bugs pretends to be a barker for a show called "Uncle Tom's Cabinet." Shuffle buys a ticket but when Bugs directs him through a curtain it leads overboard again. Shuffle chases Bugs with his pistol and pursues him to the boiler room where Bugs tricks Shuffle into running into the furnace. Shuffle chases Bugs into a cabin where Bugs is suddenly in drag and begins hitting shuffle with her umbrella. Then she runs to a big southern gentleman and asks him to save her. The man tosses Shuffle off the boat. But then when he sees that the belle he rescued is a rabbit, he jumps into the river as well. Bugs says, "Oh well, we almost had a romantic ending." 

            In the third story, Bugs is reading federal bounty signs posted in the forest. He sees that a fox is worth $50, and a bear is worth $75, but a rabbit is only worth 2 cents. Bugs is offended and so he goes to Washington to complain. But the game commissioner explains that rabbits are harmless and so the bounty stays as it is. Bugs sets about to prove to the United States government that he is not harmless. He paints the Washington Monument like a barber's pole; shuts off Niagara Falls; gives Manhattan back to the Indians, except they wouldn't take it unless he threw in a set of dishes; he saws Florida off the Unites States and lets it float to South America, and he fills in the Grand Canyon. The result is that the United States declares war on Bugs Bunny and a $1,000,000 bounty is placed on his head. Then the armed forces attack and Bugs is placed in Alcatraz where he decides that he might have carried things too far. 

            In the fourth story, Bugs pops out of the ground at the greyhound racetrack and decides he wants a piece of the action. But after the race starts, Bugs sees that the dogs are chasing a cute female rabbit. Not realizing that it's a mechanical decoy rabbit, Bugs sets about to rescue her. He enters the track and comes up behind the last dog, beats him up, and ties his tail to the fence. He jumps on the second dog and guides him to crash into a wall. He hogties the next dog. Tackles another dog. Then he causes all the dogs to collide in a big pile. He sees the mechanical bunny come down the track and holds open his arms only to be knocked over, thinking that she's playing hard to get. Bugs lures almost all of the dogs off the track and into a taxi. He tells the cabby to take the dogs to the pound. There is one big, tough dog left. Bugs has him play fetch with a stick of dynamite. Then the dog charges like a bull while Bugs holds a red cloth. On the other side of the cloth is a fire hydrant and the dog hits his head and is knocked out. Bugs tries to stop the mechanical bunny on the track but it causes her to give off sparks. Bugs thinks those are the effects of love. 

            Before bed, I checked for bedbugs and just like a week ago when I was hoping to have made it a week without seeing one, behind a little protrusion in the wall a meter above the head of my bed, my toothpick smeared a little black one. I didn't see it moving and so it may have already died. Although I've uncovered a handful over the last month, I haven't found any with fresh blood inside since June 25.

July 25, 1992: I hadn't gotten much stuff moved to the new place so far

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday I go up around 7:30, had breakfast, and got set up for my sidewalk sale. I made more stuff for making big floating bubbles to attract attention. I sold the last Mussahjr Sunin books, all of my Architectural Digests, and some National Geographics and made about $15. I drank the last of the beer. I got lots of work done but I hadn't gotten very much stuff moved to the new place so far. I was working on an interesting collage. Tom Smarda called to announce that he was back in town and that he, Nathalie, and Yukon might drop by on Sunday as they would be checking out the jazz festival.

Bugs Hardaway

            On Saturday morning I finished memorizing “Strike” by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords but no one had posted them and so I worked them out for the intro, the chorus, and part of the first verse. 

            I had a pretty good song practice that made me feel like I could go out and perform these songs at a few open stages. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I went down to No Frills where I bought five bags of grapes, a pint of strawberries, a basket of Canadian nectarines, a pack of chicken drumsticks, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, three bags of skim milk, a carton of spoon-sized shredded wheat, and a container of skyr. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On O’Hara, several bins of books were being thrown out. They were mostly self help and new age books, but I took Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote, Birds of Toronto by Gerald McKeating, and a collection of Oscar Wilde quotes. When I got to Yonge and Bloor a truck convoy was heading down Yonge Street blasting its horns. I don’t know how long the convoy was because I got ahead of it, but the horns were extremely obnoxious. I can just imagine having had to live in Ottawa a few months ago when the big convoy was there. Apparently this was in support of Dutch farmers who they claim are oppressed by new emissions laws. 

            In front of Old City Hall the woman who preaches there said she hopes that climate change is not someone’s agenda but suggested that it may be the wrath of god. She said she’s heard that the universe is heating up. Apparently it is heating up but that’s in space. There’s no connection between Earth’s global warming and universal warming. Our heat isn’t coming from space, other than the sun. The sun is also getting hotter but that’s not the cause of global warming either. The sun is getting minutely hotter over millions of years. Global warming has happened in decades. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos at 17:22. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:21. 

            I reviewed the last three videos of me playing my song “Megaphor” from July 13-15. On July 13, the first time seemed pretty good but maybe slightly off at the end. The last time was not as good, and a bit fast, but okay. July 14 was okay but it was clear that I almost fumbled a couple of times. July 15 was the day my strap broke. After fixing it I had one so-so run through the song in which the B chord did not always feel like it was on the money. I looked through all the notes I’d made on these recordings and italicized all the ones that I didn’t say were definitely off. So there are seventeen videos to review again, which is about half of the recordings that I made of “Megaphor”. It might take about three days for me to go through those seventeen and narrow them down again to a handful of the best. 

            I made pizza on my last roti with the last of my marinara sauce, a cut-up beef burger, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1949. 

            The first story was one of those “wrong turn at Albuquerque” episodes in which Bugs winds up having tunneled a ridiculously long distance in the wrong direction. This time he has aimed for Miami but ends up in the Antarctic. He says Mr. Warner gave him a two-week vacation and he’s only got four days left. The first living creature he encounters is a little penguin and pursuing the penguin is an Inuit. It seems hard to believe that with all of the people involved in producing this cartoon, not one of them mentioned that there are no Inuit in the Antarctic. Or maybe they knew and didn’t care. The penguin attaches itself to Bugs and in trying to get rid of it he causes the bird to be captured by the hunter. So Bugs sets about to rescue his new friend. He dresses in drag as an Inuit woman to distract the hunter while he lets the penguin go. The hunter gives him a big fish and Bugs hits him with it. The hunter chases Bugs onto the edge of an ice cliff that collapses and they fall together. The penguin throws a bucket of water after them and it freezes to connect them again to the solid part of the cliff. Bugs reaches the surface below and the Inuit jumps down after him but falls through the ice to the ocean where he is caught on the water coming out of the blowhole of a whale and carried away. Bugs wonders what he’s going to do with only four days vacation left. The penguin tells him the days are six months long there. 

            In the second story, Elmer Fudd is using a rabbit detector, that looks like a Geiger counter, to locate a rabbit. But Bugs starts communicating through the device and guides Elmer over a cliff. Elmer pursues Bugs with a shotgun but Bugs runs to the highway and flags down a car. He doesn’t realize until they are underway that the driver is Elmer. Bugs runs into an enormous theatre. Elmer chases Bugs into the seats. But Bugs does drag as an old lady and tells the usher that Elmer is annoying her. Elmer is tossed out but he comes back. The screen shows a message for Elmer Fudd to report to the box office, but the message waiting for him is a pie in the face. Elmer gets tossed out again after Bugs switches the “women” and “men” signs on the washrooms. On his way back in he gets trampled by a stampede of theatre-goers on their way to smoke at intermission. Then he gets trampled again when they are on the way back as they see the "curtain" sign. This happens several times because Bugs is controlling the signs. Finally an usher with Bugs Bunny’s voice greets Elmer and guides him a long way through the darkness. The lights come on but Elmer is unknowingly wearing dark glasses and still can’t see. He is seated on a unicycle on top of a very high pedestal. Onstage, Bugs is announcing that Elmer is going to ride the unicycle down a cable and into a lion’s mouth. And that’s what happens. Elmer is swallowed by a lion without even knowing it and that’s the end. 

            In the third story Bugs is a barker for a Vaudeville show and the star act is Fearless Freep the high diver. But just as the show is about to start, Bugs gets a telegram saying that Freep is delayed by bad weather. Yosemite Sam insists that he sees a high diving act or else and so he forces Bugs up the ladder while following him all the way. When they are on the diving board Bugs asks Sam to close his eyes while he puts on his bathing suit. While he does so Bugs spins the diving board around so that when Bugs jumps off he lands on the platform while Sam walks away into a high dive. Sam makes Bugs climb up again and this time when Bugs jumps on the board he flips the other end causing Sam to fly over him into another high dive. Once again Sam forces Bugs up but then he can’t see him. He then sees that Bugs is upside down on the board but Bugs says, “I’m not upside down, you are.” Then Sam looks over his head and sees the water bucket below and falls. Sam climbs back up and Bugs dares him to step across a line. He does so and falls. Sam climbs again but now there is a door. Sam runs to bust it down; Bugs opens it and Sam falls. Sam climbs up and falls down a few more times. Finally Sam ties Bugs up on the diving board and saws the diving board to detach it from the platform so Bugs will fall. But when he’s finished the platform falls and the diving board stays in the air. Bugs says, “I know this defies the law of gravity, but I never studied law.” 

            In the fourth story, Bugs is back in Medieval times and is challenged to a joust. He is knocked from his tiny horse several times. By half time Bugs has been beaten but after that he starts to outsmart the knight in the usual Bugs Bunny way. He causes him to hit himself with a mace and then a club. He gets inside the knight’s armour with him and sticks him in the ass with a pin. The knight comes with reinforcements, Bugs builds a metal tank-covering for his horse. They charge at each other and there is a loud crash. In the end we see Bugs running a used armour lot. Bugs Bunny’s name was taken from that of the animator Ben “Bugs” Hardaway, but shortly after they used his name, Hardaway started working for Walter Lantz for whom he helped to create Woody Woodpecker. He wrote or co-wrote most of the Woody Woodpecker stories between 1940 and 1950 and he did Woody’s voice between 1944 and 1949. This is considered by many to be Woody Woodpecker’s golden age. While with Lantz he wrote “Scrub Me Mama With a Boogie Beat” which was pulled because of complaints from the NAACP about black stereotypes. 

            For the sixth night in a row I found no bedbugs before bed. It’s been months since I made it through a full week, so here’s hoping.