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.