I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded the whole session. I got through “Megaphor” without any major mistakes but then did it again just to be sure. I made it through all the main verses of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on the first try but then fumbled on the epilogue which I play approximately to the tune of the Merle Travis song “Sixteen Tons.” I didn’t go through the whole song again but spent some time repeating that last part.
I weighed 84.8 kilos before breakfast.
Around midday I went down to No Frills. On the way, I mailed my annual form to reapply for the Toronto Housing Allowance. I filled it out a few days ago and kept putting it in my backpack to mail when I passed a mailbox during my bike rides, but I kept forgetting about it while riding. Then I would take it out of my backpack and put it with my money so I would remember next time and then I would carry it and forget to mail it again. This time I remembered. The deadline for sending it is a month from now anyway. At the supermarket, I bought five bags of grapes, Sunlight dish detergent, dental floss, marinara sauce, skim milk, a jug of orange juice, a container of skyr, and a pack of paper towels.
I weighed 84.9 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of raspberry lemonade.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:00.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:00.
I uploaded this morning’s videos of my song practice. I think the second run-through of “Megaphor” was pretty good. The main part of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” was good but I really need to work on the epilogue.
I briefly reviewed all of the audio recordings of my song practices since June 9, and only two of the Ableton files have crackling in them. In my goal of having a solid thirty recordings to pick through, I could stop on July 12, but I might just go until July 15 to be sure.
I downloaded a YouTube video featuring the special electrical effects for movies by Kenneth Strickfaden. He did the effects for films such as Frankenstein and Metropolis. I think that will provide the clip I need for the line “start at three-tenths of a second at ten or twenty volts” from my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” in the video I’m making for the song. I imported it to Movie Maker and converted it to AVI, then I imported that file into my project and started cutting out the parts I don’t need. I should have a clip ready to insert in my video tomorrow.
I finished going through the last file folder of my writing. I threw away about twenty handwritten journal entries that I know are already digitized. There were a few pages of other people’s writing and among them was the long-lost original poem of “100 Hookers” by Cad Gold Jr. that inspired my song of the same name. He lost any copy he’d had of it in a fire in his old place at Bathurst and Davenport. Here it is:
“I got a 100 hookers in love with me
They’re so glad to see me
they all suck
my big dick for free
I come in their mouths
and they swallow it down
I got a 100 hookers in love with me
I eat all their pussies and they just love it
Sometimes they pay me
Ya I got a 100 hookers in love with me
They’re in love with me and they’re in love
with my big dick
I fuck them all, all night long and they
fuckn pay me
I got a 100 hookers in love with me
I got a 100 hookers in love with me
Copyright Cad Lowlife
P. Goldberg”
Next, I’ll start going through the folders again and separate the poems chronologically. I’ll also put all the poems by other people into one separate folder.
This morning I took a pack of ground beef out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge, but it was still solid at 17:00. I took it out to thaw at room temperature but by 19:00 it was still solid, so I put it in the oven at low temperature for about twenty minutes. Then I formed it into four patties and added olive oil, salt, pepper, and roasted garlic and herb mix. I had one of the patties for dinner on a toasted slice of Bavarian sandwich bread cut in half, with ketchup, Dijon, sliced pickle, and scotch bonnet sauce. I ate it with a beer while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1941.
In the first story, Elmer Fudd sees Bugs in a pet store window and buys him. He has a different voice than the later Bugs and instead of “Doc” he calls Elmer “Bub”. Elmer builds a pen for Bugs in the backyard and feeds him raw vegetables. Bugs is unhappy with the situation. He laments being in a cage when he could have been the Easter bunny. That evening Bugs is out in the cold, while after a nice leg of lamb, Elmer puts on soft music on the radio and sits down to relax and read the paper. Suddenly there is a loud knock on the door and Elmer answers. Bugs walks in, changes the radio to dance music, and turns all the lights on. When Elmer comes to grab him Bugs begins dancing with him and tells him he dances divinely. Elmer tosses Bugs back out in his cage. At bedtime, Elmer heads to take a shower but Bugs is there with a copy of “See” magazine and tells him to wait his turn. Elmer breaks into the bathroom and tosses Bugs out of the shower and into the bathtub. Bugs pretends to be drowning and then acts like he’s dead. Elmer feels horrible and asks, “What have I done?” Bugs gets up and tells Elmer to give him a good swift kick in the behind. Elmer reluctantly gives him a small kick and then Bugs says, “Of course you know this means war!” Elmer goes to his bedroom, switches on the light and Bugs is in his bed shouting “Turn off that light!” Elmer shuts it off obediently but then attacks Bugs and chases him out of his house. He barricades the door to keep him out, then he goes to bed, only to see Bugs in it again and shouting once more, “Turn off that light!”
The second story is somewhat racist towards Indigenous North Americans. We find Bugs relaxing by the shores of Gitchigumi and reading the story of Little Hiawatha. As he reads about Hiawatha hunting a rabbit, he realizes he is the rabbit. Meanwhile, a little Indigenous boy named Hiawatha canoes ashore and says he is going to catch a rabbit. He has a big pot and says he’s going to cook the rabbit in it. He takes his bow and arrow and follows rabbit tracks but they lead right back to his camp where Bugs is taking a bath in the pot. Hiawatha lights a fire under the pot and Bugs thinks that’s a great idea so he gets out to help gather wood. He gets back in the pot and enjoys it until he smells something cooking. He asks, “What’s cooking?” and the boy says “Rabbit.” Bugs says, “I sure do love rabbit!” but then screams “Rabbit!” and runs. Later the boy is preparing a rope and Bugs asks what he’s going to do with it. The boy says, “I’m gonna tie you up.” The boy ends up bound by the rope, and Bugs kisses him. Bugs dances around the boy in a mockery of an Indigenous dance which turns into a conga dance. The boy catches Bugs and has an arrow pointing at his head. Bugs jumps once to the side, then so does the boy; Bugs jumps twice to the side and so does the boy. Then Bugs jumps all over the place and then over a cliff to land on a tree limb just below the edge. The boy jumps after him but not safely on a tree limb and falls to the ground far below. Hiawatha breaks his bow then gets in his canoe and starts to paddle away while Bugs laughs. But then Hiawatha comes back and gives Bugs a big kiss before paddling away again.
This cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award.
In the third story, a hunting dog is hunting on his own when he finds a rabbit hole. The dog begins digging in the hole while Bugs comes out of another hole, looks down at the dog, and asks, “What’s up doc?” The dog says, “There’s a rabbit down here and I’m gonna catch him.” Bugs says, “Good luck Doc” and walks away. The dog chases him. They make faces at one another but while the dog gets carried away, Bugs hits him with a baseball bat and knocks him out. Bugs dives in the lake and the dog dives after him but hits a rock. There is an underwater chase and Bugs’s ears separate as they go around a rock. On land, Bugs goes into a hole in a tree and the dog reaches in after him. Bugs puts a tomato in the dog’s paw and the pooch crushes the tomato, thinking he’s crushed Bugs. The dog is full of remorse. The dog goes to put flowers down the rabbit hole and Bugs takes them and gives the dog a big kiss before going back down the hole. The dog angrily goes down after him but they are on a jutting cliff and he digs down into the open air. He treads air and makes it back up through the hole to the surface. The dog is relieved and walks away only to fall off the cliff. Bugs watches him fall and says he should have watched his step. Then Bugs walks away and falls through the hole. Bugs and the dog are falling together and screaming. The ground below is like a view from an airplane. It’s a long, panicking drop but at the last second Bugs and the dog slow down and land softly. Then Bugs says to the fourth wall, “Fooled ya didn’t we?” and the dog says, “Yeah!”
The fourth story begins with the opening credits but this time Bugs is walking in front of them and reading them. “What’s this? Animation, Charles McKimson; Musical Direction Carl W Stalling; Story Dave Monahan; Supervision, Fred Avery. Then he reads the title, “Tortoise Beats Hare” and he is offended. He says, “These guys are a bunch of joiks! I outta know, I woik for ‘em.” Bugs angrily tears away the credits and goes to the tortoise’s home. He knocks on his door and says, “You know I can beat you!” But little Cecil Turtle says “No.”
Bugs bets him $10 that he can beat him. Cecil accepts the bet. The race begins and Bugs takes off like a shot. Cecil walks to a phone booth and calls Chester turtle. Then several other turtles are called. Meanwhile, Bugs is way ahead and Cecil doesn’t pass him but then Bugs sees him ahead of him at several points along the way because several identical turtles are scamming him. At the finish line, the one he thinks is Cecil is already there and Bugs has to pay him $10. About ten turtles get $1 each.
Bugs Bunny and several other Looney Toons characters were voiced by Mel Blanc, who started out in radio at the age of 19 and became well known right away for his ability to voice a multitude of characters. Six years later he had his own show called Cobwebs and Nuts. He became a regular on the Jack Benny radio show, playing Jack’s frustrated violin teacher, the train station announcer, and many other characters. On Jack’s TV show he also played Sy the Mexican. In addition to Bugs Bunny, he was the voice of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, the original voice of Woody Woodpecker and his famous laugh, and Barney Rubble. He was also the voice of Toucan Sam in the Fruit Loops commercials. Blanc started smoking at age 9 and smoked a pack a day until the age of 77. He is considered to be the most prolific voice actor of all time.
It’s been six nights now that I haven’t found any bedbugs.
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