On Saturday morning I finished memorizing "Suicide" by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords but none were posted and so I worked them out for about half of the intro.
I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. That's the lightest I've been in the morning in at least two weeks.
In the late morning, I went down to No Frills where I bought a watermelon, five bags of cherries, a pack of strawberries, a carton of spoon-size shredded wheat, a bag of kettle chips, and a container of skyr.
I weighed 85.8 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. After I got home, I went over to the liquor store to buy a six-pack of Creemore, but I couldn't find one. I asked an employee and she said that Creemore didn't deliver this week. I asked her for similar alternatives, and she said nothing is really like Creemore but the closest might be Absent Landlord. I said I like the name. She said, "Don't we all?" She also suggested Helles Lager and Lug Tread, so I got two cans of Absent Landlord, three of Helles Lager, and one of Lug Tread.
I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:00. Again, that's the lightest I've been at that time in at least two weeks. Maybe it's the heat.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:00.
I reviewed eight videos of me playing "Le Temps des Yo-Yo" and my translation "Time of the Yo-Yo". For "Le Temps des Yo-Yo", on June 14, the pop blocker was up to my chin and the chords were sometimes dull and buzzy; on June 17, the pop blocker was still up to my chin but not as much and I was still off centre. Musically, this was okay but a little short on the G chord; on June 19 the take that starts at 6:15 is not too bad; June 21 was one of the days when the audio recording crackled. That's okay because some of the chords were a bit dull anyway.
For "Time of the Yo-Yo" on June 15 the pop blocker was still up to my chin but I was better centred in the room, and this take was really not bad at all; on June 16, the pop blocker was still up to my chin and I was off centre, but musically this was okay. I probably played it better on the 15th but I sang it better here; on June 18 the pop blocker was not up to my chin and I was well centred. My playing was not bad. My singing was expressive and I played the G a little better; June 20 was the best so far.
In the Movie Maker project for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I started inserting short clips of lightning strikes in the midst of our slow instrumental, trying to correspond them with changes in the music. So far it looks pretty good.
I finished sorting through the seventh file folder of my writing. Next, I want to divide the poetry I wrote between 1993 and 2000 into two folders. The problem is how to discern between the poems to know which ones were written in the early nineties and which in the late nineties. One indicator is that I didn't get a computer and a printer until 1996 and so anything done with a printer would be from that year on. But I still did handwriting after that year and still do now. For a while, I had a typewriter, and I don't think I typed anything with it after 1996. Some things are hand printed and others are done in cursive. I think that I hand printed some pages so other people could read them at the Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy open stage. I'll have to divide the pages up along those lines and see if I recognize a chronological, distinction between the handwritten pages and the cursive.
I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread, with Basilica sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a can of Absent Landlord. It's not bad but it's lighter tasting than Creemore and not as good. I ate while watching four Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1955.
In the first story, a kindly gentleman comes to the park every day to feed Bugs Bunny a carrot. One day Bugs suggests to him that he just take him home and make him his pet. The man says that would make him very happy. As they approach his home, the man says, "Funny you should call me "doc" because I am a doctor, and then we see the sign above the door that reads, "Doctor Jekyll." Once they are inside, Jekyll goes to get Bugs a carrot, but in his lab, he feels tempted to drink a concoction that he's created. When he drinks it he turns into a green monster. Meanwhile, Bugs sits at the piano and plays the music that is displayed on the shelf, which happens to be Chopin's "Minute Waltz." Mr. Hyde approaches Bugs, who looks at him and tells him, "It's about time you came to see the doctor!" Hyde attacks Bugs with an ax and Bugs runs but then Hyde changes back to Jekyll. Bugs never sees the transformations, but they happen frequently. He keeps thinking he's safe with the doctor until there is another metamorphosis. Bugs decides to leave but Jekyll promises to throw away his concoction. He discovers that the container is empty. He asks Bugs if he drank it but Bugs is insulted and leaves. In the park, Bugs turns into a green rabbit monster and the sight of him scares away some old ladies, but in this case, he still has Bugs Bunny's mind and wonders why everybody is frightened.
In the second story, Bugs is sitting under a hair dryer drying his ears and reading about the age of knights when he is hit over the head with an apple. Suddenly Bugs is in ancient times and confronted by an arrogant knight in armour who introduces himself as "Sir O of Kay, Earl of Watercress, Sir Osis of The Liver, Knight of the Garter, and Baron of Worcestershire." Bugs asks if he knows his friends, the Duke of Ellington, Count of Basie, Earl of Hines, Cab of Calloway, and Satchmo of Armstrong. The knight never heard of them but calls them "upstarts and rogues". Bugs is insulted and challenges the knight, asking for a weapon to fight with. The knight lets Bugs have his sword but it is so heavy that he can't budge it. Instead, Bugs trips the knight's horse and sends the knight flying into a castle. Bugs is then attacked by a fire-breathing dragon, but he sprays the monster's throat with seltzer and puts out the flame, so the dragon whimpers and runs away. Bugs looks for someone who can tell him where he is and how to get out and comes across a tower with a sign that reads "Merlin of Monroe". Inside he meets Merlin who wears a beanie with a propeller and demonstrates his sorcery by turning Bugs into a pig. But it seems to be merely a pig suit because Bugs unzips it and steps out. Bugs gets hold of some of the magic powder and throws some at Merlin, transforming him into a donkey. Merlin unzips the donkey costume but underneath he is still a donkey. This continues through several unzippings as Bugs walks away. Bugs sees an apple on a table and decides to try throwing it up and having it land on his head. He returns to his own time and thinks his adventure was all a dream until he sees a donkey with a beanie on his head and a farmer calling it Merlin.
The third story is similar to the one in which Daffy Duck was being manipulated by a cartoonist who turned out to be Bugs Bunny. In this case, Bugs Bunny is the victim. The usual scenery is drawn but Bugs's hole is drawn in the sky so that when he climbs out of it he falls. Bugs sees who is drawing the carton and he says he wants no part of it. He tries to dive down his hole but it is erased. Bugs can't escape because he and his environment are manipulated at every turn. Suddenly the landscape is upside down and Bugs has to climb to reach his hole but an anvil is tied to him and he falls to a highway where a vehicle is approaching. He escapes but then his head is erased and replaced by a pumpkin. He finally gets a rabbit's head back but with human ears. He gets put into more precarious situations until finally, Bugs says, "There's one way out and you can't stop me!" He jumps and pulls down the "The End" sign. Then we see that the cartoonist is Elmer Fudd, who says he finally got back at that rabbit.
The above was animated by Ben Washam, who worked for Warner Brothers from 1936 to 1963. He worked there for Chuck Jones and when Jones was fired he worked for him at MGM, where he directed some of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. He designed the character of Big Boy for Bob's Big Boy restaurant chain. Starting in 1967 he began teaching free animation classes from his home. Many of his students went on to lead the Silver Age animation revival, including Eddie Fitzgerald who became the layout artist for Ren and Stimpy.
The fourth story is set in the Roman Empire in 54 A.D. The emperor is Nero, and his captain of the guard is Yosemite Sam, still speaking in a southern United States accent. They are in the coliseum and it's a packed house as everyone is waiting for a victim to be thrown to the lions. Nero is told they are out of victims and so Sam is ordered to go and find one. he finds Bugs Bunny, who still has his Brooklyn accent. Sam chases him into the Coliseum, past the lion cages. One of the lions roars at Sam and he hits it over the head with a club. Bugs opens the cage and Sam is attacked. Bugs escapes into the lions' holding area and they are all sleeping. He tiptoes across and climbs out but as Sam is tiptoeing across, Bugs lowers an alarm clock and wakes the lions. Up above, Bugs is on the other side of the lion pit. Sam uses stilts to try to get across, but Bugs drops saws and axes down and the lions use them to chop and saw Sam down to them. Bugs escapes from Sam again but this time he runs out into the middle of the arena. The lions are released but they all run and jump to where Sam and Nero are.
I did a search for bedbugs and when I poked my toothpick into a crack in the plaster on the right side of the frame of the old exit door at the head of my bed, a small one fell like a fleck of dirt to the floor. It may have been dead already. Its insides were dry and rusty as it had not fed on my blood in a while.
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