Ellen Burstyn

            On Tuesday morning I dreamed I was employed by a mob boss who decided to shoot me in the stomach. We were in a parked car and he was in the driver's seat. We were both wearing those big, thick mobster suits with hats like in old movies. I knew he was going to shoot me and I didn't try to stop him because it was my job to do what I was told. He held the gun up to my stomach and repeatedly fired, more times than a pistol would have bullets. He seemed to enjoy it. I wanted to die but he kept firing and I was still alive. It didn't hurt that much. 

            I also had a dream recently about being bigger than the planet Jupiter and as I was passing it I dipped my middle finger into the eye of the permanent hurricane that swirls above it. I was surprised that it was elastic and liquid at the same time as I pressed down. 

            The radiators were still a bit warm from me having turned on the heat for about an hour late last night. It was cold outside but I felt warm during yoga and song practice. 

            There's a woman who walks up Dunn Avenue every morning to get a coffee and pastry at the Capital. The walk looks like an ordeal for her as she seems to be in pain, perhaps in her ankles. She often looks like she is losing her balance and sometimes stops to catch herself on a post or pole. But when I see her walking back down Dunn Avenue with her coffee in one hand and a little paper bag in the other, she doesn't have nearly as much trouble. 

            I memorized the first verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished posting my translation of "Lavabo" by Serge Gainsbourg, (Literally "Wash Basin" but I changed it to "Toilet Bowl." I memorized the first verse of his song "J'envisage" (I Imagine). 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I've been in the morning in three weeks. 

            I spent more time researching Chiac vernacular for my English in the World essay. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride, but it started sprinkling as I was riding up Brock Avenue. I took Bloor eastbound but it was starting to rain by the time I got to Ossington, and so I turned south and went home. I'd only been out for about half an hour. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 16:30. 

            Professor Walton posted a link to her private Zoom room at 17:45 but it didn't open until 18:10.              We were introduced to our TA Alex Bauer. She's studying Female Transgression in Old English Literature and Witchcraft. She has worked at the ROM in the bat cave for many years. 

            For the first part of the class, we were broken off into groups to discuss what directors we thought could make a good adaptation of Beowulf. I was in a group with three others and I mentioned that I really like Terry Gilliam but he might have passed his peak. I thought Peter Jackson would be a good choice and New Zealand would be a great location. I think that they also need to use a better translation, and lean more heavily on alliteration. After we were all in the main class again we spent a surprising amount of time on this topic. 

            Someone said Guillermo del Toro could design a good Grendel. 

            The professor had a lot of praise for Pan's Labyrinth. 

            Someone mentioned Jordan Peele. 

            Almost every group had come up with Peter Jackson. 

            The professor asked for collaborations between directors and someone mentioned one between Jackson and del Toro. 

            A peasant disturbed the dragon's gold, and so a marginalized person changes the direction of the story. 

            We were asked to think of these collaborations in regard to certain scenes and with line numbers. I couldn't think of anyone. 

            Beowulf came out around the year 1000, but maybe it was composed much earlier. 

            I said that it really sounds like it came from an oral tradition of stories told in mead halls from before Christian times and that later when the missionaries wrote the story down, Christian elements were écrited on. It was written in a monastery along with a collection of texts that fill in the gap in Christian history for Britain. 

            Is Judith a monster. I said she's cowardly. I said the story reminds me of the story of how Odysseus defeated the cyclops Polyphemus by getting him drunk. Alex pointed out that Holofernes gets himself drunk in this story. There are discrepancies with the bible. There are many versions of Judith but only one of Beowulf. 

            The professor compared the poem, Beowulf, to an elaborate brooch of that era. It is symmetrical and has monsters in the design. It rewards a close look. 

            The dragon's gold was cursed but taken anyway. Maybe the curse is gone if the dragon dies.

            There are two funerals. One in fire and one in water. Interludes echo each other. Concentric jewelry. There are also two funerals in songs in the middle. Why is Siegmond's funeral story told at a feast? Is it a warning? Beowulf had just beaten Grendel. He is overcome by pride. Perhaps it is a prelude to Beowulf's own death. The story of Finn is another burial. Some say Beowulf is structured around four funerals. 

            Beowulf's family sent him to Hrothgar. His Uncle Heorot is maybe not a great person. Beowulf gives his team credit while talking to Uncle Heorot, and gratifies his uncle's self-interest. The fight with Grendel is retold by Beowulf. 

            We finished the class about twenty minutes early. But we didn't even take a break and so I was late getting dinner cooking. I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork while watching episode 29 of Ben Casey. 

            The story begins with a crap game. A guy that doesn't look well is winning big until he has $8000. He says he's sick and wants to stop but the guy he's beaten wants a chance to win his money back. There is a fight and the player is knocked out. At the hospital, it is discovered that he has smallpox and so a city-wide emergency is called. Everyone at the hospital is vaccinated. The player is unconscious and so they can't get any information from him to track his movements in order to know who he has infected. Casey determines that he needs surgery to relieve pressure on his brain before he can talk. They can't leave the ward and so they have to operate there. 

            There are two new interns but one of them is scared of Casey and it makes him clumsy. Casey gives Dr. Leslie Fraser the key position of assisting him during surgery but she asks Casey to give Dr. Thomas Potter a chance. He does and he works out fine. 

            One of the patients in quarantine is a dying man. His son comes to see him but he is not admitted and so he breaks down the door to be with him in quarantine until he passes. 

            After the surgery, the patient can finally say his name is Matt Kelly and that he is from Hong Kong. He tells Casey which flight he arrived on. After some coaxing, he can finally identify a sign in the taxi that read, "Do unto others before they do unto you." That narrows things down enough to vaccinate everyone involved. 

            Leslie Fraser was played by Ellen Burstyn, who went to school for a few years at St Mary's Academy in Windsor, Ontario. That was her first acting experience at the age of six when she played Little Miss Muffet. She became a dancer and model and danced on the Jackie Gleason Show. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 and joined the Actor's Studio in 1967. She appeared on several TV series in the 60s. She appeared nude in the first film adaptation of Tropic of Cancer. She won a Tony for Same Time Next Year. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in The Last Picture Show. She co-starred in The King of Marvin Gardens. She was nominated for an Academy Award for The Exorcist and also permanently injured her back during filming. She finally won an Oscar for her performance in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. She was nominated again for Same Time Next Year. She hosted Saturday Night Live in 1980. She was nominated for an Oscar again for Resurrection. In 1986 she starred in the sitcom The Ellen Burstyn Show. She received another Oscar nomination for Requiem for a Dream. She starred in the TV series That's Life. She is one of the few to win the triple crown of acting: an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy. 

            I searched for bedbugs, hoping I'd make it to eight days, but in the last place I looked, above the baseboard at the foot of my bed, I ran my toothpick over a black speck and smeared it into a bright red streak. It had obviously recently fed upon me.