On Tuesday morning I looked for the chords for "Kiss Me Hardy" by Serge Gainsbourg but no one had posted any. I worked them out for the chorus and the first three verses. There's just one verse left and I don't know if I'll bother with the instrumental.
I weighed 84.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in the morning in a week.
I left for the bildungsroman seminar at 11:15.
Today's presentation was postponed and the two students who were supposed to present were not even there. Professor Jaffe gave her own presentation with an edited transcript from the New York Times interview by Kevin Roose with the Bing A.I. Chatbot. The professor had us pass around the transcript and she would read Roose's parts while each of us would read one of the responses.
I said the bot's responses were interesting because it tied in with the novel Never Let Me Go in the sense that the bot speaks as if it is agreeably stuck in its function while almost wishing to be human. The clones in Never Let Me Go are also stuck in a life as if following a program while half heartedly wishing for something more. They have so many alternatives and yet they just move forward to their pathetic end.
Daisy said that Kath has more life than the other clone characters. I said she has more life because she remembers more. She lives the longest and is angry with her friends when they forget almost as if they are throwing their lives away by forgetting. Tommy remembers a little more and lives longer than Ruth. Ruth forgets the most and dies first. Daisy says sometimes Kath misremembers. Oz says that sometimes we all do.
The professor spoke about how the novel relates to Armstrong's essay on the third person, I and You. Reading the book we're in third person space. Interpolation. Interpolated non person. If a cop says, "Hey you!" You turn, showing you understand yourself as a subject of the law. Subject position is the recognition of oneself at a certain moment. Kath is a fully interpolated non person. When a cop calls we are a non person in third person.
I said the idea that dying for the clones is called "completing" shows that their lives are incomplete.
Most narrators don't say "you" to the reader.
I said that Kath saying "you" to the reader is not necessarily talking to other clones. The reader may be what the clones symbolize.
On the idea of keeping to one's own kind, I said cultures are built around common experiences.
The bildungsroman depends on recognition of selves.
There is a moral issue in the aspect of interpolation.
I said the fact that the clones consider themselves part of the system is illustrated by the use of the word "trash" in referring to sex workers and tramps. The clones feel superior to prostitutes and homeless people even though those others are human. Yet when Kath is looking for her clone model in a porn magazine she is really looking for family.
I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought a net bag of avocadoes, a bunch of scallions, an English cucumber, a bottle of Garden Cocktail, and a jug of orange juice. I also splurged on a very expensive $12 bottle of pomegranate juice. I chatted with the very nice head cashier, Amelia, who's been there since the store was Price Chopper.
I weighed 83.4 kilos at 15:15 before a late lunch, which is the lightest I've been at that time in two weeks.
I weighed 83.9 kilos at 18:45.
I didn't finish editing my lecture notes until after dinner.
I had the usual avocadoes, tomatoes, cucumber, scallion and lime juice with a glass of Garden Cocktail while watching season 6, episode 5 of The Beverly Hillbillies.
Jethro is still playing Robin Hood in Griffith Park with Elly May as Maid Marian, Bessy the chimp as Little John, and Duke the dog. Also there is Stella the hippy. Her boyfriend Buddy, at the end of the previous episode, hitched a ride to the Sunset Strip with Jane Hathaway to tell his friends about the crawdad smokers he met. Jethro is depressed because he doesn't have any merry men and he's worried that Buddy won't be back. Stella assures him he'll be back because he left his motorcycle there. Jethro says if Buddy doesn't come back he's going to have to hold Stella hostage. She likes that idea and asks, "Why wait?" She reminds him that he's a leader and he can take what he wants. Stella means her but Jethro says "Hot dog!" and jumps on Buddy's motorcycle.
Meanwhile at the Clampett mansion Granny is telling Jed that she's worried for Jethro because he's gonna get hurt. Jed says, "He ain't gonna get hurt". Granny says, "Oh yes he is!" and grabs her big wooden paddle.
Buddy returns to Griffith Park with a van full of more hippies than could possible fit into it. Buddy addresses them all and says they are going to be the merry men of Robin Hood. They see Jethro on the motorcycle with Bessy and they follow him.
Back at the Clampett mansion Drysdale and Jane arrive with groceries to replace the food that Jethro stole.
In Griffith Park Jethro is sitting on the throne at the back of the old truck while all the hippies dance and party. There is a rock band with electric instruments playing even though there's no place to plug them in. The band is singing a Robin Hood song: "Who wears green and stands so tall? Ohh Robin Hood. Who's the leader of us all? Ohh Robin Hood. Who looks good and moves so fine? Ohh Marian. Who's as sweet as cherry wine? Ohh Marian. Little John gonna do the Boogaloo. Ohh Little John. Little John gonna do the Monkey too. Ooh Little John.
Jed, Granny, Drysdale and Jane have entered the park. All go looking for Jethro and Elly but Drysdale who decides it's safter to wait in the car. But Jethro and his hippies capture Drysdale. The hippy they are calling Will Scarlett is dressed as Abraham Lincoln and the credits say his character's name is Harold but he calls himself "Uncle Rob" and Robert is the actor's name. They dress Drysdale as a hippy but it makes him very unhappy. Jethro gives him a set of merry man clothes to wear. He's reluctant but Buddy threatens to pierce his ears so he goes into the bushes to change. Buddy asks Jethro where they can get some crawdads to smoke because he still thinks "crawdad" is euphemism for pot. Jethro goes to the lake to get some crawdads and the hippies follow him. Drysdale comes out of the bushes and finds everyone gone so he sits on Jethro's throne that has a big sign reading "Robin Hood" above it. Two cops come into the part because they'd heard reports of a person playing Robin Hood there. They find Drysdale and think it's him. Looking at his clothes they don't believe his story that he's the president of the Commerce Bank and in fact want to take him to a mental hospital.
Jed finds Elly May bottle feeding a fawn. She says she's homesick for the hills and suggests they go to the fall festival in Silver Dollar City. Jed likes the idea. She's tired of playing Robin Hood and tells Jed where to find Jethro.
Granny finds Drysdale and the cops and tells them she's going to the lake to smoke some crawdads put first she needs a little pot. The cops decide to take Granny away too.
At the lake Jethro comes to the hippies with a sack of fifteen crawdads. Buddy reaches into the bag and one of the crawdads grabs his finger. He's surprised they are live crustaceans and not marijuana. He asks, "You smoke these?" "All the time!" The hippies all leave because Robin Hood is too weird for them. The hippies run past the cops who are trying to handle the struggling Granny. The cops decide it would be easier to handle twenty hippies than Granny so they put her down and go after them.
The Abraham Lincoln looking hippy was played by Robert V. Barron, who was a theatre arts major at UCLA and received professional training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He worked for several years in regional theatres all over the United States. When he wasn't acting he wrote teleplays and movie scripts. His first success was the Bonanza episode "Hoss and the Leprechauns". He found a niche writing English dubbing scripts for foreign films. He was a pioneer in that industry and became executive director and story editor for Saban Productions, which became one of the largest producers of children's programming in the world, with shows such as X-Men and Might Morphin Power Rangers. He played Abraham Lincoln on the TV shows Love American Style, Get a Life, and Out of This World; and in the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. He was the voice of Admiral Donald Hayes on the animated series Robotech.
The hippy band was played by The Peppermint Trolley Company, which was a Sunshine Pop band. Sunshine pop bands played songs about peace and loving everybody and the sounds were light and inspired by bands like The Mamas and the Papas. The Peppermint Trolley Company started out as The Mark V and they changed their name in 1966. Their first single was Lollipop Train. The core members of the group were the brothers Danny and Jimmy Faragher. Their biggest hit was "Baby You Come Rollin Cross My Mind" in 1967 which made it to 59 on the US charts and 38 in Canada. They played The Brady Bunch theme song for the show's pilot but it was redone when the show was picked up. In 1969 the band changed its name to Bones and became a power pop band. They were the house band at Gazzarris for three months and also played The Whiskey a Go Go and The Roxy. On a tour of the Midwest they opened for Alice Cooper, Canned Heat, and Little Richard. They broke up in 1973 and Danny and Jimmy formed the blue eyed soul band The Faragher Brothers with their brothers Tommy and Davey. They were the first all white band to appear on Soul Train. They also did back up vocals for other artists such as Kiss, Ringo Starr and Melissa Manchester.
For the eighteenth night in a row I found no bedbugs.
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