Ian Wolfe

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the first line of "Que tu es impatiente, la mort" (Death You're So Impatient) by Boris Vian. I also worked out the chords for the chorus of "Lulu" by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played the electric guitar for my recording of song practice. I was surprised that it was perfectly in tune when I started and still seemed okay at the end. It's weird because the Kramer went out of tune a few times during the last few sessions. I got through "Megaphor" and "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" without any major chord screw ups. I decided not to redo them even though maybe I could have done a better take. But quite often that doesn't happen and I just get frustrated or too much in my head. I did several retakes of "La bas c'est natural" and did indeed get too much in my head until the last take.

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            My upstairs neighbour Shawn knocked on my door and wanted to visit so I invited him in. He was studying for a Social Work test he'd be taking online later and wanted to take a break. He's studying at Humber College. I told him I've worked at Humber as a model. He was surprised that my work was mostly nude. He was here for about an hour so I didn't get any work done on gluing the boards I cut to fill the depression in the kitchen floor. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I spent half an hour with the hammer and chisel chipping away at the rock encasing my amethyst. It's a slow process. At one point King from apartment 2 came out on the deck and commented that it was beautiful. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:23. 

            I reviewed the video I shot this morning. My final take of "Megaphor" might be okay. I got one chord wrong in the ending of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" but it doesn't sound unpleasant. 

            I started a project in Movie Maker for part B of my July 4, 2022 song practice and synchronized the mic audio with the video. I saved it as "Like a Boomerang" and cut off the beginning of part B up until just before the song starts. I'll probably have it ready to upload to YouTube tomorrow if not uploaded.

            In the Movie Maker project for creating a video for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I finished editing the clips I wanted from the 1926 silent German movie Faust. The part where Faust is holding a big book over his head while surrounded by rising rings of fire is followed by lightning. But I cut it up so bits of the lightning are intermixed with the rings of fire scene. Beginning with lightning and alternating the lightning with the fire rings I inserted those clips into the main video to correspond with the phrase "current literature". The next line is "Why don't we open our books to page thirty four". I'll try to re-synchronize the concert video with the studio audio for that line. If that doesn't work or only partially fits I already have another clip from Faust ready to insert of a burning book with the pages turning in the wind.

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 1, episodes 22 and 23 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story, when Kate isn't looking, Joe accepts payment for a room at the hotel in five paint by numbers kits instead of cash. He sets about to paint the first one which is supposed to be a sailboat on the waves. But he gets the colours wrong and doesn't paint in the lines. The boat looks like it's stuck on a mountain. He puts his painting in an old frame and mounts it on the wall behind the front desk. Everybody hates it but when one guest named Cheever sees it he recognizes that the frame is a rare antique worth $200. He flatters Joe to make him think it's the painting he wants and they make a deal for him to buy the painting with the frame for $15. Kate thinks he should let Cheever know at such a high price that it's a paint by numbers painting but Joe offers to replace the old frame with what he considers to be a better one, so Kate is alright with that. The painting and frame is crated and Cheever leaves, not realizing he didn't get the frame he wanted. Joe now thinks he's an artist and organizes a show. He finishes the other four kits and a critic named Gibbs comes to look at them. He declares that Joe's paintings are a form of sadism and Joe is depressed. Then Cheever returns after realizing he got the wrong frame. He talks to Kate and now offers her $200 for the frame. She says it's a deal if Cheever pretends to buy the rest of Joe's paintings along with it. He agrees and puts on a show for Joe of buying his work but only under the condition that he not paint any more. 

            Gibbs was played by Ian Wolfe, who spent many years doing theatre before working on the screen. He appeared on Broadway in The Barretts of Wimpole Street and reprised that role in his first movie. He worked until into his nineties in hundreds of productions. He appeared as different characters in two episodes of the original Star Trek. His most famous part was as the butler Hirsch on WKRP in Cincinnati for which he was cast at the age of 85. He co-starred in George Lucas's THX 1138. He co-starred in the series Wizards and Warriors. He wrote and self published two books of poetry. 

            In the second story Betty Joe is in love for the first time, but everyone is disappointed that she's in love with Orville Miggs. Every day she goes to Hooterville to help him work on his hot rod. He likes Betty because she's a better mechanic than any boy he knows, but he's in love with his car. Her mother and her sisters persuade her to wear a dress and heels and to read love poetry to Orville but it has no effect. Finally a dance party is arranged and Joe forces Orville to come. At the party Joe also forces Orville to dance with Betty. Finally she kisses him and it's her first kiss but she wonders what she got so worked up about. After the kiss she realizes she's not in love with Orville and they immediately go back to being pals.