Nora Marlowe

            On Saturday morning I worked out the chords for the first verse of "Que tu es impatiente, la mort" (Death You're So Impatient) by Boris Vian. I also worked out the chords for the first verse of "Lulu" by Serge Gainsbourg. I suspect that the rest of the verses are the same and that it's just a matter of positioning them with the different lyrics. 

            I recorded song practice while playing the electric guitar like yesterday but I made a lot more mistakes this time. I got through "Megaphor" fairly quickly with no major errors and breezed through "The Time of the Yo-Yo", but I spent most of the memory card on "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" without coming up with a good take. Sometimes retakes just bring more stupid mistakes that don't occur during the first try. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of cherries, two packs of strawberries, a bag of potatoes, a pack of chicken drumsticks, skyr, and a bag of kettle chips. The cashier said, "You must really like cherries!" I said they're a perfect snack for sitting in front of the computer. She said, "I guess that's true". 

            When I got home I went back out to buy a six-pack of Creemore. There were a lot of empty shelves at the liquor store and I asked the cashier why. She explained they were rearranging the shelves back to the way the used to be and so they had to take everything off and put it on carts. She sounded frustrated by the process. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. I had Breton crackers with five-year-old cheddar. 

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

            I spent half an hour trying to chisel the amethyst out of the big rock and just expected to make a small amount of progress by knocking a few chips off. But suddenly the whole thing split in two, with the amethyst also coming apart into two sections. I worked on chiseling the slightly larger piece and found it much softer now. Now that I can see inside, I see the hard grey rock is just a small section that I might be able to knock off by chiseling the rust coloured softer rock it's attached to. 

 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 17:30, which is the lightest I've been at that time in 28 days. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:37. 

            I reviewed the video of my song practice this morning. One version of "Megaphor" might have turned out okay and "The Time of the Yo-Yo" but "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" was a write-off this time. 

            I finished editing the July 4, 2022 video of my performance of "Like a Boomerang", made it into a movie and uploaded it to YouTube.

            I reviewed the June 11, 2022 video of my performance of "Annie C's Aniseed Suckers" and at least one chord seemed off. 

            In the Movie Maker project for creating a video of my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I synchronized the concert video with the studio audio for my line, "Why don't we open our books ..." but then it goes out of sync for the rest of the line, "... to page thirty-four". So I added a clip from the 1926 German silent film Faust that shows the wind blowing open a burning book. For the next line, "and we'll all join together now to sing a prayer" I couldn't synchronize the first part and so I added another clip from Faust that shows the title character addressing an audience while holding a book and sweeping one arm out. Next I'll try to synchronize the video and audio at the point where I sing "prayer". After that there are just a few back and forth repetitions of "shock therapy" by Brian Haddon and I and then I'll need to figure out a dramatic conclusion to match my final extended shout and the heart-like drumbeat at the end. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 24 and 25 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Homer Bedloe is back in Hooterville this time to look at the financial books of the Cannonball for the purpose of finding them short so he can shut the line down. Charlie and Floyd often get paid in food, stock and produce and so Bedloe determines that they owe the railroad several chickens. But when he calls President Norman Curtis to tell him, Bedloe gets told again to leave the people in Hooterville alone. But then Bedloe hears Joe's scheme to drum up business for the Shady Rest by advertizing that there is a silver strike along the Cannonball line from Hooterville to Pixley. Bedloe is all for it because he knows that people that buy stakes so they can dig for silver will tear up the track and destroy the line. Kate melts down her dining room silver and plants it in the ground, then she has an assayer come to conclude that if the vein runs from Hooterville to Pixley it would be worth millions. Bedloe asks to buy the stakes back but Kate first makes him pay for new tracks and renovations to the Cannonball. President Curtis comes and makes Bedloe dig a hole and says it won't be deep enough until the ground feels warm. 

            In the second story a talent contest is being held with a $50 prize and a trip to Chicago for the next level of the competition. Joe wants all of his nieces to enter in hopes that one of them will win so he can be her chaperone to Chicago. Kate is reluctant to allow her girls to compete because she doesn't want them to fight, but when she learns that Charlie and Floyd, and several other people will be in the contest she doesn't worry as much and allows them to sign up. But then Joe goes to the other competitors and convinces them not to enter. He tells Charlie and Floyd that Kate doesn't want them to compete with her daughters. He tells Mrs. Whipple that her son Tad might leave for Hollywood if he wins and never come back. He tells Mabel Snark that the night of the contest there is a rich bachelors convention in Cloverdale. But then Kate discovers Joe's plan and reverses it, convincing the people Joe tricked to re-enter the contest. The night of the show there is a musical jug player, and Tad Whipple sings. Bobbie Joe sings the popular song "Three Little Words". Next Mabel Snark yodels but the actor playing her doesn't really. Then Billie Joe recites a segment of The Raven with sound effects by Floyd. There is a musical saw. Betty Joe dances to "Oh Susanna". Charlie and Floyd sing and play "The Fire of 58" which might be written by Smiley Burnette, who played Charlie. The girls catch themselves arguing and so they decide collectively to drop out of the competition. Tad wins. 

            Mrs. Whipple was played by Nora Marlowe, who appeared in seven episodes of "Law of the Plainsman", three episodes of "My Living Doll", seven times on Wagon Train, six times on Gunsmoke, 23 episodes of The Governor and JJ, twice on State Trooper, and 27 times on The Waltons.