Doodles Weaver

            On Saturday morning I worked out the chords to the sixth verse of "Que tu es impatiente la mort" (How Very Impatient is Death) by Boris Vian. There's only one verse left, so I might have that done tomorrow. 

            I played the Kramer electric guitar during song practice again and video and audio recorded the session. There are fourteen more sessions in this year's project as I'll do the last one on July 15. I think that over the last month I've recorded at least a few songs with the Martin acoustic that I can upload to YouTube and be satisfied with them enough to move on to new songs. I don't know if I've done anything good with the Kramer because I'm still struggling to know organically where the chords are on the different neck. Some songs like Megaphor sound potentially better on the electric but I don't know if I can sing and play them as well on the Kramer yet. We'll see. I made it through Megaphor and Sixteen Tons of Dogma in a couple of takes each. The camera battery ran out while I was attempting a second take of "Dancing to Baby Pop". 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            I would normally have gone to No Frills today but it was closed and that felt weird. 

            Around midday I finished scrubbing the residual glue off the area that was exposed when I ripped up the first tile next to the kitchen counter. I finally got it all off using a steel brush. Then I tackled the space that came out from under the next tile over. It will take at least another session to get the patches of glue that are remaining. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I didn't notice as much smoke in the air.

            I spent about half an hour chiseling what remains of my amethyst rock. What's left is about the size of a cereal bowl. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:51. 

            I reviewed the video of song practice that was recorded this morning. Everything I did felt like it was almost okay but a little off.

            I copied the Movie Maker project of my June 19, 2022 song practice and saved it as "Laisse tomber les filles". I shaved a bit of the echo off. I removed all the songs ahead of it and two false starts but there's still at least one dud before I get to the good take. I'll probably have it finished and maybe even have it uploaded to YouTube tomorrow. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 14 and 15 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story it's a stormy night and Joe comments to their guest Mr. Richardson that it's real Chester Farnsworth weather. He proceeds to tell the story of a former hotel guest and travelling salesman named Chester Farnsworth who collected towels from every hotel he stayed at. But after stealing a towel from the Shady Rest he disappeared. His ghost was seen at a YMCA in a nearby town trying to return a towel that he stole from his old room. His curse is that he has to return all of the towels he stole before his spirit can rest. The next day Mr. Richardson is checking out but feels an uncontrollable urge to steal a Shady Rest towel. The dog catches him. That night Kate hears gargling in the bathroom at midnight but when she knocks on the door the light goes off inside. She opens the door but there is no one in the room. Kate asks the advice of Doctor Stuart in Hooterville and he contacts a psychiatrist named Melman who has an interest in the supernatural. Melman advises Kate to remove the towel from room four so Farnsworth can replace it. The next morning there is a fifty year old towel on the rack. But Melman had a camera set up in the room and the picture shows Kate replacing the towel. She says she can't afford for the hotel to have a reputation of being haunted. She gives the towel to Melman and he leaves. But the next day another old towel is in its place. 

            Chester Farnsworth appears briefly in a flashback while Joe is telling Richardson his story. He was played by Doodles Weaver, who performed in clubs worldwide with manic routines about sports events. He narrated the Disney cartoon "Hockey Homicide". He joined Spike Jones's troupe in 1946 and developed a character called Dr, Feitlebaum. His routine involved mixing up words to songs as if he were myopic or dyslexic. He toured with Jones, appeared on his radio show, on records and on television. In his song "The William Tell Overture" his play by play horse race announcement is a famous piece with the repetition of the name "Beetlebaum". He did many "Day with Doodles" silent film shorts for television in the 1940s. He was an early contributor to Mad magazine. He played eccentric characters in several guest spots on TV series like Batman and The Monkees. He had a listed phone number because he loved to chat with his fans. He was Sigourney Weaver's uncle. He committed suicide with a gun at the age of 71. 

          

            In the second story Joe is receiving perfumed letters. Kate tricks him in his sleep into revealing they are from Mary Alice Perkins who stood him up at the altar to marry his best man. But now that man is dead and she's gotten back in touch. They decide by mail to renew their engagement and Mary Alice arrives. She rubs Kate the wrong way because she acts like she knows better about everything. A wedding is planned and the day before that her lawyer Boo Boo arrives to give her away. But she stands Joe up again and runs off with Boo Boo. Joe decides to enjoy the reception anyway.