William Joyce

            On Wednesday morning I worked out the chords for the third verse of "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. I think the rest of the verses use the chords from the first three verses. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. There's only one verse left. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Kramer electric guitar. Kramers have a Floyd Rose tuning system that locks the strings in tune and it usually works. But today my high E string dropped down three times and I had to stop, unlock it, tune it and lock it again. I was halfway through part B of the camera's charge before it started staying in tune and so I only ended up with three completed songs on video. Most of the session was spent on Sixteen Tons of Dogma because of the tuning problem and because the tuning problem made me frustrated and caused me to make more mistakes. I got through it eventually. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            As I am advised to apply for grants before applying for the MA in Creative Writing I saw on the School of Graduate Studies website that I'm supposed to register with the Government of Canada Research Portal. I used my U of T email address and selected a strong password. I received a verification of my account by email but when I tried to log in I got a message that I had the wrong email or password. 

            I tried to call the Help Desk but got a message from Freedom Mobile that my account had been suspended. I went over to Freedom and paid for my September plan but when I got home it still said my account has been suspended. I went back to Freedom and the clerk said he'd made a mistake and charged me too little for my plan, so I had to pay an extra $5 and change but hadn't expected to and so I had to walk home again to get some cash. The guy admitted he'd made a mistake but didn't apologize. 

            I called the Help Desk and got through right away. The guy was very helpful but it took a while for him to find a solution to my problem. I had initially tried to register with my Gmail address and Google was remembering it and applying it despite me typing in my U of T address. I had to go to the portal in incognito mode, then he sent me a temporary password to use. That was successful but I didn't have time to change my password because I wanted to have lunch. I'll do that tomorrow and hopefully there will be no more problems. 

           Marguerite Perry still hasn't emailed me back to answer the questions about transcripts that I asked yesterday. I get the impression she finds me annoying. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. I had whole wheat crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

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

            I chiseled some more black quartz and amethyst from a piece of the rock that I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 17:35. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:50. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. Megaphor and Time of the Yo-Yo seemed to come through okay. I'm not sure about Sixteen Tons of Dogma. The ending wasn't horrible. 

            I downloaded a 1956 Frigidaire commercial, converted it to WMV and imported it into my "Sleep in the Snow" Movie Maker project. I edited it down to just showing Bess Myerson partially opening and closing the fridge and inserted it just before my line "But it takes a pretty big charge to refrigerate a bed of snow". Next I need to cut out enough of the clip so the concert video is synchronized with the studio audio. 

            I scanned a few of the loose, individually cut negatives that I dug from the bottom of a file folder in my photo drawer. There's a wide mix. One is from the mid 80s, another is a shot from my daughter's first Halloween, another is a naked self portrait of me aroused and trying to look sexy, and another is of my ex-girlfriend Brenda. It's time consuming scanning single frames because I have to remove the easel and mount the neg inside. Just running whole strips through is a lot quicker. I figure I'll do all the singles first and get them out of the way. 

            I made pizza on naan with basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 5, episodes 12 and 13 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Bobbie Joe tells Betty Joe that according to her psychology book in the first four weeks of marriage one partner will establish dominance over the other. Then Billie Joe announces that the three sisters have a chance to sing on the radio on Saturday. Betty doesn't think she should do it because she wants to share Saturdays with Steve. Bobbie says that's proof that Steve is dominant. Meanwhile Steve is talking with Joe and Sam who tell him hunting, fishing and playing cards are things of the past now that he's married. Steve wants to prove them wrong and so he agrees to play poker with them on Saturday night. Betty is upset and talks to her mother. Kate says she thinks Steve is a victim of male peer pressure and he'd really rather be with her. So Betty agrees to do the radio show. Steve shows up to play poker but hears that after the radio show the girls will be singing for a group of men. He leaves the card game and finds the girls singing for wounded air force men. Betty and Steve go home together. 

            In the second story Homer Bedloe returns and says he's there to supervise a prize race horse being transported on the Cannonball from Hooterville to Pixley. Then Mr. Rogers the owner of the horse checks in. But later Kate overhears Bedloe plotting with Rogers. Then Kate learns from Sam that the horse is not a prize racehorse but just a mangey old horse. She learns from Floyd that Bedloe has insured the horse for $10,000. Then she reads from the freight manual that anything worth more than $1000 being transported on a train must be accompanied by a baggageman at all times. At this point Kate realizes Bedloe's plot. Now that Charlie is gone, with Floyd also serving as engineer he can't be in the baggage car while driving the train. The only other person in the valley who knows how to drive the Cannonball is Betty Joe, but Steve doesn't want her to do masculine things anymore. He wants to see her in a pretty dress when he comes home from work. That sounds fucked up. So Kate finds an alternative solution. The horse is not transported on the Cannonball. Joe rides the horse to Pixley.

            Rogers was played by William Joyce, who got into acting, writing and producing in the army. His first movie was as a dancer in Top Banana. He had also appeared in the theatrical version on Broadway. He played the lead role in a television version of Johnny Guitar. He starred in the zombie movie I Eat Your Skin. He was a lifetime member of the Actors Studio.

August 31, 1993: If I wasn't in transit or working I didn't write in my diary

Thirty years ago today

            I was a month behind on this diary, which is a clear indication that I didn't work on this date. When I was posing for artists or in transit to and from a studio or school there was almost always time to write in my journal. When I was just hanging out at home I tended to forget about my diary and worked on other writing projects.

Dick Wilson

            On Tuesday morning I memorized the fourth verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg and made some adjustments in my translation.

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Kramer electric guitar for the first time after four sessions with the Martin acoustic. As usual playing a different guitar after a few days took some getting used to and I fumbled on some of the chords that I wouldn't on the acoustic. I think most of the songs came out all right on the audio playback. I really like the noise reduction effect as it takes away the hum from my amp when the reverb is turned up. With all the retakes I didn't get as many songs on video as usual. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I spent more than an hour around midday reading about how to apply for the Master of Arts in Creative Writing at U of T. I registered with the School of Graduate Studies but the program won't have an application available for another month. I ordered my transcripts but they cost $18 and the only option for payment seems to be by credit card, which I don't have. I'm confused though by the transcript requirement and wonder if they are only required if one is entering U of T from an outside institution. It seems to me that U of T would have access to my transcripts since they made them and so I shouldn't have to provide them. I emailed Marguerite Perry to ask but she didn't get back to me today. I'm also supposed to apply for grants but so far I haven't found any that apply to my prospective program of study and my situation. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I decided shortly after starting my trip to count the number of manual bikes compared to the number of electric bikes and scooters. In some cases I couldn't always tell what was an electric bike but of the ones that were obvious I counted 129 manual bikes and 62 electrics. So about half are electric and I noticed there were more than half in the downtown core. The number of manual bikes climbed back up when I was in the west end. 

            I chiseled some more black quartz from the pieces of the rock I found six years ago. Most of the black quartz crystals are the size of sequins but some are in clusters and the size of small diamonds that one might see on cheaper diamond rings. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:30.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:30. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. I've got to do something about the rattling sound when I play the B flat chord on the sixth fret. I notice that the A string is slightly frayed so maybe that's what's rattling. I won't have time to change it before Wednesday's practice but maybe I can change it on Friday since I'll be playing the electric again four sessions in a row starting this Saturday. It's weird that I don't hear the rattle in the audio playback. I made it through "Mamadou" after a few takes but the camera timed out during a retake of "La jambe de bois". 

            I searched for a video clip to fit my line, "It takes a pretty big charge to refrigerate a bed of snow". I don't need anything very long because it's just something to push the concert video in synch with the studio audio. Maybe a vintage fridge commercial just at the moment when the well dressed fifties housewife is opening the fridge door. 

            I scanned some black and white negatives from 1987. Some are shots of Mike Copping's kids Rachel and Noah interacting with the bust of a mannequin. I found a lot of loose black and white negatives at the bottom of a file folder that seem to have shaken loose from their plastic sleeves. A lot of them have been cut, probably because I made prints of them years ago. I scanned two self portraits of myself naked and aroused I guess because I'd planned on sending the pictures to a kinky personals magazine. I don't remember if I ever did. It'll take a couple of sessions to go through the loose negs, which number about a hundred. After that there are about three hundred more negatives and then I can start on all the slides. 

            I grilled two T-bone steaks and had one with a potato and gravy while watching season 5, episodes 10 and 11 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Betty Joe and Steve are on a cruise ship bound for Hawaii. They send a telegraph from the boat to Sam Drucker with a message that they will be calling Kate at the store the next night. Sam is very excited because he's never received a call from as far away as Hawaii. When he tells Sarah the phone operator she faints. She is so flustered that she plugs one of her knitting needles into the switchboard. Sam wears a suit for the occasion as does Joe, and Kate and the girls also come dressed up as if they were going to a special event. But Grandpa Miller arrives with his cymbals thinking it's band practice night. No one can explain anything to him because of his bad hearing and a tendency to mis-hear everything anybody says and so he crashes his cymbals at inappropriate moments. Then Mrs. Quincey arrives to shop. Sam tells her to help herself and so she starts grinding coffee very loudly. Then some fish is delivered followed by several loud cats. In the end the only connection Betty gets is from the veterinarian thinking that he's calling Ben Miller about his sick bull. Later that night Kate wakes up Sam and asks to use his phone. She calls Betty and Steve in their hotel room and gets through. Betty says she's going to send a get well card from Hawaii to Ben Miller's bull. 

            In the second story it's Kate's birthday and everybody has a present for her but Betty is still in Hawaii and hasn't sent anything. Meanwhile Betty Joe and Steve are cutting their honeymoon short by a week so they can go home and deliver Kate's present, which is a Hawaiian muumuu. But Betty keeps forgetting the present. She jumps onto the luggage belt in Hawaii to make sure it's in the suitcase. Then in Chicago she forgets it on the plane and has to hold up the flight. Joe and Sam think the post office in Pixley must have misplaced a package from Betty Joe. They get arrested for tampering with the mail. Kate arrives to try and get them out and then Betty and Steve arrive at the jail. Steve made Betty wear the muumuu for the rest of their trip so she wouldn't lose it again. 

            The airline clerk was played by Dick Wilson, who was born in England but moved to Canada as a child. At the age of fifteen he worked as a radio announcer for CHML in Hamilton. He learned to fly at 16 and became a bush pilot, delivering supplies to Canadian mining camps. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art having studied sculpture. He was an acrobatic comic dancer on Vaudeville. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII as a fighter pilot. He appeared in 38 movies and 18 episodes of Bewitched, seven times as a drunk, even though he never drank. He is best known as the character of Mr. Whipple, who was a grocery store owner in over 500 Charmin toilet tissue commercials, repeatedly urging his customers, "Don't squeeze the Charmin!" and then being always caught in the end squeezing it himself. He worked about two weeks a year on the commercials and earned $300,000 a year.

August 30, 1993: I got a booking to be the feature at Crickets for November 1

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday Carl the super knocked on my door at 9:30 while I was still in bed to remind me that pest control was coming. I got up around 10:00 and started cleaning the cupboards. I left at 10:30 and went downtown to the Ontario College of Art to make some phone calls from the models lounge. I went for a buffet at lunchtime and then for a drink at the Rivoli. I went to the Zanzibar where there were a couple of interesting big girls dancing. I bought two porn magazines on Yonge Street and then went home. I wrote this on the front steps of my place and I also wrote part of a song. I went back downtown and visited Yehudah at his place at the Norm Elder museum. I tried the song out on him and then performed it at the open stage at Crickets. The host at Crickets gave me a feature for November 1. I got a ride home with Mary Milne.

Ann Doran

            On Monday morning I worked out the chords for the second verse of "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. 

            For the second day I came up short trying to memorize the fourth verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. It's rare that it would take me this long to nail down a Gainsbourg verse. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Martin acoustic guitar for the fourth day of four. For the next two days I'll play the Kramer electric, then two more days with the Martin, followed by four days with the Kramer. There are eighteen days left in this rebooted recording project. I think the second take of Megaphor came through okay and I did Sixteen Tons of Dogma in one take. The one song I fumbled the most on was the instrumental of Post Colonial Breakdown. In general this was a pretty good session, plus the sky was clear and so I had sufficient light for the camera, which timed out during Annie C's Aniseed Suckers. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in the morning in thirty nine days. 

            I got an email from George Elliot Clarke asking me what address to send the recommendation letter for the Masters Degree in Creative Writing. I realized then that I hadn't told him it was for the University of Toronto. I assume he's sent lots of these kinds of letters and would know. But I looked on the website and it seemed to say that the letters need to be sent with the application and so then I thought that meant George would have to send the letter to me. But I emailed Marguerite Perry at the English department. She seemed annoyed by my question and reminded me that the answers are on the website. She was friendlier on a phone a few weeks ago perhaps because she was less busy. Anyway it turns out that a link will be provided for the professors to upload their letters of recommendation when I fill out the application. Marguerite says the applications don't open until October 1 but I guess I'd better order my Official Academic Transcripts soon. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before lunch. That's the most I've weighed at midday in twenty nine days.

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

            I chiseled some more black quartz crystals from the remaining pieces of the rock that I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. The only major screw ups of songs that I usually do okay was on Post Colonial Breakdown but I think the final take was fine. I made it through Like a Boomerang but it needs work. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for my song "Sleep in the Snow" I synchronized the concert video with the studio audio up until my line, "But it takes a pretty big charge to refrigerate a bed of snow". That line is ahead of the studio audio so I need to find a short video clip to put in front of that line and push it back. 

            I scanned a set of colour negatives probably from the mid eighties. Some of them are damaged but in a way that produce's some interesting abstract images. 

            I made a new batch of gravy from pork rib and pork loin drippings. I had some with a potato and my last piece of pork loin while watching season 5, episodes 8 and 9 of Petticoat Junction.

            In the first story Steve's in-laws are coming to meet Betty Joe, to sample her cooking that Steve's been bragging about and to see their dream home. The thing is that Steve hasn't been honest about Betty's cooking or the cottage. Kate plans to help Betty Joe prepare the meal but she comes down with a virus and Doc Stuart insists that she spend some time in bed. Mrs. Elliot senses that Betty needs help and secretly helps her. She says that for the first few months of her marriage she couldn't do anything but work a can opener. The next day they all go to see the cottage and Betty and Steve are surprised to see it renovated. Sam Drucker and several other neighbours have pitched in to do the work as a wedding present. 

            In the second story Betty has found the perfect wedding dress at a local shop. But meanwhile Kate has planned on having Betty wear the dress that she married Betty's father in. Joe has ordered a dress for Betty by mail and it looks like something from the 1920s, with a big sunflower on the chest. Betty hates it but doesn't have the heart to tell Joe. Then Cousin Mae arrives with a mini wedding gown and matching plastic boots for Betty. Betty also doesn't have the heart to tell Mae it's not what she wants. But finally she does tell Joe and Mae and they understand. At the wedding Betty ends up wearing her mother's gown. They show the whole boring ceremony. 

            Mrs. Elliot was played by Ann Doran, who appeared in hundreds of silent films from the age of four and then hundreds more sound films and TV shows. She started as a stand-in, then a bit player, then an incidental supporting player. She co-starred in Rio Grande in 1938. She played James Dean's mother in Rebel Without a Cause. She played Charlotte on the short lived sitcom Shirley. She played Eddie Haskell's mother on Leave it to Beaver and Mrs. Kingston on Longstreet. She was an early member of the Screen Actor's Guild.

August 29, 1993: My daughter gave me lots of kisses when I said goodbye

Thirty years ago today 

            My daughter loved the ukulele that I bought for her yesterday and on Sunday she insisted on bringing it along when we went out. I had no plastic pants for her to wear in the wading pool and so I just let her go in her overalls. In the sandbox she was rude towards some of the other kids, grabbing things from their hands, hitting, and throwing sand. She played with Chagall and kissed her goodbye when we left to go to the beach. I let her play there naked because I was out of diapers. I took some pictures while we were there. I thought I might keep her overnight again and tried to get her to go to sleep but she was too restless. Then I remembered that the exterminators were coming on Monday and so I took her back to her mother. When we got there Nancy wanted me to walk with them to Swiss Chalet but I had to get home and start pulling stuff away from the walls for pest control. My daughter gave me lots of kisses before I left.

Robert G. Hager

            On Sunday morning I wasn't quite able to memorize the fourth verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. During these recording sessions I have to stop memorizing fifteen minutes early to get everything set up and that quarter hour makes a big difference.

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar for the third day of four. In general it felt like a pretty good session but sometimes when it looks like I'm going to get a really good take of a song and I'm almost finished I get too excited and I screw up. I think Megaphor had at least one chord that was a little off. Sixteen Tons of Dogma seemed to come through okay. On the chorus of "L'accordion" I stumbled flatter on the B flat about three times and it wasn't flattering. I corrected it each time and didn't lose much of the rhythm but it was a noticeable stumble and so I can't use it. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before breakfast. 

            I finished writing my curriculum vitae for my application for the MA in Creative Writing. Later I sent it to George Elliot Clarke along with my writing sample because he said he needed those before writing a letter of recommendation for me. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before lunch. I had Compliments brand imitation Breton crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On Brock Avenue some stuff was thrown out in a box and on the sidewalk. I took a Life Gear skipping rope, three rolls of bandage tape and a page hole puncher. I didn't take the dildo and I wonder if anyone would take what is probably a used dildo. I guess maybe as a joke. 

            I chiseled some more little pieces of black quartz out of the remains of the rock I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I've gone from being number ten on the waiting list for the Creative Writing course I want to take in January to number eight. It's more than four months away so there's a good chance I'll get in. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. At least one chord was a bit off when I played Megaphor. Sixteen Tons of Dogma was okay. Some of the French songs weren't bad. The camera cut off while I was doing a retake of "Laisse tomber les filles". 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a music video for my song "Sleep in the Snow" I inserted the clips I'd made of The Wizard of Oz and Nanook of the North into the second half of the instrumental. Then I managed to synchronize the concert video with the studio audio up until, "The only sex you'll advertize". It's just a matter of deleting a bit of the concert video until it's lined up. 

            I finished scanning the black and white shots I took of the Molly Johnson and Alta Moda concert. I finished another black and white set from around the same time that has shots of Tom Smarda playing guitar on the couch and some out of focus shots of my ex-girlfriend Brenda. That was the last of the paper sleeves. The rest of the unscanned negatives are in plastic and acetate sleeves. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, a cut up piece of pork loin, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 5, episodes 6 and 7 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Betty Joe has found her dream cottage to live in after she's married Steve. But it's an extremely dilapidated shack with a rotten floor and no bathroom. She shows it to Kate and Steve but neither her mother or her fiancé like it. Betty and Steve argue until he serenades her through a walkie talkie. 

            In the second story Floyd is in love but he won't say to whom. He asks Steve if he can have a double wedding with him. Steve feels sorry for Floyd because he's running the Cannonball all alone now. Smiley Burnett, who played Charlie, died between the fourth and the fifth season. They haven't come out and said in the fifth season that Charlie is dead, but rather just say that he is gone. So Steve gives in, not only to the double wedding but also to sharing the honeymoon. Betty Joe is not happy but she also feels sorry for Floyd and gives in. But then they find out that his bride to be is Salma Plout and that's a disaster. However, when Salma tells Floyd that he will be giving up the Cannonball after they're married he walks away from the whole thing. 

            The cinematographer for these and 220 other episodes of Petticoat Junction was Robert G Hager. He also did the cinematography for 67 episodes of Perry Mason, and 90 episodes of The Brady Bunch.

August 28, 1993: I bought my daughter a ukulele at a lawn sale for $2

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I got up after having slept very little. I left at 11:00 to get my daughter. We went to McDonald's first where she played briefly in the Playland and I bought her some fries. We checked out a lawn sale in that neighbourhood where I bought her a toy ukelele for $2. We caught the bus and went downtown to the Rivoli where I retrieved the photo developer that I'd forgotten there the day before. We caught the streetcar home where she didn't go to sleep until 20:30. After that I got some work done.

Bruce Cockburn

           On Saturday morning I worked out the chords for the first verse of "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the third verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Martin acoustic guitar for the second day of four. After three days of cloudy sunrises there was light this morning so probably the video will look better. When I skimmed through the audio playback none of the songs sounded too bad so maybe I'll find a few things worth uploading to YouTube down the road. This was the beginning of the second half of this rebooted recording project and there are now twenty days left. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I've been in the morning in a week.

            I started listening to Bruce Cockburn's discography. I've already had two of his albums, "Night Vision" and "Salt Sand Wind and Time", but had never fully listened to his 1970 debut album. He really is a great guitarist and not a bad poet. I'd forgotten that he wrote the song "Musical Friends". I first heard it on an Anne Murray album and the reference to wine in bottles or pipes was changed to in bottles or pints, which makes no sense whatsoever. I guess her handlers didn't want her to be associated with a reference to pot smoking. I've never seen Cockburn play his guitar live but I did see him ride his bicycle live once about twenty five years ago. 

 

            Around midday I went down to No Frills where I bought four bags of cherries, a basket of peaches, a pack of blueberries, a bunch of bananas, a bag of potatoes, a pack of two T-bone steaks, a bag of Miss Vickie's kettle chips, and a jug of orange juice. 

            I had planned on going to Vina Pharmacy before the supermarket to renew a prescription but I forgot. So on the way back I came up Dunn and turned left at Queen to ride to Vina. The pharmacist said the Betaderm was on back order because they couldn't find it anyplace but then he found a big container of it on the shelf. I told him I'd pick my order up next Saturday. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before lunch. I had the last of my Triscuits with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On the way up O'Hara I found a box of books. It had Things Fall Apart by Achiba and a big Webster's Dictionary among other books, but I only took two coffee table books, one on Salvador Dali and the other on Bob Dylan. 

            I chiseled some more black quartz free of a piece of the rock I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:30. That's the least I've weighed in the evening in a week. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:25. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. I think there might have been a chord or two off on Megaphor and Sixteen Tons of Dogma but my translated French songs seemed okay. I made it all the way into "How to Say Goodbye to You" before the camera timed out. I would have made it to the end if the Sysko delivery truck hadn't arrived in front of Popeyes downstairs to make noise and cause me to wait and start again. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for my song Sleep in the Snow I combined clips from The Wizard of Oz snow scene with the sleeping in the igloo scene from Nanook of the North. I put the good witch first conjuring the snow, then the storm from Nanook, then the witch again, then Nanook sleeping, then Dorothy sleeping and then Nanook again. The two videos combined take about twenty four seconds while I only need about fifteen to fill up the time of the second half of the instrumental. I need to cut out some more of Nanook. 

            I finished scanning the last dated sleeve of negatives from March of 1987. There are shots of my ex-girlfriend Diane and of fireworks. I started an unmarked set of black and whites from around the same time. These are of a concert by Alta Moda starring Molly Johnson, but the light was not right for the film I had. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, sliced loin of pork and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 5, episodes 4 and 5 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Betty Joe and Steve come through a storm on Steve's plane and after they land safely he kisses her. The story treats it as their first kiss even though they kissed in the previous episode. Betty tells her mother that she's in love with Steve. Kate tells her to cool it until she's sure. Steve tells Kate he's in love with Betty and Kate says she doesn't want Billie Joe to be hurt. But again, on two previous episodes, one near the end of the third season, Billie made it clear that she's no longer serious about Steve. She tells Kate again and she's relieved but she still has to tell Bobbie Joe who has also expressed romantic interest in Steve. But Bobbie says she wants to marry a writer, so now Kate is fully relieved and goes to tell Steve but finds that he's moved out. He leaves a note saying he doesn't want anyone in the family to be hurt. But then Steve returns because he couldn't get off the ground. It seems the distributor cap came loose during the storm. Everyone goes in the kitchen and then Betty comes down the stairs. She puts the distributor cap in the dog's mouth and tells him to return it to the plane. 

            In the second story Steve tries to ask Kate for her blessing so he can ask Betty Joe to marry him. She evades the question and then does some soul searching and after a day or so she gives him her blessing, But now Steve wants to find the right place and time to pop the question but every time he gets a chance something happens to spoil the mood. But meanwhile Joe has spread the rumour and Sam even makes it a newspaper headline and so Steve has to ask Betty while they are fixing the plane together so she'll know she's engaged before she knows everybody else does. She says yes.

August 27, 1993: I forgot my photo developer at the Rivoli

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I called the Unemployment Insurance Commission and was told that they'd screwed up on my cheque and asked me to come in to fill out another card. After that I bought beer, pizza and some other stuff and took it all home. Then I went downtown to Church Street to buy photo developer. I ran into Ezra, who was busking with his violin and we went for a drink at the Rivoli. When we left I forgot my developer.

Ralph Levy

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the third line of "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the chorus of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I audio and video recorded my song practice while playing my Martin acoustic guitar for the first day of four. "Megaphor" seemed to come out okay but I spent most of the camera time in frustrating retakes of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma". After all that the ending had some wrong chords. Today was the halfway point of this rebooted recording project and so there are twenty one days to go. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            At around 11:15 I headed out on my bike for Topcuts at Yonge and St. Clair. Fortunately I had green lights all the way up the steep hill to St Clair. I got there just in time to be Amy's first client of the day. For the first time I asked her to leave my hair a little longer in the front. After watching videos of myself singing and playing guitar every morning this summer I saw that my hair looks better sweeping down from the right to the left. She made it short on the back and sides. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I've been at midday in two weeks. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 16:00. 

            I chiseled more black quartz and some amethyst from the pieces of the rock I found six years ago. 

            I was caught up on my journal at around 17:30. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. The light was bad for the third day in a row. Megaphor came out okay and I think most of the French songs were fine but I played a couple of wrong chords at the end of Sixteen Tons of Dogma. 

            In the Movie Maker project for creating a video of my song Sleep in the Snow I finished watching Nanook of the North. It's only in the final minute that there is video that I can potentially use. It shows snow blowing outside the igloo, the dogs sleeping in the open and Nanook sleeping inside. I cut it down to about thirty seconds. I imported the snow scene from The Wizard of Oz and edited that down to twenty one seconds. There's still some more of that I can do without. 

            I finished writing my Statement of Purpose which is supposed to accompany my application for the MA in Creative Writing. I'm not sure what is expected of a Statement of Purpose so maybe after I send it to George Elliot Clarke he'll advise me to revise it: 

            All poems have songs in their DNA. Whenever anyone speaks poetry they stand on the threshold of melody. The Bible was sung, as were the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Divine Comedy, and many other ancient literary works. Beowulf was at least spoken and probably chanted long before it was written down. When I began performing my poetry in public the words came out in song, but there is also a subtle melody evident whenever anyone communicates with their voice. When we talk we are attempting to sing because it is a naturally liberating urge. 

            What I have to offer is a talent for rhyme, rhythm and melody that gravitates towards a pre-Gutenberg approach to writing. My verses dance to the back beat of a time when poetry could fly unencumbered by the mechanical mutilation that amputated poetry of its musical wings. I want to explore the melodic ancestry that calls out from the depths of every poem and liberate poetry from the its static cage. Every poem that dips into its sonic roots becomes an incantation of engagement with the listener and reader. The Medieval poetic scribes were clearly still connected to the oral traditions, as were the later Decadents like Baudelaire, and Oscar Wilde who praised rhyme as the one note that English literature has added to the Greek lyre. 

            Poetry informs us what is inside but oral poetry brings the inside out. It is a break out, a breaking of ground, a defiance of classification, a breaking of rules, including our own. Oral poets are outlaws robbing the bank of the inner mind. They follow no rules other than to track them as a hunter to kill, cook and eat them. 

            An example at the University of Toronto of a poet who follows the rules to break them is Dr. George Elliot Clarke. His sculpting of language merged with rhythm riffs into a sensual, percussive word music that rips our mental clothes off without us minding at all. With his rich command of vocabulary he has the ability to not only marry sophisticated words and street language, but to do so in ways that create a type of syllabic symphony when they are read aloud. Because of this his writing takes on an odd but effective hybrid of academic and down and dirty language, as if he’d turned a reference library into a barrelhouse. This is especially evident when he reads aloud as he emphasizes certain syllables and he may repeat entire lines once or twice for meaning and rhythmic effect like the choruses of songs. 

            I propose to explore further the inherent musicality of text by awakening the songs that sleep within. From 1993 until 2000 I wrote a weekly series of poems called Commentaries on the Gumby Bible. This produced more than 350 poems in chronological order, following the questions of cosmology, spirituality, sexuality, social alienation, humour, parenthood, and romantic attachments that bubbled up as I passed through those years. Most of this writing remains rough drafts of prose, but I plan to develop them into up to seven books of poems in song form that sing of my life and those around me.

            I scanned the rest of a set of colour negatives from the spring of 1987 that have a lot of street shots as well as pictures of my cats Siva and Sakti. Then I did another set from the same time with more street shots and some shots of my ex-girlfriend Brenda's best friend Suzanne. A third set had images of Brenda, of my ex-girlfriend Whitefeather and my friend Tom Smarda. I started on the last set that's in a dated sleeve. After this I'll need to depend on memory. I'll probably have all of the negatives scanned before fall and then I'll start on the hundreds of slides I've taken. 

            I had a potato with the last of my gravy and a piece of pork loin while watching season 5, episodes 2 and 3 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Betty Joe is suddenly worried about her domestic potential as a wife since she doesn't know how to cook. Kate sets about to try to teach her, but meanwhile Billie Joe has an audition at the Flamingo Club and when Kate sees the skimpy outfit that she plans to wear she insists on being her escort. She is interfering and annoying the Flamingo owner until she calls Hooterville and hears that something happened at the hotel but is not told what. Somehow Kate has the impression that Betty has eloped with Steve. But what happened is that Betty served Steve burnt macaroni and cheese and he had to have his stomach pumped. Joe sees Billie in a short dress and she explains that it's a mini dress. He says she should give it back to Mini because it doesn't fit her. 

            This story was directed by Ralph Levy, who was the main director for the show. He also directed 66 episodes of The Jack Benny Program, and 44 episodes of The Alan Young Show. He directed the pilot episode of I Love Lucy which was not aired for fifty years. He died the day it was. He directed the movies Do Not Disturb and Bedtime Story. 

            In the second story Betty Joe starts receiving box after box of flowers from a secret admirer. Everyone assumes that the sender must be wealthy to afford so many flowers. But finally Eb reveals that he is the sender and can afford it because he has a new job at the Pixley Florist and he gets flowers from canceled orders. When Betty learns that Eb is her admirer she wants to let him down easy. So she arranges with Steve for him to pretend they are a couple. Eb arrives and finds the two sitting on the porch swing. When Betty tells Eb she's with Steve he wants to fight him but Kate convinces Eb that Betty is too square for him. After Eb leaves, Betty and Steve are still sitting on the swing and Steve kisses her. She says there's no more need to pretend but Steve says, "Who says I'm pretending?" So this is the beginning of the romance between Betty Joe and Steve that leads to their marriage fairly quickly. Linda Henning and Mike Minor, who played Betty and Steve got married in real life but it only lasted a few years.

August 26, 1993: During my reading asked the audience who wants to have sex

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday my daughter and I got up around 10:00 and had toast and cereal for breakfast. We went out to play in the back yard and then up the street to the school playground. Then we went down to the wading pool at Kew Gardens where we saw Chagal. There were a bunch of moms with their kids hanging around and one of them gave my daughter a cracker. I bought her a popsicle but she wanted my lime over the cherry that she'd chosen. Later I got her a burrito and she started screaming when I ate some of it. She fell asleep at 18:00 and her mother came at 20:00. She woke up while I was getting ready and talking to Nancy. I walked with them down to the bus stop, kissed my daughter goodbye and then caught the streetcar downtown. I had some copies of the Alphabet Orgy group poem made before going to Mudds Cabaret for the open stage. When I was reading I asked the audience if anyone wanted to have sex.

David Watson

            On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for the first two lines of "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the second verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Kramer electric guitar. I did Megaphor in one take. When I played the B flat in The Accordion I heard a weird rattling sound that I've never heard before but in the audio playback I couldn't hear it. 

            When I turn up the reverb dial on my amp there's an annoying hum but I was able to eliminate it in the audio recording by taking a noise profile of the sound when it's by itself and then removing it from the entire recording. I had to do it three times to get it to sound clean but it was a satisfying result.

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around 12:30 I went to L'il Demon guitars to pick up my Japanese fake Gibson electric guitar. I'd brought it the day before because it was crackling and popping at the jack socket whenever I moved while playing. He had warned me on Wednesday that if he needed to change the socket he'd charge me $6 for the replacement. Even if he'd said five cents it would have seemed unfair to me considering he's already been paid almost $300 for fixing it. Good business etiquette would dictate that he'd feel responsible for not having properly completed the job and so he shouldn't have charged me for the extra part. But sure enough he charged me about $6.75 for the new socket. I paid it but he's lost a customer because of his chintzy attitude. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on my way home. I bought three bags of grapes, two bags of cherries, a pack of strawberries, a pack of blackberries, a pack of blueberries, a bunch of bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a bag of Miss Vickie's chips, a jug of limeade, a lint roller, a box of spoon size shredded wheat, two packs of Nabob Full City Dark coffee, and a jar of Basilica sauce. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:30.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:19. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. The camera mic definitely picked up the rattling sound from the B flat chord. Maybe the action on the Kramer has lowered again but the problem doesn't stand out for any other chord. I only heard it while playing "The Accordion". I only made it to the end of "The Wooden Leg" before the camera timed out. 

            I watched another thirty five minutes of Nanook of the North. It shows the building of an igloo. I didn't know that while the main part of the shelter is made of hard snow there is a window fitted in made of transparent ice and Nanook even set up a block of snow perpendicular to the window to angle the horizontal sunlight down through the window. There are ten minutes left to watch. 

            I scanned a set of colour negatives from spring of 1987 that have shots of my ex-girlfriend and her friend Suzanne all dolled up. Then I did a set of black and whites that are from around the same time with more pictures of Brenda and Suzanne, plus Brenda's ex-boyfriend Glenn, who Brenda eventually went back to and married. I started another set of colour negs from the same time but which are mostly street shots. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a piece of pork loin while watching the fourth season finale and the fifth season premier of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Kate's southern belle cousin Mae comes with a plan to turn the Shady Rest into a fat farm. She can get backing from her wealthy banker boyfriend if they can make his daughter Agnes lose twenty kilos in two weeks. She says they also need a male subject to achieve the same to promote the effectiveness of Mae's method and so they force Uncle Joe to participate. Mae leaves Kate to supervise while she goes back to Louisville to supervise the banker. But Agnes does not respond well to dieting and she's suffering so much that each member of the family secretly sneaks her food, not knowing that the others are doing the same. Joe, while maintaining the diet at home, sneaks off every day to fish and then gorge himself on trout. Agnes and Joe both gain weight. But when Mae returns she isn't disappointed because she now has another boyfriend who can help turn the Shady Rest into a chinchilla farm. 

            The second story is very similar to one from the third season in which Betty Joe comes back from a trip to New York with Lisa Douglas. The trip to a cosmopolitan metropolis has transformed her. In this story she returns from Paris talking in a sophisticated manner and dressing like a fashion plate. In the earlier story a snobbish young man she met on her trip comes to visit, while in this story it's three men, Ronnie, Brad and Peter who make fun of the rural culture. Like in the earlier story Betty comes to her senses and tells the men to leave. 

            Peter was played by David Watson, who was born in Texas but raised in Britain by British parents. He sang in a choir at the coronation of Elizabeth II when he was a boy. He began his acting career in Shakespearian theatre. He starred as the title character in a made for TV musical production of The Legend of Robin Hood in 1968.

August 25, 1993: My daughter and I did a lot of drawing together

Thirty years ago today 

            On Wednesday I went up to Scarborough to pick up my daughter. She fell asleep on the bus on the way to my place and woke up at around 21:00. There was a new game we played inside. I would lie on my back on the bed and throw the ball up to the ledge of the little window above the head of the bed. Then she would climb up on my knees and I would lift my legs to elevate her so she could reach the ball and sweep it back down again with her little broom. Sometimes she would throw the ball up and I would get it down. We did a lot of abstract drawing together.

Martin Quinn

            On Wednesday morning I finished working out the chords for the intro to "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I start the first verse. 

            I memorized the first verse of "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice at first while playing my Kramer electric guitar. "Megaphor", "Le temps des yé-yé", and "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" were okay, but while playing "L'accordion" my high E string broke. Knowing how time consuming it is to change a string on the Kramer I thought this would be a good time to try out the fake Gibson (Fibson) electric. I had to transfer the Kramer's guitar strap over and then tune the guitar. I got through "L'accordion" after a few tries because I had to adjust to the different position of the frets. But I noticed while playing "Joanna" that the connection for the jack is screwed up because often when I moved the guitar there would be static and popping. That never happens with the Kramer. So I'll have to take it back to Gian at L'il Demon and have him fix it. I spent a lot of money on it and he said it was fixed but it's not something that one would notice if one doesn't move while playing. I had to stop playing with the electric today and switch to the acoustic in order to finish song practice but I didn't get any more songs completed on video because the camera timed out. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I took the Fibson to L'il Demon Guitars. It's supposed to open at 12:00 but the people in Kolors barber shop at the front said Gian wasn't in yet. They let me wait at the bar until he arrived. He plugged my guitar in and moved the jack around. One could hear the crackling but he said it wasn't bad. Why would I want my guitar to crackle, especially when I'm recording. He was having trouble getting the input socket off because someone had worn out the screws with the wrong screwdriver. He asked me to come back in an hour so I said I'd come back tomorrow. He said if he had to replace the socket he'd charge me $6. I said, "Oookay" and gave him a look so he asked what's wrong. I reminded him that when I picked up the guitar he'd said it was fixed. He said if he'd installed that part originally he would have charged me the extra $6. I said okay again but it seems to me he should have fixed it in the first place and shouldn't be charging me extra for his oversight, especially considering the time I'm spending going to his shop and back when I have other things to do. 

            On the way home I stopped at Shoppers Drug Mart because I was out of toilet paper. Fortunately they had a pack of Max on sale for $7. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. I had Triscuits with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back I stopped at Freshco where I bought three bags of Canadian cherries. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 17:00. 

            I changed the high E string on my Kramer but it took two tries. The first time the string popped out from the Floyd Rose clamp. I don't know what I did differently but it held the second time. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. I think I hit a wrong chord on "Megaphor" and I'll need a closer review of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" to hear if it came out okay. "Le temps des yé-yé" seemed okay. I only completed "L'accordion" with the Fibson and I don't think it sounded very good. The light was bad too. Nothing else was completed before the camera ran out. 

            I converted the clip of the Wizard of Oz snow scene to WMV. I imported Nanook of the North into Movie Maker and placed it on the end of the timeline of my "Sleep in the Snow" project. I watched the first forty minutes and then cut that part out. So far I haven't found anything I can use for my video but it's a fascinating film. 

            I finished scanning the negatives from Christmas of 1991 and the shots of my daughter on my father's lap. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, some chopped pork loin, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the second season finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

            Captain Batel is resupplying the colony of Parnassus Beta which looks just like Peterborough, Ontario. Chapel has just inoculated the last of the children and beams aboard Batel's ship the Cayuga. Suddenly a gigantic Gorn ship comes out of the sky that uses technology to block all communications and transport. 

            The Enterprise picks up an emergency signal from Batel and rushes there. Meanwhile Admiral April tells Pike that there is a demarcation line between Federation and Gorn territory. The Gorn are remaining behind their line but on their side is Parnassus Beta. 

            The Enterprise arrives in orbit around Parnassus and finds the debris of the Cayuga. Pike plans on taking a shuttle to the surface against orders. The entire bridge crew volunteers to help but he picks La'an, Mbenga, Ortegas and Sam Kirk. The Gorn are scanning any approaches to the surface but the shuttle is disguised as wreckage and hides among the debris of the Cayuga before entering the atmosphere. 

            In the town they encounter some hungry Gorn babies. They pick up a human signal and follow it only to discover a device that is giving it off. It's a trap and they are caught in a forcefield cage. A man steps forward and is surprised that he hasn't caught Gorn in his trap. He introduces himself as Montgomery Scott Lieutenant Junior Grade. This is a young version of Scotty, the future engineer of the Enterprise. He's the only survivor of the research vessel the Stardiver after it was attacked by the Gorn. He escaped in a shuttle that he disguised with a signal that made it look like a Gorn ship to Gorn scanners. 

            He leads them to Batel and the members of her landing party. Batel comes face to face with a Gorn and it backs away. She reveals to Pike that Gorn eggs have been planted in her arm. 

            On the Enterprise they find out the location of the device that is generating the interference field but they can't use weapons to destroy it without starting a war. They plot to cause the wrecked saucer section of the Cayuga to crash into it. Spock says he is the best person to go to the Cayuga's saucer section and attach rockets to it. 

            Meanwhile inside the saucer, Chapel comes to consciousness. She sees Spock outside on the hull and dons a space suit to go out to meet him. He is attacked by a Gorn in a space suit and his phaser flies away. Chapel reaches it and fires. The Gorn is distracted enough for Spock to grab something and break the Gorn's helmet, killing it. 

            The saucer smashes into the interference field generator and suddenly the Enterprise can beam Spock, Chapel, Pike, Batel and Scotty aboard. Pelia recognizes Scotty and says he was one of her best students who received some of her worst grades. Chapel puts Batel in a stasis field. Pike gives the order for La'an, Mbenga, Ortegas and the colonists to be beamed up but Spock says there are no human life signs on the planet. They've all been beamed onto a Gorn ship. The Enterprise is now being attacked by Gorn fighters. To be continued. 

            Young Scotty is played by Martin Quinn, who at 18 won the lead role in the National Theatre of Scotland's production of Let the Right One In. It went on to play in London's West End. He starred in Our Wullie the Musical. He's the first actor from Scotland to ever play Scottie.

August 24, 1993: I posed for the Franklin Carmichael Art Group and got $25

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I got up around noon and had coffee and oranges for breakfast. I did some work at home until around 18:00 and then left for Islington Station where I got picked up at 19:00 by Jane Dylan. I modelled for the Franklin Carmichael Art Group until 22:00 and got paid $25 cash. I got a ride back to the subway.

Melanie Scrofano

            On Tuesday morning I worked out a few more chords for the intro of "Au bon vieux temps" (In the Good Old Days) by Boris Vian. 

            I blog-published "To Be or Not to Be", my translation of "Être ou ne pas naître by Serge Gainsbourg. I listened a couple of times to his "Le Couteau dans le play" (The Knife in the Play). I'll start memorizing it tomorrow. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice while playing my Martin acoustic guitar. I did "Megaphor" in one take but I think I hit some wrong chords. "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" came out okay. I made a few little pronunciation blunders on some songs that I always get right. The camera timed out while I was trying to get "Annie C's Aniseed Suckers" right. Every song up to and including "Baby Pop" and the English version "Dance and Sing to Baby Pop" are potentially songs that I could get right in a recording, upload them, and then move on to other songs. The songs after that starting with "Comme un Boomerang" and "Like a Boomerang" tend to need more work. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            I called my landlord about my plumbing and he said Yogi will come either this weekend or next to run a camera down my the pipe and see what's blocking the water flow. Meanwhile I have to wash all my dishes in the little bathroom sink. 

            I worked on my Statement of Purpose that is supposed to accompany my application for the MA program in Creative Writing at U of T. I made progress and might have it done on Wednesday. Then I have to start on my Curriculum Vitae. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I stopped at the fruit market down the street where I bought two bags of black grapes and three bananas. 

            I chiseled more amethyst and black quartz crystals free of rocks for about twenty minutes. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:42. 

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. The light was good and I looked and sounded good. My take of "Megaphor" was one of the best except for one chord being slightly off in one moment near the end. The same thing is true of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma". But I'm not quite halfway through this restarted recording project and so there's a good chance other takes of these songs will be better in the next twenty three days. My best takes of "Megaphor" between June 1 and July 15 were on July 5 and 6. 

            I downloaded the 1922 silent film Nanook of the North and also the scene from The Wizard of Oz in which Dorothy is in a drugged sleep caused by the Wicked Witch but awakened by the snow that the Good Witch causes to fall on her. I converted Nanook of the North to WMV and I'll convert The Wizard of Oz clip on Wednesday. Then I'll import them both into the Movie Maker project for creating a music video of my song "Sleep in the Snow". Nanook of the North is a two hour movie and so I'll need to spend some time breaking it down to just a few seconds of clips that fit my lyrics. 

            I scanned the rest of the negatives from the two sets shot before and after I went to Europe in 1987. There are lots of shots of my ex-girlfriend Brenda at both times, as well as portraits of people I'd randomly asked to pose, shots of my cat Siva and Toronto street shots. I started a set of colour negatives that were developed at the end of April 1992 but some of which are from Christmas of 1991 when Nancy and I took our daughter to New Brunswick for Christmas. There are quite a few shots of my daughter on my father's lap. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of apple-maple pork loin while watching season 2, episode 9 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

            The Enterprise encounters a naturally occurring subspace fold. Spock thinks it could be channeled to triple the speed of subspace communication. But they have tried twelve times to send a message through the fold with no results. Pelia suggests that it's because the fold obeys different laws of physics that language is not compatible with and posits that fundamental harmonics might work. Uhura tries sending Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" but the result is the creation of an improbability field in which a new reality emerges causing the crew of the Enterprise to communicate their innermost feelings through song and dance. 

            One of the first instances is a singing argument in front of everyone between Pike and his lover Captain Marie Batel. La'an recognizes this as a security threat. James T. Kirk happens to be aboard the Enterprise because he has just been promoted to First Officer of the Farragut and he has been ordered to shadow Una so as to learn how First Officers behave. La'an knows that the improbability field will eventually cause her to sing to Kirk her true feelings and so she decides to carefully communicate to him how those feelings are for the other Kirk who died in a different timeline. He tells her that he felt like he knew her from the first time he saw her but he is in a sometimes relationship with Carol Marcus who is a scientist on Star Base One and is pregnant. 

            The improbability field is expanding and affecting hundreds of ships from both Starfleet and the Klingon Empire. The Klingons feel that in being compelled to sing they are being forced to behave in a shameful manner and plan to fire upon the fold. But they do not understand that doing so will destroy all of the ships that are affected by the field. 

            Uhura determines that the singing produces energy that if raised to a certain level will cause the field to close. So everyone must join in a grand finale, including the Klingons. I was disappointed with the Klingon song, as I had expected something deep, dark and resonant like Klingon opera but they sing the same kinds of songs as everyone else. Anyway the finale works and the fold is zipped up again. 

            The lyrics were okay but the melodies of the songs sounded like they were created by teams of people who technically know how to write songs and so there was an artificiality about them.

            Captain Batel is played by Canadian actor Melanie Scrofano, who started modeling at the age of thirteen. She played Mrs. MacMurray on the sitcom Letterkenny, Rebecca on the CBC's Being Erica, October on Pure Pwnage, and Tia on the CTV series The Listener. From 2016 to 2021 she starred in the series Wynona Earp. She played Emilie in the comedy horror film Ready Or Not. She is fluent in English, French and Italian.

August 23, 1993: On the phone my daughter knew it was me and responded to all of my questions

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday my Unemployment Insurance cheque came and so I went out to call Nancy and let her know that I could take our daughter. But the mail had come late and so it was too late to pick her up. I could hear her crying in the background and asked to speak with her. We had the longest phone conversation we'd ever had. She knew it was me and she responded to all of my questions.

            On Friday August 20 I had gone down to the Ontario College of Art to make phone calls from the models lounge and lined up a potential $200 worth of bookings, so now while I was at the payphone I called back to get a confirmation. 

            Before going to the open stage at Crickets I went downtown to visit Yehudah at his place at the Norm Elder Museum on Bedford. He said he might drop by Crickets later. 

            After the open stage I got a ride home from Mary Milne and she came in for coffee.