Ben Lessy

            On Tuesday morning I memorized the first verse of "Être ou ne pas naître" (To Be or Not to Be) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I video and audio recorded song practice with my Kramer electric guitar and fed the sound of the guitar into the interface by miking my Jazz Chorus amp. It was cloudy again and so the light was horrible like yesterday. I tried to compensate by recording with all the lights on but the video will probably not be fully focused because of lack of light. I wonder if I can make use of an out of focus video in Movie Maker by adding an effect or two that at least makes it look cool. Nonetheless it felt like a pretty good session. The camera didn't time out until the middle of "Leave the Naive Alone" which I've rarely captured on video. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast.

            Around midday I sanded the first piece of plywood that I'd glued into the depression that was in the floor in front of the kitchen counter. I got some of the sides level with the rest of the floor but now the middle has to come down to meet them. 

            I weighed 84.1 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I've been at midday in 76 days.

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

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 17:00. 

            I spent about half an hour chiseling slate to free up fossils. There's one fist sized stone, one that I could hide in my hand, and another the size of a marble left. 

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

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video and it wasn't as much out of focus as I thought it would be. "Megaphor" sounded pretty good with the distortion from the miked amp but I shouldn't have stopped after the instrumental on the first take. I'd thought that I'd reached for the whammy bar too slowly but it actually sounded pretty good. I don't know if the final take was as good as what the first take might have been. Anyway I'll have lots of electric sessions between now and mid-September and there's no reason why I can't do better.

            I imported the two hour falling snow video into Movie Maker and cut it down to two minutes, then I turned it into a movie in Movie Maker's format. I imported that shorter film into my Sleep in the Snow project and put it at the end of the timeline. I copied a few seconds and pasted it into the song intro in a dark moment when the camera is panning from the guitar to my face. I cut the clip down so that it would be just enough to push the video vocal in synch with the studio vocal. But the section that was left had no snow and so I removed that clip and pasted in another one. I was able to use it to synchronize the video with the studio audio for the first part of the vocal but it goes out of synch again after the first line. So I'll need to find some other video to fit in there. For some reason the audio muted for a split second when the clip was being played, even when I muted the clip and had the sound set only on the studio audio. But after I clicked on the studio audio it played without muting.

            I scanned some black and white negatives from the mid 80s when I was living on Widmer Street. There are shots of my ex-girlfriend Gloria, my friend Tom Smarda, and my cat Siva. The cat is on the roof silhouetted against the city skyline. 

            I had a potato with gravy and three boneless beef ribs while watching season 4, episodes 20 and 21 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story, in his capacity as Justice of the Peace, Sam Drucker has sentenced loveable thief Eustace Pockle to five days in jail but the sheriff is on a fishing trip and can't mind the jail. Joe makes a deal with Sam that the county will pay the Shady Rest the $4 a day for Eustace's upkeep. Joe has Eustace locked in the cage of the unconnected elevator and tries to treat him like a hard core convict. Kate and the girls however treat him like a house guest. He entertains the girls on the piano and also dances. The only problem is that he can't stop himself from picking pockets and stealing anything that tickles his fancy. When a married couple decide to move out because of Eustace's urges, Eustace disappears. Steve searches the valley for him by plane but finds nothing. The sheriff cuts his fishing trip short and is on his way back. Kate goes to his office to wait for him and finds Eustace has picked the lock and put himself into the jail cell. He explains that he was causing her too much trouble at the hotel.

            Eustace was played by Ben Lessy, who was known for the nightclub act that he performed with Patti Moore, the wife of his agent. His first film appearance was in "Café Rendezvous" in 1938. He appeared in 19 episodes of the sitcom "Make Room for Daddy". 

            In the second story Billie Joe, in the aftermath of winning the radio contest with Steve, still has the show business bug. The agent Syd Sparks is still interested in representing her and gets her an audition for The Flamingo Room in Springdale. They tell her they'll call her but when Syd calls Sam's store a few days later he delivers Kate the bad news. Billie is devastated and so Kate plots to get Billie booked at the Flamingo room. Sam, Joe, and Kate each call the Flamingo Room to ask for reservations but to cancel them when they find out Billie Joe Bradley won't be performing. The Flamingo manager Mr. Austin books Billie Joe. Kate arranges for the place to be packed but when Billie Joe comes out she's wearing a black wig, a slinky gown and imitating Marlene Dietrich singing "Falling In Love Again Can't Help It". Nobody likes it and the manager wants to throw her out but Kate takes over, gets Billie to change clothes and perform "I Enjoy Being a Girl", which everybody loves. I thought the Marlene Dietrich impersonation was better.