Chris Gantry

            On Friday morning I still wasn't quite able to memorize the second verse of "Une chose entre autres" (One Thing Among Others) by Serge Gainsbourg. But since I'll have an extra fifteen minutes starting on Saturday I should be able to nail it down and maybe even the final verse. 

            I audio and video recorded song practice for the last of this year's sessions and played my Kramer electric guitar. I skimmed through the audio recording and "Megaphor" sounded like it came out okay. I think I hit the right chords at the end of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" but my guitar went out of tune and one of the songs sounded wrong because of that. I did several takes of "The Accordion" and maybe the last take was all right. The camera timed out while I was struggling with the third or fourth take of "Post Colonial Breakdown". I'm glad it's over and that on Saturday I can just play and sing without plugging in instruments and microphones and making myself nervous by trying to get good takes for the camera. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I sanded some more of the second piece of plywood that I glued down to fill the depression in my kitchen floor. I've almost got it level with the rest of the floor. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a siesta and slept forty minutes longer than usual. 

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

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 17:30, which is the lightest I've been in the evening in a week. 

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

            I reviewed this morning's song practice video. "Megaphor" seems to have come through okay but on the ending of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" I went sharp on the G chord once. In part B of the camera battery's charge I looked better because the light had gotten brighter outside. I'm not sure if the electric guitar sounds that great on "The Accordion". On Saturday I'll start reviewing all of the takes of "Megaphor" from the beginning of August to decide which takes of the acoustic and electric versions I want to synchronize with the audio recordings to make an uploadable video. 

            I downloaded the silent film Spies by Fritz Lang, then converted it to WMV. The conversion took ninety minutes and so while I was waiting I scanned some more single black and white negatives. I finished the set of street shots and then got about halfway through a set of mostly shots of my late friend Mike Copping's kids Rachel and Noah that I took when I was babysitting. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 6, episodes 14 and 15 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Bobbie Joe is babysitting for Betty Joe and Steve when she begins meddling. She tells Steve that he's not paying enough attention to Betty. He gives in and tells Betty he loves her. She doesn't remember the last time he said it and so now he feels neglected. Bobby Joe points that out to Betty and now she feels guilty and decides to help him fix the plane. He turns her down because he doesn't have time. She says he used to let her and he says he did that because she was a cute kid then. She's mad because he doesn't find her cute anymore and storms off. Lisa Douglas shows up and tells a story about a fight she had with Oliver and how she went to the beauty parlour and bought a new gown. Bobbie says that's what Betty should do and so Betty gives in and gets ready. Lisa says she didn't get to finish the story because it was the beauty parlour and the new dress that caused the fight. Steve goes looking for a present for Betty to make up. Bobbie brings him to the Shady Rest and picks out a song for him to sing when Betty comes back from the beauty parlour. He sings "Dreams of The Everyday Housewife" by Chris Gantry that was a big hit for Glen Campbell around that time. The lyrics don't particularly fit the situation. He gives her a baseball cap like she used to wear when she helped him fix the plane. 

            Born in Queen's, New York, Chris Gantry's only big hit was "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" but he is known to have been part of the Outlaw movement in Country Music. His 1973 album At the House of Cash was too far out for Nashville and it has been called "Acid Country" and so it wasn't really listened to until decades later. He also wrote and co-starred in the movies Hunting Ogeldorph and Do You See That Doggie in the Shelter? He wrote a historical book about Nashville songwriters in the 60s called Gypsy Dreamers in the Alley. 

            In the second story Betty and Steve's baby Kathy Joe is going to be christened soon and so they have to pick godparents for the baby. Joe, Sam, Wendell, Bert the barber and Doc Stuart are all vying to be picked as the godfather. They all fall over themselves trying to outdo each other in favours for Betty and Steve. Betty and Steve pick Janet Craig to be godmother and ask her to pick the godfather. She asks the Reverend Barton to do it and so on the day of the christening he picks Joe, Sam, Wendell, Bert and Doc Stuart. This was done before on another sixties show but I forget which one. Steve sings the horrible song version of "Our Father" that is a church staple. This episode was even more boring than Betty and Steve's wedding. This show got generally worse and worse after the third season.