Jack Denton

            On Tuesday morning I posted "In the Good Old Days", which is my translation of "Au bon vieux temps" by Boris Vian on my Boris Vian Facebook page. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse and some of the second of "Une chose entre autres" (One Thing Among Others) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar for the second day of four during song practice. I had to tune it twice. I discovered that the cable is long enough that I can walk to the kitchen and get a drink of water without taking off the guitar. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I sanded some more of the boards that I'd glued down to fill the depression in the kitchen floor. There are still a few areas that aren't flush with the floor. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I've been at midday in eleven days. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back because I was out of fruit. I bought four bags of black grapes and a pint of strawberries. When I got home I spent about fifteen minutes chiseling black quartz from a piece of the rock that I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:08. 

            I reviewed the videos of my performances of Megaphor from August 18 to 21. From August 18 to 20 I played the electric and on August 18 the take at 3:00 was pretty good. On August 19 the take at 5:00 looked good and didn't sound bad but a couple of chords might be slightly off. On August 20 the take at 2:45 was pretty good and expressive. On August 21 I played the acoustic and the take at 8:15 was okay but not as good as August 11. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for my song Megaphor I edited more of the copy of the silent movie Spies by Fritz Lang. I saved some parts that I might use and knocked off another twenty minutes. 

            I finished scanning the penultimate sheet of black and white negatives. Most of the images are street shots or pictures of my late friend Mike Copping's kids Rachel and Noah. The final sheet has chemically damaged negatives and the first strip I tried to remove was stuck to the acetate, so I had to rip the sleeve open. There are only about thirty negatives left and they are all in strips, so I'll probably have them all scanned on Wednesday. Then I need to tackle a few hundred slides. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 6, episodes 22 and 23 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Joe announces that he's retiring. Since he never does anything the idea of him declaring that from now on he'll take naps and go fishing is amusing for everyone. His family humours him but he eavesdrops on Sam and Bert making fun of Joe retiring and is hurt because of it. The thing is that everyone has always told Joe that he's lazy and he's never taken offense and so why now. Joe packs a suitcase and is about to leave when Janet sees him and realizes the situation. She tries to make Joe feel wanted and encourages everyone else to do the same. But when Joe is asked to fix the kitchen sink Billie Joe absent mindedly tells him that she put the stopper down the drain. Now Joe realizes that it's a trick and decides to sabotage the things that others say they need his help for. Janet's second idea is to throw Joe a farewell party and he is so moved by it that he decides to not retire after all. 

            In the second story the church needs a new organ and so the reverend hires Freddie Kirby a professional fund raiser to help them achieve their goal. A demonstration organ is delivered to the Shady Rest so the donors will know what they are driving for. Freddie gives a pep talk and organizes several events such as a bake sale, an apple sale, and a paper drive. But Freddie is a con artist working for a bigger boss named Marco. The problem however is that as the campaign unfolds Freddie is moved by the kindness of the people of Hooterville and no longer wants to cheat them. Marco insists and reminds Freddie that he's the front man and the one who'll be in trouble if he blows his cover. The drive is a success and Freddie takes the money under the pretense of going to purchase the new organ. While Joe is helping move out the demo organ he drops his end and damages it. They insist now that they will keep the used organ because they don't want to cheat Freddie by taking the new one. Marco protests but Freddie uses this as an opportunity to redeem himself and agrees to the deal. 

            Marco was played by Jack Denton, who started as a professional drummer and then a stand-up comedian. At 22 he was a comedy writer for Milton Berle. he was a Milwaukee DJ and hosted a talk radio show and a local TV show. For four years he was a columnist for the Milwaukee Sentinel. He is best know for his impersonation of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which he performed on stage and on screen, such as in the musical Annie.