John Cliff

            On Tuesday morning I memorized the seventh verse of "Lost Song" by Serge Gainsbourg. There are three short verses left to learn. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first day of four. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            I continued organizing the photo drawer of my small filing cabinet. I separated the prints into separate files: Parkdale Collage, Me, Friends, Girlfriends, Acquaintances, Astrid as a baby, Astrid when she was just walking, Astrid after starting to walk, street shots, people, and contact sheets. Some of the files are bulky so I'll probably expand them into sub-categories because I have extra file folders. I started going through the negatives I've scanned and placed their labeled envelopes in the closest corresponding file folders. I got about two thirds of the negatives placed. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back I stopped at Freshco where I bought four bags of black grapes. 

            I spent about fifteen minutes chiseling black quartz from pieces of the rock I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 17:30. 

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

            I compared my August 27 performance of Megaphor with August 5 and although the 27th is pretty good and looks good, August fifth has great light and I seem so much more present. So August 5 is still ahead. I compared August 28 to August 5 and although I might be playing slightly better on August 28, I still prefer August 5. I compared August 31 to August 5 and I found I'm more on top of the performance on August 5. I compared September 6 to August 5 and I don't hit some of the chords as firmly on September 6 and so August 5 still stays in front. I compared September 11 to August 5 and September 11 is pretty good but I still like my level of engagement on August 5, so it stays on top. I compared September 12 to August 5 and September 12 had no natural light and I was off on one chord. August 5 continues to shine brighter. I compared September 13 to August 5 and I still feel there's something more special about August 5 and so it wins the upload prize. I feel almost like I should be embarrassed after a month and a half of recording myself playing this song that the best one was at the beginning. To be fair some of the later ones are better but they just don't look as good because I lost a minute of light every day. Also maybe I was less frustrated early on. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song "Megaphor" I finished the initial edit of my copy of the silent film Spies by Fritz Lang and cut it from two hours down to two and a half minutes. I only need clips from it for my line, "the spies in my brain plant mines in the answers just to drive me insane" and so I still need to cut the film down to about six seconds. I'll start working on that on Wednesday. 

            I finished organizing my photo drawer. I had two file folders left over and so I labeled one "Astrid's negatives" and the other "Street shot negatives". That evens out a lot of the bulk. While sorting through the photos I found more negatives that have yet to be scanned and so I'll start on those on Wednesday. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a pork chop while watching season 7, episodes 10 and 11 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story the Bradley sisters, Joe, Steve, Kathy Joe and Orrin go on a camping trip. Joe doesn't like Orrin and resents his presence. He especially resents the fact that Orrin knows a lot about camping because of his training as a game warden. Orrin says it's very important not to leave food scraps lying around so as not to attract wild animals. And this was something I didn't know, that when getting water from a stream one should always take it from where the water is running over rocks because it's purer that way. Joe resents all of that advice. When Joe goes fishing he catches nothing while Orrin brings back a large catch. That night Joe goes to sleep early and Orrin zips up his sleeping bag so he won't be cold. But the next morning the zipper is stuck and Joe can't get out. The next night Joe goes off by himself to sleep but before bedding down throws pieces of a sandwich nearby. While he's sleeping a bear comes for the food. When everyone hears the bear they come running. But when Orrin sees the bear he slips away and everyone thinks he's a coward. But shortly after that the bear suddenly moves away from Joe and goes back in the woods. Orrin had taken a jar of honey and placed it upwind from the bear. 

            In the second story preparations are underway for Kathy Joe's first birthday party. Billie Joe is doing a performance in another town and they want to hold her over. The agent doesn't want to let her leave but she is able to get away just for the one day. Steve gets called away to a crop dusting job but he makes it back on time. Charlie Hanks's wife is pregnant with quadruplets and Janet has to deliver them with the assistance of Bobbie Joe who seems to be a nurse now. Joe takes Kathy Joe into Pixley and lets her pick out her own present but she picks a chimpanzee in a pet shop window. The chimps one sees in these shows are all very young while the adults grow about a head shorter than the average human, so they make extremely impractical and possibly dangerous pets. While Joe, Kathy and the chimp are sitting on some seats on the sidewalk a woman comes out of a store and comes over to engage with the baby. But while she is doing so the chimp takes her wallet out of her purse. She calls the police because she thinks Joe planned it, so Joe, Kathy and the chimp all end up in the Pixley jail. Meanwhile Elbert the Pixley town drunk is arrested in Hooterville by the justice of the peace Sam Drucker. Elbert pleads guilty and Sam says he has to either pay $5 or spend five days in custody. Elbert says he'll take the five days because he's broke. Sam can't watch Albert because he has the party to go to. Joe gets one phone call and calls Sam. Sam arranges for a prisoner exchange with the Pixley sheriff, Elbert for Joe, Kathy and the chimp. The rest of the episode is just Steve singing two songs for Kathy and then there's a cake.

            The Pixley sheriff was played by John Cliff, whose father ran a minstrel show in Georgia. He flew cargo planes over the Himalayas during WWII. After the war he wanted to be a commercial pilot but was rejected because he didn't have a college degree, so he got into acting. His first movie was a small part in Fighting Man of the Plains in 1949. He was in the army reserves and was called away to fight in the Korean war. He returned to Hollywood in 1953. He played Ulysses in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules. He had supporting roles in several movies and guest appearances on many television shows. He retired from acting in the 70s and became a real estate agent.