Frederic Downs

           On Thursday morning I memorized the third verse of “Baille baille Samantha” (Yawn Yawn Samantha) by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation of that verse as well. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the third session of four. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning in a week.

            Around midday I went over to the hardware store to inquire about paint for my floor. Since I couldn’t get both white and black floor paint I opted to get a glossy white and a glossy black latex. I asked if I should get shellac and the guy said it would dull any shine I was aiming for. He said gloss paint is more durable than matt. He also talked me into buying another can of primer because even though I’m painting white Masonite he said it would be more durable and the gloss paint would stick better on top of primer. The three cans cost me almost $100. I might prime it tomorrow but I’ll clean it first. The always sad looking cashier asked how I was and I said, “I’m okay, how are you”. She said, “I’m alive”. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on my way back. I bought five bags of black grapes, a pack of blueberries, a pack of raspberries, bananas, five-year-old cheddar, a kilo of lean ground beef, a jug of limeade, a jar of Basilica sauce, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s because she’s Canadian and never got married. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:52. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” from September 2 to part of September 5. I played my Kramer electric guitar on all of those dates but on September 2 it didn’t get recorded. On September 3 the take at 18:15 wasn’t bad but the ending was a bit off. This session is already in Movie Maker. On September 4 the take at 16:45 wasn’t horrible. On September 5 I fumbled at the last minute and started another take. I’ll review the take at 16:15 tomorrow. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Megaphor” I continued cutting the rotating clip of the computer generated Nadaraj statue. I got it from ten seconds down to three. Then I used the effect of speeding up each segment and copied the whole rotation twice so in four seconds it almost makes three rotations. I think I could have done that without cutting it up now that I’m aware of what the speeding up effect does. Then I started adding the effect of having each segment span the colour spectrum so it looks more interesting than the brass coloured Shiva that was in the original video. I have about a third left to colour. 

            I scanned another set of colour negatives. Most of the shots are of concerts and I think they were free concerts I saw with my ex-girlfriend Brenda at Harbourfront. A couple of shots were of the twin Harper sisters, known as Syren, years before Lea Harper came to do a feature at my open stage. I never personally met Lynn but I think she died a few months ago. There are 25 full sets of negatives left to scan. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching season 4, episodes 6 and 7 of Green Acres. 

            In the first story Lisa comes out and calls for Oliver while he’s fixing the tractor. It sounds like an emergency and so he rushes to come to her and has several accidents along the way. The problem is that the light has gone out in the refrigerator. Then she wants him to hang a picture. He shows her how to change the light bulb and then gives her a hammer and a nail and instructions on how to hammer it into the wall. She makes a large hole big enough to stick one’s head through. Oliver says that he wishes she were more handy and so she decides to get lessons on being handy from Ralph Monroe. But during her training she causes a lot of damage to Ralph and Alf’s home. They then take her on a job to fix Mr. Harrison’s roof. She ends up breaking his window and hammers a spike through the wall and into his coffee pot. She hands Oliver the hammer and Harrison thinks it was Oliver that did it and so he punches him in the nose. Later Lisa tries to show Oliver what she has learned by hammering a nail in the wall and the whole wall of their house falls down. 

            Mr. Harrison was played by Frederic Downs, who toured with Lotte Lenya in the Three Penny Opera. He was in the original cast of Fiorello on Broadway. He wrote the play Lincoln’s Scrapbook. 

            In the second story Eleonor is not giving any milk. Hank Kimball tells Oliver it’s because she needs to calf and so Oliver goes looking for a stud bull for her. They go to see Otis Cowan but Lisa doesn’t think that Eleonor likes his bull Dudley. Later Haney comes by with a ragged looking bull named Olé Sanchez. Eleonor seems to like him but Oliver doesn’t. The next morning they discover that Eleonor has broken out of the barn and run away. Haney says that Olé has also disappeared. Lisa concludes they have eloped.