John L. Greene

            On Thursday I woke up at 2:21 and got up to finish writing in my journal. I didn’t get back to bed until after 4:00. I didn’t sleep at all before the alarm went off at 5:00. 

            I finished posting “She Was a Poor Child of the Road”, my translation of "C'était une pauv' gosse des rues" by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll start learning his song “Ce n'est que l'ombre d'un nuage” (It’s Only the Shadow of a Cloud). 

            I also blog published “Going Download”, my translation of “Suck baby suck” by Serge Gainsbourg. I started memorizing his song “Gloomy Sunday”. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of four sessions. I was out of it though because of lack of sleep. Sometimes I would do a song and then forget that I’d just played it. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast. After shaving, showering and tidying up there was no time to do any painting today. Plus I was moving slow from lack of sleep. 

            I weighed 85.5 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 grapes, a pack of blackberries, a pack of raspberries, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, some tzatziki, a jug of orange juice, a jug of limeade, salsa, and shaving gel. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “The Accordion” and “L’accordion” from September 3 to 7. On September 3 and 5 I played “The Accordion” on my Kramer electric guitar. On September 3 there was still a rattling sound on the B flat chord but take 1 in part B wasn’t bad. I didn’t get the rattle fixed until two days later. This session is already synchronized in Movie Maker. On September 5 the take at 24:00 wasn’t bad. On September 4 I played “L’accordion” on the Kramer and the take at 24:00 was okay but I stumbled on the word “centimes”. On September 6 I played “L’accordion” on my Martin acoustic guitar and the take at 24:15 was pretty good. I play this better on the Martin than on the Kramer. On September 7 I played “The Accordion” on the Martin and the take at 24:45 was okay. 

            I started a new Movie Maker project for the studio recording of my song “Angeline”. For a concert video I used the Christian and the Lions performance from May 8, 1998 at the Riot Gallery. I cut out all the other songs except for “Angeline” and worked on synchronizing the opening notes of the cello sound from Brian Haddon’s synthesizer from the concert video with the studio audio. I got those pretty much lined up but the two vocals need some work to be synchronized. I’ll check tomorrow but it seems offhand that the vocals are lined up at the beginning but that a few seconds later the concert video vocal goes ahead. If that’s the case I’ll need to add some video to push them together. 

            I roasted a corn meal pork loin and had a couple of slices with a potato and gravy while watching season 5, episodes 8 and 9 of Green Acres. 

            In the first story Oliver learns that the population of Hooterville has shrunk to 46 because young people keep moving away. He calls a town meeting and suggests that they open a youth centre. Nobody wants to pay to build one and so Oliver suggests that someone donate their barn. Sam says, “All in favour of Mr. Douglas donating his barn say aye”. The motion is carried. Some money is donated for a jukebox and other things and Oliver’s barn becomes a popular hangout for teenagers. But they stay out so late that they no longer want to get up in the morning to work on the farms. Fred says they are having a meeting to address that problem and urges Oliver not to come. 

            This story was co-written by John L. Greene, who was the creator of the hit sitcom My Favourite Martian. He started writing for radio in the 1930s. His first television writing credit was the 1951 short film Tinhorn Troubadours. He wrote several episodes of Blondie, as well as episodes of Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, The Andy Griffith Show, The Real McCoys, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Our Miss Brooks, Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie. 

            In the second story a special delivery letter for Oliver Wendell Douglas arrives at the Hooterville Post Office. It is the first time a special delivery letter has arrived there in several years. People flock to see it and a parade takes place. Oliver goes to pick up the letter but Sam says he gave it to Hank by mistake. Hank says he gave it to Fred to give to Oliver. Fred says he gave it to Arnold the pig to deliver it but Arnold puts it in a mailbox in Pixley. Oliver goes to the Pixley Post Office where two sets of identical twins are clerks. They say it’s been sent back to the Hooterville Post Office. Sam says he gave it to Eb. Eb says the letter is for Mrs. Oliver Wendell Douglas. It’s a notice about a sale on chinchilla coats that happened the day before in New York. Lisa is mad because she thinks Oliver stalled to avoid making a purchase for her. He offers to buy her a coat but she says it has to be on sale because a woman isn’t a woman until she can get 30% off.