Frank Capp

            On Thursday morning I finished working out the chords for “La vie grise” (The Grey Life) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing it in French and then English. I may need to make some adjustments in my translation. 

            I published “To the Children of Chance”, my translation of “Aux enfants de la chance” by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog. Tomorrow I’ll start memorizing his song “Shotgun”. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions.

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I was about to pull the stove out and finish my floor painting project when there was a knock on the door. It was Steve from Orkin pest control there to treat the building for bedbugs. He had mentioned on December 18 that he might be here on January 4 or 5 but the landlord didn’t give us any notice and so Steve could only treat the places of the people who were home. As usual Cesar in unit 1 wouldn’t let him in. King in unit 2 would have left his door unlocked if he’d been notified and his place definitely has bedbugs. Benji in unit 4 was home and fortunately the guy in unit 5 is always home because his place is the worst of the places in our building that Steve has looked at. Shawn in unit 6 wasn’t home but Steve says he never finds any there. David in unit 7 was home and Steve says there are quite a few there. I’ve only seen two since December 18 and one of them might have been already dead. We’re supposed to leave for a couple of hours but since my kitchen area is separate Steve said if I stayed there I’ wouldn’t have to leave. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a siesta at 14:00 and normally get up at 15:30. I woke up at what I thought was 15:41 and got ready for my bike ride but then when the top of the hour came around I realized it was only 15:00 so I went back to bed for another half an hour. Even though I’d already gotten partially ready, because of putting on extra layers I didn’t get away until 16:00 anyway. I rode downtown and on the way back I stopped at Freshco where I bought, five bags of grapes, a pack of strawberries, two packs of blueberries, some bananas, a jug of orange juice, French roast coffee, salsa, Miss Vickie’s chips, shampoo-conditioner, and conditioner. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos at 18:00. 

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

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Joanna Dances Lightly” and “Joanna” from August 22 to 26. On August 22 and 26 I played “Joanna Dances Lightly” with my Martin acoustic guitar. On August 22 the take at 22:00 was pretty good but I didn’t look friendly at the end. On August 26 the take at 19:00 was pretty good and looked good. On August 23 I played “Joanna” on the Fibson electric guitar because this was the day the Kramer broke a string. The Fibson was crackling and I switched to the acoustic but the camera timed out on the first verse. On August 24 I played “Joanna Dances Lightly” on the Kramer electric guitar and the take at 26:45 was pretty good for the electric. On August 25 I played “Joanna” on the Martin and the take at 12:30 in Part B sounded okay but there was bad light and traffic noise. 

            I continued to search for video clips from old movies of people falling from great heights. I found a clip of Buster Keaton falling from a building and I bookmarked it but I think it looks too silly for my purposes. I remembered that Alice in Wonderland has a long section in which Alice is falling down the rabbit hole. A couple of silent videos copped out and just had Alice following the rabbit down a slanted tunnel but one of them had her falling. There’s also a dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in which Jimmy Stewart is falling and so I think I’ll use that. 

            I had a small potato with the rest of the gravy and the last of the roast beef while watching season 6, episodes 12 and 13 of Green Acres. 

            In the first story Lisa goes to the Every Second Wednesday Discussion group where there is a guest speaker giving a lecture on women’s liberation. When she comes home she tells Oliver that from now on every other day she will do his work and he will do hers. He challenges her that she wouldn’t be able to run a farm. The next day she shows up dressed in her satin, bejewelled overalls and asks what the job for the day is. Oliver wants to build a tool shed behind the barn but there’s a bunch of junk lying around there, some of it very large items like an old bathtub. He tells Lisa to clear it all while he goes to get a permit to build the shed. But at the office the clerk looks up his farm and finds that the plans for his property do not include a barn. That means his barn was built illegally. He’s told he has to tear it down, then get a permit to build a barn, then after two years he can build a tool shed. Oliver leaves in frustration and goes home to find that Lisa has not only cleared the area but has piled all of the junk one item on top of another. Then she says she will now build the tool shed but he tells her he couldn’t get the permit. She says for him to do his housework while she gets the permit. She gets the permit and then builds a perfect shed. Later Haney comes by and hands him a bill for $1200 for the guys that were hired to move the junk and for the $100 bribe that got the permit. Lisa says she wants to be the woman of the house again.

            In the second story Lisa wants to go to New York for her friend’s 25th wedding anniversary. Oliver asks how she could have a 25th anniversary if she only got married last year. Lisa says she was married to her first husband nine years, her second husband four years, her third husband seven years, to her fourth husband three years, and to the current husband one year. Oliver tells her they can’t go. Then Eb introduces Oliver to his invisible friend Charlie. Later Lisa has an invisible friend named Natasha and so Oliver sarcastically makes up one named Homer. Then Charlie gets a dog named George. Then Eb says that Charlie and Homer got into a gun and knife fight over Natasha and so he called the sheriff. When the sheriff arrives and Oliver tries to explain it’s he who sounds insane. The sheriff wants to take him to the county mental hospital but Lisa says she knows a psychiatrist in New York and so the sheriff says he won’t take Oliver away if he promises to go to New York. The whole thing seems have been a devious plan just to get Oliver to go. 

            The percussionist for the theme song of Green Acres was Frank Capp, who was a self taught drummer form the age of six. He graduated from Boston University’s School of Music. He played for big bands led by Stan Kenton, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, and Stan Getz. He co-formed his own band in the 70s with Nat Pierce that came to be known as the Capp Pierce Juggernaut. He also played for rock and roll sessions and was a member of The Wrecking Crew. He toured with Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. He spent 13 years as the drummer for the Dave Rose Orchestra on the Red Skelton Show. His autobiography was called Drumming Up Business. He played on the recordings of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walkin” and Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High”.