Jayne County

            On Monday morning I finished editing “La vie grise” (The Grey Life) by Boris Vian in my Christian’s Translations blog. All that’s left before publication is to post a video with it and I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of “Shotgun” by Serge Gainsbourg. There is only one verse left to learn and so I’ll probably have the whole song nailed down on Tuesday. 

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

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since last Monday morning although not as heavy as then. 

            I’ve been listening to the Jayne County discography and enjoying it. I remember first hearing of Jayne County in 1973 when she was Wayne County. Five years before she even recorded her first album, pictures of her concerts were often shown in the music magazines like Creem, Hit Parader, and Crawdaddy because her makeup and clothing were considered outrageous, even during the Glam Rock era. She was gender non conforming from an early age, long before the expression existed. At the age of 21 she left Georgia for New York and became a regular at the Stonewall Inn gay bar. She participated in the gay riots in 1969. Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis asked her to appear in her play Femme Fatale. Then Jayne wrote her own play: World - Birth of a Nation: The Castration of Man in which she played Florence and Ethel Nitingale. Then Andy Warhol cast her as Vulva in his play Pork. In 1972 she formed the proto punk band Queen Elizabeth. They were signed to a label and a film was made of concert footage called Wayne at the Trucks but it was never shown. She claims that it was the inspiration for Bowie’s Diamond Dogs album and that his song “Rebel Rebel” is a rip-off of her song “Queenage Baby”. I’ve listened to both and they sound nothing alike. In 1974 she formed Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys. They played a lot at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City where she was also a DJ. In 1976 she appeared in the film Blank Generation which is considered to be the movie that defined the Punk movement. In 1977 she moved to London where she formed Wayne County and the Electric Chairs and released the single “Fuck Off”. They put out an EP and two albums until 1979 when the band broke up. She moved to Berlin and changed her name to Jayne, publicly identifying as a woman for the first time. She released the album Rock and Roll Resurrection and her first concert as Jayne County was in Toronto. Her first solo studio album was Private Oyster. In 1989 her first US album release was Goddess of Wet Dreams. In 1994 she released her autobiography Man Enough to Be a Woman. She has lately returned to Georgia where she now fronts a band called Jayne County and the Electric Queers.

            

            

            

            

            I took an early siesta from 12:15 to 13:45. 

            I weighed 86 kilos at 13:45. 

            At 14:30 I left to meet George Elliot Clarke at The Fortunate Fox on Bloor Street. I was expecting a pub atmosphere but it’s a fancy restaurant with real napkins even though they serve pub fare. I picked a table in the back corner by the window. I went to use the washroom which is outside the restaurant behind the elevators. When I came back George was just arriving. He brought me a gift of a signed copy of his book Canticles III. We’ve been arguing by email about my claim that all poetry before the printing press was song. I’d expected that debate to continue in person but it didn’t come up at all. We talked about the MA for Creative Writing that I applied for. Albert Moritz has told me the decision process is arbitrary and that I have a slim chance of getting in. But George thinks I have a very good chance based on my Statement of Purpose. It sounds like very hard work in the first year. He says he got in trouble with the university for showing the movie Virgin Spring (which features a gang rape) to one of his classes,. He warned students it might be offensive and told them they could leave, but two students complained anyway. He had to appear before a board which heard his explanation for showing the movie and they accepted it. He also mentioned the movie, “I Spit on Your Graves” and he was pleasantly surprised that I knew it was a translated from Boris Vian. 

            The Fox treats George like royalty. He ordered a glass of a certain rosé and since they didn’t have it they gave him a glass of another kind of wine on the house. He had a sandwich and the free wine and I had wings and a beer. I paid for both of us and the price was surprisingly reasonable for a place where the waiter puts your napkin on your lap for you. 

            I finished my bike ride and stopped at Freshco on the way home to buy bananas and spoon size shredded wheat. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos at 17:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I compared the video of my August 11 song practice performance of “Joanna” with that of August 5. Although August 5 looks better I put in a better performance on August 11, so August 11 is the winner of this round. I compared August 15 to August 11 and I play it better and a little slower on the 15th and so that’s the new leader. I compared August 27 to August 15 and I played it just as well but August 27 looked better and so it’s out in front now. I compared August 31 to August 27 and I think August 31 looks and sounds as good but it’s also more expressive, so now August 31 is ahead. I compared September 6 to August 31 and August 31 is slightly better but not enough for September 6 to not have the edge because of the fact that it’s already in Movie Maker. I compared September 10 to September 6 and September 10 has bad light and so the version of “Joanna” I’ll upload to YouTube is the one from September 6. Next I’ll compare the videos of “Joanna Dances Lightly” from August 6 and 10. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Angeline” I inserted a clip from the 1949 Alice in Wonderland film into the main video and then synchronized the concert video with the studio audio for the beginning of my line, “I feel I’m falling through your sadly spoken dream”. But then a couple of people walk in front of the camera and so I cut out that part and added another second of Alice falling. By coincidence that synchronized the concert video with the rest of that line. But then for the next line, “And since I can’t see the bottom with this tiny flashlight beam I’ll just resign my self to falling Angeline” the concert video is slightly ahead, I’ll add another short clip of Alice to push it back. 

            I made a new batch of gravy out of pork drippings and had some with a potato and three pork ribs while watching season 6, episodes 20 and 21 of Green Acres. 

            In the first story the governor announces that the state is bankrupt and so he’s going to raise taxes 52%, close the unemployment offices, shut down twelve colleges, and cut the highway patrol in half. Oliver organizes a community meeting and asks for ideas on what to do. The suggestions are so ridiculous that he leaves. But the next day he learns they’ve decided to secede from the state. They blow up the bridge over Simpson’s Swamp and form their own kingdom with Oliver as the king. The president calls the governor and tells him he should go to Hooterville and solve this problem and so he wades through the swamp to get to the Douglas place. He says there is no alternative to the tax hike but Lisa tells him that since he is a former movie star he should hold a film festival of his old movies to raise money for the state and force everybody to go to the movies. He likes the idea. 

           
In the second story Drobney the Hungarian duck is unhappy. Arnold the pig tries to play with him but he doesn’t speak Hungarian. Lisa eventually figures out that Drobney needs a girlfriend. After a long search they find one and the two ducks hit it off. Shortly after that Mrs. Drobney lays three eggs out of which hatch two ducklings and one chick.