I memorized the third verse of “Quoi toi moi t’aimer tu rêves” (What You Love of Me is what You Dream) by Serge Gainsbourg. There are two more verses to nail down and I should have them in my head by Wednesday.
I solved the problem of how to play my electric guitar without my Roland Jazz Chorus amp while it’s in the shop. It turns out that I really didn’t need to download the amp sims Amplitube and Guitar Gear because if I switch the speaker plug from the back of my computer to the headphones jack on my audio interface through a plug adaptor I can hear my guitar through the speakers because the speakers become Focusrite speakers that way. If I record through the interface what I make belongs to the computer and I can play it with the plug in the back but if I play live the Scarlett interface requires that I use its own speakers.
I opened Amplitube anyway and experimented with playing through the five free amps and with the reverb knob on each one. They have an amazing number of amps on the list but the imitations of famous amps all have to be paid for. I wonder if Pirate Bay has a crack for all of them. It was fun to fool around and to actually be able to play after my frustrating attempts to solve the problem over the last couple of days. One weird thing is when I shut down Amplitube to just get a clean sound from the interface the sound was still that of the last amp I’d been playing on Amplitube. I’ll be playing my Martin acoustic guitar for the next two days but if I don’t have my amp back by Thursday I’ll be doing a four session stretch on the Kramer again and I’ll experiment on at least one of those days with Guitar Gear.
I weighed 87.7 kilos before what would normally be breakfast but I had to fast so I could get the bloodwork done after my doctor’s appointment for my physical at 13:45. That’s 2.5 kilos heavier than this time last year, which was a kilo and a half heavier than the year before that. I’ll weigh myself again before I leave. I weighed 86 kilos at 12:30, which is the lightest I’ve been at midday since April 30. That’s 1.5 kilos heavier than last year.
I was half an hour early for my appointment with Dr. Shechtman but I only had to wait a few minutes. My blood pressure is normal at 119 over 69. He weighed me and I was 87.5 kilos. I was 83.2 kilos last year. I told him that I had blood in the toilet on April 6 and he thought I should go for a colonoscopy. But my stool was very hard on April 6 and I think it might have just been hemorrhoids. The poop test is coming up in June so I told him I’d wait for that.
I went to Life Labs for my blood work and the place was more crowded than I’ve ever seen it. I had to wait at least an hour because people with appointments get priority. So next year I think I’ll make an appointment.
On my way home on Queen a car nudged me as it sped past and almost knocked my wheel into a pot hole.
I weighed 86.4 at before a late lunch at 16:00. That’s the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since April 30.
I took a late siesta and slept for almost two hours.
I weighed 87 kilos at 18:30.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:40.
I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “La bas c’est natural” and “Kenya” from September 9 to 15. On September 9 and 15 I played “Kenya” on my Kramer electric guitar. On September 9 I broke a string on the Kramer and had to play the Fibson. It didn’t sound good. On September 15 the take at 11:30 in part B was okay. On September 11 and 13 I played it on my Martin acoustic guitar. On September 11 the take at 25:00 was pretty good and looked great. This is already in Movie Maker. On September 13 the take in Part B at 14:45 was pretty good. I played “La bas c’est natural” on the Martin on September 10 and 12. On September 10 the take at 3:00 in part B was pretty good but the light wasn’t great. On September 12 the take at 23:15 was okay but the light was bad. On September 14 I played it on the Kramer and the take at 0:45 in part B wasn’t bad. I now have 27 highlighted takes of these songs to re-review and decide which ones get uploaded to YouTube.
I had a potato with gravy and my last three pork ribs while watching season 2, episodes 21 and 22 of Bewitched.
In the first story Samantha arrives at a restaurant to meet Darrin but he’s not there yet. She sits at their table and then a big guy tries to pick her up. Darrin shows up and confronts the man but is clearly outmatched. He will be beaten up if Samantha doesn’t do something and so she causes the bruiser to hurt his hand on Darrin’s nose and to be knocked out by Darrin’s wild swing. The next day Darrin is on the front page because the person he seemed to knock out is a well known professional boxer named Joe Kovac. That day when Darrin gets to work he finds Kovack and his manager in his office. Darrin is told that he has ruined Kovac’s reputation and so another confrontation has to be staged in a bar with reporters present. Kovack is going to approach Darrin to apologize but Darrin is to reject this and take a swing at Kovack. Kovack will then deliver a glancing blow and Darrin is to fall and pretend to be knocked out. Samantha calls Darrin’s office and learns that he’s gone to meet Kovac and Dundee’s Bar. She goes there and sees the confrontation. Not realizing that it is staged she causes Darrin to knock out Kovac again. Later Darrin goes for a drink at his regular bar when he meets another big man who recognizes him as the one that knocked out Kovac twice. He tells Darin to hit him once in the jaw and then he’ll hit him back. Darrin stands up to reason with the man but trips, stumbles into him, knocks him over and out. The bartender informs Darrin that he’s just knocked out Tommy Carter the heavy weight champion. Later Darrin’s boss Larry Tate comes to Darrin’s house to tell him that he’s gotten Tommy Carter to agree to appear at the Advertizers Annual Charity Ball. He’s going to box four rounds with the opponent of his choice. This looks like a continued story but it isn’t.
One of the reporters was played by Norman Stevans, who started as an extra in 1943 at a time of big epics when extras were in great demand. He developed an extensive wardrobe to gain a reputation as a dress extra and he became known for being extremely dependable. In the 70s when work for extras petered out he became president of the Screen Extras Guild.
In the second story Darrin’s parents are coming for dinner and to see their grandchild Tabatha for the first time. Samantha has also invited her mother Endora. Endora has bought Tabatha a teddy bear. The grandmothers Phyllis and Endora have a rivalry over the affections of Tabatha. They also clash over which side of the family Tabatha most takes after. Then Phyllis brings out her gift for Tabatha, which is the exact same bear that Endora bought. Refusing to settle for being on an equal footing with Phyllis, Endora goes to the nursery and casts a spell on her bear, causing it to dance whenever the name “Tabatha” is spoken. Now Tabatha cries whenever Endora’s gift is taken away. Then Phyllis and Frank see Endora’s bear dancing and Phyllis finds it odd because the two bears are the same brand and identical. Darrin covers by saying he tinkered with Endora’s bear but that sets Frank off on a dream of mass manufacturing his son’s dancing bear and getting rich. Samantha gives Endora an ultimatum that until she removes the dancing spell, her granddaughter is off limits, so Endora gives in. But then Phyllis arrives with a stuffed clown that Tabatha likes more than the now non-dancing bear. So Endora renews the spell and makes the bear dance again. Then Frank brings a toy manufacturer named Hofstetter to look at the bear. Thinking that the spell is off Darrin brings the bear to show him but it begins to dance. Hofstetter says he wants the bear and asks them to name their terms. Then Samantha brings in the clown and makes it dance too. Hofstetter wants the clown as well. Samantha says right now Tabatha is the only child with dancing toys but if it is mass produced every child will have one. Phyllis is against it and in a rare moment Endora agrees with her. She doesn’t want crass commercialism to render her granddaughter as one of the crowd. The deal does not happen.
Hofstetter was played by Arthur Julian, who produced 96 episodes of Gimme a Break. He was a producer for Vacation Playhouse, and Amen. He was a writer for 17 episodes of Maude, Meet Millie, 30 episodes of F Troop, Bewitched, 30 episodes of Hogan’s Heroes, 25 episodes of The Carol Burnett Show, and The Doris Day Show.
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