On Tuesday morning I finished working out the chords for “Hey Mister Zippo” by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through playing and singing it in French and tomorrow I’ll do the same with my translation.
I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of four sessions.
I weighed 87.5 kilos before breakfast.
Around midday I started trying to secure my amplifier to the bike trailer I bought last week. It turns out though that the straps that came with the Burley are not long enough to fit around my amp. I tried tying the two straps together and thought that would work but when I got it downstairs it was too wobbly and the wheels rubbed against the amp. I tried setting it on the trailer edgewise but that was even more wobbly. I took it back upstairs. I found another strap so I could use the two Burley straps together at one level and the yellow strap at another but there was still the wheel rubbing problem. I stuck several pieces of board between the trailer and the amp to try to push it away from the wheels. If I’d had a few more boards that would have worked but it would have looked ridiculous. Earlier I’d seen a panhandler sitting on a plastic milk crate. When I was struggling with the straps downstairs later the crate was just sitting by itself. Just before lunch I went back downstairs and the crate was still there and so I took it with the idea that I could use it to elevate the amp so it would be free of the wheels.
I had lunch and took a short siesta. When I got up I secured the crate to the bottom of the trailer with one of the short straps. Then I went to the hardware store and bought two longer cam buckle lash straps. I was able to secure the amp this way but it wasn’t as tight as I would have liked. However it stayed in place during the trip to Lil Demon. I let the amp with Gian and so I’ll be without an amp for at least a week unless I can figure out how to play the Kramer through my speakers.
When I got home and put the trailer away I went back out to mail the package of candy to my daughter. It should get there by Thursday.
I weighed 86 kilos at 18:00, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since April 16.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:45.
I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Kenya” and “La bas c’est natural” from August 12 to 15. On August 12 I played “Kenya” with my Martin acoustic guitar and the take at 26:45 wasn’t bad. The light was a bit washed out and there was a loud streetcar that went by. On August 14 I played it with my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 2:00 in part B wasn’t bad but there was traffic noise. This is already synchronized in Movie Maker. On August 13 I played “La bas c’est natural” on the Kramer and the take in part B at 6:45 was not great. On August 15 I played it on the Martin and the take at 24:15 was okay.
I had a potato with gravy and three pork ribs while watching season 2, episodes 7 and 8 of Bewitched.
In the first story Halloween is approaching. Witches consider it a night of bigotry. If witches as they are depicted in this show actually existed one might compare their reaction to Halloween with how African Canadians might react if there was a night when many people walk around in public wearing blackface. Endora wants Samantha to go with her to the Sacred Volcano until Halloween is over but she refuses. She argues that Darrin is one mortal who is sensitive to the feelings of witches. But then a package arrives containing Halloween decorations including horrific cartoon depictions of witches. Samantha is very upset and calls Darrin at work. It turns out that Darrin’s boss Larry sent the package because they are having a Halloween party at Darrin’s house that night with a new client Jack Rogers and his wife Phyllis as guests. Darrin is angry at Larry for doing that since it could ruin his marriage. Endora appears in Darrin’s office and appeals to him to let Samantha go with her. He refuses and so she wishes him a good time but in a tone of veiled threat. Later outside Darrin and Samantha’s house some trick or treaters see Endora and ask her for a treat. She tells them to go away. They say we’ll have to trick you. She says, “I’m ready if you are”. One kid says, “Abracadabra, you’re a tree” so Endora turns herself into a scary tree and the kids run away in fear. Then she turns herself into a little redheaded girl in a Romani costume and rings the doorbell. Darrin answers with a tray of treats but little Endora says it’s all junk and so she’s going to have to trick him. He tells her to go ahead and she casts a spell. He thinks she’s just being cute and closes the door. Suddenly hair starts growing quickly on Darrin’s face and hands. Samantha realizes the little girl was her mother and goes out to drag her inside. She tells Darrin she’s cursed him to be a werewolf. The doorbell rings and Endora says she’ll go in the den and concentrate on the reverse spell. Meanwhile Darrin has to shave his whole body before the guests show up. The guests arrive. Endora says it’s not easy to remember because there are over 7000 combinations of magic words. Darrin returns to the guests and starts to grow claws and fangs. All the hair grows back and the moon comes out. Endora disappears and Darrin goes out to look for her. Larry and Jack are on the patio when they see Darrin as a full werewolf but he can still talk. Jack is impressed with the costume and Darrin becomes the life of the party. But he starts to lose control and asks Samantha to lock him in the closet. Endora appears in her true form. She never really forgot the spell and did it as a lesson. Samantha accuses Endora of acting exactly like humans think witches behave and doing it to the one person who was willing to believe witches are different. This gets through to Endora so she apologizes and reverses the spell.
The little girl version of Endora was played delightfully by Maureen McCormick, who won the Baby Miss San Fernando Valley contest at the age of six. By the age of eight she was appearing in plays, Barbie and Kool-Aid commercials and making guest appearances on sitcoms. She also recorded the voices for a dozen Mattel talking dolls such as Chatty Cathy. As a teenager she became a star as Marcia Brady on The Brady Bunch and also had a singing career as a result. She made four albums with The Brady Bunch and one solo country album, “When You Get A Little Lonely”. She played Marcia on six different series. Her autobiography was called Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice. She co-starred in The Million Dollar Kid. She had problems for many years with depression, paranoia, bulimia and drug addiction and it damaged her reputation as a reliable actor. Over the years she has pulled herself together.
In the second story Samantha has to go to a last minute cocktail party at Darrin’s office for a client. She doesn’t have a new dress to wear and so Aunt Clara whips one up for her with witchcraft. Darrin doesn’t approve of things made by magic but lies to Clara that he just feels he’ll be upstaged. Clara feels in the groove so she spells up a snazzy suit for Darrin. Samantha invites Clara to accompany them to the party. They drive downtown in Darrin’s car but the only parking space nearby has a fire hydrant beside it. Clara moves the hydrant next to the car ahead of them , which she says is the police commissioner’s car. A cop comes along to give Darrin a ticket and is surprised to see there is no hydrant where he thought one has been for years. At the party the food and drink comes from the client Barlow of Mother Jenny’s jam and Mother Jenny’s vegetable punch. They are both very healthy but taste horrible. Clara has a conversation with Barlow and in her always benignly blunt manner tells him she doesn’t like his jam. Barlow always goes to bed early and so Darrin agrees to drop him off. But before they leave the sleeves of Samantha’s dress disappear. Anticipating the rest vanishing she magically makes her own replacement in a different colour and style. When they leave the party the fire hydrant has already moved back beside Darrin’s car. Then Darrin’s suit begins to disappear. Darrin is arrested for public indecency plus the parking offense. Darren is placed in a cell with a drunk man who assumes Darrin has the drinking problem. Samantha sees in Clara’s crystal ball where Darrin is and she appears in the cell with a suit of clothes for him. The next morning in court the officer tells the judge about Darrin being in his underwear when he arrested him. Darrin asks how he could have a suit on now if he’d been placed in a cell in his undies. The judge wonders that as well and dismisses the case. Darrin’s boss Larry drops Barlow’s account because he’s a boor.
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