Patty Regan

            On Wednesday morning I woke up to pee at around 3:30 and I was bleeding from the outside of my ear. I must have cut myself shaving on Monday and scratched the wound in my sleep. It’s happened before. 

            I did another search for the lyrics of six songs by Boris Vian that I’d made a first attempt to track down a year or so ago. There are a lot of Vian songs that have been lost and these songs: “Je crois entendre”, “Je l'ai connu”, “Je m'en fou”, “Madame Lala”, “Ombres de l'amour”, “On était tous à table” are among them. I did learn though that “Madame Lala” was the pet name Vian had for his daughter Carole. But I did find YouTube recordings of his 1950 song “On fait des rêves” (We Keep Dreaming), and so I’ll start learning that tomorrow.

            I memorized the fourth verse of “Quoi toi moi t’aimer tu rêves” (What You Love of Me is what You Dream) by Serge Gainsbourg. I almost conquered the last verse and so I should have no problem nailing it down on Thursday. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my Kramer electric. It’s been a week since I took my amplifier to L’il Demon to be repaired. If I don’t get an email today I’ll play it through my audio interface like last time. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I sanded another section of my bathroom ceiling. All that’s left is the area above the inside half of the tub. That should take about two more sessions and then I’ll take a break to shop for a guitar effects pedal. 

            I weighed 87.7 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been at midday in a week. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back I stopped at Freshco where I bought three bags of green grapes. 

            I weighed 87.2 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:30. 

            I compared the song practice videos of my August 10 and 12 performances of “Kenya”. Neither day had great light but it was better on the 10th. I compared August 16 to August 10 and found that August 16 is far better, except for traffic noise. The traffic noise isn’t picked up as much in the Audacity recording as it is by the camera microphone and so August 16 wins this round. I compared August 22 with August 16 and I think August 22 is quieter in terms of traffic noise but August 16 has better light, so I’ll stay with August 16 for now. I compared August 26 with August 16 and they are close to equal but I still like the look of August 16 a little better. I compared August 28 to August 16 and I still prefer the look of August 16. I compared September 1 to August 16 and I still think the expression, the look and the ending of August 16 give it the edge. There are two takes of the acoustic version of “Kenya” left to compare. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Angeline” I synchronized the concert video with the studio audio at the beginning of the second chorus when I sing “Angeline…”. But after that the video is ahead of the audio for the line, “I feel I’m falling through the soundtrack of your dream” and so I had to push it back by adding little clips of Mickey Dolenz falling from the Golden Gate Bridge in the movie Head. The audio was still a little behind when I stopped for the night. I should have them lined up tomorrow. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, a sliced hot Italian sausage, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 25 and 26 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story a horse escapes from a trailer and wanders into Samantha’s back yard. When Samantha discovers her she seems to be communicating but Samantha can’t understand so she turns her into a human. She says her name is Dally Ran and that she is a racehorse. She explains that the problem is that she is never allowed to win races but is rather used to set them up by setting a pace that tires the other horses out so her sister can come from behind and win. She finds it very frustrating and so that’s why she ran away. Darrin comes home with his old friend Gus and the transformed horse is introduced as Dolly Rand. Gus is an inventor who needs money to finance his invention. Dolly suggests that they go to the track and she can help him win money with her intimate knowledge of horses. She takes her friends to the stables where she learns from one of the horses that the others are going to let a certain horse win because it’s his birthday. The horse is a longshot but it wins. She then talks to another horse who says he’s hot today. Dolly tells Gus to bet half his money but the horse loses. Before the next race Dolly runs into her trainer Jack who says Adorable Diane is sick and he sure wishes Dally Ran was there. This is Dolly’s big chance so Samantha changes her back and Dally Ran enters the race. She starts off far behind but catches up and wins. 

            Dolly was played by Patty Regan, who first appeared in the Billy Barnes Musical reviews with Joanne Worley and Ken Barry. These were so popular that they moved to Broadway and then to London. She played Daphne Parmenter on F-Troop and Maxwell Smart’s landlady on Get Smart. 

            In the second story Samantha leaves her mother Endora to babysit Tabatha. Gladys Kravitz comes over with her nephew Edgar who is the same age as Tabatha. When Gladys begins to brag about how much more advanced Edgar is than Tabatha, Endora casts a spell to cause Tabatha to briefly talk to Gladys. Gladys comes back with reporters. Samantha and Darrin tell them that it was all a mistake. When they are about to ask Endora, Darrin tells them not to listen to her because she makes up things. This triggers Endora to make the baby talk again. The next day Tabatha is front page news and the main story on the TV news shows. A hundred people are standing outside Tabatha’s home day and night. Endora thinks it’s good to have a crowd and be the centre of attention but Samantha tells her that if Tabatha becomes a celebrity she will have very little time for her family. This convinces Endora to help rectify this problem. The reporters are called again and this time Endora convinces them that she used to be a ventriloquist in Vaudeville. That results in the papers printing a retraction. 

            I had something in my eye all through dinner until well after I went to bed. It was probably a speck of dust from all the sanding I’ve been doing of the bathroom ceiling.