Philip Coolidge

            On Monday morning I continued trying to work out the chords for “Hey Mister Zippo” by Serge Gainsbourg based on the excerpt from the middle of the song that’s on Apple Music. There are certain parts where I don’t hear the same chords every time and so I’m waiting for my ear to settle on a consistent sound. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the second session of two. I added “Je Bois” by Boris Vian and my translation, “Why I Drink” to my daily rehearsals, alternating between the two songs every other day. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar. I’ll also be taking my amp to L’il Demon to be repaired tomorrow. I would do it today if Gian wasn’t closed on Mondays. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since March 1. 

            Around midday I went over to the post office at Vina Pharmacy to buy a packing box and some packing tape. I went home and packed all the candy that I bought yesterday and taped the box. I addressed it to my daughter in Montreal and tomorrow I’ll probably send it. 

            I weighed 88 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 87.3 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:15.

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Kenya” and “La bas c’est natural” from August 6 to 11. I played “Kenya” with the Martin acoustic guitar on August 6 and 10. On August 6 I was on the third take when the camera battery ran out. On August 10 the take at 22:45 was pretty good but the light wasn’t great. I played it on my Kramer electric on August 8, but the light was not good, the Kramer didn’t sound very good and neither did my playing. I played “La bas c’est natural” with the Martin on August 9 and 11. I forgot to do the song in the August 7 session. On August 9 the take at 23:30 was not bad and it looked good though there was traffic noise. On August 11 the take at 0:45 in part B was one of the best. I was expressive and looked good, but there was traffic noise. 

            In the Movie Maker project for my song “Angeline” I finished watching the 1926 silent film Torrent, starring Greta Garbo. I edited out everything but the parts when Greta is pretending to sing, then I deleted some of those. I got it down to ten seconds. I should have a clip ready to insert into the main video tomorrow. 

            In the last parts of the story, Leonora and Rafael spend the night together but not in bed. However this is scandalous enough and Rafael’s mother points this out to Leonora’s mother. Leonora’s mother tells her daughter to go away and so Leonora goes to Madrid to resume her career. She becomes even more of a superstar than before. Rafael comes to see her again and they once again declare their love for each other. She asks him to come to the Americas with her and he accepts. She asks him to get her some orange blossoms while she packs. But while he is out he runs into Don Andre who tells him he will kill his mother if he follows through with this plan. Rafael sends Leonora a note of goodbye. Years later Rafael comes to her again. He has grown old while she remains youthful. He is married with children but tells her he still loves her. She tells him she is not going to break up a family so now it is too late. They each settle for second best. 

            I finished scanning half of the third-to-last box of slides. These were mostly outdoor shots of the playing field behind the house where my daughter was born and lived with her mother and grandparents. 

            I had a potato with gravy and three pork ribs while watching season 2, episodes 5 and 6 of Bewitched. 

            Samantha and Darrin are having Endora over for dinner when things start going wrong. Darrin pulls an extremely long cork out of the wine bottle and the gift wrapped box containing the dessert that Endora brought now contains a frog. Samantha and Endora realize these are jokes with the signature of Uncle Arthur. They find his laughing head under the lid of the main course. They try to treat him as a guest but Endora has never found him amusing. When Darrin laughs at one of Arthur’s pranks on her she gives him long hair in the Beatles style. Arthur offers to teach Darrin some magic so he can stand up to Endora. He resists but finally gives in. Arthur teaches him an incantation after each verse of which he must ring a cowbell and blow on a kazoo. Darrin stands before Endora and goes through the whole thing with no result. It turns out that it was another of Arthur’s practical jokes. Samantha, Endora and Darrin team up to teach Arthur a lesson. Darrin says he’s going to turn Endora into a parrot and once again goes through the spell that Arthur taught him. This time she does turn into a parrot. Arthus says that despite the tension between he and Endora she is still family and urges Darrin to change her back. When Arthur reaches the height of distress it is revealed to him that he has been pranked. He promises to turn over a new leaf and stop playing practical jokes. But he returns to his old tricks shortly after.

            In the second story one of Darrin’s clients is an amateur horticulturist who shows Darrin and Samantha his very rare Peruvian black rose. Suddenly Samantha gets sick, which makes Darrin panic because she is pregnant and because she never experiences bad health. The illness causes her magic to go wrong and then green square spots begin to cover her face. Clara says that this illness is caused by contact with a Peruvian black rose. She says it can be cured if Darrin brings the ingredients for a certain potion. He goes to a store for witches and gets two bat wings, half a pint of fresh porpoise milk, four eye of newt and asks for an ostrich feather. The store is fresh out of ostrich feathers so Clara tries to conjure one. This results in a whole ostrich appearing. Clara makes the potion but it has no effect. She realizes that one ingredient is missing. Three petals from a black Peruvian rose. Darrin breaks into his client’s hothouse and steals the rose but alarms go off and he is arrested. He is thrown in jail but Clara switches places with him so he can add the petals to her potion. It works and so now Darrin has to return to his cell. His client drops the charges because Samantha gives him a whole pot of Peruvian black roses. 

            The owner of the witches supply store was played by Philip Coolidge, who was raised in an upper class family and attended the Milton Academy. After graduation he became a radio announcer. In his theatrical debut in 1930 he played four roles in Romeo and Juliet. He steadily worked on Broadway to critical acclaim from Our Town in 1940 to Hamlet in 1964. He was also a sought after director of plays. Throughout his decades long career as an actor he only appeared in 15 movies. His first was an uncredited part in Boomerang. He played the butler Mr. Cooper in the first season of the sitcom The Farmer’s Daughter.