I memorized the sixth verse and almost the last of “Asphalte” by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have it nailed down tomorrow.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice until about halfway through when the high E string broke. I grabbed my Kramer to finish the session and what’s great about the Kramer is that it stays in tune for days.
I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast.
I changed the high E string on the Gibson. It’s so easy on that guitar.
I weighed 88 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon when I got up from my siesta it was raining. It wasn’t coming down very hard so I flossed and brushed and got prepared to go but by the time I was ready it was coming down too hard. I waited half an hour but by then the rain was torrential so I put my bike away.
I weighed 88.05 kilos at 16:30.
In the Movie Maker project for my acoustic performance of “The Wooden Leg”, yesterday I published the video entirely in sepia tone. But there are three voices in the song: The Narrator, The Wooden Leg and the Rocket. So I decided to clip the video into segments where the voice of the Wooden Leg and references to her are in sepia tone, while the speech of the Rocket and references to him in are in regular colour. I also took screen shots of part of the video that’s in colour and part that’s in sepia, then I created a split image half in colour and half in sepia to use as a thumbnail.
While I was working the sun came out. I looked outside and saw that David the panhandler who looks like Santa Clause was sitting on the corner. I grabbed my camera and tripod and went downstairs. I made it easier and just shot him where he was sitting. He had trouble repeating the lines I fed to him: “sit here and wait for the next state of grace” and “line up and wait for the next state of grace”. He kept on wanting to sing “sittin here and waitin” and I remember having that problem with a couple of my other video subjects. But most of all he kept replacing “state” with “stage” and we had to do several takes before he got it right. I gave him $10.
I took advantage of the light and continued walking west to Sorauren. On the way back at West Lodge I chatted with Sal, who I’d put on video yesterday. A shirtless young guy who was hanging around saw my camera and wanted me to hang around so I could take a picture of some guy he’d had a hassle with yesterday if he showed up so I could send the photo to the police. I told him I wasn’t going to do that. I walked east to Elm Grove, then west again. Between MacDonnell and Sorauren the homeless guy who is always ranting angrily as he storms around the neighbourhood stopped to rant at me. Some of his phrases were quite creative. I shook my head or nodded where appropriate, then finally he stopped and said, “Sorry!” then walked away. I would like to use him for my video but I fear he wouldn’t have the presence of mind to follow my instructions. I walked to Sorauren again and then back to my place. I only need one more person for the video but I’d like to record five more. Ideally I most want to shoot a video of Whispering Ghost with Wings of Silver because I failed to record him properly two weeks ago.
When I got home I uploaded the coloured voices version of the video of my acoustic performance of “The Wooden Leg” to YouTube.
I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 5, episodes 3 and 4 of Bewitched.
In the first story Samantha and Darrin catch Endora teaching Tabitha to play Bach with witchcraft. Darrin accuses Endora of corrupting his daughter and that’s a very dangerous choice of words to say to a grandmother who is also a powerful witch. He says she’s worse than the Wicked Witch of the West. Endora says she refuses to be compared to an amateur. This leads to Darrin challenging Samantha to learn to play piano without enchanting her fingers. She hires a very snooty piano instructor named Johann Sebastian Monroe. A few days later Endora hears Tabitha banging on the piano keys in a non-musical way while Samantha is in the garden cutting flowers. Endora encourages Tabitha again to play with magic and while she is doing so Monroe arrives to give Samantha another lesson. He thinks he’s discovered a prodigy in Tabitha and refuses to teach Samantha anymore. He wants to immediately start a concert piano career for Tabitha but Samantha and Darrin say no. Samantha knows Monroe won’t give up and so she uses a spell to track down the nearest prodigy. She finds Mathew Williams playing Liszt after hours in a school where his father Robert is the custodian because they don’t have a piano at home. Later Monroe shows up at the Stevens house with his mentor Maestro Alfredo Ferranini. They insist on hearing Tabitha play and so Samantha has her do so without enchantment. The maestro leaves in anger and Monroe leaves depressed. But later Samantha puts Monroe in touch with Mathew and everything is hopeful for both of them. Samantha then demonstrates that she has learned to play, the theme from “Born Free”.
In the second story Samantha and Darrin are spending a quiet evening together. Darrin goes to fix them drinks when he disappears. Samantha summons Endora because she thinks her mother is behind it but she isn’t. Suddenly an old acquaintance of Endora appears in a dramatic puff of smoke. Her name is Carlotta and she and Endora delight in trading insults for a while. Carlotta reminds Endora of a deal they made at a turn of one of the past centuries. Endora promised the hand of her first born daughter to Carlotta’s first born son. The deal was that when the planet Icarus passes between Pluto and Jupiter she gets to collect. Samantha says she’s already married. Carlotta tells her that marriages to mortals don’t count. Carlotta reveals that she has put Darrin in a cloudy dimension where he is being pursued by the sounds of wild animals. She says he will be in that state for all eternity unless Samantha gives in to her demands. Samantha berates her mother for having made an arrangement characteristic of the Middle Ages. Endora says she things it was in the Middle Ages. Samantha agrees to go with Carlotta to meet her son Duke. They live in a cloudy realm where Duke has many photos of Samantha pinned to the clouds in his cloudy room. She meets Duke, who is an adult but dresses like Little Lord Fauntleroy and lives a life under the control of his mother. Carlotta leaves them alone and Duke reveals that his mother is the one who filled his room with Samantha’s photos and insists that he marry her. Samantha begins coaching Duke on how to stand up to his mother. His first attempt to confront his mother fails. Samantha goes home and says to Endora that Carlotta must have an Achilles heel. Endora informs her that Carlotta actually has Achilles’ heel bronzed and mounted on her mantlepiece. Carlotta arrives with Duke and threatens her once again with Darrin’s doom. Samantha yawns in boredom. Samantha accuses Carlotta of having no confidence in her son’s ability to attract a partner and that’s why she uses threats. She says she wants Duke anyway. Samantha begins to challenge Carlotta’s control and changes his clothes to those of a swinging Hippy. He likes it but Carlotta doesn’t and changes him back. Samantha reverses that spell. They go back and forth. Samantha says once they are married Carlotta can visit every other Sunday. Carlotta says the marriage is off. Duke now takes control and says he will marry Samantha if his mother doesn’t give him his independence. Carlotta agrees and then frees Darrin. Later Samantha gets a letter from Duke announcing that he’s getting married. But it’s to someone who controls his every move like his mother did.
Carlotta was played by the great Mercedes McCambridge, who began her career on radio and Broadway. She starred in the radio drama Defence Attorney. She won the best supporting actress Oscar for All the King’s Men, was nominated for the same award for “Giant” and was the uncredited demon voice in the Exorcist. Orson Welles called her the world’s greatest radio actress. She co-starred in Johnny Guitar.
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