Anne Seymour

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the first verse of “D’où reviens-tu Billy Boy?” by Boris Vian. The rest of the verses will probably have the same chords but we’ll see. 

            I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “Sweet Sixteen”, my translation of “Love Fifteen” by Serge Gainsbourg, then I posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are sixteen songs left in my Gainsbourg project. I listened twice to his song “Amours des feintes” (Feinting Romance). Tomorrow I’ll start memorizing it. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 6. 

            I called Perfect Leather to find out if my motorcycle jacket had been repaired and the guy said. “If they said it would be ready today it will be ready today”. I wanted to make sure they remembered to cut the back flap off and he just told me that if they’d said they’d do that it would be done. So I took my bike ride early and stopped at the new BMO in the building where Honest Ed’s used to stand. An elderly woman was standing outside and reading the hours of operation. I opened the door for her and she said, “Oh! It’s open!” I guess because the windows are tinted it looks like the lights are off inside. I took out $400 cash because if I paid cash for the jacket I wouldn’t have to pay tax. 

            Those electric bike delivery people have an annoying habit of suddenly stopping in front of other cyclists to look at their GPS. 

            At Perfect Leather it turned out they hadn’t cut the flap off the back but the elderly tailor Maria said they could to it right away. There was a very friendly big white dog behind the counter who came to me to be patted. I talked with Maria about how in my childhood a dog wouldn’t be allowed inside. I talked with Bill the co-owner who is the son of the late man who started the business. They are Greek and he says the owners of Northbound Leather are cousins. Danier used to be Attica and the guy who started it was a friend of Bill’s father. He said he’s worked in the shop since he was six and his father never tried to teach him the trade. He just told him to watch and ask questions. He said the one thing he never learned was how to sharpen a knife as well as his father. They sell wallets but they don’t make them because doing quality work on that small a scale requires a machine. He says nobody hand crafts wallets in Canada. They used to have seven shops with rows of machines working all the time. Now they have the one shop and the property taxes are so high in that area that they can’t make a profit. He’s considering moving the shop to the DVP and Eglinton but they will probably find a store in the King and Spadina area that will let them keep a resident tailor so people don’t have to travel away from downtown to drop things off. 

            It took about fifteen minutes for them to cut off the flap and sew the back. I like the store because it’s old style and they care about their customers. I could have almost gotten a new motorcycle jacket for what I paid to get this one repaired. But I think mine is a little better than the ones they have there. They put in a new lining, a new zipper and new snaps. I think it will look better now that the mud flap is gone.

            I weighed 86.85 kilos at 14:40. That’s the least I’ve tipped the scales in the early afternoon since August 8.

            I weighed 87.65 kilos at 17:22. I haven’t been that hefty in the evening since August 5. 

            It was too cloudy to go out with my camera and tripod. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “How to Say Goodbye to You” and “Comment te dire adieu” on August 10, August 21, August 27, and September 12 of last year. I played “How to Say Goodbye to You” on August 10 and 26 and “Comment te dire adieu” on August 27 and September 12. On all of these sessions I played my Martin acoustic guitar and the camera battery charge ran out before the songs were completed. These are the last songs that were recorded in last year’s project. I plan to start a new project on September 1 and to record every day until the middle of October. I’ve never recorded that late in the year but since I start at 9:00 now lack of daylight will be less of a problem. Traffic noise however might be more of a problem but we’ll see. Anyway it will be interesting to see videos of me playing shot with the new camera and to hear how my new Gibson Les Paul Studio sounds in recordings. I deleted all the MOV videos of last year’s recording sessions and freed up 47 gigs. 

            I tracked down and downloaded the lyrics for some Boris Vian songs from 1954. I had a small potato with gravy and a big slice of roast beef while watching season 7, episodes 7 and 8 of Bewitched.

            In the first story Samantha and Darrin are still in Salem because Samantha has to continue attending the centennial witches convention. They need to appoint a new resident witch to protect the image of the witch, to protect humans who may be accused as witches, and to protect against themselves those mortals who foolishly cry “Witch!” The office was created in 1692. During a recess Samantha meets her old friend Waldo who has been carrying a torch for her for centuries. She reminds him that she’s happily married but he says being married to a mortal doesn’t count. Waldo wanders off to a secluded place and summons his magical copy of Samantha. She adores Waldo and robotically loves everything about him. Then Waldo’s mother appears and criticizes him for living in a fantasy world. Meanwhile at the hotel Larry shows up to try to get Darrin to do some work during his vacation. Darrin goes sight seeing and Larry follows him. Darrin goes into a store to buy more film and Larry wanders into a park where he sees Waldo with his copy of Samantha and hears the copy declare her love for Waldo. Suddenly Larry doesn’t want Darrin to work but to focus on his relationship with Samantha. Darrin and Larry go to a restaurant in their hotel and Samantha joins them. Waldo approaches their table and joins them without an invitation. Larry is upset at seeing Waldo and goes up to his room. Darrin follows to see if he’s all right. Then Samantha leaves but Waldo stays and conjures his copy of Samantha. Then Darrin comes back and hears the copy declaring her adoration for Waldo. He demands an explanation but Waldo turns him into a crow. Darrin flies to his hotel room where Samantha realizes who he is. She thinks her mother transformed him and confronts her at the convention. When she learns her mother didn’t do it she demands that whoever did change Darrin change him back. Waldo secretly reverses his spell and Darrin appears. This causes the other witches to disappear and Samantha explains that they left because a mortal is standing on hallowed ground. They go back to the hotel and Darrin angrily begins to pack because Larry says he saw Samantha with Waldo. She says it wasn’t her and summons Waldo to prove it. He comes and shows Darrin his copy of Samantha. Then Larry walks in and from his angle of view at first he only sees Waldo with Samantha. He takes a swing at him and Waldo turns him into a crow with white at the top of his head like Larry. Before Waldo changes Larry back Samantha and Darrin ask him to conjure a copy of Samantha’s identical cousin Serena who Larry knows, so he won’t be in shock. When he’s changed back he sees the two identical women and understands his mistake. 

            Waldo’s mother was played by Anne Seymour, who was part of the seventh generation of actors dating back to 18th Century Ireland from her mother’s side. She trained at the American Laboratory Theatre School and first worked with the Jitney Players. She made her Broadway debut in Mr. Moneypenny in 1928. Starting in 1932 she began acting on the radio. She was the star of and the title character in the popular radio soap opera “The Story of Mary Marlin” for eleven seasons. She made her film debut in All the King’s Men in 1949. She was an active member of SAG and AFTRA. 

            In the second story Samantha and Darrin return home from the witches convention a week early in protest because the witches council ordered Samantha not to be seen in public with her mortal husband. Esmerelda has been babysitting and after Samantha and Darrin go upstairs a flaming spear suddenly lands in front of Esmerelda. The note gives Samantha sixty seconds to return to Salem or suffer the consequences. Esmerelda decides to take matters into her own hands and to send Samantha back to Salem, but she sends her back to 17th Century Salem where she arrives with no memory and no powers. A woman immediately sees what from her perspective is a woman walking around in her underwear because her dress shows her back, legs and shoulders. In the present Endora appears and wonders where Samantha is. She gets Esmerelda to recite the spell she used and realizes she sent her back in time. She gives Darrin a magic amulet and tells Darrin that even though Samantha won’t know him he has to convince her to place the coin on her forehead and bow three times to the east while reciting a certain incantation. When Darrin arrives he sees a woman in stocks and asks why she is being punished. She says she spoke sharply to her husband and Darrin declares, “These are the good old days!” He finds Samantha working as a barmaid. He tries to write her a note for her to meet him outside. She takes his pen and writes “Fresh”. His attempts to communicate with her (such as saying “Take this coin and do what I tell you”) are misconstrued as lude behaviour so he is punished by spending a day in the stocks. The innkeeper’s quill has broken and Samantha remembers Darrin’s pen, which she had placed in her apron. Because the pen writes without being dipped in ink, she is accused of being a witch. As she got the pen from Darrin he is put on trial as well. While they are in jail they are fed stale bread and honey. Darrin dips the coin in the honey. They are taken to the trial and Darrin declares Samantha a witch. He says he will prove it and she is compelled to follow his instructions. After performing the ritual as laid out by her mother Samantha suddenly remembers who she is. But before leaving she decides to stay and prove that no one else tried in Salem was actually a witch. She demonstrates her powers and shows that she is too powerful to be bound by their chains or to submit to their punishments. Only the powerless could succumb to such tortures. After Samantha and Darrin disappear the judge declares an end to witch trials. Back in the present Samantha points out to the witches council that they are just as bigoted as the humans of old Salem.