Maryesther Denver

            On Monday morning I memorized the second verse of “L’Amour à deux” (Passion for Two) by Serge Gainsbourg. There are only three verses left to learn. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the second of four sessions and I video and audio recorded the session. It didn’t take as long to get set up and I started on time but spent a tremendous amount of time trying to do a good take of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma”. I fumbled it so many times during the first three verses that when I finally made it to screw up the fifth verse I considered it a success and didn’t do any more retakes. I’ve gone through that song flawlessly many times in the last year but recently I’ve changed the chord on which each verse ends and it’s been throwing me off getting it right. I spent almost an extra hour on song practice. 

            I weighed 87.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 2. 

            I had planned on shaving and showering but the recording session cut into my time. I’ll definitely have to do it tomorrow though. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos before lunch.

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos at 17:45. That’s the most I’ve weighed in the evening since July 14. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “The Next State of Grace” I imported the street videos I shot of Brian and Sal. I edited a clip of Brian reciting “Line up and wait for the next state of grace” and inserted it into the main video. It arrived by chance synchronized with the studio audio without any need for editing. Then I made a clip of Sal singing the same line and put that after Brian’s clip on the main video timeline. I edited Brian’s part so it ends at “wait” and then tried to synchronize Sal’s part so he finishes the line, but it didn’t fit. I decided to delete Sal’s clip and then to harvest a different one, this time from earlier when he was reciting “Sit here and wait for the next state of grace”. I isolated two clips: one with him leaning on a wall and the other of him smiling. I think I’ll use the smiling clip tomorrow and try to synchronize that. 

            I uploaded the video I shot this morning and saw that my reformatting of the memory card to ExFAT worked and so this time there weren’t several ten minute files but a single one hour long file plus an additional one of sixteen minutes. In the video my position was better but the light was mostly washed out. I think I’ll try partially closing the curtain tomorrow to see if that softens the light. As for the songs I don’t think any of them so far are keepers. I got as far as “Please Don’t Quit Me Now” before the battery went to sleep. 

            Last Friday I grilled four chicken legs. I had one for dinner that night and put the rest in the freezer. Earlier today I took one of them out to thaw and saw that there was only one left in the freezer. There’s a missing chicken leg and I can’t figure out what happened. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 8, episodes 13 and 14 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Samantha and Darrin learn that a daily double pick that Darrin chose not to bet on won a bundle. Endora is because of this further disappointed in her daughter’s husband, this time for his inability to take risks. She casts a spell to cause him to want to gamble and to go to Tabitha’s room for racetrack tips. At first he tries getting Tabitha to pick his horses but she gets bored and leaves. Then the rocking horse starts talking to Darrin like a racetrack shill and offering him tips. But in order to get the information Darrin has to get on the back of the little horse and rock. He’s given two picks and he wins $800. His insistence that he has an infallible source intrigues Larry and their client Mr. Spengler, so they agree to invest $200 on Darrin’s next choice. But Samantha can tell that Endora has cast another spell on Darrin and tells her to remove it. But instead of simply canceling the spell Endora reverses the rocking horse’s advice so it’s picking losers. Darrin bets the money on Count of Valour. Samantha goes to the track to talk with Count of Valour to find out why he’s such a loser. She turns him into a man so he can speak and he explains that he loses deliberately because he thinks that the bad race horses are put out to pasture. Samantha helps him learn that slow horses are more likely sent to the glue factory. During the race Count of Valour is impossibly far behind but before the end is able to gather speed and win. 

            In the second story the Testing Committee of Witches is coming to assess Adam’s powers. The problem is that so far he hasn’t shown that he has any. His grandfather Maurice feels that a poor performance will reflect badly on him and so he infuses Adam with some of his own powers. Enchantra and Grimalda arrive in a magic Model T driven by Rasputin. They ask Adam to levitate a ball but nothing happens. Maurice says levitation is too elementary and suggests they ask him to fly. Flying is very advanced for a child of Adam’s age but with Maurice’s help he does it. Darrin is playing golf and Adam wishes him there so he appears. The Committee decides that Adam is a prodigy and so he should be taken away for special training for twenty years or so. Maurice confesses that Adam has no powers and that what he demonstrated came from him. Enchantra and Grimalda then decide that if Samantha is producing mortal children with a mortal then the marriage must be dissolved. Endora and Maurice suggest that more witchcraft be encouraged in the home so Adam can develop. Samantha tells Darrin that if a child showed a talent for playing piano it would be harmful to discourage it. Witchcraft is just another talent. Darrin seems to be okay with that. Maurice takes away his powers from Adam and then Samantha coaches Adam in a simple object levitation, with which he is successful. For a witch, that is like him taking his first steps. 

            Grimalda was played by Maryesther Denver, who played one of the illusory witches in the Star Trek episode "Catspaw". She made several guest appearances on many TV series and had supporting roles in a number of films.