Beah Richards

            On Thursday I went to bed at around 1:45 and didn’t get much sleep before getting up at 5:00. I worked out the chords for the first verse of “L'âme slave” (Slavic Soul) by Boris Vian. 

            I searched for the next Serge Gainsbourg song that I didn’t finish and found one in the 1968 file. I memorized the first verse of “La plus jolie fille du monde” (The Prettiest Girl in the World) and revised my translation. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my Kramer. 

            I weighed 87.65 before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since June 8 though not nearly as heavy. 

            Around midday I worked on and almost finished my ninth Batgirl video for which I’ve isolated all of the Batgirl scenes from episode 9 of the third season of the 60s TV series Batman. 

            I weighed 87.7 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 86.8 kilos at 18:00. 

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

            I edited some more of the cartoons "Congo Jazz" and "Romeo in Rhythm" and cut them down to just the singing parts in Movie Maker. 

           I compared the song practice videos of my Martin acoustic performances of “Laisse tomber les filles” on September 3 and 5. September 5 is a less grainy video and the camera is positioned to show the whole guitar. I compared September 9 to September 5 and I think September 5 looks and sounds better. I compared September 11 to September 5 and still think September is the best so far. I compared September 15 to September 5 and September 5 is still on top. 

            I realized that I forgot to stop at Freshco on the way back from my bike ride, so I’ll have to go tomorrow. 

            I had a potato with the last of my gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching season 2, episode 4 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Chet is substitute teaching an English class and the lesson is on “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns. The focus is on the lines “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”. He catches Georgina doing her makeup during class. Later she tells him she doesn’t have to study because she’s an Aquarius and she’s going to be a movie star. She recently entered a contest for which the prize is a film contract and she knows she’s going to win. Chet tries to warn her that she shouldn’t put all of her hopes into this one thing because it could lead to disappointment. He points out that that is what the poem is about and also gives an example from his own life. He says he recently had a birthday and he has always wanted a surprise party, which he was certain that this year he would get. His mother called him and wanted to make sure he was coming over later. Then his brother calls and asks him to come over to babysit his nephew Jerry for half an hour and Chet thinks the party is there, but it isn’t. Then he gets a call from Ruth and she is crying as she tells him she broke up with Martin and needs to talk. Chet thinks it’s a trick and that she’s bringing the surprise party to his place but she doesn’t. She wants Chet to drive her to a party where Martin would be coming and she knows when they see each other they will make up. Chet thinks the party is for him even though he doesn’t know anyone there. Then when Martin arrives and they shout “Happy birthday Martin” he realizes it’s not for him and leaves. Then he goes late to his parents’ place where he finds there had been a party for him with all his friends there but everyone had left. When she hears he went looking for his surprise party his mother tells him, “You can’t anticipate life. Life is full of surprises, but you mustn’t chase them or they won’t happen”. Georgina realizes Chet is right in telling her not to be so sure she’s going to be a movie star. But then suddenly her friends come in to tell her she’s won the contest. 

            Chet’s mother was played by Beah Richards, whose first significant theatrical role was at the age of 35 in Take a Giant Step in which she played an 84 year old woman with no aging make-up. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of Purlie Victorious, The Miracle Worker, and A Raisin in the Sun. Her own first play was “Alls Well That Ends”. She wrote the performance poem “A Black Woman Speaks”. She was one of the first people to use the word “black’ to describe African North Americans instead of the Spanish word for black. She was nominated for a Tony for her performance in Amen Corner. Her film debut was in The Mugger in 1958. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. She won two Emmy Awards, one for Frank’s Place and the other for The Practice. Her poem “Keep Climbing Girls” has been turned into a picture book.