Paul Comi

            On Tuesday morning my thumb was still very sore from the failure of the poorly installed bike equipment that caused me to wipe out yesterday. I was able to do all my yoga but when I was playing guitar I had to strum extremely lightly to avoid pain. 

            I found one set of chords for “L'âme slave” (Slavic Soul) by Boris Vian and transcribed them. I worked out the chords for about half the intro. 

            I ran through singing and playing “I’m Capable of Anything”, my translation of “Je suis capable de n’importe quoi” by Serge Gainsbourg. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and started preparing it for publication. I should have it published tomorrow. 

            I played my Epi acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. I had to strum extremely lightly to avoid hitting my sore thumb on the strings and because I couldn’t grip the pick as tightly as usual. It did allow me to focus on my singing more though. 

            I weighed 87.35 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went over to Metro Cycle and told Gordon I was afraid to ride my Raleigh without a tool to tighten the handlebar extension post so it wouldn’t fail on me and cause an accident like it did yesterday. He gave me an Allen key. 

            I rode to the bank machine at Freshco to get $400 then came back home to put my Epi acoustic guitar and my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar in cases and then strapped them to my bike trailer. I headed up to Wood Instruments. I stopped at the new book store Book People near Roncesvalles and Queen but it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I want to see if they’ll carry my book Paranoiac Utopia. I continued up to Wood Instruments then after a few calls I finally got through to Alex and he let me in. First of all he showed me his upgrades of my Martin. It sure looks pretty good. I couldn’t really tell from playing it right there whether his upgrades solved the tuning problem. I won’t really know until I spend a whole practice with it but it sounds nice so far. I paid him $395. He put the truss rod cover back on my Gibson. He looked at my Epi and it appears that some similar upgrades could be done but warned me that with a lower end guitar it might not turn out to be as great a sound improvement as with the Martin. I said the guitar has sentimental value from thirty years of play and I think it deserves to spend its last years with me in more luxurious condition. 

            I weighed 86.85 kilos at 15:10. 

            I took a siesta from 15:45 to 17:40. 

            I weighed 87.45 kilos at 18:00, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since June 8. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:52. 

            I imported a cartoon called “Tin Pan Alley Cats” into Movie Maker. I copied it to the end of the timeline of my “Ballad of My Chest Cavity” project but then removed it because I don’t really want a cigar chomping character singing in the video. I imported all the other animated shorts I’d downloaded, and copied a montage of Sylvester and Tweety clips to the end of the timeline. I started editing out everything but the parts when Tweety sings. I’ll finish that but I’m not sure I want Tweety in the video because the character may be too familiar, although Tweety singing in the bathtub fits thematically with the first verse. 

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

            Chet’s colleague Wes just got his real estate license but has set up two open houses for one day and so he asks Chet to sell one of them to earn a big commission. So he goes to the house on a Saturday where he meets Fred and Jo Thompson who are selling because they are getting a divorce. They are constantly arguing but keep out of the way when viewers arrive. The first couple that comes to view the house are a 12 year old boy and girl named Jeffrey and Melinda. Chet tries to send them away but Jeffrey quotes him the open house rules that he has to show the house to anyone interested. Jeffrey says they are planning on getting married in 14 years after he graduates from medical school. Chet shows them the house but Melinda wants a split level Tudor. Then Richard and Barbara Perry come to look at the house. They are very critical of the décor and leave. Fred and Jo have been listening and the Perrys’ insults about the work they put into the place together have brought them back in harmony. The Perrys come back to say they’ll take the house. But then the Thompsons announce they are keeping it. 

            Fred was played by Paul Comi, whose stage debut was at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1957. His film debut was in The Young Lions in 1957. He co-starred in the series Two Faces West. He co-starred in the Twilight Zone episode People Are Alike All Over. He played the pilot on the series Ripcord. He played Victor Martin in the soap opera Capital. He earned an MA from USC in 1965. He played Lieutenant Andrew Siles in the Star Trek episode “Balance of Terror”. He was president of Caffe D’amore Inc, which made the first instant cappuccino. He was a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.