Joaquin Martinez

            On Tuesday it was Canada Day. 

            In the morning I memorized the second verse of “L'amour en cage” (Love in a Cage) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse of “Rêves et caravelles” (Dreams and Caravels) by Serge Gainsbourg, which is really more of a chorus. I also worked them out for two-thirds of the second verse. I think after one more line I’ll have the pattern down for the whole song. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice and had to unlock the Floyd Rose screws for the B and E strings to tune them. After that everything stayed in place. 

            I weighed 87.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I sanded the drywall compound that I’d applied to the underside of my lower bathroom shelf. It was very time consuming getting the areas where the brackets meet the board because I was bending over and looking up. There’s still the area of the wall directly below the shelf, which also has two brackets but it should be easier. I’ll probably have that done on Friday and then the only sanding left to do will be on the lower part of the southern wall above the sink and then the door frame and the door. Then I’ll have to wipe down the ceiling and walls with a damp cloth, apply some more drywall compound in a few places, sand again, wipe again, and finally paint. 

            I weighed 87.15 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was a pretty warm day but not unbearable. 

            I weighed 86.05 kilos at 17:42, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since last Tuesday.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:24. 

            I downloaded the video of bubbles floating over the ocean, converted it to AVI, and imported it into Movie Maker. I copied it to the end of the timeline of my “The Ballad of My Chest Cavity” Movie Maker project and edited out all the parts with people and trees. I copied the part with just bubbles over the ocean and inserted it into the main timeline just before the line “and I would know that you truly care”. I just need the clip to be very short in order to push the concert video back in sync with the audio so I shaved it down considerably but it still wasn’t enough before supper. I should be able to get them lined up tomorrow.

            In the Movie Maker project for my September 5, 2024 song practice I deleted the first few songs up until the start of the final take of “Laisse tomber les filles”. I then created a “Laisse tomber les filles” Movie Maker project, isolated the song and then published the movie. I uploaded it to YouTube and posted the link on Facebook and Twitter. 

            Next I’ll start a Movie Maker project for my October 2 acoustic version of “Leave the Naïve Alone”. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 2, episode 16 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Ortega is a Mexican carpenter building a bookshelf for Chet. When he hears Chet is a teacher he asks him to teach US history in exchange for a stereo cabinet so Ortega can pass his citizenship test. Chet teaches him about the US government, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. He quizzes him on why the war of independence took place and Ortega says it is always about money. Chet says that’s wrong and the war was fought over freedom and taxes. Ortega says, “See? It was about money”. Chet tries to teach him detailed stuff about district and circuit courts and ex post facto laws until finally Ortega gets frustrated and gives up. Chet goes to talk with a naturalization examiner about the test and finds out it’s a lot easier than he thought. He says there is no written test and the hardest question might be, “Who was the first president?” (If that’s the way the test was in 1970 it sure isn’t that way now. It’s more like the questions Chet was asking). Chet goes to tell Ortega not to give up because it’s easy. The day of the test Ortega is upset by the baby questions and demands a hard one or he won’t accept citizenship. The examiner asks him to explain the constitution. He says it’s about equal rights to pursue happiness and freedom, so he passes. 

            Ortega was played by Joaquin Martinez, who was a medical student in Mexico City when a teacher insisted that he take a drama class to overcome his shyness. He won a scholarship to Seki Sano’s renowned drama studio. He finished medical school and then debuted as a professional actor in the film Pedro Páramo for which he won a most promising newcomer award. He played Ulzana in Ulzana’s Raid. He co-starred in Castinx, becoming the first Mexican actor featured in a Dutch film. He formed Victoria Films International.