Juanita Moore

            On Tuesday morning I ran through singing and playing “L'amour en cage” (Love in a Cage) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized third verse of “Turlututu Capot Pointu” (Literally “Silly pointy hood” but there’s a pun on “tue”, which means “kill”, so it’s more like “You Kill With Your Pointy Hood). I thought this song would be harder to learn but there’s only one verse left so I might have it done tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the final session of four. The B string went out of tune a few times but not to an annoying degree. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            The landlord didn’t come with the contractors during practice. I decided that if he did I would let them in because the law student whose been advising me says I might be screwing myself legally by doing that. It feels like when I was 18 and fighting a drug charge from the cops having planted hash on me and my lawyer told me that if I didn’t lie and plead guilty I would go to prison. 

            At around 12:30 I rode up to the Forest Hill Medical Centre for my appointment with my doctor to get the second half of my shingles shot. It was very hot and I was dripping with sweat after taking the steep hills along the way up Bathurst. I always think Eglinton is further north of St Clair than it is and I’m surprised when I see it. Forest Hill has some nice old art deco apartment buildings. I was half an hour early but Doctor Shechtman came in and called for me early. I don’t remember having chicken pox and so I wondered what the vaccine would do if I haven’t had it. He said most people of our generation have had chicken pox. He also said that to some extent the shingles vaccine can help prevent chicken pox but I haven’t found any medical sites that agree with that. I said I remember having had the mumps on one side as a child and I was always told that meant that I could technically get it on the other side but he said I wouldn’t get it again even if it was only on one side. I asked him about his retirement plan because I know he’s a year older than me. He said he doesn’t have one. I asked if his patients would be passed over to another doctor if he did retire. He said that wouldn’t be possible. When his partner at Bloor Medical died he had over 3000 patients. Shechtman said he took some of them but it wouldn’t have been possible to take most of them. He told me I’d be on my own if he retires and said it’s best to find a young doctor who is building a new practice. I asked him if my landlord’s tearing down of my walls would jeopardize my health and he didn’t think so. After giving me the needle he couldn’t tell if I needed a band aid because he couldn’t find the hole. He said modern needles are so sharp they leave hardly a mark. He looked at my blood test and bone scan results from back in May and told me everything is normal. I passed the prostate cancer test and my bones are at low risk for fracture. 

            It was my intention to ride to Bathurst and then south but somehow I missed it and rode all the way to Dufferin. 

            I weighed 85.25 kilos at 14:30, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since June 24. 

            I took a siesta until 17:00. 

            I weighed 85.85 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up with my journal at 18:42. 

            I put the final touch on the Movie Maker project to create a video for the Christian and the Lions studio recording of Brian Haddon’s “The Ballad of My Chest Cavity”. I added the Watercolour and Posterizing effects to the clips of the animated video of the human liver because the liver is a boring brown thing to look at otherwise. I published the video, made some screen shots from it for the thumbnail and then uploaded the video to YouTube. That’s the last Christian and the Lions video that as far as I have found exists. I still have some solo recordings of my songs that I can sync with a concert video and so I’ll work on that next. 

            In my “2024-10-04 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I deleted all the takes of “Leave the Naïve Alone” leading up to the beginning of the final take. I then saved the project as “Leave the Naïve Alone (Gibson) and tomorrow I’ll isolate the song. 

            It was again too hot to use the stove. I don’t remember a summer in Toronto with so many hot days in a row. I had a cold chicken breast with chips, salsa and skyr and I had a beer with my supper while watching episode 3 of The Bold Ones: The Lawyers. 

            Nichols, Darrell and Darrell have successfully defended Harry Carter against a murder charge. That night as they celebrate the victory, after a few drinks Harry admits that he really was guilty after all. His lawyers are bound by a code of conduct at the threat of disbarment not to reveal incriminating evidence about their clients. Because of the reputation he has gained, Harry becomes very successful as a salesman and climbs up the corporate ladder. But meanwhile the police find a match for the fingerprints found on the doorknob of the apartment of Mary Ellen Vance and a black man named Richie Morris is arrested. Since the lawyers can’t save Richie by revealing the truth they try their best to defend him for free. Richie was there in the building that night because he was looking for an unlocked apartment to steal from. He entered the apartment, found the body and ran, almost bumping into Emma Greenley the cleaning lady. She testifies in court that she saw him. Despite their best efforts, Richie is found guilty and will get the gas chamber. The lawyers appeal to Harry to reveal that he is guilty since he can’t be convicted of the same crime twice but he refuses. He feels that all of his recent success would be thrown out the window. Neil decides to sacrifice his profession and to step forward with a press conference to reveal what he knows. But at the last minute Harry steps forward and takes the mic from him. He confesses to killing Mary Ellen but even though he actually violently killed her, he spins it in such a way to save both Neil and himself. He says she fell while they were struggling and hit her head. Harry was played by renowned jazz singer and actor Mel Torme. 

            Emma Greenley was played by Juanita Moore, who started as a chorus girl at the Cotton Club. This led to acting on stage. She made her film debut in Double Deal in 1939. Her TV debut was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1961. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Imitation of Life. She was vice president of the Original Cambridge Players. She was friends with Marlon Brando and convinced him to lend James Baldwin the money to write his play “Amen Corner”.