Patrice Munsel

            On Monday I went to bed at 2:00 and didn’t get much sleep. I got up at 5:00 and was groggy all through yoga and after. 

            I memorized the first verse of “Flashback” by Serge Gainsbourg and translated it. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and the B string was almost constantly out of tune. I’m going to take it to Alex Wood tomorrow to see if changing the action will help. 

            I weighed 87.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I shaved and showered. 

            I weighed 87.55 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 87.5 kilos at 18:00, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since September 1.

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:43. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Divorce the Weather” I synchronized the concert video with the studio audio for the first downward strum of my guitar. Then I had to delete some of the video so it would line up with the audio for the first flourish of the upward stroke. I had to cut a little more so the video and audio would be synchronized when I begin singing. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “I Love You. Neither Do I” and “Je t’aime. Moi non plus” from September 30 to October 2. On September 30 I played “I Love You. Neither Do I” on my Gibson Les Paul Studio and the take at 3:30 in part B didn’t sound bad. On October 1 I played “Je t’aime. Moi non plus” on my Martin Road Series but the camera shut off before the song was finished. I played “I Love You Neither Do I” on the Martin on October 2 and the take at 00:30 in part B was not bad. 

            I made a new batch of gravy with the drippings from the leg of lamb. It turned out too thick and so I’ll need to thin it down a bit. I had some with a potato and sliced lamb with skyr while watching episode 23 of Checkmate. 

            The manager of temperamental opera singer Lola Tuscany wants to hire Checkmate because the diva has been experiencing attempts on her life. Dr. Hyatt and Don attend one of her concerts and then go backstage where she demands her hot water with herbs. Her caregiver brings her the goblet but when Lola feels it is not hot she throws it on Romanya’s apron. It turns out to be acid and Romanya removes her apron just in time. Earlier we hear that a sandbag almost fell on Lola during rehearsal but she has a reputation for staging publicity stunts. Last year she got herself kidnapped in the Middle East and spent a few weeks in a harem. It turns out that the sandbag falling was an accident but afterward her public relations man Purdy cut the rope to make it look deliberate. Lola, Romanya, and Lola’s accompanist Zingari are all Romani from Hungary. Romanya was a Romani queen who found Lola singing in a bombed out church during the war and adopted her. Zingari trained her. The Impresario is Emil Micolas and he dotes on Lola in front of his jealous wife Diana. Romanya reads Lola’s cards and the Death card keeps coming up. Diana is the queen of diamonds and Don is the jack of spades. Lola is convinced by Romanya that she is destined to die young. Don concludes that Lola is not in danger and decides not to take the case. But later Lola calls him to say someone has drawn the Romani sign of death in lipstick on her dressing room mirror. She wants to get away and so they take a drive in the country in her car. He tells her he still doesn’t think she’s in danger. She wants to stay and watch the sunset but he says they can watch it better outside the car. After they leave her car it explodes so now Don knows someone is trying to kill her. Over the next few concerts Checkmate is there looking for attempts on Lola’s life but nothing happens until she finally just collapses and has lost the will to live. Don organizes a gathering of all the suspects in the living room outside Lola’s bedroom. Hyatt says Lola is going to sing and needs some hot wine. Romanya gets it and steals some strychnine heart medicine from Diana’s purse. Hyatt suggests she try it before giving it to Lola. Romanya is found to be the attempted assassin. She says she did it for Zingari because they were lovers many years ago. She says they’ve spent their lives nourishing the Gift but for them to live, the Gift must die. Lola takes Romanya in her arms. Later Lola’s voice reaches top form and she is happy. She and Don are dating. 

            Lola was played by Patrice Munsel, who was a coloratura soprano and at the age of 18 was the youngest singer to ever star at the Metropolitan Opera. She went on to give over 200 performances at the Met. She began formal voice studies at 15 in New York. At the age of 33 she retired as an opera singer and went on to star in operettas and musicals. She starred in the movie Melba. She starred in her own TV variety series. She was also an accomplished whistler. She was a spokesperson for the Campfire Girls.