Frank McHugh

            On Thursday morning I searched for the chords to “Au revoir mon enfance” (Goodbye My Childhood) by Boris Vian but no one has posted them. I worked them out for the intro and part of the first line. 

            I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “Naked or in Feathers”, my translation of “À poil ou à plumes” by Serge Gainsbourg and posted the lyrics on Facebook. I tried to find a YouTube video for the next Gainsbourg song that I didn’t complete for my project, which is “Le rent' dedans” (Cash for Rent). I found there is no single video for the song but it’s on Zizi Jeanmaire’s Casino de Paris concert album, which is available on YouTube. I bookmarked it and tomorrow I’ll download the album, then convert it to AVI, import it to Movie Maker and then make a separate video for the song. I can use that to learn the song and later I’ll post it when I publish my translation. 

            I weighed 88.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I’ve been editing the comedy documentary It Came from Hollywood and keeping only the clips I like.

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since October 19. 

            In the afternoon I headed out for my bike ride but it was raining hard so I just rode to Brock and Seaforth, then down to Queen and east to Freshco. The grapes were on sale for a very low price and not in horrible condition and so I got seven bags. I also bought a pack of raspberries, bananas, a jug of orange juice, two packs of Full City Dark coffee, and some two in one shampoo-conditioner. 

            I weighed 88.95 kilos at 17:35. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:35. 

            I reviewed my digitization of the cassette recording of the early Christian and the Lions rehearsal. As usual there was skipping but I copied it a least three times and skipping tends not to be in the same place each time. 

            I reviewed a cassette I had of someone else’s recorded music. There’s a choral piece on one side and on side B there’s Richard Harris reciting poetry but also some music. There’s an Australian version with didgeridoo of the song “Sun Arise” by Alice Cooper. I looked it up and discovered that Cooper didn’t write it. It’s by Rolf Harris, who wrote “Tie Me Kangaroo Down”. 

            In my “I Love You. Neither Do I (Gibson)” Movie Maker project I isolated the song and then partitioned off the different voices. I distinguished them with characteristic visual effects and published the video. I won’t be uploading it to YouTube because I think I can do better the next time I record. 

            I opened my 2024-10-10 Song Practice Movie Maker project and cut out the song that comes before “I Love You. Neither Do I”. I then copied the project as “I Love You. Neither Do I (Kramer)" and deleted everything but that song. I’ll do the partitioning tomorrow, then add the effects, then publish it. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last chicken leg while watching episode 15 of Cain’s Hundred.

            Lieutenant Spencer picks up numbers racket boss Jack Garsell for questioning (He claims he’s only in the dry cleaning business) but on the way to the station there is an attempted hit. There’s not a scratch on Garsell but Spenser gets a wounded hand. A younger gang led by Larry Rome is trying to take over. A sweet old man named Wilbur Morton is a dedicated employee of Garsell. He gives him an antique book written by his great grandfather. Garsell misses the point by saying he’ll have it rebound. Garsell meets and confronts Rome but Rome is confident he’ll win because he’s not encumbered by a connection with the Organization. Garsell gives Wilbur the task of picking up the slips from the racing bets from a writer but he is attacked by two of Rome’s men. However Nicholas Cain and Spencer intervene. Cain doesn’t tell Wilbur who he is and lets him go with the slips. When Garsell hears about the attack he gives Wilbur an inside job as an accountant in one of his bet banks. He works with Jenny Harris who is also not a criminal. She’s just a single mother trying to make ends meet. Cain visits Wilbur in his small apartment and Wilbur invites him for dinner even after learning he’s a federal agent investigating Garsell. He refuses to rat on his boss but makes friends with Cain nonetheless. Wilbur says he’s helping Jenny move and Cain offers to help. But one of Garsell’s men walks in and recognizes Cain. Cain continues to try to get Wilbur and Jenny to testify against Garsell but they refuse. Wilbur argues that while gambling is against the law it isn’t really wrong and it’s no different from playing the stock market. Jenny later calls Cain and gives him the address of the next location for the bank, but one of Rome’s men happens to overhear. Wilbur and Jenny and the guard are waiting for the slips but nothing is happening because it seems Garsell has been tipped off. Rome and his men come in, shoot the guard and drop a live hand grenade before running out where they are caught by Cain. Inside the bank the grenade explodes and Jenny is hurt. Wilbur is dazed and staggering with his clothes torn but he’s uninjured. He makes his way to Garsell’s office and confronts him. He tells him he’s going to testify against him and then walks out. Garsell sends a man after him to kill him but Cain picks him up.

            Wilbur was played by Frank McHugh, whose parents had their own stock theatre company and Frank made his stage debut as a child. He performed in an act with his two siblings. He spent nine years performing in other stock companies. He made his Broadway debut in The Fall Guy in 1925. He made his film debut in 1929 in If Men Played Cards as Women Do. During WWII he entertained the troops in Europe with McHugh’s Revue. He made eleven movies with his friend James Cagney. He co-starred in College Lovers, The Widow from Chicago, Going Wild, Up For Murder, Corsair, The Crowd Roars, Parachute Jumper, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Grand Slam, Private Jones, Hold Me Tight, Professional Sweetheart, Son of a Sailor, Merry Wives of Reno, Let’s Be Ritzy, Return of the Terror, Here Comes the Navy, 6 Day Bike Rider, Maybe It’s Love, Gold Diggers of 1935, Stars Over Broadway, Moonlight Murder, Ever Since Eve, Swing Your Lady, Going My Way, One Way Passage, Boy Meets Girl, Valley of the Giants, Indianapolis Speedway, Four Wives, Manpower, The Runaround, Little Miss Big, The Pace That Thrills, It Happens Every Thursday, and Easy Come Easy Go. He starred in He Couldn’t Say No. He starred in the radio show Phone Again Finnegan. He played Willis Walter on The Bing Crosby Show. With James Cagney, Spencer Tracy and several other actors he was part of a group of friends known as “The Irish Mafia”.

October 31, 1995: On my open stage for Halloween I let people read as other poets

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday night it was Halloween and Nancy and I took our daughter True out trick or treating in the Beaches. I think Nancy’s sister Susan came along as well. True got tired early and went home with her mother, then I headed for the Art Bar of the Gladstone Hotel to host my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage. Usually the rule was for readers to bring original material but on Halloween I let the guests come as other poets. I read some Leonard Cohen. There was a small turn-out but those who came also did covers.

Kathryn Givney

            On Wednesday morning I finished memorizing “Au revoir mon enfance” (Goodbye My Childhood) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll look for the chords. 

            I uploaded to my Christian’s Translations blog “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg and started preparing it for publication. Tomorrow I’ll have it posted and I’ll also post my translation on Facebook. 

            I weighed 87.85 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I took my bike trailer down to Canadian Tire at Joe Shuster Way and King to shop for a step ladder. The Mastercraft ladder I’d seen last time didn’t seem to be there anymore. I tried out a 1.7 meter tall Maximum ladder and tried it out by climbing it and measuring my reach with my tape. The Mastercraft one might have been just high enough if I stretched but this one would give me a comfortable reach for anything I want to do with my ceiling. It was more than twice as much at $182 after tax. I stuck the ladder upside down in the lower bag of my bike trailer and was able to easily wheel it around the store to also get some bedbug spray. I hitched my trailer to the bike and squeezed onto my bike with the other end of the ladder leaning against my back but as soon as I tried to ride, the trailer flipped. I used one of my straps to secure it. I walked it several meters up Joe Shuster Way and then tried to ride again. This time it held until I came out on Dufferin just below Queen. I didn’t feel confident riding on the hill leading up from the railroad bridge so I walked it up. Once I was on the level again I rode it home. There ‘s really no place I can keep the ladder in the open as far as I can see and so I just decided to stand it up in the bathtub behind the shower curtain where it can’t be seen. I’ll just move it out whenever I take a shower. On Friday I can start using the ladder to tape off some primed areas below the ceiling before painting colour up there.

            I weighed 88.1 kilos at 15:00. 

            I took a siesta from 15:30 to 17:15 and it was too late for a bike ride. 

            I weighed 88.95 kilos at 17:40. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:30. 

            I finished reviewing the cassette recording of the early Christian and the Lions rehearsal and then digitized it. Steve Lowe and Arjan were learning my songs from scratch and Steve was teaching Arjan how to play them on bass. There was a discussion about my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy”. In my experience it was one of my most requested songs because a lot of my friends are psychiatric survivors who feel the song exposes the procedure. But Steve says a lot of people find it too disturbing and some have walked out while I’m singing it. 

            In my 2024-09-20 Song Practice Movie Maker project I synchronized the interface audio with the video and then deleted everything before “I Love You. Neither Do I”. I then saved the project as “I Love You. Neither Do I (Gibson)”. 

            I boiled a small sliced potato. I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, the potato, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching episode 14 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            A group that takes over businesses for the Organization follows a plan by Benjamin Riker to take over Amalgamated World Transportation to use it for smuggling. They start by intimidating Amalgamated’s biggest customer Harry Marstow by threatening to kill members of his family if he uses Amalgamated’s services. They do this with four other companies until Amalgamated’s stock diminishes in value. Then Riker becomes a major shareholder in Amalgamated and contacts Vice President Kurt Yoder, the son of President Zales Yoder. They meet at Kurt’s club and Riker asks Kurt why Amalgamated is losing money. Just then Marstow walks in but doesn’t see them. Kurt points him out and says he’s one of the reasons business is slow. Then Nicholas Cain comes in and meets Marstow. Riker knows Cain and what he’s after from Marstow so he goes to the phone. Marstow is about to tell Cain about the threats he’s received when a phone is brought to his table and someone warns him that he’d better not talk. From this point on Marstow clams up and refuses to talk with Cain. Cain goes to see Kurt and tells him about Riker’s criminal past but Kurt is only concerned with his present as a major stockholder in Amalgamated. Kurt challenges his father’s authority in front of some of the board of directors. Kurt meets with his mother and says he won’t be coming for dinner. Riker meets again with Kurt and begins to plot Kurt taking over as president. Kurt says that between Riker and one other major stockholder who is almost swayed he can push his father out. Riker says he wants to put one of his own men on the board. Cain visits Marstow and his wife but they are both too frightened to talk. Cain meets with Kurt and Zale and warns them that he plans to control Amalgamated. Kurt says he’ll trust him but Zale says he’ll help Cain. Zale tells Cain that he understands his son because he also forced his father out and was almost hoping this would happen. Then Riker tells Kurt he can bring all five of the major customers back that left Amalgamated. At the stockholders meeting Marstow submissively arrives and says he’s back. Kurt addresses the stockholders and says he’s withdrawing his move to be president. He then exposes Riker, pointing him out, and says he’s been manipulating him. He also says Riker took Marstow away then brought him back and it had nothing to do with the merits of Amalgamated. Riker walks out. Marstow tells Cain he will cooperate now. Zale tells Kurt he’s proud of him and wants him to stay with the company. 

            Mrs. Yoder was played by Kathryn Givney, who made her Broadway debut in a 1926 production of Night Stick. She was typecast as a society matron and never played a lead role. She appeared in 22 Hollywood films and several stage productions. From the 1950s she played supporting roles on television series.

October 30, 1995: Cad asked the waiter if he could have her for dessert

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I just spent the day at home and cleaned up because my place was a mess. I decided not to meet the November 1 deadline that I’d set for myself to publish the third issue of Orgasmagazine. Paul Goldberg (who now calls himself Cad Gold Junior) came over and we worked on our play Cheap Tricks, Cheesecake, Heroin and Bad Jokes. We went to a bar and he asked the waiter if he could have her for dessert.

Evans Evans

            On Tuesday morning I ran through singing and playing “À poil ou à plumes” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “Naked or in Feathers”. Tomorrow I’ll upload them to my Christian’s Translations blog to begin preparing them for publication. I might even have them done tomorrow as well. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune a lot but stayed in tune a little longer during the second half. 

            Around midday I walked over to Home Hardware to look at their stepladders. The closest they have to what I need is $100. If the Mastercraft one at Canadian Tire is still on sale for $75 I’ll get that. I’ll ride there with my bike trailer tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a siesta and slept 41 minutes longer than I intended. It was too late to take a bike ride downtown so I decided I’d ride to Ossington and Bloor. But on Brock just south of Dundas I saw a nice looking Bombay wooden step stool. I stuffed it halfway into a recyclable shopping bag and rode home with it. I can use it for reaching for things on the overhead shelf in the bedroom but I’ll keep it on top of the two drawer filing cabinet in the kitchen. By the time I brought it back it was too late to go back out and continue riding. 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos at 17:50. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:02. 

            I finished listening to the Willie P. Bennett cassette and decided I don’t need to keep it. He was a good musician and had a good voice but his lyrics were not particularly interesting. 

            I started listening to another old Christian and the Lions tape. So far this is mostly a rehearsal at my place with Steve Lowe and Arjan. This must be one of the first rehearsals if not the first with Arjan. Steve is teaching Arjan how to play bass for my song “Me and Gravity”. We do it like it’s a country song and it sounds weird. 

            In my “2024-09-20 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I managed to almost synchronize the interface audio with the video. I was about a second behind when I stopped for supper. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching episode 13 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            All but one of the city’s garment manufacturers are forced to use the Organization’s trucks. Louis Speckter has refused the mob’s intervention and has used his own trucks. It appears that Louis is heroic to resist in that manner but in reality the Alliance has backed off for all these years because Alexander Marish “The Judge”, their member in charge of the garment industry is a friend and former partner with Louis. Before he became a mobster the Judge killed one of their collectors and disposed of the body, with Louis as a witness. Although the Judge could get a murder charge for his actions, Louis has never said anything. Lately however the Organization has begun to pressure Marish to compel Louis to use Alliance trucks. Louis is about to retire and leave the business to his son Danny. Danny thinks all he has to do is hold out like his father, not realizing that his dad had something on the mob that he doesn’t. Danny is run over and killed by a car driven by one of Marish’s men but Louis continues to refuse the Alliance trucks. Nicholas Cain offers Louis protection but he turns it down. He continues to take a steam bath with Marish as he has done every Thursday for thirty years. Danny’s girlfriend Lynn calls Cain to tell him where Louis has gone. Marish can no longer allow Louis to get away with not using Alliance trucks because the Organization is pressuring him. Marish asks Louis one more time to use Alliance trucks and when he refuses Marish tries to strangle him. Cain arrives to save Louis just in time. 

            Lynn was played by Evans Evans, who co-starred in the original 1957 Broadway production of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. She played Barrow gang member Velma Davis in Bonnie and Clyde. She co-starred in All Fall Down and Impossible Object. She was married to film director John Frankenheimer for 39 years.

October 29, 1995: I painted my daughter's loader truck costume yellow

Thirty years ago today 

            On Sunday I met Nancy and my daughter True at Eaton Centre. After Nancy went shopping we hung around the mall for a while and then went to my place. Nancy picked her up later and then I painted her loader truck costume yellow.

Henry Silva

            On Monday morning it was very hot when the alarm went off but the humidity hadn’t lowered into the danger zone for my guitars before I turned the humidifier on. 

            I memorized the eighth verse of “Au revoir mon enfance” (Goodbye My Childhood) by Boris Vian. There is one verse left to squeeze into my head.

            I finished working out the chords for “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and English and then I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I weighed 88.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            The big bookshelf that I hauled from Brock and Bloor a couple of weeks ago has been sitting in the kitchen for all that time waiting for me to place it to the left of my computer. Today I finally had time to move it. I pulled out the shelf that’s been to the left of my computer for years and cleaned the space it had occupied. I moved the new shelf in and it fits a lot better but it’s almost a full shelf taller and so that will take some getting used to. A lot of the books on the other shelf had to be placed on their horizontal edges but now all the books can stand properly with their spines facing the viewer. Plus now my reading light is clamped at a better height. 

            I put the old shelf on top of the wider bookshelf that sits to the right of the kitchen table. But placing it evenly on top would interfere with me doing my thirty chin-ups in the doorway. I slid it to the left and that moved it out of the way but then it looked awkward. I spent the next few hours thinking about what to do with it. 

            I weighed 89.45 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. When I got home I took the book shelf down from on top of the other shelf. I pulled the four drawer dresser that’s been in front of the mantle in the living room for years and replaced it with the bookshelf. From the bedroom I pulled out the three drawer dresser and the three drawer pedestal from what used to be my daughter’s desk and replaced them with the dresser from the living room. I had to raise two shelf brackets a couple of slots to accommodate the extra height. I moved the three drawer dresser and the pedestal out to the kitchen. From the space to the left of the kitchen table and to the right of the credenza I pulled out my concrete block, my milk crate, and the boxes my humidifiers came in, replaced them with the pedestal and put the milk crate on top. I pulled the little marble topped cabinet and the spider plant out from the wall and replaced the cabinet with the three drawer dresser. Then I put the marble top cabinet on top with the plant back on top of that on top of the cabinet. It didn’t look right because the legs should be on the floor and the spider plant was too high now to receive proper light. I moved the marble topped cabinet into the bedroom to the right of the head of my bed. Then I put my wooden guitar stand and my Martin on top of that. I put the plant on top of the three drawer dresser and I was finally done. There’s more room in the living room now that the four drawer dresser isn’t sticking out from the mantle. 

            I weighed 90.2 kilos at 18:43. 

            I grilled three chicken legs and had one with a potato and gravy while watching episode 12 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            George Dedmon, a location scout for the mob is arrested in a small town because the sheriff’s office got a teletype to pick him up for a sexual assault charge. It is only when Nicholas Cain arrives that Sheriff Sam Cortner learns about Dedmon’s association with the Organization. Dedmon demands to know when he can see a lawyer but Cortner tells Cain that he hasn’t tried to contact an attorney. After Cain leaves, Cortner has Dedmon handcuffed, dismisses his deputies, then hits Dedmon. He then takes the phone and connects with the long distance operator. He leaves it open and tells Dedmon to connect with whoever he needs to if he wants to get out of there alive. The next day a creepy guy named Ray Riley arrives at Cortner’s driveway with two cars, one of them a fancy convertible. He tells Cortner it’s registered in his name but it’s as much as he’ll get, take it or leave it. Cortner says he’ll leave it and wants $10,000 (about $108,000 now). He also wants to help Riley find a location for their illegal casino and he wants a piece of the action because nobody can do business in his county without him. Riley agrees but when saying goodbye to Cortner and his wife Katy he gives Katy a disturbing leer. Later Cortner shows Riley an old mansion that’s perfect for his plans. Cortner says there’s $100,010 in back taxes on it so he can have it for that much and he wants 10% of the gross. He tells Riley to keep his dirty eyes off his wife or he’ll kill him, then Riley smiles creepily. Dedmon is taken into federal custody but his lawyers have also arrived and he’ll probably get bail. Cain wonders how his lawyers found out about his arrest. It’s weird that it’s a surprise since the right to an attorney is fundamental and he should have been offered the opportunity to call one upon arrest. Cain says he’s not leaving town until he finds the room that Dedmon rented and has a look at his luggage. Cortner tells Riley and Riley knows where Dedmon was registered. He sends someone there but one of Cortner’s deputies goes there as well and finds the man searching the room. The man pulls a gun and so the deputy shoots him. The deputy tells Cortner he searched the room and he wants his cut. Dedmon was released on bail and later found dead. Cain tells Cortner that someone in his office must have helped Dedmon contact a lawyer. Katy goes to see Cain and asks if he suspects her husband. He confirms that he does. Later she confronts Cortner and he confesses that he wanted a break from the dead end job of being a sheriff. After he leaves for work Riley comes to her door and she invites him in. Later Cortner goes to check on the mansion and finds Katy partying with Riley and with Cortner’s two deputies. Cortner orders his deputies to arrest Riley but they say they work for Riley now and they throw him out. Cortner goes home and finds Cain there who says Katy called him and said her husband might like to talk with him. Katy’s behaviour was all staged to scare her husband straight, and it worked. 

            Riley was played by Henry Silva, who quit school at 13 to study acting. At the age of 29 he auditioned for the Actors Studio and was one of 5 selected out of 2500. With the help of the Actors Studio he made his Broadway debut in A Hat Full of Rain. His film debut was in Viva Zapata. He starred in Johnny Cool. He was typecast as a heavy villain in Hollywood almost immediately but in Europe he was offered heroic roles. This was helped by the fact that he was fluent in Spanish and Italian. He starred in Il Boss. He co-starred in The Hills Run Red, The Return of Mr. Moto, Manhunt, Almost Human, and Code of Silence. He played Kane in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century the movie and the TV series. He was the voice of Bane in the 90s Batman animated series. He ran 8 kilometers every day.

October 28, 1995: My daughter wanted to be a loader truck for Halloween

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I made my daughter’s Halloween costume. She wanted to go out as a “woader twuck” (loader truck) so I cut a cardboard box to make it look like a front shovel. I started calling my daughter “True”. After she was born I’d selected the names “Christian” and “True” for her but thought of “True” as her middle name. But her mother didn’t want to be reminded of me and used “True” for her first name. When it became clear that my daughter preferred “True” I started using it.

Maura McGiveney

            On Sunday morning it was very hot because the heat was on all night. I switched the humidifiers on. 

            I worked out the chords for the third and fourth verses of “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s a good chance I’ll have the song finished tomorrow. 

            I weighed 87.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune a lot. 

            Around midday I applied more primer to the bathroom door and the white squares of the checkerboard pattern on the floor in front of my kitchen counter and stove. I finally finished the last of the primer. Next I need to buy a step ladder before painting colour in the bathroom. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. My Range Rider leather gloves were almost not warm enough. 

            I weighed 88.2 kilos at 18:10. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:45. 

            I listened to the Willie P. Bennett cassette that my late friend Mike Copping gave me years ago. Mike’s wife Cathy was Bennett’s ex-girlfriend. 

            In my “2024-10-09 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I deleted everything before “Je t’aime. Moi non plus” and then copied the project as “Je t’aime. Moi non plus (electric)”. I isolated the song and separated the voices of the two speakers with the effects of spanning the colour spectrum and grey scale. Then I published it just to archive it because I won’t be uploading that song to YouTube until I record a better version. 

            I started a “2024-09-20 Song Practice” Movie Maker project. The video begins in part B but the audio starts from the beginning so I had to delete a lot of the audio to synchronize them. The audio was still at least a song behind at supper time. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, a cut up ground pork burger, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 11 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            Karl Bigger is co-owner of a barely successful cheap costume jewellery company. His partner has disappeared. His accountant Hal Saltzman has a genius for numbers and is also a compulsive thief but the company would be lost without him. The company though has now become a front for a gold smuggling racket run by James Condon and so real gold is being used to make what used to be fashioned from cheap materials. It’s being smuggled by women who wear it while crossing the Mexican border. Nicholas Cain is investigating a gold smuggling racket in a district on the Mexican border. He goes to get help from DA Maggie Summers, who has a cheeky secretary. Cain doesn’t yet know how the gold is being smuggled. Harry White works for Bigger and he’s recruiting women like Carol Tredman to smuggle the gold. Cain is checking the jewellery shops, including Bigger’s. He recognizes Saltzman as being wanted for a parole violation but doesn’t pick him up. Instead he goes to see him at his home. Saltzy picks Cain’s pocket out of habit but gives him back his pen. Cain tells him that the gold makes its way to the far east where it is used to buy heroin that is smuggled back into the US. Saltzy brings Cain a parcel of jewels as samples of how the gold is being smuggled. Cain photographs the items and then gives them back to Saltzy who gives Cain back his watch. Now that they know what to look for, customs officers are looking for women wearing the jewellery. Carol is photographed crossing to Mexico with the jewellery and stopped because she doesn’t have it on the way back. However it can’t be proven she has done anything wrong so she gets off. Carol gets the idea for them to give her the gold jewellery to wear to Mexico but a cheap copy to wear on the way back. Saltzman tells Cain about it. But now someone has been giving junk to the carriers and Condon is threatening to kill Bigger. Carol decides it’s getting too nasty and she goes to tell Cain and Maggie about the operation. Condon is arrested and Cain talks Maggie into hiring both Carol and Saltzman. 

            Maggie’s secretary was played by Maura McGiveney, who studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She moved to Hollywood and made her film debut with an uncredited role in North By Northwest. She was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1966 as Most Promising Newcomer in Do Not Disturb. She played the character called “The Body Politic” as a cast member of an ensemble comedy show called Turn On that was trying to be something like Rowen and Martin’s Laugh-In but a little more risqué. The sponsors found it too offensive and canceled it after one episode. She was very disappointed because she was so sure it was going to be a hit.

October 27, 1995: I didn't pose naked

Thirty years ago today 

            On Friday I posed in a black t-shirt and jeans from 8:30 to 15:30 for Natalka Husar’s class at the Ontario College of Art.

Mary Sinclair

            On Saturday morning I worked out the chords for the rest of the chorus and the second verse of “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 87.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice and it went out of tune quite a bit but not as badly as the Gibson did the day before. 

            Around midday I went to Vina Pharmacy to pick up my Betaderm prescription. The pharmacist started giving me instructions on how to use it and I reminded him I’ve been using it for years. He realized his mistake and said it was because it was listed as a new medication for me. The last time they were out of Betaderm and gave me a similar substitute, so this time I guess the computer thought Betaderm was new for me. 

            I went to New Frills where I bought five bags of green grapes, two packs of raspberries, some bananas, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, saltines, a small container of PC skyr (because that was all they had), a large container of Siggis skyr (which I don’t like as much because it’s more sour but there are only two brands) and two bags of Miss Vickie’s chips. 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos at 14:30. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I was almost home when I reminded myself to buy beer but I forgot until around 18:30. Then I went out and bought a six-pack of Creemore.

            I weighed 87.95 kilos at 18:15, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since October 12. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:33. 

            I reviewed the digital copies I made yesterday of the cassette recording of my song “Sugar” from the Howl radio show. There’s a lot of skipping in every copy but maybe not in the same places. Perhaps I could edit one almost clean song from all of the recordings but there’s also the fact that the tape switched sides in mid recording and so something would be missing anyway. 

            In my “2024-10-09 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I think I got the interface audio synchronized with the video. I’ll double check tomorrow and then I’ll copy the project as “Je t’aime. Moi non plus” (electric) and isolate the song.

            I made two ground pork burgers and grilled them. Then I chopped one and had it as part of a pizza on Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, mango lime salsa, and five year old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 10 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            Nicholas Cain has gathered evidence against mobster Frank Meehan that District Attorney Manny Rockham is using to prosecute him. The judge is Philip Hallson who presided over Cain’s first case as a mob lawyer and due to a mistake on the judge’s part, Cain won. Accountant Bill Ziegler has uncovered information about a firm called Darmel Enterprises controlled by Meehan. A large amount of stock was bought by a friend of Meehan and over two days the stock went up considerably. His friend sold it before it crashed. Ziegler has a list of other buyers of the manipulated stock and one turns out to have been Philip Hallson. Cain learns Hallson is quite wealthy from having made wise investments but there’s no law against that. Cain finds out that Meehan has signed off on waiving a jury and will now have judge Hallson make the final decision. Cain is thinking that Hallson’s mistake years ago might have been deliberate. Cain checks the records and finds Hallson has profited from similar stocks similar to Darmel more than a dozen times. When Hallson learns about Cain’s snooping he calls Washington and then calls Cain to his chambers. He accuses Cain of trying to manipulate his decision in the Meehan trial. Cain finds out that a former gangster who was up for trial under Hallson gave an expensive car to Hallson’s wife before the trial. Hallson goes to see Meehan’s lawyer Martin Allard and while they are talking Meehan walks in. He tells the judge his orders are to acquit him at the end of the trial. He says when he took the tip those years ago he became part of the organization and he can’t leave now. Hallson acquits Meehan and Cain storms into his chambers. Hallson has the bailiffs remove him. Hallson and his wife Helen talk and he tells her he had always wished she would have asked more questions. Hallson writes a confession and tells Cain he can have it after he commits suicide. He says it’s important that people don’t lose faith in judges. Cain argues that by exposing a corrupt judge the people can gain faith in justice. Hallson tries to throw himself out of the window but is stopped. 

            Helen Hallson was played by Mary Sinclair, who started as a model. She was in 1951 the first actress to sign a seven-year contract with a TV studio. She became a star of the hour-long drama and played in over 120 TV shows but only one feature film. She was offered more movies but preferred doing television out of New York. She retired from the screen in the early 60s and moved to Italy and France to study painting. In the 70s she moved back to LA and directed some local theatre. She retired in Arizona.

October 26, 1995: I went to a strip joint before posing nude

Thirty years ago today 

            On Thursday I went to a strip joint with Mike Copping before posing from 19:00 to 22:00 for Yvonne Singer in the Fine Arts department at York University.

Jacqueline Scott

            On Friday morning I memorized the seventh verse of “Au revoir mon enfance” (Goodbye My Childhood) by Boris Vian. There are two verses left to nail down. 

            I worked out all but the last three chords of the chorus of “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 87.55 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson electric during song practice and it went out of tune a lot. Tomorrow I’ll play the Kramer. 

            Around midday I applied more primer to the white tiles in the checkerboard pattern on the floor in front of my kitchen counter and stove. The paint can seems bottomless. For more than a week I’ve used it thinking I was going to finish it but there always seems to be some left. Maybe I’ll finish it on Sunday. 

            I weighed 88.25 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back because yesterday when I was there I forgot to buy Sponge Towels. 

            I weighed 88.7 kilos at 18:10. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:01.

            I listened to the digitized copy of my Howl interview and there’s a lot of skipping. This happens on every tape so I assume the problem is the tape player on the converter. I wanted to get a better copy of my song “Sugar” and so I kept rewinding the tape to the point of the song and re-digitized it a few times to try to get a cleaner copy. 

            In my “2024-10-09 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I got the interface audio within a split second of being synchronized. It was still a little behind before supper. 

            I made a new batch of gravy from roast beef drippings and had some with a small potato and two slices of roast beef while watching episode 9 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            The dock workers are getting leached by the Organization while Tommy Jackson is trying to organize them to stand up to their overlords. But Tommy gets beaten by the thugs of the trucking company owner Dave Braddock and then staggers in front of truck that hits and kills him. That truck was going pretty slow so I doubt it would’ve done him that much damage. With Tommy gone, Hank Conrad steps in to try to organize the workers. Hank’s best friend Wilt Farrell used to be a dock worker but now he’s a runner. Hank wants the men to join the cargo handlers union because the cargo handlers are getting paid a decent wage. The cargo handlers unload the boats and the dock loaders load the trucks. The boss loaders are on the take. Braddock calls for Wilt to get him to persuade Hank to back off and gives him some money for incentive. Hank and his fiancé Helen go for dinner at the home of Wilt and his wife Irma. Wilt asks Hank as a favour to not have the meeting. Hank says he’ll do anything for him personally but he’s not going to sell out his co-workers as a favour to a friend. Wilt tells him to get out. Then Wilt gets a call from Braddock to meet with him in his car. Wilt gives him his money back and says it didn’t work. Braddock says they’ll try it another way and sends Wilt to go after Hank with two of Braddock’s men. Wilt sits in the car while Braddock’s men beat Hank until Wilt stops them. The next day Hank is still out to get the dock loaders a fair shake and still wants to organize a meeting. Cain offers Hank protection but he refuses. He says he can’t lead the men while walking around with a bodyguard. Later Wilt hears that Hank has been shot. He’ll live but he’s out of commission for a while. The men still want a meeting but they don’t have a leader to motivate them. Cain tells Wilt that Hank will try again but maybe next time Wilt will pull the trigger. Wilt goes and takes the money from the safe in the Cargo Loaders office and takes it to the dock loaders to be their organizing fund. 

            Helen was played by Jacqueline Scott, who won a tap dancing contest at the age of three but says she was the worst child tap dancer. She began acting professionally at 17 in a small St. Louis theatre. She studied under Uta Hagen in New York. She made her Broadway debut in The Wooden Dish. She made her film debut in Macabre in 1958 on the set of which she met Gene Lesser who became her husband for 62 years. She played Richard Kimble’s sister in The Fugitive. She co-starred in Stephen Spielberg’s first film Duel.

October 25, 1995: I posed in the back of Romni Wools

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I posed from 13:00 to 16:00 for a Design class at the Ontario College of Art. In the evening I worked for a drawing session in the back of Romni Wools on Queen Street West.

Paul Carr

            On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for the first verse of “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think all the verses might have the same chords, in which case I only have to work them out for the chorus. 

            I weighed 87 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since October 11. 

            Around midday I put away most of my laundry that’d been sitting on the couch since Monday.

            I weighed 88.7 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a siesta and slept 45 minutes longer than planned. It was too late to take a bike ride downtown and so I just rode to do my grocery shopping at Freshco. I bought six bags of red grapes, a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a pack of chicken drumsticks, a pack of ground pork, two boxes of spoon sized shredded wheat, and a pack of Full City Dark coffee. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos at 18:10.

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:53. 

            I reviewed the cassette recording of the Howl radio show interview that preceded my first 20.000 Poets Under the League poetry slam at the Rivoli. Raven, Denise Naples, and I were the guests. I played and sang my poem “Sugar” and my daughter Astrid was also there. I digitized the tape recording. 

            In my “2024-10-09 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I worked on synchronizing the interface audio with the video and when I quit for supper it was just a little behind. 

            I had a potato with the rest of my gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching episode 8 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            Eddie Novak is being groomed to become the middle weight boxing champion by Tom Larch, the front man for the mob in their control of professional boxing. Novak doesn’t like the Organization having control over his career but Larch warns him that if he fights for himself he’ll be shadow boxing. Nicholas Cain wants the boxers to testify against Larch but the trainer Willie Carter says they won’t. Ten years ago Carter fought for the world championship against Al Heldon and lost. Heldon retired immediately after and so Carter didn’t get a chance for a rematch. Cain has dinner at Heldon’s successful restaurant and tries to get Heldon to testify. One of Larch’s men warns him not to talk. Novak finds out that Larch just bought him from his manager. Larch hands Novak an advance of $1000, which would be about $11,000 today, to keep quiet. That night one of Larch’s men knocks on the door of Novak and his wife just to tell him he knows where he lives. The next night Novak loses the fight he should have won. He didn’t throw the fight but he feels guilty anyway and the next day at the gym he tries to give the money Larch gave him to all the people that bet on him, but they don’t want it. Then Novak’s wife arrives and confesses that she put barbiturates into his vitamin capsules because she wanted him to lose so he would get out of this dirty business. Suddenly everyone at the gym, including Carter is willing to testify. Novak thinks he’s through but Cain tells him he thinks his wife would support him as a fighter if he were competing in an honest sport. Larch comes to see Carter and tells him that ten years ago when he lost the crown to Heldon he was drugged. Cain brings Heldon to the gym and Carter challenges him to a fair fight. They step into the ring and Heldon beats him but confesses that he did know that he was doped ten years ago but didn’t learn it until after the fight was over. Then he was too ashamed to speak of it. Heldon says he’ll testify now. 

            Novak was played by Paul Carr, who studied acting at the American Theatre Wing in New York. He appeared in nearly 100 Broadway productions. He made his film debut in 1955 in The Wrong Man. He co-starred in Jamboree and The Severed Arm. He starred in The Dirt Gang. He played Bill Horton in the first season of Days of Our Lives. He played Casey Clark on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He played Lieutenant Lee Kelso in the second Star Trek pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. He played Lieutenant Devlin on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He directed a program in honour of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. He was head of the play committee of the LA Repertory Company. He wrote and produced plays for a group called Video Playwrights.

October 24, 1995: I went from work to set up my open stage

Thirty years ago today 

            On Tuesday I posed from 15:45 to 18:45 in studio 349 at the Ontario College of Art. After work there was no time to go home and so I probably made my way to the Gladstone Hotel to set up the Art Bar for my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage.

Mercedes Shirley

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the sixth verse of “Au revoir mon enfance” (Goodbye My Childhood) by Boris Vian. There are three verses left to learn. 

            I finished memorizing “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords out of habit but of course no one has posted them so I worked them out for half of the instrumental intro. 

            I weighed 87.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            At 13:00 I headed up to Dufferin and Eglinton to Cad’s and Goldie’s place to act in the movie he and Bruce March are making. I passed two streets with guitar names: Martin and Gibson. I got a little lost looking for Ridelle because it’s been several years since I’ve ridden up there. I thought that it was closer to Eglinton and that I’d overshot it and so I headed east on another street then went south but Ridelle wasn’t there and so I realized I hadn’t overshot it but undershot it. I rode north until I found it. We set up in the library of Cad’s condo building. Also there was an actor named Wayne and Bruce’s co-cameraman and co-director Nick. Nick has worked in the film industry and seemed to know what he was doing. He also knows Nick Cushing from the film industry. I sat at a table that they made to look like a desk in the shots and played the police chief of a precinct in Canarsie, New York. Cad and Wayne played my detectives and Cad of course played the corrupt one. We did a lot of improvising in front of the camera and it was kind of fun. We were there for a couple of hours before we were told by the superintendent that we didn’t have permission. I’d thought that Cad had booked the room but he hadn’t. He says it’s a new building manager who doesn’t like him. The old one wouldn’t have minded us using the room. A woman named Dania was supposed to be in some scenes and when I heard that she was black her name rang a bell. It turns out it was the person I‘d been thinking of. She used to come to my open stage at the Gladstone. I hadn’t seen her for about ten years. We went to the Ping pong room after 17:00 when the super was gone and shot one more scene between me and Cad. There are other scenes I was supposed to be in but they’ll have to find another place to shoot them. I had a good time improvising. 

            On the way home my gearshift failed on me and I was stuck in a downhill gear but fortunately only after I’d gone up most of the steepest hills. I stopped at Metro Cycle when I got home and the guy found the gear shift was just loose. He also fixed a humming problem in my brakes. 

            I weighed 88.75 kilos at 18:25. That seems like a lot after having cycled up to Dufferin and Eglinton and back and having only eaten some grapes since breakfast. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:55. 

            I reviewed my re-digitization of the August 4, 1994 cassette copy of the recording I did at Cherry Beach Studios for Rocky Capato. Some of the copies don’t have the skipping. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, black olive paste and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a Creemore while watching episode 7 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            Louis Strode seems to have given up his high volume drug dealing ever since his son died of an overdose. His wife Katherine is in a sanitarium in a catatonic state ever since their child’s death. Nicholas Cain doesn’t believe that Strode has gone straight and keeps raiding his nightclub. Strode has gone so far as to confiscate and flush drugs from his own customers in order to avoid the feds finding anything. Strode’s brother in law is trying to help Cain find evidence against him. Whether or not Strode is involved in the drug shipping anymore it is still going on by his associates who are all around him. They know that Cain is after Strode and want to get him out of town so Cain will follow and leave them free to do business. Strode sends them the message that planes scare him, trains and cars make him sick and he’s too old to get far walking and so he’s not going anywhere. Strode’s lawyer Gilbert Caxley, who knows Cain from when they defended Strode together, shows Cain evidence that he’s gone straight. He anonymously finances the rehab wing of a children’s hospital. Cain’s brother in law thinks he’s got a lead on something big and calls Cain, but he is shot before Cain can meet him. Meanwhile one of the detectives working with Cain turns out to be involved with the drug trade. Cain is starting to believe Strode but Strode doesn’t care what he believes and says Cain has more to be guilty of than he does. He calls Cain a crummy little plaster saint who should stop playing god. Strode goes to see his wife and begs her to respond. She comes back briefly but goes back in her catatonia. Strode calls his old associates and tells them he’s coming back in. He organizes a big shipment for Benny Barber to distribute but then he tips Cain off so he and the feds can intercept it and make arrests. Lieutenant Cahurn is arrested. Benny kills Strode. Cain tells Katherine that it’s all over and that her husband helped them and she comes out of her stupor. 

            Katherine was played by Mercedes Shirley, who had a recurring role on the Cara Williams Show. She co-starred in Human Experiments. She won Drama-Logue awards for her performances in The Dresser and Death Trap. She taught at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and the Stella Adler Academy in LA.

October 23, 1995: The Café Sopra Sotto poetry reading got killed

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday Jill Ann Maybe had asked Marc Brandeis to host her open stage at the Café Sopra Sotto because she couldn’t make it. But Marc called me earlier that day to say he was sick and asked me if I would host for him and so I said yes. It went well and I debuted a new song “The Princess and the Pea Happy Song”. 

           Most of the regulars were there except for Paul Goldberg who had become reluctant to come. Later Vito the owner asked me how things were going and I thought I’d ask him to ease back on Paul. Vito had been critical of Paul’s poetry because he thought he portrayed Italians in a bad light. But Vito’s response to my request was something like, “That’s it! I’m done with you poets! There’ll be no more poetry readings here!” I had to break it to Jill that I’d killed her event. Later I heard that Vito was so irritable because he was addicted to cocaine.

Barbara Baxley

            On Tuesday morning I memorized the fourth verse of “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. There is one verse left to nail down and I’m sure I’ll have the song done tomorrow. I finished revising my translation. 

            I weighed 88.85 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since last Tuesday. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice and it didn’t go out of tune as much as it has been lately. 

            At 13:15 I left for my 14:15 appointment with my doctor at the Forest Hill Family Health Centre. I always overestimate the time it will take me to ride my bike up to Avenue Road and Eglinton and was worried during the ride of being late. But it only took me 40 minutes to get there. Dr. Shechtman was late seeing me. I told him that I wanted a referral for a colonoscopy and he said I could have done that over the phone. The receptionist didn’t tell me that but I also wanted to show him my left big toenail, which has curved and is digging into my toe. He said it’s probably a fungus and took some samples. He said there is surgery that could be done but if it’s a fungus the curvature might occur again. The surgery would be by a chiropodist but it’s not covered so I wouldn’t need a referral from him. I also got him to renew my Betaderm prescription. 

            The ride back was pleasant because I wasn’t in a rush. There’s some nice art deco architecture on some of the old apartment buildings and going over the Cedarvale Ravine the colourful fall foliage was beautiful. 

            I was going to stop at Metro near me to get some grapes but I had to pee first and I know where the washroom is at Freshco so I went there. Their grapes were firm and so I got seven bags and price matched them with Metro’s price of $4.39 a kilo. The last time the cashier said I could only price match four items but Catarina gave me the deal on all seven. 

            I weighed 87.7 kilos at 16:24. The lowest its been in the early afternoon since October 9. 

            I took a siesta at 17:00 and planned to sleep until 18:30 but I woke up at 19:30. Napping longer tends to happen after a longer bike ride. 

            I weighed 89 kilos at 20:00. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 22:30. Earlier I had a potato with gravy and two slices of roast beef while watching episode 6 of Cain’s Hundred. If I didn’t know better I’d say that the writers of this 1961 show were AI. The stories are so implausible and clichéd. 

            Nicholas Cain comes to Mountain County in an unnamed state. The county is controlled by Herman Combes with unchecked gambling and sex trafficking. Cain is rushing to a hospital to talk with a witness who could expose Combes but he is pulled over for speeding by highway patrolmen who ignore his federal identification. They take him in and while verifying Cain’s I.D. the witness dies. Cain stays at the hotel where downstairs there’s a casino and bar girls. There have been federal men that have come and gone before and Combs is confident that Cain will be the same. Combs’s has been married to Clara for fifteen years but she is unhappy. He took her out of poverty and likes her as a home maker but has other women for sex. A bar girl named Karen comes to Cain’s hotel room and tries to seduce him. He doesn’t fall for the bait and she confesses that her job was to lure him to the window where a photographer across the street was to take pictures of him with his arms around her. Police officer Tom Nugent is related to Clara and was also raised from poverty by Combs. He’s grooming him to be the next sheriff of Mountain County. Combs tries to buy Cain off but of course Cain is obsessed with his mission and unmoveable. Combs goes out with his girlfriend. Tom comes by and Clara tells him she’s leaving and going to the old hotel across the state line. She urges Tom to quit too. Larry Derby the horrible comedian in Combs’s casino is drunk and makes insulting jokes about Combs. He’s later surrounded and about to get beaten up but Tom stops the attack. Combs comes home and finds Clara gone. He calls the sheriff and he sends his men to pick her up. Tom hears this and heads for the hotel Clara spoke of. He reaches her before the other cops and Combs arrive. Combs forces them both to come back but Cain is there. Clara and Tom admit to him and will testify that Combs forced them across the state line, which is kidnapping. Now Cain can arrest Combs but Combs thinks his sheriff and deputies won’t allow it. Cain warns them that federal marshals will sweep the county if they don’t let him arrest Combs. Combs suddenly and implausibly becomes submissive and goes along with Cain. Up until this episode Cain took on mobsters that he formerly defended. There are a hundred crime bosses in his files but Combs is obviously not one of Cain’s hundred. 

            Clara was played by Barbara Baxley, who won a scholarship to the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York. She studied with Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio. She made her Broadway debut in Private Lives in 1948. Her film debut was in East of Eden in 1955. She starred in the movie The Savage Eye. She was nominated for a 1961 Tony Award for her performance in Period of Adjustment. She played Lady Pearl in Nashville and the lead character’s mother in Norma Rae. Marlon Brando said she was a jewel encrusted grudge collector. She was Tallulah Bankhead’s roommate for many years. From the late 70s to the early 80s she was on the board of directors for Nordstrom and served as the company’s fashion consultant and spokesperson. She was such close friends with Dave Brubeck and his wife that Brubeck arranged for them all to be buried next to one another.