Gerald Hiken

            On Monday morning I wasn’t quite able to memorize the second verse of “Le rent' dedans” (The Pick-Up) by Serge Gainsbourg but I’m pretty sure I’ll get it nailed down on Tuesday. The subsequent verses will be easier because all the odd verses share the first three lines of the opening verse and the even stanzas repeat the first three lines of the second verse. 

            I weighed 88.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it went out of tune constantly. 

            I had to stop rehearsal before the last four songs because I needed to get ready to go downtown to the Graduate School of Dentistry for my CT scan. I left at around 12:00 and had to pee really bad when I got there. I rushed to the washroom and nearly bumped into someone who was coming out. I hurried to the urinal and pulled down my zipper but struggled with moving my shirttail aside when I started peeing. Some pee went down my leg but I avoided a disaster. It wasn’t obvious that I’d peed myself and what was there dried out quickly. At reception I had to pay $426 for the scan. 

            In the radiology clinic I had to stand with my hands on a horizontal bar while biting on a plastic bit with my teeth pushed forward while the machine rotated around me and took x-rays. It made clichéd “boop-beep-boop” computer sounds as it worked like R2-D2 doing scales. I wondered if the sounds were added for effect or if they were actually necessary. I was shown the 3-D images of my teeth and they looked pretty cool. I almost forgot to retrieve my denture from the cup but someone handed it to me. She told me she had one like that but lost it down the toilet. I asked if she’d been drinking out of the bowl. She said after that she got her implant and that was 25 years ago. She says she’s still happy with her implant. I thanked her for the product review. 

            I’m due for a cleaning in mid-November but hadn’t been booked yet. Dr. Xia for some reason had said they wouldn’t do the cleaning until after the scan. I went upstairs to ask about an appointment but the person at reception was just filling in and sent me down the hall to periodontics where the receptionist checked and told me I could go back to the cleaning clinic to book the appointment. I got November 11 at 13:00. 

            I weighed 88.9 kilos at 14:54. 

            I took a siesta from 15:30 to 17:15. 

            I weighed 89.3 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:03. 

            I reviewed for a second time a cassette recording of my August 31, 1997 interview on CIUT for the show Howl about the launch of my chapbook Vomit of the Star Eater. I digitized it even though I already have a digitization of the interview from another cassette.

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Leave Some For Everyone Else” and “Laisses-en un peu pour les autres” from September 12 to 19, 2024. On September 12 the video file was corrupted. On September 16 I played “Leave Some for Everyone Else” on my Martin Road Series guitar and the take at 1:30 in part B was okay. On September 14 and 18 I played it on my Gibson Les Paul Studio. On September 14 the take at 00:15 in part C was okay but I did fumble a word slightly. On September 18 the take at 15:30 in part B was not bad. I played “Laisses-en un peu pour les autres” on the Gibson on September 13, 17, and 19. On September 13 and 19 the camera battery charge ran out of juice before the song was over and on September 17 the camera had already shut off before this song. On September 15 I played it on my Martin and the take at 51:30 was okay. 

            I had a big potato with gravy and my smallest piece of roast beef while watching episode 19 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            Earl Klegg is a mobster who’s already in prison for tax evasion but his lawyer has gotten him a retrial. However a witness that was supposed to take the stand against him has been murdered. Klegg is now being charged with conspiracy to commit murder even though he was locked up when the murder took place. Nicholas Cain has decided to prosecute in Klegg’s trial. The defence attorney Preston Luther wonders if Cain has passed the bar in that state and he has. Cain intends to prove that Klegg paid Ralph Tomek to commit the murder. Cain puts a taxi driver on the stand who says the taxi bureau requires that drivers keep records of all their fares and he identifies Tomek as his passenger from the airport on the day of the murder. An accountant named Vic Fell who works for a union of retail merchants says Tomek is an organizer for the association in the Detroit area. Cain says Fell’s employer is a front for the Organization and Tomek was paid for the murder. Fell says Tomek received the money as an advance on future salary. Fell was a close friend of the murder victim. Cain puts the victim’s fiancé Enid Lazzo on the stand. It had been his testimony in the first trial that sent Klegg to prison. She says she heard Klegg threaten Al in court but Klegg tells Luther she’s lying. During lunch she tells fell that she’s going to get Klegg and Tomek for what they did to Al. When Luther cross-examines her she confirms that she was with Al on the day he was killed and he told her who was going to kill him. But Luther proves that Enid wasn’t even in town on the day of the murder and so now she’s going to be charged with perjury. Tomek says he owns a bar in Detroit and he was there on the day of the murder. Cain puts on the stand Beatrice George, a cleaning lady at the hotel where Al was staying and she says she saw Tomek leave with Al while promising him a job. A while later Tomek came back alone and later Al’s body was found in a quarry nearby. During a break Beatrice receives a phone call threatening the life of her child. When is back on the stand she counters her previous testimony. On hearing that Beatrice had received a phone call, the judge has her come to his chambers and he asks if she was threatened. Cain puts Tomek on the stand and proves he was in town on the day of Al’s murder and registered in a hotel under his wife’s maiden name. They can match his handwriting with the signature in the register. They’ve got Tomek but Cain is not satisfied because he wants Klegg. Cain puts Vic Fell on the stand and accuses him of sitting his friend Al up to be murdered. Under the pretense of helping him get a job, Fell took Al from his apartment to the motel where Tomek was already waiting. Fell paid Tomek but he was told they weren’t going to kill him but just scare him away from testifying. The jury finds Klegg guilty. 

            Tomek was played by Leonard Nimoy. 

            Vic Fell was played by Gerald Hiken, who studied at the Actors Studio. He was considered to a leading interpreter of Chekhov. He co-starred in the film Uncle Vanya in 1957. He was nominated for a Tony in 1980 for his performance in Strider. He was a frequent guest on Car 54 Where Are you, which was created by his cousin Nat Hiken.