Nipsey Russell

            On Saturday morning I translated the first refrain of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the chorus of “Tout l’monde est musician” (Everyone’s a Musician) by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation of the third verse. There are only four more verses to memorize.

            I weighed 88.95 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of four sessions and it stayed in tune for the whole 90 minutes.

            Around midday I went down to No Frills where I bought five bags of green grapes, some bananas, a small watermelon (an African woman asked me to show her how to tell when it’s a good one), a pack of chicken drumsticks, a loaf of Bavarian sandwich bread, mouthwash, Sensodyne, Arm and Hammer toothpaste, Ziplock bags, Skyflake crackers, orange juice, plain skyr, berry skyr, a bag of PC jalapeno kettle chips, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. 

            I realized I’d forgotten to hand in my Pico-Salax prescription that Mount Sinai emailed me and so I went to Vina Pharmacy. It took them fifteen minutes to find out if I was covered and then they told me it would take ten minutes so I said I’d pick it up next week.

            I weighed 89.75 at 15:00, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since November 17. I had saltines with peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar with a glass of ice tea. 

            I took a siesta from 15:37 to 17:15 and so it was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 90 kilos at 17:30. May 22, 2019 was the last time I was that fat in the evening. Maybe some of it’s muscle. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:12. 

            I reviewed the next cassette in the pile and it’s an early rehearsal tape of Christian and the Lions at my place in the Beaches with Tom Smarda, Steve Lowe, and Mike Martin. I haven’t finished listening but the first part is my lyric “Charm and Money” to the tune of “Love and Marriage” by Sammy Khan. I had a light hearted argument with Steve Lowe about his claim that he is no longer interested in sex. I told him he was kidding himself and he took offense. After my relationship with Angeline broke up, and after her relationship with Cad broke up, she was with Steve for a while and he even asked her to marry him. I'm pretty sure they had sex. 

            I uploaded my acoustic version of “Leave Some for Everyone Else” to You Tube. 

             

            I started a new Movie Maker project for my September 23, 2024 song practice. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, the rest of my ham chopped, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 1, episode 15 of Car 54 Where Are You? 

            This was a Christmas episode and it featured a lot of the main characters doing musical or comedy numbers for a 53rd Precinct Christmas Pageant. All the officers’ wives and children are there including the son of Officer Dave Anderson who screws up the switchboard. Captain Block begins with his baritone voice and a chorus of all of his officers. He sings about how nothing bothers him but the chorus asks if Toody and Muldoon bother him and he says hardly ever. Then Block plays a recording describing proper dress for a police officer while Officer Fleischer comically demonstrates. Toody serenades his wife with a good rendition of “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You” (written by Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, and James Cavanaugh) while accompanied by Muldoon on guitar. Then officer Schnauzer comes out with the Brotherhood Club. He begins to recite the five principals of brotherhood but they start fighting over the order of the principles. Then Muldoon sings in a choral group about how the policeman’s lot is not a happy one. Then Toody’s brother in law Al does a magic act with the assistance of his sister in law Rose. Bonnie Kalsheim (played by Alice Ghostly), who appeared in a previous episode sings a comical torch song: “I’m waiting for the man that I adore / What shall I call him when my man appears? / Sweetheart, lover, angel, or just dear? / Or shall I call him mon chérie, my life, my flame? / I think I’ll call him Irving because Irving is his name / Irving, whenever he appears birds sing / They keep on twittering “Irving, someone’s in love with you” / Irving, whenever he is near bells ring / To thee I’m only a plaything / But what can I do? / He’s just an ordinary guy, no superman no wiz / Why, in a crowded subway I can’t tell which hands are his / Irving Irving Irving I’m so in love with you / Love is a funny thing / L’amour est un object funny n’est pas? / I always dreamed of the kind of man who would one day steal my foolish foolish heart / He would be tall and dark and handsome and in the Teamsters Union / I guess that’s every girl’s dream n’est pas? / Then along came Irving / How can I describe him? / His face is like the United Nations / Everything is there but it just can’t quite seem to get together / But so what? He’s my Irving, mon man / He’s not the kind of guy you’d see in any Collier ad / but Irving in a bathing suit is… pretty bad / Irving Irving Irving I’m so in love with him / When I look in Irving’s eyes my foolish heart can’t take it / His one eyes says “Come hither” but the other can’t quite make it / It’s not that Irving’s walleyed but of Irving it’s been said / he can watch an entire Ping-Pong game without once turning his head / Irving, whenever he appears birds sing / They keep on twittering “Irving someone’s in love with you”. Then Toody and Muldoon sing about why they’ve been together for ten years in a song called “We Belong to a Mutual Admiration Society”. 

            Officer Anderson was played by Nipsey Russell, who earned the rank of captain in the army during WWII, which was a rare achievement at the time for a black soldier. He formed a stage act with Mantan Moreland in 1952. He got his start in Rock and Roll Revue. He got his first big break on the Ed Sullivan Show, which led to several guest spots on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show. He was a regular on The Dean Martin Show and Dean Martin’s Comedy World. He became known as television’s poet laureate. One of his short poems: “The opposite of pro is con / That fact is clearly seen / But if progress means move forward / then what does congress mean?”. He co-starred in the sitcom Barefoot in the Park from 1973 to 1976. He co-starred in The Wiz as the Tin Man. The show was a box-office failure but became a cult classic. Little Nipper in the comic strip Wee Pals was inspired by him. On Missing Links he became the first black performer to become a regular panelist on a game show. He was a regular on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.