Severn Darden

            On Friday morning I translated the tenth verse of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. He wrote some long songs. It’s going to be hell to memorize when the time comes. 

            I searched for the chords for “Tout l’monde est musician” (Everyone’s a Musician) by Serge Gainsbourg. No one has posted them and so I worked them out for the intro and the first line. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since October 23. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune a few times in the beginning but for most of the time stayed in tune. 

            Around midday I finished applying the final coat of wall paint in my bathroom. Wednesday’s the next day I’ll have time for my bathroom project and then I’ll take all the painter’s tape off to see if any touch-ups are needed. After that I’ll buy a liter of the last colour I’ll be needing for the shelves, the door and door frame. 

            I weighed 88.1 kilos at 14:24. 

            I took a siesta until 16:30 and it was too late for a bike ride downtown but I took a ride to Ossington and Bloor. 

            I weighed 88.35 kilos at 18:00. 

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

            I reviewed a cassette recording of a Christian and the Lions concert for Sedated Sundays at the El Mocambo. We did “I Saw My Reflection in an Open Wound”, Seven Veils of Armour”, “Thin Red Line” and “Seven Shades of Blues”. 

            I uploaded to YouTube the video of my electric version of “Laisses-en un peu pour les autres”. 

            I started a 2024-09-24 Song Practice Movie Maker project and synchronized the audio with the video. Next I have to delete every song that comes before “Leave Some for Everyone Else”. 

            I had a large potato with gravy and a reheated T-bone steak while watching season 1, episode 21 of Car 54 Where Are You? 

            Toody and Muldoon are sent to serve an eviction notice to an artist named Karpathia. While the painter is packing, they look at his abstracts, which Muldoon thinks are junk but Toody finds beautiful. Toody especially likes one painting which he says reminds him of lower Manhattan at sunset as seen from the New Jersey side. Suddenly Karpathia kisses Toody because he is the first person who has ever understood his work and “Lower Manhattan at Sunset from the New Jersey side” is the actual name of the painting. He is so appreciative that he gives Toody the painting. Toody takes it home but Lucille hates it. Toody goes back to work while Lucille throws the painting in the garbage. Meanwhile Toody is selling raffle tickets for the precinct Brotherhood Club and the draw is tomorrow but he forgot to acquire a prize for the ticket buyers to win. He decides to present Karpathia’s painting as the prize and finds it outside his building in the garbage. The painting is wrapped and presented to the winner, who it turns out is Schnauzer, who says bad luck runs in his family and he never wins anything. He’s excited about winning until he sees the painting and then realizes winning a piece of garbage is just more bad luck. But he takes it home because his wife wants a frame. Later a museum curator comes to Lucille and asks to borrow Karpathia’s masterpiece for a Karpathia exhibit and tells her it will be worth worth $25,000 (That would be $250,000 today) once it is seen at the exhibit. She tells him it’s impossible but doesn’t say she threw it out. He hopes Toody changes his mind and leaves Lucille standing frozen in shock with her broom. She is still standing there hours later when Toody comes home. She hands him the broom and tells him to beat her. He says she’s alone too much and he’s going to get her a dog. She tells him about the painting and he calls Schnauzer who rushes home to get it but at the gallery when they unwrap it, there is only the frame and Schnauzer’s wedding photo. Schnauzer says not to worry because his wife never throws anything out and they rush back to his place. Meanwhile we see Sylvia bringing home a cookie jar she’s just bought and how obsessively she saves every piece of the packaging right down to the tags. But when Schnauzer comes in and asks where the painting is she says she incinerated it because who wants to keep junk? Karpathia doesn’t care because he has finally reached one soul in Toody who understands his work. He recreates the painting on top of Toody’s wallpaper where the painting had briefly hung. But then Toody starts pointing out other things besides the painting that remind him of lower Manhattan at sunset from the New Jersey side and it turns out it’s just about everything. Karpathia asks him not to mention that if he is interviewed and Toody agrees.

            Karpathia was played by Severn Darden, who was one of the founders of Chicago’s Compass Theatre, which was the first improvisational theatre in the United States and which became Second City of which he was one of the original members. His live improv skit “A Short Talk on the Universe” as the character Walther von der Vogelweide is one of the most influential skits in improv history. He participated in the 1964 Acid Test put on by the Merry Pranksters. He performed in three seasons of the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. He was nominated for a Tony for his performance in the musical From the Second City. He co-starred in The President’s Analyst.