Kerrice Brooks

            On Wednesday morning I revised my translation of the first chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. 

            In my Movie Maker project containing all the songs from the Zizi Je t’aime concert by Zizi Jeanmaire at the Casino de Paris I created a new project called “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” (Black Shoes and Funeral Parlours) and isolated the song. I uploaded the song to Sonix and got a transcript of the French lyrics. I actually don’t know if it’s the song I’m looking for because the title doesn’t appear in the lyrics. On the album the song is just listed as “Finale” but also that they are written by Gainsbourg. There’s no song with the title “Finale” with authorship by Gainsbourg so this might be it. “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” is also the name of an unfinished screenplay by Gainsbourg that I found the transcript for. I’ll look at that tomorrow and see if any of it fits with the lyrics to this song. 

            I weighed 87.85 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            Around midday, with the pinkish purple wall paint I worked on evening out the area where the bathroom wall meets the blue trim that separates the wall from the wall tiles. It’s delicate work and it’s still uneven. 

            When I was leaving for my bike ride, my upstairs neighbour David was standing outside. He wants to go for lunch on Friday so I guess I won’t be painting again until Tuesday. 

            I rode downtown and back. 

            I weighed 87.9 kilos at 18:15, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since last Wednesday. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 20:01. 

            I tried for the fourth day to digitize the cassette tape in which I chant two poems at Fat Albert’s. I tried it at the MME setting but there was still some distortion. I’ll try again tomorrow. 

            I made pizza on a slice of seven grain bread with marinara, tomato pesto, three slices of bacon, five-year-old cheddar, and an egg. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching episode 5 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. 

            Sam’s name is an acronym made from Series Acclimation Mil. She is only 217 days old. She was created on Kasq and is a hologram or as her people prefer to be called, a Photonic. She’s been sent to Starfleet Academy as an emissary and a diplomat. Her makers are also Photonics but they have never left Kasq. She has to report to them once a week to explain what she has learned about physical beings. Organics created her species a long time ago to be servants. Photonics became sentient and independent and now want to connect with organics but don’t trust them and so they need to learn about them first. She tells her makers she is still struggling with the intangible behaviours and sexual desires of organics. Her makers tell her to enrol in a course called Confronting the Unexplainable. 

            She finds a section of the course that intrigues her: The Fate of Benjamin Sisko Emissary of the Prophets. The Cardassian Professor Illa says she can’t join the class this late in the semester but she’s welcome to try to solve the mystery. She gets in trouble for disrupting a meeting of Bajoran students.

            She goes to the Sisko Museum where she activates the hologram of Sisko’s son Jake (played by the now grown up Cirroc Lofton, who played Jake on Deep Space 9). He says he didn’t know his father as an emissary. 

            Illa says Sisko expressed himself through his gumbo recipes. Sam does not eat and so she needs to serve gumbo to her friends so they can describe their experience. They are in ecstasy. Caleb tells Sam that if she gives him access to her primary system he might be able to figure out a way for her to taste food. He’s not successful. 

            Sisko used to go to a bar called The Launching Pad, which is long gone but in the same place is a bar called The Academy and it’s cadet night every Friday during midterms so Sam and her friends decide to go. 

            When Sam’s makers contact her, time freezes. They tell her if she fails in her task she will be brought back to Kasq forever. She has one more week to succeed. 

            At the bar Caleb accesses Sam’s system and says he can help her feel the way organics feel after drinking alcohol. He tells her one tap of the holographic screen equals one shot but she taps several times and gets uncontrollably drunk. 

            They are confronted by the War College cadets who say this is their bar. The friendly war cadet named Kyle starts flirting with Kraag, and Kalem is jealous. 

            Caleb meets Tarima outside and they talk for a while but suddenly she starts kissing him. 

            On the dance floor Romulan War Cadet Dzolo tries to pick a fight with Sam and gets punched out then tossed out. Everyone is shocked that Sam could do that. 

            When they get back to the Academy Caleb makes Sam sober again. The Doctor tells Sam that he knew Jake Sisko who was a brilliant writer. 

            Sam goes back to Illa to tell her she failed. Illa lends her Jake’s book “Anslem” about his father. While reading the book Sam sees and talks with Jake as if he is there. He tells her that Sisko served the prophets but did it his way and didn’t always take their advice.

            Illa comes to get the book and tells Sam she expects to see her in her class next semester. She can find her under her full name of Illa Dax. It turns out she’s the host of the Dax symbiont, which when hosted by Jadzia Dax was a close friend of Benjamin Sisko and so Illa has all of those memories.             SAM is played by Kerrice Brooks, who started dancing at 3 and began her career as a back-up dancer for acts like Billie Eilish. She made her film debut in 2020 as a dancer in The Prom. She appeared in the film My Old Ass.