Violette Verdy

            On Monday morning I continued to edit “Ballade de la chnoufe” by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication on my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I almost finished editing “Dessous mon pull” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “Underneath My Blouse” in my Christian’s Translations blog and should have them posted tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric for the last of two sessions. 

            I created a few more photo folders in my SSD. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco to buy grapes. Most of them were too soft but I got five bags of relatively firm ones and price matched them with the Real Canadian Superstore’s cost of $3.95 a kilo. 

            I weighed 89.55 kilos at 18:10, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since last Monday.

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:50. 

            I tried again to digitize the cassette tape of a Christian and the Lions concert at the El Mocambo for Elvis Mondays or Sedated Sundays. I’ve been struggling with this one for the last week. I had been able to get a green flashing light in my audio interface and a waveform in Audacity for the first half but the signal disappeared in the middle of my song “The Next State of Grace”. Yesterday I was able to get a waveform again after fast forwarding the tape to the end and rewinding it to the beginning, but today that didn’t work. I tried that twice and restarted the computer four times but it still didn’t work. Finally I just put a microphone to the speaker, connected the mic cable to the audio interface with the gain turned up and that worked. The next tape I’ll be digitizing seems to get a signal when it plays and so it will probably record with a line-in rather than the mic. I’ll try it tomorrow. 

            I created another folder in my SSD and deleted forty some photos from my hard drive. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork tenderloin while watching season 4, episode 19 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            The first skit features the Old Folks starring Harvey and Carol as Burt and Molly. Burt is wearing Hai Karate cologne today because it’s the 16th of the month and the attractive Nurse Sweeney is coming over to give them their monthly physical. Molly says she’s not jealous but she just doesn’t want Burt to make a fool of himself. But it turns out that the handsome Dr. Winslow comes instead and now Molly makes a fool of herself and Burt is jealous. After he leaves they argue but then as usual they sing a love song to each other. It’s probably called “It’s You” but it doesn’t pop up in a search. 

            Ballet dancers Edward Villella and Violette Verdy dance a pas de deux from Don Quixote. 

            In the Carol and Sis sketch Carol is hiring a maid from Ireland. According the picture the agency sent them Marie Murphy is 19 years old and very pretty. Roger leaves work early so he can be there when she arrives. But (played by Martha Raye) she turns out to be in her fifties and also lied about her ability to cook and clean. When Carol tries to demonstrate the vacuum cleaner she jumps in terror into Roger’s arms because she’s never seen one before. In the end she changes her accent and reveals she’s from the Bronx. 

            Carol and Martha sing “Let Me Sing and I’m Happy” by Irving Berlin from 1929; “Back in Your Own Backyard” by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, and Dave Dreyer from 1928; “The Other Man’s Grass is Always Greener” by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent from 1967; and “I Got Plenty of Nothin” by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, and Dubose Heyward from the 1935 musical Porgy and Bess. 

            In the George and Zelda skit, George is still married to the nagging and overbearing Zelda who he married while drunk and didn’t know her. Now he escapes that bitter reality by watching bullfighting movies. He fantasizes that he is a great bullfighter and that a gorgeous flamenco dancer played by Vicki is throwing herself at him. They agree to meet after his fight but after she leaves, Zelda invades his dream and nags him some more. She makes him feel small before his fight and then accidentally kills him with his sword. 

            Carol’s Charwoman mops up on the stage set of Swan Lake and the dancers appear. She ends up dancing with them in their swan costume but wearing her boots. She then sings a song that is probably titled “Where Do I Go From Here” but I can’t find it. 

            Violette Verdy started training at the age of 8 in 1942 while France was occupied by Germany. She began her career in Roland Petit’s Ballet des Champs Elysées in 1945. She became one of the leading ballerinas of the 20th Century. From 1958 to 1977 she was a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet. The “Emeralds” section of George Balanchine’s ballet Jewels was created for her. She starred in the film Ballerina. She was also a gifted choreographer. She was a professor of Dance at Indiana University for 20 years. In 1973 she was named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; thirty-five years later she was honored with the knight of France's Legion of Honour.