I worked on memorizing the sixth and final verse of “Il est Rigolo mon gigolo” (He’s a Giggle Oh My Gigolo). There’s a good chance I’ll have the song in my head tomorrow and then I’ll start translating it.
I weighed 88.45 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune.
Around midday I rode up to Sham Florists at Dufferin and Dundas to see if they could coordinate with a florist in Montreal to send some flowers to my daughter. I did the same thing a few years ago and my daughter liked it. I picked out two or three flowers of each kind I liked, knowing that the florist in Montreal might have to approximate them. I said I’d set my budget for the flowers at $75 and they added the possible delivery fee on top. They didn’t take debit and so I paid $107.35 in cash.
I rode to Made You Look to pick up my amethyst, which they couldn’t polish but cleaned with water and soda at no charge. They made it quite sparkly with the washing. They put it in a fancy gift box with a ribbon around it even though I didn’t pay them anything. Everybody is so nice there I feel almost guilty about having no interest in jewellery.
I got a notice from the Attorney General’s office telling me I’ve been randomly selected to complete a mandatory jury eligibility form and have to do it within 30 days. I doubt if I’d be selected since I have a criminal record from when the cops planted drugs on me.
I weighed 89.5 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since May 2.
I took a siesta and was woken by a call from Sham Florists. The Montreal florists didn’t have most of the flowers I’d selected, including the birds of paradise. I just said to pick purple, red, blue, and yellow and exotic.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 89.4 kilos at 18:00.
I was caught up in my journal at 19:45.
I worked again on trying to record with both channels from cassette through audio interface to Audacity. At first I could only get the left channel. I reached around to the back and pushed the output jacks in hard. That seemed to help and I was able to record one take of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” but part of the way into the second take I lost the right channel again. I pushed the jacks again but it didn’t help this time. For many years I’ve had the problem that sometimes my right speaker goes off but it often just takes shifting the amplifier from side to side to come back. I’d always thought that this was just about the speaker connection but the speaker wouldn’t affect me recording since I’m running a line from the amp to the audio interface. It seems that the problem all along might have been coming from inside the amp. A connection might need to be soldered. I might have to take it to AMI Electronics to get Dr. Oscar Moz to fix it. But then I’d be without a stereo for a few days. I wonder if he makes house calls.
I grilled eight chicken drumsticks and had two with a potato and gravy while watching season 6, episode 9 of The Carol Burnett Show.
Instead of the usual audience warmup with questions and answers, the show begins with a song and dance number. Carol sings the 1970 song “We’re All Playing in the Same Band” by Bert Sommer. Then Steve Lawrence and Lily Tomlin join in. They segué into the 1970 song “I Believe in Music” by Mac Davis.
Lily does a monologue while sitting alone at a restaurant table after having been ditched by her computer date. She filled out one card for $2 and got 104 dates. It might have helped that she said in her profile that she was a good sport. She lights a cigar, tosses the lighter in the air and catches it in her inside vest pocket. She says one of the 104 matches might be Mr. Right. He’ll love her, cherish her, and make all of her dreams come true. Then she’ll hurt him.
In the Carol and Sis sketch Carol gets a call from her old college friend Shirley Martin. She’s crying after having finalized her divorce today so Carol invites her over to try and cheer her up. Roger wants to go for his golf lesson but Carol convinces him to stay at least for a few minutes to make Shirley feel welcome. But when Shirley arrives she is not only not depressed but she is upbeat and vivacious and so sexy that Roger decides to skip his golf lesson. She’s flirtatious with Roger, so Carol becomes increasingly jealous. Carol asks why she was crying over the phone and Shirley explains that they were tears of joy. She and Roger dance although Roger hasn’t danced since before he and Carol got married. Shirley leaves for a date with her first husband. Carol is mad at Roger and makes fun of his dancing. He does the funky chicken again and she cracks up. Roger throws out his back. He’s bent over and can’t straighten up so he asks Carol to help him so he can go to his golf lesson. Carol breaks one of his clubs and hands him the end so he can play golf bent over.
Steve Lawrence sings the 1939 song “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes) by Hoagy Carmichael and Jane Brown Thompson, and then segués into the 1970 song “Without You” by Pete Ham and Tom Evans that was a hit for Harry Nilsson in 1971.
Carol plays Nancy, the naïve new wife of a parody of Don Coleone (played by Steve with cotton in his mouth) in a spoof on The Godfather. They are about to begin their honeymoon when Guido arrives and embraces the Don. The Don kisses Guido on the mouth, causing Nancy confusion. Then the Don’s men shoot Guido. The Don and Nancy are kissing when Pasquale (played by Harvey) comes in as someone from the old country begging the Don for help but only Nancy seems to notice him. The Don carries Nancy to the bed and the Don strips to his pajamas as Pasquale does too and gets into bed beside them as he continues to tell his story with ridiculous facts like “my cow had dandruff”. Pasquale reminds the Don he’s known him 15 years and never asked a favour. He asks him for $10 till Monday. The Don asks, “What do I look like? A Bank?” Pasquale asks alternatively if he’ll arrange for him to become a US senator. The Don calls for three of his men and they crawl out from under the bed. He tells them to take Pasquale to Washington and make him a senator. Nancy says there’s a lot she doesn’t understand. Don says he doesn’t know much about her either. She tells him her name is Nancy Ravioli and suddenly he is terrified. He asks if she’s related to his enemy Hy Ravioli. She says she’s his son Kevin and then she shoots him.
Lily plays a sadistic prison guard named Muncey Ripka and Carol plays a tough prisoner named Spike de Bouvoir. An elderly prisoner steps forward to talk to Mincey but Muncey slaps her face and tells her she doesn’t play favourites, adding “Get that through your head mom!” Spike is thrown into a cell with a dumb prisoner named Vicki who plays the harmonica. Spike compliments her on her playing and then Vicki shows her hands are empty and says she can’t wait till she gets a harmonica. Spike asks how long she’s been there and Vicki shows her several marks on the wall that she’s drawn to indicate her time. She says pretty soon it’ll be a whole day. Spike tells Vicki her escape plan and she takes notes. Then she passes the note to Muncey who tortures Spike by running her fingernails over a chalkboard. This breaks Spike and she says she’ll submit. Spike receives a cale from the Concealed Weapon Cake Company. There’s a file inside and Vickie starts filing her nails. Spike uses the file to pick the lock and when Muncey comes to crack her knuckles Spike captures her and gets her gun. She’s about to leave with Muncey as a hostage when they are approached by Spike’s brother Father Mike the priest. While Spike is distracted Muncey grabs for the gun and they struggle until it goes off and Muncey dies. Mike tells Spike she’ll get the chair now and they walk down the hall until their large breasted Jewish mother (played by Harvey) arrives with her hand on the governor’s ear by which she’s dragged him there and forced him to pardon Spike. But Spike and Mike find her so overbearing they’d rather both go to the chair.
Carol’s Charwoman cleans up in the dressing room of a burlesque house. She puts on some of the accessories and sings “If My Friends Could See Me Now” by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields from the 1966 musical Sweet Charity. Then she does a duet in the mirror with a fancy version of herself in the mirror of the song “Baby Dream Your Dream” from the same musical.
Lily Tomlin was born the day WWII started. She studied acting under Charles Nelson Reilly at HB Studio in Greenwich Village. She started her career doing standup comedy in Detroit and then New York. Dje made her TV debut on The Merv Griffin Show. She became famous for the characters she portrayed on Laugh-In. She won a Grammy for her album This is a Recording in 1971. She won an Emmy for her TV special Lily. She made her film debut in Nashville for which she was nominated for an Oscar. She made her Broadway debut in the one woman show Appearing Nitely in 1977. She won a Tony for her one woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. She co-starred in The Late Show, 9 to 5, Grace and Frankie, All of Me, Big Business, Flirting with Disaster, 80 for Brady, Moving On, She starred in Moment by Moment, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, A Prairie Home Companion, Grandma, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, She was the voice Miss Frizzle on The Magic School Bus and of Aunt May in Spiderman Into the Spiderverse. She played Murphy’s boss on Murphy Brown. During her Las Vegas show she was her own opening act as the lounge singer Tommy Velour. Before a one woman show in New York she dressed as a nurse and handed out coffee to people waiting in line for the show. She won the Mark Twain Prize for Humour in 2003. She said, “Reality is a crutch for people that can’t cope with drugs”. She published an autobiography of her character Edith Ann called My Life in 1995.
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