On Thursday I got to West Toronto Secondary School a little after 9:00. I posed until around 10:15 and I didn't have to work again until 12:45, so I went up to Bloor Street and got some groceries. Then I came back to the teacher's lounge and made some calls. I read the paper and then Dania came in with her lunch. We talked with a dumb English History teacher. We worked until 14:00 and were going to continue with me posing until 15:15 but she decided to let the kids work on something else and so I left. I walked along Bloor looking for a snack and I found deep fried mung beans in a bag like potato chips. They weren't bad. On my way home on the Main bus, Tom Smarda chanced to get on at Gerrard and so he came over to my place for tea. After doing some developing in the darkroom, I left for work at around 18:00.
On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for the first verse of "Fugue" by Boris Vian.
I worked out the chords for the fifth and sixth verses of "Love On the Beat" by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have it finished tomorrow.
I weighed 84.5 kilos before breakfast.
My landlord finally came in the late morning to install the new bathroom sink fixture. He was supposed to come on Friday. At one point he asked for paper towels and when I walked into the kitchen he was already reaching for my roll and taking some. The guy has no respect.
I weighed 85 kilos before lunch.
I worked on polishing my Frankenstein presentation, mostly looking for more evidence of the creature's extreme masculinity.
I took a bike ride to Bloor and Bathurst and on the way home I stopped at Freshco where the red grapes were on sale. There was a friendly guy who sounded like he was from South America who was impressed that the grapes were from Peru. He asked me why I was squeezing the grapes and I said to see if their not too soft and therefore over ripe. I also got a pack of blueberries, a frozen rack of pork ribs, hummus, soy milk, salsa, and some margarine.
I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:30.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:15.
I went over my presentation again a couple of times and made some small adjustments. The professor said that we don't need citations unless we reference outside sources. Since I mention Tarzan of the Apes I figured I'd better download it. I got a copy from Library Genesis. It's public domain now.
I cut the bad parts from three potatoes and had the rest with lima beans and gravy while watching season 5, episode 16 of The Beverly Hillbillies.
The Drysdales have put up a fence covered in tarpaulin around their property and it's upsetting Granny because she wants to see what they are hiding. It turns out that it's a balloon shaped like a flying saucer. Drysdale has hired three little Italian acrobats who do a balloon act to dress up as green spacemen for his advertizing campaign. He's arranged for them to descend on the Rose Bowl during the New Year's game and a voice will boom, "Take us to your financial leader, The Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills". Drysdale also has fake one dollar bills made with his face on them. Drysdale drives the men to his house to hide until the big event. When Granny comes to the door she sees the three little green men in the window and freaks out. Jethro pokes his head under the tarp and sees them and thinks they are Martians. He wants to go back to Mars with them. Jed says they should invite them over for vittles. The men only speak Italian but we see in subtitles that they are hungry because Drysdale has left no food for them. Jethro comes and communicates eating with sign language and so they follow him. They enjoy some food and leave, saying "Grazia" and "Arrivederci". Granny is mad because she doesn't think they've said thank you or goodbye. She shoots their saucer balloon with her shotgun. Later the men are at Drysdale's bank in business suits to get paid. But Drysdale pays them in fake Drysdale dollars.
One of the Italian acrobats was played by Jerry Maren, who in 1938 rode a bus full of Little People from New York to Hollywood to appear in The Wizard of Oz. He said the actors who played Munchkins got $50 a week while the dog Toto got $200 a week. He played the Munchkin who handed Dorothy a lollipop while singing the welcome song. There were 120 Munchkins played by Little People from all over the world. He was the last surviving Munchkin. He played Buster Brown on radio and television and he was both Mayor McCheese and The Hamburglar in the McDonald's commercials. He was Little Oscar in the Oscar Mayer commercials. He played Boko on The Magic Lady TV Show. He was also a professional wrestler. He helped form the Little People of America. He played The Little General on The Andy Williams Show and he was a regular on The Gong Show. He played Morris the Bellboy on the short-lived sitcom No Soap Radio.
I searched for bedbugs and after eight days of being free of them I found one hiding near the upper right corner of the old exit door at the head of my bed. It fell when I dug it out of a crevice with my toothpick. I got down on my knees and when I found it again it had already crawled from the floor back onto the lower right hand side of the door where I killed it. There was no blood inside and its guts were dry and black so it was probably infected by the spores. I guess that's good news but I want to find zero. I don't think that's going to happen as long as Caesar won't let pest control spray the spores in his apartment.
On Wednesday I worked for the second week of my three week pose for sculpture. It was a little harder to hold this time, I guessed because all of the other standing poses I'd been doing were taking their toll on my left leg. I had to work that evening in studio 210 and so I didn't bother going home. I just went up to studio 352 and sat in an easy chair on the stage. I made some notes on Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and then took a nap until the night class teacher for came in at about 18:40 to set up the stage. I went out to buy some fruit and then waited outside studio 210 for the other class to finish. Ross Mendez was always enthusiastic and impressed by my work. That studio was my favourite room to work in. He was glad to see I was reading Jack Kerouac.
On Wednesday morning I worked out the chords for the first two lines of "Fugue" by Boris Vian.
I also worked out the chords for the chorus and the first three verses of "Love On the Beat" by Serge Gainsbourg. I night have all the chords placed tomorrow.
I weighed 84.4 kilos before breakfast.
I spent about an hour polishing my Frankenstein presentation for next Tuesday.
I weighed 85 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with peanut butter and a glass of limeade.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Bloor and Bathurst. The way was a lot clearer than yesterday and it was warmer so I didn't wear my Kodiaks or long underwear.
I weighed 84.6 kilos at 17:00, which is the most I've weighed at that time in eight days.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:16.
I read through my presentation a couple of times and made some small changes.
I read a bit of Peter Pan. I made it to page 36. I'd forgotten what a good writer J.M. Barrie was.
I made chili with a can of lima beans, Basilica sauce, and salsa. I had it with a toasted slice of Bavarian sandwich bread and a glass of limeade while watching season 5, episode 15 of The Beverly Hillbillies.
It's Christmas time and Granny is depressed. Jed cheers her up with the idea of picking one person to give a special present to and he picks Margaret Drysdale. What Margaret really wants is to get rid of the Clampetts. While they are trying to decide what to give her, Jethro gets a call from Mr. Drysdale. He wants Jethro to drive some of Margaret's things to Brentwood to sell in a rummage sale. She is donating several things she doesn't want to help out underprivileged families who make less than $25,000 a year, which would be a quarter of a million now. But the Clampetts think she's selling her most prized possessions because she's broke. They decide to buy it all back for her but they don't want to take the money from Drysdale's bank because they want it to be a surprise. Jethro gets them all jobs as Christmas help in a department store. Jethro is Santa and Elly is his elf. Jethro impresses the parents with his ability to get into the mind of seven year olds and think on their level. Jed and Granny are working at sales counters. Granny is selling lingerie and sees Margaret looking at a nightie. But when she sees Granny she is upset and puts it on the counter. Granny thinks she is embarrassed because she's poor and so she stuffs the negligee in Margaret's bag as a gift without her seeing it. Margaret gets arrested for shoplifting. Jed gives away everything he's supposed to sell because it's Christmas. He tells the manager he'll pay for it. Drysdale and Margaret go to the Clampetts for Christmas dinner. Jethro as Santa gets stuck in the chimney while trying to bring Margaret her presents. Everyone turns to the camera and sings "We Wish You A Merry Christmas."
The manager was played by James Millhollin who played the army psychiatrist in No Time For Sergeants on Broadway and in the movie. He was a distinctive character actor who had supporting roles in many plays, movies and TV series. He played a criminal lawyer on an episode of Batman.
On Tuesday I was back modeling with Diana Dufretes on another two week pose. The theme of this session was sexual harassment. She was dressed in a seductive manner and sitting at a desk while I was wearing a shirt and tie but naked from the waist down. I was leaning over her computer with my hand blocking the screen. We had some good conversation. I talked to her about the astrological chart I was doing for her but she still hadn't gotten the info on her time of birth. She looked really sexy that day and I was actually starting to think that she was attracted to me. She said she was involved in a ménage à trois with a man and another woman and she wanted me to do their charts too. They were all heavily into Aleister Crowley and she was learning magic.
On Tuesday morning I finished working out the chords for the intro of "Fugue" by Boris Vian. I'll start the crazy verses tomorrow.
I worked out the chords for the intro and half of the first verse of "Love On the Beat" by Serge Gainsbourg.
I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in eight days.
I left for the Bildungsroman seminar at 10:11, which is nine minutes earlier than usual. I was dreading that the way downtown was going to be rough and dangerous after last night's snowstorm, so I gave myself more time. I also took the Bloor bike land instead of my usual route because I expected College to be narrower because snowbanks would force cars to park further out from the curb and there would be a much thinner passage between the cars and the streetcar tracks. The bike lane was slushy and wet but surprisingly clear. It was a good thing it wasn't freezing, otherwise it would have been treacherous. It only took me half an hour to get to University College.
We began our discussion of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
The 1831 edition is more compact.
Percy Shelley writes the preface: "The amiableness of personal affections".
Mary Shelley's parents were well known writers, and her husband and friends were also already famous in the literary world. She was under pressure to write.
She was a nineteen year old girl writing about a monster and so her propriety was at risk. Percy assumed the role of protector of the text with his preface.
The story came to her in a dream. Professor Jaffe said that there is a separation between herself and the story by saying "I saw" of what was in the dream. I said I've created things that came to me in dreams and it felt more connected to a deeper part of myself.
I said Captain Walton is interesting because he is the only one in the story who is not uncontrollably terrified by the appearance of the monster.
Minor characters.
Walton is a failed poet.
There are narratives within narratives such as Walton telling of the master and the lieutenant.
Every beginning must link to what went before.
I said the Frankensteins are a weird family. The painting that oversees the home is of the dead mother Caroline mourning over her father's coffin. This is the way they want to remember her, in a relationship with death.
Victor implies that it is his father's fault that he went the wrong way as a scientist because he didn't explain why Agrippa's alchemy was a faulty study.
Victor follows beauty even in his education. He does not listen to the ugly professor's teachings but responds well to the attractive teacher.
Victor says, "Nobody could have had a happier childhood" than he did. I said it was very common for writers in that era to speak in superlatives.
The professor suggests that Victor's reference to his mother's caresses and his father's smile is a mirror moment.
Why are the beautiful parts of the monster ugly together?
The Frankenstein family members are all beautiful but it is an ugly family.
Primitive man's perception of giants. Victor describes the size of his creature more than his features. A giant is an object of fear.
"Giant", "monster", "creature". Where do words like that come from?
I talked with my presentation partner Parisa and got her to send me an email to just say hi so we would be connected and I could send her my presentation. She said she's really nervous because she's not used to speaking in public.
On the way home I was waiting at the light at Queen and Spadina when a cyclist behind me tapped hard on my backpack and told me to move to the right. There was a snowbank on my right and I ignored him. When the walk signal came on there was still no green light for vehicles. The cyclist in front of me went ahead but I waited. The guy behind me said, "Go! Why don't you go?" I said, "It's a walk signal, dummy!"
I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I got grapes and bananas.
I weighed 83.8 kilos before lunch at 15:30.
I took a siesta from 16:00 to 17:30.
I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:40.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:13.
I read through my presentation and made some changes. It's ready to go but I'll keep polishing it over the next week and maybe even try to memorize it.
I had a potato and lima beans with gravy while watching season 5, episode 14 of The Beverly Hillbillies.
In this story there is another visit from Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. I was pleasantly surprised that they did a Bob Dylan song, and it was a pretty good version of "Mama You've Been On My Mind".
They are in Beverly Hills to shoot a commercial for Foggy Mountain Soap and they introduce the Clampetts to the Commodore as he likes to be called, who is the head of the ad campaign. He wants Jed and Granny to be the faces and voices of Foggy Mountain Soap because of their back woods character and honesty.
Meanwhile Jethro is back on his Hollywood director schtick and he has Elly May dressed in a plastic mini-skirt, plastic boots, and a plastic cap, playing the role of his "Yes Girl". Whatever he says she's supposed to say, "Yes J.B.!" He shows up on the set of the commercial thinking he is the director. He's just visited the set of a Marlon Brando movie where they are wallowing in motivation and so he wants to know what the motivation is for this commercial. Someone asks him if he's out of his mind and he asks Elly, "Am I out of my mind?" She says, "Yes J.B.!" But Jethro gets sick from his cigar and is out of the way.
Jed and Granny come in to do the commercial and the Commodore reminds them that he wants honesty. Granny follows the script up until she is supposed to name the best darn soap. But in all honesty she can't praise any soap other than her own homemade lye soap and so that's what she does. The Commodore is in a daze and has to be led away.
The Commodore was played by Edward Andrews, who started stage acting at the age of 12 and was on Broadway by 21. His first movie was "Rushin Art" in 1936. By the 1950s he was one of the most recognizable character actors on television and in film. He co-starred in the film noir "The Unguarded Moment", then the movies "Hot Summer Night", "The Absent Minded Professor", "Son of Flubber", "The Young Savages", "Good Neighbour Sam", "The Glass Bottom Boat", and "How to Frame a Figg". He played Commander Roger Adrian on the short lived sitcom "Broadside". He was the star of the short-lived science fiction series "Supertrain". He appeared in a series of popular Bell Telephone commercials. The character of Tabitha on "Bewitched" was named after his daughter.
For the seventh night in a row I found no bedbugs.
On Monday morning my daughter and I both got up around 10:30 on her demand. I found her something to eat: toast with peanut butter, fruit and stuff. We played dancing and I introduced her to painting, although she'd done it at preschool, or whatever that place was that Nancy took her. We collaborated on some watercolours, and one in particular was impressive. On the orange back of the cover for George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh" album we used her choices of green, purple, and white paint to make an interesting abstract. I gave her a bath to wash the paint off and then she wanted to paint again and so we did. We didn't go out until 18:00 when I got her ready and took her back to her mother. When I got home I was very tired and went to bed at midnight.
