September 4, 1994: I was pissed off at my daughter's mother

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday I might not have had my daughter with me. My diary entry for Labour Day Monday says I was pissed off at Nancy so that would usually mean she broke a promise about making her available.

Maryesther Denver

            On Monday morning I memorized the second verse of “L’Amour à deux” (Passion for Two) by Serge Gainsbourg. There are only three verses left to learn. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the second of four sessions and I video and audio recorded the session. It didn’t take as long to get set up and I started on time but spent a tremendous amount of time trying to do a good take of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma”. I fumbled it so many times during the first three verses that when I finally made it to screw up the fifth verse I considered it a success and didn’t do any more retakes. I’ve gone through that song flawlessly many times in the last year but recently I’ve changed the chord on which each verse ends and it’s been throwing me off getting it right. I spent almost an extra hour on song practice. 

            I weighed 87.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 2. 

            I had planned on shaving and showering but the recording session cut into my time. I’ll definitely have to do it tomorrow though. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos before lunch.

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos at 17:45. That’s the most I’ve weighed in the evening since July 14. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “The Next State of Grace” I imported the street videos I shot of Brian and Sal. I edited a clip of Brian reciting “Line up and wait for the next state of grace” and inserted it into the main video. It arrived by chance synchronized with the studio audio without any need for editing. Then I made a clip of Sal singing the same line and put that after Brian’s clip on the main video timeline. I edited Brian’s part so it ends at “wait” and then tried to synchronize Sal’s part so he finishes the line, but it didn’t fit. I decided to delete Sal’s clip and then to harvest a different one, this time from earlier when he was reciting “Sit here and wait for the next state of grace”. I isolated two clips: one with him leaning on a wall and the other of him smiling. I think I’ll use the smiling clip tomorrow and try to synchronize that. 

            I uploaded the video I shot this morning and saw that my reformatting of the memory card to ExFAT worked and so this time there weren’t several ten minute files but a single one hour long file plus an additional one of sixteen minutes. In the video my position was better but the light was mostly washed out. I think I’ll try partially closing the curtain tomorrow to see if that softens the light. As for the songs I don’t think any of them so far are keepers. I got as far as “Please Don’t Quit Me Now” before the battery went to sleep. 

            Last Friday I grilled four chicken legs. I had one for dinner that night and put the rest in the freezer. Earlier today I took one of them out to thaw and saw that there was only one left in the freezer. There’s a missing chicken leg and I can’t figure out what happened. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 8, episodes 13 and 14 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Samantha and Darrin learn that a daily double pick that Darrin chose not to bet on won a bundle. Endora is because of this further disappointed in her daughter’s husband, this time for his inability to take risks. She casts a spell to cause him to want to gamble and to go to Tabitha’s room for racetrack tips. At first he tries getting Tabitha to pick his horses but she gets bored and leaves. Then the rocking horse starts talking to Darrin like a racetrack shill and offering him tips. But in order to get the information Darrin has to get on the back of the little horse and rock. He’s given two picks and he wins $800. His insistence that he has an infallible source intrigues Larry and their client Mr. Spengler, so they agree to invest $200 on Darrin’s next choice. But Samantha can tell that Endora has cast another spell on Darrin and tells her to remove it. But instead of simply canceling the spell Endora reverses the rocking horse’s advice so it’s picking losers. Darrin bets the money on Count of Valour. Samantha goes to the track to talk with Count of Valour to find out why he’s such a loser. She turns him into a man so he can speak and he explains that he loses deliberately because he thinks that the bad race horses are put out to pasture. Samantha helps him learn that slow horses are more likely sent to the glue factory. During the race Count of Valour is impossibly far behind but before the end is able to gather speed and win. 

            In the second story the Testing Committee of Witches is coming to assess Adam’s powers. The problem is that so far he hasn’t shown that he has any. His grandfather Maurice feels that a poor performance will reflect badly on him and so he infuses Adam with some of his own powers. Enchantra and Grimalda arrive in a magic Model T driven by Rasputin. They ask Adam to levitate a ball but nothing happens. Maurice says levitation is too elementary and suggests they ask him to fly. Flying is very advanced for a child of Adam’s age but with Maurice’s help he does it. Darrin is playing golf and Adam wishes him there so he appears. The Committee decides that Adam is a prodigy and so he should be taken away for special training for twenty years or so. Maurice confesses that Adam has no powers and that what he demonstrated came from him. Enchantra and Grimalda then decide that if Samantha is producing mortal children with a mortal then the marriage must be dissolved. Endora and Maurice suggest that more witchcraft be encouraged in the home so Adam can develop. Samantha tells Darrin that if a child showed a talent for playing piano it would be harmful to discourage it. Witchcraft is just another talent. Darrin seems to be okay with that. Maurice takes away his powers from Adam and then Samantha coaches Adam in a simple object levitation, with which he is successful. For a witch, that is like him taking his first steps. 

            Grimalda was played by Maryesther Denver, who played one of the illusory witches in the Star Trek episode "Catspaw". She made several guest appearances on many TV series and had supporting roles in a number of films.

September 3, 1994: My band played for the corn roast on the Mississauga farm

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday me and my band Christian and the Lions went out to play for the annual corn roast at the communal farm in Mississauga where our drummer Mike Martin was living. Everything about heading out there got going late and so I had time to make the chili. Steve Lowe came to pick me up and then we drove to get Tom Smarda. The next stop was the house where Rocky Capano lived with his elderly parents but we had to wait an hour for him to be ready. Once we were underway we had a blast singing together all the way out to Mississauga. We didn’t get to play until after 16:00, but we did two full sets with a lot of fucking around and a lot of noisy farm kids playing around the stage.

Ruth Brooks Flippen

            On Sunday morning I memorized the first verse of “Allons z'enfants” (Join the Ranks Kids) by Boris Vian. It’s a very long song and so I have thirteen verses left to learn. 

            I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “Feinting Romance”, my translation of “Amours des feintes” by Serge Gainsbourg and posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are fifteen songs left in my Gainsbourg project. I memorized the first verse of his song “L’Amour à deux” (Romance for Two). This song and I think the rest of the songs on the list only have lyrics by Gainsbourg and music by other composers. 

            I had the first session of my annual month and a half long project to video and audio record my daily song practice. It took a while to set up because, for one thing I had to remember how I did it last year. Also it was my first time recording a song practice with my new camera. I had to get the tripod set up and used a level while the spirit vial kept popping out. One nice thing about the new camera is that the view screen flips out so I can see how I look. But once one starts recording, the screen gets smaller and so I had to move back. I moved back a few times while recording and in the end was in the same position I stood last year. Another problem was that I forgot how to set up Audacity to record in stereo but I finally got it. Then the foot pedals had to be placed in a position different than where I’ve gotten used to them. I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar for the first time in a recording. There were so many distractions from the new setup that I fumbled songs in places where I usually don’t. I’ll watch the video later and see how it turned out. The first days of my annual sessions have never been keepers. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 20. 

            I had planned on doing some sanding of my bathroom door frame but the morning recording session ate up too much time. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos before lunch. That’s the most my weight has been since July 17. I had Triscuits with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemon iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 87.55 kilos at 17:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:36. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “The Next State of Grace” I looked for a clip of my penultimate repetition of “line up and wait for the next state of grace”. I harvested one from the first take of the three times I did the song on the street a couple of months ago. I inserted it into the main timeline and synchronized it with the studio audio. I converted to AVI WMV the videos I shot of Brian and Sal on the street reciting “line up and wait for the next state of grace”. Tomorrow I’ll import them into Movie Maker and make a clip from each video to insert after the previous clip of me. 

            I reviewed the video I shot this morning of my song practice. I got the distance right the third time I moved back but I think I need to move further to my right. The lighting was disappointing but maybe that’s because I’m recording two hours later in the morning than last year. It does record for longer than the Nikon Cool Pix but I’m disappointed that the Sony cuts up the files into 3.89 gigs each. I would like to have one single video to view. I looked this up and it seems that I’m getting the small files because the camera came with an SDHC card. If I want one file I need an SDXC card. Then I read that the memory card is probably formatted for FAT32 but that I can reformat it to exFAT and it will probably record in one file. I think it will record my whole song practice but we’ll see. Then I see that the battery only lasts an hour or maybe an hour and ten minutes. I do have two batteries though. The Gibson sounds pretty good at least in the camera microphone. I haven’t listened to the audio I recorded through the interface.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 8, episodes 11 and 12 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Endora appeals to Darrin to let Samantha go to her cousin Panda’s wedding. At first Darrin says maybe they can go until he learns that it’s in Hong Kong and he says it’s out of the question because of his work. Endora sees her daughter as a prisoner and plots to make Darrin’s work no longer an issue. She summons a warlock named Alonzo who is an over the top Hippy. At first he turns Endora down until she threatens to place him in an active volcano. Alonzo shows up at McMann and Tate to get a job as an adman. He casts a spell on Larry to make him love every idea he comes up with. Darrin has already designed a campaign for Monticello Carpets but now Larry wants to hear Alonzo’s ideas. Alonzo stands on his head for a while, while chanting Om, then he writes down his first idea: “Flurpity Flurp”, which he says is the sound bare feet make on a carpet. Larry loves it of course. At this point Darrin starts to think there is witchcraft involved and so he calls Samantha. She tries to summon her mother but she doesn’t respond. Alonzo’s second idea is a blank sheet. Darrin protests but Larry suggests he start his own agency. Samantha suggests he teach Larry a lesson and do just that. There happens to be a vacant office across the hall from McMann and Tate. Darrin rents the space and Samantha makes a sign for him in 24 carrot gold letters and decorates the rooms. Mr. Cushman of Monticello arrives for a meeting with Larry although he’s always preferred dealing with Darrin. Cushman hates Alonzo’s ideas. Alonzo is about to put a spell on him when Samantha intervenes. Alonzo knows there’s a witch in the room and decides to quit. Cushman goes to Darrin’s office and loves his ideas. Larry begs for Darrin to come back and he does. 

            The second story is a rehashed one from a few seasons ago. They are looking for a catlike model for the Tom Cat Tractor company and Endora finds pictures of several scantily clad young ladies in Darrin’s briefcase. She thinks it means it’s just a matter of time before he cheats and so she tries to make it happen. She summons Ophelia the cat familiar and has her change into a woman, but she charms everyone but Darrin. Mr. Burkeholder of Tom Cat doesn’t like any of the model photos but then Ophelia walks in and she is hired right away and does a very successful photo shoot. She is scheduled to appear at the convention in Albany that night but when Darrin says he’s not going she has a panic attack. She says she’s come to trust Darrin and can’t possibly do it without him. She casts a spell on Larry and Burkholder to make them think Darrin was always supposed to go to Albany. Darrin goes but plans on leaving for home at midnight. Ophelia however calls Darrin and uses a false voice to inform him that his flight has been cancelled due to fog. He calls Samantha to tell her and then Endora informs Samantha that the weather is clear in Albany and so he is lying about the fog. Samantha tells her mother that she is coming with her to Albany because she suspects her of being behind this. Ophelia comes to Darrin’s room to help her rehearse for the TV interviews, but Darrin summons Larry to come too. Ophelia puts Larry to sleep and makes advances on Darrin but he avoids her. Samantha freezes Darrin and reveals herself. Ophelia admits Endora put her up to it. Samantha tells her she can do her worst with Darrin and she won’t tempt him unless she uses magic. Darrin wakes Larry but Ophelia puts him back to sleep. Darrin suspects something strange is going on and at the first opportunity heads for the airport where there is no fog and he makes his flight. 

            Ophelia was played by the most famous TV Catwoman, Julie Newmar. 

            This story was co-written by Ruth Brooks Flippen, who was onstage in early childhood as a tap dancing toddler named Baby Ruth. She was teaching dance at the age of 11. She began writing for radio series such as Maisie Ravier and This is My Best. She wrote the screenplay for the films Three Guys Named Mike, Because You’re Mine, Everything I Have Is Yours, I Love Melvin, Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Gidget Goes to Rome, A Ticklish Affair, Sail a Crooked Ship, The Light Fantastic, Love is Better Than Ever, and Looking For Love. She wrote the pilot for the Gidget TV series. She wrote twelve episodes of That Girl and for one of them she was nominated for an Emmy). She was also nominated for an Emmy for The ABC Afternoon Playbreak. She was for a while head writer on Days of Our Lives.

September 2, 1994: I was offered work as an extra

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday the casting agency called and offered me work as an extra for next Tuesday. I turned her down because I would have to be in landlord-tenant court that day.

Billie Hayes

            On Saturday morning I started memorizing “Allons z'enfants” (Join the Ranks Kids) by Boris Vian but didn’t quite get the first verse. 

            I uploaded “Amours des feintes” (Feinting Romance) by Serge Gainsbourg to my Christian’s Translations blog and started preparing it for publication. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the second of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll start a four session stretch of playing my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. I think I’ll also start recording on Sunday and so I’d better recharge my guitar pick-up battery. 

            I weighed 87 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I hooked up my bike trailer and headed for the supermarket. On the way I stopped at Freedom Mobile to pay for my September phone plan. At No Frills the grapes were all too soft and so I didn’t bother to do a price match with Freshco. Instead I got two watermelons and a basket of peaches. I also bought a pack of raspberries, bananas, two T-bone steaks, a microfibre cloth, scouring sponges, Irish Spring soap, Basilica sauce, Triscuits, Arm and Hammer toothpaste, a jug of orange juice, a jug of lemon iced tea, two containers of skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s sweet chili chips. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “The Next State of Grace” I imported the video I shot of Minh on the street. I made a clip of his last repetition of “Line up and wait for the next state of grace” and inserted it into the main video to sync it with the part of the studio audio where Brian Haddon first sings that line. Then I converted to AVI WMV the video I’d shot on the street of David, the guy who sits with a begging bowl in front of my place. I imported it into Movie Maker and made a clip of him singing the same line as Minh. Then I inserted that into the main video and edited Minh’s part so he’s only mouthing “Line up and wait for”. Then I cut out the beginning of David’s line so he’s finishing Minh’s part with “the next state of grace”. Next I’ll harvest another clip from the video I shot on the street of me singing “Line up and wait for the next state of grace”. That will be followed by two more clips of people I’ve video recorded on the street singing the same line as Minh and David. That will lead to one last extended retention of the line by me to end the song. Preferably the last part will come from the old concert video if I can sync it to the studio audio. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 8, episodes 9 and 10 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Endora visits and discovers that Samantha has lost her powers. Dr. Bombay finds her to be perfectly healthy and concludes that her deficit is the result of her marriage to a mortal. For Darrin’s protection Samantha doesn’t want her father Maurice to find out, but he does. In his anger he decides to turn Darrin into a leaping lizard but his spell does not work because he has also lost his powers. Dr. Bombay appears to reveal that his first diagnosis was a mistake and that Samantha and now Maurice have contracted perimaridictivitis. He says Maurice caught it when he kissed Samantha. But losing his powers does not seem to have phased Maurice one bit. While waiting for the cure to me prepared, which could take anything from minutes to years, he treats it as one more adventure in his long life. He’s decided to accompany Darrin to his office and see what he does for a living. Darrin says he can’t come but Maurice puts the point of a sword to Darrin’s neck and so Darrin invites him to accompany him to the office. Maurice is very gallant towards Darrin’s secretary Betty, kissing her hand and complimenting her. The campaign that Darrin and Larry are working on is for Benson’s Chili Con Carne. Maurice doesn’t know what chili is but he is surprised that neither Darrin nor Larry have tasted it. They say it’s not necessary. Meanwhile Bombay appears before Samantha and Endora with the prescription but he says the apothecary insists that Samantha come to him personally to be examined before filling it because he doesn’t trust Bombay’s diagnoses. The old apothecary confirms Bombay’s diagnosis but says it’s only the second time he’s been right this year. The warlock druggist begins chasing Samantha around the store and finally traps her on his lap, demanding a kiss before he gives her the cure. She kisses him on the nose and he’s happy with that. Back at the office Darrin and Larry are pitching their ad ideas to Mr. Benson but he doesn’t like any of them. Then Maurice walks in the room and shakes Benson’s hand, congratulating him on his delicious chili. Samantha arrives with the cure for the magic-canceling affliction but Maurice tells her he wants to share his ideas with Mr. Benson first. Maurice recites some poetry and Benson recognizes it as Robert Browning but Maurice says Browning got it from him. Maurice paints a verbal picture of a sophisticated and wealthy man with a gourmet feast before him, but says to his butler, “Take away the caviar and bring me Benson’s Chili Con Carne”. Maurice advises that if one strikes a man in his ego one touches home. Benson loves the idea. 

            In the second story Samantha is reading Hansel and Gretel to Tabitha and Adam but has to stop in the middle to get ready for a dinner party she and Darrin are having with Larry and Louise as guests. Tabitha can read now so her mother invites her to continue reading the story to Adam. Tabitha talks to Hansel and Gretel in the book and finds out they are hungry so she brings them out of the book and they appear in her bedroom. A plate of cheese puffs that Samantha made for her guests disappears and Tabitha feeds them to Hansel and Gretel. Tabitha asks if they’d like to spend the night but they say their father wouldn’t allow it. Tabitha goes into the book to ask their father’s permission while at the same time causing the leg of lamb Samantha is preparing to float out of the oven. Samantha follows it up the stairs and discovers what is going on. She puts herself inside the book to retrieve Tabitha. While searching she comes across the wicked witch’s gingerbread house. The witch is well aware that she is part of a story but tells Samantha that she doesn’t belong there and for her to leave. After Samantha goes away we see inside the witch’s house and behind a curtain she has Tabitha in a cage. Back in the real world Hansel and Gretel go downstairs, chat with Larry and Louise, then leave the house to look for food. Samantha finds the house of the woodcutter and talks to his wife who wonders why she believed the wicked witch when she said she hadn’t seen Tabitha. Samantha goes back to the witch’s house. The witch tells her to take off and threatens her but Samantha turns her into a good fairy all in white and disgusts her. She confesses that she has Tabitha in her “guest room”. Samantha transports her and Tabitha out of the book where she discovers Hansel and Gretel are missing. Soon however two cops show up with the storybook children because they caught them stealing ice cream from a street vendor. Samantha gives the cops a fake address to take Hansel and Gretel to and once they are outside transports them back into the book. 

            The wicked witch was played by Billie Hayes, who started performing in nightclubs as a tap dancer at the age of 9. In her teens she was part of a touring orchestra and when she got to Chicago she formed a solo singing and dancing act. Then she joined a New York revue. On Broadway she joined the cast of New Faces of 1956, which ran for 220 performances. She played Mammy Yokum in the 1959 film version of Li’l Abner. Her first TV role was a guest appearance on The Monkees. She was cast as Witchiepoo on the TV series H.R. Pufnstuf. She later co-starred as Weenie the Genie in the series Lidsville. She was the president of the animal rescue organization Pet Hope.

September 1, 1994: I found out too late that I was supposed to be in court

Thirty years ago today 

            On Thursday I found out too late that I was supposed to be in Landlord-Tenant court. But I also learned that it was just carried over until next Tuesday.