September 4, 1995: I performed at the Café Sopra Sotto

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday evening I performed on Jill Ann Maybe’s open stage at the Café Sopra Sotto.

Anthony George

            On Tuesday morning I worked out the chords for the first verse of “L'araignée du soir” (The Spider of Night) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished editing “Une Fille à la mer” (Woman Overboard) by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and published it. Then I posted my translation, “Sailor Overboard” on Facebook. Tomorrow I’ll search for the lyrics for the 1971 Gainsbourg song “Paris d’papa” or use a transcription app to get the lyrics from the YouTube audio. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice but first had to change the high E string I broke last time and had forgotten about. The lightest string I had was an 11 but that's the same gage as my B string. I had no choice but to use it.  

            I weighed 87.15 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 25. 

            Around midday I prepared to continue applying the third and final coat of primer to my ceiling and upper walls. I went out to the deck to get the stepladder and my next door neighbour Benji had unlocked the padlock that chains the big ladder to the railing and then used the chain to lock the stepladder to the big ladder. What an asshole! Just because he doesn’t like the sound of the stepladder in the early afternoon when he’s trying to take his nap. This isn’t a seniors home. I take a siesta in the afternoon too but I don’t expect the world around me to be quiet while I’m doing so. I was able to stand on the bathroom sink and paint the southeast corner of the ceiling and the upper walls. Then I put a chair in the bathtub with a milk crate on top and placed the paint tray on a stool nearby. I climbed up onto that precarious structure and almost fell a few times but I managed to paint the northwest corner of the ceiling and upper walls. When I was done I realized that when I paint on Wednesday I will be much more secure if I put my concrete block on the chair and stand on that. Tomorrow I’ll be able to finish the ceiling and upper walls and start painting the parts of the walls I only need the chair to reach and maybe even some of the lower walls. I think I might need to buy my own stepladder though for when I want to carefully apply the painter’s tape before colouring the ceiling. 

            I weighed 87.95 kilos before lunch. August 3 was the last time I tipped the scales that much in the early afternoon. 

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

            I weighed 87.25 kilos at 17:40. 

            I was behind on my journal and so I worked to get caught up. 

            I meant to start grilling four chicken legs at 19:00 but I forgot until 19:50 and so I had to have a later dinner. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 20:35. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Paranoiac Utopia” I continued to edit the video that I shot on August 22. I cut out most of my trip west on the north sidewalk of Queen and then covered the trip west on the south side from Dunn to the Sun Fa tavern, only keeping the footage of street people. When I stopped for supper there were about 19 minutes left in what was originally a 63 minute video. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching episode 3 of Checkmate. 

            At a frat party Roddy Stevenson’s friend Eddy askes if he can give his girlfriend Judy a ride in his new car. But when they’re approaching the vehicle Eddy sees two men stealing it. He runs towards them but they speed towards him, hit him and drive away. Eddy dies and Roddy says he saw the guys as they passed. The next day when Dr. Hyatt gets the news he is concerned because Roddy is one of his Criminology students. he’s brilliant but also highly emotional and Hyatt is worries Roddy might be bent on revenge. He asks Don and Jed of Checkmate to watch him. Jed attends Hyatt’s class and Roddy is indeed feeling emotional. Roddy is asked to go to the police to identify two men they have in custody. He confirms that those are the men who stole his car. But Lieutenant Brand tells him those men are just chicken feed and the real killer is Larry Forbes, their boss. He owns a chain of warehouses but he’s also a big time fence. Roddy says he should be killed in the gas chamber. Don realizes that Roddy is going to try to be a vigilante. Roddy has two frat brothers who seem to do whatever he tells them and he wants to see the Forbes warehouse. He tells them he wants to create his own gas chamber for Forbes with cyanide pellets and potassium sulphate to create hydrocyanic acid. Roddy goes to talk with Forbes and tells him he has six cases. Forbes tells him he needs a closet and not a warehouse. Roddy says he doesn’t want to store them but to sell them. He tells Forbes they are cases of steroids and quite valuable at $1400 a case (so the six cases would be worth $100,000 now). he wants to sell the cases to Forbes at one third wholesale. Forbes sees their frat pins and thinks this is some kind of initiation gag. Forbes tells Roddy to stick to the books because crime doesn’t pay. Roddy asks, “Doesn’t it?” Forbes has one of his men follow Roddy because he knows Roddy is of the same fraternity as the kid that died. Jed has also been following Roddy as he carries a package from the chemistry lab and buys safety belts from the Army Navy Store. Roddy and his friends steal the steroids from Roddy’s father’s company, National Pharmaceuticals while Forbes’s man watches and reports to him. The theft looks impressive because he doesn’t realize Roddy is the owner’s son. Roddy brings the cases to Forbes and again offers to sell them. Forbes reminds him that he can store them but he’s not in the business of buying stolen merchandize. Roddy tells him he can also sell him a box of diamonds. Forbes says, “You’re quite a boy!” Then Forbes learns who Roddy is and decides he’s going to have an accident. Roddy catches Don searching his dorm room and looking at the things he purchased. Roddy calmly tells him what he plans to do to Forbes. Don tells him it’s really his negligent father he wants to punish. Roddy says he used to but he’s worked through all that. He says, “I’m the best adjusted psychotic in this whole fraternity house”. He assures Don he’ll give up his plan of vengeance. Forbes calls Roddy about the diamonds and Roddy takes him for a ride in his sports car while Don follows. Roddy starts driving very fast and tells Forbes he didn’t think he’d fall for it. Forbes pulls a gun but Roddy calmly tells him he’s going to do the killing. They’re driving in the mountains at high speeds on winding roads with long drops off the road. Roddy says if he shoots him he won’t be able to get control of the car in time. Then he screeches to a sudden stop in a playground and knocks Forbes out when he lurches forward. Roddy’s friends are there and they tie Forbes up. They suspend Forbes head down on a child’s slide and Roddy sets up the chemicals at the bottom. A cyanide pellet is suspended on a string over a bucket of potassium sulphate. Some acid is used to slowly eat through the string in two minutes. Roddy’s friend Tumbler will slowly lower Forbes down the slide. Roddy gives him two minutes to confess with the tape recorder on. In the last few seconds Forbes confesses. Don arrives and says that he’s learned the cyanide tablets are fakes and Roddy had no intention of killing Forbes. 

            Don Corey is played by Anthony George, who started with small roles in movies and on TV. His film debut was in Black Hand in 1950. He co-starred in Gunfire at Indian Gap. He found shooting films nerve-wracking and had a nervous breakdown. Television was more his pace. He played Cam Allison on The Untouchables. Then he got the starring role on Checkmate. he played Burke Devlin and Jeremiah Collin on 49 episodes of Dark Shadows. He played Tony Vincente on Search for Tomorrow and Will Vernon on One Life to Live. His longtime partner was Earl Holliman. I went to bed without updating my journal. It’s harder when I watch a 45 minute show instead of a half hour show.

September 3, 1995: It rained and so we played inside

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday it rained and so my daughter and I might have played inside.

Inger Stevens

            On Labour Day my left arm was more in pain than lately but I could still stretch as far as before.

            I worked out the chords for the intro and the first line of “L'araignée du soir” (The Spider of Night) by Boris Vian. 

            I translated the final verse of “Une Fille à la mer” (Woman Overboard) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing the song in English. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and started preparing it for publication. I should have it done tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the last of four sessions and it went out of tune a little too often. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I put my camera on the tripod so I could take photos of the pages of the first issue of Orgasmagazine, which I published 30 years ago on September 5.

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 87.5 kilos at 18:10, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since August 15. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:35. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Paranoiac Utopia” I continued to edit the video that I shot on August 22. I cut out most of my trip east on the south sidewalk of Queen and only kept the footage of street people. There are about 25 minutes left. 

            In my “Élisa (Gibson)” Movie Maker project I cut out all the songs that come before “Élisa”, but didn’t check to see if that’s the final take. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last four pork ribs while watching episode 2 of Checkmate.

            Frank and Betty Lyons are newlyweds on their honeymoon in a hotel in San Francisco. Betty is an heiress and her wealthy grandmother does not approve of Frank’s financial status so they are keeping their wedding a secret. A waiter is in the other room with the lights off and he steals some letters that are in a box. Later the phone rings and the couple find it odd because no one knows they are there as they have eloped. The person at the other end says he is Bill Adams, who served with Frank during the Korean Police Action. Frank doesn’t recognize Bill’s voice but accepts that it’s been a long time since he’s heard it. Frank had sent him a letter telling him he would be in San Francisco. Bill wants to talk about a business deal that he mentioned in a letter and so Frank reluctantly agrees to leave Betty for a few minutes to meet Bill in the hotel bar. Betty wakes up in the middle of the night to realize Frank never returned. She tries to reach Bill Adams’s room but finds there is no Adams staying at the hotel. The next day she calls the Checkmate detective agency on the manager’s recommendation. Don Corey comes to see her and asks her for her husband’s address book. They find Bill Adams in San Diego and learn he’s not the one who called Frank. Betty checks for Frank’s letters and finds they are gone. When Don hears about the waiter he goes to check with management. While he is gone a letter is slipped under Betty’s door warning her not to call the police or Frank will be killed. Betty meets Don in the lobby and she tells him she no longer requires his services. He deduces that someone contacted her and gets her to show him the note. Don’s partner Jed tells Don that he’s learned that last night someone who appeared drunk was taken out of the hotel by a bellhop and a cab pulled up right away for him to be put inside. While Don and Jed are talking, a man speaks to Betty from around a corner and tells her he can take her to Frank. She slips away from Don and Jed and is taken to a house outside of town that looks like the Psycho house. She sees Frank’s coat and runs to him but it’s someone else wearing it. He is Abner Benson, a convicted murderer who escaped from prison and now wants to get out of the country. Frank is brought out in a bathrobe. Benson plans to pose as Frank and use his passport to go to Hong Kong, which is where Frank and Betty were planning to travel. In this scenario he supposedly looks enough like Frank to pull it off but Betty has to come with him and pretend he is Frank. As Frank’s life is still under threat, Betty agrees. She is told that if she calls the police and Benson does not call the house every hour, Frank will be killed. Meanwhile Checkmate associate and Criminologist Dr. Hyatt is analyzing the handwriting of the note that was slipped to Betty. Don learns that Betty has returned to the hotel with her husband. Don goes to see Betty and meets the fake Frank. Benson claims he was the victim of a kidnapping but escaped. He says he’ll call the police shortly but when Don checks with the police later he never did. Hyatt is disappointed with how Don handled his inquiries when he talked with Frank. So Don says they can go talk with him now since they are supposed to fly for Hong Kong tonight. Hyatt tells “Frank” and Betty about his handwriting analysis skills which could be useful in tracking down the kidnapper. He has Betty write “Mary had a little lamb” and determines correctly that she has musical talent and that she is very agitated. He gets “Frank” to describe the man who wrote the note and it doesn’t fit with Hyatt’s assessment. He tells Don later the man is lying. He says anyone can tell that the note writer is right handed but “Frank” said he was left handed. They start to think that maybe “Fran’ is not Frank and that Betty’s agitation is terror. They go to the police and find Benson’s mug shot. Don and Hyatt decide to use Jed to pose as Bill Adams, since neither Betty or Benson have ever seen him. Jed comes to see Frank and Benson says he’s an old friend of Frank’s and they’ll take him to where he is. They drive to the house and in a cigarette package Jed is carrying a transmitter that emits a signal that Don and Hyatt are following. Jed is tied up at the house. Benson leaves his girlfriend Tina and one henchman behind to watch and eventually kill Frank and Jed while he leaves for the airport with Betty, who he also plans to kill after they get to Hong Kong. Don lures the henchman out of the house with a noise and knocks him out. He goes in the back and Hyatt goes in the front. Don calls the police and has them intercept Benson at the airport, bringing Betty back to Frank. 

            Betty was played by Inger Stevens, who came to the US from Sweden at the age of 10. At 15 she ran away from home and became a burlesque dancer. She returned home, graduated, then became a model and a chorus girl while studying at the Actors Studio. She did summer stock theatre and TV commercials. She made her film debut at 22 with a co-starring role in Man On Fire. She co-starred in Cry Terror, The World the Flesh and the Devil, A Guide for the Married Man, Hang ‘em High, Madigan, Firecreek, 5 Card Stud, House of Cards, A Dream of Kings, She became lovers with Bing Crosby (he wanted to marry her but she refused to convert to Catholicism), James Mason, Anthony Quinn, Dean Martin, Burt Reynolds, and Harry Belafonte. She attempted suicide on New years Day of 1959. She was nominated for an Emmy for a performance on the Dick Powell Show in 1962. In 1963 she starred for three seasons in the sitcom The Farmer’s Daughter. In 1970 she died of acute barbiturate intoxication.

September 2, 1995: I spent the day with my daughter

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I spent the day with my daughter.

Doug McClure

            On Sunday morning I finished transcribing the chords for “L'araignée du soir” (The Spider of Night) by Boris Vian that I found on Boite a chanson (Song Box). I searched for more but none have been posted and so tomorrow I’ll start working them out. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Une Fille à la mer” (Woman Overboard) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing the song in French. Tomorrow I’ll translate the last verse and then run through the song in English. I’ll probably have time to upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog and start preparing it for publication. 

            I played my Martin guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions and the B string went out of tune a little too much. 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I brought in the stepladder and started applying the third and final coat of primer to my ceiling and upper walls. I got the northeast corner done and some of the southeast corner. About halfway through, my next door neighbour Benji started banging and swearing. When I was carrying the stepladder through the hall to return it to the deck he was standing there glaring at me while holding a broom handle. He said he sleeps at that time every day and I was disturbing him. I doubt if the noise of the brush and roller on the wall is loud so I guess it was the sound of the ladder, which I moved about three times in 45 minutes, making probably a total one minute of noise. I told him I’m not trying to disturb him but I have to paint. He said I’m not supposed to paint because that’s the landlord’s job. Somehow he must think the landlord would do it silently. He threatened me with the stick several times and swung and poked it towards me. He told me he could take me out. I asked, “With a stick?” he said, “Any way!” I told him, “Okay, drop the stick”. So he dropped it and I walked towards him, not intending violence but just to see what he would do. As I approached he immediately picked up the stick again and then continued to tell me how he could take me out any way. He called me some cute names like “Skunk Mother”, which feels more like a cartoon character than an insult. Later I offered him some ear plugs but he didn’t want them. I suggested that he chant Hare Krsna, but he said he wasn’t a Hare Krsna. I’d always thought he was because as far as I know the only book he’s ever read is by Prabhupada, the guy that started the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, more popularly known as “The Hare Krsnas” and he was always quoting it as gospel. I think Benji has lost his mind. He should at least be in a quiet care facility for seniors. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 86.35 kilos at 17:55. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:06. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Paranoiac Utopia” I continued to edit the video that I shot on August 22. I cut out most of my trip west on the north sidewalk of Queen and only kept the footage of street people. There are about 29 minutes left. 

            In my “Élisa (Gibson)” Movie Maker project I synchronized the audio with the video. Then I began cutting out all the songs that come before “Élisa”. I had most of them done by suppertime. 

            I made pizza on multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, spicy pepperoni, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the series premier of Checkmate. 

            A wealthy rancher is riding her horse alone when her men hear a shot and come running. She says someone hidden in the trees fired at her. She goes to the Checkmate detective agency and says someone is trying to kill her. She claims that in addition to the gunshot, someone also tampered with her car. She insists that Don Corey the senior partner take her case personally but he says he is busy with another case. He tells her Jed Sills and Dr. Carl Hyatt will handle it or she can go to another agency and she reluctantly gives in. They go to the scene of the gunshot and Hyatt digs the bullet out of a tree, after first measuring how far it went in. He says the bullet is from a Paroda (I can’t find a reference to such a gun). She says the only person she knows who owns that make of gun is herself. They find her study ransacked and the gun case smashed. Hyatt finds it curious that only certain items have been destroyed. She says someone deliberately broke everything that meant anything to her. Jed has a plan to try to trap the potential killer. Beatrice gives all her hands the day off and Jed and Hyatt pretend to drive away, leaving Beatrice alone. Jed doubles back and makes Beatrice’s bed look like she is in it and has her sleep in the guest room. That night Jed hears something in the stable and goes out to check. He jumps someone and it’s Beatrice’s foreman and apparently former but brief lover, Charlie. Hyatt shows up with a gun and Charlie says he was just there to check on Beatrice. They hear a scream and run to the house to find that a knife has been driven into the shape under Beatrice’s covers. She considers this a failure on Jed’s part and insists that Corey take her case. He reluctantly gives in. Both Jed and Hyatt go home but later each has a realization about the case. Meanwhile Corey is at the ranch and Beatrice tells him about the one man worthy of her that she met after her husband died. He killed his wife and it was Corey that figured out the case and brought him to justice. Now Beatrice intends on killing Corey for causing her to be alone. She takes him out to the stables at gunpoint and releases her wild stallion, which she’s refused to break. She’s in the loft firing her gun to keep Corey in the barn. Jed and Hyatt arrive and Jed gets in by way of the hay loft, taking the gun away from Beatrice. She falls and the stallion tramples her. 

            Jed was played by Doug McClure, who played Trampas on The Virginian for all 249 episodes. He starred in The King’s Pirate, The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth’s Core, and Warlords of Atlantis. He co-starred in Shenandoah and The People That Time Forgot. He co-starred in the sitcom Out of This World. The character of Troy McClure on the Simpsons was half inspired by him. He said because of that his kids started calling him “Troy”.

September 1, 1995: I worked on the first issue of Orgasmagazine

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I continued to work on getting the first issue of Orgasmagazine ready for its launch on Tuesday.