October 22, 1993: Spirit and I made love

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I worked at Central Technical School all day and then I picked up my cheque at the Ontario College of Art. While I was there I ran into Spirit and she told me to call her in the evening. I phoned her after 22:00 and she told me to come over. We watched Little Shop of Horrors, talked for a while and then finally had sex. It was weird making love to someone with misshapen and shortened legs, but it was also pleasant because she was beautiful and full of character and strength of will. I was tired though and my penis didn’t stay erect.

Howard Merrill

            On Friday morning I finished working out the chords for “Le moi et le je” (The Me and the I) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song in French and English. During the latter I made adjustments to my translation. On Saturday I’ll upload it to Christian’s Translations, edit the chord placements and I might even have time to publish it in the blog. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first session of four. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I decided that today would be the day I would glue the Masonite that I bought a couple of weeks ago to the kitchen floor in front of the counter and under the stove. I only needed one tube of the construction glue, which I applied with the new caulking gun. Then I grabbed everything heavy that I could find and put the things on top. The stove was easy since it’s where it’s supposed to be. I used my little metal; filing cabinet, my little wooden cabinet with the broken marble top, my concrete block, all my dumbbells, all my records and one shelf of books. Hopefully that’s enough weight. I have to stand on all that stuff to prepare food. It’s amazing how much stuff gets fumbled and dropped when you grab it from an angle that’s unfamiliar. 

            I checked on the U of T course enrollment site and saw that on the waiting list for the Creative Writing course in January I’ve dropped down to number 5. When I enrolled in July I was number 10. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I chiseled some black quartz from a piece of the rock that I found six years ago. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 17:30, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening in sixteen days. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:14. 

            I opened my August 11, 2023 Song Practice project in Audacity and listened to “Le temps des yé-yé”. There was no traffic noise picked up by my microphone. I listened to my Sound Recording file of the same date and there was heavy reverb that I’d applied for my song “Megaphor”, so I replaced that file with the current Audacity file. That means I don’t need to choose the August 27 video and audio to synchronize because August 11 won’t have traffic noise if I don’t lean too heavily on the camera microphone recording. 

            I compared my August 14 electric performance of “Time of the Yo-Yo” with August 20. August 14 has much better light and I think I play it better too. I compared August 24 with August 14 and I like August 14 better, mostly because it has much better lighting. There are three more to compare. I should have the winner selected on Saturday and then start comparing the electric performances of “Le temps des yé-yé” that I highlighted. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for my studio recording of “Megaphor” I managed to synchronize the concert video with the studio recording for my line, “an invisible thread…” but then it goes out of synch for the rest of the line, “…spirals endlessly inward to…”. I decided I’ll just cut out the video there and add images of flying gods from various cultures. I found one so far, which is Anteros the winged god of requited love. 

            I had a potato with the last of my gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 1, episodes 30 and 31 of Green Acres. 

            In the first story Mr. Haney is suing Oliver for $350. In the flashbacks, after a drought of two and a half months Haney offers Oliver the services of a First Nations rainmaker. An amused Oliver says he’ll give him the money if he makes it rain but when the man does his dance nothing happens. Haney fires him. Meanwhile there is a sunflower growing near the Douglas house and Lisa has named it Rudolph. She says that in Hungary if a sunflower is growing next to your house and you are nice to it you can ask it to make it rain and it will. The rainmaker comes looking for work and Lisa hires him, telling him to find something to do. Oliver catches him washing the car during a drought and he stops him, but suddenly it rains. The judge agrees with Oliver that the whole thing is ridiculous and dismisses the case. 

            The story was co-written by Howard Merrill, who started acting at the age of three and had been in 58 silent films by the age of eleven. He had been on 487 radio broadcasts by the age of 14 and was in the Guinness Book of World Records for these achievements. In his teens he had a syndicated newspaper column called This Minute. He wrote many radio scripts and scripts for early TV programs like “You Are There” and “Newsweek Views the News”. He co-created the game show I’ve Got a Secret which ran from 1952 to 1967. He produced the 1958 Broadway musical “Oh Captain”. He wrote episodes of many popular sitcoms. 

            In the second story Lisa is the chair of the culture committee of the every second Wednesday discussion group. She convinces the ladies that what Hooterville needs is a symphony orchestra. Oliver tries to inform them that a symphony needs at least a hundred musicians but it falls on deaf ears. Lisa calls Sir Jeffrey, who she met during her and Oliver’s honeymoon in Monte Carlo. He had told her that he was in the business of developing orchestras. She asks him to come to “Hootersville” to build a symphony and he assumes from the obscure sounding name that Hootersville is an artists colony. When Sir Jeffrey arrives Oliver tries to warn him that he’s wasting his time. The community drew lots and so Sir Jeffrey will be staying at the Ziffel home in the bedroom of Arnold the Pig. The only musicians in town are the ragtag members of the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Band and the only member who can read music is Ralph Monroe the cymbal player. Sir Jeffrey says they will start with Brahms Lullaby. Haney asks who wrote it. But the band plays the only song they know which is a very slow version of “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”. He asks Ralph to hum the melody of Brahms Lullabye and she does so and then he tells the band to play it but they repeat “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”. Sir Jeffrey begins to cry and leaves town.

October 21, 1993: When I asked Diana Dufretes if she was sexually attracted to me she told me she obviously wasn't

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday morning I posed at the Avondale Alternative Secondary School. After work I called Tom Smarda and we met to practice for my November 1 show at Crickets. That night I went to Mudds Cabaret. Cassis gave a performance art exhibition in which she slowly covered a naked man in a body cast. I read on the open stage. Diana Dufretes was there and we left together with her friends. As we were walking I asked her if she was sexually attracted to me. She said she wasn’t and told me that it should be obvious when a woman is attracted to someone. Then we had a long, seemingly unrelated argument.

Future Memories of Parkdale

            On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for all but the final line of “Le moi et le je” (The Me and the I) by Serge Gainsbourg. I’ll have that done on Friday and I’ll upload it to Christian’s Translations to prepare it for publication on the blog. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. On Friday I’ll begin a four session stretch with my Kramer electric guitar. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            I finished cutting the Masonite and then swept the floor where I plan to glue it down. I might try it on Friday. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been at midday in ten days. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and on the way back I stopped at Freshco. All the grapes were too soft and so I bought two bags of grapefruits and a bag of oranges instead. I also got two packs of raspberries, two packs of blackberries, bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a jug of orange juice, a jug of limeade, Full City Dark coffee, and shaving gel. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:43. 

            I compared the videos of my acoustic song practice performances of “Le temps des yé-yé” on August 9 and 11. They both have a lot of traffic noise but I think August 11 is better. I compared August 15 to August 11 and August 15 has bad light, plus it’s not as good in expression and sound. I compared August 27 to August 11 and August 27 is very good and quiet in terms of traffic noise but I still prefer the look of August 11. If it comes down to these two, which one I choose will depend on whether I can remove the traffic noise from August 11. I compared August 31 to August 11 and 27. August 31 is similar to August 27 but I think August 27 is a little better. I compared September 6 to August 11. They are close but I still think I prefer August 11. I compared September 10 to August 11 and August 11 is definitely better. Tomorrow I’ll open the August 11 Audacity project and see if I can get rid of the traffic noise. 

            In the Movie Maker project to make a video for the studio audio of my song "Megaphor" I finished editing the train track bondage scenes of the silent films Race for a Life and Teddy at the Throttle. I inserted into the main video the clips of Mabel Normand being chained to the tracks in Race for a Life followed by the train bearing down on Gloria Swanson in Teddy at the Throttle. Then I deleted about four seconds of the concert video until it was synchronized with the studio audio for the half line, “But from beyond that orbit…” But then it goes out of synch for the rest of the line, “an invisible thread”. Since the concert video is slightly behind I might only need to remove a little bit from the concert video to line them up again. I’ll work on that on Friday. 

            I cleaned and scanned another strip of uncut colour negatives. These were all street shots, mostly of people but I didn’t recognize the neighbourhood. Maybe I’ll see it better when I upload the shots to my computer. I did that later and saw that a lot of the shots were taken just across the street with my current place in view. The bench in the photo is one where I wrote hundreds of poems back in the late 80s. 

            I grilled three chicken legs and had one with a potato and gravy while watching season 1, episodes 28 and 29 of Green Acres. 

            In the first story Eb shows a talent for nursing animals back to health. It’s decided that he would make a good veterinarian and so Oliver and Lisa decide to pay his way. A big deal is made of him going away to the county college. But a few hours later he returns because it turns out that he never went to high school and so he can’t go to college until he does that. 

            In the second story Oliver is hoeing in the field when a white horse with black spots comes up and nudges him. It follows him back to the house but when he tries to show it to Lisa it isn’t there. This happens several times and Lisa thinks Oliver is under so much stress that he’s seeing things. Doc Stuart comes and prescribes a sedative. He gives her some pills to give him before bedtime. That night she pours two glasses of milk and puts a pill in one of them. But then she forgets which glass she put the pill in. She drinks some from each one to see but can’t tell and so she plays it safe and puts a pill in each glass. Eb asks if Oliver will be able to taste it and Lisa tries some from each glass. In bed Lisa conks out and Oliver knows why. Then he sees a zebra looking at him through the window and decides to drink the milk after all. The next day Oliver sees a camel and Hank Kimball sees a chimpanzee. It turns out that the animals escaped from a circus.

October 20, 1993: I was on time to work at Central Tech

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday morning I made it to work at the Central Technical School on time and posed until 11:30. I went home for a while and then I went back downtown to work for the Ontario College of Art at the Stewart Building from 16:00 to 22:00.

Stuart Erwin

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the ninth verse of "C'était une pauv' gosse des rues" (She Was a Poor Child of the Street) by Boris Vian. There are two verses left to learn. 

            I searched for more chords for “Le moi et le je” (The Me and the I) by Serge Gainsbourg but the only ones posted were the ones from Ultimate Guitar that I found on Tuesday. I started working them out and what I’m hearing doesn’t correspond to what I found online. I worked them out for the first two lines, which may just repeat through the whole song. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first session of two. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning in eleven days. Around midday I went over to the Queen Fresh Market to get some grapes and raspberries. The grapes were extremely expensive. I went to the liquor store to buy a six-pack of Creemore and I only had $15 in bills. I had to pay the rest in $4.50 of quarters. I would have been able to pay all in bills if I hadn’t broken a $10 at the laundromat yesterday. 

            Since I wasn’t able to get the guy renovating unit 5 to cut my Masonite, I used a box cutter. I got most of the way through in some parts and I’ll probably get it all cut on Thursday. 

            I weighed 86 kilos before lunch. I had Cheez-it crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            I took a siesta at 14:00 and when I got up I took a bike ride downtown and back. When I got home it was 16:15. I’d thought it was 16:00 when I left and so obviously I mistakenly got up from my siesta an hour early. When I realized that, I went back to bed until 16:50 but didn’t sleep. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos at 17:00. 

            I spent half an hour on the deck chiseling black quartz from a piece of the rock that I found five years ago. 

            I got an email from Albert Moritz saying he’d be sending my Masters Degree program recommendation letter on the weekend. I had also asked him about Ekstasis Editions, where I sent my manuscript four months ago. They say it takes three months to make a decision. That time passed and I sent a reminder last month but got no response. Albert says he’ll write to them but meanwhile I should look into the next publisher on the list. That would be either Black Moss or Guernica. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:53. 

            I compared my August 6 acoustic song practice performance of “Time of the Yo-Yo” with the one from August 16. They are both pretty good but August 6 looks better and is a little more expressive. I compared August 26 to August 6 and although August 26 is quieter in terms of traffic noise I still like the look of August 6. I compared September 1 to August 6 and I definitely think August 6 is better. I compared September 11 to August 6 and I still prefer August 6 and so that’s the acoustic version of “Time of the Yo-Yo” I’ll synch with the audio and upload. Next I’ll compare the seven acoustic versions of “Le temps des yé-yé” that I noted as being the best. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Megaphor” I edited the train track bondage scenes from the silent films Race for a Life and Teddy at the Throttle down from two and a half minutes to about twenty seconds. I only need a quarter of that. I plan on mixing the two films so the tying to the tracks scenes from both movies are together. Then I’ll switch back and forth between Mabel Norman and Gloria Swanson where they are tied and switch back and forth from the two victims to the oncoming train. 

            I grilled two ground sirloin burgers and had one on a toasted slice of seven grain bread with sweet chili sauce, Dijon, horse radish and dill pickle slices. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 26 and 27 of Green Acres. 

            In the first story Oliver hears Eb singing a folk song and tells him that when he was in college he used to travel around collecting folk songs and also local legends out of which he’d make his own ballads. Eb says maybe he could write a song about that thing that happened around Hooterville over a hundred years ago involving a woman named…” Eb hesitates and looks around before saying “Molly Turgis”. Suddenly a lantern falls from its hook. Eb refuses to repeat the name and runs away. Oliver is now curious and keeps repeating the name but when he does so things either fly through the air or fall apart. He mentions the name to Sam Drucker and his pickle barrel explodes. Sam and the other locals just refer to “You know who”. Oliver and Lisa have invited Fred and Doris Ziffel to dinner. Oliver sings and plays guitar for everybody and he’s not bad. The next morning Oliver is shaving and working out a song about Molly Turgis. When he mentions the name he sees a wrinkled, green, and ugly old woman in the mirror. Mr. Haney comes by and when Oliver mentions Molly Turgis, suddenly Haney’s truck starts and drives away by itself. Haney says she always drives his truck to Pixley and parks it in front of a fire hydrant. Then Hank Kimble comes and he’s okay with talking about Molly because it will take her an hour to walk back from Pixley. He tells the story of how Molly was so ugly that no one would be her friend and so she eventually left town. She promised though that when she died she would haunt anyone that mentioned her name. That night Lisa calls Molly’s name and she appears in the mirror. She tells her how sorry she is what happened to her. Then she gives Molly a makeover and she promises not to throw things anymore. That night they invite the neighbours and explain that Molly Turgis won’t bother anyone anymore. Oliver sings his new song The Ballad of Molly Turgis and Molly beckons Lisa to the door. Molly is now blonde, with makeup on and she doesn’t look as bad as before. Lisa tells her to go where she is supposed to and have a good time. Molly asks to do one more jinx for the road and Lisa says OK. Molly breaks Oliver’s guitar over his head. 

            In the second story Oliver’s birthday is approaching. When she hears him express his frustration with and hatred for the tractor that he bought from Haney she knows what to get him. She goes to a farm equipment store and buys a state of the art tractor. She wants it to be a surprise and so she says not to deliver it to their house but to the farm of their neighbour Fred Ziffel. There is a big sign on it that says “Happy Birthday from a Friend”. But when Fred sees it and reads the sign he thinks it’s for him. Later when Lisa comes to try to tell Fred that she bought the tractor for Oliver, Fred expresses such gratitude and appreciation for her having given him that tractor that Lisa doesn’t have the heart to tell him. Doris is suspicious because of Lisa buying a tractor for Fred and she thinks she should tell Oliver. Because of that Oliver understands that it was a gift for him. He goes to tell Fred but like Lisa he is so saturated by Fred’s expression of gratitude that he also can’t bring himself to break Fred’s heart. 

            The tractor salesman was played by Stuart Erwin, who started acting in college and then in local repertory theatres in California. His film debut was in Mother Knows Best in 1928. It was one of the first talking films. His first major supporting role was in The Big Broadcast in 1932. He starred as Joe Palooka in the live action adaptation of the comic strip of the same name. In 1936 he starred in Pigskin Parade and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. On the radio he had a recurring role in Phone Again Finnigan and he played multiple parts in several anthology series. From 1950 to 1955 he starred in the sitcom The Stu Erwin Show. In 1963 he co-starred in Son of Flubber.

October 1993: Spirit was very flirtatious with me and invited me to a party

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I went to landlord-tenant court and it was over pretty quick. It didn’t look like I would have to go back because as soon as I had the money order for the rent everything would be fine. In the afternoon I worked for the sculpture department at the Central Technical School and then went home for a while. In the evening I went back downtown to finish my pose for Greg Damery’s class at the Ontario College of Art. During the coffee break I went outside and saw Spirit, one of the art students in front of the building with a friend. I went to talk with her and she was very forward and flirtatious with me. They invited me to a party after class and so when I finished I went down to X-Rays to meet them. We went looking for the party but it was over and so we went for another beer at the Bev and then Spirit drove me home in her adapted van. She was amazingly independent for someone who’d been in a wheelchair for her entire life. She was also a firebrand of activism for disabled people. She’d pretty much single handedly forced the Ontario College of Art to put in a wheelchair ramp.