31 July 2021

 

     I was planning on watching Creation of the Humanoids (1962), a zero star film, said to be an Andy Warhol favorite, on Svengoolie.  The guys tell me this morning that the storm knocked out reception on two of our channels.

    The prison has an external antenna, which they run through a CCTV system, into our cells, and we get our television channels.

     The prison maintenance crew serviced the system, after the storm, knocking out all but two channels.  So no Creation of the Humanoids tonight.  Now RGCI officials are telling us the loss of all but two channels was due to the storm, not maintenances shortcomings. 

     They did not add the last part, but...

     I ran a mile this afternoon, putting me at 42.5 miles for the month.  Half of that was in this last week.  That is good.  Running is good for me mentally and physically.  It really keeps my head in a good place.

     The air quality, from the wildfires in Canada and out west, was absolutely terrible today.

     I began laying paint on my cubist self-portrait.  Which of course, dying to work in oil again, is acrylic.

     I decided to lay out the edges that separate the planes in black acrylic so that they would dry fast and can then go back in oil without the extended drying period.

     Laying it out in skeleton form like this it reminds me of some of Piet Mondrian's last representational works prior to him going purely abstract.  I can now see how, him seeing cubism and working with it, that progression may have taken place.

     They pulled a guy with a likely COVID-19 infection from my units wing this afternoon.  They pulled his "cellie" too.

    Two weeks ago they began forcing us to eat meals in the dining hall.  That is literally shoulder-to-shoulder, because the tables are so small.  That means every person in this unit has been exposed.  Yet they did not do a mass testing.

     Furthermore staff are largely not wearing masks, nor enforcing mask wearing among prisoners.  The lone staff member who was, has at best been telling guys to make it appear like the mask is near the face.  Hardly a deterrent to airborne viruses.

     RGCI officials have not, and continue to not take this virus seriously.