Tuesday 23 August 2022

Speedy Gonzales


            On Monday morning I came closer to memorizing the final verse of "C'est comment qu'on freine" by Serge Gainsbourg, but I couldn't quite nail it down. I'm pretty sure I'll have it done tomorrow.
            I weighed 86.2 kilos before breakfast. 
            Around midday I finished cleaning the grooves of the sliding windows on the left side of the southern window set in my kitchen. I cleaned the sliding window that fits in the outer groove and before putting it in I gave the big outer window on the left side another wash while there was still space for me to lean out. It doesn't look noticeably clearer than when I cleaned it yesterday but the sliding window that I cleaned looks almost perfectly clear. I'll wash the rest of the sliding windows tomorrow, and maybe even the outside of the big window on the right. 
            I weighed 85.8 kilos before lunch. 
            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 
            I weighed 86 kilos at 17:15. That's the heaviest I've been at that time this month. 
            I imported the audio recording of my June 19 song practice into Audacity and amplified the volume. This was one of the sessions that I recorded in Audacity, and compared with the July 9 recording in Ableton, it needed less amplification. July 9 had been amplified at 7.4 to be just below clipping while June 19 only needed 6.8. 
            I imported the June 19 video into Movie Maker and converted it into the Movie Maker format so there wouldn't be any compatibility problems. It took almost an hour to convert and so while I was waiting I searched online for videos relating to the shock therapy convulsive threshold. I didn't find anything and so I downloaded a video that I bookmarked yesterday that contains old shock therapy footage. That took more than half an hour because my neighbour Shankar's wifi went off and so I had to tether with my phone to complete it. While I was waiting for the download I put some of the hard copies of my Gumby Bible transcripts into chronological order, and dated them. 
            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching two Bugs Bunny specials. One was a Thanksgiving special from 1977 and the other was a Halloween special from 1978. 
            In the first story, Bugs Bunny is a doctor giving people dietary advice. He's just put Porky Pig on a carrot diet. There's a knock on his door but the caller does not respond when he says, "Come in." As he goes to the door he says, "Six months of medical school and I still have to do everything around here myself!" At the door is the female Slobovian rabbit that he encountered many years before. She says she's been eating too much lately. 
            Bugs begins telling her how great carrots are and we have a flashback to an old story of when Yosemite Sam was hunting rabbits while Bugs was roasting carrots. Bugs tells her that sometimes a deep emotional problem can cause overeating. Food can be a substitute for something we all need, like affection. 
            Then he tells her about the coyote and we see a Wile E Coyote-Roadrunner story. Wile E is cooking an empty tin can but then he gets depressed and throws it away. Then the roadrunner comes speeding past and he begins to pursue him. Wile E ties himself to a rocket sled to catch him but when it blasts off he goes up and not forward. 
            Then we see a very nervous Sylvester Cat in the waiting room. He kicks the Slobovian bunny out and says it's an emergency. He begins telling Bugs about his childhood and how his father never taught him how to catch mice. We see the story that begins with Sylvester trying to catch a fish and getting swallowed by one. Then Sylvester hears Tweety Bird calling for help because he's trapped on a rock in his cage after the tide came in. Sylvester tries to motor ski out to grab the bird but he slams into a rock. Then we see the story of Sylvester trying to swear off eating birds. 
            Bugs tells him that he should try eating something more easily accessible, like fish. Sylvester runs home and finds a cupboard full of canned fish. The only problem is he can't find a can opener. We see that the mouse has taken it, it seems just to torture Sylvester. He tries an axe, but the blade flies off. He tries dropping a piano on it but the mouse causes it to fall on Sylvester. In the end, Sylvester settles on eating spaghetti. 
            Then Bugs tells the Slobovian bunny about his encounter with the Tasmanian Devil. After that the Slobovian rabbit concludes that she eats because she needs love. To keep her from chasing him, Bugs gets her a big turkey and starts feeding her. After she leaves, there is another knock and a sexy female rabbit comes to Bugs with the exact same problem, but this time his solution is love, and that's the end. 
            In the second story, Daffy Duck's nephew is trick or treating and he knocks on Witch Hazel's door. When she opens it he is frightened and runs home. Daffy tells him there are no such things as witches and so he starts dragging the kid to Witch Hazel's house to prove it. Meanwhile we see the story of Bugs Bunny coming to Witch Hazel's door to trick or treat. She invites him in for tea but he says his doctor's tea has more pizzazz. He says he'll get some. Then we see part of the Bugs Bunny meets Dr Jekyll story. It then merges with the story of Sylvester sleeping on the ledge outside of Jekyll's lab when Tweety flies onto the ledge. Sylvester chases him and he runs into the lab where he hides inside the bottle containing the Mr. Hyde formula. Tweety is changed into a giant bird monster. 
            Then we see the Bugs Bunny encounter with Witch Hazel as one of Shakespeare's witches. Then we see another Witch Hazel story in which she decides to take a vacation but needs to have someone fill in to handle her witching business while she is gone. Speedy Gonzalez comes to borrow a cup of cheese and so Hazel decides to spike his cheese with witch's brew and change him into her image. That works, but he still acts like himself. She heads for Hawaii while Daffy Duck arrives at her door and Speedy invites him in. He serves Daffy some of Hazel's tea and he is transformed into the surreal creature he was drawn as in a previous episode, with a daisy for a head, four legs and a long tail. Hazel returns from her holiday and has to change Speedy and Daffy back. She decides to have duck for dinner but Daffy runs away. 
            Bugs tells Hazel her spells are not that great. She ventures to prove otherwise when she hears Porky and Sylvester approaching and she puts a fear spell on the cat. She's made her home into a hotel and they check in but Sylvester is shivering from fear. This version of Sylvester can't talk and has to communicate through mime. The mice seem to be plotting to drive Sylvester insane. He keeps seeing threats to Porky's life like a lowered noose from a moose but by the time he draws Porky's attention to any threat that he sees it is gone. The mice push Porky and Sylvester's bed out the window, but it bounces back in after Sylvester gets out. An anvil is dropped on Porky while he's sleeping. Sylvester catches it only to be seen standing over Porky with an anvil. Sylvester sees a ghost but it's several mice on top of one another under a sheet. Sylvester sees a procession of mice hauling a bound cat on a medieval wagon with a hooded mouse carrying an axe following behind. 
            Bugs gives Hazel a drink and she turns into Count Bloodcount in the Transylvania story. Then we end with the Witch Hazel ending in which she is transformed into a sexy Bunny. Together she and Bugs toast Halloween. 
            Speedy Gonzalez first appeared in the 1953 cartoon "Cat Tails for Two." In 1955 the story was redone with a Speedy that looks more like the character that we know today. The film short won an Academy Award. US networks have drifted away from airing cartoons that feature Speedy Gonzalez because they are cautious of presenting ethnic stereotypes. But ironically, in Latin America Speedy Gonzalez is considered to be a cultural icon. In 1962, Pat Boone had a top ten hit with the song "Speedy Gonzalez". 


            I searched for bedbugs and didn't find any.

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