Monday 17 July 2023

Marjorie Bennett


            On Sunday morning I ran through "Disrupting Colour", my translation of "Charlotte Forever" by Serge Gainsbourg. When I got to the end I realized that I'd forgotten to translate the last verse. I did that and then uploaded the song to Christian's Translations where I began to prepare it for publication on the blog. 
            Now that this year's recording project is over I returned to my regular song practice and relaxed with no retakes of songs to try to get them right. I played my Kramer electric guitar for the first half until a string broke. It's always the B string. Rather than taking up my practice time changing it I grabbed my Martin acoustic and finished my rehearsal with that. I'll change the string later today and I'll continue playing the electric for the next three days. 
            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 
            Around midday I struggled with changing my electric guitar string. I think the action is too low on the Kramer, at least on the low E string. When Gian at L'il Demon Guitars is finished fixing my fake Gibson I'll take the Kramer back for him to adjust. I changed it and hopefully it won't break again. 
            I didn't have time to scrub and scrape the old tile glue from my kitchen floor and so I just spent some time sewing the leather button hole onto one end of my old guitar strap. 
            I weighed 84.8 kilos before lunch. I had Breton crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 
            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. Through the whole journey I had a wicked stomach ache that persisted after I got home. I wonder if it was caused by eating overripe cherries. 
            I chiseled some more of the green fossils out of the slate. 
            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 17:45. 
            I was caught up on my journal at 18:39. 
            I reviewed the videos of my performances of "Megaphor" from June 2 to June 4 of this year. June 2 was with the electric and it was pretty bad but it was my first try. June 3 and 4 were with the acoustic. On June 3 the final take had some slightly off chords. June 4 was better but some of the chords were still off. Reviewing this song will take a long time because I often did several takes in one session.
            I listened to the two tracks that I'd synchronized yesterday in Audacity and the full drum kit track that I already had and found them to be identical. The full drum kit track must contain the other track already. I opened up the saved file in Audacity and located a section that I would like to mute. I highlighted it and looked for the "Mute" function but the only one that I could find was titled "Mute track" and when I did that it muted the entire track. Either I'm not doing it right or the version of Audacity that I have doesn't have the kind of "Mute" function that I'm looking for. I'll try again on Monday. 
            I grilled ten honey-garlic sausages and put one on a slice of toasted multigrain Bavarian sourdough bread with chili sauce, Dijon, dill pickle slices and horseradish. I had it with a beer while watching season 3, episodes 8 and 9 of Petticoat Junction. 
            In the first story the Every Second Wednesday Discussion Group is planning a dance to raise money for the Hooterville High football team. Kate says it's going to be a square dance. But the kids don't want a square dance and so Bobbie Joe and Betty Joe write to their favourite rock singer King Ringading to ask him to perform. Ringading receives the letter and his agent wants to dismiss it, but Ringading reveals that he is from Hooterville and that Kate Bradley is the one who gave him the money to go to Chicago to become a singer. He says he's going to do the show. King Ringading wears a long blond wig and a crown when performing but he arrives at the Shady Rest in plain clothes as Herbie Willis, who Kate recognizes immediately. She invites Herbie to sing at the dance so they don't have to listen to that horrible King Ringading. The girls don't recognize Herbie as King Ringading and even when he tries to prove to them that he is they just think he's doing a bad imitation. Since Kate hates King Ringading he doesn't want to disappoint her by revealing his identity. As far as the girls know King Ringading has not answered their letter and so they are very disappointed in their idol. Herbie has his agent send a telegram saying King Ringading will only perform if Herbie Willis doesn't. Joe plots to give Herbie laryngitis by using a fan to blow chilled air from ice into his room but Herbie closes the vent and only pretends he has laryngitis. But Joe overhears him talking to his agent and telling him he is faking and so Joe locks Herbie in the basement so King Ringading will come. Herbie crawls out of a window, changes into costume and does the show as King Ringading, which is a big success. Kate catches him sneaking back into the basement and learns who he really is. She asks him to sing one of his songs so she can hear the words. 
            In the second story a prize of $100 is being offered to anyone who can go three rounds with Kid Dynamite. Kate has hired a plumber named Herman who doesn't even feel it when a sledgehammer accidentally hits him in the head. Joe organizes a fight between Herman and the Kid. The Kid's mother is his manager and she makes a bet of $500 with Joe against the hotel. Since Joe doesn't own the hotel he couldn't really bet it but for some reason Kate is worried. Joe is sure that Herman is indestructible but when Kate accidentally elbows him in the stomach he doubles over and it is clear that he has a terrible weakness. Joe has to find the Kid's weakness and realizes it's his mother and so the day of the fight Bobbie Joe draws a picture of the Kid's mother on Herman's stomach. The Kid can't bring himself to punch his mother's picture and so in the first round Herman almost knocks him out. After the first round Betty pours water on Herman to cool him down but it washes off the picture. Herman manages to dodge being hit in the stomach but in the third round he gets punched hard in the tummy and falls. But he manages to get up and then the third round ends, which means he has won the prize. Kate is marvelling at how they made $451 when a state official comes in and says she owes $250 for a county license fee for staging a prize fight, plus $200 for the fine for staging a prize fight without a license. 
            Kid Dynamite's mother Mrs. Hogan was played by Marjorie Bennett. She was from the town of York, Western Australia but spent most of her career acting in the UK and the US. Her first movie was "The Girl Glory" in 1917. Her first talking film appearance was in "Dressed to Kill" in 1946. She appeared in several Abbot and Costello films and was a regular on "Lassie". Her first animation voice acting role was as Duchess the cow in "101 Dalmatians". She played Blossom Kenney on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis".





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