Coleen Gray

            On Saturday morning I finally memorized all of “Allons z'enfants” (Join the Ranks Kids) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll look for the chords. 

            I worked out the chords for the third and fourth verses of “La vague à lames” (The Bladed Wave) by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have it finished on Sunday. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. It went pretty well and I had no tuning problems. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning in a long time. 

            At around midday I went to Vina Pharmacy to get them to fax my doctor about renewing my Betaderm prescription. Then I went to No Frills where I got six bags of green grapes, two packs of raspberries, their last few organic bananas, a tomato, a pack of hot Italian sausages, garbage bags, a box of spoon size shredded wheat, a jug of orange juice, a large and a small container of PC skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s sweet chili chips. I did a price match on the grapes with the much cheaper Freshco price. 

            For lunch I had Triscuits with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown for the first Saturday in a month and a half. Now that I’m not recording in the morning my Saturday isn’t skewed as much so I don’t go to the supermarket as late, take lunch as late, take my siesta as late and then have no time to go all the way downtown. 

            I weighed 84.55 kilos at 17:45. It’s been months since I’ve been that light in the evening. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I managed to get the four parts of my rainbow wave wide enough at 750 pixels to not show a black border at the ends in Movie Maker. But when played it doesn’t look like a flowing animation. It just looks like an arc followed by a flipped arc and then that repeated. I’ll try splitting each image into two and then widen those to see if that flows better on the video timeline. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Like a Boomerang” and “Comme un boomerang” from September 2 to 5. On September 2 and 4 I played “Like a Boomerang” on my Gibson electric guitar. On September 2 when I fumbled I didn’t do a retake. On September 4 the take at 5:30 was the first version without a stop and the video looked good but it didn’t sound great. On September 3 and 5 I played “Comme un Boomerang” on my Martin acoustic guitar. On September 3 I started out with the Gibson but a string broke and I switched to the Martin. But I fumbled and didn’t do a retake. On September 5 the take at 4:45 was not great but it was the best so far in this project. 

            I made pizza on my last naan with Basilica sauce, the rest of the ham, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 5 and 6 of Branded.

            In the first story McCord’s friend Sam Whitlaw has died and he attends the burial. Also present are Sam’s son Jimmy, Sam’s First Nation housekeeper Neela who has acted as a mother for Jimmy, Sam’s cousin Sam who is a local mayor and Sam’s wife Hannah. Sam wants to take custody of Jimmy now but the boy wants to stay with Neela. However Sam doesn’t think Neela has any right to live on Sam’s property now that he’s dead and wants to send her back to the reservation. McCord gets Sam to let Jimmy go home with Neela for one more day. Neela thinks that Sam only wants custody of Jimmy because he has inherited Sam’s land and it is very valuable because of the water rights. Later that day Sam comes for Jimmy with a hired man. McCord asks Jimmy if he wants to go and he says no. The hired man tries to take him but McCord knocks him down. Later Jimmy starts disrespecting Neela because he’s ashamed of her not being white. Neela reveals to McCord that she’s really Jimmy’s mother. They couldn’t find any church that would marry them so they were married in her tradition. They pretended that their relationship was professional and that Jimmy’s mother died in childbirth. She has a deposition sworn to by a circuit judge that proves she was Sam’s wife. She’s afraid that Jimmy will reject her if he knows he is only half white. McCord and Jimmy go for a walk together but when they return Neela is gone and there are signs of a struggle. Jimmy seems willing to accept this but McCord reveals to him that Neela is his real mother. McCord says they need to go to town to save Neela from being sent back to the reservation but Jimmy is upset and can’t bring himself to go so McCord goes alone. McCord has to knock down Sam’s man again and throws his sabre to pin his arm to the ground by the sleeve when he goes for his gun. McCord tells the people gathered that Sam only wants the water and not Jimmy. Jimmy arrives on his own and declares that Neela is his mother. McCord shows the document that proves it. Since Jimmy is half white he’s still allowed to own property so Sam gives up. 

            The second story begins showing McCord and his colleague Pitkin doing survey work in Alaska and acquiring gold and furs. The United States has just purchased Alaska from Russia for $7 million and a lot of citizens think it was a waste of money. McCord and Pitkin went to Alaska in the employment of real historical figure William Henry Seward who was US secretary of state and pushed for the Alaska purchase. The deal became known as “Seward’s Folly”. McCord and Pitkin arrive in Seattle and go to a saloon where a couple of crooks named Sobel and Grimes overhear Pitkin talking about nuggets and furs. McCord tells him not to mention the wealth they’ve found. McCord leaves Pitkin in the saloon and goes to meet Seward. They were hired by Leslie Gregg who McCord meets at Seward’s hotel suite and is surprised to see that Gregg is a woman. Meanwhile Sobel and Grimes move in on Pitkin. McCord meets Seward who is glad to hear that Alaska is rich as up until then the wealth of resources was the privilege of Canada. We learn that Seward was attacked with a knife by Lewis Powell when Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Seward died shortly after the purchase. McCord and Leslie are working on finishing his report when Sobel and Grimes burst in to get the maps of the gold fields in Alaska. There’s a fight and McCord wins. 

            Leslie was played by Coleen Gray, who studied dramatics in university and earned a BA. Her film debut was in State Fair. She co-starred in Kiss of Death, Nightmare Alley, Fury at Furnace Creek, The Killing, Sleeping City, Kansas City Confidential, The Vanquished, Father is a Bachelor, and The Phantom Planet. She starred in The Leech Woman. She appeared in many films noire but as good girls and not femme fatales. On TV she was a regular on Bright Promise and Days of Our Lives.