Pamela Curran

            On Tuesday morning I finished transcribing the second set of chords that I’d found for “Allons z'enfants” (Join the Ranks Kids) by Boris Vian. I’ll search for some more tomorrow. 

            I uploaded to my Christian’s Translations blog “The Bladed Wave”, my translation of “La vague à lames” by Serge Gainsbourg. I edited it and published it, then posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are ten songs left in my Gainsbourg project to translate his entire oeuvre from 1958 to 1991. I listened once to his song “Ophélie” (Ophelia) and tomorrow I’ll start memorizing it. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since October 14. 

            Between breakfast and lunch I worked on getting caught up on my journal because I fell behind on Monday. I weighed 85.6 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 86.4 kilos at 17:52. That’s the most I’ve tipped the scales in the evening since October 13. 

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

            I worked some more on trying to figure out how to animate the image I made of a rainbow wave. I checked out a tutorial on the wave principal that’s the very basics of animation. It seems to be about overlapping each sequential wave pattern slightly after the previous one. I tried it with mine but still didn’t have a handle on it and ended up with a shorter wave each time that began at the same place. Next time I’ll try cutting a bit off the beginning of each sequence and pasting it onto the end. 

            I started reviewing the song practice video of my performance of “Like a Boomerang” on September 10 but had to stop at the beginning of the third take to have supper. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 2, episodes 11 and 12 of Branded. In the first story McCord is at the PT Barnum Circus when his surveying partner encourages him to go into the ring with Samson for the $50 prize. McCord beats Samson easily but has a hard time getting the money. He is taken to Barnum who wants to hire him as his new fighter. McCord turns him down and says he just wants his money. Barnum pays him but is sure he’ll be back. Later McCord starts seeing advertizements posted by Barnum for an attraction that re-enacts the Battle of Bitter Creek and with the headline “See Jason McCord turn tail and run from the attack of the savage Indians”. McCord is trying to track down Barnum to get him to stop. He visits the Allied circus where he encounters its main act Princess Salome the dancer and also meets the owner of the circus, who says they have a circus code to not give out information about each other. He wants to do business with Barnum but all Barnum wants is Salome. When McCord goes to leave, Salome comes after him. earlier she had what sounded like an Italian accent that I think was supposed to be Middle Eastern but now she sounds like she’s from New York City. She says if he stays for her show then she’ll tell him where he can find Barnum. Later he confronts Barnum who tells him the guy playing McCord in his show is getting rich. Barnum says Bitter Creek is part of history and so Jason McCord is public property. McCord threatens to sue but Barnum tells him a lawsuit would be great promotion for his circus. McCord offers to get him Salome in exchange for him dropping the Bitter Creek act and Barnum agrees. Salome arrives with the owner of the Allied Circus. The owner’s name is J.A. Bailey and though Barnum is offering $10,000, Bailey is taking Barnum’s advice to never sell a good thing outright. Barnum tries to get out of it but finally agrees to give Bailey 10%. Of course this is the fictional beginning of the famous Barnum and Bailey Circus. 

            Salome was played by Pamela Curran who was born and raised in New York City and attended an exclusive school. She was on the cover of Life Magazine in the November 24, 1947 issue. She made her film debut with a minor role in Desk Set in 1957. She co-starred in Mutiny in Outer Space. She played Vanessa Vane in a two part Green Hornet story. When she retired from acting she became dedicated to finding homes for stray dogs and apparently saved over a hundred. 

            

            

            

            In the second story McCord has just led a cattle drive and sold the herd to earn $10,000 for his employer (that would be about $300,000 today). McCord takes a bank draft for $10,000 to the bank and gets the cash, but while he’s there it’s robbed by Frank Ross’s gang. McCord has the money in a case and handcuffs it to his wrist, telling the robbers that the key is in Durango, 500 km away. One of the crooks knocks McCord out and shoots the briefcase free. They take a bank customer named Callie Clay hostage. Meanwhile Tiny Bradford, who helped plan the robbery but was cut out by Frank heads with his gang for Frank’s hideout to get a share of the money. At the same time McCord has trailed Frank to the shack. Frank’s rival tells his men to let McCord warm things up before they move in. McCord bursts into the cabin and holds the crooks at gunpoint while he has Callie take their guns. But it turns out that Callie is Frank’s girlfriend and I saw that coming from the start. She pulls a gun on McCord and disarms him. Bradford and his men open fire. Frank tells McCord that if he can get their horses for him he’ll give him back his $10,000. He gives McCord a pistol with three bullets. After McCord takes shelter in a wagon, Frank sends out one of his men who is killed by Tiny. McCord takes out one of Tiny’s men. Frank sends out another man who is also killed. McCord takes out Tiny and his last man. Frank and Callie try to leave but McCord stops them. Frank knows there are no bullets left in McCord’s gun and is about to kill him but Callie grabs his arm and struggles with him long enough for McCord to knock him out. Callie tries to get McCord to run away with her with the money but he takes her and the money to town. He tells the sheriff that Callie was in cahoots with Frank but that she did save his life. When McCord leaves, Callie is trying to sweet talk the sheriff.