Walter Slezak

            On Sunday morning I worked out the chords for the fourth verse and most of the fifth of “Ardoise” (Shingles) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. It stayed in tune most of the time. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I cleaned the three containers that I keep on the wire shelf on the back of the toilet and their contents: the copper goblet containing all my toothbrushes and toothpaste, the chipped mug containing all my old toothbrushes for cleaning, and the yellow teapot containing my hairbrush and combs. I transferred the mug with the old toothbrushes under the sink so it would be more sanitary for the things I put in my mouth. 

            I tried out a free AI program called Ideogram for the first time. I submitted the first verse of my poem “Portrait of my Quicksilver Headdress”: Here I am again with my writing, the illusive nomadic muse that comes charging from the unconscious frontier like a ravaging horde of Mongols, to lay waste the card-house empire of my conceptual mind. It’s back now to dance on the damage with me at least for one more clumsy time”. The first results were four realistic images of people writing and so I had to eliminate the first line. The most interesting image shows a woman charging on a horse while structures made of cards are collapsing around her. 

            I weighed 87.55 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since November 28. I had rice crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride, but only to Bloor and Ossington and back because of the wobble in my back wheel, the bare brakes and the bulging back tire. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll get all that fixed and then I can take long rides again. On the way down Ossington I saw someone had thrown away a bear skin rug complete with the bear’s head. That would be a score for somebody. I wouldn’t decorate my home with it but if I had the storage space I would have taken it because it would make a cool prop for photographs or videos. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos at 17:40. That’s the most I’ve tipped the scales in the evening since November 29. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:34. 

            I finished frames 12 to 15 of the second rainbow wave in my animation project. 

            In the Movie Maker project for the electric version of my song “Vomit of the Star Eater” I started cutting out everything but the final take of the song. Unlike the acoustic version, which had countless takes and required days of editing to get to the last one, this version only had two takes. It took me less than half an hour to isolate the beginning and the end for the video. I established the balance I wanted between the camera audio and the interface audio, I added a fade to black effect, a sharpening effect and a posterizing effect, then published the movie. I made a thumbnail for the YouTube video and tomorrow I’ll upload it. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Italian sausage sauce, two slices of salami and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 11 and 12 of Batman. 

            In episode 11, a diamond shop has a unique clock that the owner has recently bought as a store decoration. But hidden in the antique clock is the lens of a transistorized camera unit that allows the Clock King to spy on the store. Clock King sets off an alarm that causes customers and staff to gather around the clock, then knock out gas flows from the clock and while everyone is a asleep, Clock King’s men rob the store. Commissioner Gordon calls Batman who goes directly to the scene of the robbery to investigate. The owner of the store says he bought the clock at the Parkhurst Galleries. That’s Batman’s next stop and Mr. Parkhurst tells Batman that a Mr. Chronos sold him the clock. Meanwhile upstairs in another of Parkhurst’s galleries their first pop art exhibition is underway. Suddenly the Clock King arrives in disguise, wearing a beret, dark glasses and a goatee. His men are wheeling a large pop art piece, which he uncovers to reveal a clock themed work which they place against the wall. He turns it on and it has several moving parts that distract everyone from the saw at the back of the piece that has begun cutting through the wall. Meanwhile Batman and Robin drive to the Dunbar drive-in diner where they order Bat Burgers. Batman asks about a waiter named Thelma Timepiece. The car hop says Thelma quit last week. While dining in the Batmobile they watch the news of the scene taking place in the gallery, recognize Clock King and head for the gallery. Clock King and his men don headphones and then switch on a high pitched sound that renders everyone helpless who is unprotected. Clock King enters the gallery strongroom and steals a Daliesque painting similar to his “Persistence of Time”. But Batman and Robin arrive before he can leave with it. The first big fight with Clock King’s men occurs. Then Clock King shoots springs from his art piece that wrap around Batman and Robin. Clock King escapes but leaves behind a wrist watch. Batman finds that it contains aluminium oxide which is used to make synthetic gems. The bat computer says Clock King’s most likely hideout is Tik Tok Synthetic Rubies. They climb the back of the building and on the way up a window opens and Sammy Davis Jr. makes a cameo appearance. Inside, Batman and Robin slip on watch oil. They are gassed and wake up inside a giant hour glass that will fill up and smother them. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In episode 12, they are left alone to die in the hour glass but they begin rocking it and it tips over. Then they make it roll them outside onto the street where a truck hits it and breaks them free. Meanwhile Dick’s Aunt Harriet has purchased a windmill clock for Bruce’s birthday and Clock King is watching Wayne Manor through its camera. Clock King plans on stealing Bruce’s collection of antique pocket watches. But his man put the wrong button on the windmill clock instead of the knockout gas. He put the atomic energy directional control switch on the windmill clock. Now they have to get the windmill clock back. Clock King enters Wayne Manor and his men knock out Alfred. They grab the windmill clock but Clock King decides to take Bruce’s pocket watches while he’s there. Harriet catches them and they decide to abduct her but Alfred sounds the alarm and Bruce and Dick arrive from the Batcave and surprise the thieves, who run away. Clock King had mentioned his big crime would involve someone named Smith but Batman and Robin can’t find the person. Finally they realize it’s the human sized and shaped automated blacksmith mechanism inside the Gotham clock tower. It swings its hammer every hour to count the time. Something on the heliport opposite the tower must be arriving at 17:00. Gordon tells them a Cesium clock is going to be delivered. Cesium clocks are used in regulating satellites and space probes. If Clock King steals it he can hold it for a million dollars in ransom. Batman and Robin catch Clock King in the tower preparing for the theft. The big final fight occurs. Clock King is defeated easily in a poorly written ending of a weak story. 

            Clock King was played by Walter Slezak, who made his film debut at 20 in the 1922 silent film Sodom und Gomorrah. He became a matinee idol in Germany. He moved to the States in 1930 and became a Broadway star starting with Meet My Sister. In 1955 he won a Tony for his performance in Fanny. He made his film debut in 1940. He co-starred in Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, Once Upon a Honeymoon, The Spanish Main, The Pirate, Sinbad the Sailor, Born to Kill, The Inspector General, Cornered, Black Beauty, and Wonderful Life. He shot himself to death in his backyard because of persistent health problems.