Levity in a Dark Alley

            On Monday morning I deleted my first attempt to post my translation of “Le complainte du progress” by Boris Vian on my blog because text was appearing in different font sizes that I couldn’t correct. Instead I pasted the whole thing again directly into the HTML so it just appeared as a big block of text with no indents and no italics. Now I can just make all the changes I need from scratch without having to deal with it looking differently than I want.

            I finished copying down the lyrics to “Bébé Gai” by Serge Gainsbourg and I'll start working on a translation Tuesday morning.

            I worked on my journal.

            This was the first day in a few in which the morning didn’t get away from me. I had time to wash the section of the kitchen floor in the hallway from the beginning of the big shelf at the southwest corner of the room. In the next few days I’ll probably have time to pull the shelf out into the second floor hallway and wash the floor in the area where it stands.

While taking pictures of my progress I dropped my camera and the batteries fell out but it seemed to be still functional when I put them back in.

            I threw out the rest of the sausage dressing because I think it had the same contamination as the turkey I’d used it to stuff. I also poured boiling water on the container in which I’d stored it.

            I had tuna with salsa and chips for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Kingfish becomes haunted by the voice of his conscience for all the scams he has run over the years. He swears he is going to change. To prove it he takes a worthless stock certificate that he’d acquired a few years ago and throws it in the garbage. Normally he would try to sell it to Andy. But then Andy comes to ask Kingfish if he knows any stock he can buy. Kingfish runs into a dark closet and asks his conscience to tell him not to cheat Andy. Since it says nothing he goes ahead and sells the defunct Alaskan Cannery stock to him. Then to avoid paying Andy back he tells him that the cannery went out of business because whales at all the salmon and then all the rivers turned to desert. Then he tells Andy that he went to the government and got officially declared a pauper, with paper papers and a pauper badge and now he is allowed to stand in any breadline in New York and bring guests along too. But then Kingfish’s conscience attacks him again and he writes Andy a cheque for the $150 he's paid him for the stock. But the cheque is bad.

            I worked on my poem series, “My Blood in a Bug”.

I thawed the four lamb chops that I’d bought on the Saturday before Christmas and had one with three small potatoes, a sautéed yellow pepper and some gravy while watching Joker. I don’t want to give too much away in this review because it’s full of surprises and I recommend that people see it.

This story gets so much into the core of what could possibly make someone like the Joker tick that even if there is no sequel it can’t help but inform how The Joker will be portrayed in the future. It shows a childhood of abuse, a psychologically damaged young man in a dependent relationship with his mentally ill mother. One particularly interesting element is that Arthur has a condition that causes him to laugh hysterically for no apparent reason and he carries a card that he hands to people to explain it to them when he loses control. Arthur aspires to be a stand-up comedian but he’s the only one that thinks he’s funny. He lives in a poor and violent neighbourhood. He has a job as a clown but gets attacked by bullies.

This film is very much about the division between rich and poor. The villain of the story is Thomas Wayne, the wealthy father of the boy that will grow up to become Batman. Three young executives of Wayne Enterprises are drunk on the subway and when they hear Arthur laughing they begin to beat him up. Arthur pulls a gun and kills them all. All that is known is that it was a clown that killed the privileged men and he becomes a symbol of revolution.

Another compelling idea is Arthur’s mother’s claim that Arthur is actually Thomas Wayne’s illegitimate son and that she and Wayne had been lovers when she’d worked for him as a servant. She was dismissed and committed and Wayne claims she’s delusional, but there is still a possibility that it’s true, which would render the relationship between Joker and Batman far more interesting than it ever was before.

Arthur is filmed performing at a stand-up open mic and laughing so uncontrollably that he can barely tell his jokes. One ironically funny line is when he tells the audience, “When I told people I wanted to be a comedian they all laughed at me. Well, nobody’s laughing now!”

The film clip gets the attention of Arthur’s idol, old style late night talk show host, Murray Franklin. He invites Arthur on his show, basically to make fun of him. Arthur becomes increasingly more violent as the night of his TV debut approaches. I won’t reveal what happens next other than that chaos ensues and the Joker becomes the messiah of bedlam.

This movie is extremely intense and disturbing because we find ourselves identifying with a psychopath. I would be shocked if Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t sweep all the major acting awards for his performance as The Joker. I give it an A and highly recommend it.

            I’m done watching all the movies I wanted to watch from 2018 and 2019.

Shazam!

            On Sunday morning I finished posting my translation of “J’aimes les roses fanées” by Serge Gainsbourg on my blog and started looking for the lyrics for Gainsbourg’s “Bébé Gai”. The only ones I found are part of a YouTube video and so I started transcribing them but didn’t finish.

            I worked on my journal.

            The morning got away from me again too much to work on washing the kitchen floor. But it wasn’t a total loss, as I transferred the vinegar from my leaking bucket to the new one and filtered out all the sediment as I went along.

            I threw out most of the meat from the turkey that I cooked on Christmas Day because I think it gave me food poisoning. I just kept the dressing and the skin.

            I had some of the sausage dressing with cranberry sauce for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to the New Years Eve 1948 episode of Amos and Andy. This story begins with Kingfish having stayed out all night playing poker and Sapphire angrily waiting for him when he gets home. She has accidentally opened up a New Years card for Kingfish that is signed “Your sweetheart”. He tries to track down the unknown person that sent it and begins calling up old girlfriends. He goes to see one of them but at the same time Sapphire comes to her place collecting clothing for a charity drive. Sapphire thinks she’s caught Kingfish with the woman that sent the card and she takes him to court. Kingfish’s lawyer Stonewall always just helps the prosecutor argue against Kingfish whenever he defends him in court. Finally Sapphire drops the case because the woman in the apartment called and explained the situation. It’s still a mystery who the woman is that sent the card. Later we hear Amos’s daughter Abadella saying her prayers and she hopes that Uncle Kingfish liked the card she sent to him.

            This was voted the best Amos and Andy program of 1948.

            The sponsor of Amos and Andy was Rinso detergent and for the last few years it’s said to contain Solium “the sunlight ingredient”. In this show they say that it was developed with wartime research. It gives the impression that it was developed by the war department but I guess any research during the time of war could be wartime research. But it could be possible that scientists needed better detergents to wash soldier’s uniforms. There were limitations on fats because they were needed to make ammunition and so perhaps they did research alternatives.

            I got caught up on my journal for the first time in days.

            I worked on my poem series “My Blood in a Bug”.

I had some sausage dressing with a beer and watched Shazam.

The superhero in the movie was the original Captain Marvel and he was created during WWII. The character never made it to the 60s when I started reading comics because he was sued out of existence by DC Comics for being too much like Superman. The similarities were that Captain Marvel had super strength, super speed, indestructibility, the power of flight and although his costume was somewhat different, he looked something Superman too. But they differed in many ways as well. Marvel’s powers came from magic whereas Superman's were based on scientific explanations. Superman had his powers since infancy whereas in Captain Marvel’s case his secret identity is a boy who says a magic word to cause magic lightning to strike him and transform him into Captain Marvel.

This movie begins in the past as a boy named Sivana who is travelling with his uncaring father and older brother is suddenly transported mentally to the temple of the ancient wizard Shazam. Shazam is losing strength and needs to transfer his powers to a champion that is pure of heart. Sivana is one of many that Shazam has tested but like all the others he finds him unworthy. Back in the car with his family, Sivana gets into an argument with his brother that indirectly results in an accident that cripples father and brother. We return to the present and a homeless orphan named Billy Batson. Billy lures the cops into a building so he can access the police database and try to track down his mother. Then he steals the cop’s lunch. We have a flashback to when Billy was three or four years old with his mother at a carnival. She wins him a compass key chain and tells him he can always find his way with it. He drops it and goes after it, letting go of his mother’s hand. Billy is now fifteen and has been bounced from foster home to foster home and from orphanage to orphanage all this time. He keeps running away to find his mother. He knocks on the door of the last name he has and she's not his mother either. The cops pick him up and he's placed in another foster home, this one is parented by a loving couple named Victor and Rosa. There are five other orphans in the home. Two of them are characters from the comics. One is Mary, who in the comics is Billy’s twin sister but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The other is Freddie Freeman who walks with a crutch and is Billy and Mary’s best friend. In this case he shares a room with Billy and has an extremely outgoing personality. The youngest child in the home is about seven and she is Darla. She is extremely innocent and loves to hug everybody. Meanwhile Sivana is grown up and is a PHD now. He has interviewed people for years that have also claimed to be taken to Shazam’s temple and undergone the test. He finally figures out the symbols which when placed on a wall cause a door to appear which takes him back to Shazam. Sivana now comes under the influence of the seven deadly sins in the form of demons imprisoned in statues. He sets the demons free and they enter Sivana, giving hi m great power. Meanwhile at school there are two bullies constantly picking on Freddie. Billy stands up for him and then runs from the bullies onto a subway train.

Although this is supposed to be Philadelphia it was obviously shot in Toronto. The subway is definitely the TTC and the trains the old ones before they were upgraded. The school looks like it might be Danforth Tech and the other locations look like Toronto’s east end. 

The subway car Billy is on is empty and takes him to Shazam’s temple. Shazam says he’s looking for someone pure of heart. Billy tells him he’s not going to find them. There’s a funny scene when Shazam says, “Hold my staff and say my name!” Billy says, “That’s gross!” Billy finally holds the staff but doesn’t know the wizard’s name. When he says it’s “Shazam” Billy starts to laugh but finally says it and is transformed into Captain Marvel just as Shazam turns to dust. Billy does not know how to or if he can change back. He can’t return to the foster home but contacts Freddie and convinces him he’s Billy. Freddy is a superhero fanatic and owns a bullet that once bounced off Superman. Freddy is excited about Billy’s transformation and begins to test him to find out his powers. They learn he has super strength, speed and can shoot lightning. Billy also does what a lot of fifteen year olds would do if they suddenly found themselves in an adult body. He goes to legally buy beer but in the variety store there is a hold-up by two armed robbers. Billy confronts them and they shoot but the bullets bounce off. The next moment is funny as Freddy says that it might be the costume that’s invulnerable and so he urges the crooks to shoot Billy in the face. They do so and the bullets also bounce off. Billy beats the crooks and he and Freddy get beer but it’s their first time and it tastes like puke to them. Freddy sneaks superhero Billy home and he says the word shazam by accident just before Victor and Rosa walk in and turns back to a boy. During the next few days Billy uses his powers in public to show off and make money like a busker. But Sivana learns that Billy is Shazam’s champion and comes after him for his power. Confronted by a super villain with experience and an adult mind Billy is frightened and escapes. Eugene, one of Billy’s foster brothers, is a computer whiz and he tracks down Billy’s mother for him, finding that she lives nearby. Billy goes to see her but discovers that years ago when he got lost she was only seventeen and when she saw that Billy had wandered off and saw that a cop had found him she’d decided that the state could take care of him better than her. Billy realizes he’s already found his real family at the foster home and so he goes back. Sivana finds out where Billy lives and takes the other kids hostage. To save his foster siblings Billy agrees to go to Shazam’s Rock of Eternity with Sivana to give him his powers. But the kids follow and Billy decides to attack instead. They all escape to a carnival where Billy uses Shazam’s staff to give some of his power to each of his foster siblings. They each transform into an adult superhero and the best moment in the movie is when Darla with her seven-year-old brain in an adult woman’s body saves a mall Santa from one of Sivana’s demons. She believes he really is Santa and says to him, “My name is Darla and I’ve been really good this year!” The mall Santa looks at her like she’s crazy. Together they defeat Sivana and his demons and Billy has found a home.

Freddy keeps on coming up with names for Billy’s hero persona like Captain Sparkle Fingers but the name Captain Marvel is never mentioned. In the comics Freddy becomes Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary becomes Mary Marvel. I assume that they were legally required to not use the name Captain Marvel because Marvel Comics owns the rights to the name now even though the Shazam character was the original Captain Marvel.

In the comics Dr. Sivana doesn’t have all the powers he displays in the movie. He is basically a mad scientist with two powers. His left eye can discern hidden magic and so he knows Billy is really Captain Marvel. He has also worked out a mathematical formula that allows him to walk through walls. Except for Sivana I thought this movie handled the Shazam story charmingly well and expanded on characters like Freddy in ways that the comic never did. In some ways it was like a superhero version of the Tom Hanks movie Big and there was even a little nod to that picture as Captain Marvel and Sivana are fighting in a toy store on top of the giant electronic piano keys.

I give it an A minus and look forward to the sequel, which will apparently have Duane Johnson as another Captain Marvel villain from the comics, known as Black Adam.

Aquaman is a Cross Between King Arthur, Star Wars and Sponge Bob Squarepants

On Saturday after the food bank I took my haul home and then headed back out to No Frills. I bought three bags of black grapes. I splurged on a pint of Canadian greenhouse small strawberries. I got a bottle of mouthwash and three containers of Greek yogourt.

One of the cashiers at No Frills has an exceptionally beautiful face. I’ve seen her there many times but for the first time she asked how I was.

When I got home I worked on my journal.

For lunch I had a toasted cheese bun with turkey, three-year-old cheese and mustard.

In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Sapphire goes to Chicago to visit relatives, leaving Kingfish alone in New York. He sees her off at the station and before she boards the train he gives her a parcel. She thinks it’s a gift but he’s packed up his laundry for her to do in Chicago. Later when Kingfish is sitting around in his office a woman named Lucy Benson walks in looking for a specific New York City tour. He is about to give her directions but when he finds out that she would be paying $10 a day he suddenly has his own tour guide company. He offers her a walking tour and she's okay with that but he's thinking his feet wouldn’t be able to stand it. He tries to figure out a way to get Andy to give her the tour without having to pay him. He convinces Andy that he recently went down to the unemployment office and got a job as an FBI agent. He enlists Andy to also serve his country and says that Lucy Benson is a European spy and he has to pretend he’s taking her on a walking tour of New York. After a couple of days however Andy has Lucy arrested after he sees her taking pictures of a battleship. Lucy sues both Kingfish and Andy. They agree to settle out of court but Kingfish tells Andy to tell Lucy that he’s gone to South America with all their money. Kingfish goes home and finds that Sapphire has returned from Chicago and she tells Kingfish that when she got back she ran into a cousin she hasn’t seen in years and she’ll be staying with them for a while. She introduces him to Lucy Benson.

I worked on writing my Food Bank Adventure for the rest of the afternoon.

I had turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce and a beer for dinner while watching Aquaman. The Aquaman comic was a rip-off of Marvel’s Submariner from 1939 but the movie takes the theft even further and makes Arthur Curry more of a rogue character like Namor. They are both Atlantean and human hybrids and royalty on their mother’s sides. Namor's father was a sea captain while Arthur’s was a lighthouse keeper.

This story begins with Nicole Kidman or Atlanna washing up on the beach and Tom Curry the lighthouse keeper nursing her back to health. They become lovers and have a baby. The Atlantean soldiers come for her because she refused to submit to an arranged marriage down under. Not Australia but the other down under. She fights them off but decides to go back anyway. As Arthur becomes a boy, Atlanna doesn’t keep in touch but somehow he gets a mentor in Willem Dafoe or Nuidis. Nuidis trains him and keeps telling him that someday he’ll meet his mother but finally confesses that his mother was executed. Arthur learns he can breathe under water and has a telepathic link with all sea creatures. He grows up to be a protector of the seas. He stops some pirates from stealing a sub. After sinking the sub he leaves the lead pirate trapped in the flooding ship. The pirate’s son Kane can’t save his father and has to escape. He vows to take revenge on Aquaman. Meanwhile we see that there are a bunch of undersea kingdoms and when they is an attack from a Russian sub. Most of the kingdoms form an alliance to declare war against the surface under the leadership of Orm, who wants to unite all the kingdoms and become the Oceanmaster. Orm is also the half brother of Arthur Curry. Orm’s fiancé Princess Mera wants to stop the war and so she seeks Arthur’s help. He doesn’t want to go but after she saves Tom's life he comes along but is captured in Atlantis. He challenges Orm to combat but when Orm breaks Arthur's mother's trident Mera helps him escape. Arthur and Mera go to the Sahara where they find under the sand the remnants of an ancient city. Mera tries to activate an ancient hologram to tell them where to find the sacred trident of Atlan but it won’t work without water. Mera uses her water controlling powers to draw water from Arthur’s forehead and activate the hologram. One of the only two good moments in the movie is here when Arthur says he could have just peed on the device. They go to Sicily where they find the location of the trident. But the still vengeful Kane has gotten Atlantean tech from Orm and he’s now Black Manta with enhanced mechanical strength and a helmet that shoots lasers from the eyes. He also has several of Orm’s soldiers helping him. But some sub sea people can’t breathe air. One apparently has to be “high born" to do that. So the other good moment in the film happens after Manta and the soldiers attack in Sicily. Mera and a soldier have crashed through the roof of a house and he is attacking her but she breaks open his helmet so he can’t breathe. He rushes to stick his head in the toilet in order to survive. Arthur and Mera head for the coordinates of the trident and get sucked down a wormhole to the centre of the Earth where there is a lost ocean world and they find Arthur’s mother alive. Arthur learns that the trident is there and only the one true king can release it. Sound familiar? It’s also very sexist. So Arthur gets the golden plastic looking trident and they all go back to Atlantis. Orm’s armies, seeing that Arthur has the trident, don't want to follow Orm anymore. Also Nicole Kidman shows up and convinces Orm not to fight. Nicole goes back to the lighthouse keeper and Aquaman becomes king with Mera his queen.

This movie was spectacularly lame. There were impressive special effects but that alone is not enough. Atlantis looked a little too cartoonishly pretty. At one point Mera wore a royal gown that had a collar that looked like it was made out of seashell shaped party balloons. The movie was a cross between King Arthur, Star Wars, Spongebob Trident Pants and My Little Sea Pony.

Mera was played by the attractive Amber Heard but I’ve seen better acting from porn stars. The movie might as well have been a porno since Jason Momoa was stiff all the way through. His Aquaman had two emotions: angry and amused.

Nicole Kidman’s acting was fine but Willem Dafoe just decided to da-phone it in.

The most ridiculous thing in the film was an octopus playing drums.

I give it an F at 30%.

Food Bank Adventures: Fear of Fake News Breeds Faker News

            On Saturday morning I posted “J’aime les roses fanées” (I Love Withered Roses” by Serge Gainsbourg on Christian’s Translations. I like this song and wouldn’t mind adding it to my repertoire but there’s no room for it right now. Maybe down the road after posting videos of me performing some of the other songs I do. Once I have a good recording of one of my regular songs I’ll include others. But I’ve translated over a hundred songs and so I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to record them all.

            I worked on my journal.

            At 9:45 I headed over to 1499 Queen West to stand in the food bank line-up. I was three places behind Veronica and came up to chat with her and Beth. Beth is a woman who’d claimed a few weeks ago that she drinks coffee for her asthma.

            Veronica asked me why I haven’t been publishing my Food Bank Adventures on the news site. I told her that the publisher hasn’t posted any articles since December 12, I think because she’s had some issues with domestic abuse. Veronica asked if I know her and I said she came to one of my concerts once.

Veronica wanted to know what kind of concerts I do. I told her that a couple of years ago I did combination, song, poem, story and theatrical performance. Veronica said, “So you’re poet!” Beth said that she’s a poet too. Veronica said for me to write her a poem. I told her I couldn’t just write somebody a poem unless I was inspired to do so. She said she wanted a poem so she could sell it and make a lot of money.

I asked Beth if she knew about the writing workshop that meets at PARC every week. She said she wants to be freelance and doesn’t want to be influenced by other people’s rules. I told her that one has to learn the rules before they can break them. She assured me that she knows the rules. I tried to explain to her that it’s beneficial to have feedback on one’s writing from someone one respects. I told her about the Creative Writing course I took last year with Toronto’s Poet Laureate, Albert Moritz. I said I’ve found his feedback very valuable and he’s been helping me get my book ready for publishing.

Beth wanted to know how to publish a book. I told her that there’s an annually published book called The Writers Market that lists all of the publishers to which one can send one’s work. I said that if she were to send her work out to hundreds of people she’d have a better chance of getting published. I cautioned her however that it might not be a big publisher that finally puts out a book of her poetry.

Veronica mentioned that the free Metro newspaper has stopped publishing hard copies and that now they would only be available online for a fee. She said that now she would become illiterate because she won’t have anything to read. I told her that there is plenty of free news online but she said that it’s harder to turn the page to avoid the bad news on the internet.

Veronica declared that all news is only 10% true or less. Beth seemed to agree with her. I argued that that’s not really possible. Most journalists don’t deliberately publish untruths and they are trained to investigate news. Even a random person on the street couldn’t likely be 90% wrong about an event, let alone someone that knows how to ask questions and do research. Beth gave the example of a report of a shooting in Parkdale in which the news got the street and the colour of the car wrong. First of all the report that there was a shooting in Parkdale is already 100% true, so if they get the street or the car wrong because witnesses gave them the wrong information it doesn’t take away 90% of the truth from the report.

I asked Veronica if she didn’t think it was 100% true that Trudeau one the election as the news reported. She admitted that was true but that they might publish false reports about the polling numbers. But again, even if they got the numbers wrong it doesn’t chop 90% of reality from the reportage. It’s just absurd to make such a claim. It’s advisable to take everything with a grain of salt but not with an industrial sized mountain of salt.

They said that they consider human-interest stories more true and so my impression is that for them what is more fake is the news they are less interested in. It seems that fear of fake news has made people more susceptible to faker news.

Speaking of mountains, suddenly three bike cops arrived and one of them was an abnormally large and tall hulking brute. While the other two little ones waited on their bikes, he went to the door of PARC, tried it but found it locked. He walked back to his bike but Beth advised him to rap on the window and so he returned to the door just as someone else was going in. Veronica asked the little cops what they were doing there. The one that looked like he just got his badge in a Kinder Surprise Egg answered, “We’re just chillin!” What a diversionary asshole! Obviously they weren’t there to “chill”. He said they’d been there the day before when Valdene the food bank manager had locked her keys in the van. Then three more bike cops rolled up and waited.

It was well after 10:30 and time to get in line and so I stepped back three places to my spot. Beth and Veronica had a pleasant conversation with the baby cop. To be fair, I’m sure there are hundreds of people that had delightful chats with Hitler sometimes.

Downstairs my volunteer at the shelves was Larissa. There was very little of interest or value there. There were a lot of boxes of turkey helper. There were crackers. There were energy bars. There were canned chestnuts and Cheerios. From the first set of shelves the only thing I took was a can of 2% evaporated milk.

Since I hadn’t taken much from the first set of shelves Larissa let me take an extra can of beans from the next set. I got a tin of black beans and another of chickpeas. Below those I grabbed a can of tuna but Larissa told me to put it back and then reached behind the tune to give me a can of tuna salad, which she said was Italian and very good. I thanked her for her efforts but I told her I preferred a regular can of tuna. Larissa gave me a couple of apple juice drinking boxes.

From the soup section I got a small carton of tomato and roasted red pepper soup and from the pasta section I grabbed a small can of tomato paste because it's always useful to have some on hand and it doesn't take up much space.

From Angie I didn’t take any milk, eggs or generic meat but I accepted a large container of vanilla flavoured Greek yogourt. She asked, “You don’t drink milk?” I said that it depends on the percentage. I drink 0% or 1%. Angie wished me a happy New Year and I wished her a happy decade, so I won.

From the bread section I picked a round loaf of raisin, cranberry and nut bread.

Sylvia gave me a 2.27-kilogram bag of organic P.E.I. “red” potatoes as if one couldn't tell through the transparent sack that the potatoes were red.

She handed me two small onions and I commented that it was the first time they’d had onions for a long time. She said it’d been three weeks but I think it’s been longer. I said we could have used the onions last week for dressing. She asked if I’d gotten my turkey. I answered that I had but that it’s a lot of meat for one person. She suggested that I share it but what am I going to do, take plates out into the street? Mail drumsticks and wings to people?

She gave me two yellow peppers, two oranges and two tomatoes. At the “take what you want" bin by the door, Veronica asked if I wanted some carrots or beets but I said no. I wished her a happy New Year and headed home.

There was still a considerably long line-up outside stretching all the way back to where I’d locked my bike.

Michelle Williams

            On Friday morning I finished working out the chords for “J’aime les roses fanées” by Serge Gainsbourg. I still have to run through the song in French and English before posting it.

            I worked on my journal

            The morning got away from me but I hopped on its caboose and did some cleaning in the bedroom anyway. At the southeast corner of the room I pulled out the little three-drawer dresser that used to be the pedestal for my daughter's student desk. I washed, brushed and scraped that area. It was mostly difficult next to the baseboard because of splattered plaster and paint. It was a little past lunchtime when I'd finished. I don’t think the bedroom floor will be done before the New Year but probably before I start school on January 6.

            I had some turkey for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This story begins with a flashback to twenty-two years before when Kingfish had first proposed to Sapphire. She tells him that her parents are worried about his financial situation. He assures her they are worried over nothing.

            Returning to the present of 1948 Sapphire is complaining that Kingfish hasn’t gotten a job through their whole marriage. Kingfish says he doesn’t want to become a big success at something and then find out later he’s not fitted for it. He tells her he’s handicapped because he doesn’t have an education. Sapphire says, “Don’t tell me that you’re dumb!” He says, “I can prove it to you! I married you didn’t I?” Kingfish later learns that Andy is interested in taking a correspondence course and so he pretends that he represents a correspondence school. Andy gives him $50 for tuition but weeks go by and he’s received no lessons in the mail. At first Kingfish says that the school is on holiday for most of the year. Later, just when Andy is ready to beat Kingfish up, Kingfish tells him that the Worldwide correspondence school has gone bankrupt and so he won't get his money back. He offers to just give Andy the school as compensation and Andy is satisfied with that. Later Sapphire tells Kingfish that she’d been thinking about what he’d said about being handicapped by a lack of education and so she enrolled him in a course at the Worldwide Correspondence School for $75.

            I worked on my journal.

            I had three small potatoes, some turkey, cranberry sauce and gravy for dinner while watching Venom.

            Even though Venom first appeared in Spiderman this movie was presented as somewhat separate from Spiderman’s universe. I don’t know if they will try to bring them together in later movies or not.

            A pharmaceutical company called The Life Foundation has its own space program because its president Carlton Drake is extremely idealistic. He believes that the Earth is finished and we need to begin to seriously think about living on other planets. One of his probes has found samples of alien life inside of a comet, but the probe crashes and some of the samples are unaccounted for. Drake’s research is unethical in that he tests human subjects with drugs long before clinical trials are legally allowed. Eddie Brock is an investigative reporter trying to expose Drake's criminal negligence but he winds up getting fired for his efforts and he gets his girlfriend Ann fired from her position as a lawyer for a firm for which Drake is a client. Ann leaves Eddie and he’s down and out. Meanwhile Drake has learned that the aliens are symbiotes that require a human host to survive. Drake is luring or kidnapping homeless people to test as hosts for the symbiotes but the subjects keep dying. Finally Dora Skirth, one of Drake’s scientists can’t stand it anymore and contacts Eddie. She brings him to Life Labs where he takes photos. In a glass cell he sees a homeless woman that he knows from his neighbourhood. He breaks her free and she attacks him. The symbiote that was in her oozes into Eddie. Security is alerted of an intruder but Eddie manages to escape with his strength suddenly enhanced. Not realizing yet that he has a symbiote inside of him, Eddie is hearing a voice in his head and he is extremely hungry. He also requires live food and so he begins eating lobsters from a restaurant tank. Anne’s new boyfriend is a doctor and does an MRI but high levels of sound are the symbiote’s weakness. When Drake learns that Eddie is the first compatible host for the symbiotes he wants him brought in at all costs. He sends his security team and drones after him. By this time Brock has been introduced to Venom and he emerges to fight the private military force, biting the head off one of the men. Brock builds more of a relationship with Venom and uses him to break into the office of his old boss to give him the photos he took on his phone. A symbiote called Riot arrives from Malaysia after hitchhiking in several hosts. Riot is the leader of the other symbiotes and he bonds with Drake. Venom and Riot fight because Venom has always been an outsider like Brock and does not want to be part of a collective. He likes Brock and he likes Earth. Venom warns Brock that Riot is a much better fighter. Riot rips Venom from Brock’s body. Brock is captured and Venom enters a small dog and meets Anne. Brock is about to be killed by Drake’s men when a female form of Venom kills the men and through a long kiss transfers the symbiote back to Brock. Drake and Riot plan on using his spaceship to go to the comet for the rest of the symbiotes. Brock and Venom stop them by causing the rocket to explode. In the end it appears that Venom has been killed but Eddie has convinced Venom to keep him in control. He must only eat very bad people when Brock says so. In the mid credit scene Brock goes to a maximum security prison to interview serial killer Cletus Casady who is played by Woody Harrelson. Cletus promises Brock that when he gets out there will be Carnage. Carnage is an even more brutal symbiote than Venom in a more brutal host.

            Anne was played by Michelle Williams, who started acting at age 13 and became legally recognized as an adult at 15 so she could pursue work on her own. She was nominated for a best supporting actress Academy Award for her role in Brokeback Mountain and entered into a relationship with Heath Ledger, with who she had a child. She won a Golden Globe for portraying Marilyn Monroe.

The Original Dark Phoenix was a Masterpiece. The New One Was a Mess

            On Thursday morning I pasted my translation of  “Le complainte du progrès by Boris Vian along with the chords onto my Christian’s Translations blog and began to edit out the various glitches that tend to occur when I do these posts. For instance the chords tend to show up as headings until I remove the HTML language that tells them to do that. It’ll take me a few days to get the song ready for blog publication.

            I finished memorizing “J’aime les roses fanées” (I Love Faded Roses) by Serge Gainsbourg and started looking for the chords. I was surprised that no one had posted them. I started working them out on my own. They seem pretty simple.

            I worked on my journal.

            Around midday I headed out for my annual Boxing Day rounds. First I went up the street to the Salvation Army Thrift Store where all clothing was 50% off. I looked for pants in my size range of 40-34 and 38-34 but there was nothing that long. I found a 36-32 pair of dockers from Banana Republic and a 36-34 pair of dress pants from Denver Hayes. They were probably too small but the fit of a size can vary and so I thought I’d try them on but there were five people ahead of me waiting for the change room. Since both pairs together would cost me $9.00 and since it would take at least $9.00 worth of my time to stand in line, change, try on two pairs of pants and then put my clothes back on I decided to take the chance and just buy the pants. If they fit at home it would be a score and if they didn't I'd say I broke even by avoiding the line-up. I took the pants home and tried them on. Both pairs are too small but wearable to do the laundry in and the dress pants might be okay for public wear if the cuffs were lowered or if I pull my socks up over them.

            I had planned on going to Value Village next but after the Sally Ann I figured one thrift store was enough for a day. I anticipated there being line-ups for the changing rooms there as well. So I just headed straight up to the Dufferin Mall, which was going to be my third stop anyway.

            I’ve had the most success buying pants at Marks Work Warehouse and so I headed straight for that store. I wanted to replace the Dockers that I’d bought there a couple of years ago because the left cuff has gotten chewed up from bike riding and there’s a little hole in the left thigh. I forget what caused it but I think it got caught on something sharp. My pair was 40-34 but I couldn’t find that size in any of their piles. I tried on two kinds of 38-34s. The jeans I was wearing are 38-34 and they fit great but I found the dockers to be snug in the wrong places. I asked an employee and he said they don’t have 40-34 in dockers right now. I wondered if people are shrinking.

            I tried the Gap and several other stores but no dice, so I went to Walmart. The main thing I wanted at Walmart is a bucket. I’d been using the old plastic bucket that had originally contained kitty litter for the last year to soak my big amethyst rock in vinegar but I think the acetic acid has dissolved a pinprick hole in the bottom, because it’s very slowly leaking maybe a drop or two a day. I looked around for a while but couldn’t find anything. When I asked an employee he asked, “Pockets?” He told me they were just two aisles over but I found them five aisles over and across a lane. They had little mop pales but I needed something bigger. I also wanted it to be white so the amethyst showed up well inside. I finally settled on a Mistral All Purpose can. It has a locking lid and looks something like a classic garbage can with vertical grooves. I'm sure it's really meant to be a small garbage can but I think it might serve my purpose.

            While I was downstairs I looked for a stainless steel baking sheet. I really hate the Teflon ones that I bought last year. They stain very easily and just look dirty now even when they’re clean. I’d like something I could just scrub clean and shiny. All they had were the Teflon and so I went back upstairs.

            I wanted to buy more underwear and socks. On my way there I saw jeans and I found a pair of black Wranglers in size 38-34 like the ones I was wearing. I tried them on and they didn’t look bad. I was almost ready to buy them but when I put on my own jeans and looked in the mirror they looked so much better that I decided to not buy them after all.

            I got a pack of six tagless briefs and two pairs of thermal socks.

            On my way home down Brock I saw some interesting garbage in front of the studio building where Malabar costumes is located. It looked like an artist had thrown out a bunch of materials, equipment, frames and books. The books were all artsy hardcover books with text and photos. One book was a coffee table size hardcover book called “Influence” and it was written by the Olsen Twins of all people. It looked more interesting than one would expect from those two but not enough for me to take.

            I took two books. One was a book that I thought was by Kant but it was on Kant. Reading books by authors about authors is like eating someone else’s vomit.

            The other book is called “From A to Z 26 Ways to be Canadian. The book six holes in it from front to back. It has 26 19^th Century photos by William Notman and opposite each photo is a stylized letter utilizing the holes in the design. Fore each letter there is a single word the photograph is supposed to represent, although sometimes it’s meant to represent to opposite of the word. For example the first letter says Canadians are “Athletic” and there is a photo of Percival Molson, the great grandson of John Molson, who founded the Molson’s brewery. Percival was a star athlete at McGill University. He died in WWI but left money in his will for McGill to build a football stadium.

            Also in the box was an Apple keyboard and an Apple mouse, which apparently will work with a PC if they are functional.

            Another score was a Black and Decker single speed jigsaw. It worked when I plugged it in but I’ll have to buy blades for it.

            Additionally there was a rubber mallet, a glass hand roller that would be good for collage or similar projects, Elmer’s all purpose glue, neutral PH adhesive, part of a roll of string, another of twine, a spool of very strong black nylon twine and another of thread.

            After taking my stuff home I rode back out to go to Freshco. I bought three bags of grapes but they weren’t as firm as I would have liked. I got a pint of blueberries, a jug of vinegar, maple yogourt and paper towels.

            I had a turkey wing with hot sauce for lunch and took a late siesta. I got up at 18:30 and worked on my journal.

            I had three small potatoes, some turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce for dinner while watching “Dark Phoenix”.

Spoiler alert!

This story begins with Jean Grey as a child losing control of her powers and causing a car accident that kills both her parents. She is taken in by Charles Xavier’s school and grows up to become an X-Man. They go into space to save the crew of the space shuttle from a strange energy phenomenon. Jean is teleported on board by Kurt. Jean absorbs the energy and becomes literally drugged by the power. Her mind is also breaking free of all the blocks that Charles installed to shield her from her childhood trauma. One of those blocks made her believe her father was dead but he’s alive. Meanwhile some powerful aliens arrive. Their leader takes over the body of a very pale blonde woman. Jean goes to her father but discovers that he gave her up to Charles because he hated her for killing her mother. The X-Men arrive. She’s angry at Charles for lying. Raven tries to get close to her but Jane sends her flying backwards into some sharp spikes. Raven dies. The blonde alien and her family are looking for Jean. Jean goes to see Magneto who leads a remote colony of mutants that he protects. She asks for help and he asks whose blood is on her shirt. The army comes for Jean. She fights them and Magneto tells her to leave. Beast comes to tell Magneto that Jean killed Raven. Now they both want her dead. The blonde alien finds Jean. Jean can’t read her mind. The blonde explains that they had been tracking the energy force before Jean absorbed it in space. The aliens have acquired a building in New York and they welcome Jean in. The blonde convinces Jean that she must embrace her power. She offers to help her control her power to turn the universe into paradise. Meanwhile both the X-Men and Magneto’s team converge on the building. They fight each other. Magnet goes for Jean but she almost kills him. Charles arrives and she makes him rise from his wheelchair and painfully climb the stairs to her like a puppet. He asks her to look in his mind and she sees that he really had no ill intent in lying to her about her father. She tells the blonde to take the energy from her. They embrace and the transfer begins. Jean seems to be in a trance. The blonde tells Charles her people will kill everyone and make the Earth theirs. Cyclops hits the blonde with a blast and breaks the link. Soldiers come with mutant power neutralizing tech and capture everyone, including Jean, who is unconscious after the energy drain. They are on a train heading for the mutant prison when the aliens attack to get at Jean and to complete the energy transfer. When their tech doesn’t work on the aliens and after many of them have been killed one of them flips a switch to release the mutants. The mutants fight the aliens. Jean begins disintegrating the aliens and even being impaled has no effect on her. The blonde grabs her and renews the energy transfer but it’s too much. Jean won’t let her break away and tells she’s going to get the power. Seeing that the power is causing people harm Jean takes the blonde up into space. She disintegrates the blonde and then turns into energy in the shape of a Phoenix. She transformed into a cosmic entity.

The blonde alien was apparently named “Vuk” although I never noticed anyone call her that. She was played by Jessica Chastain.

The problem with this story is that it was already done in X-Men Last Stand, which was the best superhero movie of all time. It seems really stupid to attempt to do it again with mediocre actors, poor special effects and bad writing. Why not move the X-Men along rather than rehash old stories? If X-Men were part of the Marvel cinematic universe it wouldn’t have been screwed up. There are no continuity issues in any of the Avengers movies while X-Men is a mess.

Scarlet Black

            On Christmas morning after yoga I didn’t jump straight into song practice. First I shaved and showered and then I changed the A string on my guitar. I didn’t do my regular selection of songs but rather certain ones that I don’t usually play all the way through. I also finished playing “Le complainte du progrès by Boris Vian and now it’s ready to post on Christian’s Translations.

            I got caught up on my journal.

            I had a late breakfast of organic bacon with and egg and a toasted bagel while watching “Avengers Endgame”.

            Spoiler alert!

            It starts off right after Infinity War at the moment when Thanos turns half the people in the universe to dust. We see Hawkeye enjoying a picnic with his wife and kids. He turns around and when he looks back his family are gone. I thought that was a very effective beginning. Iron Man and Nebula are on a space ship far away from Earth and trying to get back here but their situation is hopeless because their oxygen will run out in less than a day. Suddenly Captain Marvel appears and rescues them. The surviving Avengers along with Captain Marvel learn Thanos’s probable location from his daughter, Nebula. They find him in a weakened state. They demand the Infinity Stones in order to bring everyone back but Thanos tells them he destroyed the Infinity Stones. Nebula confirms that of all the things her father is, he is not a liar. Enraged, Thor beheads Thanos. Five years later Ant Man emerges from the quantum realm. Even though he had been there for five years, for him it was only five hours. He contacts Black Widow and Captain America and theorizes that the quantum realm could be used for time travel. If that’s the case they could get the Infinity Stones before Thanos does and save the universe. They try to enlist Tony Stark but he has married Pepper and they have a daughter. He doesn’t want to change anything. They talk to Bruce Banner, who has figured out a way to be the Hulk permanently and yet still maintain Banner’s mind. Time travel is outside his field but he begins some time travel experiments by sending Scott into the Quantum realm. There are comical results as at one point Scott comes back as a baby. Stark finally gives in and figures out a way to make time travel work. They need to assemble the surviving Avengers in order to split up and go after the stones in separate teams. They find Thor depressed and ridiculously overweight, doing nothing but drinking beer and watching TV. He reluctantly joins them and they go back in time. The Hulk is able to convince the Ancient One to give him the Time stone when she learns that Dr Strange gave it away in the future. She trusts he knew what he was doing. But Stark and Scott fail to get the space stone when the 2012 Loki uses it to escape custody. Stark and Captain America must go back to 1970 to get an earlier version of the Space stone. Thor and Rocket go to Asgard where Thor gets a pep talk from his mother and urges him to eat a salad. Rocket extracts the Reality stone from Jane Foster. War Machine and Nebula go to the planet Morag to get the Power stone. Nebula retrieves it and gives it to Rhodes and he goes back to the present but something goes wrong with Nebula’s cybernetic implants. She is sharing the same network as her former self, who is still a dedicated slave of Thanos. The past Nebula [picks up signals from the future and Thanos learns that the Avengers are gathering the stones. Thanos captures the future Nebula.  Meanwhile the Black Widow and Hawkeye go to get the Soul Stone on Vermir. They learn, as Thanos did in the previous film, that a soul must be sacrificed to achieve the stone. Widow and Hawkeye fight over who gets to die to save the universe. Natasha wins. All of the Avengers return from the past, except that the past Nebula is impersonating the present one. The stones are placed on a gauntlet and Hulk puts it on. He snaps his fingers and everyone is brought back to life. But the past Nebula has opened a portal to bring Thanos to the future. He attacks with his army. The present Nebula and the past Gamora agree to fight Thanos together. Present Nebula kills past Nebula. All of the returned Avengers and the Black Panther and his army fight Thanos and his army. Captain Marvel returns to help turn the tables. Thanos gets the gauntlet but Iron Man takes the stones. He puts them on his glove and snaps his fingers, this dissolving Thanos and his army. This is too much for Stark’s heart and he dies. Captain America takes the stones back to their places in the past. He is supposed to return in five seconds but he doesn’t. Sam Wilson finds an old man sitting in the park. Captain America had decided to stay in the past and live his life. He passes his shield to Sam and appoints him the new Captain America.

            This was a great film. It made me cry and it made me laugh frequently. It was also an exciting action film, although it gets a bit busy with so many characters. I’m also still annoyed with Spiderman having too much Stark tech in his costume, especially the cybernetic spider legs that pop out.

            The death of the Black Widow in our time means that the upcoming Black Widow movie has to take place in the past. In terms of the films she is one of the most interesting Avengers. 

            It was such a long movie that by the time it was done it was too late for lunch and so I just took a siesta.

            When I got up I started making stuffing for my turkey. I removed the round loaf of raisin, cranberry and nut bread from the freezer, thawed it in the oven, cut it up into small chunks and sautéed them in garlic butter. I put the bread in a bowl, added some more garlic butter to the pan and then sautéed the hot Italian sausage that I’d also frozen. I mixed the sausage with the bread, but more garlic butter in the pan and then put the dressing back on the heat. After eight minutes or so I put the dressing back in the bowl, added chicken broth, thyme and sage, mixed it up and then got the turkey ready to stuff. I put the turkey in the oven. I expected it to take five hours but it only took four.

            While I was cooking I saw a cockroach for the first time in at least six months. I killed it. Hopefully it was just a scout but it was pretty young though not a baby.

            I drank a beer while I was cooking and had another afterwards.

            I had three potatoes, some steamed frozen shredded squash, a drumstick, dressing, cranberry sauce and gravy for dinner with another beer while watching, “Spiderman, Far From Home”.

            Spoiler alert!

            The story begins with lots of references to the fact that half the people in the universe had been disintegrated for five years. At Peter Parker’s high school they are calling it “The Blip" and it has created complications in that some students that were gone are now five years behind their friends that hadn't been turned to dust. Peter’s Aunt May says that when she rematerialized in her apartment there were already new tenants living. The woman living there thought that May was her husband’s mistress.

            Peter’s class is going on a tour of Europe and Peter’s plan is to buy a black dahlia pendant for Mary Jane and then to give it to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower after telling her how much he likes her.

            Happy Hogan seems to be trying to get close to May but he also has work to do involving Spiderman. Nick Fury keeps trying to get in touch with Peter but after what he’s been through lately and because of his plans with Mary Jane, he avoids answering the phone. The class arrives in Venice. On the first day a gigantic water monster rises. Peter asks his friend Ned to run to their room and get his costume. Meanwhile Peter grabs a discarded carnival mask tries to tackle the monster in his street clothes. Suddenly a costumed figure appears in the air who I recognize as Mysterio from the comics (I’m pretty sure I had Spiderman 13 in 1964 when Mysterio first appears). Mysterio is fighting the monster quite effectively with green energy blasts from his hands. It seems odd to see Mysterio being a hero, since I know him to be a conman and a master of special effects. Peter is able to help Mysterio by stopping a building from collapsing long enough for the people inside to run to safety. When Peter gets back to his room a very grumpy Nick Fury is waiting for him. This is the first time they've met and Fury is not impressed. He presents Peter with a final gift from the late Tony Stark. It’s a pair of high tech glasses that connects Peter to a satellite system called EDITH (Even Dead I’m The Hero). Fury takes Peter to the Venice headquarters of SHIELD where he meets Quentin Beck, alias Mysterio. Mysterio says he's from an alternate Earth and he's here to fight the Elementals that destroyed his world. He says the fire monster is going to attack Prague. But Prague is not part of Peter’s school trip and he says he can’t go. Fury, with a tense smile says, “Okay” and Peter leaves. The next day Peter's chaperones announce that their tour has been upgraded and they are going to Prague. They are even provided with a private bus and Peter recognizes the driver as a very serious SHIELD agent named Dmitri. At a rest stop Peter as everyone goes to the washroom Dmitri directs him to a small bar, inside of which is a very dominant blonde female SHIELD agent who demands that he take off his clothes. She explains tersely that she has an alternative costume for him. But while he is disrobing his classmate Brad and rival for the affections of Mary Jane walks in. He sees Peter with his pants down next to this strange woman and he takes a picture with his phone. Peter goes after Brad and Brad says he is definitely going to show the photo to Mary Jane. On the bus Peter puts on the glasses and begins to mention Brad Davis. EDITH asks if Brad is a target. Peter says yes without understanding before EDITH initiates a drone strike on Brad. Peter is about to tell EDITH to stop when Flash takes his glasses. Peter quickly knocks him out. EDITH asks Peter if he wants the drone strike cancelled just as a fellow student asks, “Did you just punch Flash?" Peter says, "No!" and the drone approaches. Peter has to distract everyone while he goes to the top of the bus and destroys the drone. Finally Peter gets EDITH to simply delete the photo from Brad’s phone. In Prague there is a carnival going on when the fire monster attacks. Peter helps Mysterio take it on while wearing his new black costume. People begin calling him Night Monkey. They are having little effect on the monster until Mysterio flies directly into the monster. It is destroyed and Mysterio seems like he almost died as well. Fury arrives to praise Mysterio and to angrily criticize Peter for not stepping up. Mysterio takes Peter to a bar and Peter has lemonade while he makes a decision that Mysterio is the hero that really deserves EDITH. He gives him the glasses and leaves. After Peter is gone a lot of the people in the bar disappear because they were holographic projections and the members of Beck's team begin to celebrate. Finally we see Mysterio the con artist that I remember from the comics. It turns out that Beck is a former Stark employee as were some members of Beck’s team. They are the ones behind the illusions. The holograms of the monsters are combined with weaponized drones to create real destruction. But now that Beck has access to EDITH they can create worldwide threats for Mysterio to defeat and become the greatest hero on the planet. Peter goes for a walk with Mary Jane and she says she thinks he’s Spiderman. She shows Peter something she picked up while the fire monster was attacking and Peter realizes it’s a holographic projector. Peter confesses he is Spiderman. At the same time Beck learns that one of his projectors is missing. He uses EDITH to find out that Mary Jane found it. He decides he will have to kill her. Peter goes to Berlin to try to warn Fury. Fury picks him up and takes him to SHIELD headquarters but as Peter is telling him about Beck suddenly a drone shoots Fury. But it all seems to be a complex hologram as Mysterio messes with Peter’s mind with one illusion after another. Finally Fury appears and takes out Mysterio. Fury asks Peter who he told about Beck and he says, Ned, Mary Jane and maybe Ned told Betty. Suddenly Fury is revealed to be Mysterio and he tells Peter his friends have to die. Peter escapes on a train and winds up in the Netherlands where he calls Happy to pick him up. Happy arrives on a Stark plane. One the plane is a laser printer with which Peter makes a Spiderman costume. Happy puts on some music and Peter says, “I love Led Zeppelin!” but it’s ACDC. The class goes to London where Mysterio stages a citywide monster attack. Spiderman jumps from Happy’s plane into the monster and this time relies entirely on his Spider sense in order to be unaffected by the illusions. All he has to do is fight hundreds of weaponized drones. He defeats Mysterio and Beck hands him the glasses but it’s another illusion and Spiderman stops the real Beck from shooting him just in time. EDITH asks Peter if he wants drone termination executed. He says execute them all. From some cause that I couldn't discern, Beck seems to be dying. Days later everything seems to be going fine. Peter is romantically involved with Mary Jane. Suddenly a screen in Times Square broadcasts a news report by Jonah Jameson saying that Spiderman killed Quentin Beck and showing manipulated footage of the scene where Spiderman says, “Execute them all!” Just before "dying" Beck reveals to the camera that Spiderman is Peter Parker.

            The end credit scene shows that all through the movie Nick Fury was the Skrull from Captain Marvel. He’s now working for SHIELD and Nick Fury is on vacation on the ship orbiting the Earth where the Skrulls have made their home. He looks kind of fat and old in a bathrobe.

            This was a very engaging film. I still don’t like all the tech Peter has access to and I still think Aunt May should be old but other that that it was handled well.

Brie Marvel

            Why has no one ever thought of capturing Santa and experimenting on him to find out what gives him all that power such as to have lived for 800 years? One could experiment by injecting his blood into mice or people. One could use his DNA to create a super soldier.

            On Tuesday morning I almost finished memorizing “J’aime les roses fanées” (I Love Withered Roses) by Serge Gainsbourg. I had all the parts but couldn’t quite put them together once my time ran out.

            The morning got away from me when I got caught up looking for photographs online. When I was finished there was no time to work on washing the floor on the east side of the bedroom. So I would feel some sense of accomplishment I organized the little broken three-drawer dresser in the southeast corner of the room and pulled it out to vacuum behinds it. Luckily a piece of wood got stuck in the machine because it compelled me to unlock the hose and clean it out. That got rid of the horrible whistle the vacuum has been making for the last few weeks.

            I had chickpeas with flaxseed oil and garlic for lunch.

            I did my exercises in the afternoon while listening to Amos and Andy. This story begins with Kingfish’s brother-in-law living with him and Sapphire. Kingfish is upset that Leroy has gotten a job as a janitor because he’s worried what the neighbours will think. “If one of those bums can get a job, why can't the other one?" Kingfish has lately been obsessed with a radio contest called The Secret Melody. A band plays part of a song and whoever guesses the right song wins $2000. He learns the address of one of the members of the band at the show and he and Andy go to see him. They tell him they are with the Metropolitan Opera and they want to hire him for the orchestra. He says didn't know they used banjos in the opera. Kingfish says nobody can hear the music with all those Italians yelling anyway. Once the musician figures out they are trying to get the name of the mystery melody he throws them out. Kingfish learns that Leroy is working as a janitor at the radio station and he knows the name of the song. Because he’s an employee he can’t win the contest but he tells Kingfish he’ll sell him the name for $100. He tries to raise the money by telling Andy he’s collecting money for the political campaigns of all the presidential candidates for the 1948 election that is happening in two days. Andy writes him a cheque but Amos tells him he's been scammed again so he cancels. Then Kingfish learns that Andy has bought the Name of the song from Leroy. Andy tells Kingfish the name of the song is “The Egyptian Love Song” and he wins. A radio station rep comes to give Kingfish a cheque but it turns out that Leroy has sold the name to several people and they all have to split the money. Kingfish gets $6.50.

I spent an hour working on trying to make a video of the song “Strip Tease” from my July 20, 2017 rehearsal. The problem is that I made two videos that morning because the first one had timed out. The Sound Recorder kept rolling and it took several minutes before I noticed the camera had stopped and started another recording. That meant I had to resynchronize the two audio files. I got them close enough for an echo after an hour and then saved it and quit. I’ll probably shave down the echo a bit next time.

That night I had my last steak with three small potatoes and gravy. Since it was Christmas Eve I had a beer with dinner and watched Captain Marvel. I had the first few Captain marvel comics when I was a kid. The original Mar-vell in 1967 was a male and I lost touch with the stories because I went out on the road and lost interest in comics for several years. In the late 60s Captain Marvel became trapped in the Negative Zone but figured out a way to switch places with Rick Jones for three hours at a time, so it becomes something like the original Captain Marvel who takes the place of a boy when he calls Shazam! I think the original Captain Marvel became one with the universe and defeated Thanos in a parallel with Avengers End Game. Then in the late 70s Carol Danvers gained his powers but for a while they tried to make her a feminist icon and made her name Ms Marvel. After many years she became Captain Marvel.

The movie has a lot of flashbacks but the present of the story is in the 1980s and begins on the Kree homeworld Hala. Carol Danvers doesn’t yet know she is human because she had been kidnapped after absorbing the energy from the core of a lightspeed ship. The core turns out to be the tesseract, which has been prominent a lot of the Marvel movies. The Kree transform her body and she has blue blood like the Kree. She is trained as a Kree warrior named Veers but keeps having flashbacks of her previous life. As part of her mentor’s team they infiltrate a planet to resvcue a captured Kree but are ambushed by the Skrulls. She is captured by the Skrulls who are trying to extract information about the core from her mind. She escapes and crashes on Earth in the 80s where she meets a young Agent Nick Fury. The shapeshifting Skrulls infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and Fury and Veers help each other. Veers discovers that Earth is the source of her flashbacks and that she was once Carol Danvers. She encounters a Skrull leader who reveals that it’s actually the Kree that are evil and the Skrulls are refugees trying to be free of Kree tyranny. Together they locate the tesseract just as the Kree arrive. They capture Carol and begin draining her power but she reverses it and becomes more powerful that before. She defeats the Kree and saves Earth from Kree missiles meant to destroy it. Then she flies into space to confront the Kree home world. The Easter egg brings us up to date just after Avengers Infinity War when Nick Fury sent a signal to Captain Marvel across the universe just as he was dissolving after Thanos snapped his fingers. The surviving Avengers, have the pager and are wondering who is on the other end. Suddenly Captain Marvel is there and demands to know where Fury is.

Captain Marvel is played by Brie Larson, whose father is French Canadian and her first language was French. She was home schooled. She’s a musician and a songwriter. She won the best actress Oscar for “Room”.