The Future

            On Sunday morning I finished posting my translation of “A la pêche des coeurs" (To the Fishing Hole for Hearts) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the first verse of “Enregistrement” (Documentation) by Serge Gainsbourg and reworked a lot of my translation to fit a better understanding of the song that comes from singing it.

            Starting in the late morning I spent at least two hours washing all the spice containers from the top shelf above the stove. It will probably take the same amount of time to clean the ones from the bottom shelf as well. 

            I heated up some more of the bacon and eggs that I’d made the day before from liquid eggs and bacon and had it with a piece of toast for lunch. 

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to the Goon Show. Only some of it was funny, especially because there are a lot of references to current events and people that never became historically significant. 

            "Here's my ticket." "This is only a platform ticket." "I'm travelling by platform." In Brighton, "I wish to become a life saver." “Have you ever saved a life?” "Yes." "Whose?" "Mine." "How did you save your life?" "I didn't do anything to stop it." "To become a member of the Brighton Life Guards you pay 100 pounds.” “What do I get?" "A receipt." “A receipt for paying 100 pounds?” "No, we give you a receipt for paying 300 pounds, so you’re saving 200." "Well, that's better!" "I offer you the job of chief life saver at 3 pounds per week.” “Offer me a larger figure.” "40 shillings per week.” "Done … If I die please don’t bury me at sea.” "Why?" "I can't swim." They present the play, "The man who tried to destroy London's monuments.” "Are you the prime minister?" "I'm the foreign secretary." "I thought you looked foreign." The prime minister receives a letter saying that London’s monuments are to be bombed. "Quick, jump on this carrier pigeon and take a message to Whitehall.” “So the news was rushed to Whitehall to Bloodnok Chief of the Army, for all our politicians trusted him, which was proof that the government was barmy." Ray Ellington plays “Any Old Iron." "It's just gone 23:00.” “That means every pub's closed for the night." "There's a light in the window." "I never drink light." At the Imperial War Museum the sentry asks, “What’s the password?" "It's Zanzibar." "Is it? I'd better write that down." "Let us in." "I've got to ask you a few questions. Are you married?” "Yes." "Any children?" "38." "Any money in the bank?" "Are these questions necessary?" "No, I'm just lonely." The bomb explodes and Eccles wakes up in the hospital. The doctor says, “You'll be on your back for three years." "Why?" "I'm a slow worker." 

            I synchronized the camera audio from my July 2 recording session with the computer sound recording. 

            I scanned some black and white negatives of photos I took in the 80s. So far there are some of St Lawrence Market and the neighbourhood just west of it, some shots of perhaps the Gardiner Expressway at night from an overpass and a couple of out of focus images of my ex-girlfriend Brenda. 

            I heated the rest of the bacon and eggs for dinner. There was more than I’m used to eating but I wanted to finish it. I had it with a beer while watching the first episode of season three of Star Trek Discovery. 

            Spoiler Alert! 

            Michael Burnham has used the red angel exoskeleton created by her mother to open a wormhole to the future and to lead Discovery through. When she comes out of the wormhole she crashes into a ship piloted by what seems to be a black Han Solo on the run with some illicit cargo. They both crash onto the nearest planet. Michael has the red angel self destruct. She locates the crashed ship of the thief and he attacks her. They fight for a while and she wins. He says that she destroyed his engine and he needs dilithium. She needs access to communication equipment to contact Discovery. He takes her to the nearest city where she plans to trade some of her thousand year old now antique equipment, such as a tricorder for the things they need. She is shocked and distressed to learn from Book that the Federation of Planets died about 120 years ago. In the city Book betrays her and she is arrested but she is drugged to find out her purpose and she babbles for a while high as a kite but then leads them to Book the smuggler. But then they want to kill them both. Book has a portable teleporter and they jump all over the planet, with Book’s enemies always catching up. Finally they force book to reveal his cloaked but damaged ship. From inside his cargo emerges and it’s a giant wormlike monster that eats several of the bad guys before the rest escape. It then eats Michael but Book talks to it and it spits her out. It turns out that Book is a protector of endangered species who has a connection with all plants and animals. Book’s ship is repaired and they fly his cargo to the sanctuary where others of its kind are just beginning their mating season. In the water they behave more like whales than worms. Book takes Michael to see Aditya Sahil who is a vestige of the federation. His grandfather was a commissioned officer but there is no one left to commission him. It is a dream come true for him to meet Michael. He tries to locate Discovery for her but they are not within range. Michael commissions Sahil to be a communication officer and to keep searching for Discovery. He pulls out a Federation flag from a drawer and says that he has never been authorized to raise it. He asks her to do so and she mounts it on the wall of his office. 

            This episode had lots of action but it felt in many ways more like Star Wars than Star Trek with no science backing what is going on and with the kind of creatures and fighting one might find in Star Wars. Hopefully when Discovery arrives it will be back to a Star Trek flavour.