Alice Krige

            On Tuesday morning I finished revising my translation of "De velours et de soie" (The Silk and the Velvet) by Boris Vian. I ran through it in English, and tomorrow I'll upload it to Christian's Translations. 

            I memorized the sixth and seventh verses of "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg and made some changes to my translation. I should have the whole song nailed down tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I rode up to Junction Guitars on Dundas West just east of Keele. I had to pee before going into the store and so I used the washroom at the Bull. Junction seems to be a Gretsch dealer. None of the guitars had the sound or look I was looking for. I tried a guitar and it seemed extremely out of tune until I realized it was a left handed guitar. I chatted with the owner and told him I knew a guy in Montreal who was left handed but could play a right handed guitar without shifting the strings. He said when people are beginning they can figure out how to do things in new ways. I gave the example of Adrian Belew and he remembered that story of how Belew didn't know when he learned to play that special effects were done with electronic equipment and figured out how to do the effects with just the guitar. Then we talked about King Crimson and I said I met Robert Fripp and had pizza and beer with him. He said Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel are the two people he'd be most nervous to meet. I also told him that Iggy Pop crawled on my lap at a concert in 1974. 

            I went to Freshco just north of Dundas West Station where I used the washroom and bought a jug of limeade. I rode to The Mother of All Guitar Shops at Roncesvalles and Howard Park. The name is kind of a joke considering how tiny the shop is and how limited the selection is. There was nothing for me there and so that was my seventh place and I've decided that I'll buy the Martin Road Series. Tomorrow I'll go to Steve's with a gig bag. I'll check out how the pickup works and if everything is fine I'll see if they let me do a price match with The Twelfth Fret and sell it to me for $899 instead of $1199. If not then I'll ride out to Danforth and Woodbine and buy it at The Twelfth Fret. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 16:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:00. 

            I reviewed the videos from June 17 to June 25 of me singing "La bas c'est natural" and "Kenya". I guess because this is a quieter song the traffic noise is more noticeable. It's possible that only the camera mic picked up the traffic noise or if my microphone recorded it I could maybe edit it out in Audacity. June 19 and 25 were the two best French ones and the traffic was quieter. June 24 was the best in English but it was noisy outside. 

            I looked for videos of grand mal seizures in old movies but couldn't find anything that fits. I think I'll just use the seizure footage that I already have. There's some that hasn't been inserted into the video I'm making for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". 

            I cleaned some black and white negatives but only a few needed cleaning. I scanned a lot of negs and made two uploads when the scanner was full. Some of the negatives are damaged and a lot of those still make some interesting abstract shapes. Among the not damaged ones there were many street shots, some shots of my late friend Mike Copping's children, Rachel and Noah. One set of negatives that I didn't finish scanning before dinner contain shots of my friend Kees in Amsterdam. 

            I grilled some chicken drumsticks in the oven and had two with a potato and gravy while watching season 3, episode 9 of Star Trek Picard. 

            In Jack's mind Deanna is accompanying him to the red door in his visions. She opens it for him but what she sees terrifies her and she leaves Jack to tell Picard and Beverly. What she saw was a Borg Cube. When Picard was assimilated by the Borg it was not only technology that was part of the Collective. They also altered his DNA, which he passed on to Jack. His ability to take over and control other people's bodies turns out to be an evolved form of Borg consciousness. Picard goes to Jack to tell him that he will need to be moved to a Vulcan facility that treats former Borg and helps them disconnect. Jack considers that to be a lobotomy and refuses. He strikes out on his own in a shuttle and follows the coordinates the voice in his head gives him. He goes to the Borg ship, meets the Queen, resists assimilation but finally surrenders. 

            Back on the Titan Picard and his friends discuss the situation. The Changelings and the Borg have been working together all along. Today is Federation Frontier Day marking the 250th anniversary of Starfleet. All of Starfleet's ships are gathered in the Sol System in Earth orbit. The Titan heads there to warn Starfleet of the threat. Data discovers that Picard's DNA has become part of the common code of the Federation's transporter system. The fleet has been undergoing assimilation this entire time. But they can only assimilate people under the age of twenty-five, which is when the frontal cortex stops development. The Borg suddenly send a signal and everyone under twenty-five is assimilated, including Geordie's daughters. The younger crewmembers begin to attack the older. Their only chance is to reach a maintenance shuttle. Captain Smith holds off the Borg drones while the others go to a shuttle. He is mortally wounded and transfers command of the Titan to Seven, finally calling her "Seven of Nine" instead of "Hansen". Seven and Raffi stay behind while the shuttle takes the rest to the Fleet Museum where Geordie reveals a project he's been working on for years. He has restored their old ship, the Enterprise D. They all take their old positions on the bridge and head back for Earth. Their advantage is that the Enterprise is old technology that has not been assimilated whereas the new ships are built to coordinate with the fleet. 

            The voice of the Borg Queen is spoken by Alice Krige, who grew up in South Africa where there was no television until a year after she left to pursue an acting career in London. Her first professional acting role was a small part in the BBC's "Play for a Day". Her first feature film was Chariots of Fire. She co-starred in Ghost Story, King David, Barfly, Haunted Summer, Spies Inc, See You In the Morning, and the TV series Wallenberg: the Lost Hero. She first played the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.