Bernie Kopell

            On Monday morning I worked out the chords for the third verse of "Que tu es impatiente, la mort" (Death You're So Impatient) by Boris Vian and the first verse of "Shanghai" by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I video and audio recorded song practice while playing the Kramer electric guitar. After four days of playing the Martin acoustic I have to get used to where the chords are again on the Kramer. I only did one take of "Megaphor" with a feeling that I could do it better but with experience that there was a good chance of doing it worse if I tried. I did a couple of takes of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" and it's possible that it wasn't too bad. I'll find out later. I matched yesterday's record of making it into "Comme un boomerang" like I did yesterday. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I used a hammer and screwdriver to rip up the last tile in front of my stove. It came up so easy that I decided to pull out the stove and start tearing up the rest of the tiles. I ripped the now uncovered thirds of the two tiles that I'd removed in front of the stove. While I was working a mouse ran out from under the stove and dashed behind the counter. Before putting the stove back in place I duct taped the crack that the mouse had run through. I'm pretty sure I plastered the crack at the other end of the back of the counter last year, so maybe I trapped it, or maybe there's a way into Benji's place back there. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I spent another half hour chiseling the amethyst rocks. I decided to just break the smallest piece down to individual crystals. The second smallest piece I'm going leave as a cluster and just try to polish it as best as I can. I'll start chiseling the third piece tomorrow. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 17:30, which is the heaviest I've been at that time in ten days.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:30. 

            I reviewed the video I shot this morning of my song practice. I don't think I was singing as well as usual today. I don't always like how the electric guitar sounds when I'm playing it at least in the camera microphone. I hit at least one wrong chord at the end of "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" and "La bas c'est natural". 

            I uploaded my June 28, 2022 recording of ""Annie C's Aniseed Suckers" to YouTube. I reviewed my performances of "Leave the Naïve Alone" and "Laisse tomber les filles" from June 11, 2022 to June 16. One thing I noticed about this song is that it sounds a lot better in a recording than it does while I'm playing it, even though it's a lot of fun to play. For "Leave the Naive Alone" June 11 was not bad; on June 13 the battery timed out before I got to this song; on June 15 it wasn't bad but the spit screen was in front of my face; on June 16 it was pretty good but the spit screen was on my chin and there was traffic noise. Of "Laisse tomber les filles" June 14 was not bad but the spit screen was often over my mouth. 

            In my "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" Movie Maker project I added the last clip of the MRI of a pulsing brain to correspond with the final drumbeat and flanked the pulse with two lightning flashes. The problem then was that after all of those pulses and lightning flashes my extended shout was over before the camera pans to Brian Haddon sitting up from the keyboard. So I cut out that last part of me with my mouth open and the shout peters out just as the camera pans away from me to Brian. Then after Brian sits up I added another flash of lightning before everything goes black and it's over. I watched the whole video and I think it's done. I can't publish it as a movie though until I've removed all of the clips that I've collected on my workbench at the end of the timeline. I deleted most of them but I'll check again tomorrow to see if I want to change anything, like maybe add a different lightning flash than the one I put at the end. 

            I had a potato with gravy and three chicken drumsticks while watching season 2, episodes 4 and 5 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story President Norman Curtis of the C & FW Railroad is making Vice President Homer Bedloe organize the annual meeting of the company's seventy stockholders at The Shady Rest. But while he's there he learns about Joe's plan to commemorate the signing of the treaty between the Umquaw Nation and the C & FW Railroad when they sold the land at Dead Man's Curve to allow the track to be laid down. Bedloe looks into it and discovers that the Umquaw never did sign the treaty. He persuades Umquaw Chief Fleeteagle and his son Black Salmon to set up a tepee on the three meter stretch of tracks in question. This means that the stockholders will have to walk twenty four kilometers to get to the Shady Rest. Bedloe's plan is that they will be so angry that they will vote the Cannonball out of existence. Later when the chief and his son are discussing the situation in private we learn that Bedloe pushed them into this protest with the promise of exclusive rights to sell souvenirs in C & FW Railroad stations. But then Joe and Sam bring guns and won't let the Umquaw leave the three meter stretch of land to buy food. Then they eat food in front of them. When Kate hears about this she puts a stop to it and brings a basket of food for the Umquaw. The chief and Kate hit it off and she convinces him to sign the treaty. Bedloe is threatened with jail for trying to coerce the Umquaw and Kate makes him agree to give them the souvenir contract. She also makes him wash all the dishes after the stockholders meeting. 

            Black Salmon was played by Bernie Kopell, who played Latinos in the first three years of his career. His first TV job was a small part in the soap opera The Brighter Day. He played Dr Adam Bricker on four different series: The Love Boat, The Love Boat the Next Wave, Charlie's Angels, and Martin. He played Siegfried the Vice President of Public Relations and Terror for KAOS on fourteen episodes of Get Smart, Alan-a-Dale on When Things Were Rotten, Louis Pallucci on The Doris Day Show, Charlie Miller on Needles and Pins. At the age of 90 he continues to work in film and television.

            In the second story the state election is coming up, although it is never mentioned what state Hooterville is supposed to be in. One assumes it's in the south since there was no snow and not even any bare trees in their Christmas episode. Hooterville holds a twenty year standing state record of being the first community in the state to vote and send their ballots to the state capital before any other. This year however Crabwell Corners has a voting machine and they are prepared to win. There is always food prepared for everyone who votes but this year Selma Plout learns that her rock hard donuts have been rejected. Her response is that she will vote in the afternoon, which would cause Hooterville to lose. In order to coax Selma back in she is presented with a scroll naming her voter of the year and gets her picture in the paper. The people of Hooterville are awakened before sunrise on election day to go to Sam's store to vote. They are sure they've beaten Crabwell Corners but when the votes are counted they are one short and it turns out that in all the excitement and running around Joe forgot to vote. Meanwhile Joe has gone to Crabwell Corners to rub in Hooterville's victory. Kate tells him he has to come back to vote. Fortunately Crabwell Corners' voting machine has broken down and Joe comes back so Hooterville can win. Joe has in his pocket a crucial part from Crabwell Corners' voting machine.