Ned Wever

            On Monday morning I ran through singing "Lulu" by Serge Gainsbourg in French and part of my translation "Lulu Love Child" but I needed to make some adjustments in the English lyrics. I'll probably have that done tomorrow and then upload it to my Christian's Translations blog. 

            I played the Martin acoustic and video and audio recorded my song practice. I got through "Megaphor" in a couple of takes but took several for "Time of the Yo-Yo" and "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" but at least I did half decent takes of them. I made it further down my song list before the battery timed out than I have yet during this year's recording project. Not much further but it's progress. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I glued another piece of fiber board into the depression in my kitchen floor. I weighted it with my concrete block. Then with a hammer and screwdriver I tore up about a third of another floor tile in front of the kitchen counter. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I spent about twenty minutes chiseling the smaller half of the amethyst rock that I split in two a couple of days ago. It also split in two. I had hoped to get all of the amethyst free in one piece but that didn't happen. The smallest piece is almost fine the way it is but I want to knock off some of the yellow crystals and rock, hopefully without breaking off any more amethyst. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 17:45. 

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

            I reviewed the video I shot this morning. The final takes of "Megaphor" and "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" weren't bad. I had to redo "Time of the Yo-Yo" several times because my fingers forgot the chord sequence for the end of each verse. It finally came back. I did some pretty good takes of most of the songs I got through but there was a lot of traffic noise. I might try removing it in Audacity. 

            I reviewed the videos of my performances of "Annie C's Aniseed Suckers" and "Les sucettes" from June 20, 2022 to June 29. For "Annie C's Aniseed Suckers" June 20 was the best of the English ones up to that date with not much traffic noise but slightly flawed playing. On June 22 the battery timed out before this song. On June 24 there was too much traffic noise. June 26 was okay with not much traffic noise. June 28 was not bad but with a little traffic noise. Of "Les Sucettes" June 21 was okay. On June 23 it got cut off. On June 25 there was a little too much traffic noise. For June 27 and 29 the battery had timed out on the previous song. 

            In the Movie Maker project for creating a video of my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I synchronized the concert videos with the studio audio at the points at the beginning of the finale of the song when I sing "shock therapy", followed by a response of "shock therapy", then my second "shock therapy" and Brian's second response. I saved that and then worked on trying to synchronize my third repetition of "shock therapy". But it was time for dinner and I wanted to be sure I had it right and so I didn't save the last few changes. I'll work on it instead on Tuesday. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 1, episodes 28 and 29 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Joe is doing the shopping at Sam Drucker's store while Kate is away. He's buying a washboard and insists on a different identical washboard than the one Sam has handed him. Sam goes to the pile and brings Joe back the same one. Joe says, "That's better". While Joe haggles over the price Floyd comes in for the fifth time and tells him the Cannonball's ready to go. Then Joe haggles over a hat when Floyd comes back to remind him again, saying he's got thirty seconds. Joe doesn't believe they'd leave without him and continues to haggle. The train leaves and Joe has to walk home. Now Joe refuses to speak to Charlie and Floyd. The next day Joe learns that Betty Joe's friend Orville has rigged up a hot rod so it can drive on the train tracks. Joe goes into business with Orville and begins to compete with the Cannonball by picking up passengers with the railroad hot-rod. Now Charlie and Floyd are mad at Joe. When Kate returns home and learns of the feud she refuses to feed Joe, Floyd and Charlie until they've made up. Her strategy is to make them mad at her so they'll be united and it works after they spend a day eating green bananas from Sam's store. 

            In the second story Norman Curtis, the president of the C & FW Railroad is on vacation in Europe. Vice President Homer Bedloe takes advantage of this to ask the executive vice president J.B. Giddings to make him supervisor of the Hooterville Cannonball. Giddings knows Curtis won't allow them to shut down the Cannonball but Bedloe's strategy is to put the train on such a gruelling schedule that Charlie and Floyd will shut it down themselves, so Giddings agrees. Bedloe checks into the Shady Rest and says that the train will only stop at the hotel three times a day. Once in the morning to pick Bedloe up, once to stop for lunch, and once to drop him off in the evening. The train starts making fifteen useless runs a day from Hooterville to Pixley. Kate's hotel is getting no business and Charlie and Floyd are exhausted. Finally they give up and so Bedloe heads for the stockholders meeting in the city to announce the shutting down of the Cannonball. But Kate buys one share of C & FW stock so she, Joe, her daughters, Charlie and Floyd can attend. Kate points out that Bedloe is getting paid a $30,000 vice president's salary to work as a supervisor on a spur line. Giddings transfers Bedloe to become a supervisor on a branch line of the railroad in Alaska. 

            Giddings was played by Lauren Gilbert. 

            The first of the stockholders was played by Ned Wever, who was a stage and old time radio actor. He starred as the detective Bulldog Drummond on the popular radio series of the same name. The show ran from 1941 to 1954, but Wever was not the only actor during that time to play the character. He was also one of the actors to play Dick Tracy on the radio series of the same name. It ran from 1934 to 1948. He also co-starred on Young Widder Brown starring Florence Freeman.