Richard L. Bare

            On Saturday morning I ran through singing and playing the first two verses of "We Are So Impatient for Death", which is my translation of "Que tu es impatiente la mort" by Boris Vian. I made some adjustments to the translation as I went along. 

            I finished transcribing the chords for "Charlotte Forever" by Serge Gainsbourg that were posted on Ultimate Guitar. I looked at another site and they had the same chords. I'll keep searching for more tomorrow and if I find none I'll try out the ones I found. 

            I returned to playing my Martin acoustic guitar for song practice and video and audio recorded the session. As usual it took a few minutes to adjust to the feel of where the chords are after having spent two sessions playing the electric. The session went fairly well. Sometimes there were mistakes that I let go without doing retakes but I think some of the takes came through without being disposable. I think my attempts at playing "Megaphor" and "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" might have turned out okay. I'll play the acoustic for another three days, then two more with the electric, and then finish this year's recording project with two last times on the acoustic. Then I'll start reviewing the videos to hear which recordings are the best. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of cherries, a pack of blueberries, mouthwash, three bags of milk, a jar of salsa, and a small container of skyr. As soon as I got home and put my stuff away I headed out for an early bike ride to Bloor and Yonge, then went down Yonge to Richmond, west to John and then west to Peter where I went north to The Black Bull to meet Brian Haddon. 

            I picked a shady table on the patio to wait for him and he arrived at about 13:05. He was impressed with the video I made of our recording of Instructions for Electroshock Therapy and how I featured him in the video. We talked about how now that we are older we feel more of an urge to get things done before it's too late. We talked about his projects and mine and various movies and shows we've seen. We had two pints each of Creemore and he had the fish and chips while I had the Bull burger. We hugged when we split and talked about maybe getting together again next time at The Rhino in Parkdale before the summer's over.

            I got home and took a siesta at 16:12. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 17:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I reviewed this morning's video of song practice and in general it was pretty good. I think "Megaphor" turned out okay but I fumbled one chord on "Sixteen Tons of Dogma". I think some of the other songs might be keepers. It's weird watching myself in the playback because while I'm recording I am working hard to concentrate on not making mistakes and lots of thoughts and worries are going through my head. But when I watch the video it's like it's another person I'm seeing who looks like they're having a great time and I wish I could play guitar as well as they can. 

            I reviewed the last two songs that got recorded during my 2022 project. "I Love You, Neither Do I" and "Je t'aime, Moi non plus". "I Love You, Neither Do I" only made it onto video on June 15 and 16. On June 15 it was cut off while I was struggling with the guitar intro. On June 16 I made it all the way through, including all but the last line of "I Love the Dead" when it was cut off. "Je t'aime, Moi non plus" on June 17 was cut off during the final verse. I'm finished reviewing 2022 and I'll start 2023 after I finish this year's recording project on July 15. I'll begin by reviewing all of my takes of "Megaphor" to find out if I can consider my playing of it good enough to upload it and start practicing a different one of my songs.

            I made one more gif out of the clip of myself mouthing "NO!" from my Instructions for Electroshock Therapy Video". It wasn't quite done before dinner because I did it incompletely. I had to first make a gif from ezgif and then download it, then upload it again before I could add text. Then I had to figure out how to make the text so it wouldn't be continuous, but would appear like I'm saying "No!" each time the gif cycles. There were several frames presented and so I just deleted "NO!" from every other frame. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 28 and 29 of Petticoat Junction. In the first story Homer Bedloe has fired Mr. Guerney and taken over the presidency of the bank. Bedloe is going to foreclose on the Shady Rest and to prevent Kate from getting help from her friends he is foreclosing on everyone in the valley. He plans to turn the valley into a desert all for the purpose of putting the Cannonball out of business. Kate and her family plan a casino night at the Shady Rest to make money. The girls have an impressive can-can dance routine. During the preparations Willie demonstrates that he only needs to touch the roulette wheel before it spins to feel the vibrations and guess which number the ball will land on. He never loses and Joe thinks he can take Willie to Vegas where he'll earn millions. But Kate has a better idea. She "accidentally" allows Bedloe to witness Willie's ability. Bedloe now wants to use Willie to get rich and take him to Vegas. Willie says he can't go by train because there's school on Monday and so Bedloe says he'll send him by plane. Kate and Sam print a newspaper headline reporting that Bedloe, the president of the C & FW Railroad has put someone on a plane instead of a train. She tells Bedloe she's sending a copy to the president of the railroad. At first he's worried but then thinks that he'll be rich and can buy the railroad. But Willie gets on the plane and is scared and so he gets off. The fear took away his esp. He is underage anyway and wouldn't have been allowed in a casino. Kate's threat of telling the president about the plane still stands and Bedloe begs for mercy. He is forced to reverse the foreclosures and additionally on casino night he has to be the target in the tomato throwing contest. 

            In the second story Joe wants to become the first mayor of Hooterville. Sam, Charlie and Floyd decide that if Joe runs unopposed he will become mayor, which would be a disaster. So they ask Kate to run against him. Joe is offended by Kate's opposition and moves out. Salma Plout sees it as an opportunity to snag a husband and she takes Joe in, becoming his campaign manager. He says he'd rather jump in Simpson's swamp than marry her but she thinks she's gotten a guarantee that if he is elected mayor he'll marry her. She then tells Kate that Joe has threatened to commit suicide. Kate falls for the trick and drops out of the race. Salma thinks she has won but Kate and Joe arrange for a write-in candidate and his wooden statue of Geronimo wins by a landslide. 

            Both of these episodes were directed by Richard L Bare, who wrote and directed a series of comedy shorts called Joe McDoakes between 1942 and 1956. He directed seven classic Twilight Zone episodes, including To Serve Man. He also directed six episodes of 77 Sunset Strip. He directed the movie "I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew". He wrote and directed "Wicked, Wicked" and "Shootout at Medicine Bend". He set a record for television directing with 168 episodes of Green Acres. He wrote a popular book called The Film Director: a Practical Guide to Motion Picture and Television Techniques. He also wrote Confessions of a Hollywood Director. He taught photography and directing at the University of Southern California.