Neil Patrick Harris

            On Wednesday morning I worked out the chords for the third and fourth line of “Tout a été dit cent fois” (It’s Been Said a Hundred Times) by Boris Vian. There are three lines left. 

            I searched for more chords for the English version of the Hungarian “Gloomy Sunday” and found a set by Sarah McLaughlin. I transcribed those, then I found another set and transcribed those. I’ll write down one more set and then see if any of them fit with the version by Serge Gainsbourg that has no chords posted. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar for the first session of two.

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning in 77 days.

            Around midday I rode downtown to try to find some Ganymede perfume for my daughter. Queen Street at Yonge is a mess because of the construction of the new subway line. I didn’t find a place to lock my bike until I was a block east of Yonge. I needed to pee and figured that there must be a washroom at Saks 5th Avenue but was told that the nearest washroom was in the Eaton Centre mall so I went there. Then I went to the Bay but they had no Ganymede. I was directed Saks where a very nice lady at a perfume counter had never heard of it. She looked it up and the closest store that she could find was in Pickering. She asked rhetorically, “Why is it always Pickering?” She said I might have to buy it online but suggested that I try the underground PATH because she remembered a perfume store being there. I walked all along the PATH but found nothing but another urge to pee. I eventually exited on Queen near the Sheraton Centre and walked back to the Eaton Centre washroom. Then I walked to my bike and at Yonge a young woman’s large Indian style earring fell off at my feet and she kept on walking very fast. Short women walk as fast as gay men. I went after her and tried to catch up while calling “Excuse me!” a couple of times. Finally I shouted “Hello!” and she stopped and turned. I held out the earring and asked, “Is this yours?” She put her hand to her left ear and realized it was hers, then she took it and said, “Thank you so much!” 

            I rode to St. Lawrence Market and went downstairs to Domino Foods where I spent about half an hour picking out various chocolate covered things and sour gummies, as well as a few other kinds to send to my daughter for Christmas. I got chastised for putting my shopping basket on top of the date bin. I spent about $25. They used to put customers’ purchased items in a bag but this time left me with a pile on the counter. As I was looking for a bag in my backpack she asked if I wanted a bag. I said, “That would be helpful”. She tossed a bag on top of my pile of candy and went back to her other customer. Upstairs The Sausage King was closed but I went to another meat place that had a selection of seven different kinds of tiny sausages, including blueberry. I asked for one of each and also bought a hot Spanish chorizo sausage. I was glad to be out of the market.

            I headed home and stopped at Bagels on Fire for a dozen sesame seed Montreal style bagels. I noticed when I got home that she’d given me a baker’s dozen, which they’d never done before so I don’t know if it was an accident. 

            I stopped at Freshco where I bought four bags of grapes and a few bananas. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before a late lunch at 15:30. Since that’s four hours later than usual and since I rode and walked a lot further than usual it’s understandable I’d be that light. 

            I took a late siesta and slept more than twenty minutes longer than usual. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:13. 

            I compared the video of my September 6 acoustic song practice performance of “L’accordion” to that of August 9. On August 9 I am a lot more expressive but September 6 looks and sounds a bit better and so it wins this round. I compared September 10 to September 6 and September 10 has bad lighting and so September 6 stays ahead. I compared September 12 to September 6 and September 12 has really bad light and so September 6 has the take of “L’accordion” that I’ll upload to YouTube. I compared my August 8 electric performance of “The Accordion” to that of August 14 and August 14 is far better in look and sound. I compared August 18 to August 14 and on August 18 there is more traffic noise and doesn’t look quite as good. There are two more sessions to compare. 

            In my "Angeline" video project I edited my clip from the Greta Garbo film Ninotchka from 19 seconds down to 6. Tomorrow I’ll insert it into the main video and then cut it to fit my line, “When I saw you in the café there you seemed nervous and alone”. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, the chorizo sausage sliced, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching “The Giggle”, which is the third 2023 Doctor Who special. 

            To recap, the Doctor and Donna return to the present from the edge of the universe to find everyone in the world attacking each other. 

            This story begins in 1925 in the Soho district of London. A man enters a toy shop called the MR Emporium and wants to purchase the ventriloquist’s dummy that the proprietor calls Stooky Bill. He takes it back to his employer John Logie Baird who needs it to demonstrate his new invention called television. He needs a dummy because the lights he is using to illuminate the image are too hot. Stooky Bill begins to burn. So far this is all historically accurate. Then while burning the puppet begins to laugh to the tune of a well known classic arpeggio that is often used for vocal warm ups. Meanwhile the Doctor and Donna are dealing with the violence of the present day. Soldiers of U.N.I.T. arrive, who don’t seem to be affected by the madness. They take them to U.N.I.T. headquarters where the Doctor meets again Shirley Bingham, Kate Lethbridge Stewart and he is also reunited with his former companion Melanie Bush, who travelled with the sixth and seventh Doctors. An alien robot named Vlinx has developed armbands for the members of U.N.I.T. that cancel out the effects of the madness. Donna and Melanie are immune because of their travels with the Doctor. Donna figures out that the signal is a melody. Mel says it’s a musical palindrome with the notes CEGCGEC. Then Shirley finds the original Stooky Bill video. The Doctor and Donna go back to 1925 and he is drawn to the toy shop where the proprietor is juggling. The Doctor recognizes him as The Toymaker. I remember watching that particular Doctor Who adventure in which the Toymaker first and last appeared. The Toymaker then plays hide and seek and the Doctor and Donna get lost in endless old hallways and doors in the back of the shop. Then the Toymaker puts on a puppet show to tell Donna the tragic stories of all of the Doctor’s companions. The Doctor challenges the Toymaker to a game and he has no choice but to play. The Toymaker tells the Doctor that he played a game with The Master and defeated him, sealing him inside of his gold tooth. The Doctor asks why everybody wants to kill each other in the 21st Century. The Toymaker says he made them want to win. The Toymaker says the only one he couldn’t face is The One Who Waits. The game the Toymaker and the Doctor play is high card wins and the Doctor Loses but since the Doctor beat the Toymaker in their first encounter it has to be best two out of three. The Toymaker says he’ll play that game in 2023 and disappears. The Doctor returns to U.N.I.T. and explains that the universe is not binary because there is not just order and chaos but also play. Suddenly the Toymaker appears dancing and lip-syncing to Spice Up Your Life by The Spice Girls. Two soldiers try to detain him and he turns them each into several rubber balls. Others open fire but the bullets are rose petals. The Toymaker commandeers a powerful galvanic beam cannon on the roof of the U.N.I.T. building. The Doctor offers to make the Toymaker his companions so they can travel all time and space and play infinite games. The Toymaker shoots the Doctor with the cannon and then he regenerates but this time into two. The two Doctors challenge the Toymaker to a basic game of catch on the roof and whoever fumbles loses. There are some dramatic catches until finally Ncuti Gatwa throws and the Toymaker fumbles. He folds up like paper but says “My legions are coming” before he is placed in a box. The Doctors and companions leave the roof but we see the Toymaker’s gold tooth containing the Master being picked up by a feminine hand with long polished nails. Donna convinces the old Doctor to retire. But so he won’t miss the Tardis the new Doctor makes use of the residual Toymaker energy and uses it to knock the Tardis with a mallet and make it into two. The new one has a wheelchair ramp and a jukebox. The end is kind of boring. The old Doctor having dinner with Donna and her family and the new Doctor travelling with no cliff hanger. The signature garb for the new Doctor seems to be an untucked dress shirt with an untied necktie and no pants, just underwear. That’s fine but he’s got to make his personality more over the top to be interesting. 

            The Toymaker was played in an amazing over the top performance by Neil Patrick Harris, who co-starred in the film Purple People Eater at the age of 15. At the age of 16 he became the star of the hit series Doogie Howser M.D. which ran for four seasons. After that series ended he spent several years in theatre. In 1999 he starred in the short lived sitcom Stark Raving Mad. His first film as an adult was a starring role in Animal Room. Starting in 2005 he co-starred in all 208 episodes of How I Met Your Mother. In 2008 he starred in Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog which became a number one TV series online without ever being on TV. He co-starred in the three Harold and Kumar movies. He played Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway and won a Tony. He starred in A Series of Unfortunate Events. He is so famous for drinking Red Bull that the company has awarded him a lifetime supply and a fridge to go with it.