William Sylvester

            On Wednesday morning I worked out the chords for the fourth verse of “La vie grise” (The Grey Life) by Boris Vian. There one verse left to work out and I might have that done tomorrow. I don’t know yet if I need to revise my translation. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Aux enfants de la chance” (To the Children of Chance) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through singing and playing it in French and English and then uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog. I’ll start preparing it for publication tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the final session of four. It didn’t go out of tune this time.

            After breakfast I did the dishes but put my French press too close to the outer end of my drying rack. It fell off and smashed and since I consider it essential I immediately walked over to Home Hardware and paid $67 for another Bodum exactly like the one that broke. 

            Around midday I moved the stove and measured off and taped the next row of squares for the checkerboard pattern on my floor. I painted one black square in the middle of that row so there were two white ones on either side. There was lots of black paint left in the tray but not a lot of time and so I just touched up one of the outside squares. The square I painted is not visible when the stove is in place. There is only one full black square and a fifth of another to paint in the last row. If I have time on Thursday I’ll do that and about a third of the whole black square will be visible sticking out from under the stove. After that there’ll be some touch ups to do on some of the visible black squares. The next project will be sanding, plastering, sanding again and then painting my bathroom, but I probably won’t start that until April. 

            I weighed 87 kilos before lunch. I had Triscuits with artichoke and asiago dip and a glass of part calamansi lemonade and part pomegranate juice.

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

            I weighed 86 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:15. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Joanna Dances Lightly” and “Joanna” from August 14 to 21. On August 14, 18 and 20 I played “Joanna Dances Lightly” on my Kramer electric guitar. On August 14 the take at 24:45 wasn’t bad but there was traffic noise. This is in Movie Maker. On August 18 and 20 the takes at 0:30 in part B were two of the best electric versions. On August 15 and 21 I played “Joanna” on my Martin acoustic guitar. On August 15 the take at 21:30 was okay. On August 21 the take at 24:30 was not bad but there was bad washed out light. On August 16 I played “Joanna Dances Lightly” on the Martin and the take at 22:30 was pretty good and looked good. On August 17 and 19 I played “Joanna” on the Kramer. On August 17 the take at 19:45 wasn’t bad but there was a lot of traffic noise. On August 19 the take at 26:00 was okay. This is already synchronized in Movie Maker. 

            I continued to search for video clips from silent films or old films of people falling through the sky. I still haven’t found what I want. 

            I scanned the first five slides from box four of my last eight boxes. This batch seems to be all baby pictures of my daughter. 

            I made pizza on flatbread with Basilica sauce, a chopped slice of roast beef and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 6, episodes 10 and 11 of Green Acres. 

           In the first story Eb is in Pixley when he sees someone who looks exactly like Oliver kiss a strange woman in front of the movie theatre. He thinks that Oliver is cheating on Lisa. Next we see Oliver’s lookalike Charlie Foster with his wife Blanch in a motel room with $50,000 that Charlie has embezzled from the Second Security Bank in Boston. Later at different times both Haney and Hank mistake Charlie for Oliver and it gives Charlie the idea that this guy Douglas must look like him. He sends Blanch to check him out. Charlie decides to let Oliver be the fall guy for the robbery while he skips town. Oliver is arrested by Lieutenant Olson of the FBI but Sam arrests Charlie. They now have two identical men in custody and can’t tell them apart. Lisa says she can tell with the smooch test and she likes Charlie’s kiss enough to linger. Finally Oliver is identified by naming the location of Lisa’s mole. 

            Lieutenant Olson was played by William Sylvester, who moved to England after WWII to study acting. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and became the first member of the Old Vic from the US. He became well known in British radio, film and television before returning to the States. He co-starred in House of Blackmail, A Stranger Came Home, Information Received, Incident at Midnight, Gorgo, Devil Doll, and Ring of Spies. He starred in What Every Woman Wants, Dublin Nightmare, Offbeat, Blind Corner, Devils of Darkness, and The Hand of Night. In Hollywood he co-starred in 2001: A Space Odyssey and in the TV series Gemini Man. 

            In the second story Eb and his fiancé Darleen want to shop for furniture even though they don’t even have a house. Eb says furniture is so expensive he needs a raise. Oliver says he’ll pay for Eb to take a correspondence course so he can learn a new career. He decides on being an accountant but the school gets it mixed up and send him the kit for an acting course. It turns out a few of Oliver’s neighbours have studied with the same school. Hank sent away to study to be a scuba diver but they sent him a county agent kit. Eb decides that he’ll be an actor. Darleen doesn’t like the idea. She thought him becoming an accountant was a good plan. Oliver offers to buy Eb five rooms of furniture if he takes the accounting course but Eb refuses. He imagines a bedroom there in the barn as an acting exercise and Oliver says for him to sleep on it. Next we see Eb levitating on an imaginary bed.