Jocelyn Lane

            On Saturday morning I finished working out the chords for “Made in China” by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through singing and playing it in French and English so tomorrow I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I went to Freedom Mobile to pay for my April phone plan. Then I went to Vina Pharmacy to buy a tongue brush. I’ve never bought one before but when my mouth was being examined at the graduate school of periodontics two weeks ago and “Dr. Max” was calling out things for his assistant to write down, at one point he said, “Tongue: hairy”. I asked about it and he said that it’s a build up of fungus and that I could prevent it by using a tongue brush. Apparently I can also use a tooth brush but probably not the same one I use to brush my teeth. From what I read today it’s caused by a buildup of keratin, which is what causes hair to grow on the head. 

            I went to No Frills and on the way I made a dumb mistake. Since there was no one heading west on King I crossed over to the middle and then cut over to the south side to ride west. Usually there’s room to do that without going against traffic but this time there was a line of cars turning right and so I was in the way of people in the centre lane. Some angry driver called out, “What are you doing?”

            At the supermarket the red grapes were very cheap. I bought six bags because the ones in the last bag were too soft. I got a pack of raspberries, some bananas, pea meal bacon, a pack of artisan naan, three bags of milk, salsa, baked beans, chili sauce, and two containers of skyr. 

            I weighed 86.4 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been at midday since March 7. I had a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with pumpkin seed butter and a glass of lemonade. Although the jar of organic pumpkin seed butter had been on my shelf for about two years, it didn’t taste rancid. The oil had completely separated though and so I had to stir it for about ten minutes to make it buttery again. 

            In the afternoon before my bike ride I brushed my tongue for the first time. Even though I brushed my teeth and used mouthwash afterwards my mouth tasted bitter. I guess it’ll take a while to get all the hair off. I rode downtown and back. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 17:15. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:20. 

            I continued re-reading the novel Pearl, doing research as I went along. The word “Angel” comes from Angelos, which is Greek for messenger; but further back it comes from ángaros, which is Persian for mounted courier. 

            I had half a can of maple baked beans, with toast and French fries. I had it with a beer while watching episode 11 of Amos Burke: Secret Agent. 

            Burke is part of a stake out of a warehouse where black market arms dealer James Ketterback is detailing a mission to some of his men. But Ketterback has intercepted radio communication between Burke and his team and so he blows up the warehouse, including some of his own men. Burke wakes up in the hospital. He then heads for Sicily where at the airport he meets Lola Redmond of American Tours but she is really his contact with MX3. Ketterback is there at the airport. Burke tells Lola that Ketterback is shipping missiles to Latin America. In the parking lot they see Ketterback having a violent confrontation with a young woman. She eventually gets into Ketterback’s car and they drive away. Burke sends Lola back to the hotel and he follows Ketterback to a gated estate. He parks his conspicuous looking Rolls Royce right in front of the gate and then sneaks over the fence. But later when he leaves, the gate just opens easily. He spreads a white liquid across the driveway and then drives two metal stakes into the ground on either side of the driveway a few meters closer to the house. Inside he finds the woman in a fight with one of Ketterback’s men. The man knocks her out, then Burke knocks him out and carries the woman away. The man pursues them but trips the electric eyes between the two metal posts, which sets off the chemical that Burke spread, turning it into knockout gas. Ketterback calls the police chief over whom he has some control, telling him he knows the girl must be brought back. The woman comes to after Burke has been driving for a few minutes. She says her name is Angelina Brassio. Burke is stopped at a police roadblock and knocked out. When he wakes he is drugged and questioned by Ketterback but he gives no information. Burke is taken to his car so he can die in an accident. But once outside Burke is fully alert, overwhelms his two guards and drives away. Back at his hotel he seems doped again and he is met by Lola. In her room he remembers where he saw Angelina before. Her picture was in a magazine five years ago accompanying a report that said her name was Adriana Montavi and that she had been found dead on the beach. She was Colonel Lashi’s girlfriend and had died of a drug overdose. But then a Sicilian peasant woman claimed the body was that of her daughter Adriana. Burke thinks Ketterback arranged this to save Lashi from a scandal. He keeps Adriana prisoner so he can continue to have leverage over him. Burke meets with Lashi to tell him what he knows. He says he can get Adriana to the US out of Ketterback’s reach so Lashi can arrest him without scandal. He can also get the corpse of the other girl to the US as well. Later Ketterback hears from Lashi that Burke bought two shovels and headed for the cemetery. 

            We find Burke and Lola digging up the woman’s grave. They unearth the coffin and Burke attaches a tracking device to it. He tells Lola to go to the Rolls and follow the signal. Burke is captured and taken away but then Lola is captured as well. We see a gun pointed and hear a shot and that’s the last we see of Lola. Ketterback’s men take Burke to the villa and for some odd reason put him in the same room as Adriana. Then Ketterback takes both Burke and Adriana onto the ship he is using to transport the missile. Ketterback finds the tracking device on the coffin. 

            Later Burke sees Ketterback and his men leaving the ship on a small boat. Burke figures that Ketterback has planted a bomb to destroy him, Adriana, the coffin, and the missile all at once so there would be no evidence left behind. Burke and Adriana escape their cabin to the storage area. They are confronted by the captain and his men. Burke explains the situation and the bomb to the captain and he allows Burke to search for the bomb. He finds the detonator by picking up an audible signal after the ship’s engines are shut off because they are muffling the noise. Then Burke diffuses the bomb. 

            Later Ketterback is confronted at the airport by Burke, Adriana, Lashi and the coffin. Lashi says he is under arrest. Ketterback stabs Lashi but Burke shoots him. 

            Adriana was played by Jocelyn Lane, who was the sister of British supermodel Mara Lane. Jocelyn changed her name to Jackie Lane and also became a model, eventually gaining more fame than her sister and became hailed as “the British Bardot”. When she moved to Hollywood she changed her name back to Jocelyn to avoid being confused with the Jackie Lane who acted as the Doctor’s first companion on the original Doctor Who series. Her first film appearance was an uncredited role in The Men of Sherwood Forest. She starred in April in Portugal. She co-starred in the Elvis film Tickle Me. She was featured in the September 1966 issue of Playboy. She co-starred in Robin Hood and the Pirates, The Son of Hercules Versus Venus, War Gods of Babylon, The Sword of Ali Baba, Incident at Phantom Hill, Hell’s Belle’s, and A Bullet for Pretty Boy. In 1973 she married Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and retired from acting to become Princess Jocelyn Hohenlohe. She divorced the prince in 1985 but when she became the successful designer of feather necklaces she called the line The Princess J Collection. Her daughter is known as Princess Arriana Hohenlohe.

March 31, 1994: I posed at the Ontario College of Art

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I posed until 16:00 at the Ontario College of Art.

Aliza Gur

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the chorus and the first verse of “Made in China” by Serge Gainsbourg. I don’t think the rest of the song deviates from that pattern and so it shouldn’t take long to finish it. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the second session of four. 

            I weighed 86 kilos before breakfast. 

            I continued to re-read Pearl by Siân Hughes, making notes as I went along on references to paganism. 

            I weighed 86 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been at midday in fifteen days. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. There were a few places closed for Good Friday but a lot of stores were open and traffic didn’t seem that light. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:24. 

            I continued to research the pagan references in the novel Pearl and found a couple of interesting things: 

            The word bogeyman comes from the Middle English bugge or bogge, which means “frightening spectre” “terror” or “scarecrow” “bogart” “bugbear” “bug” a goblin. Hobgoblins or elf goblins were considered helpful, doing small chores around the house for scraps of food before Christianity made them mischievous and evil. 

            Medieval folk said the smell of hawthorn blossom was just like the smell of the Great Plague in London. Botanists later discovered the reason for this. The chemical trimethylamine present in hawthorn blossom is also formed in decaying animal tissue. In the past, when corpses were in the house for several days before burial, people would have been very familiar with the smell of death. So it is hardly surprising that hawthorn blossoms were so unwelcome in the house. 

            I made oven wedge fries topped with chick peas, garlic and salsa. I ate dinner while watching episode 10 of Amos Burke: Secret Agent. 

            General Cabral is a former South American dictator in exile in Spain with his wife Carla and her sister Florita. Cabral and Carla plan to return to their country where they can rule like king and queen with financial backing from the red Chinese. But a doctor reveals to Carla that the general is terminally ill. Fearing that Cabral will hesitate in their plans if he finds out, she keeps the diagnosis from him and has the doctor murdered. Later an MX3 agent named Jeff Smith who was investigating the case is also killed after the brake line of his car was cut with a hacksaw. Burke is given the mission to find out what happened. Burke is searching for evidence in Smith’s apartment when a young woman named Carmen comes in and tries to burn his clothes. Burke stops her but she says that Jeff told her to burn everything if anything happens to him. She says she thinks Django the chef at The Foundry, the club where she dances is the killer. At the Foundry Carmen taps out a messages with her feet to tell Burke that Django is in the kitchen. Burke confronts Django and is attacked. After a long fight around kitchen things Django dies. Before he dies he tells Burke that Captain Luzardo paid him to kill Smith. Luzardo is Carla’s lover and part of the plot to return to Latin America. Carmen gives Burke the key to a locker at the airport. Inside he finds General Cabal’s x-ray. Carmen says she saw Florita give the envelope to Smith last week. Florita just happens to be there at the club and Burke talks with her. She doesn’t know that Smith is dead. He takes her to Smith’s apartment where he shows her the x-ray and tells her about Smith’s murder. Florita knows now that Carla’s plan is to return with the general long enough to reestablish power and then when Cabral dies she will take over. Carla learns that Burke has seen the x-ray and she is worried that he will ruin their plans. But Luzardo has captured Burke. They take him to the dungeon and tie him to the rack (That particular dungeon with the steep curved stone stairway and the torches on the walls has shown up in several episodes and I’ve seen it on other shows as well. Sometimes it is modernized but the shape of the set is unmistakeable). They stretch Burke on the rack for a couple of turns but they are called away for a meeting. While they are gone Burke cuts through the rope with his cufflink and frees himself. He climbs into a secret corridor in the castle where he observes the meeting take place. Then he goes back to the dungeon and finds a passage to the caverns below through which he escapes. Back in his apartment Burke finds Willowby the weapons expert who has brought him some tools. A telescopic ladder, miniature grenades and gas bombs, a gas mask, and a gun that switches from blanks to real bullets. Burke returns to the castle where from the secret corridor he observes the meeting with the Chinese. Burke interrupts and shoots one of the Chinese agents. But Luzardo comes up behind Burke and disarms him. Carla takes Burke’s gun and shoots him. But he has it set for blanks and only pretends to be dead. Minutes later the general dies before it is time to leave Spain. Burke catches Luzardo trying to escape with the money. They fight and Luzardo runs but Florita shoots him. Carla has lost her mind and just sits watching old film footage of her glory days as a dictator’s wife. 

            Carmen was played by Aliza Gur, who was Miss Israel of 1960. She co-starred in the cult vampire film The Hand of Night. In the James Bond film From Russia With Love she played one of the two Romani women fighting over a man in perhaps the last of the great cinematic cat fights. In my experience women fight with their fists like everybody else. She co-starred in Night Train to Paris and Tarzan the Jungle Boy.

March 30, 1994: Steve Lowe and Tom Smarda backed me up on the open stage

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I posed for a sculpture class at the Ontario College of Art until 16:00. That evening I went to Fat Albert’s open stage and both Steve Lowe and Tom Smarda backed me up during my set.

Dyan Cannon

            On Thursday morning I finished memorizing “Made in China” by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords but no one had posted them and so I worked the first two out for the instrumental. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of four sessions. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning in 24 days.

            I wrote three pages of stream of consciousness notes on “Sir Orfeo” and started transcribing them. Here’s what I have so far:

            “Sir Orfeo” has a striking parallel with “Pearl” but also a striking contrast between the Pagan and the Christian approach. The Christian afterlife is absolutely forbidden to the living but the Faerie world is mostly forbidden but somewhat accessible. If the Faeries can visit our world we should able to access theirs. King Orfeo mourns for the loss of his wife for ten years, withdraws from the world and lives the life of an ascetic and a wandering minstrel. The “Pearl” mourner gives up nothing. Meanwhile Orfeo’s wife gets to hang with the faerie ladies and engages in royal pastimes such as going hawking. He suffers while she doesn’t seem to. She seems passive to whatever happenstance occurs. She has to go to the faerie world until the faerie king says she can go back. She’s quiet about both situations whether being in one world or the other. Why is she scratching herself? Is it because she is facing irresistible magic and she is fighting it? What purpose does the self harm serve? Is the spell upon her body? Is she merely expressing frustration? Is it her beauty that attracted the faerie king and so she is attacking that as rebellion against that which would take her away? In “Pearl” one needs a purified soul to reach the kingdom but in “Sir Orfeo” one just needs to have soul in the musical sense. The reward is given for Orfeo’s musical offering. Maybe the beautiful music of humans is the advantage we have over the faeries. In “Pearl” there is an impassable barrier of water but in Sir Orfeo even solid rock is no barrier. He seems to have accomplished something special because a human in the faerie world is rare. Orfeo follows his wife through solid rock into the parallel universe of the faeries. Where people go not after they die but just before. It’s a kind of afterlife but not the same. The references to Pluto and Juno seems to indicate that Orfeo is a descendant Roman gods who are only seen as human ancestors rather than immortal gods. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before lunch. I made chili with black beans, Basilica sauce, hot peppers and hot sauce and had it with potato chips and a glass of lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. I bought five bags of grapes, two packs of strawberries, a pack of raspberries, bananas, bacon, two packs of five-year-old cheddar, barbecue chips, jalapeno chips, salsa, and paper towels. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 18:15. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. I’ve started re-reading the novel Pearl by Siân Hughes and researching some of the pagan elements as I go along. There is an old folk song quoted called “Green Gravel”: 

“Green gravel, green gravel / your grass is so green / The fairest young maiden / that ever was seen / … I’ll wash you in new milk / and wrap you in silk / and write down your name / in a gold pen and ink.”

            The song is from an ancient circle game that is played only by girls, all joining hands and dancing in a ring. One girl is called the ‘mother’ and stands in the ring to name the girls in any order she chooses. As each girl is named, she turns her back on the ring and covers her face with her hands; the game then goes on without her. This game is a dramatic representation of mourning, and the suggested explanation of ‘green gravel’ is that it is a corruption of ‘green grave’. The washing in milk and the wrapping in silk are preparations of a body for burial. 

            I made oven wedge fries and had them topped by the chili I made for lunch but with added salsa. I had it for dinner while watching episode 9 of Amos Burke: Secret Agent. 

            International businessman Alexander Szabo is attempting a hostile takeover of an automobile corporation. They say they will survive with their secret engine design. Szabo passes a cigar to one of the executives but he refuses to take it. However the cigar is rubbed against the man’s hand and it has a strange effect. He goes into a trance and begins reciting all of the design features of the new engine. Then he walks like a zombie to the window and throws himself to his death. 

            Amos Burke is in an exclusive tailors in London. Colonel Drummond the proprietor takes him through a secret door to a secret service headquarters. Burke is looking for Szabo. Drummond says the way to reach him is through Francesca, Szabo’s ex-wife. A mugging is staged in front of her house and Burke comes to the rescue, chasing him off. Francesca invites him in and then invites him to a party. The party is crashed by Szabo and his right hand man Garth. Burke takes pictures with his cigarette lighter. Francesca is obviously afraid of Szabo and he holds her arm, hurting her to force her to introduce him to Burke. 

            A man named Anton who Burke met at the party calls him and asks him to meet him on the 20:00 train to Brighton. But on the train Burke sees Anton walking in a trance. He throws himself off the train before Burke can stop him. Szabo tries to get information on Burke from Francesca. She knows nothing but he doesn’t believe her and slaps her. He tells her to never see Burke again and then he won’t let her leave his yacht. Later Francesca refuses to answer any calls from Burke. 

            Someone named Von Wydoff has been trying to reach Burke but then Burke learns that Wydoff has committed suicide like the others. Burke goes to his address and finds one of Szabo’s men injecting a man on a bed. Burke bursts in but the man gets away. The man on the bed is in a trance and says his name is Gunter Ernst. Even under watch at the hospital he tries to kill himself by beating his head against the wall. He says he needs to find his sister Inge. Inge was employed by Szabo as a biochemist. Von Wydoff had been in a nursing home and Burke has a hunch Inge is in the same place. We see Szabo’s men removing Inge. Burke tries to follow them but an elderly woman who is learning to drive blocks the way. 

            Burke comes home to find Francesca waiting for him. She says that if he wants to find Szabo he has to go through Garth. Burke tells her to call Garth and have him come to see her. While Garth is in her house Burke instals himself in the trunk of Garth’s car. When they reach Szabo’s house Burke uses an explosive to unlock the trunk from inside. He then uses a grappling hook to climb to the roof and then into the house through an open window. In one of the rooms he finds Inge. It takes a while to convince her that he’s on her side. When Garth checks in her room Burke knocks him out. They leave through the window and go to where Inge has the formula for the drug she developed hidden. The notes are inside the telephone in her lab and show how the drug could be used on a mass scale. Szabo, Garth and Janos come there. Burke lures them into the warehouse. First he kills Garth, then knocks Janos one assumes to his death over a railing. Then Szabo attacks Burke with a needle containing the drug but in the struggle it’s Szabo who gets pricked. Burke and Inge leave him to commit suicide. That seems unnecessary, impractical and cruel. He would be far more useful alive. 

            Francesca was played by Dyan Cannon, whose film debut was in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond. She became Cary Grant’s lover in 1961 and they were married from 1965 to 1968. She co-starred as Alice in the hit film, Bob and Carole and Ted and Alice in 1969. She co-starred in The Anderson Tapes, The Love Machine, Honeysuckle Rose, Author Author, Deathtrap, Coast to Coast, Shamus, and Caddyshack II. She starred in Such Good Friends, Lady of the House, Doctors’ Wives, and Child Under a Leaf. She won an Academy Award for writing and directing the short film Number One in 1976. She had her own musical stage show at Caesar’s Palace in the mid 70s. She hosted Saturday Night Live in 1976. She wrote, directed and starred in The End of Innocence. She guest starred in 17 episodes of Ally McBeal and co-starred in the sitcom Three Sisters. Her memoir was entitled Dear Cary and the new series Archie was partially based on it and for which she serves as executive producer. She’s prominently involved in several charities, especially for children. Next to Jack Nicholson she is the most famous fan of the LA Lakers and is at every game. She co-wrote the song “The Woman I Am” for Chaka Khan.

March 29, 1994: I drank beer for the first time in a month

Thirty years ago today 

            On Tuesday afternoon Steve Lowe and Tom Smarda came to jam with me and I think Mike Martin brought his bongos as well. I don’t remember if they came with me to the Gladstone Hotel for the third night of my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art Bar, but there were more people this week. I drank beer for the first time in a month because I was on the last legs of my Lenten fast.

Brooke Bundy

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the second and third verses of “Made in China” by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have the whole song nailed down tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I finished reading The Hobbit. Before the Elves and Dwarves can go to war with each other they are attacked by Goblins. Bilbo remains invisible during the battle and doesn’t fight. The tide is turned when the eagles attack the Goblins as well. Because of his efforts to negotiate peace Bilbo is honoured as a hero. He returns home with a share of the treasure and just in time because there is an auction taking place in which his relatives are selling off his possessions because they think he’s dead. He has to buy back a lot of his things. He nonetheless lives a comfortable life from this time on. At the end of The Hobbit is the first chapter of Lord of the Rings. I started reading it, although I read it fifty years ago. Bilbo has adopted his cousin Frodo and they have the same birthday. So on Frodo’s 33rd birthday Bilbo throws the biggest party the Shire has ever seen with fireworks by Gandalf. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been at midday in thirteen days. 

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

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:30. 

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

            I finished reading the first chapter of Lord of the Rings and that’s all I intend to read. At the climax of the big birthday party Bilbo gives a speech and says he is leaving for good, then he disappears. Later he reluctantly leaves the magic ring and the rest of his wealth with Frodo and travels away with three Dwarves as companions. Gandalf warns Frodo to use the ring sparingly or not at all because it may have powers beyond invisibility. 

            I copied a translation of "Sir Orfeo" and read it. King Orfeo’s wife is taken by the fairy king. In his mourning Orfeo abandons his kingdom to become a wandering minstrel. One day Orfeo sees his wife with some other women and he follows them to the fairy realm. He charms the king with his harp playing and wins back his wife. It reminds me of Pearl. Sort of a pagan version of Pearl but where the mourner can cross over and win back what he lost. Both worlds show similar paradises in form but the elfin story is darker in that the dead don’t live in perfection on the other side. It seems a story in praise of the power of music. 

            I had a bowl of chili with toasted whole grain bread and my first beer in a month while watching episode 8 of Amos Burke: Secret Agent. 

            A peace guru named Harrison Filmore has a plan to force peace on those who wage war by injecting a gaseous form of LSD into the air. Filmore has four of his followers, Suzie, Paul, Emily and Jeff inject each other with an antidote. They hijack an air force fuel truck on the highway and pour the LSD into the tank. There’s a certain type of gas the base has that can be also used to convert the LSD to vapour. When the truck gets to the base they release the gas while they load the truck with the converting chemical. Whoever wrote this story has never done LSD. Their idea is that acid reverts everyone to a childlike state. Not a single person is hallucinating. 

            Meanwhile Burke is on the base investigating an organization called Union Secord Degener which is involved in attaining and selling top secret information. They’ve infiltrated the peace movement so they can use the LSD to incapacitate places that hold state secrets so they can acquire and sell them. Burke pretends he’s stolen vital ballistic missile information to sell to the Union Secord. Meanwhile Burke’s boss has to make it real by telling all agents to arrest or kill Burke. Burke is given a bullet proof vest. Burke contacts Margot, one of the leaders of the Union. While he’s there an MX3 agent attempts to arrest him. Burke ends up killing him. Later his boss explains that he was a double agent and would have been killed anyway. When Margot sees Burke kill the man she is convinced that Burke really is a traitor. Margot introduces Burke to Paul, one of their agents who has infiltrated Filmore’s movement. Their next target with the LSD gas is MX3 in Washington. Burke goes with Paul to Filmore’s rally but some of the members recognize Burke and grab him. Burke informs Fillmore that he is being used by Union Secord. Paul shoots Burke. Filmore tries to peacefully stop Paul but he is killed. Paul leaves with the gas. Burke has been saved by the bullet proof vest. He gets up and sees that Suzie seems sensible and he asks her to come with him. Paul unleashes the gas into the air conditioning system of the MX3 building. Paul, Margot and several other agents enter MX3 when they see the LSD taking effect. But Burke is there with the other MX3 agents who have been given the antidote. They and Suzie stop the Secord agents. Burke helps get Suzie squared with the authorities and then encourages her to continue protesting against war. 

            Suzie was played by Brooke Bundy, who in her teens was a model in New York and then went to Hollywood to act in films. She played Rebecca North on Days of Our Lives and Diana Taylor on General Hospital. She played Elaine Parker in two Nightmare on Elm Street films. She played Chief Engineer Sarah McDougal on the third episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the story “The Naked Now”.

March 28, 1994: I took my daughter back to her mother and went to work in Parkdale

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I took my daughter back to her mother before I headed downtown to work in Parkdale.

France Nuyen

            On Tuesday I memorized the sixth verse of “Les frères” by Boris Vian. There are nine verses to go. 

            I posted “Dreams in X-Ray”, my translation of “Amour puissance six” (Love to the Power of Six) by Serge Gainsbourg on Facebook. I memorized the first verse of his song “Made in China”.

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            I finished reading Bored of the Rings. Frito is back home and suddenly several people from fairy tales come to his door asking him to go on another quest. He slams the door and takes shelter in his home. 

            I read chapter 10 and 11 of The Hobbit. Bilbo and the dwarves spend a lot of time waiting to figure out how to get in the secret door of the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo finally sees the keyhole in a certain light and the door is opened with the key. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:10. 

            I read up to chapter 16 of The Hobbit. Bilbo goes down into the mountain where the dragon Smaug is sleeping on his treasure. Bilbo steals a goblet and takes it back to show the dwarves. When Smaug wakes he notices the goblet is missing and he is angry. Later Bilbo goes back down thinking Smaug is sleeping but he is not. Bilbo is invisible but not to Smaug’s nose and ears. They have a conversation but when Bilbo goes to leave Smaug singes him with his breath. Later Smaug attacks the nearby Elf village but an archer named Bard is instructed by a thrush to shoot the dragon in a soft part of his underbelly. He does so and kills him. Now the elves think they should have some of the treasure. Thorin the dwarf is now king of the mountain but with only 13 dwarves and a hobbit to defend it. He sends ravens to take messages to other dwarves to bring an army. Bard reminds Thorin that some of the treasure was stolen by Smaug from the elves but Thorin refuses to give it up. Bilbo sneaks away to negotiate with Thorin. 

            I heated oven fries and made chili from Romano beans and salsa. I had the chili on the fries while watching episode 7 of Amos Burke: Secret Agent.

            Banister, a scientist with a photographic memory who has been working on top secret projects for the US must be kept in custody for a year so he doesn’t leak any secrets. But his great mind is bored and his only companion is a guard who is lousy at chess. Banister boobytraps the basketball they play catch with and it contains sleeping gas. Banister escapes to the South Pacific and Burke’s mission is to either retrieve Banister or kill him. 

            Burke goes to the island of Tiamoto (I don’t think it’s a real island). At a bar he pays the bartender for information about Banister. He talks with Happy Tuava who says he’ll see him at his hotel later. He talks with Zeeni who says Happy can’t be trusted because he works for Mr. Sin. 

            That night someone drops a cobra into Burke’s room but he wakes up and shoots it. He catches Happy outside his door who tells him Mr. Sin will see him at his estate in the jungle. Burke goes by boat with Zeeni. Sin is a dwarf in brown face made to look like he’s from India and he has a private army. One of Sin’s guests is Lady Constance who says Sin is protecting her from her husband who is trying to kill her. Sin says he is in the business of providing refuge. Zeeni admits she doesn’t like Sin but says she can’t leave and can’t say why. Later she reveals that Sin injects her with a poison and gives her one antidote pill per day. Someone tries to kill Burke with a poison dart but he sees them in the mirror and dodges. Burke catches Juan Bagulesco, who says he’s there to buy Banister and sell him back to the States. Sin keeps banister in an elevated cage in his dungeon. Two of the guests are Chinese agents also there to bid for Banister. Kara works for Mr. Chen and she asks Burke to get her to the US. Burke finds some pills in Sin’s desk. He catches Zeeni bringing some milk through Sin’s office. He knows that Banister only drinks milk. She takes him to the dungeon where he tries to free Banister but a sonic alarm goes off that knocks Burke out. When Burke wakes he is taken to Sin’s office to bid for Banister. Bagulesco outbids everyone at $2 million but the cheque he gives Sin is in Burke’s name because they have agreed to collaborate. Kara is mad and it turns out she is Chen’s boss. She has Chen attack with a spiked armband but Burke outfights him and pins him to a wall by his spikes. Sin doesn’t honour the sale because he can keep selling Banister. Burke is knocked out and wakes up strapped to a table with his head secured so his neck can’t move. He is given the Chinese water torture unless he offers US government secrets. There is no evidence that Chinese water torture works and it may be more a fictional invention than anything else. It has been found that it’s probably more the head restraint than the actual dripping water that serves as an effective torture technique. Experiments with someone simply holding still without restraint under dripping water has shown no adverse effects. While Burke is restrained Lady Constance wanders in. She at first thinks that Sin has captured Burke to protect her from her husband. Burke informs her that her husband has been dead for two years. There is a current edition of Who’s Who in Sin’s library and her husband who was a very wealthy man would be in the book if he were alive. Who’s Who lists the most prominent people of Britain. Lady Constance lets Burke free. Burke and Constance got to the dungeon to set Banister free but first he turns off the sonic alarm. Sin goes to the dungeon and Burke turns the alarm back on. Burke sets fire to Sin’s house. Sin stays behind to get his money and is trapped in the fire. Burke and his friends escape. Burke reveals to Zeeni that the pills Sin gave her were salt pills and the injections were sugar and water. Banister has to return to custody for the rest of his year with the same guard. 

            Zeeni was played by France Nuyen, who was the original star of The World of Suzie Wong on Broadway. Her first film appearance was in South Pacific. She had a brief affair with Marlon Brando in 1960. She was married to Robert Culp for three years. She co-starred in A Girl Named Tamiko, The Last Time I Saw Archie, Dimension 5, and The Joy Luck Club. She played the title role in the Star Trek episode “Elaan of Troyius”. She was in the cast of St. Elsewhere during the last two seasons of the series. She was a victim of child abuse and in 1986 she earned a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology. In her practice she worked with abused children, abused women and women in prison.