Friday 10 May 2024

Craig Huxley


            On Thursday morning I almost finished editing the chord positions for “Hey Mister Zippo” in my Christian’s Translations blog and I should have it published tomorrow. 
            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. 
            I weighed 88 kilos before breakfast. 
            Around midday I left to ride my bike up to Topcuts at Yonge and St Clair. When I arrived there were no customers and two stylists waiting but I couldn’t see Amy. I asked for her and one of them called to the back where maybe she was having her lunch. She served me right away and I got my first haircut since early December. I was scheduled to meet Brian Haddon at 13:00 in front of Topcuts and we would have walked down to The Quail in Rosedale for beer and lunch. But Brian emailed me earlier that he had to bail because he had a sore throat and laryngitis. 
            On the way home I stopped at Freshco where I bought six bags of grapes, raspberries, bananas, two packs of five-year-old cheddar, Italian sausages, spoon size shredded wheat, and a pack of Kicking Horse coffee since they were out of Full City Dark. I haven’t tried the Kicking Horse so we’ll find out how it compares with the Full City. 
            I weighed 86.7 kilos at 15:00, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since April 30. 
            I weighed 87.1 kilos at 18:00. 
            I uploaded the first photos and videos from my new Sony camera. The videos are placed in a different folder and it took me a while to find them. I had taken some dirty mirror selfies with both the Kodak and the Sony for comparison and the Sony shots are a lot better. 
            I was caught up on my journal just before dinner. I had a potato with gravy and four pork ribs while watching season 2, episodes 11 and 12 of Bewitched. 
            In the first story Aunt Clara has learned that her old beau Hedley Partridge is trying to find her and so she wants to hide at Samantha’s house for a while. She doesn’t want him to see her because she is embarrassed that her magic doesn’t work like it did when they were courting. But then Endora tells Hedley where Clara is because she thinks that if they hit it off again Clara will have someone to take care of her in her old age. Hedley is invited to dinner that night and Samantha plans to make sure Hedley doesn’t think Clara has lost her abilities as a witch. Later Hedley is alone in the house and lets the nosy neighbour Gladys Kravitz in who has been snooping around outside. He thinks she is Samantha and tells her he was so anxious to see Clara that he came early and entered through the wall. Gladys of course is surprised but he misunderstands why. He says, “Once a warlock, always a warlock”. He tells her his powers are as good as ever and demonstrates by making the flowers in Samantha’s vase dance. Gladys screams and runs away just as Darrin comes home and informs him that Gladys is not Samantha. Then Clara arrives and she and Hedley are happy to see each other. Later he shows Clara the dancing flowers. Hedley conjures a cigar and asks Clara for a light. Samantha levitates the lighter for her and the ashtray. Clara doesn’t realize that Samantha did the spells for her and now she has her confidence up. Hedley mentions how they used to turn themselves into nightingales and serenade young lovers. Clara suggests they do it now but ends up turning Hedley into an elephant and cutting herself in half. After a few minutes Clara remembers her spell and so then Samantha knows the words for the reversal. Then Headley explains that he also has trouble doing magic in his old age and has resorted to illusions to make himself appear still competent as a warlock. He made the flowers dance with wires and he didn’t come in through the wall but rather the window. He and Clara have new things in common to bond over. 
            In the second story two old friends of Samantha, Walter and Margaret Brocken bring their son Merle to visit her. They explain that they have an important witches conclave to attend in London and couldn’t find a sitter. They ask if Samantha could look after Merle for a day or so. Samantha is reluctant because Darrin doesn’t want to have any witchcraft in the house. Walter asks Merle to promise not to do any magic in front of Darrin and he says okay. They say he has a lot of studying to do for his course in elementary spells and incantations. Meanwhile Darrin and his boss Larry are having a drink in a bar. Larry shows Darrin an expensive necklace that he just bought for Louise. But he says she always snoops and so it’s hard to surprise her. He asks Darrin to hold onto it until Louise’s birthday. A suspicious character has been sitting next to them at the bar and he follows Darrin home. Once he sees the address he drives away. Darrin meets Merle. Samantha tells him to go out and play. Gladys sees him turn a stick into a bird and make water shoot out of his ears. She asks about the water and he explains he went swimming yesterday. Darrin offers to play catch with Merle but he says he doesn’t know how. Darrin says he’ll teach him but Merle knocks him over with the force of his first throw and then when Merle tries to bat the ball he hits a home run. Darrin tells him he could be a professional player but Merle says he wants to be like his father. At dinner Merle refuses to eat meatloaf and leaves the table. Later he is practicing spells in his room and he turns a hairbrush into a firetruck. Darrin comes in to have a talk with him and wonders where he got the truck. Since he knows Merle didn’t come with any toys he thinks that he must have picked it up from someone else’s yard. He says he will take it until he finds out. But Merle causes the truck to shock Darrin. Samantha confesses that Merle is a warlock. She takes charge and forces Merle to come back downstairs to eat his meatloaf. She makes him promise to perform no more magic while he’s there. That night the suspicious character from the bar comes to Darrin’s house to break in and steal the necklace. He’s quite clumsy and fumbles and makes a lot of noise, even though it turns out that the back door is unlocked. Darrin wakes up and goes downstairs to confront the thief. The burglar only manages to get his gun out just before Darrin is able to subdue him. He ties Darrin up and then starts searching for the necklace. Merle comes downstairs and Darrin asks him to help but Merle says he promised not to use magic. So Merle lets the thief tie him up and tells him where to find the necklace. The robber is about to leave when Darrin suggests he take the fire engine as well. The crook says he will since his nephew has a birthday coming up. Merle warns him to leave the truck alone. He grabs the truck but Merle causes the siren to sound as the truck advances towards the thief and sprays him with water. The burglar tires to shoot the truck but only water comes out of his gun. 
            Walter was played by James Doohan, who in six months time would make his debut as Scotty the engineer of the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek. 
            Merle was played by Craig Huxley who would also appear on Star Trek a year later as Peter Kirk, the nephew of Captain Kirk. He also appeared later as another character on Star Trek, on The Flying Nun, The Brady Bunch, The Streets of San Francisco, and Kung Fu. He was fourteen when he formed the Craig Hundley Trio and released his debut album, The Arrival of a Young Giant. The next year he recorded two more albums with a big band. In 1968 he tied with Sly and the Family Stone on the NBC Showcase prime time competition. In the 70s he invented The Blaster Beam, which was played in Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the sound made by “V’ger”. He composed the score for the movie Americana. He patented his instrument in 1984 and he played it in the soundtrack of the horror film 10 Cloverfield Lane. He played piano and synthesizer in the studio and on tours for many well known performers such as Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Earth Wind and Fire. He played on the soundtracks for several films such as Star Trek I, II, and III, Dead Poets Society, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Purple Rain. In 1984 he founded Enterprise Studios, which Billboard named the number two mixing studio in the world. He was the sound designer for five seasons of the TV series 24.










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