Donna Michelle

            On Sunday morning I wasn’t quite able to memorize the second verse of “L'amour en soi” (Essential Romance) by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have it nailed down tomorrow and there’s not much more than repetitions to the song after that. I figured out the order of the lyrics in the recording of the song by Vanessa Paradis. The power went off briefly resulting in several hours of video file conversion from MP4 to AVI being wasted when there were only two hours left. As far as I know there’s no way to simply start from where the conversion left off. I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and as I will do for another 16 sessions. I made it through “Vomit of the Star Eater” and “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” without any major mistakes. Near the end of song practice the light went out on my Boss FS-6 foot switch but it still worked. When rehearsal was over I went out and bought a rechargeable. When I put it in and plugged a cable into it the light came on so I assume the old battery that it came with is almost done anyway. I weighed 86.45 kilos at 11:50, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning for several weeks. I weighed 88.45 kilos at 13:45. For lunch I had Triscuits with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I weighed 87.35 kilos at 18:00. I was caught up in my journal at 18:42. In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I edited the 1922 film “Sky High” down to three short clips. I inserted them into the main video to correspond with the lines, “They walk around, they stop and stare, they leave their garbage everywhere but no one wants to stick around, it’s the kind of place you leave”. Then I deleted about eight seconds of the old concert video until it was synchronized with the studio audio for the beginning of the third chorus. But then in the second line the camera moves away from me and points at my then bass player Arjan. Since Arjan isn’t playing in the studio recording it doesn’t make much sense to focus on him. So I need to look for more outside video to fill up the timeline until the camera’s looking at me again. I uploaded today’s song practice videos. I’ll start converting the big one from MP4 to AVI tonight. I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, salsa, five-year-old cheddar and an egg. I had it with a beer while watching episode 21 of The Big Valley. It’s Nick’s birthday and two of his men want to take him to a new saloon called Barbary Red. It features the beautiful owner as “the toast of the Stockton waterfront”. Inside Nick meets Red herself and when she finds out it’s his birthday she takes them into the back room. Drinks are served and then the men collapse because they’ve been drugged. Barbary Red is a front for a crimping operation. The unconscious men are taken to a holding cell near the coast to await being assigned to a ship. Meanwhile Nick’s family are waiting at home for Nick to arrive so they can celebrate his birthday. When he doesn’t arrive, Heath remembers that the boys were going to buy him a drink. Victoria mentions that they were going to see Barbary Red. At the mention of that name Jarrod says he’s going into town to look for him. Jarrod goes to the saloon and when he sees Barbary Red they recognize each other and he calls her Barbara. They sit at a table and he says he wants to be friends. She says it’s a little late since because of him she spent 180 days in prison. She wants to know why he’s there and he says because he wants to know her personally. He invites her to lunch and she accepts on the condition that it be at the Barkley ranch and that his mother send her a formal invitation. When Jarrod gets home he tells his brothers that he thinks Nick has been shanghaied. Jarrod defended Barbara in San Francisco when she worked for a crimp named Jack Thatcher and explains to his younger brother Eugene that a crimp delivers live bodies to ships that need crews. Heath says they never come back with the same crew. Victoria has been listening and says that they may never see Nick again. Once one has signed onto a ship, even if forced to do so, trying to get away could result in imprisonment or death. Jarrod brings Barbara her invitation. Later she arrives in her carriage but doesn’t have the nerve to go in, so she turns and heads back to town. Jarrod goes to Stockton to ask her to dinner and she accepts. Meanwhile Nick and one of his men are forced to sign on to a ship after his other man is clubbed to death. They learn their captain will be Bob Waterman and Nick remembers that Captain Waterman has been a guest in his home and thinks that will help them. Jarrod goes to see Barbara and urges her to give up the life she’s living. Jack comes in with his men and they knock Jarrod out. Barbara tells Jack that if he shanghaies him they’re through so Jack just has him dumped in the alley. That night the sheriff and his men get involved and Heath volunteers to be shanghaied so they can follow him when they transport him to the ship. Heath pretends to be drunk when he arrives at Barbary Red. He dances with Barbara and then pretends to fall unconscious. He’s carted off to the same cell where Nick is. Jarrod and the posse follow. Nick meets Captain Waterman again but he says because his name is in the ship’s registry he is bound to serve for two years, during which time he is not allowed to speak to him unless he says so. Heath is brought into the cell and dropped on the floor but he is only pretending to be out and winks at Nick. Jack and his men come for the abductees. When one man tries to pick Nick up he knocks him over while Nick grabs Jack from behind. Nick makes Jack call for the door to be opened. There is a shootout between the posse including Jarrod and Jack and his men. Jack is killed. Barbara accuses Jarrod of using her. A belated birthday party is held for Nick. Jarrod heads for the jail to see if Barbara will let him defend her. One of the saloon girls was played by Donna Michelle, who was Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1964. Her May 1964 Playboy cover was featured on a stamp that was issued for Playboy’s 50th anniversary. She was also Playmate of the month in December 1963 and at that time she was 17 and married. She later dated Hugh Hefner.

September 30, 1994: I was jealous of Peter being close to Adina

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday morning I posed for the fashion department at Ryerson and had a hard time finding the classroom. 

            That night was the quarterly Sanctuary dinner and open stage in the basement of the church downtown. I performed my songs “Me and Gravity”, “Hungry Hippunk Goes to Work” and “Angeline” backed up by Tom Smarda, Steve Lowe and the house band Red Rain. Adina was there and I was kind of jealous because Peter seemed to be trying to move in. I walked her to the bus at 2:00 and gave her a hug and kiss when we said goodbye. Then I went back to the church to sing backup for Peter while Steve played guitar. Tom and Cosmic Dawn seemed to be getting along pretty well.

K.T. Stevens

            On Saturday morning I memorized the ninth verse of “Allons z'enfants” (Join the Ranks Kids) by Boris Vian. There are five verses left to learn. 

            I memorized the first verse of “L'amour en soi” (Love in Essence) by Serge Gainsbourg. I spent some time trying figure out the order of the lyrics in the recording of the song by Vanessa Paradis because she repeats some phrases out of the order in which the text is laid out. 

            During song practice I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the last of four sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will continue for another 17 days. This was without a doubt the best session I’ve had in this year’s project. I completed both “Vomit of the Star Eater” and “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” in one take each. I think I might have gotten a chord or two wrong in “Vomit of the Star Eater” but they weren’t aesthetically off. I had time to put four or five of my translations on video that have never been captured before. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos before breakfast. 

             Around midday I went over to Freedom Mobile to pay for my October phone plan but there was a sign on the door that read “Back in Ten Minutes”. I had to wait ten minutes so the sign must have been up longer. 

            I headed down to No Frills where I bought five bags of red grapes, two packs of raspberries, bananas, a sack of potatoes, Basilica sauce, low sugar iced tea, a bag of oven fries, and a container of skyr. I did a price match on the grapes because they were cheaper at Metro. 

            I weighed 87.75 kilos at 14:30. 

            For lunch I had Triscuits with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and kept looking out for a drug store because I forgot to buy Q-Tips at the supermarket. All the Shoppers Drug Marts along Bloor are on the north side but there was one on the west side of Yonge south of Bloor. They put all the items that most people would buy on the second floor and all the fancy expensive items like perfume and makeup on the main floor. The cashiers didn’t really know why they do that but it seems that it’s probably for aesthetic reasons. It’s not very customer friendly though. 

            I weighed 87.05 kilos at 18:25, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since September 20. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:15. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I shaved the 1922 film Sky High down to 1.5 minutes. I only need a few seconds to fit with my line “It’s the kind of place you leave” to lead into the third chorus. I might have it down to the size I need tomorrow. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice video. I converted from MP4 to AVI parts A and B of the September 27 videos and started converting part C. That will be done tonight and then before I go to bed I’ll start converting today’s video. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, an outer rim of five-year-old cheddar and french fries and an egg in the middle. It’s actually quite a delicious combination. I had it with a beer while watching episode 20 of The Big Valley. 

            Jarrod discovers that Keno Nash, the man he sent to prison for murder nine years ago is innocent. The day he was sentenced he screamed in court that he would kill Jarrod. He feels guilty now that he robbed a man of nine years of his life and he tries to make it up to him. The first thing Keno does when he sees him is try to break free to attack him. Jarrod offers him any help he may need and Keno takes the train with him to Stockton. A friend of his named Barney owes him a favour and he goes to see him. Barney’s wife Meg is a photographer and she tells Keno that Barney is dead. Most of the old gang are dead and the rest are in prison. Keno goes to a saloon called the Canton Palace and buys a bottle of whiskey. Already in the bar there are some men at a table who work at the Barkley ranch. They recognize the grey jacket that Keno is wearing as the kind that is given to convicts on the day they are released from San Quenton prison. Keno offers to buy them a drink. Keno has a drink in honour of his lost friends who he says were half horse and half alligator. Follet recognizes that as a Mississippi term for people who worked on the riverboats. Keno says a lot of rivermen came west looking for gold but none of them ever found any. Follet says a lot of them came to San Francisco where his mother ran a boarding house and most of them became Hounds. The real Hounds were an anti-foreigner gang that was like a west coast equivalent to the Bowery Boys. In addition to being a criminal gang they were mostly made up of Mexican-American War veterans and they continued to attack Spanish Americans long after that war ended. They were influenced by the No Nothing Movement which became known as the Native American Party and later the American Party, which was staunchly anti-Catholic. The official name for the Hounds was the San Francisco Society of Regulators. They started out extorting money from Latin American communities, which the general population didn’t mind. It was only after they began expanding their operations to run protection rackets against non-Catholics as well that the city wanted officials to crack down on them. Follet says his mother had six Hounds in her house who burned it down and killed her for the rent. Then Follet asks Keno whose throat he cut to get the money to buy the bottle. Then he tries to take Keno to the sheriff, which results in a bar fight. Keno takes on and beats all three men but they all end up in jail together. Jarrod bails them all out but tells the hired hands the damage to the restaurant will be taken from their pay. Jarrod takes Keno to work on the ranch. Some of the men resent Keno’s presence but Heath invites them pick up their final pay and they back down. Jarrod gets Keno to apprentice at the ranch’s blacksmith shop. Follet continues to bait Keno and threatens him with things going wrong that Keno will be blamed for. Keno makes friends with Audra who gives him her puppy. Nick finds that Keno has ruined the bear traps they made at the forge because he thinks it’s torture. Follet tells Keno to be careful something doesn’t happen to his dog. Follet attacks Keno and they fight, causing a horse to get loose. Turpin also attacks Keno and when the Barkley brothers break up the fight Follet and Turpin say Keno started it. Keno refuses to speak up because he assumes he will be blamed anyway. Later Follet comes with a bottle Kor keno and tell him it’s a peace offering. He then tells him he’s heard Jarrod say he’s sending him back to prison. He gets him so drunk and riled up that he attacks Jarrod. The family votes to fire Keno, all except Jarrod who refuses to accept that verdict. Keno rides away. The family and the other hands accuse Follet of inciting Keno and Victoria slaps him. Jarrod goes after Keno and when he finds him he steps into a bear trap. At first Keno is tempted to leave him to suffer like he did wearing leg irons at San Quenton but then he uses his great strength to open the trap and save Jarrod. Follet is fired and Keno returns to work, collecting his first pay. Jarrod suggests he spend some of the money getting Meg to photograph his puppy. 

            Meg was played by K.T. Stevens, who was the daughter of director Sam Wood who directed Goodbye Mr. Chips and two Marx Brothers films. She appeared in his second silent film, “Peck’s Bad Boy” when she was two years old. After high school she took acting lessons and did summer stock theatre. She made her Broadway debut in 1939. On the radio she starred in Junior Miss. Her adult film debut was in Kitty Foyle. She co-starred in the films Port of New York, The Girl in Room 17, and Missile to the Moon, In adulthood she was more successful on stage and in radio than in films. She played Peggy Mercer on General Hospital but she is best remembered for her role of Vanessa Prentiss in The Young and the Restless. She was a three time president of the LA branch of AFTRA.

September 29, 1994: I worked all day at OCA

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I worked from 9:00 to 16:00 at the Ontario College of Art.

Harold J. Stone

            On Friday morning I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “That I Love You Now Tell Him”, my translation of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” by Serge Gainsbourg. I also posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are twelve Gainsbourg songs left in my project to translate his entire works from 1958 until his death in 1991. I started memorizing his song “L'amour en soi” (Essential Romance). 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will until October 15. I got through “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” without any major mistakes but before I was done my guitar was out of tune. I spent a long time on “Vomit of the Star Eater” and when I finally made it to the third verse and fumbled I decided not to start again. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 87.85 kilos at 18:00. 

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

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I boiled down the 1922 film “Sky High” to 5.5 minutes. I kept all the parts that could possibly relate to my line “It’s the kind of place you leave. I only need a few seconds and so I’ll narrow it down further tomorrow. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice videos. I converted the September 25 video from MP4 to AVI. I’ll start September 26 overnight and should be caught up on Sunday. After that I’ll only need to convert one a day. I finished reviewing the September 10 video and did the first 35 minutes of September 11.

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken drumstick while watching episode 19 of The Big Valley.

            Victoria Barkley is substituting for the regular school teacher Miss Keller because she was sick today. The session is finished and she has just gotten into her carriage when she is surrounded by a gang on horseback. She is warned not to yell by the one who gets into the wagon beside her. He takes the reins as one of the men on horseback points a gun at her and quotes scripture. After some time they reach the top of a hill and send the wagon down to be wrecked at the bottom. Victoria has to ride horseback from this point. Meanwhile her sons have heard of her abduction and with the sheriff have formed a posse. One of the students described the men and it appears to have been the Sam Beldon gang. Since the Barkleys are the richest family in the valley they assume there will soon be a ransom note. The gang arrives at a cabin and Victoria meets Beldon. She asks how much he’s asking for ransom and he says if he wanted ransom he wouldn’t have kidnapped a small town schoolteacher. At that point Victoria realizes Beldon and his gang think that she is Miss Keller the schoolteacher. She keeps the advantage of letting them believe that. She is surprised to learn that the reason she was abducted is because Beldon wants her to teach him to read and write. He has a first grade reader and the next day she begins the lessons of teaching him the alphabet and simple phrases such as “A is for apple”. As they get to know each other he reveals that his wife caught a fever and died a year ago. She’s buried in his place in the high country. Sam leaves to bust one of his men out of jail and Victoria is left under guard. But someone recognizes Sam’s gang in town and things go awry. They lose more men in the shootout, including Preacher, and Julio is brought back severely wounded. Some of the men feel too many things have gone wrong lately and decide to leave. Sam reveals to Victoria the reason he wants to learn to read and write. From a chest he pulls out a grave marker that he carved. He says he wants to be able to write his wife’s tribute on the marker. Doctor Briggs is brought to treat Julio and he recognizes Victoria but she introduces herself to him as Miss Keller so he will play along. Briggs says the bullet is too deep to be removed there but it could be done in town. They are going to kill Briggs but Victoria pulls a derringer she got from his bag and makes Beldon promise he’ll let him go. He does but releases him without his horse or his boots. The Barkley sons find Briggs collapsed but he is able to lead them back to Beldon’s hideout. Julio dies. The sons arrive and Sam’s man Will grabs Victoria for a shield. Sam shoots him and then has a standoff with the posse before getting shot dead. Victoria leaves his schoolbook on his grave.

            Sam was played by Harold J. Stone, who was born to actors in the Yiddish theatre and grew up on stage. He attained a BA from the University of Buffalo Medical School but instead of pursuing that career returned to the family profession. He started out on radio. His Broadway debut was in The World We Make in 1939. His film debut was in The Blue Dahlia. He played Frank Nitti in The St. Valentines Day Massacre. He co-starred in Somebody Up There Likes Me. He was best friends with Jerry Lewis and co-starred in three of his films, including The Big Mouth. He co-starred in the short-lived sitcom The Hartmans. He played Jake Goldberg on The Goldbergs, Hamilton Greeley on My World and Welcome to It, and Sam Steinberg on Bridget Loves Bernie. He co-starred in the series Grand Jury. He was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in an episode of The Nurses.

September 28, 1994: I dropped a tape of my band off at the El Mocambo

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I worked until 16:00 at the Ontario College of Art. I dropped off a tape of my band at the El Mocambo, then I met Mike Copping at the Korona. We went to Taco Bell and then to the Fat Albert’s open stage. Adina showed up later. With Steve on guitar I performed my songs “Megaphor” and “Moment Mountain” (which later was named “Spool of the Moon”): 

Baby’s black and I am white 

Two shades of blue sometimes

and braided around an orgasm 

that we have at the very same time

When we make love we commit murder 

and revive each other from the tomb

I’m stitching my spirit tightly to hers 

with a thread from the spool of the Moon 

and when we touch when we really touch 

we make a mountain out of a moment 

but the elevated scene it doesn’t mean that much 

but from the viewpoint of descent 

That’s why it’s so much fun to slide down moment mountain

sliding to the bottom of our love 

The bottom’s the foundation of 

the pleasure and the pain 

The bottom’s where we do the work 

just to build that mountain again

But a mountain range of moments falls 

behind a wisp of cloud 

and we forget that they were there

all of those moments so tall and proud 

and yet when we touch when we really touch 

we make a mountain out of a moment 

but the elevated scene it doesn’t mean that much 

but from the viewpoint of descent 

That’s why it’s so much fun to slide down moment mountain

sliding to the bottom of our love 

History is time condensed 

the future’s thin as steam

We cannot move in either place

The best we can do is to sleep and dream 

We look beyond the moment that 

we’re in and won’t allow 

that everywhere we’ve ever been 

is radiating from the here and the now

and that when we touch when we really touch 

we make a mountain out of a moment 

but the elevated scene it doesn’t mean that much 

but from the viewpoint of descent 

That’s why it’s so much fun to slide down moment mountain

sliding to the bottom of our love 

            Then we all went over to the Albert’s Hall open stage and did the same set. 

            Adina and I went for a long walk and ended up in a donut shop on Yonge Street until 3:00. Then I walked to her to Bloor where she caught the bus. I gave her a peck on the mouth before she got on.

Rhoda Williams

            On Thursday morning I ran through singing and playing “That I Love You Now Tell Him”, my translation of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” by Serge Gainsbourg. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and started preparing it for publication. I should have it posted tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of four sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I’ve done since September 1 and will continue to do until October 15. This was one of the best sessions of this year’s recording project. I finished “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” in one take without any major mistakes. A lot of songs were done in one take. “Vomit of the Star Eater” took several though. 

            I weighed 87.25 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since September 11. 

            Around noon I took an early bike ride and on the way back stopped at Queen and Peter to meet Brian Haddon in front of what used to be The Black Bull. I was fifteen minutes early so I locked my bike and went to pee at the Peter Pan. Boy has that place gotten fancy! On the window it says “Since 2008” but the Peter Pan has been around at least since the early 80s. I realize that’s because it’s under new ownership but if they bought the name they have a right to claim the full heritage. I unlocked my bike and waited outside what used to be The Black Bull and what will be a sports bar named Score. A guy passing was in shock that the Black Bull is gone. He said it was one of the best pubs in Toronto. Then he lamented that there are very few pubs left in Toronto. He says The Wheat Sheaf is too expensive. Brian snuck up behind me a little after 13:00. We walked along Queen to Spadina, then he wanted to go south. At King we headed west and finally settled on Ruby Soho. They didn’t have Creemore or pitchers and so we each had two pints of Angel Lager while we were there. We also each had a bacon burger. The fries came in a little clay plant pot. The burger was a little sweet but not bad and the fries were great. We were probably there for a couple of hours. We were supposed to get together a month ago but work, a cold, and surgery kept getting in the way. I’m due for a haircut soon and so we’ll probably have lunch in his neighbourhood at the end of October when I go up to Topcuts at Yonge and St. Clair. 

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home where most of the grapes were too soft. I bought one bag of green ones, two packs of raspberries, bananas, multigrain sandwich bread, salsa, and hair conditioner.

            I weighed 87.4 kilos at 18:30. 

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

            I made a new batch of gravy from Monday’s chicken drippings. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice videos. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I watched about another ten minutes of the 1922 silent film Sky High and edited out parts that don’t fit with my line “It’s the kind of place you leave” in reference to my heart as the Grand Canyon. There are about 36 minutes left. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching episode 18 of The Big Valley. 

            The first person we see in this story is William Shatner as a character named Brett Skyler arriving in Stockton. He enters Jarrad Barkley’s office and tells Esther the secretary he wants to see Jarrad. She says he’s busy but he hands her a half coin and tells her just to put it down on Jarrad’s desk and he’ll know who is here. She does and it turns out they are old friends and old law school roommates. Brett is brought back to the ranch as a guest. A little later a secret service man named Marth comes to see Jarrad and tells him Brett is involved in counterfeiting. Jarrad sneaks into Brett’s room, discovers a false bottom in one of his suitcases, and finds $20,000. He takes a bill to Marth, whose colleague examines it and says it’s not fake. Brett deposits his $20,000 in the bank and asks a lot of questions about the security. He notices there is an electric alarm system. This seems historically accurate, since such systems had recently been invented in 1880 when the show is supposed to take place. Brett withdraws $200 and rides to a little house on the outskirts of town where he meets his two partners Clyde and Ketchie. He gives Clyde $10 from the money he withdrew. In those days banks printed their own money. Clyde says the banker prints his bills from a stereotype and hasn’t spent money on a new design specifically for his bank. Brett says he doesn’t want to be involved with this job because of Jarrad, who offered to have him join his law firm. Clyde suggests he’d be just an errand boy for Jarrad. Jarrad later confirms that Brett would be an assistant at first. That night Brett, Clyde and Ketchie break into the bank, Brett disconnects the alarm and Ketchie cracks the vault. The money is stolen and replaced with counterfeit. The next day Brett comes to say goodbye but before he does Jarrad changes his job offer to that of a full partnership. Brett goes to Clyde and Ketchie who are counting the money. Brett pulls a gun on them and ties them up. He then takes the money back to the bank. Jarrad sees him break in. Brett puts all the real money back in the vault and puts the counterfeit in a sack. He has just closed the vault when Jarrad confronts him with a gun. But then Clyde and Ketchie arrive with guns and are about to leave with the bag when Brett reaches behind himself and reconnects the alarm, causing Clyde, Ketchie and himself to be caught. Marth examines the money and says the cash Brett took out was counterfeit. Jarrad says he’ll be Brett’s lawyer. 

            Jarrad’s secretary Esther was played by Rhoda Williams, who could read and write at the age of three and by the age of five could sing, dance, perform 100 sketches, and had written a book entitled “A Little Girl in a Big World”. She starred in the radio show “We Who Are Young”. She graduated from high school at 14 and later earned a Masters degree in Theatre Arts from the University of California. For five years she played Betty (Princess) on the radio version of Father Knows Best. She was the voice of Drizella in Cinderella. She dubbed the voice of Brigitte Bardot for the US version of Heaven Fell That Night. She did alien voices for Star Trek IV and V. She became a teacher of speech and dialects. She was active in several professional and civic organizations and was a union leader.

September 27, 1994: Mary Milne begrudgingly gave Adina a lift

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I posed at Central Technical School until 15:00. Then I worked at the Ontario College of Art until 22:00 and so I was late again to host my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art Bar of the Gladstone Hotel. I missed the first couple of readings by Bobby Hsu and Matthew. Adina was there with Matthew but he left early. Mary Milne begrudgingly gave Adina a lift to the subway.

Diane Baker

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the eighth verse of “Allons z'enfants” (Join the Ranks Kids) by Boris Vian. There are six verses left to learn. 

           I finished working out the chords for “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” (That I Love You Now Tell Him) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through singing and playing it in French and tomorrow I’ll do the same with my translation. I may have to make some slight adjustments to my translation and then I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I noticed part of my journal didn’t get saved last night and so I’ll have to re-write some of it later. Word is getting glitchy because my free student version is about to be deactivated. I’m going to have to buy it by October 3. 

            During song practice I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the first of four sessions. I think I finally got a take of “Vomit of the Star Eater” without any major errors. I did two takes of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” but again hit a wrong chord near the end. 

            I weighed 87.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 88.2 kilos before lunch. I had a toasted corned beef sandwich with mustard and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

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

            I weighed 87.75 kilos at 17:45.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. I paused the conversion of part A of my song practice video for September 22 and converted the 1922 Tom Mix silent film Sky High to H264AVI. I then imported it into Movie Maker and copied it to the end of the timeline for my Me and Gravity project. It’s kind of a racist movie in the way Chinese people are referenced. Mix plays Immigration Agent Grant Newberry. A gang is smuggling “chop suey eating Chinamen” into the US it seems from Mexico by way of the Grand Canyon. On top of that the Chinese are smuggling jewellery and lace. In the first scene he stops a car and finds the driver is smuggling Chinese in drag. The ringleader of the smuggling operation is Jim Frazer, the guardian of a college student named Estelle Halloway. Estelle was scheduled to holiday in Calexico with her guardian but he tells her to meet him at the grand canyon instead. She travels with her roommate Marguerite and Marguerite’s brother William but Estelle receives a telegram that her guardian will be delayed. She goes walking in the canyon with William but he makes a pass at her and so she goes off by herself only to get lost. Meanwhile Grant has gone undercover as a member of the gang camped out in the canyon. He pretends to be turning in for the night and goes into his tent only to sneak out through the back. That’s as far as I got with about 45 minutes left. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice video. I finished converting the September 22 videos. I’ll start converting September 23 overnight. I've reviewed the first hour of the September 20 video. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, five-year-old cheddar, a few french fries and an egg. I made a boundary around the edge of the bread with the cheese and fries so they would hold the egg in. I had it with a beer while watching episode 17 of The Big Valley. 

            Nick comes home from San Francisco with a fiancé he’s only known for five days. She is a beautiful and sophisticated young woman named Hester. She exchanges affectionate greetings with Nick’s brothers but lingers longer with Heath. He goes to kiss her on the cheek but she catches his kiss on her lips. She teaches everybody the latest dances. The family takes an annual camping trip to Indian Springs where they have a lumber camp. Hester is a city girl and has never been camping before. She’s reluctant but gives in. They go to a dance at the lumber camp and all the men want to dance with Hester. By the time Nick gets a chance she’s too tired and asks him to take her back to their campsite. Heath comes back and finds Hester crying. He comforts her and she goes into his arms. Then she runs away and tears her dress on a branch. But when she runs into Nick’s arms he gets the wrong impression and thinks Heath molested her. He attacks Heath and when Heath kicks him away he rolls down the hill, landing on his back and possibly breaking it on a rock. Heath rigs up a restraining device to keep him from moving. They try to transport him that way but they can’t cross the river so Eugene goes for a doctor. Later Nick tricks Hester into loosening his bonds and he tries to leave with her but collapses in convulsions. The doctor comes and says Nick’s back isn’t broken. Hester decides she needs her party life in the city for now and says goodbye to Nick. She leaves with the doctor. 

            Hester was played by Diane Baker, who was born and raised in Hollywood but left for New York at 18 to study acting and ballet. Her film debut was as Margot Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank. She co-starred in Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Mirage, Strait Jacket, The 300 Spartans, and The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. She starred in Tess of the Storm Country. She co-starred in the Night Gallery episode “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar”. She co-starred in the two part finale of The Fugitive, which was the most watched broadcast in the history of episodic television at the time. She co-starred in the sitcom Here We Go Again. She played Blythe House on the TV series House. She produced the TV film Portrait of Grandpa Doc, the movie Never Never Land, and the mini-series A Woman of Substance. She played Rose Kennedy in Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. She became the executive director of the School of Motion Picture, Television and Acting Academy. Then she headed the acting program at the San Francisco Academy of Art.

September 26, 1994: I almost fainted while getting my hearing checked

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday morning I posed at the Ontario College of Art, then I went over to Mount Sinai Hospital to get my ears checked. I’d been hearing a humming and was a bit worried. I spent the early afternoon there and almost fainted while they were blasting me with high pitched sounds. I found out that at 92% my hearing was normal for a city dweller.

Michael Greene

            On Tuesday morning I worked out the chords for the fourth verse of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” (That I Love You Now Tell Him) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think the rest of the verses have the same chords as the first verse so I might have it finished tomorrow. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. Tomorrow I begin a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will until October 15. I managed to get all the way through “Vomit of the Star eater” without a major mistake. When I tried it again though I fumbled a few takes before giving up. I made it through "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" twice but I always get the wrong chord in the last part. I do it better with the acoustic. 

            I weighed 87.45 kilos before breakfast. Getting back on my normal diet is already paying off. That’s the lightest I’ve been in the morning since September 12. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos before lunch. 

            I took my bike ride an hour later than usual because I was going to Albert Moritz’s book launch at Flying Books on the way home. Before I left I started some potatoes boiling but forgot to turn them off. I rode to Yonge and Bloor, south to College and west to Flying Books at 784 College. Albert Moritz was there when I walked in and I went to the counter to buy his book, “Great Silent Ballad”, then I got Albert to sign it. He wrote, “True troubadour, poetic warrior, friend”. I found a seat and later Allen Briesmaster sat behind me. I thanked him for his advice about watching out for spelling errors when getting published by Ekstasis Editions because he was right. I had to really go over Richard Olafson’s layout with a fine toothed comb. I learned that whenever the book launch will be Allen will be part of it because Ekstasis published his book in June and there hasn’t been a launch yet. Allen took public transit all the way from Thornhill. I haven’t been on the subway for about ten years and I thought the extension to Thornhill had already been built but it hasn’t. Beatriz Hausner was the host and she got Albert to read poems based on questions she asked him about the book. I learned that this year is the hundredth anniversary of André Breton’s “Surrealist Manifesto”. 

            It was while I was sitting there that it occurred to me that I might have forgotten to turn the stove off. I was distracted by thinking about it all the time I was there. I thought it was possible that I’d turned it off but I was leaning towards that not being the case. 

            After the reading there was a long line of people waiting to buy Albert’s book. But I stepped in between signings and shook his hand before leaving. I was glad I was almost home already. I didn’t smell the smoke till I got to my hallway. There was no actual visible smoke but the odour was there. It took almost a whole box of baking soda to clean the stainless steel pot. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos at 20:24. I heated a chicken breast and some oven fries. I had the fries with the last of my gravy and the chicken breast while watching episode 16 of The Big Valley. 

            Heath is out counting cattle when he sees some vultures circling. He investigates and finds a dead steer. He gets off his horse to inspect it and he is shot, with the bullet creasing his temple. Three men come forward and the leader is called “Daddy”. The boys want Heath’s clothes and they are about to kill him when Daddy picks up the book that Heath was writing in. He sees 500 head of cattle listed, which means that he comes from a wealthy ranch. They take him back to their camp where two women are working. Daddy explains to them that they saved him from thieves. Daddy tells Allie Kay, the youngest woman, to look after Heath. Daddy figures they’ll get a reward for “saving” Heath. They slap his horse and then follow it as it runs home. When Daddy and his gang approach, Victoria recognizes them as Rawhiders. Daddy introduces himself as John Wesley Cade but says everybody calls him Daddy. They take Heath to his room. The men are all out on roundup except for Silas the butler and Johnson with his arm in a sling. Victoria says the men will be back shortly. Victoria gives Daddy $100 as a reward but he expected $1000. He hints that they have a broken wagon wheel and so Victoria offers them the barn for the night and a spare wagon wheel. Victoria sends Audra to get the doctor. There is a telegram from Nick saying they’ll be spending a week in San Francisco to rest from the cattle drive. Allie Kay is looking after Heath when he wakes up delirious. He thinks she’s someone named Lupe and speaks to her in Spanish, asking her to lie down beside him and kiss him. He pulls her down to him and kisses her and then loses consciousness again. The doctor arrives and asks about the poultice she put on Heath. She says it’s cloverwart and mare’s tail and the doctor is impressed. Daddy comes in and steals the doctor’s watch from his bag. The doctor tells Victoria and Audra that Allie is a good nurse but to clean her up. Allie delights in her first indoor bath and Audra gives her a pretty dress to wear. While snooping around downstairs Daddy finds the telegram from Nick and realizes the house is undefended. Allie tells Audra that Daddy isn’t her father. Her real parents were killed when she was four or five and the Rawhiders raised her. Victoria discovers that the telegram from Nick is missing and now she knows Daddy knows they are alone. Pinto tells Daddy they can loot the place and get clean to Canada. Heath wakes up and meets Allie. Daddy distracts everybody upstairs while his boys take all the guns from the cabinet. Two episodes ago the cabinet was locked. Johnson the hired hand with the injured arm enters the barn and Daddy stabs him. Then he says they’ll have to kill everybody in the house that night. Allie sees the gang through the window approaching the house with guns and she rouses Heath. He asks her to find out what’s going on and she learns they plan to kill everyone. She goes to the barn to get a pistol for Heath and brings it to him. Victoria finds the Rawhiders cavorting in her living room and confronts them. Daddy asks her to marry him and she says she has to think about it. She tries to sneak upstairs but he asks where she’s going. She tells him she can’t get married in her night clothes. Heath tells Victoria, Audra, and Allie to head for the barn. Pinto sees them leave. Daddy tells Pinto he can kill Heath now but when he goes upstairs Heath kills him. Heath climbs down the balcony but when he lands Copper hears him. He goes out on the balcony to shoot Heath but Heath kills Copper. Heath enters the barn but collapses. Daddy is about to kill him when Victoria shoots and kills him. Later the doctor hires Allie Kay as a nurse. 

            Allie Kay was played by the beautiful and talented Yvonne Craig, who played Batgirl on the Batman TV series. 

            Pinto was played by Michael Greene, who was a close friend of David Carradine. He supplied all the flutes that David played on his series Kung Fu. His TV debut was in Wanted Dead or Alive. His film debut was in This Is Not a Test. He played Deputy Marshal Vance Porter on the short lived series The Dakotas. He played Nubu in the Lost in Space episode “Space Circus”.

September 25, 1994: It was raining so we played inside

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday it rained and so my daughter and I might have played inside. I assume Nancy picked her up in the evening since I would have to work the next morning.

Nicolas Surovy

            On Monday morning I worked out the chords for the third verse and half of the fourth of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” (That I Love You Now Tell Him) by Serge Gainsbourg. After the fourth I think the rest of the verses have the same chords as the first verse. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will continue until October 15. I made it into the third verse of “Vomit of the Star Eater” before I started making major mistakes, so I consider that progress. “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” only took a couple of takes but I think the final chord was a little off. 

            I’ve been converting the enormous MP4 files from my camera videos to H264AVI and it has always made fairly good copies in a much smaller size. This morning I saw that a 19 gig file had been converted to a 45 gig file. I tried again with Total Video Converter but saw right away that it was going to convert it to over 60 gigs. I started a few more conversions of the same file and they were predicted to be a different size each time. Finally I found one that was going to be 5 gigs and went with that. 

            I weighed 88.75 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since last Monday. 

            At 14:00 I headed downtown to the U of T Grad School of Dentistry to hopefully get my stitches out. My original appointment had been for 14:45 but they called me a few days ago and changed it to 15:00. I got there around 14:45 and Dr. Xia saw me almost right away. He removed all the stitches but one. He booked me in two weeks to get the last stitch out. Two of his professors looked at it and said it was a successful operation. He said I could wear my denture and eat a less soft diet but to still avoid crunchy food. I still can’t brush or floss that top front tooth and have to instead apply Peridex with a Q-Tip. 

            I weighed 88.25 kilos at 16:00. 

            I weighed 88.95 kilos at 18:20. The same as last Monday evening. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:30. 

            I looked for some silent film clips that might fit with my line “Whenever I lay bare my heart it looks like the Grand Canyon park and women gasp at a desert hole that’s too deep to believe. They walk around they stop and stare, they leave their garbage everywhere but no one wants to stick around it’s the kind of place you leave”. The emphasis would be on the last line because that’s the line that needs to be filled right now for the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity”. I watched the Tom Mix film “Sky High”, which takes place in the Grand Canyon and I think I might be able to use something from that film. I’ll download it tomorrow.

            I cut up a whole chicken and roasted it. I had a leg with a potato and gravy while watching episode 15 of The Big Valley. 

            It’s Christmas and Jarrad had been assigned as the attorney for Maybelle Williams. She’s the girlfriend of Billy Joe Gaines who is a wanted criminal. She is in jail for having been found in the possession of $5000 and a bag of gold dust that were stolen by Billy and she is accused of having been his accomplice. The judge refuses to let her out on bail and so Jarrad asks him to release her in his custody. The judge reluctantly agrees but bets Jarrad he’ll regret it. They bet a box of fine cigars. On the way to the Barkley ranch Maybelle tries to escape. He catches her and takes her home. They know who Maybelle is but Jarrad didn’t warn them that he was bringing her there. Nick especially resents her presence because her boyfriend murdered a friend of his. But Jarrad explains that he just didn’t want to leave her in the cold cell at Christmas time and the family gives in. Meanwhile Billy Joe and his gang are about 120 km away and heading for Stockton to find Maybelle. That night Maybelle tries to sneak out but Jarrad happens to be downstairs reading. She tells him she was looking for a midnight snack and so he takes her to the kitchen. Later he sees her boots are on and that she was planning on escaping. She tells him she won’t try it again but the next morning she’s packed if he wants to take her back to jail. He says she can stay. She goes riding with Audra and they go to a corral where Heath is breaking a wild horse. Maybelle disagrees with his slow method of taming horses and after he leaves she mounts it. It throws her, Audra comes to help her, Maybelle runs for the fence but Audra stumbles, gets trampled and knocked out. Maybelle drags her free and at first rides away but then comes back to help her. Audra is okay but just needs a little recovery time. Maybelle is blamed for her injury and she won’t admit that she helped Audra and so Jarrad decides to take her back to jail. But then he confronts her before they leave. She remains defiant and so he dunks her in the horse trough. Then he says he can’t take her to jail in wet clothes. He tells her to get ready for dinner. The next day Maybelle helps to trim the tree and that night she joins them for caroling. On Christmas morning while everyone is exchanging gifts, Jarrad gives Maybelle the most beautiful dress she’s ever seen. Later, wearing the dress she goes out in the wagon with Victoria and Audra to call on the ladies of the valley for Christmas, leaving Jarrad home alone with the butler Silas. Meanwhile Billy Joe has found out where Maybelle is and heads for the Barkley ranch, leaving his gang on the edge of the property. Billy holds Jarrad at gunpoint while waiting for Maybelle to return. Then the gang intercepts Victoria’s carriage, get Maybelle out and send Victoria home. One of Billy’s men tells him they’ve got Maybelle and he leaves. Jarrad gets his gun and goes after them. He holds his gun on them but Maybelle rides in front of Billy and says she’s going with him. The next day Jarrad brings a box of cigars to the judge and admits he was wrong. But when he leaves he sees Maybelle and learns that she waited for Billy to go to sleep and rode away. Jarrad takes Maybelle to the judge to show him how wrong he was about her.

            Maybelle was played by Lynn Loring, who went on to become president of MGM/Universal Artists television productions. 

            Billy Joe was played by Nicolas Surovy, who is the son of renowned opera singer Risë Stevens. He attended Juilliard on the G.I. Bill after a term in Vietnam. His film debut was in For Pete’s Sake. He played Mike Roy on All My Children. He played Pe’Nar Makull on the Star Trek Voyager episode Time and Again.

September 24, 1994: My daughter and I went to the playground

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I probably had my daughter for the weekend. The weather was nice so we would have gone to the playground.

Noreen Corcoran

            On Sunday morning I worked out the chords for the first two verses of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” (That I Love You Now Tell Him) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

           I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will continue to do until October 15. I spent several takes on “Vomit of the Star Eater” until I got through to the second chorus without a major mistake, then I let it go and allowed myself to fumble the final verse. I made it almost all the way to the end of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on the first take but fumbled a chord on the last verse. A couple of takes later I got all the way through. 

            I weighed 88.65 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 89.35 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since last Sunday. 

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

            I weighed 88.5 kilos at 17:40. 

            Last night I was too tired to finish updating my journal before bed and so this evening I had to spend a couple of hours on it. I only finished when it was time for dinner. 

           I heated the rest of the soup I made last night with the ground sirloin chili and the hot garlic ramen. Tonight I added two eggs and had it with a slice of multigrain bread and a beer while watching episode 14 of The Big Valley. 

            Audra is out riding when she sees a train of covered wagons going across her family’s land. Then she sees them tear down a fence and move the wagons in. The leader puts up a sign that reads Kilkenny Farms on one of the fence posts. Audra rides in angry and tells him to get off Barkley land. He says they have paperwork to prove it’s their land. She knocks the sign down and when he tries to put it back up she starts whipping him. He pulls her off her horse, spanks her several times, puts her back on her horse backwards and slaps the horse to send it running while everyone is laughing. Audra storms home and asks Nick for the keys to the gun cabinet. He gives them to her but he and Heath decide to accompany her to see who she plans on shooting. The man who spanked Audra introduces himself as John James Callaghan and tells them they bought the land. Nick calls him a hooligan and Callaghan challenges him to a fight, which Nick gladly accepts. But Callaghan’s mother comes between them and persuades Nick to look at the papers. Victoria Barkley is in San Francisco with her oldest son Jarrad and Heath wonders if maybe they sold some of the land while they are there. Nick goes to check the paperwork in the office at home. Heath stays behind to rebuild the fence. Callaghan protests but Heath tells them if their cattle get through to the swamp they’re going to have to charge them for each cow. He builds the fence and goes home. He tells Nick he doesn’t think they’re squatters but rather honest people who made a mistake. He suggests they send a telegram to Jarrod in San Francisco to clear things up. They go to Stockton and see Callaghan turned down for credit. Heath gets them supplies on the Barkley account but Callaghan’s niece Sharon refuses to accept them. Victoria and Jarrod receive the telegram and send one back denying they sold the land. They decide to go home. Heath goes back to the Irish settlers and picks them some lambs quarters by the fence, which he says they can cook like spinach. Callaghan invites him to stay for dinner. Nick comes with the telegram confirming that they don’t own the land. Callaghan challenges Nick to a fight and it’s a pretty fake one which ends in both of them pretty much getting knocked out. Later Nick gets men with guns together to drive the settlers off. Heath rides out to warn them and reasons with Callaghan, who agrees they’ll go. Later Nick tells Silas to load up a couple of sides of beef and some flour and take it to them. The settlers are packed and about to move out but suddenly Callaghan says they’re not leaving. He grabs a shotgun and goes to confront Nick. He meets Victoria who greets him in a very calm manner despite the fact he has a gun. She explains that the agent who sold them the land is a known criminal who swindled them. He says he came to shoot Nick but she says he’ll want a drop before the serious work. She serves him whiskey and forces Nick to sit down. She tells Callaghan that he needs to find the swindler and get his money back and until they do they can stay. Under Nick’s protest she says he’s going to San Francisco with Callaghan. On the way they become friends. At the hotel where they stayed in Frisco Callaghan confronts the hotel clerk who introduced them to the swindler. Some men try to stop them from going upstairs and so Nick and Callaghan fight with them. Then we see Nick and Callaghan in jail. Jarrad arrives to bail them out and tells them the con man has been caught but has no money. Later the settlers are about to leave when Nick comes to offer them a different piece of land. He says it needs to be irrigated but if they work they could make something out of it. Callaghan is reluctant but Sharon accepts on behalf of everybody. Heath escorts them to their new home. 

            Sharon was played by Noreen Corcoran in her final television appearance. Her film debut was in Apache Drums. Her first TV role was in The Adventures of Kit Carson. She starred in The Girls On the Beach. She co-starred in the sitcom Bachelor Father. She retired from screen acting in 1965 to focus on theatre and dance.

September 23, 1994: I hung around Yonge Street before work

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I posed all day at the Ontario College of Art and then I hung around on Yonge Street until it was time to head over to Parkdale where I worked for Paul and Sarah’s drawing session.

Martine Bartlett

            On Saturday morning I memorized the seventh verse of “Allons z'enfants” (Join the Ranks Kids) by Boris Vian and that’s half the song. 

            I worked out the chords for the intro and the first three lines of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” (That I Love You Now Tell Him) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will until October 15. I spent a long time trying to get “Vomit of the Star Eater” right. My goal right now is to make it through the second chorus without a major mistake and to worry about the third verse later. I don’t know if I’ve gotten a good take of that song anytime during this project so far. I almost made it through “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on the first take, then redid it and made it through without any major mistakes. 

            I weighed 88.45 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I hitched my bike trailer and rode to the supermarket. A guy walking by complimented me on my trailer and told me I was smart. The grapes at No Frills were $3.17 a kilo so I got six bags. I also bought two packs of raspberries, bananas, detergent, salsa, Manchurian flavour ramen, a jug of orange juice, and two containers of skyr. After going through the checkout I remembered to buy milk, so I left my trailer there and went to get three bags of skim. 

            I weighed 88.05 before lunch. I had a slice of multigrain bread with margarine, five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. When I got back there were three bikes blocking the door of Popeyes. I guess people could squeeze by but it’s an odd place to park. Two nights ago the city finally replaced the bench on the corner in front of my place. 

           Several months ago one got wrecked by a truck and then it was replaced only to get ripped out by another truck. The corner is not a good place for a bench because of the big delivery trucks that back up and turn onto O’Hara to feed Popeyes.

            I weighed 88.6 kilos at 17:41. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:53. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I continued to work on synchronizing the old concert video with the studio audio. The song in that 1994 video is played more slowly than I played it later when I took up the guitar. I had to make cuts from the video after “Whenever I lay bare my heart”; “it looks like the Grand Canyon Park”; “and women gasp at a desert hole”; and “that’s too deep to believe”. Then the video and audio stay lined up for “They walk around, they stop and stare, they leave their garbage everywhere, but no one wants to stick around…” But while I’m singing “It’s the kind of place you leave” the camera has moved away from me and it’s focused on Tom Smarda. Since I’m still singing it’s not appropriate to have the camera on Tom. And within the context of this project it makes even less sense to single out Tom, since he’s not even in the studio recording. So next I need to find an outside video clip to fill up the timeline until the camera is back on me in the concert. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice video and reviewed the first 40 minutes of the September 10 video. “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” that day wasn’t too bad. 

            I added three cups of water to the ground sirloin chili that I made on Thursday. I mixed in two hot garlic flavour packs and brought it to a boil, then I added the two ramen cakes. I had two bowls with a beer while watching episode 13 of The Big Valley. 

            A logging engineer named Matt Todman and his wife Cinda come to stay with the Barkleys and to negotiate a project that he says promises to turn a five times profit after a big investment. He wants to build a flume for sliding logs into the river. Heath comes in and is brought over to meet Toddman, whose back is turned. Heath extends his hand but as Toddman turns to shake it they both recognize each other in a moment of shock, which is broken when Heath drives his fist into Toddman’s face. Jerrod and Nick have to pull him off because he wants to kill him. Heath tells them Toddman’s real name is Bentell. He was the warden of Cardison prison during the Civil War. Up until this point it’s never been mentioned that Heath had ever been in the Civil War. Heath was a prisoner of war for seven months until the war ended. He tells of food with maggots, putrid water and floggings for complaining about them. Prisoners died of exposure and others died because medical help was refused. Heath was among 740 soldiers fighting in New Mexico and half ended up in Cardison but less than 100 survived the prison. Victoria asks if he could really kill him now. Heath leaves to do some work. Bentell and Cinda are leaving but the rest of the Barkleys ask him to stay. Bentell and Cinda discuss it and apparently this has happened many times but this is the first time they’ve been asked to stay, so they do. Nick decides to send Heath with Bentell to work on the project because if someone else from Cardison tries to kill him Heath would recognize them sooner and be able to stop them. Heath refuses but Victoria tells him he has to have the guts to conquer the hatred or it will conquer him. When Heath and the Bentells arrive at the work site Matt introduces himself and tells the men who he really is so that anyone who wants to quit can do so ahead of time. Some of them do. Jarrod is hiring men for the project and gets attacked by some of the men who quit. Two other men come to his defense who happen to be brothers named Aaron and Gil Condon. Jarrod hires them. Heath helps Bentell screen the men and Heath turns down anyone he recognizes from prison. Heath also turns down the Condon brothers but Bentell says they can work in the construction camp. Later Bentell is riding between sites and someone takes a shot at him. Later still he’s at the site of the flume and below one of the large supports on the hill. Gil sneaks off to cut the rope. Heath sees it falling and jumps Bentell to push him out of the way. Heath catches up with Gil and Aaron. They remind him of the 18 prisoners shot during the prison break. Cinda goes to think Heath for saving her husband’s life but he says he’s sorry he did it and she hits him. Then she offers her husband’s side of the story. She claims he was more of a prisoner than any of the prisoners, held by huis duty. She says he couldn’t give what little food there was to the prisoners when his own men were starving. She says the prisoners fought each other like animals over food, clothing, places to sleep and even places to die. She says part of Bentell died with the men he had killed. She tells Heath to save some of his anger for the prisoner who informed Bentell of the escape plan. Then Bentell walks in and says the informer was Aaron Condon. He informed on the condition that Gil receive medical help to save his leg. He says the Condons don’t want him dead for revenge but to keep him from exposing them. Meanwhile Gil is still obsessed and now his plan is to start a forest fire. All the workers are sent to try and put it out. But it’s in several places. Heath got one section under control but another needs the help of explosives to create a fire bridge to stop its advance. Heath and Bentell get the nitro and start planting it. Heath catches Gil stealing nitro from the wagon. He tries to make him put it back but Gil sucker punches Heath and knocks him out. Bentell stops Gil from taking the notro and then goes to help Heath. But Gil goes to where the nitro is planted and tries to dig it up. Bentell drags Heath away while Aaron tries to stop Gil. Then a burning tree falls on them both and sets off an explosion that kills the brothers. Later after the flume is built Heath seems hunky dory with Bentell. 

            Cinda was played by Martine Bartlett, who earned a Masters Degree in Drama at Yale. She was active in theatre work for many years and made her Broadway debut in The Devil’s Disciple in 1950. Her television debut was on an episode of Robert Montgomery Presents in 1956. Her film debut was in Splendour in the Grass in 1961. She was nominated for an Emmy for her performance in an episode of Arrest and Trial in 1963. She co-starred in I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. She was a lifetime member of the Actors Studio.