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.