Richard Long

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the sixth and seventh verses of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” (That I Love You Now Tell Him) by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have the whole song in my head tomorrow. 

            I weighed 88.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 89.15 kilos before lunch. I had a slice of multigrain bread with margarine and five-year-old cheddar. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. In Koreatown a guy came running across the street between two parked cars and almost collided with me. He stopped himself just in time. A few years ago someone didn’t stop himself and I slammed right into him, damaging my bike. 

            I weighed 88.2 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:21. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I synchronized the old concert video with the studio audio for the first chorus. I had to cut some of the video to line them up. I also synchronized video and audio for the first two lines of the second verse: “Well I walked along the street today, same route that I took yesterday”. After that the video falls slightly behind again. I’ll deal with that tomorrow. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice video. The video for September 8 finished being converted to H264AVI. The 29 gig file got boiled down to 8 gigs. It’s weird how the first time I converted a 25 gig file to that format it ended up at 1 gig. It’s still the best option I’ve found though. I finished reviewing the September 8 video. I think there’s something wrong with the Gibson electric guitar. It goes out of tune way too often. I think the only song that sounded okay was “Leave the Naïve Alone”. Also the light was a bit harsh for the video. I reviewed the first ten minutes of the September 9 video and it was a cloudy day so the light was less harsh. On top of that I was playing the Martin acoustic and it sounded much better as well. 

            I steamed a bag of shrimp and mixed them with two ramen cakes and their hot garlic flavour packs. I had the soup with a beer while watching episode 10 of The Big Valley. 

            Heath has just brought a package to mail on the night train and is walking along the street when he hears and then sees a struggle in the dark. Then he hears a man in pain. He rushes over to find the dead body of respected citizen Colonel Asheby. He hears someone running down the alley and sees them climbing the wall so he goes after him. He catches Korby Kyles and they fight until Korby surrenders and says he didn’t kill him. There is an inquiry and Heath testifies. Jacob Kyles comes to ask Jarrod to defend his son because no other lawyer will touch the case because Korby refuses to plead guilty. Jarrod turns him down as well but one can see from his face that he questions that decision. The problem is that nobody likes the Kyles. They are the opposite of the Barkleys in almost every way and it’s true that they are criminals and so no one doubts that Korby committed the murder of a man who will be missed by everyone. Jarrod’s sister Audra is involved with planning the new orphanage and the widow of Colonel Asheby is financing it. Audra is worried that Jarrod is considering taking Korby’s case because Mrs. Asheby may withdraw her support. The more public opinion is convinced of Korby’s guilt the more Jarrod wonders about it. He tells Heath there is a shadow of possible but not probable doubt. Heath tells Jarrod not to turn Korby down just because he saw him do it. Jarrod goes to see Korby in jail. Korby shocks Jarrod with the accusation that Colonel Asheby was the middle man for the opium trade of all Central California. Korby worked for him to carry the stuff to the buyers. He says what was happening in the alley that night was the payoff by the leader of a Chinese gang. Korby had come to get his money and saw the Chinese man stab the colonel. Korby says he pulled the knife out and chased the Chinese man. Jarrod says the story is so wild he almost believes it. Korby says, “Thanks Jarrod” but Jarrod says, “Don’t you ever call me Jarrod!” Jarrod visits the Kyles place and it’s pathetically run down. While he’s talking to Jacob, Korby’s brothers try to steal some silver decorations from Jarrod’s saddle. Jarrod catches and stops him. Jarrod’s whole family besides Heath is against Jarrod taking Korby’s case. Victoria says it will hurt Heath’s reputation to dispute what he saw. Jarrod thinks he’s off the hook when he hears that Matt Cooper is going to take Korby’s case, but then he hears Matt say he thinks Korby is guilty because he looks guilty. Heath is forging a new branding iron late at night when Jacob and his two sons come to threaten him against testifying in Korby’s trial. He refuses and so they beat him up, saying they’ll burn the house down. After that Jarrod’s family is shocked when he says he’s going to take the case. Mrs. Asheby withdraws her support of the orphanage. The trial begins and Korby is on the stand. D.A. Greene is questioning him about the curved knife that was pulled from the colonel. Korby says he wouldn’t own such a knife. He demonstrates by throwing his own knife across the room to stick in the wall behind the audience. Jarrod calls Asa Harmon to the stand. He is a special detective employed by Senator Harrison’s investigating committee. He confirms what Korby told Jarrod about Asheby, who was for twenty years a prime mover of an opium ring dealing to the Chinese gangs from here to San Francisco. Jarrod calls Heath to the stand. Jarrod says the nearest street lamp to that alley is thirty meters away and could not have lit what Heath claims he saw. On top of that there was no moon that night. He convinces Heath that he may be mistaken about what he saw. But Greene calls train engineer Henry Bingham to the stand, who says the light from his train shone on the colonel and on Korby Kyles in the alley and he recognized both faces. Bingham points out Korby, who panics and tries to run out of the courtroom. Jarrod feels bad about defending Korby but his family forgives him. 

            Jarrod Barkley was played by Richard Long, who had no intention of becoming an actor but took a drama class for the easy credit. He went straight from high school acting to film acting. His movie debut was in Tomorrow is Forever. He played Tom Kettle, one of Ma and Pa Kettle’s sons in that series of films. He co-starred in Cult of the Cobra, Fury at Gunsight Pass, Tokyo After Dark, and House On Haunted Hill. He played Rex Randolph on both Bourbon Street Beat and 77 Sunset Strip. He co-starred in the sitcom Nanny and the Professor and did voices for two animated versions of the show. His last film was Death Cruise. He was married to Lucille Ball’s second cousin Suzan Ball in 1954 until she died 14 months later.