Virginia Christine

            On Thursday morning I uploaded “L’Amour à deux” (Passion for Two) by Serge Gainsbourg to my Christian’s Translations blog and prepared it for publication. All that’s left is to post a video with it, then post my translation on Facebook before moving on to the next of the last few Gainsbourg songs on my list. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of four sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I will every morning until October 15. I made it through “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on the first take without any major mistakes. I needed fewer takes on a lot of the other songs too and finished a little sooner than usual since I started the project. 

            I weighed 87.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since September 3. 

            I had time before lunch to sand the left casing of my bathroom door.

            I weighed 87.4 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On the way home I stopped at Freshco where I did a price match on five bags of grapes. I also bought two packs of raspberries, two packs of five-year-old cheddar, a trout fillet, a pack of ground pork, a box of spoon sized shredded wheat, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, a jat of Basilica sauce, and a jar of salsa.            

            I weighed 87.05 kilos at 18:21. 

            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 imported the video of Buster Keaton stunts. I copied it to the end of the timeline and edited out everything but the scene from Three Ages when he jumps from the roof of one building and tries to reach another but falls. I inserted the clip to the beginning of the timeline and started cutting parts of it out so it would push the concert video back until it was synchronized with the studio audio. But I cut out too much and had to click “undo” several times until the audio was ahead. Then I deleted smaller bits of the Keaton video until they were lined up for “just this three ring circus”. It seems to go off again after that so tomorrow I’ll figure out what to do next. 

            I uploaded today’s song practice video. I reviewed the rest of the September 5 video and the first 14 minutes of September 6. I need a rainy day or two to get caught up. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a bowl of the ground beef chili I made yesterday with Basilica sauce and salsa. I ate while watching the fourth episode of The Big Valley. 

            In this story Audra Barkley is chasing a herd of wild horses to get a closer look at their black leader when she somehow gets into their path and is in danger of being trampled. Meanwhile a pack of wild horse catchers or mustangers is also after the herd and it’s their leader Lloyd Garner who notices Audra is in danger and jumps to pull her off her horse just in time. They roll into the river. That night a gang of masked extortionists ride to a farm and throw a rock through the farmhouse window of Harry Coleman asking for money in exchange for protection. He goes to tell the Barkley family about the problem. They learn that it’s not only Harry who’s encountered these marauders. When one of Harry’s neighbours went to the sheriff he was punished with having his crop burned and his well poisoned. The Barkleys think he should fight and say they will help but on Harry’s way home he is confronted by the gang. He defies them and pulls the mask off the leader who is Lloyd Garner. Harry doesn’t know his name but he’s seen him in town. Lloyd shoots and kills him. At the Mustangers’ camp by the river there are also women and Lloyd’s sometimes mate seems to be a girl named Francie. Later at the general store Lloyd meets Audra again. She’s buying some supplies and finds it’s too much for her horse so Lloyd offers to help her. He’s surprised when he learns that she’s taking the food to Harry Coleman’s widow Margaret. He’s even more shocked when she tells him her last name because the Barkleys are Lloyd’s next target. Audra invites him to supper so her mother can thank him for saving her life. The next night Lloyd tells Audra his story about losing his family when he was ten when the Union Army overran the South. He joined others in the same situation and they ran west together. The next day Lloyd brings as a gift to Audra the black horse and asks her to dinner in town. They have a romantic evening and he escorts her home where they find the Barkley stables on fire and four horses have died. The extortionists have left a note demanding $2000 or next time it’s the house. Heath is suspicious of Lloyd because last time they saw him he overheard them tell a farmer they would be protecting his farm that night and would be away from their own. The next evening Lloyd calls on Audra and finds Jarrod, Nick and Heath in the parlour where he is asked to wait for Audra. They question how Lloyd can afford to give their sister a fine horse when his adopted family of mustangers need to be fed. Lloyd had said that he was in Santa Fe last and it turns out that farmers there had the same problem with a gang of protectionists. They now directly accuse him and he refuses to answer them. Then they fight when Audra walks in, allowing him to escape. Lloyd goes back to the mustangers’ camp and says the men are moving out. But his second in command Turk is taking over. Just then Audra rides up and Turk has her taken hostage and held for ransom. The Barkley’s pay but also follow them to their camp. When the money arrives Lloyd puts Audra on a horse but Turk stops her and says they can’t let her live. Lloyd pushes Turk away from her horse and slaps it to send her off. Turk shoots and kills Lloyd and is about to shoot Audra when her brothers arrive and he is shot. Later Audra takes the black horse into the wild and sets it free. 

            Margaret Coleman was played by Virginia Christine, who acted on the radio while attending the University of California. She appeared in 23 episodes of the radio version of Gunsmoke. She made her stage debut in Hedda Gabler and that led to a film contract. Her film debut was in Edge of Darkness in 1943. She co-starred in The Mummy’s Curse and The Scarlet Horseman. She became known for 21 years in the 60s and 70s as Mrs. Olsen, the Folgers Coffee woman. Her home town of Stanton, Iowa converted its water tower to look like a giant coffee pot in her honour. Her character was so iconic that it was parodied in skits on many comedy shows.