I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. I audio and video recorded the session for the thirty seventh of forty five sessions. It took several tries to get a tolerable take of “Vomit of the Star Eater” but only a couple to get a not bad version of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma”.
I weighed 88.15 kilos before breakfast.
At 12:15 I headed downtown to the U of T Graduate School of Dentistry for my follow up appointment. Dr. Xia removed the last stitch from the gum of my upper front tooth. He said I can eat and brush normally now but not to floss that area. He gave me a couple of interdental brushes to use instead. This was my shortest appointment so far as it only took half an hour. He wants to look at the tooth again in a month and so I have an appointment for November 5. I’ll be back there on October 28 for another deep cleaning.
I stopped at Queen Fresh Market on the way home to buy a couple of baskets of raspberries.
I weighed 88.15 kilos at 14:45. With lunch I had potato chips for the first time in a month.
I weighed 88.3 kilos at 17:15, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since September 23.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:25.
I downloaded a clip of the factory scene from Modern Times in which Charlie Chaplin is caught inside the machinery of the factory and sliding like a belt between the cogs as they turn. I converted the video to AVI and then imported it into Movie Maker. In the project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Me and Gravity” I copied the Chaplin video to the end of the timeline. I cut out everything but that one scene of Chaplin inside the machine and then pasted it into the main video to correspond with my lines, “But some days my feet hit the ground with my fate turned the right way around and everything slides into place…” The clip fit perfectly so that now I can try to synchronize the old concert video with the studio audio for “…the way it’s meant to be”. The video was about seven seconds behind when I quit for the night.
I uploaded today’s song practice video and then finished reviewing the one from September 12. I then reviewed the first 55 minutes of the September 13 video. The latter video looked better than the previous day because I had the curtain drawn but the Gibson was out of tune a lot. On September 12 I played the Martin acoustic and it sounded better.
I had a potato with gravy and my last piece of pork tenderloin while watching the penultimate episode of the first season of The Big Valley.
Married couple Bert and Elaine Jason are preparing to open a mercantile store in Stockton. Next door to the store is the railroad baggage depot and news is brought to the clerk there that the Barkley mining company will be bringing in $50,000 in gold tomorrow night for the San Francisco mint. That would be about $1.5 million today. The same Barkley hand who delivers that news also tells it to three men, Frank Colder, Border, and Dave, who are standing across the street. Colder brings a very heavy trunk into the depot to ship on the next days train. He says it’s full of books. Victoria, Nick and Audra Barkley come to town and it turns out that Victoria and Elaine are old friends who are pleasantly surprised to meet there. Nick seems to recognize Bert or at least his name. Bert and Elaine are having trouble getting all their supplies because some won’t give them credit until they have credit at the bank, which they won’t have until they start making money. That evening Victoria tells her family that she would like to help the Jasons establish credit at the bank. Nick doesn’t think it’s a good idea because he recognized Bert’s name and did some research. Six years ago he was charged with armed robbery but not convicted; five years ago he shot a man in self defence while associated with an outlaw named Frank Colder. Victoria says she was raised by Elaine’s family and she wants to help them. The family agrees. That evening Colder, Border and Dave enter the Jasons’ store, pull a gun and take control. Colder has Bert help him take several digging tools and containers of kerosene downstairs. They begin digging towards the railroad depot and it turns out that Bert is already part of the gang. They plan on taking the gold to Mexico and Bert plans on leaving Elaine. The next day while the digging goes on below, Bert continues to set up the store. Victoria and Audra come to visit. Victoria tells Bert she wants to help him get credit and Audra goes to look at the dresses the store will be selling. Victoria leaves but Audra wants to stay and try on some dresses. She looks for a changing room and opens the basement door to see the men digging. Audra is taken captive. That night Jarrod comes to the store looking for his sister but Elaine is forced to tell him she left hours ago. The diggers make it through to just below the wood floor of the depot but don’t realize they’ve cut into a gas main that is now leaking odourlessly into the basement. Elaine has to make dinner for everyone but Audra won’t eat. Border asks her if she doesn’t care for Mr. Colder’s hospitality. Audra remembers what Nick found about Bert having worked for Frank Colder and says Bert must be in on the robbery plan. Elaine is shocked and asks her husband to deny it but he says it’s true. Audra tries to get away and then both women are taken to the cellar where they are bound and gagged. Meanwhile Heath arrives with his men and the gold. All three brothers begin looking for Audra. Border and Dave are starting to feel the effects of the gas as they climb up into the depot. They remove the books from Colder’s trunk and replace them with the gold. Colder and the women are also succumbing to the gas. Bert is the first person to realize there must be a gas leak and tries to untie the captives but Colter won’t let him. Bert protests that they will die but Colter says to leave them. Bert says he didn’t sign up to commit murder and tries again to untie them but Colder knocks him out then has him tied up as well. The three crooks leave the store. Bert regains consciousness and crawls to an axe in order to cut his bonds. Jarrod knocks on the store door again and Bert knocks over some barrels. The brothers hear Bert faintly calling for help. Nick looks through the basement window to see Audra and so the brothers break into the store. Meanwhile Colder goes to the depot to claim his trunk. As Audra, Elaine and Bert emerge from the store Bert points at Colder, Border and Dave loading a trunk onto a wagon and says they are taking the gold. There is a gunfight between the brothers and the three thieves and the brothers win. The last scene shows Bert and Elaine happily preparing to open the store with the Barkley’s bringing them champagne to celebrate. I doubt if it would be that clean an ending. If Bert was part of the plot, even if he later went against it he would possibly get off but not right away.
Bert was played by Warren Stevens, whose friend Gregory Peck helped him join the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York. He served as a pilot in WWII and after the war worked in summer stock, on radio and became a founding member of the Actors Studio. His Broadway debut was in Detective Story and that led to a film career followed by television. His film debut was in The Frogmen. He had featured roles in Gorilla at Large, The Forbidden Planet, The Barefoot Contessa, and Intent to Kill. He co-starred in the TV series Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers. He was the voice of John Bracken on Bracken’s World. He played Elliot Carson on return to Peyton Place. He had a regular role on The Richard Boone Show.
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