Anne Joliffe

            On Saturday morning I ran through singing and playing the first seven verses of “Be All You Can Be”, my translation of “Allons z'enfants” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through the other half of the song. 

            I finished working out the chords to “Flagrant délire” (Flagrant Delirium) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it in French. I ran through singing and playing the first half of my translation and on Sunday I’ll figure out my translation of the two variations of the third verse that are alternately repeated by the chorus at the end. I’ll then probably have time to upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll play the Kramer electric. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went down to No Frills where only three bags of grapes were firm enough. I bought a pack of chicken drumsticks, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, deodorant, dental floss, a bag of Miss Vickie’s sweet chili chips, a jug of orange juice, and a jug of low sugar iced tea. I just realized I forgot top buy skyr. I’ll have to pick some up early next week. Later it occurred to me that I also forgot to buy Earl Grey tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and on O’Hara I found a large amount of black fabric, plus a kind of netted black and white material with fringes. I took them home and then headed out again. On Seaforth I found two really nice black oven mitts, a wooden handled scrub brush and a wooden handled mixing utensil. I’d been looking for a new oven mitt so this was a great score. I rode downtown and back. 

            I weighed 86.85 kilos at 18:12. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:17. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Vomit of the Star Eater” from September 28 to October 1. On September 28 and October 1 I played my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar. On September 28 the take at 6:15 was not bad. On October 1 the take at 25:15 was one of the best. On September 29 and 30 I played it on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On September 29 the take at 14:00 wasn’t horrible. On September 30 the take at 8:00 didn’t sound bad. 

            I managed to squeeze in a little practice of playing my song “Paranoiac Utopia” but with two weeks to go before my book launch I need a lot more because I still haven’t nailed down how to play it.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 3 and 4 of The Beatles cartoon series. In story 1 of episode 3 The Beatles are getting a tour of a French vineyard when Ringo accidentally causes a month’s worth of wine to be spilled. The winemaker says that the wine needs to be replaced that day or everybody will be out of work. The Beatles decide to help by providing motivating music and they play “I’m Down”, which was written by Paul. Somehow they manage to replace the wine in a few hours but that’s ridiculous since even the cheapest wine would take at least five days to ferment. 

            The first singalong is to “Eight Days a Week”. The second singalong is to “Paperback Writer”, which was written mostly by Paul. It was inspired by his Aunt Lil who complained that he never wrote about anything but love. 

            In story 2 of episode 3, The Beatles are getting a tour of the Palace of Versailles. After being shown a portrait of Marie Antoinette, Ringo knocks a sculpture over that lands on his head and knocks him out. He dreams that he is back in time with Marie Antoinette while the palace is being stormed by revolutionaries. One man with a scythe is about to kill Ringo when he sneezes and knocks the man out. The Beatles try to revive Ringo with “Run For Your Life” but it becomes the soundtrack of his dream as Louis XVI catches Marie kissing him and attacks them with his royal mace. A suit of armour falls on Ringo’s head in the dream and he wakes up in the real world. 

            In story 1 of episode 4, The Beatles are visiting a hot rod racetrack in the US. A couple arrives in a car that can only go 5 km an hour. The boy asks the Beatles to be in the race with them to help. So John is riding and playing “Drive My Car” while the others push. The song was written mostly by Paul. Supposedly this song was inspired by the relationship between Cilla Black and Bobby Willis. Apparently Cilla didn’t want Bobby to have his own recording contract because she needed him to drive her car. Ringo plugs their instruments into the racetrack sound system and when the girls in the audience hear that the Beatles are there they rush the track and cause the competitors to crash. Then Ringo plugs the music directly into the car’s motor and it finishes the race ahead of the others. 

            The first singalong is to “Yesterday”, which was written by Paul. The melody came to him in a dream. It’s one of the most covered songs in history. By 1986, 1600 recordings of the song had been made. A BBC2 radio poll in 1999 voted it the greatest song of the 20th Century. The second singalong is to “We Can Work It Out”. 

            In story 2 of episode 4 The Beatles visit the Man of a Thousand Faces who is the most famous Hollywood master of makeup and disguise. The disguise master loves Ringo’s face and makes a mask of it but Ringo doesn’t recognize himself and thinks it’s the ugliest thing he’s ever seen. They step into his disguise machine and all come out looking like Ringo. Then Ringo comes out looking like Frankenstein’s monster. They sing “Tell Me What You See”, which was written mostly by Paul. Ringo goes back into the machine and comes out looking like Sweepea from the Popeye cartoons. After many crazy transformations the Beatles run away from the studio. 

            Anne Jolliffe was the animator for the “I’m Down” and “Tell Me What You See” segments. She was the first Australian female animator. She earned her diploma in the Art of the Book because at the time there were no courses in film and animation in Australia. When she applied to work for Bob Godfrey in London she was told that women don’t animate. She had to learn animation from books and got a job for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial research Organization in Australia, creating scientific and educational films. She got a job in the animation department of Fanfare Film. She moved back to London and started working for a small animation studio. She did bits of The Beatles cartoon series and Yellow Submarine. After much struggle she eventually became the top paid animator in London. She worked on Bob Godfrey’s Great and shared with him the Academy Award that it won. She started her own studio in Australia called Jollification. She created The Tale of the Space Travelling Housewife and Bunyip.