I worked out the chords for the third verse of “Flagrant délire” (Flagrant Delirium) by Serge Gainsbourg. After that the second and third verses are repeated and then a chorus starts alternating two variations on the third verse repeatedly, so there may not be much more to work out.
I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. The action seemed even higher today but I’m still reluctant to take the long bike ride to Woodbine and Danforth to get it adjusted. So far I think I can manage playing it but if it gets much worse I might have to go.
I weighed 87.75 kilos before breakfast.
Around midday I finished sanding my bathroom doorframe. There’s only the bathroom side of the door left to sand.
I weighed 87.85 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. On Brock Avenue I saw two teenage women wearing glittering skirts; later on Bloor I saw someone else in glitter; then on the way back on Richmond I saw a mother and her daughters all wearing flittering dresses. I wonder if there was a special event all of these people were attending. It took a second to look this up. They were all going to the Taylor Swift concert.
I notice that a lot of electric bikes only have red lights that go on when the driver uses the brakes but otherwise there are no lights at all. It seems odd that they’ve got a battery that propels them quickly but can’t spare the power for visibility.
I stopped at Freshco on my way home where I bought five bags of red grapes, two packs of raspberries, bananas, two-in-one shampoo-conditioner, and salsa. They didn’t have the Panache brand of five-year-old cheddar that I like and so I got a pack of Balderson five-year-old cheddar and a pack of Maple Dale four-year-old cheddar. For the first time there was a big tin of Full City Dark coffee in addition to the smaller packs. I did a price match on the grapes with the Metro price but it took a long time because the cashier needed a swipe from his supervisor. It would save time if they empowered all the cashiers to do price matches.
I weighed 86.35 kilos at 18:40, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since October 28.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:40.
I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Vomit of the Star Eater” from September 22 to 24. On September 22 I played my Martin Road series acoustic guitar and the take at 30:45 was one of the best until I fumbled near the end. On September 23 and 24 I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On September 23 the take at 17:15 didn’t sound bad for a while but I fumbled near the end. On September 24 the take that ended at 16:15 was okay.
Because of stopping at the supermarket earlier, for the second night in a row I didn’t have time to practice playing “Paranoiac Utopia” even though there are 17 days left until my book launch.
I had a small potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching episodes 25 and 26 of The Beatles cartoon series. These were also the last two episodes of the first season. There are only seven episodes in the second season and six in the third.
In story 1 of episode 25 The Beatles are having a picnic in Spain when they are invaded by ants. Ringo is shaking them off their blanket when he attracts a bull named Paco that charges. He doesn’t even notice it as it tears through the blanket, butts its head into a tree and knocks itself out. His owner says Paco was supposed to fight in the arena that day. John and Paul say they will put on a bull suit to take Paco’s place and George and Ringo will be the matadors. But before John and Paul can get their costume on Paco recovers and his owner brings him to the ring. George and Ringo think they are facing a fake bull. As the bull makes its first charge the Beatles play “Please Please Me”. George sees John and Paul in the audience and runs. Ringo continues the face the bull until he sees them too. He ends up on Paco’s back for a while then while running and looking backwards he rams into and knocks down a flagpole that falls on Paco and knocks him out. Ringo is hailed as the greatest bullfighter in Madrid.
The first singalong is to “Roll Over Beethoven”, which was written by Chuck Berry in 1956. The Beatles version features George singing the lead vocal. The second singalong is to Berry’s 1957 song “Rock and Roll Music”. In the Beatles version John sings the lead.
In story 2 of episode 25 the Beatles arrive at a TV studio to do a performance but they are treated as unimportant because the big star is Mr. Marvelous, the smartest ape in the world. He can solve two plus two on paper with a very complex equation and he can also spell “Swahili”. John says it’s very sad because Marvelous is a slave and his intelligence is being wasted in a cage while he should be out seeing the world. Marvelous understands this and takes the key from his handler to open his cage. Then he leaves. They wonder where he would go and so The Beatles sing “There’s a Place”. Marvelous feeds his equation to a computer and it explodes, making the scientist angry. He paints “Swahili” on a billboard and makes the painter angry. He goes onto a rocket and hands the pilot his equation, which cause the rocket to crash upon take off. Marvelous retreats to the TV studio and his cage where he feels safe.
In story 1 of episode 26, The Beatles are about to leave New York by cruise ship when they are mobbed by screaming girls and hide on the dock amongst crates. One of the crates contains a music loving elephant named Beethoven. It reaches out of its cage and grabs Paul. The Beatles try to get Beethoven to let Paul go by singing “Roll Over Beethoven”. The animators goofed and had John singing instead of George. John and George are playing on top of the crate while Ringo is operating a crane to lift it. Eventually the crate falls apart and the crane is only holding Beethoven who is still holding Paul high above the city. They rescue a woman from a burning building as the elephant is swinging. They drop Beethoven directly into the hold of the ship they are sailing on to take it back as a souvenir.
The first singalong is to “I Feel Fine”. The second singalong is to “She Loves You”.
In story 2 of episode 26, Sir Ratfink has hired the finest string quartet in all of Europe for a party being thrown by the Duke. Ratfink has mistakenly hired The Beatles. They are delivered to a great palace where the attendees are all dressed in formal attire and powdered wigs. The Beatles play Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” and Ratfink tries to stop them but keeps getting accidentally knocked around until finally he’s knocked right out of the window. Meanwhile the Duke and his gentlemen and lady guests are having a great time dancing.
One of the animators on this series was Clive A. Smith, who graduated from art school in London. He started as an illustrator, a street artist and a musician. In 1964 he worked for a small studio in West London animating The Beatles and The Lone Ranger. He came to Canada in 1967 and worked for a small company creating and animating short films and TV commercials. He co-founded with two Canadian partners the powerhouse animation company Nelvana in Toronto in the early 70s. They turned the company from a small shop into one of the world’s leading animation companies. Smith co-produced and directed Rock and Rule, Cosmic Christmas, The Devil and Daniel Mouse, Babar, Tintin, Rupert, and Beetlejuice. He animated the first animated Star Wars feature, A Wookie’s Christmas. He directed and animated Family Dog and Pippi Longstocking. He left Nelvana in 2001 and formed the company Musta Costa Fortune Inc. with his wife, Canadian actor Melleny Melody. He developed the animated musical The Boy Who Heard Music based on a screenplay by Pete Townsend.
No comments:
Post a Comment