George Dunning

            On Wednesday morning I got up in a good mood for no particular reason and it continued through the morning. 

            I revised my translation of verses ten and eleven of “Allons z'enfants” (Be All You Can Be) by Boris Vian. There are only three verses left to fix and so it might be done by the weekend. 

            I worked out the chords for the second verse and half of the third verse of “Flagrant délire” (Flagrant Delirium) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            The Honeywell humidifier is much easier to fill than the Noma because it has a longer pouring area so there is nothing spilled on the floor. 

            I weighed 87 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I sanded most of the kitchen side of the inside of the bathroom door frame. There’s just a meter long section on the west side of the door frame to do tomorrow and then I’ll sand the door. 

            I weighed 86.85 kilos before lunch. The same as yesterday.

            I had Swiss cheese flavoured crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I observed that people with flashers drive faster than cyclists with no lights. Maybe the flashers give us jet power. When I was going down Yonge there was a convoy of electric delivery bikes and I don’t think the riders were together. It seemed to be just a coincidence. It amazes me that there is that much of a demand for people to deliver prepared meals. Are customers cocooning that much these days and are people incapable of cooking their own meals? 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos at 18:00. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Vomit of the Star Eater” from September 18 to 21. From September 18 to 20 I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On September 18 at 20:15 I fumbled during the last verse but I just kept going. On September 19 the take at 18:45 sounded okay. On September 20 the take at 11:15 sounded okay but there was lots of traffic noise. On September 21 I played it with my Martin Road series acoustic guitar and the take at 28:00 was okay. There were so many takes to review from September 21 that I didn’t have time to practice playing “Paranoiac Utopia” to prepare for my book launch.

            I made pizza on multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, a sliced beef burger and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episodes 23 and 24 of The Beatles cartoon series.

            In story 1 of episode 23, The Beatles are travelling by snowmobile in Switzerland when they encounter a little boy named Hans who wants to become a Beatle. George tells him they practiced for a long time in Liverpool. Hans now says he’s going to Liverpool. Hans’s parents beg The Beatles to bring their son back. So they chase him while playing “Bad Boy” by Larry Williams. After they bring him back The Beatles leave and Hans’s father asks him why he wants to be a Beatle. Hans tells him that they make lots of money so Hans’s father grabs his tuba and chases after the Beatles saying he wants to join them. 

            The first singalong is to “Please Please Me”, which was written by John with a lot of production help from George Martin. It was the title song of The Beatles first album and it was their second single. The second singalong is to “Hold Me Tight”, which was mostly written by Paul. 

            In story 2 of episode 23 The Beatles are in Toledo, Spain riding in a wagon that is being slowly pulled by a burro. George hears “Tell Me Why” on the radio and turns it up. Suddenly the burro starts running at super speed. The driver shouts to turn the radio off and then the burro stops. The owner, who looks and sounds more Mexican than Spanish, explains that whenever the burro hears loud music he takes off. George gets the idea to enter the burro in a horserace with Ringo as the jockey. After the race starts, The Beatles play “Tell Me Why”, and because of their playing the burro goes very fast but wins by Ringo’s nose. 

            In story 1 of episode 24 The Beatles are visiting a movie set and Paul declares that it’s all phony. The star Dick Dashing takes offense and challenges Paul to face the same difficulties as he has in his films. Then to the tune of “I Feel Fine” by John, which has one of the earliest recordings of guitar feedback, Paul proceeds to deflate movie monsters, sharks, and stop fake trains. Then Dick tries to stop a train but it’s real and he gets flattened. 

            The first singalong is to “What You’re Doing”. The second is to “There’s A Place”, which was written mostly by John. 

            In story 2 of episode 24 George and Ringo are visiting the Statue of Liberty when George sees a suspicious looking man carrying a package. He thinks he must be a saboteur and runs to stop him. This was probably inspired by the Hitchcock film Saboteur, which has a suspenseful scene atop the Statue of Liberty. George tries to grab the man but misses and ends up hanging from his collar on one of the spikes of the statue’s crown. Ringo climbs out to grab him to the tune of “Hold Me Tight”. The man accidentally drops his package and George catches it. George is dangling from a thread of Ringo’s sweater when a police helicopter picks him up. It is revealed that the package contains a cream cheese and jelly sandwich. 

            The main producer of The Beatles cartoon series was Canadian animated filmmaker George Dunning. He trained at The National Film Board of Canada. He founded Graphic Associates, Toronto’s first animation studio and produced Canada’s first coloured commercial. He was an animator on the Gerald McBoing Boing Show. He founded the animation studio TVC London, which was active from 1956 to 1997. The company did mostly commercial work but also produced art pieces. He made training films for the National Coal Board featuring the characters Thud and Blunder. He created Canada is My Piano for Expo 67. He created The Maggot in 1973. He directed The Apple, and The Flying Man. He was the main producer of  Yellow Submarine. Although his company lost money on the film because it was paid a flat fee and had to go over budget to finish it, he won critical acclaim and won awards for his work.