I memorized the second and third verses of “Rue Traversière” (Traversière Street) by Boris Vian.
I memorized the fifth verse of “Ardoise” (Shingles) by Serge Gainsbourg. There are only two verses left to learn. I made some revisions to my translation.
I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice and it stayed in tune for most of the session. Tomorrow I’ll start a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar and I expect it to continue going out of tune. I can’t take it back the Twelfth Fret until January 7 because they’ll be closed until then.
I weighed 86.5 kilos before breakfast.
I was still two days behind on my journal and so between breakfast and lunch I worked on getting caught up.
I weighed 86.55 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 86.05 kilos at 18:23.
I worked on getting caught up on my journal and had a couple of cans of Creemore while doing so. By the suppertime I was only a day behind.
I heated some frozen buffalo wings and some bistro fries. I melted five-year-old cheddar on the fries and put some gravy on top. I had them with another beer while watching season 2, episodes 1 and 2 of Batman.
In episode 1, Bruce Wayne is meeting in his home with Mr. Allan Dale, the administrative head of public relations for the Wayne Foundation. Dale doesn’t think they should donate money to the poor because the criminal Archer and his band may steal it. Suddenly a gas releasing arrow hits the piano and everyone is knocked out. The Archer arrives and he’s like a Middle North Americanized knock off of Robin Hood, complete with his own Friar and his own Little John. One of his arrows blows open the safe and he robs Bruce Wayne. The Archer then rides to the poor part of town and throws the money to the underprivileged who surprisingly are all white. The cops arrive but Archer shoots a sneezing powder arrow at their feet and while the cops are sternutating the Archer and his men escape. Commissioner Gordon calls Batman. He says most of the poor people turned in the money once they learned it was stolen. Archer shoots a blinding flash arrow into Gordon’s office. Mr. Dale suggests they should replace Batman with the Archer. The Archer and his men escape through the window and Batman and Robin follow, climbing down the wall. On the way a window opens and it’s Dick Clark, who asks if they are in a band. Batman knows he’s from Philadelphia because he dipped his diphthong. He tells him to return to his business. The Archer’s moll is Maid Marilyn and she’s played by the every delightful Barbara Nichols. She’s not the usual subservient moll but is always complaining and talking back. The Archer wants to find the Batcave so he can destroy the Batman’s anti crime computer. Marilyn calls Gordon to tell him where Archer will be giving money to the poor next. Later Archer robs a coin machine company and distributes the coins to the poor. Batman and Robin arrive and start throwing punches while the crowd boos them. Archer and his men are arrested but the poor people of Gotham raise $50,000 for his bail. Batman is trying to locate Archer’s hideout. Since people are calling Archer another Robin Hood, Batman asks what was Ribin Hood’s real name. Robin says he was the Earl of Huntington. The Bat Computer locates an archery range owned by someone named Earl Huntington. Batman knows that Alfred used to be an archery champion. Alfred admits that he was known as the William Tell of Liverpool. He sure doesn’t sound like he’s from Liverpool. The Alfred actor Alan Napier was from Birmingham. Batman sends Alfred to Archer’s archery range where he says he wants to purchase some arrows. Finding Alfred to be knowledgeable, Archer challenges him to a competition. They keep splitting each other’s arrows at the bullseye of the target. Meanwhile Batman and Robin locate Archer’s dungeon hideout. But they have tripped a silent alarm and Marilyn trips a trap so that the heroes are caught in a net. Alfred tries to leave but Archer thinks he was sent as a distraction and stops him. Archer interrogates Batman and Robin and tries to force them to reveal the location of the Batcave. They are strung up by their thumbs. Batman says, “You’ll have to kill us” but Archer says he’ll kill Alfred instead. They put Alfred in a guillotine and the blade comes down but it was only a trick guillotine and Batman recognized that. They are released. Archer slaps Batman with a glove and challenges him to a duel and Batman accepts. But there is no duel and they are tied to stakes out in the field while Archer and his men charge them with lances to run them through. That’s the cliffhanger.
In episode 2, just before Archer and his men can pierce them with their lances, Batman and Robin activate the springs in their boots and they shoot up off the stakes they are tied to. One can see the strings pulling them up. Archer is going to attack again but Marilyn accidentally breaks Archer’s cheering machine that motivates him, so he leaves. The Archer and his band are hiding out in the basement of police headquarters. Archer and his men affect their speech with these and thous but Marilyn refuses to ditch her Queens accent. She reminds Archer that they come from the same neighbourhood. There’s a knock on the door and it’s Mr. Dale, who tells Archer how the $10 million in charity money from the Wayne Foundation will be delivered because they’ve had a deal all along that Archer will cut him in. Later Archer and his men attack the armoured car with explosive arrows. The guards look for who is shooting but can’t see. Archer is around the corner with arrows he’s developed that make 90 degree turns. While the guards are looking for where the arrows came from, Marilyn drives away with the armoured car. But they find the armoured car and it seems all the money is still there. Bruce and Dick go down the Bat Poles but Bruce pulls a switch that says “Negate Bruce’s change” and so somehow they can either be dressed or not automatically on the way down. Both Bruce Wayne and Batman and Robin are to be at the ceremony for donating the funds. Bruce has Alfred put on a Batman costume and appear on a nearby roof, close enough to be visible but not enough to show his moustache. The poor people are being handed out money in cash one by one in reverse alphabetical order but when Zoltan Zorba gets his bill he sees it has a picture of Archer on it. Gordon calls for Batman but Bruce has no time to change and so he gives Alfred a voice changer that will allow him to speak in his voice. Batman is standing off in the distance and explains it’s because he has a cold. Later at the Batcave Batman says that the only person who knew when and where the armoured car would deliver the money was Allan Dale. Batman says the only safe place Archer could stash the money with sequential serial numbers is Switzerland and so they head for a the Bat Boat and confront Archer at the pier. Meanwhile Archer, his band and Dale are on a boat. Archer is now wearing a pirate’s hat. Batman and Robin board the boat. Archer and his men fight them with swords. For some reason Marilyn passes Batman and Robin swords so they can duel fairly. Batman and Robin defeat the Archer.
In a lacklustre performance for a Batman villain, Art Carney played the Archer. Other Batman villains are over the top but Carney was just goofy. I love Art Carney but as a supervillain he just doesn’t match the scenery chewing performances of Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin and Julie Newmar. Carney started in the 1930s as a big band singer for Horace Heidt’s Orchestra. They appeared frequently on the radio and on the radio game show Pot O’ Gold. Carne’s film debut was in the movie Pot O’ Gold. He was wounded during the invasion of Normandy and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. After the war he became a radio character actor and showed himself to have a talent for impressions. He was a regular on Gangbusters. He starred as The Red Lantern on the radio adventure series Land of the Lost. He played Charlie the door man on both the radio and television versions of The Morey Amsterdam Show. In 1950 he was hired to do a sketch with Jackie Gleason on Cavalcade of Stars. Their chemistry was so good that Carney became a regular and then a co-star when Cavalcade became The Jackie Gleason Show. The most popular sketch was The Honeymooners in which Carney played Ed Norton. It eventually earned its own sitcom, which even though it only lasted for one season became iconic and of course inspired The Flintstones, with Barney Rubble being an Ed Norton parody. Jackie Gleason said that Carney was 90% responsible for the success of the Honeymooners. He had a hit record with “The Song of the Sewer”. He was nominated for seven Emmy Awards and won six of them. He made his Broadway debut in 1957 when he starred in The Rope Dancers. On Broadway in 1965 he was the first actor to play Felix Unger in The Odd Couple. He starred in the TV special Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf. He had his own show, the short lived Art Carney Special. He won an Academy Award for his performance in Harry and Tonto. He co-starred in Last Action Hero, House Calls, Going in Style, and Movie Movie. He starred in The Late Show. He was an accomplished jazz pianist.
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