I revised my translation of the first three verses of “Rue Traversière” (Traversière Street) by Boris Vian.
I finished memorizing “White and Black Blues” by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords and found a set on Ultimate Guitar. Tomorrow I’ll transcribe them.
I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the second of two sessions and it stayed in tune for the first four songs and a couple of times in the middle. That’s the most it’s stayed in tune since early December. I still haven’t put any of the new strings on.
Just before 11:00 I rode to Parkdale Community legal for my appointment with Cicilia. She showed my notice of rent increase to her lawyer supervisor and confirmed that my rent increase is legal. It’s still under $700 a month.
I weighed 85.95 kilos before a late breakfast at 11:22.
I worked on catching up on my journal.
I weighed 87 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since January 6.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride and it didn’t hurt as much to pedal as it did the day before. There was no ache at all on the level and only a bit going up the hills. To play it safe I only went as far as Bloor and Ossington but I’m feeling like it might be okay to go all the way downtown and back tomorrow.
I weighed 86.55 kilos at 17:45.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:35.
In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I finished editing the second rainbow wave animation frames that I’d uploaded and cut them so they would fit the main beats. I need to make about nine more to complete the video for the instrumental in rhythm with those beats. But it still looks choppy at that speed. The first rainbow wave animation frames are about half a second apart and they flow a lot better, so I may need to shorten the frames of the second wave as well.
I made a new batch of gravy with last night’s roast beef drippings. I had some with a potato and a slice of roast beef while watching season 2, episodes 29 and 30 of Batman.
In episode 29, Harry Upps is interviewing Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson on his morning show when he pauses for a word from the sponsor, Stay Dry Umbrellas. An unseen, veiled woman enters the studio. Upps opens a Stay Dry Umbrella and continues to talk when the woman points an instrument at him and he loses his voice. Out of the umbrella scatters cards that hold a riddle: “What’s black and white and full of fuzz?” Dick says it’s a police car. They’re guessing either the Penguin or the Riddler might be back and so they call Commissioner Gordon. Batman asks Gordon to check the whereabouts of Joker, Riddler and Penguin. He finds they are all in prison. After Batman and Robin leave, Catwoman and her new band comes to visit Gordon. He is happy to see her because he thinks she’s reformed. She introduces Eenie her first female gang member. The men are Meanie, Miney and Moe. They call themselves Catwoman and the Kittens. Gordon asks that they perform at the Police Benevolent Society Ball. When Catwoman leaves she blows Gordon a kiss and says, “Here’s a kiss to build a dream on”, then she back-kicks her tambourine and leaves. Chief O’Hara is suspicious but Gordon says he can tell a reformed woman when he sees one and Catwoman is a reformed woman. Catwoman learns that Chad and Jeremy will also be playing at the Police Ball but their accommodations are being kept a secret. She calls Gordon and coaxes him to tell her where Chad and Jeremy are staying with the argument that she doesn’t want to sing the same songs as the British group. He tells her they are staying at Wayne Manor. Then she steals Gordon’s voice over the phone. After that she calls up Dick Grayson under the pretense of representing the Duncan Dance Studio. She tells him if he can answer a question he will win a free lesson. Dick says he’s not interested in dance lessons but Bruce tells him dancing is very important for every teenager’s education. So Dick accepts and answers her question, “Who painted Whistler’s Mother?” He says “Whistler”. Catwoman comes to Wayne Manor under the guise of Miss Klutz the dance instructor. But there is bouquet of dogwood in a vase to which Catwoman is allergic. She sneezes her disguise off and is recognized. She drops a knockout bomb and runs out the door. Meanwhile Chad and Jeremy arrive at the airport. An interview is set up and they are asked their favourite group. They say “the chamber of commerce” and the “PTA”. After Robin recovers he is surprised how easily Gordon was taken in by Catwoman. Batman says she is a very beautiful and enthralling woman and when he is older he will see how easy it is to be lured by the female of the species. They head for the Duncan Dance Studio. Meanwhile Chad and Jeremy are having tea with Aunt Harriet. Jeremy says, “Chad was a medical student and I was reading for the law when our first record came out.” They plan to finish their schooling. Chad says every record their fans buy brings him a notch closer to becoming a brain surgeon. None of that background is true though. Back at the dance studio Eenie asks Catwoman why she doesn’t steal Batman’s voice. She answers, “Never! One of the few joys I have in life is when his rich manly baritone caresses my ears with ‘Catwoman, you’re under arrest’. Ooooh it makes everything worthwhile!” Is Adam West’s voice a baritone? Batman and Robin arrive at the studio and Catwoman has her guys attack them. They defeat the men and come to arrest Catwoman and Eenie. Catwoman asks if she can powder her nose first. She opens her compact, puts some powder on the claws of her gloves, then gently scratches Batman and Robin, who become groggy, slurred and collapse. They wake up in a transparent echo chamber that amplifies every sound 10 million times. A faucet above them is turned on to drip on a drum, with each drip sounding to Batman and Robin like crashing thunder. Catwoman tells them their brains will be turned into yuck. Then Batman will be hers forever, without an intellect, but with a build like that who cares. Catwoman and her crew leave them to their torture.
In episode 30, as the thunderous dripping continues to torture Batman and Robin, Batman gets an idea. He tells Robin that every room has its sympathetic vibration and a note that will shatter glass. He says the note for the echo chamber should be F sharp above high C. Batman hums a note that is supposed to be one that will shatter glass. Robin joins in and then the wall shatters. The wall would have to be made of delicate crystal for that to work so obviously a shatterable glass wall would not serve as the wall of a prison that is also an echo chamber that amplifies sounds 10 million times. If the wall was shatterable the dripping sounds or any other would have shattered it. Meanwhile Chad and Jeremy begin their concert, singing “Distant Shores”. Catwoman steps onto the stage and steals their voices. Batman and Robin arrive but Eenie cuts the lights and Catwoman and her crew all have see-in-the-dark glasses. The next day Batman and Robin are interviewed by Allan Stevens (played by Steve Allen) when Catwoman and her gang step into the studio. She says she wants 8 million Pounds for the return of Chad and Jeremy’s voices, which in US dollars at the time was $22,400,000. She thinks England will pay because Chad and Jeremy pay so much income tax that if it were to stop it would break the empire. If she doesn’t have the money by the next day at noon she’ll turn her voice eraser loose on everyone. Allan tries to argue with her and loses his voice too. Batman and Robin to the British consul general. He gets a call from the prime minister just after they arrive and is told that England will not pay the ransom. Batman and Robin leave by climbing down the side of the building and there is a cameo from the famous Hawaiian crooner Don Ho. Later Batman hears a recording of a phone call from Catwoman and he analyzes the background noise to find that it’s from three hair dryers. Then Chad and Jeremy write a note saying they want to get their hair done at Mr. Oceanbring’s. His men’s salon has three dryers. Catwoman says she can return everyone’s voices with her spray compound of sweet basil, garlic salt and goat’s milk. Batman arrives at the salon. She tells him that if he could just come down off his high horse for a moment they could make such beautiful music together. Robin says she’ll play a different tune when they’re through. Catwoman tells him teenagers should be seen and not heard. Her men attack while Catwoman puts on her lipstick. Batman and Robin defeat the gang but Catwoman escapes. Batman goes after her and outside she jumps him from above. When he rises she has him covered with both her sonic beam gun and her voice eraser. But she hesitates to kill him and says, “Can’t you see how I feel about you? How I want you by my side?” She can’t kill him and gives up. She says, “It was a good plot while it lasted”. Batman agrees that it was one of her very best. She asks if he’ll take her on a date when she gets out of prison. He says they’ll have plenty of time to think about it. She asks, “If I were to kiss you would you think I was a bad girl?” He says, “No, of course not. Kissing is one of the most natural things in the world. Some people kiss almost every day I’m told”. They are about to kiss when much to Catwoman’s annoyance Robin calls for Batman. Batman asks to take a raincheck on that kiss. They walk arm in arm to the waiting police. Chad and Jeremy get their voices back and we see them in concert again singing, “Teenage Failure” by Jeremy Clyde. Bruce, Dick, Alfred and Harriet are in a balcony box together and Gordon arrives. He says his grandchildren insisted he see Chad and Jeremy. In thirty episodes we meet his only daughter Barbara who has just graduated from college and who becomes Batgirl, so there’s a bit of a conflict for him to have grandchildren.
Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde played themselves. They met while attending the Central School of Speech and Drama and Chad taught Jeremy how to play guitar. By 1962 they were a performing folk duo, with the side project of a rock and roll band called The Jerks. They were discovered while performing in a London coffeehouse called Tina’s and signed to a recording contract. Their first single was Yesterday’s Gone, written by Chad and it was their only hit in the UK, but it was bigger in the states. Jeremy would sing the melody while Chad would do the high harmonies. Their second single “Summer Song” was an even bigger hit in the US. Up until 1965 they released four albums, with songs that charted but not in the top 10. Clyde went back to acting for a year. Chad formed a duo with his wife Jill, performing Chad and Jeremy songs. They got back together in 1966. Distant Shores, their last top 40 hit was composed by James Guercio who produced the first twelve Chicago albums. They worked in the States where they were most successful but didn’t become US citizens because then they might have to go to Vietnam. They made appearances on several popular TV series of the 60s. Their appearance on the western series Laredo was meant to be a back door pilot for a western themed Chad and Jeremy TV series called Paleface, that was never picked up. Their psychedelic albums Of Cabbages and Kings and The Ark were well received by critics but commercial failures. They wrote the soundtrack for the movie Three in the Attic. After that they broke up and Clyde returned to the theatre and was a success. Stuart became musical director for the Smothers Brothers variety show. They reunited from time to time as a duo and as part of a British invasion reunion tour.
I fell asleep again and fell behind on my journal. Clearly my sleep patterns have changed again as I age and I get sleepy earlier. Trying to catch up all the time is cutting into a lot of my projects. Short of taking drugs to stay awake, I’ve decided the only solution is to opt for watching only one half hour show at suppertime rather than two. It will take be twice as long to get through a series but what the hell. Maybe later on I’ll start staying awake.
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