John Mitchum

            On Sunday morning I finished working out the chords for “Rue Traversière” (Traversière Street) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing the whole song in French and then I need to revise my translation. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions and it stayed in tune the whole time. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I cleaned the very dirty storage area under the bathroom sink. On Tuesday I’ll tackle the toilet and the wall behind it. 

            I didn’t get away for my bike ride until 16:55. I was considering only going as far as Bloor and Ossington but the Bloor bike lane was clear and so I decided to go all the way downtown. My bike is a lot faster since I replaced the wobbly back rim.

            I weighed 86.35 kilos at 18:40. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:18. 

            I finished the 27 frames for my rainbow wave animation and I loaded them into Movie Maker. I put them in sequence on the video timeline of my Seven Shades of Blues project. I suspect I’ll need more but I thought I’d start with 27 frames to get a feel for it.

            I reviewed the September 10 song practice video of my performance of “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers”. I played my Martin acoustic guitar during that session and the take at 16:00 had a couple of wrong chords. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Italian sausage sauce, two slices of ham and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 25 and 26 of Batman. 

            In episode 25, at the Gotham 100 automobile race Grimaldi Smith pauses for a pit stop when Shame points a six-gun at his head. He’s there with his gang, Okie Annie, Rip Snorting and Messy James. They steal Smith’s racecar and drive away with Shame inside and the rest of the gang on top. Shame has already stolen a hot rod and a go kart by the time Commissioner Gordon learns about it. He calls Batman. Like most villains appearing for the first time on this show, Shame is referred to as an old enemy of Batman. The three cars Shame stole have all been rounded up and he only stole parts from each car. He took a 28 barrel carburetor from Smith’s car, alloy pistons from the go kart, and some milled heads from the hot rod. He also left a platinum bullet behind. Shame’s hideout is on the abandoned old west town movie set of a bankrupt studio. Shame is stealing the parts for the motor of a truck so the truck will go 500 kph and beat the Batmobile. Meanwhile Batman tries to anticipate what else Shame will need for his engine and Robin correctly suggests a special cam shaft and valve lifters. Batman as Bruce Wayne calls Hot Rod Harry the DJ and gets him to make an announcement over the radio that Bruce Wayne has just had his limo revamped with a handmade camshaft and special new valve lifters. He’ll be showing the car next week at the auto show. Shame borrows the transistor radio from a little boy named Andy who afterwards keeps showing up and saying “Come back Shame! Come back!” Shame and his gang follow Bruce and Dick to town. In a lingerie shop they are shopping for Aunt Harriet and are clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable until Okie Annie comes to the rescue and tells the sales lady what the men want. She gets a ride from them to somewhere in the country until the road is blocked by a cow. While trying to coax it off the road Bruce and Dick are ambushed by Shane and his men. They take the limo but that’s how Bruce planned it. He’s had the Batcycle follow them by remote control at a distance the whole time and now it arrives for them to drive, also with the Alf Cycle in the side car so Alfred can ride home. Shame finishes his truck motor and then Batman and Robin arrive to surprise him because they’ve put a tracer on the parts. The first big fight takes place and Shame and his men are losing until Annie shoots the wagon wheel chandelier down on top of Batman and Robin. Shame has the heroes staked to the ground in the middle of the street and then starts a stampede of cattle running through the town that are heading to trample Batman and Robin. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In episode 26, with the stampede is on its way to trample the dynamic duo, Batman (a little too easily) pulls out the stake that his hands are tied to, removes his cape and uses it as a matador’s muleta to steer the steers clear of Robin. That doesn’t make sense, since the cape would not work in a stampede of cattle coming from all sides. A matador goes against one bull and can side step to maneuver. Batman would have had nowhere to go. Once the stampede has passed Batman frees Robin and they go to see Hot Rod Harry. Harry tells them he doesn’t know why Shame is building a fast truck but suggests they ask Laughing Leo the used car and truck magnate. Leo tells them the Batmobile is looking tacky and calls it an old clunker. He offers something more modern for $1000 down if they throw in the Batmobile. He says he doesn’t know what Shame’s up to but after they leave he goes to the auto shop in the back where Shame and his gang are working. Shame says the four Black Angus steers at the Gotham City rodeo are worth $300,000 each and he plans to steal them, then drive them out west to sell. That’s why he fixed up the truck. Shame is happy because he thinks Batman and Robin are dead but Leo has to break the news that they are still alive. Shane’s response looks like he’s about to turn into the Hulk. Alfred finds the limo in a Gotham suburb and returns it to the Batcave. It is searched for clues and on the steering wheel there is a tiny speck of chili and another of avocado. Batman says the best place for chili and avocado dip in Gotham is the Adobe Hacienda Hotel and Eats. They go there but Shame is not there. Batman thinks he’s gone back to Westernland. Robin says Shane knows that they know about his hideout. Batman says knowing that, Shane would think that they would think he wouldn’t go back there, so they go there. But Shame is ready for them because he knew Batman would think he’d think that Batman would think he’d think Batman would come back there. Shame and his gang start shooting at Batman and Robin. Robin gets shot in the heel. Batman removes the bullet but has to take him back to the Batcave to give him plenty of Baticillin. The Baticillin works instantly. It’s kind of selfish of Batman to hold onto a miracle drug like that and not share it with the world. Alfred reminds Bruce that he is the grand marshal at the Gotham Rodeo and tells him about the four Black Angus cows. Batman suddenly realizes what Shame is planning to steal. He says Bruce won’t be there but Batman will. So later at the rodeo Shame and his gang come to steal the Black Angus cattle. Batman and Robin arrive outside the Coliseum and climb up the side of the wall. As usual there is a cameo and this time it’s Colonel Klink from Hogan’s Heroes in plain clothes but still wearing his monocle. He says he is looking for an underground agent. Robin asks, “One of ours or one of yours”. Batman asks why at the Gotham Coliseum. Klink says you never know where you might find one. Batman says, “Be careful not to be picked up”. Whose side is Batman on? Wouldn’t catching a Nazi officer be more important than preventing the theft of four bulls? Robin says to say hello to Colonel Hogan. So in this Batman universe WWII is still going on and Colonel Hogan is still a prisoner of war? By the time Batman and Robin get there Shame has already stolen the bulls and has a head start in a direction unknown. Batman figures the cattle would need to be fed first and so he says they should head for the stockyards, but Robin thinks he’d feel safer taking them to the corral, so they go there. But the corral is at the stockyards so I don’t know what that was about. At the corral, Shame is joined by Laughing Leo who is now wearing a holster and two six guns over his business suit. They hear the Batmobile coming and get ready to ambush Batman and Robin. Shame steps out into the street for a showdown with Batman. He is reminded that they are unarmed and even a murderous cowboy wouldn’t gun down an unarmed man. Shame says those rules don’t count eat of the Mississippi. Just as the gang opens fire Batman throws a smoke bomb so they don’t know where they are shooting. But now everybody has shot the contents of their six guns and a regular fight can take place. Shame and his gang are defeated. Andy comes for his radio so Shame gives it back. Batman tells the boy to grow up to be a good citizen and Shame says “Good grief!” 

            Rip Snorting was played by John Mitchum, who was the younger brother of Robert Mitchum. Their sister had moved to California and so the tough brothers from Hell’s Kitchen hitchhiked and rode the rails out west. While Robert dived right into Hollywood, John became a sailor, a boxer and a choir conductor. He finally became a character actor, mostly playing supporting tough guys. His film debut was in The Prairie in 1947. He was also a poet and John Wayne’s recording of his poem “America Why I Love Her” was nominated for a Grammy in 1973. He recorded “Our Land, Our Heritage” with Dan Blocker. On TV he played Pickalong on Riverboat and Hoffenmeuler on F Troop. He played Harry’s partner Frank in the first three Dirty Harry movies. His autobiography was called “Them Ornery Mitchum Boys”. I fell behind on my journal again because I keep falling asleep. It’s a real struggle these days late at night and from time to time I stick my head out the window into the freezing night air to try to wake myself up but it only works for a few seconds before I start dozing off again.