I finished revising my translation of Rue Traversière” (Traversière Street) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog.
I transcribed the chords for “White and Black Blues” by Serge Gainsbourg from the set I found on Ultimate Guitar and then another on Boite a chanson (Song Box). Those seem to be the only two sets that have been posted. Tomorrow I start working them out and find out if either of the posted sets work for me.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice and it sounded good.
I weighed 86.5 kilos before breakfast.
I continued trying to get caught up on my journal.
I weighed 86.3 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of homemade iced tea.
When I got up from my siesta I put too much weight on my right knee and so it was a bit sore. Because of that I felt a little more uncomfortable during my bike ride than I did the day before but I went downtown anyway. I stopped at Metro on the way home to take advantage of the last day of grapes for $5.38 a kilo.
When I got home there was a note outside the building to all tenants that they had to call the tenant in unit 1 to get in. I stood outside and punched the number in the freezing cold but the guy came down fairly quickly. He said one of the tenants broke their key in the lock. Later the landlord brought me a key for the new lock.
I weighed 86.35. kilos at 18:30.
I worked on my journal but was still behind at dinnertime.
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, episode 31 of Batman.
This story introduces a very annoying made for TV Batman villain called The Puzzler. His obsessions are a strange mishmash of disparate behaviours. His puzzles are non distinguishable from Riddler’s riddles; most of his speech consists of quotations from Shakespeare; and on top of that his crimes always follow an aviation theme. Any one of those by itself would have been fine but mixed together they were like avocado and jam on pizza. He has his men shoot a model plane trailing smoke into Commissioner Gordon’s office. The message attached to the plane reads, “The puzzles are coming” and “I know a bank where the wild time blows. Inside out the puzzle goes.” As usual the Puzzler is treated like someone they all know even though he’s never appeared on the series before. Gordon calls Batman. Batman says the Puzzler uses reverse logic. He then concludes that the word “bank” should be read backwards. Artemus Knab is one of the richest men in the world. Batman thinks Puzzler’s target is Knab and heads for Knab’s hotel. Meanwhile Knab is playing Monopoly with Puzzler. Batman and Robin arrive and it is clear that they have never previously met Puzzler. Batman explains to Knab that he came because he thought he’d be in trouble from Puzzler, but Knab says he’s just made a deal with Puzzler that is worth millions. He’s backing Puzzler in the manufacture of puzzle balloons. Puzzler gives Robin a sample, which later Batman blows up to read the puzzle “If you knew a hawk from a handsaw would you know a parrot from a plane?” Batman says “a hawk from a handsaw” is a phrase from Hamlet. Batman concludes that the plane is Knab’s new counter insurgency reconnaissance jet plane, the Retsoor. The plane is being christened today with the richest people attending, making it a perfect situation for a Puzzler robbery. They head for the airport. Meanwhile Knab has just christened his plane and left when Puzzler arrives with his moll Rocket, who at the age of 37 is the oldest moll on the series so far. She wants Knab to make her a movie star. Puzzler’s men carry lots of balloons into the hanger to give away to the crowd. Once everyone has a balloon the men put on gas masks and begin popping them. An invisible gas puts everyone into suspension and then they are easily robbed. Batman and Robin arrive but inflated balloons are deflated in their direction and the dynamic duo is suspended as well. Later after Batman and Robin can move again they unravel another puzzle: “What letter is n’er perceived in the alphabet?” Robin says it’s the one you find in your mailbox. Inside the balloon is a piece of paper with another puzzle: “The answer is a fence in this world’s glove”. Batman says the hammer spring of a gun lock is called a fence. Robin says “fence” is also a synonym for “jump”. They reason that fences have posts and fences separate one yard from another. The railroad yard is adjacent to the main post office. The Old Globe Balloon Factory is also in that area. They go there and as Rocket is the receptionist she warns Puzzler they are coming in. Puzzler’s men attack. But when Batman and Robin are winning, Puzzler throws two airplane shaped darts with drugged tips that hit the heroes and knock them out. They wake up tied up in the basket of a hot air balloon. When the balloon reaches six kilometers a mechanism tuned to the altimeter will release the basket. The balloon begins to rise. That’s the cliffhanger.
Puzzler was played by Maurice Evans, who I thought I already covered in my blog from when he played Samantha’s father on Bewitched, but there’s no record. He was a tenor in a London boys choir. His father wrote plays based on Thomas Hardy in which the young Maurice would appear. He made his professional stage debut at the age of 25. His first triumph was three years later in Journey’s End. In British film he co-starred in White Cargo, Raise the Roof, and Bypass to Happiness. He starred in The Path of Glory. In the mid 1930s he moved to the US and proceeded to conquer Broadway, beginning with Romeo and Juliet. He came to be considered a master of interpreting both Shakespeare and Shaw. In Hollywood he co-starred in Kind Lady, The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan, Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. He won an Emmy for his portrayal of Macbeth in a TV adaptation. Orson Welles was one of the few theatrical professionals who did not consider him a good actor. He played Beaumarchais in the fourth season of Daniel Boone. Although he became a US citizen he retired to England and died there. His character of the warlock patriarch Maurice on Bewitched was a scene stealing delight. That character would have made a great villain for the Batman TV series but in his role as The Puzzler in Batman he just seemed bored.
I dozed off again and hit my head on the monitor and the desk. I went to bed without being caught up on my journal.
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