Paul Revere and the Raiders

            On Wednesday morning I went to bed at 1:30 and didn’t try to get caught up on my journal because I wanted to get enough sleep so I could ride out to Woodbine and Danforth to get my Martin fixed. The extra hour of sleep helped. 

            After yoga I finished working out the chords to “Ardoise” (Shingles) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it in French. Tomorrow I may need to make some changes to my translation before uploading it to my Christian’s Translations blog.

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the second of two sessions and the B string continues to go out of tune almost as soon as I begin strumming. 

            I weighed 86.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I put two homemade humidifiers inside my Martin guitar, wrapped it in a woolen blanket and put it in my guitar case to carry it on my bike to the Twelfth Fret at Woodbine and Danforth. I stopped to pee at Long and McQuade at Bloor and Ossington and again at the Second Cup at Danforth and Hampton. When I got to the Twelfth Fret I told Brian that when I got my guitar back from him last time it sounded worse than when I dropped it off. He said he was too busy to deal with it at that time so I said I wanted to take it upstairs to the luthier shop. Gordon upstairs didn’t see anything wrong with the action on my Martin. Even when I showed him that it had gone out of tune he pretty much gaslit me and suggested it was my imagination. Finally he took it to a fancy looking scope and found that the G string is off. He said the wave is moving on the G and should be stationary. He suggested that the G string being out of intonation may be affecting how I hear the B string. He said if I leave my guitar with them there are 100 guitars ahead of mine being fixed and it would take three weeks so he suggested I first try new strings. So I went back downstairs and bought a set of Martin strings. 

            I packed up my guitar, used the washroom and headed home. On the way, on the Danforth bike lane a plain clothes cop stepped in front of me flashing his badge and there was another cop standing off to the side. I asked, “What do you want?” He said they were looking for a wanted person who met my description. I said, “You don’t even have my description!” then I pulled off my balaclava and they immediately said, “Sorry to bother you” and walked away. I wonder how often I’m going to get stopped for wanting to have a warm face in the winter. 

            I weighed 84.95 kilos at 16:36. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            I took a siesta until 18:30. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 18:30. 

            I was behind again on my journal because of my trip to the east end. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Italian sausage sauce, the last of my salami, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episodes 17 and 18 of Batman. 

            In episode 17, a blind man is being mugged when Penguin stops the crook with his boxing glove umbrella. Later he saves a baby from being hit by a truck, then donated $100,000 to the Gotham charity fund. Commissioner Gordon hears of this and calls Batman. When Batman and Robin get to police headquarters they learn the Penguin is running for mayor. Batman doesn’t think Gothamites are so stupid as to vote for Penguin. Mayor Linseed is in Gordon’s office when they arrive. The heroes learn that several prominent Gotham organizations have already endorsed the Penguin. The pollsters Gallus, Rooper and Trendek are called into Gordon’s office. They say 30% of the population support Linseed while 60% are in favour of Penguin. Linseed says they are never wrong and so it is hopeless to think he can beat Penguin. Linseed, Gordon and Chief O’Hara tell Batman that he is there only hope and they ask him to enter the race. Batman is reluctant but finally accepts the call of the people and agrees to run. Penguin has a big team full of enthusiastic students and pretty cheerleaders, as well as lots of posters and buttons. But after Batman announces his candidacy the caped crusader is polling far ahead of Penguin. Penguin is still confident and tells his team they need plenty of girls, slogans and hoopla but no politics because issues confuse people. Meanwhile at Batman campaign headquarters it is quiet, with no team and much smaller and less loud posters. Batman says voters are interested in issues and not window dressing. They are too mature to be taken in by cheap vaudeville trickery. Batman holds a rally and some mothers bring their babies for him to kiss, but Batman refuses because it’s unsanitary for the baby. However the mothers interpret Batman’s refusal to mean that he hates babies. Then Penguin comes along and kisses the babies with his cigarette holder still in his mouth and the mothers switch their support to Penguin. Very few come to hear Batman’s boring speech at his rally and even Chief O’Hara falls asleep. Linseed compares it to a funeral service. Meanwhile at Penguin’s rally Paul Revere and the Raiders are playing and there is a gorgeous scantily clad belly dancer gyrating to the music while Penguin pours champagne for everybody. Batman says that Penguin depends on public cynicism while he depends on the people’s good judgement. Batman is invited to speak before the Grand Order of Occidental Nighthawks (G.O.O.N.). But the members are all Penguin’s goons and they attack Batman and Robin. The heroes are outnumbered and overwhelmed. They are tied to one side of a scale which hovers over a vat of sulphuric acid while the other side is balanced with large blocks of ice that are heated from below and becoming lighter by the second. Penguin arrives pretending he is outraged and says he is leaving to summon the police. Batman and Robin slowly descend towards the acid and that is the cliffhanger. 

            In episode 18, as Batman and Robin come closer to the sulphuric acid Batman covers his face in his cape and jumps into the vat, emerging unharmed to climb out. He explains that Alfred insisted on making him an acid proof costume. He rescues Robin and they leave. Later Batman and Penguin participate in a TV debate. Penguin speaks first and says the only issue in the campaign is Batman. Who is he? He must be a dangerous criminal behind the mask because otherwise he would not wear one. Whenever you see Batman he is always with criminals while the Penguin is always surrounded by the police. When it’s Batman’s turn to speak he is drowned out by a recording of Penguin’s campaign theme song because his goons have tied up the technicians and taken over the sound booth. At that moment the Gotham Convention Hall is being robbed of a jewellery exhibit. Both candidates head to the Convention Centre to foil the robbery. Batman and Robin and Penguin are all in the convention hall fighting the robbers who are all obviously Penguin’s men. Penguins battle is staged. Newsman Chet Chumley is reporting from inside the sound booth above the scene. Robin gets knocked out. David Dooley reports from the floor and tries to interview the candidates as they fight. Chet is keeping score on the number of hits each candidate achieves and Penguin is winning of course because the fight is fixed. Batman is overwhelmed until Penguin saves him. When the fight is over Chet says “Goodnight David” and Davis says “Goodnight Chet”. You’d have to be old to get the joke. The latest poll says 65% Penguin and 35% Batman. It’s election day and the votes from the east have Penguin ahead. Penguin says he’s going to make the Riddler police commissioner and Joker the chief of police. The votes come in from the est and there is a strong Batman trend. It looks like Batman is going to win but Penguin kidnaps the board of elections so they can’t count the ballots. He threatens to kill them if he is not elected mayor. Batman suspects Penguin is holding the hostages at G.O.O.N. headquarters. Batman and Robin arrive there and the big final fight takes place. They toss Penguin into his own campaign literature packing machine. Batman wins but immediately resigns and passes the mantle to his candidate for deputy mayor, Linseed. Batman gets a call asking him to run for president but he turns them down.

    Paul Revere and the Raiders were started by keyboardist Paul Revere as an instrumental group called The Downbeats in 1958. Revere owned several restaurants in Idaho and met singer Mark Lindsay while buying buns from a bakery where he worked. The band name was changed to Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1960 and they began wearing costumes from the era of the Middle North American revolution. Their first hit was an instrumental called "Like Long Hair". revere was drafted but was a conscientious objector and so he served his required year and a half as a cook in a mental institution. When he'd finished serving, their first hit was "Just Like Me" which sounds like a rip off of The Who's Can't Explain. Their first top 5 hit was Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill's "Kicks".

            Their first hit written by Mark Lindsay was "Him or Me". Their song "Let Me" was for some reason their first gold record. Lindsay had a solo hit with Arizona in 1969. In 1970 they changed their name to The Raiders. Their biggest hit was John D, Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation".