Bruce Lee

            On Wednesday at 1:30 I went to bed without being caught up in my journal because I fell asleep after watching Batman. 

            I worked out the chords for the second line of the third verse of “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished memorizing “Tandem” by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords and immediately found a set on Boite a chanson (Song Box), which I started transcribing. I’ll finish that tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of four sessions. 

            I weighed 86.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I was behind on my journal because I fell asleep the night before and so at midday I got caught up. 

            I weighed 86.9 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since January 14. 

            In the afternoon I was preparing to take a bike ride when I saw that my front tire was flat. I immediately took it four doors up the street to Metro Cycles to get it changed. Jack told me I needed a new front tire because it was so frayed that anything could make the tube flat. A new one comes with a tube so I got it and Metro doesn’t charge tax on cash payments so I got the tire and the tube for $80. It was too late by the time it was fixed to ride downtown so I just rode to Bloor and Gladstone and then south to Freshco where I bought seven bags of cherries and a pack of raspberries. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos at 18:16. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:15. 

            I finished watching the documentary about the Rainbow Family Gathering but other than a clip of people with rainbow umbrellas it has nothing for me to use in my Seven Shades of Blues video. 

            I compared the song practice video of my acoustic performance of “Les Sucettes” on September 25 to that of September 21, and September 25 has fewer mistakes. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Bolognese sauce, sweet chili chips and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episode 52 of Batman. 

            This story is part 2 of the usual double chapter adventure. The cliffhanger from last time had Green Hornet and Kato fed to a stamp making machine with Hornet already apparently having come out the other side as a life size but two dimensional stamp. Meanwhile Batman and Robin have been trapped with their backs up against a highly adhesive panel on the wall. Now after Kato comes through the machine as a life size stamp the villain, Colonel Gumm says it is time to feed Batman and Robin to the machine. He uses his spray can of Glue Gone to free Batman and Robin. That was a dumb move since he already had them trapped and he could have killed them any number of ways. As soon as they are free they begin to fight and then are able to turn off the machine. Batman says they need to unlock the side panel because the Green Hornet and Kato are still alive inside. Meanwhile Gumm and his men get away with some stamps and with Pinky Pinkston the factory owner as a hostage. Gumm catches Pinky feeding his alphabet soup to her dog Apricot. The Green Hornet uses his stinger to blow the side off the machine. The Hornet explains that there was a small knitch between the gum applier and the perforating needles. Kato adds that they are both quite flexible. The machine merely took their picture rather than pressed them. Batman explains that he knew the “masked meddler” was still alive because he had his hornet sting with him but it didn’t show up in the giant stamp. The Green Hornet and Kato leave and Robin wonders why Batman is letting them go. Batman tells him that so far they have not seen the Hornet and Kato commit a crime. Batman finds the leftover alphabet soup in the bowl and notices that the Js Qs and Zs are missing. He thinks that Pinky might have left a message in the soup and so he takes it to the Batcave for analysis. Britt comes to visit Bruce and they talk about getting together to renew their old relationship as co-party animals. Later in the Batcave Batman and Robin are coming up blank in their efforts to decode any alphabet soup message. Batman decides to feed the letter shaped noodles directly into the Bat Computer. That’s one weird computer of you can feed objects to it. Bruce explains that the noodles are digestible implying that the Bat Computer can process food in some way. Anyway the computer, immediately decodes the message: “If anyone can decode this message Gumm is taking me to warehouse as hostage. Watch stamp exhibition tonight”. Batman feeds the Yellow Pages list of stamp warehouses to the computer but it shuts down. Alfred explains that Aunt Harriet’s hair dryer caused a short circuit and now half the electricity in Wayne Manor is out. Batman says, “And so because of a woman’s vanity a battle may be lost”. Robin argues that many battles were won before electricity. Meanwhile at the warehouse Gumm is having his alphabet soup but complains it tastes like it needs more consonants. He tells Pinky that since both Bruce Wayne and The Green Hornet asked about the Gotham Gothic stamp, Wayne may be the Green Hornet and Britt Reid may be Batman. Gumm leaves her there alone and so she gets Apricot to chew her bonds and free her. She goes to Commissioner Gordon’s office and tells him about the secret identity revelations. That night Batman and Robin scale the wall of the building to get to the stamp exhibition and there is a cameo appearance from Edward G. Robinson who opens a window to chat with them. He gives a critique of Andy Warhol without naming him when he says that cans of tomato soup are for eating and not framing. He says that the person who posed for the Mona Lisa might have been the wickedest in the world, but what a smile. Meanwhile at the exhibition, Gumm is disguised as Argentine stamp collector Senor Barboza. Green Hornet and Kato arrive through the door and Batman and Robin through the window. Gumm’s men attack both teams but Batman also throws punches at Hornet and Robin also fights Kato. Pinky arrives with the cops but Gumm sneaks up behind and takes her hostage. But Batman sneaks up behind Gumm allowing the police to arrest him. They notice that the Green Hornet and Kato have gotten away. Batman suggests that they might not be criminals after all. Later Bruce and Britt are having lunch with Pinky. Bruce leaves to look for his keys then Pinky gets a call from Batman, proving Britt is not the caped crusader. 

            Kato was played by Bruce Lee, who was born in San Francisco. His film debut was as a baby in Golden Gate Girl. When he was one year old his family returned to Hong Kong. At the age of five he began appearing in movies such as The Birth of Mankind in which he starred. In his early teens he was beaten up by a street gang, which caused him to want to study martial arts. He only studied kung fu for five years. He also became a prize winning cha-cha dancer. He was getting into too many fights in Hong Kong and so his parents sent him back to San Francisco when he was 19. He enrolled in the University of Washington in Seattle where he studied Philosophy. He opened his own kung fu school in 1963. It was at a martial arts exhibition that Bruce met William Dozier who was looking for an Asian actor with martial arts skills to play Kato. The Green Hornet only lasted for one season but it made Bruce Lee a star. He opened up a third school in LA where he trained Steve McQueen and James Coburn among many other actors. he appeared several times as the martial arts instructor of the blind title character on the detective series Longstreet. In 1971 Bruce returned to Hong Kong where he was offered the lead role in the film The Big Boss. Despite its low budget it became a big hit in Asia and the producers rushed to put together a script for Fist of Fury. It broke box office records in Hong Kong. Next Bruce wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Way of the Dragon. After that Hollywood became involved and produced Enter the Dragon. He died from a reaction to headache medication between the end of shooting and the release of the hit film. Fans were so desperate for Bruce Lee movies when there were so few made that pieces of footage were sewn together to make shoddy stories for a couple of films. he invented Jeet Kun Do, a form of martial arts in which freedom of reaction was far more important than rigid form. He was capable of doing push ups with a 250-pound man on his back and could do push-ups with only one finger. He was obsessed with the soap opera General Hospital.