I worked out the chords for the second verse and the first line of the chorus of “Tandem” by Serge Gainsbourg. Once the chorus is done I think the rest of the chords are just repeated.
I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my electric guitars.
I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast.
After shaving and showering I received a devastating email from Mark at Metro Cycles about my bike:
Hello Christian,
I think I discovered the grinding noise that you described: your frame is broken. The drive side chain stay is completely broken off from the rear axle wells, and seems to have been bumping into the highest freewheel gear. It is not recommended to ride a bike with a broken frame. I have stopped work on it, as I see no point in you spending money on a bike you cannot safely ride. Please give us a call for clarification or drop in and see us to collect your bike.
I went over there and saw that the frame is broken in the same place where it was welded a few years ago. Since they don’t do welding at Metro there was nothing I could do but take my bike home. I started calling around to see if anyone can fix a broken steel frame. Some shops said nobody in Toronto can do it. Another said there’s a place in Scarborough that can do it. I learned that a bike shop on Carlaw called Biseagal can do welding and rebuild frames but they aren’t open until Tuesday. I had no choice but to buy a bike at Metro and so I looked at a few. I test drove a steel framed Surly Preamble and decided to buy it. After tax I paid $1384.43. Mark told me that Surly guarantees the frame for life and so if the same thing that happened to my vintage bike happens to the Surly the company will replace it.
I had considered looking for a new Raleigh but learned that while in the era that my old bike was built, Raleigh was a high end bike manufacturer it has been bought by a company that churns out low quality bikes that merely cash in on the old name. The last time a Raleigh won the Tour de France was in 1980. The last British Raleigh factory closed in 2003.
I weighed 85.9 kilos at 15:00. I had saltines with five-year old cheddar and low sugar iced tea.
I took a siesta and slept half an hour longer than usual.
I weighed 85.4 kilos at 18:21, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening in a week.
I worked on getting caught up in my journal.
I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with potato chips, parmesan and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episode 56 of Batman.
This is part two of the story featuring Tallulah Bankhead as Black Widow. As usual, part one ended with a cliff hanger. Batman and Robin have been literally caught in Black Widow’s web, and each has a large (but very fake looking) black widow the size of your face climbing up their body for a bite. When the spiders are almost at their faces Batman frees his right hand from the web and reaches for the mini-charger in his utility belt. He tells Robin to brace himself for a shock of 5000 volts. They will be momentarily stunned but the black widows will be killed. It works and they are freed. They confront Black Widow and she calls Batman “Bat Doll”. He tells her no amount of UHF short circuiting can affect their brains because they still have their anti short circuiting brain bat-electrodes. But she says she’s reversed the polarity on her brain wave short circuiter. She takes control of Batman’s brain and he stands by while her men overwhelm Robin and tie him up. She invites Batman to have a drink with her and he asks for milk. He pours her a glass too, she drinks some, looks disgusted and says, “So this is milk?” She says she’s run out of banks to rob and tells him to use his Bat Computer to find one. He has in his utility belt a remote control Bat Computer oscillator. It activates the radio frequency Bat Generator. He asks it if there is a bank in Gotham that Black Widow has not robbed. The answer is the Heritage National Bank. She has the grandpa dummy from the porch brought down and Batman retrieves his extra costume from the Batmobile. The dummy is made to look like Batman while Black Widow makes herself look like Robin, although he still talks with her voice. She tells Batman to call the manager of the banks and tell him to give $40,000 to Batman in the Batmobile. The manager calls Commissioner Gordon to tell him but Gordon thinks this is a ploy on Batman’s part to trick the Black Widow and so he tells the manager to cooperate. Black Widow as Robin drives the Batmobile from the passenger side. Later Gordon learns that the bank has been robbed by Batman and Robin. He puts out an APB for their arrest. A cop stops the Batmobile and aims a gun at him. He doesn’t respond and Black Widow starts the Batmobile driving away. The cop fires point blank at the back of the dummy Batman’s head. Meanwhile in Black Widow’s hideout Batman is playing solitaire while Robin is tied up. Robin frees himself and grabs Black Widow’s purse from which he removes her brain wave short circuiter and reverses the polarity. Robin approaches Batman and asks him to sing a song. Batman sings “I’m Called Little Buttercup” from H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. While he’s singing, Robin aims the device at him and turns it on. It reverses the short circuit of Batman’s brain and he returns to normal. He reties Robin and pretend that he’s still a slave to Black Widow. Gordon hears that Batman is dead but that Robin is still at large. Figuring that he might be hiding in the Batcave he calls on the Batphone to talk him into surrendering. He talks to Alfred, who he does not know to be Alfred but just the nameless servant who answers the Batphone. He tells him Batman is dead. Alfred tells him that Batman activated the Bat Computer from 411 Larva Drive. Gordon and O’Hara figure that must be Black Widow’s hideout and so they head over there. When Black Widow returns from the bank Batman reveals himself to be no longer under her control. The final fight with her henchmen takes place. Batman and Robin win and then Batman turns Black Widow’s brain wave short circuiter on her to render her submissive. The police arrive and when asked if she’d like to be arrested she says her heart says no but her brain says yes. She tells O’Hara that he reminds her of her departed husband. Later in jail Batman is treating Black Widow and her henchmen with Bat wave brain analyzers that he and Robin have rewired to decriminalize them. If they can short circuit their bad streaks they can turn them into honest citizens. That’s really fucked up and sure as hell neither legal nor ethical. It’s similar to what Doc Savage used to do to criminals. He used to perform brain surgery on them to remove their evil tendencies.
Black Widow’s henchman Tarantula was played by Donald “Red” Barry, who started as a professional football player. His film debut was in Boys Town. In 1940 he was cast as the comic strip character Red Ryder in the Adventures of Red Ryder film serial. His role became so iconic that he kept the nickname “Red” for subsequent projects. He starred in Remember Pearl Harbour, Black Hills Express, Train to Tombstone (which he also wrote), and Jesse James’s Women (which he also wrote). He co-starred in The Purple Heart. His combative nature however caused him to be disliked by directors and he lost his star status. He played Lieutenant Ray Snedigar on Surfside Six. He wrote the story “This Guy Gideon” on which the movie Red Light was based.
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