Eli Wallach

            On Wednesday morning I revised my translation of the second and third verses of “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian. There’s just one verse to go. 

            I revised my translation of “Tandem” by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translation blog to start preparing it for publication. I should have it published tomorrow. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I weighed 86 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went over to the hardware store and bought a 2 litre tub of drywall compound and five sheets of P120 sandpaper. The guy informed me that after I fill and sand I will probably have to fill and sand again because there is shrinkage. He also advised me to fill not just the hole or crack but some of the area around it. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since January 6. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride. It was just starting to snow but I wasn’t slipping and so I kept on going as far as Ossington and Bloor. I figured it was nerve wracking enough to go as far as I did go because quite a bit had accumulated by the time I got home. 

            I weighed 86.35 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I watched the first thirty minutes of the BBC documentary “When Hippies Ruled the World” and it has a lot of good footage that I can use for my “Seven Shades of Blues” video. I’ll watch the rest tomorrow. 

            I compared the song practice video of my acoustic performance of “Les Sucettes” on October 7 to that of September 25. Although October 7 looks better there are fewer wrong chords on September 25. I compared October 13 to September 25 and October 13 is not as good and so if I do upload an acoustic version of this song to YouTube it will be the one from September 25. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Bolognese sauce, parmesan and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the penultimate episode of he second season of Batman. 

            In this story the luxury liner SS Gotham Queen is a few hours away from Gotham Harbour. The figure skating star Glacia Glaze meets Professor Isaacson from Iceland. Isaacson has developed a formula for making instant ice. He’s going to working as an advisor at the Wayne Foundation and she will be in an ice review tonight at the Bruce Wayne Arena. Suddenly an iceberg appears between the ship and Gotham Harbour. Inside the iceberg and below the water line is Mr. Freeze’s hideout. He activates his ice magnets to pull the ship into the iceberg. He has his henchmen board the ship and kidnap Isaacson. Freeze says that soon he’ll be able to cover the entire world with ice instantly. After Isaacson is taken, the Gotham Queen is released. Batman and Robin are notified and head for Commissioner Gordon’s office. Freeze is trying to get Isaacson’s formula for frozen ice but Isaacson says the formula only exists in his mind. Freeze and his men take Isaacson their Gotham under the Bruce Wayne Arena. Glacia is Freeze’s girlfriend and she comes downstairs to see him. He tells her that he is keeping Isaacson at 130 below zero to freeze the formula out of him. Batman and Robin figure out that Glacia is Freeze’s accomplice. It turns out that Dick’s Aunt Harriet is a big fan of Glacia and Bruce is taking her to see her performance and to also meet her backstage. Freeze sends his pet seal to Gordon’s office with a list of demands. Bruce is to make a televised broadcast that the ransom money for Isaacson must be delivered by Batman and Robin. Batman arranges for Bruce to tape the broadcast an hour early and for the money to be counterfeit. Freeze has Isaacson removed from the deep freeze but he walks calmly out unaffected because he’s from Iceland. Freeze decides then to inject Isaacson with dry ice and put him back in the freezer. Meanwhile Batman has Dick bring the Batmobile into town by remote control outside of Gordon’s office building with their costumes inside. Batman and Robin come to get the fake money and won’t wait for Freeze to give them the location of the drop-off because they are already pretty sure where his hideout is. Batman and Robin climb down the side of the building and there is a cameo from British actor and textile magnate Cyril Lord. He was not famous even in England and he only has a cameo because he sold some carpets to William Dozier the producer of Batman. Batman and Robin arrive in Freeze’s hideout just as Freeze is watching Bruce Wayne’s broadcast. Freeze tries using his freeze gun but Batman and Robin are wearing super thermalized Bat long underwear. Freeze calls for his men to attack and the big fight takes place. Batman and Robin are eventually overwhelmed and placed in a chamber called the vaporizing transparent pipe pump. They will be both frozen and vapourized and then injected as part of the ice that Glacia will be skating on.

            Mr. Freeze is played this time by Eli Wallach, although the most iconic Mr. Freeze was probably Otto Preminger on which Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze was based. Wallach said he received more fan mail for Mr. Freeze than any of his other performances. Wallach studied at the Actors Studio and the Neighbourhood Playhouse and made his Broadway debut in 1945. He won a Tony in 1951 for his performance in The Rose Tattoo. In film he co-starred in Baby Doll, The Moon Spinners, How To Steal a Million, The Good the Bad and the Ugly (He said that if he had heard the music he would have ridden the horse differently), The Hunter, How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, False Witness, Girlfriends, The Associate, Wall Street, and Ace High. He starred in The Lineup, The Tiger Makes Out, and Sam’s Son. He was considered to be one of the greatest screen character actors of all time.