I worked out the chords for the intro and about half the first line of “Sacha Distel et Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have the first verse and maybe part of the first scat bridge done on Sunday.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. I broke my high E string about two thirds of the way through rehearsal, but that’s the one string I can lose and still be able to play all my chords. I’ll change it either today or tomorrow.
I weighed 86.65 before breakfast.
Around midday I went down to No Frills where I bought about seven bags of their $3.17 a kilo grapes, bananas, two bags of avocados, and a jug of orange juice. I did a price match on the 1.6 liter jug of Simply Orange because it was two dollars cheaper at FreshCo. The cashier Kokob is always very strict when doing the price matches and has to see the date and whether it was for exactly the same volume of product. After she saw the date I thought she was done but then she wanted to see the volume and I had trouble calling up the flyer again on my phone. Finally she gave up and accepted my word.
I weighed 87.3 kilos before lunch at 14:30.
I took a siesta at 15:00 but didn’t wake up until 17:00. I probably wouldn’t have gone for a bike ride if I’d gotten up at 16:30 anyway.
I weighed 87.65 kilos at 17:30, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since November 27.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:15.
I changed the high E string on my Gibson. It’s so easy to change strings on that guitar. It was my last 10 gauge string so I’d better stop by Long and McQuade soon to buy three more.
In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I finished editing the copy of Blackboard Jungle and deleted everything but two clips. I inserted the clip of the teacher watching the boys swing dancing, just after the instrumental when I sing “Mom and dad want baby’s freedom”. I shaved the clip down further but there’s still too much and so I’ll work on that next time.
I reviewed the song practice videos of my Gibson electric performances of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on October 3 and 4. On both days the final takes sounded okay until the E flat near the end.
I had a bowl of my lima bean and pea stew with a toasted slice of multigrain sandwich bread and a beer while watching the animated film Return of the Caped Crusaders.
This story takes place in the universe of the Batman TV series from the 60s. It was made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that series. The opening segment cleverly combines animation with classic Batman comic covers such as Batman’s premier in Detective Comics #27 (one can see Egghead nearby), Detective Comics #38 featuring the introduction of Robin, Batman #3 with Batman and Robin alone on the cover, Detective Comics #203 featuring Catwoman in her cat suit instead of the dress that she wore on the original cover, Batman #11 although Joker first appeared in Batman #1 this might have been his first cover, Detective Comics #67 featuring Penguin on the cover for the first time, and Detective Comics #140 featuring the Riddler for the first time.
We find Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson at home. Adam West and Burt Ward reprise their roles in voice. West, who would die a year later sounds disturbingly shaky, but Burt Ward still has the voice of the youthful boy wonder. They watch their favourite TV variety show Gotham Palace. The host Miranda Monroe introduces the band Hector and the Hodaddies. They are four people dressed as Beatniks but when they play it is evident that they are imposters. They remove their disguises to reveal they are The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler, and Catwoman. Bruce calls her “that dominatrix of deviltry”. It’s the first time she’s ever been called a dominatrix. As Bruce and Dick head for the Bat Cave they meet Aunt Harriet. Interesting that Bruce pronounces “aunt” properly here whereas on the TV show she was “Ant” Harriet. She hints that she knows their secret but doesn’t say what she thinks that secret is. It’s a long way down on the Bat Poles in this movie and a very long tunnel leading out of the Bat Cave. At Commissioner Gordon’s office they read a riddle Riddler left behind: “Poor people have it, rich people need it, and if you eat it you die”. The answer is “nothing”. Somehow Batman is able to deduce that the villains are targeting a laboratory dedicated to the science of lunar eclipses. The villains go to the lab to steal the Professor Nichols’s replica ray. After they grab the gun, Batman and Robin confront them. The first big fight takes place with Catwoman moving to the sidelines as usual. But Batman is knocked into her arms and she tries to seduce him once again. While Batman is distracted, Penguin conks him on the head. He begins to see triple and sees three Catwomen, with the current Julie Newmar Catwoman in the middle, the Lee Merriweather Catwoman on the left and Eartha Kitt’s Catwoman on the right. The villains escape in the Jokermobile and Batman and Robin pursue them in the Batmobile. Riddler uses a disintegrator gun to create a trench the Batmobile can’t traverse. Some foil drops in a parachute meaning they are foiled. But analysis also shows traces of gravy. Batman concludes their hideout is at Fitsimmons TV dinner factory. Meanwhile in the factory Catwoman tells the others that to succeed they need Batman on their side and for that she has developed Batnip. Batman and Robin arrive and the second fight ensues, this time with no henchmen. Joker, Riddler and Penguin are defeated. Catwoman claims she’ll go willingly after she fixes her hair. But her Cat hairspray knocks the heroes out. They wake up tied down on a giant TV dinner. Catwoman puts some Batnip on her claw and scratches Batman. At fist he seems affected but successfully resists. The giant TV dinner is rolled towards a giant oven. The villains leave. The dessert on the giant TV dinner is a lemon tart. The principle is that lemons are acidic. Batman sticks his bonds into the lemon filling and the acid weakens his ropes enough for him to break free. That’s ridiculous. Gordon and O’Hara are watching the news of the new rocket launch by Belgravia. Batman uncharacteristically gives Gordon hell for watching TV on the job. Aunt Harriet wanders into Bruce’s study and sees his red phone. She is about to touch the Shakespeare bust that opens the door to the Bat Poles when Bruce grabs her hand. He’s very cold and firm with her and again it’s out of character. He then chastises Alfred for not protecting the study. He tells him he’s dismissed. Alfred asks, “For the night?” Bruce says, “Forever”. At this point it becomes clear that something is wrong with Bruce probably because of the drug that Catwoman gave him. Alfred has been with Bruce since he was a child and he’s risked his life for him many times. Dick hugs Alfred and he says goodbye. Bruce heads for the Bat Poles but Dick hesitates. Bruce says, “Now!” They search all over Gotham for the villains but find no trace. Finally Robin says it’s as if they are no longer on the planet. Batman says that’s the solution. The Belgravian rocket launch must have carried the villains to the abandoned space station. As they prepare to dock Penguin gasses the cosmonauts. Then we see that Batman has a space rocket that they’ve never used. On the space station Joker, Riddler and Penguin tell Catwoman that because she is soft on Batman they can’t trust her and so she’s leaving through an airlock. She puts up a good fight like we’ve never seen before but they eventually overwhelm her. Batman and Robin leave their ship and wearing spacesuits with magnetic boots make their way up the side of the space station. The bad guys toss Catwoman into the airlock and open it. She grabs hold with her claws but loses her grip. Just then her hand is grabbed by Batman and she is pulled back in. Batman, Robin and Catwoman confront Joker, Riddler and Penguin. We learn that their plan is to use the replica ray to create three copies of Earth, one for each of them. That would be catastrophic for Earth and its copies. It would screw up the clockwork of the whole solar system and possible no one would survive the earthquakes. Batman says he’s thinking of killing them. Since they aren’t on Earth the laws don’t apply. The villains turn off the gravity but how is that an advantage for them since they’re weightless too. Later the gravity gets knock back on. Batman puts on brass knuckles and then says, “You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts!” Clearly a comment on Michael Keaton’s Batman and this story delivers a subtle critique of the behaviour of the modern Batman which is as if the 60s Batman went insane. Batman is beating the bad guys to a pulp while Catwoman sneaks off to an escape hatch and takes a shuttle back to Earth. That’s the halfway point in the story.
Aunt Harriet in this movie is voiced by Lynne Marie Stewart, who was a member of The Groundlings improv group in the 1970s where she became friends with Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman. She originated the role of Miss Yvonne, the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppetland on stage for the 1981 Pee-wee Herman Show. Her character became famous when she regularly appeared on the TV series Pee-wee’s Playhouse and she reprised the role in all three Pee-Wee Herman movies and the stage revival. She played Squiggy’s girlfriend Barbara on Laverne and Shirley and she was the voice of Shirley in the cartoon spin-off. She played Charlie’s mother Bonnie on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
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