Richard Bakalyan

            On Sunday morning I forgot as usual about the time change but I decided not to get up at the new 5:00 but to get up at the old 5:00 which is the new 6:00. I did all my morning stuff as if the time hadn’t changed and I’ll change the alarm in the afternoon. 

            Canada has already passed a bill that if the US gets rid of the stupid time changes then Canada will as well. It’s the one thing Drumpf could do that wouldn’t piss anybody off and maybe that’s why he won’t change it. He wants to keep the tension up by pissing off a significant portion of the population. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Sacha Distel and Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s no point memorizing the scat parts between the verses since they could be done differently every time. 

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

            I weighed 86.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            At midday I had planned on taking an early bike ride and to check out Flying Books to see if I could get them to order my book. But I hadn’t figured in the time change and decided that I had to get caught up with that extra hour sometime today and it seemed impractical to go out riding at lunchtime. I changed the time on my alarm clock. 

            I weighed 87.45 kilos before lunch, which is the most I’ve weighed in the early afternoon since February 19. I had saltines with natural peanut butter and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I find the new bicycle’s seat uncomfortable and am considering getting a wider one like I have on the old Raleigh. On the way up Brock another cyclist was out in the middle to pass me when a car behind him started honking. The cyclist called out, “A beer! A beer! Ya gotta give me a beer to pass!” 

            I weighed 86.75 kilos at 18:15. 

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

            I watched the rest of The Blackboard Jungle. It’s really not a bad film. It’s well shot and and it has some good acting. I downloaded it from YouTube and tomorrow I’ll convert it to WMV. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my Gibson electric performances of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on September 29 and 30. On September 29 the take at 27:15 was okay until the E flat. On September 30 the take at 21:30 didn’t sound bad until the E flat.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, lots of parmesan and a sliced potato. I had it with a beer while watching the antepenultimate episode of the Batman TV series. 

            People are reporting UFO sightings all over Gotham and some are even claiming to have come in contact with little green men. Commissioner Gordon decides to call Batman. A Professor Greenleaf (who wears only green) comes to see Barbara Gordon at the library and tells her about an imminent invasion from Mars. Then she sees a little green man sneaking around the shelves and mischievously knocking books to the floor. Barbara screams as if she’s not really the brave Batgirl. Meanwhile Joker is in his abandoned launching pad factory hideout showing his gang the plans for a flying saucer that he drew in prison. He’s the one who’s been using his private grapevine to plant the rumours of a space invasion. At Gordon’s office Batman interviews a Mrs. Green (who also only wears green) about her claim to have met a little green man from Mars. He tells her “It is the duty of every citizen of Gotham City to report meeting a man from Mars in a public park, penal code section 32, subsection 14”. After Green leaves, Barbara comes running in all flustered, saying she barely got out of the library alive because of the little green man from Mars scampering all over the place. Meanwhile the little green man is in a the Batmobile and appears to be tampering with the vehicle. He sneaks away just before Batman and Robin get in to drive away. We learn from Joker that Greenleaf and Green are siblings and they both work for Joker. He says his saucer can be assembled in a matter of hours as soon as they steal the beryllium, one of the lightest metals in the world, from the Wayne Foundation. Then Joker’s little green man Verdigris arrives to tell Joker he planted a time bomb in the Batmobile that is set to go off at midnight. Batman remembers that Mrs. Green used to be the frontman for a bunko artist who was blackmailing greengrocers. This confirms Batman’s suspicions that the alien invasion is a hoax. The Bat Computer somehow has the information that Joker is building a flying saucer. He and Robin conclude that he would probably make it out of beryllium. Alfred reminds them that there is an abundant supply in the Metals Research wing of the Wayne Foundation. Batman sends Alfred ahead to the Wayne Foundation to check on security. Batman calls Gordon to tell him and Barbara happens to be in his office at the time. She immediately heads home to change to Batgirl. At almost midnight Batman and Robin get into the Batmobile to head for the Wayne Foundation but before they can leave the bomb goes off, devastating the Batcave. Meanwhile both Batgirl and Alfred have been captured by the Joker. Eight hours later Batman and Robin return to consciousness in the wreckage of the Batcave. They don’t know if Alfred has tried to reach them because every receiving device is broken. The Batphone is also dead. Batgirl is strapped to a rocket. Joker says he’s thrilled many a woman but this will be the first time he’s sent one into orbit. The fuse is lit but it fizzles. Batgirl says the automatic fuse extinguisher in her utility belt won’t let him put her into orbit. Joker decides to just take Batgirl with them in the flying saucer but why doesn’t he just remove her utility belt if that’s all that’s stopping the rocket? Batman has rigged up a generator to get the communication equipment working. Alfred has been trying for hours and finally gets through. The Joker’s saucer is launched and goes into orbit. Joker tells the pilot Verdigris to activate the supersonic decelerating contra-rotating turbines because they are getting too close to the sun. Meanwhile Batman and Robin are in the Batcopter and Alfred contacts them. He says he managed to put some homing beryl in the beryllium that the saucer is made of and it should cause the ship to head back to the launching pad. Joker begins to communicate his ultimatum to the world when he loses control of the saucer. It returns to where they started and they leave the ship only to be greeted by Batman and Robin. The big final fight takes place and Batgirl joins in but is subdued fairly quickly. She used to be more interesting to watch in fight scenes but they seem to want her to be a helpless girl lately. The Joker is defeated and the cops arrive to arrest him and his gang. Later Batman hears from Gordon that Dr. Cassandra and her husband Cabala are robbing the Mope Diamond from Spiffany’s jewellery store while taking their invisibility pills. 

            Verdigris was played by Richard Bakalyan, whose mother was from Nova Scotia. He was a delinquent for a while in his teens and was on probation for a year at the age of 15. His film debut was in Atilla. He co-starred in The Delinquents. His TV debut was on Luke and the Tenderfoot in 1955. He co-starred in The Cool and the Crazy and was arrested during filming because the cops thought he really was a gangster. He was a regular on The Bobby Darrin Show. He was a lifetime member of the Academy. He died the same day as Leonard Nimoy. The city garbage truck stopped in front of my place and before emptying the bin the driver did a little dance. I assume he was listening to music.