Rusty Lane

            On Sunday morning Radio Canada had changed the usual programming from the show Reverie, which features non-orchestral indie recordings of classical music, to a dance program. But it might have been a one-off because the show was broadcast from Nuit Blanche in Montreal which took place last night. It sounded like House Music with African inflections. It’s interesting to hear what people are listening to but it doesn’t make for very calming music for doing yoga. 

            I ran through singing and playing “My Sister’s Masseurs”, my translation of “La main du masseur” by Serge Gainsbourg. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. I’ll probably have it posted tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. I’ve got to get it fixed as soon as the weather gets warm. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I brought the stepladder in and filled the north and west bathroom walls above the tub. All that’s left that I need the ladder for is the southern wall above the tub and above the bathroom door. I might need to buy another bucket of compound before that’s done or maybe it’ll just about do it. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos before lunch. I had whole wheat saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was almost cold enough on the way home to wear my balaclava. The new bike is not as comfortable to ride as the Raleigh. I’ve been thinking it’s just a matter of adjustment but when I got home I stood the Surly beside the Raleigh for the first time and found that the Raleigh’s handlebars are much higher. No wonder I’ve been so uncomfortable. It’s because I’ve been bending over a lot more. Jack at Metro Cycles told me I would need a longer post to raise the handlebars, so that’s what I’m going to have to get if I’m going to ride this bike I paid $1300 for. The seat on the Raleigh is also slightly higher. I raised the Surly seat to match it but then realized that as long as the handlebars are so low then I can’t raise the seat without making it even more uncomfortable. I would be almost somersaulting. I’ll have to take it to Metro on Tuesday when they are open to see about getting a longer post. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos at 19:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:00.

            I watched a few more minutes of Riot on the Sunset Strip. The “good” police chief who has been so careful with the teenagers is about to lose his cool when he learns his estranged daughter has been slipped a mickey of LSD and then been raped by five boys at a party.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, parmesan, oven fries and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 3, episode 17 of Batman.

            Catwoman and Joker have just stolen the Karnaby Katz’s antique crib and have already left with it when Batman, Robin and Batgirl arrive to stop them. But outside of the Katz mansion the villains are hiding and waiting in ambush. Batman and Robin say goodbye to Batgirl and drive away in the Batmobile, then Batgirl mounts her Batgirl Cycle but it won’t start. Catwoman and Joker approach her and Catwoman shows she has removed the radioactive sparkplug from Batgirl’s vehicle. Their henchmen grab her and tie her wrists and legs with Catwoman’s special cord that she calls Cat’s Whiskers, which automatically contracts against the heat of a body. So she says that in seconds Batgirl will be strangled to death. But she wouldn’t be strangled since there is no rope around her neck, however she could certainly lose her hands and feet. It’s strange that they would just leave her like that on Katz’s lawn without even gagging her. One assumes that if she called out then someone would hear and fetch something to cut the bonds. Yet she doesn’t shout but rather rolls her body towards the sprinkler system controls and with her chin turns the sprinklers on. The cool water reverses the contraction of the cord so Batgirl can free herself. It’s the first time that Batgirl has escaped on her own from a trap. Since before leaving, Catwoman and Joker mentioned the location of their hideout, Batgirl calls Batman through Commissioner Gordon and tells him to meet her there. Meanwhile Catwoman explains to Joker that the nightshirt they stole is a map to the starting place to find the half million kilos of gunpowder. The nightshirt leads to an X mark but after that the antique crib is a map to the gunpowder but it is written backwards and in French: “de l’x du plan, marches cinquante pieds sur la droite, essayer de trouver une pierre plantée dans la terre”. That’s what it says in the text on screen but she reads more than is written down. Her French is too flawless for her to need Joker to look up the words in the French-English dictionary. He also does so without knowing the spelling of the words she speaks, which would be very unlikely. What she said in French was “From the X on the map walk fifty meters north, then fifty feet to the right, then try to find a wrong stone planted in the ground”. Joker says, “It’s the first time I’ve ever heard a cat purr in French”. The poem that they stole that told of the crib says it’s a fib and so they need to do the opposite of the crib’s instructions. So they will walk 50 meters south, then 50 feet to the left to find the right stone. Batman, Robin and Batgirl are watching as the villains leave for the location on the map and they follow them to the Phony Island Lighthouse (obviously a parallel of the Coney Island Lighthouse). The crooks arrive and find the X. Meanwhile inside the lighthouse Mr. and Mrs. Keeper are continuously arguing. The fifty feet to the left lead Catwoman and Joker right inside the lighthouse where they capture the Keepers. Batman, Robin and Batgirl enter to confront the criminals. Joker accidentally flips a hidden switch that opens a secret door to the gunpowder. He lights a match so he can see it better but Batman tries to grab it from him causing it to fall onto the gunpowder. There is an explosion in the storage room but just before the blast Batman sprays the room they are in with anti-blast Bat Powder (His gimmicks get more and more impossibly ridiculous all the time). Catwoman takes advantage of her one phone call to contact Lucky Pierre, the world’s luckiest attorney who has never lost a case. Pierre wears a bowler hat with a wishbone in place of a feather. He has a portrait of Richard Nixon on his desk. Later they are in court and Batman is the prosecutor. Batman argues for Catwoman and Joker’s guilt on several offenses: robbery, attempted murder, assault and battery, mayhem, and overtime parking. Batgirl whispers to Robin, “He’s so authoritative, so confident!” Robin says, “The more I work with Batman the more amazing he seems”. I sense a Batman cult brewing. For every one of the 14 witnesses that Batman calls to the stand, Pierre does no cross examination of any of them. Batman gives his final argument but Pierre simply waives summation and says they stand on their plea of “not guilty”. The judge tells the jury to go to the jury room but the jury foreman tells him they’ve already decided and they find the defendants not guilty. The foreman’s fake moustache almost comes off and Robin recognizes him as Marvin the Moose, who used to work with Catwoman. Batman recognizes another member of the jury as also a former henchman of Catwoman. Batman moves for a new trial on the grounds of a prejudicial jury. Catwoman orders her men to attack. There is a bit of a struggle between Catwoman and Batgirl but Batgirl pushes her into the arms of Chief O’Hara. The judge hits Joker over the head with his gavel. Catwoman and Joker are taken away. Later Barbara Gordon sees Louis the Lilac at the library as he tells her he plans on cornering the perfume market.

            The judge was played by Rusty Lane, who became a teacher of public speaking. He was a college professor for 14 years and staged plays at the university. During WWII he worked for the Red Cross entertaining troops in England and got the US Army to stage the play The Eve of St Mark. His Broadway debut was in Decision in 1944. His film debut was in The House on 92nd Street. His radio debut was on the series Grand Central Station. He starred in the 1951 TV series Crime With Father. He played Porphory Pete on the series Captain Video and His Video Rangers. He had a regular supporting role on Operation Neptune. He was a regular on the soap opera The Clear Horizon for its life of two years. 

            This was the last screen appearance of Eartha Kitt for a while because she was blacklisted after this for insulting Lady Bird Johnson in the White House during a protest about civil rights.