Don Messick

            On Tuesday morning I finished working out the chords to “Celle-là c’est la meilleure” (This is All for the Best) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing it in French and English and maybe adjust my translation before uploading it to my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I cleaned my newer warm mist humidifier. It was pretty easy because I’d been using it less as the humidity is climbing sometimes outside. I made a sepia copy of frame 10 of my first rainbow wave animation and added seven shades of blue to it. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and stopped at the Bank of Montreal at what used to be Mervish Village but even the bank machines were closed. I stopped at the ATM at the Manulife Centre. I didn’t feel an urge to pee at the halfway point and so I made it all the way home. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I made sepia tone copies of frames 11 and 12 of my first rainbow wave animation. To each one I add a little more of seven shades of blue which makes it an increasingly slow process. I have about sixteen left to make. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two small sirloin tip steaks while watching episode 6 of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story an alien ship plants a purple moss that spreads over everything and suffocates every plant it touches. Even flamethrowers and bombs can’t stop it. Falcon 7 notifies Birdman about it. Birdman sees beams of light that seem to be nurturing the moss. He follows the rays to the spaceship. They let him inside and tell him that the purple moss is a tool of conquest. He tries to destroy their equipment but it’s shielded and he needs to recharge his power. Suddenly the chamber turns into a centrifuge that stops him from moving and then he is sprayed with a knockout mist and tossed out of the ship. Avenger catches him and carries him up to the sunlight where his power is recharged. The aliens shoot heat magnos that stick to his body and pull him down. But as he falls he recharges his solar energy and pops off the magnos. He breaks through the ship’s sonic shield and destroys their equipment. But he learns the rays are locked and he can’t stop them and so he turns the rays on the alien ship so it is covered in the purple moss. The aliens escape with jetpacks but Birdman thinks they’ll be imprisoned in orbit forever. 

            In the Galaxy Trio story, Intergalactic Headquarters has not heard from the eight pioneer ships that ventured into the unexplored Tranquility Belt to settle on Paradise II. They send the Trio to investigate. When Condor 1 reaches orbit they see all the pioneer ships floating in space above the planet. Suddenly Condor 1 is also stuck in place. Some small ships rise from the planet to attack them and the Trio decides to surrender so they can find what happened to the pioneers. Robot soldiers serve Drakmor, the ruler of Paradise II. They take the Trio down to the planet where they are put into slave labour. The Trio goes along with it for a while and then they use their powers to free themselves from their chains and fight the robot guards. The robot guards are easily defeated by the Trio’s powers. The Trio frees the pioneers and tell them to fight. Vapour Man destroys the machinery that has locked the ships in orbit. Meteor Man smashes the machine that controls the robots. Gravity Girl takes away Drakmor’s scepter and gives him a short lecture on freedom. The pioneers are left to rule themselves. 

            In the second Birdman Story, three old enemies of Birdman who couldn’t defeat him on their own have teamed up and combined their talents against him. One of them has a machine that throws up invisible force walls. The second has a disintegrating device. The third has an apparatus that can nullify the power of any machinery. What follows is a city blackout, a bank disappearance and the looting of the art museum. Birdman suspects Dr. Keelee who has developed a force wall and so he looks for him. But Birdman is headed for a trap. When Birdman flies up to recharge his power, Keelee puts a wall between him and the sun, weakening him. He also hits his head on it and comes crashing to Earth. Birdman tries to call for help but the villains scramble his communicator. Birdman is locked in a dark dungeon with no contact with the sun and therefore no power. Avenger comes to him and Birdman directs his pet eagle to take control of the disintegrator machine to dissolve his cell bars. Birdman heads to recharge in the sunlight. Once Birdman is at full power he is able to shield himself from their weapons. Then he destroys their cave headquarters. They escape. 

            Falcon 7, Vapour Man, and several villains are voiced by Don Messick, who started as a ventriloquist. He became a radio actor and played Raggedy Andy on the Raggedy Ann Show. He was hired by MGM to do cartoon voices and sometimes he did Droopy Dog. After Hanna-Barbera formed, Don Messick and Daws Butler were their two main voice actors. On Ruff and Reddy, Don was Ruff the cat and Professor Gizmo. On Yogi Bear, Don was Boo Boo bear and also Ranger Smith. He played Astro the dog and RUDI on the Jetsons. He was the voice of the snickering dog Muttley, Ricochet Rabbit, Scooby Doo, Scrappy Doo, Papa Smurf, Bamm Bamm Rubble, Dr. Benton Quest, Mr. Peebles, Multi Man, Gears, Constructicon, Atom Ant, Gloop, Gleep, and was the voice of the announcer for several shows. His only live action role was in the short lived sitcom Duck Factory starring Jim Carrey in 1984.

April 30, 1995: I met and played with my daughter

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday I probably saw my daughter again. She still didn’t want to spend the night so we just met and played and then I took her back to her mother.

Joseph Barbera

            On Monday morning I memorized the third verse of “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the second verse of “Celle-là c’est la meilleure” (This is All for the Best) by Serge Gainsbourg. That’s half the song and I think the third and fourth verses will repeat the pattern of the first and second. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar. 

            I weighed 86.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I looked up the candidates who are running for the federal election in Parkdale. The Marijuana party still exists for some reason but they seem to have stopped trying since their profile is still the same as in a previous election. There’s also the Protect the Animals party but it turns out to have a vegan agenda. The last thing I need is an MP who anthropomorphizes animals. 

            I weighed 86.65 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I went to vote before my bike ride. The line-up wasn’t long and everybody was friendly. In the Ontario election they used a machine but the federal uses old fashioned ballots. I voted Green like I did the election before last. Last time the party was in disarray but now that Elizabeth May is back it feels like they have leadership again. The guy congratulated me when I but my ballot in the box and the woman at the front door called after me when I left the school and thanked me for voting. 

            I rode downtown and back. I stopped to pee and McDonalds around halfway and when I got back I stopped at Queen Fresh to buy two packs of raspberries. 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos at 18:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:30. 

            I continued to make sepia tone copies of my first rainbow wave animation. I made frames 6 to 9 in sepia and with each one I added a little more of different shades of blue. I have about twenty more to do. 

            I had a potato with gravy, two chicken wings and parts of a chicken spine while watching episode 6 of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story, the members of F.E.A.R. are dividing their profits when there is an explosion and an armoured figure interrupts the meeting. He says his name is Nitron and he was a scientist working on nitro-hydrogen when an accident caused him to be saturated with the chemical. It gave him the power to throw explosion bolts and destroy objects with his fists. He offers his powers to F.E.A.R. but only in exchange for half the control of the organization. The leader says he’ll agree to his terms if he can prove himself by completing three tasks. The first is to destroy an atomic reactor off the coast, the second is to destroy the newest nuclear sub when it is launched next week, and the third assignment will be given if he succeeds in the first two. Nitron leaves to prepare for these missions but then the leader of F.E.A.R. calls Birdman to tip him off about Nitron’s plans. From a flying platform Nitron blasts the nuclear reactor but Birdman uses a super solar energy bolt to patch up the breach. At the christening of the sub, Nitron attacks and tears a hole in the hull but Birdman seals it up again. Nitron escapes by sending an explosive boat toward the crowd and so Birdman has to focus on saving the people and lets Nitron get away. The leader of F.E.A.R. tells Nitron he can still join them if he destroys Birdman. Nitron finds Birdman’s volcano crater headquarters and blasts it, causing an avalanche that knocks out Birdman with radioactive lava about to fall on him. But his pet eagle Avenger picks him up and flies him to be recharged by sunlight. Nitron tries to escape but flies into a volcano that explodes and apparently kills him.

            In the Galaxy Trio story, the team is headed for a vacation when they get a distress call from the warden of the prison planet telling them that three prisoners have escaped. They have subdued most of the guards and as the warden is speaking they’ve breached his office. The leader of the prisoners fires missiles at Condor 1 as it approaches the planet. The trio uses the ship’s lasers to destroy the missile launchers before beaming down. The three prisoners jail the guards and the warden then release the rest of the prisoners to occupy the Trio while they get away. The Trio takes on the prisoners until the cons realize they are no match for them and run back to their cells. Meanwhile the three prisoners escape in a short range rocket and board Condor 1. The trio beams back to their ship. The prisoners are about to take control of Condor 1 when the Trio stops them. They run into the transporter room and Gravity Girl pushes the button from a distance that causes them to be beamed down directly into their cells. 

            In the second Birdman story Mentok the Mindtaker has set up a hideout in a volcano crater near Birdman’s. He takes over the mind of Avenger the eagle and makes him attack Birdman. Avenger then flies away to Mentok so Birdman follows him. Both Birdman and Avenger are trapped in separate glass bells. Birdman uses all his power to free Avenger so he can fly away. In his weakened state Birdman’s mind is taken over by Mentok and he is made to serve as his envoy to present his demands to the government. After that he is told to destroy Avenger but Avenger flies high to where the sun is strong. In chasing Avenger up there the solar rays cause Birdman to overcome Mentok’s control. Mentok launches the world’s most powerful atomic weapon aimed at a foreign power and meant to cause war. Birdman grabs the missile and rides it to where he can absorb the most solar power then he is given the strength to turn the missile around and explode it in the ocean. Birdman then destroys Mentok’s mind control weapon but Mentok escapes. 

            These episodes were co-directed by Joseph Barbera, who showed drawing talent in the first grade. In high school he became a successful boxer but later lost interest in fighting. In 1935 he married his high school sweetheart and the marriage lasted until 1963. He then married the sister of Britain’s answer to Elvis, Vince Taylor who was an inspiration to many later rock starts like the Clash and Bowie. After high school Barbera began to publish single panel cartoons in popular magazines like Redbook, The Saturday Evening Post and Colliers. He took classes at the Art Students League of New York and the Pratt Institute. He was hired by Fleischer for its ink and paint department. In 1932 he joined Van Beuren Studios as an animator. In 1936 he moved to Terrytoons. He moved to California and joined MGM in 1937. At the opposite drawing board was William Hanna and they became a team that lasted 60 years. They worked on Tom and Jerry together and in 1943 for Yankee Doodle Mouse they won their first of many Academy awards. Altogether they won seven Oscars and eight Emmies. On the side Barbera partnered with Harvey Eisenberg to found the Deerfield Publishing comic company. It lasted five years and they produced Red Rabbit Comics, Foxy Fagan and Junie Prom. While Barbera and Hanna were the best of colleagues professionally, they did not hang out socially. Hanna enjoyed a quiet life and the outdoors while Barbera liked the night life and had lots of celebrity friends including Zsa Zsa Gabor.

April 29, 1995: My daughter was still finding Easter eggs she missed last week

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday I probably saw my daughter. She was still finding chocolate eggs around my apartment that she’d missed the week before.

William Hanna

            On Sunday morning I memorized the first two verses of “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse and a half of “Celle-là c’est la meilleure” (This is All for the Best) by Serge Gainsbourg. The second verse as sung by Juliette Greco doesn’t seem to have exactly the same chords as the first verse by Sacha Distel. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. I think the action might be a little low. 

            I weighed 86.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I couldn’t do any sanding in the bathroom because I was behind on my journal. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and to play it safe I stopped to use the washroom at the McDonald’s just north of College. I still had to go again when I got home but it wasn’t a rush. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos at 18:11. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:49. 

            I continued turning the images from my first rainbow wave animation to sepia tone and then added small but increasing amounts of shades of blue to each frame. So far I’ve got the first five done. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, pub fries, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the fourth episode of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story, Cumulous the master meteorologist has gained control over the weather. Focusing on Central City he has concentrated an electrical storm to knock out the city’s power and then paralyzed it under a thick fog. He then approaches the heads of government (all wearing military uniforms) and threatens to do the same to the whole country in 24 hours if they don’t give him full authority. Falcon 7 contacts Birdman and he flies to Central City where he finds and attacks Cumulous’s weather station. Cumulous makes the clouds so thick that the sun can’t reach Birdman to reenergize him. He falls into Cumulous’s darkened cell. Birdman radios his eagle Avenger and has him sneak into Cumulous’s lair to get the keys to the cell. He does so. Cumulous once again goes to the military leaders and demands their surrender but Birdman arrives to challenge him. Cumulous is wearing a belt that gives him weather powers away from his weather station. He covers Birdman in a block of ice. But Birdman breaks free and then destroys Cumulous’s weather belt, rendering him helpless. Birdman clears up the fog at Central City with one solar blast. 

            In the Galaxy Trio story, Intergalactic Headquarters has a regular rollcall of planets but K7 has failed to report. They send the Galaxy Trio to investigate. We learn that the name of the Trio’s ship is Condor 1 as they lock it in orbit and beam down. They arrive in the middle of the city where they see everyone in suspended animation. But they do hear activity and when they investigate they see that pirates are robbing the paralyzed planet of all its wealth. There are giant claw machines that break into buildings and grab large amounts of treasure. Meteor Man smashes two of them. But another emits a gas that puts both himself and Gravity Girl in suspended animation. Vapour Man destroys the machine and then takes Meteor Man and Gravity Girl back to Condor 1 where they recover. He gives them both anti gas helmets to protect them and they return to the planet. They break open one of the machines and climb inside, then they simply follow the other machines back to headquarters. But they trigger an alarm and Krag the pirate captain sends his men to stop them. Krag’s men are easily defeated so he tries to take off. But Gravity Girl levitates him away from the controls. He tells them how to release the population from their suspended state but while they are doing that he escapes. 

            In the second Birdman story the government’s bathyscaphe has been sent to the bottom of the ocean to find gold that is badly needed by the treasury. I guess in this reality the US is not as rich as one would expect. But at the bottom of the ocean a rogue submarine steals the bathyscaphe. Falcon 7 tells Birdman to find the bathyscaphe and both he and Avenger dive into the ocean. Somehow they don’t seem to need to breathe and Birdman can even talk underwater. That might be one of his powers but that doesn’t explain how an eagle can survive that far under the sea. The bad guy sends his shark and his octopus after Birdman who is too weak from lack of sun to resist. He is captured and meets the villain Dr. Shark. Shark has a special antenna that absorbs the sun’s energy so he can have sunlight under water. When Shark is out of the room, Birdman with his hands tied behind his back and his feet tied together hops over to Shark’s sun machine to give himself enough of a dose to break free of his bonds. He makes it to the surface where Avenger picks him up and carries him to full sunlight to recharge. Birdman returns to the ocean floor where Shark sends his shark and octopus after him, but Birdman electrocutes them with his shield. He breaks off the depth stabilizer from Shark’s sub and forces it to the surface. Shark leaves the sub in a small speedboat and the sub blows up. Shark escapes. 

            This show was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. In 1930 Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio, which made Looney Toons and Merry Melodies. Despite lack of formal training he became head of their inking and painting department. He also wrote songs and lyrics for the cartoons. He moved to MGM where he directed his first animated feature: “To Spring”. His desk was opposite that of Joseph Barbera. Together they created Tom and Jerry and their first joint feature “Puss Gets the Boot” was nominated for an Academy Award. Over the next 17 years they produced 114 very popular Tom and Jerry cartoon shorts. Tom and Jerry was nominated for 14 Oscars and won 7. The characters were so popular that they appeared in live action films such as Anchors Aweigh, Invitation to the Dance, and Dangerous When Wet. Hanna-Barbera became a company and the two traded the role of president every year. Hanna brought to the partnership a gift for timing, story construction and recruiting top artists while Barbera was a skilled gag writer and sketch artist. They produced The Cat Concerto and Johann Mouse, which are considered masterpieces of animation combined with music. They produced the first Saturday morning cartoon: The Ruff and Reddy Show. Their first two successes were Huckleberry Hound (the first Emmy winning cartoon) and Yogi Bear. Then they created the Flintstones, which became the first hit prime time cartoon. Hanna co-wrote the theme song. They produced over 3,000 animated shows, including Atom Ant, Jonny Quest, Josie and the Pussycats, Magilla Gorilla, Quickdraw McGraw, Top Cat, Scooby Doo and The Smurfs. They produced the hit film Charlotte’s Web. But Hanna-Barbera became notorious for cheap animation. The number of drawings for a 7 minute cartoon dropped from 14,000 to 2000 and yet the characters still became iconic. Hanna and Barbera never talked to each other outside of work but never argued on the job.

April 28, 1995: I spent the day writing and cleaning

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday there was no work and so I probably spent the day tidying up and writing.

Alex Toth

            On Saturday morning I posted on Facebook “My Horn Went Crazy”, which is my translation of “À la manière de Brassens” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll probably start learning his song “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children). 

            I worked out the chords for the intro and most of the first verse of “Celle-là c’est la meilleure” (This is All for the Best) by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s no chorus and I think all the verses have the same chords, so it shouldn’t take long. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of four sessions. Tomorrow I begin a two session stretch of playing my electric guitars. Looking forward to being in tune. 

            I weighed 86.05 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I headed out to No Frills where I price matched seven bags of red grapes with the much cheaper Walmart price of $4.32 a kilo. I also bought two packs of raspberries, bananas, a pack of four-year-old Canadian cheddar, a whole chicken, dental floss, deodorant, olive oil with a spout, a jug of high acid vinegar, two containers of skyr, a bag of Cavendish pub fries, a bag of Miss Vickie’s applewood smoked barbecue chips and another of the regular kind. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos at 15:00.

            I took a siesta at 15:30 and got up at 17:22. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos at 17:43, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since March 18. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:48. 

            I converted my download of Fritz Lang’s Siegfried from MKV to WMV. It took half an hour and so while I was waiting I reviewed the song practice videos of my performance of “Laisse tomber les filles” on September 13 and “Leave the Naïve Alone” on September 14. On both days I played them on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On September 13 the take at 46:30 was not great because the Gibson sounded rattly. On September 14 the take at 49:00 wasn’t horrible although the Gibson was still rattly. 

            I imported Siegfried into Movie Maker and copied it to the end of the timeline of my “Seven Shades of Blues” project. I removed everything but the clips of the castle of the warrior woman Brunhilde, which looks very mystical. I inserted the clips into the main timeline to correspond with my line, “The rainbow road to Asgard’s paved with seven shades of blues”. That line is repeated one more time for the end and my idea to finish is to return to my first rainbow wave animation but to convert the frames to sepia tone with bits of blue added. I had a hard time converting the first frame to sepia or even grey scale. One used to be able to do it in Paint but not anymore. There used to be an app called Windows Picture Viewer that could do it but that’s gone. Photos won’t do it either. I found it can be done in Word of all things so I converted the first frame. It came out half the size of the original and so I had to open it in Paint to enlarge it. The other frames should take less time now that I know how to do it. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, oven fries and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode three of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story, the world is being plagued with Earthquakes. Birdman learns they are not natural and are caused by Professor Kiroff. Birdman finds Kiroff by following the shockwaves. From his mountain hideout Kiroff sees Birdman coming and sends his metal men to attack. The metal men shoot force rays that stagger Birdman but his solar beam destroys two of them. One of them throws a boulder that Birdman catches and throws back, smashing the rest. By intercom Kiroff suggests Birdman team up with him. Birdman pretends to go along in order to get inside. But inside Birdman is trapped in a cage with walls that close in to crush him. He has been out of the sun too long and his powers are draining. When Birdman takes too long to return, his pet eagle Avenger breaks through an air vent to Kiroff’s hideout. Kiroff begins to fire a laser at the bird but as Avenger dodges the blasts they burn holes in the ceiling that cause the sunlight to shine through, bathing and partially recharging Birdman until he has the strength to break from of the cage. Then he flies out, fully recharges and returns. He destroys Kiroff’s quake making machine then locks him in a cage for the authorities to find him. 

            In the Galaxy Trio story, dead volcanos are erupting all over Meteorus, which is Meteor Man’s home planet. It turns out that there is a kingdom of Moltens beneath the surface of Meteorus who used to rule the planet. Now they are trying to cover the planet with lava so they can reclaim the surface. The Trio’s ship is attacked with molten missiles but they put up their shields in time. They beam down and when Moltens attack them Meteor Man says he’s never seen anything like them. The greeting party is easily defeated, then Vapour Man uses his freezing vapour to make a cool path to the centre of the planet. The Moltens cause a cave-in but Meteor Man grows to hold up the ceiling while his friends escape. The Moltens throw hot lava balls at him until he surrenders. The Moltens turn up the volcanoes but Vapour Man freezes them all (It’s either a very small planet or he’s very fast). Meteor Man fights the Moltens and forces the king to surrender. They are offered their own uninhabited molten habitat on the sun of that system and they agree to go there. 

            In the second Birdman story, Avenger is missing. Then Birdman is contacted by the criminal Zoddo who shows him he has Avenger in a cage. In exchange for Avenger’s freedom Zoddo wants military secrets from Washington or else he will kill Avenger. Birdman meets with some generals, grabs the plans and flies away. Birdman is ordered shot down. They fire at him but Birdman refuses to fire back at his own countrymen so all he can do is take evasive manoeuvres and use his solar shield. He gives the plans to Zoddo but Zoddo has Birdman tied up and placed with Avenger in a space capsule that is set to explode. Avenger can just reach Birdman’s ropes to cut them with his beak and they escape just in time. Zoddo retreats to a pillbox and fires at Birdman but Birdman bends two of the cannons to face each other. The pillbox explodes and Birdman locks Zoddo up. He returns the plans to the Pentagon and explains that he never gave the real plans to Zoddo but switched them just before. But if that was his plan why didn’t he just prepare fake plans in the first place without stealing them from the Pentagon? He probably cost the government millions of dollars in ammunition. 

            The creator of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, as well as Space Ghost, Dino Boy, Sealab 2020, and the Herculoids, was Alex Toth. A teacher in his junior high poster class encouraged him to become an artist and so for senior high he enrolled in the School of Industrial Art in New York. He wanted to be a newspaper comic strip artist but the industry was dying and so he got into comic books instead. He was hired by DC and drew the golden age Green Lantern. He drew the Justice Society issue in which Black Canary joined the team. He drew the golden age Flash, Dr. Midnight, and Atom. He co-created Rex the Wonder Dog in 1952. He drew the first issue of The Witching Hour and created the Three Witches. His work on the story Dirty Job for the Our Army At War comic was considered a masterpiece. After DC he moved to Hollywood where he directed the Space Angel animated series. He drew stories for Warren Publishing’s black and white magazines Eerie, Creepy and The Rook. He’s considered to be one of the greatest comic book artists of all time. He said it’s not enough to be a great artist. Filmmaker Michael Almereyda said that Alex Toth’s storytelling taght him how to direct movies. One also needs to know how to tell a story. He wrote the columns “Before I Forget” and “Who Cares? I Do!”.

April 27, 1995: I posed that morning at Central Tech

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I posed from 8:30 to 11:00 at Central Technical School.

The Galaxy Trio

            On Friday morning I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “My Horn Went Crazy”, my translation of “À la manière de Brassens” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll probably post the lyrics on Facebook. 

            I finished memorizing the 1966 song “Celle-là c’est la meilleure” (This is All for the Best) by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords but wasn’t surprised to not find them. This song was never on the radio and was only written for a James Bond themed TV skit. I started working out the chords for the intro. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. I’m looking forward to getting it fixed in three weeks. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            A tooth in the upper left corner of my mouth has not been healthy for years. Several people have suggested that I have it removed and some of them are dentists. I’ve been reluctant to have my mouth take another step towards toothlessness and so I’ve been holding onto that tooth until it starts to hurt. Lately I’ve been feeling more sensitive in that area and so I’ve decided to get rid of it. I’m scheduled for a deep cleaning on May 14 and I anticipate that if that tooth is there it will be more painful and perhaps require freezing, which costs more. I called Dentistry on Queen West to make an appointment for both the extraction and to fix my front filling. Last time I got to see them the next day but they are busier now and couldn’t give me an appointment to do both the extraction and the filling until May 7. 

            I called Biseagal bike shop on Carlaw about getting my Raleigh frame welded where it snapped. Malcolm said to bring it over and so I removed the wheels from the Raleigh and strapped it to my bike trailer with four straps. The handlebar was poking a bit against my right butt cheek as I rode. I think I should have peed one more time before leaving because by the time I got to Broadview I had to urinate very badly. I stopped in front of a Tim Hortons and was even going to just leave my bike without locking it when I lost control and peed my jeans, down the legs, into my shoes and onto the sidewalk. I think at least one person noticed. I couldn’t tell if she was looking at me with sympathy or amusement. I had no choice at that point but to just stand there and finish, then get back on my bike and ride. 

            I rode south on Carlaw looking for 302, but after 320 found myself at 290. I discovered that 302 is one of those side addresses where the units are lined up perpendicular to the street and go back a long ways. I couldn’t see any bike shop but someone came out from another unit and asked if I was looking for Malcolm. He showed me a door that was almost at the very back of the building and once I was inside he told me that Malcolm’s unit is almost at the end of a very long hallway. I finally found Malcolm and it took me a few minutes to unstrap my bike from the trailer. 

            He told me he can’t weld my frame at the point where it’s broken and so he’ll have to replace the dropout plate. He says he might need to replace the plate on both sides. He says he can do it for $130 and the work will have a lifetime warranty. That sounds amazingly reasonable. He told me it should be ready by the end of next week. That’s pretty good since Gordon at Metro warned me that he’d heard it would take at least a month. Malcolm asked me to bring my rear wheel when I pick it up so he can test if it still fits after the work is done. 

            I was smart enough to use the washroom before leaving. Malcolm gave me a fob to use that just looked like a bottle opener. I went upstairs to where the much nicer units are located but couldn’t figure out how to open the door. Fortunately a woman was coming out of the other washroom and I asked her if she knew how to open the door. She used her phone and unlocked it for me. 

            This was a long trip and I had to pee badly again by the time I got to my building. I think my brain decided that it was alright to pee my pants again since they were already soiled. I tried to hold it but it started to come out just before I opened my door. I was peeing as I walked to the toilet and it almost seemed a waste of time to bother but there was still quite a bit. Next time I will need to plan my trip better and stop to urinate as soon as I feel the urge rather than try to hold it all the way. I put on some clean clothes and had lunch. 

            I weighed 85.75 kilos at 16:30, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since April 17. 

            I was exhausted from my trip and took a siesta at 17:00. I didn’t wake up until two hours and twenty minutes later. 

            I weighed 86.1 kilos at 19:43 I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching episode 2 of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story, a new flying tank is being demonstrated when a dirigible with a truck on its underside and grapplers coming from the track grabs the tank and steals it. Later a laser cannon is being tested when an acrobatic strongman swings down on a trapeze, grips the cannon with his legs and swings away with it. Next we see the team of villains all together. They are the Ringmaster, Jobo the strongman, and the Human Fly. They steal the army’s new super power serum. We see that the Ringmaster is also an acrobat as he escapes from the soldiers. The circus team works for F.E.A.R. Birdman’s boss at Inter Nation Security, Falcon 7 with his eyepatch, moustache and pipe, notifies Birdman about the circus themed thefts and so Birdman goes looking for circuses. He finds the Ringmaster and his crew just as they are hiding their dirigitruck. Jobo attacks but Birdman uses a solar beam to destroy Jobo’s improvised club and then dazzles him with an amazna flash. The Human Fly attacks Birdman with the flying tank but Birdman makes the tank so red hot that the Fly has to escape. Birdman is attacked with the laser cannon but his solar blast seems to make it explode, which is probably not what the military would want. Birdman confronts the Ringmaster who drinks the ultra serum and transforms into a super strong giant with the ability to shoot pellets of pure energy from his fingers. He’s too powerful for Birdman but when he’s about to finish him he is attacked by Birdman’s pet eagle Avenger. For some reason he is overwhelmed and then he loses his powers because the serum only works for a few minutes. 

            In the Galaxy Trio story a force from space is melting Earth’s ice caps, causing the oceans to rise. Planet Security Central notifies the Galaxy Trio. They discover the heat rays are coming from the planet Aquious. As they enter Aquious orbit they are attacked by saucers that shoot lasers. The Trio goes out without space suits. Vapour Man fires back with his combustion vapour to disable a ship. Gravity Girl uses her reverse gravity to knock another out of commission. Meteor Man extends his arms and makes his fists gigantic to punch one of the ships into scrap. They beam down to the ocean world and take oxygen capsules so they can breathe underwater even though they don’t seem to need any assistance to respirate in space. As soon as they arrive they are imprisoned in glass bells by the planet’s ruler Lotar. They are dropped to the dungeon but Meteor Man grows and breaks free then releases the others. They find chained to a wall Neptar the rightful ruler of this world before his brother Lotar staged a coup. Meteor Man disables the heat rays that are aimed at Earth. Lotar speaks to the planet via an intercom system with the switch on his throne, then turns it off. The Trio attacks and while Lotar is distracted Neptar turns it back on. Lotar says his subjects are of no concern and they will follow him blindly. This is heard by the population who rise against Lotar. 

            Vapor Man is from the planet Vaporous, and has the powers of just about any vapour, including a freeze vapour. Meteor man is from the planet Meteorus and can make any part or all of his body large and strong. Gravity Girl is actually a princess of the planet Gravitas and has the power to make anything, including herself heavy or light. The animation and writing are not very good but there is a lot of fan art that raises the quality of the teams situations and look. Gravity Girl seems to be a particular fan favourite. 

            In the second Birdman story, at something like the United Nations the king of Saloman and the King of Lampir are signing a peace treaty. The king of Saloman is called away to an important message but is faced with a gun and then tied up. The fake messenger is the Mummer, a master of disguise. He takes on the appearance and voice of the king of Saloman, then goes back to the meeting and declares war on Lampir. Birdman is notified and goes to stop the missiles of each side from reaching the other. He also must stop their tanks without harming the soldiers inside so he melts the cannons. The real king of Saloman is found and Birdman is able to stop the war. Mummer disguises himself as Falcon 7 to tell Birdman to meet him at the police weapon testing grounds. Birdman heads there but noticed something strange about Falcon 7’s voice so he sends Avenger to check on him. Avenger uses his beak and talons to cut the ropes that tie Falcon 7. At the testing grounds Birdman is knocked out by cobalt missiles. Falcon 7 has the grounds surrounded but Mummer disguises himself as Birdman and the soldiers are confused until Avenger shows which is the real Birdman. Mummer escapes with a jet pack and Birdman follows. Mummer hides in a stadium full of people and so he could be anyone of 60,000, so Birdman must wait to fight Mummer another day.

April 26, 1995: I posed that morning at Central Tech and performed that night at Fat Albert's

Thirty years ago today   

            On Wednesday I posed from 8:30 to 10:30 at Central Technical School. In the evening I performed at Fat Albert’s open stage.

Birdman

            On Thursday morning I continued editing “À la manière de Brassens” (In the Style of Georges Brassens) by Boris Vian in my Christian’s Translations blog. I might have it published tomorrow. 

            I posted on Facebook the lyrics for “Song of the Birds of the Graves”, my translation of the song “Ballade Des Oiseaux de Croix” by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the next Gainsbourg song I missed and found in the same 1966 file “Celle-là c’est la meilleure” (This is All for the Best). I memorized the first two verses and that’s half the song and so I might have it done tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of four sessions. Maybe in three weeks I’ll be taking it to Alex Wood to be repaired. It will be nice if he can make it sound sweet again. 

            I weighed 87 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since March 18. I might be coming down with a cold. It feels like it could be pollen but the pollen report says it’s low today. The symptoms went away later and so it was pollen after all. 

            I weighed 87.4 kilos before lunch. March 19 was the last time it was that high in the early afternoon.

            I weighed 86.05 kilos at 18:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:35. 

            I finished watching Siegried by Fritz Lang and skimmed through Virgin Spring by Ingmar Bergman. I tried to download Siegfried but 4K Downloader kept parsing without anything happening. I decided to start downloading it from Pirate Bay. 

            The gravy I made on Tuesday didn’t taste very good and so I added an old beefy onion soup packet and it improved the flavour. I had some with oven fries and a chicken breast while watching Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. The title is deceptive because it makes it sound like Birdman and the trio are together but they never meet and their adventures are separate. Each episode begins with a Birdman story, followed by a Galaxy Trio story and ending with another Birdman tale. 

            In the first Birdman story, an organization known as F.E.A.R. (We never learn what the acronym is supposed to stand for) is watching a video of Birdman. The leader says Birdman, who gets his power from sunlight, is the only one who stands in their way. F.E.A.R. has commissioned X the Eliminator to get rid of Birdman. His price is $1 million. He starts by sabotaging the launch of the first cargo rocket and uses a remote control device to send it into the ocean. Meanwhile Birdman, in his headquarters inside a volcano crater, already has determined that the rocket crash was no accident. He gets a video message from his boss Falcon 7 who tells him to investigate the island from where the ray was fired. The island is owned by a man named X. So Birdman flies out and whenever he leaves for work he shouts his own name. Imagine if you worked with someone who always shouted their own name when they were about to do something. Birdman easily breaks through X’s defences and confronts him. X paralyzes Birdman with a vice ray and then drops him through a trap door to a dark cell where the walls are closing in. Just as sunlight charges Birdman’s power, darkness drains it. Birdman summons by radio his pet eagle Avenger and calls him to follow “operation rescue”. So Avenger comes with a rope in its beak, drops one end down the pit and pulls Birdman up. Birdman pursues X and destroys his ship with an energy ray he shoots from his two fists. X ejects and lands in the ocean. Birdman has the coast guard pick him up. 

            The Galaxy Trio story begins on Orbus 4 where the ruler Kalex has robots serving his kingdom. But Computron the leader of the robots stages a coup and Kalex is seized so that Computron becomes the emperor and humans are enslaved by the robots. Meanwhile on the patrol ship of the Galaxy Trio, (Gravity Girl, Meteor Man, and Vapour Man) they do a communications sweep. While sweeping Galaxy 29 they pick up a signal from Spectrum A in the 14th Quadrant. There’s no such thing as a 14th quadrant since quadrants are fourths of one whole. It’s a message that Meteor Man doesn’t understand but Gravity Girl discerns that it’s a distress call in ancient Orbik telling about the robot coup. Vapour man concludes that the old language was used so it couldn’t be intercepted by the robots because they were never programmed to understand it. They land and find old Kalex is being forced to break rocks. Meteor Man can make his fists very large and he uses them to smash a robot. Gravity girl levitates a robot and then drops it to smash it. Two robots charge Vapour Man and go right through him, smashing themselves in a mountain. Back at the palace Computron introduces a disintegration chamber for getting rid of all humans I guess one by one. Four robots say it doesn’t compute and it turns out they are the Galaxy Trio plus Kalex in disguise. The trio use their powers to easily defeat the robots. They find Computron about to pull a switch that will destroy all humans on the planet. Kelex tells him he was programmed with a failsafe that requires adjustment or else he will blow up. Computron opens himself up to see that it’s a lie but when his guard is down Gravity Girl is able to levitate Computron away from the switch. They set the controls to deactivate all robots and the planet is saved. 

           In the second Birdman story, the evil genius Morto has been a model prisoner in the penitentiary’s metal shop. But Morto has created a powerful suit of armour and is now wearing it while using a torch to cut through the bars of his cell. He smashes through the gate and flies away with a jetpack to his secret hideout. Birdman learns of the escape and flies with Avenger to find the convict. In an ancient castle Morto constructs a robot horse and makes powerful instruments of destruction in the shape of Medieval weapons. Morto throws a mace at Birdman that explodes and causes him to drop from the sky. Morto thinks Birdman is dead. His mechanical horse sprouts wings and takes off. Birdman recovers and replenishes his powers by flying in the sunlight. Morto attacks a heavily guarded shipment of gold bullion. Tanks fire at him but his forcefield shields him. The mechanical horse breaths fire that melts the tank cannons. A clamp lowers from Morto’s horse that grabs the shipment. But inside is Birdman. Morto’s weapons can’t penetrate Birdman’s shield so he tries to escape. The horse breathes fire at Birdman but he sends it back to destroy Morto’s steed. Morto is using his jet pack but an energy blast from Birdman destroys his armour. he takes Morto back to prison where the warden says he’ll be working in the library rather than the machine shop from now on. 

            It is revealed at some point in this series that Birdman received his powers from Ra the Sun god.

April 25, 1995: I posed in Toronto in the morning and Etobicoke in the evening

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday morning I posed for a sculpture class at Central Technical School and then in the evening I worked at the Etobicoke School of the Arts.

Anthony Mackie

            On Wednesday morning I uploaded both “À la manière de Brassens” (In the Style of Georges Brassens) by Boris Vian and “Ballade Des Oiseaux de Croix” (Song of the Birds of the Cross) by Serge Gainsbourg to my Christian’s Translations blog. I published my translation of the Gainsbourg song. Tomorrow I’ll post the lyrics on Facebook and then look for the next Gainsbourg song that I missed in my project. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos before breakfast, which is the same as on the morning of March 25. Around midday I started looking for local guitar shops and called the closest one other than Li’l Demon. The place is called Wood Instruments and it’s only ten minutes away from me by bike. I spoke to Alex Wood and he said I could bring my Martin in for an assessment and then if he has a solution and a price we can agree on he’d let me know when he would have space to work on my guitar. He’s on Marion, which is just three blocks north of Queen and less than the block east of Roncesvalles. I locked my bike to a flimsy wooden fence and called him. He rents his house from his father who inherited it from his father and so Alex will probably inherit it as well. He led me to his basement workshop which has a nice woody smell. Other than the machine for the B string being sticky he couldn’t find much that was wrong with my guitar until I remembered to tell him about the problem of the B string registering as in tune when it is out of tune. He suddenly said, “I think I know the problem!” He moved my B string sideways to show how it has dug grooves in my frets. The G string has also done it a little bit and the E string a little less. He says he thinks the B string is shifting around the grooves and that’s why it can be in tune but not in tune. It’s probably because I’m a hard strummer. He says he’ll have to either replace the frets or smooth them down if there’s enough height. He thinks he’ll have to replace the first five frets and smooth the others. Since the B machine needs to be replaced, all of the machines need to be replaced and so he says Goto machines are the go to machines short of the really high end brand that he thinks is too expensive. He’ll also replace the plastic nut and saddle with a bone nut and saddle. Meanwhile as a courtesy he replaced my B string. He’ll send me a quote and he thinks he’ll be free to work on my guitar in about three weeks. After two luthiers telling me they couldn’t see a problem, Alex’s insights were music to my ears. Of course we won’t know for sure if his solution will fix the problem but I have a strong feeling that he’s hit the nail on the head. It’s going to cost me $370 but I feel really good about possibly finding a solution and the prospect of my Martin sounding sweet again. Even in the extremely unlikely scenario that everything he’ll do will have no effect on my tuning issue, it will be nonetheless upgrading my guitar. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since April 2. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            I took a siesta at 15:45 and woke up at around 17:30 so I didn’t take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos at 17:45. That’s the most I’ve tipped the scales in the evening since April 2. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:06. 

            I watched about another hour of Fritz Lang’s 1924 adaptation of Siegfried. There’s another hour left. I think there is something in there I can use for my "Seven Shades of Blues" Movie Maker project. While watching I also formed some ideas on how to finish my video. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, two slices of ham and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the rest of Captain America: Brave New World. 

            Sam, Joaquin and Ruth have just escaped from the FBI agents who are being controlled by The Leader. Meanwhile the Japanese navy is advancing on Celestial Island to secure the adamantium. President Ross gets angry and slams his fist down on a marble coffee table, which he cracks. He decides that if one country is going to control adamantium it’s going to be the US. Sam goes to see Sidewinder where he’s being held and learns that it was his unit that found Sterns. He’d been infected with the Hulk’s blood which gave him as much brain power as the Hulk has strength. Rather than purge Sterns of the gamma infection Ross used it for his own advantage and even added more gamma radiation. Ross promised Sterns would get a full pardon once he became president but he didn’t keep his word. Ross and the US fleet are on their way to Celestial Island. Sam, Joaquin and Ruth go there and Sam threatens to make public what he knows unless Ross talks to him in private. Ross admits he went to Sterns for treatment for his terminal heart condition. The pills Sterns created have been keeping Ross alive. Meanwhile The Leader has mind controlled two US fighter pilots and caused them to fire on the Japanese fleet. Sam and Joaquin in their Falcon suits fly to stop the rogue pilots and to try to talk down the Japanese fighters. They have to outfly missiles from both the rogue and the Japanese pilots and try to explode them harmlessly. Joaquin takes a hit and has to be fished out of the Indian ocean and taken to a hospital. The Leader calls Ross to coax him to lose control but he holds on. Sam disables the two rogue fighters and convinces the Japanese fighters to stand down. The air battle was a little too video gamey to be interesting and I really don’t like a flying Captain America. It makes his abilities too busy. They might as well give him heat vision and spider legs coming out of his back if they’re going to mess with the character that much. Later Joaquin is in surgery and Sam is watching from a private room. Someone enters and Sam tells them to go away until he sees it’s Bucky Barnes. Bucky is running for Congress. He gives Sam some words of encouragement. The commander who Sam asked to analyze Ross’s pills finds out they are loaded with gamma radiation. He’s about to call Sam when the Leader uses a device that causes him to have a fatal heart attack. Ross gives a press conference and suddenly a recording of the Leader’s voice is hacked into the intercom system. Ross loses control and turns into the Red Hulk. It’s kind of fun seeing a Hulk with Harrison Ford’s face. Sam flies in as both Falcon and Captain America. How about Falpton America? The White House and Sam’s vibranium suit get pretty much wrecked in the battle. Sam lures Ross to the cherry blossom orchard where he used to take walks with his daughter Betty. Ross rips off one of Sam’s wings. Sam can’t beat the Hulk in a fight and so his only option is to try to talk Ross down and he eventually changes back to himself from the Red Hulk. Ross resigns from the presidency and allows himself to be placed in a highly secure facility in case he turns back to the Red Hulk. Joaquin recovers and Isaiah is released from prison. In the end credit scene Sam goes to visit the Leader in prison. The Leader tells him that he’s seen in the probabilities that it’s coming. He says there are other worlds he’ll have to protect this world from. 

            Falpton America was played by Anthony Mackie, who graduated from Juilliard. He won an OBIE Ward (Off Broadway Awrad) for his role in the play Talk. He co-starred in 8 Mile (his film debut), Half Nelson, We Are Marshall, Notorious, The Hurt Locker, All the Way, and IO. He starred in Brother to Brother, She Hate Me, Crossover, Outside the Wire (which he also produced), and Shark Beach. He co-starred in the series Altered Carbon, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

April 24, 1995: I posed for a high school drawing class

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday morning I posed for a drawing class at Central Technical School.

Shira Haas

            On Tuesday morning I revised my translation of “À la manière de Brassens” (In the Style of Georges Brassens) by Boris Vian and ran through singing and playing it in English. I finished working out the chords for “Ballade Des Oiseaux de Croix” (Song of the Birds of the Cross) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it in French and English. Tomorrow I’ll upload both songs to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare them for publication. The latter will probably be posted tomorrow. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing acoustic guitars. I’ll play the Martin tomorrow but I might take it to a luthier afterwards to try to get my tuning problem fixed. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I cleaned my older warm mist humidifier. It took a little longer because I only had three cups of vinegar. I’ll have to buy more on Saturday. 

            I weighed 86.35 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since April 8. 

            I woke up from my siesta at 16:18 but managed to get away for my bike ride before 17:00 and so I went all the way downtown and back. 

            I weighed 86.2 kilos at 18:21. That’s the most I’ve tipped the scale in the evening since April 14.

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:11. 

            I watched the first 40 minutes of Fritz Lang’s silent film Siegfried. It might have something I can use to finish my “Seven Shades of Blues” Movie Maker project. There was always a visual magic to Lang’s silent films and I’ve used clips from a few of them for some of my previous projects. 

            I made a new batch of gravy and had some with oven fries and a chicken leg while watching the second thirty minutes of Captain America: Brave New World. 

            Sam has gone to see Isaiah in prison to find a clue as to what caused him to try to kill President Ross. Ross’s security advisor Ruth spies on their conversation. Later Joaquin has hacked into the White House’s CCTV system. He sees that just before Isaiah and the other’s attacked the president their smart phones flashed at them. Meanwhile Ruth is looking at the same footage and notices the same thing. Sam is driving when Sidewinder starts firing at his car, then tosses a grenade inside. It blows up but Sam escapes and they fight. Sam gets stabbed and shot. Sidewinder says the buyer that hired him bases every move on calculated probabilities and has predicted Sam’s last few moves. Sam surprises him anyway and takes him out. Then Sidewinder’s phone rings and the buyer tells Sam he’s not going to like what happens next. Sam reviews the CCTV footage and notices that Isaiah or whoever was controlling him deliberately missed the president. Joachin traces the buyer’s call to Camp Echo 1 in the middle of a forest in West Virginia. Sam concludes it’s a top secret high security prison. They head there immediately. Ruth arrives at the prison where Isaiah and the other White House shooters are being held only to find a prison guard in a trance opening up the cell of two of them and assassinating them before killing himself. On his communication device can be heard the song “Mr. Blue” by The Fleetwoods from 1959 (I remember as a teenager listening many times to a cover of that song by Gary Lewis and the Playboys from their Everybody Loves a Clown album). Meanwhile Ross gets a call from the prison that Sam is approaching. The call is from the guard who has been watching a certain prisoner that Ross has been concerned about. Suddenly the guard is shot and the prisoner talks to Ross with the same voice as the buyer. He tells Ross that he plans on slowly destroying him. It was he who arranged for the fake assassination attempt. Sam and Joaquin reach Camp Echo at night. Sam has a drone called Red Wing that follows his voice commands to laser cut the fence and loop the feed on the cameras. They make it inside but find no prisoners but they do find the lab where Isaiah and many other prisoners were experimented on. Sam finds a file on Ross and samples of the pills he’s been taking. Then Samuel Sterns reveals himself as the prisoner behind the attacks who is also Sidewinder’s buyer. He turns on the light and we see that he has green skin like the Hulk because of gamma rays and that his brain is so large that it is on the outside of his skull (Sterns is the character from Incredible Hulk comics from the 60s who was the Hulk’s arch enemy, the Leader. The Leader in the comics was much less gross looking and had a very tall head with the brain still inside of his skull). Ross kept him in prison and used his mind to help him become president. Sam tries to attack but meets a painful force field. Then several prison guards controlled by the Leader attack Sam and Joaquin while Leader walks away. It takes them some pain to beat them. In the hall they meet more guards and behind them they see Ruth. She tells the guards to stand down and they turn on her and so she takes them all out in Black Widow style. Outside of the prison fence, Sam and Joaquin are arrested by FBI under Ross’s orders, despite Ruth’s protests. Then suddenly they hear “Mr. Blue” and the leader takes over their minds to try to kill them and so Ruth helps Sam and Joaquin escape in her car. 

            Ruth is played by Shira Haas, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the age of two and went through two years of painful treatment. In her early teens she performed in plays in Tel Aviv. Her TV debut was in the series Shtisel in 2013. Her film debut was a starring role in Princess in 2014 for which she won the Jerusalem Film Festival best actress award. Her international film debut was in Natalie Portman’s A Tale of Love and Darkness. She starred in Broken Mirrors. She co-starred in Noble Savage, Esau, and Asia. She starred in the series Unorthodox, for which she became the first Israeli actress to be nominated for a prime time Emmy. Her Captain America character is a variation on the Israeli superhero Sabra. Since this movie came out during Israel’s assault on Gaza she received a lot of anti Israel threats and so the production downplayed her character’s Israeli background.

April 23, 1995: My daughter's grandparents dropped her off on their way to church

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday my daughter’s grandparents probably dropped her off at my place on the way to church. We likely went to the playground.

Harrison Ford

            On Monday morning I finished working out the chords for “À la manière de Brassens” (In the Style of Georges Brassens) by Boris Vian. I ran through singing and playing it in French. I started revising my translation.

            I worked out the chords for the first verse of “Ballade Des Oiseaux de Croix” (Song of the Birds of the Cross) by Serge Gainsbourg. All the other verses should have the same chords so I might have the song done tomorrow and I don’t think I’ll need to revise my translation. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll play the Kramer. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday in my Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I edited the clips I needed from The Story Behind Flower Power of the riot police beating protestors and of the young man putting flowers in the guns of military police. All that’s left to be caught up from when I absent mindedly deleted the project ten days ago is to edit the Buster Keaton wrestling clip and the two Captain Kirk wrestling clips. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at the No Frills at John and Richmond. That place is always very crowded and there’s always a long line-up. But I wanted to take advantage of their sale this week on red grapes for $2.76 a kilo so I bought seven bags.

            I weighed 86.05 kilos at 19:00, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since last Monday.

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

            In my “Seven Shades of Blues” Movie Maker project I edited the wrestling segment from Buster Keaton’s Three Ages and placed it into the main timeline to match my line, “So wrestle with that angel but never let it lose”. I think I’m just going to go with the Buster Keaton clip rather than try the two Star Trek wrestling clips. So now I am more than caught up after ten days ago deleting the project that took six months to build. All that’s left to finish the project is to find a video or videos to fit with my line, “The rainbow road to Asgard’s paved with seven shades of blues”. 

           I cut up the whole chicken that I’d thawed in the fridge. I smeared the pieces with Vegemite, lemon juice, wine vinegar, and tamarind chutney and grilled them in the oven. I also baked a potato but that wasn’t ready until after I ate a chicken leg. I ate while watching the first half hour of Captain America: Brave New World. 

            The first thing we see is General Thunderbolt Ross the newly elected President of the United States taking a pill just before his acceptance speech. He keeps on taking these pills throughout the story. This would be the first president in 140 years to not have a wife by his side when elected. Five months later Sam Wilson, the former Falcon and current Captain America is sent on a mission with Joaquin Torres, the Falcon in training. They go to Oaxaca, Mexico where Sidewinder has stolen a classified canister and taken hostages. The priority of the mission is to retrieve the package but Sam ignores that and goes to save the hostages. Falcon instead goes after the package and succeeds in getting it back. Sam flies in as the Falcon and comes down at a speed that would probably kill him since he’s not a super soldier. He doesn’t do anything with any less strength or endurance than Steve Rogers and so it defeats the purpose of him having been a super soldier. He also uses his wings sometimes when he fights which looks awkward. It makes one miss Steve Rogers already. I guess Sam’s suit is made of vibranium and that’s why he has some of a super soldier’s abilities without the serum. Sidewinder is about to kill all the hostages when he hears that Captain America is there and he sends his men to fight him. He takes them out easily but has a little more trouble with a big unnamed henchman until he doesn’t have trouble. Sidewinder leaves but we don’t see him teleport which supposedly he can do. It would have been nice to show it. Sam takes Joaquin to meet his friend Isaiah Bradley who is a super soldier but was thrown in prison for 30 years by the US government and experimented on and so he is understandably bitter. He resents the idea that Captain America would answer to the president. Sam assures him that he’s on top of it and won’t let Ross control Captain America. Ross has invited Sam to a White House function and Sam said he’d only go if Isaiah is invited. Isaiah reluctantly agrees. In a private meeting Ross tells Sam he wants him to help him rebuild the Avengers. This is puzzling for Sam since Ross has fought against superpowered people being allowed to enforce the law. Sam is worried that the Avengers would have to work for Ross. Ross gives a talk about the Celestial Mass that emerged in the Indian Ocean at the end of The Eternals movie. The material of the mass is made of adamantium, which is more indestructible than vibranium. From my Marvel comic book reading days I don’t recall adamantium coming from the Celestials. Captain America’s shield as constructed by Tony Stark was made of adamantium and Wolverine’s skeleton and claws are made of adamantium. Since Wolverine and Cap’s shield existed before the Celestial Mass how could they be made of adamantium? It turns out that the canister that Captain America and Falcon saved contained adamantium. We hear some kind of digital sound and suddenly Isaiah gets up to attack Ross with a gun. Sam tries to stop him but is thrown aside. Several others are suddenly in on the attack. Ross escapes. Ross’s security advisor Ruth is a former Black Widow who also fights against the attack. Sam goes after Isaiah who doesn’t seem to know what just happened. He convinces him to surrender. The next day Sam storms into a meeting in the White House and Ross tells everybody else but Ruth to leave. Ross has reverted back to his former anti enhancement attitude. He no longer wants to work with Sam. Sam sets out to clear Isaiah by first seeing to him in prison and getting every detail about the day leading up to the attack. 

            Ross is played by Harrison Ford, who is half Irish and half Jewish. He says as a man he feels Irish but as an actor he feels Jewish. He was a Philosophy major but he was expelled for plagiarism. His film debut was in Dead Heat on a Merry Go Round in 1966. His first credited role was in A Time for Killing in 1967. In 1977 George Lucas hired him to read lines for actors auditioning for Star Wars. Lucas was impressed with his readings and cast him as Han Solo. He co-starred in Heroes, The Frisco Kid, Working Girl, and Sabrina. He starred in Hanover Street, Indiana Jones, Bladerunner, Witness, The Mosquito Coast, Frantic, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Fugitive, The Devil’s Own, Air Force One, Presumed Innocent, and Regarding Henry. After this a lot of his movies bombed besides the ones with established franchises and even some of those. He’s a licensed pilot and a member of several pilots organizations. He hates Donald Trump.