April 4, 1995: As always on Tuesday nights I hosted my open stage

Thirty years ago today

            As always on Tuesday night I hosted my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art Bar of the Gladstone Hotel.

Otto Feuer

            On Wednesday morning I finished running through singing and playing “Our Pretty Gestapo”, which is my translation of “Le petit Lauriston” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            After revising my translation of the third line I ran through singing and playing “Song and Dance”, my translation of “Sacha Distel et Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg. Since few people anymore know who the singer Sacha Distel and the dancer Jean-Pierre Cassel are, I decided to call them Mr. Singer and Mr. Dancer. But that doesn’t work because the name of one or the other is said after each line and the name rhymes with an “el” sound at the end of each line. I’m going to try to find alternative but recognizable names for “Singer” and “Dancer” to use for the names of the characters in the song. I’ll probably upload the song to Christian’s Translations on Thursday as well. 

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

            I weighed 86.35 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I used drywall compound to fill up the gaps, holes and cracks under the lower shelf in the bathroom. Then I did about half of the bathroom doorframe. I might have all the filling done on Friday and then after that I’ll have to do the dreaded ceiling sanding. 

            I weighed 86.85 kilos before lunch. 

            When I got up from my siesta there was snow outside being heavily rained on and so I decided not to venture into the mess on my bike. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos at 16:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:38. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues”, I inserted the clips of the kiss and the cakewalk from the 1913 film Lime Kilm Club Field Day into the main video to correspond with my line, “Freedom marries slavery and their child transcends them both”. Then I needed some video to fit my line, “Rebellion drags us to the grave / Resistance leads to growth”. I tried to find film footage of the Kent State massacre and found some footage of the protests and some of the National Guard but nothing of the actual shootings. Then I found a great video of that classic moment from three years earlier when the young protestor placed flowers in the barrels of some soldiers’ guns at an anti-war protest in Washington. That’s followed by footage of riot police beating protesters with clubs. I think that video will give me the two clips I need and so I bookmarked it. 

            I compared the video of my acoustic song practice performance of “Seven Shades of Blues” on October 1 with that of September 22. I play the E flat chord slightly better on October 1 but the September 22 video looks better and there’s less traffic noise. I compared October 7 to September 22 and I still play the E flat better on September 22. I compared October 13 to September 22 and I play the E flat better on October 13. I compared October 14 to October 13 and found that on October 13 I play the E flat better. So if I upload an acoustic version of this song from that year’s project it’ll be the one from October 13. 

            I compared the videos of my electric song practice performances of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on September 14 and 19. The two videos are fairly equal except that on September 19 I missed a beat. I compared September 20 to September 14 and I play the E flat chord better on September 20, plus the video looks better. There are six more to compare. 

            I had an avocado, tomato, cucumber, and scallion salad with lemon and lime juice as dressing, with a glass of Garden Cocktail while watching episodes 29 and 30 of The Adventures of Batman. 

            In the first story, in his headquarters in the Drilred Puzzle Factory, Riddler has the new hobby of painting. His latest work has been rejected by the art museum and so he plans to blow the museum up. That night Batman is called about a break-in at the museum but it is found that nothing has been stolen. However a closer look shows that something has been added. One of the paintings has been marked with the riddle, “When is a museum like an inflated balloon?”. Answer: When it is blown up. Another riddle is found on the same painting: “Why does the king raise his sword?” In the painting the king is raising his sword to knight Jonathan. They conclude that the Riddler plans to blow up the museum tonight. That night Batman and Robin stake out two different parts of the museum but the Riddler captures Robin. Barbara Gordon is in her father, Commissioner Gordon’s office when he hears of Robin’s capture. When Barbara hears that the Riddler said to take Robin back to the “Puzzle Factory” she goes home to change to Batgirl. She has a puzzle from the Drilred Puzzle Company and now she’s sure that’s where Robin has been taken. Meanwhile Batman also figures out that Drilred is an anagram for Riddler. Meanwhile the Riddler has Robin tied spread eagle to a giant jigsaw table with the jigsaw ready to cut him down the middle. When Batman gets to the roof of Drilred he is helped up by Robin, but it isn’t really Robin but rather Batgirl in disguise. Her reasoning is that if Riddler sees another Robin he might think he’s captured the wrong one. But when they step onto a stairway the steps suddenly straighten to form a slide but for some reason it doesn’t send them to a trap but only the next floor. Batman opens a door that leads to a hallway, the floor of which is only paper, below which is a vat of acid. Robin knows about the acid and is desperate to free himself from the jigsaw so he can save Batman. He manoeuvres his body as the saw advances to cut the rope that binds his left foot, then his left hand so he can free himself. Batman is about to step through the door when Robin opens the other one and tells him to stop. Batman swings across and is about to swing the rope over to Batgirl when she is grabbed by Riddler, thinking she’s the escaped Robin. She is put in the back of a van that drives away just as Batman and Robin emerge from the building. Riddler is headed to blow up the museum with explosive eggs. The Batmobile gets to the museum before the Riddler by crossing the water in amphibious mode. Robin ejects to the roof. When Riddler arrives Batman confronts him. Riddler threatens to blow up Robin but then is shocked when Robin calls to him from the roof. Robin jumps and kicks Riddler while Batman frees Batgirl. She wants to join the fight but is disappointed when Batman tells her to go get the police. Batman and Robin take out several of Riddler’s men and are standing on top of Riddler’s van to hold the others off when Riddler opens a trap door to capture them in the back of the truck. Later Batman and Robin find themselves on a pedestal surrounded by explosive eggs that they most avoid to get to a door. But steam rises from the floor to obscure their view of the eggs. Above is a ventilating fan and so Batman sets his electromagnetic Bat power pack in reverse to reverse the direction of the fan and suck the steam out of the room. They escape and when the Riddler and his men attack, they defeat them. Batgirl arrives with Gordon and complains Batman and Robin didn’t save any for her. 

            In the second story the Wayne Foundation is building a state of the art crime lab. But Riddler plans on kidnapping Bruce Wayne’s ward Dick Grayson to force him not to build the lab. He sends a riddle to commissioner Gordon that Barbara reads with him: “What do you have when the hair of your heir changes colour?” The answer is “a grey son” and Barbara concludes it means Riddler plans on abducting Dick Grayson. She changes to Batgirl to try to stop Riddler. Meanwhile Bruce and Dick arrive at Wayne Manor from the Batcave only to find Alfred tied up. Riddler and his men are there and attack. Bruce and Dick put up a fight, but they are overwhelmed. Batgirl jumps the men trying to take Dick away and frees him to fight again. They fight a winning battle against Riddler’s men until Batgirl is grabbed from behind. Bruce and Dick head for the Batcave and change to Batman and Robin to head for the construction site of the crime lab where Batgirl is tied to a post. They are told by the crew that no one is down in the pit but Batgirl kicks the steam whistle to alert them of her presence. Robin frees Batgirl while Batman faces off against several of Riddler’s men. Soon he is joined by Batgirl and Robin and together they defeat the crooks. 

            Some of the animation for these episodes was done by Otto Feuer, who studied art at the Cooper Union in New York. In the 1930s he began animating for Fleisher Studios. In 1943 he became a comic book artist. He worked on Jungle Antics for Better Publications, and Cilly Goose for Dell. Then he became one of the main artists for DC’s funny animal comic line, such as Comic Cavalcade, Animal Antics, Funny Stuff, and Funny Folk. Through the 40s and 50s he worked on the features, Dodo and the Frog, Peter Porkchops, Nip ‘n’ Chip, Bernard the Brave, Fraidy Cat, and Raccoon Kids. Dodo and the Frog, and Peter Porkchops eventually got their own comic books. In 1955 he founded his own studio, Animotion Associates. From the late 60s to the 80s he animated for Filmation on such features as Batman and Superman.

April 3, 1995: I posed all day and into the night at OCA

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I posed all day and the night class as well at the Ontario College of Art.

Les Kaluza

            On Tuesday morning I ran through singing and playing the first three verses of “Our Pretty Gestapo”, which is my translation of “Le petit Lauriston” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through the last two long verses. 

            I ran through singing and playing in French “Sacha Distel et Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg. I started going through it in English but realized that a direct translation of the third line doesn’t make sense within the context of the other lines and so I’ll have to come up with something else. 

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

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I cleaned the newest warm mist humidifier. Hopefully I won’t have to use the new one again and I’ll only have to clean the old one once more. It was done fairly quickly and I had time to finish editing and to publish the video of Batgirl’s third appearance on the 60s Batman TV series. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before lunch according to my scale. I guess it’s possible. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 86.05 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:53. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I finished editing all of the clips I’d gathered from the 1913 film Lime Kilm Club Field Day and put them in a logical order. Tomorrow I’ll insert the kissing and cakewalk scenes into the main video. 

            I compared the video of my song practice acoustic performance of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” from September 25 to that of September 22. Although September 25 looks better, I hit the E flat chord better on September 22. I compared September 26 to September 22 and I played the E flat better on September 22. I compared September 27 to September 22 and found that September 27 looks better but my guitar was out of tune. I compared September 28 to September 22 and on September 22 I still play the E flat better, plus the video looks better. There are four more acoustic takes to compare.

            I had a tomato, avocado, cucumber, and scallion salad with lime juice for dressing and a glass of Garden Cocktail while watching episodes 27 and 28 of The Adventures of Batman. 

            In the first story, Batman and Robin are escorting an armoured truck to a security building where 4 million Turkish coins will await shipment back to Turkey. But inside of the building the secretary turns out to be Charlotte Russe, Simon the Pieman’s accomplice. Meanwhile Mother Goose’s Pastry Park for Kiddies is preparing for its opening day. Barbara Gordon has been sent by the mayor to check the authenticy of the exhibits. Mother Goose gives her a tour but when she enters the kitchen she recognizes members of Simon’s gang. When she points that out, Mother Goose reveals herself to be Simon the Pieman and orders Barbara tied up so he has leverage over her father, Commissioner Gordon. She is bound to a chair in a pantry full of pies with one guard. She kicks down on the handle of a pie board sending the pie into her guard’s face. Then she frees herself and somehow has her costume nearby to change to Batgirl. She pursues Simon’s pie wagon on her Batgirl Cycle, but Simon shoots whipped cream from the exhaust pipe that clogs her wheels, and causes her to crash. Simon captures her while Gordon informs Batman that Barbara is missing. Simon steals the Turkish coins and gets away. Batgirl is locked up in the tower of the castle at Mother Goose’s park. Batman and Robin come to the park to investigate Barbara’s disappearance. They also recognize Simon’s men and when the crooks attack the heroes make short work of them. But Mother Goose changes back to Simon, slips inside the castle and raises the drawbridge. They hear Batgirl calling for help from the tower and use a Medieval catapult to toss a rope with a hook up to her. Simon’s men attack and Simon sprays Batman and Robin with some kind of confectionary goo that covers and subdues them. They are taken into the castle while Batgirl is dangling above a shark infested moat. Robin is placed standing on top of a wheel with his wrists bound and his arms stretched toward the ceiling. His legs are free but sticks of dynamite are tied to each of his ankles. All around the wheel are lit candles and the wheel starts turning, causing Robin to have to continuously jump to avoid setting off an explosion. Meanwhile Batman is in the bell tower under the bell. The floor begins sliding away and below is a giant cooking pot of porridge so Batman has to grab hold of the bell clapper to keep from falling. Then one of Simon’s men begins pulling on the rope to ring the bell. Batgirl jumps and somehow clears the moat. She starts running but Simon uses a slingshot to fire an explosive apple turnover at her and she is knocked out. She is locked inside a large pumpkin shell and carried to the well at the top of Jack and Jill hill. Meanwhile Robin is getting tired from jumping. Batman lets go of the bell clapper and grabs the rope to slide down. He saves Robin and they go to save Batgirl. Simon’s men are about to push the pumpkin down the well but Batman and Robin throw baterangs that take out the men but when they fall the pumpkin begins rolling down the hill toward the moat. Batman and Robin catch it in a net. The pie shaped roof of the pattycake house turns out to be a flying saucer and it takes off. Batman and Robin return to the Batcave to consult the Bat computer about Simon’s next move while Batgirl follows the flying pie. Simon knows she’s following before it lands in the water near the piezoelectric power house. They enter the power house, which is their base of operations. Batgirl climbs the wall with Bat cups. Simon’s men try to grab her on the roof but she blows dust from her compact into their eyes. Then she puts a Bat symbol onto the search light and makes her own Bat signal. Batman and Robin see it and head there in the Bat copter. Batgirl is captured yet again. Batman and Robin see the pie saucer on the water moving out to sea and think Batgirl is aboard so they lower themselves inside. But it’s a trap and the pie locks and submerges, then moves underwater toward a reef. This plant is a piezoelectric plant where tremendous pressure on crystal is used to generate electricity. Batgirl is tied to a table and is going to take the place of the crystal. Batman radios Alfred who arrives directly above in the Bat boat. Batman and Robin escape through the torpedo tubes and swim to the surface to board the boat. Batgirl is about to be crushed but then Batman pulls the plug. Simon and his men escape and start sliding along a power line now that Batman has cut the power. But Batgirl plugs it back in and they are shocked and fall to the water near a speedboat. They try to escape with the boat but beneath them the pie has reached the reef and explodes, knocking Simon and his gang out with a seismic wave. 

            In the second story Batman and Robin are on a float in the annual Christmas parade. But Santa Clause in the float behind them turns out to be Mr. Freeze. There is no explanation as to how a Santa Clause costume can be a substitute for his life saving cold suit. Later at city hall, Gordon is about to light the giant Christmas tree, at the top of which is a priceless diamond star. That’s just silly. No one would put a diamond star on top of a public Christmas tree. But before the tree is lit, Freeze freezes the tree as well as Batman and Robin. Then he uses a whip to snag the star and escapes with it. Batman and Robin thaw out and pursue Santa’s sled in the Batmobile but Freeze freezes their vehicle. Somehow there is an unused dog team and sled nearby and Batman and Robin take it after freeze. Batman is cracking a whip as if he would need a whip to motivate trained dogs to run. Freeze throws candy hot dogs behind him and the dogs stop to eat them. I don’t think they would stop to eat candy. Anyway Freeze gets away. In front of Stacy’s Department Store there are several Santas, and Batman and Robin can’t tell which is Freeze until they see a little boy approach one of them and gets a chill. Freeze freezes the heroes again. Freeze steals the golden Christmas tree from the store window. Later in his hideout and back in his cold suit, Mr. Freeze hears on the news about a gold and silver bell that will ring in the yule on Christmas day from a gingerbread house in Gotham Park. Freeze takes the bait and hooks the house with his helicopter to carry it away, not realizing that Batman and Robin are inside. But then Freeze sees them and starts shooting his cold gun, which causes the copter to overload with ice until it crashes. Freeze with his cold gun chases Batman and Robin to the zoo. The heroes go down a slide and Freeze follows but Batman lifts up the slide and Freeze goes flying into the polar bear compound. The bear swipes Freeze and knocks him out. 

            Some of the animation for these episodes was done by Les Kaluza, who worked as an animator in Poland in the 1950s. He did animation for Paramount in New York on shows such as Popeye the Sailor and Casper the Friendly Ghost. In LA he worked for Hanna Barbera on The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Johnny Quest, Space Ghost and The Impossibles. He was the animation director at Hanna Barbera in the 80s and 90s. At Filmation he worked on Tarzan, Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Tom and Jerry, Star Trek, Fat Albert, Droopy, The Archies, The Lone Ranger, and Sabrina and the Groovy Ghoolies. He worked on the films Return to Oz, Flash Gordon, Treasure Island, and Oliver. He also produced his own animated short films such as Bookie Woogie Cat, Potpourri and The Owl and the Pussycat.

April 2, 1995: I spent the day playing with my daughter outside

Thirty years ago today 

            On Sunday I probably spent the day with my daughter, and since the weather was getting warmer we likely played outside, either in the playground near her mother’s place in Scarborough or near my place in the Beaches.

Norm McCabe

            On Monday morning I finished revising my translation of “Le petit Lauriston” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it and on Wednesday I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Sacha Distel et Jean-Pierre Cassel’s Song and Dance” by Serge Gainsbourg. On Tuesday I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and English and then I’ll upload it to Christian’s Translations to prepare it for publication. 

            I played my Gibson electric guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll do a two session stretch of playing my Kramer electric. 

            I weighed 86.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I worked a little more in editing a video of the third appearance of Batgirl on the live action Batman TV series. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since March 21. 

            I took a siesta at the usual time of 14:30 but woke up twenty minutes later than usual. I took a bike ride but only went as far as Bathurst and Bloor. I stopped at Freshco on the way home to buy a jug of high acid vinegar and also picked up three packs of grape tomatoes. 

            Just after I got home I was about to hang my bike up when I saw my upstairs neighbour Shawn. He bought a copy of my book and I signed it but I spelled his name “Sean” and crossed it out, then when I wrote it again I didn’t put the “w” in, so I added it later and it was a pretty messy book signing. He told me that the landlord tried to charge him extra for his brother living in his place but that’s illegal. It turns out that when Raja changed the front door lock it wasn’t for the reasons he stated in the notice he’d slipped under everybody’s doors. No one had lost their key. It was just Raja being a dick about Shawn and his brother. Shawn is still studying to be a social worker but he’s at the apprenticeship phase now and working at a drop-in centre. He still has to turn in assignments but that will be finished soon. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos at 18:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:36. 

            I took another crack at converting the one clip of Lime Kilm Club Field Day that wouldn’t open in Movie Maker. I had converted it to WMV but it froze in Movie Maker. I tried reconverting it to WMV with both Total Video Converter and WinX video converter but that didn’t work. Finally I used WinX to convert it to AVI and that worked. I imported it to Movie Maker, then in the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I worked on organizing all my clips of Lime Kilm Club Field Day in some sort of logical order. 

            I had the usual tomato, cucumber, scallion and avocado salad with lime juice dressing and a glass of Garden Cocktail while watching episodes 25 and 26 of The Adventures of Batman. 

            In the first story it’s Valentines Day and Catwoman sends Batman a cat with a valentine on its collar and a note offering a truce for the day. Robin likes the cat and names her Valentina. It rides with them in the Batmobile but the heroes don’t realize that Valentina is being tracked so that Catwoman can commit crimes when Batman and Robin are far away. Catwoman robs a mail truck but by the time Batman and Robin get there she is already performing another theft at the airport. They see her on the cloverleaf but she is able to evade their every attempt to catch her. Batman concludes that she is tracking them through Valentina. Suddenly Valentina sees a mouse and jumps out of the Catmobile. Robin follows her when she goes into a hollow log where it is dark and he sees she is glowing. He brings her back to Batman and they take her to police headquarters. There Batman determines that Valentina’s fur is covered with a chemical that gives off radio waves. They leave the cat with Commissioner Gordon to go to Spiffany’s to catch Catwoman. Gordon decides to go there too and asks his daughter Barbara to watch after Valentina. But Barbara wants to help catch Catwoman so she changes to Batgirl and takes Valentina with her on her Batgirl Cycle, not realizing she is tipping Catwoman off by doing so. When Batgirl gets there, Valentina leaves her to go into the Batmobile. Catwoman escapes and Batgirl follows her but Catwoman releases “cat claws”, which are claw shaped sharp objects she scatters on the road behind her that cause Batgirl to crash. Later the Batmobile starts to follow Catwoman and she releases more cat claws, which blow out all of the Batmobile’s tires. But Batman activates the Batmobile’s hover jets and they continue their pursuit. She puts a fence across the road but Batman activates the Bat Cutter to slice through. She tries to ram the Batmobile with her Catmobile but Batman increases the jets and rises above her. She climbs to the top of a building and Batman and Robin use their batapaults to shoot themselves to catch her but only manage to grab tentatively hold of the ledge while Catwoman whips their hands to try to cause them to loosen their grips and fall. Valentina sees Catwoman attacking her friends and climbs the building to attack Catwoman. It’s chasing her on the roof when Batgirl arrives and throws a bola that ties Catwoman’s legs. Batman and Robin take out the rest of Catwoman’s tomcats. 

            In the second story, Catwoman creates a fake Bat Signal and somehow knows where the exit tunnel of the Batcave is to trap the Batmobile in a net when it comes through. If she knew where the exit is wouldn’t she know how to get to the Batcave? She and her tomcats roll the Batmobile with Batman and Robin into the back of a van. But the Batmobile has a laser that breaks through the net and then they just reverse hard through the doors of the van. The Batmobile takes a shortcut and cuts the van off on the road. They take out her Tomcats but she stuns the heroes with her catnap gas bubbles and then steals the Batmobile. Later Batman deduces that Gotham Film Studios is Catwoman’s hideout. They take the Bat Copter after her. They climb to an upper window and come inside on the catwalk but Catwoman pushes a button that causes the catwalk to flip them down into a cage. She suspends Batman by his wrists from the ceiling while she traps Robin inside of a giant pinball in an enormous pinball machine. The red, coil-shaped bumper at the bottom will explode on contact, so he has to use body English to avoid it. Meanwhile a giant toy propellor with sharp blades is launched and so Batman must swing to avoid it. When he does, it cuts the rope he’s hanging by and he lands on the other end of a seesaw that Catwoman is absent mindedly standing on, causing her to fly and have to be caught by her tomcats. Batman frees Robin and they fight the tomcats with the usual giant objects being used as weapons. At one point Batman references Superman for the first time in this series, when he puts one of the tomcats on the propellor and launches it while saying “As Superman would say, up up and away!” Batman picks up a basketball and tells Robin he used to be a star player. He throws the ball up onto the pinball machine and sets off the explosive bumper. After that we just see Catwoman and her tomcats captured. 

            Some of the animation for these episodes was done by Norm McCabe, who in the 1930s became an animator for Leon Schlesinger, whose company produced Warner Brothers cartoons. He animated and co-directed several black and white Looney Tunes. His first was Goin to Heaven on a Mule. His last cartoon before he joined WWII was Tokio Jokio, which, like a lot of cartoons he did during the war would be considered racist today such as The Ducktators, and Confusions of a Nutzy Spy. After the war he illustrated Bozo the Clown books and records. In the early 60s he animated the cartoon parts of the Pink Panther movies as well the Pink Panther cartoons. In the late 60s he moved to Filmation where he animated shows like The Adventures of Batman. He worked on Fritz the Cat in 1972. He worked on several shows for different studios, such as Bobby’s World, Muppet Babies, The Transformers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the 80s he trained young animators at Warner Brothers.

April 1, 1995: I posed all day for the Alumni of OCA

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday I posed all day for the Alumni drawing session at the Ontario College of Art.