Alvaro Arce

            On Tuesday morning I finished memorizing “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children) by Boris Vian. I did a quick search for the chords and saw that some are posted and so I’ll start transcribing them tomorrow. 

            I worked out the chords for the chorus of “Qui lira ces mots” (Whoever Reads These Words) by Serge Gainsbourg. The chorus is repeated a lot and I think the remaining verses have the same chords as the first verse, but I’ll find out on Wednesday. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. It was out of tune as usual but I had a good time. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before breakfast.

            Around midday I cleaned my older warm mist humidifier. I didn’t have to use any humidifiers all day because the heat was off and the humidity was high outside. 

            I weighed 87 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. I needed toilet paper but also wanted some grapes. However all their grapes were too soft so I just got the pack of tissue. 

            I weighed 86.45 kilos at 18:15. 

            I was scheduled to get a tooth pulled and another filled tomorrow but the dentists office left me a message that they had to cancel. If I don’t give two days notice I get charged a fee but what do I get if they give me less than a day’s notice?

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:50. 

            I added seven shades of blue to the sepia copy of frame 19 of my rainbow wave animation. I’m about halfway done with this frame and then there will be ten left to do. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching episode 13 of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story, Dr. Millennium has developed a device that can reanimate the bones of prehistoric creatures by either putting living flesh back over their skeletons or bringing the actual creatures into the future to replace the bones. When he does so they also seem willing to do his bidding. Later at perhaps the Pentagon or some other military planning facility some generals are discussing the set of plans for the new missile. Suddenly a cave man bursts in and grabs the plans. Then a woolly mammoth charges the missile and destroys it and then runs away with the Neanderthal on its back. Falcon 7 notifies Birdman and sends him to investigate. Birdman finds the mammoth and the caveman still attacking soldiers. Birdman knocks out the caveman and blasts the mammoth. But then the caveman comes-to and clubs Birdman with his stone axe. Millenium has the only set of plans and the missile is destroyed. But then he hears on the news that Fort Sherman actually has a second model of the missile, so he animates a pterodactyl and sends it on a mission to grab the missile and bring it back to its master. This is a fake missile set up to lure whoever is behind the attacks. Birdman follows it but it notices him and attacks. Birdman stuns it with a solar blast but not before he sees that its home base is a museum. The stunned dinosaur is about to crash into the museum but Dr. Millenium shoots his ray and turns the beast back to brittle bones before impact. Birdman crashes through the skylight. Millenium tries to shoot him but Birdman melts the gun. Millenium escapes into another room. Birdman finds the plans but when he enters the room, Millenium is gone. He has sent himself back into the past and set his machine to self destruct. 

            In the Galaxy Trio story a scientist named Dr. Ekon lands on a planet to collect rock samples when suddenly a mountain of rock comes to life and attacks him. The Trio learn that he is missing and go looking for him. They find the planet where he last landed and his ship but he is nowhere to be found. Suddenly a rock wall opens up and a platform slides out on which stands a humanoid, Dr. Ekon and two guards. The humanoid addresses the Trio and introduces himself as Brayton. He says that he intends to keep Ekon so he can use his knowledge. Then three giant rock men attack. One of them is heading for Condor 1 to destroy it and so Gravity Girl goes after that one while Meteor Man and Vapour Man each pair off with a rock man. Gravity Girl levitates Condor 1 out of the rock man’s reach. She then levitates Ekon away from the platform. The guards aim their weapons but Vapour Man takes them out. Meteor Man makes himself a giant and smashes his rock man with one punch. Vapour Man blasts his rock man with alternating hot and cold vapour until it crumbles. Meteor Man throws the last rock man against Brayton’s entrance to the mountain and rock man crumbles and traps Brayton inside the mountain. 

            In the second Birdman story Falcon 7 informs Birdman that F.E.A.R. has developed a freeze ray that can cover entire cities inside glaciers. Falcon is about to tell Birdman the location of F.E.A.R. when he is frozen by Dr. Freezoid. Birdman rushes to Falcon’s office at Internation Security Centre where he finds the Freezoid ship is still there. Freezoid is stealing the files on all ISC agents when Birdman confronts him. Avenger is frozen by one of Freezoid’s men but Birdman takes him out. Then Freezoid freezes Birdman and escapes but then Birdman uses his solar energy to thaw himself, then Avenger and then Falcon 7. Then he unfreezes the city and heads for the North Pole. He finds Freezoid’s base in the side of a frozen mountain. His presence is detected and large weapons are fired. Birdman and Avenger must evade and destroy a fleet of guided missiles. Even Avenger is clever enough to drop a heavy ice block on a missile’s guidance system. Freezoid encases Birdman and Avenger in a column of ice that is sinking into the arctic ocean but a ray of sunlight is magnified by the ice and melts the column. Birdman generates heat that starts to melt Freezoid. Freezoid turns a lever that will turn his base into solid ice until it expands and explodes but Birdman and Avenger escape. It looks like Freezoid does not. 

            One of the layout artists for these stories was Alvaro Arce, who started in 1961. He worked on Beany and Cecil, Looney Toons, and the Lone Ranger. In 1967 he joined Hanna-Barbera to work in The Abbot and Costello Show. He worked on The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, The Three Musketeers, Shazan, Laff Olympics, Wacky Racers, and the Smurfs. In 1968 he became one of the designers of Scooby Doo Where Are You? He opened his own studio in North Hollywood where he produced educational spots for the Bilingual Children’s Television Show and for Sesame Street. In 1988 he joined Disney as a visual designer for their Development Department. he worked on Rescuers Down Under, Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. He became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. he now has his own creative group in Santiago, Chile where he creates new animated productions and writes and illustrates children’s books.