On Wednesday morning I finished revising my translation of “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it.
I worked out the chords for the intro and three-quarters of the chorus of “Johnsyne et Kossigone” by Serge Gainsbourg.
I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. My neighbour Benji didn’t bang on the hallway walls this time but I did hear him complaining and I saw that there was a phone call from my landlord. I’ve turned the guitar down as much as possible but I don’t think his complaints have anything to do with noise. For years I played at 6:00 and he never complained. In fact I asked him several times if I was disturbing him and he always said no. Twenty five years ago I had two or three hour rehearsals once or twice a week with Brian Haddon in my living room using two amps and he never complained. Benji started losing his mind about three years ago when he told me I was playing my music loud because I’m racist.
I weighed 86.8 kilos before breakfast.
I shaved and showered.
I edited a little more of my fifth Batgirl video.
I weighed 87.4 kilos before lunch. I had a toasted Montreal style bagel with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back I stopped at Type bookstore. I talked to the manager Clare and she told me she would be meeting with Kyle tomorrow and they’ll talk about ordering my book. She’s very nice.
I weighed 87 kilos at 18:00.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:30.
Earlier today I got an email from Brian Haddon telling me that his computer doesn’t have a CD player and so he doesn’t have the nine tracks of his song “The Ballad of My Chest Cavity” that I have. But before he went completely digital he saved his favourite track of the song. He put the file in his drop box and sent me a link, which I downloaded. I listened to it tonight and it’s the same as track 8 on my CD. I imported it into the "Ballad of My Chest Cavity" Movie Maker project and placed it in the audio timeline. I had to move the audio forward about twelve seconds to get it in sync with the beginning of the song in the concert video. But the intro in the video is longer and so I’ll have to cut some of it in order to line it up with the beginning of Brian’s vocal. Fortunately the disposable part of the intro in the video is all of me and not Brian. I don’t need to be shown until I play the descending interval that leads to the first verse. Tomorrow I’ll begin the surgery of removing myself from the video until it’s in sync again.
I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Leave the Naïve Alone” and “Laisse tomber les filles” from September 28 to October 2. I played “Leave the Naïve Alone” on my Martin acoustic guitar on September 28 and October 2, and on September 30 I played it on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On all those dates the final takes weren’t bad. I played “Laisse tomber les filles” on the Gibson on September 29 and on the Martin on October 1. On both those days the final take was okay.
I made pizza on two halves of a Montreal style bagel with two halves of the burger that I made on Sunday, marinara sauce, pesto and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 5 of the most recent season of Doctor Who.
The Tardis lands in Lagos, Nigeria in 2019 so the Doctor can take a reading with the Vindicator and then leave to keep trying to get Belinda back to May 24, 2025. But in Lagos is the Doctor’s favourite barber shop run by his friend Omo. Belinda decides to stay in the Tardis while the Doctor goes to say hello. In the laneway leading to the barbershop the Doctor sees posters showing people who are missing and one of them is Omo. But when he enters the shop, Omo is there, along with several others who were listed as missing. Omo says he is no longer the barber and then the one called The Barber greets the Doctor. He says no one can leave. Suddenly the hair of one of the captive customers begins to rapidly grow. He sits down in the chair and tells a story while the Barber cuts his hair: Once upon a time Yo-Yo Ma was travelling through Botswana collecting local music when he heard a shaman singing. Yo-Yo Ma asked him to sing it again so he could write it down but he sang a different song. Ma asked him to sing the first one but the shaman said he couldn’t because the first time an antelope was in the distance and clouds covered the song. The second time the clouds and antelope were gone. In the old days music was alive but after the industrial revolution everything, including songs became identical to package time. But not in Africa. That’s why we say we will come at 13:00 but won’t arrive until 16:00, so appointments are a bad idea. That’s the end of the story and now the haircut is over. During the story the drawings in the window illustrated the tale. When it was over the teller was exhausted. The Barber tells the Doctor that he must tell a story because it is always hungry. A woman named Abby arrives through the front door with food for everybody. The Doctor recognizes her but doesn’t know why. He approaches her but she snubs him. He is told she is the Barber’s assistant and they both used to work for her father but the father was mean so they left. They are all being kept there until the Barber and Abby reach their destination. Oma says the Barber arrived one day and offered to give the haircuts with his own clippers. But as soon as the clippers touched him currents ran through the shop. The soul of the shop transferred to him. Oma tried to open the door but his keys didn’t work. he tried to stop his customers from coming in but the regulars insisted. The Barber wants another cut and the Doctor volunteers. As soon as the bib goes over him he is electrified and wants out. He tells a story of Belinda working 15 hours at the hospital and on her way to her grandmother’s birthday party when she is asked to help a patient. She gives the doctor a different diagnosis and he thinks she’s right, then tells her to treat the patient. She sacrifices her own time all that night to save the old woman and then she is wheeled away. Two weeks later the now healthy old woman approaches Belinda to give her flowers because she saved her life. The Doctor is drained and suddenly his hair grows. Abby tells the Barber that the Doctor’s story sped up their approach to their destination. She says he can finally take the throne and rule fairly. Meanwhile alarms have been going off in the Tardis and Belinda leaves to find the Doctor. The Doctor realizes that Oma told the Barber about him so he could use him to fuel the shop and now he feels betrayed. The Doctor tries to leave but when he opens the door there is space outside and gravity disappears. Everybody has to hang on to keep from being sucked out. The shop is on top of a gigantic spider that is travelling across a web through space. The Doctor struggles to get back inside and closes the door, then gravity returns. The Barber explains that the shop is in Lagos and in outer space at the same time. The web is the Nexus. There is a time-space compressor built into the doorframe that only lets Abby and the Barber out. Just then Belinda walks in. The Doctor contemptuously introduces the Barber to her and compares him to a troll on the World Wide Web and says he has no real power. The Barber angrily says he is known by many names: Anansi the man-spider, Sága the Norse goddess, Bastet, Dionysius, and Loki. He says he begins all things. He’s the voice in the empty void. The lie that tells the truth. The Doctor and Belinda start laughing at him. The Doctor has met all of those gods he mentioned and he is none of them. The Barber means he is them because he created their stories and they only exist because of him. He created the Nexus to connect ideas and cultures. He learned how to power the vehicle with stories. But he designed the Nexus so well that it worked without him and so the gods kept the Nexus and abandoned him. Now he wants vengeance. Suddenly the Doctor recognizes Abby as Abena, the daughter of Anansi. She blames the Doctor for why she is there because the Doctor in her black woman fugitive form refused to help her escape Anansi. We see the Doctor briefly as the black woman explaining that she was caught in a different story and couldn’t help her. The Barber’s plan is to cut the gods from memory. The Doctor warns that will kill them. Belinda warns Abena that would also kill her father. The Doctor says destroying the gods would damage the essence of humanity and leave them in a world without stories, without tradition. The others try to force the Doctor into the chair because the spider has stopped. Abena tells them to stop and that she will tell a story. The Doctor sits down and Abena begins to braid his hair while telling the story about the slaves who escaped their chains. They would return to free others and were not allowed to carry paper but the women could braid their hair into many shapes and patterns. They would weave maps into their hair. When Abena is finished the Doctor is not drained and says he could kiss himself. The Doctor says, “Belinda…Now!” He uses his sonic screwdriver to kill the lights and he and Belinda run into the back room where there is a maze but Abena has given him a map in his hair. He can feel which way to go by touching his braids. They find the Story Engine. It opens to show a luminous beating heart. The Doctor says a story is a beating heart. He tells Belinda to rip out the wires from the control desk. The Doctor disrupts the flow of power but does not stop the engine. The Barber confronts them. The Doctor tells a six word story: I’m born, I die, I’m born”. Suddenly energy flows into the engine from all of his past lives and it is too much for the engine. The Doctor’s body is like a barber shop with all of his selves gathered inside. The engine is going to disintegrate and that will kill everyone in the shop unless the Barber opens the doors. The Barber opens the doors and the others escape. The Doctor tells Belinda to leave while he stays to convince the Barber to leave as well. As the shop is about to collapse, the Doctor and the Barber escape. The Spider tries to escape as well but the Doctor forces it back in with the sonic screwdriver. The Spider explodes on the Nexus while the original shop remains intact. The Doctor tells the Barber to start his own shop and to keep collecting stories. Omo says he can have his shop. The Doctor says he’ll be back for a story. Abena walks away into freedom.
The Barber was played by Ariyon Bakare, who left home at 15 and finished school while homeless. He began studying dance but after two years he learned that dancing is not a lifelong career and so he turned to acting. His theatrical debut was with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His TV debut was in A Respectable Trade. It was the first time a black man had played the lead in a BBC period drama. He made his film debut in After the Rain. He played Ben Kwarme in the BBC soap opera Doctors. He also wrote and directed several episodes. He played Lord Boreal in the BBC series His Dark Materials.
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