On Monday morning I finished working out the chords for “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French.
I memorized the second verse of “Johnsyne et Kossigone” by Serge Gainsbourg. The first two lines of the third verse are the same as the first and so I’ll probably have the whole song in my head tomorrow. I revised my translation again because I realized that Johnsyne and Kossigone are not resisting the speaker’s advances but he is resisting theirs.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune the whole time.
I weighed 87.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since March 18.
I shaved and showered.
I weighed 87.7 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. It was a pleasant day for a ride. It’s nice to be able to watch people without hearing them speak and render themselves uninteresting. That’s why I watch porn with the volume off. I stopped at Freshco on the way home to buy grapes but only one bag of green grapes and one bag of red grapes were firm enough. I had the No Frills flyer on my phone to do a price match on the grapes at $8.90 a kilo and noticed the watermelons are $2 cheaper at No Frills as well, so I got one.
I weighed 87.1 kilos at 18:15.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:00.
I searched through a couple more CDs to find out if there is a studio recording of Brian Haddon and I playing my song “Recurring Vision of a Myopic Third Eye”. There is only a recording of me playing the song on the electric guitar. I moved on to Brian’s song “Ballad of My Chest Cavity”, which is the last of our studio recordings without a music video. I have a CD containing nine takes of the song and I’m assuming Brian has a copy of the same nine audio files and so I sent an email to ask him to pick the one he wants to be the video soundtrack. Meanwhile I started a “Ballad of My Chest Cavity” Movie Maker project and placed on the video timeline the video of the June 3, 1998 Christian and the Lions concert at the 360 Club. I cut out the other songs from that night but now there’s nothing more I can do with the project until I hear from Brian.
I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Laisse tomber les filles” and “Leave the Naïve Alone” from September 15 to 21. On September 15 and 21 I played “Laisse tomber les filles” with my Martin acoustic guitar. On September 15 the take at 23:45 was good and on September 21 the take at 43:00 was not bad. On September 17 and 19 I played it on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar. On September 17 the take at 9:45 in part B sounded okay. On September 19 the take at 50:15 didn’t sound horrible but there was a lot of traffic noise. I played “Leave the Naïve Alone” on my Martin on September 16 and the take at 30:45 was okay. On September 18 and 20 I played it on the Gibson the takes were okay.
I had a potato with gravy and a few pork ribs while watching episode 3 of the most recent season of Doctor Who.
The Doctor still hasn’t been able to return Belinda to her own time because the Tardis keeps bouncing off May 24, 2025. He used an instrument called a Vindicator, which is supposed to establish a link with an indicated time and space but so far it’s not working. He says every time he uses it they should get closer to their destination but this time they end up on a spaceship 400,000 years in the future. They get lined up with several military types as they are ordered by the commanding officer Shaya to put on their helmets and then they jump from the ship to a planet below. After they land, the troopers surround the Doctor and Belinda with weapons drawn and demand to know who they are. The Doctor flashes his identification with the psychic paper that presents him as outranking Shaya. Shaya explains this is Planet 6767 and the atmosphere is charged with galvanic radiation. They go to Colony Base 15, which is a basic mining operation with a mercury drop line stripping a layer of carbon 46. 15 days ago contact was lost and they are there to investigate. They find almost all of the colonists dead, half with all of their bones broken and the other half by laser fire, and all of the mirrors have been broken. They detect a heartbeat in one room and find Aliss, the only one left alive. Aliss is deaf and she was the cook for the colony. There is a colonist dead near her and Aliss admits she shot her but only in self defense. She says the crew went mad. Aliss is terrified and only wants to go home to her daughter. The Doctor knows how to sign but Belinda doesn’t. Belinda notices that Aliss has hurt her arm and treats her. Aliss says it’s against the law for nurses to not be able to use sign language. It’s been fifteen days since the last colonist died. The Doctor goes with the commander to central control and Belinda stays to help Aliss with three troopers standing guard. At control there is a well that is 8 kilometers deep. The Doctor mentions Earth and Shaya has never heard of it or humans. Belinda gets the same lack of recognition about Earth from those she talks with. Suddenly Belinda sees something behind Aliss and is startled but thinks it was just a trick of the eye. However over the next few minutes others have the same experience. Then one of them tells the others to pan out and form a circle around Aliss. The trooper that steps directly behind Aliss is thrown high into the air and killed by the impact of landing. Shaya tells the Doctor that the surface of the planet was once made of diamonds and that 400,000 years ago it was called Midnight. Suddenly the Doctor remembers when he was there before on a shuttle being attacked by an unseen force (This was in the episode titled “Midnight” starring David Tennant). The Doctor runs back to where Belinda is with the other troopers behind him. Alissa explains there is something behind her all the time. She doesn’t know what it is but it can’t be seen or stopped. She was told it came out of the well laughing. Belinda says no one can go behind Alissa without dying. The Doctor observes that if it was a clock with Aliss at the centre and the observers at 6:00, then whoever goes to midnight dies. Shaya’s second in command Cassio asks Aliss why they can’t just kill her. Aliss explains that if he kills her the thing will go behind him. The colonists killed each other to get rid of it and she is only the host because she was the only one left. If you kill the host it will jump to you. Because Shaya is listening to the Doctor, who claims to have been there 400,000 years ago, Cassio declares her incompetent and assumes command. He orders Trooper 2 to step behind Aliss and he is tossed and killed like the other. Then it happens to three more. Shaya tells Aliss to turn 180 degrees and it causes Cassio to be killed. She says she had to do it because he was putting everyone in danger. Shaya tells Aliss she is sorry but they have to leave her there because she’s contaminated. The Doctor begins speaking directly to the invisible killer. He can hear it whispering and because it knows his name he begins to cry. Then he sees the answer. He has crack shot Shaya shoot the two mercury pipe vents, causing a shower of mercury to fall, forming a mirror so the thing sees itself. When it sees its reflection Aliss is released as the host, then the Doctor tells her to run. But before the Doctor, Belinda, Shaya and Mo can escape, the thing catches up and Belinda becomes the host. The Doctor offers himself as host. Shaya fires at a precise part of Belinda’s torso to stop her heart long enough for the thing to jump to her. Belinda’s heart is restarted with something like a defibrillator and Shaya runs to the well and jumps in. The Doctor and Belinda leave in the Tardis. Mo reports to her commander at headquarters and it’s Mrs. Flood. Flood is glad to hear the Doctor is using a Vindicator. After the Doctor leaves, a trooper thinks she sees something behind Mo.
Aliss was played by Rose Ayling-Ellis with a great performance. She has been deaf since birth. It’s fascinating that someone could have the accent of their country in their speech even though they have never heard the speech of their country. Apparently the accent is picked up through lip reading and other visual cues. But I think Rose has always used a hearing aid. As a child Rose met deaf film director Ted Evans, and she made her acting debut in his film The End. She joined the Deafinitely Youth Theatre and also studied fashion design at the University of Creative Arts. She played Frankie Lewis on Eastenders from 2020 to 2022. She co-starred in the film Reunion. She is currently starring in the TV series Code of Silence. With the help of a hearing aid and a professional dancing partner she won the BBC’s 19th series of Strictly Come Dancing. She worked with Mattel to help develop the first deaf Barbie doll. During the 2024 Paris Paralympics she was the first deaf person to host live sports coverage on British television. She is a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
No comments:
Post a Comment