Hazel Medina

            On Thursday morning I memorized the fourth verse of “L'amour en cage” (Love in a Cage) by Boris Vian. There are two verses left to learn. 

            I ran through singing and playing “Rêves et caravelles” (Dreams and Caravelles) by Serge Gainsbourg in French. I made some slight adjustments to my translation and ran through it in English. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and began preparing it for publication. I should have it published tomorrow and then I’ll move on to my next unfinished Gainsbourg translation. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice and it needed tuning at first but stayed in tune after that for the whole 90 minute session. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 87.55 kilos before breakfast. 

            I published my Batgirl 14 video based on season 3, episode 14 of Batman, but containing only the scenes that feature Batgirl. I started Batgirl 15. 

            I weighed 87.55 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since June 22.

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco. I bought five bags of red grapes, some bananas, a basket of Quebec strawberries, a pack of chicken legs, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of marinara sauce, a jar of salsa, and some 2-in-1 shampoo-conditioner.  

            I weighed 86.95 kilos at 18:30. 

            I found a 17 second video of water drops slowly falling into water and making ripples. I downloaded it with ClipGrab, I converted it to AVI with WinX and imported it into Movie Maker. I copied it to the timeline of my “Ballad of My Chest Cavity” project just before the line “and just one drop to wet my lips…” That pushed back the concert video so that it was lined up with the studio audio for the beginning of the word “and”. But in the concert video Brian Haddon extends the word “aaand” causing the word “just” to be behind the studio audio. So I deleted the first parts of the extended “and” until “and just” was lined up with the audio. From that point on in the video the rest of the chorus was in sync with the audio, all the way through the instrumental and up to the beginning of the last verse. So now in the video the line “At night my liver goes to the beach” is out of sync with the audio but I don’t know if it’s ahead or behind. I’ll figure it out tomorrow. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last grilled chicken leg while watching season 2, episode 18 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Chet has just gotten an enormous antenna installed by his friend Bob and now he can pick up stations from 350 to 500 kilometers away. His motivation is this Sunday’s football game between the Rams and the Packers. The game is sold out and all the local LA TV stations are blacked out from broadcasting the game. However the San Diego station is covering it and now Chet can pick up San Diego. Bob advises Chet not to tell anybody but the next day at work he can’t help bragging about his antenna. That leads to several of his colleagues begging to be able to come to Chet’s place and watch the game. On Sunday fifteen people crowd into Chet’s apartment, but his TV is not working. He calls Bob who says he wants to spend Sunday with his wife and kids but he finally comes over. He says there’s a blown tube and he can’t replace it on a Sunday. He suggests that Chet borrow someone’s TV and hook it up to the antenna. Chet goes to his friends and neighbours next door but the child Davey answers to say his mother is out and his father is sleeping and his mother told him not to let anyone in. Chet eventually convinces him that since he’s visited their place lots of times and since he is called “Uncle Chet” there he’s not just anyone. Davey lets Chet in and we see the child is holding a baseball bat. Chet says he’s going to borrow the TV set but Davey hits him in the arm with the bat and tells him he can’t take it. Then he hits him again. Then he hits him in the head and says if he takes the TV he’ll miss Sesame Street, which he watches every Sunday. He hits him two more times and says he can have it after Sesame Street is over in two and a half hours. Chet invites Davey to watch the game but Davey doesn’t like football. He says he wants to learn numbers. Chet tells him he can learn numbers better in football because the players are wearing numbers. Davey says they explain things better on Sesame Street. Chet says there are 11 players on the teams. Davey says he only knows the numbers 1,2,3,7,8, 9 and 10. Chet says he’ll teach him 11 and he’ll throw in 4, 5, and 6. Davey says today they are going to learn the letters E, O, and W on Sesame Street. Chet says he’ll teach them those letters after the game. Davey wants to learn them on Sesame Street because it’s more fun. Chet tries to tempt Davey with an ice cream soda and five comic books. Davey’s mother comes home and Chet explains the situation. She says he can borrow the little portable TV in her bedroom. It has a screen about the size of a paperback but it works. But once Chet has that TV connected and the game is in view, he can’t find a seat in his own apartment to watch it and so he gives up and reads a book. 

            Davey’s mother was played by Hazel Medina, who was born in Panama. She was a member of Theatre West and a founding member of the Group Repertory Theatre. She made her screen debut on I Spy in 1967. Her film debut was in Watermelon Man in 1970. She was also a social worker. The humidity dropped tonight quite low for summer, down to 50.