John Saxon

            On Friday morning I memorized the third verse of “L'année à lenvers” (The Year in Reverse) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Notre Derniere Chance” (Our Final Chance) by Serge Gainsbourg and worked on my translation. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the last of two sessions and it stayed in tune. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I brought in the stepladder and applied a second coat of drywall compound to the rest of the bathroom ceiling and the upper walls. Maybe I’ll have the lower walls finished on Sunday. 

            I weighed 87.25 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 86.65 kilos at 18:15. 

            I was caught up with my journal at 19:12. 

            I worked on the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Paranoiac Utopia”. The concert video continues to drag behind the studio audio and so every few words I have to delete some of it to bring it forward. In the first chorus I managed to synchronize “kind words are an even”, “greater”, “evil”, and “Queen Street West”. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “How to Say Goodbye to You” and “Comment te dire adieu” from October 8 to 13. On October 8 and 12 I played “How to Say Goodbye to You” on my Martin acoustic guitar. On October 8 the final take wasn’t bad and looked good but Part A of the October 12 video is corrupted and that’s the part in which the song was recorded. On October 10 I played it on my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 45:00 didn’t sound bad. I played “Comment te dire adieu” on October 9, 11, and 13. On October 9 I played it on the Kramer and on October 11 and 13 I used the Martin. All three final takes were okay. 

            It wasn’t too hot to use the stove and so I had a potato with gravy and my last chicken leg while watching episode 5 of The Bold Ones: The New Doctors. 

            Dr. Hunter and Dr. Stuart are doing tests on the astronauts who will be the next ones to go to the Moon. Mike Carter’s wife Ann comes to see Hunter to tell him she thinks Mike should be removed from the mission because he has anxiety about being the first black person on the Moon and he’s been having nightmares. But Hunter and Stuart find Mike to be in perfect health and no more anxious than the other two crewmembers, who’ve been having nightmares as well. The crew blasts off and they reach lunar orbit. The doctors are observing the astronauts remotely and find Mike to be more tense than the others. After a restless sleep cycle Mike is breathing quickly and heavily. He has mild nausea and light headedness. The Mission Control doctor at NASA puts the crew on cyclizine. Mike recovers and he and Walt put on their spacesuits to check out the lander. Walt passes out, is wheezing and his lips are slightly blue. The doctors are theorizing that a combination of things may have caused Walt’s condition. What they need is a blood sample, which of course they can’t get but they decide to find someone with Walt’s blood type and run them through a simulation of the same conditions. It turns out that Stuart has Walt’s blood type and he volunteers. Stuart is given every substance that Walt has been given in the spacecraft in sequence. They eliminate reactive elements and cut the recipe down to 47 items. They speculate that it might have been something Walt breathed while in the spacesuit. They try dichloroacetamide and stand by with the antidote. Stuart takes on the same symptoms as Walt. They give him the antidote and he recovers. They have Mike give Walt the injection and he recovers. They go ahead with the Moon landing. 

            Stuart was played by John Saxon, who was discovered at the age of 16 and became a model. After graduating from high school he studied acting with Stella Adler. His TV debut was on Medic in 1954. His film debut was in It Should Happen to You in 1954. His first credited role was in Running Wild in 1955. He co-starred in The Unguarded Moment, Rock Pretty Baby, Summer Love, This Happy Feeling, The Reluctant Debutante, The Big Fisherman, Posse From Hell, The Cavern, The Appaloosa (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe), Joe Kidd, One Dollar Too Many, I Kiss the Hand, Violent Naples, Enter the Dragon, Blood Beach, Portrait in Black (which earned him a New Star Golden Globe), Shalimar, Fast Company, and Battle Beyond the Stars. He starred in The Restless Years, Cry Tough, War Hunt, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, The Night Caller, For Singles Only, The Wonderful Years, Queen of Blood, The Glove, and Cannibal Apocalypse. He played Tony Cumson on Falcon Crest and Rashid Ahmed on Dynasty.