Pat Hingle

            On Monday morning posted “Love in a Cage”, my translation of “L'amour en cage” by Boris Vian on my Boris Vian and on my personal Facebook pages. 

            I uploaded to my Christian’s Translations blog “Silly Kelly Kills with Her Grill”, my translation of “Turlututu Capot Pointu” by Serge Gainsbourg. I edited and then published it. Tomorrow I’ll post the lyrics on Facebook and then move on to the next Gainsbourg song that fell by the wayside because I either didn’t have the French text or the audio. I think the next one is still in the 1969 Gainsbourg file. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune quite a few times. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my Kramer electric and it probably won’t go out of tune at all. 

            I weighed 87.85 kilos before breakfast, which is the most I’ve weighed in the morning since June 6. 

            Around midday I finished sweeping my floors. Tomorrow I’ll mop them and on Wednesday I’ll probably be able to start applying the second and hopefully last coat of drywall compound to my bathroom ceiling and walls. 

            I weighed 87.5 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 87.2 kilos at 17:52. June 30 was the last time I was that heavy in the evening. 

            I was caught up with my journal at 18:38. 

            I worked on my “Paranoiac Utopia” Movie Maker project. 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. Yesterday when I synchronized the video with the audio for “brain”, they stayed lined up for “tissue solder”. Then when I lined them up for “of” they stayed together for “airplane glue”. I synchronized them for “tap”, “politely” and “on”, then I lined them up for “its barrier gate but…” 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Comment te dire adieu” and “How to Say Goodbye to You” from September 3 to 13. On September 3, 5, 9, and 11 I played “Comment te dire adieu” on my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar. On September 3 the take at 36:00 was okay, although one chord might have been off. On September 5 the final take wasn’t bad but some parts were a bit off. On September 9 the take at 44:45 was okay. On September 11 the final take was not bad. On September 7 and 13 I played it on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric. On September 7 the last take sounded rattly and I fumbled at the end without restarting. On September 13 the final take was not great because the Gibson was rattly. On September 4, 6, and 10 I played “How to Say Goodbye to You” on the Martin. On September 4 the take at 48:30 was not horrible. On September 6, I fumbled the last take and just finished it without restarting. On September 10 the take at 45:00 was okay. On September 8 I played it on the Gibson and the final take didn’t sound great because of low action. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a heated up already cooked T-bone steak while watching the season premier of the 1969 series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors.

            Dr. Stuart’s patient Walter Markle desperately needs a kidney. Dr. Gold is an old school General Practitioner who is trying to upgrade his status to Family Medicine Specialist by taking classes but he is so dedicated to his mostly poor patients that he often misses or is late for lectures and demonstrations. Dr. David Craig runs the hospital and chews Gold out for falling short in his attendance. Dr. Paul Hunter is the Chief of Medicine at the hospital gives Gold a tour of some of the hospital’s most advanced new equipment. Gold’s patient Fred Rodriguez has sustained a severe head injury in a car accident and is taken to the hospital. He has a flat EEG and since there’s a slim chance he’ll pull through, Dr. Stuart thinks that if he doesn’t he could be a kidney donor for Markle. The final decision on pulling Fred’s plug lies with Gold and so Hunter goes to see him at home to ask him. Fred’s wife Elena is given a paper to sign for his kidney and she thinks it means he has no chance. When Gold finds out he angrily storms into Craig’s office. When Craig is told about it he immediately calls for Stuart. Stuart says the nurse jumped the gun by giving Elena the paper to sign. Gold says Fred almost died once before and he pulled him through. Gold goes to see Markle as he is torn between the possible futility of hanging on and the potential of saving someone else. Gold goes to see Fred one more time, then takes a walk and finally decides to pull the plug. But before he does there is suddenly EEG activity. Over the next few hours Fred steadily improves. It’s looking so good that Gold is about to go home to sleep when suddenly Fred’s heart goes into fibrillation. Hunter shocks his heart back up but he needs a bypass pump. Stuart performs the successful surgery, then starts looking for another donor for Markle. They decide to appoint Gold as a Family Specialist for the hospital. 

            Gold was played by Pat Hingle who returned to university after serving in the navy during WWII and got involved in drama to meet girls. He studied with Uta Hagen. His Broadway debut was in End as a Man. He was starring in the play J.B. in New York when he fell down an elevator shaft and was near death for the next two weeks. He was nominated for a Tony in 1958 for his performance in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. His film debut was in On the Waterfront. He co-starred in Splendour in the Grass and Norma Rae. He was friends with Clint Eastwood and appeared in several of his films. He played Commissioner Gordon in the Batman films from 1989 to 1997. He considered Hume Cronyn a better actor than Gary Cooper and Clark Gable.