Spent the next few hours working on my story. Hilary and Troll emerge to find Betty dressing Bear's wound. Maple's sipping hot cocoa alone. Eagle went to lead the police to the robbers without them actually seeing him. Troll finally agrees that all the ladies can stay, telling Maple about the female organ in the music room and Betty that she can use the library for her work. Bear explains to Betty that he can neither read, nor write, but he's willing to try and help her anyway. Mr. Cat once again takes the ladies upstairs to their room...and once again will only say that they'll have to learn about the curse themselves.
Broke for lunch and The Backyardigans around 2 PM. Queen CleoTasha orders her three servants around, but even she can't order the Nile to refill during a drought. She has to learn a lesson in manners when Tyrone, Pablo, and Austin help her find the things she needs to give to Sphinx Uniqua and unlock "The Key to the Nile," but her demanding rudeness makes the boys more annoyed than pleased to serve her.
Went for a short walk after lunch. It was sunny and breezy, but also hot and once again killer, cut-the-air-with-a-knife humid. I just ended up walking to WaWa and picking up a Caramel Coconut Smoothie (not bad - tasted like caramel and coconut, anyway), a soft pretzel, and money for the Cherry Hill Library Book Sale on Thursday.
Went straight home after that and into Remember WENN. "Sight Unseen" is the first of two episodes in a row to deal with slightly darker themes, in this case disabled rights. Angela Colton (Molly Ringwauld) is a blind girl who wants nothing more than to meet "The Vagabond," the suave voice she listens to on the radio every day. "The Vagabond" is actually slightly chubby, balding character actor Mackie Bloom (Christopher Murney). He's terrified that she'll see him as less than handsome, but she doesn't care what she looks like. She only knows how he sounds, a voice of beauty and mystery.
"The Emperor Smith" digs into race relations when waiter George Smith (Howard Rollins) takes over for Mackie in a big romantic role after he loses his voice. Trouble is, he's a black man among a white cast in early 1940. Betty has to figure out how to hide his real identity from the press without the help of Victor Comstock, who is called away by the government. (Pay attention to Victor's government work and his disappearance here. It's going to be a lot more important starting later in the first season.)
Switched to Rock & Rule on YouTube after the shows ended. I go further into this truly bizarre adult animated sci-fi musical from 1983 at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Spent the rest of the afternoon resuming Hilary and the Beasts. Hilary, Betty, and Maple once again find themselves in much warmer version of the mansion's garden. This time, they're joined by a sweet, plump lady in lavender (Eugenia) playing the organ with a small, twitchy man in a tux (Mr. Foley). Jeff turns up to explain more of the curse. They were all enchanted for threatening to expose the truth about Pavla. His friends in the shadows had always spoke for him, which is why he now speaks for them. It ends the same, but this time, it's troll-like monsters who tear the men away from the women. Hilary ends up on a stone bench, the shadows swallowing her and the others.
Watched The Wild Wild West as I worked. "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" brings Artemis and Jim on the water as they investigate a series of ships wrecked and looted by blind river pirate Ansel Coffin (Jeff Corey). Coffin wants revenge for being thrown off after he was blinded, and he's willing to attack anyone - Jim included - to make sure people pay for his loss of sight.
Put on Match Game '75 during dinner. Alex Karras wasn't that great of a player and didn't seem to be all that interested in the game, but he managed to appear in two memorable episodes anyway. In the first, everyone but Brett switched seats. Charles was just happy this allowed him the chance to play director. The second introduced Lola Kiss, the lady wrestler from Transylvania, who proceeded to trounce Alex at wrestling. Not only do I think Alex was in love, but Richard got to play referee.
Finished the night with Billy Joel: 2000 Years - The Millennium Concert. Yeah, this was the huge concert Joel did at Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve 1999. I remember hearing about what a big deal this was at the time, and even Joel jokes about some of the ticket prices. Although not all of the songs from the concert made it on this two-disc set (and some were recorded elsewhere), there's enough that's good here to make this worth checking out. "Movin' Out," "Only the Good Die Young," "Big Man On Mulberry Street," and "This Night" are especially lovely. He also does a really rockin' cover of "Honky Tonk Woman" near the end.
Oh, and the clouds started to build around 5, while I was still writing. It broke at 6 PM, and would continue going pretty hard, complete with thunder and pyrotechnics, for the next hour or so.
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