So, I've been using my Typepad account instead of VOX, and whenever I come back over this way I have shit loads of spam comments to delete. Surely, VOX, if you delete a spam account, it should automatically delete all of the spam comments they've left as well?
A mass of conflicting impulses. - Spock and V'ger Nomad
The Great Star Trek Project of 08-09 has been slowly drawing to a close. While Mr. Val and I finished Enterprise last month and will soon tackle the pre-boot on blu-ray we've been busy with fan films and parodies for a while. My intention was to blog my progress throughout the project but that was overly ambitious. I think I am at the point, though, where I can step back and make some pretty good observations about the project as a whole.
Star Trek: The Original Series
Oh joy, what fun. There are few shows that can be so genuinely wonderful but still have enough cheese that they don't even warrant parody. TOS does enough to parody itself, so much so that, at times, it's painful. Let us all recall Spock's Brain. Ok, let's not. Instead, let's let some genius with a YouTube account condense it into 4 minutes that are far more enjoyable than being subjected to the entire episode.
This clip is also sure to highlight one of my favorite lines from all of Trek: Brain and brain, what is brain!?!
Clearly the original series stood for a lot of good in addition to the cheese. Yay brother. The show was one of the first to spotlight minority actors and actresses and show them working alongside white people as if it was no big deal. And despite some seemingly sexist overtones, I feel like Gene Roddenberry saw much of the sexiness of the women on the show as an expression of female empowerment. Let's face it, throughout all of the different series it's clear that women can do anything, however, the amount of quality face time by powerful women in Star Trek pales in comparison to that of the men. To me, that shows that we have a longer way to go in current society.
One of the primary missions of Captain Kirk was to destroy every Eden he could lay his hands on. Apparently space is populated by peaceful and beautiful worlds that all hold a different, dirty little secret. Each has its own version of the snake. While I kept a list of characters who said, "I'm a doctor, not a ______", I should've also kept a list of Edens destroyed by the glorious Captain Kirk, a man with no need of a Prime Directive. Every time it happened, I know I turned to Mr. Val with my best Kirk imitation and spat, "so this...is...your...Eden".
For the best of the original series we turn to the first, and shockingly, the third season.
Easily one of the most famous episodes of TOS is The City on the Edge of Forever. I dare you to watch it and not shed a tear. According to the Wiki page, writer Harlan Ellison recently settled with Paramount over royalty issues despite at one time disowning the script. Ha! Sounds like Ellison. But he certainly deserves credit for this, even if the final version is someone dissimilar to his original script.
Another outstanding episode in the catalog was penultimate episode of the entire show's run. They should've ended the series with All Our Yesterdays since the final episode, Turnabout Intruder was a poorly executed look at what the glass ceiling in Star Fleet can do to a poor girl. Anyway, back to the good one, here's All Our Yesterdays, featuring one of my favorite Ladies of Star Trek.
Now for the fun part. Let's turn to YouTube for some hilarious splices and clips.
First, there's the ever-famous video featuring all of the variations on: "he's dead, Jim".
I love this next one. The person who uploaded it simply calls it, "Shatner at his finest":
All in all, the Original Series is a wonderful show, I can't wait to get the remastered versions on blu-ray with the beefed up effects. I'm always happy to revisit this universe.
Coming tomorrow (if I feel like it): a look at the Original Series Films
For the first time ever honeybees have been allowed to flourish on the White House Lawn. They've provided the White House with a bumper crop of honey.
Yes, I am taking time to enjoy the new house.
Right now I am in the family room, on the new leather sectional with Abby on my feet watching TV - drinking a fine chardonnay (from CA) and enjoying the peace and quite this space brings me. Ben is with his friend John in his office (next to the family room) but with the doors shut I can't hear them.
It snowed a bit 2 days ago - Ben and I ran into this room and watched the flakes fall. We hugged and kissed and wished for a bit more to fall, but then it warmed up. It's been sunny and warm since. We would go riding, but too much to do to the house.
Today I brought home carpet samples - we picked and they come to measure on Monday.
Ben and his buddy's spent hours under the house rewiring for TV and interent. I hear the crawl spaces are carpeted and well lit!
I think the most amazing part of our being here is having people come to help us . Ben's family was here for 3 days helping us paint. His friends came today to help wire. We are going to an early thanksgiving at Ben's uncle's home. My mom drops in to see what's new and I stop in to her home and take her with for shopping and lunch. My sis and her husband have helped us set up the washer dryer, moved the freezer down stairs etc
We are nesting and I love it.
The big debate in teaching primates, among other animals, is that while some say they are learning language, others insist it is merely communication, generally for a reward like food, that the primate has learned. In other words, simply a learned response, no different from a dog learning to sit or roll over for a treat. Are primates just a more trainable subjects?
There's a specific notation that I can't copy the first article I want to point out, so here is the link. It is an opinion piece on an online freelance site. I do not know anything about the author so I can't tell you what her background is.
The next article is long and I don't want to clog up anyone's Neighbourhood view, so here is a link from the New York Times, June 6, 1995 edition. The article is titled "Chimp Talk Debate: Is It Really Language?"
Additional interesting link:
Nine hundred dollars, (I know, only?) gets you the worlds cleanest keyboard. Great for popular coffee shops I guess, or ultra clean electronic rooms (chip makers). But $900? I'd be okay with just running it through the dishwasher at the end of the day. Yes you can do that, no soap though.
And before I begin let me qualify my thoughts as I am a Cancerian and emotionally-driven person who cries when she's happy, cries when she's said and many times feels first and thinks second.
Don't make sensitivity a weapon.
I'm all for explaining to people that you may potentially be thin-skinned and making requests to consider your heart before entering into a potentially combustible dialogue. At all times we should take into consideration how our thoughts and expressions of them may make others feel. A defensive maneuver will almost always beget a defensive maneuver. It's the fundamental rule to conflict. You hit me, it hurts. I hit back, you hurt and the dance escalates until two people are saying or doing regrettable things. Rather than using your sensitivity as a license to kill, use it as a means to find more productive ways to speak with love. Rather than letting your sensitivity give you an unrealistic sense of entitlement and petulant expectation, try and commit to the notion that it always takes two parties to create a disagreeable relationship conflict. You are hurt...in some ways big or small, they are likely hurting, too.
Don't make sensitivity a wall to constructive criticism.
There comes a time in every adult's life when you have to suck it up and face tough talk. Especially when the tough talk potentially saves you from a choice, an action or measure that could have long-term or especially painful consequences. While I am sensitive, I expect and almost demand that the people I love, give it to me straight, particularly when I screw something up. Because I am human. I am going to do that. And yes, you can give straight talk without pulling out the clubs and knives. So keep in mind that sometimes when people speak sternly to you, it is more important to identify the value in their statement...especially when you know behind the annoyance that statement is coming from a place of love. It's nice to hear only about the wonderful things we do; but it's better to hear about the ways we can grow and elevate to keep amazing ourselves and others. Never use your 'sensitivity' as a means to avoid owning your stuff.
And you know how I feel about owning your stuff.
When I was a kid I remember liking Born in the USA. I never really considered myself a Springsteen fan, but that was a huge song in the early 80's. Fast forward to the 90's and I remember watching him getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was more excited to see Max Weinburg since I had become a fan of him on the Conan O'Brien show. Boy was I ever disappointed. I don't even remember what they played (probably Born in the USA) but damn, that song went on for.ev.er. I started to realize that all the Boss really ever had were a couple of really catchy riffs, sexeh charisma and twenty musicians who only knew the basics. I mean seriously, maybe it's only because I've only had exposure to the singles and the popular tunes, but I can't recall any stand-out musicianship in any of his stuff.
Regardless of that, I can't help but still like a few of his tunes. They're catchy, what can I say?
Ha - at the end of Dancing in the Dark the crowd is going nuts doing that oh-ay-oh-ay-oh-ay-oh-ay thing. They do that at a fuck ton of Maiden shows too. I seem to recall finding out it was a soccer thing.
