Check out The Face and the Voice

This blog must return to its regularly scehduled programming, which is talking about science and science fiction, so I'm moving my musings on my favorite actors to a new blog, The Face and the Voice.

thefaceadthevoice.blogspot.com/

That's where I'll be sharing my musings on acting styles, alerts on when certain episodes are coming up on TV, and stuff like that there.

Holy Inept Interviewer!

Well, that may be a harsh judgement, but I'm a bit annoyed right now....

Sent off for a copy of Starlog 149, which had an interview with Yvonne Craig, who of course is most famous as Batgirl and as Marta in Steve Ihnat's episode of Star Trek, "Whom Gods Destroy."

Because let's face it, it was Ihnat's episode!

And so I was hoping, and indeed, expecting, that Ms. Craig would talk about him in her interview. But although the interviewer asks her about Nimoy, and Shatner, not word one about Ihnat, who killed her, after all!

I'd really like to know if the interviewer just didn't think to ask her this very important question, or if her comments were edited out for space but either way it's most annoying. According to Tom Weaver (Starlog interviewer extraordinaire), in her biography Ms Craig calls Ihnat a "dear friend," so you'd think shed have shared something about him in that interview!

However, she does reveal some of the background of the making of the episode, so I'll be able to use that in the article I'm writing. Neverthless, it's disappointing.

Also received my copy of Strike Me Deadly today. A low budget film made by Ihnat with friend Gary Clarke, written by Ihnat and director/producer Ted Miklos. It's kind of fun, for all that I've got the sound turned off and am just watching the action out of the corner of my eye while I work on my computer.

Actually, on my left hand side I've got Strike Me Deadly going on my laptop, on my right hand side I've got Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais going on my regular TV set with DVD player, and in the middle I've got my computer where I really should be doing some "real" work for one of my clients, instead of the work I want to do, which is on my THunder Child webzine...

I'll procrastinate for 10 more minutes and then get to work...

BBC Radio

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/08/12

Before the Screaming Begins
Episode 2
6 days left to listen
2/3. Alien abductee Tom Harris is removed to protective custody.
Author Wally K Daly

I am Legend
Episode 2
6 days left to listen
2/9. Earth's last living man discovers his wife's tomb is a lair for vampires.


Who is Wally K Daly, you might be asking yourself:

From Wikipedia:

As well as some minor acting roles include Z Cars, his writing credits include Juliet Bravo, Casualty and Byker Grove. He also wrote the 1984 radio series Anything Legal featuring Donald Hewlett and Michael Knowles.

Before the Screaming Begins, the first part of a science fiction trilogy in 3 thirty minute episodes for BBC Radio. It featured James Laurenson, Donald Hewlett and Patrick Troughton. Part two was entitled The Silent Scream. It too featured James Laurenson and Donald Hewlett and also Hannah Gordon. Originally broadcast as a 90 minute play in 1979, it was rebroadcast in March and December 2008 as 3 thirty minute episodes made from an off air recording by Wally K. Daly as the original mastertape had been lost.

The third part was entitled With a Whimper to the Grave. John Shrapnel replaced James Laurenson and Maureen O'Brien replaced Hannah Gordon. It also featured Donald Hewlett, Angela Thorne, Patrick Troughton and Timothy West. As with the first two parts it was rebroadcast on BBC Radio 7 in March and December 2008 in 3 thirty minute episodes made from an off air cassette recording by Wally K. Daly.

The Mind of Stefan Miklos

It's very annoying... they've got Ironside episodes up on the IMBD (hosted at Hulu), but no Mission Impossible and not enough Perry Masons...

Amazon Unbox, where you can purchase single episodes, also doesn't let you get singles of Mission Impossible, Or Gunsmoke, or Bonanza...or any of the other shows I really, really need, like Then Came Bronson!

Anyway, here's a brief 1.47 second clip of Steve Ihnat as Stefan Miklos in The Mind of Stefan Miklos episode of Mission Impossible.

Whom Gods Destroy...

I've written a piece of fiction on the history of Garth of Izar, as played by Steve Ihnat in the Star Trek third season episode "Whom Gods Destroy"...it can be downloaded for free at: The Madness of Garth of IZar

Added a new page of screencaps... a very young looking Steve from the movie Date Bait. He's only got two scenes, opposite Gary Clarke, the star of the film.
Date Bait

And I'll end with an appeal to my readers. Anyone who is a fan of Steve Ihnat, who wants to share any reminiscences or opinions on episodes or whatever, get in touch. Even if you're not a fan, but come across his name in a book somewhere (as it might be, when reading a bio of Robert Duvall or somebody), share that tidbit with me so I can follow up on it.

Thanks.

Daniel Boone added to Steve Ihnat site

http://volcanoseven.com/BriefCandle/DanielBoone/

Daniel Boone ran for 4 seasons, and starred Fess Parker as Boone, Patricia Blair as his wife Rebecca, and Ed Ames as Mingo.

In this particular episode, Boone and wife are heading out via carriage for a honeymoon, when a courier comes to Boone asking for help. He is shot (by you know who) before he can say much. Boone leaves his wife behind and rides for New Orleans. You know who, and his co-hort, befriend Mrs. Boone and travel with her.

In New Orleans, you-know-who is to kidnap Mrs. Boone, to make Daniel do as they want. (When Daniel is told of this by chief baddy, played by Alan Napier, he asks, you only sent one man? and when he receives an affirmative, he is not worried at all.)

At first Steve pretends that Daniel has an accident and wants her to come, but Rebecca is too smart for him. Then Steve just orders her to come along. Rebecca pulls out a gun, but Steve looks at her with amused condescension. He doesn't believe she'll have the nerve to pull the trigger.



She does.

Monday SF at BBC Radio 7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/08/10

First of 3 parts of Wally K Davy's:
Before the Screaming Begins
Episode 1
1/3. A wedding anniversary celebration is interrupted by an alien invasion.

and

I am Legend
Episode 1
1/9. Earth's last living man takes on hordes of plague-infected vampires. Read by Angus McInnes

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds: Thunderchild

H. G. Wells describes the sacrifice of the ironclad warship Thunder Child in his book, The War of the Worlds.

A refugee ship is trying to get to the other side of the English channel when a Martian tripod goes after it. The Thunder Child rams the tripod and destroys it, thereby allowing the refugee escape to ship. But another tripod destroys the Thunder Child.

This song, from Jeff Wayne's version of the War of the Worlds, hardly does the subject justice.

There are a couple of versions of this at Youtube, this is the one that seems to be part of the theatrical version, with narration by Richard Burton, instead of a more techno version that is also available there.

Alias Smith and Jones

Finished the screencap page for Steve Ihnat's episode of Alias Smith and Jones, called "Stagecoach 7".

Rather disappointing, as Steve wasn't given very much to do. One wonders if the script was re-worked mid-shoot, because he even disappears halfway through the episode!

http://volcanoseven.com/BriefCandle/AliasSmithandJones/index.html

This show of course starred Ben Murphy as Kid Curry, and Pete Deuel as Hannibal Hayes. In this episode, there was also Dana Elcar and Keenan Wynn.

Happy Birthday, Steve Ihnat

Today, August 7, 2009, would have been Steve Ihnat's 75th birthday. He died 37 years ago, just a few months short of his 38th birthday, of a heart attack.

As I've blogged a couple of times in the last few days, I had been a fan of his growing up in the 70s. (Yes, his star turns were from the late 1960s, but the shows were all in syndication in the 70s.)

Then, for various and sundry reasons I'd forgotten about him, until I decided to finally watch my Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea DVDs that I'd had for over a year. And they're double-sided, and I accidently put disc 1 in upside down, so my first choice was "The Price of Doom." Even though I like to watch things chronologically, I decided not to correct my mistake, and so just watched the show.

And as the teaser unfolded, with this rather young, handsome scientist in the Antarctic making experiments with some plankton, I thought to myself, this guy looks awfully familiar. I know I've seen him somewhere before. And after the chilling scene ended - his wife was cut off from him by a cluster of man-eating plankton, and he bravely dives into it in an effort to get to her, but fails - I looked it up on the IMDB and it was Steve Ihnat!

Even in that brief scene his talent and charm had shown through, and my interest was kindled once more. The IMDB has 5 of his episodes available for viewing, including Star Trek: Whom Gods Destroy in which he gives a bravura performance as Garth of Izar, and a total change of pace from his deadly serious dramas as St Ben Roberts in I Dream of Jeannie. And there are a few clips of him at YouTube. And of course, TV series on which he guest-starred are available from Amazon.com, including The Outer Limits: The Inheritors which you can buy separately for $1.99 each from Video on Demand.

So I decided that for what should have been his 75th birthday, I'd put together a website for him. It's still in progress. Although I have added to his biography with snippets from Tom Weaver's interview with Steve's best friend, Gary Clarke, and added some other tidbits such as the fact that he had roomed with Dustin Hoffman whlie going to acting class, it is still incomplete, and I'll be working on it in the coming months.

However, there's enough there for people to enjoy, from biography to screencaps to a chronological listing of all his credits.

http://volcanoseven.com/BriefCandle

And here is a Desktop photo of Steve as Garth of Izar. It should space nicely for most computers.





Rest in peace, Steve Ihnat.

Comedy Reveals Acting Skills

I'm still on my Steve Ihnat kick...

And to that end I've been enjoying watching his I Dream Of Jeannie episode, My Master the Rain Maker.

(As an aside...gag me with a spoon! I know I used to watch this show when I was a kid, and I must have liked it, but the male chauvanism rampant in it just makes me want to strangle the actors today. However, that's a rant for another time and place.)

Anyway, I would have to say that 99.9% of Steve Ihnat's roles were in drama. He'd only been guest-star in about 22 TV series before 1966 (plus a couple of movies) when he did I Dream of Jeannie, but each of those was a drama and in probably 90% of those he was the cold-hearted villain.

So I'd really, really like to know how he went about landing the role of Sgt Ben Roberts in this episode of I Dream Of Jeannie. Why would anyone have offered a serious, "villainous" actor such a role? Was it his choice, to show that he could play comedy as well, or did he do it as a favor for a friend when the original actor dropped out, or what?

The episode is rather a silly one. Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) is supposed to take Jeannie (Barbara Eden) on a picnic. But it's raining. So, she blinks her head and stops the rain. After a bit of conversation with her Master, she makes it snow, but just over their house - and the psychiatrist, Dr. Bellows, shows up at this time. He goes around the base telling people that Tony can control the weather.

Sgt Ben Roberts, played by Steve Ihnat, comes in to Tony's office, very diffidently. His whole persona is that of a diffident, good ol' country boy (he's from Alabama). He has a brother who has a farm, and because of a draught the crops are all withering away. So he wants Tony to make it rain. Tony of course can't. But Jeannie can.

So, some time later, Ihnat returns to Tony's office, happy because it's started raining. And he gives Tony some crops, and the people of the town give Tony some crops.

Then, some time later (but only a minute in screen time) Ihnat returns, begging Tony to stop making it rain because the streets of the small town have turned to rivers and his brother's barn floated away that morning. Dr. Bellows overhears this, and tells the two men to come to his office in ten minutes. He has General Peterson there.

Ihnat says he can't prove Tony can make it rain but it was sure raining in Alabama. He is standing at attention with his head bent forward, and seems rather to be channeling Gomer Pyle (though he is never as stupid as Pyle was!). After he answers General Peterson's question he does this funny thing with his neck - difficult to describe, but amusing to watch - because he knows Tony's in trouble, and exits. Then of course, Bellows demands Tony make it snow, Tony can't, the General shakes his head and tells Bellows to go away for a long rest.

Final scene, Ihnat goes to Tony's home this time, and says that the lake that used to be his brother's farm is now full of trout, and bass, and catfish and his brother and his friends are renting out cabins to tourists and getting rich.

So yes, a very slight episode - but after all, it's a sitcom - but it gives Ihnat a chance to play a happy guy, and smile in a friendly fashion (as opposed to an evil fashion) alot, and just be a regular guy, and because of that it's fun to watch.

Other videos available at the IMDB are his episode of Alias Smith & Jones, "Stagecoach Seven" in which he plays an unpleasant passenger. A supporting villain, not the lead guest star or the lead villain. Also is his episode of To Catch A Thief, "Turnabout" in which he plays a Russian guard, and he is the villian in this one, though of course he's only doing his job as head of a security facility which contains something that Al Mundy's boss has to steal (Al having broken his ankle). Not sure how accurate Ihnat's Alabaman accent was, though he did have some kind of Southern accent!, but he does a good foreign accent - though not a real Russian accent. (I'm sure he could do one, but back in the 70s they probably thought the average audience wouldn't be able to easily understand a Russian accent).

The Big Valley has his ep, "Teacher of Outlaws," another one where he was not the main villain, but a supporting villain under him, although it is only he and the lead villain at the end.

And of course, there is his Star Trek episode, Whom Gods Destroy.

There is also a trailer for a movie called Strike Me Deadly, and this was a movie role when Ihnat first started his acting career, he plays the husband of a wife who is cheating on him, and he sets out in the wilderness to track them down and shoot them. All the trailer is is scenes of the man he's chasing running, running through a path in the woods, and a young, fit-looking Ihnat chasing after him carrying a rifle.

THere's also a trailer for Madigan, in which Ihnat seems to have a small role as a villain. He seems to lose it after Madigan (Richard WIdmark) and an associate break into his apartmetn room while he is having sex with a woman. He gets the drop on them and manages to escape.

It's fun to watch these things, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. I remember how young I was back in the 1970s, and all my hopes, dreams and aspirations.... then the show is over and I'm back to today.... but that's a post for another time, too!

Steve Ihnat on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea made its debut in 1964. Its first season was geared for adults, and focused on Cold War themes, with the occasional science fiction episode thrown in. The first "monster" episode was "The Price of Doom", the fifth episode of the season.

A husband and wife scientific team in Antarctica find a new strain of plankton, only to find that stimulated by extra heat, it grows and grows until it eats every human in its path...like the scientists. When the Seaview comes on the scene, they take up the plankton and bring it aboard... with disasterous results.



I was 7 years old in 1969, so I'm pretty sure I didn't see the first run of Star Trek. However, the networks must have started showing reruns almost immediately, because by the time I was ten I must have seen it...and had a crush on Captain Kirk... one day I saw Whom the Gods destroy, which starred Steve Ihnat as Garth of Izar....and thought he was pretty cool too!

Since then I tried to keep track of Ihnat's appearances...he did appear on most of the shows I watched as a teen, Mission Impossible and Mannix and so on...but since I didnt' watch Westerns I probably missed out on a few shows.

And I didn't know he'd been in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea until just a couple of days ago. Although I've had the first season DVDs for a couple of years, I've never had time to watch them until just now. Put in The Price of Doom, and the scientist who appeared in the Antarctic base looked awfully familiar...I looked the episode up at the IMDB and low and behold it was Steve Ihnat!

Unfortunately he had only a brief cameo - he dies, as does his wife, played by Pat Priest, more famous as Marilyn Munster.

The People Out There: NCIS SF Fan Fiction

THE PEOPLE OUT THERE

I've written some fan fiction for The Avengers and for NCIS. The NCIS material is science fiction related, and so I thought I'd start a section at The Thunder Child for it.

The People Out There, and its sequel, In The Dark, are on-going serials that tell the story of what happens whe the people out there, in the dark, decide to manipulate the world of television and the real world for their own entertainment.

Within a week, original fiction will also start appearing at The Thunder Child science fiction webzine.

William Shatner Reads/Mocks Palin's resignation speech

William Shatner was on Conan O'Brien yesterday, and recited Palin's resignation speech as a poem. The audience laughed and laughed.

I'm not a fan of Sarah Palin's, but I don't think she deserved to be mocked in this way. How about doing a skit on Hilary Clinton pretending to be strafed by aircraft in Bosnia? Or Obama using his teleprompters and looking like a metronome? Or Biden and all his gaffes?

But I share it below.



And, of course, Shatner is famous for his delivery. Ever heard The Transformed Man? It is pure Shatner!



And Leonard Nimoy released an album as well:



And they are both compiled in:



(Check this one out. You can download MP3s of individual songs, including "Spock's Thoughts" which is Desiderata, and Shatner's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

BBC Radio, Monday July 27

Lots of good stuff:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/07/27

Rules of Asylum
Episode 1
6 days left to listen
1/3. James Follett's first radio play reveals dissension and danger in a repressive state.

The Voice of God
Fields of Thunder
1/5. Earthquakes rock Australia. Seismologist Sam investigates and uncovers a nightmare.

I'm actually puzzled to see Bovey's Voice of God being aired... I thought they were doing Cold Blood!

I've interviewed Bovey here:

http://thethunderchild.com/RadioDrama/BBC7/SimonBovey/SimonBovey.html

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Just uploaded a new article to The Thunder Child. Here's the URL.

http://thethunderchild.comTelevision/1960s/VoyageBottomSea/VTTBOTS.html
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea made its debut a year before Star Trek, and lasted a year longer than Star Trek did.

Just as Star Trek still has its fan base decades later, so does VTTBOTS, as you'll see in this article. The show starred Richard Basehart as Admiral Nelson, David Hedison as Captain Crane, and a handful of other actors who rounded out the bridge crew.

Below is a video of Pendercraft's Flying Sub (a craft that made its debut in the 2nd season) - radio controlled.

Go see the G-Force movie

I had intended to see Up today.... (I'm behind in my movie viewing in the last month or so), but for various and sundry reasons ended up seeing G-Force instead. And I enjoyed it. I hadn't expected much of it, but really, it was quite entertaining.


The premise is that a secret department of the FBI has been testing animals to see if they can communicate, as well as spy for the United States. The FBI has been attempting for two years to find out what a certain billionaire named Saber is up to.

The head of the secret department, Ben, sends in the G-Force in an unauthorized mission to see what they can find out. The G-Force consists of two male guinea pigs, a female, a fly, and a mole. The G-Force succeeds in downloading information from Saber's computer, but when the "real" FBI comes to the department, the information is not of the right program. The FBI shuts down the program....and the G-Force is to be destroyed.

While Saber's machinations continue, the G-Force struggles to prove they deserve to be part of the FBI. And they've only got 30 hours to do it.

Bill Nighy plays Saber. In one part of a speech he's giving, he flings his head back reminiscent of Davy Jones from Pirate of the Caribbean, but for the most part he gives a restrained performance (for some reason with an Australian accent).

The humans don't get much to do, but do well with what they do have. There's no over-acting here, everyone is taking their role seriously. Unfortunately, Kelli Garner as Marci, Ben's partner, has even less to do than any of the other humans...she seems to be just put in there as the token woman.

As for the guinea pigs, Darwin is played by Sam Rockwell, Juarez by Penelope Cruz, Tracy Morgan is Blaster, and I did not know this until I just looked at the credits, Nicolas Cage was the mole, Speckles!

It's a film for kids and adults. Adults will recognize a few homages to secret agent films. Blaster and Jaurez scuba dive into Saber's yard. Jaurez comes out shaking her fur reminiscent of Ursula Andress in Dr. No (and of course Austin Powers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.) Fortuately Jaurez doesn't wear a white bikini.

A fun movie, and of course a life lesson - which I won't spoil by revealing it now. I just wonder if kids will want to buy guinea pigs now, and expect them to be able to talk!

William Shatner watches Star Trek movie trailer

"Billy Bush from Access Hollywood invited William Shatner to watch the new Star Trek Movie Trailer and The Shatner Project cameras were there to film his reaction to seeing it for the first time. See this unique split screen video of Bill Shatner's reaction to seeing the trailer for the first time! " is the text at YouTube.




Believe it or not, I've yet to see this movie. I was on travel and just never found the time.

Since it's "Alternate Universe" I don't mind the changes they've made, but it's just too bad they couldn't just write a real prologue to Star Trek.

Even more then Enterprise, a show I didn't care for, I would have liked to have seen a show that shows how the starships were actually built, how the Star Academies were formed, and stuff like that. That's the kind of stuff we need to see now so that people realize how much work we have to do to make those fiction shows come true!

Stan Lee interviewed by Machiminima

Machiminima has loaded a few of its interviews at YouTube, and I share them here as well:

Stan Lee Exclusive Comic Con 2009 Interview (Inside Gaming Machinima)

We had a chance to talk with comic book visionary Stan Lee about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 at the Activision Comic-Con party.

OT: Wedding Entrance Dance Video

Here's the extremely popular wedding video that has been making the rounds lately.

Everybody, from ushers to maids of honor to bride and groom, come through the door and down the aisle dancing. It is pretty cool. The song being sung is Forever.

It's entitled JK Wedding Entrance Dance

Friday at BBC Radio

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/07/24

You can still listen to all the episodes of Jefferson 37.

You can also listen to Part 1 of Simon Bovey's Cold Heart.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jv38

Kindle Book: How To Make Money By Blogging

That's the title of my new Kindle offering.




In it, I detail how to set up a blog using blogger.com software, and how to monetize the blog with Google Adsense, Amazon.com, Ebay, and Clickbank.

I also have created a new blog especially for the book (and subsequent entries in the Miniscule Guides series:

http://theminisculeguidetoeverything.blogspot.com

Now, you're not going to get rich by blogging, unless you're some in-the-know guy like Perez Hilton who gets thousands of hits a day. But by being patient, and diligently filling out your blog on a daily basis for about three months, you will start to see the income trickle in.

Enough at any rate to be able to afford a few DVDs, a few games, some twelve packs of Pepsi.

Find the right niche, and hope for the economy to get better, and the sky could be the limit.

Getting back in the swing of things

I've been on travel for hte last few months, and haven't updated this blog as often as I should have done.

Now that I'm home, I'll be able to update it on a daily basis.

Except...not much to report today.

You can still listen to Part 1 of Jefferson 37, a chilling story of what happens when clones are made to serve as spare-part banks for the original person.

1/4. Marketing expert Eleanor visits Abbottsville, where clones are made for human spare parts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules

Jefferson 37

What happens when clones are made to provide body parts - like eyes - for the wealthy?

Jefferson 37 tells the story. Pat 1 is on Wednesday, July 22. You can listen to it for the next 7 days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules

The Gibson on BBC Radio 7

At the time I'm posting this, you still have 17 hours to listen to the first episode of The Gibson.

Go to the link below, then scroll down to the nighttime link, which is still active. Pay no attention to the times listed on the page, just click on the episode link and it will start playing immediately.

All the other parts are online now as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/07/14

What is The Gibson?

Time-hopping thriller with Robert Glenister

1/6. An aspiring poet gets drawn into a web of dark and mysterious forces.

2/6. After Saul and his family win a competition, strange events happen.

3/6. Haensel warns Elise, Saul is summoned by Selwyn - and mystery in Roman Bath.

4/6. Saul learns the truth about the sinister Gibson room and cavers push too deep.

5/6. Saul and Elise make a disturbing discovery in the nursing home. With Robert Glenister.

6/6. On the day of the festival, Saul and the Guardians prepare to fight. With Robert Glenister

The Canonization of Michael Jackson

Ever since Michael Jackson died, the media blitz has been ridiculous. I walked past a newsstand at Target yesterday and there were four magazines devoted to him. Times and Newsweek each had him on the cover. And there were a couple of tribute issues.

And fans are in tears and pouring into bankrupt California to a memorial for him...

And yet where were these fans when he was alive, eh? Nowhere. Now he's dead and all of a sudden he's back on top as the "King of Pop."

It's just ridiculous. I don't watch the news reports, but apparently they are breakig down the fans of Jackson into Democrats and Republicans (Dems liked him, Republicans didnn't) old and young, etc. Then of course there was that special on BET a few days ago where some guy said, "MIchael Jackson belonged to us (African-Americans) and we just loaned him to you." And Jackson's identity issues (the nose job, the bleaching of the skin) were all caused by whites. And the pedophilia, et al, that was just white man trying to take him down, just like they "took down Cassius Clay."

(Presumably that refers to the fact that Clay was drafted to go to Vietnam, refused, and went to prison for a year or two instead. Frankly, I sympathise with the guy! But I don't think they picked on him deliberately... after all, Elvis Presley was drafted, too! (Course not in war time.)

Anyway, I remember liking Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five when I was a kid, and when they were there natural selves. Then he did the nose thing, and the skin bleach thing, and got all weird. As for the pedophilia...don't know about that. I never followed the case, but apparently the parents deliberately put their kid into that situation so they could get money out of Jackson..and I seem to remember they lost that lawsuit...

Then of course there's all the vultures gathering. Jackson is deeply in debt, but his estate is supposed to be worth million --- lawyers are scenting their fortunes being made here.

But what's more obscene that that is that there were actually paparazzi using telephoto lenses to get photos of Jackson inside the ambulance with an oxygen mask over his mouth. And this pic was published! Why does anybody need to see that? Only sick people would want to see that.

The Bone Biddies

Yesterday, I stopped in at the Glenrock Dinosaur Museum (Paleon). It's a small musuem - but features only Wyoming Dinosaurs, unlike Thermopolis et al which was a "complete" dinosaur center featuring casts of bones and dinosaurs from around the world. In addition, the display cases were very distracting in that they slip apart from the middle out... so when closed there were two inches of overlapping glass in the center...made for lousy photographs.

Nevertheless, if you're a dinosaur enthusiast of any kind, you must visit this place, because you get to go into their restoration room and talk to the people there, most notably the "Bone Biddies" as Robert Bakker calls them. Women in their 70s and 80s (80s!) who have been volunteering at the museum for over 10 years and who cut bones out of their plastic jackets, and then clean and restore them, And they are delighted to talk to you and explain everything!

I haven't got time to upload any photos yet, but here's an article about the Bone Biddies:

http://www.glenrock.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7BB26E8702-E5EF-4C20-B23C-D27616AE83C8%7D

Lou Lingle spoke with me for several minutes. I spoke with another woman, Helen Popp (not shown in the photo) she was definitely in her 80s, sharp as a tack, and skilled at her job.

I enjoyed talking to them very much, as well as the director of the museum, whose name unfortunately escapes me. We can blame that all on my 11-year old nephew, who allowed me perhaps 15 minutes to talk to them before he came in and started making a nuisance of himself that I had to go.

Anyway, more about this in subsequent entries.

Here's the website for the Glenrock museum:

http://paleon.org/

Go. Talk to the people there. You'll love it!

Yet Another Reason To Have A Will

I was never a big fan of Michael Jackson's, but one couldn't help knowing about things, thanks to the ever-present Papperazzi that hounded him as well as other celebrities, and the gossip sites, like my own Google home page that more often than not has Gossip news as the main headlines of the day.

And so he's dead, and the headlines are, what's going to happen to his children? And I'm thinking...didn't he leave a will in which he stipulated guardians and such-like. Certainly he would have a business manager who would have done that for him, similar to what he would have done to take care of what little remained of his fortune?

The kids aren't Michael Jackson. Why do paperazzis even care about them, or how they grow up.

It's rather a tragic story, the story of the Jackson family...how they did everything for money, even go under the plastic surgeon's knife to get a certain look...

As for Farrah Fawcett, again not a fan, but I always hate to hear of someone dying from cancer. But the recent spate of documentaries on her - even before she died - seemed so... calculated and exploitive. Then of course there's her stupid son Griffin - or is it her stepson? - in jail...

And then Ryan O'Neal was going to marry her...if she ever became "strong enough" to say yes. Hell, man why didn't you ask her three weeks ago, when she was strong enough? And why marry her at all? You've lived together and proved your comittment for 30 years. In the eyes of hte law youu're married and you probably get half her property thanks to California property law..

Hopefully she left a will so the State doesn't get it all.

On a side note, pray for the state of California. The bankrupt state of California. Its a microcosm of what the US is going to be like in 10 years unless Obama and the Dems are stopped.

Yeah, the Republicans are reeling because their "family values" party is turnkng out to house hyporcrites - not to mention idiots - Mark Sanford, what were you thinking? - but if they'd drop their stupid family values and just go with fiscal conservatism and a search for exceptionalism, they may be able to save this country.

"IT was shorter in Egyptian"

This is one of the best scenes in the movie Night at the Musuem: Battle of the Smithsonian.

Visit my Azaria website: http://volcanoseven.com/TheUncannyAzaria

Hank Azaria does a great job with his lines, I'd really like to see outtakes to see if he was able to do the scene in one take or if everyone burst out laughing a few times.

He is arguing with Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) about giving him the tablet and the combinatin, and not crossing the no touching zone with his hand.

Simon Oates is dead

Wow...

I checked my blog counter this morning and saw a lot of hits for Doomwatch - a TV show that starred Simon Oates. I wondered why the sudden rush... and so went to the IMDB. Sure enough, Simon Oates has died. Of course he died about 30 days ago, May 20, 2009.

I must admit I'm surprised. He was a big, athletic guy, and he was only 70... but like John Philip Law perhaps he had some kind of cancer. Meanwhile my own dad is 76 and looks about 66....

Well, anyway, I'm visiting my sister in Cheyenne, Wyoming and don't have access to my Avengers DVDs, otherwise I'd put together a tribute to Oates whom I've always liked, for all that I only saw a very tiny fraction of his work...

Here is a pic of him from the web, however:

He is on the cover of the English version of a TV guide, called The Radio Times. The title: Will Ridge Destroy the World? references his role as Ridge in Doomwatch.

Night at the Museujm 2 Redux

I went to see Night at the Musuem 2 again, with my sister this time, and her son, my 11-year-old nephew.

Enjoyed Hank Azaria's performance as Kahmunrah again, but now I think I know why I'm so obsessed with him now. (Relatively speaking, anyway.) Yes, nice body, nice Karloff impersonation...but it occurred to me at the beginning of his scenes that he reminds me of a British actor who has long been a favorite of mine, Clive Francis. And Azaria's delivery of his lines reminded me of Clive Francis's delivery of lines in the TV series The Piglet Files . Clive Francis is more handsome than Azaria, IMHO, but the delivery of lines, the self-confident stance - all reminded me of him.

So, for anyone who would want to check out Clive Francis, I have a website for him too, of course:
http://thethunderchild.com/CliveFrancis/

and of course my Azaria website - which does need to have more content added, admittedly, is at:

http://volcanoseven.com/TheUncannyAzaria

Funnily enough...my sister did not recognize Azaria's accent as that of Boris Karloff. I guess she's never seen a Karloff movie.

Azaria the Uncanny

As is my wont, when I see an actor I like, I put together a tribute website for him.

After seeing Hank Azaria in Night at the Museum, I've put together a small website, which will hopefully grow in future.

http://volcanoseven.com/TheUncannyAzaria/

I don't actually care for most of his ouvre - I dislike the Simpsons, for example, but when he's been in the right role... sweet.

I think he first came to my attention as Agador in The Bird Cage - nice body, good comic timing. He's kept the body and is even more "ripped" now than he was then...

But really, any guy who can do a British accent gets my little heart going pit-a-pat!

Hank Azaria Makes Night at the Museum 2

I was somewhat disappointed with Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, for a variety of reasons.

First, although all the old exhibit cast are back, they have very little to do. Ricky Gervais doesn't get to do his schtick of never finishing a sentence, Jedediah and Octavius are separated for most of the movie so there's none of their comraderie, the character of Amelia Earhart is so far removed from her real character that it isn't even funny...

The man who made the movie was Hank Azaria as the villain of the piece Ankmunrah. He manages to be hilarious, and at times very menacing.

Throughout the movie, Azaria does his character with a Boris Karloff accent (doubtless since Karloff played "The Mummy" in 1933 and has one of the most distinctive voices of all time).

So when Kahmunrah is speaking with Darth Vader, and asks, "Why are you wearing the cape? Are we going to the opera? I don't think so." That is really funny. Because Karloff played an opera singer/suspected murderer in Charlie Chan at the Opera, in one of the best Chan movies... A bit of an in-joke there.

(It's the last few seconds of the trailer below)



SPOILERS


At the beginning of the movie, Larry is rich. His gadgets have finally taken of. He hasn't been to the museum in 2 years. But when he learns his friends are being shipped into storage at the Smithsonian, and then that Jedehdia is in trouble, he hurries to Washington to help. All very well and good. But, at the end of the movie, Jedediah reveals that he didn't call Larry for help, but to help Larry, because all the money he's making is ruining his life.

(Okay, I can't rememver the exact dialog, but I was reminded of Obama and the Dem's speeches about not trying to get rich, going into the service professions, etc. etc. )

So at the end, Larry sells his business so he can make a huge donation to the museum to ensure that the exhibits remain there and on display. Here's the thing. If he hadn't spent two years creating his fortune, he wouldn't have had the amount of money needed to make the donation, and his friends would still be packed away at the Smithsonian. Nor would he be able to retire to go back to his old job as the Night Guard.

Arrived in Cheyenne

Well, I've arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming where my sister lives, and will stay here for a month doing a lot of writing and photo essays for things I've seen on my trip.

I'm afraid I've let my The Thunder Child webzine lie fallow for quite a while. Well, the reason is simple - I was making money with Google AdSense...and now that they've arbitrarily cancelled my account for no reason they would ever tell me - I'm no longer making any money. I put in links to ebay, but while I get a lot of clicks, you don't get paid for clicks. You only get paid if someone who has bid on something actually wins it. And that's pretty hard, depending on what they're trying to buy. So the most I've ever made is $2 a month, which is pretty ridiculous compared to what I was making...

So I've been pursuing other avenues of making money - basically accepting freelance writing jobs at Elance.

I'll be trying to write some pamphlets while I'm here, on travel rather than science fiction.

I don't want to see The Thunder Child die...I've worked long and hard on it and I think tere's lots of good stuff here, but I have to admit my spirit was crushed at the totally unfair account cancellation, and I just can't get in the mood to work on it anymore...

I fell for the oldest trick in the flamers' handbook!

Yesterday I'd been all upset and bewildered because a victim of the loss mit company I used to work for had said stupid things about one of my posts (after having praised a similar post of mine just the day before.)

So I got a private email from that person today, pointing out what I should have realized if I'd looked properly. *Her* id had one "n" in her name, a doppelganger posing as her had two "n"s.

So that makes more sense than that this womoan should suddenly turn on me.

Meantime, the two ex-employes of A2S are still on my case. Although one hopes they'll stop now as they've been exposed as liars. I had posted yesterday that one of them had been sending me profanity-laced private emails. Today she denied it. So of course I did a screencapture of my inbox, which shows her name on the messages (with their profanity-laced titles) and posted it, which proves she's a liar.

So what next, I wonder. Will this loon have the grace to go away? Probably not.

More Thoughts on the.... Unbright....

I've been giving more thought to the loons at this scam website.... four of 'em are busting my chops and no one defends me... can I possibly be in the wrong and they be in the right?

And I just don't see it.

First...no defenders. Well, that's not surprising. Only 1 out of 100 visitors to a web forum actually posts there. There can be thousands of people thinking I make a lot of sense who just don't bother to post. So that doesn't concern me.

So...the four people busting my chops. What are they busting my chops *for*? For "telling them what to do." Which is not the case at all! The first time it happened, a few months ago, somebody posted the boss's home address and I just said, "Hey, that's a bad idea. You could get sued." Now,sure, I didn't provide links to the proof that it was true, and the bright bulb in question came back and said "It's a matter of public record, I found it on the web."

Doesn't matter, IMHO. By making it available on this scam website, *that* was invasion of privacy.

It was perfectly obvious to me...but then, I read "News of the Weird" and newspapers in general, and know that lawyers will sue anyone for anything, and make gazillions of dollars doing it. And apparenlty these bright bulbs at this scam site don't know that.

Anyway, I stopped posting, as the loons stopped posting addresses.

Then,three days ago, the company is shut down...leaving a lot of employees without paychecks...and apparently these dim bulbs had been working without paychecks for 2 months!

So, all I do is say something innocuous, and "I hope this guy goes to jail." Which indeed is what I hope. And that's it.

And then, the guy who had posted the address before, whom I'd advised not to do it because he could get sued, says, "Why are you even posting here. Go away."

Now, this doesn't bother me too much. I say, "Sure, my work here is done with this company closing its doors." Then I notice I have a private PM from another ex-employee, ordering me to stop posting and swearing at me.

So, of course, I don't appreciate this and of course I have to post something.

As luck would have it, within a few minutes of this, I see a link to a report at the Wallstreet Journal about bloggers and forum posters being sued, successfully, even though what they've said about people or companies is perfectly true! But because the company doing the suing has big pockets, and the schmuck doing the posting has little pockets, the big company always wins.

So I very respectfully say, "I had posted advice earlier about people not posting people's addresses here, and the OP got angry with me. Well, here's proof about what I say, so it's just friendy advice to tone down the rhetoric."

And then of course the two ex-employees - who had first come to this scam site to post *good things* about the company because they'd been "made to do so, and who are now threatening violence against the boss - are all over me for "telling them what to do."

So, that's fine. These two guys aren't too bright and I put them in their place with no problem.

Then two of the victms get on my case for "telling people what to do." And they demand to know why I even post there if I'm not a victim or an ex-worker of this company.

And I'm not going to reveal that I am an ex-worker at this company, because if the boss is reading that site, and decides to go after the loons posting threatening messages, I don't want him coming after me. Because from my reading I know that he may be guilty as sin, but some lawyer will take his case against that website for "causing him trouble."

So anyway, at this point I throw up my hands. I'm being excoriated because I'm "telling people what to do", saying I "don't like" what they're posting, and chastising people like they've never been chastised since hteir mom did it to them when they wer six years old.

And I'm looking at what they're saying and I'm just stunned.

I never once said, "Don't post this because I don't like it." All I've *ever* said is, "Look, just a friendly piece of advice. I've read where you can get sued saying stuff like this."

So, going over it again and again, I still have to come to the conlusion that I"ve done nothing wrong. I haven't "ordered" anyone to stop doing something, I've just pointed out the common sense consequences of their actions.

So, I've come to the conclusion that I am indeed without blame, and this handful of individuals on the scam site just aren't too bright.

And I can only reiterate my hope that the boss does decide to sue them for making terroristic threats and invasion of privacy.

However, I do admit I don't think that will happen.... he's in so much trouble right now that it isn't even funny....and I don't feel sorry for him at all...

Why do people resent getting advice?

That loss mitigation company I used to work for had a thread at one of those "acam watch" sites, and I would post there occasionally. I didn't "tell my story" - that I'd used to work for the company, knew it was a scam, and quit, I didn't think I'd need to.

So someone on this thread posts the home address of the boss. I respond by saying they shouldn't do that, they could get sued. (Because, you know, they could.)

But instead of saying "Thanks for the advice," it's "Who the hell are you to tell us what to do."

So a few days ago, the business closed its doors, and I dared to say, "I'm glad, I hope the guy goes to jail."

Then, I get a private email from an ex-employee of the company, who very rudely tells me to stop posting. Apparently still upset over that previous incident. Well, if someone orders me to do something in such a rude fashion, obviously I'm not going to do it.

But I've really got nothing to add to what I've already said in my "farewell post", so what can I say? Well, I see a Wall Street Journal article pointing out that bloggers, and forum posters are getting sued for "invasion of privacy" and "defamation of character," and someone had reposted my ex-bosses address just a few days ago (and also made terroristic threats against him) so I advise people to tone down the rhetoric, and I share the link to the article so they know I'm not being a busybody, I've got actual solid proof that people are being sued and *losing* for doing what they're doing!

And everyone just got so upset, accusing me of acting like a "mother" and "telling people what to do" and I just don't understand that reaction. I'm trying to save people from losing what little money they have left in a law suit, and I'm getting dumped on!

Apparently the anger is because I've never told them my connection to this company, and apparently if you've never been scammed by this company, you don't have the right to give some common sense advice.

And I'm like, gee.

These people remind me so much of my former boss. As I posted yesterday, I gave him some much needed advice that, had he heeded it, might have gone a little way towards preventing the debacle that his company became. And instead of considering it on its merits, he dismissed it. (As I know because that was the standard line he sent to *everyone* who complained and wanted their money back, and I was cc-ed on those emails!)

I just don't understand it. It's not like I plop myself down on a bench, overhear a conversation between two total strangers, butt in and start handing out advice. I can see anger ther, of course.

But on a message board, where I have posted nothing but sympathetic posts, to be reacted to with such fury over a post merely meant to prevent people from getting sued....

I have to admit it....human nature being what it is.... I now hope that my former boss *does* sue these people for posting his address online, *and* for making physical threats against him - for they have done so.

I'm not going to forward the URL to him - I used to have his email address but I think that's cancelled now along with his website...but I surely do hope he comes across it on his own. He must know about the thread - he'd sent a couple of "ringers" there to post praise for his company (and now these same ringers are whining because the company is through and they haven't been paid - and they're the ones attacking me, plus a victim of the company who also doesn't like the fact that I give advice....)

I just don't understand it.

Too bad I don't believe in God....otherwise I'd pray every night that they get their comeuppance.

As it is I must just vent my anger and bewilderment by posting here.

Egomaniacal people....

I read a blog...the name of which I will not divulge (since I'm going to be critical of it and the guy whom I'm referring to is so psycho he might sue me for character defamation if I mentioned his name!).

Anyway, the guy is a former actor who still lives in Hollywood, and is successful in a new career. Unlike probably everyone else on his street, he works at home.

So, today he blogs that construction people came in yesterday and demolished the house next to his. And now they're going to start constructing a new house on that lot.

And this guy is just soooooooo upset about this! How dare they demolish that house and cause his own house to shake so badly! And when they start building the new house there's going to be the noise of ....whatever construction noises this guy expects...and he's so angry at the inconsiderateness of the people having this done, and when they finally move into the house, he is going to go over and visit them and tell them how inconsiderate they were to have this new house built!

And I'm thinking to myself while I'm reading this... do you have any idea how childish and vindictive you sound? Do you realize that these construction people, not to mention the people having the house built, probably assume that all their neighbors work and so won't be in their houses to be "annoyed" by all the noise and vibration.

But he works at home, so it's annoying him, so they have no right to be doing it! And he seems to have every intention of calling up the construction people every day and whining about the noise, and when the new folks move in, he's going to apparently rip them a new one, because they're "rich, entitled snobs" who dared have a new house built!

There are more than a few people like this, unfortunately. And no matter how you try to make it clear to them that they're being childish, they just don't get it.

Several months ago I used to work for a new loss mitigation company, and I blogged about it occasionally, because the boss was such a jerk. Initially, we had got along well. He hired me as a copywriter, for $1,000 a month. And he put me on the mailing list for all the emails he sent. (I still don't know why he did it...but he did it.)

So, the company has started, and someone writes in complaining that they sent in all their paperwork and nothing happened, and they were going to sue,etc. And my boss sends them a very nasty letter, saying "Okay, we're terminating your contract, and we've got lawyers" and this and that.

And I, thinking we had this good rapport, emailed him and told him that that was a very bad tone to take with people. He was dealing with people under tremendous stress, and for them to receive a letter like the one he sent, couched in such vicious and contemptous phrases, might send someone off the deep end, and it's be him or his company that they'd come after.

Well, he didn't appreciate this advice. I guess he thought a $1,000 a month copywriter had no business telling a $100,000 a month CEO how to run his business. (Never mind the fact that in the past I'd been secretary to quite a few CEOs, and I knew professional behavior when I saw it, and when I didn't see it.)

After that he was barely civil to me, and eventually I quit. Before I did so, however, I could see that the business was riding for a fall, as I was cc-ed on all sorts of commicaes from people trying to find *other* people who'd worked on so-and-so's loan modification. (Indeed, I wonder if this idiot CEO had everyone in the whole company cc-ed on these emails that should have been private between individuals.) But if what I suspect is correct, everyone working there must have known since day one how incompetently it was run...yet they continued to work there.

Anyway, that loss mitigation company has been put out of business today, and is being sued by the state for failing to pay taxes on wages, etc. It had hundreds of complaints from clients who never got any service, and dozens of employees (who worked in the call center getting contracts from poor schmucks) are filing lawsuits because they hadn't been paid.

And I'm just laughing. Back when we'd been on good terms, the CEO had told me he was opening up his business in an effort to "cock a snook" at his former business partners who had eased him out of their partnership because they didn't think his business model was any good. And he was going to show them!

And, gee, that business model worked out pretty well, didn't it?

Meantime, hundreds of desperate people who thought this company was going to help them save their homes have lost the money they paid to this company in advance, and they've lost their homes, and for that, I hope this CEO goes to jail. At the very least, I hope he's held up to ridicule and never gets to run another business in his life. (Unfortunately, CEOs are like politicians. They run one business into the ground, and prove their incompetence, but there's always some friend to come along and say, sure, we'll give you this high paying position. See what you can do here.)

But frankly, I think this guy is criminally liable, or at the very least criminally negligent, and responsible for a lot of people lsoing their houses, and I hope he goes to jail!

War of the Worlds - reenacted by Bunnies

pretty funny

http://www.angryalien.com/1005/wowbuns.asp

Photo Essay: Flight 93 Memorial

I was driving toward Erie, PA on the turnpike a couple of days ago, and not being familiar with the roaf, didn't realize that it bypasses Pittsburgh all together. I thought it would be like MPLS, where you have to drive straight through the city to get to the other side. And I hadn't wanted to do that during 5 pm Friday night traffic, so I stopped off in a little town called Somerset, PA for the night.

While buying groceries for the night, a man in line told me I was very close - nine miles or so - to the Flight 93 memorial. I decided I'd better go see it.

http://volcanoseven.com/HaveLaptopWillTravel/Flight93/Flight93.html

Matt Jefferies: Star Trek Designer

(Limited Edition Enterprise, sculpted by Matt Jefferies. .)

[Click on the photos to see larger version]

Matt Jefferies (August 12, 1921 - July 21, 2003) is the designer of the most famous starship in the world, the USS Enterprise.

http://www.mattjefferies.com/

According to the Wikipedia:
Jefferies' father was chief engineer at a power plant in Virginia. He had a younger brother named John who worked with him as his chief draftsman. He served in Europe in World War II, and was part of the aircrew on B-17, B-24, B-25 bombers, and had four years as a flight test engineer.

He was a member of the Aviation Space Writers' Association and one of the original members of the American Aviation Historical Society. Jefferies restored and flew period airplanes as a hobby. He owned a Waco YOC aircraft and stored it at an airfield in California for many years. His Waco, NC17740, c/n 4279, built 1935, is now owned by the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society and is displayed at the Virginia Aviation Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

Jefferies' father was chief engineer at a power plant in Virginia. He had a younger brother named John who worked with him as his chief draftsman. He served in Europe in World War II, was inside of B-17, B-24, B-25 bombers and had four years as a flight test engineer. He was a member of the Aviation Space Writers' Association and one of the original members of the American Aviation Historical Society. Jefferies restored and flew period airplanes as a hobby. He owned a Waco YOC aircraft and stored it at an airfield in California for many years. His Waco, NC17740, c/n 4279, built 1935, is now owned by the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society and is displayed at the Virginia Aviation Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

The Waco

Jefferies's brother wrote a biography of him called Beyond the Clouds. Does not dwell a lot on his Star Trek work, however.


Jefferies Aviation Illustrators

The book is available from Amazon...

Young Star Trek

The first Star Trek TV series was of course constrained by the special effects capabilties of the 1960s.

Nevertheless, it really irritates the heck out of me to see Star Trek shows that are supposed to occur before the events in Star Trek, have better technology than Star Trek had. I'm not talking about the special effects, I'm talking about the actual technology used.

To that end, nothing in this first Star Trek movie (let alone in Enterprise) should look technologically more advanced than the first Star Trek!

I was really disappointed with Enterprise in that regard. Spock was the very first Vulcan on a starship, so where the heck did that female Vulcan come in? (And although I liked Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap, didn't care for him as Archer.)

How did the Federation actually come about - that's a movie I'd like to see. I mean, does it look like a space federation will ever come about, based on what's happening with our space program today? I don't think so - the only ones actually going to do anything in space are the Chinese!

The best laid plans of mice and men

I had intended to leave on my drive around America on May 1. But, someone whom I do freelance work for had said they were sending me a case (or at least a couple of bottles) of a drink called StarPower - all natural, made from Star Fruit. (Carambola). And I received an "official" communicae from the post office saying that it was going to arrive Monday. So, I decide to postpone my trip to Monday.

Mail comes - no StarPower.

So, heck with it, I'm a pepsi drinker anyway.

So I drove up to Richmond, and it was raining, but that's okay, as I've got books to read.

I check in to the Econolodge on the "hotel strip" beside the airport. Not sure if that was a mistake or not, as it seems to be inhabited by people who live here because they can't afford to rent apartments. Not that I care about that, much, I just want it to be quiet tonight when I'm trying to sleep. The door seems quite secure, so I'm not worried about intrusions. The safety of my car is another issue, but we're not in a residential area, and the people who live here (if that is indeed the case) will hardly ruin their "nest" by robbing someone's car.

But I went over to the Virginia Aviation Museum...and it now closed on Mondays. So that was annoying.

Too much rain to drive into Richmond and walk around some Civil War sites, so I"m staying at the motel, and will do some reading.

But it's annoying.

Robbie the Robot and Star Trek in commercials

1981 Charmin Commercial - Robbit



Star Trek - Beam me up, Scotty!

Jacoby Ellsbury biography on Kindle

Last night, Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury endeared himself to a whole nation of fans when he stole home off of Andy Pettite.

Jacoby first rose to national baseball prominence during the last month of the 2007 season, when he helped the Red Sox get to the World Series and win it. His 2008 season was also excellent, although he platooned with Coco Crisp for much of the year.

After a slow start, batting wise, to 2009, Jacoby has started to hit, and his steal of home - a straight steal, not a suicide squeeze, was his tenth of the year.

Say goodbye to Geocities...

I was with Geocities from the very beginning...back when, when you signed up you could choose your neighborhood, from Hollywood to Paris to New York City, etc., and then they were bought out by Yahoo, and now the free service is coming to an end.

I have a pay service there now, as well as 5 or 6 free sites. I confess I had stopped using my free sites a long time ago, as they put ads on them that were pretty obtrusive, but still, I'd better go in now and download all my data.

Meantime, they don't make it clear but it *seems* that the Yahoo Webhosting Services - the one you have to pay for - is going to remain, which is a good thing because I've got a lot of stuff there, too...

This comes on the heels of AOL, just a few months ago, discontinuing *their* service with no warning at all. Lots of people lost websites to that!

I guess the era of companies being able to make money on free website hosting is gone... I wonder if they're paving the way for taxation of websites?

Now this is my kind of woman

Bill Murray hit a golf shot which went very wide, and hit a woman on the temple. (She lives on the golf course.)

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ap-murraysteeshot&prov=ap&type=lgns

She was not badly hurt - she went to the doctor for stitches, that was it.

And all she asked Murray for was an autographed copy of Caddyshack.

Considering that in today's litigious society she could probably have sued Murray for being a lousy golfer, I was very impressed at her humble request.

You go, girl!

May issue of Freedom Seat Reviews

For those who have a Kindle, check out Freedom Seat Reviews.

http://volcanoseven.com/FreedomSeatReviews/


Book reviews and articles about women in aviation.

Three issues are now available, March, April and May. (Yes, even though May is 14 days away!)

Starlog Magazine rides off into the sunset...

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/04/starlog-magazin.html

I must say I didn't think this could happen. I would have thought Starlog was more popular now than ever!

But I guess print magazines are being driven out of business by the prevalence of Internet info....

TOo bad.

Kuan Yin... a kindly lady

This is a pretty spectacular video:




DANCE OF 1000 HANDS
There is an awesome dance, called the Thousand-Hand Guanyin, which is making the rounds across the net. Considering the tight coordination required,their accomplishment is nothing short of amazing, even if they were not all deaf. Yes, you read correctly. All 21 of the dancers are complete deaf-mutes. Relying only on signals from trainers at the four corners of the stage, these extraordinary dancers deliver a visual spectacle that is at once intricate and stirring.

Its first major international debut was in Athens at the closing ceremonies for the 2004 Paralympics. But it had long been in the repertoire of the Chinese Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe and had traveled to more than 40 countries.

It's lead dancer is 29 year old Tai Lihua, who has a BA from the Hubei Fine Arts Institute. The video was recorded in Beijing during the Spring Festival this year.

Son of the Invisible Man

I never saw the spoof movie Amazon Women of the Moon, but this 3 minute clip, of the Invisible Man, is rather amusing.



I don't want to give it away...

Stars Ed Begley, Jr. as Griffin. All of Griffin....

The Annotated Atlas Shrugged

I've started a new blog, in which I'll be sharing the symbolism of Ayn Rand's book, Atlas Shrugged.

Written in 1957, it is rather prophetic today. The only problem is the intellectuals (and the wealthy) are being forced out of today's world, and there's nowhere for them to go... as the blight is world-wide... something that Ayn Rand didn't foresee. (I'm sure she never dreamed that the American government, and American big business, would ever sell our patrimony out from under us to other countries - from road upkeep to the very ports where we receive shipments of food, et al.)

Anyway, for those who want to know, Who Is John Galt?

http://johngaltandthefountainhead.blogspot.com/

Because you can never have too many websites...

Many years ago I saw an episode of Roger Moore's The Saint entitled "The Fiction Makers", and it's been in the back of my mind to write a novel featuring the titles that were used in that episode, in particular "Volcano Seven." I love the sound of that.

Well, I've had the domain name Volcano Seven for a long time, but haven't properly advertised it yet. So, on the front page of that site, are links to all my other sites!

To follow the links below, go to this page first: VolcanoSeven.com


Volcano Seven - a tribute to The Fiction Makers episode
Kindle Kindlings - reviews of Kindle boooks
Who is John Galt? - do we need a John Galt and Atlas Shrugged today?

The Thunder Child - my sf webzine
Two Such People - my Avengers fan fiction
Sand Rock Sentinel - 1950s SF movie fiction and real news, combined!

Ghost Guns Virginia - travel in Virginia
Have Laptop, Will Travel - travel around the USA. A trip I hope to take beginning in March.
The Fountainhead Blog - a blog to drive people to my Who Is John Galt? site

Winged Victory - women in aviation
Plane Language - aviation vocabulary, history, etc.
You Fly Girl Blog - aviation webzine blog
Freedom Seat Reviews - Exclusive for hte Kindle. Books and articles on aviation

Michael Goorjian - actor fan site
Hellfire Hall - actor fan site, for Peter Wyngarde
Conrad Veidt - actor fan site
The Clive Francis Files - actor fan site

Who Is John Galt? bumper stickers

I have two "Who is John Galt?" bumper stickers for sale.

$3.99 each, via paypal. Send $3.99 to Barbara@thethunderchild.com, and your bumper sticker will be heading its way to you within three days. (Your address is sent to me via Paypal).

Who is John Galt?

He is the mysterious character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, in which "the people of the mind" go on strike.

Who are the people of the mind? People -- black, white, red, brown -- who value education and knowledge and go out and produce.... rather than people - of all races, creeds and colors - who'd rather sit on their behinds and let the "government" take care of them.

The Ultimate Guide to James Bond Unused Movie Music

Matt Monroe sings From Russia With Love



Anthony Newley co-wrote the theme music for Goldfinger. Here he is singing it. It's a much more low-key effort than Shirley Basseys, and doesn't have the three note horns at the beginning, but I actually quite like it.




Johnny Cash submitted a song to the producers of Thunderball, but they elected not to use it.




Blondie submitted For Your Eyes Only, but eventually SHeena Eeston sang a different theme song.



The Living Daylights, by a-ha

The same music as the movie, but with a different mix. John Barry and a-ha "did not collaborate well." Barry's mix was used in the movie.



Ace of Base demo for Goldeneye



A Pleasant Drive in St. Petersburg, from Goldeneye. The tank chase, replaced in the film, but available on the soundtrack.

Thinking of taking fish oil capsules as a supplement?

In a health related post, I share with you an email my sister sent:

I have been feeling ill all week due to an overdose of fish oil.

To make a long story short, I read a book called "A Magnificent Mind at Any Age". It is very interesting and the doctor recommends taking a fish oil supplement to maintain a healthy mind. Fish oil is supposed to be good for you because it contains Omega three fatty acids.

Well I went to GNC and talked to the clerk about fish oil capsules. They recommend you take a 300 milligram fish oil supplement three times a day or one 900 milligram fish oil supplement once a day. I bought the 900 milligram capsules. I took one capsule Tuesday morning and almost immediately became queasy and felt queasy on and off all week until yesterday. So queasy (on the verge of throwing up) that all I wanted to do was lay on the couch for long stretches at a time and not move.

Using online research I found out there are side affects to the supplements - fish breath, queasiness and diaria being just a few, and that it takes time for your body to get used to taking fish oil supplements and you should start out with a low dose. The clerk didn't mention any of this when I bought the stuff.

Also I learned that you can get Omega three fatty acids from eating walnuts, pecans and kiwifruit , as well as Salmon and Albacore tuna. Husband and I already eat Salmon occasionally, and Son likes tuna fish sandwiches and tuna casserole. - so I have decided forget about the fish oil supplements but to just eat more salmon, tuna, kiwi and pecans.

Undersea Science Fiction Books

In compiling my catalog of SF works offered for sale on Kindle, which you can find here (thethunderchild.com/KindleKindlings.html">) I'm coming across some that take place under the oceans, featuring merpeople, or aliens who prefer an aquatic environment, etc. Since there are so few of these books, I'm going to share them here.



Seabird

The Lonely God: fantasy stories of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is known for her detective stories - for Hercule Poirot and Miss Marpe and the longest running play of all time, The Mousetrap (which I personally have seen over a dozen times, in the West End, as well as in amateur productions here in the States).

However she also wrote horror and fantasy short stories.

I came across an intersting one called The Lonely God, in The Harlequin Tea Set collection, which I think inspired at least a bit of Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, but I'll get to that last of all.

First I'll set the scene:

I've never cared for horror stories of any kind, so I haven't read any of her short stories..at least, I stopped as soon as I figured out they were horror. We're not talking blood, guts and gore horror, more like psychological horror. But I just don't like 'em.

I like her fantasy stories somewhat better, in particular the Harley Quin stories. Harley Quin is a visitor from "beyond the grave" who shows up when people need life-and-death help. Somewhat nebbishy Mr. Satterwaite, travelling around England for whatever reason, usually meets Quin, who drops a hint or suggest this or that...and Satterwaite ends up either saving someone's life, or, one one occasion, just failing to do so.

I've read every Agatha Christie novel - for many years I owned them all before it was necessary to pare back my library - but although I thought I'd read all her anthologies as well, turns out I'd never read The Harlequin Tea Set until today.

Of the 9 stories included, only one, The Spanish Chest, is a Poirot story - the rest are mysteries or suspense stories. (And of course The Harlequin Tea Set, a Harley Quin story, not one of the better ones in the series, in my opinion.)

Anyway, so I'm reading The Lonely God:

He stood on a shelf in the British Museum, alone and forlorn amongst a company of obviously more important deities. Ranged round the four walls, these greater personages all seemed to display an overwhelming sense of their own superiority. The pedestal of eaach was duly inscribed with the land and race that had been proud to possess him. There was no doubt of their position; they were divinities of importance and recognized as such.

Only the little god in the corner was aloof and remote from their company. Roughly hewn out of grey stone, his features almost totally obliterated by time and exposure, he sat there in isolation, his elbows on his knees, and his head buried in his hands, a lonely little god in a strange country.

One man who visits the British museum becomes fascinated by this little god, and soon a lonely woman comes in...the god arranges it so they both fall in love, but of course, once they have love they have no need of him anymore, so they never return to the museum and he's all alone again...

This is part (a very small part, be advised) of Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. In his novel, Pratchett points out that a god remains a god ony when he has worshippers. Should he be forgotten, he fades away, until he's no more than a voice on the wind...

So, tbe story resonated with me, and I wonder if Pratchett, whose English after all, had read that Chrisite story and it had set him one of the many threads with which he weaved my favorite Pratchett novel. (I love Small Gods.)

Kindle Kindlings

I've started doing a bit of work with Kindle... I've got a page for science fiction books on Kindle, and I've started a website for Kindle reviews.

KindleKindlins.com: Review Site

http://thethunderchild.com/KindleKindlings.html: Commercial site, for Kindle science fiction books