Missed it by that much....

Just discovered that the Cleveland Orchestra, at The Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, did a whole SciFi themed performance on August 16. One hopes that it was recorded to be released at a later date.

Not that I would have been able to go see it, as my travelling days are curtailed til next year, but I would have liked to have shared the info here before it was too late.

Nevertheless, I will share the info here even though it is too late.

The Sith Training Temple website took photos, pretty cool, view them here:

www.sithtrainingtemple.net

From the Bedford Times Register:
http://www.bedfordtimesregister.com/news/article/4646425

Jack Everly will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in a "Sci-Fi Spectacular" at the Blossom Festival on Aug. 16, at 7 p.m.

The program features George Takei as narrator. He is best known for his portrayal of Mr. Sulu in the television and film series Star Trek. Vocalist will be Kristen Plumley.

Members of the Blossom Festival Chorus, prepared by Cleveland Orchestra Director of Choruses Robert Porco, also will participate in the program.

Concertgoers are encouraged to come in costume, dressed as their favorite Star Trek or Star Wars character. Star Wars characters from the 501st and the Rebel Legion will attend and be available for photographs with patrons.

The Aug. 16 program features music by composers including John Williams and Bernard Herrmann, from Star Trek, Star Wars, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

JOHN WILLIAMS – Main Theme from Star Wars
arr. JACK EVERLY – Lost in Syndication
JOHN WILLIAMS – “Adventures on Earth” from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
JOHN BARRY – Main Theme from Somewhere in Time
JOHN WILLIAMS – “Superman March” from Superman
arr. CALVIN CUSTER – Star Trek Through the Years
RICHARD STRAUSS – Main Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Also sprach Zarathustra)
JOHN WILLIAMS – Main Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
JOHN WILLIAMS/arr. Ricketts – Main Theme from A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)
MICHAEL GIACCHINO – Music from Star Trek (2009)
BERNARD HERRMANN – Main Theme from The Day the Earth Stood Still
JOHN WILLIAMS – “Duel of the Fates” from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
JOHN WILLIAMS – “The Throne Room” and End Title from Star Wars

Science fiction on BBC Radio

I've been a bit remiss reporting on what's going on with BBC Radio for the last several weeks, so let's get back into it.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/09/14

There's some serials that are in their 4th or 5th parts, so I won't bother to mention them. Never fear, they'll be rerun in future.

From last Tuesday, still 23 hours left to listen to:
Ancient Sorceries
Episode 1
1/4. A timid commuter meets the cat-like residents of a French village. Read by Philip Madoc.

Fatherland
Episode 1
1/5. A chilling drama set in an imaginary Hitler-led post-war Germany.
Stars Anton Lesser.

Two days left to listen to:

The Laxian Key
Episode 1
1/4. Mystery space tourist deaths land two planet cleaners with a new contract.

Ancient Sorceries
Episode 2
2 days left to listen
2/4. Vezin realises that the cat-like villagers are watching him closely. Read by Philip Madoc.

Fatherland
Episode 2
2/5. Detective Xavier March probes the death of a retired one-legged civil servant.


Three days left to listen:

The Laxian Key
Episode 2
2/4. London is melting, but planetary decontaminationists Arnold and Gregor get the blame.

Ancient Sorceries
Episode 3
3/4. When Vezin declares his love for Ilse, he fears for his actions. Read by Philip Madoc.

Fatherland
Episode 3
3/5. Xavier March probes the deaths of senior party officials in Hitler's post-war Germany.

Four days left to listen:
The Laxian Key
Episode 3
3/4. With the planetary decontaminationists on the run, Arnold's apologetic call is traced.

Ancient Sorceries
Episode 4
4/4. Vezin is wary over mother and daughter's witches' Sabbath invitation. Read by Philip Madoc

Fatherland
Episode 4
4/5. As Hitler's 75th birthday nears, Kriminalpolizei detective Xavier March is in trouble.

Five days left to listen

The Laxian Key
Episode 4
4/4. Evans the Welsh vigilante aims to bomb the planetary decontaminationists for melting Earth

Jokester
Where does man's sense of humour come from? Isaac Asimov offers his answer.

Fatherland
Episode 5
5/5. Detective Xavier March uncovers the terrible secret of Adolf Hitler's totalitarian state.

Six days to listen

Undone
Series 1, Mind the Gaps
1/5. Edna Turner's adventures in London's bizarre parallel city. Ben Moor's sci-fi comedy.

And there ya go.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/09/14

The Hood has given up taking over the world...

Ray Barrett died on September 8, 2009

Here's an interview with Barrett at YouTube, done by Movie Memorabilila




Australian actor Ray Barrett, the voice of the Hood and many other characters from Thunderbirds and Stingray died at the age of 82 from a brain haemorrhage in Queensland.

Having made a name for himself in radio soap operas in the 1950s, Barrett continued to work right up until his death, most recently appearing in director Baz Luhrman's historical drama Australia, in which he played the father of Nicole Kidman's character.

Barrett's acting career was long, distinguished and punctuated with awards, including two AFI Awards for best actor in 1982 (Goodbye Paradise) and 1995 (Hotel Sorrento). But it was his voice roles as the iconic villain 'the Hood', Thunderbird 5 operator John Tracy, Titan and Commander Shore that many fans will always remember him for. Like several of his fellow actors in Thunderbirds and Stingray, Barrett's ability to play both American and British characters with ease made him a highly versatile performer, and throughout the 60s he made guest appearances in numerous other 'cult' shows, including Dr Who, Z Cars, The Saint and Dixon of Dock Green.

Twilight Zone marathon today...

I see that the Syfy Channel is showing the Twilight Zone today. Yay. But of course, as per usual, not in order.

Well...I say that...maybe I should doublecheck and see if my memory is faulty!

On a sadder note, my laptop is back to doing the same old stuff...I guess the cold air freezes the stickiness for just a few seconds, then when it warms up again, the stickiness comes back.

Ah, well, that's life in the big city.

Weirder than color TV

A few days ago, I spilled just a little bit of Pepsi on my Vaio laptop. I didnt' think any of it got into the keyboard, but the next day the laptop started acting funny. I couldn't select the address URL bar, for example. If I tried to move the mouse to the front, the cursor would go through all the letters to get to the end, on its own. I'd have to delete the letters and type in the URL manually.

Then, when I'd try to select anything from the menu bar, every button would be selected one after the other...I couldn't choose anything.

Well, this ticked me off, as you can imagine. Thousand dollar laptop up the spout because of just a tiny bit of spilled Pepsi. I could still use it to watch my unbox videos, but I could only select the ones on the far end of the screen..anytime I selected one of the video icons on the left, they would just switch one by one to the far right hand side of the screen.

But if I did a view by list, then I could choose the ones I wanted.

Anyway, today, I decided to take a can of compressed air, and blow it underneath all the keys of the keyboard, and see if that would do any good.

I didn't expect it to.

But it did!

The laptop now works fine.

So, whether it was a bit of sticky pepsi that has now come unstuck because cold compressed air made it unsticky, or whether something had become lodged under one of the keys that was always pressing down (I don't think I ever tried to type anything in a word processing file, just to see what would happen).... in any event, problem solved.

So I'm feeling relieved and better than I have in days.

And now I've just noticed...the volume on the computer has now increased 100%. It used to be I could barely hear it when I was playing my vids, now I can hear it easily.

Guess I'll have to clean out my keyboard more often.

The passing of a tradition...

Well, nothing ever stays the same..

As I blogged about yesterday...Labor Day was the day when you could count on a Twilight Zone marathon at the Sci Fi channel. Now its the SyFy channel and all they've got on is paranormal - i.e. fantasy - crap called Ghost Hunters.

I admit it's been a long time since I watched the SciFi channel...I can remember when they first started airing, they had all kinds of classic TV shows, and talk shows for the SF enthusiast...when did all that start to fade away, and why?

But I could always count on them for the Twilight Zone on Labor Day!

Sure, I've got all the eps on DVD, and I don't even actually watch them except once a year any more, but the marathon was a great way to introduce new fans to the show, and by extension, one hoped, to 1950s and 1960s TV...

Not today, though.

Wither SF on the SF Channel?

Well, it's labor day weekend, the weekend of TV marathons.

And what are they showing on the Syfy channel (formerly the SciFi Channel)?

Well, garbage. A "reality" show called Destination Truth, which investigates the paranormal. Then, this evening, no quality sci fi either - like the classics such as Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the original Outer Limits, Men In Space, etc. etc. and etc. No, instead we get one of their abysmal movies, Malibu Shark Attack, about prehistoirc sharks that terrorize scenic California. Then we get Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Then we get Spring Break Shark Attack.

I'm sensing a theme here...

Yes, next is Deep Blue Sea. Smart sharks turn a research lab's staff into fish food. Atr least it's got Samuel L. Jackson, but it sounds similar to Jaws 3. (While I loved Jaws, I didn't bother to see its sequels, but I've seen trailers.)

Next is Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy.

Then, after a single episode of The Twilight Zone late at night, and after a few TV paid spots, what is happening on Labor Day itself? More paranormal crap! Ghost Hunters and then Ghost Whisperers.

No wonder they changed their name from SciFi Channel to SyFy. Siffy. Sh*tty!

The wrong Outer Limits on Sci Fi Channel today

Or Syfy as they now style themselves for some stupid reason. I suppose to point out the fact that now instead of showing good SF TV shows and good SF movies, they make their own crap horror movies to show most of the time.

Anyway, checked out the Channel via the Guide feature, and got a thrill to see that they were showing several episodes of The Outer Limits.

Hopes came crashing down as it turned out they would not be of the classic series, but rather of the 2000 version. Yeah, I suppose those eps would be worth watching as well, but I would really have preferred to have people get a chance to see the original "The Inheritors" starring Steve Ihnat and Robert Duvall. And of course to add insult to injury, they're not even showing the remake of "The Inheritors", which removes the meteorite bullets and exchanges them for just actual fragments of a meteorite that strike around a few people and hit a few certain select ones.

Give me the original any day of the week. Please!




(And yes, it, and all original Outer Limits episodes are available on DVD from Amazon.com, or downloadable for $1.99 each from Amazon Unbox (now called Video on Demand.)

The Derivative-ness of District Nine

I'd never had any intention of going to see District Nine (or District 9, whatever). I prefer my science fiction to be uplifting, thank you. I want to walk out of the theater full of joy and hope for humanity.

But, I read a review of it, from this one reviewer that I read on a regular basis. Not that I actually like this reviewer (he writes for a local, but online publication), I just find it interesting to see what new variations on pretentiousness he can come up with in each new review.

Anyway, he pointed out that one of the lead characters, a human, is injected with something that is slowly turning him into one of the aliens that are incarcerated in District Nine.

And I'm like, how derivative is that? And how silly. You forcibly change someone who hates/fears you, into what you are...and what do you think is going to happen? Will they embrace you with love and understanding? No, they will hate you even more for doing something to them without their consent.

And this has been done before. In one of those X-Men movies, the evil mutants drug one of the anti-mutant politicians and turn him into a mutant. (Bruce Davison as Senator Kelly.) (2003)

And there was a Doctor Who that did the same thing. Tim McInnery, in Planet of the Ood (2008 - David Tennant as the Doctor) is forcibly turned into an Ood.

I suppose it all got its start from the Quatermass Xperiment of 1956, when an astronaut (played by Richard Wordsworth) is turned into a blob, but these later iterations on the trope, as the pretentious would say, just make no sense to me. "You will be assimilated!" Blah.

Let joy and innocence prevail.

Major Tom (Space Oddity)

Shiny Toy Gun's version of Major Tom.



David Bowie version. AKA Space Oddity

I'm beginning to feel like Typhoid Mary...

Several weeks ago, I came across a video on YouTube that used the song Nemo, from Nightwish. I'd never heard the song before - or of the band, and BECAUSE OF THIS VIDEO, I went out and bought the CD. As I'm willing to bet several people do!

But, I shared the information about this video in a story I'd written for a fanfiction site (listen to the song on this video while you read this story), and a day or so later - the video had been taken down for copyright infringement.

And I'm thinking, ya morons! I would never have known about this song except for this video, it gave you a new fan, and would probably have continued to give you new fans, but you take it down because you're not going to get a penny per each time it's played? So short sighted!

Then, just a couple of days ago, I shared here the video of a Star Trek Season 3 blooper reel, because it had like three whole seconds of Steve Ihnat and Yvonne Craig in a blooper. And now, today, I see that that video has been removed. It had been popular, over 48,000 views, so must have been up for at least a year. Yet two days after I share it here, it's gone. Coincidence?

And again, why? It was actually a pretty lousy video - someone had put text in the middle of everyone's faces so you couldn't see anything. (So yeah, obviously whoever originally had it didn't want it shown). But why? Why? Star Trek is over 40 years old, the actors don't get any royalties from the old show anymore, and the people who produced it are getting rich off the new series. Why do they even care about some 9 minute blooper reel? And if they really care that they're missing out on some money, why not put a link on the page to the real thing, sans that stupid obscuring text, and say, "Hey, pay a dollar and you can see this in quality video." People would have been willing to pay to see it!

But no, it's gone. It's just stupid.

Now I can see the point if its what someone has written. This happened to me. I spent hours and hours transcribing a Superman radio episode that had Batman as a gueststar. (The show was from the 1940s and out of copyright, I hasten to add.) I put this up on my site. A year later, I'm surfing the web, and see my entire script, plus the illustrations and annotations I'd made, on someone else's site. Which would have been fine, except they didn't even give me any credit for it! Nor had they changed the URLs for the links - so my server was still getting hits from them. (Not that bandwidth was an issue). But this just infuriated me. Yes, the show was out of copyright and anyone could have taken the time to do what I did, but *I* did it. Use it by all means, but at least do me the courtesy of linking back to my site!

But with music, or videos of old TV shows? There is only good, and no harm, in allowing them to remain on YouTube. They are free publicity. And since a lot of shows are never going to be released because they're not financially viable to do so, a lot of fans are being deprived of some good stuff for no good reason!

Just annoys the hell out of me!

Let joy and innocence prevail.

Why See A Movie When You Can See the Trailer?

I went to see Julie & Julia yesterday, and quite enjoyed it. I'm not a cook myself, but I grew up when Julia was in her heyday, and I always enjoyed her shows. And I thought the blog story with Amy Adams was good too.

But what annoyed me, as usual, were the trailers. Three minute trailers, or however long they were, that seemed to tell the entire movie in that three minutes. For example they're making a remake of The Stepfather. A movie I never saw when it originally came out, and now they're doing it again, and of course there's no doubt the guy's a psychotic killer. Thanks - I'll pass.

Then there's The Lovely Bones. Why anyone would want to read a book in which a rape/murder victim narrates her story while the rest of her family gets on with their lives is beyond me. Why anyone would want to make a movie of it...or go to see such a movie? Blech, blech, blech.

We live in a scary world. I'd rather see our theaters - and TV screens - filled with uplifting material, material that will change people's lives for the better. No, I'm not talking about religous type stuff, but bring back the days of The Virginian, or Gunsmoke, when heroes were heroes. Cartoons like Jonny Quest are needed, not crap like Spongebod Squarepants. As for the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, which my 9 year old nephew watches - gag me with a spoon.


Let Joy and Innocence Prevail

Star Trek Bloopers, Third Season

The quality of the video isn't very good, and there's text that pops up in the middle of the screen obscuring people's faces for some annoying reason, but it's all we've got, so we've got to be happy with it.

Steve Ihnat and Yvonne Craig are in it for abut 5 seconds, at the 1.53 mark. Yvonne is quoting her Shakespeare, Ihnat is rolling his eyes, then Yvonne forgets her line and swears, and Ihnat looks at her like he's shocked. Shocked, I tell you! Funny.

Steve Ihnat in Whom Gods Destroy

The Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" is not my favorite episode by any means -- it is certainly flawed and rather weak, frankly. But it does contain my favorite performance by a guest star in an ST episode, and that of course is Steve Ihnat as Garth of Izar.

Critics of the episode are divided, as you might expect. Some think Ihnat gives a great performance, others think he overacts and wasn't at all frightening. Of course, I'm in the first category.

The problem with the character of Garth of Izar actually comes from William Shatner's portrayal of him in the tantrum scene. Shatner has him pounding on a counter, on his two friends, etc. -- all very well and good, and what anyone who is very, very angry would do. Then he falls to his knees, but instead of pounding on the ground with both hands, pounds with alternate hands, like a child. That's just too childish for Garth, and that's what lessens his ability to be frightening.

What's fun about Steve's portrayal of Garth is that you will never see him play any other role this flamboyant and cheerful, either before or since. However, there are traces of the characterization in his role as Tyler, in the 1965 episode of Daniel Boone, "Perilous Journey", in which he plays a British assassin - who ends up getting shot by Daniel Boone's wife.

I've been surfing the web, and found a few reviews of Steve's performance. One blogger says that

"He reads as very, very gay, too. I'm trying not to stereotype from his flamboyant manner; it's also his indifference to Marta except as a sign of his power, his obsession with winning Kirk over (even to the point of naming him heir apparent), and his dislike of Kirk and Spock's mutual loyalty."

And I disagree completely.

If you keep your eye on Garth's face, in the scene where Marta is dancing, and when she's running her hands over his neck, etc., at all times he's gazing at her like he's really, really, really turned on. When she starts fondling Kirk, he is clearly angry that she's doing so.

Click on the photos for larger views.





















Can't quite catch his breath....

(If you were watching the actual episode, you'd see him try to breathe here...)


As for his obsession with "winning Kirk over," um...he's trying to get off the planet, Kirk has the countersign he needs...what else is he supposed to do?

As for "his dislike of Kirk and Spock's mutual loyalty," I'm not sure about that. It seemed like this was put in as a someehat heavy-handed plea for racial tolerance. Kirk regards himself and Spock as brothers... when Spock annoys Garth, he calls him an "animal" - a somewhat humanist/racist thing to say, because it must be remembered that in the original Star Trek, Spock is the first Vulcan to serve with humans on a star ship, and is, indeed, the only alien on board the ship (that we see, anyway.) So although the Federation has integrated mankind successfully, they have not yet integrated the alien species they encountered in their explorations...and Garth was one of those explorers.

Other flaws in the episode have to be explained away by a little "fan-fictionizing."

Since Kirk doesn't know about Garth's shape-shifting abilities, why does he have that "sign, countersign" thing in place? Well, because they're in orbit around an insane asylum, and it was probably standard protocol to have such a password in place at those times, and indeed anytime a starship would be over a planet in the throes of warfare, etc, so that unauthorized personnel couldn't gain access to the Enterprise by threatening the crew.

Since Garth can metamorphosize his molecules, why does his clothes keep changing as well? To me, all you have to do is look at the scenes when he switches from one form to another. The whole screen goes black for a split second. To me this means that Garth is actually controlling people's minds, as well as his own shape. He shifts shapes to whatever he wants to be, and he controls other people's minds so they see him with the appropriate clothing.

Why does Garth turn into Kirk so that Spock won't know who's who, when Garth has a phaser and knows Spock is heading for the command room? Well, because there was only ten minutes left in the episode, and events had to be moved along.

In the filming of the episode, Spock was actually supposed to discern between the two Kirks by asking a question that only Kirk would know, but since a Star Trek episode always had to end with a fight between Kirk and somebody, the writers changed it so that's how this episode would end. (An event that caused Nimoy to complain, but of course to no avail.) And, of course, if Spock had just phasered both of them, the unconscious Garth would have reverted to his true form, without the need for a fight. But perhaps it was simply illegal for Spock to shoot his captain, even if it would only cause unconsciousness. As for the rest, perhaps Spock just clinically wanted to see if Kirk could physically defeat Garth.

And, as an aside, I prefer to think Garth didn't actually kill Marta. Remember we never see her die, the explosion totally obscured her, so she's probably dragged back inside the base and rescuscitated. All Garth was trying to do was make Kirk give up the countersign, but Kirk will not sacrified the many for the needs of the one.

For more, check out Star Trek: Whom Gods Destroy, and fan fiction of the history of Garth of Izar, The Madness of Garth of Izar.

And to see Steve "starring" in a music video, check out "Let Joy and Innocence Prevail."

Starlog #1, August 1976

Soon to be added to The Thunder Child will be information on every SF magazine we possess in our library, to enable researchers to ask questions about an article, an interview, a quote, and so on. We'd also like to create a network of people who have magazines we don't have, so that their info can help others as well.

We begin with what's in Starlog 1, published in August 1976 by O'Quinn Studios. Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise are on the cover.

Log Entries (upcoming movies, tv, media, etc):
The Man Who Fell to Earth, starring DAvid Bowie.
At The Earth's Core, starring Doug McClure and Peter Cushing
Logan's Run completed
SF Expo 76 in New York
Start of production of Meteor.
First annual Star Trek Exposition of Washington DC planned for July 9-11, 1976
When Worlds Collide to be remade
Wonder Woman lives!
Space: 1999 - two vinyl records released
SF Academy Awards
Bernard Hermmann recordings to be released

Articles
The Bionic Woman: Creating a Cycorg for the 70s, by Isobel Silden
Space: 1999: Eadical Changes for the 2nd Season, by David Houston
Battle of the Titans: Two New Kongs Challenge the King, by Gary Girani
Squirm: Importing Giant Worms for Maximum Slither, by Kerry O'Quinn
Star TRek: Past, Present and Future, by David Houston
Special Collectors Section - Star Trek in Color (photos of a few episides)
The Conventions as Asimov Sees Them, by Isaac Asimov
William Shatner: Shakespeare to the Stars, by Kirsten Russell
Leonard Nimoy: The Man Between the Ears, by I. K. Lindquist
Complete Guide to Star Trek episodes (brief synopses)

Star Teasers - Puzzles & Word Games:
Star Trek anagrams
Supply the Cation (Kirk and unidentified female actress)
Star Trek match puzzle and word maze
Life Form letter change
Word Builder: Tribbles
Keyword Quiz

Let Joy and Innocence Prevail

This is a very powerful song, which I've always liked. It's the kind of song that needs more play today, as no one is allowed to be innocent these days. Kids as young as 5 years old are being indoctrinated into acting as old and as snotty as possible (as witness every sitcom on TV where the "cute" kid talks back to parents, knows more than parents, ya da ya da. And can teenagers be innocent? Fat chance!)

Anyway, I've done some animation to the song, using some characters from a world called Arveacy - the novel of which I'd worked on long ago...never finished it though. So this will be the first time anyone has ever seen those characters.

For those unfamiliar with the song, the first 51 seconds are instrumental, then she begins singing. Grace Jones has an incredible voice and she does a great job with this song - better I think than anyone else could do.

The Inheritors, Final Scene

Someone has put the last 9 minutes of part 2 of The Outer Limits, "The Inheritors" up on YouTube.

Three of the four mind-controlled men are trying to rebel, at the behest of Adam Ballard, who fears that the aliens controlling them have some dark plans in store for the handicapped children whom they are abducting into a spaceship.

Steve Ihnat, as Lt. Minns, explains what has really been happening.

The children will be the inheritors of a bright new world.



You can purchase the complete DVD set of The Outer Limits from Amazon.com, or download Inheritors Pt 1 and Pt 2 from Amazon Unbox, straight to your computer, for $1.99 each. (Their player is free.)

Inheriting the Madness: An Appreciation of the SF Ouvre of Steve Ihnat

Well, the article is done...for now.

I had hoped to include quotes from Yvonne Craig about working with Ihnat, but no luck contacting her, and her interview in Starlog was useless for my purposes.

And I couldn't find any quotes on anyone working with him on The Inheritors...but I'll persevere in that direction.

Anyway, the complete article can be found at The Thunder Child: Inheriting the Madness

However, it must be said that that article is very graphics intensive, so I'm also going to break it up into two smaller articles, one on Star Trek's Whom Gods Destroy, the other on The Twilight Zone's The Inheritors.

For Whom Gods Destroy, check out:

http://volcanoseven.com/TheThunderChild/EBAYReady/WhomGodsDestroy.html

and for The Outer Limits: The Inheritors:

http://volcanoseven.com/TheThunderChild/EBAYReady/TheInheritors.html

The Outer Limits: The Inheritors

Just uploaded screencaps for The Inheritors to the Steve Ihnat site. He works opposite Robert Duvall in this, and the two men will work again about 4 years later in another SF story, the movie Countdown.

The Outer Limits: The Inheritors

The Outer Limits is known for its aliens, or "bears" as the writers called them. "The Zanti Misfits" is a popular episode, as is "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" starring William Shatner, and "Demon With A Glass Hand," written by Harlan ELlison, starring Robert Culp.

The Inheritors has no such trappings. It's a simple suspense story - four men have been shot in the head with fragments made from the same meteor, and they now have genius level IQs and seem to be controlled by an exterior intelligence. Three of them are building a space ship, one of them, Steve Ihnat, is going about recruiting handicapped children.

For what purpose?

Robert Duvall delivers an excellent performance as Adam Ballard, desperate to try to find out what is happening, desperate to save the children from being experimented on, as he thinks is what's going to happen. He begs the mind-controlled men to fight, to resist....

Steve gives a very understated performance as the leader of the mind-controlled. He doesn't know why he's doing what he's doing, it "does matter," as he tells Ballard, but he can't fight it just as they can't fight him.

I won't give away the ending - though if you check the screencaps you'll see.

The casting is multi-racial. Ivan Dixon (of Hogan's Heroes fame) plays one of the new geniuses, and three of the children are also black. TV during the 60s was doing its part to integrate America (indeed, as radio had done before it).

Sand Rock Sentinel now on Twitter

http://twitter.com/SandRockSentnel

I'm trying an experiment with Twitter. I'll be using it in "real-time" to tell the story of the movie Them!, from the 1950s, and, simultaneously, the complete ouvre of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, starting with 11 Days to Zero.

My hope is that people who see the tweets will be intrigued to visit my website, The Thunder Child, as well as check out these classic movies and TV series on DVD. Today there's so much garbage on TV...kids don't have any role models to look up - at least, not any good ones.

Anyway..it may not work, as the illusion of things happening in real time is destroyed somewhat by my having to put the dates of each event. However, right now I'm just setting the background - nuclear testing in Nevada, Admiral Nelson's Seaview ready for sea trials, and in another few days I'll start dealin eith the movie/episodes proper.

So we'll see how it goes.

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.