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May262010

Welcome Home, Atlantis

I’m sure everyone has heard by now that space shuttle Atlantis returned safely to Earth this morning, concluding her 32nd — and final — mission. The old girl isn’t quite ready for mothballs yet; she will be prepped again as per the usual turnaround routine to serve as the “launch-on-need” vehicle — that’d be a “back-up” to you and me — for Endeavour‘s final flight in November, which will be the last of the shuttle program. Barring any problems with Endeavour, however, Atlantis is effectively finished. I won’t reiterate again how sad this makes me. Instead, let’s just paste a couple of souvenirs into our online scrapbook, and enjoy the memories while they’re still fresh.

First up, Twittering astronaut Soichi Noguchi captured a really gorgeous portrait of Atlantis as she pulled away from the International Space Station a couple days ago; click on the thumbnail below to see the full-size version:

Homebound! Atlantis will return to Florida (or California) to... on Twitpic

And here is NASA’s official video coverage of the landing. This is what the future looked like when I was a kid, and even though I know a lot of people now see this as the past — the 1970s, to be precise — I never get tired of seeing it. For a vehicle that was once derisively referred to as “the flying brick,” the shuttle always strikes me as incredibly graceful in the air and surprisingly delicate when it touches down.

The next scheduled launch will be Discovery in mid-September…

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May252010

Perspective

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably figured out that I’m not exactly a “glass is half-full” kind of guy. I don’t consider myself overly negative or pessimistic (although I’ve certainly been accused of both by friends and family), but I do have a painful awareness of the worst-case scenario, if that makes sense.

That’s why I find the late Christopher Reeve so endlessly fascinating and, to employ the shopworn cliche, inspirational. He was a guy who ended up in the worst imaginable worst-case scenario, and yet somehow, he endured. No, that’s not quite correct; he rose above it. Not only did the accident that paralyzed him fail to destroy him, it actually made him a better human being. And his accomplishments after the accident were at least as impressive and important as the ones he’d achieved before it.

Consider the following list, taken from an article about Bret Michaels and other celebrities who set examples of courage and dignity in the face of potentially devastating health problems:

In his “Still Me” memoir, the cinema “Superman” recounted his rehabilitation, admitting that initially, he considered suicide because he thought his life was over. However, he:

  • wrote two best-sellers,
  • directed two telefilms,
  • produced and starred in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,”
  • received multiple Emmy nominations for his acting and directing work,
  • traveled across the United States giving speeches,
  • established the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation to speed spinal cord injury research and aid sufferers,
  • co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center,
  • was instrumental in pioneering a new form of therapy that has accounted for a number of paralyzed patients becoming able to walk again,
  • made the cover of Time,
  • won a Grammy,
  • and shattered ratings records for CW series when he guest starred on “Smallville.”

I’m not ever going to become a Pollyanna who always looks on the bright side of life. That’s just not me. And frankly I despise that simplistic aphorism about what you should do when life hands you lemons, because oftentimes those lemons are too small and hard to squeeze enough juice out of them to make any damn lemonade. But this list definitely suggests that you can find some use for the little buggers. Even if it’s just turning throwing them back at the smug jackass who gave them to you in the first place…

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May222010

Friday Evening Videos: Ronnie James Dio Commemorative Edition

I wouldn’t call myself a fan of the late heavy-metal singer Ronnie James Dio, who died last week at the age of 67. His music was a little too far to the headbanging side of the spectrum for my tastes (well, except for that one song on the Vision Quest soundtrack; I liked that one). But even so, he was a pretty formidable presence out there in the culture during my formative years, a familiar face and voice, and I seem to have reached a point in my life where I feel a pang at the loss of any iconic figure from my youth, whether I was a fan or not. So, to honor the recently departed Mr. Dio, I’m going to post one of his videos, “The Last in Line,” which is admittedly kind of ridiculous even by MTV standards, but is nevertheless… interesting.

To be honest, I’ve been thinking about posting this clip anyhow, as an example of what I like to call “narrative videos.” I haven’t done any kind of statistical analysis or anything, but it seems to me that the vast majority of music videos are little more than performance clips. That is, they’re really just footage of the band playing the song. They may be wearing weird costumes or performing in bizarre settings or something, but there’s usually not much story happening. Some vids, though, have a definite plot: the three famous ZZ Top clips involving the Eliminator hot rod, for example, or more obviously, a-ha’s justly praised “Take on Me” video, in which a young woman is sucked into a comic-book world and proceeds to have adventures with the band’s hunky lead singer as they’re pursued by sinister guys in dark uniforms and helmets. And then of course, there’s Dio’s “The Last in Line,” which is perhaps single-handedly responsible for the entire “heavy-metal hell” sequence in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey:

As I said, pretty ridiculous, but it has the virtue of being far more ambitious than most videos, as well as a piquant commentary on the social concerns and fads of the early ’80s (i.e., the kids whose punishment is to play arcade games for all eternity — wonder which sin warranted that?). I think the similarity to Bogus Journey is pretty obvious, if you remember that movie at all, and you could also argue that the demon guy with the hoses sticking out of his neck was an inspiration for the Borg in Star Trek: The Next Generation. (It would seem that American culture has been uneasy with the idea of cybernetics for a very long time.)

Lastly, a brief trivia note: You may have recognized the young man who’s taking the tour of hell. That’s Meeno Peluce, a child actor who was all over the boob tube during the late ’70s and early ’80s. He’s best known for the short-lived but well-loved time-travel series Voyagers!, and as fate would have it, he’s also the brother of Soleil Moon-Frye, a.k.a. Punky Brewster. I always thought Peluce was a cool kid, as well as a natural and appealing actor; he’s a little younger than me, but close enough that I easily identified with him in Voyagers! and other roles. This video, made in 1984, was the last time I remember seeing him in anything, although Wikipedia says he’s appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies since then. He apparently grew up to become a history teacher — interesting, considering his character on Voyagers! was a history buff and, as I recall, the son of a teacher — and he’s also an accomplished photographer who has shot Courtney Love and Lady Gaga. Not bad, kid… not bad at all…

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May212010

Just to Demonstrate the Unfathomable Depths of My Geekiness

I took a walk earlier, from my office over to my credit union, and along the way, I happened to spot a handbill pasted to a lamppost. It was typical for this sort of thing: a homemade, Xerox’d advertisement for a band I’ve never heard of, scheduled to play at a club I’d never set foot in, the sort of ad I see a dozen times a week and never pay any mind to. This one, however, caught my attention because I recognized the photo the band had used, no doubt with a great deal of irony and private amusement on their part. It was, in fact, this photo here:

A publicity still of Peter Barton in The Powers of Matthew Star

This is a publicity still from a short-lived TV series called The Powers of Matthew Star, circa 1982 or thereabouts, about an alien prince from a besieged world, hiding out here on Earth in the guise of a typical teenage boy. Who just happens to have telekinetic superpowers with which he helps out the people around him, of course. I suspect that 99.99999% of the rest of the world has completely forgotten this show, if in fact anyone ever knew about it to begin with. Probably Louis Gossett, Jr., doesn’t even remember this show, and he was in the damn thing. But I remember it. Because I’m me.
This is my gift. And my curse.

Incidentally, I ganked that image up there from this site, a pretty nifty project in which somebody is scanning and commenting on old issues of Starlog magazine. I always loved Starlog, the best source of sci-fi and fantasy news for decades before this whole InterWeb thing came along. I still have quite a few back issues down in the archives. Including the one with the article about The Powers of Matthew Star.

It’s okay, I’m frightened, too…

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May212010

Opening Everywhere, Thirty Years Ago Today…

In addition to Pac-Man, today is also the 30th anniversary of another major signpost in the pop-cultural landscape: the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back. But perhaps you’ve not heard of it? It was, after all, just a little-known sequel to a cultish fantasy movie about a farm boy who befriends a trashcan and a walking carpet…

Okay, so that was a really lame attempt at humor. Sorry about that.

I don’t have much to say about the movie itself. We’ve all seen it. We all know the shocking twist at the end. Popular consensus long ago determined it was the best of the six Star Wars films, and I don’t disagree with that assessment. (I do, however, hold about the same level of esteem for both it and the original Star Wars. They’re quite different in many respects, but I love them equally.) It remains, even after decades, the textbook example of everything a good sequel ought to do: its plot was original and compelling, not simply a redo of the original; it expanded upon the established setting without rewriting any rules; it deepened the familiar characters, added new ones that were equally as interesting and/or lovable, and offered more sophisticated themes. Like the Harry Potter novels would do years later, the Star Wars saga was growing up, keeping pace with the maturation of its primary fanbase. It’s a shame that Return of the Jedi was in so many ways a step backwards… but that’s a blog entry for another time.

I have several strong memories associated with the release of Empire, most notably the fiendish way in which I found out about Vader’s big revelation to Luke, but quite honestly, I don’t have the time right now to do that story justice. So what I’d like to do is share with you the little-seen teaser trailer that was released a year before the movie itself:

Continue Reading…

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May212010

Thirty Years? Really? No, Really?!

Yes, I know, two posts with nearly identical titles in only one week’s time… but by some weird coincidence this year is turning out to be packed with landmark anniversaries for things that really don’t seem like they happened all that long ago. Today’s impossible-that-so-much-time-has-passed event is the release of the arcade video game Pac-Man, which holds the Guinness World Record for “the world’s most successful coin-operated game.”

There are a handful of video games that were so mind-boggling to me for one reason or another that I can still remember the place and circumstances in which I first encountered them. Space Invaders, for instance — I saw my first SI game at a grotty old movie theater called the Greenbriar, which ran a special program of Saturday double-features for the kids every summer, in association with the local PTA. (Most memorable bill: Clash of the Titans with Dragonslayer… now that was an afternoon’s entertainment!) One weekend, though, nobody seemed much interested in the movie… instead, we were all in the lobby, clustered around this tall wooden cabinet from which some really weird sounds were emanating. I can still recall the feel of a quarter clenched in my moist palm, the knurled edge biting into my skin; the smell of musty carpet, fresh popcorns, and overheated (i.e., sweaty) kids; and the pleasure of shooting down 8-bit aliens on the march, only to become clenched by a ratcheting sense of anxiety as that last little bugger evaded my turbolaser and raced for the surface. It was, in a word, an amazing experience unlike anything I’d ever done before, and it obviously etched itself deeply into my memory.

Pac-Man, not so much. I mean, I played Pac-Man, I liked Pac-Man, but it was a different experience from my first encounter with Space Invaders… or Zaxxon, which upped the realism factor by adding a third dimension to your avatar’s maneuverability… or Gauntlet, which could be played by four people simultaneously, and was really just a kick-ass game anyway. Pac-Man, on the other hand, was simply a ubiquitous part of the background noise of my early adolescence. A very pleasant noise, to be sure… the opening theme song and the pathetic little “zoink-zoink” sound when ol’ Packy gets eaten can still bring a smile to my face. But I can’t remember the first time I saw or played the game; it seems like all of a sudden, it was just all over the place, appearing fully grown overnight like dandelions on the front lawn. And it still is all over, if you’re paying attention. Arcades have gone away and cabinet-style coin-op games are pretty rare in general, but if you encounter a vintage game out there somewhere, odds are good that it’s going to be a Pac-Man… or at least one of those combo units that have several classic games in one cabinet, and Pac-Man is always an option in those. The longevity of the cute little yellow mouth and the pop-eyed ghosts who are his mortal enemies is nothing less than astounding.

If you haven’t seen it already, Google has done something pretty cool to celebrate 30 years of that “wocka-wocka-wocka” sound. The search engine site has replaced its usual banner with a fully playable (if weirdly elongated) recreation of the game:

Just click the “Insert Coin” button and you’re right back in middle school, gobbling those power-pills and chasing Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde around the maze at breakneck — well, okay, maybe not so fast — speed. I’ve been hearing the opening theme and the sound effects all over my cube farm this morning, and it’s making an otherwise stressed-out Friday a lot more enjoyable. Also a lot less productive, but given the pace we’ve been keeping lately, I’m all for that…

Anyhow, there’s a brief article on the anniversary and Google’s commemoration of it here, or you can just hit Google’s homepage and commence to playing.

Check out the official Pac-Man page too!

 

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May172010

Reach Out and See What’s Out There

Actor-writer-blogger-geek-extraordinaire Wil Wheaton has a brief but evocative post up about his memories of the Challenger disaster and watching the launch of Atlantis the other day. Here’s the bit that resonated the most with me:

When mission control gave the order to go with throttle up, I held my breath like I have every single time since the shuttle program was reinstated in 1988, and when the shuttle separated from the boosters and glided into orbit, I got something in my eye. Just take a moment, if you don’t mind, and think about what it means that we can leave our planet, even if we’ve “only” gotten as far as the dark side of the moon. Think about what it means that something as incredible as putting humans into space and bringing them back safely to Earth today earns less media attention and public excitement than the typical celebrity breakup.

 

It is amazing that we can do this, and even though I’ve come to believe the shuttle program isn’t the best way to spend NASA’s tiny budget (which is a pitiful fraction of what it should be), I hope that there was a child watching the launch today who will feel inspired to reach out to the stars and see what’s out there.

 

We humans are a flawed species, to put it mildly, and I think we could do a much better job taking care of our planet and each other … but when I see what we’re capable of doing, it gives me hope that the future I pretended to live in twenty years ago will actually arrive some day.

(For anyone who doesn’t catch the reference in the final sentence — and I know at least one of my Loyal Readers probably does not — Wil played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

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May172010

Really? Twenty Years? Naaah…

jim-henson_frank-oz_sesame-street-behind-the-scenes.jpg

SamuraiFrog reminds us that yesterday, May 16, was the 20th anniversary of Muppet-master Jim Henson’s sad and far-too-early death. Twenty years since that spooky day when my entire university campus seemed to fall into a deep depression. Few individuals have that kind of effect on an entire generation. And the thing I admire so much about Jim is that he did it with nothing more than whimsy and sly humor, and the imagination to turn feathers and foam and random bits of stuff into characters that still seem to live and breathe in our collective consciousness.

Still… twenty years? I’m really having a hard time wrapping my mind around that one!

Incidentally, the photo above is one I ran across quite a while ago; I’ve been waiting for a good reason to post it, and this seems as good a time as any. I’m sorry to say I don’t know who the man on Jim’s left is; the gentleman to his right is, of course, Frank Oz, Jim’s friend and co-conspirator during what I would call the “golden age” of The Muppets: the pre-Elmo Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and The Muppet Movie. It seems to me that Frank, like Dan Ackroyd after Belushi, lost some minuscule but crucial animating spark after Jim’s death. Perhaps that’s presumptuous of me, considering I don’t know the man, but that is nevertheless the sense I get when he talks about the old days.

I think a lot of us feel that way, actually…

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May142010

The Final Voyage of Atlantis Begins

Just about one hour ago, space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center for the final time.

It was a textbook launch into a beautiful cerulean sky, and the shuttle is now safely on orbit and chasing after the International Space Station for a rendezvous two days from now. Mission STS-132 is scheduled to last 12 days; in its payload bay, Atlantis carries a Russian laboratory module — the first time a Russian-built ISS component has flown on an American spacecraft — as well as an assortment of replacement parts and batteries for the station.

Atlantis, the second youngest of the shuttles, flew for the first time in October 1985, and has racked up an impressive list of “firsts” in the 25 years since. Here’s a fairly nifty video produced by NASA to commemorate her life:

***VIDEO MISSING***

(And yes, I know I was just bitching about not having any time to blog, let alone watch space shuttle videos. So I’m rebelling a little, give me a break…)

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May142010

Too Damn Busy!

I’m having one of those grinding, despair-inducing weeks that consist of little more than proofreading, restless and unsatisfying sleep, and numbly shoveling food into my mouth without tasting it. Late nights, impossible deadlines, not enough hands around the agency to manage the volume of work, neglected chores and personal projects at home, and the bleak feeling that I’ve somehow lost sight of whatever my “real” life was supposed to be… you get the idea.
At times like this, when daydreams of walking away from everything and hitting the open road with nothing but a dufflebag at my side like Bill Bixby in The Incredible Hulk are occurring more and more frequently — like, every 45 seconds or so — I can’t help but wonder how in the hell people with families can tolerate the demands of the modern workplace. I know many of my coworkers have spouses and kids. If I’m feeling antsy about missing out on the life part of the work-life balance, what sort of torment are they enduring?

In any event, my agenda is crowded enough that I may not manage to get a Friday Evening Video up today, and I really doubt that I’ll be managing anything of actual substance for awhile, either. And yes, I am deeply frustrated by that, thanks for asking.

In the meantime, let’s all take a moment to enjoy a vintage photo of the lovely Bettie Page, shall we?

One of my favorite pics of Bettie Page and her sweet smile.

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