![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"Spa-OCK! You've... BENT! Mywookie!"
Feb. 25th, 2002 11:15 amA full weekend, and not long enough. Specifically, there weren’t enough hours spent in sleep.
On Saturday, I continued to wallpaper for three or four hours. Stupid wallpaper! Following this, I settled down to watch a little TV. As I did so, I realized I hadn’t watched ANY television since the “Canadian” Simpson’s episode, six days earlier. I know this isn’t a record for me - once I worked at a summer camp, and went three weeks without a single glance at the box. I am watching much less television these past few years. I guess the time I formerly spent watching TV has been replaced by time in front of a keyboard. Just as unhealthy, and gifting me with none of cool cultural references that are such an important part of conversation these days!
So, in effort to tap into whatever it is “the kids” think of as cool these days, I tuned in to a episode of Classic Trek, a show that is closing in on the 40 year old mark. Weird... when I was a kid, WWII was more recent for me than Classic Trek is for a seven year old today. I can remember the 40th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz.” It was on TV for a week when I lived in Montreal. Now Wiz is 63 years old. Criminy. Not only am I getting older, popular culture is stretching out beyond the span of man’s life. In 1982, I thought Gilligan’s Isle was old and Happy Days new. Now Happy Days is further in the past than Gilligan was for the eight year old me.
Anyway, it was one of my two or three favorite Trek episodes, the one where a colony has been granted perfect happiness by plant spores. “This Side of Paradise” is the title, I think. Why do I like it?
It features one of the hottest Trek babes ever - the zaftig blonde who has a dalliance with Spock. She isn’t even forced to wear one of those hideous “sexy” costumes they made so many Trek women wear, instead garbed in a sensible pantsuit. That said garment still hugs her hips and backside “just so” is fine by me, Chester!
Shatner is at his scenery-chewing best. If I may make reference to the banquet rant in a previous entry, this particular SF feast features a grinning Chef Shatner slicing off inch-thick slabs of good ol’ Canadian ham. I particularly like the scene where he taunts Spock in an attempt to dismiss the power of the spores with “strong emotion... strong.... NEGATIVE! Eeeemotions!!”
Lots of atypical behaviour on the part of the principal actors.
- Spock hangs upside down from a tree. Spock frenches a real, live girl. Spock beats Kirk down to the ground in about five seconds, without once using the “neck pinch.” (See below) Just about anything Spock does in this episode, in fact, which is kind of the point.
- McCoy clocks the colony leader, possibly the only time he really gets into a fist fight during TOS. He gets a good line, too. When the colony leader tells McCoy they have no use for doctors, he retorts “Would you like me to show you how fast I can put you in the hospital?” Then he whacks him!
- Kirk is unsure of himself. Some low ranking crewmember sasses back at him, and he looks like he’s about to bust out in hot, angry tears and run back to his cabin for a good cry and some chocolate.
The best scene, of course, is the “Kirk Taunt/ Beat Down” scene. Realizing that strong negative emotions dispell the effect of the happy-spores, Kirk tricks Spock back onto the ship. Spock arrives to find Kirk brandishing a metal pipe. Kirk taunts Spock like a schoolyard bully. He calls him a “devil-eared simpering freak” and claims all Vulcans are souless traitors. One wonders if Kirk doesn’t actually believe all this... When Spock finally snaps, he bends Kirk’s pipe and kicks the hell out of him. One wonders why Spock wasn’t chosen more often to compete in those alien gladitorial combats TOS loved so dearly. The answer, of course, is that Nimoy is a flabby pencil-necked intellectual. Can you imagine his pasty pecs exposed to the world after getting his uniform shirt artfully torn by a giant alien lizardman? Here’s a helpful envisioning hint - “Elric: the Desk Jockey.”
On Saturday night, I played D&D with the Dundas group. The campaign is going quite well. It’s taken three sessions so far to work through a fairly basic dungeon crawl, because the players are busily role-playing their little hearts out. Erin is playing! She joined the group in this session. She made a rogue named Velvet, and dropped right into character, leading me to believe that this character is a pre-existing one from one of the sword & sorcery novels she tried writing in high school. Erin admitted she had trouble sleeping after the game because she was “too excited.” Post-game buzz, folks. That’s what it’s all about. She's one of us now. I can't wait till she reaches 7th level, and I can teach her "real spells!"
Got to bed at 2 AM on Sunday morn. Was up at 8:30 AM. Erin went to church, I stayed home to polish off my Herclulean wallpapering task. I finished at 12:56 PM. Minutes later, thebitterguy called and asked me to stop by to kvetch/brainstorm about our respective RPG contracts. Really, though, we ended up just kind of hanging out. I lent him “Bad Taste,” and we looked at websites while keeping a casual eye on the US/Canada gold medal hockey game.
By the way, Canada won - a fact brought home by the incessant car horns and sudden appearance of flag-waving yahoos at every street corner. When I got back to Hamilton, I stood on my lawn for about 30 seconds, and listened. Even though the game had been over for about 90 min, the blare of car horns on King street to the south and Barton to the north, was literally unstopping. It was like a solid noise. Hooray Canada!
But BOO! to the jackasses who drove down out street at 10:45 PM cheering and beeping. What? You're working on Newfoundland time?
I got to bed at 11 PM on Sunday night, after finishing Deux Ex. And then awoke at 5:45 AM. I’m very, very sleepy.
On Saturday, I continued to wallpaper for three or four hours. Stupid wallpaper! Following this, I settled down to watch a little TV. As I did so, I realized I hadn’t watched ANY television since the “Canadian” Simpson’s episode, six days earlier. I know this isn’t a record for me - once I worked at a summer camp, and went three weeks without a single glance at the box. I am watching much less television these past few years. I guess the time I formerly spent watching TV has been replaced by time in front of a keyboard. Just as unhealthy, and gifting me with none of cool cultural references that are such an important part of conversation these days!
So, in effort to tap into whatever it is “the kids” think of as cool these days, I tuned in to a episode of Classic Trek, a show that is closing in on the 40 year old mark. Weird... when I was a kid, WWII was more recent for me than Classic Trek is for a seven year old today. I can remember the 40th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz.” It was on TV for a week when I lived in Montreal. Now Wiz is 63 years old. Criminy. Not only am I getting older, popular culture is stretching out beyond the span of man’s life. In 1982, I thought Gilligan’s Isle was old and Happy Days new. Now Happy Days is further in the past than Gilligan was for the eight year old me.
Anyway, it was one of my two or three favorite Trek episodes, the one where a colony has been granted perfect happiness by plant spores. “This Side of Paradise” is the title, I think. Why do I like it?
It features one of the hottest Trek babes ever - the zaftig blonde who has a dalliance with Spock. She isn’t even forced to wear one of those hideous “sexy” costumes they made so many Trek women wear, instead garbed in a sensible pantsuit. That said garment still hugs her hips and backside “just so” is fine by me, Chester!
Shatner is at his scenery-chewing best. If I may make reference to the banquet rant in a previous entry, this particular SF feast features a grinning Chef Shatner slicing off inch-thick slabs of good ol’ Canadian ham. I particularly like the scene where he taunts Spock in an attempt to dismiss the power of the spores with “strong emotion... strong.... NEGATIVE! Eeeemotions!!”
Lots of atypical behaviour on the part of the principal actors.
- Spock hangs upside down from a tree. Spock frenches a real, live girl. Spock beats Kirk down to the ground in about five seconds, without once using the “neck pinch.” (See below) Just about anything Spock does in this episode, in fact, which is kind of the point.
- McCoy clocks the colony leader, possibly the only time he really gets into a fist fight during TOS. He gets a good line, too. When the colony leader tells McCoy they have no use for doctors, he retorts “Would you like me to show you how fast I can put you in the hospital?” Then he whacks him!
- Kirk is unsure of himself. Some low ranking crewmember sasses back at him, and he looks like he’s about to bust out in hot, angry tears and run back to his cabin for a good cry and some chocolate.
The best scene, of course, is the “Kirk Taunt/ Beat Down” scene. Realizing that strong negative emotions dispell the effect of the happy-spores, Kirk tricks Spock back onto the ship. Spock arrives to find Kirk brandishing a metal pipe. Kirk taunts Spock like a schoolyard bully. He calls him a “devil-eared simpering freak” and claims all Vulcans are souless traitors. One wonders if Kirk doesn’t actually believe all this... When Spock finally snaps, he bends Kirk’s pipe and kicks the hell out of him. One wonders why Spock wasn’t chosen more often to compete in those alien gladitorial combats TOS loved so dearly. The answer, of course, is that Nimoy is a flabby pencil-necked intellectual. Can you imagine his pasty pecs exposed to the world after getting his uniform shirt artfully torn by a giant alien lizardman? Here’s a helpful envisioning hint - “Elric: the Desk Jockey.”
On Saturday night, I played D&D with the Dundas group. The campaign is going quite well. It’s taken three sessions so far to work through a fairly basic dungeon crawl, because the players are busily role-playing their little hearts out. Erin is playing! She joined the group in this session. She made a rogue named Velvet, and dropped right into character, leading me to believe that this character is a pre-existing one from one of the sword & sorcery novels she tried writing in high school. Erin admitted she had trouble sleeping after the game because she was “too excited.” Post-game buzz, folks. That’s what it’s all about. She's one of us now. I can't wait till she reaches 7th level, and I can teach her "real spells!"
Got to bed at 2 AM on Sunday morn. Was up at 8:30 AM. Erin went to church, I stayed home to polish off my Herclulean wallpapering task. I finished at 12:56 PM. Minutes later, thebitterguy called and asked me to stop by to kvetch/brainstorm about our respective RPG contracts. Really, though, we ended up just kind of hanging out. I lent him “Bad Taste,” and we looked at websites while keeping a casual eye on the US/Canada gold medal hockey game.
By the way, Canada won - a fact brought home by the incessant car horns and sudden appearance of flag-waving yahoos at every street corner. When I got back to Hamilton, I stood on my lawn for about 30 seconds, and listened. Even though the game had been over for about 90 min, the blare of car horns on King street to the south and Barton to the north, was literally unstopping. It was like a solid noise. Hooray Canada!
But BOO! to the jackasses who drove down out street at 10:45 PM cheering and beeping. What? You're working on Newfoundland time?
I got to bed at 11 PM on Sunday night, after finishing Deux Ex. And then awoke at 5:45 AM. I’m very, very sleepy.
