aka Blog v4.0
February 23, 1968: on the day of my first birthday, Star Trek episode “By Any Other Name” premiered.
Beings from the Andromeda Galaxy steal the Enterprise, technically modify it, and attempt to return home.
Lots to like in this episode, like the Doc from Forbidden Planet as Rojan, and his, er, partner(?) Kalinda.
Best line from this episode?
“It’s green.”
One of Mr. Scott’s finest moments.
I went to go see Black Panther for the second time.
It’s definitely in my top 5 Marvel films, and top 10 superhero films, of all time.
As with second viewings, I managed to hear dialogue I missed the first time around.
My favorite character in the movie is M’Baku.
I said elsewhere that I want to put him in my Marvel buddy film, staring Luis, Korg, Groot, and Ned. And maybe Darcy.
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So begins my birthday week staycation.
Woohoo.
After last year’s 50th birthday shindig, I’m not really feeling like doing anything for my 51st, to be honest.
Though if anyone wants to feed me pizza this Friday, I’m all for it.
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I tried the Hostess SnoBall ice cream bar today. Tasted like plastic. I think that was the vanilla part, which I thought was marshmallow.
Dad didn’t seem impressed with it either.
Very good movie.
It’s not my new favorite. In fact, it’s hard to say which, if any, is my favorite Marvel movie. But this one is definitely a contender for that title.
The cast was great. Aside from T’Challa, my favorite characters are Okoye and M’Baku. The entire cast was awesome, truth be told, but there were moments with those two in particular that I liked the most.
I’d say about 95% of a packed audience stayed for the VERY predictable end of credits scene. Almost everyone watched the mid-credits scene.
Go see it!
In my continuing quest to play all the games I picked up from Kickstarter, I attempted a solo game of Dinosaur Island.
I got through 3 turns before I decided to abandon the game.
It plays pretty well, I just kept making mistakes and missing steps.
And yes, it does feel like Jurassic Park meets worker placement.
And while solo play is okay, I’d rather try this with a group.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time today going though some stacks of old CDs that I had not transferred to my iPod/iPad.
I came across a lot of 90s music that I haven’t listened to since, well, the 90s, of bands that I have no interest in listening to now, nor can I recall any of their songs, like Everclear, Frente, Belly, Big Audio Dynamite, and others.
All this started because I discovered that I did not have the D2: The Mighty Ducks soundtrack in my library.
I ended up adding like 30+ CDs to the library, including some Disney CDs, some MTV Unplugged stuff, all three Austin Powers movies music, and some other movie stuff.
Also, John Williams Olympic music, and the national anthems of 16 countries.
I bought a lot of odd CDs over the years.
A while ago I added the sound effects from Star Trek The Original series.
And how did I also not have Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl” in my library?
I must have started doing this at about 10 this morning, and 6 hours later I realized that I was hungry.
I ended up driving out to Five Guys for a burger and fries.
Currently I’m finishing up the day with the Warriors game, and learning how to play Dinosaur Island.
February 9, 1968: premiere date of the Star Trek episode ‘Return to Tomorrow’
Telepathic aliens take control of Kirk and Spock’s bodies with the intention to build new, mechanized bodies for themselves.
One of my favorite episodes, if only for this moment:
As cheesy as Shatner can get, this is my favorite of all of Kirk’s speeches, in all of Star Trek.
I love that they copied it in Free Enterprise.
It’s also cool to see Diana Muldaur in her first appearance on Star Trek:
And of course, smiling Spock:
I’ve found myself in this or a similar pose over the years. Maybe influenced subconsciously by this episode?
I managed to find my copy of this book yesterday.
I searched for it mainly because of a two-page spread that was being shared around social media on Monday.
The configuration in the left column, center row looks like the ship we see in the Solo trailer.
In the book, the Falcon was named Stellar Envoy when it was seen in Revenge of the Sith.
It will be interesting to see how they go about explaining whether or not this is still true, and how the Falcon eventually looks the way that we’re all familiar with from the Original Trilogy.
Again, I may be a little excited about this upcoming movie.
June 1977: After I had seen Star Wars for the first time, and before I would ever know what kind of impact it would have on me, all I knew was that I wanted to be Han Solo.
About a year or so later, Star Wars books started to appear, and among them was Han Solo at Star’s End, the first of the original Han Solo Trilogy, by the late Brian Daley.
Since then, I had always imagined that they would make a movie about Han Solo and his early adventures.
Flash forward almost 40 years:
Anyone who says that no one wanted this movie made has never met me. This, and the Jawas film/TV series, are two things that I’ve wanted from Star Wars since first seeing it when I was 10 years old.
I sound biased, but this could be the best Star Wars film since Rogue One.
You might say I’m more than a little excited about it.
