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Space - the final career
Sfoglio, the little pixie that I use to make these entries, is still misbehaving. In fact, I don't think it's Sfoglio's fault. I'm wondering if there could be some other cause.
Basically it's making entries just fine, but it's setting the permissions on those entries so that no one (including me) is allowed to read them afterward! So if you get a 403 (Access Denied) when you try to read something here, don't worry; I'm probably changing the permissions on the file even as you get the error. Until I can figure out the problem, that's what I'll have to do: post an entry, then go reset the permissions afterward by hand.
Other than that little gripe, Saturday went well; we drove up to Cape Ann and had fried clams and then went to Halibut Point and climbed on the rocks and then we had fresh ice cream. I got two rolls of photos, which I'll have developed on Monday; I'll post any promising ones. Eventually. The picture gallery needs to move to a more useful location, and I still have two sets of unscanned photos in the backlog. I could do those today ... but I really should write instead.
Meanwhile I'm doing neither; I'm reading and answering all this provocative email. Mary Anne sent a piece to review for use elsewhere about how she has always secretly been in love with Spock (and, by extension, Leonard Nimoy).
I feel a little sorry for Leonard Nimoy sometimes. Unlike the other Star Trek cast members, he had a a career before the show - he actually had done things, and could actually act - and ST killed his career just as much as it killed theirs.
I feel the same sort of pity for Patrick Stewart. Here's a man who can act up a storm - we finally watched Insurrection last night, and the difference between his work and everyone else's (except possibly F.Murray Abraham's, and he wasn't given much to do except glower) was painfully clear.
The movie wasn't nearly as bad as we had been led to believe it was, by the by. We liked it. It only had one or two scenes where the dialogue was painful; that's above average for ST movies, actually.
I never did really buy into the whole ST mythos. Yes, I used to watch the reruns, same as all my peers did; yes, I know some of the dialogue and episodes a little too well for comfort. But the show is simply not that good. It's not even good at being bad; it doesn't have enough camp value to deserve its cult status that way.
(Note, please, that I am talking about the original show. The others managed to maintain a somewhat higher quality standard, with Deep Space Nine coming the closest to what I consider acceptable quality levels.)
The thing is, we SF types should be holding out for something better, demanding something that actually is grounded in good science, has good writing, actors that can act, et cetera ... as opposed to enshrining the same old tired dreck simply because it's been the best of a bad crop so far.
I'm not sure this is germane to anything. Never mind.
Leonard Nimoy does a recorded voice-over for the light and sound check sequence at the Museum of Science's OMNI theatre. It's really very funny. He's using that grand voice, while slowly reciting "Who Put the Bomp in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp?" (They move his voice around in circles, to test all the speakers.)
Tech (from far side of theatre): Hey, that's Leonard Nimoy! How'd they get him?
Nimoy (interrupting himself): He grew up three blocks from here.
He's also appeared on The Simpsons parodying himself. More than once, I believe.
Nimoy: My work here is done.
Townsperson: But you didn't do anything!
Nimoy: Didn't I?
(Disappears with a beam-up noise)
I suppose, if you can't get what you want, the next best thing is to have a sense of humor about what you actually got.
Which, I suppose, is the proper attitude to take about Star Trek.
© Columbine
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