This was premiered last weekend at James Cawley’s Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York. Present on the bridge of the Enterprise was Robin “Saavik” Curtis and, in Captain Kirk’s chair, William Shatner.
Here’s the background on the video’s production:
A picture of William Shatner, this morning in the Enterprise sick bay exam room at the Star Trek Tour in Ticonderoga, New York. He’s lost a lot of weight! I sincerely hope it’s for the better.
Folk singer and actor Burl Ives was a Communist sympathizer who cooperated with HUAC; however, Ives’ most enduring legacy is almost certainly his narration of 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to twinster Jeanie Beanie for letting me know that Rudolph is returning to NBC after decades at CBS, for a special 60th anniversary airing.
Jean and I have a possible connection to Burl Ives through our maternal grandfather. Our parents met at Eastern Illinois State College, where our grandfather, Eugene Waffle, was an English professor and later chairman of the department.
The connection with Ives is explained at this link:
However, during a “Beowulf” lecture in his English class, Ives decided to stop pursuing his degree and he wanted to become a singer. He left in the middle of class. Allegedly, the teacher made a nasty remark about him as he left and Ives slammed the door behind him, shattering the glass.
https://www.dailyeasternnews.com/2021/10/04/the-person-behind-burl-ives-studio-hall/
My grandfather became an English professor at the college in 1926, as seen here:
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/archives_faculty_sz/259/
With Ives attending the school from 1927-30, I wouldn’t be surprised if my prickly grandfather was the English professor who made the snide remark.
J.R.R. Tolkien lectured on Beowulf, having completed his translation of the epic poem in 1926. I wonder if anyone ever walked out of his class?
Brian Sibley’s 1981 adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings for the BBC garners well-deserved praise on Screen Rant.
https://screenrant.com/lord-of-the-rings-bbc-radio-adaptation-overcomes-trilogy-problem/
With Archive.org recovering from its recent hack attack, you can now listen to Brian’s radio play.
https://archive.org/details/lord-of-the-rings-10_202401/Lord+of+the+Rings+01.mp3
I was going to post this picture yesterday, but I was busy undergoing a nuclear stress test of my heart, before taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to get some outdoor work done.
Thanks to the new families in the area, we had the best ever Halloween turnout on Thursday. Besides my usual front porch decorations, I projected a familiar movie onto the garage door. It’s the original 1977 version, not the 1978 “Part Four: A new Hope” re-release or — ugh! — any of the “special editions.”
A little boy, probably five or six years old, exclaimed, “Obi Wan!” He ran up to the garage door, patted the image of Alec Guinness and proudly explained to the group he was with, “That’s Obi Wan!” He’ll make a fine Jedi Knight.
Regarding my stress test, the results showed a healthy heart with no indication of coronary artery disease, let alone scarring from a heart attack. Yay. I had been told that my many years of long distance running was the probable cause of my a-fib, but yesterday’s results showed there are also definite benefits to running.
Before thinking up Dianetics and then Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard was a pulp fiction writer. As you can see in the photo, he cranked out yarns in various genres, but mostly Hubbard was a science fiction writer.
Hubbard’s 800-page sci-fi novel Battlefield Earth was published in 1982. I spotted a hardcover copy in a bookshop, marked down to ten bucks from $24. I bought the book and really liked it. John Travolta later produced, and starred in, the notoriously bad movie adaptation.
On a Facebook group, somebody posted a Battlefield Earth cover with different art from my copy. I don’t know who painted the original cover, but there’s no mistaking the other artist. It was Frank Frazetta.
My motivation to buy Battlefield Earth was remembering how much I enjoyed reading Hubbard’s Fear. I’d picked up an old, beat-up 1950’s reprint of the 1940 novella at a convention for cover price — 35-cents.
“Enjoy” may not be the right word to describe reading Fear. I recall it was genuinely unsettling. With Halloween a week away, I thought I’d read Fear again, but I no longer have my old paper copy. During the time when I was an occasional contributor to the (defunct) Comics Buyer’s Guide, I sent it to Don and Maggie Thompson for a reason I don’t fully recall. Fortunately, the Kindle edition is only $3 on Amazon.
