Mark Hamill’s getting a lot of attention for this comment.
That debate was the worst thing I've ever seen & I was in The Star Wars Holiday Special.
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) September 30, 2020
Let’s hyperjump past the worst of it to the big finish, with Carrie proving she didn’t have her mom’s singing voice. Or her dad’s, come to think of it.
Mulder and Scully were a 90’s power couple like none other. They broke up when Duchovny left The X-Files in the middle of its 8th season. The sexiest interlude between them is in the pilot episode. I assume it was included to help sell the series.
https://youtu.be/CfxlYQVAqHc
In the previous post I explained how I earned money to attend my first fan convention. I was a late registrant, so my number doesn’t appear in the program book.
My friend Kat Logue was there. She’s seated in this photo. I couldn’t find a photo of another friend who was there, but I know he is reading this, and he’s invited to say something.
I attended the annual Hugo Awards for science fiction writing. The ceremony was held in the Grand Ballroom, and I remember sitting way up in the balcony.
Yep, that’s me, wearing my brand-new glasses! I needed a new pair, and Kat recommended metal frames over the Buddy Holly style plastic frames I had.
The 1971 World Science Fiction Convention, aka Noreascon, was my first fan convention. I wouldn’t have been able to attend if I didn’t have more money than I’d ever had in my life. How did I get the money? I worked, for one night only, as a carny.
A town fair was held at the end of each school year. After the 10th grade I attended the last night of the fair with money earned by filling in for my sister, who had double-booked a babysitting job. Word got around that the carnival operator was hiring helpers to shut down the operation. Fifty bucks for however long it took to get everything done. As I recall, they didn’t have many takers, and I was hired.
What a night that was! They put me to work doing all sorts of things from picking up trash to loading trucks. What I remember best was helping to take some of the rides apart. Taking down the Ferris wheel was difficult and dangerous, but it all turned out OK. No, I wasn’t tempted to run away from home and join the circus!
I forget exactly when we were finished, but I recall the sun was starting to come up as I walked home. Exhausted and absolutely filthy, I was genuinely surprised that the crew — a rough bunch, to be sure — said I had done a good job. I was handed $50 in cash, equivalent to almost $350 today, and that was my spending money for Noreascon. A month after the convention, I started a part-time job washing dishes.
I skipped watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when the series began airing more than 25 years ago, choosing instead to watch The X-Files. But I’m catching up to ST:DS9 now, during family viewing time.
DS9 shares many similarities with another 90’s TV series, Babylon 5. Something the two shows didn’t share at first was how their outer space effects were done. Babylon used groundbreaking computer graphics effects exclusively for its spaceships, while DS9 relied upon physical models until later in the series.
DS9 is available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and CBS All Access. It also airs on the over-the-air broadcast channel H&I. All of these outlets are showing the same standard definition copies. I know because I’ve checked. I keep wondering how much better DS9 would look if it could be presented in HD, as was done for the original 1960’s Trek.
Special effects wiz Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz, a 2-time Emmy winner who got his start on Babylon, remastered a scene he worked on in 1997, to demonstrate what’s possible.
You know how it is browsing YouTube, with one video leading to another. Watching this one, which requires knowing who Harry Truman was, I realized that not only do I know who that talented little girl is, I met her a few years ago and we had a couple of very nice chats.
(Note that I have posted this in my Sci-Fi category.)
