Writer Mark Evanier, whose biography of Jack Kirby is imminent, is a gastric bypass surgery success story. But what did overweight, compulsive eaters do in the stone age?
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JW Flash Player 3.11
I took the site offline for a little while to update the JW FLV Player from 3.6 to 3.11. At the same time I updated the WordPress plug-in I use for it, FLV Embed, to version 0.3.2.
It’s working, but I have the same complaint I had before, when trying to update to JW FLV 3.7. The parameter $flv_overstretch: fit doesn’t work. It’s my assumption for now that it’s a problem with the plugin not properly telling the player what to do. I’ll pursue that angle again, like I did last time to no avail. For now I’ve gone back to JW FLV 3.6 and everything is once again AOK.
Battlestar Bows Out
My buddy Bismo has been coming over most Friday evenings for a couple of years now, getting us into the DVD releases of recent TV shows we’d never seen. He started with The Tick, a hilarious short-lived live action show that’s an absolute must-see for any comic book fan, past or present. Then we moved on to the somewhat longer-lived sci-fi show Firefly, and its finale movie Serenity, and now we’re watching the ambitious and substantial Battlestar Galactica.
We’re in the second season of Battlestar, and Bismo says the next show will introduce Lucy Lawless’ character. The third season isn’t out on DVD yet, and it’s been announced that the upcoming fourth season will be the last. FiOS Video On Demand has a short feature about the show, with some of the cast. There’s an abrupt splice where I took out a spoiler I don’t want Eric to hear.
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More Help for HELP!
This is the trailer to the Beatles movie HELP! as posted on YouTube™.
Here it is as done by yours truly, taken (of course) from a 20-year-old LaserDisc. Better, yes? This is why I avoid YouTube when I can, although I must say the new, interactive Flash player is slick.
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The narrator is Mason Adams. Didn’t have to look him up, I recognize his voice. Remember him on Lou Grant?
13 in 1941, or 17 in 1945?
Here’s my father, George Pratt, scanned from a photo sent by his cousin Lawrie. It’s either from 1941, when he was 13, or 1945, when he was 17 and about to join the Navy. Both dates are written on the back! Which is it, Dad?
Sunrise On Sunset Boulevard
I could have sworn I made a comment elsewhere about sneaking a peek at a movie my parents were watching one night, after I’d gone to bed, but now I can’t find it. But anyway, I have a vivid memory of the image that I’ve put in the preview frame of the video player.
That sneaked peek was around 1967. I was a year or more into comic book collecting, making the transition from the lighter DC Comics to the heavier Marvel Comics. I loved the whole feeling of the opening minutes of Sunset Boulevard. I thought it was just like a comic book, with William Holden floating face down in the pool, narrating his own story from beyond the grave.
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Note: Petula Clark played Norma Desmond on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard.