Photo Comp: Alienated Pierre Poilievre Is Screened!

Mr Sulu: "I remember that guy. He used to hang out at Woody's. Nobody would hit on him... he was pretty creepy."

Mr Chekov: "I think he has eyes for you, Captain."

Captain Kirk: "We've encountered many strange lifeforms in our travels, but this... this!... that!"

Mr Sulu: "He makes Yarnek look like a babe."

John Waters on Make Trouble Humour

Much of what filmmaker/writer John Waters says makes me laugh. The same would be true of Woody Allen.. (Much of what they say rings true.)

In 2015 Mr Waters delivered a commencement speech to graduates at the Rhode Island School of Design, and his patented, at times subversive, sense of humour made his life advice go viral.

I, of course, was not surprised.

Courtesy of John Waters - Make Trouble (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill). Some:

"Okay, I'm supposed to inspire you. How's this? Somehow I've been able to make a living doing what I love best for fifty years without even having to get a real job."

Close to home:

"A career in the arts is like a hitchhiking trip: All you need is one person to say 'get in', and off you go. And then the confidence begins.

Poem: Time Merchants

This morning I coffeed

on Yonge Street               
with an old friend
caught up on
issues since

I last saw him
last week

He and I disbanded:
My friend went back
to his conference and
I decided
to do something I
rarely do
anymore

walk up Yonge

"Look at all the
bloody
Vertical
Cracker
Boxes!
(going up
or already spiking
the cloudy sky)"

This town is out of
control
Zoning going to
The Twilight Zone

Yonge Street has
changed
much these last few years
helped
by Premium stacks
sprouting
from holes

Before I made it
to Bloor Street I
was stopped by

a woman selling
something
in front of a shop

Cosmetics
Me?

Why not?....

No, I
don't use facial moisturizers
but I should

Perhaps
I could

The sales lady was
in top form
having worked a little sales

I know the bad
and
the good

The cosmetic's test was done
on my forearm
but
I can imagine

With every peek into the bathroom
mirror my imagination tweaks
with age

** return **

Bloor Street
away

less

eventful

___

2016
Simon St. Laurent

CD from the Shelf: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

While I did a quick scan of my CD shelves yesterday a certain disc caught my eye. Right away I realized I had not played it in years (25?). Without hesitation I fired up the Sony and the Samsung.

Great stuff. Ennio Morricone's classic score for the 1966 action-western flick The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is deserving of its status: being attached to a terrific and entertaining film by Sergio Leone does not hurt... in fact it only helps place it high on the shelf. (I've long said that film scores in the public record are those associated with films of some popularity. There are so many outstanding scores that play to enthusiasts only due to their binding to motion pictures forgotten, or never even noticed in their original release.)

That sound!

That timbre!

Those voices!

Not of Hollywood!

Writing this brief piece reminds me that I also have the composer's tracks for director Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, also unplayed in many years. Back to the shelves....

Quote: Rod Serling on That Ugly

"I think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply. In almost everything I've written there is a thread of this: a man's seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself."

That's from 1967? No way, man.

Film Design: Matte Painting Concept Thumbnails

In late 1988 I designed some concepts for the (very) low budget feature film Johnny Shortwave (released in 1996). A few of these were 'optical matte painting' shots, an attempt by the producers to "open up" the film. Unfortunately, as was often the case with older low budget pictures, the wish to include matte shots was one of the first things to be jettisoned. And forget about hiring a matte artist when you have no money; he or she is of a very specialized craft and charges accordingly. (Now, of course, for relative peanuts one can whip up something on a computer. And now we can call on the help of A.I.)

Below are thumbnail sketches of ideas I had for extending the industrial areas of Toronto into an heavily industrialized state.

With the producers' blessing I rendered a larger concept painting. Johnny Shortwave was photographed in black and white, hence my monochrome still photograph.

To those (original series) Trekkies or Trekkers out there it's pretty obvious I was inspired by Albert Whitlock's paintings for Star Trek, specifically his artwork for the show's second pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

When I look at that painting now, it gets me thinking that perhaps I should use if for something... something "weird and futuristic".

Postscript: Just a few years later I would work in 'opticals' as a compositor, at times combining a matte painting with a live-action element, with the feature film Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) being but one example.

Dare I, Again?! Leafs Talk in a Toronto Coffee Shop

The 2026-27 NHL (National Hockey League) season is well under way.  It's time again!

I first posted the following piece in April of 2017. In the years since, the names on Leafs jerseys have almost all changed but the story is always the same....

Enjoy!

We writers must keep our ears to the ground in search of a story. Sitting in a coffee shop is one way to do our work; to mind one's business, but not feel like an eavesdropper should fellow patrons talk of cultural issues at an audible level.

Recently two older gents sat at the table beside me and debated the chances of the Toronto Maple Leafs making this year's NHL (National Hockey League) playoffs.

Gent 1: "They have a real chance of getting somewhere this year."

Gent 2: "Really? We've been hearing this for years."

Gent 1: "Yeah, but they have Auston Matthews."

Gent 2: "Yes, I know, but we've heard this kind of story many times before; for a long time."


"Gent 2" is right. Over the years there has been a Darryl Sittler, Rick Vaive, Curtis Joseph, Wendel Clark, and more. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are just the latest stooges who will take the Toronto Maple Leafs to a place nowhere....

(I use the word "stooges" in the Toronto Maple Leafs Masterplan context. I'm sure they are nice people; and they are/were fine hockey players, of course. Most forgotten is the fact one must have a good team, not just two or three good players. Sports history is littered with Leafs-type teams — they are nothing special in that regard.)

Quote: Spock and Kirk On Our Place Whatever

"Each of us, at some time in our life, turns to someone — a father, a brother, a god — and asks, 'Why am I here? What was I meant to be?'"

"Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?"

Athot for the Day: Progressing and Regressing or....

The older I get the more I feel the wrath of desiderium.

NFB Film: Test Pilot (1957) — Stars James Doohan!

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has uploaded to YouTube a wonderful selection of their old film shorts. One such film, from 1957, is titled Test Pilot, and its twenty-nine minutes are pretty wonderful, certainly for those folk who find such material engaging. And it stars one James Doohan, "Scotty" from Star Trek. (Hearing him say the word "engineers" several times... well, you know. If he only knew then that in a few years hence he would fly to the stars, and fame.) During World War II, Doohan flew observation aircraft while serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery.

"Dave Frost" works as a company (Avro Canada) test pilot; his job is to test various aircraft functions and potential capabilities. As with any job where one is a test pilot for a high-performance aircraft, there is always that risk, that possibility that something might and can go wrong. These pilots are of a special breed: recreational flyers, they are not.

Test Pilot's angle of attack is typical of a late 1950s short film, one with an educational bent. The acting is fine, especially from that famed starship engineer, and the filmmaking sound, which is to be expected from the NFB, old or new. The short-subject was shot primarily on 35mm black-and-white film but contains a few 16mm-35mm "blow-up" sections: some of the aerial photography was captured on the smaller film format, no doubt due to its extra portability. I was somewhat surprised that the filmmakers didn't mount a dashboard camera. That "pilot's point of view" would have given the aircraft climb some extra dimension, even if the viewer would have been treated to little more than clear skies and perhaps a few cloud formations.

 

The featured flying machine: the Avro Canada CF-100 "Canuck" was a great aircraft, an all-weather twin-engine jet-powered interceptor/fighter operated by the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force). It served in that role from 1952 to 1961. However, the air force used the 100 for other roles before retiring the type in 1981. (The Belgian Air Force also bought and operated a few examples.) When I lived in CFB Borden a "Clunk" was parked in a holding area not far from our PMQ (Private Married Quarters). It may have been a static training example... or just forgotten. By the way, my dad worked on the CF-100 as an armourer. (When Test Pilot was produced he had already been serving with the RCAF for a few years — and would serve for many more.) A few years ago, while visiting the wonderful Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, I sat in a beautiful CF-100. One is allowed to sit in the machine, with a little help from the museum's terrific staff, of course. (Military-aviation buffs would enjoy visiting the CWHM. It's located at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope, Ontario, Canada. The selection of aircraft is wide and varied.)

Test Pilot was directed by Fergus McDonell, and written by Arthur Hailey, who, the year before, scripted the CBC live-to-air television play, Flight into Danger, which starred... James Doohan.

Postscript: Flight into Danger was produced by Sydney Newman, who, after that production was bought by the BBC and aired in the UK, went on to create The Avengers for ABC Weekend TV, and co-create Doctor Who for the BBC. Scribe Arthur Hailey went on to co-write the Flight into Danger-inspired 1957 feature film, Zero Hour!, which, years later, was adapted as the 1980 comedy flick, Airplane! He went on to great literary-pulp fame with his novels, Hotel (1965), and... Airport (1968), which was then adapted for the big screen and released to movie theatres in 1970. Airport was a big box office hit. I remember well the endlessly replayed television adverts.

Those Crazy Canadians and Their Flying Machines....

Athot for the Day: Accounting for Household Finances

 At Amazon, we make clicking away your savings fast and easy!

Book: The Sea Shall Embrace Them (David W. Shaw)

The Sea Shall Embrace Them

- The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic -

by

David W. Shaw

The Free Press

2002

"A riveting story told by a superb writer." ― Walter Lord, author of A Night to Remember

The Sea Shall Embrace Them - The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic is not a dry account of what happened on that day in September of 1854 when the Collins Line's grandest transatlantic passenger vessel sank off the coast of Newfoundland, but one told with flair by a writer who understands the mayhem of tragedy inherent in any such tale.

Just sixteen months after the SS Arctic sank, the Collins Line's SS Pacific disappeared without trace on a transatlantic crossing (and has never been found).

Picturing: Pup in Car

While walking about here in Toronto this past weekend I noticed a dog monitoring me from an open car window. Immediately I said hi and asked the owner, who was sitting in the driver seat, if I could take a photo of her friendly-looking pup. She smiled readily and said: "Of course. She's friendly."

"Hi sweetie."

She hopped to the opposite side.

The owner's hubby returned and chased pup back to my side of the car. He had noticed what I was trying to do. With the new picture-popping advantage I captured the above moment.

I love dogs. I prefer cats, but any cute puppy gazing happily in my direction gets my attention.

Postscript: As a general rule, dogs are so happy to see us around and about and are more than willing to greet us. With cats, we get the distinct impression that we're... "serviceable", as in: "we serve them." To cats, we humans are barely able to tie our own shoes, are ocularly-challenged (seemingly unable to read a simple timepiece!), and are clumsier than an obese poodle.

Picturing: Downsview the Seagull Takes a Stroll

Whenever I look at this photo I hear Leroy Anderson's "The Syncopated Clock".

Athot for the Day: Yep, That Bad

Pierre Poilievre is the "Susan Alexander" of Canadian politics.

Quote: Me on Sharing Our Homes

"Cats are not pets, but roommates."

Yeah, and they never pay rent... but we let it go.

Picturing: A View from the Oxford University Grounds

As I walked along a path a beautiful sight stood before me, and my Canon AE-1. My first inclination was to capture this lovely textural mix of stone and flora.

That morning as I readied my day in my London hotel room I asked myself: "Where should I go today? I know where. Oxford! A day trip!"

To Paddington Station!

Oxford is a beautiful city.

Picturing: I'm a Star in Dover, I'm a Star in Calais

The post's title may come across as somewhat vain, I'm not even a star here in Toronto, but I thought it would be a cute play on Canadian singer Patsy Gallant's big disco hit song of 1977.

The refrain: "From Dover to Calais"

Picturing: HMS Alliance at RN Submarine Museum

Lord Horatio Nelson, the great and legendary Royal Navy admiral, no doubt dreamt of a fantastic naval machine having the ability to travel under the sea.

Yesterday I posted another piece on my visit to Portsmouth, UK. And at the end of that piece I wrote: "While at HMNB Portsmouth, I visited the insides of a sub...."

Indeed I did: the insides of HMS Alliance, a Royal Navy A-class (Amphion-class or Acheron-class) diesel-electric submarine. Essentially a Second World War sub, hence the "diesel-electric", she was literally opened up to the public in 1981, shortly after her decommissioning as a training ship, and now rests on dry-land cradles at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport.

The above pic is the only one I took of the boat. Unfortunately, my camera was loaded with 100 ASA/ISO film, making sub-interior photography somewhat problematic — not instamatic. Besides, I enjoyed the tour so much that bringing my camera up to my eye was not a priority, certainly not in a submersible's cramped spaces. (I should have had my 28mm lens with me.)

Where does my love of submarines come from?... Probably from a television series I loved in my youth. I missed Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in its original 1964 to 1968 run, but did watch it religiously when Buffalo, NY, television station WUTV stripped it at 5pm on weekdays in the early to mid 1970s. The nuclear submarine SSRN Seaview was a great and fantastic machine, one commanded by one Admiral Harriman Nelson.

Picturing: Some Royal Navy Oberons at Portsmouth

Further to my post from yesterday, on a visit to Portsmouth, UK, years ago I took some snaps of a Royal Naval fleet, from yesterday to today. Above are Oberon-class submarines, diesel-electric boats, and the type operated by the Royal Canadian Navy from 1965 to 1998.

Looking at the pictures now I noticed how much the sky (and colour temperature!) had changed between my two shots: the top one I took from a small tourist boat; the bottom from a walkway.

I love submarines, and all things Navy. While at HMNB Portsmouth, I visited the insides of a sub....

Wow: From Zinnemann to Saint

Minutes ago I was reading up on Austrian-American film director Alfred "Fred" Zinnemann when I saw actress Eva Marie Saint listed — she co-starred with Don Murray and Anthony Franciosa in the director's 1957 flick A Hatful of Rain (which I've never seen).

My Wow: Ms Saint is still with us at 102 years of age! "She was born in nineteen twenty-four, which means she's now...."

She co-starred in the brilliant 1954 crime drama On the Waterfront, with Marlon Brando.

Picturing: HMS Warrior at Portsmouth, UK

My fascination with "ironclads" drew me to HMS Warrior, a warrior now berthed at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Aye, she's a beautiful lady, and a fine ship!

I took the top photo while standing on the stern of a small tour boat. Of course, British seaside weather being what it is, my fellow tourists and I were blessed with a flash drizzle.

On the Speaker: The Linda Lindas Gotta Get Out

I'm looking forward to giving this a spin! I have their two previous albums, Growing Up and No Obligation. They are four very talented young ladies who have written some terrific songs.

I've heard a couple of samples from Gotta Get Out, and if they represent the level of songwriting on this album, then all I can say is I'm in for a treat! Tomorrow....

This Site and Moi Get an A.I. Overview ― Cool!

Yesterday I keyed-in my domain name improperly and ended up on a search result displaying the above. I found it to be very interesting in how it did an accurate overview of this website/blog.

Yikes!

The text, and text....

"Squibber is the personal website of Simon St. Laurent, a Toronto-based artist and former film and television technician."

Fine.

About the Website

"Content: Features personal photography, reflections on Toronto, memories of growing up as an RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) military brat, and posts about books and media."

Not bad.

"Background: The author is a former film and TV visual effects technician who previously worked on projects like Time Runner."

While I worked as an optical compositor with Film Effects - Toronto, that indeed was a film I worked on. It missed American Psycho (Film Opticals of Canada).

"Access: The site's content is actively updated and licensed for public viewing."

I made a joke online about this site being licensed for public viewing. Good scoop-around! Actively updated, yes — very important.

Scary stuff.

Picturing: One Super Film Crew Here in Toronto

It was a beautiful Sunday in November of 1989. We shot for two consecutive Sundays since we worked most of the time, it seemed. Actually, with the exception of the gent in the fedora, the crew was also crew at VTR Productions, which is how we all met. The project: a 35mm short film called "Visual Effects Matte Composite". I really should dig out that neg roll and have it digitized. (Another "I really should", yes.) The location is Sir Winston Churchill Park, a beautiful filming location.

The super film crew is, from left to right: Me, Mark, Nicole, Joe, Paul, Mike. Not shown: Jonathan.

Flatscreen Flick: The Fabulous Baron Munchausen

Last evening I was undecided in what movie I should watch. The good news was I did not take the standard forty-five minutes to decide. The Criterion set dedicated to Czechoslovakian filmmaker Karel Zeman is most excellent. There was a flick I had yet to knock off: The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962, original Czech: Baron Prášil) is just that, Fabulous... and Wonderful.

My enjoyment level was such that the flick's eighty-three minutes just flew by.

The other two feature films in the Criterion boxed set are: Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955, Cesta do pravěku) and Invention for Destruction (1958, Vynález zkázy), aka The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. Interesting story: Two of my film school instructors knew Karel Zeman ("Zee-maan") from back home. They seemed to be tickled when I told them that I had seen Journey and Invention on the big screen. My introduction to the latter was courtesy of at least two viewings on German television when I was a kid.

The extras are of typical Criterion quality. Filmmakers Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, and Koji Yamamura talk of how Zeman influenced and inspired them. No doubt! Wes Anderson is another one.

Next: The 101-minute documentary from 2015, Film Adventurer Karel Zeman (Filmový dobrodruh Karel Zeman).

Genius filmmaker!

Picturing: Visual Effects Supervisor at Film Opticals

Visual effects artist/supervisor Francois Aubry is working at the 'layout' table, no doubt setting something up for me to composite. Our time at Film Opticals of Canada was generally fun, even with the sometimes extended hours: very extended hours. Many times we dropped our work off at Deluxe/Film House at the wee hours of the morning. ("You're kidding me! You're having a coffee?!")

Picturing: Brighton Beach Promenade Walk, UK

Those readers who are into British fashion trends would probably accurately date this picture from the early 1990s. Brighton, England, is a favourite place of mine.

Picturing: Beautiful Seaside Waters at Portsmouth, UK

Such a beautiful seaside, said I as the surf wetted my feet.

Picturing: A Plaque on Toronto's Fairmont Royal York

"The Shops on the Lobby & Avenues Level at Fairmont Royal York"

Good to know!

Toronto Star Star Week Newspaper Clipping from 1976

On the 13th of this month I took a look back at the old SF television series Space:1999. While looking for a particular file this morning I noticed a clipping that should have been included. While undertaking some research through the Toronto Star online archives last year, I stumbled upon an issue of that paper's then television-listings magazine, Star Week. Given that this then young teen was still a regular television viewer in 1976, I figured a peruse would bring back memories.

Space:1999 was given a full coast-to-coast network run by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) in its 1976/77 television season. The Ceeb promoted the heck out of its new fall lineup. Based on the quick series of clips, Space looked "souped-up" (as I described it at the time). I had been a little disappointed in that show's first year. Year Two was a bit different and, as it turned out, better... and I'm guessing the CBC's program-buyers felt the same way.

(In my television market, southern Ontario, and many other markets, actually, the first year of Commander Koenig and his Crashing Eagles was relegated, for the most part, to Saturday mornings ― which is how I saw it: 10:30 on CKVR, "Channel 3", a CBC affiliate.)

The clipping above is from Saturday, September 18, 1976. Look for the 5:00 listing. I did. By the way, the episode that day, if memory serves, was either "The Metamorph", the show's Year Two premiere episode, or the immediate follow-up, "The Exiles". (The CBC had kicked off the proceedings by running Space:1999's series-premiere episode "Breakaway". I had no need to see it again, but that scheduling move made sense in that it set up the show for those viewers who didn't know the series premise. However, it's possible that that spectacular, but claustrophobic and single-minded, episode turned them off from coming back!)

Anyway, that's enough of that; I'm no longer a wide-eyed television-watching teen, but a cynical adult who hasn't even bothered to hook up his television aerial.

The good news is, I'm getting better at 'file management'.

Postscript: Note that at 2:30pm, Channel 10 ran the feature film It Came from Outer Space (1953). Far out!

Picturing: Toronto Condo Development Graffiti

 

North side of Bloor Street West, just east of Spadina Road.

(I dig the funhouse-mirror effect.)

Athot for the Day: By Any Other Name, Not!

Pierre Poilievre, der geistlose Elf.

That roughly translates to English as: "PP, the loser."

Wrapping Up Star Trek's 60th: That Fantastic Theme!

Alexander Courage's brilliant and beautiful Star Trek theme is the proper way to close my "60th" posts. The composer nailed "Star Trek" when he wrote its title tune in late 1964. Contained within is the magnificent eight-note "Enterprise" theme.

All other's need not apply.

In the early 1980s, Eric Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra commissioned Courage to arrange his famous signature tune for concert performance.

The performance here by the WDR Funkhaus Orchestra, conducted with great gusto by Holly Hyun Choe, is absolutely splendid.

What a wonderful tune!

Star Trek 60th: Three Books from the Archives

The three Star Trek books above are what I found after some digging. They're not in any of my bookcases. I keep such books hidden so visitors don't end up getting the wrong idea about me.

Trivia: I've been to just one Star Trek convention. In the summer of 1988 I went with two friends to Toronto Trek 2. We found it a very interesting experience. It was then I realized I'm a 'mild' fan.

Picturing: Friend Jonathan at the AGO

At the wonderful Art Gallery of Ontario.

Strolling Downtown Toronto Early This Morning

Union Station's "Great Hall".

In front of Union Station.

(That's the CN Tower center distance.)

Early morning walk at Front and Bay.

Friend Jonathan posing in front of a chromed-steel sculpture.

Lunchtime at the Four Season Cafe&Bistro.

The food was great! We'll be going back!

I had the Signature Chasiu Egg Rice plate.

Delicious food, and reasonably priced!

After lunch, Jonathan and I visited the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). This superstar had not been there in years. Wonderful and amazing place; the visiting exhibit is "The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art". Details are here. I'll post a few pics tomorrow!

A Real Star Trek: Looking Back at D.C. Fontana

"No script, no movie!"

 ― Ludvik Dittrich (film school instructor)

WRITTEN BY

D.C. FONTANA

Dorothy Catherine Fontana, perhaps better known as “D.C. Fontana”, was an important force in creating Star Trek and its mythology. Credit too often goes to the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, Gene Roddenberry, as being the great all-encompassing Trek creator. As noted by Desilu studio exec Herb Solow and associate producer Robert Justman, there were many stellar contributors to the show that started it all, including but not limited to: cinematographers; designers; composers; and writers.

With Ms Fontana’s passing, there is not a lot of key Star Trek production people still with us; however, David Gerrold, creator of Tribbles, as in “The Trouble With Tribbles”, is still writing and publishing at 82... which means he was just 23 when he scripted that famous Trek. Oh, my.

In the then male-dominated dramatic television arena, undoubtedly it was a woman’s touch that helped humanize Star Trek, supplying vital stories and dialogue to characters powered by what my brother describes as “The Beatles Cast”. Ms Fontana had said in interviews that there were female writers working in television in the mid-1960s but they tended to work on non-drama programs. Roddenberry assigned Fontana, his then assistant, the story editor position after he read what she had rewritten of "This Side of Paradise", a script by another writer. (She had earlier written "Charlie X" ― the 5th episode shot in series production.) In this coveted staff role Fontana not only wrote her own scripts, but, as per the job requirement, rewrote others, helping shape the stories into the series whole. Along with other staff writers, she even took a stab at polishing Harlan Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever". (When I interviewed Mr Ellison in 2007 I did not broach the subject of "City" since his feelings are well documented; including by him.)


Music composers will say that talking or writing about music is clumsy. Best to listen to the music. The same could be applied to writing about writing.

The following quotes are out of context for the uninitiated, but one can surmise what is going on. It also shows how in television drama writing, every word must count. Not only moving the story forward, but revealing character.

*  *  *

From "Charlie X":

KIRK: You go slow. You be gentle. I mean, it's not a one-way street, you know, how you feel and that's all. It's how the girl feels, too. Don't press, Charlie. If the girl feels anything for you at all, you'll know it. Do you understand?

...

KIRK: Charlie, there are a million things in this universe you can have and there are a million things you can't have. It's no fun facing that, but that's the way things are.

From "Journey to Babel":

SPOCK: Any competent officer can command this ship under normal circumstances. The circumstances are not normal. We're carrying over one hundred valuable Federation passengers. We're being pursued by an alien ship. We're subject to possible attack. There has been murder and attempted murder on board. I cannot dismiss my duties.

AMANDA: Duty? Your duty is to your father.

SPOCK: I know, but this must take precedence. If I could give the transfusion without loss of time or efficiency, I would. Sarek understands my reason.

AMANDA: Well, I don't. It's not human. That's not a dirty word. You're human, too. Let that part of you come through. Your father's dying.

SPOCK: Mother, how can you have lived on Vulcan so long, married a Vulcan, raised a son on Vulcan, without understanding what it means to be a Vulcan?

AMANDA: If this is what it means, I don't want to know.

SPOCK: It means to adopt a philosophy, a way of life, which is logical and beneficial. We cannot disregard that philosophy merely for personal gain, no matter how important that gain might be.

AMANDA: Nothing is as important as your father's life.

SPOCK: Can you imagine what my father would say if I were to agree, if I were to give up command of this vessel, jeopardise hundreds of lives, risk interplanetary war, all for the life of one person? 

AMANDA: When you were five years old and came home stiff-lipped, anguished, because the other boys tormented you saying that you weren't really Vulcan. I watched you, knowing that inside that the human part of you was crying and I cried, too. There must be some part of me in you, some part that I still can reach. If being Vulcan is more important to you, then you'll stand there speaking rules and regulations from Starfleet and Vulcan philosophy, and let your father die. And I'll hate you for the rest of my life.

SPOCK: Mother

AMANDA: Oh, go to him. Now. Please.

SPOCK: I cannot.

From "This Side of Paradise":

LEILA: I love you. I said that six years ago, and I can't seem to stop repeating myself. On Earth, you couldn't give anything of yourself. You couldn't even put your arms around me. We couldn't have anything together there. We couldn't have anything together anyplace else. We're happy here. I can't lose you now, Mister Spock. I can't.

SPOCK: I have a responsibility to this ship, to that man on the Bridge. I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.

…

MCCOY: Well, that's the second time man's been thrown out of paradise.

KIRK: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums. 

SPOCK: Poetry, Captain. Non-regulation.

KIRK: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti Three, Mister Spock.

SPOCK: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the first time in my life, I was happy.

From "Yesteryear", from the animated Star Trek series:

SPOCK: Every life comes to an end when time demands it. Loss of life is to be mourned but only if the life was wasted.