Coffee Cakes (Repeat)

Recently I read television and film producer Norman Lear's autobiography Even This I Get to Experience. It was an easy read and informative.

Lear had a conflicted and complicated relationship with his father, Hyman ("Herman"), but he has some fond memories of his upbringing. One such memory is how his father would get up in the morning and savour his cup of coffee. (Herman loved life and lived it to the fullest -- including a few years in prison when Norman was a child.)

Many people are forever looking for the secret to a happier life. Maybe part of the answer is on the table in front of them.

Sneakers?

As per my normal early morning ritual, I fire up the computer and key in "bbc.co.uk". The website flicks up and almost immediately defaults to www.bbc.com. This makes sense as I'm logging in from Canada.

Today's headlines on the Beeb's website included the above. Those of you who have been to the UK will know that "sneakers" would be more properly referred to as "trainers".

My news reading has been North Americanized.

I should read the article, but that headline does not sit well with me:

My sneakers say nothing about me, pal... I mean, mate!

Postscript: When in England, years ago, I took the tube (subway) to North London and while there popped into a shoe store. The storeowner, sorry, shopkeeper, asked how he could help me. I said: "Do you have any runners?" Pause. "Oh, you mean trainers." An ol' codger was sitting in a chair, walking stick in hand, and he laughed at the enlightened conversion.

Agreed: "Zed", not "Zee".

Picturing Me in "Graveyard Shift" Workshop (Repeat)

Subject: A very grubbily-dressed me poses with set in construction.
Date: October 1985
Place: Set construction workshop, just south of King Street, Toronto
Photo: Dave Fiacconi

Dr. Who and the Daleks - One Dell of a Comic Book (Repeat)

Nineteen Sixty-Six, RCAF Station Greenwood, Nova Scotia. After I received my latest crew cut, my dad bought me the Dell comic book, Dr. Who and the Daleks. It was a fair trade. Funny how little kids will sit still and behave for a few minutes of unpleasantries to get an ultimate and highly valued reward.

I loved that feature film "tie-in" comic in the same way that one's pet cat might love a certain polyester sock. It's very possible I rolled around on the rug with my prize.

Back then the CBC played the television series Doctor Who, from which the above feature film sprung, and I remember being scared sitless [sic] whenever the Daleks appeared in the seven-part serial "The Daleks". (Perhaps it was due to parental discretion that I did not attend the original theatrical release of Dr. Who and the Daleks.)

That book is long gone. Decades ago it was exterminated.

The Best Television Villain Design of All ("Daleks!")

Simply put, these guys scared the bejeezus out of me when I was a tot. Perhaps I'm overstating it; the reality might be that I watched Doctor Who, and its Dalek guests, from behind the sofa... even if the reality was that I sat right in front of the Admiral B&W television set -- its dial tuned to the CBC. My mother, trying to prepare dinner, readily walked over to the tv and changed the channel to something else if I yelled "mom!" with an exclamation mark. Once or twice was fine, but by the third or fourth time: "I wish you'd make up your mind, dear."

My talkback now: "Be reasonable, mum. Your countrymen made this bleedin' show!"

Raymond Cusick was a design genius.

50 Best SF Shows of All Time (Rollin') Repeat

On March 12th, RollingStone published what its staff feels are the best science fiction television shows of all time. Their pick consists of 50 shows, old and new.

Here are the top ten:

10. Firefly (2002 - 2003)
9. Watchmen (2019)
8. Westworld (2016 - )
7. The X-Files (1993 - 2002 / 2016 - 2018)
6. The Prisoner (1967 - 1968)
5. The Mandalorian (2019 - )
4. Doctor Who (1963 - 1989 / 2005 - )
3. Battlestar Galactica (2004 - 2009)
2. The Twilight Zone (1959 - 1964)
1. Star Trek (1966 - 1969)


While I'm hardly a TV space cadet, I do have my own faves -- from the shows I am familiar with, or more than familiar with. Due to insecurity I cannot be so sure of an order. Nor can I pick just one "number one". I would cluster my own top picks and stuff them into the number one spot: The Outer Limits (1963 - 1965); The Prisoner; and Star Trek.


The RollingStone piece:

50 Best Science Fiction TV Shows of All Time
From superhero shows and space operas to creepy anthology series, the greatest small-screen sci-fi of all time

A Forever Question: A Library Card

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. What's the title of a book that conservatives read?"

Picturing: Pretty Yellow Flowers Field

Poem: Friends Tell Coffee Time (Repeat)

Of Saturday it is!

Do you meet still
with availability?

Soap, water, squirrels
about my now laundry

In sanity punches....

___

2017

Simon St. Laurent

Blu-ray: King Kong (1976)

King Kong

- Collector's Edition -

Directed by John Guillermin

Shout! Factory

We'll Meet Again? (Poem - Repeat)

It was a year ago, this week
that we last met...

under that ship's
crane as it unloaded
a shipment of cheap
products from the "orient"

however, as you remember, but
perhaps you don't
that crane did drop its
   swinging
 load

right

on

us!

...

And with that bad luck,
my sweet
it's not possible for
you and I to ever meet

under that crane, or
anything else again.

___

2017

Simon St. Laurent

But This Was Important!

This morning on BBC Radio 2 there is some discussion, and sound bites, about last evening's (UK time) victory by England over Denmark in European Cup football action. Apparently there was some real drama. The club sporting three lions will meet Italy for the final match.

There are 'streeters' as I write this. People on the street explain that, while they wouldn't normally watch a football match, because of this great victory they admit they are suddenly fans. Good for them!

This reminded me of the 2010 Winter Olympics where Canada and the USA fought for the gold medal in men's ice hockey.

On that dramatic February day in question, an old friend of mine watched the metallic match on ice. I watched it, which makes sense as I love ice hockey, especially international ice hockey... but my "all sports are the same, boring!" friend? By the way, he went to high school in Florida as his family lived there for some time.

I asked him why he would plop himself in front of the tube to watch an ice hockey game:

"But this was important!"

Postscript: At this very moment, my BBC Radio 2 programme is running an audio montage of pub-goer reaction around England after yesterday's final whistle. "Football is a religion!"

CD: Not Of This Earth! (Stein)

Not Of This Earth!

- The Film Music of Ronald Stein -

Varese Sarabande Records, Inc

1995

It Walks Among Us! Well, By My Foot at Least....

This evening I relaxed on my balcony with a good book. As I read away I noticed a black blob moving by, right beside my right foot. Refocus. That's a big bug!

"Three and one half centimetres, approximately." (I measured as he stumbled along.)

Neat.

He walked along my balcony, seemingly on a trip to somewhere: to my neighbour's territory. Back he came. That I did not mind, although I questioned why my balcony was such a draw. But I was worried about shifting my foot and accidently killing or injuring my enthusiastically friendly visitor.

I grabbed my camera and took some snaps.

Even better: Video! There's drama in that monsterly stomp!

That's it: I'll track the clip with some Ronald Stein!

A Forever Question: Going for a Frosty

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Is a drink coaster someone who goes from pint to pint?"

More Sunday Fun: The Lost Continent (1968) Trailer

Earlier this morning I wrote a piece about the 1968 fantastic film, The Lost Continent. Above is the original theatrical trailer.

It's the kind of fun expected of Hammer Films.

Carreras'!

Sunday Fun: What Kind of Seaweed?!

Floating through Wikipedia, as I'm prone to do once I'm on a rolling wave, I went from "shipping" to "Bermuda Triangle" to "Sargasso Sea" and ended up on "The Lost Continent (1968 film)". That entertaining motion picture, produced by Hammer Films, wonderful Hammer Films, and Seven Arts Productions, captured me when I first saw it in my early teens.

I read its Wiki entry....

Basic plot details took me back to fantastic imagery: wrecked ships (it is the Sargasso Sea, after all); conquistadors; people sporting "buoyancy balloons" (fantastic!); pirates; priests; and Spanish ladies (marketing, my boys!).

I decided right there that I had to see this film again.

Then I read further:

"... adrift in a morass of large sentient carnivorous seaweed...."

Carnivorous seaweed?!

(Sentient carnivorous seaweed?!!)

(Large sentient carnivorous seaweed?!!!)

What the?....

Should I even click on that?

With my cursor, and some trepidation, I touched the link.

Oh, it's two separate words, links: "carnivorous"; "seaweed".

That makes more sense... and makes me feel a lot better about swimming in the ocean. (Regular seaweed doesn't bother me. Key word: "bother.")

I'll probably avoid the Sargasso Sea. But I won't avoid The Lost Continent.

With the Mitchell at 23 FPS Studios Toronto (Repeat)

We Got Promised Transparency (Repeat)

Here's the latest on the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Doug Ford. He talks of "transparency", and he sure mentioned it last evening during the televised debate.

The news came out today that the crowd of Ford supporters outside the television studio yesterday were filled-out by....actors.

Yep, the actors' union cards were transparent, all right.

To borrow a line: "I have a bad feeling about this."

In Solidarity, My T-Shirt Today for Canada Day

When I did my errands this morning I saw just three people wearing orange. (I hope it's because some people might not have an article of orange clothing.)

Happy Canada Day!