Swingin' into high

IMG_6297, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I have the next two Star Trek discs but didn't have a chance to watch any. I did enjoy two movie blasts from the past this last weekend, although they aren't really past because plenty of people still watch both movies.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail In high-def on IFC, no less. I first saw it sometime after my 6th grade teacher had talked about it, on late night TV, when CBS did things like show movies instead of talk shows (cut to ribbons, of course. The Castle Anthrax scenes were totally missing). I was in the 6th grade in 1976. The only new thing for me was I had closed captioning on so I was finally able to understand the Knights of the Round Table song in its entirety.

We're Knights of the Round Table.
We dance whene'er we're able.
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable...

Anyway, it's a silly movie.

Star Wars: A New Hope Since Jon and Brenden play the Legos Star Wars game on the Will a bunch, we finally broke out our DVDs for the first three movies. I mean movies 4,5, and 6, which were the ones first filmed. Thanks a pantload, George Lucas, for the confusion.

You might have heard of it: farm kid kisses his sister, badass pirate likes to pet his wookie, and some huge athsmatic dressed head-to-toe in black likes to torture his children. It's a family film.

More Weekend Blasting

Spock and Uhura from Deleted Elaan Scene, originally uploaded by birdofthegalaxy.

I haven't burned my farm down yet but I did watch some of the original Star Trek episodes this last weekend. I watched the first disc Netflix sent me and they are arranged in the order they were shown on TV, which is not the order they were produced.

I won't go into in-depth synopses - you can browse yourself silly at Memory Alpha, a mind-bogglingly complete Star Trek wiki.

So the first episode was The Man Trap. The things I noticed:

- When we first see Uhura, she hits on Spock! Which I don't blame her but she doesn't do much else .(Were Orci and Kurtzman inspired by this scene when they wrote the new movie? I think so).

- Not much plot but maybe it was setting a standard: shape-changing monster on the loose aboard the Enterprise, a couple of blue shirts and a yellow shirt die. No redshirts!

- I did want to hit Yeoman Rand over the head to see if bees would come out of her hairdo.

- We get the first "He's dead Jim". I'd bitch about McCoy's lack of CPR skills but that's been done to death.

- We see Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, and Rand. No Scotty here. Boo!

Charlie X Poor Captain Kirk has to play father figure to the galaxy's biggest space nebbish, an annoying 17 year old boy who was given super powers by an alien race so he could survive. After wishing the spoiled, confused puke death by fire in the end it was kind of sad.

- I still wanted to attack Rand's hairdo with a pair of pruning shears.

- Still no Mr. Scott.

- Shirtless Kirk in red tights (!!!) practicing an unnamed martial art.

- Oh! Spock smiles and plays his vulcan harp while Uhura sings. SRSLY.

- This is Gene Roddenberry's first "God is a Child" script, something he was famous for.

Where No Man Has Gone Before This episode was the first produced, and the second pilot. It featured 2 guest actors I actually recognized: Sally Kellerman and Gary Lockwood (who? He played Poole, the astronaut HAL kills in 2001. Stay out of space, dude!).

- No Uhura or McCoy. Sulu is here though.

- Mr. Scott! Yay! And he was so thin!

- Kirk gets in a fistfight and gets his shirt ripped for the first time.

- He also does his famous "roll on the ground and shoot the bad guy dead" maneuver in the same scene.

- Spock's eyebrows are insane. He fortunately gets them trimmed for future episodes.

So I'm enjoying my trek (ha!) down memory lane. I'm watching the remastered editions so the special effects are way better than I remember them. Fortunately whoever produced the remasters didn't go whole hog so the new effects aren't jarring within context of the old budget-strapped series. It's fun to see everyone so young again, doing the things I remember, but it's also sad because James Doohan and DeForest Kelley are no longer with us. I'm looking forward to my next set of discs so expect some more updates soonish.

A Blast (of Music) from my Past

IMG_4208, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm having a tough time coming up with things to write about. Those of you who are Facebook friends are probably grumbling that if I didn't spend so much damn time on Zynga games I'd have more time to watch movies. Mea Maxima Culpa.

However yesterday at work I was listening to a mix of old 80's tunes on my iTouch, and "No Thugs in Our House" came on. I suddenly had an urge to listen to nothing but XTC.

I only have 2 of their albums, Black Sea (1980) and English Settlement (1982) both of which I consider brilliant. Their sound is hard to describe - It's mostly guitar, bass, and drums (with the occasional odd instrument thrown in), and they wring the most out of their sound. I'd say it's mostly catcy pop tunes with a ska influence( especially Burning with Optimism's Flame, English Roundabout, Living Through Another Cuba), with some downright anthemic tunes nowhere resembling other 80's anthems ( Ball and Chain, No Thugs in Our House, Senses Working Overtime ) with some good poundy drums. I like me some poundy drums. The lyrics can get melancholy, but lean towards sardonic and even sarcastic more than outright anger (pretty much all of their songs).

XTC had earlier and later albums but they didn't stay with me the way these two have. The songs are timeless and could easily have come out a few years ago.

Anyway, one of the hallmarks of the 80's were music videos and the one below was the one that introduced me to XTC and made me go "WTF?"



I hope I can make Blasts from the Past a semi-regular feature. I have a big desire to plow through the original Star Trek series but I need to burn my farm first.

IMG_6396, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

On Nancy's recommendation we went and saw Toy Story 3. Wow, Pixar is getting REAL GOOD at making me cry! And cheer, and laugh. I've only seen it once so it's too early to say, but I think this one is easily as good as the first two and maybe the best of the three. The funny scenes are Pixar-perfect hilarious, but there are truly bleak, horrific, and heartwrenching (and heartwarming) scenes.

Seriously, someone finally broke the 3rd movie curse (remember Godfather III, Superman III, Terminator III, Alien 3, Spiderman 3, Jaws 3 etc etc etc? Some of these movies aren't bad, but none of them hold a candle to their predecessors).

So here Andy is grown up and going to college. He's preserved his favorite toys (Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. Potato head, Rex and Slinky Dog) and they spend their days in a trunk pathetically scheming to get Andy to pay attention to them. Andy's mom insists he totally clean out his room and so he has some hard decisions to make when it comes to his toy collection. They all end up at a daycare that isn't all it seems.

I'm not going to spoil it, but here are some random thoughts:

- This installment seems to have more high-octane nightmare fuel, far worse than Sid's room in #1 and the Airport in #2. Between the cymbal monkey and the baby doll I'm going to have bad dreams for a month.

- I *knew* Care Bears are evil! But typical Pixar, the Evil Bad GuyToy's backstory gives a good explanation of why he is the way he is and even makes him sympathetic.

-I never *ever* thought I would say this: Barbie is awesome! Ken is sweet too, if you know what I mean.

I really can't discuss more without spoiling it. I want to see it again right now.