The Silver State Chronicles

We can always count on Jack Webb

I found this great clip of Sgt Joe Friday from an episode of the 1960s-70s Dragnet and had to share it! In Webb we trust!!

This also gives me a great excuse to use this image of Mr Webb’s album below – I really dig the concept of ‘Romantic Reflections by Jack Webb!’

Enjoy!

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Some Music to Accompany Marvel Mayhem

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The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
Leonard Nimoy

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Star Trek
Turkish Style

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“When things get nut & crazy!”

Tan Nguyen, the GOP candidate for California’s 47th District, had an awesome political rally in his neighborhood, featuring “Stand By Our Tan,” by a rising Vietnamese singing sensation!

I say inspirational because it has inspired me to either move to the 47th district and vote for Tan (‘because after all, he’s a good man’), or to alternately become Vietnamese myself!

I wrote to his campaign and suggested some new lyrics, “Stand by your tan, but don’t stay in the sun for too long….” What do you think?

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America’s National Security Is Not A Game

I got a real kick out of David Zucker’s great political campaign advertisement where he really takes the Democrats to task for their worldview. While a bit hammy, the ad is in the tradition of the great comedies Zucker has helped create – Airplane, Police Squad. and more!

Oops! That’s a REAL picture of Clinton Era SOS Maddie Halfbright…I mean, Albright, and her close pal, global loony tune and Jerry Lewis character Kim Jong Il! Zucker parodies it nicely – just take a look and enjoy!

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I expected a lot worse.

Paramount got around to releasing some promotional material for the new enhanced Star Trek. Based on those clips, it looks like it could have been a lot worse. While I am still against this in principle, the enhancements don’t seem too intrusive to me. I’ll have to watch a few episodes to be sure. In the meanwhile, here are some video previews.

The first video is a 3 minute promotional film that explores the digital cleanup of the film and the transfer to HD. Some of the split screen comparisons looked exaggerated to me but it does look nice. The new FX look pretty good but the fact is that it’s just not the same, but I was fearing worse. One particularly annoying thing is the announcer, who seems to think the series is named ‘Star TRACK.’ Oh well, you can’t win them all!

Next is a short video on the re-recording of the music. It does seem fairly authentic, but I have to admit it kind-of creeps me out to see the female vocalist there. I always new the original theme had a female vocalist but it was better left to the imagination.

Last is a short piece on the digital cleanup of the original films.

It’s worth the 6 minutes to take a peek at these videos. I was very curious about the ‘enhancements’. This sneak preview hit the spot!

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It’s going to be a long, long time…

Rocket Man was a hit song for pop star Elton John, written by John and his top songwriter, Bernie Taupin. It is based on Ray Bradbury’s short story, Rocket Man, featured in one his wonderful short story collections, The Illustrated Man.

In 1978, at the (first and last) Science Fiction Film Awards, broadcast on independent stations across the USA, Bernie Taupin personally introduced William Shatner’s “interpretation” of Rocket Man. Shatner’s rendition really has to be seen to be believed, and nothing I can say would possibly do it justice. Lets just say fasten your seatbelts, especially for the last 1/4 of the song!

I spent quite a few years looking for this on video, and a few years ago my old pal Andy gave it to me as a Christmas present. It has since become one of the jewels of my collection! Thanks, pal! In the time since then I have screened it (and dubbed it) for many friends and acquaintances, and none have been the same since.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION

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