Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

Archive - 11/25/2004 to 02/11/2005

Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion

We're being baited again...
When someone writes, "I can't imagine two writers more dead then Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scot Fitzgerald. How can anyone think they have ANYTHING to say to contemporary humanity?" I have trouble imagining the statement is at all sincere. I suspect it's trolling--an attempt to rouse indignation, passion and flames.

Of course, humanity doesn't change from one generation to the next, and great truths remain great truths, for all that those who first spoke them have passed away. The flipside is the humanity doesn't change from one generation to the next, and great chowderheads will aways exist to ask questions like that, just to see if someone will nibble.

Harlan, regarding the Cleveland visit--let us know if we who are just dropping in from the suburbs can bring our cards with us, okay? I was planning on getting there early and getting a seat near the front.

Perhaps, O acolyte, if you were to learn to spell and structure a sentence, one could take seriously your critique of two "overrated" authors.

Chuck

I can't imagine two writers more dead then Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scot Fitzgerald. How can anyone think they have ANYTHING to say to contemporary humanity? How can anyone actually sit there lifeless and slog through one of their over-rated books, naturally their great favorites of kinky mimetic academics.

Blogging Clarion '77 - and a certain Writer-in-Residence
Harlan --

The recent Clarion online auction reminded me that I hadn't written on my main blog (or indeed any of them) about my experiences at the 1977 Clarion Workshop. I therefore regaled my readership of dozens with stories of same. (I appear to have omitted the cafeteria guerilla theater set piece, but you weren't there for that, anyway.) One entry was called "Harlan Ellison, Matchmaker." You won't remember this, but you encouraged me to seek a relationship with the male Clarionite of my choice. Result: John Blocher and I have been married for a quarter of a century now. Thanks.

Then last night, I was expected to write about a teenaged crush on a celebrity as part of an AOL "Weekend Assignment" promulgated by John Scalzi. Honesty required me to, uh, well, (*cringe*) write about you again.

So, anyway, this is just a courtesy heads-up about the two journal entries and related postings. The first is illustrated with a series of photos of you at Clarion '77, taken by I-can't-remember-whom. The second reproduces a typed, illustrated flyer of you December, 1976 appearance at Syracuse University. The posting also links back thisaway.

Here are the two URLs:

http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/1549
http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/1523

Other, non Harlan-centric Clarion anecdotes can be reached from those two pages.

Hail and, um, whatever,

Karen Funk Blocher

Cleveland in March


Harlan,

First, 2 boxes arrived safe and sound yesterday at casa Ingersoll.

Second, RE: the up-coming visit to CWRU and Cleveland. I will be attending MegaCon in Orlando during the weekend before you come to Cleveland. Because of idiosyncracies in plane fares, it turned out to be cheaper for me to fly home on Monday February 28, and at at 6:30 p.m. flight. So, I won't be hitting Cleveland until 8:30 p.m. or so that day. But not to worry, I can still get the books to you in time.

I will be in town all day March 1. I've already extended my vacation through Tuesday, so I can get the books to you first thing and be available to be with you and Susan during the day, should you need anything.

On Wednesday March 2, I have a morning appearance before the Supreme Court of Ohio. I'll be appearing in one of three different cases scheduled for oral argument that morning. In the past I wouldn't know which of the three arguments mine would be until I arrived. Now I can check the Ohio Supreme Court web site.

Mine is the second of three arguments. It will run from 9:30 until 10:00. Assume a half hour to pack up my stuff, get back to my car and get on the road. (Shouldn't really take that long, but I want to err on the far side here). Assume another two and one-half hours to drive up I-71 to Cleveland and I should be back around one in the afternoon. In time for a lateish lunch. (Or course that time estimatess presupposes the weather cooperates and there are good driving conditions.)

That's what my schedule looks like at that time. I hope we can get that schedule and yours and Susan's to coincide sufficiently that we can see each other some.

Bob

Harlan:

Amazon.co.uk has the new release of _A Boy and His Dog_ in stock for 11.99 sterling. They have no problem selling and shipping to the US; shipping is reasonable and takes about a week to ten days for arrival (unless one wants to pay extra for speedier service). Additionally, no value-added tax is charged on items shipped out of the UK, so the price drops to probably about 10 quid each plus shipping.

Your account info and password for Amazon.com will work on the UK site as well. Their cutomer service for overseas orders is excellent; I've had two glitches with them in three years, one a boxed set that arrived with an unplayably damaged disc and one order that never arrived (a US Post Office screwup, not theirs) - and in both cases I was shipped a replacement within 24 hours of notifying them, with a note from them asking that I find a good home for the undamaged discs (or the lost shipment, had it arrived while the replacement was in transit) rather than spending the money to return the items.

(And if you go there - you might want to browse around a bit. The British Film Institute has been releasing some brilliant items from '60s-'70s BBC; in your case, I'm thinking particularly of the 1966 BBC one-off of _Alice In Wonderland_, directed by Jonathan Miller and starring John Gielgud, Peter Cook, Peter Sellers and others. Also a number of the Christmas-season thrillers like _Whistle and I'll Come To You_ , _A Warning to the Curious_ and others. This of course assumes you have a Region 2/PAL-capable DVD player...but then, there are ways to acquire one inexpensively if you don't.)

Cheers!
Don Hilliard

Quick Explanations

I'll keep Barney's story choice secret, but to explain the cryptic nature of the post I mentioned the Baku, that Japanese/Chinese myth of the bear-like creature who hunts and consumes the nightmares of children, giving good fortunes and dreams in return.

In a conversation with Barney, I fired off a joke that you owned one, suggesting you keep it as a pet to keep that dragon you have from getting lonely. It seemed to me that the man who wrote "From A to Z in the Sarsaparilla Alphabet", would've picked that one off in a second.

To the Webmaster: I have read the admonition, and will not double post again.

Harlan,

Just let me know how many you want and where to post them. I'll wait a month as new DVD with no extra's are initially overpriced and then quickly fall in price as retailers realise they're not going to be able to shift many units.

Email on the above address and write something on the header that makes sure I'm not going to confuse it for a Nigerian scam artist, penis extension kit, viagra, xanax or a personal letter of congrats from Farah Palahvi (waitaminute? The last one was legit!).

On other news, UK readers maybe impressed with this but I was working with Ex-BBC correspondent Martin Bell yesterday. Tremendously nice chap, now works raising money for UNICEF. Afterwards told him the tale of how Christine Hamilton nearly got off with me but I resisted her charms. Still wears his man from Del Monte white suit.



FAQ

Robert F. on LOA
Mr. Robert, you should be In Charge Of The World. Sir.

(Would suggest throwing into Vol. 1 either "The Man Who Walked Home" or "The Women Men Don't See" by James Tiptree, Jr. tho)

*******

I think the most likely/deserving science fiction/fantasy authors to make the Library of America are Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin. My imaginary two volume LOA of the science fiction novel (assuming those two authors have volumes/sets of their own):

Volume 1: Universe by Robert Heinlein; Wolfbane by Pohl & Kornbluth; The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester; A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.; More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon.

Volume 2: Nova by Samuel R. Delaney; Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg; The Female Man by Joanna Russ; Engine Summer by John Crowley; 334 by Thomas M. Disch.

Crap - I hit it once and too soon.

No UK DVD for me please. I have 2 VHS and 1 DVD ABAHD already. Plus I have a picture of the UK package. No sense having something with no extras that I probably can't play. - Barney

Harlan -

He just asked about the baku because it might relate to some mythology in the story I'm going to introduce on the S.P.I.D.E.R. thread when it's my turn on 3/26/05. Michael has a theory...

I'll see you and Susan in Cleveland. Depending on when flights come and go I "might" try and tool over to Painesville to see the house on Harmon[d?] drive. Don't know. Crashing with Doug.

Let me know if I should bring FINGERPRINTS and that other prop. Otherwise I'm going to travel light.

- Barney

Harlan -

He just asked about the baku because it might relate to some mythology in the story I'm going to introduce on the S.P.I.D.E.R. thread when it's my turn on 3/26/05. Michael has a theory...

I'll see you and Susan in Cleveland. Depending on when flights come and go I "might" try and tool over to Painesville to see the house on Harmon[d?] drive. Don't know. Crashing with Doug.

Let me know if I should bring FINGERPRINTS and that other prop. Otherwise I'm going to travel light.

- Barney

A Boy and His Dog
The DVD was released four days ago, and I believe the cheapest way for Americans to mail order it is at play.com: http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=565127
A press announcement is here: http://www.r2-dvd.org/article.jsp?sectionId=2&articleId=6874

My own Hour 25

Recently read and now recommended by yrs. truly:

HUNGER by Knut Hamsun

POST OFFICE by Charles Bukowski

HAM ON RYE by Charles Bukowski

CHARLES BUKOWSKI by Howard Sounes

THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES by Shirley Jackson

MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE by Thomas Ligotti

MICHEAL:

I possess a fine baku, given to me by Ed Bryant,

I also own netsukes and other Chinese figural sculptures.

?

-he

FAISAL:

I tried to cut/paste that URL for the UK release of A BOY AND HIS DOG (from which I shan't see a farthing) but Susan's PC continues to say "I don't recognize that entry, try again," which I did, more than several times ... but only got the same idiot response.

Can you please verify for me.

And then...if we can figure a way to do it conveniently, I would take it as a great favor if you could buy a couple of copies for me (unless there's an easy way for me to do it from here, in which case, all the better). I need the copies for my files, and at least one for Tim Richmond, not to mention one for Barney.

Please advise. And manymanymany thanks for the heads-up.

Oh, and best wishes as the Moslem holy days approach.

Yr. pal, Harlan

A Heads Up For Harlan

Good Sir:

Could you confirm for me that you are an owner of a Baku? Either that, or you've remained in fine fellowship with one of the Japanese/Chinese creatures?

I've just had a small conversation with Barney concerning small details and whatnot. He can tell you the story's title and the details of our correspondence if he likes.

And
Jack Chalker.

Death of a Playwrite
Damn. Arthur Miller just died. Damn

---Peter

Harlan,
Ya'll have a safe trip.

:)
Cindy

Second Post : Like ships, passing in the night . . .
Belated thanks to Rod Williams for the welcome. Cheers cobber.
Would you, by any chance know if any of these DVD'S :

Dune ( Director's Cut Special Edition ) Box Set Region 1 [ 2000 ]
The Twilight Zone Season 1 [ 1985/1986 ]


are avialable (or available to order) from any major (or minor) retail outlets in good ol' OZ ?

hopefully,

Dougie.

A Boy & his Dog has finally been given a Region 2 DVD release. Unfortunately, its with no extra's. It's times like these that I think I should have gone into DVD distributions. Grrr!

Review of the DVD at:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=56109

FAQ

Hmmm.. some fave movie bits/lines....(some paraphrased)

"Ronald Reagan the actor? Then who's Vice President...Jerry Lewis?" from BACK TO THE FUTURE

"Aristotle was not Belgian, the central point of Buddhism is not 'Every man for himself,' and the London Underground is not a political movement!" from A FISH CALLED WANDA

Darryl Hannah's death scene, no wait, ORGASM scene (LOL) at the end of BLADE RUNNER

"Good Mo-o-o-orning Vietnam! from the eponymous; The San Francisco Chronicle (try www.sfgate.com) just reported on Robin Williams' visit to Iraq to entertain the troops - it was like he was living that role!

David Byrne whacking himself on the face in the Talking Heads film, STOP MAKING SENSE (I listened to the soundtrack incessantly, for years before I actually saw it)

The *opening* scenes of CITIZEN KANE

Most of the lines in PRINCESS BRIDE

And so on....

Harlan : Sounds like a really *interesting* lecture coming up. I wish I lived in the Midwest. Um, are you gonna make sure, before answering a queation, that whoever wrote it down is actually present in the room? No cowards! Everybody play fair!

Stuck 60 miles south of San Francisco,

Kristin

Library of America and Modern Library are publishing Lovecraft because he got an endorsement from Joyce Carol Oates. Sorry, but that’s the way it works – you don’t get into the club without a recommendation from a member. It would be nice if someone would reissue the Lovecraft readings David McCallum did for Caedmon.

I think the most likely/deserving science fiction/fantasy authors to make the Library of America are Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin. My imaginary two volume LOA of the science fiction novel (assuming those two authors have volumes/sets of their own):

Volume 1: Universe by Robert Heinlein; Wolfbane by Pohl & Kornbluth; The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester; A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.; More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon.

Volume 2: Nova by Samuel R. Delaney; Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg; The Female Man by Joanna Russ; Engine Summer by John Crowley; 334 by Thomas M. Disch.

Back when Harlan was hosting the Hour 25 show he used to take out a few minutes from each program to mention what he’d been reading or watching or listening to. He put the listeners on to a number of good things that way. If he had the time and the inclination to do that here it would be wonderful.

A hearty second for the "Superman" line from Iron Giant. I also tear up.

"The whole town needs an enema." Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Always makes me laugh.

Did Hunt Bowman ever triumph over the Voltamen?

FINDER/DOUG: I've seen Jorg Ihle's adaptation of "Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman." I have a copy. It's a few notches better than okay all right. Not a great film, but a nice piece of work with some rich moments in it. I was more or less contentedly pleased at the way it turned out. Heaven knows the producer and actors and Jorg kept me in the loop pretty much; and they worked hard at it. So on sum, I am okay with it.

KEITH CRAMER: I've decided to work the upcoming Case Western Reserve gig totally on the fly. I'm asking the apparat in charge to get people to type out questions on 3x5 cards, some prior to the event, others engendered at the door and shuffled together for me before I go on. This way, the audience will totally program my presentation. The Forbes Auditorium holds about 700, if I'm not overestimating. As it is free, CWR expects a packed house, which is swell. I work best to a jammed venue. No telling what will ensue.

Also, while Susan and I are there, we'll be going out to the cemetery to take a moody photo of me at the gravesite of my Mom and Dad. Been wanting to do that for a long time.

Bob, Tony ... if you drop in and read this ... I am planning for us to see us all. Got to work out when, how, where, etc.

Cleveland at the end of February. Oh, gawdamighty...!!!!

Been there, done that.

With chilled expectations, I remain,

Yr. pal, Harlan Frozensicle

RE: movie moments

From the musical front:

Danny Kaye and Vera Allen dancing to "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" from White Christmas

The musical zing when Cyd Charisse's enormous scarf flies straight up in the air in the Broadway Ballet from Singing in the Rain.

(Also from Singing in the Rain: The shot of Gene Kelly hugging the lamppost, sopping wet.)

Gene Kelly on rollerskates, dancing to "I Like Myself" in It's Always Fair Weather.

Astaire dancing on the walls/ceilings to "You're All the World to Me" in Royal Wedding.

[worst movie musical moment: Every second of My Fair Lady that features a poorly dubbed Audrey Hepburn instead of Julie Andrews. Gaaah.]

Harlan's lecture
Well, my husband and I just decided we're going to do the 2-hour trek to Case Western to see Harlan - I can't miss that opportunity! Keith, hopefully we'll see you there. Anyone else from here planning to go?

Dima

Coming to Cleveland!
I talked a friend of mine into coming to Cleveland with me to hear Harlan's lecture at Case Western Reserver University on March 1st. I'm going to loan her a couple of Harlan's books prior to that, so she can get some idea of what to expect.

Harlan, do you have a topic picked out, or will you wing it?

-Cramer

Memorable Movie Moments
The most frustrating thing of having fun with this is that you know that there will be a dozen or more that come to mind the moment you press SEND. With that said, or typed, here's what's sticking to the corners of my mind this moment:

** The "all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain" speech from BLADERUNNER

** Dave dismantles Hal in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

** Michael smack the kiss'o'death on Fredo in GODFATHER II

** The Vincent plunges the adrenaline into Mia's chest in PULP FICTION

** Captain Willard asks who's in charge at the Do Long (not sure of spelling) Bridge, and the response given in APOCALYPSE NOW

** Jack backs Wendy up the staircase in THE SHINING

** Chattin' at the soda machine about our fluids in DR. STRANGELOVE

** Father sets free his imprisoned birdies in HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART ONE (if you've seen it 100 times, and the snot still squirts when you do, then it's fucking funny. A favorite of Debbie's as well).

** "It's just a flesh wound" in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

** Woody dances with Death in LOVE AND DEATH

** The mashed 'tater Devil's Tower and Roy's son's tears in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.

** Harry Lime first appears from the shadows in THE THIRD MAN

** That strange, short, grey-haired psy-cop makes an appearance in BABYLON FIVE

I gotta million of them, but alas, I grow weary.

-TODD

Favorite Movie Moments
Just a couple as I rob my employer of a couple minutes at the end of the day...

Benjamin Braddock's run to the church at the end of THE GRADUATE.


"Killer Kane" coming to the forefront of Stacy Keach's personality during the barroom fight in THE NINTH CONFIGURATION.

I love this sort of thing.

Being short on time, I'll dig into my files and come up with a list of quotes I assembled last year:

“What she’s got you couldn’t spell. And what you’ve got you used to have.”
(Jerry in The Barefoot Contessa, written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

“When I spike you you’ll know you’ve been spoken to.”
(Danny in Withnail & I, written by Bruce Robinson)

“Detriments you call us? Detriments? Well I want to remind you it was detriments like us that built this bloody empire, and the Izzat of the bloody Raj. Hats on!”
(Peachy in The Man Who Would Be King, written by Gladys Hill and John Huston)

“I'll send you a love letter. Straight from my heart, fucker! You know what a love letter is? It's a bullet from a fucking gun, fucker! You receive a love letter from me, you're fucked forever! You understand, fuck? I'll send you straight to hell, fucker!”
(Frank Booth in Blue Velvet, written by David Lynch)

“That's one of the tragedies of this life - that the men who are most in need of a beating up are always enormous.”
(John D. Hackensacker III in The Palm Beach Story, written by Preston Sturges)

“A man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.”
(Dryden in Lawrence of Arabia, written by Robert Bolt)

“The point is, I run this dump and I don't know the technical mumbo-jumbo. Why do I run it? I've got horse-sense, goddamnit. Showmanship. And also, and I hope Lou told you this, I’m bigger and meaner and louder than any other kike in this town.”
(Jack Lipnik in Barton Fink, written by Ethan and Joel Coen)

“Here’s your head. What’s your hurry?”
(Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success, written by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets)

“It’s my head! It’s my head! I will see you in court!”
(John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich, written by Charlie Kaufman)

“Keep your lovin’ brother happy.”
(Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West, many writers, English dialogue by Mickey Knox)

Film Bits

"The Conversation" - When Harry stands in the hotel room next to where the murder is being committed, and mentally and physically chasing his panic over not acting to stop it.

I also love the scene of his panic in tearing part his apartment trying to ascertain whwre the bug lies. As the rooms themselves, harry is as much left in shambles.

"Citizen Kane" - The destruction of the bedroom. Then, the pan shot at the end of the film passing over the piles upon piles of belongings being fed to the fires. Somehow it apppears to me as a massive city laid to waste by either natural or man-made causes.

"The Bicycle Thief" - The scene where the boy saves his father from the mob.

"Last Tango In Paris" - Brando's confession scene. Pure violence and self-hatred, and not one physical act.

"The Guns Of Navarone" - Watching the ordinance lift go up and down, closer and closer to the detonator, as the British fleet moves closer into the gun's range...

I haven't read any of Jack Ketchum's work, but stumbled across this while ignoring the ringing phone here at work.

http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/squib/79.html

It's the second part of an interview with him, but probably the most relevant to this board since there's some good tips in there for fledgling writers.

HPL
I think that the Herbert West story had to be there simply because the movie [for better or worse] served as a pointer to a generation of reader/viewers who were never going to find Lovecraft via Arkham House. A concession to commercialism but no great crime. For instance, I never really minded when they flog a movie association for a Philip K. Dick story as long as the publisher is selling you the story and not some bastardized novelization. I suppose there might be room for a second HPL Modern Library volume based on your argument and I certainly wouldn't have a problem with that.

I would be curious to know how enthusiastic ML was about this volume. Is this a cash cow for the built-in Lovecraft market or are they really interested in this stuff? Is Robert E. Howard being considered? I think a volume of Howard's best stuff would be a great thing. Harlan once described Rex Miller's writing as stuff "that really pulls the plough" and I think in some weird way Howard is the grandaddy of that style.

Is Modern Library looking at any of the other pulp writers? C.L. Moore, Jim Thompson etc.? Fill in your own favorite. I could have stuck 30 in there. Is Bradbury a possibility? I know Vintage or Viking or somebody did a big retrosoective back in the 1980's but I suspect that's well out of print.

On a related front - I finally got around to reading the key Futrelle story in the ML edition that Harlan edited. I read Harlan's material the week it came out and then it got misplaced until yesterday. Quasi-SPOILER WARNING / the bit involving the writing on the cloth was quite a disappointment. My solutions were far more interesting, if a bit grotesque. I have to remember this was written in 1905. I'm going to have to space these out.

Harlan very kindly soft-pedalled the one trick pony aspect. Doing these in one setting would not help their cause. On the other hand, Harlan's intro. alone is well worth the cover price.

Waiting for my Modern Library and Library of America editions of Harlan Ellison. I am a very patient man.

- Barney

Silverfishbait, PA.

Sorry if this is flogging a dead shuggoth, but now that I've had a chance to take a look at the LOA Lovecraft volume I must say I have to wonder about some of Peter Straub's editorial choices. He gets it mostly right; the BIG stories are all here. But you sure do have to wade through a lot of junk to get to the good stuff. It's almost a third of the way into the book before you get to "Call of Cthulhu".

Now I would certainly keep "Outsider" and "Erich Zann", but why include crap like "Statement of Randolph Carter" and "Herbert West--Reanimator"? Where is "Dream-Quest", or what I consider HPL's finest story "The Silver Key"? Does Straub really prefer "Horror at Red Hook"?

I would have even ditched "Charles Dexter Ward" for HPL's great essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature". And just for fun why not find room for HPL's faux history of the Necronomicon?

Just for the record, I love HPL. As long as people aren't comparing him to Poe or claiming that he is some kind of great literary artist.

Ok Ok I'll shut up now. Guess I shoulda returned Peter Straub's phone calls huh? heh heh heh

Twin Falls not Twin Peaks
Mild brain fart. It's TWIN FALLS IDAHO, and it's a stunner: an almost unbearably powerful, and passionate, love story between a call girl and "Mr. Right" -- i.e. the Right member of a pair of conjoined twins.

While we’re in film mode…

Harlan, have you had the chance to view Jorg Ihle’s 1999 AFI thesis film adaptation of “Paulie Charmed The Sleeping Woman”? I haven’t myself (my tendrils reach, but not that far), but I adore the dark magic of the story, and am curious if you have a take on Ihle’s attempt at translating it to the screen.

Adam-Troy: "Twin Peaks Idaho" -- now _there's_ a movie I'd like to see!

With Apologies to True Art
The very first scene I thought of when the question of favorite movie scenes was brought up (and the one I can’t get out of my head now.)

National Lampoon’s Vacation - John Candy approaches the Griswolds and says “Sorry Folks. Park’s closed. The moose out front should have told you.”

I don’t know why, but I role on the ground every time I hear it. If I notice the movie is on, I will wait for just that scene. It is nothing compared to the examples most of you have shared. But there is something about the timing and the situation that just works for me.

Mike

A couple more come to mind...

The "I am not a gun" parts of IRON GIANT, followed by that final word "Superman." Makes me well up every time.

The great shot only of Gint's feet straightening out as he walks down the sidewalk in THE USUAL SUSPECTS.

The shot of Joe Morton and S. Epatha Merkerson as the Dysons, watching the Terminator cut off his arm in TERMINATOR 2; I just love how she naturally freaks at the sight of the metal arm, while Dyson starts freaking and then has the most wonderful expression of "wait...I know that."

Thoughts on teenager-speak (and college speak)
Chris (and Harlan) - I have often wondered why it is so mandatory for young people to feign stupidity. "Like, no one will take you seriously or believe you're really a student unless you like, totally say like, totally every other word!"

Well, some of them really are stupid, but even the bright ones talk that way!

I have seen things like film reviews and letters to the editor written by teenagers proving they can be perfectly articulate when and if they want to be, but how often do their conversations reflect this? I went to one of the higher-achieving (good SAT scores and many college-bound students) high schools in the country, and if I remember right the Valley-Girl fad hit us just as hard as anybody!

Bewildered,


Kristin

HOLY MACKREL! DA SIN CITY MOVIE, LAWD ABOVE!!!
Follow along folks...
I work close to eighty hours a week, have a jones for vintage hot rods and pre-1960 m/c's, drink too much beer and try my level best to find music, books and movies that enrich my life and challenge my intellect (while doing my best to maintain healthy relationships w/ family, friends and society at large)- the point you may ask? I've little time to spare and sometimes I'm a little late in getting the word, 'kay? I just stumbled across the preview for "Sin City"!!!! Wow, am I hard!!! And before any of you Aw-my-gawd-anyone-in-the-know-has-known-about-this-ten-years want to post your shitty, snide remarks I'd like to add: Not only have I saddled my ass on a '49 Vincent Black Shadow as well as the driver's seat of a boat-tailed Auburn, but I'll be parking it in the seat of the nearest theatre that has the good sense to be playing Sin City on opening night!
Stay Sick,
Edward King

Some but by no means all memorable scenes that come to mind:

Searching for Bobby Fisher – scene near the end when the boy offers a draw in his game versus his arch nemesis.

The Killing Fields – Scene in which the protagonist discovers the bodies in the rice paddies.

Four Wedding and a Funeral – The reading of Auden’s poem. “He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.” etc.

The shooting of Old Yeller.

The act in The Lion in Winter with the brothers hiding behind the drapes.

Reservoir Dogs – Cutting off of the ear.

Jaws – swapping of stories between the police chief and other’s on the ship out at sea.

Altered States – At the end when the professor is saved by his wife.

PERSONAL "GREAT CINEMATIC MOMENTS" (AS OF 2005):

The dream sequence of Bruce Banner remembering his mother’s death in HULK.

Charles Kane's rampage through the bedroom near the climax of CITIZEN KANE.

The scene of Tilda Swinton becoming a woman in ORLANDO.

Klaus Kinski’s eerie monologue to the camera in AGUIRRE.

The basset hound scene at Batou’s home in GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE.

Gary Cooper’s physical/mental collapse on the railroad in THEY CAME TO CORDURA.

The shot of the exploded gas station from above in THE BIRDS.

Ray Milland’s public humiliation at the five-star restaurant in THE LOST WEEKEND.

"I seemed to have died. Is that OK?" The MST3King of OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK.

Unicron’s transformation into “humanoid” mode in TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE. (Bite me, film snobs.)

Robin Williams’s breakdown near the end of SEIZE THE DAY.

The scene where the Porter is demoted by his boss in THE LAST LAUGH.

Bruce Campbell having his ass handed to him by miniature versions of himself in ARMY OF DARKNESS.

The “dinner” scene from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1973).

Jack Lemmon’s violent fit in the greenhouse in DAYS OF WINE & ROSES.

The “shower of arrows” sequence from THRONE OF BLOOD.

The shot of the townspeople emerging from their hiding places at the finale of HIGH NOON.

The final ten minutes of both the 1932 SCARFACE and its 1983 remake.

All of ERASERHEAD.

TZ
Harlan, I have finished watching your four episodes (soon I have to check out the NACKLES script as well). One of your audio commentaries completely made my day (PALADIN), and the others were marvellously insightful, funny, moving and/or entertaining as well. Those are the kinds of audio commentaries DVD's were invented for. Being interested in filmmaking, I have listened to my share of them, and these were the best. Thanks! (Not that I didn't expect them to be good, but they were also unusual in many positive ways.)

I discovered the show around 1992(?), it seemed very special to me, and I always watched it alone. I had to tape it at night and play it the next day after school. Often something went wrong, so I only saw a very limited number of episodes. I vividly remember watching my first episode, it was the one about the little creatures haunting the writer. PERSONAL DEMONS. I'm looking forward to seeing that again, too, to see if it holds up. It was scary as hell and I didn't understand what this was, I didn't know there was such a thing as an anthology show.

Film moment

DAS BOOT *** spoiler warning ***

While planes strafe by, the captain stumbling out of shelter to watch his submarine sink down below the dock.

Rubber suits, Cigars and Tomahawks. .
Kieth Cramer:

BLAARRGGGHHH! Roland Emmerich's Godzilla! Not worthy of the name! Not worthy to scrub Toho's toilets! An insult! A slight! A travesty! Worse than root canal surgery, worse than Mariah Carey, worse than a paper cut on the prostate, an enema, a brick in the face, a sharp pencil up the nose! A deliberate, intentional, cynical misinterpretation of all that makes Monster Movies great.

Godzilla was the Mohamed Ali, the Bruce Lee, of Monsters. That featherless chicken running around Emmerich's film couldn't take on the Staypuff Marshmellow man.

Now that we're on the topic, here's my great, unforgetable scene:

Godzilla vs. Gigan: After taking a serious beating, Big G gets up off the ground, dusts himself off and kicks the ass of his enemies, to the sound of Akira Ikufube's amazing score (borrowed from a serious war film). Triumph against adversity. And giant alien robots.

Others?

"Last of the Mohicans", Chingachgook (Russell Means) slowly shakes his head before doing in Magua (Wes Studi), as if to say "You mother-fucker".

And anytime Groucho seduces Margaret Dumont. It's worth getting slapped to use those lines. . .

Scenes I never get tired of:

Skipping the obvious example(s) of numerous scenes from 2001:

Two scenes from STROSZEK - first Bruno S. standing in a long shot, back towards the camera, as they take his mobile home away. As the mobile home is removed, the scene, dominated by the home, now opens out onto a vista, a shot across the plains stretching off to the distant horizon. Herzog holds the shot for a full 45 seconds longer just watching a tiny Bruno standing and staring into infinity. Second: the "dancing chicken."

Staying with Herzog, from FATA MORGANA, the scenes of the bizarre "night club" singer -the guy with goggles on the drums singing that strange, strange song. It's the most memorable sound from a movie ever.


The joust in Bresson's LANCELOT DU LAC (a miracle of sound design.)

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from LIFE OF BRIAN.

"All work and no play..." from THE SHINING

That creepy, monkey with the human eyes from the beginning of BARAKA.


The basketball game in "ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST"

CHRIS SEGGERMAN:

You cannot know what pleasure and satisfaction and smiling joy your post brings me!!!!

Thank you thank you and again thank you.

Yr. pal, Harlan

Ezra: "It keeps me from pissing of Jan by asking him which shirt he owns, the blue one, the gold one, or the red one?"

Gee thanks.

MARCI:

I have absolutely NO IDEA in what NeverNeverLand Mitch Hurwitz resides, whereat he finds writers "treated with respect."

Kindly get me the address. I'd like to emigrate posthaste.

With Judge Crater, Amelia Earhart, Kasper Hauser, Peter Pan and the Easter Bunny as neighbors, I presume.

Falling down with spasms of laughter, I remain,

Harlan Ellison, a film/tv writer who lives in the Real World

Just a few scenes, promoted by the previous post:

The murder of the family at the beginning of _Once Upon a Time in the West_. Two moments especially: when the camera moves around to reveal who the lead murderer is, and the tolling of the bell when he gazes upon the surviving kid as he prepares to shoot him.

The ball at the end of _The Leopard_.

Orson Welles as Falstaff, facing Hal's rejection, in _Chimes at Midnight_. It could be his finest moment as an actor.

Sean Astin carrying Elijah Wood to Mount Doom in _The Return of the King_.

Nearly every frame of _Ran_.

Scenes I Never Get Tired Of
Oh boy, lots.

Elsa Lanchester reacting to Boris Karloff with horror in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Harold Diddelbock professing his love in MAD WEDNESDAY. Indeed, a dozen scenes from that film.

Buster Keaton's fight with the pirate in SPITE MARRIAGE.

"Get Away From Her, You Bitch!" in ALIENS.

The engine of the PHOENIX finally catching, in FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, singing horribly badly in GEORGIA.

"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, telling Brigid he's turning her in in THE MALTESE FALCON.

Schindler on the hilltop, watching the ghetto slaughter.

The banker, in BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY, telling the stunned gamblers that he will back the lady's bet.

Diane Keaton, in GODFATHER 2, telling Al Pacino that it wasn't a miscarriage, but an abortion, "just like our marriage."

One-armed Spencer Tracy, beating the crap out of Ernest Borgnine in BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK.

Elsa the Lioness making her first kill in BORN FREE.

The last scenes of TWIN PEAKS IDAHO. "It's not over."

Dustin Hoffman, in LITTLE BIG MAN, triumphantly giving General Custer the advice to go down into Little Big Horn.

Roberto Benigni, fooling his next door neighbor into thinking he's a midget, in THE MONSTER.

Inspector Dreyfus losing his mind, several times in the PINK PANTHER series (much funnier than Closeau himself).

The closing speech of Michael Douglas, in THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT.

The closing duel in ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA.

Eli Wallach, racing through the graveyard in THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY.

William Peterson, suddenly realizing how to find the killer in MANHUNTER.

Orson Welles, addressing the jury at the end of COMPULSION.

Burt Lancaster, angrily admitting his complicity in war crimes in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG.

More to come, those just off the top of my head.

Harlan's ferocity makes a difference!
Hello,

I saw Harlan speak a few years ago at Arizona State University West. Prior to that, I’d seen him on Tom Snyder talking about someone wanting to build a tennis court that encroached on his property.

Having just heard him decry the dangers of television, I didn’t want to admit I’d been watching it. When I asked him about this, I got nervous and started to embroider every sentence with “like”—though I never used “rilly.”

After a few painful sentences, Harlan said “If you say “like” one more time, I’m gonna hit you with this microphone! Neither your mother nor myself brought you up to talk that way!” He further cautioned me not to talk like a Valley Girl and remembered the incident when I ‘fessed up to seeing him on Tom Snyder.

While some folks would get horked off at being corrected—the student paper even said someone who curses so much shouldn’t pick on “poor students”-- I realized that I had sounded like some illiterate peasant instead of an English Major—which I was! Because of that, I reevaluated my speech and life. I also read every book or short story of Harlan’s I could acquire. Things have improved so much since then.

Most recently, “Incognita, Inc.” grabbed me. It just nails that bittersweet sense of loss and optimism I keep trying to beat into my friends’ heads.

Thanks, Harlan!

Memorable movie moments.
Two moments really; one of terror, the other of sadness.

I can vividly recall the most powerful image in cinema from my youth. Sitting at home one night with the family as a young boy and watching The Magical World of Disney and encountering their take on that classic Russian Tale, Peter and the Wolf. There's this one moment in that, in the midst of the Disney lightness, that has stuck with me all my life. Two images from youth seared onto my young brain like a branding iron; the moment when the camera pans away from Peter and his grandpa and heads out into the whirling snow, and makes mention of the Wolf that first time, the blowing snow sliding over a large, ominous pawprint, and the moment when the Wolf is on the branch with Peter. That creature was the first real impression my young mind got of Very Bad Things. The Wolf visited me on many a night in the dark.

The other moment that moved me is the death of John Coffey in The Green Mile. I couldn't make it through that sequence without breaking into tears. John is a simple, caring soul that doesn't deserve his fate at all, and that moment is just the most painful thing I've ever seen. A movie has never managed to get past my defenses quite like that film did.

Stacy

Movie Moments - the scene that you never forgot
It was never in the movie. I anticipated the movie, from this ingenious trailer, for over a year. The movie sucked so bad I went into a depression afterward which lasted weeks, and I'm normally a very happy guy. My nickname as a child was Sunshine, and our neighbors were not sarcastic types.

Picture this:

Interior, New York Museum of Natural History. Far shot on a group of 6th graders slowly following their Ben Stein-like teacher reading mechanically from a card, as they proceed into a glass domed room, dominated by a T-Rex skeleton. Teacher's monotonous voice echos in the space. The procession stops short of standing at the ropes around the display, as the teacher turns to the students and gestures at the statue as he continues his droning. "Tyranosaurus Rex was the most fearsom predator of his age..." Then there is a distant, and almost imperceptible, boom. Instructor goes on. "Six-inch fangs..." yada yada, another boom, closer, which makes him pause, because the skeleton of the T-Rex shook, shaking dust loose. Suddenly there's a wide angle on the T-Rex skeleton in the center of the room, the dome, and then a huge MONSTER FOOT crashes through the dome and squashes the T-Rex skeleton, and then leaves. There is a sound like a fog-horn mated with a doomed train squealing its brakes down a mountain pass, and a long green tail passes above the dome.

Yes, it was Godzilla. The Emmerich version. Poop. They should have just had a big pile of shit crash through the dome and squash the T-Rex skeleton.

Groundhog Day: Bill Murray's character futilely trying to save the old, homeless man. Tears every time.

LA Story: The two main characters become children walking down a verdant garden path, to a soundtrack from Enya's Watermark Album. And the end, when the plane can't take off because the weather goes freaky. In fact, that whole movie is awesome. Steve Martin amazes me.

Good thread.

-Cramer

The "magic moments in movies" thread (he avowed alliteratively) is a good one. It keeps me from pissing of Jan by asking him which shirt he owns, the blue one, the gold one, or the red one?

Anyway, one such moment that immediately comes to mind is when Boris Karloff is first awakened from his endless sleep by the hapless and doomed young archeologist, reading the spell of Thoth, in the original MUMMY from 1932. His eye flickers open, he flexes his fingers and the mummy dust trickles down his chest in complete silence. "Come out under the stars of Egypt."

But the best such moments come from books. One image that still buzzes around in my head like a bumblebee in a mason jar is this from Borges' "Library of Babel,"

"Like all men of the Library, I have traveled in my youth; I have wandered in search of a book, perhaps the catalogue of catalogues; now that my eyes can hardly decipher what I write, I am preparing to die just a few leagues from the hexagon in which I was born. Once I am dead, there will be no lack of pious hands to throw me over the railing; my grave will be the fathomless air; my body will sink endlessly and decay and dissolve in the wind generated by the fall, which is infinite."

I remember when I first read that story in college. Man I couldn't get that out of my head for days. Still can't obviously.

Chuck,
I honestly was never a big fan of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD so I've only seen it a couple of times, but your recounting of the conversation between Scout and Jem is a fine example of excellent writing and direction. As Judge Smails would say, "Top notch, top notch!"

I'm going to have to look at it again just to see that scene.

Tracy: "tepid, mediocre "Star Trek" tie-in novels. A veritable banquet for some undiscerning woodpecker. My question is, how does someone become committed to a project like that? Did the writers actually have to buy thier way into the franchise or are these the efforts of bullpen hacks?"

The Pocket Books novels are written exclusively by people who know the shows very well and want to write for the line. Some of the writers may be hacks, others aren't. I figure it's good practice to write the novels, they're relatively easy to do (you have all the usual chess pieces at your disposal, you hear the voices in your head), you get paid, and you have a built-in audience. I read lots of the early books in my teens, and they varied *wildly* in quality and approach, although to the naked eye they may appear to be all of the same cloth (perhaps today they are). Even though the majority of hard sf books are written by men, a lot of the better Trek books were written by women and they often had a decidedly female perspective. I had an exchange with Diane Duane once and she had no problem being associated with the Star Trek novels, although she certainly never "needed" to write them. Few people did. Greg Bear didn't, Vonda McIntyre didn't. None of the writers deserve to be looked down upon just because they contributed a few novels. That's called writing for a market; these are books for teenagers. The novel assignments are handed out based on prose samples and story outlines; the editors get more requests than they can handle, so they can pick relatively good writers. The only problem is the approval process and the need to respect established facts. I believe, the books have been selling less and less, and (as with the tv shows) the output was way too big for too many years. Certainly there was a drop in overall quality/creative freedom sometime around 1989 or so.

To Resurrect a Stillborn Thread

Specifically, rich's.
Quote:

"So what movie scene(s) gives you guys the goosebumps or never gets old no matter how many times you've seen it?"

I can think of several from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

There's the one between Scout and Jem, in bed for the night, talking from one bedroom to another as Atticus is on the porch overhearing their conversation:

Scout: How old was I when Mama died?
Jem: Two.
Scout: How old were you?
Jem: Six.
Scout: Old as I am now?
Jem: Uh huh.
Scout: ...Was Mama pretty?
Jem: Uh, huh.
Scout: Was Mama nice?
Jem: Uh, huh.
Scout: Did you love her?
Jem: Yes.
Scout: Did I love her?
Jem: Yes.
Scout: Do you miss her?
Jem: Uh, huh.

The camera concentrates almost entirely on Atticus' expression as they talk.

- or when the lych mob confronts Atticus in front of the jail, and the kids run to his side. Scout recognizes Mr Cunningham, a neighbor and begins talking to him:

Scout: I said, 'Hey,' Mr. Cunningham. How's your entailment getting along?
[He turns and looks away]
Scout: Don't you remember me, Mr. Cunningham? I'm Jean Louise Finch. You brought us some hickory nuts one early morning, remember? We had a talk. I went and got my daddy to come out and thank you. I go to school with your boy. I go to school with Walter; he's a nice boy. Tell him 'hey' for me, won't you? You know something, Mr. Cunningham, entailments are bad. Entailments...
[She suddenly becomes self-conscious]
Scout: Atticus, I was just saying to Mr. Cunningham that entailments were bad but not to worry. Takes a long time sometimes...
[to the men who are staring up at her]
Scout: What's the matter? I sure meant no harm, Mr. Cunningham.

The men are shamed into giving up their little necktie party and go home.

These scenes could have been schmaltzy, cloying, but there's a direct honesty in them that gets to me every time I see this movie. I can never watch it without becoming teary-eyed.

Chuck

Harlan, thoughts on the writer's Eden?
Harlan,

Having read about your years in working for television, I thought you might appreciate this quote from Mitchell Hurwitz (creator of Fox's Arrested Development):

"...television is a very writer-driven business, and it's one of the few parts of entertainment where writers are treated with respect."

Is this accurate? Have times changed so much since your verbose columns on the horror of writing for television? Certainly excellent show-runner/writers like Joe Straczynski (and many others) have been able to climb fairly high in the television game, but this seems rather like pointing to Spartacus as an example of the fine life enjoyed by a Roman slave.


The full interview being at the link below.

http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=4106

"The Wagon Train Got Chucked"
Hello everyone,

I wish I could feel funereal about the demise of Trek--my black suit covered with schmaltzy tears and Kleenex dust--but as it is, I'm underwhelmed and without condolences. I feel nothing but jack, and shit, and I just ran out of jack. Too much has transpired--too many clone shows; too many warp core breaches; too many bogus--and arrogant--homilitic endings. Perchance Counselor Troi can sense my sadness. I sure can't.

At the local branch of Barnes & Noble, there is an entire semi-gondola filled with tepid, mediocre "Star Trek" tie-in novels. A veritable banquet for some undiscerning woodpecker. My question is, how does someone become committed to a project like that? Did the writers actually have to buy thier way into the franchise or are these the efforts of bullpen hacks?

Here's a real "star trek" for you: A website chronicling everything currently known about all the extrasolar planets discovered so far, complete with a few fanciful paintings that take you there. A great resource for any writer wanting to put characters on a newly discovered world, and just fun to read. Check it out!


http://www.extrasolar.net/

Harlan & Barney: On Kersh and then a digression...
Ixnay on the offer for "Jews without Jehovah". While I was aware of people swiping photos from other listings and fraudlently trying to pass them off as being for sale, I was more than a little dismayed to find out these shuck & jive artists can make a "second chance offer" for something they had never listed (legitimately and under the egis- or is it egest- of E-bay)! How fucking odd! It is as if E-bay is putting their profit margin over fair and ethical trading standards. The lady who had the book for sale e-mailed to let me know the dipshit (otherwise known as ainceputparanghelia)had made a number of bogus offers to other e-bayers for the book (for the record Barney, I'm ghoulunatic1956).
Harlan and any one else reading this,
While most of the nation views Febuary as Black history month (how ever the hell you define that) it, for a handful of us, marks the passing of Bill Hicks. As a friend and ghost-writer of Lenny Bruce (and I do view Hicks as Lenny's equal-most likely the only comedian who will come within a country mile of that standard- with Carlin coming in a close third)I'd highly suggest picking up the "Bill Hicks live" DVD. OHMIGAWD, three of Hicks's best concerts and the BBC documentry on one disc. Over three hours of piss-your-pants funny social criticism and his bit about the first war in Iraq is more relevant today than thirteen years ago! Enjoy.
Edward King

Trying, trying...
I'm trying to say as little as I can about the subject (Trek), since this is not the place, but some people are totally closed-minded and freely permit their minds to be full of clichés. Star Trek these days gets put down by everyone, why can't we do better and look at what's really there? There are so many people who haven't actually ever watched the show with any attention at all, and who think their opinion is informed. (Jay, for example thinks ST2 is the only good movie, as if ST4 was never made, and ST 6 is "badly written". It's imperfect, that's what it is.) I can be cool and put down a lot of things I haven't paid much attention to. Star Trek was often fun, entertaining, it sometimes made you think, or laugh, so why shouldn't there be fans and why can't they be left alone by people who don't get it (and proud of it)? Why is there always this thing that when someone talks about Star Trek, they immedeately bring the fans into it - none of whom they know personally - and how they're supposedly wasting their time in a lifelong exclusive devotion to the show (Michael: "It's like making a life eating spam, when one can have filet mignon; like driving a Yugo when one can have a Caddy.") Enough already. Star Trek was a worthwhile attempt at doing intelligent television in a time when we had TIME TUNNEL and LOST IN SPACE. You seldom see any main character on tv anywhere, not even thirty years later, who represents intellectuals like Spock (or Picard), or humanism like McCoy. There was no organized religion on the show, no one smoked, you tried not to interfere with other cultures, you tried to understand that which frightened you and to cooperate with it, you had interracial casting etc. People talk of monsters and Spock's brains, and they don't know that the show did it's real work quietly below the surface. The show was more topical and allegorical than any other show I know of, it talked about wars, power, violence, television, and I have said before that people who have seen the shows when they were kids or who don't look closely will never fully understand what was really going on. (Thus, the opinion of some here that the show is for five year olds.) It was a good show to like and be a fan of, provided you liked watching television. Sure, it would be even better, if more teenagers read Proust and Stendhal, but that not being the case, how about a tv show that speaks to the imagination and leads them to literature? Yes, it's television, and that shouldn't be held again it or against those who worked hard to make it happen (including HE). It should be seen and *judged* as television. You should look at the acting, the direction, the writing. It was not literature, it was standards & practices, format, budget limitations, standing sets, schedules, guest actors vanishing during shooting, and the need to pull in a mass audience. I'm also tired of hearing that people on the show weren't real aliens but people with make-up and prosthetics. That's really an intelligent comment, and it shows that you have understood that the aliens were often supposed to represent aspects of humanity. Besides, Star Trek did show other types of aliens, like the Horta in "The Devil in the Dark", as well as energy beings, puppets on strings ("Catspaw") etc. They couldn't do Stanley Weinbaum on a tv budget.

Sorry, couldn't contain myself. Uninformed opinions are simply painful to me, especially when they concern minority groups. Star Trek fans are a minority group, and I guess they sure feel like one these days. I understand that we have to dismiss a lot of stuff, so we can devote more attention to whatever else we rather to occupy ourselves with. But it really does become painful when such dismissals are sold as legitimate opinions. It's like saying: "I read the first chapter of Proust in the bus once, and it really sucked, so now I'm staying away from French literature." The thing is, it doesn't suck, only you're not willing to invest some of your time, which you need to read Superman.

Finally, I just want to say I'm not a fan, and I agree that many episodes and movies weren't up to snuff. (Still, it was always interesting to see the director and actor suffer through the mess and salvage what they can.) In school I often thought it would be best if our worst marks were simply disregarded. It's easy to fail, but it's hard to succeed fully - not everyone can do it. We have to look at the best a person has done, not enumerate the worst.

Quick correction to Barney
Chip Kidd's "The Cheese Monkeys" was designed by Kidd. Ware provided hand-lettering, and maybe the cover illo of the monkeys (can't remember about that one). I concur with your critical assessments both of the design and of the story.

***Harlan/Susan*** I left a few remarks addressed to the two of you over on the General discussions/meta-thread about yesterday since it needed saying but didn't warrant a phone call. Mostly an apology to Susan. It never hurts to leave apologies lying around for Susan in multiple locations is my policy of the day.

Currently reading THE CHEESE MONKEYS: A NOVEL IN TWO SEMESTERS by Chipp Kidd, Jr. which, so far is pretty good but needs to get better. Very clever book design by Chris Ware.

Also still ploughing through WOMEN, RACE and CLASS by Angela Davis which is brilliant but some of the toughest reading I have ever done. Nobody can make me feel bad for being "whitey" faster than Ms. Davis. Harlan, have you ever met her? If you have an Angela Davis story I'd love to hear it.

- Barney

Y'know, I thought Green Acres was pretty cool back in the day and Barbara Eden looked pretty hot in that genie get-up (that Larry Hagman was a fool!), but that was a long time ago and other than stopping by when TBS or TVLand show 'em, I really don't pay that much attention to 'em anymore.

Why? I've moved on, that's why.

And A-TC's comments regarding TWELVE ANGRY MEN (which I agree with wholeheartedly) also remind me that whenever I catch DOG DAY AFTERNOON, I irritate everyone as I say, "Ok, ok, here it comes, watch it, now, lookit, here it comes, watch..." as Al Pacino does his hankie waving thing, screaming, "Attica!", and the camera cuts away to an overhead view...Gets me every fucking time. Never gets old for me. (Meanwhile, after the scene plays, the people I've badgered into watching it give me the hairy eyeball and look for the nearest exit, or all of a sudden realize they have to be somewhere else.)

So what movie scene(s) gives you guys the goosebumps or never gets old no matter how many times you've seen it?

(Oh, one more: HOMBRE---an example of a movie being better than the novel, by the way---when Paul Newman asks Richard Boone how he thinks he's gonna get back down that hill. "The same way I come up it." BANG! Damn, that's some fine wine.)

STAR BLAZERS!!!
Gary! I am also a 68er and enjoyed "Our Star Blazers!" growing up, along with Ultra Man, Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot, etc. I haven't heard of Star Blazers in YEARS! The memories come flooding back...the songs, the evil Gamelon's, the Wave Motion Gun, and all the hokey-yet-ahead-of-its-time anime animation. There was an episode of B5 in which Sheridan is in the crumbling planet that looks like Hell (never watched B5 enough to get into it, because I got into it so late...), and it reminded me of Planet Gamelon, of all places!

Anyone else trekking out to Case Western to hear Harlan speak? I'm thinking I'm going to go. It's not far by plane.

-keith

Last Thoughts on A Split Infinitive

Ezra Lb.:

I was only three to five years old when the shows first aired, if chronolgy works as it should. I've never gotten the affinity to that mundane franchise fosters in its fandom, to the point where many Trekkies see it as the soul and origin of SF.

It's like making a life eating spam, when one can have filet mignon; like driving a Yugo when one can have a Caddy.

As to cliche, sorry. A gentle jape is more what I'd intended.

Well I spoke my piece about ST so enough of that.

Kristin mentioned the James Blish adaptations and I admit I checked some of them out myself. But that led on to CITIES IN FLIGHT and A CASE OF CONSCIENCE and BLACK EASTER AND DR MIRABILIS
and now you're getting into some serious shit!

Michael, I was only 8 yrs old (and not an altar boy), so when ST first debuted my chances of getting laid were rather slim at best. The presence of so many fine female type humanoids on this very forum belies your comments. We shall consider this slip to be merely one of your rather infrequent descents into cliche.

Interminable Star Trek Discussion Continues
I've noticed that the Star Trek discussions hereabouts sound an awful lot like the words of recovering alcoholics talking about the demon rum, or reformed smokers going on and on about lung cancer.

My take:

The first reruns of STAR TREK, the original series, arrived at a point in my life when I was perfectly positioned to be have my lifelong inclinations influenced by it. I was fortunate in that my love for the show was not all-consuming, but part of a broad pop diet that already included Serling's TWILIGHT ZONE, the Universal horror movies, Abbott and Costello, the books of Isaac Asimov and Richard Matheson, Shwartz-era Superman comics, the works of Mark Twain, the music of Johnny Cash and the Beatles, and the short stories of our humble host.

I have never overdosed on the show, nor experienced the allergic reaction that some have experienced after overindulging. I embrace the original show's many weaknesses while applauding its strengths (as well as recognizing those elements that belong in both camps, like Shatner). I endured a shitload of bad NEXT GENERATIONS to find the pearls among them, downright admired DEEP SPACE NINE, and ignored VOYAGER and ENTERPRISE. I am still capable of dropping into the original series from time to time, though I have no interest in collecting it.

Trek will always remain one of the roots of my imagination. I will always have some affection for it, and imagine I'll continue to harbor affection for it until the day I die. But...if it was one of the roots of my imagination, the forest around it has grown thick. I'm enthused by too many things for it to dominate my heart, the way it dominates the hearts of so many. (Just last night I watched TWELVE ANGRY MEN again -- and I ain't putting this on, but I never, ever, EVER get tired of that moment when Henry Fonda stabs the table with the switcblade, or that later one when everybody turns their back on Ed Begley.) The backlash against Trek is based largely on the revulsion we feel for folks who have allowed their love for the show to metastasize, and crowd out the capacity to accept affection for other things.

This and that.
Well, I guess quality tends to tell. I've never purchased a single Star Trek DVD, but I am well on my way to a complete set of Babylon 5 boxed sets. Just made my way through season three/POINT OF NO RETURN. 'A Late Delivery from Avalon' is just awesome, and don't get me started on 'War Without End'. I look at the current crop of SF on television and sigh. When did all the heroes become brooding monosyllabic loners, and SF become little more than post-9/11 grim 'n gritty? Yes Battlestar Galactica 2.0, I'm looking at you. . .

Eh, don't mind me. The caffiene's wearing off after a long night shift, I'll be back to my usual chipper self in no time.

Stacy

Trekrant
Summary:

The Next Gen Trek movies are crap, produced by people barely able to handle episodic television. The other six movies have their moments, with "Khan" remaining the best. Some say "Undiscovered Country" was good, but the script was so badly written that it undermined its own coolness.

Since 1987 "Trek" hasn't really changed. The galaxy never felt like a big or diverse or mysterious place. The fate of billions always came down to decisions with the same importance of which wine to serve with what meal because everyone had the same system of values, language and politics with only prosthetic foreheads to distinguish them from humans.

The original series had the distinction of having powerful, skilled writers telling good stories. The show stood out from others and that's why it had a following. But now that it has staff writers and is produced alongside a dozen other shows, it's lost its edge and importance in modern science-fiction television.

Give me Farscape or even the new Galactica over that.

Edward - Treat the e-mail as suspect. The buyer on the "Jews Without Jehovah" auction already has the positive feedback from the seller for the transaction. Feedback was left for the buyer on January 31st.

Barney - Eyes will be appropriately peeled. And I DO know how it is, in big, clanging spades.

As to Trek - best to let it go fallow for a time. But it's too easy to bash the entire franchise with the hindsight of 30+ years and reruns so frequent that even the cliches have parodies. You have to give it points for its ambition and aspirations on the whole, even when it missed the mark badly (such as The One Where Spock's Gray Cells Wind Up In A Cocktail Shaker). EVERY series had its absurdities. Have you seen "The Man From UNCLE" segment "The Suburbia Affair"? Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Oh well, if we're ALL talking Trek...
..did you know I actually read the James Blish novelizations before I saw any of the episodes on TV? Well, at least before I really paid any attention to them - maybe I saw part of one when I was little, but I didn't get it. I got into reading SF about age 14 and I think I was closer to 18 before I seriously watched a Trek rerun. (They aired on and off in different places.)

Hmm, do you think we've scared Harlan away? Somehow I don't think Trek is his favorite subject. :-)

2nd chance offers
Ed, regarding the 2nd chance offer --

If what you got was an email only asking if you're interested but without an actual ebay 2nd chance auction number, do not reply or click on any links in the offer. I regularly get bogus 2nd chance offers following bids on items over $1,000.

I'm not saying it isn't legit, but check any offer out ONLY by logging into ebay directly and searching for the seller or auction number from the site. (Often the seller making the "2nd chance offer" won't match the original seller.)

Either way, good luck!

and that ! wasn't cynical - I'm starting a full time business by expanding my ebay hobby and find that a vast majority of buyers and sellers are friendly, honest, and fair. The vast minority, however, you gotta watch out for.

Trek (sorry, Barney...)

I was born in 1968, and presumably the Trek reruns and cartoon and such were rampant through my childhood, because most of my friends were way up on it. Somehow I never watched the show until 1985, when I was caught out as being ‘Trekless.’ I programmed the VCR to grab the late night reruns and watched them one by one, the enjoyable episodes and the stinkers alike, to catch up on my buddies.

No, my childhood space opera was an animated show from Japan called Star Blazers. It felt like magic, it awoke a sense of wonder and excitement, it prompted my folks to put Heinlein books in front of me, and the rest, as they say…

Here in the age of the DVD, I just had to catch up with the show again. The horror, the horror, the horrible science, the lack of interior logic, the clichés and bad writing… but, twenty-five years ago, it WAS one of the things that sparked my imagination.

It still pushes the twelve-year-old button inside me, and jazzes me. I suppose I’m just glad I can see beyond it.

addendumb
***Harlan/Doug*** Two large boxes containing you-both-know-whats are going in the mail tomorrow - media mail but with tracking and insurance. Should arrive in CA by early next week, Doug's will be sooner.

Sorry for the delay. You guys know how it is.

- Barney

Kershed Again
***Edward King*** That's odd, since you were an early bidder it's almost as though the seller has multiple copies, which seems unlikely OR really fortuitous. I once found an entire box of Regency PB's - long since traded away - these things do happen. Maybe he found a stash of some that should have been pulped? What was the reserve price? Feel free to contact me off-list.

***Star Trek*** I miss Kubrick. Please stop. Please?

- Barney

Confessions of A Non-Geek

I never watched Star Trek much.

I had my first sexual experience at fifteen, and have managed to get laid with regularity.

See how things work out?

I used to be a big time Trekker when I was a teen. I had most of the books, technical manuals, photonovels, Enterprise blueprints, plastic models of ships, phasers, communicaters, plus uniform insignia, etc. You name it, I probably had it at one time or another. You remember the plastic Enterprise bridge set with the little Kirk and Spock figures? I had that. I sprayed ligher fluid on it and set in on fire, pretending that the ship had been attacked by Klingons.

When I was young I wasn't allowed to have a TV in my bedroom, and my dad would always be watching something else when I wanted to watch Trek. I remember sneaking up to one of the empty rooms (my parents owned a motel) so I could catch glimpses of the show, all the while hoping that my dad would'nt rent the room while I was in there and some guest would come in wondering what I was doing in the room they'd just paid for. I figured that if caught I'd just say "Oh, I left something in here when I was cleaning," or something like that. Didn't matter, I had to have my fix.

I had a friend named Jim who was hooked worse. He had the most perfect set of Trek books (I was jealous). He got me started. One time we went to our freshman high school science class with our Starfleet Medical Manuals. Our intention was to write a term paper on Andorian anatomy. The teacher (Mr. Rapley) asked Jim what he was doing his paper on, and Jim said "Andorian anatomy." That drew a few stares (and an admonishment from Rapley). When Rapley got to me I also said I wanted to do my paper on Andorian anatomy. He looked at me and said "BUT THAT'S FICTION." I held up the book and opened it to the pages with the Andorian figure. "But it's based on real science," I said.
Rapley told me to go find another subject.

Fuckin' embarassing now that I think back on it. No wonder I couldn't find a girlfriend.

Years later I was driving to California and my car broke down while at a rest stop. Somehow I got to thinking that my car was overloaded with all my shit and that if I made it lighter I could get moving again. Looking around I started thinking that all my heavy Trek books could go. I hadn't looked at them for years and had been lugging them around for reasons I couldn't quite explain. So I ended up dumping the whole lot in the nearest trash can in that very rest stop somewhere near Shasta, Ca. I often wonder what the person who found all that stuff was thinking.

That's my Star Trek story. From total fan to trash can.

RE: Star Trek

I second Ezra's posting. TOS was very important to me when I was little(r), and it continues to be simply because it provides such a strong connection to those days. I wasn't altogether fond of TNG (hated Riker), thought DS9 was vastly underrated, and found Voyager to be one of those car wrecks that you know you shouldn't look at, but are compelled to watch nonetheless. Despite the fact that I was really looking forward to Enterprise (at least for Scott Bakula--for me, the Tom Hanks of TV) I only ever watched 1 episode. I think it just felt as though it was going to take so much time to ramp up to goodness that, having spent so much time playing midwife to the ultimately stillborn Voyager, I couldn't invest the time anymore.

Nothing that makes that much money ever goes away completely though, so I have confidence that Trek will return someday--for good or ill. In the meantime, well, we'll always have the Guardian of Forever...

Hey! I liked the salt vampire! It was a classic ugly space monster, and I LIVE for space monsters! The trouble with the later generations is they don't have enough monsters in them! That's what they needed.

-Steve E.

Star Dreck Memories
Star Trek is definitely a mixed bag. Like the little girl with the curl, with it's good, it's very very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid. "Conscience of the King", anyone?! Ditto the proto-Heavens Gate Hippies episode. Or, my favourite amongst the stinkers, the episode where Spock Gets Allergies....Or the Salt Vampire. Or....

Okay, where was I? Ah, yes, Star Trek. See, I have this theory.

**the audience snickers and begins throwing rotten produce**

You know the old saw, "The Golden Age of Science Fiction is twelve?" In my opinion, the golden age of Star Trek is five years old. Or, if you're a particularly precocious little shit, as early as three.

My first real, solid memory of a television program, was the episode "Balance of Terror". At approximately three and-a-half (cf. precocious little shit) years of age. I remember thinking to myself at the time, that's right, it isn't fair that Spock should be treated differently by the Prejudiced Red Shirt, which is pretty much something I've carried with me through my life. For better or for worse, etcetera. Needless to say, I watched it all through my formative years, thanks in part to copious reruns, even in the limited thirteen-channel universe that existed back then.

Ditto The Next Generation, and the movies, right up until First Contact. (Yeah, I'm confident enough to admit it: I was one of the relatively few geeks who whooped, hollered and cheered loudly when they did the saucer landing of the Enterprise exactly as depicted in the Pocket Books Star Trek Technical Manual. Consider it my last gasp at being a thoroughly pathetic soul. And yes, I have purged my bookshelves of most of those same Pocket Books books, save the ones by Peter David, David Gerrold, Diane Duane and Vonda McIntyre.)

After Deep Space None started running crossover fanfiction between Babylon 5 and The Young and the Restless, however, I gave up. I never even bothered with Voyager, past the first season or so (the entirely-too-libertarian themes were starting go beyond over the top, and by the time the episode supporting mercy killing came around, I was completely disenchanted), and as for Enterprise? As soon as I heard the show had a *theme* *song*, I stayed the hell away. It's worth noting that Space (Canada's answer to the SciFi Channel, complete with that gawdawful Battlestar Galactica remake) still runs Trek episodes pretty much 24/7, however.

My conclusion? Star Trek is dead. Long live Star Trek.

Velvet

World Wide Atheism
I'm an atheist out of necessity rather then inclination. And the reason is this; Every religion (or at least every Western religion) presupposes that all human beings possess an imperishable element within themselves, now while I know of individuals who seem to me to be immanently worthy of such an element I also know of individuals who are obviously nothing more then a lump of decaying matter. So religion lacks a believable qualitative discernment in relation to human beings. Such is the basis of my atheism.

Hey Harlan!! Jews Without Jehovah!
Harlan,
I was a bidder early on for the copy of "Jews without Jehovah" and bowed out when it shot passed what I was comfortable paying. I just received an e-mail from the seller, via E-bay, with a "second chance" offer for the book at his reserve price. I believe this offer to be legitimate (and if, for whatever reason, the seller didn't contact you for a pass)I thought I'd e-mail you to see if you were still interested. You can e-mail me at the above with a contact number.

Ed King

Which episode was the green woman in?
The two episodes I remember the most are two that probably don't get a lot of mention, either because they aren't that memorable or are just plain bad: "M5" (computer genius runs amok), and the "Episode Where Spock Goes Insane After Viewing A Bright Alien Who Lives In A Shoebox (precursor to the briefcase in Pulp Fiction?)."

"City At The Edge Of Forever," "Trouble With Tribbles," et al., are memorable because they are true classics. Episodes like "Spock's Brain" (among others) are memorable because they are out and out bad (although the vivid image of Dr. McCoy sweating bullets while trying to remember how to do a brain transplant was fun to watch, at least for me).

But it is some of the "middle of the road" episodes, like the two I mentioned above, along with "Turnabout Intruder," "Kirk Trying To Kill A Large Reptile On An Asteroid," or "Gigantic Firebreathing Cone Threatens To Destroy The Enterprise," that are real treats for me to view once, then put away for another couple of years.

Yes, people, someone should make Deep Shag aware that this recording exists, in case Harlan didn't give it to them yet. (If I recall correctly, Harlan gave them everything he has.) Perhaps they can use something.

Jay: I understand. I was amused by what you wrote yesterday, but at the same time a little concerned. The thing is, the obnoxious members of our society are always a little louder than the rest, while intelligent and/or sensible ones are harder to spot. One may think a particular group of students is stupid, but that's a generalization.

Ezra: No way. :-) The second season provided four near-perfect shows: "The Deadly Years", "Tribbles", "The Changeling", and "By Any Other Name". And the only decent 3rd season episode was "The Tholian Web". The Muldaur episode was a mess, and in fact they didn't have a script.

Ellison on the loose, but captured on tape

Tim Walker:

Sounds like a great find. See if you can figure out who ostensibly has the rights to this recording: did someone at the university make it, and does the only copy basically reside at that library?

If that's the case, it shouldn't be difficult for Deep Shag Records to cut a deal, with Harlan's aid and approval, to make a copy suitable for redistribution on compact disc, in whole or in part.

Harlan say hello
to MorrisDance. I'm sending him to f-bite!

Also do you know Peter Coyote? Am reading, "Sleeping where I fall"--he seems nice.

Heather ho! Thank you.

Diana Muldaur was HOT. And she was STILL hot, when they brought her in for the second season of Next Gen, to replace the boring Gates McFadden.

Then when demographics determined that they couldn't sustain the presence of a middle-aged woman on the cast, one who actually had some verve, and who didn't just wilt at the sight of the chin-of-the-week, they dumped her and brought back flakey Gates, and it become the boys club once again.

Later, Brent Spiner was promoted into some kind of Spock-like role for the movies, and so of course they flamed out, since Leonard Nimoy he so freaking ain't. Martin Scorsese made the critical error of stunt-casting Spiner for a cameo in The Aviator, just because he's a buddy of the writer John Logan. I cringed through that whole scene, memories of the death of the movie franchise at Spiner's hands still festering, and The Aviator immediately lost half a star in my ratings book.

Jan,

Don't get me wrong. I'm only talking about the proudly ignorant group of self-absorbed knobs who scoff at things they don't understand or that they feel - based on questionable experience - have outlived their relevance.

For every hundred of a generation like this, I'm happy to know there is one that will put duty before self or an idea before security or a cause above their desire for material fulfillment.

A 1:100 ratio isn't too bad, I guess. I was very cranky yesterday. Perhaps that means 1000:1 gets you an honest man, 10000:1 gets you a hero and a billion:1 gets you a Jesus or Mohammad or a Lincoln. Who knows.

I don't care so much about adults. They've written their own ticket and are out here with the rest of us playing the game. Dealing with idiots is just part of the cost of doing business. However, you have a chance to shine some light into the darkness with these kids. You have a chance to teach them understanding over prejudice or an appreciation for things they'd otherwise fear or dismiss. Not just teachers - but parents and other role-models in society. Despite the "god hates fags" and "kill em all, let Jesus save their babies" crowd, there are enough adults out here to help guide the next generation.

It seems that kids come to the classroom or into real life with the assumption that anything worth knowing is already in their head or can only be worth their time if someone like Bono or Britney say it's important, it's that much harder to try and provide the next generation with enough open minded people to try and prevent this return to paranoid demagoguery threatening to take hold in this country.

But that's a lot of tough talk from a me, a guy who hasn't put a cause before his security in many years. I'm fighting from a trench, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

STAR TREK: A Quasi-tribute
I remember very vividly as a small child seeing those first commercials about a new series called STAR TREK. The starship tracking across the screen, in orbit, whooshing through space. I could tell immediately that this was a notch above LOST IN SPACE. I was completed blown away, little mind fried crispy. I will never forget the scene as the camera tracks across what is obviously an alien world, the moaning sound of the wind mixed with the tinkling of bells. And then out of nowhere the boiling sparkling shimmer resolving into the figures of Kirk, Spock and McCoy appearing like they did this sort of thing every day.

Looking back now it's possible to have some sort of critical objectivity about the show. The original show was only really any good for part of the first season. Early in the series it felt like they were on the edge, like anything could happen. But soon out came the Nazi show, the Roman empire show, the Adam and Eve show, etc, etc. The second season was mediocre and the third uniformly awful (except for one episode that I still find very moving, "Is There In Truth No Beauty?", that features a wonderful performance by Diane Muldaur). But like a lot of you I can still quote dialog and even in the crummy episodes (were we supposed to laugh during "Spock's Brain" do ya think?) there was an apparent chemistry between the actors.

But it has been a creatively bankrupt cash cow that has been on the shelf way past it's expiration date. Pulling the plug is an act of mercy however much Trekkie dopes may howl.

But I will always love the show if only because it gave me a moment of real magic as a child. Sadly, probably the last time TV was ever able to do that to me.

Re Ward churchill. I heard about this story from Marc Cooper's blog. Cooper ain't keen on Churchill, and after reading Churchill's essay, I have to agree. Beyond the principles of academic freedom, freedom of speech, and tenure protection, this guy is not worth defending.

One of the hallmarks of bad writing is the sense of confinement. You get the feeling that the writer's mind is _smaller_ than yours. When he uses cliches, worn-out phrases, and labored irony, it's not just to appear profound: the writer really does think that the cliches _are_ profound. And when the bad writer offers an unconventional opinion or a contrary insight, it's never revelatory, and it's never liberating. It's like a club against the skull, as though the bad writer has realized that the best way to reshape other people's brains is to do it physically.

Ward Churchill's essay is one of the finest examples of bad writing that I've ever seen. It ranks alongside of those Christian screeds against abortion, where feminists are Nazis and liberals are, ironically, uncaring of the little helpless babies, and the only humane acts left involve murdering doctors. I've seen defenses of Churchill's essay, and they're usually along the lines of "what Churchill was really saying" and "he said that to make a point." Nope. he was going for shock value, because that's the finest he's capable of getting.

_Counterpunch_ (www.counterpunch.org) raises good points-- the most obvious is that right-wingers who say equally vile things get a free pass, and usually a subsidy from Scaife or a contract with Fox. That's true. But that doesn't change the fact that Ward Churchill is a fool.

Thanks for the link to the essay, Chuck. A nice point of "acts of war" was lost amid the angry rhetoric where the guy comes off as nothing more than the flip-side of Gee W: inane comments stumbling around looking for something to hold onto.

Treasonous? Hardly.

Oh. One other thing. I knew Philadephia folks weren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, but one would think that someone on that football team knew how to tell time.

To Benjamin
More and more it seems that free speech exists in this country only for those that agree with whatever propaganda our government is using to defend their criminal presence in other countries. We're free to say whatever we want as long as we don't disagree with the current administration when we say it.

It would be treasonous of me, for instance, to suggest that it is a tad ironic that a fellow who used his daddy's connections to ensure he never saw any kind of combat duty now sends soldiers into harm's way to fight a war that we have no business fighting. It would be tantamount to a desire to destroy the fabric of my country to suggest that our militiaristic response to 9/11 is only perpetuating the situation that led to us being attacked in the first place.

It's funny, but I don't feel like a traitor as I type these lines ...

... I just feel like someone who'd like the world to stop for a second because so I can step off for a bit until reason returns to the national consciousness.

Sorry for the ranting ... on a different note, I read that there is going to be a series of short horror films released by Anchor Bay on dvd this coming year and one of them is supposed to be written by Mr. Ellison. Has anyone heard what story it's going to be and who is directing it?

And Now For A Word From Ward Churchill

Benjamin brings up something very interesting concering Ward Churchill and out Very Own Illustrious Governor, Bill Owens.

Here is Churchill's unexpurgated essay in all it's glory:

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=cfee1069-0abe-421a-00d6-36463de43888&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

In my opinion, Churchill's a dick. His essay reads like the Unabomber Manifesto. But this is not treason, any more than the Rev. Falwell's statment that we were asking for it on 9/11 because of abortion, etc. was treason.

Churchill is a dick. Fallwell is a dick.

Owens is a dickless politician preening for the media.

Welcome to Colorful Colorado.

Chuck

Jay, what is your appraisal of grown-ups?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=7&u=/ap/20050206/ap_on_re_us/speaker_protest

Is it just me, or did anyone else wince at Bill Owens's use of the word "treasonous"? All of a sudden I feel like I'm living in 16th century England...

"Seconds"
To Harlan Ellison,

Thank you for recommending "Seconds," the Frankenheimer film. I haven't seen a film this frightening, this relevant to today's times, this well photographed and performed and above all WRITTEN, in I don't know when. It blows recent, but vaguely similar thrillers ("The Game," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Stepford Wives") right out of the water. It is a perfect moral tale without the trappings and panderings almost always associated with science fiction. In fact, I have noticed few refer to it as just that, either because of the more obvious technological ease in which the story could take place in our time, or because of the latent bias against the category as serious and important. I mean, as far as cinema goes, this one ranks with "The Trial" by Welles and some of the most searing emotional hysteria of Cassavetes. It's one of those rare films from which I feel I've learned something. It has a message which I feel I must urgently apply to my life.

(I feel the need to apologize again for my imbecilic and absurd behavior on this board some months ago, my rudeness and my meanness, to you, to Steve Dooner, to Andrew, to others. All of this I take back, but like I see from the movie "Seconds," there is no turning back and running from the mistakes one has made).

Take care, Mr Ellison. Live long and prosper and do not worry about your age. I wish you the best of times!

Matthew Dickinson

Thanks for the suggestions! What I am truly waiting for is a student that may take a test or quiz on I Robot. I hope that one gets the film, watches it, and then fails their test. Something about that give me a warm feeling inside.

Thanks Again

Also late, but -- oh well.

You can tell them that if they think "I Robot" is groundbreaking entertainment or if they think the world begins and ends with the thespian gifts of The Fresh Prince they should really consider surgery to have their heads extricated from their bowels.

These are the not the morons who want to burn books to keep the ideas inside them from curious minds. These are the morons who just want to see something burn.

They are the ones who voted for Bush because a war is a brightly-colored flag, cool guns and video game body counts. They are the ones who are too busy gorging themselves on easy-access pop culture to see what's going on outside the soft-focus, airbrushed, pheromone saturated multimedia glass teat. If it's old, its inferior. If something new comes along, the original is obsolete. They attend benefit concerts and hand out loose change to make themselves feel like they're changing the world. They watch reality shows to measure their own worth and righteousness. Everything is an entitlement, something they deserve for just being alive.

These are the fucking Eloi. Beautiful, carefree, well-fed and happily ignorant of the way the world works.

Sorry...that was my experience this past week talking to students .

A little late....

William,

PRINCE MYSHKIN AND HOLD THE RELISH is short, sweet and written expressly to be read aloud. Just be sure to read it with a fast tempo. It's timed that way. A slow read would ruin it.

Chuck

"A Hellishly Annoying Evening With Harlan Ellison"
Envy me.

Through the good offices of the state of Ohio's inter-library loan program, I was recently able to borrow a two-tape audio cassette of "A Hellishly Annoying Evening With Harlan Ellison", which is a recording of one of Harlan's speaking engagements, this one taking place at the Rock Hall of Fame in 2003, I believe.

The recording is riotously funny and entertaining, and I enjoyed it immensely. I was not aware that it existed, and had never heard of it before doing a search on the state's online library database of material, but I do recommend it highly to anyone who might be able to secure a copy. Mine is owned, it appears, by the "Stark County District Library", here in Ohio.

Now I see Susan's post that Harlan, hisownself, will be coming to Cleveland for another speaking engagement on March 1st, one which is not only "open to the public", but free, to boot!

Good lawd, I KNEW there was a reason I left Los Angeles to return to Ohio, after two years in La-La Land!

Thank You!
Wow! The parade would be cool, but, there are only fifteen people in the class. I have the new printings of Strange Wine and Troublemakers, so I’ll be able to read from those. I really appreciate the help on this and the presentation will be better thanks to you all.
I’m really on the line here because of what I said in class the other day. They got to talking about the “I Robot” film on Tuesday and I informed the class that anyone who paid for that sent a stream of hot urine across Isaac Asimov’s grave.
I’m not sure what was funnier, the look on the class’s face or my over emotional response to the discussion.

Sorry to ramble and thanks again,


William Rouse

Hey,DUANE, Meant to start a new paragraph after my comment about "Million Dollar Baby" (the next sentence is a rave about "Wonderfalls").
As for the ending of "Million Dollar Baby," I thought the choices made by _both_ lead characters were understandable -- and something I would do in either position.

William Rouse:

Assign them to create an entire parade down a major city street or thoroughfare, each float devoted to an Ellison story.

Yes, I'm serious.

Harlan:

I overcame my most primal urges and waited for the end of "2000X" To hear "Repent, Harlequin!,..". Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic. I'm dilated to have spent the coin for something I'll listen to again and again.

Now can we finally hear of your epic time spent as understudy and stunt double for the Pilsbury Doughboy? Is it true that people still poke your belly in order to receive that effusive grin and hearty giggle so cherished by millions?

William: Why not use REPENT HARLEQUIN! SAID THE TICKTOCKMAN, it's short enough to be read out in class and gives you time for a short discussion. I would guess that's the number one Ellison story used in schools. (You can find the story everywhere including, I presume, in the TROUBLEMAKERS collection (bookstore) and in the older PAINGOD collection (library).)

If you want to look at our own story discussions check out the bulletin board (link on top of page).

for William Rouse:

"Troublemakers" is a general introduction to his work. "Paingod And Other Delusions " has "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said The Ticktockman" and other good, short, intro's.
"An Edge in my Voice", "The Glass Teat" and "The Other Glass Teat" and "Harlan Ellison's Watching" show his nonfiction/opinion side.
If you want to have an audio/visual section I'd recommend renting a tape of some of his Outer Limits episodes ("Soldier", "Demon with a Glass Hand" etc.) and The just released New Twilight Zone collection (for "Paladin of the Lost Hour" and "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty.") That should do for starters. (You also might want to have a copy of the Illustrated Ellison, Graphic Version of "Repent Harlequin..." and/or his "I, Robot" script to pass around and wow the audience with the pun pictures. Just a thought.) Please post again and tell us how the presentation went, okay?

Dude, I was kidding! No one loves an old man's semen more than me. And you're absolutely right about television. Seriously, keep it up.
TV News is particularily dangerous.

-Steve E.

If It Must Be So
BRIAN SIANO:

That's similar to my experience watching an interview with Hubert Selby Jr. where his life and love and anger were all pouring through his answers, and then I looked him up on the net to see what he was up to and found he'd died not too long ago.

(Anger will take you far, at least. Considering all that Selby had been through and what a mark he'd made with his works I think he fought well.)

DOUG WOOD:

I think the mundane part of my suggestion has emotional relevance, the one where a random stranger missed it. Actually, you know what, I think I have a precis. I don't know if this is the proper forum in which to share it, though.

-Aaron Teschner

No, I've reviewed all the remarks, nostalgia and qualified defenses and I'm going to stand pat with my original borrowed quote from Warren Ellis.

Harlan has been saying for years - and I am now old enough to have witnessed this pattern for 30 years myself - BAD art displaces GOOD art. And these two genres have done more harm than good. When not actually dumb themselves, they go in leaps and bounds toward encouraging dumbness in the genre. Star Trek made money? Let's make Battle Beyond the Stars and see what happens. No, thank you.

But if I've offended anyone for beating Star Trek like a rented mule, don't feel bad. In my case it has less to do with this particular show and more to do with my new motto - Television Is The Big Fat Shit Pipe. OR TITBFSP. I would not mind if this became the new TANSTAAFL. I've been ramping this one up for some time. Perhaps since STRANGE WINE came out, but now it really is one of my core beliefs.

The cost of diminishing returns law has so completely taken over this medium that everytime I see one in a public place I feel like Kevin McCarthy at the end of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. FOX in every airport. CNN in a small monitor display as a built-in for the gas station pumps up the road. A 27 inch color monitor tuned to soap operas hanging above the cash register at the Dunkin' Donuts on Tilghman Street pointed out at the customers. And on and on and on. I see the occasional faded KILL YOUR TELEVISION bumper sticker and want to slap a fresh NO REALLY! addendum on it. Then I come in here, in this room mind you, and make fun of a nearly 40 year old franchise [by proxy] that should have been shot in the head like a Horace McCoy character and you all look at me like I just ate a live kitten without ketchup.

Television Is The Big Fat Shit Pipe. Say it with me.

But I am very sorry my previous imagery offended a MOTORHEAD fan.

- Barney

Tinfoilhat, PA.

Class Presentation
Hello! I’m preparing a presentation on Mr. Ellison for a class and was wondering if anyone could recommend any works? I only have an hour to do this in and I want to get the whole class to run out and buy his books. So, I need some help here.

Thank You,

William Rouse

GOOD GOD! A Hollywood film that WOULDN'T be a remake of a previously existing movie! Is it possible?! Is it conceivable?! Is Hollywood the Carnivore FINALLY beginning to eat some of the vegetables in the vegetable garden its been stranded in for the past decade? SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE!!

Bring on MEFISTO!

Harlan on Film
Good to hear about MEFISTO IN ONYX - wasn't Laurence Fishburne attached to the film previously?

It's time we had Harlan up on the big screen again; A BOY AND HIS DOG was thirty-odd years ago now. I know TV has featured his work since then, but I'm puzzled as to why more of Harlan's stories haven't been taken up by the big Hollywood studios.

By contrast, however, we have Dick adaptations coming out of our ears. It seems you have to die to become a viable commodity....

Thanks
Rob

Ossie and Mefisto
I can't believe Ossie's gone too. The last flick I saw him in was Bubba Ho-Tep, but I've enjoyed him wherever he appeared. He was a consumate actor, a phenomenal talent.

Harlan: Good luck with Mefisto. As you advised, I won't hold my breath. But my inner fanboy can't resist indulging in a little fantasy casting. Maybe they can get Sammy L. to play the lead after all.

So Cal bound
Looks like I'm headed to SD for a while. Long story.

Any SD or So Cal folks up for grub & gab in the next couple of weeks, drop me a note, I'll get back to you after I hit the coast.

Peg

Some thoughts
Kris: (Hey, yer names similar to mine...Only my parents are allowed to call me Kris. Oh, and the next door neighbor who's known me since I was 6. Occasionally.)

I loove it when Harlan bites someone's head off! Even if it's me.

Harlan - best wishes for getting Mefisto made into a movie, but of course we won't hold our breaths!

Re: the college gig - today's freshmen weren't even BORN when those "On the Road" (vols1&2) recordings were made. Scary thought. ..

Kristin

I just got the Criterion release of _Do the Right Thing_ the other day, and was marvelling at Ossie Davis's performance as Da Mayor. (And okay, at Spike Lee's screenplay.)

I turn the DVD player off, go out to my friends' car, and then I hear that Ossie Davis is no more.

Coincidence is a wonderful thing. But not today.

Ummm,

I don't think Million Dollar Baby was a comedy. It was, however, one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Which brings me to a comment to whomever has seen MDB: As you know, the story gets thrown in a completely unexpected (to me) direction. Those who have seen the movie know what I mean. I won't elaborate further so as to not spoil it for those who have not seen the movie yet. Although the resolution of that twist, and the movie, was very moving, I found myself REALLY DISAGREEING with the ending.

Of course, the best movies are those that challenge the viewer in some way. But I found myself thinking that the characters could have made different choices.

But that's just me.

***

I loved the original Star Trek series for the same reasons most people loved it. The Next Generation grew on me enough to where I cared deeply about the characters and got involved with the storylines. The Picard, Riker and other characters were close to the character archetypes of Kirk, Spock, et al, and in most cases were a much needed upgrade to the really dated characters of the original series (particularly Kirk, who at times acted more like the lead character in Easy Rider than a starship Captain). After a time, I preferred TNG to the original series.

(By the way, am I the only one who would stare at the screen during the opening credits to see which dot would loom up and become the Enterprise?)

I never got into DS9 or the other spinoffs.

Corrected address for Case Western Reserve University.

www.cwru.edu

Map of directions to the university --- http://www.case.edu/visit/map/dir.html

Campus map --- http://www.case.edu/visit/map/

FUN FOR YOUR HEAD ( NEW OR OLD)
"MILLION DOLLAR BABY" is one of the best films I've seen in a looonng time -- and, for my money (no pun intended), the best of the lot now up for Oscar Awards (furthermore, Swank and Eastwood are merely dynamite in their roles). Just as with "Dead Like Me" and "Desperate Housewives," "Wonderfalls" -- now out on video -- is one of those weird, quirky, impossible-to-pigeon-hole comedies that are true rarities, and truly worth watching.

Did anyone leave me a Private Message over on the other board? If yes, it didn't make it....I see nothing since my last PM in 2003.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled death notices (no one mentioned Dean Wormer kicked the bucket over at the Animal House).

-TODD

There's a little less dignity in the world now that Ossie Davis is gone.

RIP


Boxing legend Max Schmeling dead at age 99.

Awesome palooka.

Respectfully,

Neal

Michael: "Never the idea that some other species could do things better, perhaps ultimately saving us from ourselves."

No never... except in "Errand of Mercy", "Arena", "Encounter at Farpoint", to name a few, plus lots of episodes with humans screwing up, including lots of Enterprise episodes. The premise of that series was based on Vulcans knowing better and trying to prevent humans from going out into space. Anyway, you can come up with hundreds of things Star Trek is not. That's easy, you can do that with anything, but it would be more fair if you tried to grasp what the actual intentions were and how they succeeded in realizing them. It wasn't a show about aliens ruling