If nothing else, last night’s Academy Awards made a strong statement that traditional movie making is still preferable to the rise of technology…. in the eyes of the voters anyway.  Avatar may have earned $567,890,123.45 (that figure may even be low) at the box office but I think it was ultimately the big loser this year at the awards.  I really thing Dr. Doogie’s kick-off to the evening was the low point,  Did anyone else see his song (?) and dance?  If not… you will have to hunt yourself.  Honestly, I thought he was supposed to be good?  But I thought Mr. Baldwin and the ALWAYS hilarious Steve Martin were wonderful!

I knew that the time had come for the first female Best Director  even more so than the first African-American (forgive me if that is un-PC).  But I think the fact that Ms. Bigelow and The Hurt Locker swept the top two categories and was the biggest winner was a bit of a surprise.  However, looking back there have been other examples of David-Goliath at the Oscars.  Does anyone remember 1977 when a little movie called Star Wars was beaten by the less groundbreaking Woody Allen pic, Annie Hall?  Or 1982 when a little guy trying to “Phone Home” lost to Gandhi?  So how do we possibly explain the year of the water-logged boat sinking?!  A fluke!

I was happy to see Star Trek win in one category.  It tied with The Voyage Home (the one with the whales… very high on my list) for the most noms by a movie in the series.  Even The Motion Picture (zzz) got three.  Last night’s Make Up victory was the first win for the 44 year series.

So while I came in 4th in the pool, I did walk away with a nice gift.  The ceramic teddy bear banks are adorable, thanks Carol!  Always a ball worthy of the best Hollywood can throw!

I still had a difficult time voting for Sandra Bullock.  Maybe it’s her low opinion of one of her first on screen performances.  If you can’t be happy about playing the second Bionic Woman (and I’m not talking about the unremarkable series reboot of a few seasons ago) then… and what was with the lipstick… EGAD!

And what happened to the “No thanking” policy?  Not to be outdone by the endless Best Actor/Actress presentations.  So much for saving time.  And apparently, “research” doesn’t always help, right C? 😉

As I’ve mentioned, I read the suburban Chicago newspaper online.  Today a headline about the town where I grew up caught my eye – a kid filmed a short little youtube.com movie in Warrenville, Illinois.  I couldn’t care less about the battle between fans of Star Wars and Star Trek, but I know there are some tangents.org readers who are fans of one or both of the franchises – thought they might enjoy this little video.  It’s a creative idea, really – what would happen if the introductory words at the beginning of the Star Wars movies fell to Earth?  For its small budget (around $100) and the small amount of time invested, the special effects aren’t bad either…

If you’d like more info about the kid or the video, here is a link to the original article.

It came as a great shock to me to learn that one of the supporting actors of one of my favorite shows growing up had gone missing.  Today, after a week long search, his body was found.  Joshua Andrew Koenig played Richard “Boner” Stabone the best friend of Mike Seever (played by Kirk Cameron) on Growing Pains.

I’m not sure if I did not know the actor’s name or just did not make the connection, but I just learned Monday that Andrew was the son of Walter Koenig who played Ensign Pavel Chekov on the original Star Trek television series.  Andrew also has another tie to Trekdom.  He played the role of  Tumak on the Deep Space Nine “Sanctuary.”

May He watch over the family of this young man in their time of remorse.

A very different and fun game night was had into the wee hours of this morning (check out the post time).  Megan and I made our way to visit with some of my many new Village Players friends and play some Star Trek and James Bond Scene It with a little Trivial Pursuit thrown in.  I must say that I was impressed very much with Travis’ vast knowledge in Trek.  I need to brush up on some of the more obscure episodes including The Lights of Zetar.  Really… even my knowledge does not stretch that far.  But thank goodness for My Play and the IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) category of questions… pop culture surrounding Star Trek that tests knowledge of things not necessarily dealing with the “Wagon Train to the Stars.”

I must say that my knowledge was better served in the James Bond version.  Just please don’t ask me what make and model vehicle he drove in anything but Goldfinger (the Aston Martin DB5 with modifications).  Who would have guessed the model of car that Jinx arrived in at the ice hotel in Die Another Day? But I did clean up in that game.

The Trivial Pursuit game we played was very unique and very fun.  You had the six categories to pick from but each category was divided up into six boxes each card had 6 different levels of difficulty.  The level was determined by the roll on the die: 1-6.  It was very possible to win each piece with a level 1 question… however unlikely.  There is also an added feature that allows such things as face offs in order to win a pie piece, and the ability to move an opponents marker to any space on the board making it harder for the player to win a piece.  Very fun and pretty much for everyone!

Thanks Mary, Travis, Jen, and Megan.  It was a BLAST!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS.  I still look at the holiday with the wonder of a child.  For the entire month of December, I still do believe in the magic of Jolly Ol’ St. Nick but still marvel at the wonder of the true meaning of the holiday.  I even have my sister wrap my presnts and I do still snoop (ok, I admit it).  After getting off work at 2 on Christmas Evc, the immediate family and their kids opened presents and had the first of three feats throughout the weekend.  What a haul!  The highlight of my haul were two Scene-It games.  I had asked for the rather awesome looking Star Trek edition the moment I heard about it and submitted a question to the makers of the game when it was being developed.  I also received a pleasant surprise.  I had picked up the Simpson’s edition for my nephew just after Thanksgiving.  I unwrapped the one of my own for Christmas.  I have played it with some friends and ADORE IT!

Midnight Mass (well, 11PM mass) was beautiful as usual.  The past few years singing “Silent Night” at Communion have been really difficult.  I am immediately taken back to the four Christmas concerts in high school singing the carol by candlelight.  I can still see Emily behind the piano.  I then went home and caught my sneak-in viewing of A Christmas Story.

Christmas Day was feast number two and a day typically set aside for watching movies people had received.  We were treated to Santa Buddies courtesy of Alex.  I was exhausted and slept through half of it.

More fun and merriment to come with the Swary family Christmas.

Last Friday, I watched one of last year’s most talked about movies (at least in my circles).  I must say that the Clint Eastwood helmed/Angelina Jolie-starring film Changeling was well worth the months I have been endeavoring to watch it.  The story itself was harrowing made even more dramatic by the fact that is factually based.

Since taylhis has already given an excellent synop, I will mention the pains taken in the creating of late 1920-early 1930s Los Angeles.  Costuming, set design, the music, everything put you right there.  The only building that is still standing in the greater LA locale is the City Hall itself which has been seen in numerous television series and movies (I can think of two immediately: The Naked Gun and the watchable if laughable updated Dragnet starring Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd).  Eastwood even resurrected the LA streetcar (which have been out of service since 1961).  The multi-talented director also composed the musical score for the film which he has done in many of his efforts… primarily with his passion for jazz.  The costume design was totally period.  Did telephone switchboard operators really move along on roller skates… complete with key?

And here is my extreme geek topic of the day.  The fact that (The) Changeling is a title of a TOS episode was not lost on me.  In fact, some theatres received the film under the name Nomad which was the name of the space probe from the 1967 season two episode.  Not a total geek, I had to cheat on the year the episode premiered.

A truly memorable viewing experience.  Again, totally robbed at Oscar time (and Clint was not even nominated).

Tonight was our first dress rehearsal complete with newspaper reviewer and minus one key character from the production… UGH!  I dunno… week of opening with 4 rehearsals to go and one of the major cast members is at a meeting but I guess it must have been important.  So we had a fill-in read lines from the audience.  The reviewer for the Crescent is very personable and has been exceptionally favorable in a few of the WCCT shows he has critiqued and the first show I was in with the Village Players.  He even quoted a line from a review of one of my characters: “A gleefully unrepentent psycho” or something like that.  He must have remembered seeing Grease?

Before we began, the subject of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was addressed by Mr. Greer.  Particularly, the Enterprise‘s fly over, around, and into the behemoth ship that took what seems an eternity to sit through.  We then focused on the number of Trek fans in the cast of which there are many.  The youngest female in the cast is named Katherine Janeway after the first female character to lead a Star Trek television series as captain of the U.S.S. Voyager.  Another has a husband who has thousands of Trek books. I used to read the novels from time to time but have since lost track unless there is a really special one.

A third really got my interest soaring.  It seems that she is a relative of DeForest Kelley (R.I.P) who played my personal favorite character of all Trekdom: the inscrutable, crusty, curmudgeonly Dr. Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy.  She, however, did not inherit the searing blue “Kelley eyes” as her brother had.

Ok… back to the rehearsal.  I think that with the absence of one of our actors, it went awfully well.  Hopefully, this will be the LAST time we are minus a performer.  But how fun was that to discover something new about so many in our small cast?  Hopefully, our kindly reviewer does not print TOO much about the murder mystery in his article… no spoilers.  As soon as I see it, I will make note of it in another post.

3 Days, 22 Hours and counting…

I have posted numerous times about my favorite teacher, role model, etc (it is very nearly the first anniversary of her passing).  Tonight at work, I had a surprise when my high school French came into my line.  “Bonjour, Professeur Peters! Comment allez-vous?”  She looked really well.  A few years following my graduation, she had some health problems.  She asked me if I was still a Star Trek/Star Wars fan.  AH, she knows me so well.  I made flash cards of French vocabulary in the shape of the NCC-1701 (“No bloody -A, -B, -C, Or -D”).  We would get bonbons or other rewards for creativity.  I told her that I have been doing plays around the area over the last several years.  She has seen pictures in the paper but has yet to come to any.

One of my favorite parts of French class was the video contest.  I believe it was a countywide (or maybe even longer reaching than that) contest in which classes could submit short skits to be judged for prizes.  How I wish YouTube was around back then.  I did not think to ask Madame if she kept any of the videos.  Anyway, the senior year video Nicolas, Thomas, Jean, and I made was by far our most hilarious.  It was a cooking spoof in which we made lapin a la moutarde (or… rabbit in mustard sauce).  Think the Swedish Chef (or Julia Child it was French after all) meets the Three Stooges and you pretty well get the idea.  Whoever decided to give me the role I undertook, I’ll never know but… it was memorable to say the least.

What a fun trip down memory lane!

Well, I did it.  I paid the extra bucks to go see Star Trek in IMAX.  As expected, the screen was large, though not superhuge like at Great America when I was growing up (dunno if the screen is still there).  I also noticed that it was curved, but failed to notice if it was silver.  I would guess yes since they bothered to curve it.  Why to I mention this?  Well, because 3D movies utilize a silver, curved screen.  While this was not a 3D movie, there are many IMAX movies that are also 3D, so I would presume this theater is just set up for them when they happen.  Back to topic, once there a half-hour early, the good seats in the theater were already starting to fill up.  I did notice though that they tended to sit not in the true center, but rather the center of the visible image which was not centered but toward the left.  The commercials weren’t in IMAX and probably utilized a different projector entirely.  Once 4:00 rolled around, they dimmed the lights and switched to IMAX for the previews and movie.  Well, they tried.  The audio came out crystal clear, but- no picture.  At first I though this was a preview that just started dark then the picture would kick in at just the right moment, but after a minute (less, really) it became clear the picture wasn’t coming at all.  They eventually stopped it, and I could see several shadows on the screen from the projection area as they tried to figure out the problem.  After several minutes they got  a picture going, but one that was a little out of focus, or rather some color separation.  I heard something move into place and the picture became clear.  Wait, how could I hear it when a preview was going you ask?  Because now it was a picture with no sound!  They froze the picture and worked another few minutes.  Finally, the Harry Potter preview could be seen *and* heard.  Boy, could it be heard- volume a wee bit too high.  It started with color separation again, but once again that was quickly resolved and we were on our way.  We only did see the tail end of the one preview before the movie, and also a commercial which also served as a “silent your cellphone” reminder, but I was just fine with that!  By the time the movie started, the volume level was fine as well.

So, about the movie.  As a Trek fan, I found this movie very enjoyable.  JustJ pretty much covered the basics, so I won’t go there, but I can see how most of the differences would be plausible as (highlight to reveal spoiler) an altered timeline can explain the discrepancies.  Besides JustJ’s one rant, there was a big nitpick I had toward the end though where they used a technology known to be in the next generation but not in the original series (highlight to reveal spoiler rant:)

Eject the warp core?  Really??  What with the change the Romulan ship made would cause the Federation to develop an ejectable warp core so early?  Nothing I saw.

I also see why (highlight… well, you know) they left the new timeline alone rather than fix it, so they can feel unencumbered by Star Trek canon when making future movies.  Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager?  (you know what to do) All in the old timeline now.  Who knows what the future will now bring for the Federation? Oh, one more thing- (yep, again) did anyone else think of the Death Star when they saw you-know-which-planet destroyed?

One slight nitpick left, one I’ve had since The Next Generation- while some may think it’s sexist which is whay they changed it in the first place, to be PC, but I really think …where no man has gone before fits better than …where no one has gone before.  Why?  Simply put, at least “man” can only mean human, if only just half the population, while “one” refers to everyone- human, vulcan, klingon, and every species they have not yet met.  They are going where no human has been, or no Federation citizen, but most places have had someone go there before- the local sentient life, whoever they may be.  So, a slight nitpick but valid I think.

Was it worth the extra price to see it in IMAX?  Maybe.  Once they got it together over there it really did look nice, and Star Trek is just the type of show to look great on the large screen.  Certainly I wouldn’t go to see just any show in IMAX, but for this one I think I can say I was glad to see it in IMAX.  The only other show this year I know for certain I will see in the theater is Harry Potter 6, but I think I will save money on that and see it in the local theater.  I wonder if the price is still under $7?  I’ll find out.

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise….

In 1966 the voyages of the Enterprise started. I was only a lad then, but I was glued to the set for 1 hour each week. Then this wonderful show went into syndication. For a time is was on every afternoon. It was on weekends. There were Star Trek marathons on the weekends. Then a cartoon, some movies, the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. Finally, this past weekend, another movie was released.

While I like Star Trek, I would not consider myself a die hard fan. After the initial run of Star Trek, I was no longer glued to the set. If it was on, and I happened to find it, I would watch. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Marriage, family and friends became more important than Trek. So you didn’t find me waiting for the midnight showing of this movie. I did want to see it on the big screen, with full sound and comfortable chairs. So I had some time available last Saturday, and I was near the multi-plex.

For those who don’t know, this movie goes back to the beginning of Star Trek. It starts with James T. Kirks birth and quickly goes to his first time on the Enterprise. I found the characters plausible for the Star Trek Universe and the story line seemed to be well thought out. Overall a good movie. Lots of action, reasonable storyline and good characters. Even for the non Trek fan, this is a good Sci-Fi action movie.

More than that I can’t say, without giving the whole story away. So if you don’t want any spoilers stop reading now……

S P O I L E R S

This started out as a standard Trek time travel movie/story. Someone goes back in time and changes the future of our intrepid Enterprise heroes. Kirk’s father dies in the very beginning of the show, making his upbringing quite a bit different than the normal Trek time line. In the TV shows and the movies, the crew of the Enterprise usually would go back in time to fix something (bring back whales, prevent a star from exploding, get the pilot back to his plane ect.). This time the people that did the time traveling either end up dead or staying in the future. Hmmm, does that screw up the time continuum? You bet…

This whole movie was one big screw up of the Trek time line. As of this movie, almost anything you thought you knew about Star Trek has been thrown out the window. They started fresh folks. Let’s see if I can touch on the basics.

Kirk was still an conceited, womanizing, know-it-all jerk (some things never change), but wow, Spock was made captain of the Enterprise before Kirk was. Kirk was marooned on a planet by Spock! He wasn’t even supposed to be on the Enterprise, he was under suspension for cheating on a test. Hmmm, he didn’t start out nearly as well in this ‘reality’.

Spock, still logical, still had problems as a child on Vulcan, but his choice is a bit different. It seems he chose to be a bit more human. In this show he had a human girlfriend!!! I think that is a good thing, since Vulcan was destroyed, he can never go back during Pon Far. He may need that girl friend.. Except now there are two Spocks in the universe. Old Spock who remembers all the stuff that isn’t anymore, and the new Spock who doesn’t.

Uhura, still bright, competent and beautiful, and she is Spock’s love interest!!!! Hmmm and in the 60’s the first inter-racial kiss between Uhura and Kirk was a major deal on TV.

I’m not sure that Dr. McCoy changed at all. This character seemed immune to the changes in the time line.

Scotty, well he was an engineer on some out of the way Ice World. I don’t recall enough of his history to know if this was happened or he was down on his luck too.

Chekov and Sulu, well Chekov wasn’t in the first season of Star Trek in 1966 (joined the crew in 1967) and Sulu was the pilot of the ship, so something changed here…

One final question… How the heck did everyone know about the Romulans? I seem to remember the first time they appeared, and everyone on the Enterprise was surprised they looked like Vulcans. Hmm something really changed in the time line. It seems the Federation knew about Romulans and the similarity to Vulcans before Kirk was born and before the random act of time travel that changed everything. Why didn’t the crew of the Enterprise know it? Hmmm?