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by Richard Timothy | Feb 17, 2010 | Confessed Confidentially, I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking
With the Seth luncheon well underway the introductions started. This is one of those things that have always confused me. There was a voice-over introduction for the lady that got on stage to introduce the lady that put the even together. Who, after getting on the stage, took the mike and introduced Seth. It’s like watching the Oscars… or as I look at it, the evening of endless introductions for introducers who introduce montages for introducing movies, or movie related topics.
It was during this all of these introductions that my random trigger, um, triggered. It was the idea of the business theme song. The point was about what your business’s theme song would be. I know what Angela’s Illuminated Woman theme song is because I hear it playing all the time. Twelve times in a row through the walls in my office last night alone. It’s… bloody hell, just a minute. I’ll get there. It’s a “we can do it” kind of theme song… If You’re Out There by John Legend. Whew. Got it. You’d think I’d have the song memorized by now.
Right, so my theme song would be… See, it’s all variables that keep me changing my mind. The thing about theme songs is that they sort of evolve into your life soundtrack. I can tell you Angela and my first theme song was Mazzy Star’s Fade into You. It has never gone away either, every time we here it, we start getting all sappy and nostalgic. We have definitely added a few more songs since then.
One song that always reminds me of Angela and I is Glósóli by Sigur Ros (on of my favorite bands of all time). And I don’t even know what the song is about. It’s in a foreign language and I’ve never bothered to look up a translation. I personally like not knowing. It makes the song that much more about us. In fact I highly recommend this practice to everyone. When you don’t understand the lyrics, you create your own lyrics in their place.
There was a stretch back in the 80’s when Axel F was my theme song. This lasted about a week. Thanks to Beverly Hills Cop. Hey, it was one of the few perfect break dance songs back then. Still, when it comes to personal theme songs I don’t think instrumentals create the same potency as lyrical songs. Sure they have some musical imagery, but I think its the lyrical painting that gives you the defining step between a good song and one of the most brilliant songs you’ve ever heard.
I know that during my first run through college my theme song was The Great Song of Indifference by Bob Geldof, because I really didn’t mind… at all. Before that I discovered the music of Bob Marley. It was my senior year of high school and for over a year I was a smitten with Jamaica and all things reggae. My musical interests were once again foundationally shaken when I was first introduced to Ani DiFranco. This fascination let to her being the only artist I’ve seen live over five times.
Then there are the “I was in love” theme songs. And after it’s all said and done you realize that you added to the epic success of a song that is so unrelentingly tedious that it has forever solidified its place in the eternal inclusion of every collection of elevator music that will ever be made here after. Not to mention you feel you need to personally apologize to the people standing around you for having purchased the song when it starts playing on the radio, or in a department store, or, inevitably, in an elevator.
There are two things that happen at this point. The people you apologized to either break down and admit that they too have contributed to the horror that is the song. Everyone then hugs and forgives one another. It can be a very freeing and healing experience. Or, people laugh at you and then beat you with sticks. If you quickly explain it was for the pursuit of coitus, they usually stop hitting you and you can forgo any trips to the emergency room. Of course, I am referring to that damn Titanic song. It’s not going away people. It’s going to be one of those things that our generation will be apologizing for, for generations to come. Let me be the first to say, WE ARE SORRY! We were young and in love! We didn’t know any better! Ahh, I feel better. Thanks.
Then there are the guilty pleasure theme songs. You know, the songs that you play in the closet, or when no one is home. The album is usually hidden on your computer 10 or more folders deep in an attempt to detour anyone from finding it. In my case, it’s usually The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, or More Human than Human by White Zombie. I’m not particularly proud of this, but I’m not going to stop listening to them either. It’s my guilty pleasure and I’m keeping it.
As for my theme song, as a writer… I kept thinking about this throughout Seth’s presentation. I’m still trying to figure it out. I thought about something from Queen? I do have my Greatest Hits: Queen CD in my car. Then again I’ve had a copy of that album in every vehicle I’ve ever owned. But no, I’m not sure any of those songs work. Besides, after years of abuse by Hollywood it runs the risk of being a touch cliché, the only exception being, FLASH… A-AH! That song never gets old.
I’m sure I could try assigning a theme song to each post I’ve done so far. If I was more musically motivated I might consider attempting the task. I might even ask my friend Dave Lockman to help with the project. (No Dave, I’m not asking, it’s just a tangent, not a project I want to take on.) One of the things I appreciate about Dave, the musical comparative posts he does from time to time. I think their well worth the read.
Well, maybe I’ll open it up to all of you. Any theme song suggestions for my Smirk blog? Or perhaps just me as a writer? I’d love to hear your suggestions.
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: ashamed, Flash Gordon, and idea.
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by Richard Timothy | Feb 16, 2010 | I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Public Service Announcement, Reviewed and Recommended
The thing about Seth Godin is that you either know who he is or you don’t… which can be said about anyone really. I guess the difference is that people that know who Seth is are more apt to respond by going, “Ohh.” This is the elongated “oh” that carries with is the suggestion that the listener is both impressed and interested in what you have to say about it. As opposed to the short sounding “oh” which I believed is usually equated to, ambivalence, disinterest, and a general unspoken desire that the talker change the subject to a topic that they are can either exchange dialogue in or that is more about them specifically so they can take over the conversation.
I get there are some of you that gave me that “oh” when I mentioned Seth’s name. Now had I said I had lunch with Brad Pitt, there would be an entirely different group of people sitting up and paying attention. I suppose at some point in the luncheon I’d have to succumb to the inevitable eye candy factor of the experience and respond to all my friends that lunch with Brad was “just dreamy”. Would I have listened to what he had to say… no bloody clue, but my initial guy feeling tells me no, probably not.
Lunch with set Seth on the other hand was different that how I would imagine an imaginary lunch with Brad. I will start off by saying that Seth is an adorable little man. He’s kind of like a much younger version of that cute old man in the Pixar short Geri’s Game. He also reminds me of that little friendly good natured scientist in movies that is always trying to help save the world. Sure he’s a little quirky and oddly amusing, but once he starts talking everyone else stops talking and listens to what he has to say, because it’s going to be something important that could help the situation and others.
The lunch was really just a luncheon, with a boxed lunch consisting of pasta salad, and green, green apple (rather sour I thought), a bottle of water, a chicken pesto sandwich, and two chocolate chip cookies. I ate the cookies first. Life makes a bit more sense that way.
If I owned a restaurant I’d call it Dessert First. The whole idea would be to have people start their meal with dessert. I know when I go out to eat there is always too much food. Then, by the time I get to desert, I’m too full and am taking leftovers home with me. If you do dessert first, your dessert sales greatly exceed the common dessert sales of an average restaurant. You also fill up the customer with sweet yummy goodness, putting them in an ultimately better mood while they wait for their food. They will also get full sooner, so you can cut back the portions. The customers will eat less at the restaurant, finishing their meal sooner, and still have leftovers to take home and finish for lunch the next day. It’s a brilliant idea, and I’d go there at least once a week just to help support myself.
The lunch with Seth turned out to be a fundraiser luncheon to help assist Haiti. This meant that I was sharing my luncheon with Seth with 700 other people. Lunch was at 11 AM and Seth was presenting from noon to one, and most of the people there were not all that interested in the box lunch being offering in the first place. They were very interested in listening to Seth present though. Having read Seth’s blog from time to time over the past four to five months, I knew a little what he was about, but I’d never read any of his books. Nor did I fully realize how big of a deal he actually was in the field that he is currently fielding. Meaning, firstly, I was one of the few there who was looking forward to my little lunch, and then secondly, I was a touch curious about what this man had to say.
Half way though the presentation, I discovered I was bothered that the people who had put the event together wasted an entire hour for lunch, thus limiting our time with Seth to only an hour. I would have opted to take my lunch with me and eat it on the drive back to work as opposed to before hand. Or just give me a cookie. I’d have been happy to call it lunch if it would have resulted in getting a bit more of his presentation, which was about his newest book in his arsenal of published work. It’s called Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future. I’ll be getting myself a copy soon.
One of the things that stuck with me the most was his dialogue on art and how we are all artists. He talked about how being an artist is more than being a painter, sculptor, actor, or poet. Art is about creation. It’s about something that’s personal to the creator and something they are passionate about. For my wife, her conference is her art. For me, my art is my writing. Some artists are computer programmers. Just look at all of the apps available on the iPhone. You have over a hundred thousand artists displayed in the app store alone. I have met a massage therapist who is an amazing artist. Artists are everywhere and they are everyone. The goal is to share your art with the people that want the art you have to share.
Seth also said that art has to be original and ultimately yours, adding, “Marcel Duchamp was an artist when he pioneered Dadaism and installed a urinal in the museum. The second person to install a urinal in a museum was a plumber.”
He said we are all geniuses, and I’m inclined to agree. We all have genius in us and it’s different for everyone. Math is my anti-genius. I mean I know a number when I see one, at least I thought I did, then I learned about imaginary numbers and realized my imagination appreciates everyone and everything more if I simply tell the numbers to bugger off and use my genius for writing a piece about the manner in which I’d like imaginary numbers to buggering off and having the readers smile amusingly at that.
All in all, I dug the event, even if it seemed a little rushed and a bit too short. Also, if any of you are entrepreneurs, or have your own business, I recommend checking out two different blogs. One is Seth Godin and the other is a chap named Chris Brogan (who I’ve yet to see live, but who I’ve gotten a lot of useful information from). Both are brilliant and we worth visiting daily if you can, but at least once a week. Some days their information really won’t apply, and other days, it’s pure gold.
There was another little bit of dialogue that I found smirkingly thought provoking, so let’s talk about that tomorrow in Lunch with Seth Part 2… The ADD Version.
Have any of you see Seth live or read his books? What did you think?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: Seth Godin, Geri’s game,
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by Richard Timothy | Feb 14, 2010 | Holiday Banter, I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking
It’s been shark week at my house. No, I have not been collecting on any debts that I have with people who owe me money… because no one owes me any money. I don’t think I could ever be the sea worthy predator that loans money to people. I like people too much. And to you Discovery Channel viewers who are contemplating writing me to call me a liar, I did say at my house. My visit to the library this past week scored a copy of a Shark Week DVD. I’ve always missed it in the past. So the opportunity to spend a few hours in front of the television to watch and learn about sharks, well, that’s just pretty damn cool.
Something happened though, when I put the DVD in. I don’t mean that the DVD loaded and started as normal. Ok, it did that, but what I am referring to is the commercial for the Discovery Channel that started playing after the DVD loaded. I wasn’t expecting that… sigh. Fine, I suppose that if I had really thought about it then I would have expected it. The ad/commercial thingy was what got to me though. It was my first time seeing this ad, and I just loved it. Here, check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxymuiAxQ]
Click here if video did not load.
Was it the cute little jingle, or the eclectic images and people singing? Sure those things help. It think it’s the statement at the end is what sums up what I love most about the ad, which is, “The world is just… awesome.” Plus, I got to see Stephen Hawking singing “boom-de-ah-da” through his voice synthesizer in a lecture hall. That alone makes me tingle in my bulbous area, and I’m not sure what the hell that even means. All I know for certain, it just makes me happy!
Oh! I just noticed the time… it’s officially Valentine’s Day, the day of love. Unless your pagan then its about the interaction of one’s naughty bits with another individual’s naughty bits… which can definitely be part of the present day celebration, but the focus is more on the love as opposed to the loving of the lover. The present day celebration is not as, say, communal, as the pagan celebration originally was either.
Before the spread of Christianity, an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia took place every February 15. The festival honored Juno, the Roman goddess of women and marriage, and Pan, the god of nature. The Romans celebrated their feast of Lupercalia as a lovers’ festival for young people. Young men and women chose partners for the festival by drawing names from a box.
After the spread of Christianity, churchmen tried to give Christian meaning to the pagan festival. In 496, Pope Gelasius changed the Lupercalia festival of February 15 to Saint Valentine’s Day February 14. But the sentimental meaning of the old festival has remained to the present time. This is all according to the Valentine’s Day section in a 1966 World Book Encyclopedia. Why the hell am I sharing Valentine’s Day history with you from a 1966 World Book Encyclopedia? Makes me wish I had a damn good answer. Let’s go with, I didn’t have a 1969 “Summer of Love” edition so I went with the next closed year I could get… and it’s what the site I found referenced as its source when I Googled it.
Sure Valentines Day is a day of, for, and about lovers, but it’s also a day of love. A day where we remember the love we have for others. I don’t mean romantic love here, but a love for the people in your life that you really do love and that make life worth loving. And in juxtaposition with that, as the song goes, “I love the whole world. It’s such a brilliant place.”
Happy Valentine’s Day, I love you all… and in the words of the great Steven Wright, “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.” Cheers.
What do you think about today?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: world, Valentine’s Day, and love you all.
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by Richard Timothy | Feb 12, 2010 | Confessed Confidentially, I Think There's a Point, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking
I’ve started creating a list of things I think I’d be willing to try that I’m typically in opposition to. Things that fall under the “doing it for the experience” chapter of life that I think everyone keeps track of, even if it is just a mental note in the imaginary book of our life. I’m not sure this chapter is ever included in biographies, but I think if they did include it, it would definitely add to any books overall readability.
I don’t consider this the same as that list people make as a “to do” list before moving on, powering down, challenging Death, passing into nothingness, or getting your wings, depending on which mythos caters to your needs best in the dying department. Apparently this list always has a connection with buckets, or something.
The basic concept of those types of lists seems to have an arch nemesis quality about them. They are commonly filled with the extremes of life, or as American marketing felt was the necessary approach X-TREMEs of life. These are often things that might put you closer to death than you were at before you started the list. Things like bungee jumping off a bridge… with no bungee cord. You know, things like that.
The list I am talking is a lot of the time about the impulse of the moment, and after saying that I can see how making this list is a bit counter productive in regards to the impulse factor. The thing is, the list is not always for future tense experiences. Instead of it being filled with things you will do, it’s also for the things you have done. So the list is not always full of positive experiences. Some of the experiences were just, well, for experience.
Going to my first and only professional bouncy ball sporting event, which oddly when put like that covers far more sporting “things” than I initially thought… basket ball, my first and only professional basketball game. It was years ago and the tickets were my tip for ordering a pizza. It was the damnedist thing. It was a snow packed afternoon and I didn’t want to cook so I ordered a pizza and when it finally arrived the first thing the delivery man asked me was if I had any plans for next Thursday night.
This caught me a bit off guard. I told him I thought he was cute and was sure he was a lovely person, but he really wasn’t my type. His eyes opened uncomfortably wide while he replayed the whole conversation back in his mind. It reminded me of a baby’s face when it is being tossed in the air. During that freefall phase, there is always that “why the hell are you doing this to me” look of horror. 
It isn’t until they are caught they start smiling and giggling again… or crying. I’ve seen plenty as well. The delivery boy did not cry, instead he caught himself. When he realized what he had said he smiled, and explained that I had won two tickets to a Jazz game, who is only professional sports team that Utah has, I think.
My first impulse was to sell them. Then I started thinking. Perhaps going to a live game would give me some additional perspective to help me better understand the personal mystery that is sports. I asked a friend to go with who was actually a fan of the team and the sport, thinking it might help. It didn’t… well it did in the sense that he could tell me what color of team jersey I should be cheering for based on our proximity to the surrounding fans and who they were cheering for. As for sport appreciation, I still don’t get it, but I went damn it. I did it for the experience.
Sky diving in bowling shoes was another one of these things to add to my experience list. I dug that one though. I went with my two little sisters. It was Steph’s 18th birthday present to herself. It was good, good day. Trying wine for the first time during my first trip to Italy was another experience for the list that just sort of stuck, which should help explain my affinity for Italian wines. It was in the town of Manarola, in Cinque Terre. Sigh, I love that place. Spending a summer in San Francisco turned out to be one of those “seemed like a good idea at the time” experiences, which landed on the “did it for the experience” list with one of those “disastrous experience” asterisks placed right at the beginning, in bold.
Who knows maybe some day I’ll post about each one of these little experiences, but it would probably be a result of a “did it for the experience” for blogging while inebriated.
Things that I’ve recently thought of that I’d probably throw on the list are:
- Sampling a pint of Guinness in a pub in England or Ireland. Having never tried beer in any country, and really having no desire to try any, sampling some Guinness in a pub setting has doable element to it. Sample being the clarifying word in that. Sorry, but I’m afraid I cannot commit to anything more than a sampling at this point.
-
Go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field and eat a ball park frank. I really don’t care about seeing them play, but I’d like to put the eating a frank at Wrigley Field on my list, and I don’t eat hot dogs. I’ve haven’t since I learned with they were made of some 20+ years ago.
- Drinking a correctly made cup of tea is something that made my list of required experiences ever since two days ago when I came across that section in The Salmon of Doubt, and just might just happen this weekend.
- Sitting in a tub of jell-o might belong on my list. Sure it sounds wrong on multiple levels, but if it goes bad I imagine the worst that would happen is that it could result in an international campaign of “shit you should never do”. Ohhh…
- Create an international campaign for “shit you should never do”.
- And… spend more than 15 minutes creating my things to get to for my “did it for the experience” list.
The nice thing about these lists, they are always a work in progress. Although, don’t confuse this with an excuse or justification list. If your actions result in emotionally or physically hurting another person and you try to claim you did if for the experience… no! Piercing your naughty bits is something one might do for the experience. Hurting someone for the experience defines you as a douche and places you right below that ring of nasty growth that forms in the toilet if you stop cleaning it for s few weeks on the list of brainless life forms.
How about you? What is something you’d put on your “for the experience” list?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: to do list, Utah Jazz, Manarola Cinque Terre, and Wrigley Field.
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by Richard Timothy | Feb 11, 2010 | My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Something to Wine About
With this months wine party over and done with, mostly, I figure it’s time to talk wine. I don’t consider a wine party officially over until the last of the wine is drunk, drank, drunken… gone. As of today, I have one bottle to go. A half bottle of merlot and a half bottle of Pinot. Better make that ¼ bottle of Pinot. I call it palate motivation, and it adds a certain regalness to my desk. Besides I like the way the light of my monitor reflects through the wine, well did thirty minutes ago. I’m sure the wine party will officially be over sometime Friday… night.
So the wine I want to talk about was actually a wine that want not intended for the wine party. It was just finished at the wine party. It all started on the Thursday. You know how some days are really crappy and the idea of liquid libations start to tickle your senses, much like a sneeze during allergy season in a field of whatever the hell it is that give you allergies. Yeah, Thursday wasn’t like that at all. As far as Thursdays it was rather lovely. I remember there was some sunshine and smog, but low smog.
In route from work I just so happened to be driving by the liquor store. It took driving six blocks in the opposite direction I normally drive, but it was the… scenic route. There are two, three, ten… there are a number of things that I absolutely love in life. Turns out one of them is when you go into your local liquor store and discovering that the Italian wine section has almost doubled since the last time you were there… and I didn’t even know that I loved that until last Thursday.
I knew what I wanted get for the wine party, but, but, but there were so many new ones! Besides wine should always be purchased in pairs, well you should always buy at least two bottles at a time. There are reasons for this. Mainly, it’s the brown bag thing. If you get two bottles you get a bigger bag, almost grocery sized. There’s a bigger sense of purpose, better yet, accomplishment.
But, if you only get one bottle you’re stuck with one of those small bags that wrap around the neck of the bottle. Whenever I walked out of the liquor store with just one bottle I always felt like I needed a hobo jacket and a park bench to sit on. Oh, and if you get two bottles, or more, you always have the option to compare, and then compare, and then compare again.
The first bottle was something tried and true, a lovely Chianti Classico that I have savored on more than one occasion. Then, because there were so many new flavors, most of which I had never even seen before… let alone pronounce. That’s one thing about loving Italian wines, I can describe the label simply enough, but I’ll be buggered if I can tell you what it’s called.
As for how I made this brilliant wine selection. I relied upon a tried and true method of decision making. I used that rhyme, the one about a guy named Moe and he was a meeny, or something. The rhyme ended and my finger was pointing at a bottle of 2007 Castello Monaci Liante Salice Salentino… I have the empty bottle on my desk as I type this to make sure I spell it right. It’s made with Negroamaro (80%) and Malvasia Nera (20%) grapes and Castello Monaci is located near the bucolic town of Salice Salentino in Puglia, or in common English, the “heel” of “Italy’s boot” .
As for my review, I’m going to get very technical and tell you it was “yummy” no, better make the “super yummy”. Everyone that tried it made the Oooo sound. You know, that sound that says, “That just exceeded all my expectations I had for this.” It was only $13US too. There’s a saying about wine (that I just made up), which is, “Never underestimate the flavor of a cheep wine.” Besides, it easy economics, why send $130.00 on one bottle of tasty wine when you can get ten bottles of something that is just as likely to make you say “Oooo, that’s nice!” ten times more.
If you dig red wine, find a bottle of this and enjoy. And if you don’t like red wine… get a bottle of this and send it to me.
Oh, and I also learned if at all possible, always purchase the 2007 Plungerhead Zinfandel before the 2008. The difference is sippingly noticeable, and more so if you actually take a mouthful of the stuff. So to recap, in a Frankenstein monster kind of way, 2007 Goood! 2008 Baaaad. I mean it’s drinkable, just not nearly as drinkable.
You know, I don’t think I’ve yet to ask this, but to you wine drinkers out there, do you have any red recommendations? I’d love to hear them.
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: wine and PC, Castello Monaci Liante 2007 Salice Salentino, and wine store.
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by Richard Timothy | Feb 8, 2010 | Confessed Confidentially, I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking
I love Trekkies. Not because I am one, and not because I want to be one. I mean I have never had the opportunity to play one on television, nor have I ever gone to a convention, but I think I’d like to… on both counts. I mean, I did go to the new Star Trek on opening night… on an IMAX screen no less, but I didn’t initiate it. A friend invited me. It was a lot of fun though, and for the record, going to a movie with a theater full of devout fans really adds to the delight factor of the film. The only exception being the last three, which were actually the first three Star Wars movies, episodes 1 and 2 anyway… the second one was so bad I boycotted the third one and have still not seen it. I mean let’s be honest, after episode 2 ended… I witnessed a theater of adult males openly crying out of sheer disappointment, I mean let’s face it that was the day the power of the force lost all its power.
I guess more than anything, I just like the idea of Trekkies. Now before I go any further, I know that there are going to be those that get a bit frumpy at my use of the word Trekkie as opposed Trekker. I never even knew this was an issue in the Star Trek fan microcosm until I watched the documentary Trekkies.
Apparently, a Trekkie is one kind of fan and a Trekker is another, but no one can really agree what the official definition of each term is. So I think it breaks down to which word you like the sound of most, that’s what you will label yourself as. I guess in a vague way it’s the difference between calling yourself a Buddhist or Zen Buddhist, or maybe a Catholic or a Protestant, a Druid or a Wiccan, a cat person or a dog person… paper or plastic. The core perspective is the same, it’s just the label is what is different.
So left them fight… better make that debate. Let them vigorously debate about it all they want, but honestly people, WWGRD, What Would Gene Roddenberry Do? 
I do have some friends that are Trekkie-ish, which enables me to be a bit of a vicarious Trekkie, which I do enjoy the hell out of. I participate by buying these friends the occasional action figure, or toy phaser, or a USS Enterprise model with buttons that make launching photon torpedo sounds and such. I have three words for you Star Trek marketing gurus… Star Trek Legos! They would sell like, like Margaritas in Cancun. Mmmm, margaritas, sigh…
(Note to self, stop by the liquor store on my way home from work.)
Right, so about this vicarious Trekkie thing, this also means that I can watch the television shows and enjoy the movies, well, except for 5, UNLESS, yes there is actually a way to sit through and enjoy Star Trek 5. It’s called RiffTrax. Thanks Mike! Still, all of this enjoyment aside, I don’t really invest in anything more Trekkie than that. I don’t go to club meetings. I don’t know any substantial Star Trek trivia. I mean I know Kirk was a captain and a man-whore, and has the middle initial T. I know that Spock is really Leonard Nimoy, or maybe it’s the other way around. And I know that if some bloke on the away team is sporting a red jumper, I’ll be taking two drinks once he inevitably dies (one of the rules when playing a Star Trek drinking game).
I know some people give Trekkies a hard time mainly because they don’t really get it, but I’d like to point out that they make the extreme acceptable. They gave the people the ok, to dress up and go to movies. I mean Comic-Con would still be a groovy idea that a few guys had one night hanging out in the garage playing their Atari 2600 if it had not been for the clear message of support and success fans continue to give Star Trek. They have helped infect the world with the belief that it’s ok to be an adult and dress up when it’s not Halloween.
Besides, I absolutely love the random and creative discussions that come about as a result of this type of fan participation. Things like, who would win in a fight between a Jedi and a Vulcan. To which I think we all know the answer, neither, because it would be both illogical and in conflict with the way of the force. Granted a Sith and a Vulcan, that is a different story. All I know for sure (which I’m completely making up) is that if that Vulcan were in fact Spock, hands down, that Sith would be Spock’s bitch every single time… no exceptions.
I don’t see this as any than sporting debates and the fanaticism about fantasy football, or any other fantasy sporting events that people obsess about. Personally, I don’t see a lot of difference between a sports hero and a superhero. I mean sure the Flash might be able to steal bases better than Ty Cobb, but my guess is that he probably can’t hit worth a damn. Well, that and one is real person and the other is a fictional character.
So, when it comes to life as a proxy Trekkie, as long as I have friends who are willing to believe and engage, I’m happy to support them with Pez, toys, the occasion Star Trek movie marathon, and, yes, if needed, my personal contribution in helping them down a warp core breach.
Live long and na-nu… or something.
Any of you have your own kind of vicarious fanism?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: warp core breach, Trekkie, Trekkies Spock, and wwrgd.
With the Seth luncheon well underway the introductions started. This is one of those things that have always confused me. There was a voice-over introduction for the lady that got on stage to introduce the lady that put the even together. Who, after getting on the stage, took the mike and introduced Seth. It’s like watching the Oscars… or as I look at it, the evening of endless introductions for introducers who introduce montages for introducing movies, or movie related topics.
Right, so my theme song would be… See, it’s all variables that keep me changing my mind. The thing about theme songs is that they sort of evolve into your life soundtrack. I can tell you Angela and my first theme song was Mazzy Star’s Fade into You. It has never gone away either, every time we here it, we start getting all sappy and nostalgic. We have definitely added a few more songs since then.
There are two things that happen at this point. The people you apologized to either break down and admit that they too have contributed to the horror that is the song. Everyone then hugs and forgives one another. It can be a very freeing and healing experience. Or, people laugh at you and then beat you with sticks. If you quickly explain it was for the pursuit of coitus, they usually stop hitting you and you can forgo any trips to the emergency room. Of course, I am referring to that damn Titanic song. It’s not going away people. It’s going to be one of those things that our generation will be apologizing for, for generations to come. Let me be the first to say, WE ARE SORRY! We were young and in love! We didn’t know any better! Ahh, I feel better. Thanks.
As for my theme song, as a writer… I kept thinking about this throughout Seth’s presentation. I’m still trying to figure it out. I thought about something from Queen? I do have my Greatest Hits: Queen CD in my car. Then again I’ve had a copy of that album in every vehicle I’ve ever owned. But no, I’m not sure any of those songs work. Besides, after years of abuse by Hollywood it runs the risk of being a touch cliché, the only exception being, FLASH… A-AH! That song never gets old.
