Your Sound Choice
Okay, this is a time when one of these ramblings must open with a disclaimer: This FTV is about the band, Mr. Big, but it started out as a musical trivia question posed to me at a local grocery emporium by Dan Bigge. The original question escapes me, but the answer was ‘Mr. Big’. […]
When we left Part 1, William Shatner had just had a close encounter with Gene Roddenberry who claimed to be working on a script for a new Star Trek vehicle. It would either become a low-budget TV movie or big screen feature, but Gene did not share the specifics with Bill. It was 1975 and […]
The last time my wife surprised me with a book she found at our local St. Vinnie’s, we both had a few moments of head scratching trying to remember if I had already read it. Published in 1994 by HarperCollins, Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner (with Chris Kreski) certainly seemed familiar. The […]
In one of the earlier segments of The Simpsons Tree House of Horrors, they do an extremely funny lampooning of The Shining (the Jack Nicholson version, only here called The Shinning). After Marge discovers Homer’s writing consists of nothing more sinister than, “Feeling fine,” she expresses cautious optimism about the situation. A sudden flash […]
We begin our look at November with Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Venus continues to dominate the SW sky at dusk. With the period of twilight lengthening throughout the fall, Venus will appear 3 degrees higher by the end of the month with a setting time that will average about 2.6 hours after sunset. Viewed […]
The crew at the West Coast Bureau sent me a copy of one of William L. Sullivan’s numerous books about hiking the great Oregonian out-of-doors. To best describe Sullivan’s passion for the topic of hiking in the wilderness, let me offer the following summary from the back cover of his 1988 opus Listening for […]
On his fifteenth birthday, March 1, 1959, Roger Daltrey was sent home from school and told to never return. The headmaster, Mr. Kibblewhite, gave him a parting shot he would never forget: “You’ll never make anything of your life, Daltrey.” Roger could only think to himself, “Thanks a lot, Mr. Kibblewhite,” as he headed home […]
If the statute of limitations for trespassing is six years (and yes, I looked it up for the sake of accuracy), it is probably okay for me to tell this story nearly fifty years after the fact. Sticking with first names will suffice to tell the following tale so nobody will be put on […]
Model Rocketry became our hobby when my brother and I witnessed one of our Norway Avenue neighbors launch a Centuri brand model rocket in the field across from our house. We dove in feet first and spent five years poking holes in the sky before Ron graduated from college and left for a year […]
At the end of Part 1, we found Steve Martin winding down a three year job at Knott’s Berry Farm where he performed in melodramas with a small troupe at the Bird Cage Theatre. He also worked on his magic/comedy act during the olio intermission segments. In his book, Steve Martin – Born Standing […]