SOL KAPLAN'S "THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE" - DOCUMENTARY PIECE

"The Doomsday Machine" is one of the best episodes of the original Star Trek series. This status, according to us Trekkers, is helped in no small way by composer Sol Kaplan's superb symphonic score.

On a theme(s)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Bu7bmz17E&feature=player_embedded

MORE SUN NEWS

Popped Sun News Network on a few minutes ago, just to convince myself that I was dreaming.

No.

There was an outside remote: The host (the weather girl, I think) had her microphone; she interviewed a cool-looking dude who was grilling meat on the barbecue; the floor director made an appearance, to chomp on some beef.

Painful. Absolutely painful. (Dr. Smith used to say, "the pain... the pain". Like that.)

Total beeping Amateur Hour. The most professional, and charming, person was the barbecue guy. Hire the man. Please. Do something right.

Seriously, folks. You have to tune in for even a few minutes -- anywhere, anytime!

POSTING NUMBER 1000 (+1)

My previous posting (A FRED STEINER ALBUM) was number 1000! It came and went with (a) little fanfare.

A FRED STEINER ALBUM

Fred Steiner's re-recording, with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, of the Max Steiner score for King Kong (1933)...



Steiner's recordings, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, of suites adapted from Star Trek (1966-1969)... some his own scores and one from Sol Kaplan ("The Doomsday Machine"). These performances lack the fire and swagger of the original recordings done for the show, and suffer a bit from the 'concertized' sound and tempo, but they are worth listening to if you want to hear outstanding dramatic music written for a television series...



... And various scores his own ("Mirror, Mirror", and "By Any Other Name"), and from others (Jerry Fielding's "The Trouble With Tribbles", and George Duning's "The Empath")...

COMPOSER FRED STEINER DIES

Just heard the sad news that Hollywood film and television composer Fred Steiner passed away a few days ago at the age of 88.

Not only did he write much of the superb music for Star Trek (1966 - 1969), but he was highly regarded for his academic research.

One film score he admired, was Max Steiner's King Kong (1933). As a matter of fact, Fred (who was no relation to Max) recorded an adaptation of the score back in 1976 with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. I have the LP... it is a wonderful performance of dramatic film music, energetically conducted by Fred Steiner.

More thoughts on Mr. Steiner, soon....


Obituary in the L.A. Times...
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-fred-steiner-20110625,0,7265403.story
And Variety...
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118039133?refCatId=14

DIM SUN

Further to my previous post, LACKING SUN (WATTAGE)...

Margie Gillis is beautiful.

Krista Erickson is ugly. (Watch the video and observe how angry she gets at around the 7 or 8 minute mark; someone has an axe to grind! There is nothing wrong with asking the question, but to do so with such emotionalism is... revealing. It's great!)

What was I saying about a "train wreck"?

LACKING SUN (WATTAGE)

This self-proclaimed media watchdog tunes in to Sun News Network almost daily for a few minutes; I'm not so sure it is about monitoring a self-proclaimed news organization, but more a case of enjoying a train wreck.

Now I'm sure: Sun News is staffed by incompetent fools. Top. To. Bottom.

How the heck did over 4,000 people submit complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council regarding an interview that Grand Dame Creepy Clown Krista Erickson held with Canadian dancer Margie Gillis, when only about 5,000 people were even watching? (By the way, the Bonzo-Brainless Sun network is getting lousy numbers. More about that in a future posting.) I'm acting stupid -- a specialty of mine -- as no doubt word spread, people watched the segment, and acted.

Read this in the Toronto Star, and make sure to watch the video in question...
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1016306--sun-news-interview-elicited-record-complaints-says-watchdog?bn=1#article

32" STAR TREK U.S.S. ENTERPRISE MODEL KIT FOR 2012

A friend saw my "phaser" postings and thought I might want to know about this...
http://toynewsi.com/index.php?itemid=17317

From the above link...

"Polar Lights, a brand of Round 2 LLC, is developing what is considered to be the “holy grail” of science fiction modelers everywhere: a 1:350scale Star Trek the Original Series U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 plastic model kit. The highly demanded kit will measure over 32” long and will be accurately detailed to reflect the 11’ filming model used in the production of the classic TV show."


***

What do I add besides a racing heartbeat?


(Apparently the SRP [Suggested Retail Price] for the "Premiere Edition" will be $149.99. Not too bad, considering the kit size.)

BEST OF BARRY - "THE DISORDERLY ALIENS" - ORIGINAL POSTING: APRIL 27, 2010

Now that I'm talking about hand phasers again; time to revisit an earlier posting...
http://barrysmight.blogspot.com/2010/04/disorderly-aliens.html

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy of physicist Stephen Hawking's best-selling book "A Brief History of Time". I wonder if he touches on the issue in this book that he now warns us about: The possibility of interstellar hoodlums wanting to come visit Sol-3, with the intent of doing us harm.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS LOSE (I KNEW THEY WOULD) - GIMME PHASER 2

The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup last night by beating the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 4 - 0, in game seven. I knew Boston would win it all... realized after game three that it was fate.

Having said that, the big talk today is what happened in Vancouver after the game -- the mindless and senseless violence. No surprise. Admittedly, the problem was started and carried out by a few... hooligan's. No brains: "Take pictures of me being violent!"

I e-mailed this note to a friend today regarding the hooligans...

Re: the Vancouver riots. I wish there was such thing as a hand phaser. Give me one and I'll mow 'em all down! "Oh, shit! Someone left it on dematerialisation!"

MANUFACTURED MOVIES - TRUE BELIEVER

Sometimes you watch a movie -- generally the Hollywood kind -- and you are able to sense jokes and plot points seconds or minutes before they happen; or twists and surprises which are neither. True Believer (1989) is such an example. I watched it this evening on TVO's "Saturday Night at the Movies".

True Believer stars James Woods and Robert Downey Jr., two actors I like very much, and they get to do their thing here, but the movie is a little bit too much 'manufactured'.


Wikipedia file on True Believer...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Believer_(1989_film)

STYRENE IS A CARCINOGEN, MAN?

It seems that styrene -- used to make polystyrene -- is a possible carcinogen. All those plastic model kits -- made of polystyrene -- I made as a youth may not have done my organic system a lot of good. And this does not include the wonderfully intoxicating "Polystyrene Cement"... Testors brand for me.

I remember the day I used a knife to cut off the nose of a De Havilland 'Mosquito' kit (Airfix brand) in order to model a fighter variant of that famous aircraft. The smell of sawed-off polystyrene, coupled with the aroma of special cement. Mmm, mmm, good.


A potential contributor to my weirdness...
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/cancer/article/1006806--styrene-added-to-list-of-possible-carcinogens?bn=1

CORONATION STREET X 2 = CBC, THIS FALL

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) announced recently that they will be eliminating Wheel of Fortune from this Fall's week-day evening schedule and replacing it with another episode of Coronation Street. This will mean an hour of the Brit soap... 6:30pm and then again at 7:00.

Good news for Canadian (and some U.S.) "Corrie" fans. From what I understand, as it stands right now there is about an eight month delay in seeing the "current" episodes here in Canada.

Good, when yet another character gets 'the chop', we can see it sooner! (Forgetting, for a moment, the power of the Internet to close the gap.)

***

"Did you hear that Morrie Smith got murdered?"

"What, again?! I thought he was murdered before."

"No, no... let me explain...."


The Toronto Star bit on back-to-back Corrie on CBC this Fall...
http://www.toronto.com/article/688456--wheel-of-fortune-replaced-by-double-dose-of-corrie-st-in-cbc-fall-line-up

BEST OF BARRY - "FILM MUSIC STORIES" - ORIGINAL POSTING: DECEMBER 24, 2008

Time to see The Philadelphia Story again as it has been a while. I was sure I mentioned the George Cukor-directed classic film in a previous posting. This picture, released in 1940, starred little known actors by the names of Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart.

Back to, not 1940, but 2008...
http://barrysmight.blogspot.com/2008/12/franz-waxman.html

GAME FOUR: BOSTON BRUINS 4 - VANCOUVER CANUCKS 0

What happened to Vancouver? Actually, it's more a case of what has happened to Boston. After that cheap hit during the first period of game three, which put Boston forward Nathan Horton out of action with a severe concussion, the Bruins went berserk!

HOW STUPID IS SARAH PALIN?

Sarah Palin is so stupid that she would stand in the United States Senate and hold a red octagonal sign, with the printed words: "Stop Harper!"

BEST OF BARRY - "TORCHWOOD" - ORIGINAL POSTING: OCTOBER 29, 2007

It occurred to me the other day that I have heard nothing lately about the Brit telefantasy series Torchwood.

Check out my feelings when the issue was hot and heavy...
http://barrysmight.blogspot.com/2007/10/torchwood.html

LIONS, TIGERS, AND PALINS, OH MY!

What can I say about Sarah Palin that has not been said before in regards to her mind-numbing lack of knowledge?

Her insistence that Paul Revere (basically an American brand name) "warned the British" (?!) is most illogical.


I'll pass 'er over to Eugene Robinson, columnist for The Washington Post...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sarah-palins-revisionist-ride/2011/06/06/AGVMGbKH_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions

2011 STANLEY CUP FINAL - GAME THREE RESULT

Game three, of the Stanley Cup final round, between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins finished five minutes ago.

Vancouver won games one and two by just one goal each; the game tonight was a blow-out... Boston 8, Vancouver 1.

Goodbye Canucks!

BEST OF BARRY - "VANCOUVER CANUCKS LOGO" - ORIGINAL POSTING: FEB 9, 2008

For a while now I have been thinking of doing a regular "Best of Barry" feature. (I use the term loosely.) Not that I am too lazy to post -- I have done close to 1000 entries since I started blogging four years ago -- but unfortunately a lot of stuff gets lost in the archives; especially to newer readers who, for obvious reasons want to maintain a sense of sanity.

As it is the season of NHL playoff action, coupled with the fact that the Vancouver Canucks is vying for the Stanley Cup, I thought the time right to make the following posting, from February 9th, 2008, the first entry for "Best of Barry"...
http://barrysmight.blogspot.com/2008/02/vancouver-canucks-logo.html

PAGE BABE - FOLLOW-UP

I'm happy that Canadian Senate Page Protester Brigette DePape protested in a peaceful way. But, I admit a side of me regrets that she didn't toss something Herr Harper's way before being escorted out of the chamber... like a pineapple. Fruit always gets attention.

I have since learned that Ms. DePape is an actor and performance artist. She says she wanted to protest in a "creative" way. Good for her. (For those right-wing loony-tunes, do not fret, or get angry, as difficult as that may be for you.)

PAGE BABE - CANADIAN SENATE

As printed on the Toronto Star website today, a news bit from 'The Canadian Press'...

OTTAWA—The Harper government's first throne speech under a majority mandate hit a slight snag today.

A lone female protester — dressed like a Senate page — quietly walked to the centre of the red chamber and held up a sign reading "Stop Harper."

***

This woman is my personal Goddess. I'm in love.


More of the story...
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1002515--rogue-page-disrupts-throne-speech-with-harper-protest?bn=1

CN TOWER'S EDGE WALK ALREADY

The CN Tower, here in the amazing city of Toronto, Canada, is ready to open its "EdgeWalk" attraction. Apparently, the bookings/reservations are already becoming backed-up. The first release is on August 1st.

I get dizzy looking at the CN Tower, never mind being willingly suspended on the upper edge of its "Space Deck".

Perhaps it is time to buy shares in Fruit of the Loom, if not "Depends".


The story of insanity as described by the Toronto Star...
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1001225--cn-tower-edgewalk-overwhelmed-by-high-demand?bn=1

CANUCKS VS BRUINS

Well, hockey fans, from coast to coast. Tonight: The Boston Bruins visit the Vancouver Canucks for game one of the Stanley Cup final best-of-seven. (Best 3 of 5 is really what it should be.)

Do not get excited, Canucks fans.

Barry predicts that Boston will win the series, therefore the Stanley Cup (the most beautiful trophy in professional team sports), 4 games to 2.