Category: Stash Wednesday

From the opening sketch for this year’s “Mystery Trekkie Theater” at Shore Leave: “Mad scientist” T. Alan Chafin goes on a rant, and then perfectly mimes having the beginnings of a heart attack. With Mike Friedman, Bob Greenberger and me clustering around him, I shout, “We need a doctor!” and Mike bellows the classic line, “Is there a doctor in the house?!” Out steps con guest Bob Picardo and with impeccable timing delivers his classic line as the holographic doctor. Result: A standing ovation from a jazzed (and maybe a little relieved) packed house.

Photo by Dawn Swingle

Two people who were never connected in life, now connected in death.

I never met Farrah.  I wish I had.  Seeing her in her latter days bereft of her famous mane of hair would seem to reinforce the notion that fate can be ironically cruel.   On the other hand, I did meet Michael Jackson.  Well, “meet” is a bit strong.  “Encounter” would be more accurate, and it was   one of the strangest experiences I’ve had in my rather strange life.

I was walking around Disneyland.  I was by myself, which probably means that it was after the San Diego Comicon.  I was at the far end of Main Street near the Magic Castle, and I saw what looked like the wife of a sultan coming toward me.  Very tall, swathed from head to toe in robes, with only the eyes visible.  She was bracketed by four Disney security guards:  guys dressed in black suits with Disney name tags.  Her gaze was darting around; she looked nervous.  Also, for some reason, the eyes looked vaguely familiar.  And there was just something…odd…about the way she moved.  She didn’t actually seem to walk so much as glide.  The only other part of her body that was visible were her hands.  They looked rather large for a woman, the fingers tapered, the skin pale.

I put it together in about three seconds and, as I passed, I said just loudly enough to be heard, “Nice disguise, Michael.”  Michael Jackson’s head snapped around, the eyes crinkled slightly as we made eye contact, and I heard a very soft chuckle even as he kept going.  Later on I happened to encounter another Disney security guy who wasn’t among the force I’d seen earlier, and I said, “Excuse me…I was just wondering.  Earlier today I saw what appeared to be a robed woman walking around, except was that Michael–?”  “Jackson, yeah, that was him,” said the guard.

My bet is that he could have walked around wearing a t-shirt, jeans, a baseball cap and sunglasses, and people would have thought, “Check out the Michael Jackson impersonator.”

PAD

So what’d you get this week?

PAD

…about the so-called spokesmen for their party.

At a time when Obama is going around the mid-East trying to sow seeds of diplomacy, former VP-Cheney–more visible in the past two months than he was in the entirety of the past two terms–continues to defend torture while trying to rewrite history.  And then there are the horrific criticisms of Sonia Sotomayor that are setting a new low even for the pundits (just when you thought such a thing could not be possible.)   We’ve got Liddy declaring, and I quote:  “Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.”  I don’t know whether simply to be appalled at the attitude, or fascinated that he didn’t seem to feel this was an issue with Condy Rice as Secretary of State, since one would think that a PMS-ing SoS in a delicate nuclear arms discussion is far more dangerous than a single cramping judge.

And then there’s Limbaugh, jumping on her comment, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” and declaring that the sentiment makes her a racist.  I think she could have found better ways to phrase it, but I don’t see that as a racist sentiment so much as it is a commentary on respective social strata and the resultant ability to render judgment on relevant cases, particularly considering the hardscrabble nature of her own upbringing.  I’m not entirely sure I agree, but it’s a point worth discussing rather than just shouting, “Racist!” in an attempt to shut her down and keep her off the bench.  Besides, you should judge a person’s worth by the entirety of their body of work–and Sotomayor’s is incredibly impressive–rather than a couple of comments that others have taken out of context and flogged relentlessly to further their own agenda.

PAD

Whedon fans are up in arms over the widely reported notion of “Buffy” being rebooted on the big screen sans Whedon.

I could very well be wrong–in fact, wouldn’t be surprised if I was–but I see this as a big negotiating ploy. I think that at some point the producers must have approached Whedon, he had terms they were reluctant to meet (money, creative control, whatever) and so they’ve gone public with the notion that they’re willing to proceed without him in order to gain negotiating leverage.

I would not be the least bit surprised if, should a feature film go forward, Whedon winds up attached to it. Of course, knowing Hollywood, I also wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t. Still, it’s worth pointing out that Gene Roddenberry was creatively involved with “Star Trek: The Motion(less) Picture” and actively discouraged fans from seeing “The Wrath of Khan” as being inconsistent with his vision of “Star Trek.” And Gene’s fans were no less rabid than Joss’s. But can anyone deny the relative merits of the two films?

So anything’s possible…

PAD