Word Soup

I don't quite know what this post will be about, other than it will certainly contain consonants, vowels, and maybe even a preposition or two. I may go crazy and insert a parenthetical phrase(just because I can), and if I get to feeling really froggy I may just dangle a participle at you.

But enough with vocabutacular vacuity, on with the show. I'm trying to think of a witty observation, or perhaps a shocking anecdote, or hell even a half-way decent fart joke, but alas my mental Old Mother Hubbard has forgotten to go to Wal-Mart again, and thus...unclothed synaptic cabinetry. Did I tell you all that I dreampt that I was to play Tony Stark in the next Iron Man movie? No? Good, don't want to frighten the faint of heart. Fortunately, on this planet anyway, there is a very low, but granted higher than zero, chance that I will ever be confused with Robert Downey, Jr. Morton Downey, maybe.(and if you remember him, we're having tapioca after Bingo tonight) But it was cool to fly around my dreamscape in the Iron Man suit.

Meerkats!!


So I have yet to hear from anyone who has ever seen a wild squirrel take a crap, therefore using the Creationist Method I must deduce that squirrels simply eat, and eat, and eat, and then eventually explode.

Are you still there? For the pete of sake, why?! Well, actually I am kinda grateful that you guys keep coming back. No, strike that, I'm extremely grateful that y'all keep coming back. I'm still planning to post daily in Blogtober, although if this is any foreshadowing of things to come, you may just want to set up a tent in flurrious's neck of the woods.

Have I mentioned how wonderful Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is? Did you know they won an Emmy? Well it is, and they did. Nyah!



I'm really hoping that this new Zombieland movie will suck so badly that the zombie thing finally dies down a little. It used to be you could have civil conversations about Romero's movies, and the pretenders that followed, but now you say 'zombie' and people go nuts!Everyone has a plan for the Zombie Apocalypse(tm), their favorite weapons picked out, vehicles and stores scouted. And, of course, the eternally boring debate between fast/smart zombies and slow/stupid zombies. That conversation always makes me yearn for the Star Trek vs. Star Wars civility and mutual respect.(engage the sarcasmotron)

So as I await the Ambien I took to shut my brain down one deck at a time until I start singing Bicycle Built for Two ever more slowly, I'm going to wrap this up now. If you are still here you are indeed an intrepid, brave, or just foolishy stubborn soul, and so I will steal an idea from flurrious.(she's too far away to hit me...I think) For getting this far you deserve an award. I'll admit my shop-fu is weak, but I'll come up with something. So tell me an award you think you deserve, and I'll make it so.

And so, for now, and later, and maybe even last week, ta-ta.

suiraM

Yay, Awards!

The most wonderful and clever flurrious, being as I intimated a few syllables ago wonderful and clever, has given out awards to those who frequent her little bit of the intertubez. The trick was that we were supposed to ask for an award. I did not, so therefore I got one, and it is totally surreal and awesome. Behold:


In her own words: "The next award is just plain odd. It’s for Marius, and … I just don’t know. I don’t understand, yet I am consumed with envy. He’s certainly deserving; I’m just concerned about the hairball situation."

It's nice to be an enigma, although the award itself reveals a level of understanding that belies the enigmatic nature of me, so I'll just smile quietly and accept this award in the spirit of humility and weirdness in which it was bestowed.

:-)
Meowrius.

Suzie Plakson Interview

The interview with Suzie Plakson is now online here. You can also find out more about Suzie here.

Cute, but Weird

It's been a while since I've done a CbW segment, but over the last few days Starbuck, our resident felitard, has been in rare form. Here are a couple of shots of the sleeping doofus.

Lately he has decided that my mixer is the comfiest place to sleep, so I had to fashion a cover(the orange plastic thing)for it. Starbuck seemed insulted at first, but learned to adapt thus:



And last night, after the interview, as I went to shut down the house for slumber, I beheld this sight on the couch:



I have to wonder if the ancient Egyptians would have had a hard time worshiping this one. ;-)

Marius

Celebrity Coolness

In my life I've met many celebrities. Because of where I've worked most of them were on the tail end of their careers, but there were still varying degrees of coolness and uncoolness. One of the first was Burt Reynolds, and while I know a couple of you out there had different experiences with the man, he always struck me as a total prick. But Robert Goulet was the picture of detached professionalism. Charles Nelson Reilly was very nice, as was William Christopher, and Joyce DeWitt was a complete sweetheart. And I hope to have half as much energy when I reach 60 as Tito Puente and Joel Gray did and do in their 80s. But in my travels it's always been the 'second string' celebs that impressed me the most. Those people whom you may know when you hear their names, but then when shown a picture you go, "Oh, them!" Kathy Griffin was very funny, if a bit scary up close(too much makeup) The Reduced Shakespeare Company were some of the coolest, funniest guys around, and Paul Zaloom, whom you may know as Beakman from the children's science show Beakman's World, was just a fun guy to spend a day with. But last night I had my coolest celebrity encounter yet.

A couple of weeks ago I got a bee in my bonnet to ask Felicia Day, star of both Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and The Guild if she would appear on Starbase 66. I was politely told 'no thanks'. For some reason it was like finally getting up the courage to ask the hot girl at the end of the bar to dance and having her laughingly say no, and for most of the next day I moped. Finally the moping went from self-pity to angry. What the hell was my problem?! So in a flurry of 'getting back on the horse' I started scouring the internet for the agent's of the stars. First I found Gates McFadden's agent and fired off an email, which has yet to garner any response. Then I Googled Suzie Plakson, who played K'Ehleyr on Star Trek:The Next Generation. If you know Trek, but don't recognize the name, she was Worf's girlfriend, and the mother of his son, but was killed after only 2 episodes. She later appeared on both Voyager and Enterprise, as well as several sit-coms, movies, and TV shows. I have always admired her work, and she was one of the first stars I thought of when we started the Starbase and began to contemplate interviewing Science Fiction stars. So I found her website here and used the contact form to ask if she'd like to join us on the show. The next day I got a response from 'her people'...well, a dude named James...and he said that she thought it sounded like fun and asked for more details. Emails flew back and forth across the country, and ultimately a date and time was decided. Finally Suzie herself emailed me and we set the parameters of the inteview. She sent a bunch of questions that she gets all the time, most of which I would never have asked(I already know how tall she is, and how long getting into Klingon makeup takes) but it did help set the course of the interview. We corresponded several more times, and she just seemed to get cooler and cooler. My co-hosts were just as excited, and as the hour approached I grew more and more nervous. Then, early last night, she scared the pee out of me. She asked what station we were on, and should she have folks tune in at the time the interview was to start. "Shit!" I thought. She thinks this is a radio show. So I emailed back and explained what a podcast was, and apologized for assuming she already knew. I was terrified that once she realized what the show was, she'd say 'Oh, hell no.' But she didn't, and last night just before 9pm she called in and for nearly ninety minutes we basked in the incredible energy, humor, grace, and all-around grooviness that is Suzie. She was such a joy to talk with, and her enthusiasm for life is infectious. Even Kennedy, the hardened journalist, was giddy afterward. It was one of the most amazing, funny, and joyful conversations I've ever had the privilege to be a part of. And the best part is that you all will be able to hear it soon. I just need to do a bit of editing and it'll be available for download before the end of the week.

See y'all later.
Marius

Bittersweet

First of all my congratulations and thanks to Duke. I don't know if he did this intentionally, but he ensured that my neuroses would not prevent the tale I am about to recall to you. Back in June, as I related here Patrick Schrantz, aka Lord Parlan left this world. This weekend past, at an SCA event primarily held to crown the new king and queen, a memorial was planned for Parlan. Just over a week ago Duke contacted me and gave me the task of taking the audio from two of Pat's favorite old cassettes and making them into a CD to play at the memorial. This I did gladly, if with no small degree of sadness. The files were very rough, and it took enough time to clean them up that it was too late for me to back out and email them when my inner demons started trying to convince me not to make the trip. They always do this. I start thinking about all the people I won't know, or the gas and/or wear and tear the car will incur, or even what the restroom facilities will be like. Anything to talk myself out of leaving the house and interacting with 'real' people. But, since the only way to get the music there was to deliver it personally I was cornered. And I'm glad I was.

The event was two hours away, and the drive was uneventful. I went alone as my wife is trying to get time off for the end of the month for the 30th anniversary of our home SCA group. I brought our small tent, and just after setting it up under a tree out of the way I was found by my brother Rurik who insisted I camp with his household. An offer I gladly took. The rest of the afternoon was spent in pleasant conversation with friends old and new, and then finally finding Duke. One of the ways to spot older SCA folks is that if they have nothing to do in court(when the king and queen hear the populace, give out awards, etc.) they don't go. And this was no exception. Duke gathered his friend Kurn, his daughter, and me and we went to a nice little sports bar and grill for dinner, conversation, and to watch the Gators steamroll over some other team who's name is irrelevant. After dinner, and many Dr. Horrible songs, we returned to the campground to prepare for the memorial. Duke had set up a pavilion with a very nice display of pictures and artifacts from Pat's life, and there was a book to sign for his wife. I must say that Seannach, his wife, was the picture of poise that night...a night that had to be hardest on her. And while she did let the tears flow a few times, for the most part she wore a brave smile.

Duke had brought a keg of Newcastle Brown Ale, and insisted that no one could go home til it floated.(or, at one point in the evening, that it couldn't float until he went to bed, but I don't think the keg was listening) So being nothing if not obedient we all made many trips to the tap. Eventually Seannach requested that we all gather around the fire pit. It was a large circle of at least twenty people, but as folks kept coming and going the numbers are a bit vague. Seannach stood and held up a bottle of Glen Fiddich with about three fingers left in it. This was Pat's favorite tipple, and we were to take the bottle, tell a tale, toast our fallen friend, and pass it along til it was empty. This we did. Many people did. We all spoke of our friend, our companion, our helper. Everyone talked of his omnipresent smile, and his unmatched gentleness and chivalry. There were songs, and laughter, and many tears. That bottle lasted at least two hours, with people who had met him only once every bit as moved as those of us that had known him for most of our lives. A lot of drinking happened that night, but despite so many people being so drunk, it never got out of hand. The level of respect for Pat was such that even those that were stumbling drunk stayed civil and quiet. As I said to Duke at one point, it was a great party, it's just too bad the guest of honor couldn't be there. Eventually the keg obliged us by floating, and following a final round of hugs and tears we staggered to our beds.

A couple of hours later the sun rose, as did I, and I quietly snuck out of the cabin Duke had graciously allowed me to share, packed up my stuff, and headed home as the child was unattended and I hoped to get back before she woke. As I drove, quaffing gas station coffee and eating pre-packaged pastries, I realized that as much as I dreaded going to this event, I am so glad that I did. If there is, indeed, something beyond the veil, and we are privy to the actions of those we leave behind, then Pat must surely have been basking in the warmth of the love and joy he fostered, and the togetherness that those who loved him felt in the memory of that love. Surely there can be no finer legacy for any man than that.

Fare thee well, my friend. May we meet again and share the tales of our travels.