Blogkeeping Tuesday March 29: Airbrush day!

My Airbrush kit arrived.  I ordered it from a place in North Carolina.  The airbrush itself?  And Iwata Eclipse.  Their US arm?  Here in Portland, OR.  It's a funny world.  Now nothing in my possession is safe from a thorough airbrushing!  It is going to be a learning curve though.

I'm spinning my wheels on new Trekathalon entries, it will return, eventually...

The light rig sale did not go so well.  I should know better then to trust my heart on ebay.

Oh well, perseverance! It's tough to keep the clinical depression at bay without it.

Blogkeeping: Tuesday March 22,2011

Jeepers, is it Tuesday already?

• Trekathalon is up a day late.
• I bought an airbrush. Expensive, but it's something I always wanted, and it was on sale!
• I'd love to get it off the credit card though, so to those ends, I put the Light Rig on ebay:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120702066708#ht_2705wt_975

Trekathalon TOS: 2-1 Amok Time

The Jiffy Pop Wedding Collection.

This episode shouldn't work.  It's campy, cornball, and to sincere, and yet, it does work.  I got the impression the old Vulcan Gal knew what was going on the entire time, from the challenge, to McCoy's 'treatment' for Kirk.  Very well put together episode.  When Trek was good enough to overcome the big pile of stinky-limburger that it could have been, it's a great episode.

We also get the first appearance of the iconic 'trek fight music (currently my Mom's ringtone), Chekov the lost Monkee appears, and, as is the tradition with TOS guest stars, Arlene Martel (T'Pring) is gorgeous.  She's still acting!

I feel like the biggest dork in the work for getting emotional at the "Parted but never parted" exchange.

How could you Mike Nelson?!?

You know that really awful (but horribly infectious) Youtube video from that one talentless teen (No, the other one, no, the other one, no, the other one)?  The one that garnered 2 Million views this week, and a spot on Good Morning America for the young Autotune abuser?

Satellite News revealed it's all Mike Nelson's fault.

How could you Mike?  In the dystopian future of my nightmares that video will be shown to captives in an endless loop.

Tuesday March 15 - Blog Ennui, and a minor victory!

Oh no, I'm suffering from blog ennui!

New trekathlon posts?  Meh.  (they're coming)

Dead Presidents announced the winners of their Monster Kolor Neo-Hawaii contest. Who's that little red lump on the far right?  Why it's my shabbily painted Eyezon!   There must not have been enough entries, completely undeserved, but appreciated!

Trekathlon TOS Season 1 Roundup

With Season 1 finished, it's time to reflect, in bullet form!

• It's weird watching Star Trek without it's later institutions and conventions established.
• Though I wish they kept some of the ones here for later iterations. I liked that each ship and base had their own insignia and different uniforms.
• I'm a sucker for mid-60's architecture and design.
• The Enterprise needs to put some locks on their doors, and Bones can't keep anyone in sickbay. 
• The show feels smaller then I remember it.  More claustrophobic, less scope.
• The core cast were all really good actors.  It's easy to forget that.
• The Horta is still awesome.
• Wrath of Khan is better then Space Seed.  I also don't think Space Seed is necessary to enjoy Khan.
• Though I like to think Wrath of Khan's plot grew from some fanboy being irritated the Enterprise never followed up on any of the cool things they encountered.
• I've gotten used to serialized dramas.  I didn't think I'd miss an overall plot or theme, but I did.
• The updated HD effects are poorly done.

With that out of the way, season 2 recaps commence next week!  Watch out for NOMAD!

Trekathalon TOS:1-29 Operation -- Annihilate!

He represents the Lollipop Guild.

An episode with an exclamation point in the title, so it must be good! Either that or Soundwave named it.  It's the attack of the Gallery of Regrettable Food!. Everything is solved by bright light that can apparently penetrates solid matter, but not cause blindness. Even Spock has no qualms about killing an entire species. I guess it's ok when they look like barf, and make you insane.

I love this episode, despite completely mis-remember it from my 'youff (I think I mashed it up with a Jetsons episode). I enjoyed the long walks through 60's architecture, which still looks futuristic today. Apparently it was filmed at UCLA, and the former TRW (Now Northrop Grumman) headquarters.

The HD version features gratuitous additions that look cruddy, and add little (the enterprise dropping off Satellites).  Way to go HD team!

Trekathalon TOS:1-28 City on the Edge of Forever

The Magic is in the Hole.

This episode is chock full of Joan Collins, a time Doughnut,* and something that made Harlan Ellison angry!  It also won a Hugo award.

Great acting, but unfortunately, the impact of the episode has been diminished, since time travel perils are now well-trodden ground for sci-fi geeks, bullets ahoy:

• 
  I feel sorry for the poor vaporized bum, guess he had no impact on history whatsoever?
• How does Spock's homebrew computer work?  How does it know the future?
• Did anyone ever check back on the Guardian of the Doughnut of Time?  Even if time travel itself was to dangerous, couldn't they record pictures, or have a nice conversation?

Hit up wikipedia for the behind-the-scenes kerfluffle over the script and Ellison.

*Opera's spell checker has no idea how to spell doughnut, I wonder what they're called in Norway?

Blogkeeping: Wednesday March 2

I have a terrible cold.  If anyone would like it, feel free to ask in the comments.

Due to said cold, the last few episodes of Trekathalon, season 1 will be delayed, because coherence is difficult right now.