"Weird Al" Yankovic played with my Yoda puppet (and signed it too!)

This past Friday evening saw musical parody genius, pop culture icon and now bestselling author "Weird Al" Yankovic come to Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, North Carolina as part of his seven-city book-signing tour promoting his just-released children's tome My New Teacher and Me!...

My New Teacher and Me! is the follow-up to Weird Al's acclaimed 2011 children's book When I Grow Up (available as a standard book and as a newfangled iOS app for your iPad!).

I arrived at the store about three hours before the signing (incidentally, Quail Ridge Books is a really nice independent bookstore: I'm gonna make it a habit of swinging by there any time I'm in the Raleigh area) and bought a few copies to get signed.  I wound up reading My New Teacher and Me! in the interim and found it to be a delightful and well-crafted (and funny) sequel to the first book.  I hope Al continues with young Billy's story and gives him at least a trilogy!

Well anyhoo, 7 p.m. arrived and Al Yankovic (that's how he's billed in literary circles, not as "Weird Al", so I'm gonna try to respect that for the rest of this post) came out and began signing and posing for photos.  I don't know how many came to Quail Ridge Books on Friday night but there had been over 800 at his previous stop in Cincinnati the day before.  If I had to guess, I would estimate at least 400 people and maybe even 500.

It was a little after 8 when my turn came to approach the table where Al was situated.  And along with the two copies of My New Teacher and Me! I had something else that I was hoping he could sign: my vintage Yoda vinyl hand puppet, bought all the way back in 1981.  I figured that since his big finishing song at the end of every concert is "Yoda" - and since he had the same kind of puppet as a prop in his very first MTV special - that it might have been worth a shot.

Well, as soon as I walked to the table Al saw my puppet standing atop my books and he said "Hey, I used to have one of those!"  I gave it to him and he put it on his hand and started playing with it... yes, "Weird Al" Yankovic himself (I know, I slipped from established protocol there but I couldn't help it) started playing with my Yoda puppet!!  He put it on his right hand and began talking like Yoda and then he said "Or you could play with him like *this*" and started punching Yoda like a boxer.

This has to be among the top five most kewlest moments of my life...

And yes, he signed it...

Don't even think of asking to buy this from me!  You will never, ever, EVER find this listed on eBay.  Not as long as I'm alive... and I'm planning on being alive for a heap long time.  That lil' Yoda puppet had sentimental value before, and it's got even more now.

Thanks to Al for coming to Raleigh, and thanks to Quail Ridge Books for hosting him!  And I heartily recommend My New Teacher and Me!: a fun lil' book for children ages 6 to 600.

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The Battle of Gettysburg began 150 years ago today

On July 1st, 1863, what is considered the greatest and most decisive battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere began on the outskirts of the sleepy little college town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania...

Entire volumes of books have been written about this engagement (some devoted solely to Day 2).  Even now, historians discuss and debate the tactical decisions made at Gettysburg, along with its impact.

I have respect for the soldiers and officers of each side.  Without regard to their earthy perspectives, those men were only fighting for what they believed was right according to their conscience before God.  It is our limited understanding which leads to things like war... but I have to think that in the eyes of the Almighty, any sincere seeking after His will is going to be a credit to those striving to follow Him.

In honor of those men, be they Confederate or Union, this blogger salutes them.

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Kristen and Fonzo review MAN OF STEEL (because I couldn't get around to it...)

Man of Steel came out just over two weeks ago.  I've seen it twice and the more I think about it, the more I'm of the mind that it's not only the finest Superman film made to date, it's also the best comic book movie thus far (tying with The Avengers and The Dark Knight).  Dang near everything about Man of Steel is spot-on perfect: from Henry Cavill's performance as Superman to Zack Snyder's direction to the sight of Metropolis getting the slats beaten out of it, to the beautiful and epic score by Hans Zimmer.

I'd wanted to write a review, but kept getting bogged down with stuff during the past several days.  But who says that I have to be the only one writing a movie review around here?

So here are two fine people who have some thoughts about Man of Steel that they'd like to share with you, dear reader!  First up is this piece by Alphonzo McIver: one of the coolest cats I've ever known.  "Fonzo" is a true afficianado of great movies, and I've always trusted his word as bond.  He just turned in this piece about Man of Steel and it's well worth sharing...

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Man of Steel Review

by Alfonzo McIver

I have to say I really liked Man of Steel. I thought it was a great new way to tell the Superman story. There were a lot of people, and critics that did not like the movie, and that is fine we are all entitled to our opinions, and reasoning. The problem comes from some of the things I read are either nit picky, or can have a justifiable reason for why the movie was done the way it was. Before I get started I have to warn that there will be spoilers in this, so if you have not seen Man of Steel then do not read any further.

The first issue I have read was about the characters, and how some where "wooden" or did not serve the purpose they should have. I agree that they should have focus a bit more on Zod, and show him more as a foil for Superman. For the rest of the characters I felt that they were showcased properly. One of the characters that people saw a problem with was Perry White. I heard things like " He should have been in it more." I have also heard that all he was just a comic relief. I don't know about that last one. I saw his character as being in there enough to introduce him, and show the type of person he is. He cares for his employees, and what is right. He is stern, and kind of a father figure within the Daily Planet. For his time in the movie that comes down to Superman not become Clark Kent "Mild Manner Reporter" till the very end. There was no reason for him to be in there more than he was.

Next is the fight scenes. I will start this one by saying that it took me a while to respect what Christopher Nolan did in Batman Begins. I am a martial artist, and when it comes to fight scenes in movies I like to see the movement, the technique, the art in motion, so in the beginning I did not like it. My respect came when I saw what Nolan was doing. He wanted us to see Batman's hand to hand from the eyes of the criminals he was beating. The quick blinding camera shots represented Batman coming in, handling business, and you on the ground before you know what is going on. I felt the same thought was put into the fight scenes in Man of Steel. We know that Superman is powerful, but he is also fast, and those from Krypton would have that same power and speed. I feel that Zack Snyder, David Goyer, and Chistopher Nolan saw it as what would a fight with these aliens look like from the eyes of a human being. I'm sure the fights would be hard hitting, and near invisible to the naked eye.

The death of Zod. I read that someone did not like it, there was not a point to it, there was another way, Superman would not do that, etc, etc, etc.... I think the first question I pose is Batman killed Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins. Why is there not a problem with that? Batman does not kill, but he left Ra's in the train car knowing the outcome. He may not have pulled the trigger, but he did nothing to stop it either. Superman did kill Zod in the comics. I will not go that route though. I look at it in two ways. One is that they set up Zod's character in a way that the only way to stop him would be his death. He said that he was made for one purpose, and he would stop at nothing to fulfill that purpose. If you banished him back to the Phantom Zone he would find a way back. It is him, his nature, his hard wiring . The second is I feel it was a statement. It was Superman making a choice between his past and his future. Almost like him saying that Krypton had its chance now it is time to let Earth have its time. The problem that I did have with this is that I felt not enough time was spent on Zod's death. This is significant, this is the first time Superman took a life. I did not like the fact that he killed Zod, yelled, cried in Lois's arms, and that was it. There should have been more. There should have been a separate scene where he talks to Lois, and tells her that he would not take a life. There is a lot of that in movies now where significant characters, are killed, and not enough time is devoted, or the death does not fit the person in my eyes. The death of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight bothered me. She was Bruce Wayne's childhood friend, and love interest. She is the one that Bruce was going to give up the cape for, and the aftermath of her death was relegated to Bruce looking out the window. Nolan said that there was supposed to be a funeral scene. It was cut because of time, and how it took away from Batman finding the Joker. Keep the funeral in there. It was needed. You could have cut the barge scene a bit. No matter how many times I see that movie the barge scene is the scene that I always start to nod off. I can forgive Man of Steel for this because this is the first movie. They have another movie in which to explore the death of Zod impacting Superman.

Superman is not Superman. Superman is supposed to be a "boy scout" For this you have to look at the time in which Superman grew up. When Superman first came onto the scene good guys wore white hats, it was apple pie america. That character was widely accepted.I like what my friend said. If you want Superman to be a boy scout watch Superman Returns. This Superman grew up in the 80's, and 90's. He grew up in a time of question, and conspiracy theories. He grew up in a time of who can you trust. It is only fitting that his character would be a little rough around the edges. I saw this Superman as a good upstanding character he was just more guarded than the Superman of old.

Lastly, this was not a new telling of the story. Alien baby rocketed to earth from a dying planet. grows up with powers far beyond any human. Uses said powers to protect humanity. Wealthy boy watches parents murdered grows up to become masked vigilante . I know it seems as though I am beating up on the Nolan Batman trilogy. I am not, I loved all three of the Batman movies. My problem comes in where we can accept the fact that there was not really a new telling of the Batman mythos, but we criticizes the telling of the Superman Mythos. Characters like that are iconic, and there is really no change to the heart of what makes those characters. The world, the people around them can change, but the outline of the story needs to stay the same. No matte how many reboots of comic book characters they do, the overall outline of the character will never change whether it be Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, etc... At its core the origin will be the same.

That is enough of my ranting. I really liked Man of Steel. I just feel that as critics you lose sight of the movie experience because you are trained to look at the faults. There are bad movies out there, but Man of Steel was not one of them, and just remember this is the first of a franchise that is supposed to spawn a Justice League movie.

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Fonzo and I are planning on seeing Pacific Rim together in a few weeks, so don't be surprised if he writes a review of that for this site!

Next up are some thoughts by someone who is no stranger to these pages: my girlfriend Kristen Bradford.  On our way back from seeing Man of Steel, we had quite a discussion about the film and Kristen came up with... well maybe I'm being biased but I thought she had some positivalutely brilliant thoughts about it.  I asked her to do a write-up, and she turned this in over a week ago but I hadn't been able to post it until now.

So here are Kristen's thoughts and commentary about Man of Steel.  Take it away, Kristen!

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The Profound Messages of Man of Steel

by Kristen Bradford

I had been wanting to see “Man of Steel” after seeing the trailers – it looked so much more promising than 2006’s “Superman Returns.” Perhaps even better than the Christopher Reeve films (which I vaguely remember, so I can’t accurately compare them).  Then Chris saw it Friday night, unsure of what to make of it.  So when we went Saturday night, I was optimistic but prepared for the worst.

I must say that it was one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time.  From the time the end credits rolled until we got back to Chris’ house, we were discussing themes and elements that we both noticed.

Before I get into this, please note this may be spoiler-y, so don’t read any further if you haven’t seen it yet.  And if you’re not a Christian, well, I hope you respect my thoughts and understand where they are coming from, because I saw a lot of parallels between this film and the Christian faith.  That being said, if you have not seen it and you’re not a Christian, don’t be turned off from going.  The Christian elements in the film don’t come across as “beating you over the head” with it.  It’s more subtle.

I view this film as sort of a cautionary tale.  One that is warning our society of what our future can hold.  When the film starts, we see Krypton, not far from the end of their world.  As the movie goes on, we learn that their people used to be explorers, colonizing distant planets and learning more about the universe around them.  By the time of the events of the movie, the outposts are long dead, abandoned for unclear reasons.  Children aren’t born, but artificially created (Clark, or Kal-El, is the first natural birth in their society in years, maybe even centuries).  Babies are created to play a specific role – like to be in the military, for example. Their people have no choice in what role they will play in life.  And that is General Zod’s downfall at the end.  He knew nothing else except to protect Krypton, and he would do so by any means necessary.  He could do nothing else.

Krypton represented a society that was hell-bent on control.  Their obsession with control led to their destruction.  Which is why Jor-El could not go with his son – he knew he was part of the society that brought them to their end in the first place, and wanted Kal-El to learn a different and better way of living life.

Kal-El grows up as Clark Kent, knowing he is different from everyone else but not realizing why until he is a little older.  Throughout his life, he struggles with his outcast role.  He strives to help people because he is able to, but in turn has to remain hidden and, as an adult, moves from job to job when he makes his powers known.  But he discovers his own destiny.  He is not forced to be a farmer, or a doctor, or anything else.  He makes his own choice.  And his choice is to save the human race, to use his powers for good, if you will.

At one point in the film, after General Zod announces to the world his demand for Kal-El, Clark is unsure of what to do.  He has already learned that Zod cannot be trusted, but at the same time has this passion for saving people, at any cost.  He ends up at a church, and through the course of talking to the priest, admits he’s the one they’re looking for but is torn about what to do.  Should he give himself up, even if it means Zod won’t keep his word?  As he is leaving, the priest says to take a “leap of faith.”

And that’s what we all need to do sometimes.  When the odds are against us, or when things seem unclear, there is a time where we just have to take a leap of faith that everything will turn out okay.  In this movie, I’ll just say it gets worse before it gets better!

One thing that stuck out with me was the pro-life element.  Yes, you read me right.  Krypton, for some reason, looks down on natural births.  When Jor-El tells Zod they had a naturally born son, Zod yells “heresy!”  It makes me wonder if this is the path our society is going towards.  I hope not.  When we try to control how future generations are made, that messes with the natural order of life.

I highly recommend this movie.  And not just for Henry Cavill’s abs!  It is a very well-done film (though it did get a little CGI-crazy in the climax) and an interesting take on the character of Clark Kent.  We always see Superman as confident and ready to fight for justice.  In this story, we have to see him work towards that confident superhero.

(By the way, did anyone see references to LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises?  And the two Battlestar Galactica alumni?)

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"Not just for Henry Cavill's abs"?!? Kristen, your boyfriend has a (kinda) hot physique too, ya know :-P

Thanks to Kristen and Fonzo for their contributions!

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It's a sunbathing pup as Tammy Tuesday returns!

All right gang, I'm gonna try to get back into the swing of things on this blog.  First up: another dose of that very-cute-but-terribly-mischievous miniature dachshund, Tammy.  Who has lately demonstrated that she's getting much better behaved!  If only she wouldn't jump out of nowhere to bite at my ankles every so often...

So today I took her outside so she could do her "doggie business" and the first thing she wanted to do was head to her favorite place in the yard.  I don't know what it's allure is, but there's this one little area of lawn that Tammy will go to, lay down and often roll on her back and enjoy the warmth of the sun shining on it.  I guess it's just her "layin' spot".

Here she is enjoying the early summer sunshine...

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Clawing my way back from bipolar depression

In light of the e-mails that came asking if things were okay on this end, I'm feeling led to address why I've been absent for the better part of the past two weeks.

There's really no other way to put it: I got hit with a bipolar depressive episode.  The worst that I have had to go through in a very long time.  And it absolutely robbed me of my desire to write or to post anything at all.  Apart from a few Twitters or Tweets or whatever they're called, my activity online was a fair reflection of my activity in real life: pretty much nil.

I've written about bipolar depression before, but this latest bout refreshed in my mind how horrible this condition is and how I would never, ever wish it upon any person.  One moment, you're feeling high on life.  And the next, totally without warning, your interest in everything flatlines.

I could not be interested in this blog.  I could not be interested in the news.  I could not be interested in Star Wars.  I could not be interested in the music of "Weird Al" Yankovic... and as Homer Simpson once observed, "He who is tired of Weird Al is tired of life."

I was not living, but only existing.  Bipolar depression is like a torturously-long drawn-out death: you want to live, but you don't know how to live.  You don't know how to want to know how to live.

There were entire days during the past two weeks when I wanted to die and get it over with.  To welcome Heaven or oblivion, because either would be better than the hell I was going through.  Once upon a time I might have considered taking steps toward ending my life and putting a stop to the pain.

In fact, one person I know, did just that in recent days.  A very good, sweet and devout Christian person.  I don't know if she had bipolar but she was suffering from an agony that nobody can possibly understand without experiencing it personally.

Sometimes I wonder if someday, that might be me too.  If the pain will become too much to bear and my cries to God seem so unheard and neglected that I feel no other alternative than to "opt out".  Because I didn't consider doing that these past weeks, but there certainly were times when I asked Him to just let there be an end to it all.

I know it's not "me".  I know it's the bipolar.  I know it doesn't last forever.  It didn't this time and it won't next time either.  And my prayer is that everyone who goes through any kind of mental illness might realize that and hold onto it during their times in the valley.

Were it not for the honor of being in a best friend's wedding last weekend, my girlfriend's presence and encouragements, and a few other things, I wouldn't have been able to get out of this house at all.  Okay, Tammy the Pup still needed walking a few times a day, so there was that.

Thankfully the episode is retreating.  My interest in life is returning.  Kristen tells me often that I won't have this problem so severely after we're married (parse that as one will, heh-heh...) and Lord willing that will be sooner than later.  My desire to write is coming back and I'm going to try to make up for some stuff in the next few days (not the least of which will be a review of Man of Steel: a film which I am increasingly of the mind is the best superhero movie made to date).

Okay, back to work I go...

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It's not a Tuesday... but here's Tammy anyway!

The girlfriend reminded me late last night that I had missed posting a Tammy Tuesday this week.  And then earlier tonight she told me again.  So you can direct thanks to Kristen for kicking me in the tail and getting a new pic of my mini dachshund up for your viewing pleasure :-)

This week, nothing too special.  Just a photo I took with the iPad of Tammy in my lap, as I tried to get her to hold still...

There may be some more pics of her out and about town next week. We'll see :-)

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This could be a bumper sticker...

I'm not a crazy person.  I'm just someone who had to survive too many crazy people.

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Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz is officially verboten

It's taken an act of legislation to wipe out the longest word in the German language.

"You vill EAT your
rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
undt you vill LUFF it!!"

"Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" - a 63-letter long title for a law "for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling" - has been removed from official use in Germany.  The law, passed in 1999, regulated testing cattle for bovine spongiform encephalitis: also known as "mad cow disease".  The European Community is dropping recommendations for testing healthy cattle for the disease.  And with it goes... that word.

I bet spelling bees are something else over there...

Tip o' the hat to Scott Bradford for spotting this!

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El Reno tornado: Widest ever recorded

The tornado which touched down in El Reno, Oklahoma this past Friday is now in the books as the biggest ever documented.  At its maximum, the tornado was a staggering 2.6 miles in diameter...

El Reno, Oklahoma tornado, May 31st 2013.  Photo Credit: WHOTV.com

Nineteen people perished from this storm, including three veteran tornado chasers.  The tornado carved a path more than sixteen miles long and has been categorized as an EF-5: the most powerful possible.

Thoughts and prayers going out to the people of Oklahoma.

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"Weird Al" Yankovic's next album to be his last

Musical parody pioneer "Weird Al" Yankovic is working right now on his next album.  And he's not planning on making another.

Yankovic confirmed it with journalist John J. Moser of The Morning Call in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania...

There's no question about it, parody singer "Weird Al" Yankovic says.

A world where virtually everyone has access to YouTube or other Internet video sites, and far more immediately than he does with physical CDs – and a world where music comes and goes with ephemeral popularity , his job has become far harder.

In fact, it's so difficult that Yankovic, who plays Sands Bethlehem Event Center at 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, says his next album is likely to be his last.

"I have one more album on my contract, and I'm looking forward to doing more digital distribution," Yankovic says in a call last week from his Los Angeles home. "Cause I think, particularly with what I have to do, I need to be as immediate as possible, and that means getting my material out quickly."

"So I don't even know after this next CD if I'll be doing any kind of traditional releases anymore because it seems like everything I do is geared more toward being online and being immediate. And I'm doing my best to figure out a way to do that."

Sounds like Al will not be retiring anytime soon, thank goodness!  He's just doing something he's very very good at: adapting and rolling with the times.  Besides, Al has been tilting toward this direction in the past few years already: in the summer of 2009 he did his "Internet Leaks" series of song releases, and they sold quite well on iTunes.  After his new album, we won't have to wait years for new Al songs.  They'll get to come to us immediately!

But even so: I honestly can't imagine a world where there are no more upcoming Weird Al albums.  Every time a new one came out, I've been there on its release date to buy it (sometimes even driving out of the way to get it).  When Poodle Hat was published ten years ago I pulled the shrink-wrap off the CD as soon as I got in the car, put the disc in the player and began listening immediately.  I was laughing so hard that a highway patrolman pulled me over 'cuz he thought I was drunk!

Maybe if we're good, Al will someday give us a compilation album of the new stuff.  Along with the requisite polka medley :-)

In related news, it's been discovered this week that "Weird Al" Yankovic joins Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and Kurt Russell in the illustrious ranks of celebrity time travelers!  The photo on the right is of a framed portrait found in a Cracker Barrel and Al Twitter-ed it.  Given that he is now in apparent possession of a working TARDIS, rest assured that we will have Weird Al to entertain us for many more eons to come...

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This week's Tammy Tuesday guest stars "Weird" Ed Woody!

Hey gang, been a mite busy on this end of things, but don't let that stop us from having our weekly does of mini dachshund hijinks!

This past weekend my longtime friend and filmmaking partner "Weird" Ed Woody came to visit.  And it so happened that this was the very first time that he and Tammy have had a chance to meet.  I was outside with her when he pulled into the driveway and had my camera with me, so I got to record their first-ever encounter...


It took Tammy awhile to get used to somebody so new...

 ...but it wasn't long before she really took on to Ed, as you can tell :-)

Incidentally, Ed and I discussed our next film project.  It's gonna be the first one we've done in quite some time.  Maybe we should give Tammy a cameo?

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Matt Smith leaving DOCTOR WHO in this year's Christmas special

On December 25th, time is up for the Eleventh Doctor...

Matt Smith, who the BBC announced four and a half years ago would be the one to play The Doctor after David Tennant left the role, is leaving Doctor Who at the end of this current season.  It will be during this year's Christmas special that the Eleventh Doctor will regenerate, and Smith will hand off to a new actor.

It was really bittersweet to hear that news tonight.  I do think that Matt Smith is taking his bow at the top of his game.  In no small part because of his portrayal of The Doctor, the show has never before been so wildly popular.  The past several years have seen Doctor Who truly become a global sensation, and in this blogger's opinion Smith has become one of the very, very few deserving to be recognized as a pop icon.  He will be the reigning Doctor for the massive fiftieth anniversary special coming on November 23rd.  After everything he has accomplished as the Eleventh Doctor, it would be really hard to find a way to top all of that and go out bigger than that.

But all the same, I think I'm going to miss Matt Smith's Doctor more than any other.  In too many ways than could readily be gone into, the era of the Eleventh really did wind up my favorite of the revived series.

Even so, he will not be soon forgotten.  Because of Matt Smith, "bow ties were never cooler", as showrunner Steven Moffat said earlier today.  Indeed, no other Doctor has made such an impact on modern fashion.

So here it is at last.  Matt Smith is about to leave one of the most legendary roles in the history of television.

And as Moffat put it, "Somewhere out there right now - all unknowing, just going about their business - is someone who's about to become the Doctor.  A life is going to change."

And so begins the craziest sweepstakes in modern culture's memory.  Who... Who... will be the next Doctor?!?  If y'all thought the madness over five golden tickets to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory was something, y'all ain't seen nothin' yet...

EDIT 12:10 a.m. EST:  In light of tonight's news, I'm feeling led to post the clip of Matt Smith's first true scene as The Doctor.  And by that I mean: that singular moment when he grasped the mantle of The Doctor and claimed it as his own, with no going back.  Yes, Matt Smith was the one playing the person who David Tennant's Tenth Doctor regenerated into... but this was the moment, in "The Eleventh Hour", when he became The Doctor:

To say nothing of the regeneration scene itself, considered by many to be the finest in the history of the show. It was certainly the most emotional.

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Kristen's Korner: A Beacon of Light

This afternoon the lovely and effervescent Kristen let me know that she had composed another of her articles for this blog. That's something I really appreciate about her: how much of a surprise she always is!  Her first entry, "My Bipolar Boyfriend", has turned out to be one of the more popular posts on The Knight Shift.  I know she has a few others in the works too.

So take it away Kristen! :-)

"A Beacon of Light"

On Memorial Day weekend of this year, Chris and I went to the Outer Banks.  I had been in the area 25 years ago, at the age of 3, and felt like this was a trip of nostalgia (although I barely remember the first trip).  We enjoyed the Elizabethan Gardens and aquarium in Manteo, but also ventured from Roanoke Island to see Cape Hatteras, Bodie Island, Kitty Hawk, and Jockey's Ridge.

When we were at Cape Hatteras, I wanted to climb to the top of the lighthouse.  Hey, I had done it numerous times in San Diego's (newer) Point Loma lighthouse when my family lived there in the early 1990s.  Surely this would be a fun experience, one with a great view of the Atlantic Ocean from the top and a great memory with the man in my life.

While I will say it was a memorable experience, I can't say it was a fun one.  You see, sometime during college, I started to get vertigo.  Being somewhere high, sometimes I'd get dizzy and anxious.   It was never really that bad, just annoying.  But for some reason, standing at the base of the lighthouse, looking up at its black and white striped glory... I started to panic.

When it was time for us to go up, I decided to let the other people in the group go ahead of us.  Then Chris and I started up, me at the front.  I have to say, I was thankful for the eight platforms along the way - because I probably stopped at every one, putting my hand on my chest in order to ease my breathing.  My legs started to feel shaky.

Yes, I was freaking out.  Scared.  I knew I wasn't going to fall - there were plenty of railings to prevent that, in case I slipped.  But the fear consumed me.  The rational part of my mind was saying there was nothing to fear - the steps weren't narrow or steep, they were actually very manageable compared to some other places I had been to (like Warwick Castle in England - THOSE stairs were fear-worthy).  But the irrational part of my mind was hysterical - especially if I heard people coming down the stairs.  To feel stable, I just HAD to hold on to the railing and put my other hand against the wall, and someone coming down prevented that.

When we finally made it to the top, I only took one picture... from the doorway to the outside.  I went outside, took a brief look around, and was desparate to go back inside and leave to head back down.  I couldn't really take the time to enjoy the view because of my anxiety.

But then we had to walk down.  All 200-some stairs.  That was even worse for my anxiety.  At least by going up, you could ignore the bottom.  You have to look down (in the general direction, not necessarily down to the bottom) to walk down.  Well, at least I do.  I couldn't walk down those steps without making sure my feet were positioned in a secure way on each step.

The whole experience took half an hour, probably.  Whereas other people surely took a lot shorter time, because they weren't succumbed by fear.  When I got down to the bottom, I was so thankful.  I had survived it.  And I told Chris that I never have to do it again.  If we have kids someday and we go back, HE can take them up and I'll be at the bottom, waving at them when they're at the top (just like my mother did when we were in San Diego... okay, I've heard some women say they start to become their mothers, but I never thought I'd have this fear-of-heights problem!).

This also made me really appreciate Chris.  Not just because he was supportive and encouraging me during my little freak-out, but it gave me insight into what Chris deals with on a regular basis.

I don't have bipolar.  I don't know what it's like to battle your mind everyday, trying to ignore the horrible thoughts or depression that likes to creep up.  But in a way, on a much smaller scale, I was battling my mind.  I WANTED to enjoy going up to the top of the lighthouse with my boyfriend.  I WANTED to be strong.  I WANTED to tell those irrational fears where to stick it.  But in the end, I did not win the battle.  I was a victim to my fears.  While I didn't give up on the climb, I let my fears take hold of me and was not able to resist them.  People with bipolar go through this.  They want to be happy and have a normal life, but sometimes their mind gets in the way.

Fear, bipolar, stress, emotions - whatever barrier you have to battle your mind for, it doesn't have to win.  It's not always easy, nor always a success.  But have hope that it will get better and you will get through it.  Just keep your focus on the goal: I WILL get through this depression.  I WILL survive this broken heart.  I WILL survive this lighthouse climb.

As I end this post, I think to what the lighthouse symbolizes.  It's a beacon of light that guides ships away from the cliffs, towards the right direction.  I'd like to think God is a lighthouse of sorts, who uses his light to direct us the way to go.  It reminds me of that popular hymn that comes from Psalm 119:105: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."  Next time the fear rears its ugly head, maybe I can take comfort in those words, and give the fear to God.

You know, maybe I'll climb Cape Hatteras again after all.

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STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC comes to the iPad!

When I first heard about it this morning, it was only from a report and there had been no announced availability but my first reaction was already "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!"

Guess who just spent ten bucks on the App Store?

BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, deemed by many to be the greatest Star Wars video/computer game ever and one of THE best games of all time period, has been ported to the iPad and is on sale now!  Ten years after it was first released, Aspyr Media has taken this much-beloved classic and put the whole experience in the palm of your hands, to enjoy wherever you happen to be.  It requires at least an iPad 2 to run and it needs iOS 6.  As well as some hefty space for the install (1.9 gigs free but I'm hearing at least 2.5 is recommended).

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is available for $9.99 on the Apple App Store.  Go download it now, meatbags!

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Hey Hey Hey! It's the profanity-strewn prison rape episode of FAT ALBERT!

A few weeks ago I came across a religious broadcasting station that runs episodes of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids on weekday afternoons.  I'd forgotten how awesome this show was!  My DVR has been set accordingly, so I can once again watch the wacky adventures of Fat Albert and his gang during the evenings or whenever.

From the show's start, its creator/producer/narrator Bill Cosby intended for the series to teach and enlighten as much as it entertained (it eventually became the basis of Cosby's doctorate in education).  As the show progressed, Cosby and his staff began to take on bolder issues, such as racism and guns (interestingly, that particular episode did not condemn firearms entirely, it just cautioned young people to be extremely careful with them).

So it was 1984 and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was finally winding down after being on Saturday morning television for twelve years.  And the Cos' decided that at long last it was time to unload a "scared straight" story at the kiddies.  Many other shows enjoyed by children were also doing "very special episodes" (I still cringe whenever I think of "Gordon Jump as the pervert bike shop owner" on Diff'rent Strokes... come to think of it, most of the Diff'rent Strokes episodes were like that.  Being "very special", not Dudley and the pervert bike store owner I mean).  Anyway...

"Busted" would be unusual if it had been produced today, but in the mid-Eighties it was way more daring.  In a departure from the norm, Bill Cosby began the show warning viewers that this episode would have foul language (like "bastard", "damn" and "hell") but it had to be that way to be as accurate as possible.  What Bill didn't tell us about is that we would soon be witnessing Fat Albert and his friends being oggled with lustful eyes by hardened felons!  No other episode to the best of my recollection ever had Fat Albert jumping scared into Dumb Donald's arms.  Or had poor little Russell (my favorite character of the entire show) being asked if he wants "a candy bar".

The language has been toned down from its original airing, but everything else is as disturbing as ever.  From 1984 here are Fat Albert, Rudy, Bill, Russell, Bucky, Dumb Donald, Weird Harold and Mushmouth in "Busted"...



That would frighten anybody into doing whatever they possibly could to avoid going to the big house!

Unfortunately, twelve years later would see the publication of Alex Ross' and Mark Waid's classic graphic novel Kingdom Come.  And in its very first pages we find Fat Albert and his pals shooting down some civilians on the streets of Gotham City, just before getting arrested by Batman's patrol droids.

(Looks like "scared straight" didn't work, huh.  One can only assume that Rudy wound up learning the hard way to watch himself in the shower...)

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Is greed killing NASCAR?

Not long ago, stock car racing was the most-watched, most profitable professional sport in America and one of the biggest in the world (surpassed internationally only by soccer... or "football" or "futbol" or whatever).  Which isn't bad at all for a spectator sport which has humble beginnings in the manufacture and transport of illegal moonshine throughout the southeastern United States.  And that is where NASCAR's most faithful and stalwart fans have always been found, along with its most celebrated and capable drivers.

Lately however, NASCAR seems to have forgot "who brung them to the dance": those same longtime fans, most of whom have decades of loyalty notched on their belts.  Speedway Motorsports' owner and CEO Bruton Smith had this to say last week when it was announced that NASCAR was moving one of Charlotte's races to Las Vegas: "When the game is over, it'll be money, money, money... Money will move it."

NASCAR's big wigs are poised to lose it all if they keep going at this pace, so writes friend and colleague Doug Smith.  The owners and executives are selling out stock car racing's core fans by having events all over the map, taking them away from longstanding venues such as Rockingham and Darlington.  In other words: the pursuit of a higher profit is destroying what made NASCAR profitable to begin with...

I've written for several years that I wouldn't be surprised to see Nascar fold by 2020-2025. Or at the very least, there would be races that weren't televised live any more, if at all. Regrettably, there are enough sheep out there to keep the sport alive but I see no reason to change my prediction about Nascar on television because any sport depends on its traditional fanbase to support it in hard times. Nascar's attendance and ratings have been down for years and it can be traced right back to the unholy trinity's concentrated efforts to run off the traditional fans. MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Soccer, Tennis, Golf, other auto racing bodies such as Indy and F1, and nearly every other sport I can think of tries at least to innovate but still remaining loyal to their core fanbase. In the case of MLB, I think they try too hard sometimes to do this since it hinders progress that could actually make the game better, but they are at least trying to keep their core fans.

Nascar on the other hand doesn't subscribe to this theory. They think that the fairweather fans are the group they need to go after. I'm not saying they shouldn't try to lure in new fans but I am saying that perhaps if they didn't mess with things that worked to draw in fans for over 50 years previously, perhaps they might actually draw in some new fans without running off millions of fans that Bill France Sr and Jr worked for a combined 55 years to draw in.

Crash here for more of Doug's thoughts.  It's well worth reading and pondering, whether you are a fan of NASCAR or are a student of corporate decision-making (if there really is such a thing...)

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This week's Tammy Tuesday is a warm fuzzy welcome home

Kristen and I spent the entire weekend at the Outer Banks.  We really enjoyed ourselves and already are planning what to do the next time we visit.  When we do I'm bound and determined to go hand-gliding on Jockey's Ridge. But even without that this time, the trip was a neat lil' adventure.

And when we got back home Tammy was waiting for us.  As much fun as we had, I really did miss my lil' mini dachshund. And I think Tammy was happy to see us too...

The next time y'all see Kristen and Tammy in a photo together, it might also include Kristen's cat Zoe. We're trying to figure out when would be a good time to introduce her and Tammy to each other.

And it was two years ago today that Kristen and I had our first date!  Hey, a sweet and beautiful girlfriend and a mischievous little wiener dog: what more could a guy ask for? :-)

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Thirty years of RETURN OF THE JEDI

Congratulations to George Lucas and all involved on this, the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

And the saga continues...

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Yeah women, know your place!

Found this graphic yesterday morning and I can't stop laughing at it!

"You read that Bible right woman!!  Now get yo butt to that kitchen and bake me that cake!!"

It's from a site called Biblical Proof, a blog about "Speaking where the bible speaks, and silent where the bible is silent".  And there are plenty more hilarious images like the one above on it!

If you think that pic is bad, check this one out.  I've a very good friend who is a devout Christian and also a home brewer.  He's a shoe-in for Hell for sure, huh?

That site is obviously a product of the ultra-conservative fringe of the Churches of Christ.  They're the ones who believe that unless you are baptized you are going to Hell, that unless you are baptized correctly you are going to Hell, that unless you are a member of the Church of Christ you are going to Hell, that anyone who is Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal etc. is going to Hell, that if you are divorced and remarried you are DEFINITELY going to Hell.  And if you have musical instruments in your worship services you are sooooo going to Hell for that.  Fortunately not all of the Churches of Christ are that loony.  Most of the ones I've known have been very humble, loving, sincere and kind but as with every denomination of Christianity, one must accept that along with the fruits there will be some nuts...

This image is pretty laughable too, but it's also very tragic.  In no uncertain terms the author of its accompanying post insists that there is no salvation without water baptism, but there can be no water baptism without repentance.  But that in the case of a divorced and remarried person, repentance is impossible without leaving that marriage too!

I'm divorced.  It's not something that I wanted to happen.  It's not something I ever intended to happen.  I know that it's wrong.  I know that I had my own part to play.  I know that God intended for marriage to be a covenant between one man and one woman that only ends at the death of one of them.  But I will never believe that divorce or anything else is beyond forgiveness from God.  Divorce may be a sin, but it's not a sin that can keep a person from having salvation.  If it is, then Christ went to the cross for nothing.

I don't mind finding stuff like this and pointing this blog's readers to it.  As a follower of Christ, I have to laugh at anything that presumes we can "score points" to get favor with God.  That, and because it's just not every day that working for salvation entails dressing up like a World of Warcraft character.

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Review of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

(One of the reasons why I haven't posted a review of this movie already - though it's been out for a week and I've seen it twice - is because I've wrestled with how to discuss Star Trek Into Darkness while being mindful of certain plot points.  Since most people know about "that" particular item by now anyway, I'm going to be openly sharing my thoughts about it.  But if you haven't seen Star Trek Into Darkness yet and you absolutely do not want to be spoiled, please stop reading now and come back after you've watched it.  Consider yourself warned! :-)


Star Trek Into Darkness is the best film of the entire Star Trek film series date and if it's not then it definitely rivals Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan for the honor.

Yeah.  I said it.  I went there.

In 2009 J.J. Abrams and his gang at Bad Robot delivered Star Trek and pulled off the impossible: they made the world care about Star Trek again.  They did it by yanking out of our minds the tired and tedious Star Trek we had grown inured to, then shattered it into a hundred pieces on the floor without seeming to give a damn about how those pieces would fit back together... if they weren't totally thrown out and forgotten about first.

Star Trek 2009 was easily one of the most beautiful and well-engineered pieces of blockbuster cinema of the past two decades.  Four years after writing my review and I still find myself overwhelmed by its beautifully orchestrated destruction of the familiar.  The classic Trek?  It's still out there and one of Star Trek '09's more genius tricks was using quantum theories to give us an alternate reality that is not a replacement for the classic Trek canon, but rather an extension of it.  A complement of it, even.

So... could J.J. Abrams and the writing team of Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof give us a solid follow-up?

Having seen it twice now, Star Trek Into Darkness is a sequel that not only stands well on its own, it actually makes the previous film better.  Abrams and his peeps could choose not to make another Star Trek movie after this one, and I would be happy, because Into Darkness ends on precisely the right note that it needs to be.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens some time following the events of 2009's Star Trek and hits the ground running with a cold open that makes a few sly winks at Raiders of the Lost Ark.  James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) has taken the Enterprise to an undeveloped planet whose aborigines have barely invented the wheel.  Unfortunately this lil' "observe and report" mission gets complicated by a supervolcano whose imminent eruption threatens to destroy the planet and wipe out the natives.  Kirk doesn't want that to happen so he has Spock (Zachary Quinto) whip up a gadget to save the world (this world, anyway).  In the course of events, Kirk winds up saving Spock's life.

But no good deed goes unpunished.  Particularly when it involves the Prime Directive.  Kirk gets called onto the carpet by Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood, who seems to be enjoying a lot of good work lately).  Pike asserts that Kirk doesn't understand what it means to be in the captain's chair: he's taking risks but not thinking about the consequences.  Playing games with people's lives, then patting himself on the back because nobody has been killed on his watch.  In short: Kirk may have an inkling of life but he hasn't faced up to the reality of death.

Witness here the real secret of Star Trek Into Darkness' success: how much it judiciously draws from the well of The Wrath of Khan.  This is the first time.  It won't be the last.

Pike yanks the Enterprise from Kirk.  Meanwhile in Great Britain, a Starfleet officer and desperate father (Noel Clarke, known to many as Mickey from Doctor Who) is approached by a sinister individual offering a cure for his daughter's illness.  The girl survives, and her father owns up to his end of the bargain by suicide bombing a secret Starfleet installation in the heart of London.

Thus it is that Starfleet finds itself engaged in a war against agent-turned-terrorist "John Harrison".  And at last we begin to see the ugly head of this alternate reality coming into true focus...

Because this is a timeline which is still reeling from the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin  a quarter-century earlier.  When Nero and his ship came through time, that one incident triggered an entire cascade of events which altered history in ways both drastic and subtle.  As a result many in Starfleet such as Admiral Alexander Marcus (powerfully played by Peter Weller) have come to see the Federation as being too weak militarily.  Where Starfleet was supposed to be about peace and exploration, some now want it to be about war and conquest.  Nero's destruction of Vulcan in Star Trek moved Starfleet's more aggressive elements to take action.  And it is eventually discovered that at the heart of Marcus' covert buildup is a twentieth-century warlord found floating in deep space along with seventy-two of his followers: Khan Noonien Singh.

This is going to draw some flack, but I'm going to put it in writing: Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan is the best villain I've seen in a movie in years.  And I will go so far as to say that his Khan is more evil, more dangerous, and more fascinating to behold than was Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight.  Cumberbatch's Khan is also the most sympathetic villain we have seen in a very long time.  Yes, he's killing people left and right and he is capable of bringing the Federation to its knees.  But as the story progresses we find that for Khan, he really doesn't have much of a choice in the matter.  What he is doing is not from a lust for power, or territory, or even revenge and obsession.  He is only interested in protecting and taking care of his people.  I watched the "Space Seed" episode from the original television series after seeing Star Trek Into Darkness and... it's just impossible not to associate Cumberbatch's take on Khan with Ricardo Montalban's portrayal.  In this reviewer's mind they are 100% one and the same.  We are seeing the very same character, the exact same person... but we are seeing what that person is doing with his back against the wall and left to fend for himself.  The result: Khan Noonien Singh finally afforded the latitude to demonstrate his superior intellect and enhanced physical ability.  This is the Khan that could have been were it not for the disaster on Ceti Alpha V... and he is an astounding character to witness!

But as gripping and compelling as Cumberbatch is as Khan, I felt that he was but part of the larger drama at work in Star Trek Into Darkness: how we the viewers behold the Federation turning into a twisted version of the one we know from the original series.  It's not the "Mirror, Mirror" universe wracked with backstabbing and treachery, but it is one that is increasingly turning to faith in firepower as oppose to hope in the heart.  Some people have written that this movie has its title because J.J. Abrams wanted everything in it to be "dark dark dark".  But that's not really why at all.  It's called Star Trek Into Darkness for a very good reason: this is the Star Trek we've come to know and love... slipping into darkness.  For Kirk and his crew, this isn't about saving the Federation from Khan or the Klingons: this is about saving the Federation from becoming its own worst enemy.  The real baddie of Star Trek Into Darkness is Admiral Marcus, but the true conflict is the one against fear.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan became a classic parable about growing older and having to face death.  Star Trek Into Darkness is a morality tale about facing life, and being able to live with yourself.  I don't know if that was the intention of Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof when they wrote this script but I suspect it's not without reason why they chose to borrow so liberally from The Wrath of Khan.

I enjoyed once again watching Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock, respectively.  Zoe Saldana as Uhura impressed me much more in this film than she did in the previous entry (she gets some great screen time during the scene with the Klingons).  Simon Pegg continues to be a hoot to watch as Scotty!  However if I have one complaint it was that there wasn't enough of him in this movie, and shuffling him and Keenser (Deep Roy) off to get drunk in a bar in San Francisco - as fun as that was - doesn't nearly enough make up for it.  Ditto for John Cho as Sulu and Anton Yelchin as Chekov: apart from Sulu taking the helm and Chekov's brief tenure as ship's engineer, I barely remember them for much else.  Karl Urban however continues to rock it as Dr. McCoy!  It was seriously spooky how much he seemed to be channeling DeForest Kelly's spirit in Star Trek, and Urban just amps it up more here (he gets the best line of the whole dang movie, in my opinion).  Again however, I wanted to see more of him.

Perhaps we'll get that in the next movie.  As I said before, Star Trek Into Darkness ends at precisely the right spot: with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise poised to begin their five-year mission.  We've had two feature films to re-introduce and acclimate us to this beloved cast of characters.  I think the next film should steer away from the "insane lunatic threatening Earth" trope.  As the captain of another Enterprise once said: "Let's see what's out there."  Khan and his people aboard the S.S. Botany Bay may not be floating around to be found, but there's always V'Ger.  And that weird whale probe thingy...

Michael Giacchino turned in another terrific score for this movie's soundtrack.  There's a lot of variety in the music for Star Trek Into Darkness.  Some of it is even considerably quieter than much of what one would have expected from any Star Trek production.  Khan's theme is an especially stirring composition: evoking the Khan we saw in "Space Seed", compounded by Khan's circumstances in the alternate reality... along with a healthy hint of James Horner's theme for the character from The Wrath of Khan.

I would be remiss in my duty as a movie reviewer if I did not mention how much of a delight it was to see Leonard Nimoy return as Spock from the original reality.  Some have thought that his cameo was not necessary.  I thought it was perfect to have the original Spock bring that kind of connection to this story.  It was not a long scene, but Nimoy's performance in it has stuck with me.  Especially that haunted look he acquires as he begins to tell his counterpart about Khan Noonien Singh.

Star Trek Into Darkness easily defied and exceeded the expectations I had about this film.  It gets my heartiest recommendation for your entertainment dollar!  I've seen it twice already and wouldn't mind seeing it again during its first run in theaters.  The 2009 Star Trek is already the most played Blu-ray in my collection.  As much as I love its sequel, it'll probably be a close second :-)

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This is my Eagle Scout card

I received it during my Eagle Scout ceremony at Fairview Baptist Church in Reidsville, North Carolina on August 16th, 1992.

It immediately went into my wallet.

I have carried my Eagle Scout card with me ever since.  It has been with me through college, across the ocean, through some very dark times and into some very wonderful times.

I've never been without it.  I had long planned to someday be buried with it.

Moments ago I removed my Eagle Scout card from my wallet.  I do not plan to carry it with me ever again.

Within the past hour it has been announced that the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America has passed a resolution to allow openly homosexual members.

This is incompatible with the spirit and the meaning of the Scout Oath and the Scout Law.  The principles of Scouting are about being the best that God intends for us to be.  Strength of mind, strength of body and strength of character are inherently essential toward this.  And part of that means developing personal restraint.  God intended for us to control our own bodies.  Not for our bodies to control us.

The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America has demonstrated that it does not understand the meaning of either the Scout Oath or the Scout Law.

And so it is, with great sadness and a grieving heart, that I choose to no longer be associated or affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America.

Maybe someday I'll be able to pick up the card and carry it with me again.  I pray that day does come.

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Lois Lerner of the IRS: Fifth Amendment for me but not for thee!

This is Lois Lerner, who headed the Internal Revenue Service's exempt organizations division during the time that the IRS was singling out "tea party"-affiliated groups and other politically conservative people with audits and intimidation...

Where do these people keep coming from?

Lois Lerner of the IRS invoked the Fifth Amendment so as not to potentially perjure herself during hearings in the House of Representatives investigating her agency's unethical and illegal activities.

Every year, you and I and millions of other Americans have to file 1040 forms with the IRS.  If we don't, we go to jail.  If we withhold information on the 1040 forms, we go to jail.  If we don't sign the forms, we go to jail.  At no time does the IRS afford us the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment so as not to incriminate ourselves. 

Lois Lerner in her capacity as a high-ranking official of the Internal Revenue Service is pleading the Fifth to a congressional committee and she expects to get away free and clear from this entire mess.

You and me and everyone else must answer the IRS under threat of perjury.  This IRS official doesn't want to answer to our elected representatives and is using the Fifth Amendment as an escape clause which her agency has not and never would afford the average citizen.

If Lerner gets away with this, then she has set a legal precedent and every tax-paying citizen in the United States should follow her example.  Come next April 15th, put "I PLEAD THE FIFTH JUST LIKE IRS OFFICIAL LOIS LERNER DID" in big bold red printed letters on your tax form and send that instead.

Remember folks: the Constitution applies to every citizen in this country, not just politicians and their cronies.

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"He's the one who broke the promise": Chris lost his mind watching "The Name Of The Doctor" and still hasn't fully recovered from the DOCTOR WHO season finale!

In hindsight it was for the best that I waited nearly two days to watch "The Name of the Doctor".  I didn't dare let this episode begin without my girlfriend/fellow geek Kristen.  And in the aftermath of those final three minutes she literally had to calm me down and keep me from staggering as I walked up the stairs.  If I had attempted to watch it while she was still out of town, Lord only knows what kind of injury would have ensued.  Heck, I went into a fit of spastic fanboygasm simply when Simeon mentioned The Valeyard.

"The Name of the Doctor" was season finale caliber, definitely.  But with 2013 being the fiftieth anniversary celebration of Doctor Who it's safe to say there was already an expectation for showrunner Steven Moffat to up the ante for the occasion.  The thing is: the stuff many if not most (or even all) the fans were expecting to be in the fiftieth anniversary special, Moffat pulled the trigger on in "The Name of the Doctor"!

So has Moffat shot his wad already?  Or has he something even more diabolical planned for November 23rd?

Advance warning is in order: make sure there's plenty of space behind that sofa to duck and cover with!

This was an episode of extremes.  No previous story has ever given us The Doctor from alpha to omega and everyone(?) in between.  Right off the bat "The Name of the Doctor" showed us something we had never seen before: the First Doctor committing grand theft TARDIS and making his run from Gallifrey.  Ten incarnations later the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) chooses to defy all caution and come at last to Trenzalore: the one place in the universe he is to never, ever go.  And now we know why: Trenzalore is where The Doctor's grave is.

And when you are a traveler through time and space, your own grave is never a place you want to visit.

I thought the big reveal about Clara (Jamie-Louise Coleman) was done well, particularly in light of how this half-season of Doctor Who has been very uneven since the show returned in late March.  With the hindsight of seeing how Clara fits into the bigger picture of The Doctor's story, that's left me more appreciative of how Moffat has handled her from her first appearance in "The Asylum of the Daleks" and then "The Snowmen" onward.  Going back to the fiftieth anniversary looming over everything: I figured we'd see all the Doctors but I also feared there would be no way to really "involve" them all without resorting to deus ex machina at its hokiest.  Clara proved to be an amazingly elegant solution and by the end of the episode, she left no doubt about earning her place as a companion of The Doctor.

All right, something I'm a bit fuzzy about: is this meant to be the last time... I mean, the really last time... that we'll be seeing River Song?  There was some grave finality (horrible pun intended) in her interactions with The Doctor.  If this is the last time well, one can't help but admire the irony.  River Song's first appearance was in a two-part story five years ago that ended with her dying to save her future husband.  "The Name of the Doctor" has River after the events in The Library, with everything about her and The Doctor laid bare at last.  Alex Kingston as River Song has been one of the purest delights in all of television these past few years and if this is "goodbye sweetie" indeed, that is a void which will not be easily filled.

I loved how Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax were brought back once again.  It wouldn't be a proper season finale without that wacky trio (again I insist: give them their own spinoff series!).  Strax's scenes were especially hilarious, particularly when he asks that drunken Scottish lout to knock him unconscious with the shovel.

The Whisper Men: ummmm... still trying to figure those guys out.  Are they intended to be the distant cousins of the Silence?  Simeon didn't really "do" it for me as a main villain... until he spoke of The Doctor's future and referenced The Valeyard (so we know that gun is still on the wall waiting to be fired).  I think what most impressed me about him is that whatever it is about The Doctor still to come, Simeon was perfectly able and willing to let himself be destroyed in order to undo The Doctor's entire existence.

"The Name of the Doctor" sets an all-time record: eleven Doctors in one episode!  There hasn't been a story with so large a cast of Doctors since 1983's "The Five Doctors".  And by the way: they are all in there somewhere.  It took me awhile to find Eight and Ten, but they appear also (Clara sees the Eighth Doctor very briefly on the same beach as the Second Doctor, and that's the Tenth Doctor's back that Clara is looking at in The Library).

In every way that I could have conceived, "The Name of the Doctor" was the epic that I had been stoked to see and much, much more.

But then it got to that final scene, and the figure turning to show his face and then those words on the screen...


I've watched Doctor Who for more than thirty years. And THIS was the scariest, the most unexpected and DARKEST turn of events in the whole history of the franchise.  The mythology got rocked and rocked HARD in those final 2 or 3 minutes.  It's absolutely the riskiest thing ever done in the entire history of the show and for good or ill Steven Moffat has crossed a terrible, terrible line with this.  There was stuff in this episode that I was certain we would only see in the fiftieth anniversary special... and already Moffat's not only fired all that off, he chased it down with a tactical nuke.

"The Name of the Doctor" is the most insane, most senses-shattering cliffhanger in television history.  Granted it needed almost fifty years of material to pull it off but still...  And my poor brain is still reeling from it.  Remember Lost and it's third-season finale "Through the Looking Glass"?  Yeah the one that sucker-punched us at the end with the reveal that those flashbacks of Jack's were really flash-forwards to a time after Jack escaped the Island?  Well "The Name of the Doctor" was a thousand times more gray-matter-melting than that.

"The Name of the Doctor" didn't just peg the needle and break it off, it sent it flying madly out the car window.  Desperate times call for desperate measures so I'm giving it TWELVE Sonic Screwdrivers out of a possible five.  One for each of them.  If you've seen the episode you know what I'm talking about.

"To be continued November 23rd"!  This is gonna be a looooong six months...

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Ray Manzarek of The Doors has passed away

It happened Monday but I'm just now hearing the sad word about the death of Ray Manzarek: founding member of The Doors and one of the greatest keyboardists ever.

There are going to be a lot of memorials to Manzarek and his talent, but I thought I'd share this one that "Weird Al" Yankovic posted on his YouTube channel.  It's from 2009, when Yankovic was producing his song "Craigslist" (a style parody homage to The Doors and Jim Morrison).  Manzarek himself played keyboard for the song, giving it an authenticity that he alone could deliver...


Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.

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Xbox done

Here's the Xbox One...

There is no backward compatibility: you can't play anything from your already-existing library of Xbox 360 games on it.  You can't play your original Xbox games on it either.  Ditto for any games from Xbox Live Arcade.  It has no power button (it stays on all the time) and it needs an Internet connection to really function optimally.  It has a hard drive, but it's non-removable.  To play your games you must install from the disc.  If there is no more room on the hard drive you'll have to wipe some games off (then re-install if you want to play them again later on).  It won't work at all without the Kinect sensor (something which unless you have ample enough space, could be a problem).  Once you play a new game it's tied into that Xbox One unit and you can't easily take it anywhere else or let a friend borrow it or be allowed to sell it... okay well you can but the next player using it will have to pay a fee to Microsoft.

But at least it will tie all your incoming cable TV, satellite TV, Internet, Blu-ray and whatever else into it so that you only need one remote control.  I guess that's something worth five hundred bucks, huh?

The big "reveal" yesterday spent way more time raving about the Xbox One's television and home entertainment capabilities than it did about actual video gaming.  Seems to kinda defeat the point of pouring the entire budget of a typical developing country into the design of something for... you know... playing video games.

The lack of backward compatibility alone turns me off completely from wanting an Xbox One.  But then Microsoft had to add insult to injury more ways than I care to count...

I'm gonna be way, way content with my Xbox 360 for a long time to come.  Based on commentary I've seen since yesterday's reveal, I won't be the only one apparently.  Heck, lots of people and private businesses are still using Windows XP nearly twelve years after it was released.  I'm expecting the Xbox 360 to enjoy similar longevity.  Along with anticipating Microsoft's entry into the next-gen console wars to slip to a hard second after the PlayStation 4, and perhaps even lagging significantly behind the Wii U.

And one last thing about the Xbox One: it's ugly too.  It's like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey as envisioned by George Orwell: a big black solid slab of freedom is slavery.

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This week's Tammy Tuesday(?) only wants to help!

Didn't get to post an installment of Tammy Tuesday yesterday 'cuz of too much stuff that came crashing down all at once.  Hey I enjoy blogging but it's not like this is my full-time career, right?

Forget I asked that.

It's a day late but no less cute: here's Tammy trying her best to assist Dad in the kitchen as he looks for cookware...

Truth be told, I think Tammy enjoys eating the food more than she does actually preparing it :-P

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I purposely stayed off the Internet for the past 48 hours

Why?

Because I wasn't able to watch the season finale of Doctor Who until just now. I had to wait for my girlfriend Kristen to arrive back home from a wedding out of state. We weren't going to see this one without each other.

So a few minutes ago we finally finished "The Name of the Doctor".

My immediate reaction? Unprintable. I can't even come up with words right now.

Gonna see Star Trek Into Darkness with her. Maybe by then I'll have calmed down enough.

The most senses-shattering ending of a Doctor Who story ever.

More coherent reaction later.

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The Knight Shift has an official Facebook page!

At long last, this blog has a bona-fide presence on Facebook!  It's been up for awhile now but I wanted to make some posts on it to sorta "furnish the place" before going public with it

Anyhoo, the URL thingy is facebook.com/theknightshiftblog (pretty clever, huh?).  The Facebook site's primary function will be to share posts that I make here on the blog.  But I also have plans to use it for other neat stuff: anything from previews for coming attractions to emergency posts from the field when full-blown blogging isn't an option, to... dunno, maybe a recipe or two.  I aim to have the place as hopping with seemingly random iotas of information, thoughts and wild ideas as this blog is.

Okay well... "like" me, why don'cha? :-)

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