NY Times Building 1905 Fireworks!
Thanks for those words of concern from north of the border Vince, and Happy New Year to you, and to all who read these words!
Wayne
PS: Man how I miss Richard Basehart! What a speaking voice that man had! Have a listen...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAmwgT8_Kzg
Very interesting short videos from Mike:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl7ZRoFrh-0 History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcmu6uLjJbE 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxPArnhtvfc Guy Lombardo 1958
Yeah Richard Basehart sure had a presence in whatever role he played. Remember him in The TV series 'Voyage to the bottom of the Sea'. Of course we do. In that movie 'Repeat Performance' he plays the hero in a 'never see it coming' twist ending. Despite being institutionalized he comes across as the saniest person in the whole movie. He is a very young man in this debut but he sure aged gracefully.
"Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea!" Sure, we remember it well!
And as kids, we thought Richard Basehart (as Admiral Nelson) was old! To ten-year-olds like us he looked ancient!
"Admiral Nelson's goin' skin diving? He can't do that, he's too old! He's gonna have a heart attack!"
Funny thing is, he doesn't look so old now. I wonder why?
Anyway, courtesy of the Prague Philharmonic, here's one of the best TV themes ever!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v39tfmlAv54
And RIP David Hedison, aka "Captain Crane." Last of the crew of the "Seaview."
1927-2019
Richard Basehart Narration ... From Mike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4M7M54yle8&list=PL3H6z037pboFiRbJuCFSNxxZcu99vAihC&index=1
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theglobeandmail/obituary.aspx?n=michael-maclear&pid=191111255
Well the ball on the NYT Tower complied with gravity and dropped to wring in 2020.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Just had a grouping of 8 snowmobiles pass through the woods at the back of the house. Nice night for it. Not too cold at all, about -10C , 14F.
Happy to see the ball drop successfully, tomorrow the Tournament of Roses Parade with morning coffee. What a life!
If Richard Basehart had been hired as Bob April, much subsequent wackiness could have been avoided...
... no disrespect to Canada intended.
Bob April! I had to think about that for a few seconds.
For those who may be wondering, "Robert April" was the proposed name for the captain of "Star Trek's" USS Enterprise when the series was undergoing development in 1964-1965. Long story short, the captain became Christopher Pike in the series pilot, then James T. Kirk for the series proper.
Mind you, Richard Basehart was already portraying Admiral Nelson while "Star Trek" was under development, but it's interesting to speculate about him in the role of the Enterprise's captain.
Interestingly, Basehart really wasn't interested in doing a TV series, but at the time he was in the aftermath of a divorce and needed the money. David Hedison wasn't interested in doing a series either but signed on just to work with Basehart who he (and quite a few other show-biz people) greatly admired.
Bill Shatner was cast as Captain Kirk because the producers wanted a youthful captain who would appeal to kids. They didn't realize however that to kids anyone over the age of 20 is ancient anyway!
Gahan Wilson said it best, "Those who remember what it's like being a kid don't remember what it's like being a kid!"
Superb explanation and information Wayne. April? ... what a horrid name for the Captain of the Enterprise. ( I'm still cheesed off my folks didn't pick Fairfax for me ). The entire world knows who William Shatner is so that all worked out and as for his wackiness well that was what became part of the charm.
Basehart would have been a great pic though, why not as an Admiral in a few episodes here and there back at the 'Academy'.
Watching the Rose Parade, coffee and Nat Sherman's, iPad, dog at my side. Sometimes life is kind and civilization is not dead.
Just a bit more useless "Star Trek" talk...
When "Star Trek" came back as "The Next Generation" in 1987 I was pleased to see they forgot about "youth appeal" and went for a mature man, 47 year old Patrick Stewart, as the new captain.
Someone must have told the producers "Forget about youth appeal, forget about what kids say about people over 30. When the 'stuff hits the fan' kids WANT someone in charge who's been around the block a few times and knows what's what and what to do!"
So true. And Patrick Stewart made that show! The man had a command presence that just wouldn't quit!
Yeah but then they thought about it and introduced that ridiculous Wesley Crusher character. Thankfully shipped him out a couple of seasons later. Also they should NEVER have killed off Tasha Yar ( Denise Crosby). If they wanted to nix a female role get rid of that Deanna Troy and her new age nonsense. Aww what do I know.
Best new Trek character is Ensign Tilly on Star Trek: Discovery. Oh yeah. Swears too, first f bomb on a Trek series.
Well, it was Denise Crosby's decision to walk. The thing is, there's a belief among actors about a "Star Trek Curse," that is, get a role on "Star Trek" and keep it for a few years and you never get a role in anything else. Ms. Crosby decided to bail before the "curse" got her, but it didn't make any difference. I can only think of one other role she got, as a mom in the movie "Deep Impact." I don't remember seeing her in anything else.
Yeah, the "New Age" stuff was silly, but man, Marina Sirtis was hot!
Star Trek: Discovery. Saw the intro show on the regular CBS channel and neither one of us cared for it at all. Maybe after 50 years we're just Star Trek'ed out. We don't do the "streaming" thing so haven't seen any of the other shows.
We didn't like the new Klingons anyway. Or the look of the show. Or anything about it, although the actress playing the First Officer of "Discovery" was a real firecracker, we DID like her!
And I've got NO use at all for the J. J. Abrams Star Trek "re-boot" movies, although Lady Firestorm "kinda-sorta" likes them.
On the other hand, BBC America has been showing the old Star Trek series from the 60's with updated special effects. WOW! Like seeing them for the first time! It's one of the few times I've had any use for CGI. Brilliant!
The Rose Parade was fabulous ... those marching bands get better each year, and the outfits and uniforms are really spectacular.
The Big Apple and Times Square went off without a hitch. 2020 is here.
Glad to see that nasty '19 gone. Let's move forward but take things slow and easy and calm down and have some good good fun this year.
We never miss the Rose Parade if we can help it, the bands are great but we really love the astonishing craftsmanship people put into those floats! Just amazing!
Flintlock76 Well, it was Denise Crosby's decision to walk. The thing is, there's a belief among actors about a "Star Trek Curse," that is, get a role on "Star Trek" and keep it for a few years and you never get a role in anything else. Ms. Crosby decided to bail before the "curse" got her, but it didn't make any difference. I can only think of one other role she got, as a mom in the movie "Deep Impact." I don't remember seeing her in anything else. Yeah, the "New Age" stuff was silly, but man, Marina Sirtis was hot! Star Trek: Discovery. Saw the intro show on the regular CBS channel and neither one of us cared for it at all. Maybe after 50 years we're just Star Trek'ed out. We don't do the "streaming" thing so haven't seen any of the other shows. We didn't like the new Klingons anyway. Or the look of the show. Or anything about it, although the actress playing the First Officer of "Discovery" was a real firecracker, we DID like her! And I've got NO use at all for the J. J. Abrams Star Trek "re-boot" movies, although Lady Firestorm "kinda-sorta" likes them. On the other hand, BBC America has been showing the old Star Trek series from the 60's with updated special effects. WOW! Like seeing them for the first time! It's one of the few times I've had any use for CGI. Brilliant!
Flintlock76Ms. Crosby decided to bail before the "curse" got her, but it didn't make any difference. I can only think of one other role she got, as a mom in the movie "Deep Impact." I don't remember seeing her in anything else.
She's had a reasonably good career, if not a stellar one (no pun intended). You do know she's Bing Crosby's granddaughter, right?
[quote]Yeah, the "New Age" stuff was silly, but man, Marina Sirtis was hot!
You had no idea until you saw her in street clothes!
Her husband died only a couple of weeks ago, which is no good at all. That made me think of Persis Khambatta, who left us far too early.
My principal issue with Trek is that there is no way those people they had in 'command' of a ship with the ability to decimate planetary populations were fit to command anything larger than a Little Rascals train. That especially applied to Patrick Stewart, who acts like the worst kind of Shakespearian hack -- it may make good television, but it's not believable as someone in actual command of something.
About the closest we got was Janeway, who I could believe ... but she's no Signy Mallory or Honor Harrington.
Shakespearian hack?! Well Q might agree with you, but that's about it.
Janeway was gawd awful. Now Seven, different story.
Anyway back to railroads :
MiningmanShakespearian hack?! Well Q might agree with you, but that's about it.
Just watch him whenever the going gets tough. Or listen to how overblown his expressions get, instead of what someone with the right attitude to command in extremis in naval matters would use.
He was crappy as a Shakespeare player, too. See Henry Winkler ... perhaps nobody's idea of starship-captain material except J.J. ... for a demonstration of how Shakespeare can be done. (Or for that matter Diana Rigg, who was eminently qualified to exercise the right kind of command, in Shakepeare or 'otherwise' ...)
MiningmanJaneway was gawd awful.
No argument there; I'm referring only to credible command presence. Or, more precisely, a ranking of 'credible command presence' in the various Star Trek productions. Even Grand Moff Tarkin did a better job than any of them, and that's not saying all that much.
And by 'Seven' ... you wouldn't be referring to Seven of Nine, would you? Leaving out her full name would be tantamount to calling JTK 'Tibbie'. Regardless of what a fake bridge crew might have called her in dialogue...
Now back to railroads.
Beautiful engine!
And speaking of engineers...
I always liked it best on the old Star Trek series when Scotty took command. Yeah! Scotty didn't take any crap from anyone!
And of course, James Doohan was a Canadian Army veteran, went from private to captain before the war's end. Came across Juno Beach on D-Day as well. He learned his command presense the hard way.
Now back to steam engines. Hey wait a minute, how do we know the USS Enterprise wasn't steam powered? Who knows how much heat dialithium crystals can put out? They never did say how the crystal's energy was put to use, did they?
Flintlock76And of course, James Doohan was a Canadian Army veteran, went from private to captain before the war's end. Came across Juno Beach on D-Day as well. He learned his command presence the hard way.
Writes reasonably good military SF, too.
Well, it's been fairly well retconned to death, and even then there's more than a little pure handwavium transmutation involved in how the plasma generated by antimatter annihilation actually is supposed to produce FTL.
Originally the term was 'lithium' (probably due to association with the first best use of actual lithium deuteride) but got 'amplified' pretty quick. Ironically enough there is a fake technical reference to 'dilithium' as a near-superheavy element 119 (with the amusing IUPAC placeholder name of ununennium, which is definitely a better word to inspire otherworldly technical thrill!) and the current consensus is that this will go in the periodic table as ... a group VIII alkali metal. Lithium is an alkali metal...
Anyway, the theory most definitely augurs for steam being used at least somewhere for practical purposes on the Enterprise. The 'theory' is that eddy currents induced in the dilithium-crystal lattice act to stabilize antimatter (supposedly as 'anti-deuterium' -- there's that lithium-deuteride connection again! -- so its annihilation occurs at relatively high flux but without the concerns associated with magnetic confinement assumed for many types of fusion since Stellarator days. The "plasma" generated by the roughly 2x10^14 joules/gram supposedly goes to generate the warp field ... but it certainly manifests as heat and capturable electrical energy, so expect both a primary cycle after tuned MHD, and secondary bottoming, to produce electric power both for ship's consumption and augmenting impulse power.
That's OK. Captain Nemo's "Nautilus" was powered by electricity extracted from sea water, but Jules Verne never said how Nemo did it.
Some things we're just not meant to know...
Just a little "Purple Prose" there.
I understand most folks who have been in the military - particularly those who served on the bridge in the Navy or Coast Guard - thought Avery Brooks Cmdr/Capt. Sisko was the best. The others tolerated too much debating on the bridge.
Steam Powered Spaceship
https://images.app.goo.gl/iAbGcprYzLrpEoGZ9
This one obviously influenced by the C&O
https://images.app.goo.gl/kCDBq3iQFgPyYKhx6
Steam-powered spaceships. Oh, wow.
Makes you wonder just what those good Victorian engineers might have come up with if they had more money to spend!
Or in the case of the Scottish ones, a bit more "Famous Grouse" in their glasses!
Flintlock76 That's OK. Captain Nemo's "Nautilus" was powered by electricity extracted from sea water, but Jules Verne never said how Nemo did it. Some things we're just not meant to know... Just a little "Purple Prose" there.
Johnny
Deggesty Flintlock76 That's OK. Captain Nemo's "Nautilus" was powered by electricity extracted from sea water, but Jules Verne never said how Nemo did it. Some things we're just not meant to know... Just a little "Purple Prose" there. Also, remember Captain Nemo's rifle--I had not thought about how the charge survived under water after it left the rifle.
Also, remember Captain Nemo's rifle--I had not thought about how the charge survived under water after it left the rifle.
That's right, I'd forgotten about Nemo's rifles as well. If I remember correctly, it's over 50 years since I've read the novel, the rifles fired glass bullets charged with electricity that killed instantly. Of course, Verne didn't say how they worked either.
Rmember that great Disney version of "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea?" Electricity was no mystery to the average person by the 1950's, so the Disney production implied, but didn't come right out and say so, that the "Nautilus" was nuclear powered.
Now that was mysterious to viewers in the 50's! It still is, in a lot of ways.
wjstix I understand most folks who have been in the military - particularly those who served on the bridge in the Navy or Coast Guard - thought Avery Brooks Cmdr/Capt. Sisko was the best. The others tolerated too much debating on the bridge.
Well, I've been in the military myself, Marines to be exact, and for the most part I found the portrayals of the various "Star Trek" captains to be pretty good and fairly authentic. I say fairly because "S-T" is entertainment after all, and real-life CO's come with different styles and personalities, and most don't look like they came out of Central Casting for the role of CO. Honestly, if they weren't in uniform you wouldn't look at many of them twice.
As far as "debating on the bridge," there's nothing wrong with a CO asking his or her staff chiefs for opinions, and many do, but the final decision is always the commanding officer's to make, and no-one elses.
On a personal note, when I was a Marine lieutenant at The Basic School in Quantico VA I was in the bar with some other lieutenants and the "Star Trek" episode "Balance of Terror" (It's the one where they fight the Romulan ship, first season) was on the TV. After the segment where Captain Kirk holds a staff meeting to determine the Romulan ship's capabilities, what their possible tactics might be, their weaponry, and the course of action the "Enterprise" should take and their chance for victory if they fight, one of the lieutenants in the bar said "You know, I had no idea how good this show really was until I came here!" We all agreed, Captain Kirk had just demonstrated a practical application of what we'd all been learning.
Flintlock76Captain Nemo's "Nautilus" was powered by electricity extracted from sea water, but Jules Verne never said how Nemo did it.
The lights, on the other hand, we do know: Ruhmkorff coils are very real (they would show up, among other places, in the Model T ignition and the Chrysler 'panelescent' dashboards) and they produced light by passing high-frequency AC through a Geissler tube made of uranium glass. To this day the results are futuristic.
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