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Showing posts with label 80s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 80s. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2015
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Happy Birthday, Khaaaaaaan!!!
On this 25th day of November in the year 1920, Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino (known to the world as Ricardo Montalban) was born in Mexico City.
He went on to attain fame as an actor in movies, television shows, and commercial advertisements, roles far too numerous to list here.
Some of those roles for which is is most well-known are Khan Noonien Singh, first in "Space Seed," a first-season episode of Star Trek (The Original Series, or, as I like to call it, "Trek Classic"), and again in the cinematic film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the mysterious host "Mister Roarke" of Fantasy Island, and the spokesman for the Chrysler Cordoba.
He was also a co-founder, and the first president, of the Nosotros Foundation, which advocates for Latinos and Latinas in the television and cinema industry.
On the 14th of January 2009, Ricardo Montalban passed from this world; the cause of death was congestive heart failure. He is remembered fondly by many who knew him and many more who were familiar with his work.
To learn more about this legendary actor, please see the Wikipedia article here, check out this article about him at Memory Alpha, and see a listing of his television and movie roles in this entry at the Internet Movie Database.
No copyright or trademark infringement challenge is intended in the use of the images or video presented here. I believe they meet the standards of Fair Use as laid out in Title 17, Section 107 of the US Code.
Friday, October 18, 2013
My Dream Axe
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| The Rickenbacker 350SH Limited Signature Edition (click to view image in original size) |
Inspired and signed by Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles, as shown in this link.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Cinderella - Bad Seamstress Blues / Fallin' Apart at the Seams
Blues is categorized according to two main groups, Country Blues (sometimes called "Acoustic Blues," the best-known sub-group of Country Blues is Delta Blues) and City Blues (or "Big City Blues"). The distinction is made primarily by how elaborate the artist or group is. A Country Blues piece may be done by a solo artist or two or more artists, with a small number of instruments, primarily the acoustic guitar (often played with a slide made of a bottleneck or even an improvised slide such as the back of a closed jackknife) and frequently accompanied by a "Blues Harp" (a type of harmonica). A City Blues piece typically has electric guitar, drum set, and other instruments.
While many fans of Metal in the 1980s seemed to assume that Blues influence on Metal was never stronger, that contention is debatable. Beginning by the 1960s, Rock artists began to make use of inspiration from both Country Blues and City Blues. The Yardbirds, Cream, Led Zeppelin (yes, Led Zeppelin were around in the '60s), The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix are well-known examples. Eric Clapton even covered "Crossroads Blues," originally written, performed, and recorded by Robert Johnson, sometimes known as "King of the Delta Blues Singers." In the 1970s, Hard Rock was heavily influenced by Blues, and late '60s / early '70s Acid Rock included a strain that might be better named "Acid Blues." About the middle of the '80s, however, Metal artists began to seriously study the roots of some of their predecessors (of whom the most influential were probably Led Zeppelin), and went back to those strong Blues roots. One of the best examples of Blues Metal from the late '80s, the medley performed in the video below demonstrates clearly the influence of Country Blues on the Metal of the period.
While many fans of Metal in the 1980s seemed to assume that Blues influence on Metal was never stronger, that contention is debatable. Beginning by the 1960s, Rock artists began to make use of inspiration from both Country Blues and City Blues. The Yardbirds, Cream, Led Zeppelin (yes, Led Zeppelin were around in the '60s), The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix are well-known examples. Eric Clapton even covered "Crossroads Blues," originally written, performed, and recorded by Robert Johnson, sometimes known as "King of the Delta Blues Singers." In the 1970s, Hard Rock was heavily influenced by Blues, and late '60s / early '70s Acid Rock included a strain that might be better named "Acid Blues." About the middle of the '80s, however, Metal artists began to seriously study the roots of some of their predecessors (of whom the most influential were probably Led Zeppelin), and went back to those strong Blues roots. One of the best examples of Blues Metal from the late '80s, the medley performed in the video below demonstrates clearly the influence of Country Blues on the Metal of the period.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Senator Wendy Davis to Run for Governor of Texas
From NBC News:
Read more:
Wendy Davis throws underdog hat in Texas gubernatorial ring
SuccubaSuprema writes:
The fact that "liberal" has become a word so distorted by Extreme Right Wing propagandists is tragic. This word "liberal" comes from the Latin word liber, which means "free." However, by the time of the 1988 US Presidential campaign, the word had become so smeared that George H.W. Bush was able to get away with dismissing the entirety of Michael Dukakis' platform by means of the use of Abusive ad Hominem, specifically characterizing the governor and his platform as "liberal," repeatedly, and with an all-too-evident sneer in his voice when he uttered the word.
In point of fact, however, Bush himself was an economic "Neo-Liberal." Classical Liberalism in economic terms refers to far Right Wing economic theories and policies. An example are the practices which were instituted by the Republicans during the 1920s, namely, "rugged individualism," anti-labor laws, "trickle-down" economic theories, and a mis-named "laissez-faire" attitude toward corporate excess and crime -- in short, Far Right Wing Extremist economics.
Almost all of this was revived following the Far Right Wing Extremist domination of the Republican Party beginning in 1980, along with Machiavellian appeals to 1. "traditional values" (and audience granted to Protestant Fundamentalist leaders who had helped with Far Right Wing Extremist candidates' campaigns) 2. patriotism, 3. nationalistic passions, and 4. the middle class (the careful reader will notice that I said "Machiavellian appeals to" these things, indicating that these are essentially nothing but advertising gimmicks for the Far Right Wing Extremists -- as their own behavior and incomes should amply demonstrate to anyone who pays attention). Niccolò Machiavelli is quite well-known for having written Il Principe (The Prince), in which he offered such pearls of political wisdom as "Everyone sees what you appear to be; few experience what you really are," and "Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them." One of his lesser-known (outside academia) works, however, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy), is even more explicit in stating this unfortunate truth (from Libro Primo, Capitolo 25): "... perché lo universale degli uomini si pascono così di quel che pare come di quello che è: anzi, molte volte si muovono più per le cose che paiono che per quelle che sono." A rough translation of this statement is "... because the majority of men are satisfied by appearance as if it were reality; indeed, many times they are more moved by what seems than by what is."
The results of the Classical Liberal economic (Far Right Wing Extremist) dominance in the 1920s included bubble booms which made some very wealthy and then popped, leaving many very, very poor (if this sounds familiar, it's because it should, having recurred in recent history due to the reanimation of an idea which should have stayed dead) and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which, together with other economic hardships around the world lingering from the First World War, produced The Great Depression. George Santayana wrote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Economic liberalism is indeed bad, but economic liberalism is not Leftist, nor is it what Bush the Elder meant in referring to Dukakis and his positions as "liberal." He was referring to social liberalism, which is the view that liberty, equality, and justice should be for all, and not just for the wealthy, nor just for the adherents of the dominant religious perspective. Now, really, is that in any way bad?
More recently, a certain person (with his own show on Fox News at the time) launched a full-scale propaganda campaign, castigating the "social gospel" (please, people, please, read Matthew, chapters 5-7, and then think about what it says in light of this assault, because "the social gospel" is undeniably part of the message attributed to Jesus in those chapters) and engaged in semantic revisionism, trying to redefine historical "Progressivism." Look, people, historical Progressivism had its bad points, but it also had its good points (kind of like most everything else, since nothing is perfect). Many advances were made possible by historical Progressivism, and historical Progressivism was not a partisan philosophy; members of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party advocated Progressive ideals. Focusing on the excesses and overzealous aspects of historical Progressivism, while omitting any reference to the benefits produced, will of course result in the painting of an ugly picture, but only when the painter refuses to use the full palette of color and chooses only the least attractive and most garish hues.
Enough of the lies. Enough of being selective with the truth. Let the people hear the whole story, not just the bits that will encourage them to support one candidate and oppose the other candidate(s). Enough of the fallacies; insulting a rival or his/her perspective (particularly when the word used should not be an insult in the first place) is logically incorrect and improper. It is a tactic used when someone cannot present a logical counter or refutation to what the rival has said, an attempt to change the subject from the merits of the rival's position to the character or intelligence or spirituality (or some other personal attribute) of the rival, and it demonstrates that the person who does it is the weaker contender.
Related:
The Support of Anti-Choice Candidates by Brand-Name Corporations
And lest we forget Senator Davis' focus on Education, ...
"I believe the children are our future
Teach them well
And let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty
They possess inside
Give them a sense of pride
To make it easier
Let the children's laughter
Remind us how we used to be"
-- "The Greatest Love of All" (intro), lyrics by Linda Creed, music by Michael Masser
The Fort Worth state senator became a liberal folk hero with her 11-hour filibuster in June, sporting now-famous Mizunos and a back brace to rally against a controversial bill that would have banned most abortions after 20 weeks, along with imposing new restrictions and requirements on abortion clinics and doctors. She stopped the bill initially, but the law eventually passed in a subsequent special session. Its constitutionality has been challenged in court by Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice advocates. ...
Lamenting the rising costs of college, Davis said she would make education issues a centerpiece of her campaign in the Lone Star State. ...
Republicans have one word they’ll keep repeating to characterize Davis -- liberal.
“Senator Davis has a very thin record of legislative accomplishment, is a liberal demagogue in the Texas Capitol and is unlikely to shake the extremist abortion position that catapulted her to media and activist fame over the summer,” said Republican strategist Ray Sullivan, a longtime Perry aide and former spokesman.
“She is an unabashed liberal in a conservative state,” Sullivan continued. “She is not well-known and can be further defined.”
That’s just what Abbott’s campaign plans to do. Armed with a $25 million war chest, they have a heavy advantage early on to paint Davis as they want, in a state where she’s already at a disadvantage. ...
Read more:
Wendy Davis throws underdog hat in Texas gubernatorial ring
SuccubaSuprema writes:
The fact that "liberal" has become a word so distorted by Extreme Right Wing propagandists is tragic. This word "liberal" comes from the Latin word liber, which means "free." However, by the time of the 1988 US Presidential campaign, the word had become so smeared that George H.W. Bush was able to get away with dismissing the entirety of Michael Dukakis' platform by means of the use of Abusive ad Hominem, specifically characterizing the governor and his platform as "liberal," repeatedly, and with an all-too-evident sneer in his voice when he uttered the word.
In point of fact, however, Bush himself was an economic "Neo-Liberal." Classical Liberalism in economic terms refers to far Right Wing economic theories and policies. An example are the practices which were instituted by the Republicans during the 1920s, namely, "rugged individualism," anti-labor laws, "trickle-down" economic theories, and a mis-named "laissez-faire" attitude toward corporate excess and crime -- in short, Far Right Wing Extremist economics.
Almost all of this was revived following the Far Right Wing Extremist domination of the Republican Party beginning in 1980, along with Machiavellian appeals to 1. "traditional values" (and audience granted to Protestant Fundamentalist leaders who had helped with Far Right Wing Extremist candidates' campaigns) 2. patriotism, 3. nationalistic passions, and 4. the middle class (the careful reader will notice that I said "Machiavellian appeals to" these things, indicating that these are essentially nothing but advertising gimmicks for the Far Right Wing Extremists -- as their own behavior and incomes should amply demonstrate to anyone who pays attention). Niccolò Machiavelli is quite well-known for having written Il Principe (The Prince), in which he offered such pearls of political wisdom as "Everyone sees what you appear to be; few experience what you really are," and "Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them." One of his lesser-known (outside academia) works, however, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy), is even more explicit in stating this unfortunate truth (from Libro Primo, Capitolo 25): "... perché lo universale degli uomini si pascono così di quel che pare come di quello che è: anzi, molte volte si muovono più per le cose che paiono che per quelle che sono." A rough translation of this statement is "... because the majority of men are satisfied by appearance as if it were reality; indeed, many times they are more moved by what seems than by what is."
The results of the Classical Liberal economic (Far Right Wing Extremist) dominance in the 1920s included bubble booms which made some very wealthy and then popped, leaving many very, very poor (if this sounds familiar, it's because it should, having recurred in recent history due to the reanimation of an idea which should have stayed dead) and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which, together with other economic hardships around the world lingering from the First World War, produced The Great Depression. George Santayana wrote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Economic liberalism is indeed bad, but economic liberalism is not Leftist, nor is it what Bush the Elder meant in referring to Dukakis and his positions as "liberal." He was referring to social liberalism, which is the view that liberty, equality, and justice should be for all, and not just for the wealthy, nor just for the adherents of the dominant religious perspective. Now, really, is that in any way bad?
More recently, a certain person (with his own show on Fox News at the time) launched a full-scale propaganda campaign, castigating the "social gospel" (please, people, please, read Matthew, chapters 5-7, and then think about what it says in light of this assault, because "the social gospel" is undeniably part of the message attributed to Jesus in those chapters) and engaged in semantic revisionism, trying to redefine historical "Progressivism." Look, people, historical Progressivism had its bad points, but it also had its good points (kind of like most everything else, since nothing is perfect). Many advances were made possible by historical Progressivism, and historical Progressivism was not a partisan philosophy; members of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party advocated Progressive ideals. Focusing on the excesses and overzealous aspects of historical Progressivism, while omitting any reference to the benefits produced, will of course result in the painting of an ugly picture, but only when the painter refuses to use the full palette of color and chooses only the least attractive and most garish hues.
Enough of the lies. Enough of being selective with the truth. Let the people hear the whole story, not just the bits that will encourage them to support one candidate and oppose the other candidate(s). Enough of the fallacies; insulting a rival or his/her perspective (particularly when the word used should not be an insult in the first place) is logically incorrect and improper. It is a tactic used when someone cannot present a logical counter or refutation to what the rival has said, an attempt to change the subject from the merits of the rival's position to the character or intelligence or spirituality (or some other personal attribute) of the rival, and it demonstrates that the person who does it is the weaker contender.
Related:
The Support of Anti-Choice Candidates by Brand-Name Corporations
And lest we forget Senator Davis' focus on Education, ...
"I believe the children are our future
Teach them well
And let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty
They possess inside
Give them a sense of pride
To make it easier
Let the children's laughter
Remind us how we used to be"
-- "The Greatest Love of All" (intro), lyrics by Linda Creed, music by Michael Masser
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Happy 47th Anniversary!!!
,_ENT.jpg) |
| NCC 1701 U.S.S. Enterprise |
To boldly go ...
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| Main crew of the Enterprise in TOS (the original series) |
Happy 47th!!!
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| Another shot of some of the main crew from the TOS Enterprise (Sulu and Nurse Chapel have been left out, for some reason; notice also that Yeoman Janice Rand is in neither photo, although she was a recurring character, rather than a member of the main crew -- but she was in the very first episode ever broadcast, "The Man Trap"). |
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| Yeoman Janice Rand in the second episode ever broadcast, "Charlie X." |
Forty-seven years ago today, on the 8th of September in the year 1966, the most amazing television series ever broadcast, Star Trek (usually called "Star Trek - The Original Series," or "ST:TOS," but which I prefer to call "Star Trek Classic," or "Trek Classic") debuted on the NBC television network in the USA.
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| Sulu gone wild, from the episode "The Naked Time." |
This series took on pressing social concerns of the day, including racism, sexism, intolerance of dissident opinions, cultural imperialism (the famous "Prime Directive" forbade cultural contamination by Starfleet officers), the possibility of progress without the naïveté of utopianism, etc.
.jpg) |
| Spock of the Mirror Universe, in the episode "Mirror, Mirror." |
The first interracial kiss ever broadcast was in the Star Trek Classic episode "Plato's Stepchildren," as seen in this scene:
Worth noting is that the first episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series was first broadcast also on the 8th of September, but in the year 1973.
When the new Trek series began in the 1980s, Star Trek: The Next Generation, it continued the pattern of addressing assorted social concerns, ranging from racism and sexism to homophobia and transphobia, the perils of a police state, cultural imperialism, etc. Subsequent series have likewise followed this model, taking on social, political, economic, religious, and cultural issues and providing a progressive perspective, showing us what we could become if we strive for such betterment by promoting education and seeking liberty, equality, and justice for all -- and warning us of what we could become if we instead choose to glorify and perpetuate ignorance, intolerance, prejudice, superstition, and irrationality.
More pictures follow, starting and ending, appropriately, with Romulans and their vessels (in an era before the Tal'Shiar had polluted the Romulan Star Empire with their fascist police state mentality).
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| The "Romulan Mini Skirt Commander," as many have called her, unnamed in the original episode ("The Enterprise Incident"), but named Di'on Charvon in non-canon literature. |
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| A fleet of Romulan D7 vessels (given to the Romulan Star Empire by the Klingons during one of their periods of alliance with the Klingon Empire), commanded by Commander (that is, Fleet Commander) Di'on Charvon, surrounding the NCC 1701 U.S.S. Enterprise in the episode "The Enterprise Incident." |
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| The same non-canon literature which names her as Di'on Charvon says that she changed her name after the events of "The Enterprise Incident," taking the name Liviana Charvanek. Here she meets Kirk and Spock for the first time, on her ship, and under her own terms. |
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| The Klingon-built D7 Flagship of Commander Di'on Charvon, in the espisode "The Enterprise Incident." |
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| Marta, an Orion woman played by Yvonne Craig (Barbara Gordon / Batgirl in the 1960s Batman TV series). |
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| Spock of the Mirror Universe with his bodyguards and the Prime Universe Captain Kirk (masquerading as the Kirk of the Mirror Universe) |
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| Commander Kang of the Klingon Empire, from the episode "Day of the Dove" |
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| Klingon D7 from the episode "Errand of Mercy" (Remastered) |
.jpg/640px-Uhura_distracts_Hikaru_Sulu_(mirror).jpg) |
| Lieutenant Uhura of the Prime Universe (masquerading as her Mirror Universe counterpart), engaged in psych ops versus the Sulu of the Mirror Universe |
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| Mark Lenard (who also played Sarek, the father of Spock in several other TOS episodes, and likewise appeared as Sarek in subsequent series and movies in the franchise) in his first Star Trek role as another unnamed Romulan Commander (Fleet Commander, or "Riov" in the Rihan language later developed by Diane Duane, a rank equivalent to a Starfleet Captain, if not a Starfleet Commodore), from the episode "Balance of Terror." Non-canon literature names this character "Keras" (which is "Sarek" spelled backwards). |
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| The Romulan Bird of Prey commanded by "Keras" in the episode "Balance of Terror" |
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Friday, July 26, 2013
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