Saturday 5 September 2009

All things Star Trek and a little bit of Star Wars


I'm so sorry I missed the Bluenose Ghosts yesterday and Thursday. This week was the first week back to school, and our kids were haywire on Thursday, and needed lots of attention to calm down. I ended up going to bed early, even though I looked longingly at the computer, I knew I was too tired to try to type.

Last night I watched a cool very funny movie I'd rented last weekend, so it had to be seen before it was due back, called Fanboys, about a group of friends who take a road trip to George Lucas' ranch to try to get a glimpse of the Phantom Menace - 6 months before it was released - because one of the young men is dying and won't make it to the movie premiere. Fanboys was released last year (it opened in Canada early this year). It is filled with Star Wars love, memoriabilia (I so want the huge poster one of the characters has on his wall!), and the war with Trekkers, which is hilarious. I'd have to admit to being a gal on the Trekker side, except I don't have a uniform or even a phaser gun! Fanboys was very funny, and I highly recommend it as a silly, fun, delightful movie homage to all things Star Wars.

Star Trek Weekend on Space Channel
I'm a Star Trek girl: At 1:50 this afternoon, I will be plunking myself down to watch on Canada's Space Channel on tv, one of my favourite movies of all time, The Wrath of Khan, followed by The Search For Spock, and The Voyage Home. The first 6 movies in the Star Trek cannon air today, the rest tomorrow. The link to Space Channel website is here. I only saw the ads last night while we were catching a very new episode of Smallville, so I had to hastily rearrange my plans for the weekend. Ok, I guess I qualify as a fangirl of Star Trek! Sheesh, I saw the movie twice this summer, and I can name the episodes/plot within seconds of seeing the opening scenes of any Star Trek episode. I own all the movies in VHS, but we still don't have a VHS player (stolen when our house was robbed a few years ago)- only a DVD player - so I haven't been able to see Wrath of Khan for at least two years, and lately I've been really wanting to see it again. So I am in heaven (Star Trek heaven, anyway!). Bring out the popcorn! At least I can eat that, as a diabetic!!

My daughter is very happy that she is old enough to watch Star Trek with me, as we'd been discussing that earlier seasons of Smallville is more suitable for her than the later seasons. All of the Star Trek tv series is good for kids, so she is planning on watching some of the episodes with me on Monday, which is when Space Channel is airing the top 10 episodes of the tv show as chosen by the viewers. I am so looking forward to showing her The Trouble with Tribbles!!

more TV: World Cup (soccer) qualifying.....
On top of all this Star Trek heaven, it's the World Cup qualifiers this weekend; we are fortunate to be getting Portugal vs Denmark on tv this afternoon, as well as Scotland vs Macedonia. We don't have to cheer for England since they aren't playing this weekend (ok they are playing a friendly, as my husband just pointed out reading over my shoulder; a friendly is a game that doesn't count for anything but practice!), so it's Scotland for us today, and we're debating on who to cheer for in the Denmark/Portugal match. As my husband just half-laughed, half cried, there is also a very good tennis match on this afternoon - now he's confessing he doesn't know who is playing, just that it's going to be good - so I think basically we are going to be using every tv in the house......

so how is your Labour Day weekend shaping up?

Today's Bluenose Ghosts Excerpts:
Time for some ghost stories - and oh, speaking of ghosts, I have just begun Duma Key, and so far I am enjoying it. It's a different start from King's other novels, and I can see how his accident shaped this book, but it also adds a real hint of desperation to the main character, whose life has changed so drastically from one moment to the next after a dreadful accident. In between Star Trek movies and running to see football (soccer to us in North America) moments, I will be reading my second horror book for Carl's challenge! Here is today's Bluenose Ghosts excerpt:

The ability to see ahead is not the prerogative of older people only. Peter Morrison was only twelve when he saw a coffin-shaped light pass him low to the ground and turn in at the cemetary just before a fatality at a mine, and the same thing happened to Mrs Allen Morrison and a friend when they were young girls. A boy at Point Edward heard digging in a graveyard when the ground was frozen too hard to be dug, and in all these cases a death followed within the week.

Because I missed Thursday and Friday, here is a long and very creepy true-life ghost story to make up for the days I missed:

Next we have a story from Marion Bridge......it was told by Mr Alex Morrison, son of the blacksmith who plays such an important part in it.

"A strange thing happened just before Sandy Munro fell over the bridge and got drowned. At that time Neil McPherson was just a lad and he was walking over the Marion Bridge one night with his mother. He stopped for a moment and said, 'Come here mother and look at the little boy lying on the bottom of the river.' His mother couldn't see anything and told him to come along home. It was just after this that Sandy was drowned, but that wasn't all that happened.
"About that time they were seeing a light on a boat up the river at Grand Mira. The owner wanted to sell the boat but nobody would buy it, being suspicious that something must be wrong with it on account of the light. My father wanted it, light or not, so he bought it.
"They always thought foul play had caused Sandy's death. The night before he died the irons in the smith were making a great racket. You could hear them in the forge and they seemed to be jumping around. Sandy and the blacksmith were friends and the boy often did errands for him. Just before he died the blacksmith had asked him to take an axe across the bridge for him. He was doing this when he must have met two boys who were known to be bad and whose mother was said to be a witch. Someone saw the boys having a tussle on the bride and, a while later, the body was discovered lying in the water as Neil McPherson had described him to his mother.
"They called on the blacksmith then to get the boy. The grappling irons he used to take him from the water were the ones that had jumped in the forge the night before, and the boat that he took to go out on the river was teh one that had shown the strange lights and that nobody would buy but my father. After the body was recovered Sandy's mother had a dream. She thought the boy came to her and pointed to the blacksmith's axe as it stood in its place at the forge, and said, 'That's the axe that killed me.' And when Sandy's body was laid out on the bridge of the boat my father had bought, there were alot of people from the village who came to look at him. One was the boy who was supposed to have murdered him. You know it's an old belief if a murderer passes by or touches the person he has murdered, that blood will issue from the wound, and that is exactly what happened. The wound that killed Sandy was in his temple and, as the suspected murderer walked past him, blood flowed from the wound and stopped as soon as he went by. The thing was hushed up and the boys and their mother moved away, but that's the way it all happened."

Enjoy your Labour Day weekend! Happy reading, everyone!

11 comments:

brideofthebookgod said...

I fear that my beloved Scotland will need all the support they can get; I'm not sure I can bear to watch...
But at least Andy Murray is still winning his matches (so far...)

Hazra said...

Glad to see that you are a Trekkie like me, and a Star Wars fan too! Unfortunately, I haven't managed to watch all episodes of Star Trek since CBS has copyright issues in my country (or that's what their site said), but I've watched the latest movie quite a few times. Anytime one of my friends asks me for a movie recommendation, my choice is either Star Wars or Star Trek

Court said...

Love love love Fanboys!! It is one of the best geeky movies ever.

Also, am totally sad that I only have basic cable so don't have Space - am missing out on the Star Trek marathon! :(

That said, Labour Day weekend is looking to be good - it is GORGEOUS out and I want to finish 3 books.

Susan said...

Bride: They won!! I think I might have screamed when Brown scored the first goal, my daughter looked at me and said that was very loud :-D

My husband watches Murray very carefully too, he's got his fingers crossed for Murray at the US Open. right now we have Hewitt/Federer live on tv.....

Hazra: You too! I'm so happy to meet another Trekker (this now the completely correct term for us apparently....)!! Can you buy the original Star Trek on DVD? It was recently remastered, but came out very expensive, so I'm waiting for the price to fall. Imagine having the original Star Trek episodes to watch whenever you want! And I don't think we can get them on the internet here in Canada, either. Maybe You Tube has them...

I love the latest movie, as soon as it's out I'm buying it! lol

Susan said...

Court: Oh, you've seen it too! It's so funny. I love when they go to Jim Kirk's birth town, and have the first fight with the Trekkies lol and the special guest appearances! And the fanboys themselves are so true to anyone I know who is one!!!

It's great weather here too, so I hope to get out tomorrow and Monday - just a fabulous weekend. Made better by Star Trek marathon, of course!!

Hope you finish the three books...in my dreams I finish Duma Key this weekend, but that would mean I just don't do anything else and possibly not sleep either!

Anonymous said...

Star Trek is also popular at our house, my daughter grew up watching Voyager and after the new movie she too wanted to rediscover the original series, we are both Spock fans both the original and the new version. Mind you her friends apparently thought she'd finally crossed the line into unredemable geekiness until she took them to see the new movie that is.

DesLily said...

So funny.. i just dragged out all the 6 vhs movies of the originals! I keep looking at them wishing I had them in the dvd format. I remember my girlfriend (who passed away) calling me when one of the movies was being release in dvd and how there was a special bit added in where they had an interview with Deforest.. so I've always wanted the dvds!

Although they "say" every other movie was good.. and the others not so good.. i find good in all of them.. maybe it's just because we had a chance to see our favorite characters, and we didn't care "good or bad" Well. yeah we cared, but we'd take what we could get and love them all.

You and my number 1 son would get along great after only moments of an intro into each of the series he could tell you the plot and who the guest stars would be etc.. I don't have that good a memory lol lol

Susan said...

Book-pusher: Unredeemable geekiness, I like that! and the new movie is so good, that even non-Trekkers can really enjoy it! So I'm glad your daughter redeemed herself in their eyes :-D Somehow it's become cool to like Star Trek again! lol

Deslily: I know, I keep thinking we should buy the dvds soon, or get a VHS machine, but we never get around to it. I'm slowly replacing everything with DVDS, but it is expensive.

You're right, we did take the good with the bad in Star Trek! I loved the stories and the relationships most of all, that and the idea of exploring space.

And I am certain my memory is slowing due to menopause, so we'll see how I do tomorrow when the tv episode marathon airs! lol I'd like to meet your number 1 son one day though!! he and I can compare which shows we prefer and why!

Table Talk said...

We are a Star Trek household. The Bears can identify any episode from any series just by the opening few minutes. This may be because they possess box sets of them all and watch obsessively. I would try to break them of the habit, but that would mean I would have to stop watching as well and I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon!

Susan said...

Ann: you and I must be kindred spirits too (there are a few of us wandering here in bookblog land!), Star Trek and English literature and mysteries rolled into one!! lol Tell the bears that as soon as I convince my husband what a good investment the newly released ones are (and they are expensive too), and that I'm getting my daughter hooked on them as well, the three seasons of original star Trek will make it into our house! Then I too can watch them to my heart's content. Tell the bears I envy them that though right now.... I know now that when the someday comes that I visit you, we can all sit down to a couple of favourite episodes with a cup of cocoa, too! lol And we could have stopwatch set to see just how quick we are at coming up with the plot/special guest stars etc!

Table Talk said...

Dear Susan,

Can we have a bun as well?

The Bears.