Rainbow Colored Sulu

Just gotta love the Sulu. This is hardly a revalation to most of us. Good for him!
Fro the Advocate:


Actor George Takei, best known as Mr. Sulu on the classic TV series Star Trek , comes out of the closet in the new issue of Frontiers . Or rather, as he tells editor Alexander Cho, "It's not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It's more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen." In the interview, the 68-year-old actor also discusses his childhood in a Japanese-American internment camp, his 18-year relationship, his siblings' inability to accept his homosexuality, and the upcoming Los Angeles production of Equus in which he stars.

Godspeed, Astroworld

Now, this just sucks. I just read an article all about shutting down Astroworld:http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3351145
Now, this is something of a psychological blow to me, as I really have so many memories tied up in that old place. Honestly, I think I have been going since before I can remember. When I was a wee lad, maybe six, my summer day care would send us out to the 'world to spend the day. My God, how BIG that place seemed then. Back then, there was a thing called the Barrel of Fun, a danderous and sickening spin sycle for humans that would spin around so fast you were pinned to the wall while the floor dropped out from under you. Oh, the legends we kids would create for rides like that. "That ride ground some poor kid's feet off" we would say. Or how about that splotch on the pole rounding that corner on the Excalibur rollercoaster? "That was where some kid had his head knocked off", we would say. Don't even ask about the teacups...
I remember riding the the Texas Cyclone when I was seven. Truly scarring, yet in the end I wanted more. From the age of eight to about twelve, I think, we spent every birthday of mine there, as I nausiated all of my relatives unfortunate enough to get stuck riding with me.The place had a real mystery about it, such tremendous scale that my little brain could barely wrap itself around. To this day rollercoasters are a large part of my dream symology as a recurring motif, along with airplanes and freeway overpasses, as things that are bigger than life and scary as hell.
I'll never hear a song like Ratt's "Round and Round" or Journey's...well just about anything by Journey withoput thinking of the old Astroworld arcade and how much time I spent there around my early teenage years.
Then enter my fashionista teenage years, where my bretheren and I would make a pilgramage to Astroworld to see many of our patron saint bands such as Depeche Mode or the Cure. Truly, I will never forget walking around dressed to the nines in all black from head to toe during a hot summer day happy as a clam to show my "colors". What a bizzare jet joyous mix, New Wave/Goth bands and amusement park rides.
I didn't go too often past my 21st birthday, unfortunately. I had move away to Austin and just didn't have the time and money. Fortunately, the summer I was dating my wife Charlaine, the summer I turned thirty-one, I got to go one last time. I was an adult now, yet these rides still evoked a powerful nostalgia in me, as though I was visiting some weird wonkaland that I thought I only dreamed about but really still existed. So many bookmarks of my life were visible there: my early childhood, my adolescence, my first girlfriend all the way to my wife.
I really hate to see it go.

Novak suspended for bulldoodies!

Oh, this is rich: (from imdb.com)

CNN on Thursday suspended commentator Robert Novak after he blurted out the word "bullshit" and stormed off the set during the live telecast of Strategy Session. "Bob Novak's behavior on CNN today was inexcusable and unacceptable," a CNN spokeswoman said afterwards. "Mr. Novak has apologized to CNN and CNN apologizes to its viewers for his language and his actions." Novak's blow-up came as Novak was debating liberal commentator James Carville about Republican Congresswoman Katherine Harris' plan to run against Democratic Senator Bill Nelson for his Senate seat in Florida. Carville had just remarked to host Ed Henry that Novak has "got to show these right-wingers that he's got backbone, you know." Then, to Novak, "The Wall Street Journal editorial page is watching. Show 'em you're tough." Novak replied, "Well, I think that's bullshit, and I hate that." In an interview with today's (Friday) New York Daily News, Novak said that Carville's remarks represented "an unacceptable questioning of my integrity. I overreacted ... I just got a little frustrated."



Nice!

Back on Monday with new stuff. Promise!

Go to Eno Alert!

Just saw this interesting tidbit on Pitchforkmedia.com:

After previously denying that Eno would rejoin Roxy Music at all, frontman Bryan Ferry spoke about his return at the Isle of Wight Festival this past Saturday, following a performance by the group. Ferry said, "I hope he's going to come in and do some things on a few tracks. No live work, but on the record I hope he'll come and do something, yeah." As fans of Roxy Music are well aware, strained relations between Eno and Ferry led to the former's exit after just two albums-- the 1972 self-titled debut, and 1973's For Your Pleasure. Since then some thawing has been visible (most recently, on Ferry's 2002 solo album Frantic, where Eno assisted with production and contributed backing vocals and keyboards for the song "I Thought".)
Eno carved out a little niche for himself as a solo artist and producer subsequent to his departure from Roxy Music. He released experimental pop albums, pioneered an entire genre of music (ambient), and produced David Bowie's renowned Berlin trilogy (Low, Heroes, and Lodger), as well as major records by Talking Heads and U2. Did we mention that he also collaborated with David Byrne on the landmark My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which influenced early hip-hop and sample-based music? In short, dude stayed real busy.

Eno is quite a talked about persona around the Fortress of archon and the friends of Wayne (including recent discussions on the RealArt boards) so I thought y'all sould know...
Still penning the first entry to the Story of Wayne - should be up by Friday/Monday...

"The Life aquatic" & the Wayne aesthetic

Just the other day I put my eyes and ears to the new Wes Anderson movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". What an oddly movie that turned out to be. First off, I have loved Wes Anderson movies in the past, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tennenbaums were all weird, bittersweet little films about memories, love, and families. And always with great soundtracks. But I knew this m ovie would be a little different. He has a new writing partner(his old co-writer went off to be movie star Owen Wilson) and the subject matter seemed to further into the realm of broad farce with it's parody of Cousteau, although none of those assumtions turned out to be true.
Now, my first reactions to the movie were that I liked it, but probably not as much as the previously stated movies; the humor was a little TOO self-aware, and it didn't strike me on the personal lever that, say, Rushmore did. Zissou was not someone you could relate to.
But as I arrived at the emotional climax of the movie, it struck me that I had never seen a movie that had so excellently and so accidentally captured that ineffable Wayne aesthetic. Which is weird since Wes Anderson never hung out with us. That I know of.
Now Wayne is something I'm clearly going to have to recount in one of my next posts(coming soon:The Story of Wayne Volume One!) but suffice it to say for now it was a most unique union of philosophies, a blending of subversive notions and blue-collar ideals into a secret sect of weirdoes I helped co-create in my latter years of high school and early college.
But the Wayne aesthetic? Well, let's see. It's a movie about burned out big dreamers made up of less-than ordinary men, dispossessed yet fiercely familial. It was clearly written by film students with a beyond-dry sense of humor. It's soundtrack was by Mark Mothersbaugh, one of Wayne's patron saints because of his sci-fi everyman persona. It contains brilliant little stop-motion sea creatures created by Henry Selick, director of "The Nightmare Before Chrismas"(no, Burton wrote and produced, Selick directed as he was the expert in stop-motion), it has a fantastic soundtrack peppered with David Bowie covers sung in Portuguese by Seu Jorge (great acoustic versions!), and in general the theme of a child's perspective on what famous adults must be like refiltered through a jaded adult. It's a percular mixture, but when it finally clicked it really teared me up. I totally didn't expect that. So ultimately I recoment it to all of you in the know, and those of you who aren't, I'll fill you in shortly.

RenFest of the Sith

Well, I really should tell you guys of my adventure going to see the new Star Wars at the midnight opening day show. Now, I should preface this by mentioning that I have seen every Star Wars prequel at Highland Ten at the midnight opening day show. It's been a six year odyssey with a different flavor each time. Phantom Menace had a large crowd with no real media attention to speak of. Attack of the Clones only filled the theater half way. But Revenge of the Sith was a different animal altogether. Earlier that week I saw on the news that there were people camping out at the very theater I was going to. Now I was expecting to here about that kind of thin at other theaters around town in more posh and well known areas, but my theater had heretofore been a well kept secret. No longer. We arrived to find huge lines, news crews from every major station in town, as well as a couple of radio stations,and people in all variety of costumes. It was astonishing! There was a live band for a time, and then they started to pipe in John Williams score a rather large sound system. And then the really weird part. It seems we've come a long way in lightsaber replica technology, because there were a couple of guys in costumes totally going after each other with them as they loosely reenact the end of the movie we had yet to see. And I mean running on top of cars, screaming at each other as they run hither and yon. That's when it struck me that this was like a one-time-only Star Wars Renaissance Fair. Then finally we were led in to be greeted by a fully costumed Darth Vader and Stormtrooper(a little short for a stormtrooper, I might add) and in we went, charged as could be.
Once we were seated, we were told that there would be a slight delay as there would be a special guest. That only sent people further over the edge, so when the last people came in from the concession stand, they were greeted by a huge ovation. Then our "special guest" came in and it was none other than the guy in the Darth Vader costume who proceeded to the front of the theater, gazed upon us and streched out his hand in a force grip and a collective "AAURGH!" was let loose by the audience. Then finally the movie commenced, and we were grateful for it. When the movie let out, there was, of course, a number of reporters out gauging the response. Quite an experience, all in all. Oh, and how was the movie? It rocked. Hard.

Lazarus, Come Forth

Been a while, yes I know. Well, life can be a handfuls sometimes. Where have I been? Here, really. The Fortress of the Archon recently switched ISP to something more to our liking, only to discover that the home computer had been invaded by a virus. A VIRUS damnit! I swear, the anonymity of the internet can really bring together the worst of us. Well, not US. Them us. ya know. So now the home computer is down until I can get it's brain scrubbed. So hello from scenic Lake Austin, where I diligently deliver packages to waiting recipients. The job has been going well. But it's damn hot. And now to the news:
OASIS R.I.P.
A couple of days ago we had a rip roaring thunderstorm blow through Austintown overnight and struck the wooden decks turning the whole place into ripe kindling.And since it happened at night, it looked like someone dropped a bomb on the edge of the lake. Amazing what nature can do if your not paying attention. Or if you are. I acually don't think I've ever been there, but I'm a hermetic anomaly around here.
LOOK OUT FOR THE HOGS
It's time for the Central Texas Biker Rally again. Lordy. Last time these guys blew in we had nine deaths on the road involving motercycles. Since I work out in the hill country, I pass fleets of these Hell's Satans members. Pray for me.

Revenge of the WTF?!

Okay, i encourage you to chek this out:http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/darth_nwo.htm
Believe it or don't but it makes a fascinating case. Enjoy!

Well, "End-of-Shane's-Childhood-Month" begins with a most gratuitous and enjoyable episode of Enterprise set in the ever popular Mirror Universe. More than any I've seen, this is an unabashed love letter to 60's Trek, complete with evil twins, a Constitution-class ship, Tholians, even the ever popular Tholian Web made a reappearance. Why this show didn't always have this much fun is a mystery to me. It's a two-parter, so be sure to tune in next week to see everyone running around in 60's-era uniforms flying the Constitution-class Defiant. Unashamed fanboy fun, if you ask me.

Velvet Goldmine

Just saw the movie "Velvet Goldmine" for the first time. Trippy movie. Fanfickingtastic sountrack. Actually, I think the music made the movie, as I only held a tenuous understanding of what was going on from time to time, but the musical choices were fab. Thought the "Venus in Furs" performance of Eno's "Baby's on Fire" was the highlight of the flick. No doubt Rhys-Meyers looked the part. Had this movie come out 16 years ago or so it would have been a big hit with the Wayne crowd. (one of these days I'll have to explain Wayne for those of you who don't know)

Smiles Everyone, Smiles!

I'm Back! I finaly got a job, and wouldn't you know, I'm working at Fantasy Island! Well, I'm working at a spa resort on the lake. Doing, shipping and recieving, lest your mind wander. No, I am not a personal trainer. Those of you who know me well will laugh at the thought of me at a "health resort". Well, I have the least romantic position there, besides housekeeping. And I'm already, after one week, taking on the reputation as the eccentric of the resort. Suits me fine. Its 20 miles from home, but what the hey, it's stunningly idillic.