Writer's Blog: The Journey Of One Man Through Life: Gameboard

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Gameboard

My life
Is a gameboard.
Play on me and you’ll either win
Or lose.

I move towards a goal.
I am that goal.
I am also the cause.
I am the rules.
The rules were set down by me.
Rules set my tempo, and the course
Of my life,
My day.
My mind works fitfully on loss of
Sleep.
But it must work.
The King moves forward;
One space,
Two spaces.
He has to,
Because he faces checkmate otherwise.

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About Me

Patrick Poplin
Seattle WA, 98105
USA

This blog exists as a showcase of my writing and my influences. Come and take a look; here you will find essays, fiction novels, poetry, and film and play scripts. I was born in Granada Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles, grew up in the Bay Area (Sunnyvale), attended high school at Homestead High along with Messrs. Jobs and Wozniak (no, I did not know them, and knew nothing about computers). I went to De Anza Jr. College in Cupertino I studied Drama there. I transferred to San Diego State University as a Drama major, but only after living in Ventura, CA for a few years. I graduated in 1982, and moved up here at that time to stay with a blind relative. I have spent the years inbetween schooling then and now working for organizations like McDonald's and 7-Eleven, and am now attending NSCC as part of worker retraining in order to advance to a more profitable career using my talent for writing.

Inspirations: Ray Bradbury

Reading Ray is like the best dessert you ever ate. Ray's power of description is like nothing you have ever seen. The words flow so easily that you can taste them, because he uses them in ways that they were never intended to be used. He can give you the full bodied flavor of a Fall night by describing a wind as an "October wind," and the mind conjures up little ghosts and witches with bags full of candy, and suddenly you are there seeing a full moon in the a cloudy sky, and a crisp Fall wind blowing in your face, and, suddenly, it all becomes delightfully, sensually, real. Ray's most famous books are The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, but I suggest you read I Sing The Body Electric, Dandylion Wine, and White Whale, Emerald Isle. For stories, there are so many, but two gems stand out: The Gift and The Dragon. He has been called a Science Fiction writer, but he prefers to think of himself as a writer of imaginative fiction, and he is correct. His stories not only land on the surface of Mars, but run and jump over gutters in 1930's Illinois, or can be found drinking in a pub in Ireland. He writes poetry which discusses the fantastic imaginations of Daedalus, Montgolfier, and the Wright brothers (in Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and he has turned his stories into theatrical plays, radio plays, and movies, because he found a dearth of imagination there. He is definitely worth a read, because he is certainly one of Fahrenheit 451s' book people. Visit Ray at http://raybradbury.com/.

Inspirations: Tom Stoppard

There are five people on this list that I have met in person. One is Ray Bradbury, one is his best friend Ray Harryhausen, one is actress Marion Ross, another is Gene Roddenberry (for 5 minutes), and the last is Tom Stoppard. Both Ray and Tom were brought to San Diego State University on honorariums from the Drama department. Ray, however, was scripting the film Something Wicked This Way Comes, and couldn't spend much time at school. Tom, on the other hand, came over not only to help direct his play, McKoon's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth (retitled from the original Dogg's Hamlet, etc., in honor of our teacher, Mac Owen), but to teach a class consisting of actors, directors, and budding playwrights. I was one of the playwrights. Tom, at the time, had just been voted the greatest living playwright in the English language by his peers, and we were honored to have him. His plays include Rosencrantz And Gildenstern Are Dead, The Real Inspector Hound, and The Real Thing. His films include Rosencrantz And Gildenstern Are Dead (which he also directed), Empire Of The Sun, and Shakespeare In Love (which he cowrote, and won an Oscar for). Stylistically we are very different, he is more in the same league with Beckett, and Pinter, while I am closer to Tennessee Williams, and Thornton Wilder. I had a lot to learn from him, however; five things actually. How many of you can say you actually learned something from somebody? I can't tell you what all of those five things are right now, but they are definitely embedded in my brain. One thing I can tell you; like Brecht, he writes plays so that the audience can watch them. Breaking the fourth wall is something he would rather not do, as it would distract the audience from what he is trying to say. And, all you teachers out there that insist that stage directions are written by stage managers, listen to this-Tom writes his own stage directions! I take my hat off to my professor, Tom Stoppard!
Learn more about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Stoppard.

Inspirations: Frank Herbert

I am a picky reader; especially when it comes to Science Fiction. There is so much cheapjack pulp novel Science Fiction out there, that the book had better have credentials before I read it. Dune had credentials, a lot of them. The tricky thing about Herbert is that he really doesn't catch your attention until you are about a quarter of the way through his books. Then he grabs you by the hair, and snaps you back so quickly that your head will spin. In the 1950's Herbert worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, when he concocted a first novel which was inspired by the mid-east crisis, ancient greek mythology, catholicism, messianic leaders, and his knowledge of how politics really works. He placed the whole story thousands of years into humanity's future, on a desert planet which has only one marketable resource: a mysterious drug which enhances psychic ability, known as the spice. This is a hell hole of a planet, and, because of political shenanigans, Duke Leto Atreides and his family are sent there to rule and be assassinated. Thus began a series of books in which the Atreides family tries to save humanity from its own self destructive tendencies. So all-encompassing were these novels, that every other novel he wrote tended to be extrapolations of themes suggested in the Dune stories. Intelligent, thoughtful Science Fiction-the way it should be. Check out the official Dune website at http://www.dunenovels.com/, and find out more about Frank at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert.

Inspirations: J.R.R. Tolkien

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." With these words, John Randolph Reuel Tolkien embarked on a journey that would become his life's work. A linquistics professor at Oxford, he had concocted an elvish language at an early age, and had an outside interest in heroic sagas. With The Hobbit, and the subsequent Lord Of The Rings trilogy (followed posthumously by The Silmarillion and other works) he created a mythology for a century that had dispensed with such things. He translated the form of Norse sagas into a new form of epic fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and inspired everything from Dune to Star Wars in Science Fiction. "Frodo Lives" was a common phrase in the 1960s. The Children Of Hurin, another posthumous book of his, was a big hit in 2007. The movies of The Lord Of The Rings placed New Zealand on the map, not only as a place to make movies, but as a tourist haven also. But all this wouldn't matter, if the writing wasn't there in the first place. The books are excellent, the characters come alive. Frodo, Bilbo, Sam, Aragorn, and Gandalf all emerge as real living, breathing people. If there is a classic novel to emerge from the 20th century, these books fit the bill. Visit the temporary website at http://www.tolkienestate.com/. You can follow any future films (The Hobbit) at the Peter Jackson fans' website http://tbhl.theonering.net/.

Inspirations: Jules Verne

Probably my first experience with Science Fiction was Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. I soon read Around The World In 80 Days and have been a fan ever since. No Science Fiction Author has ever had the track record that Verne had in making predictions that came true. He even predicted the possibility of a Hitler in one of his novels. His most astonishingly accurate predictions were made in From The Earth To The Moon And A Trip Around It; he had a bullet shaped capsule launched from a point somewhere near Cape Canaveral (after Houston had vied for the honor and lost), which was tracked by a giant telescope on a mountain in California (like Mt. Palomar Observatory), and which splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. Check out the posthumously released Paris In The Twentieth Century for some real surprises (it was released over a hundred years after he wrote it, because his editor rejected it on the grounds that "no one would believe it.") Find out more from the North American Jules Verne Society, Inc. at http://www.najvs.org/objectives.shtml.

Inspirations: Edgar Allan Poe

Some people say Stephen King, or Dean Koontz. My friends say H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, or Clark Ashton Smith. I say, if you really want your pants scared off, Edgar Allan Poe. There is nothing more frightening to me than the darkness within the deepest corners of the human soul. From the man who invented both the short story and the murder mystery comes some of the most frightening stories ever. Very few authors have ever traversed the dark corners of his own soul like Poe did. Drug addict, pedophile, you name it. This was a tortured soul, and it showed up in his work: The Black Cat, The Tell Tale Heart, The Pit And The Pendulum, and The Cask Of Amontillado. The epitome? No monster in all of literature is more scary than that which perched above the bedroom door; The Raven. In the words of that poor soul bricked up in the wine cellar; "For the love of God, Montresor! For the love of God!" Visit the site for the Edgar Allan Poe museum at http://www.poemuseum.org/.

Inspirations: Mark Twain

Mark Twain had us pegged. He knew our petty fallacies extremely well and pounced upon them with carving knives drawn. In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Twain went after racism in its various forms. The current crop of critics who consider him racist for the dialect he depicts the slave Jim as using, don't get it. In one scene Huck has the chance to turn the escaped Jim in, but can't. He fights a moral dilemma, because society has taught him that slavery is right, and abolitionism is wrong." When he, feeling miserable for not turning Jim in, asks whether he would feel any different if he had, he answers himself, saying, "I was stuck. I couldn't answer that." In another scene, he witnesses a lynch mob being put down by Colonel Sherburn, who says "Why, a man's safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind-as long as it's daytime, and you're not behind him." Mark's wit was supreme: he said: "There is a familiar old maxim which assures us that Man is the noblest work of God. Who found that out?" His greatness was in how he took on the arrogance of mankind by exposing it with his great sense of humor. He was the first truly great author of the United States of America. Find out more about him at the Official Website of Mark Twain; address at http://www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/.

Inspirations: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Alright, I call him the great flake because of his naive belief in Fairies. But he did create the world's only consulting amateur detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his sidekick, Dr. John H. Watson. Fans refer to his series of books on the great detective as the "canon," and with good reason: nobody has ever been able to duplicate his creation, although many have tried. His forerunner, Poe's Dupin, is readily dismissed by Holmes as not thorough enough in the first chapters of A Study In Scarlet, and detectives like Poirot, and Sam Spade, can only bow to him as he passes by. Holmes is considered one of the three most recognizable figures in English literature; the others being Tarzan and Hamlet. Doyle is also notable for historical novels such as The White Company, and the creation of one of the more interesting characters in Science Fiction; Professor Challenger of The Lost World, and other stories. But it is Holmes that he is most remembered for. Nothing is more likely to send shivers up my back, than to read these lines from the immortal The Hound Of The Baskervilles: "Mr. Holmes! They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" To find out more about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visit his website at http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/. To find out more about Holmes, visit The Baker Street Journal at http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/bsiweekend.html.

Inspirations: Kurt Vonnegut

Worst possible novel to read in order to get to know a writer's stuff: Breakfast Of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. Yet I loved it. He broke all the rules, including his own. He would write "So and so was such a way. Why? Because I created him like that." A modern (but darker in vision) Mark Twain, his books can be hysterical and tragic all at once. He can be surprising, also. I once read Cats Cradle, and, at first couldn't figure out why I was supposed to be deathly frightened of Ice 9 (the substance that freezes everything that touches it). Then the ruler of the island died by touching it, and the plane crashed into the cliff under the palace where his body was lying in state. The body fell into the ocean. I practically exclaimed an oath (unprintable) out loud, as it hit me with the reaction that Kurt definitely wanted us all to get. A great cynic whom I often disagree with, but I love disagreeing with him. Kilgore Trout lives! Find out more about Vonnegut at the Official Website of Kurt Vonnegut; address at http://www.vonnegut.com/.

Inspirations: Johnston McCulley

There's only one reason that Johnston McCulley is in this list, and that revolves around the character that Guy Williams is portraying in the picture above: Zorro, the fox. McCulley was a pulp writer on the order of Edgar Rice Burroughs, except that Burroughs created two memorable characters to McCulleys' one. But, oh! That one character was something! By day, an indolent fop by the name of Diego de la Vega, the son of a Californian Don, he practically runs from trouble. But at night, he dons cape, mask, and saber, to become Zorro, avenger of the weak, the poor, and the innocent. This one character inspired many genres of fiction. Without him there would be no Superman or Batman. No Lone Ranger or Green Hornet. He captured my mind one night when I was a young boy, when I walked into a neighbors' house (7:30 pm on ABC on Thursday nights!) and first encountered him on TV. It was like a switch was thrown in my mind! I trace two of my favorite story themes back to this one character. The first, and most obvious, is the goodguy hero. The second one is what I call transformation fantasy. This can include werewolf stories, but is more like Ladyhawke (the movie) where the hero becomes a wolf at night due to a curse. Zorro is a complex character who still influences me. (see the post at the side.) Find out what is going on currently with Zorro at the official website http://www.zorro.com/gallery.html.

Inspirations: William M. Gaines

I have already talked about William M. Gaines in my essay on McCarthyism. It is his child, Mad Magazine, which matters here. I first encountered Mad when I was 7 years old. Particularly, I noticed Mort Drucker's photograph-like cartoons of TV shows and Movies. (I had an eye for talent at that early age!) I can name most of the usual gang of idiots even now: besides Drucker there were Mad's Maddest Artist Don Martin, Al Jaffee, Jack Davis, Paul Coker, Jack Rickard, Antonio Prohias, Sergio Aroganes, Dave Berg, George Woodbridge, and later Duck Edwing, Paul Peter Porges, and even (recently) John Caldwell, among others. Of the writers there were Dick de Bartolo, Stan Hart, Arnie Kogen, and Frank Jacobs, to name a few. And let us not forget Al Feldstein (editor), Norman Mingo (Alfred E. Neuman portraitest), and John Putnam (art director). 24 carat gold plated heroes each and every one of them. Why? Because under the guidance of pater familias Gaines, what they said to this child of the sixties was "No, you are not insane! It is the world around you that is crazy! We have a remedy for that, and that is to laugh at it! Laugh loud and long!" I have, for almost 50 years. Find out more about Gaines and Mad at its website http://www.dccomics.com/mad/

Inspirations: The Marx Brothers.

Groucho: It's in every contract. It's called a sanity clause.

Chico: Ah, you can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Claus!

A trivia question that's harder than you think: can you name all of the Marx Brothers? They are Groucho (Julius), Chico (Leonard), Harpo (Arthur-originally Adolph, which he legally changed because of Hitler), Zeppo (Herbert), and Gummo (Milton-the non performing brother). Although there were other vaudeville acts that revolved around a cast of zanies (the 3 Stooges, the Ritz Brothers among others), no one captured insanity on stage (and later, film and radio) with the authority that the Marx Brothers did. The little known story about how they got their particular style is as follows: they were on the road, touring the country, when they hit a town in Texas. During the intermission the entire audience left the theater to watch an incident with a donkey in the street outside. When they came back into the theater and settled down to watch the play, Groucho, incensed by their behavior, started hurling insults at them. The audience, thinking it was part of the act, laughed uproariously. The brothers caught on to the fact that this indicated a possible new direction, dropped the script, and started improvising like crazy. Thus, a new act was born; one which would revolutionize the entertainment industry. Groucho's forte was non sequitors and insults, Chico used a traditional stereotype of a rather stupid italian, Harpo found he could be funnier by staying silent, and honing his pantomime skills, and Zeppo was suited perfectly for the romantic lead. After their contract was up at Paramount, Zeppo joined brother Gummo off screen, and just the three were left. When the act broke up in the late 1940s, each went their separate ways. Of the brethren, Groucho was the most successful, building a career on radio, and then on TV as the host of the game show, "You Bet Your Life." Chico and Harpo carved out niches as guest stars on numerous variety shows. Harpo, in fact, was probably the most talented, gaining a reputation as one of the greatest harpists to ever pick up the instrument. They considered that their greatest film was A Night At The Opera, but current thinking places Duck Soup much higher. I vote for the former. There never was a more joyous insanity shared with the audience. The Beatles' movies A Hard Day's Night, and Help! were compared favorably to their movies. Most comedy groups today can site the Marx Brothers as early inspirations. "Swordfish!"

Find out more about the Marx Brothers at http://www.marx-brothers.org/

Inspirations: Monty Python's Flying Circus

(2 pepperpots-women-have been commenting about the penguin which sits absurdly on their telly. The television warms up: a newsreader is sitting behind a news desk)

Newsreader: And now the penguin on top of your television set will explode.

(the penguin explodes)

Pepperpot 1: 'Ow did 'e know that was going to happen?!

Newsreader: it was an educated guess.

If the Marx Brothers introduced insanity as entertainment to popular culture, then the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus perfected it in the extreme. They were literally a TV producer's dream. Barry Took brought together the Cambridge group, John Cleese and Graham Chapman, who had worked on At Last, The 1948 Show, and the Oxford group, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, along with Eric Idle, and the lone American, animator Terry Gilliam, who had all contributed to Do Not Adjust Your Set. Searching for a name, they all settled on Monty Python's Flying Circus, and together they reinvented TV comedy. It was a sketch TV show, but it was unlike any sketch show seen anywhere in the world (think Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in); whereas a typical sketch would end with a punchline, Python sketches had no punchlines, instead cutting to transitions (called "links") which connected to the next sketch. Often, for example, Chapman (as a general) would enter, stop the sketch for being "too silly" and then would introduce the next sketch. Nothing was too sacred for the Pythons; one sketch involved Eric Idle and Michael Palin as "camp" judges, revealing these paragons of society to be raging queens behind the scenes. A parody of documentaries about gangsters, followed the story of the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale, revealing that Dinsdale has a fear of an imaginary giant hedgehog named Spiny Norman (consequently shown in animation by Terry Gilliam). The Pythons' insanity continued on well after the TV show in a series of classic movies; And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, and Monty Python's Meaning of Life. Graham passed away from cancer a few years back, but pressure still comes from fans for them to get back together again; and, who knows? Maybe they will. See what's happening with the Pythons at http://pythonline.com/.

Inspirations: Dr. Demento

You want insanity? We got INSANITY! The good Dr. is a radio DJ originally out of KMET Los Angeles who went nationwide, and is still on the air here and there. (Not enough for me!) He has one of the largest record collections I have ever heard of. In the late '70s it totaled over 800 albums, of which his collection of what he calls "dementia" is only a small part. His program was influential enough to give "Weird Al" Yankovic his start by airing a version of "My Bologna" (a parody of "My Sharona") which Al recorded on accordian in his high school's men's bathroom. The cult hit "Fishheads," by "Barnes and Barnes" (actually Lost in Space's Billy Mumy and friend) was first heard on his show. My personal favorite is "The Existential Blues, in which an existentialist finds himself in Oz. The Dr. got started on his dementia craze when he first heard Tom Lehrer. Spike Jones followed next, and the Dr. was off like a bolt of lightning. Not only will the Dr. play officially released material; he is not above playing unsolicited tapes sent to him, if they are substantially weird enough. I've bought a number of albums simply because I first heard them on his show. The serious side of this is that my relationship with my best friend is based, in part, on sitting by his stereo and listening to the 4 hour version of the show which came directly out of Los Angeles. The Doctor is IN! Catch up with the Dr. at http://www.drdemento.com/index.html

Inspirations: Patrick McGoohan

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own."

-Number 6 from the TV show "The Prisoner"

Although I am a fan of many actors (most importantly, Clint Eastwood), only two serious dramatic actors-three, if you count Bill Cosby-find a place (for different reasons) on the Inspirations list; one is Marion Ross, and the other is Patrick McGoohan. When Jackie Gleason's variety show went on hiatus for the summer (which a lot of TV shows used to do, rather than show reruns), CBS chose to run as a summer replacement a 17 episode TV show conceived by and featuring the star of a former hit show (and british import); Secret Agent starring Mr. McGoohan as spy John Drake. The new show, The Prisoner, although not changing the face of television, definitely sent shockwaves through the airwaves. No TV series, until David Lynch's Twin Peaks, was as esoteric, confusing and enigmatic as this show. The premise was that a nameless secret agent resigns from MI6, only to be kidnapped and to wake up in the mysterious place only known as "the Village," and to find that his name has been taken away, only to be replaced by the number 6. The Village, reportedly, exists to find out why he resigned, but actually functions to break down the spirit of individuality (people who don't conform are called "unmutual"). Number 6's task is to escape the Village, which is run by "Number 2," and to discover who "Number 1" is. McGoohan, although he created the series with George Markstein, was actually the controlling hand on the series. He wrote the first episode (and three others-one under the pseudonym of "Paddy Fitz"), told the writers only enough information to keep the series in line with his vision, reserving the enigmatic climax of the series for himself. Important questions regarding the rights of the individual run rampant through the series: who is Number one? Who controls the Village; "our" side, or "theirs?" Why, really did Number 6 resign, and what right does anybody have to know? In the final episode some questions were answered while Mr. McGoohan purposely left some open ended. For example, we are left to guess who Number One really is. The Prisoner was a truly mind bending program which achieved deep theatrical concepts rarely achieved by series television. Today we mourn Patrick McGoohan as he passed away at the beginning of the year (2009). The set for the Village was actually a unique architectural experiment entitled Portmeirion in Wales. The Six of One Prisoner Appreciation fan club runs a shop there called "the Six of One Shop." "I am not a number! I am a free man!" More information about The Prisoner or Patrick McGoohan can be found at http://www.sixofone.co.uk/index.html.

Inspirations: Marion Ross

This one is personal. Marion Ross is an emmy winning actress who is best remembered for the role of Mrs. Cunningham, Richie's mother on the TV show "Happy Days." She happens to also be a graduate of San Diego State University, who came back once while I was there, to star in "The Rivals." I got to know her during the time she was there; a very warm, and very friendly person. After a chance meeting in which I accidently almost knocked her over a nearby bannister (which I apologized profusely for), we subsequently had a number of conversations. I once told her that I had a connection in the industry (the father of a friend of mine who worked for Walt Disney), but I didn't want to use him. I meant that I didn't want to abuse his friendship by trying to use him as a connection to get a job as an actor. She looked at me and said, "Why, what are we hear for, but to use each other?" She meant that there is a difference between use and abuse, for we use each other day in and day out. I have remembered that great wisdom ever since. She is truly an inspiration. Read her biography at http://www.sitcomsonline.com/rossbiog.html.

Inspirations: Bill Cosby

One of my absolutely most favorite people on the face of this earth. He had an unprecedented string of 7 Grammy winning comedy albums, one right after the other, in a row. His humor is my humor-edgy without losing a charming gentleness. Think, for example, of Fat Albert, at "2000 pounds," the baddest "Buck Buck" breaker in the world. Think of 2 boys relegated to their bed, a crib, and how they don't get to sleep-keeping their parents awake as they do. Think of a small boy listening to the radio program "Lights out," and is so frightened of the monstrous "Chicken Heart That Ate New York" (a real program that was broadcast on the legendary show) that he burns the couch and spreads peanut butter all over the kitchen floor; which, of course, his Dad slips on. As his first album put it "Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Guy... Right!" But he is so much more than a comedian; he is a great human being. He was, first of all (to me), an adult who remembered what it was like to be a child. Secondly, he never forgot the promise he made that he would return to college and become a teacher. Many people say things like that; He did it. He is now Dr. William H. Cosby, jr. I love it when my heroes prove themselves equal to that lofty stature, and he is one of my heroes. Find out more at his website: http://www.billcosby.com/

Inspirations: Gene Roddenberry

"Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

-The original opening from the TV series "Star Trek"

Before there was Star Wars, there was Star Trek. Before George Lucas decided to be a filmmaker, there was Gene Roddenberry putting his dreams of spaceships on film. When I was young, there was, thanks to Irwin Allen's bargain basement approach, very little good Science Fiction to be seen on television. Gene changed all that. Like Rod Serling before him, Gene had become tired of the censorship by network executives which permeated TV at the time, and decided Science Fiction was a way to speak about things that would go right over the heads of those network people. He had a vision of the future which was controversial at the time; that all people would be equal, that war between nations would be a thing of the past, that the conquest of space would be for scientific reasons rather than military. He envisioned a spaceship that was closer to what NASA had on the drawing boards, as opposed to the flying saucer and super sleek Buck Rogers-type spaceships of 1950s movies. He envisioned a ship's bridge where caucasians, orientals, people of African descent, and alien first officers all worked together in harmony. He gave the world Captain James T. Kirk, Doctor Leonard ("Bones") McCoy, and the Vulcan Science Officer, Mr. Spock. This triumvirate was Dramatic inspiration; the arguments of the logical, unemotional Spock, and the emotional humanistic McCoy, symbolized the thought process in Kirk's mind as he strove to make the right and necessary decisions to resolve the conflicts of each episode. Star Trek came along at a unique time; Mankind was about to make the technological leap from Earth to the Moon. Star Trek popularized space travel, and therefore NASA, and NASA supported Star Trek as much as possible, because they saw its potential in helping the space program. Its influence was so far reaching that President Ford insisted that the first Space Shuttle be named after the shows' spaceship, the Enterprise. How many models of the U.S.S. Enterprise have I built? Don't ask!

As Mr. Spock would say: "Live long and prosper!"

Find out more about Star Trek at http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/index.html.
Gene ("Rod") Roddenberry, Jr. has a website devoted to his parents at http://www.roddenberry.com/.

Inspirations: Star Trek

Star Trek is so unique that it has to be listed as an inspiration unto itself. Gene Roddenberry said; "Besides suggesting that there is a tomorrow, that there is challenge and romance in the world, besides suggesting that it's not all over, Star Trek said something else. It goes rather like this: You human biped thing called Man, you strange creature, still in a sort of violent childhood of your evolution, you're awkward and often illogical, you're weak, vain, but damn it, you're also gorgeous!"

Find out more about Star Trek at http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/index.html

Inspirations: George Lucas

Outside of Walt Disney (originally an independent filmmaker himself), George Lucas is the most successful and influential Independent filmmaker since cameras started rolling in Hollywood. And this is largely thanks to only one film in particular: Star Wars (now called Star Wars: A New Hope). With that one film, George revolutionized the way movies are made. Starting with the Dykstraflex, a computerized camera that made it possible to film special effects on a grand and efficient scale which had never been possible before, the innovations also included the first piece of computer animation to be included in a feature film (which would ultimately lead to Jurassic Park's dinosaurs, among other things), new ways of editing, and a return to an older style of telling a story on screen. To make the film, George set up the companies of Lucasfilm Ltd., and Industrial Light and Magic, which has gone on to continually revolutionize the technological side of film making. George made so much money off of the first three films that he is the only independent filmmaker who is able to finance his own films independently. He subsequently set up the companies THX and Skywalker Sound which have revolutionized the way we hear movies. The Skywalker Ranch in Northern California, where he lives, is a technologically up-to-date facility where filmmakers can go to work on their films. But there is so much more to George's vision than that: he has such a complete understanding of how to tell a story using mythological idioms, that Joseph Campbell called him his best pupil. The Star Wars series is such a complete idea that it encompasses philosophy as will as story elements that go back to Beowulf and beyond. Star Wars can stand beside The Lord Of The Rings as the 20th Century's (and the 21st, also) greatest masterpieces of fantasy. May the force be with you!

Track the latest news about Star Wars at http://www.starwars.com/. Find out more about George Lucas at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas. Find out more about Lucasfilm Ltd. at http://www.lucasfilm.com/.

Inspirations: Walter Elias Disney

Perhaps there was no greater dreamer in the 20th Century than Walter Elias Disney. He had the imagination to take animation in its' infancy and to wed it to sound the moment the technology debuted on the scene. He had the imagination to then take that animation, drench it in color, and expand it into feature length form, and to use it to translate fairy tales into fantasy that adults could share with their children. If it had only been just that quarter century of innovations, it would have been enough to secure his place in history. But he didn't stop there: in the 1930s he dreamed of a place where adults and children could have fun together. And lo! In 1955 the gates to Disneyland opened. The park was so successful that he drew up plans for a similar park in Florida: Walt Disney World, augmented by Epcot center. Soon after the parks expanded to Europe, Tokyo, and beyond. As a result of Disney's dreaming, the world has a hundred ways to be touched by Disney magic; they can enjoy the parks, they can live vicariously through Prince Philip as he slays the dragon to get to Sleeping Beauty, and they can laugh out loud with Mickey, Donald Duck, and the rest of the gang. Try to imagine todays' world without Walt Disney, and you can't. We all are living happily ever after thanks to him, in part.
Find out more about Walt at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney. Find out more about Disney movies at http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/. Visit the Disney home page, for all things Disney, at http://home.disney.go.com/lite/index.

Inspirations: Mary Poppins

I had read some of the stories when I was a young child, but at 12 years old I considered myself too old to see a Disney movie (the only time I've ever made that mistake), let alone one about Mary Poppins. I was dragged kicking and screaming to the theater (almost literally). We entered halfway through the movie, during the animated "Jolly Holliday" sequence (not a good way to encounter the movie that would become my favorite of all time) and had to stay through the first half. I have never been the same since. For one thing I was completely taken with Julie Andrews' performance (still am), and became a big fan of her and Dick Van Dyke. Over the years I have had time to think about why the film captivates me. Primarily it is Julie's performance; her eyes are truly a window into her soul, and a really good director like Robert Stevenson will catch this-witness the fire in her eyes when Mr. Banks tries to sack her, and she turns the tables on him. It is also in how she (Julie) works with the children; the strength of the film rests on their shoulders. But it is also the nature of original author P.L. Travers' creation. She conceived of a character who has complete control over her environment (a truly liberated person). She is by no means a witch, but her command of magic is total. After all, this is really God's magic; if God can have magic, that is. It is the wondrous magic of creation. It is the magic of a tree springing forth from a seed. It is the magic of rainfall, and the magic of a sunny day. It was also Walt Disney's idea of magic. Therefore this film has been called Disney's greatest creation, and deserves to be called that. It is nothing short of a stunning achievement. (Incidentally, I can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious backwards as well as forwards!) You can find out more at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058331/.

Inspirations: King Kong

Is there anyone that this ape didn't inspire? The creation was the work of four people in particular; Merian C. Cooper (the producer, who wanted to originally put a gorilla up against a Komodo Dragon), Ernest Shoedsack (the director), Willis O'Brien (the special effects genius), and Ruth Rose (the writer and wife of Shoedsack). But the most important member was an 18 inch puppet made of steel, cotton, rubber, and fur. Every director ever interested in filming fantasy, every special effects person in Hollywood since 1933 (including one Ray Harryhausen), traces their interest in movies back to this film. For me, no film has ever scared me as much as the shot of Kong parting the trees to leer at Anne Darrow (Fay Wray). Later, when I summoned the courage to watch the rest of the film, I began to empathize with the giant ape, and actually found that the scariest monsters in the film are the crowd at the New York theater. Their insensitivity to each other and the captive ape is truly monstrous-and it is what we all are capable of. Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) pronounced the epitaph that touched all of our hearts forever; "Oh, no. It wasn't the airplane. It was beauty that killed the beast!" For more information go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/.

Inspirations: Ray Harryhausen

"Kill him! Kill Sinbad!"
-Sokoura, and every other villain Sinbad met!

I met Ray once at an animation convention. This humble giant of the motion picture industry, came out and talked to us while the projector which had broken down was being fixed. He didn't have to, it's just the way he is. He's one of us mentally, but he's a giant creatively. He saw a giant ape on the screen and he was magically transformed into a visionary. He took his dreams and put them on paper, then transferred them into clay, which became creations of steel, cotton, and rubber, which he then made act on film. The cyclops, the troglodyte, the saber tooth tiger, Kali, the Beast from 20,000 fathoms, the Ymir, the army of skeletons, all of these were his creations which he brought to miraculous life. They were the real stars of such films as the 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, etc. He scared the pants off of me when I was a child, and as an adult, I was inspired by his creations. Long life, Ray. You can visit his site at http://www.rayharryhausen.com/.

Inspirations: Neil Young

"I am a child,
I last a while,
You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile."

-"I am a Child." by Neil Young, Springalo Cotillian Music

What is Neil Young doing in this list? This is what; his songs often touch the emotional core of my being. In the song Mellow My Mind, he writes (and sings very painfully) "Something so hard to find; a situation that can casualize your mind." In his masterpiece, Cowgirl In The Sand, (off of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere) he composes a sweet melody which is broken up by passionate hard driving garage rock guitar, as if he is illustrating the passions underneath the song trying to rise to the surface, belying the almost conversational tone of the words "Can I stay here for a while, can I see your sweet, sweet smile?" In the song Helpless he captures the spirit of a place to go to, to get away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday world: "There is a town in North Ontario, extreme comfort, memory to spare. And in my mind I still need a place to go. All my changes were there." Long may you run, Neil. Visit Neil at http://neilyoung.com/.

Inspirations: John Williams

Not too long ago, in a country not so far away, adventurer archaeologist Indiana Jones embarked on an historically significant search for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Joining him on this supernatural treasure hunt was The London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of composer John Williams. Were it not for many crucial bursts of dramatic symphonic accompaniment, Indiana Jones would surely have perished in a forbidding temple in South America, or in the oppressive silence of the great Sahara desert. Nevertheless, Jones did not perish, but listened carefully to the Raiders score. Its sharp rhythyms told him when to run. Its slicing strings told him when to duck. Its several integrated themes told adventurer Jones when to kiss the heroine or smash the enemy. All things considered, Jones listened... and lived. John Williams saves yet another life, and gives our picture, Raiders of the Lost Ark, a new, refreshing life of its own. Thanks, John.

-Stephen Spielberg, filmmaker and friend to John Williams.

The theme has become so well known that all you have to do is hum it just a little bit. Two notes of a baseline, one high and one low, repeated over and over again, increasing in tempo, and suddenly you are thinking of giant man-eating sharks. Yes, it is the theme from Jaws, the best known piece from a man who has not only come to produce some of the best film music since the 1940's; he has come to be renowned for some of the best American orchestral music composed today. He has won 5 Academy Awards, for these pictures: Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, and Schindler's List. His music is heard as the theme for the NBC Nightly News; it is heard as the theme for the Olympics. As a film composer he has led the London Symphony Orchestra; as a conductor, he has led the Boston Pops Orchestra. But that is not why I am a fan; it is simply that his music soars like a bird in flight. John Williams is to film music what Ray Bradbury is to words. When you hear his music, you know you are being taken on an incredible journey through the fantasyland which is the movie theater. He provides the soundtrack which runs behind the words I write. He lifts me up, and I soar on the wings of eagles. He teaches me about narrative form in the way he styles his music. May the force be with you, John Williams! Check out his website at http://www.johnwilliamscomposer.com/

Inspirations: Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix teaches me about freedom. Jimi figured he could paint pictures with sound, and so he went ahead and did it. No one told him he couldn't. The current thinking of the time was that feedback meant you were doing something awful to your speakers. Jimi was part of a pack (which included the Who, and others) which believed that they could make you feel something about pain with feedback. The difference was that Jimi took it much farther. He turned the volume on his guitar all the way up, and suddenly you were hearing a spaceship taking off. Then he would take you down to the depths of the sea. Or you were being shot at by machine guns. In his classic performance of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, he made you feel the "bombs bursting in air." Music was intensely spiritual for him, so he wed the gospel experience to psychedelia in his performance, calling the end result "Electric Church Music." Listen to anyone else (with a few exceptions) using feedback and what you hear is a symphony of noise; listen to Jimi and you hear a painting. Visit the official website at http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/. Also visit his brother Leons' website at: http://www.leonhendrix.com/.

Inspirations: Simon & Garfunkel

Hello Darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again.
-The Sounds Of Silence, by Paul Simon

With this song, Simon & Garfunkel entered into the popular consciousness of the 1960s. Paul Simon wrote words that spoke of loneliness and disillusionment, thereby giving voice to the feelings of a generation. A voice that poetically rivaled Bob Dylan's, and musically rivaled the Beatles. In songs like The Sounds Of Silence, The Boxer, and America, he spoke for a generation of young Americans who had suffered the assassination of President Kennedy, the threat of the nuclear bomb, and the horror of the Viet Nam war. In Bridge Over Troubled Water he spoke of the power of friendship and love; in 59th Street Bridge Song, he spoke of the power of a sunny day. With Art Garfunkel's soaring tenor, together they gave Rock some of its sweetest harmonies. They broke up after five albums, and the score to The Graduate, but never completely: on February 14, 2009, they reunited for a surprise concert in New York. They are forever a part of us. Visit the Simon and Garfunkel home page at http://freespace.virgin.net/r.kent/.

Writer's Blog: The Journey Of One Man Through Life

Saturday, February 14, 2009

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