Quips and Quotations (1% Inspiration and 99% Anticipation Edition)

 

1959-2025

Being successful doesn't change things. There's a painful, lonely part of acting because you're always waiting. The thing about being a performer is doing, and when you have to wait, it's the same pain as when you're starting out and have no job. You think that thing will go away, but it doesn't. It just shifts. I remember Robert Duvall saying that being a successful actor is all about finding interesting hobbies, because if you don't have the right hobby, you die. It's very hard to maintain interest. Most actors don't. They become a little clichéd. You learn how to do tricks and stuff.

--Val Kilmer

(Kilmer was in a lot of well-known movies but rather than show clips from all of them--I don't exactly have the time for all that--I'm going to show a trailer from just one, 1985's True Genius, which happens to be the movie of his I first saw. It's no great shakes as a film, except for Kilmer's own performance, which if didn't make him a star right away, set him in the right direction--Kirk)

(As you can see, the military-industrial complex was fucked up even before Pete Hegseth got his hands on it.)

Vital Viewing (Logistics of Logic Edition)

 

Actor Leonard Nimoy was born on this day in--OOPS! I forgot something.

 

OK, that's better. Actor Leonard Nimoy was born on this day in 1931 (he died in 2015.) Nimoy is best known for playing the starship USS Enterprise's taciturn alien first officer Spock on the 1966-69 TV series Star Trek. In a series of posts I did nearly a decade ago, I argued that despite being regularly chastised by his fellow spacefarers as being all brains and no heart, Spock eventually became the moral center of Trek. Whether Nimoy himself saw Spock that way, I can't say. I do know the actor put a lot of thought into his character, as can be attested to by this following video from 2010. Watch:

Now listen as Nimoy continuously drops the F-bomb:

OK, but what's got him so fascinated?

Vulcans start young.

Quips and Quotations (Staying Hydrated Edition)

 

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

--W.H. Auden

 

 

Vital Viewing (Precious Meddles Edition)

 

Ah, yes, Fort Knox, where some 147.3 million ounces of gold bullion is stored--or is it? New doubts have been raised:

What I gathered from watching that is, no matter what the conspiracy theorists say, the gold is there after all. Still, in the off-chance it's not, what can the United States do to stave off...whatever bad thing that happens if the gold isn't there?

 

The solution may lie in one of our oldest fairy tales. Take it away, Edward:

 

Turnips instead of gold? In that case we would need Fort Knox more than ever. After all, turnips are vegetables and as such last much longer in a...

 ...sealed container.

 

As Is

 

This former president was once compared to a "used car salesman."

This current (as well as former) president has been compared to the president who I just told you was once compared to a used car salesman.

But it's an unfair comparison.

As you can see, he's really a NEW car salesman.

Either way, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware.)

Smart Art (In Over Your Head Edition)

 

I've grown a goiter by dwelling in this den– As cats from stagnant streams in Lombardy, Or in what other land they hap to be– Which drives the belly close beneath the chin: My beard turns up to heaven; my nape falls in, Fixed on my spine: my breast-bone visibly Grows like a harp: a rich embroidery Bedews my face from brush-drops thick and thin. My loins into my paunch like levers grind: My buttock like a crupper bears my weight; My feet unguided wander to and fro; In front my skin grows loose and long; behind, By bending it becomes more taut and strait; Crosswise I strain me like a Syrian bow: Whence false and quaint, I know, Must be the fruit of squinting brain and eye; For ill can aim the gun that bends awry. Come then, Giovanni, try To succor my dead pictures and my fame; Since foul I fare and painting is my shame.   --Michelangelo, in a letter to a friend, poetically bitching about the physical discomfort he has to put up with while painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Vital Viewing (Good vs Evil Edition)

 

1930-2025

Did you hear that? The Pasadena Playhouse didn't think Gene Hackman would make it as an actor? Cancel my Rose Bowl tickets! Hackman proved himself to be one of the greatest actors of his generation, able to play heroes or villains. To demonstrate, I'm going to show you two clips. The first is of him as the heroic Popeye Doyle (for which he won an Academy Award) in 1971's The French Connection. The second is him as the villainous Lex Luthor in 1977's Superman. Watch:

I don't know. Hackman seems a bit safer to be around when he's the bad guy.