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Testy Area 51 - Page 15

post #421 of 28320
11/22/02 at 12:58pm
Who plays me in Steve's story?
My pick would be Tobey Maguire...

but, as I am an unemployed actor,
why not let me play me...
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post #422 of 28320
11/22/02 at 2:30pm
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post #423 of 28320
11/22/02 at 3:27pm
Yes, I love that film deeply too.

But I am deeply saddened by the apparent apathy I am encountering vis. my magnum opus-level 1978 retrospective. Must I go to a thread where my presence is welcome?

Or is there any such animal on HTF any longer?

Now I know what it much feel like: "Man Without a Country."
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post #424 of 28320
11/22/02 at 4:05pm
O Jack:

Post the damn thing will ya!?

Apathy takes too much energy. And besides this thread is as close to Seinfield as anything.

Cees:

Way to go Idaho!

Steve:

I like Cees' version ...to baldly... instead of badly.

Also, just make sure to get Kathleen Kennedy to produce it and Michael Kahn as editor.

Parker
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post #425 of 28320
11/22/02 at 4:40pm
Jack, please?
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post #426 of 28320
11/22/02 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 
Jack, [now pleading] 1978 is getting further and further behind, I can't even remember what I was doing this time last year, oh wait I was sitting here typing a post, well at least I'm consistent.

Parker, I want Paul Verhoeven to produce it, have you seen his classic Showgirls? Aaaah what a flick! Now theres a great mix of acting, performing and visuals that we want on the show, maybe we can get Sharon Stone to quote some Python sketches while swivelling around in a chair, or get James Earl Jones reading out Jack's year posts, hey I like these ideas, any more?
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post #427 of 28320
11/22/02 at 5:42pm
Oh Jack, ye mighty and literate one. Please, share Your Knowledge with us!

Please?

Cees
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post #428 of 28320
11/22/02 at 7:20pm
Quote:
James Earl Jones reading out Jack's year posts


Yes!!!

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post #429 of 28320
11/22/02 at 10:23pm
testing 1.2.3...
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post #430 of 28320
11/23/02 at 6:07am
just want to see if this works
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post #431 of 28320
11/23/02 at 8:20am
nope
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post #432 of 28320
11/23/02 at 9:01am
Where was I?
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post #433 of 28320
11/23/02 at 9:35am
Oh, and then came 1978, a year in which I experienced the good (Honda CBX), the bad (cretinous neighbors forced us to move), and the frightening (Linda got pregnant). It was the loss of innocence. And I began planning for an eventual post-Linda life (though that would not come about until another six or seven years).

• The Marantz Model 3300 preamplifier is replaced with the audiophile darling of the month: Tomlinson Holman's innovative phono preamp comes to fruition in the well-reviewed APT/Holman preamplifier. Under the delusion and influence of high-end audio pundits, I think the APT/Holman "sounds" better than my "grainy-sounding" Marantz 3300. Belief systems can be bliss.

• And, to power those damn Dahlquist DQ-10a speakers, I actually look at a 150 watt-per-channel Mitsubishi power amp.

• President Carter engineers the Camp David peace accord between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin. Unbelieavable.

• The only new U.S. manned space program on the horizon, the Space Transportation System (aka, the "Space Shuttle"), suffers a year of agonizing setbacks and delays. In no way will there be a first mission in 1979.

• Meanwhile, the Soviets continue to set endurance records aboard the Salyut-6 space station.

• Hardly any time to go see films in 1978.

• Trashy, noisy, violent neighbors living in the other side of our duplex apartment force Linda and me to find new digs. Feared for my cats, even though they were indoor-only felines. We find a decent two-bedroom townhouse duplex.

• Big bonus with new duplex: I persuade Linda to let me use one of the bedrooms as a dedicated listening room. I am thrilled.

• The Equal Rights Amendment fails to receive ratification from a complete two-thirds of the states in the Union; goes down in defeat; presages fears of a new wave conservatism to sweep the country. (The 1980 presidential election really begins to worry me.)

• One half of the financial-dependency unit in which I participate persuades the other half to go see Star Wars in a summer reissue. The reluctant half can't sit through it, leaves the theater (and the other half), smokes a cigarette, and wanders the shopping mall. Swears never to see the movie again. To date, it has been a successful, effortless endeavor.

• Our 1972 Datsun 510 breaks down repeatedly. Actually make one of the worst-imaginable trade-ins: a 1978 Plymouth Volare, one of the worst cars ever made. What was I thinking?

• As punishment (it seems), gas prices start rising ominously.

• The New York Yankees defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to two in the 1978 World Series. This boy happy.

• Still don't like Reggie Jackson, though, and think Billy Martin was right earlier in the season for jumping over the ego-maniacal outfielder for not charging a fly ball that should have been an easy out.

• Meanwhile, Pete Rose hits safely in forty-four consecutive games.

• New York Yankee starter Ron Guidry goes 25-3 on the season, wins the Cy Young Award. (His ERA is only 2.3 or somesuch.)

• The Honda CBX is released to dealers in October. With enough cash on hand from my now fulltime gig at a publishing house, and a decent trade-in on the mighty Kawasaki Z-1B 903, I ride home on a cherry-red, six-cylinder Superbike capable of turning standing-start quarter-mile times in the low eleven-second bracket. The machine turns heads everywhere. I am at the top of my game, and it looks like I will get a position writing ad copy for the publishing house. Ecstatic. What could ruin such a perfect picture?

• Easy: Linda's period doesn't arrive on schedule in November. I panic. What went wrong?

• A television showing of The Day the Earth Stood Still reignites my passion for good SF.

• The new dedicated listening room sounds great. But how long will this last? (See bullet point before last.)

• The Plymouth portends its short, unhappy life: Still under warranty, it needs its transmission replaced.

• December confirms the worst: Linda is pregnant.

• What in the flying hell am I going to do? I don't want to be a father!

• Linda sure could make awesome pasta, though. And she still looks great in, um, casual attire.

• Life gets unnecessarily confusing.

• Really, where in the hell is John Lennon? The presence of the most influential person in my life is sadly missing. Need him more than ever now.

• Can anyone believe the garbage playing on the radio these days? Find solace in the music of Mozart and Schubert.

• And my Thorens TD-125 Mk II/SME 3009 combo: Is it really up to the task of this coming age of high-end audiophile recordings?

• I do not want to be a father.

So, 1978 left me dangling, in the midst of the greatest existential crisis in my life. Surely your 1978 was better.
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post #434 of 28320
11/23/02 at 10:00am
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post #435 of 28320
11/23/02 at 10:21am
Was my 1978 better? Yes it was, my friend.

My 1978 (or) Stranger in a Strange Land

After my mother's death, my father ( who was also near the end of his life ) and I had moved to Colorado in late '77. Colorado of 1978 found me taking classes at a local community college, with no thought as to what direction I wished to take in life.

Memories of 1978:

Reading Steven King's The Shining in the dead of winter in a small trailer all alone at night with the wind swirling and snow falling.

The Dallas Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos in the Super bowl. Having come from Texas, I'm very popular.

The rapport I developed with one of my Spanish instructors at the local college. Mr. Fajjardo (sp?) was one of the nicest individuals I ever met during my stay in Colorado. I still recall our discussions of The Godfather films over lunches at the college cafeteria.

"Discovering" Carlos Castaneda and his stories of the Yaqui Indian sorcerer don Juan.

Working a summer job on the Highway Dept. Making new friends like Bill "Iron' Ore and his girlfriend Jane. Parties that summer with Bill, Jane, Dan, and others on the crew. Lots of Boston, Steely Dan, and Linda Ronstandt on the radio during the long drives to and from the work site each day.

Camping in Montana with Bill. Frost on the tent the next morning in July.

The arrival from Minnesota of Dan's younger sisters who stayed with him the summer.

Dan's girlfriend "The Sargent" - nicknamed as such due to her propensity for giving orders.

If it helps Jack, I had a Chevy Vega which is probably a bigger PoS than the Plymouth.

Returning to Texas in the fall of '78 and meeting my best friend in the entire world whom I had left when I went to Colorado.

- Walter.
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post #436 of 28320
11/23/02 at 4:11pm
Thread Starter 
Interesting reading fellas, that was an epic summary of 1978 Mr.Briggs, worth waiting for, and with a cliffhanger ending, roll on '79.

I can't compete with you older guys. I was only 15 and not keeping a diary or records, but it's a good guess I was at school some of the time, going to the cinema as usual, Superman and Animal House were my films of the year.

Jeff Wayne's magnificent The War of the Worlds was my most listened to album of 1978. Baker Street and Mr.Blue Sky two of my favorite singles.

And I was reading science fiction a lot, Asimov, Clarke, Van Vogt...
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post #437 of 28320
11/23/02 at 4:14pm
Quote:
...and the frightening (Linda got pregnant). It was the loss of innocence.


Intentional? Accidental? Hmmmmmm.

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post #438 of 28320
11/23/02 at 8:42pm
GHJJJJ
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post #439 of 28320
11/23/02 at 9:11pm
hhdakjflslsdfgbg
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post #440 of 28320
11/24/02 at 6:43am
Steve:

War of the Worlds was one of my all time favs too.

Parker
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post #441 of 28320
11/24/02 at 3:41pm
Thread Starter 
Parker. I absolutely love War of the Worlds, must have listened to it hundreds of times, the music, the songs and ofcourse Richard Burton's perfect narration with that famous voice of his...

"No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us..."
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post #442 of 28320
11/24/02 at 7:19pm
The summer sun is fading as the year grows old,
And darker days are drawing near,
The winter winds will be much colder,
Now you're not here.
I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky
And one by one they disappear,
I wish that I was flying with them
Now you're not here.
Like the sun through the trees you came to love me,
Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away...

Through autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way,
You always loved this time of year
Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now
Cause you're not here
Cause you're not here
Cause you're not here

Martian: Ulla!
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post #443 of 28320
11/25/02 at 5:27am
Thread Starter 
At midnight, on the 12th of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth. As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.
And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare, spurting out from Mars. Bright green, drawing a green mist behind it; a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no living thing on that remote, forbidding planet.

Chorus
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, he said (ahh, ahh)
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, but still, they come...

Then came the night the first missile approached Earth. It was thought to be an ordinary falling star, but next day there was a huge crater in the middle of the common, and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there. A cylinder, thirty yards across, glowing hot, with faint sounds of movement coming from within. Suddenly the top began moving: rotating, unscrewing; and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside trying to escape. He rushed to the cylinder but the intense heat stopped him before he could burn himself on the metal.

Chorus
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, he said (ahh, ahh)
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, but still, they come...
Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, he said (ahh, ahh)
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, but still, they come...

Next morning a crowd gathered on the common, hypnotized by the unscrewing of the cylinder. Two feet of shining screw projected when suddenly, the lid fell off. Two luminous, disk-like eyes appeared above the rim. A huge rounded bulk, larger than a bear, rose up slowly, glistening like wet leather. Its lipless mouth quivered and slathered, and snakelike tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated....
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post #444 of 28320
11/25/02 at 5:49am
Ulla!
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post #445 of 28320
11/25/02 at 9:54am
Thread Starter 
Quickly, one after the other, four of the fighting machines appeared. Monstrous tripods, higher than the tallest steeple, striding over the pine trees and smashing them, walking tripods of glittering metal. Each carried a huge funnel and I realized with horror that I'd seen this awful thing before.

A fifth machine appeared on the far bank. It raised itself to full height, flourished the funnel high in the air, and the ghostly terrible heat ray struck the town.
As it struck, all five fighting machines exulted, emitting deafening howls which roared like thunder:

[rant]Ulla! Ulla! Ulla! Ulla![/rant]

The six guns we had seen now fired simultaneously, decapitating a fighting machine. The Martian inside the hood was slain, splashed to the four winds, and the body, nothing now but an intricate device of metal, went whirling to destruction. As the other monsters advanced, people ran away blindly, the artilleryman among them, but I jumped into the water and hid until forced up to breathe. Now the guns spoke again, but this time the heat ray sent them to oblivion.

With a white flash the heat ray swept across the river. Scalded, half blinded and agonized, I staggered through leaping, hissing water towards the shore. I fell in full sight of the Martians, expecting nothing but death. The foot of a fighting machine came down close to my head, then lifted again as the four Martians carried away the debris of their fallen comrade, and I realized that by a miracle, I had escaped.

[rant]Ulla! Ulla! Ulla! Ulla![/rant]
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post #446 of 28320
11/25/02 at 4:55pm
Hello!

~T
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post #447 of 28320
11/25/02 at 6:11pm
Ulla!

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post #448 of 28320
11/25/02 at 7:31pm
I couldn't have said it better!
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post #449 of 28320
11/26/02 at 7:55am
Thread Starter 


Barbar-ulla!!
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post #450 of 28320
11/26/02 at 8:31am
Pay No Mind....
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