One of the all time funniest people has passed – rest in peace.

Terry Jones, 77; charter member of Monty Python comedy team

A sampling:

candybowl…

not a Jeopardy geek but these are good reads – kudos to Ken!

Ken Jennings Is Jeopardy!’s Greatest Player of All Time

Ken Jennings Didn’t Want to Compete in Jeopardy’s Big Tournament, ‘Which Sure Looks Pretty Dumb Now’

Brad Rutter on Buzzers, Strategy, and Why He Lost Jeopardy!’s Greatest of All Time Tournament

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Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart dies at 67

Rush’s Neil Peart: unassuming, thunderous drummer who became a music legend

Jack Black, Brian Wilson, and more pay tribute to late Rush drummer Neil Peart

Musicians Offer Tributes To Neil Peart On Social Media

Dave Grohl on Rush Drummer Neil Peart: ‘We All Learned From Him’

candybowl

From Oz:

and America:

Watched this recent Deep Space Nine documentary this week, by the showrunner Ira Steven Behr and some others. As a huge fan of DS9 (I personally think it’s the best of all the Trek series, albeit Discovery season 1 is right up there too now) it was long overdue for me to see them re-examine the show. Plus, earlier this past year I rewatched the vast majority of the episodes (along with Babylon 5, but more on that in a minute) so was excited to see DS9 finally getting its due.

So I think this is a great documentary. There are some things I would have done differently, and while I know they were trying NOT to do a linear, ‘history of the show’ approach to the series – mission accomplished on that – I think a bit more of it would still have been cool.

One thing I really liked was the ‘writer reunion’ that ends up crafting a rough outline of a proposed Season 8 kickoff episode. Not only did they come up with some very cool and interesting ideas (which I won’t spoil but if you must know – you can read about them here) it was just neat to see the writing/brainstorming process in action, even if we don’t get to see the bulk of it (I think they spent the day doing it, and then included the key highlights in this movie).

It was really good to see them make an effort to connect with most of the cast, even if many of them don’t end up getting a lot of screen time. And while Avery Brooks isn’t ‘in’ the movie per se – I believe the interviews with him were separate from it but not completely sure – they paid him a lot of respect in this, which he definitely deserves in a number of key ways.

A couple bittersweet points for me – the fact that René Auberjonois (Odo) and Aron Eisenberg (Noq) both passed away only in the past couple months this very year, and the film notes that Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross, recurring character) passed away a couple years ago. RIP to all of them.

So while I won’t offer spoilers here as noted before, there are a couple key actual *gripes* I do have with this film:

1) They don’t address the whole Babylon 5 situation. It’s well established by now that the creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, pitched his ‘space station series’ to Paramount well ahead of DS9’s appearance, and while Ira, Berman and Piller may not have ultimately been in on it at the studio mgmt level, it still looks pretty fishy to this day. While Straczynski has ultimately let it go by now, read and judge for yourself.

2) It’s obvious there were several motivations for telling this story – ‘Give DS9 its due’ (for which it was long overdue if you liked DS9 :)); Showcase all the VERY hard work that went into making it – the quip where Colm Meany talks about time in the makeup chair is a great example, but even if it was just about many of the actors having to get into work around 5am for 3 hours of makeup, EVERY DAY – gives me new respect for their dedication! The pioneering nature of several things DS9 did and did very well (watch the show itself and this documentary for more on that)…..the list goes on. But what I felt was lacking here was getting into the writers’ head (excepting the great ‘proposed Season 8 opener’ mentioned above – they don’t really address it. Moreover, there were a number of turning points in the show (several of them involving Louise Fletcher as Kai Wynn, one of the great all-time bad guys if there ever was one, otherwise known as Nurse Ratchet 🙂 – what was the thinking behind these, where did you think you were going with the story, etc. etc.? Not really discussed. For a series way more detailed-story-heavy than the previous TNG, TOS and the animated series (yes, remember that? great stuff) this is somewhat inexcusable? When they make probably a reference to this (“…the documentary would have been 8 hours or more…?” – BFD. Every fan hates that because it’s an excuse, they ALWAYS say that, and we ALWAYS want more??! Cry me a river. At minimum, there were likely a lot more fan interview extras out there they could have thrown in? Just throw in a DVD of that stuff too? Cost, schmost.

In the end, I’m really glad they did this, it was worth it just for the ‘writer’s room Season 8 opener’ thing alone but I definitely enjoyed it, even with its ‘flaws’. Just like DS9 itself 🙂

candybowl

Other links:
Interview: DS9’s Ira Steven Behr Sees Something Familiar About ‘Star Trek Discovery’
Interview: Ira Steven Behr Talks What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Deep Space Nine (Exclusive)

as seen originally on Boing Boing – pretty weird. definitely a Yellow Submarine vibe, among others…

candybowl

is CBS trying to turn Star Trek into their own ‘Star Wars’? Didn’t Paramount already try that (UPN and even earlier in the early 80s)? Time will tell…

candybowl

Will you be there? The Black Knight will apparently be returning……?!

NW Pinball & Arcade Show – May 31-June 2, Tacoma Convention Center, Tacoma, WA

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One of the greatest annual rock shows happened again last night, Mike McCready’s semi-annual Flight To Mars benefit show for the Crohn’s Foundation (he serves as a regular fundraiser and advocate, as he has the illness). I’ve blogged about this before:

2016: http://www.theglasschicken.com/?p=2814
2017: http://www.theglasschicken.com/?p=3144

Last year we missed it because they simply didn’t have one – only an abbreviated performance at some other benefit later in the summer.

But as always, THIS. SHOW. ROCKS. If you haven’t gone before, it’s basically McCready and a number of other amazing music locals playing UFO covers, essentially a near-identical set list to the Strangers in the Night live album of yore.

And last night did not disappoint – the opener was a Cheap Trick cover band – ‘Dream Police’ with the Friel brothers (of Rockfords and Goodness fame, among others)- you can hear a different, earlier set they did at a previous benefit a couple months before here.

As to the set, awesome as per usual, and Tim DiJulio just keeps getting crazier with the guitar solos every year I see these guys. here’s a couple phonecam clips i found this am from the show:

Rock Bottom – poster has the date wrong on the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt-9tDSaI0U
Love to Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xh-TSXxTeY (not the entire song)

The encore was several Thin Lizzy numbers, then closing with

Let There Be Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za20SzPJ8yI

and then Thank You:

Apparently Friday night’s show had a cameo from Chad Smith, Duff McKagan and others doing Jeepster from T-Rex… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcl6MiWR0NM

the majesty of ROCK, lives on….!

candybowl