Was looking for a birthday e-card for John Schertzer.
We had been discussing (e-mail-ically) Jefferson Airplane/Starship.
He apologized - is that the right word? - for liking Jefferson Starship.
Well, to be exact, he said:
You’ll laugh, but I have that Jeff Starship album on CD. My high school band played another song from that record, and I wanted to hear it again. I’m sort of a Jeff Airplane fan, and I’ll bend to Starship every once in a while.He concluded by making an interesting leap of logic:
After all, I’m a Star Wars geek.On the surface, it made a certain amount of sense: Jefferson Airplane = Jefferson Starship = Star Wars.
But I had never considered Luke Skywalker coming out of a 1960's band of San Francisco hippies. (What about Jim Morrison as Han Solo? Or then Governor Ronald Reagan as Darth Vader?)
One could continue on this metaphysical journey: Star Wars = War of the Worlds = World Party = Party till it's 1999 . . . and so on into infinity. . . .
Anyway, how to encapsulate Schertzer's birthday, a reference to Jefferson Airplane, and a leap to Star Wars - all in a single e-card?
I found this.
(Taking a slightly different path than above: Star Wars = Star Trek.)
(Which, btw, John, has the added echo-chamber of Jefferson Starship = Starship Enterprise.)
I don't know what it all means.
CAUTION: I want to make it perfectly clear that my posting this video should NOT be regarded - in any way, shape or form - as advocating the . . . uh . . . you know . . . watching of Star Trek.
18 comments:
Star Trek really was a product of its times, wasn't it? Then again I've no room to talk, given my fandom of Doctor Who.
Dr. McCoy :-)
For the record:
Jefferson Airplane = good
Jefferson Starship = bad
Starship = really bad
Of course the guitar player for JA went on to form "Hot ******* Tuna."
See you at the trekkie convention, dude.
1992 - "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow... Don't stop, it'll soon be here. It'll be... better than before. Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone..."
2008 - "If only you believed like I believe, baby... We'd get by-yy-yyy. If only you believed in miracles baby, we'd get byyyy-yyyy-YYYYYYY!"
Garpu,
What are you trying to say about Star Trek? Careful. You're talking about one of the pillars of my childhood. My world view is founded upon the Quasi-Holy Trinity of The Beatles, Star Trek and Monty Python! :-)
I need to watch Doctor Who. One day . . .
Crystal,
You know, after all these many years, it wasn't until I watched that video that I really thought about the fact that Bones was distributing drugs on the Starship Enterprise.
Star Trek was awesome. I have to weigh in, because this was a great sixties show, and I usually let a lot of Sci/Fi references pass by...
My favorite episodes:
1) The one with Kang the Klingon, the whirly thing that makes everbody fight, and the guys who hate each other because they are black on one side and white on the other (opposite from each other). One was Frank Gorshin. These old shows were the ones where Klingons were really cool.
2) The one where they were all Chicago gangsters... We found about about the game of "Fizzbin".
3) Spock in heat. Spock has a jones on because he has to go home and mate with some Vulcan woman waiting for him in the same predicament. He's ready to kill Kirk to do it if he has too.
4) The one where they were mixing it up with Abe Lincoln, Genghis Khan and a few other historical figures. The Klingon guy who could imitate anybody... "Spock... Help me Spock."
5) The one where the fat old guy with the moustache has a hundred copies of his wife nagging at him at the end.
6) The one with the "Gorn" chasing Kirk around, and Kirk has to figure out how to kill him with a cannon made out of a log filled with sulfur or sumthin'.
7) Anything with the Romulans in them. Romulans were Vulcans with an edge.
Jeff,
You really made me smile. I remember all those episodes - years of Star Trek reruns on cable :-)
the whirly thing that makes everbody fight ...
... Chekov saying to the Klingon lady, "You are not humna, but you are wery beautiful" just before he was about to jump her.
I don't know if you ever watched Deep Space 9, but there was an episode where the captian (Avery Brooks) and a couple of others went back in time to the Kirk's enterprise - the trouble with tribbles episode. I don't know how they did it technically, but it really was cool! :-) There's a YouTube of it here.
Liam,
Was Jefferson Starship really that bad? I never thought about it, per se. Kind of liked "Miracles," I have to admit.
Then again, you listen to Journey. How am I supposed to take your criticism seriously?!?
Aynsley Dunbar left Jeff Starship for Journey.
And that's the whole problem. Airplane = Jorma. Starship = Aynsley Dunbar.
I need to get some Hot F***ing Tuna.
Jeff,
Thanks for the rundown of episodes. Makes me want to get the DVDs and watch some. It's been a while.
You know, Gene Roddenberry was from El Paso, Texas, of all places!
Crystal,
Thanks for the Youtube link. I have to check that out.
I made a reference to Tribbles recently, and the (younger) person just stared at me with a blank face. It was very sad. Our cultural illiteracy is terrifying at times. Tribbles!
:-)
Thanks... and may the flarf bewitch you!
By the way, the replacement for Jorma in Starship, Craig Chiquico, was arguably a much better single string lead guitarist, ala Santana. I dug him, and still do.
Jorma is a fine fingerpicker, but there are a lot of great rag/blues players out there no one's listening to. I think of the late Bukka White, for instance.
John,
I apologize for publicly exposing your email without asking. I've always done that in the past. Was hoping, I guess, that you wouldn't mind. But I should've been more patient.
Hope you enjoyed the mash-up.
You obviously know your Jefferson Airplane/Starship much better than I do. I was always a fan from a distance. Had Surrealistic Pillow and that was about it. Maybe a greatest hits or mix tape at some point.
Bukka White's one of those people I've heard a lot about but never actually heard. Now you got me intrigued. Will go poke around the library and see what I can find.
I really dug the Replacements, btw. Too bad I didn't know about them earlier. I can tell I would've really grooved on them back then.
In the comment I deleted, I mentioned that I was aquainted with (long ago) Craig Chiquico - he grew up within walking distance of my house :-)
Cool, Crystal. As I said, he was an outstanding guitar player. There was a particular R&B piece they did on a live recording (Marty Balin singing) that Craig stretched out and it was like heaven....
The Replacements were v cool, in a serious down and out way, but also because Paul Westerberg usually was pretty drunk, and that could be rather entertaining at their live shows. He's a great writer...
I liked the Airplane back in the days when they were willing and able to mix it up with the Hell's Angels at Altamont.
I always like this Grace Slick quote too: "I don't mind getting screwed, as long as I get to come too."
Crystal,
The Tribbles! How could I forget that one! Also, what was the one with the city full of lost children, where all the adults had succumbed to some kind of disease?
Chekov saying to the Klingon lady, "You are not human, but you are wery beautiful" just before he was about to jump her.
Didn't he have a fling with Uhura too, or am I thinking of Kirk?
Checkhov :-) "Captain... The stars... They're gone!"
So whatever happened to Chiquico? I have to admit, I'd never heard of him? John, you said he "was an outstanding guitar player." Did he pass away?
"I don't mind getting screwed, as long as I get to come too."
That's hilarious. Had never heard that. Have to remember that the next time we get our bill from Long Island Power Authority.
Chekhov had a fling with Uhura?!?! I don't remember that. On or off-set? I loved Chekhov in Star Trek IV. But the bug thing in his ear in Wrath of Khan - creeps me out just thinking about it.
Gotta love Wikipedia - they have an entry for Tribbles, which includes a section on Physiology:
[T]ribbles are native to the planet Iota Geminorum IV. They are essentially small bundles of fur with no visible external features. The fur of live-action and animated tribbles ranges from solid white to grey, speckled light to dark brown, yellow to reddish orange, and black. According to Leonard McCoy's dialog their only two purposes in life appear to be to eat and to reproduce, and they perform both of these functions well. McCoy concludes that tribbles use over fifty percent of their metabolism for reproduction.
Sort of the lovey-dovey lap cat to the extreme.
Craig is actually doing well as a solo artist, new age stuff kind of. Wikipedia says he was nominated for a grammy.
Post a Comment