Posted 1:26 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Headless Body in Topless Dress

Star Trek Costumes
at the Smithsonian
June, 1992

I have been so busy that I haven't been able to post for days, despite the rich banquet of blog fodder in the news. Haven't been able to scan anything, either. So here's one that's a little different. In 1992 the Smithsonian Institution had an exhibit of Star Trek stuff. I longed to go to it, but it was several hundred miles away. And then I got called to go to a job interview in the area. W00t!...I was so there.

They had designs and models and props -- I got to sit in the Captain's chair! And they had these costumes. One of the things I love about Star Trek is its beautiful use of color, and the costumes -- the women's costumes particularly -- were certainly colorful (in more than one sense of the word).

Front and center we have the "sensor web" dress worn by Diana Muldaur in the pretentiously-titled "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" (Memory Alpha tells us that it's from a 17th century poem by a guy I never heard of.)

The pink number in the background was worn by Leslie Parrish in the cryptically-titled "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (which Memory Alpha tells us is taken from Shelley's Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, two guys I have heard of). Here's a better picture of the dress. Be sure to check out the Star Trek fashions page at that site.

If I remember correctly, in The Trouble with Tribbles (the book, tilted after the episode of the same name), David Gerrold said that only the weight of the cape kept that top in place. I'm thinkin' there had to have been some glue or tape involved as well.

Leslie, just as an addendum, went on to appear six years later as the "special guest star" in the unintentionally-hilarious Giant Spider Invasion, which was eventually thoroughly thrashed by Mystery Science Theater 3000. That's now found on Vol. 10 of Rhino's MST3K releases. You can see Leslie run around in her underwear, screaming, if you're into that sort of thing. She's not dressed as prettily as she is in "Adonais", though.

Partially hidden in back is the dress worn by Diana Ewing in the straightforwardly-titled "The Cloud Minders". My best friend from high school and her brother had a nickname for that character. It involved coconuts. I leave the rest to your imagination.

I don't recognize the dark dress on the far left and yes, that does bother me. Even a bunch o' googling could not turn up a female wearing it. Maybe she was only in the episode fleetingly (or in the dress fleetingly).

The lack of heads on these mannequins is a little disturbing. It looks like a Star Trek convention in the Land of Androids got a kinda out of hand. Or head.

UPDATE: Whoa, Nelly. Here's a crew who have drunk deeply of the raktajino. I will point out that the genocidal Organian Peace Treaty calls for planets to be claimed by whichever power can develop them most "efficiently". Talk about colonialism! Won't someone think of the Velaran crystal lifeforms??

Labels: Foto Friday

Posted 8:46 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Always Hoped That I'd See an Apostle...

Well, not always -- just since the Sydney Olympics. The equestrian jumps were modeled after various Australian landmarks, and the Twelve Apostles jump was so beautiful... I should post some pics of that one day.

Didn't look anything like this, however.

Last year I posted this view:

Twelve Apostles, looking east
Victoria, Australia, Dec. 2000

Turn around, and you get this:

Twelve Apostles, looking west
Victoria, Australia, Dec. 2000

I love this view because it looks like this Michael Whelan painting. It's titled Sentinels. What are the sentinels watching for, and why? If after long eons the sea should wear them down, would they become the Twelve Apostles?

Labels: Australia, Foto Friday

Posted 10:07 PM by Angie Schultz

Arrr, Me Hearties!

It be, fer a few more bells, Talk Like a Pirate Day. Did ye think I'd be fergettin'? Sadly, I got no pirate wisdom to impart.

Haply, other blokes do. Jackleg Jim Lileks gives ye the local news in pirate patois. But that's Minnysoty news, so it's about as excitin' as swabbin' the deck with yer toothbrush.

Agent "Bilgewater" Bedhead brings us a pirate parade, starrin' Drew Barrymore, whatever that might be. I'd ask young Drew to introduce me to Captain Badass there in the second photo, but, ye see, it's a gay pirate parade. Arrr. Ain't it always the way. The pink polly's a nice touch.

Speakin' a pollies, follow the link to the story o' the dead pirates' friend. Arrr. But stay out o' the alien corn squeezins, for they'll gives ye St. Elmo's Fire in the Belly.

Dave "Dead Dog" Barry, who has done more'n any other cur ta promote pirate talk, is almost completely ignorin' the occasion this year, because o' some nonsense about a a book, and appearin' on the talkin' picture box. If'n ye believe in that sort o' thing.

Lastly, we will leave ye with the special wisdom of the late, lamented ChomskyPirate, whoever he was.

Chomsky hisself ignored the occasion entirely. Arr! Some linguist he is. (Is it really necessary to decorate each and every one o' yer posts with a grinnin' skull, laddie? Seems excessive.)

Posted 8:55 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Owens Valley

The print made from this negative is beautiful, but the scan is being recalcitrant. It's OK, I guess:

Owens Valley, California, Aug. 1995

There's more off to the left, but I couldn't capture it. This is one of those occasions were you need a wider lens. And less polarizer. And more cowbell.

Somewhere down there (maybe on the left) is the Owens River, which is basically a big snaky ditch funneling water to Los Angeles, hundreds of miles to the south. For details, see the fine documentary film, Chinatown.

Labels: California, Foto Friday

Posted 9:40 PM by Angie Schultz

The Day

Every year around this time I find myself thinking of a gigantic essay I want to write. It will contain bewilderment, anger, and contempt. And sorrow. But that always seems the least of the emotions.

And every year around this time I weasel out, because there's too much to say -- too many anecdotes to relate, too much stupidity to mock. And too many other people have done it before.

So I'll just point to those more energetic souls who are carrying the load.

Murray Hill has not forgotten.

Cox & Forkum have, as usual, an appropriate cartoon, and a story.

Rantburg has a hatful of stories.

Rantburg's fearless leader, Fred, notes something I remember thinking at the time: that all the talk about "things will never be the same again" was just so much moonshine. Things were the same again almost before Christmas. (Except for the murdered, of course.)

Remember fondly those golden days before the Iraq war, when people were 100% behind the President and united against the terrorist threat. In some other universe.

Hot Air has some hard-to-watch video.

Jonah Goldberg rewrites history:

If I had said in late 2001, with bodies still being pulled from the wreckage, anthrax flying through the mail, pandemonium reigning at the airports, and bombs falling on Kabul, that by ‘07 leading Democrats would be ridiculing the idea of the war on terror as a bumper sticker, I’d have been thought mad.

I guess it depends on what you mean by leading Democrats. The leaders may have had the sense to wait for a few months, but there were some trailers (e.g. C. McKinney) who were keen to identify the real evil (hint: not Osama) within weeks.

In the end, by the way, Goldberg returns us all to our comfort zones by blaming Bush. Ahhhhh. That's better.

Posted 2:33 PM by Angie Schultz

I Only Know What I Read in the Papers...

When Will Rogers said it, people laughed. Wonder why.

Yesterday's Opus had George Bush (realistically drawn, for a change), popping out of Opus's anxiety closet singing "Petraeus" to the tune of "Maria" (from West Side Story). One gathers that Breathed wants us to believe that Bush is in love with Petraeus (or possibly that he regards Petraeus as his savior). What. Ever.

Niles brought this comic to me, saying that he did not understand. What, pray tell, was a "Petraeus"?

Understand this was yesterday, September 9, 2007.

I told him that I would tell him, but from now on he was forbidden to say anything, whatsoever, about Iraq. Not even, "Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, is in Iraq." Or, "Iraq is, on the whole, a hot, dry region." Anybody who doesn't know who Petraeus is at this late stage cannot know enough to have an opinion on the subject.

Then again, he only knows what he reads in the papers.

Posted 8:39 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: On a Clear Day You Can See Fresno

This could also be titled, Careful with That Polarizer, Eugene! Yes, it is possible to overdo the polarizer. I wish I knew exactly where this was within the park (Polarization Lookout, 1/4 mile), but I don't.

Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park
California, Oct. 1995

Hmmm. Busy this week. That's all I got for that.

I has a new lens, though! I went out into the park and took some experimental pictures with it. I took the same shots with both the old and new lens, for comparison purposes. The new one looks to have a sharper focus, but I can't be sure until I see the pictures. They probably won't show up here, being mostly boring flowers.

If you're very good, though, you might get to see some black & white pictures of Rice University. Eventually.

Labels: California, Foto Friday

Posted 10:11 PM by Angie Schultz

Through the Silver Window

My mother sent me a bunch of old family pictures to scan. I'm a little nervous about having them here; if there's a fire we'll have lost all our family photos for the past hundred years. There's a picture of my great-grandmother, taken in 1903 when she was five years old. I think that's the oldest one.

Today I started scanning a batch, thinking I could breeze through the first envelope in a couple hours. I think I got about a quarter way through it. The last picture I did was of my grandfather's sister, Marie, when she was a young woman. I won't show you Marie -- I'm kind of paranoid about family privacy, even though it's a faded picture and it's unlikely anyone will recognize her. But I will show you what's behind her:

Indiana gas station c. 1940

(Click for a bigger version.)

Marie was born in 1919, and she looks to be about 20 or so in the picture, so that places it a few years on either side of 1940. Mom thinks it was taken in Sanborn, Indiana, but she's not real sure.

Look at those old cars on the left! There's a man sitting in one, and another man, in a dark jacket and light hat, is about to get into the passenger seat. Are those Model A's? When I was young, there wasn't a man alive who couldn't tell you the make, model, and year of a car just by seeing its reflection flash past the corner of his eye. In the dark. Me...I know they're black. Is that good enough?

Cars of more recent vintage are on the right, and there's one at the pumps, where the attendant is doing something to it (back in the days, children, when there were attendants who would do things to cars -- check the oil or the battery water or the rubber band).

If you squint real hard at the sign high up on the right, you can almost make out the Mobil logo. (It helps if you have the rest of the picture, where you can see a sign for Mobilubrication in a moderne font.)

And, as it was in the beginning, as it is today, as it will be for all time to come, you are invited to Enjoy Coca-Cola.

See also the early years of Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life.