Monday, January 31, 2005

Ways to waste your time and talent, part 1

Oh Twisted Toyfare Theatre, where would I be without you?

Then again, my sister thought up the whole posing-action-figures-to-tell-a-story-in-photos thing before Toyfare even became popular. No shit. She did a presentation in her high school physics class on fibre optics using a battle between Wolverine and Deadpool. There was also the dismembering of a very (unbeknownst to us) rare colour-change Iceman figure.

Go try this yourself:

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/toyfare/TF-blankshot.cfm

Actors and their weird career paths

From Cheryl McFadden, dance coordinator, to Dr. Beverly Crusher, here are a couple of other actors whose acting careers went in odd directions:

Jeff Conaway
Went on to appear prominently on Babylon 5 after playing Kenickie in Grease (i.e. Travolta's best friend who knocks up Rizzo.)

Burgess Meredith
One of the world's finest. He even did voices for G.I. Joe: The Movie (still one of my favourites).

Jerry Orbach
From the streets of Law and Order to voicing a -- damn, what's that word I'm looking for that describes inanimate objects brought to life and have faces...help me out here.... -- candelabra in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Be...Our...Guest....Be our guest.... la la la....

Not that I hold these actors' lengthy and all-encompassing careers against them. I just think it's weird that the characters I know so well are played by other characters I know so well.

I mean, what if Mark Hamill were to play a priest... oh wait, he already did that. Alongside Christopher Reeve. And Kirstie Alley. *shudder*

All I can say to that is that if Superman and Luke Skywalker can't stop a bunch of alien children from taking over, we're doomed.


Beginning anew

Okay, I admit I'm kinda new to this whole weblog thing. I'm surrounded by people who don't know what it is, and when I say I have a blog, they all make "bluh?" noises.

So here's my blog. I had started with an idea, and I wanted to talk about my lost dog Yoshi, but I think that in the spirit of this blog, I should just write daily about nothing particular, thus wasting valuable time you could be doing productive things with.... like volunteering at a soup kitchen, or spending time with your family, or achieving your long-standing dream of being the only miniature maker who uses Cheez Whiz and fake snow as your media.

So here's two thoughts to start with: is the spelling "valuable" or "valuble"? Obviously the first, but as I typed the word out, it didn't look write or sound write (rite/right/wryt/ryt/reyett). I had a similar discussion today with a friend: why is it "Feb-ru-ary"? People inevitably end up saying "Feb-u-ary" without the "bru". I looked the chilly month up in Wikipedia and actually learned something today. Hooray for the Internet! I'd like to credit my curiosity to my boyfriend John, whose blog Dymaxion World is far superior to mine. I recommend you go there now, as I have little of import (oh-ho! so that's why...) to say.

A second thought: and it has nothing to do with the first.

I'm a big fan of Labyrinth, the Jim Henson film from the 80s starring David Bowie and Jennifer "Academy Award-Winning Actress" Connelly. I was perusing the IMDB when I came upon an entry about the making of the Labyrinth movie, which is included on the DVD. I'd seen this doc before, and saw this dance coordinator who looked exactly like Gates McFadden, aka Dr. Beverly Crusher of Star Trek: TNG. The only thing was that she's credited as Cheryl McFadden on the Labyrinth doc. Hmm, I said, and left it at that, thinking it must be her older, blonde sister. Not even the fine ladies at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction could speculate who the Mystery McFadden was (I should mention I worked there for a glorious but brief two years. If you're a nerd and live in Toronto, please visit them.)

Thank god for IMDB. Sure enough, Cheryl McFadden IS Gates McFadden. So that whole "dancing doctor" thing wasn't just a gimmick to get McFadden to show off her talents. (Not.)

More to post later, since multiposts seem to be the thing to do.