Kirk and Spock turn 81!

This week I want to celebrate two of my favorite TV stars from the 1960s: William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Both actors celebrated their 81st birthdays within the last week.

I wouldn't call myself a straight-up Trekkie. But I will admit that when I was 16, I succumbed to the powerful urge to buy this lovely box set of the original series of Star Trek.

Much like my love for Dark Shadows, part of my love for the original series of Star Trek stems from the show's high level of campiness. I also appreciate, however, that most episodes of Star Trek do attempt to convey positive messages.

The characters of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock have always been two of my favorites from the show. I love watching the dynamics of the relationship between these two very different characters.

And I have always loved that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are close friends in reality, as well.

Instead of sharing a clip from Star Trek to celebrate these actors' birthdays, I want to share two clips that I have discovered over the years of the Shat and Nimoy in their careers as solo . . . singers.

The first clip is Leonard Nimoy's "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins."

This song is really too campy for words. I read that it was filmed while Nimoy was still working on Star Trek, so the actor was still wearing his traditional Spock hairdo. And those backup dancers . . . are they supposed to be wearing hobbit ears or Vulcan ears?

The second clip is William Shatner's rendition of the Elton John hit "Rocket Man."

While Nimoy's "Ballad" cracks me up, the Shat's "Rocket Man" kills me. Shatner performed this song at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards.

I have shown this video to everyone close to me. Reactions have ranged from confusion to awe. I know that this song is ridiculous, but it really feeds into the legend that William Shatner has created of himself: "I'm a rock-it-man!"

Happy Birthday to William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy!

"Strange is Relative"

The title for this post is the slogan for the new movie Dark Shadows, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The movie premieres on May 11th, and I must admit that I am stoked. After all, I have been waiting for this movie for a grand total of . . . 5 years! (Almost.)

I have been a fan of the 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows for almost 5 years now, as I described in my first post. For even longer, I have been a fan of Johnny Depp.

When I first heard that Depp was starring as the vampire Barnabas Collins in a movie called Dark Shadows, my mother mentioned that she had watched the original soap opera as a girl, and the rest is history.

Needless to say, I was thrilled last week when Dark Shadows' trailer finally premiered. I watched the trailer very closely several times before I decided how I felt.


There are a few changes to Dark Shadows for the movie that get on my nerves. It bothers me that Barnabas Collins, a tried and true vampire, goes out in the daylight in the movie. He also appears to divulge his vampirism to everyone in the Collins family.

Neither of these situations would ever have occurred in the soap opera. I cannot count the number of plots that revolve around Barnabas' restricted existence as a vampire; an important part of this existence is that Barnabas cannot leave his coffin during the day.

There are an equally innumerable number of plotlines that revolve around the need to keep Barnabas' vampirism a secret. These are some of the juiciest plotlines that Dark Shadows has to offer! It seems such a shame to throw away the possibilities that come with this secret, as they appear to do in the new movie.

I find it amusing how defensive I get of the original Dark Shadows when I think about a movie that has not even been released yet. If not for this movie, after all, I would never have even heard of the show!

I already know that I will always like the original soap opera better than the movie, even if the movie is great.

The show has so much more breadth due to its 1,225-episode run. There are countless plotlines, characters, places, and even dimensions and periods of time from the soap opera that viewers of the new Dark Shadows will never get to know.

In the end, however, I am glad that my favorite show, which has been off the air for over 40 years, is being resurrected in film.

The movie will bring a fresh outlook to Dark Shadows and maybe even introduce new fans to the original show.

I understand that the movie will be and needs to be different, because soap operas and their over-the-top tones are a dying breed. It seems that the movie will have a comic slant that was not present (on purpose, anyway) in the soap opera. I will thoroughly enjoy watching some of my favorite fictional characters whoop it up on the big screen.

POW! Roy Lichtenstein's Pop Art

One of the many artistic innovations developing during the 1960s was pop art.

Pop artists questioned the traditional definitions of art. They proposed the then sensational idea that everyday items and mass media images could be considered forms of art. Why not?

My favorite pop artist from the 1960s is Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein is most well known for his paintings inspired by comic book panels.

Lichtenstein was originally inspired to recreate comic book panels in his work when one of his sons pointed to a panel of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and challenged his father to do better. Lichtenstein went on to use comic books as the source for much of his artwork.

Characteristics of comic book panels that commonly appear in Lichtenstein's work include:

• Ben-Day dots (the dots comprising pictures in comic books)
• Vibrant colors
• Thought bubbles
• Speech balloons
• Written sound effects

I like Lichtenstein's work so much because I agree with the idea that comic books are an art form. Although I do not regularly read any comic books, I recognize the amount of effort that goes into drawing and writing these books.

Lichtenstein celebrates the drama and vivacity of comic panel artwork on a grand scale that draws me in on different levels of emotion and imagination. What do you think?