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?

Sad News from the Monkees

I was so sad to hear today that the Monkees' Davy Jones has died. He was only 66.

I know that a lot of people consider the Monkees to be a "fake band." Their show The Monkees capitalized on the success of the Beatles' comedic movies A Hard Day's Night and Help. In their show, the Monkees partake in various shenanigans but still have time to make some groovy tunes.

I count the Monkees among my favorite musical groups. Even if they were put together for the commercial success of a TV show, each one of the Monkees was talented. I enjoy listening to the music that these talented individuals produced together.

Throughout my life, I have been able to identify with such hits as "I'm a Believer," "Last Train to Clarksville," and "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone." The happiness and satisfaction that I feel while listening to the Monkees' music is enough for me to respect them as a musical group, no matter how they may have been formed.

I will always think of Davy Jones fondly when I listen to one of my favorite songs, "Daydream Believer." He will be greatly missed.

"The Largest Music Gathering Ever"

Although I have been focusing on 1960s pop culture so far, today I wanted to write about something that resulted from 1960s pop culture. The 1969 Woodstock rock festival inspired the July 28, 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen.

Over 30 artists had performed at Woodstock, but only 3 major bands performed at Watkins Glen, which also took place in New York:

• The Allman Brothers Band
• The Grateful Dead
• The Band

Although far fewer musicians performed at Watkins Glen, the turnout was greater than at Woodstock by about 100,000 people: 600,000 people attended the Summer Jam, which was advertised as "The Largest Music Gathering Ever."

This huge turnout of young rock fans naturally produced a number of intriguing stories at the Summer Jam. Pirate radio station CFR AM broadcast the event. Each band performed for astonishing lengths of time; the Grateful Dead gave the longest concert at 5 hours. There was even one young woman who gave birth at Watkins Glen.

My mom was one of the 600,000 rock fans in attendance at the Summer Jam. She was happy to be a part of the experience but acknowledged that the event did not have as much cultural impact as Woodstock did.

Rock fan Robb Strycharz wrote an account of the Summer Jam. He gave some explanation as to why the huge turnout at Watkins Glen did not make much history. Strycharz explains that "the protests, the placards, the defiance, and the true revolutionary zeal of the young had actually subsided" since the 1960s. While young people in the 1970s still loved coming together for rock, they may not have had as much desire for social change as for listening to music. The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen shows an interesting social transition between the 1960s and 1970s.

Go-Go Boots!

Today I woke up to see a couple of inches of snow outside my window . . . I wish I had worn boots today!

I realize that thus far in my blog, I have written about parts of 1960s pop culture like TV, movies, and music. Today I thought I would talk about some 1960s fashion—in particular, go-go boots!

My mom had a pair of go-go boots when she was growing up, and they always sounded like so much fun to wear/dance in when she talked about them. I've been reading about the history of go-go boots this week, and I learned some interesting facts:

• The word go-go comes from the French word la gogue, meaning joy or happiness.
• Before go-go boots became popular, it was unusual for women to wear boots in nice weather.
• Nancy Sinatra's song "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" increased the popularity of go-go boots.

After seeing some of the different varieties of go-go boots, I am tempted to buy a pair!

But soft! Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I have been thinking lately of one of my favorite movies: Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, which premiered in 1968. My first experience with the play Romeo and Juliet was not completely positive. I went on a class field trip to see a production of it when I was 12 or 13. Because I had never read the play before, I had some trouble understanding the dialogue. Even so, I remember not liking the cold, empty sets of this modernized rendition of the play.

When I was 14, I read the play in English class my freshman year of high school and immediately loved it. My English teacher only fed the fire when he showed my class Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet.

I loved the movie because it played so well off of my imagination. I especially love that the lead actors, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, were so young. Earlier movie renditions of the play had cast older veteran actors in the roles of Romeo and Juliet. But I think that the angst and energy of Whiting and Hussey are a perfect match for the intense drama of Romeo and Juliet. And after studying abroad in Rome, I now appreciate even more the movie's beautiful setting of Renaissance Italy. I still get chills just watching the trailer.

While reading about the movie this week, I found an original review of the movie from The New York Times. I don't completely agree with everything that the review says. I would hardly describe the Nurse as "cold," for example. However, as I mentioned above, I heartily agree with the review's statement that the lead characters are "as young and full of life as they ought to be." If you have seen the movie, what do you think?