Enter The Dragon--40th Anniversary

It seems like only yesterday. We often bought out of town papers in the seventies (because my Dad liked to read different comic strips). One Sunday afternoon we got one with an article about how Bruce Lee, the former TV star of THE GREEN HORNET, had become a big star in Hong Kong movies. At that stage, I would have been 14 and I'm not sure I had realized up to that point that there were such things as whole movie industries that never released their films in the US. I was intrigued, particularly when the article said that he was working on a big budget US movie at that time. 

Cut to a few months later when I spot a new magazine on the stands called FIGHTING STARS with a big article about that new movie, apparently to be called THE DEADLY THREE.

Cut to a couple weeks later when ENTER THE DRAGON plays as a sneak preview on a Saturday Night at Cincinnati's Grand Theatre. My friend Terry and I go and are majorly excited! By that point, we had already seen 5 FINGERS OF DEATH and a few Jimmy Wang Yu pictures.

Cut to just a week later and I'm reading Bruce lee's obituary in the newspaper.

R.I.P.

I saw ENTER THE DRAGON 5 times that summer, 4 at the Grand and once, when it finally left there, at Covington's Madison Theater.

At the latter venue, they gave out the free poster above which adorned my wall for years.

Here's a link to an updated version of a piece I wrote on Bruce and ENTER THE DRAGON back in 2006.

http://bookstevebijou.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-films-of-bruce-lee.html

Say No To Book Burning

I was not in Boston during the bombings and I can only imagine that it was a thousand times more nightmarish there than reading about it from here which was pretty bad itself! I don't personally know anyone who was killed or maimed or otherwise traumatized by the evil that happened there.

I am not outraged by the current issue of ROLLING STONE featuring a cover photo of the bombing "suspect" that I've already seen scores of times on the Internet. As a former bookstore manager and Librarian for nearly 3 decades, I've seen controversial magazine covers come and go. And that's just it. They go. When the next issue comes out, this one will be gone.

 But people are still hurting from the bombings, emotionally and mentally as well as physically. Perhaps more so for most! One person has called for a public burning of the ROLLING STONE issue, with results to be tweeted. I'm sorry but this is NOT an acceptable reaction!

Not a day goes by without someone bringing up the fact that the US is becoming more like Nazi Germany every day. Sometimes this is said by the same people that say the US is becoming more like the Soviet Union every day. People don't understand. They know the images but not the details.

One of the most disturbing images I have of Nazi Germany burned its way into my consciousness when I first saw pictures and read about it as a teenager. Books. Burning. Books. On fire. Ideas and thoughts dying.

It certainly didn't help that, as a comic book collector, I saw similar images of comic books being cheerfully burned in America in the 1950s, two decades after the Nazi book burnings and a full decade after the rest of the world had showed the Nazis that it was unacceptable!

Ray Bradbury was impacted strongly by the same images that I had seen. In his case, he responded with FAHRENHEIT 451. I first read it in the early seventies and it became my all-time favorite novel. The movie from 1966, although flawed, contains some striking imagery.

In the novel the totalitarian government purposely burns books because books make you THINK and thinking is not good if you're trying to keep the populace under control. The same people who complain about our country becoming more like Nazi Germany don't GET the fact that book burning-- idea destroying--is where it really starts.

If you don't want to look at this week's issue of ROLLING STONE, don't do it. Many stores have refused to carry it. I'm not thrilled with that fact either as censorship is censorship. Defending things you strongly dislike and disagree with is part and parcel of free speech. Free speech doesn't mean that only things you LIKE can be said by others.

That said, don't follow this misguided person's suggestion. Don't BURN it! If you do, what's next? Burning other things you don't like--books, magazines, CDs. It's easy to start but where does it end? In Nazi Germany it ended when they started burning PEOPLE they didn't like!

THINK for yourselves and don't overreact. I haven't looked at an issue of ROLLING STONE in years and if you don't want to, you don't have to...but if someone DOES want to, they have a right to do so.

Jerry and Joe

I'm reading Brad Ricca's new dual bio on Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. While waiting to finish and review it, here are some images of Jerry and Joe garnered from around the Net. Jerry Siegel remains both the most important single figure in the history of comic books as well as its most tragic victim. On the one hand, one can make the very legitimate argument that the industry itself wouldn't even exist today without Jerry. But it's plain to see that that industry screwed him over every chance it got...and continues to do so to his heirs. I missed my chance to meet him at a Chicago Con back in the eighties when he canceled due to illness that weekend. A fascinating man. Review coming soon.

 

Pictorial Arts Journal

There's a vague unspoken brotherhood amongst bloggers that I discovered when I entered the blogging world myself 8 years ago. Yes, there are a few bad apples but for the most part bloggers are very supportive of other bloggers. One such person who has been very supportive to me over the years has been Thom Buchanan who has the artistically eclectic THE PICTORIAL ARTS at  http://mydelineatedlife.blogspot.com and the great Walt Kelly blog, WHIRLED OF KELLY at http://whirledofkelly.blogspot.com. While I was on hiatus earlier this month due to the flood, Thom shared with me his latest creation, THE PICTORIAL ARTS JOURNAL. To say it's gorgeous would be doing it a disservice. This virtual book is a thing of absolute artistic beauty, offering up paintings and photos and sketches that cover a wide range from The Renaissance itself to Renaissance Fairs. Take a few minutes and enjoy!

http://pictorialartsjournal.blogspot.com

Betty, Veronica and Harvey

The Harvey Award nominations are out and Archie Comics got quite a few of them! Congrats to my Facebook friends Paul Kupperberg, Bob Smith and Dan Parent but special congratulations to my friend  Craig Yoe, whose volume, THE ART OF BETTY AND VERONICA (with Vic Gorelick) is nominated in the category, SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION. I suggested a number of the selections for the book as well as proofread the final version. We just last   week finished up the follow-up volume, THE ART OF ARCHIE: THE COVERS. 

Rare Beatles Pics

I now have nearly a thousand rare Beatles photos that I've collected hither and yon around the Net. I feel so sorry for these four men that so much of their lives were photographed nearly 24/7 for so long!

Star Trek Continues

Considering how big a STAR TREK fan I've been for decades (see my high school journal blogs), it's surprising I haven't written more about its various incarnations here. The recent second Abrams feature was the first Trek-related anything I haven't seen since the time VOYAGER and DEEP SPACE NINE lost their local affiliates back in the nineties!

Around the time I was staying home from the theater last month, however, I discovered STAR TREK CONTINUES.

There have been many STAR TREK fan projects in recent years and most of them do an amazing job as only true OCD Trekkers and Trekkies could do. Many have gone so far as to get original cast members to participate in one capacity or another. I should probably write about them someday.

But not today. Let's not beat around the bush. STAR TREK CONTINUES is the one that finally gets it ALL right!

The first of many promised episodes, "Pilgrim of Eternity" is an actual sequel to the original series second season episode entitled "Who Mourns for Adonais?" They've gone so far as to bring back actor Michael Forest from the original episode as the now suddenly aged God, Apollo. Forest's real-life spouse, Diana Hale, herself a veteran of 7 decades in show business appears as well.

The seemingly required "real" cast member appearance is provided subtly by Marina Sirtis, NEXT GEN's Counselor Troi, taking the place of the late Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as the voice of the Enterprise computer.

Stunt-casting aside, whether a project like this really works depends on the regular crew and they are almost to a man letter-perfect! Scotty is played by the original Scotty's son, Chris, who manages to channel his father eerily at times in voice and mannerisms. Sulu is played by MYTHBUSTERS co-star Grant Imahara. My wife is a big MYTHBUSTERS fan and shouted out his name as soon as Sulu appears in the episode! Mr. Spock, often a tricky casting point in these things, is played logically by Todd Haberkorn and the rest of the cast fill their roles, if anything, more recognizably than their big-screen, big-budget Abrams counterparts! There's even a brand-new female doctor who's garnered much fan attention without being a shoehorned "Mary Sue" character.

The guiding light behind this project, though, is Vic Mignogna, a man who has mainly made his living from dubbing anime into English according to IMDB. Vic is Executive Producer, Director and even Captain Kirk! Deftly managing to avoid making his performance a William Shatner imitation, Vic nonetheless portrays the Captain Kirk we all know with great aplomb. It's obvious he's studied not the actor but the character. In certain light, he even looks remarkably like the young Kirk!

Speaking of lighting, Vic has even made sure that the incredibly replicated sets are lit throughout exactly the way the series was lit, giving the whole thing a nostalgic, technically perfect, almost time travel feel!

The story itself is a smart one, very much in the style of the sixties series, complete with a most satisfying ending. It's only months after the original episode and the Enterprise runs into Apollo yet again, now vastly aged. After his mate dies, Kirk cautiously allows his one-time enemy to be nursed back to health over the growing objections and fears of some crew members. Old-time character actors are the best and Forest proves that here with a trickier performance even better than his sometimes over-the-top original.

Overall, to any real STAR TREK fan, there is quite literally NOTHING here not to like! Paramount allows these types of projects only because they are not done for profit but, of course, they inevitably DO cost a lot. Mignogna is said to have standing sets and willing actors and more will be forthcoming. In the meantime, the show's website does offer several short vignettes spotlighting various characters and leading us forward from the final moments of the last episode of the original STAR TREK.

Like we said back in the seventies, STAR TREK LIVES! Even better, though, STAR TREK CONTINUES!

Go here and enjoy--- http://www.startrekcontinues.com You can also join the show's active Facebook fan page to keep up on new developments!