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a festival of lights
Watchers: Thanks to yahoo news some of us were alerted to the magnificent annual Geminids meteor shower. Who knew that once a year, the twilight sky is streaked with the orange, yellow and green remains of the extinct comet, Phaethon?
I stumbled upon this fact at 12am, Dec 14th, 10 minutes before the supposed peak for NYC viewing. That didn’t stop this superhero: I rushed outside in my pajamas, in clumsy snow boots, a puffy winter coat, winter hat and (what else?) my tri-corder (iphone). Sky gazing is a great way to reconnect yourself with a certain peace: to witness the vastness of the universe, its glories and mysteries.. it humbles you and reminds you that you are something outside the persona of your offices, families, friends… The fact that this meteor shower happens during the month of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, and Christmas and the Winter Solstice, the Return of Light, makes this spectacle even more special. Take your little watchers outside for a real holiday gift next year: it’s only going to get stronger and more visible with every year. And if you have a cool iphone Star Maps application, you can aim your tri-corder into the sky and sing out the names of each star to your tyke like a soothing lullaby.
Star maps
Watchers of all sorts and space travelers: this iphone app is a must for your urban space odyssey. With the new gps capability of the phone, you just aim your Star Trek tri-corder into the sky and it outlines the celestial mosaic for you, name, coordinates and all. Looking to catch a ride on a passing comet? To figure out where to aim your ship if Venus is in your vacation plans? This app will help you.
Further evidence that Star Trek is becoming a reality. Who is laughing now, non-Trekkies?
Mission: Space
Wannabe Astronauts, Trekkies, and Nova-sympathizers, listen up: If you want the thrill of your life and don’t have millions of dollars or the balls for the real thing, Mission: Space should be your pilgrimage in life. It might very well be the closest thing you’ll have to a real space odyssey. A spiritually uplifting moment (to make up from the tears of joy shed on the Silver Golf Ball, to be blogged about soon) that I can only describe as a mind-f*ck if it wasn’t real and I didn’t really go to Mars. Mission: Space – continue reading …
Why all of you are trekkies
Those of you who think you are not sci fi fans or trekkies, think again… Did you know that the inspiration behind the invention of the cell phone are the communicators and tricorders used in Star Trek? Don’t know what a tricorder is? Well time to read up and just give into Trekkie coolness. And now that we have touch pads, well… it’s getting more and more like what Spock, Kirk and Picard use when going where no man has gone before…
And to further show you how cool some Trekkies are, here is a pin up by the artist Jesus Diaz.
So next time you are texting, googling, blabbing and slaving over your cell phone, remind yourself of the truth. You are really a trekkie. And by texting so much, your fingers will slowly begin to curl permanently into the Vulcan live long and prosper sign. It’s a secret trekkie joke of the inventor.
how dumb we’ve become
Link to brandsalsa.com for an article on this name change, no relation to salsa dancing that I know of.
My normally relaxing, utterly transporting experience of watching Star Trek: The Next Generation was interuppted by an abomination on my TV set. The Sci-Fi channel has changed it’s name and logo to Syfy. How dumb have we become that we take a channel devoted to smart, cool things with a cool planet symbol and correct spelling to a dumbed down, bubble gum font brand? I can’t see this logo without cringing. It’s Sci Fi, I liked to be remind of the SCIENCE and the FICTION, not a cutesy name. The F doesn’t even get a capital letter. The linked article tells you the reality behind this, but right now it doesn’t sit well with me.
By the way, if you’re sensitive to caffeine, don’t drink a frappé after 5pm. I think I’ll be blogging for awhile. Darn foodies turned me into a caffeine freak.
Beam me back to Earth, young Scottie
Roc Belushi asked me to give some words on the new Star Trek movie. Unlike when the Matrix came out, I did not declare the day a national holiday, take off from work and go alone to preserve the holiness of the experience. I didn’t feel this way because of what I saw in the trailer. Because odysseys sometimes take us to outerspace, here’s what I gots to say about the new Star Trek movie. It was an enjoyable movie experience overall, but irritating nevertheless. I really think I am saying it was enjoyable because everyone who saw it says they loved it. Here was the most enjoyable moment for me, and it was over quick. I’m not sure if there are many girls that get aroused at the sound of the Enterprise’s distinguishable “pulse” chirp, that tell-tale sign that you’re on the original bridge of the Enterprise. I won’t take the puritan Trekkie route (Lord, they filled the theater Saturday night) in this critique, but my excitement ended there. Beam me back to Earth, young Scottie – continue reading …
Street Cookie: Revelations
The street cookie I passed on a sidewalk of Buenos Aires has generated many theories. Divafish offered the scientific explanation that the red jelly is what holds the smiling face together while the rest of its fragile cookie frame crumbled to dust. LL offered a spiritual assessment on the state of the sidewalk cookie: twas karma that formed the cookie that way, and who are we to judge its form, and offer it any type of pity or praise? I delved deeper into what struck me so much about this cookie. I searched real hard why it demanded an explanation, where have I seen this cookie face before? I started to realize that it reminded me of a supernova. See its spiraling arms? For those who don’t know, a supernova is a stellar explosion, different than a nova, so take note JP and you’ll understand the origins of my name. A Nova is “a star that ejects some of its material in the form of a cloud and become more luminous in the process” (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). So I’m in this Buenos Aires homey restaurant, trying to ignore the paintings on the wall of men with daggers knived into their hearts dripping with blood the same color of the red stew I’m being served (it’s a tango thing, I suppose). The man in the painting is almost smiling as his heart is being stabbed, an Argentinian Mona Lisa, and this reminds me of the cookie too. I left it at that, but six months later I’m still thinking of the cookie, whom I now assign celestial significance. And then the chasm of my nerdiness calls out, it whispers to me in a Yoda-like voice, You know where you’ve seen this street cookie before! Search your heart well… Dear readers, this cookie made an appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation, episode 151, “Timescape”! Its origins are a lapse of temporal narcosis, time travel not being normal, when Captain Picard draws a smiley face in the cloud of a warp core breach as the Enterprise and a Romulan warbird are frozen in a state of absolute destruction.
So my readers, you’ve been subjected to a Trekkie moment, but now that I’ve given you more reflection on Street Cookie, I ask you for your words or pictures: have you ever seen a smiley face on something in the throes of chaos, catastrophe or cataclysm, a gesture utterly displaced from its apocalyptic surroundings?
