Hi everyone,
While I work my fingers off to finish the first draft of Mystic Storm, you can find me over at the Seven Scribes where I’m sharing tips for beating the Time Bandits –
Stop Thief!! Beating the Time Bandits.
television
Nostalgic Memories of Muppets and Samurai
This past weekend I practically overdosed on nostalgia. Two television programs from my formative years made an appearance.
The first had me wondering – why are there so many songs about rainbows?
Guesses anyone?
Yes, for those of us a certain age, that would be the opening lyric to The Rainbow Connection sung by the loveable Muppets.
Friday night, I decided to watch the 2011 movie – The Muppets. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s about about three fans who help the Muppets try and save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon (played fiendishly by Chris Cooper). As expected, it was a pleasant combination of drama, humor and songs. I loved it and immediately watched it again with my hubby.
Back in the day, I watched The Muppet Show every week and it was really nice to remember how different life was back in the late seventies and early eighties. And while I have never completely watched the original Muppet movie, I still got all teary when Kermit sang The Rainbow Connection.
The other program that ate up most of my Sunday was the mini-series Shogun. Anyone remember it? I sure do. And I’ve watched it in re-runs before, however, Encore actually showed scenes that I know were never aired in the States back in September 1980.
For example, I know that there was no nudity or serious curse words (like the F-word!!). And there are scenes from the book that were filmed but never shown – like the entire love story between Kiku and Omi. So in some ways it was like discovering the series all over again.
But the best moment for me was when younger son flopped onto the couch next to me, watched Richard Chamberlain for a moment then asked, “Is that Chuck Norris?”
Seriously, sometimes you can’t make this stuff up!
60 Inches of Glory!
Well, it finally happened. A moment that I wished for and dreaded at the same time – our big screen television died. I admit for the last few years, I’ve had a serious case of TV envy. Everyone around us was upgrading to sleek, thin paneled models while we still had a big behemoth projection box. But there was no way we were going to buy another TV as long as the old one worked.
Then, a few weeks ago, the TV started acting up. I knew the symptoms. We’d had this brand before and it showed signs of imminent demise, the non-operable kind. I could barely contain my glee, but remained silent since I know Hubby would not be receptive to any TV replacement overtures.
When we bought our 50″ TV a mere eight years ago, it was not quite cutting edge HD, but it was better than what we’d had before – a 36 incher. A few years ago, we switched to ATT Uverse and started using the lone HDMI port and our picture got even better.
Earlier, I mentioned dread – that would be the cost of replacing the television. Well, we had to bite the bullet. The old TV died on a Sunday and there was no way I was missing all my favorite programs.
After cruising around our town comparing features, prices, and the amount of HDMI ports, we purchased a new 60 inch HDTV at Costco. For good measure, I bought a blue ray player and Hubby added a sound bar.
Woohoo! We plugged that baby in and connected all the new toys and HOLY CRAP, we spent the entire day glued to the television. The picture quality was so incredible and different from what’d been watching that I thought my brain would overload.
The real mind freak moment came when we played a blue ray copy of Thor. We meant to watch just a few minutes for comparison purposes, but that didn’t happen. Two hours later and with copious amounts of drool (that would be mine – hello, shirtless Chris Hemsworth), we collectively realized that we’d re-watched the entire film.
And I awoke from my HD induced stupor and thought – crap! I haven’t written a thing today. Agggh!
After a week of – wow, look at that picture – I’m finally back on track. I completed the first draft of my new book. And surprise, it’s not Mystic Storm. Once I have the blessing of my excellent beta-readers, I’ll share more details.
In the meantime, in case you missed it – here’s the cover to The Undead Space Initiative coming soon in July! I’m very excited to share this book with everyone.
And if you haven’t stopped by the Scribes today, I’d love it if you’d visit and join in the discussion – Sex and Zero G.
Who else loves their TV set? If not, what is your dream/favorite gadget?
Casey Wyatt 