First Cup of Coffee - February 8, 2019

How I discovered I'm a Trekkie, and other random musings on life, art, Queen, and living with yourself. 

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Good morning everyone. This is Jeffy Kennedy. Here was my first cup of coffee. I got the uh Star Trek mug today. Feeling as if I am cruising onto the bridge of the Starship Enterprise here on Star Date February 8th or Friday. It's very funny. I never really realized that I was a Trekkie. I mean, I maybe because I was never part of the fan communities so much. Um when I was a kid growing up, I was allowed to watch one hour of TV a day. And I almost always spent it on Star Trek because it came on at four o'clock after school. And I just love the original Star Trek. This is back in the old days of the 70s, people. And it would come on on channel four, or I think channel four, maybe it's channel two. Four o'clock in the afternoon. And I would rarely miss it. Um, you know, and they would show it more and less an order, so I would try not to miss it, but you know, it was just on one of these infinite loops. You know, kids these days have it so easy with the, you know, where you can bring up the episode you want to watch. Jeez, many a time I longed to be able to do that. You know, so you would sort of tune in to see if it was an episode you had seen before, and if it was one you really liked, you'd watch it again. Um, always hoping for the episodes that you'd missed along the way. But I hadn't realized, I think, until actually quite recently, that there's a I wouldn't say a division, but you know, one of those, you know, there are two kinds of people, people who think everyone falls into two groups and those who don't. I love that joke. Uh, but you know, that there's two kinds of people, people who love Star Trek or people who love Star Wars. And I hadn't realized that I was in the former group until I realized that even though I like Star Wars, I don't dislike Star Wars. I mean, who dislikes Star Wars? Um, with the exception of um a few, you know, episodes one, two, and three, right? But um I didn't know about it. I didn't have the same attention to detail. And I think it really became clear to me when they started the um Star Trek reboots with Zachary Quinto and uh Quinto? Quinto? Quin Quinto? Who knows? And Chris Pine and uh oh who plays Uhura? Is it Zoe Soldano? Anyway. I I'm a little chagrined that I remember the guy's names and and not hers. It's not Zoe. No, I'm going to have to look. Hopefully I won't disconnect this episode. So anyway, um it became clear to me that uh you know, a lot of people were confused by the Star Trek reboots because they didn't understand the background. I wouldn't say confused, maybe that's not fair, but um I I can't talk and type this into uh IMDB at the same time. I probably shouldn't be trying to do this. But here we go. Yeah, see, even like the first two are Chris Pine and Zach Kinto. It is always Haldano. Okay, you guys were like going, yes, it's always Holdano. Okay, well, she's awesome. I I think she's great. She does uh a really good job of uh bringing that role that which was essentially switchboard operator in the day into the modern era. But anyway, you know, like like David enjoys science fiction stuff, and so he enjoys watching the Star Trek movies with me, but he doesn't get it on the same deep level that I do. He doesn't get the inside jokes, he doesn't get that um like the things they did with the reboot that go back to Kirk's father and all of that. He's like, I'll say, oh, I can't believe they did this, this, and this, you know, and look how they tweaked, you know, changed this from the early episodes. And he's like, oh, well, yeah, I guess I kind of remember that. It's like not the same thing. So, anyway, this is all a very long way of me acknowledging uh my treky heart, where I actually do know tons of trivia about Star Trek and not so much about Star Wars, thus my Star Trek mug with the stylized logo, which is super awesome. I think I put a picture up of it before. I know yesterday I put up a picture of the Gross Beaks, and I think I've got to say anything about them. Uh, even though it's cold here this morning, it's nine degrees. That's the uh polar vortex that uh sliding south as it peters out. The gross beaks are just out there having a serious party. Because it's cold, I do not have the window open, or I would let you hear them, but they are I can hear them through the window, they're just out there making all kinds of noise. Um Minerva Spencer saw that picture on Twitter and she said, Look at those bad boys. And they are kind of bad boys, they're just big birds and brightly colored, and they make a lot of noise, and they are really robust. It's been very fun having them here this winter. Great to have them hanging out with us. My second day of um increased efficiency went very well. Um, not quite I didn't finish quite as early as I did on Wednesday, but I did finish nicely early and um was able and had a much more leisurely afternoon. I'm getting a lot more business type things done in the afternoon. So I'm very pleased with how this is working. Terribly pleased. Um and I've got uh 30,000 words on Lonan's Rain. So I'm rounding the uh on the downhill run to Capah Bay. I always think of that song. The downhill run to the end. So that'll be great. And then up next is Fiery Citadel. And I mentioned that uh cover reveal for Orchid Throne will be next Friday. That'll be exciting. We can start seriously talking about that. I tweaked the BCC on it, so that'll be getting released. Last night we um sprang to watch Bohemian Rhapsody on Amazon. Um David doesn't do movie theaters very well. We did experiment over Christmas when my folks were here, and we went to see um the movie about Cheney. Vice. You know, it's funny, I keep wanting to call it Claw, which I think says something. Vice. And that was interesting to see, um, especially because David grew up in Wyoming and we lived there for 20 years, and so a lot of the um people and scenarios were very familiar to us. And it was a well-done movie. And David did okay on that one. It was a good quiet, quiet movie for him. And we talked about going to see Bohemian Rhapsody, but we worried about the um the music being too loud, even though he loves Queen. So we just never quite got around to it. Wasn't prioritized. And so I saw that it's uh on Amazon. I did not, I know I was supposed to go to the movie with Megan last night. I'd mentioned that yesterday, uh, but that we were maybe gonna go see Green Book, and I ended up bailing on her. Um we have this uh joke. She started it really because she'll often tag her pictures and stuff with okayest mom in the world instead of best mom in the world, which I find very funny. And we've extended it to us, she'll often refer to herself as being the as my okayest friend, not my best friend. So we're not BFFs, we're OFFs, the okayest friends forever. Um, which is it's um, I don't know, a delightful bit of self-irony. And it's one reason why we have a good friendship is because it's okay for us to bail on each other. It's like neither one of us expects the other to be there all the time. You know, uh we can, you know, she'll she'll text me and say, Oh, let's um let's get together sometime soon, and I'll say great when, and she'll never reply. And I'll know she got distracted, and like two two weeks later, she'll text me again and say, Oh, chaest friend, checking in, which you know, I'm I'm perfectly good with, and we understand that about each other. So I texted her yesterday because I thought um, I since I had been out on Monday evening, uh David's very good about, you know, he'll like, oh yeah, whatever you want to do, go have fun. But I felt bad bailing on him last night or abandoning him last night. So I told Megan I checked and saw that we could see Bohemian Rhapsody on Amazon. $20, but you know, less than if we went to the movie theater. So remember the days when a movie ticket cost like five dollars, or you could go for like $3.50 for the matinee? Yeah, I know. That's long ago and far away. I can't believe that you know, that it's like $30 for for movie tickets. I think when uh Megan and I went to see the favorite on Monday night, you know, it was $26 for the two of us. Things have changed. So anyway, paying $19.99 on Amazon and staying at home and drinking our own liquor and eating our own food makes it actually a much cheaper evening. So I told Megan that I thought I'd like to stay in with David and watch that, and that she could come over, and David was gonna make a nice dinner. But it was cold, and we are so spoiled in Santa Fe that we're just like, eh, it's cold, we're just gonna stay inside for two days until it's really nice again. You couldn't do that in Wyoming, but here you can. So we just tucked in last night. We watched Bohemian Rhapsody, not quite all of it, because David got pretty sleepy, so we'll finish it tonight. But uh that's very good, very well done. Rami Malik does an incredible job, and I enjoyed the way that they um it was really amazing seeing the sequence of them mixing Bohemian Rhapsody and really an amazing band for um the variety of stuff that they did. And I thought that seeing I loved when they show the release of Bohemian Rhapsody and they have the snippets of the early reviews really um dissing it, and as a writer, I found that particularly interesting because um sorry, I just got a little distracted. I'm sitting in my chair by the window here, and I have a window that's to the east, and the sun's really coming up now, and there's all these little birds, and there's some it looks like what are those? There's finches, and then there might be bush tits in the tree too, and one of the gross beaks in the tree, and they're all sitting on the branches letting the sun warm them. They're really cute. I'll get a picture of it if I can. We'll see if they're still there when I'm done talking, since we know what happens when I try to take a picture while this is recording. But anyway, as a writer, it's I'm familiar with the uh experience of when you try to do something different, especially that is in some ways ahead of its time, that it's not the standard thing, that you do get those weird reviews where people are just like, I don't even know what this is. This is horrible. I don't know, it makes no sense. It's just a freaking mess. And then I was reading in the trivia too, which I found really kind of wonderful, that apparently Mike Myers, when he made Waynesworld back in the early 90s, that the producers of the movie did not want them to use Bohemian Rhapsody when they were rocking out in the car and wanted them to use a different song. And Mike Myers eventually threatened to walk from the movie if they would not let him use it, and so they caved. And it's that movie's credited with causing a resurgence of the band's popularity in the US. And it the song hit number two on the charts after that movie. So Mike Myers is in the movie and playing the uh record producer who tells them, no, we're not going to release this song because it's too long, no one will play it on the radio. So, you know, what a great circle. I guess um I read that Mike Myers agreed to uh be in the movie without even seeing the script. It was like, yes, yes, I do want to do that. So pretty cool stuff. And um was also reading in the trivia. I hadn't realized that Freddie Mercury had those extra teeth. It's interesting how much his um facial structure is similar to Mick Jagger. We were noticing that, um, or at least as portrayed in the movie, but then you know, then look at pictures and stuff. But uh I was reading in the trivia also that uh apparently Freddie Mercury had uh his voice could vibrate at much higher frequencies than uh the average person's. So yeah, what an extraordinary singer. And one thing David and I were talking about is that this um thing that seems to be true, that you see it a lot. Either people really love it, and so they highlight it in stories repeatedly, or they um or it is something that occurs every time. But it's like um, you know, as people gain success, as they do the thing that they want to do, and they're getting the money and the you know, the fame and all of that, that for a while everything's great while they're in the rush of it. But after some time, their original problems come back when they were showing you know Freddie Mercury being lonely. And you know, it's sort of like uh, you know, no matter what happens, you can't run from yourself. Yeah, your your problems go with you, and you have to find a way to deal with them. We were talking about you know Brian Wilson and uh everything he went through, and sometimes I think that the uh the fame can make it worse. It can be isolating, and something I've mentioned on here that's you know a funny thing for me about putting out books and blog posts and how all the birds have left that bush and the sun's high enough they got warm, so they're all headed out. So no picture for you. But one of the funny things about um you know doing that, the you know, like I had this conversation with my mom the other day where I texted her and I said, I feel like you've been quiet. And she said, Oh, well, I've been listening to your podcast, so I feel like we've talked. And so, you know, it's funny because she hears from me, but then I don't get hear back from people necessarily. So it's always interesting to it's a good one to hear the conversations back so you don't become only someone who shouts out to the world, but that you have uh people talking to you too and connecting with you. Of course, that's not helped by the fact that I'm you know like no, I'm not answering my phone between these hours because I must concentrate on my art. Um, but the concentration's key. That's kind of a both a joke and not. Tomorrow is Lyra, so I get to go down and hang out with my writer peeps. Um going to have brunch beforehand with a friend, so I'm looking forward to that. And I have the big yoga intensive class tomorrow morning, uh, the one that's difficult for me. So think good thoughts for me to be strong and bendy. And um, I don't think I have much else to to tell. I'm gonna be up in Denver the following weekend, the weekend of the 16th, 17th. Going to sell my harp. So all right. I'm going to get to work. Hope you all have a wonderful Friday, a fabulous weekend, and I will talk to you on Monday. Bye bye.