Oh, man, the news about Andreas Katsulas was sad, but this is downright depressing: Phil Brown, the actor who played Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen, has also died. He was 89.
Feb162006
Archives
Feb162006
Andreas Katsulas
Well, this is a bummer: Peter David is reporting that Andreas Katsulas has died of cancer at the age of 59. Katsulas is one of those terrific character actors whose name you probably don’t know, but whose face ought to be instantly familiar. He’s done dozens of film and TV roles over the years, usually playing a heavy of some kind. Genre fans will remember him as Ambassador G’Kar on the cult-fave series Babylon 5, as well as the recurring character of Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation, while more mainstream movie-goers know him as the dastardly One-Armed Man in the Harrison Ford version of The Fugitive.
I wasn’t a regular viewer of B5, but I caught it frequently enough to be impressed by Katsulas’ talent. The character he played was a reptilian alien, requiring him to all but bury his distinctive features under make-up appliances, but his great power as an actor shone through all the latex, making G’Kar, curiously, one of the most sympathetic and emotional characters on the series. The character was tragic, filled with frustration and rage at the fate of his species but essentially noble and haunted by the things circumstance forced him to do. Katsulas was utterly convincing in the part, and that’s saying something; not many actors are that good in extensive make-up, and most aren’t any good at all.
I haven’t found much in the way of official obituaries for him, but his B5 co-star Bill Mumy has a brief, fond note on his website, and Peter David’s wife Kathleen tells a heartwarming tale that I think explains what kind of man he must’ve been as well as anything could.
Feb152006
Cheney Takes the Blame
“It was not Harry’s fault. You can’t blame anybody else. I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.”
Frankly, I’m stunned. I’ve been working off-and-on all afternoon on a ranty post in which I excoriate Darth Cheney for his stubborn silence on this shooting incident and the Bush White House in general for being so pathologically dead-set on never, ever admitting any kind of mistake whatsoever, and now the guy’s gone and accepted responsibility for something. All the wind has officially left my sails…
Feb152006
Ruthie Wins an Award!
You may recall back in August when I announced that my friend Ruthie Ellenson’s first book had just been published. Well, there’s been further news regarding Ruthie and her book. I’ll let the message I just received from her husband, the irrepressible Cranky Robert (as he’s known in these parts), speak for itself:
Hi everyone,
I’m very happy to announce that Ruthie’s book *The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt* has won the *National Jewish Book Award* for women’s studies!!!!
I’m sure everyone joins me in wishing Ruthie a very *big congratulations* on a truly great achievement!!
All the best,
Robert
So now not only do I know a published author, I also know an award-winning author. Props to me! Oh, and, of course, to Ruthie…
Seriously, this is a very cool development. I’m sure the rest of my tiny little following here at Simple Tricks will join me in giving Ruthie our most sincere congratulations.
Feb142006
More Valentine’s Fun
Author Neil Gaiman has written a small Valentine’s Day poem:
Roses are red,
Violets are purple,
Which is a very hard word to rhyme
And makes me happy that on February the 14th we don’t traditionally have to give each other oranges.
Um, yeah… me, too, Neil.
Feb142006
Star Wars Valentines
In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a sampling of homemade (i.e., Photoshopped) Valentines with a Star Wars theme. I must admit, most of them are pretty lame (although these aren’t any lamer than the professionally made SW Valentines you can buy at your favorite Mart-type store), but there are some genuinely funny ones to be found. For instance, you’ve got Luke pledging to give his right hand for you, followed by the return of FrankenVader (Robert, that one’s for you). You’ve got a funny but disturbingly kinky one involving Leia and Jabba. And then there’s my favorite, for those who have a very high sense of devotion to the cause…
Happy V-Day, everyone.
Feb142006
Don’t Mention the Hair…
If you, like me, are showing the world more and more of your skull with each passing year, through no desire or action of your own, and you’re not terribly happy about that state of affairs, fear not, for Bruce Willis knows your pain:
You’ve all seen it, you’ve all read it, you’ve all seen the little things trying to make you feel less of a man because you’re losing your hair, but they can all suck my… you know what I mean? I’m a man and I will kick anybody’s ass who tries to tell me that I’m not a man because my hair’s thinning.
I try not to be too self-conscious about the hair-loss thing — God knows plenty of other men in my age demo have the same issue these days — but every once in a while it feels really good to ball up my fist and let out a defiant shout, you know?
Feb132006
My Johari Window
Continuing this afternoon’s quest to ignore the deepening stack of material in my inbox, here’s something I found on Scalzi’s AOL Journal: an interactive Johari window. This is an Internet version of a ’50s-vintage psychological model used for mapping personality awareness. It works by having the test subject — that would be me, in this case — choose from a pre-determined list five or six words that he or she feels describes them best, then asking other people to describe the subject from the same list. Fun awaits as you compare and contrast the answers to see the difference between how the subject sees themselves versus how everyone else sees them. Since I naturally want to be just like Scalzi, I’ve followed his example and set up my own Johari window. Assuming my three loyal readers go through with this, I’ll post the results in a few days. Here’s the link:
Have fun, kids…
Feb132006
Ten Ways Cheney Can Kill You
On the heels of the previous entry, here’s another funny: a pictorial representation of the Ten Ways Vice President Dick Cheney Can Kill You, courtesy of Boing Boing. Curiously, none of them involves a shotgun…
Feb132006
Monday One-Liner
I don’t know about you, but I’m having a Monday… I’ve had no particular disasters or anything, but I’m plagued by a general inability to get back into the work-week groove. So naturally I’m killing time on the InterWeb, looking desperately for things that may amuse me. Things such as, for instance, the following quip from TV comedy writer Ken Levine, discussing his weekend run to San Diego:
San Diego’s premiere strip club, the Body Shop is still in business… which is a relief because I still have my lifetime pass from 1974. Only problem is, the strippers from 1974 are still there.