I meant what I said in my previous post about no longer posting, but this is an exception, because I have to ask an important question of all you loyal readers and because I just told Brennan that the only contact I would have with him over break was through X-anga, so now I feel obligated to write a bit of what I've been doing.  But first, my question: Does anyone remember seeing a made-for-TV movie that aired on the Wonderful World of Disney one Sunday night perhaps as early as the early 80s?  It was called "Earth Star Voyager" and it was about this ship full of adolescents that was going to find a new home for the human race because Earth had become "too polluted".  They were all kids because the round-trip would take approximately 27 years, even using the "Bowman Drive".  They did all sorts of cool things like run from evil Admiral Beasley and his allies in the OTZ (which stood for Outlaw Technology Zone . . . an incredible name for a band) and find Captian Jacob Brown, the last surivor of the "Vanguard Explorer" (which would be an even cooler band name . . . "Vanguard Explorer and the OTZ"). 

I remember this movie because we taped it when it first aired, and since then I have watched it over and over again growing up.  However, somewhere along the line "Snoopy's Musical" got taped over the first half and-- incredibly-- the very end never made it on the video.  The video ran out when we were recording it before the movie ever ended!  And so, ever since I can remember I have been in suspense as to what eventually came of the young crew of the Earth Star Voyager.  Not only that, I could not even remember the situation of their disembarkment from earth in the first place. Their final destination was as much a mystery as the origins of their mission.  They were like those poor souls on the BattleStar Galactica, forever doomed to wander in a lonely quest that had no beginning or end, completely ignored by everyone besides those few who had bits and pieces of their journey documented on old videos somewhere.

Why, though, do I mention this now?  I mention it to you, and ask if anyone else has seen this movie, because the long wait is finally over!  For years I would search video stores for copies of "Earth Star Voyager".  When the internet became available I begin to try the search engines.  There was little to no interest in this movie, and no one anywhere was selling copies.  Finally, through a fortuitous turn of events, last month I was contacted with someone who sold DVDs of the movie made from the original recording.  I was thrilled.  I immediately ordered the two-DVD set and am happy to say that since then I have viewed the film in its entirety. 

And now I can tell you what finally became of those intrepid young explorers.  Unfortunately my sister just walked in the door and demands my immediate attention, so I will have to continue this post at a later date.  (I'm also tired of writing.)

In honor of Universal Robb day (go to www.adamkotsko.com for more information) and in the same tradition of his famous posts, a childhood story:

I vaguely remember the phone ringing as mom was tucking me in to bed.  She left, talked for a few moments, and then came back with a slightly exasperated look on her face.  It seemed that tomorrow was Robb’s birthday and— befittingly—a party had been organized for him the very night before.  Perhaps, as I think about it now, it wasn’t really planned so haphazardly.  It’s entirely possible the whole thing was organized weeks in advance, a party room was reserved at Pirate’s Park, and invitations were given out at school.  The problem was that I barely saw Robb at school.  We were close enough in age to have been best friends since I could recall, but just far enough apart—two grades—that we were forever in different classrooms at school and church alike.  So maybe it was only the very night before the birthday party that someone realized I had not been invited.  A phone call was made and disaster was averted.

At least, for everyone else.  Robb’s birthday that year was a turning point in my own life, though he probably has never realized it.  As I said, Robb and I had been best friends for as far back as I could recall.  Sure, I had other friends at church and in my classes at school.  I was vaguely aware in the back of my mind that I was possible Robb did as well, but that was a completely different world, certainly far from the known universe of hymnal-racetracks on the pews during service and Sunday afternoons playing with Battle Beasts in the basement.  Or printing up “Enter and Die” signs for our bedrooms doors on his daisy-wheel printer.  Or sleepovers playing (or, more accurately, watching him play) Atari and very soon later Nintendo.  No, if Robb had other friends they were safely cordoned away in the barely-perceived world of the upper classes of our elementary school.  Suddenly though, the two worlds were about to collide.

I stayed awake that night wondering what Robb’s “older kid” friends could possibly be like.  I imagined football players.  I had the growing suspicion that Robb was starting to become involved in something distinctly different than action figures and cartoons, something known only ominously as “sports”.  Whatever that was, I wanted no part in it.  Whoever these newcomers were, they would become no friends of mine.  They would hate me, and I would hate them.  We might play putt-putt together at Pirate’s Park and celebrate Robb’s birthday over pizza and cake, but we would always be enemies. 

It was futile, I knew.  They were, after all, “big kids”.  What was even more terrifying was not only that they were big kids, but that they were very possibly “cool kids”.  There would be at least thirty of them at the party, I was sure, and they would all laugh at Robb’s little friend who hadn’t bought Robb a cool enough present.  The arrogance!  These fools knew nothing of the magic hole in my basement that transformed Battle Beasts back to just beasts.  They didn’t have enough imagination to grasp ‘Dinosaur’, the game Robb and I had invented.  They didn’t know about the closet in Robb’s basement that was piled to overflowing with Snorks, He-Man, and Go-Bot toys.  They didn’t know what Rock Lords were.  They probably didn’t even care!  They probably—unspeakably—didn’t even have an opinion as to whether Transformers or Go-Bots were the greatest force the universe had ever known.  

It sickened me.  It terrified me.  And, to my eternal shame, when my mom had dropped me off at Robb’s house and we waited for the rest of his friends to arrive before we left for Pirate’s Park, it reduced me to tears.  Yes, there, at Robb’s fifth or sixth or maybe even seventh or eighth birthday party, I retreated to Robb’s bedroom, crouched beside his plastic football-shaped toy-box, and cried.  I don’t really remember anything else about the party.  I don’t remember what Robb or his mom did to console this guest who had suddenly and inexplicably burst into tears.  I know eventually I stopped, because I am relatively sure we made it to Pirate’s Park.  Robb’s friends were of course all good guys who did their part to make me feel welcome (as if the day had anything to do with me), and I’m pretty sure that’s when I met Jon Swartz for the first time. 

But I learned some things.  Sure, Robb grew up, but I was growing up too—albeit always a little behind—so eventually I was okay with it.  It’s kind of like that yellow Transformer that used to have spring-loaded fists that shot off, and you were always losing the fists, until one day years later when the Transformer was long gone you opened a kitchen drawer and found the two plastic fists tucked neatly away.  I learned something that day about childhood that’s kind of like that.  You can’t keep the robot to yourself.  He’s going to go off and grow up and have other friends and other experiences.  But those plastic fists—you’ll always have those.  Those childhood memories will always be tucked away in a kitchen drawer of, um, memories somewhere.  Right.  And then you’ll get them out sometime and IM your old, best friend and you’ll both have a good laugh.

So . . .  yeah.  Here’s to Robb on Universal Robb Day.

Currently Reading The Killer Angels By Michael Shaara see related

"Just dive in.  Squelch the pangs of doubt, ignore the foolish inhibitions, and experience something that makes you uneasy.  Love it for all that it is and for all that it can be.  For nothing great was achieved without some discomfort, some uncertainty, some fear, and no one will ever experience without taking a running leap."
                                                                                            -T. H. Wellenson

Those were your words of wisdom for the day.  And they're free. 

This book to the left I am not actually currently reading, but I recently finished it and it was really good.  It's the book they based the movie Gettysburg off of, which, as we all know, featured the blond-haired guy from Dumb and Dumber as the Union colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the older Sheen as a soft-spoken Robert E. Lee.  If you haven't seen it, it's basically the best war movie of the past decade, so you should rent it and then read this book.

So how is the new background?  I figure, hey, if I'm doing the xanga thing I might as well go all the way.  And the background adds to the poignancy of "Ideal Heroic World (proved inadequate)" because, if you'll remember from Transformers: The Movie, these two characters on screen are wishing their comrades good luck right before leaving on their last, fateful voyage.  This screenshot is, perhaps, the most tragic of all the screenshots from that cult classic, that epic of high-drama and tragedy that is Transformers: The Movie. 

In this scene we see Ironhide and Prowl, two classic characters from the original cartoon, bidding farewell to their human compatriot Spike Wickety as they leave for what they think is a standard shuttle-run to Earth for a fresh supply of energon.  Little do they know that before they ever reach Earth, their craft will be boarded by the Decepticons and they will be mercilessly gunned down along with fellow passengers Brawn and Rachet. 

Sure, some say this was a callous ploy by the team of marketing directors for the film who simply wanted to weed out the old and bring in new characters, new toys, new profits.  But for the young boys who watched in stupified horror it was the ending of innocence.  No longer were our beloved characters protected in the magic cartoon world where all problems were solved within thirty minutes and our heroes were only in danger until after the commercial break.  No, this was war.  Ironhide and Prowl were dead, and we had watch them die before our eyes.  Those shattered metal bodies had been our friends.  We had created adventures for them across countless basement floors over countless afternoons, and now they were gone.  The action figures remained, but the legends-- the heroes-- were dead.  For us who had never lost anything, who still lived in the soft, hazy world of lunch-boxes and afternoon cartoons, something changed that day.  We began to grow up, and we walked away from that movie with the knowledge that--though good will always triumph-- it may indeed be a long, dark journey until all are one.