January 26, 2004

• NO!
• This hurt so much I could only watch about 30 seconds of it. Shatner is my hero, though, for his perserverance, and the fact that he has yet to realise what a deeply fucking rubbish fool he is.
• What!?! Shatner is a living god who is rightly worshipped by millions! Those who forsake his love and refuse to bow before him deserve only the contempt of all right-thinking persons (and endless torture in the dankest pits of hades)!
• Wait ... I'm thinking of Nimoy. Sorry.
• I'm sure Shatner knows there are people out there that think he's an antiquated quasi-actor whose contribution to acting was stilletto words and pauses between syllables and that his contribution to music is nothing but negative, but there are also people out there that genuinely like him and maybe even like his "singing". Of course, those people probably think Elvis lives in their basement, but who am I to judge? Has anyone read his blog? It might have been linked here before. I love the way he pimps himself as a voicemail "voice".
• MR. TAMBOURINE MAN!!!
• From tracicle's link: This year we had a new edition, my granddaughter, Kaya, who is a year and a half. Of course, she
• I wish I could master the delicate balancing act of self-effacing pomposity that Shatner has. I'd probably have the lead in the next Star Trek series... or the next version of Iron Chef USA...
• 1) Shatner is my Personal God. 2) Everything you've written about him is true. 3) Shatner is still my Personal God. Maybe pro/anti-Shat is an age thing? (I'm 41...) When I was in my pubescent years, he was THE MAN and EVERYONE thought so. I'll bet it is an age thing, because by the time younger kids got into ST he really had become this bloated... thing. Still my P.G., however, as Bloated Thinginess creeps ever closer as the seasons pass....
• I still think he was hot in Star Trek. It's only when he speaks that I feel the need to poke fun. "Spock...where...on earth...are we?!"
• a) Shatner isn't actually as staccato in his speaking as everyone (including himself) teases him for being. b) He's a really good sport about the teasing - and his "I'm a movie star" ego is all that - just sporting. For years, even when I was liking the original series of Star Trek (it comes and goes, like my appreciation of peanut butter), I though: wow, Shatner is so bad. Why did they hire him? Then, I was in a short film. I studied drama for four years, thought I was pretty decent, and had been told so by people whose taste I respected. Man, was I awful - stagey, overacted, it's painful to think about. Okay, only mildly annoying rather than searing, because I know why. I had been trained solely in theatre acting, which is just a different kettle of fish. For one thing, you are taught to be "big" - something which can read terribly on film. In that short film, most of us were students or amateurs - and most of the best people were those who had no theatre training to unlearn (the other few were just brilliant actors who were familier with both mediums). This has given me an entirely new appreciation for Shatner, who had been a theatre actor (and was at Stratford in Ontario - if you're not familier with it, it's a very prestigious company, and you have to be damn good to be cast. Or (lately) a famous tv star : ( I also have become more aware of how film acting styles have changed over the last 100 years. I love silver screen movies (especially c.1935-1955) but the acting (as well as writing and directing) style is something the viewer has to get used to. In fact, when judged against the standards of his time, Shatner fits right in. When judged against the standards of 1960's science fiction TV shows, he was an Olivier! Have you seen some of those walking planks? My door could give a better performance than most of the leading men in 1960's scifi! I would take Shatner's funny, quirky, and yet still quite subtle acting over them anyday. (Go back and watch the tribble episode, and there are some beautiful, very delicate moments, including the famous tribbles falling scene) But his singing -- yeah, he was crack when he decided that was a good idea.
• I think there are two rules to understanding William Shatner: 1.) Never take anything he does or says more seriously than he does. 2.) William Shatner never takes anything, including himself (especially himself), seriously. I'd love to have a cell phone that screamed "KHAN!!!" when it rang. Think about it, you're sitting in a meeting, you forgot to turn off your cell phone, and all of a sudden, KHAN!!! KHAN!!! KHAN!!!
• Dirigible - that would be amazing. Can you program a cell phone with any sound file? How do these new ring things work? Bona fide luddite, and didn't you know that thing will give you cancer!?
• I found this from Shatner's bio on IMDb. He understudied Christopher Plummer in a stage production of "Henry V". He's a theatre actor at heart.
• With my old school Nokia, you have to send the file to the phone in a text message. Usually you have to pay for these files. I'm not sure how the polyphonic phones work.
• Lyre, lyre, pants on fire.
• it's gonna be a long long time.
• Wouldn't a thread revive benefit from a touch of Shatner performing Rocket Man given that You Tube wasn't even around when this thread started? I think YES.
• of course, I thought the original link was only an audio link, but then remembered that real media can also be video but then HAH - original link seems to be dead, to me.