Tim's Travel, Pinball, and Beer Blog
Other things that don’t fall into a neat category
The BEATLES “Birthday” song (youtube.com)
Saturday, actually. But today I left my usual volunteer session at the Historical Society to go to my usual beer session at the Darlene Lounge, and walked into this:
Tomorrow we’re having dinner with John Scalzi. Yeah, John Scalzi – Wikipedia. This is an extremely odd timeline.
No, not the batteries. The whole smoke detector. Yes, all of them.
They’ve got a useful life span of about ten years. Smoke Detector Life Expectancy – Consumer Reports. And unless your house is less than ten years old, you’ve never replaced them.
And you’re supposed to test them once a week. You do test them once a week, right? Yeah; me, either. I replaced six and two of them were completely inoperable.
And they’re inexpensive. The new ones have a ten year battery! Cheap 9-volt batteries are about $2 each; I got six First Alert alarms with ten year battery backup for $62.
Replace your smoke alarms, and save money. And maybe someone’s life.
Some of you might have seen a headline about a Heritage Auction this weekend. Greg Jein, a model designer who created miniatures, died in 2022. They auctioned some of his collectables on Saturday and Sunday.
There were a few cool items that went for a little bit of cash. Like the X-Wing filming miniature for $3.1 million. And other cheaper things like the Storm Trooper costume for $645,000. Or the Starfleet Galileo miniature for $200,000.
These people are nuts. $106,000 for a Batarang? $175,000 for a phaser?
Here’s the story at CNN: Long-lost ‘Star Wars’ X-wing model fetches over $3.1 million at auction | CNN.
But the really interesting thing in that story is the last line.
“A batch of original production scripts meanwhile sold for $27,500.”
That was… us. The Historical Society. I spent the weekend texting with Ryan and Beverly, and we got some pretty cool stuff. Karl Urban and Simon Pegg’s uniforms from 2009 Star Trek. Linda Park (Ensign Sato) from Enterprise. Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamens) from Discovery. Salem the cat from Sabrina.
And those scripts.
Original Production Shooting Scripts from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi with Early File Copy Script for Star Wars (TCF, 1977-83). Vintage collection of (3) scripts including: (1) Production shooting script for Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, 157 pages as paginated (174 total pages including inserted revision pages), Fifth Draft, dated February 20, 1979 with multi-colored revision pages (some as late as 8/24/79), each page bearing the red inkstamped “SW” with serial production security code to prevent/discourage copies getting out prior to the film’s release. One page bears the handwritten name “Bunny” (Bunny Alsup, producer Gary Kurtz’s assistant). Bound in vintage blue heavy card stock binder. Missing front title page (script begins with page 1) and exhibiting age, with some torn punches and handling.
(1) Production shooting script for Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, 107 pages as paginated (115 total pages including inserted revision pages), undated, with revisions dated January 4, 1982 through February 25, 1982. Each page bears the red inkstamped “ROJ” with serial production security code to prevent/discourage copies getting out prior to the film’s release. The script exhibits hand-annotations, arrows and underlines, written in an unknown hand, relating to visual effects sequences including, “View out window?” written above establishing shot “Int. Imperial Shuttle” and “Matte Painting” written above establishing shot “Int. Death Star – Main Docking Bay”, and “Add Shot – Shuttle In Space?” written above establishing shot “Int. Stolen Imperial Shuttle – Cockpit”. One page bears the handwritten name of visual effects art director Joe Johnston. Bound in vintage black heavy card stock binder. Missing front title page (script begins with page 1) and exhibiting age, with some torn punches and handling.
(1) Early File Copy Script for Star Wars entitled The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the “Journal of the Whills” (Saga I) Star Wars, 252 pages, Fourth Draft, January 1, 1976, bound in vintage black heavy stock card stock binder. Exhibiting age, toning with some torn punches and handling. Included are (2) 4″ x 9″ tickets for a preview showing of The Empire Strikes Back at Lakeside Cinema on Tuesday, May 20, 1980. Exhibiting age and handling. Comes with a COA from Heritage Auctions. From the Collection of Greg Jein.
We got a Luke Starkiller script!!
Exhausting, nerve wracking, and ridiculously fun weekend.
Warren Zevon said it best. Enjoy every sandwich. This would have been my 43rd anniversary. Grab the person you love; hold them tight and let them know how much they mean to you. Don’t put it off because you may not get a second chance. Keep them in your heart for a while.
I missed one anniversary. I didn’t want to, but you know, timing and priorities and such. I found this at the bottom of my suitcase. I never missed another. Keep me in your heart for a while.
She was so nervous. She didn’t really want to do a wedding at all. And the church was not a small church. But she survived! And in the back, I was highly amused..
The web site is live at scifimu.org. And yes, all my IT friends, it is not yet redirecting 80 and there is insecure content on 443. We are working on it. But I think the content is gorgeous. The designer is incredibly talented and great to work with.
Today I got up at 5:30AM. I do not believe I’ve seen the ugly side of 8AM since retirement. The Warren-Youngstown Chamber of Commerce had their annual breakfast today, and in order to accommodate the crazy people who still have to work they start it really early. I got there an hour early to help set stuff up. Lots of pushing heavy things around. Down the ramp from the U Haul was OK; up the ramp was… not pleasant.
But it was a great day and went really well. Lots of blinky lights. Story here:
https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/l-a-prop-maker-valley-native-donates-work-to-valley/
OPM shoutout: the President of the chamber is named Guy Coviello. My heart skipped a couple of beats when I read that name on the program.
I’ve mentioned that I’ve started working with the Trumbull County Historical Society. I don’t think I’ve mentioned their new project.
John Zabrucki was born in Warren and ran a company called Modern Props that supplied high tech props for science fiction movies. Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Men In Black, etc. He retired last year and donated a few props to the historical society.
11 full truckloads of props.
They’re trying to get a museum going. In the meantime, all of the props need to be cataloged and stored. And guess who volunteered for that?
I’m wielding The Annihilator. No idea what movie it’s from, but when one runs across a box marked simply ‘THE ANNIHILATOR’, one must open said box.
My local brewery is Modern Methods. Their logo is a variant of Warren’s famous Packard Motor Car hood ornament, the ‘Goddess of Speed’:
Last night they were having a promotion for a local tattoo parlor – $50 gets you a beer and a flash tattoo. I’ve never had any, but I figured at this point everything that can sag has already sagged, mom wasn’t going to yell at me, and I didn’t need to worry about work. So:
Hell, I’d never even been in a tattoo parlor. This is The Box. It was clean, friendly, and everyone there thought me getting my first tattoo at 67 was a hoot. Good times!
One of my favorite museums – and one of the best collections of American art in the country – is just a few miles from me, the Butler Institute of American Art. I’m a member and go there often. It doesn’t hurt that it’s just around the corner from a favorite brewery, Noble Creature Cask House.
I went there yesterday because one of my favorite artists, Anthony Benedetto, passed away at the age of 96. I understand that he also sang. He’s got a lovely piece there:
While I was there, I looked around. They were having their Midyear Exibition. One of the pictures caught my eye:
It was taken by my next door neighbor. That’s her husband – and my house on the left.
And finally, something only a geek would notice.
It’s a lovely acrylic, but look at the border. Hm. All numbers above 31 and under 127. I’ll bet…
Yup. ASCII for ‘Women’s rights 2022’.
My first paycheck at Denman, my first real job.
This was for three weeks. So I was bringing home $351 a month! I had no idea what to do with that much money.
Well, that’s a lie. Of course I knew what to do with that much money. Maplewood Tavern, and 3.2% Stroh’s for everybody! And back when beers were a quarter, that went a long way.
