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Do the thing with your fingers44. The Trouble With Tribbles. Perhaps the most famous TOS episode, and worth the hype.  Simply a great episode on numerous levels.  It’s funny, has a good story, and is utterly memorable. The Enterprise is summoned to space station K-7 on a Priority One call, the most Super Serious Important Call there is in space, only to find that the local administrator, Nilz Baris, is just extra concerned about some grain intended for nearby Sherman’s Planet, disputed between the Federation and the Klingons.  Although Baris has the authority to issue a Priority One call, Kirk is incredibly miffed about it and spends the rest of the episode being snotty towards Baris.  Some Klingons arrive to stir up some things and Kirk is forced to deal with the grain and the Klingons per Baris’ wishes and despite his general irritation.  Meanwhile a local shyster has sold some pleasing little creatures called Tribbles to various Enterprise crew members and K-7 folks.  Problem is that the Tribbles are multiplying rapidly and have soon found their way into every system on both the Enterprise and K-7.  Kirk and Spock spend the episode frantically running around trying to deal with all the problems until things actually manage to resolve themselves in a way that cleverly sews up everything.  Essentially this episode comes down to which of the many goofy scenes you like best.  I like the bar brawl incited by the Klingons’ insults of the Enterprise, particularly fun given that Scotty throws the first punch, only after letting the Klingons’ insults of Kirk slide first.  Killer Spock line: “Its trilling seems to have a tranquilizing effect on the human nervous system. Fortunately, of course…I am immune…to its effect.” A classic episode with great humor.  I’ve watched it twice recently and it’s totally re-watchable. 5 out of 5.

Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):

  • Lighthearted banter to close episode (3).  Actually most of the episode is lighthearted banter.

45. The Gamesters of Triskelion. This is the kind of episode people have in mind when they write off TOS as a swashbuckling adventure series, only set in space, rather than an intellectual sci-fi show.  They’re totally right.  Nonetheless, it’s still a fun episode, if a little predictable and basically a stage for some fightin’.  Kirk, Chekhov, and Uhura are plucked from the Enterprise by an alien species that wants to train them to be gladiators for their wagering games.  Eventually the trio’s continued irascible urge to rebel and escape convinces the Providers that humans are just too darn plucky to make effective slave gladiators, and Kirk sets up a final mega-fight with winner-take-all stakes.  Spoiler!  He wins.  Meanwhile Spock uses scant clues to trace their disappearance, despite the continued doubts of McCoy and Scotty, even though Spock is always right about these kinds of things.  Anyway, there’s a whole lot of stuff about how humans will always reject any form of slavery, and that love is good, especially when the alien babe involved is hot and not weird and yellow.  There’s some misfired humor with Chekov’s alien companion, partially ineffective because Uhura is being terrorized by hers.  Ha-ha!  I mean, whuh?  But really none of it matters.  Kirk passionately argues for a big fight and gets it.  Ho hum.  Spock’s killer line: “I presume you mean they vanished in a manner not consistent with the usual working of the transporter, Mr. Scott.”  Overall it’s more like a western or a modern reality show but has interesting stories going.  Initially I gave it only 3 but after a few days’ consideration, I’ll make it 4 out of 5.  It’s stuck with me and actually makes for a pretty memorable episode.

Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):

  • Kirk hits it off with alien babe (1)
  • Even in interstellar space, the best way to resolve problems is with your fists (1)
  • The indomitable human spirit conquers all (1)

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This post means I completed NaBloPoMo: December edition!  Was it worth it?  I really don’t know! But it was fun.  I’m going out of town for a few days so will be breaking my blogging streak immediately.  However, I would like to continue posting regularly (though daily is a stretch, particularly in January, which is busy).  We’ll see how this pans out.

For the last post of the month/year, I thought I would recap 2010.  It was something of an eventful year.  The highlights:

  • Got married.  Holy whoa.  K is awesome and I’m a lucky dude.
    • 2011 follow-up: finish eating cake.  Make sure K continues to like me.
  • Bought a house. It was expensive!  But at least I’ll only have to toil for thirty more years to have it paid off in 2040.  Assuming civilization hasn’t ended.  Although in that case I probably can just have the house and not have to make payments anymore.  Of course, in that case I will have to defend it with a shotgun from hordes of bandits and/or zombies, and it may no longer have power or workable plumbing.
    • 2011 follow-up: do best to remain employed in case of necessity of continued payment-making. Consider obtaining shotgun.
  • New cat: Bea.  That means two cats, and will probably complete the set.
    • 2011 follow-up: possible dog.  Continue to feed and care for cats in order to butter them up for possible dog.
  • Did not fly one time!  I wish that was true every year.
    • 2011 follow-up: ugh, at least two trips requiring flying.  Maybe more.
  • Finally figured out the nuances of my waffle iron and became good at making waffles
    • 2011: make waffles, eat waffles.

Have a good 2011, internet! Come over for some waffles sometime.

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I’ve been trying to identify this particular niche of pop culture interest that I am (for now) dubbing the Stray Cats Zone (or, SCZ).  The origination of this concept comes from a theory I have that no one would ever cite the Stray Cats as their favorite band.  Sure, many people are at least passingly familiar with them, and many people like what they’ve heard just fine, but if asked to name their favorite music, the Stray Cats wouldn’t come to mind.  So similar artists will match similar criteria.

It will further help to define counterexamples:

  • The Rolling Stones are not in the SCZ because plenty of people would identify them as a favorite band right off the top of their head.
  • Dexy’s Midnight Runners are not in the SCZ because a one-hit wonder doesn’t really have the staying power to be widely familiar.  You wouldn’t expect anyone to cite a one-hit wonder as an all-time favorite.
  • Someone pretty obscure (i.e., not even a one-hit wonder) that would not be widely recognized does not qualify.

The Stray Cats happen to occupy this particular niche, to my mind.  They are plenty popular, of course.  They have lots of hits and a few platinum albums.  They were the posterkids for a short-lived rockabilly revival fad.  But for some reason, I have trouble picturing someone who latched onto them and decided that was their favorite band.  Maybe for a short time, but wouldn’t such a person move on to something else pretty soon?  If rockabilly was really your thing, wouldn’t you go back to the actual stuff and get into Elvis or Johnny Cash?  And wouldn’t you eventually like them better?  It seems to me that: yes, you would.  I could be wrong, but a cursory internet search for Stray Cats fan sites didn’t turn up much – a couple of abandoned (and hilariously haphazard) MySpace pages and a few more general rockabilly sites.

So I guess what this comes down to is a short list of artists that manage to maintain a steady but unspectacular popularity.  And it’s been hard to identify others.  I think they have to be things that ultimately didn’t seem too unique in retrospect.  They’re like a great compromise: a little something for everyone but no one is ultimately entirely pleased.  I have been discussing this with K endlessly, because that’s the kind of thing we do.  We can think of only a few others so far:

  • Huey Lewis and the News – I like Huey Lewis.  You like Huey Lewis.  Lots of people liked Sports.  When “Heart of Rock & Roll” comes on, people are happy.  But what happened?  Why don’t people wear ironic t-shirts with the Sports album cover on it?  I think there just isn’t much for people to latch onto that they can’t find in a lot of other places.
  • The Gin Blossoms – a quintessential pleasing but frankly unremarkable 90s band.  I like them.  K really likes a few of their songs.  But aren’t there like a million others like them?  Does anyone wish they’d have put out more records?  Once you’ve got all of them, you don’t go: “What now?  There’s nothing else like this.”  You go: “Well, got all of those.  Hey, here are some more Paul Westerberg albums I don’t have.”
  • Soundgarden – I used to be a grunge nut.  Every time I heard a Soundgarden song I reminded myself to go pick up Superunknown.  Well, I never actually did.  I think maybe Soundgarden fits that compromising criteria particularly well.  You might like their sound but Chris Cornell’s voice bugs you after a while.  You might dig that voice, but then you’d probably just end up liking Nirvana or Metallica more.

(Here is where a dozen Stray Cats lovers write to comment about how wrong I am…)

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Here are two things.

First, I have been listening to some Cream lately and continue to enjoy the inclusion of this advertising gem in their complete set:

Pity the video doesn’t have the intro the disc version does, where a serious announcer guy says: “Falstaff, the clear beer from St. Louis, brings you Cream, from London.” Mostly it kills me because of the over-reliance on the concept of “slaking” (and further, thirst-slaking reminds me of soul-taking).  But really, it’s just kind of bad and embarrassing for one of the greatest bands ever. Enjoy!

Second, entirely unrelated, here is a picture a friend posted on Facebook the other day that for some reason just totally killed me:

Baking advice from insane wolf