Crispian St. Peters

 

   Crispian St. Peters, the British pop singer of the ’60s best known for his hit “Pied Piper” and his version of “You Were on My Mind.” St. Peters died of cancer in Kent, England on June 8, 2010. He was 71. St. Peter’s had suffered a major stroke in 1995 at age 56, but continued to write songs (200 in law) and up until 1999, he traveled the world on tour. He announced his retirement from the music industry after he was hospitalized several times with pneumonia in 2003. He suffered from a series of health problems including a stroke and emphysema.

    Born Robin Peter Smith in Swanley, Kent he learned guitar, and left school in 1954 to become an assistant cinema projectionist. He performed in several relatively unknown bands in England throughout the 1950s.
     He signed with Decca label in 1963 and hit the big time in 1966 with "You Were On My Mind" which was first recorded in 1964 by the Canadian folk duo, Ian & Sylvia, and a hit in the United States for We Five in 1965. That song was followed by "The Pied Piper", which became forever known as his signature song, and it became a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic.  The Pied Piper was co-written by Artie Kornfield, later an organizer of the concert at Woodstock.

Easy Rider

Dennis Hopper, a man with deep psychological and drug problems, a man of violence, albeit talent, died recently and the media has lamented…way, way too much… the passing of an icon of the Baby-boomer generation…really?


Hooper was born in 1936, ten years before the start of the Baby-boomers and I’m not clear on what influence he or his film had on our generation or any generation for that matter. I mean generally speaking we’re an enlightened group and not a bunch of simple minded lemmings…Easy Rider was…you know…okay…not bad…alright…I’ve seen better…but influential? I don’t know about that.

We were also the Post-World War generation

How weird is this?

Superman on Candid Camera

Life Magazine

"Even before the first issue appeared, it was becoming clear that Life would be an enormous popular success - a result of effective advertising, extensive press coverage, the reputation of the company, and the popular hunger for pictures that Luce had cited as a reason to create Life. ...

"There were 235,000 subscribers by the time the first issue appeared - almost the entire guaranteed circulation before any newsstand sales, for which requests were also growing fast. Shortly before publication, the circulation manager announced that because of the frenzied, anticipatory interest 'every dealer is to receive the same number of copies of Life that he receives of Time.' 'One dealer in New York who sells two copies of Time a week placed an order for 250 copies of Life,' Pierre Prentice, the circulation manager, wrote. 'All the dealers are ... mad that we were not able to supply them with more copies of Life. '

"Nothing, however, truly prepared Luce and his colleagues for the public response to Life when it finally went on sale. Some images collected by the editors at the time suggest the character of the magazine's first weeks: a used-book shop with a sign pasted in the window - 'Life Wanted, Good Prices Paid'; a classified ad in the San Francisco Examiner in December 1936 - 'Life magazine, 1st edition; 2; $3.50 each (they retailed for $0.10 per copy).

"All two hundred thousand newsstand copies sold out the first day, some of them in the first hour. Dealers from around the country wired their distributors that they could sell five hundred more copies (Cincinnati), one thousand more (Lansing, Michigan), fifteen hundred more (Worcester, Massachusetts), five thousand more (Cleveland). 'The demand for Life is completely without precedent in publishing history,' the overwhelmed Prentice wrote. 'If we could supply the copies, the dollar volume of our newsstand sales of Life this month [December 1936] would be greater than the dollar volume of sales of any other magazine in the world. There was no way we could anticipate a bigger newsstand business the first month than magazines like Collier's and by the end of 1937, a year after Life's birth, circulation had reached I.5 million - more than triple the first-year circulation of any magazine in American. ...

"Increasing supply to keep up with demand required an almost Herculean effort. The production of Life was constrained by a serious shortage of paper, an inadequate number of presses, and serious fire hazards in the gas-heated presses already in use, which were running dangerously almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week."

Author: Alan Brinkley
Title: The Publisher
Publisher: Knopf
Date: Copyright 2010 by Alan Brinkley
Pages: 219-222

Lost in Space!

                                  

Lost in Space ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965 and March 6, 1968. The first season was shot with black and white film, the rest in color. The show focused primarily on Jonathan Harris as Dr. Zachary Smith, originally an utterly evil would-be killer who as the first season progressed became a sympathetic anti-hero, providing comic relief to the show (and causing most of the problems). The show had ratings to support a fourth season, but it was expensive. The budget per episode for Season One was $130,980, and for Season Three, $164,788. In that time, the actors' salaries increased; in the case of Harris, Kristen and Cartwright, their salaries nearly doubled.

Doctor John Robinson: (Guy Williams) The expedition commander, a pilot, and the father of the Robinson children. He is an astrophysicist who also specializes in applied planetary geology. When Guy had first visited Argentina in 1973 he was quite taken by the admiration and fascination the Argentine people expressed for him and his character of 'El Zorro'. In return, Guy fell in love with the culture and people of Argentina. In the 1970s he retired, except for personal appearances, to Recoleta, an upscale neighborhood of Buenos Aires.Later in 1989, while spending solitary months in Argentina, Guy Williams (then 65 years old) disappeared. The local police searched his apartment in Recoleta on May 7, finding his body. He had suffered a a week before that day. He was wearing the characteristic Zorro's sideburns and mustache when they found him. In accordance with his wishes, Guy Williams' ashes were spread over the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California

Doctor Maureen Robinson: (June Lockhart) John's biochemist wife. Her role in the series is often to prepare meals, tend the garden and help with light construction, while adding a voice of compassion. Her status as a doctor is mentioned only in the first episode. At this writing, the actor is 85 years old.

Major Don West: (Mark Goddard) The military pilot of the Jupiter 2, he is Dr. Smith's handsome long-suffering space partner, intemperate and intolerant adversary. His mutual romantic interest with Judy was not developed beyond the first few episodes. In the un-aired pilot, "Doctor Donald West" was a graduate student astrophysicist and expert in interplanetary geology, rather than a military man. Goddard is a New Englander and was raised in Scituate Mass.Goddard finished college thirty years after beginning his studies and thereafter received his Master's degree in education. He is currently a special education teacher at the F.L. Chamberlain School in Middleboro, Massachusetts. In 2009, he released an autobiographical memoir, To Space and Back.

Judy Robinson: (Marta Kristen) The oldest child, about 19 years old at the outset of the series. She planned a career in musical theater but went with her family instead. Kristen was born Birgit Annalisa Rusanen in Oslo, Norway, to a Finnish mother and a German soldier father who was killed during World War II. She was adopted in 1949 by an American couple from Detroit, Michigan and was renamed Marta. She moved to Los Angeles, California, with her family in 1959 and is a graduate of Santa Monica High School.Her personal life has revolved around discovering her roots, caring for her daughter, and now caring for her granddaughter. On a trip to Finland in 1969 she located her birth mother, Helmi Rusanen and an older sister whom she had never met, and in 1997 she discovered a brother residing in Australia.

Penny Robinson: (Angela Cartwright) An 11-year-old, she loves animals and classical music. She acquires a chimpanzee-like alien pet that made one sound, "Bloop". While it is sometimes remembered by that name, Penny had named the creature Debbie. Most of Penny's adventures have a fairy-tale quality, underscoring her innocence. She is also Dr. Smith's helpful mate. Cartwright is English-born

Will Robinson: (Billy Mumy) A 9-year-old child prodigy in electronics. Often, he is a friend to Smith when no one else is. Will is also the member of the family closest to the Robot.

Doctor Zachary Smith: (Jonathan Harris) A Doctor of intergalactic environmental psychology, expert in Cybernetics and an enemy agent, roles that are rarely mentioned after the initial episodes. His attempt to sabotage the mission strands him aboard the Jupiter 2 and results in its becoming lost. By the end of the first season the character becomes permanently established as a foolish, self-serving, impulsive, scheming coward but not at the degree displayed in the latter two seasons. His maudlin ways and clever dialogue add a unique dimension. His best lines are in response to the "straight man" Robot. Despite having a Special Guest Star appearance for every episode, Smith is the pivotal character of the series. Harris was born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin to a poor family in The Bronx, New York. His parents, who eked out a living in Manhattan's garment district, were Sam and Jennie Charasuchin. Jonathan's ancestry was Russian-Jewish and Polish. His family resided in a six-tenant apartment complex. To raise money, his mother took in boarders, some of whom were given Jonathan's bed, forcing Jonathan to sleep in the dining room. From the age of 12, he worked as a pharmacy clerk. While there was little money for luxuries, Jonathan's father took efforts to expand his son's cultural horizons. This included trips to the Yiddish Theatre, where he was encouraged by his father to listen to opera. Young Jonathan was enthralled. He discarded his Bronx accent and began to cultivate more sophisticated English tones.Jonathan was married to his high school sweetheart, Gertrude Bregman, from 1938 until his death

The Robot: The Robot is a Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, which had no given name. Although a machine endowed with superhuman strength and futuristic weaponry, he often displayed human characteristics such as laughter, sadness, and mockery as well as singing and playing the guitar. The Robot was performed by Bob May in a prop costume built by Bob Stewart. The voice was dubbed by Dick Tufeld, who was also the series' narrator. The Robot was designed by Robert Kinoshita, whose other cybernetic claim to fame is as the designer of Forbidden Planet's Robby the Robot. Robby appears in LIS #20 "War of the Robots", and the first episode of season three; "Condemned of space".

You know where these guys are now? Wall Street

The quotable Star Trek

"... a dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars" -- Kirk (Whom Gods Destroy)

"Just before they went into warp, I beamed the whole kit and kaboodle into their engine room, where they'll be no tribble at all." -- Scotty, explaining how he got rid of the tribbles (The Trouble With Tribbles)

"Right out of hell, I saw it!" -- Commodore Decker, describing the Planet Killer (The Doomsday Machine)

"You will die of suffocation, in the icy cold of space" -- Kang (Day of the Dove)

"The mid-1990s was the era of your so-called Third World War" -- Spock (Space Seed)

"We simply must accept the fact that Captain Kirk is no longer alive" -- Spock (The Tholian Web)

"They seemed to have been spared the agony of your first three World Wars, doctor" -- Spock (Bread and Circuses)

"You are authorized to use all measures available to destroy the Enterpise" -- Starfleet Command Representative (The Ultimate Computer)

"I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away AS garbage" -- Korax (The Trouble With Tribbles)

"Random chance seems to have operated in our favor" -- Spock

"In plain, non-Vulcan English, we've been lucky" -- McCoy

"I believe I said that, Doctor" -- Spock (The Doomsday Machine)

"Unbelievable. Do you recognize those uniforms?" -- Kirk

"Mid 20th century Earth. The nation-state called Nazi Germany." -- Spock (Patterns of Force)
"You look quite well for a man that's been 'utterly destroyed', Mr. Spock." -- Kirk (Patterns of Force)

"In four hours the ship blows up" -- Scotty (The Savage Curtain)

"Computer, compute to the last digit the value of pi" -- Spock (Wolf in the Fold)

"What are we looking at, a 20th century Rome?" -- Kirk (Bread and Circuses)

"Is there anyone on this ship, who even remotely, looks like Satan?" -- Kirk

"I am not aware of anyone who fits that description, Captain" -- Spock

"No, Mr. Spock, I didn't think you would be" -- Kirk (The Apple)

"Mr. Spock, the women on your planet are logical. That's the only planet in the galaxy that can make that claim." -- Kirk (Elaan of Troyius)

"Does everyone know about this grain but me?" -- Kirk

"Not everyone, Kepten, it's a Russian inwention." -- Checkov (The Trouble With Tribbles)

"Now this is a drink for a man." -- Scott

"Scotch?" -- Checkov

"Aye." -- Scott

"It vas inwented by a little old lady in Lenningrad." -- Checkov (The Trouble With Tribbles)

"Emotional, isn't she?" -- Spock

"She has always been so." -- Sarek

"Indeed. Why did you marry her?" -- Spock

"It seemed the logical thing to do at the time." -- Sarek (Journey To Babel)

"Ston, she is yours. You may find that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. This is not logical, but it is often true." -- Spock (Amok Time)

"Live long and prosper, Spock." -- T'Pau

"I shall do neither. I have killed my captain, and my friend." -- Spock (Amok Time)

"The best diplomat that I know is a fully-loaded phaser bank." -- Lt. Cdr. Montgomery Scott ("A Taste of Armageddon")

"Please, Spock, do me a favor ... 'n' don't say it's `fascinating'..." -- Dr. McCoy

"No... but it is... interesting..." -- Spock (The Ultimate Computer)

"... and tell Doctor McCoy, he should have wished me luck." -- Spock (The Immunity Syndrome)

"Shut-up, Spock! We're rescuing you!" -- McCoy

"Why, thank you, captain McCoy." -- Spock, to McCoy after he tells Kirk something about leaving him (The Immunity Syndrome)

"You! What planet is this?" -- McCoy, to a homeless person upon appearing in 1930's Chicago (City on the Edge of Forever)

"You can stop it!" -- Anan 7, Leader of the High Council of Eminiar VII, describing the horrors of the impending war to a hostage Kirk

"Stop it? I'm counting on it!" -- Kirk (A Taste of Armegedon)

"Now Mr. Spock, there's really something about all this that I don't understand, so maybe you could explain it to me, logically of course... Now, when you jettisoned the fuel, and ignited it, you knew that there was virtually no chance of it being seen and yet you did it anyway. Now that seems to me like an act of desperation." -- Kirk

"Quite correct, Captain." -- Spock

"Now we all know, and I'm sure the doctor would agree with me, that desperation is a highly emotional state of mind. So how does your well known logic explain that?" -- Kirk

"Quite simply captain, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at." -- Spock

"Ah-huh, I see... So you reasoned that it was time for an emotional outburst." -- Kirk

"Well I... Wouldn't exactly put it in those terms captain, but those are essentially the facts." -- Spock

[sighs] "You aren't going to admit that for the first time in your life, you committed a purely human, emotional act?" -- Kirk

[crosses arms and slowly shakes head] "No, sir." -- Spock

[laughing] "Mr. Spock, you are a stubborn man." -- Kirk

[raises eyebrows] "Yes, sir." -- Spock (The Galileo Seven)

"I signed aboard this ship to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by this gadget." -- McCoy (Space Seed)

"By golly, Jim... I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!" -- McCoy (The Devil in the Dark)

Andrei Voznesensky

“I believe in symbols, I understood that architecture was burned out in me. I became a poet.” Andrei Voznesensky

Andrei Voznesensky (pronounced Vahz-nuh-SEN-skee) was one of the Soviet Union’s boldest and best known young poets of the 1950s and ’60s who moved Russian literature from a sate of fear and virtual slavery under Stalin. His works, often subtle, ironic and innovative, epitomized the strain, hope and progress of the post-Stalin decades in Russia. He rose to international stardom in the 1960s, largely due to the cultural thaw that followed Stalin’s death in 1953.

  In his work “I Am Goya,” (below) one Voznesensky’s earliest and best-known poems, he expressed the fear of war he experienced in childhood. It was inspired by a volume of Goya’s etchings given to him by his father. The poem creates its impressions of war and horror through a series of images and interrelated variations on the name of the painter, which echo throughout in a series of striking sound metaphors in Russian: Goya, glaz (eyes), gore (grief), golos (voice), gorod (cities), golod (hunger), gorlo (gullet).

I am Goya

of the bare field, by the enemy’s beak gouged

till the craters of my eyes gape

I am grief

I am the tongue

of war, the embers of cities

on the snows of the year 1941

I am hunger

I am the gullet

of a woman hanged whose body like a bell

tolled over a blank square

I am Goya

O grapes of wrath!

I have hurled westward

the ashes of the uninvited guest!

and hammered stars into the unforgetting sky – like nails

I am Goya

(translated from the Russian by Stanley Kunitz)