Lastday: Capricorn 23...Year of the City, 2004

[The topic today is the movie Logan's Run. It occurred to me as I was making breakfast this morning that we've always only watched it for its cheesy special effects and lame storyline. The effects seem especially cheesy when one considers it was released just before Star Wars, whose visuals, for the most part, have aged extremely well. S.W.'s story, for what it is, works well, too. The Run, OTOH; what a stupid mess, full of holes.]

[But (and this is what occurred to me today), the best science fiction, or at least the SF that fans defend as being real literature, has always alluded to what's actually going on in the society in which it was created. That's why 1984 resonated so well in '48 (and should resonate even more now), and when I think about it, Logan's Run (even if it is a ripoff in some ways of Brave New World) provides some pretty perceptive comments on life as it was lived in the '70s (at least, what I can remember of the '70s), as well as now, way more than any of George Lucas's more technically proficient but ultimately empty escapism ever has.]

[Life lived in a shopping mall. Absolute worship of empty youth. Choosing one's sexual partners by electronic means. Amnesia of history. Misfits relegated to unmaintained, dangerous parts of the city. And absolute, violent enforcement of this way of life folded within it, but mostly ignored by the population at large. (No, I know I'm not the first to think these thoughts; it's just on my mind this morning.]

[Where's my ankh? Problem is, I don't think I have it in me to be a Runner. I think I'll sit down with the Star Wars trilogy and think about this some other time...]

*************

[Oh, all right...]

You Can Do It, Too!

[My list is limited to trips I can remember (i.e. in utero or as an infant don't count), and I must have spent at least couple of hours there.]

[Alaska: 1984 cruise with grandparents and sister - Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, plus cruising thru Glacier Bay.
Arizona: 2 trips to Phoenix to visit Leah in the late '90s.
California: Lifelong resident. I believe I've hit 50 of the 58 counties; Imperial, Mono, Inyo, Plumas, Lassen, Modoc, Humboldt, and Del Norte have so far been denied the honor of my presence.
DC: 1986 trip w/family. I remember really liking Washington.
Idaho: 1978 two-thirds-cross-country trip, car camping w/family. Camped at Payette Lake.
Hawaii: 2 trips with family in high school. God, I wanna go back. There have been three places outside California where I've felt something like a spiritual connection to the land: Hydra in Greece, Vancouver Island, and the Big Island of Hawaii. (All three are islands; what you think that means?)
Illinois: 1978 cross-country trip. Visited Moline where Dad grew up, and spent long afternoon absorbing Lincolniana in Springfield; 1986: Flew into Chicago and drove west to Iowa City for cousin's wedding; 2001: Visited Pete and Chelsea and their significant others in Chicago w/John.
Iowa: Visited aunt and uncle in Iowa City in 1978, 1986, and 1990
Kentucky: During 1988 trip to Cincinnati, ate at a diner near Covington, and spent several hours in the Cincinnati airport, which is actually in Kentucky.
Minnesota: 1978 cross-country trip, camped near Lake Itasca, caught fish.
Montana: 1978 cross-country trip. No idea where we camped.
Nebraska: 1978 cross-country trip. (Night in a motel in Lincoln, I believe; camping had lost its allure on the way back to California.)
Nevada: 1978 cross-country trip (night in a Wells motel, Mom won big at the slots); Reno, 1984 jazz festival and 2001 Wayne Newton show w/Mom; Las Vegas, 1998 w/John; and several trips to Tahoe.
New York: 1999 trip w/John to NYC, then driving upstate on the Taconic Parkway to Albany and his parents' in Lake George, then north and west thru Lake Placid and Watertown to Rochester. Side trip to Toronto via Buffalo.
North Dakota: 1978 cross-country trip, camped somewhere on the Little Missouri River, where I got my first bee sting.
Ohio: 1988 trip w/UCSB band to NCAA basketball tournament in Cincinnati, spent day w/cousin and her husband.
Oregon: 1984 Alaska cruise stopped in Astoria; 1985 train trip w/high school band to Victoria, B.C.; 1985 driving trip to a wedding in Vancouver, B.C., w/grandparents and sister (night in Grants Pass); trip to Ashland Shakespeare festival w/Pete and his friends in 1992. (Fell into Rogue River while rafting.)
Pennsylvania: During '99 New York trip, took scenic route south and east thru the Poconos when returning to NYC area, and hit northeast corner of Pa. including Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Tennessee: 1990 trip w/UCSB band to NCAA basketball tournament in Knoxville.
Utah: 1978 cross-country trip. (Took a break from driving to float in the Great Salt Lake.)
Virginia: '86 DC trip w/family, spent day getting lost in northern Va., visiting Mt. Vernon and Manassas along the way.
Washington: 1985 trips w/band & grandparents; visited Rafe in Seattle in, I think, '98.
Wyoming: 1978 cross-country trip. Night in a Cheyenne motel.]

[I'm not gonna bother with the world map. I've been to Canada (B.C. three times, Ontario once), Mexico (Tijuana twice, Cabo once), the U.K. three times (1977 w/the grandparents - London, Yorkshire, and Wales; 2002 and 2003 - London w/John), France (1977 - the Cote d'Azur w/the grandparents; we also spent a little time in both Monaco and Italy, but probably not long enough to count by my definition); and Greece (2003) with a couple of long stopovers at the Frankfurt airport.]

Previously Next