September Sketch Fest Part 10

This next round of sketches is from book #25 dated 14 May 2005 to 10 May 2006.

One of my earliest memories is being at my aunt's house (across from Greenwood Park in Toronto) while my parents were at work. I don't know how old I was, but I was probably three or four years old. This memory deals with the amazingly bizarre children's show from 1971 (incidentally, my own vintage) called The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (here's the opening featuring the formidable Vincent Price). Now, this likely wasn't the first time I watched this show, but this particular memory is of me realizing I could watch the show (reversed) by watching it reflected in the plastic that wrapped the couch.

The show normally played in the early mornings around 6am and I would catch it (along with a couple other beloved childhood shows, Tales of the Wizard of Oz and The New Adventures of Pinocchio) before going to the babysitter's across the street while my parents got ready for work. Years later I would catch these shows sporadically and accidentally, but always happy to catch even a few minutes of them.

To this day, HHoF still holds up in its own fantastically bizarre way (I still find it absolutely amazing that this show was greenlit as a viable kids' show –not that it's inappropriate in any way, it's just so bizarre) and I treasure my DVDs full of ~~rip-offs of~~ loving homages to Dracula, Frankenstein, Igor, the Wolfman, and an array of weird original characters to round out the ensemble (most of them played by the versatile and legendary Billy Van).

Billy Van as The Count...

...and his assistant, Igor, played by Fishka Rais.

A better Igor coloured with markers.

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Axel Foley's Chevy Nova (1/25 scale model)

Multiple tributes, here. I remember first seeing Beverly Hills Cop on video at my friend Chris K's house, 'cause his family had a VCR and we'd watch tons of movies (and record music videos) together. The summer of 1984 was a special time for us (having created a strong bond in school since Grade 6 a few years before), going on biking adventures around the 'burbs and into the city, etc., and home video played an important role from then until I moved to the opposite end of Scarborough just before we started high school. We liked the movie a lot, both of us fans of Eddie Murphy from his Saturday Night Live days. I don't think I'd seen the movie since then (it would have been 1985, probably summer, since the movie came out in late 1984) and I became curious to see if it still held up. It did. It does. I found Murphy as charming as ever and the comedy (and even the action) holds up very well and its very re-watchable and very entertaining. Beverly Hi...

U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-D (1/1400 scale model)

Seven decades after Kirk. I'd been hooked on Star Trek since I was a wee lad in the 1970s, watching reruns of the original series from the '60s, and I enjoyed the movies that came out afterward. When a new series was announced to debut in 1987, I was excited and interested, even though I felt the subtitle "The Next Generation" was cheesy. Nearly 30 years later, I've definitely gotten used to it (but "TNG" is easier to say and type), but I still find it kinda bland. Anyway, the show had fresh new technology and a spanking new design for its main ship, the U.S.S. Enterprise , NCC-1701-D, now the flagship of the Federation. Andrew Probert 's design took some getting used to for me; it had the same basic elements of the original Enterprise (saucer, neck, cylinder, and two cylindrical engines on pylons), but the shapes and volumes were distributed differently, weirdly. Everything looked squished and soft. The organic look of this new ship had me ...

U.S.S. Enterprise, Refit Restoration, Part 1

"All I ask is a tall ship And a star to steer her by" – John Masefield The original U.S.S. Enterprise , NCC-1701, designed by Matt Jeffries, first flew across TV screens in 1966 and was redesigned (chiefly by Jeffries, Mike Minor, and Andrew Probert) for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979 (explained in the movie as having undergone a refit). I like the original design for its simplicity and elegance, but the refit really does it for me with its swept-back warp pylons and overall updated-yet-still-futuristic detailing. It's no wonder I picked this ship for my very first ever model. Check out this gorgeous scene of Scotty giving Admiral Kirk a tour 'round the outside of the Big E in TMP (with beautiful music by Jerry Goldsmith). Which one did I build? The Star Trek V AMT/ERTL kit was issued in 1989, but I built it in the winter of 1991 (I remember there was snow on the ground in downtown Toronto, so it may have been early 1992, which means it ...

The Naked Silo

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