First Distant Photo of Hillary Rodham Clinton at Commonwealth Club

It'll take a day or so for me to download and process all of the photos (none great, I am certain) and videos (none all that good, I am afraid) from my cell phone. In the meantime, here's the view from my seat at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown San Francisco, where Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a fantastic speech and then took audience questions for about 40 more minutes.

Teri Garr Channels Joey Tribbiani: The Starlog Project: Starlog #173, December 1991

Did you ever see the episode of Friends in which soap opera actor Joey Tribbiani is interviewed by a reporter for a soap magazine? All goes well until the final question, when he is asked which daytime soap, other than his own, is his favorite. He responds, “Oh, I don't watch soap operas. I mean, excuse me; I have a life, you know.” The reporter thanks him and says that she’s sure that “the readers of Soap Opera Digest will be very interested to hear that.”

Meet Teri Garr. You probably already know her from Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Young Frankenstein (or even an episode of Friends, in which she played Phoebe’s long-lost mother). She also guest-starred in an episode of the original Star Trek series, “Assignment: Earth.” Asked about that role, she tells interviewer Bill Warren: “I have nothing to say about it. I did that years ago and I mostly deny I ever did it.” She doesn’t stop there; she says “Thank God” the episode didn’t become a spinoff series (as was intended): “Otherwise, all I would get would be Star Trek questions for the rest of my natural life – and probably my unnatural life. You ever see those people who are Star Trek fans? The same people who go to swap meets.”

Oh, dear, someone stop her. Hand her a drink. Call her cell phone to distract her. But no, she goes on. When Warren presses her for memories about the episode’s director, Marc Daniels, she gracelessly says, “He’s dead. I like Gene Roddenberry, but I don’t remember those people. I really don’t want to talk about Star Trek. That’s what I told them about this interview. If it’s a science-fiction magazine, they’re going to ask me about all this stuff that I don’t–” and she finally shuts up. I’m sure the readers of Starlog: The Science Fiction Universe will be very interested to hear that.

And what Oscar-worthy screen gem of timeless storytelling was Teri Garr’s interview intended to promote in the first place? Mom & Dad Save the World.

Ah. Much better than Star Trek.

Starlog #173
80 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.50

This is the issue that proves that you can never get too much Star Trek. I garr-antee it.

The rundown: Call it meanness or just happenstance, but of the three main photos on the cover, the one the editors chose to showcase Teri Garr is not from Mom & Dad but from her Star Trek days, the cads; Alien Nation is featured on the contents page. Communications letters include everything from someone distributing pen pals from Russia and eastern Europe to tons of feedback on Beauty & the Beast to yet another Lost in Space lover complaining that his favorite show don’t get no love from Starlog, plus Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile features the Gremlins; Little Nemo in Slumberland was a sumptuously illustrated and incredibly creative comic strip from the early decades of the 20th century, and I would love to see someone do it well on the big screen – which apparently was attempted in a 1989 animated musical version that only in late 1991 was seeing theatrical release, reports David McDonnell in his Medialog column; Boolog reviews The Pixilated Peeress, Lunar Justice, The Man Who Could Read Minds, The Cult of Loving Kindness, and Specterworld; Fan Network includes Lia Pelosi’s directory of fan clubs and publications, plus the convention calendar; and Kerry O’Quinn’s From the Bridge finishes his report – begun last issue – on witnessing a total eclipse of the sun.

Lee Goldberg provides a fun overview of science-fiction television pilots that never made it to series; Lynne Stephens interviews DeForest Kelley about Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; there’s more Trek in the form of Ian Spelling’s interview with Jonathan Frakes, who discusses his directing career; and don’t forget Kyle Counts’ chat with actor Carel Struycken, who talks about his role in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as The Witches of Eastwick (let’s face it: John Updike doesn’t make it into the pages of Starlog very often, so it deserves a mention when he does), The Addams Family and even Ewoks: The Battle for Endor; and Ian Spelling talks to Star Trek: The Next Generation head honcho Rick Berman.

Teri Garr tells Bill Warren some nice things amidst an interview that doesn’t go terribly well for anyone (Warren writes: “People have their ‘on’ days and they have their ‘off’ days; this must be one of Garr’s off days, as she seems hesitant during the interview, occasionally answering questions with only a ‘Hmmm.’ She’s an intelligent, witty woman with a sardonic sense of humor; she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, as the saying goes. You have the feeling she would be a terrific person to run into at a party. This, however, is an interview.”); an easier interview was probably Marc Shapiro’s chat with Quantum Leap star Scott Bakula; Bradley H. Sinor interviews novelist Mercedes Lackey; Steven M. Tauber provides a four-page “SF Yellow Pages,” with illustrations by Leah Rosenthal; Edward Gross contributes an episode guide to the single season of Alien Nation; in his Videolog column, David Hutchison announces the release of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on video; and David McDonnell’s Liner Notes column highlights books written by various Starlog contributors.

“Heading into the unknown five years back, [Rick] Berman and everyone associated with The Next Generation realized the tremendous gamble about to be undertaken. If The Next Generation flopped, it could permanently tarnish the Trek image, cost Paramount a potential fortune, and even harm the film series featuring the original cast. ‘There was obviously a sense of risk and doubt in the beginning,’ notes Berman. ... ‘We were a sequel. We were science fiction. We were going to be on syndicated television. None of these things had ever really succeeded or, if they had, they hadn’t for a long time.’”

–Rick Berman, executive producer, interviewed by Ian Spelling: “Leader of the Next Generation”

For more, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent site.

Voting in San Francisco: Supervisors Unclear on the Concept

Yesterday during our lunch hour, a group of coworkers gathered around a table and went through the statewide propositions on this fall's ballot. It's a semi-regular practice where I work that allows us to share what knowledge we have about the often-times confusing and contradictory questions that are put to California voters in an attempt to do an end-run around the state legislature. What's even funnier is when the state legislators themselves get a proposition on the ballot; talk about not having self-confidence in your ability to do your own job.

This morning, I filled out and sealed my mail-in ballot (see photo). It took about 20-25 minutes, which involved filling out five different forms with lists of names for people seeking elected offices, as expected; well, actually about half of the forms involved propositions for the state and for the city & county of San Francisco.

The state propositions were the usual mix of back-and-forth over taxing and spending and environmental regulations (which is really usually about money, too, in the end). I was prepared for those, because we had gone through voter guides during our lunchtime meeting, so I knew both sides of the arguments (some, admittedly, laughable) for the props and I made my selections.

In fact, as we wrapped up our lunch meeting, I said that I didn't know if there were any local referenda on the ballot this year, but there usually is something silly, such as the Board of Supervisors (our version of a city council) trying to force the mayor to appear before them a minimum number of times. We laughed; meeting broke up.

Today, what do I find on the ballot? A question about forcing the mayor to appear before the Board of Supervisors a minimum number of times. That's not the strangest part; those honors have to go to the fact that this is the second time San Franciscans have had to vote on this same question. Voters rejected this silly proposal the last time it was put before them, and I certainly hope they will reject it this time.

If it sounds perfectly normal for a mayor to meet regularly with his community's elected council, please consider that San Francisco's Supervisors are not perfectly normal. Not to sound like a right-winger here, but the Board has a majority of members dedicated to a decades-out-of-date political agenda (they did recently vote to make Monday's "Meatless Mondays," which always reminds me of "Taco Tuesdays" – and I don't think that was their intention). As a result, the housing and commercial development market is terribly expensive and distorted in the city. The cost of doing business here is very high. The schools are a disaster. Criminals are treated with kid gloves, if the offenders are undocumented aliens. You get the idea.

So I always figured that it was a feather in Mayor Gavin Newsom's cap that he refused to subject himself to the Supes' presence.

I hope this is the last time the Supes play their he's-just-not-that-into-us game at the ballot box. But with some of the whackier supervisors being termed out this year, and with Newsom likely headed to Sacramento as lt. governor, there might just be a new cast of characters to continue the never-ending, Highlander-like fight.

Pan Fried Walleye Video

I know I've been posting a lot of videos lately, but I can't pass up this one. It features a friend from high school back in Green Bay, Wisconsin; Ben Griggs is now a chef in the area – and now he's a TV chef!

The Simpsons' Greatest Opening Sequence

Thanks to Boy Culture's Matt Rettenmund for highlighting this:

Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Makes First Manned Free Flight

These days, Virgin Galactic pretty much seems to be single-handedly upholding the notion that America is still the land of frontier adventure and innovation.

Then again, Virgin's parent is a British company, so that can only mean one thing: In 10 years, it'll be owned by the Germans. Still, it's a cool spaceship, and it did land on an American desert.

My Latest Northside San Francisco Column: Food Fights, From Tang to Tacos

Common Knowledge
Food fights: From Tang to tacos
By John Zipperer

Let’s blame Tang, that instant orangish drink given to schoolchildren in the mistaken belief that all good liquids begin life as colored powder. It symbolizes for many people one step too far away from actual food that was grown in or raised on good old-fashioned soil.

Why Tang? Why not some other faddish food or drink from the plastic seventies?

Read more

Star Trek and Star Wars: Battle Beyond the Stars

You just knew I'd love this, didn't you?

One More Reason to Like Tim Gunn

Issuu and the Realization of Digital Magazine Popularization

Or perhaps instead of "popularization," I should have written "democratization." I've been setting up my company's print magazine on issuu.com, a fantastic digital magazine platform that's so easy to use and so beautiful to behold that I keep thinking it might just be too good to be true.

Enough of my mushy praise, eh?

Well, I'm also going to set up a personal account on issuu so I can create some digital-only publications of my own. I've already got the first one partially planned out (readers of this blog won't be surprised by the content or tone), and I'm having a ball designing and writing it.

Issuu is available for free accounts and in very inexpensive ($19 per month) "pro" accounts.

For someone who loves print as much as I do to be this excited about a digital platform, some very specific attributes had to be included in the service. First, the digital publication looks like a magazine as you page through it online. That was what really hooked me. But second, as I've noted in the past, the key to magazines' future is the ability to print and bind a digital magazine at the home or office and have it turn out to be as good as a newsstand-bought copy; issuu isn't there yet, but the print-outs of pages are crisp and clear, and I think it's a big step on the road to nirvana. HP can complete the circle by continuing their ever-increasing sophistication of personal printers.

I have written here in praise of digital platforms such as MagCloud (which is really a print-on-demand service). But consider me a full acolyte in the issuu.com movement. Drinking the kool-aid and all.