It has become something of a somber tradition for news and on-line media outlets to compile a list or collage of those we lost during the year.
The very young find this a stupid tradition. For them it is a silly waste of time.
The young start to notice faces they sort-of grew up with on television or stage. For them it is a hint that time is an arc and an arc has limits.
The middle aged see the faces and hear the voices of those they considered friends and mentors. For them the list becomes a reminder of that ticking clock and the unknown length of the spring.
The older see their friends and people younger than themselves. For them it becomes a reminder to keep themselves off the list for another year.
While I hate to recommend anything even remotely involved with the malignant tumor which will one day end the human race, the Amazon property, IMDB.COM did a nice job with the 2017 list. Those of you of a certain age will see some faces you grew up with during the era when television was the universal baby sitter. No such list is ever complete in the eyes of some. I mean they included Tom Petty, but I didn’t see Malcolm Young. Both are and will be for a long time after their passing, music legends. Oh, you probably don’t recognize Malcolm’s name, but you’ve all heard his music and movies stand in line to license the stuff for their soundtracks. Malcolm and his brother Angus formed an itty bitty band named AC/DC.
Yes, I liked much of Tom Petty’s music. He was a big part of the soundtrack of my youth. So was AC/DC. What ended up being the most remarkable trait of Tom Petty is the fact he never changed. He went from starving artist to chart topping sold out concerts and remained the same person. Everyone who ever interviewed him or directly knew him and spoke about him says that. Even more astounding is the fact he did that during an era when rock and rollers were dying hard at an early age.
Given that I’m something of a “Doctor Who” I feel the need to point out one name on said list, John Hurt. He played “The War Doctor.” The one generation of The Doctor no other generation forgave or attempted to remember. His was a rather stunning performance.
Those of you who aren’t “Doctor Who” fans but who went to college will most likely remember the younger version of this man. You probably had to watch the movie in your modern history or literature class. Yes, the more modern schools are letting students watch the movie instead of forcing them to read the book, “1984.”
Who would have thought after decades of school children first being forced to read that book and then forced to watch the movie that “1984” ever could be allowed to happen? But it did. I even wrote a book heavily influenced by this work, “John Smith – Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars.”
Rituals – Those things we detest in youth, suffer through during middle age and revere in the autumn of our years.
Now that the author has long since passed and the actor who played in the starkest version of this story I have ever seen has joined him beyond the rim, we can only hope the ritual of forcing children to endure “1984” will continue. We must also hope it is followed up immediately by the viewing and discussion of “Citizenfour.” Hopefully a discussion focusing on how the apathy of a “Me and My” culture allowed “1984” to not only happen, but to continue to this very day via Google, Amazon and Facebook. Entities which have no government oversight on their surveillance.
Captain Apollo
Yes, all of the names on that list deserve mention and honor. Most of them are the faces and voices I grew up with watching the universal baby sitter. Families only had one television back then and it was a central piece of furniture you saved for. Having said all of that I feel compelled as both a geek and a writer to point out the name Richard Hatch because most of you won’t recognize it. The original Captain Apollo on the original “Battlestar Galactica” television series.
Sure, it was cheesey. We only had 5 channels back then and they couldn’t even slip in a “damn” on the air back then. It was television’s answer to “Star Wars” at a time when many families couldn’t afford to go to the movies and, because we only had one television per household (if that) back then, parents had to watch what the kids watched.
We should all take some time to remember the cast and crew who put on that show from 1978 through 1979. It, like “Star Trek” before it had such a cultural footprint people got together to reboot the series on a network with looser restrictions. The rebooted “Battlestar Galactica” series ran for 4 seasons and actually completed the story.
Remember those who came before us, plan for those who will come after and have an incredibly Happy New Year!
