Kirk vs. Wright. Who cares, it's pretty!

Magnet #448 - New Yorker Guggenheim

What? I said I had several Guggenheim magnets. Get thee there. Sometime between today (yay!) and August.

Ready. Set. Go.: Frank Lloyd Wright, From Within Outward.

Goodness, you'd think I was getting a commission or something for how much I'm pimping this exhibit.

But you have to understand - the Gug is like the only way we get to have anything FLWy here - from the looks of it, the Midwest is the place to be when it comes to FLW.

Though, honestly, I'm kinda glad. I bet I'd be soooo out of my demographic if I went to any of those uberWright events. At least out of my depth, anyway.

I can't see me intelligently discussing Usonian or Prairie style, Froebel blocks and sitelines, without resorting to just thinking something's pretty.

It's kinda like that Star Trek Showdown panel I went to earlier this week, where the panelists discussed who was a better captain - Kirk vs. Picard, Kirk vs. Janeway, Kirk vs. Adama, Kirk vs. O'Neill. Well, you get the picture. It was a fun thing to watch - I love watching boys get all excited about their ST or SW or their Flight Control or their comics, whatever. But, still, they were quoting Kirk speeches that I'm not even sure I ever saw. Meanwhile, I just think Kirk was pretty. Hot, even.

So, I guess it's probably good then that I'm in New York, and not with people who actually know FLW like these guys knew their Kirk.

(Thus endeth the FLW miniseries. For now. Until I actually see the exhibition.)

What might have been

Magnet #446 - Frank Lloyd Wright's Kentuck Knob

Good gravy - Kentuck Knob is only seven miles away from Fallingwater, in Western PA. Since I found out last night, I've wondering how we could have been in the neighborhood and not dropped by!

Instead, I think my sisters ended up getting me this when they went on their Pennsylvania rumspringa.

The Hagens had fallen in love with the Kaufmanns' house Fallingwater, and commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build it - it would be one of the last he ever built. Indeed, it was 1953, and the guy was busy working on the Guggenheim at the time. And, dude was 86 years old!!!

I picked this magnet for today, because the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that had I paid more attention to Mrs. Misenheimer's long division lessons in 6th grade, that I might have been an architect in an alternate reality.

More than Kirk's space travel, or the Doctor's time travels, or Sam Beckett's quantum leaps, or Buffy's Angel, or even Prue's astral projections, the concept of alternate realities has always fascinated me. The very idea that every single decision made on a timeline sparks a new reality of possibilities is just mind-boggling.

I will say that I'm betting J.J. Abrams has been living and breathing alternative realities for a few years at least - what with a SpUhura'd Star Trek and a non-9/11'd Fringe, and, I guess if you want to get technical, you can probably throw a bit of LOST in there, as well. My thing is that if you bother to think about it for too long, and you basically freak yourself out wondering about all other yous running around.

But, I'm of the mind that no matter what decisions you've made, or wherever those life decisions have led to you live whatever life you're living now, it must the life that you should be living. Otherwise, you'd be off living that other life. Or that other life. Or that other, other life. See? Trippy.

Oddly, Lord Palumbo, the guy who ended up buying Kentuck Knob kinda sort of agrees with me when he said (about buying the house), "Life, on occasion, becomes a matter of serendipity. When circumstances conspire to propel one in a certain direction it is best to go with the flow, or so I have found, even if the precise destination is at the time unknown."

It's illogical

Magnet #442 - Angry Little Girls' it's good to be a space cadet

In less than 12 hours, I'll have woken up early, done a load of laundry and gone to see Star Trek/IMAX. You know it, baby!

And come noon, I better be one freakin' happy little camper.

I say this, because everyone I know has been buzzing about this movie, and have totally amped me up for it. So they best not be wrong.

Truthfully, it won't matter if they're right, or wrong. It's a Star Trek movie, and I would have gone if they'd picked the wrong director, and cast the wrong cast. It's what I do. It's who I am.

The funny thing is, as I've discussed before (and specifically about Star Trek, natch) - I love something, but I don't love, love it. I get obsessed, but I'm not crossing the line into true fandom. Just can't do it. And yet, I get a kick out of being surrounded by true fans.

What's not so logical is my hesitation in telling people that I was totally gonna see this movie opening weekend. I realized today that apparently, I'll proudly wave the (new) Doctor Who freak flag, and I'll status my heart out for every Siffy and non-Siffy television show out there, but when it came to actually saying it on either of my Facebook statuses, I was totally reluctant to do so.

Usually, I revel in my eclectic dorkitude - I mean, I have a freakin' magnetblog! What is it about Trek that makes me suddenly shy?

Eh, whatevs, man, it doesn't matter now, especially since I've totally outed myself for the space cadet I really am.

Go on. Click on the "dorky" box below. See if I care.

Daleks are to Who, as Klingons are to Trek

Magnet #102 - Dalek

At the risk of letting my inner geek run rampant, I'm about to share an extreme and possibly inflammatory UOA. (That's Unpopular Opinion Ahead.)

Daleks. I don't get 'em. I know they're the UberEpicEnemy of the Doctor in Doctor Who. That much I get. What is completely beyond me is why they are so popular. And so scary. Is it their lack of humanity? Is it their toilet plunger suck-ery thing? Is it their flashing lights and funny voices? Is it their need to conquer the Universe(es)? Was the Last. Great. Time. War. all that bad?

Take me out back and exterminate me, but I gotta say, I'm not a big fan of the Daleks. Every DW episode with a Dalek drives me nuts - it's probably blasphemous, but I skip rewatching any episode with them. Or, at the least, I fast-forward through their scenes.

I was the same way with any Star Trek: The Next Generation / Klingon episode. First, I didn't buy in TNG that the Klingons were no longer enemies. That'd be like the Doctor saying to the Daleks, yes, let's bury the hatchet - I forgive you. Second, while I loved Worf (and even his spawn from Family Ties), I hated every Klingon-centric episode. It was the grunting and the made-up language and the war cries and the scary weapons.

Maybe it's the mythic enemies that I have trouble with - because my dislike might also extend to the Cybermen and the Borg. Or, maybe it's that I haven't a clue of their rich show history - I'll admit that I was never a Classic Who fan, and go even further by admitting I'm one of those annoying fans of only the newest incarnation.

And, yes, I totally get that this post outs me as an unworthy and not-true blue Who/TNG fan, but I'm willing to entertain anyone who can give me good reasons why I should admire and/or fear the Daleks or the Klingons.

And, yes, mean comments will be deleted - I'm looking for reasons to like these guys. Obvi, since I chose a Dalek as my first actual Doctor Who magnet. Otherwise, I'd have used the supercute David Tennant / Ten magnet first. I'm just sayin'.

So you think you're a fan

Magnet #11 - Star Trek Experience, Hilton Las Vegas

I always think I'm like the biggest fan ever of, well, everything. Romance novels, soap operas, Garth Brooks, chocolate, Buffy, you name it.

And then every so often, I learn that I'm totally unworthy of calling myself a true fan. That's when I find myself surrounded by truer fans. That's:

• avid romance readers at the Romance Writers of America annual literacy booksigning.
• soap fans at Super Soap Weekend in Orlando.
• country music fans at Garth Brooks' Central Park show.
• chocoholics at the NY Chocolate Show every year.
• Buffy fans at a NYC singalong screening of "Once More, with Feeling."

And for some reason, I'm always surprised. Always.

So, really, when I showed up at the superawesome and fun Star Trek Experience at the Hilton, Las Vegas, I shouldn't have been so surprised. I'm a fan, don't get me wrong - I can tell the difference between all the Enterprises, the shows, and the captains. Sometimes, I can even remember episode titles. And I've seen all of TNG, multiple times. C'mon, that has to earn me some points.

Yeah, I know.

That's why I kept my novice mouth shut during the entire time I was there.