May. 18th, 2011

bironic: Neil Perry gazing out a window at night (Default)
My first convention was William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island when I was about 10 years old. My mom won a pair of tickets by answering a radio station trivia question about which two characters Diana Muldaur had played on the original series. My mom and I were super-excited—she'd been a Trekkie since she was a girl, and she'd raised me on it—and my dad and sister less so, but we still bought two more tickets and the whole family went. It was the 25th anniversary of TOS.

I remember the vendors set up along the outer ring of the convention center. I got a TNG insignia pin from one of them. (We are talking about a time when "I got" still meant "my parents bought for me," because $13 was a hefty sum for a kid on a 25-cents-a-week allowance.) It's funny to think back on it now and imagine just how many fangirls (and -boys) and slashers and 'zine publishers and VCR vidders must have been there, and what panels or meetings must have been going on in other rooms. I wasn't connected to any of that. We just walked around and took our seats.

The first two vids I ever saw were screened at the start of that show. I don't know if they were fan-produced or part of the franchise; can't remember details or quality to guess. Doubtless someone on Fanlore or elsewhere could say. But I do remember that one was Kirk-centric and set to Rod Stewart's "Forever Young," while the other was Spock-centric and set to U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

Then there was the comedy routine—er, I mean the talks from the two of them—and the Q&A. I'd forgotten most of the content until browsing YouTube just now, when a clip showed up about WS having stolen LN's bicycle. Probably more would swim back up to consciousness if I thought about it for a while. But at the moment, there's just that and one question from a kid that showed up later in a pull quote in a Newsday story about the event. Something about whether Nimoy would go to space if he could. The quote definitely ended: "I've been," Nimoy responded. I kept the clipping in my room for months.

...
Twenty years later
...

Picture this: Leonard Nimoy stands on the bima with his tallit draped over his head and shoulders, bowing and chanting in Hebrew, voice rising every few lines only to fall again (to laughs from the audience), his hands held out in front of him with fingers split in the shape of shin -- also the shape of the Vulcan greeting.

It was, as he told it, a recreation of the "chilling" sight his father had told him not to watch when he was eight years old in their family's synagogue, as the men brought down the blinding light of the feminine aspect of God to the congregation. He relayed the story, familiar to Trekkies, about how he adopted the sign for the Vulcan people when they shot "Amok Time."

So. Leonard Nimoy came to speak at a temple in Maryland tonight for about an hour. ExpandI think we all would have listened to him for another hour. )

...
Meanwhile, in New York
...

Seeing RSL in Born Yesterday Saturday night. New Yorkers, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Tags

Style Credit