Changes

courtesy of
canburak
 

Friday December 28, 7:46 p.m. (All photos from Flickr)

Since Jack Klugman's passing, there have been a few more departures from this mortal coil. The King of Character Actors (what the press releases have been describing him as), Charles Durning, passed away. Usually with the prolific and respected character actors, viewers will point, snap fingers and exclaim "OH! Where did I see him? What was his name again?" But with Charles Durning, a lot of times people would known him by face and name. He's played many, many roles but I will always see him as the burly cop....both bad and good.

courtesy of
jpequal1

I knew General H. Norman Schwarzkopf from Desert Storm, of course. And of course, the media were more than happy to give out tons of details about him. Had no idea that the man had been sick, but it's been years since I had heard anything about him. Obviously, CNN, BBC, CBC will be talking about his military achievements and how he earned his stars. But for me, I remember a story about the time he proposed to his then-girlfriend by stating plainly that she would probably never get rich marrying him but that he promised he would keep a steady roof over their heads.

courtesy of billh

And then I was surprised to hear about the reluctant father of Supermarionation, Gerry Anderson, passing away. I was never a fan of "Thunderbirds" or the other examples of marionettes playing military heroes, and supposedly he wasn't too thrilled, either. But the theme song and "Thunderbirds are GO!" are etched into my memory. "Thunderbirds" is practically a legend in Japan.
But there were also his live-action series such as "UFO" and "Space: 1999" which were also part of my childhood growing up. The former often scared the bejeebers out of me and the latter thrilled me in the pre-"Star Wars" era. And being somewhat attuned to theme songs, both of those programs' songs are still pretty fresh in my minds.

I mean, especially with the theme for "Space: 1999", there must've been some serious ganja being passed around in the scoring room to come up with that theme....even in the era of progressive rock. Brilliant! Too bad the show hasn't dated all that well.

And since it is a Friday....and in the middle of The Holidays, for that matter....why not a disco mix?