It always feels so weird, when a figure that has lived for so long in memories and in imagination sees the real, human counterpart behind it die…

Scotty of “Star Trek” fame dies at his Redmond home

LOS ANGELES – James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original “Star Trek” TV series and motion pictures who responded to the command “Beam me up, Scotty,” died early today. He was 85.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease, he said.

The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.

“The producers asked me which one I preferred,” Doohan recalled 30 years later. “I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, ‘If this character is going to be an engineer, you’d better make him a Scotsman.”’

The series, which starred William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children, but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons.

Silmy having slowly but irremediably contaminated my mind with the idea of a radio blog, I’ve given in, and installed one here.

Yza’s playlist:
(That I consider a little like a “writing playlist”: these songs tend to boost my inspiration, depending on the type of scene I need to work on.)

• Kitaro/David Foster/Sedaka Dara — Angel Queen: A collector, since it is the end credits song of the Sennen Jou movie, otherwise known as Princesse Millenium or Queen Millenia.


• Concrete Blonde — Bloodletting (The Vampire’s Song)


• Kajiura Yuki — Chloe (Noir OST): Eerie enough to inspire me whenever I need to write a scene about Ka’Ellan.


• John Williams — Duel of the Fates: I didn’t like Episode I. It doesn’t prevent me from thinking that this music goes well with fight/duel scenes.


• Voltaire — Ex Lover’s Lover


• Hirasawa Susumu — Forces (Berserk OST): Works well for one of my warrior-types characters


• Blackmore’s Night — Ghost of a Rose


• Within Temptation — Jillian (I’d Give My Heart)


• Theatre of Tragedy — Liquid Man


• City Hunter OST — Nina: From the City Hunter movie Ai to Shukumei no Magnum. Always makes me think of Kheril.


• Kanno Yoko — Sôra: From the Escaflowne movie. In fact, it will always remain Tanaquil’s song for me


• Sol Invictus — The Killing Tide


• Pendragon — The King of the Castle


• Type O Negative — Wolf Moon: One always need her dose of Type O (and October Rust remains a very good album).


• Dead Can Dance — Xavier: A song I had wanted to have for a very long time (while somehow knowing – intuition? – that it was by DCD, even though I didn’t know this band at the time). This one has haunted me for years.

A somewhat eclectic playlist, which corresponds well enough to my own global approach to music. As for the radio blog itself, sorry for using a reduced version: I simply didn’t want to destroy my theme.

The radio will remain online… until my bandwidth dies. * crosses fingers *

On the verge of finishing Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Summer Tree, here’s a thought that came to me regarding the concept of “people from our world suddenly transported into another, fantasy world”. A theme that is actually dear to my heart, given that my own current writings is done with this theme in the background (well… in a way, at least).

The concept itself, of course, isn’t exactly new. Stephen Donaldson has used it in the Mordant’s Need and Thomas Covenant series. In the Amber cycles, Roger Zelazny’s characters travel through a myriad of worlds (and it is interesting to note that prince Corwin, after all, begins his journey on Earth, while believing himself to be a “normal” man).

The 6th tome of Harry Potter is now out, and what better opportunity than this to come back to a webcomic I had found some time ago already, but hadn’t been updated very often? Well, I found the link back, and was glad to see that the author had gone on with the story.

So here, Crazy Kimchi presents Kill Harry. The parallel with Kill Bill is evident, and the elements of Harry Potter’s universe quite well respected, with funny twists, that is.

It’s probably necessary to have seen – or at least, know a little – the Kill Bill storyline, however; like for every parody, it takes all its flavor when the hints can be caught.

I’ve pondered writing a few book reviews here and there, so here’s one about the latest read I’ve finished. Unsurprisingly for those who know me enough, it’s fantasy, with some predictable aspects, and some that aren’t that common nor especially conform to the “positive” genre.

The Bone Doll’s Twin is the first volume of the Tamir Trilogy by Lynn Flewelling, and also the first one I’ve read by this author. The legend has it that in order to be secure and prosperous, the kingdom of Skala must be governed by a Queen descendant of Gherilain; however, the throne is now between the hands of a king, who is working slowly toward getting rid of all female pretendants, whatever their degree of parenthood with the deceased queen, while wanting to secure the throne for his own son.