Friday, January 2, 2009

Missed Kisses

What would you guess about a group of people with these names?
John L. Balderston, Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt, Waldemar Young, and Achmed Abdullah.

I'd guess they are made-up names of characters in a British adventure story. "Slavens McNutt"--can't you just imagine him? He'd be mixing drinks in the jungle.

And I'd be close, too.
They are, in fact, the writers of such a tale: they wrote the screenplay of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, which Manfred informs me I missed in my glance at Splendid Chaps on Film, a few posts back. I'd never heard of it--such a sloppy researcher I am.

I bet the Bengal Lancer indulged in far fewer kisses than a certain Starfleet captain. While I'm on the topic of things I missed (careless, careless), here are a couple Kirk kisses I missed putting in my Kirk: "To His Mistress" vid. I discovered them while looking through stills for my 2009 Star Trek Motivational Calendar (post below). This kiss is from the episode "Court Martial"--Kirk kissing the attorney prosecuting the case against him. (He's found innocent, of course, but that was Spock's doing...)

And this is an almost kiss, from "Mudd's Women." Contrary to popular belief, if you watch closely, you'll notice Kirk did not scarf up every eclair on offer. I'd have put this cream puff in my little homage anyway.

Six Months On: Rankings of My YouTube Videos

Btw, I just looked up my videos, to get the link above, and it's interesting to see the winnowing process work, in this entirely democratic format.
I made the first four Star Trek vids in a row, within three weeks this past summer. (And that's pretty much all I did for those three weeks.) Here's how they rank now:

1. (Star Trek) Kirk: "To His Mistress" = 2,935 views
(This is the funny mashup with all the kisses, set to the sexy John Donne poem.)

2. Star Trek, My Love (In My Life) = 1,950 views
(My autobiographical answer to "Why do you like Star Trek?")

3. Kirk/Spock: "The Definition of Love" = 1,199 views
(Vivaldi + Andrew Marvell = baroque metaphysical slash)

4. (Star Trek) Don't Touch Jim's Flower = 442 views
(My first effort, just a little souffle whipped up from Kirk's ego.)

And, too soon to really rank, from this past Thanksgiving, (Star Trek) Kirk/Spock: Virgil Says Relax = 242 views
(Parody remix of Virgil's Aeneid + slash romance.)

It fascinates me to watch the viewing public sort the vids out like this. The order makes sense to me; it's what I would guess. Though I'd never have guessed such high numbers for any of them. Almost 3,000 views for the top one! Heavens.

I couldn't really rank my vids myself, because each gave or gives me something different--both making them then and watching them now.

2 comments:

momo said...

OMG, I know a Jon Balderston (no h)! I wonder where he is now?
The thing about the rankings is that the higher ranked ones pop up first, so they get clicked on most. Most un-democratic. I love the idea that your work has been viewed by thousands!!

When I look at my blog's stats, the post with the title "The work of art in the age of Mechanical reproduction" far outstrips anything else. Just include some Walter Benjamin in the title, and you'll rack up the hits.

Fresca said...

I somehow doubt Benjamin would be much of a draw for Trekkies! : )
I've always avoiding signing up for my blog's stats because I think I would get super anxious about it.

But youTube automatically posts them.
I'm not sure, but I don't think people find my videos by Googling so much as by word of mouth, as it were... at least, that's how I've experienced Star Trek fan stuff working--people pass along links to the fun stuff and it builds that way... that's what I meant by "democratic".
I should double-check with Krista... my source for Internet insight.