Leonard Nimoy and me,Las Vegas Star Trek Convention,
August 10, 2008
These photo ops with stars move so fast, unless you slam on the brakes, they're pretty much drive-by shootings.
Here's what I remember about standing next to Leonard Nimoy:
His body was warm.
It surprises me how much that body memory stays with me.
Last night I had dinner with Lee and Faith, to celebrate Lee's 40th birthday. (I gave him a Gorn birthday card I got signed by Bobby Clark, the stuntman who played the Gorn.)
I was trying to puzzle out why this seemingly meaningless contact with Nimoy did mean something to me. Despite the fact that by the fifth and final day of the con, when LN appeared, it had come home to me fully that the actors are not the people who keep the characters alive--it's the fans.
But still....
"I don't know," I told Lee and Faith.
"It's not like there was time to say anything of importance to this guy. It was just something basic. You know? Something elemental--like something from way back in human evolution:
I exchanged mammal information with Leonard Nimoy."
Lee said I should put that final line on a T-shirt.
Hm, there's something oddly moving about Leonard Nimoy being actually, literally, physically warm. Like...he has a body, a real physical one. It's sometimes strangely hard to remember that about our icons, that they inhabit space and are actually tangible.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely a big part of it, Jen: the shock of Oh! he's REAL!
ReplyDeleteOf course we know intellectually that these people we see in 2-D are actually 4-D (like, they themselves will even die, which is factor that pushed me to go to a con asap)--but it remains a bit theoretical.
I had wondered, for instance, how tall LN would be, but even then, I'd never thought to factor in body temperature, and so that reality had an extra impact.
I also think it's curious because Vulcans, as you know, run hotter than humans.
(OK, he was probably warmer than usual from sitting under lights, but...)
Great photo! Looks to me like it's just as good as the one with Uhura--you're gonna have to send out BOTH ST photos for your holiday card this year!
ReplyDeleteWas this snapped before or after you hit him for not making "vulcan ears" ? (Holding pointy fingers up beside your ears, for those not in the know) It definitely captures that "I'm joking around with you and having a good time" feeling more than most of these types of photos do. Looking forward to seeing the big image.
ReplyDeleteYes, you should do the t-shirt. Thanks for sharing your picture, and the warmth.
ReplyDeleteD: I only have this thumbnail photo so far (they mail the full-size photo), but I think it may be even better than the one with Nichelle Nichols!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yes, holiday cards!
Bink: That wasn't the story I wanted to focus on, but yeah, I asked LN to make Vulcan ears, and he laughed and said, "No!"
So I kinda "patted" him on the shoulder a little harder than was strictly friendly... Because, in fact, I was annoyed that he wouldn't! (Though he doesn't ever "do" Spock, I gather.)
He is indeed grinning a titch more than his usual big photo-op smile: a "get outta here!" grin.
...and I'm pulling away from him a little! where everyone else on the "photo-op page" is leaning in toward him (or standing stiffly).
I had wondered how that exchange would affect the photograph, and I think it actually enlivened it--interesting you see it too.
D: You bet!
Are you... are you *sitting on his lap*? Does he noramlly let people sit on him? I expected something rather more stiff. How fun! You sat on Leonard Nimoy!
ReplyDeleteLOL!
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sitting on him, just leaning into him...
But I could make a second T-shirt with that: "I sat on Leonard Nimoy."
He was surprisingly easy with being affectionate, which was nice.
It is what fans like me want, of course--a bit of human warmth and touch, even if we know the person is acting in exchange for money. After all, that's a fair exchange with a long history!