I have updates on various stuff that’s of semi- to semi-precious importance for those of you who follow this blog, Star Trek, and/or DeForest Kelley and/or Karl Urban.

 

ENTERPRISE MEMORIAL LAUNCH HAS BEEN DELAYED AGAIN

(Launch image of De and me, above and below, courtesy of T. Rick Jones, DAILY STAR TREK NEWS***)

(Don’t know why the top image cut De in half! Here’s the full view!)

 

There was a firing (or some other) glitch during a recent test, so Celestis’ ENTERPRISE MEMORIAL FLIGHT has been postponed again, this time to June or July. This means I need to re-record my memorial piece since the one I did recently (the two-minute one) mentions May 4th as the launch date, which was a special date for me because I met De on May 4th 55 years ago this year and started caring for him pretty much around the clock on May 4th, 1999 during his last month of life.

 

*My interview with T. Rick Jones for Daily Star Trek News will drop at midnight tonight. I will post a link here, on my FB page, and at YellowBallloonPublications.com when it does.  Here it is: https://podcasts.roddenberry.com/show/daily-star-trek-news/?fbclid=IwAR3pOSmp7E1Fpg12icDOEsdndC99u7wvZQ0F1jiSn3YgwUQb0ayCen5w5VE

 

MY PASSPORT APPLICATION WILL BE SUBMITTED IN THREE WEEKS

 

I need to get a passport (for the first time in my 72 years) because I plan to fly to Auckland New Zealand next spring or summer or fall, depending on something else that may happen concurrently — a convention appearance in Australia in one of a few possible cities — and I may also be invited to speak at a German convention next year, so I have to have all the paperwork in order to be able to do those things.

 

KARL URBAN SENT ME HIS LOVE AND BEST WISHES FROM AUSTRALIA THIS WEEKEND

 

If I can believe my source (and I feel confident I can!), Karl Urban sent his love and best wishes from the convention he appeared at this weekend in Australia, and apologized for not getting back to me, saying he has been so swamped with work that his social calendar has been swallowed up.  His social calendar?!  I didn’t know I was even a contender on his social calendar! But if this is all true, I’m absolutely thrilled to my toes.

 

I MET KARL URBAN FIVE YEARS AGO

 

As you may recall, Lisa Twining and I met privately with Mr. Urban for about 15 minutes five years ago when he was in Seattle for a Comic Con. (See link for report.) I got in contact with the convention organizer by email, introduced myself, and told him about my friendship and association with DeForest Kelley and said I had a scarf that was De’s that I hoped to get to Karl Urban as a thank you for doing such a fabulous job of “resurrecting” Dr. McCoy. The con organizer took the info to Karl and he said yes, by all means, invite her up! (I hadn’t expected an invitation to meet with him, just maybe a yes if he was so inclined so I could bring it up and have someone get it to him!)

 

So Lisa and I drove to Seattle and got a brief private meeting with Mr. Urban. I wrote about it shortly after it happened (see link above), so I won’t repeat it here except to say that he promised to try to have it in a scene if they ever do another Star Trek movie. And, later on, during the opportunity to have our photo taken with him, he was super gracious. As we bid what we believed to be our final farewell during the photo shoot, he called out to us.

 

When we turned back around to face him, he said something like, “Thank you again!” (for the scarf), and gave us the Namaste sign.  It made us very happy to make him so happy.  I had told him during our meeting that I thought De would be thrilled with his McCoy portrayal, and if he were alive, he would want him to have one of his scarves. (Leonard cried when he saw Urban’s McCoy because it evinced so much of what made De’s McCoy so great.)

 

I truly felt (and still feel) that Karl was “channeling” McCoy. (Not Kelley, McCoy!)

(I have lost 45 pounds and had chest masculinization and panniculectomy surgery since this photo was taken, thankfully, SO I’D DEARLY LOVE ANOTHER PHOTO WITH KARL SOMEDAY!)

 

Anyway, if wishes were fishes, I’d love to find myself speaking about De at a convention where Karl is also appearing. I would love to connect with him again. He has read my book and apparently our meeting was almost as memorable for him as it was for us (which surprises me).  So, there’s something there. I hope it evolves into something more. It would be great to spend more time with him one-to-one while he’s taking a break or some other time.

 

Hey, I’d love to interview him, too.  (Yet another business trip activity!) Although I’m just a so so interviewer! I’m a better interviewee than I am an interviewer, because I have always hated the idea of “prying,” which an interview kinda is!

 

That said, I was imagining interviewing Karl last night and I came up with half a dozen questions to ask him about being an actor, but nothing specific about any of his roles.  Just his perspective on being an actor: the career, fandom, down time, “celebrity” perks and perils, stuff like that!

 

I’ve had a minuscule taste of being considered a  celebrity, and it was a real wake up call. It kinda threw me for a loop!  Putting me on a pedestal gives me acrophobia!  DON’T DO THAT! 

 

It happened at a convention where I was scheduled to talk about De. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t belabor the story again. Short and sweet: I went to the auditorium ahead of time to familiarize myself with it (I always feel better when I’ve done this before an appearance, to “tame” my nerves) and I was nearly all alone in there, sitting in a chair as if part of the audience. A couple rows back and off to my left was a young lady who spotted me as I turned around to survey the room.She gave me that, “Im agog! Simply agog!” look, so I turned back around to see if some celebrity had walked onto the stage or to the front of the auditorium. Nope. So, I looked back at her and noticed she had a copy of my book in her lap. It was ME she was feeling agog over!

 

I quickly summoned her to the seat next to me to (hopefully) dissuade her from feeling that way about me!  That’s when I found out how unsettling it can be to be a celebrity! Before our time together ended, we were on a level playing field. At least, I hope we were.  She was breathing normally again and acting like she accepted me as just another person who puts their pants on one leg at a time like everybody else.

 

 

It was weird — and I totally understood!!

Because I had been where she was as a fan of De,

before he did pretty much the same thing for me!

 

(You have heard or read my stand up comedy routine No Bones About It: The Dinner, haven’t you?! It’s in my book, if you haven’t! It’s all about being a deer caught in headlights when faced with trying to interact with a favorite celebrity!)

 

UNEARTHED A LOT OF PHOTOS THAT NEED TO SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

 

I went through my negatives and slides looking for images of Sandstorm (Stormy’s filly) for an earlier blog post and came across a slew of other images that I had long since forgotten about, including one that is my favorite image of De of all time. I thought it was taken by someone else but it turns out I have the negative, so the image is MINE!  Here it is on a page of poems I wrote about De not long after he passed away:

 

 

I’ll share some more images in a future post, but it’s 1:30 a.m. now and I’m bushed and need to get back to sleep…