Two people I greatly admired died this week and I’d like to pay them some tribute in my own limited way…
Jack Horkheimer
If you grew up watching PBS in the 80s or 90s, no doubt you know this man. Jack Horkheimer was the host of the always educational and shamelessly enthusiastic Star Gazer TV show (very 90s webpage warning!), which only lasted for about 5 minutes and basically “filled in the cracks” between late-night programming. Jack clearly loved to share his knowledge of the stars and planets and wanted everyone to appreciate the beautiful heavens above.
Jack Horkheimer - on Star Gazer, doing what he did best!
Yep, the synthy whistle theme song (which never, ever changed!) and the hilarious green screen effects were cheezy and quirky, and that’s what made this show so fun to watch. As a kid who grew up wanting to be an astronomer (so I could one day be Captain Picard, of course) I relished the chance to see Jack’s report on where I could find Mars in the sky or where a constellation might be that season. And I’d go out and apply what he’d taught me, and to this day, no matter where I am, if there’s a night sky, I take a few moments to study it. Thanks to Jack, I keep looking up!
Jack made naked-eye astronomy easy to understand and incredibly fun. Jack Horkheimer was, to me, the epitome of what a great science teacher should be. I hope someone is able to continue Star Gazer in his honor and keep alive what he did with such zest for so many years.
Satoshi Kon
I can’t believe this amazing anime director died so young at 47, I was completely shocked to hear the news today of his sudden passing. Satoshi Kon created several film masterpieces of Japanese animation, many of which have made their ways to cinemas outside of Japan: Perfect Blue, Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, and Millennium Actress, to name a few.
I love Japanese animation, both as an escape through entertainment and as an art form that can be challenging and rewarding (depending on what you’re watching!) The older I get the more I tend to lean more towards artistic animes aimed at the *ahem* more aged set, but directors like Satoshi Kon prove repeatedly that this art form can push boundaries and convention while still being immensely entertaining.
I’ll never forget watching the terrifyingly good Perfect Blue in my freshman college dorm, on the edge of my seat, cringing but still completely rapt by the story. A year or two later I came across Millennium Actress, a beautiful and touching film my friend Dan very aptly calls a “love letter to Japanese cinema.” The intertwining stories and timelines work seamlessly with masterful use of the animation. This famous scene from the film displays a bit of what I mean:
If you’ve watched a good amount of Japanese films you’ll recognize conventions he’s paying homage to here, not just through theme but through the composition of the shots and the color palettes.
Kon was one of the best and brightest in the Japanese animation scene, and many of us were looking forward to seeing what his career would reveal as he was still so young. It’s hard to convey how sad his death is for those of us who really enjoy this art form. Satoshi Kon left us way too soon.
Jack Horkheimer and Satoshi Kon, you are missed. May you rest in peace.
The power of Positive Yelping!
Yelp, the user-generated business review site, has drawn both admiration and ire since it began. Personally, I’ve been a devoted Yelper and Yelp Elite member since January 2007.
User reviews, like comic book superpowers, can be used for Great Good or Great Evil. I’ve always tried my best to keep my reviews fair and, in some cases, have opted to not Yelp if I really didn’t have something good to say. (A number of my friends and family own small businesses, so I guess I am especially sympathetic to their struggles!)
I’ve been lucky enough that, as an Elite Yelper for four years, a few of my reviews have been deemed worthy enough for Boston-area “Review of the Day.”
There’s one review I’m particularly proud of that I’m sure will never gain that distinction, but as of yesterday it gained the best unintended praise I could ever have hoped for.
On a whim in 2008 I wrote a review for the church I grew up in, the Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Lowell, Massachusetts. My parents took me to this church during all my formative years, almost every Sunday and every holiday without fail. I will always have a fondness for this church as my second childhood home, and I wanted to pay tribute to it, especially since it holds an amazing, beautiful secret:
Photo courtesy of Hellenic Communication Service.
Photos by New Hampshire Public Radio on Flickr. View their full set of photos here.
It is one of the most ornate and beautiful Orthodox churches ever made. Wall-to-dome, it is covered in handmade glass and gold mosaic Byzantine iconography. My review goes into detail about this — you can read it here. My home church is a treasure of Byzantine art and you’d never know it from looking at it from the outside. It’s located in a rough neighborhood of Lowell, and the exterior yellow brick is rather unassuming.
Apparently someone from my home church found my review on Yelp (or they found it via their daughter — I’m still not entirely sure), and from there things spread like wildfire — the link was passed around to the current Transfiguration priest and then on to the iconographer himself, whose work I can’t praise enough.
From there, someone dug around the church records and found my father’s contact information, and a thank-you phone call was sent his way. (Of course, my dad had absolutely no idea about Yelp, let alone my review on there, but he knows his daughter well enough to know that writing a review online about a church? Oh yeah, totally something I would do!)
When I wrote that review several years ago, my hope was that it’d pique the curiosity of folks who might attend the church’s annual food festival and–instead of making a bee-line straight for the souvlaki and spanakopita–might opt for a church tour as well.
Somehow it’s all come full circle. Kind of blows my mind!
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