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Remembering Michael Dunn (October 20, 1934- August 30, 1973)

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  American actor and singer, Michael Dunn (born Gary Neil Miller) arrived on this date in 1934 in Shattuck, Oklahoma. When he was four, his family moved to Dearborn, Michigan. Parents Jewell and Fred championed his right to live and develop openly, as part of mainstream life, defying repeated pressures from school authorities to send him to a school for disabled children.   An early reader, he was a champion speller, showed an early aptitude for the piano, and developed a lyric baritone and was given to crowd-drawing impromptu public performances even while just waiting for a bus. He ice-skated and swam in childhood, remaining a skilled swimmer throughout his life.   He attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, but was seriously injured on a stairwell during a "student rush" and was hospitalized for three months. Transferring to the more forgiving climate and accessible campus of the University of Miami, he seemed to excel more in extracurricular eff
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Catching Up with Old Friends (Streaming media series)

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   I haven't done any blogging posts on current and streaming media since November 3rd, which broke a streak of weekly ones that had been going since September of 2019 - albeit as part of a different, group, blog. As with many such inactions, it wasn't intended as a formal stoppage, just a momentary delay, but here it is five weeks later. This post's linking theme is the return of fondly-remembered characters. It really should include the recent arrival to streaming of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over on Disney+, but I haven't really mustered my reactions to that. Instead, I'll stick with two other nostalgic items that arrived this week.       Yesterday saw the arrival of the season finale, episode ten, of Kelsey Grammar's return of Frasier Crane in the 2023 iteration of Frasier , over on Paramount+.      The series picked up on the titular character in the present, whom we haven't seen since his 11-season first series wrapped in mid-May
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(TV/streaming video) New & Leftover Items, a Touch of 2024, and some Nostalgic Forensics

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    So much else calling out for attention, and with watchables already piled up, finding even more things to watch doesn't seem like much of a sane prospect. I'm not even fishing around for new things at the moment, as I need to get some other things done and make some attempt to round out my life a little.       This week on Paramount+, the fourth season of the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks came to a satisfying end. A manic pace of in-universe nods continues to give it the Star Trekiest of Trek feels with the casual, plot-essential trivia drawn from decades of Star Trek shows, woven throughout.       Also there, the contemporary Frasier series' first season hits its halfway point with episode five. I'm enjoying it, but it continues to walk a wobbly line as some of it works smoothly while other moments reek of formula, with some of each overlapping. I'd be very interested in seeing how well or not this new series works on its own for someone who'd never wat
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Omni addition this week: Thor by Jason Aaron vol 2

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      As I've mentioned various times (and will many times again), part of a selective rebuild of my comics collection in large-format hardcovers, with a particular eye on the horizon of that life-transition clumsily called "retirement", has primarily been Omnibus editions.        Perhaps foolishly I've mostly been just accumulating them rather than digging straight in, as I'm looking forward to days when my time will rarely be beholden to anyone I don't in some way love, and I can try to discover if I'm capable of recapturing some version of those long-ago years when I had the time to get lost in this sort of thing when and as long as I wished.       There's a whole other quality of life, and the building of a life I want to live discussion I need to have with myself that relates to the timing of all this, but today's blog entry ain't for that.       This week's sole new addition to the physical library is Thor by Jason Aaron vol.2, which
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TV/streaming - Oct 27-Nov 2

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   So much that needs doing, and with more than enough items already waiting for me to make the time to watch them, I haven't been digging for yet more new/new-to-me items.       I've already watched and enjoyed this week's penultimate second season ep for Star Trek: Lower Decks and the Frasier series (both on Paramount+), each as part of quiet island block when I wake up somewhere between midnight and two AM on a workday, and am up for two to four hours before dropping off for a pre-workday nap. Both of those I watched pre-dawn yesterday. This week's Lower Decks starts to bring this season's mystery arc out of the shadows, while Frasier continues to build the new show, in part, with thematic echoes of the old.       Today even just Amazon Prime/freevee has five new episodes of shows I'm following: Two each for the recently-returned Bosch: Legacy and Upload , and the seventh/penultimate episode of the first season of Gen V. (Gen V's been renewed for a
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Oct 20-26 - Shows (and Bodies) Piling Up

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      I continue to be tired and off-step, these Friday posts coming together on the fly and mostly at the last minute. Still, there's more than enough on my returning and new list to leave me with more than I'll have time to actually watch this weekend.       Restlessness, impatience, and avoiding tasks I'm supposed to be doing all contributed to my already watching this week's episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks (I've enjoyed every episode) and the third episode of the new Frasier series (still finding its footing, but more there to attract me than put me off) - both Paramount+, and the latest Doom Patrol (a musical episode, including an a capella rendition of the opening theme; this being the back half of the final season, I'm going to miss this crew) on Max. Waiting for me still are this week's Loki (Disney+) and Gen V (Amazon).       I've yet to break the seal on the new and ongoing seasons of Our Flag Means Death on Max, or Syfy's Chucky
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Omni-Adds week of October 8th

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     A fairly brief nod toward t his past week's pair of additions to my library.       The fourth volume (of five) of Brubaker's Captain America run, and the all-in-one collection of Peter David's run of Captain Marvel stories, following the tale of Genis-Vell, son of (Marvel's) first Captain Marvel.       Each of these were series I only read once, as each was coming out, each with likely even less attention than I realized at the time. (Which I've been realizing again and again is true for entirely too much of my unfortunately distracted adult life.)       The Captain America volume is 928 pages, and while I recall some of the specifics it's receded to a blur in memory. The fifth volume, wrapping up Brubaker's run with the character, will be coming out within the next month or so if memory serves.       The Captain Marvel tome is 1400 pages, covering some sixty one issues, between his 36-issue series begun in 1999 and the 25-issue one begun in 2002. What
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