It's time for tomorrow's update...today!

As I posted a couple of days ago, I'll be at the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade and a party at a friend's house, so I won't be posting tomorrow.

Now it's time for the long-awaited, long-anticipated recap of...

    A prolific author of what he termed “dark fantasy,” Charles L. Grant (1942-2006) wrote twenty-nine novels and countless short stories. The Curse, from 1977, was his first novel; Riders In The Sky: The Millennium Quartet 4, in 2000, was his last. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Geoffrey Marsh; Lionel Fenn; Simon Lake; Felicia Andrews; and Deborah Lewis. In addition, he was an officer of the Science Fiction Writers of America, president of the Board of Trustees at Horror Writers of America (which also gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000), and was on The Burry Man’s Writers Center’s board of advisors (http://charlesgrant.novelhost.net/biography.htm­).

Despite all that, however, he never really became a “household name” in the same way that Stephen King has; I had never heard of him until I bought Symphony in a small bookstore in Downtown Kenosha.

So...The Millennium Quartet.

Symphony (1997): The Horseman is DEATH. The story concerns a preacher in a small, unnamed East Coast town. Down on his luck and ill, he suddenly finds himself able to perform miracles. Is it a gift from God…or something more diabolical? Meanwhile, some travelers pick up a hitchhiker named Stan, who quickly finds out that he's the one in trouble...

This is the softcover edition of Symphony. It provides an object lesson in Millennium Hunting, namely that things made during the Y2K craze often featured color-changing "holographic" material, as seen above.

 In the Mood (1998): The Horseman is FAMINE. Crops, fish, and animals are dying, and the world is starving. Meanwhile, somewhere in the heartland of America, a family reunites for a gathering, and the travelers bring death along with their baggage. A young boy and his mother are on their way; Dad, who is in New Orleans, has woken up with the ability to detect violence. He, too, is about to join them, and this will be a gathering to remember.

I borrowed Books 2 through 4 from public libraries affiliated with our own in Evergreen Park's, which is why they are the hardcover editions. The paperback edition featured the same cover art, but with a white background.

Chariot (1999--are you noticing a pattern here?): The Horseman is PLAGUE. A new strain of smallpox has devastated the whole world. Las Vegas is humanity’s last stronghold. A man named Trey makes good use of his ESP on the slot machines. His luck will never run out until he tries to leave the city. Meanwhile, the Reverend from Symphony and the Father from In the Mood are looking for Trey…and, unsurprisingly, so is Plague.

It's March already...I should create a banner for the homepage. I'm still learning how to do this, so please be patient and gentle.

Oh, that reminds me--I'll be at a St. Patrick's Day party on Sunday. That means you'll get this week's update on Saturday, a full day early.But the news articles still correspond to Sunday, March 10.

I visited the Flea Market today, and...

...I found some pretty cool Millennium Items!



This is the Standard Millennium Edition of Monopoly. Parker Brothers also published a Collector’s Edition, which came in an embossed tin and featured a pair of uniquely-shaped dice and “stackable” houses and hotels (later reused in the Pokémon Edition), but I do not have this in my collection at the moment. One day...

As you can see in this image, the box is lightly battered, as if it had sustained damage in storage. The board (not pictured) has one or two water or grease stains on it, but it’s otherwise perfectly serviceable. I’m also missing a few of the tokens, but the houses, hotels, money, deed cards, Chance/Community Chest cards, and instruction manual are all present and accounted for. At five dollars, it was a bargain. I never thought I’d actually put one into the Museum, but there it is.

UPDATE, 3/5/13: I decided to take another look at game, this time for detail. The most striking thing about the game (well, the Standard Edition, anyway) is its more overt display of personal materialism and "living the high life." In place of the original New Jersey streets and properties, you have things like "Ski Equipment," "Trip to Far East," "Estate in the Country," and "Ski Chalet." There's something a little disturbing in that, to me--with the original, real estate-based game, one could find a higher purpose in the wheeling and dealing in the name of giving someone a place to live, and helping someone else while making money. In contrast, the 2000 board is all about uplifting one's own self with mere baubles.

Two things date the game slightly: "Ski Equipment" and "Premier Golf Equipment" are still purple (this was changed to brown for some reason), and "Income Tax" still says "Pay 10% or $200." Now it's just "Pay $200."

The Chance and Community Chest cards go mostly unchanged, which means the "improve your property cards" make no sense. Perhaps most worryingly, the "Get Out of Jail Free" card now reads: "Discover Legal Technicality--Get Out of Jail Free." My philosophy is, if you do right, you're guaranteed to avoid punishment. Legal technicalities are just easy get-outs that perpetuate wrongdoing, and it's something that I think is changing nowadays.

Overall, the game advertises itself as "The Millennium Edition," but it still has a very 90s sensibility to it. For me, growing up in the 90s was a bunch of kids flaunting their brand-new toys and competing over whose was newer, flashier, and better, and the game board is the "grown-up" version of that. At any rate, it still captures the zeitgeist of the 1999/2000 era.

This Beanie Baby was “born” on July 4, and it has a “2000 Edition” decal on its tag (inset).

 I bought it from a woman who didn’t think she had any Millennium Beanie Babies within her stall. She was just as surprised as I when I produced this one from the bottom of a large box.

And the winner is..."American Beauty"?!

(Thanks to Wikipedia)

Tonight’s the 85^th Academy Awards ceremony, so put on your formals and get ready to wonder who will take home the awards? Will Denzel Washington win for “Flight?” Will “Lincoln” beat out “Amour” for Best Picture? Will “The Avengers” add to the comic-book adaptation’s brag sheet with a Visual Effects nomination? Stay tuned and find out!

But for now, let’s look back at the 72^nd ceremony. Who hosted? Who won? Who had an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction? Get ready to find out, ‘cause we’re taking the DeLorean back to 2000!

83…84…85…86…87…88 MILES PER HOUR!!!!!!!

IN THE YEAR 2000…Billy Crystal hosted his ninth ceremony with great aplomb. 

 

“American Beauty” took home five awards:

·         Best Picture

·         Best Director (Sam Mendes)

·         Best Actor (Kevin Spacey)

·         Best Original Screenplay (Alan Ball)

·         Best Cinematography (Conrad L. Hall)

“American Beauty” did not win Best Actress (Annette Bening) or Best Original Score (Thomas Newman). Those awards, respectively, went to Hilary Swank for “Boys Don’t Cry” and “The Red Violin” (John Corigliano).

“The Matrix,” that other great surprise of 1999, won four:

•          Best Sound Editing (Dane Davis)
•          Best Sound Mixing (John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David E. Campbell and David Lee)
•          Best Film Editing (Zach Staenberg), beating out “American Beauty”
•          Best Visual Effects (John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Jon Thum and Steve Courtley)

Phil Collins’ “You’ll Be in my Heart,” from Disney’s adaptation of “Tarzan,” beat out Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s “Blame Canada” from “South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut,” which Robin Williams memorably and hilariously performed.

Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow” won for Best Art Direction. Its award was a joint win for Rick Heinrich’s art direction (you may recognize his name from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” for which he served as a visual consultant) and Peter Young’s set decoration.

“Topsy-Turvy,” a movie about the production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado,” won for Best Makeup (Christine Blundell and Trefor Proud) and Best Costume Design (the ironically-named Lindy Hemming—you know, like hemming-in clothing. Hello? Can I get some laughs? No? Ah, please yourselves, then.).

Michael Caine and Angelina Jolie took home Best Supporting Actor and Actress (“The Cider House Rules” and “Girl, Interrupted,” respectively).

There were many, many more awards handed out that night. Please go to http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/72nd.html for more information!

February 24, 1999: Amazon.com launches Drugstore.com, an online prescription marketplace. The site is still going strong, and it has branched out into a makeup site, Beauty.com. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/285837.stm

Also, Madeleine Albright warns Yugoslavian forces against renewing hostilities with Kosovo. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/285731.stm

February 24, 2000: Pope John Paul II arrives in Egypt for a New Millennium pilgrimage, charting historic locations listed in the Bible. It marked the first visit to Egypt by any Roman Catholic pope.

http://articles.cnn.com/2000-02-24/world/pope.egypt_1_visit-holy-sites-papal-visit-pontiffs?_s=PM:WORLD

 

Presenting...the "Doctor Who" Millennium Calendar!



This photographic calendar was published by World of Discovery, and was a part of the BBC’s Millennium Collection range of merchandise. Disappointingly, the calendar features photographic stills instead of artwork by Who artists such as Andrew Skilleter, Colin Howard, Alister Pearson, and Chris Achilleos. It departs from the usual two-page spread (upper half = artwork; lower half = calendar), but it’s fairly well-designed. Still, publicity shots aren't enough to warrant posting every single page of it to the blog...maybe one day, I shall come back and do just that. Yes, I shall come back. But, until then, there must be no tears; no anxieties. Just go forward and read the entries, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in writing them. 

Here is a summary of each page:

1. October/November 1999 features the William Hartnell (First Doctor) era (November 1963-October 1966). Accompanying stills: Doctor/Steven/Vicki from “Galaxy 4;” Ian/Susan/Barbara with Doctor at TARDIS console from “100,000 BC;” and a color publicity shot of Hartnell at the TARDIS door. November 1999: Doctor and Susan from “The Daleks;” a Monoid from “The Ark;” and the Drahvins, with a Chumbley, from “Galaxy 4.”
2. December 1999/January 2000 features the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) era (November 1966-June 1969). Accompanying stills: Doctor/Jamie McCrimmon/Zoe Herriot from what appears to be “The Wheel in Space” or “The Seeds of Death;” the Second Doctor from “The Five Doctors;” and Doctor/Ben/Polly, story unknown. January 2000: Victoria and an Ice Warrior from “The Ice Warriors;” Fish People from “The Underwater Menace;” and the Cybermen from “The Moonbase.”
3. February/March 2000 features the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) era (1970-1974). Accompanying stills: Doctor in Bessie (his roadster) from “The Five Doctors;” the Brigadier, Jo Grant from what appears to be “Terror of the Autons;” the Brigadier, story unknown; and the Doctor and Jo, story unknown. March 2000: Doctor and Draconians, “Frontier in Space;” Axon, “The Claws of Axos;” and a Sea Devil, “The Sea Devils.”
4. April/May 2000 features the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) era (1974-1981). Accompanying stills: Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane, story unknown; Romana II (Lalla Ward) from what I think is “Warriors’ Gate;” Leela from what might be “The Sun Makers;” and K9 from what looks like “The Invisible Enemy.” May 2000: A Sontaran from, oddly, “The Time Warrior” (a Third Doctor story!); Doctor/Sarah Jane with a Krynoid, “Seeds of Doom;” and Leela prepared to fight a knife-wielding Mr. Sin from “Talons of Weng-Chiang.”
5. June/July 2000 features the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) era (1981-1984). Accompanying stills: Tegan from what looks like “Resurrection of the Daleks;” group shot of 1, 2, 3, and 5 from “The Five Doctors;” and the Fifth Doctor outside the TARDIS—looks like “The Five Doctors.” July 2000: A Cyberman from “Earthshock;” a Melkur from “The Keeper of Traken” (a Fourth Doctor story!) and Davros from “Revelation of the Daleks (a Sixth Doctor story!).
6. August/September 2000 features the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) era (1985-1986). Accompanying stills: Peri, “The Twin Dilemma;” Sixth Doctor, story unknown; and Sixth Doctor in Fifth Doctor’s costume; “The Twin Dilemma” (but notice that the green stain is missing from the right sleeve). September 2000: The Borad, “Timelash;” Peri with Cyberman, “Attack of the Cybermen;” Peri with Sil, “Vengeance on Varos.”
7. October/November 2000 feature the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) era (1987-1989). Accompanying stills: Doctor with Mel, “Time and the Rani;” Doctor, Ace, Brigadier Winifred Bambera, Bessie, and an unknown girl, “Battlefield;” Doctor and Ace, “Survival.” November 2000: The Rani, “Time and the Rani;” Kandyman, “The Happiness Patrol;” the Cheetah People, “Survival.”
8. December 2000 features the TV Movie, with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor (1996). Accompanying stills: Doctor in distress, wearing an eye-opening contraption; the Master (Eric Roberts) and Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso) sharing what must be the lamest punchline in the world; and the Doctor and Grace at the TARDIS console.
9. January 2001 is an epilogue: “Whether the Doctor has a future is yet to be decided, but as the Doctor is a Timelord [sic] he can be regenerated twelve times; so far there have only been eight.” Accompanying stills: Third Doctor, story unknown; TARDIS, possibly “The Leisure Hive;” the Fourth Doctor’s face from the 1974-1979 title sequence.
   
   Overall, I'm not entirely happy with the calendar. There are quite a few misspellings, and several pieces of inaccurate information. But, despite all that, it is a Millennium Artifact, and a worthy one at that.
    

February 17, 1999: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets with Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's chief deputy, to discuss the Wye peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Albright, Arafat, and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously signed this agreement in October 1998. (www.bbcnews.com)

February 17, 2000: The AFL-CIO calls for amnesty for undocumented workers in the USA.

"What on Earth?" Fall 1999 Catalog and Grammy Awards 2000 recap

·         I’m not sure when What on Earth? started coming to our door, but this two-page spread on 88 and 89 comes from the Fall 1999 issue. I found it in a drawer in my room just last night.

Page 88 starts with a gorgeous woven throw and decorative linen calendar. Both of them share a Henry David Thoreau quotation: “The heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high.”

Next is a game called Millenniumopoly, published by USAopoly, which has a license to publish themed Monopoly games without using Parker Brothers’ Monopoly trademarks. They also published a do-it-yourself version called Make Your Own-opoly when home desktop publishing first took off in a big way. Parker Brothers did publish a Millennium-themed Monopoly game, with special board, houses, hotels, tokens, and money. A deluxe version featured special, oddly-shaped dice.

The Millennium Bear sports a coat of sparkly, black fur of plush; paws of light purple plush; and a holographic “2000” patch on its chest. When you shake its paw, it says, “Make my millennium,” and gives a snippet of futuristic music.

Next are two T-shirts. The first reads: “Are you prepared? Millennium 2000,” and the second reads: “Y2K…tick, tick, tick.”

Page 89 kicks off with a sleep-shirt and pajama bag bearing the likeness of that naughty little scamp, Milo the Millennium Bug. To Milo’s left is the “Merlin 2000” Fireworks Kaleidoscope, a portable light and sound show powered by three AA batteries.

Below, there’s a sweatshirt reading, “Global Unity—Year 2000,” with a Keith Haring-inspired image of our planet. There are also two more T-shirts. The first, white T reads, “Queen of the Millennium;” the second, black T bears a simple silver rectangle with “01-01-00” printed inside. Finally, there’s a purple pullover dress printed with stars and galaxies.

  Grammy Awards 2000 Recap:

On February 23, 2000, the world watched the first Grammy Awards festival of the new millennium. Held at Los Angeles, California's Staples Center, the awards show saw guitarist Carlos Santana walk away with eight awards; his album, Supernatural, earned nine. A then 19-year-old Christina Aguilera became the youngest Grammy winner, and Jennifer Lopez, ahem, captivated the world (in more ways than one) with her green, Versace-designed dress, which closed in the middle and left practically nothing to the imagination. And, in a heartwarming moment, Elton John won the MusiCares Person of the Year award. David Crosby won the first of these back in 1991; alumni include Tony Bennett, Phil Collins, and U2's Bono. 

The list of awards given out is far too long to reproduce here, so I shall simply redirect you to Grammy.com's Past Winners database.

Experimenting with a new feature...stay tuned.

I'm toying with an idea for a new feature in my head.

Basically, whenever I start a new post, I'm going to have, along with the usual collection item, an "On This Day in 1999/2000" thing with a couple of major events in those two years.

Ready? Let's try it!

On this day in 1999...Hugo Chavez is elected President of Venezuela.

On this day in 2000...Former President Bill Clinton announced new gun control measures.