In Memoriam, Tripled: 3 Great Actors

So, I hadn't wanted to wait this long to do it, but things just got hectic for me in the past few months.  Only now, at the end of October, am I writing blog posts about what I wanted to write about all this time.  And among them is something for three great actors

...Then again, maybe it is fitting that I'm doing this on Halloween, of all holidays.  Does anyone think maybe they can see this from the great beyond?  Who knows...

And so, without further ado: IN MEMORIAM, TRIPLED

ANTON YELCHIN - The young actor who did Chekov in the few new Star Trek movies (starting with the 2009 reboot) was taken from us well before his time in a freak accident.  And although Terminator: Salvation got not-so-hot reviews for its time, I still liked his role in that as well.(And unlike the other two actors on this list, Mr. Yelchin wasn't among my childhood inspirations, especially seeing as he was somewhat younger than me... ****, I'M OLD!). RIP, Anton Yelchin.

GENE WILDER - As gifted and talented as anyone else, I know him not just from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but also various other comedies, especially those by Mel Brooks: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers, etc.  I also personally grieve for him not just because he's passed on, but because I once lived in the same general area as him and missed a good chance to meet him at a public event (a Borders bookstore, back when the chain was still in business).  RIP, Gene Wilder.

KENNY BAKER - Of course he was best known as being R2-D2 from the Star Wars movies, but he did plenty of other things too.  Only recently when I was rewatching Amadeus (great movie, BTW) on Netflix did I see his name in the end credits, and then recognize him as one of the opera performers towards the end of the movie when they're performing The Magic Flute.  I wonder what else he, or any of these actors, did which I should watch in the future?  RIP, Kenny Baker.

And now I can only hope that I did this post justice.

ADDENDUM: While writing this post, I wondered and then researched how to say something like "in memoriam, tripled" in Latin, just to make it truly cool and sophisticated.  According to my Latin dictionary, the adverb ter means "thrice" so I guess it could be something like "TER IN MEMORIAM" or "IN MEMORIAM TER" (remember, word order in Latin is much more flexible, allowing for more possibilities).

"There's Always a Flag Flying at Half-Mast"

So, I've been working on this poem for a few months now, especially after seeing the craziness in the world of the last few years (especially last year in 2015, with the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernerdino, among other things).  We might now be into the second month of the new year, but this might be just as good a time as ever.

And so, without further ado, I gave you my latest poem...

"There's Always a Flag Flying at Half-Mast"

by Seth Shirer

There's always a flag flying at half-mast,

hanging limply up there on the flagpole,

because of some tragedy now since past,

And now our hearts each bear an empty hole.

What bad thing happened somewhere this time?

What horrific scenes will be in the news?

Go hear the rushing vehicles and klaxons,

emergency response teams, rescue crews.

No one seems safe wherever they should be,

not even the children placed in their schools.

The evil ones seek infamous glory,

While bystanders look, act and feel like fools.

Some crazy people do these wicked deeds

in the name of some worshiped foul being-

gods, demons, or merely voices in their heads-

which only they're capable of seeing.

Some bitter person has an ax to grind,

bearing grievances towards all the world,

and so the innocent people are hurt,

and from the aggressor's hand, pain is hurled.

The talking heads all across the media,

The politicians up on their hill...

If none of those folks will do anything

meaningful, then who among us will?

Everyone, hear the dying and injured!
Everyone, see the spilled and spreading blood!
Everyone, stop this advancing foul tide,
Or else you'll all drown in the deadly flood!

Until everyone becomes serious,

to sound reason everyone will appeal,

these awful disasters will never cease,

and none of us will ever truly heal.

(Thank you for reading.)

Monty Oum: An Inspiration for All

Alright, I know I'm rather late on this one (blame it on Real Life, as well as the since of shock which I've been feeling ever since), but I still need to get it out of my own system...

At the beginning of this month (February 2015), the highly talented and beloved animator Monty Oum suddenly and sadly passed away.  He was only 33 years old.

He first burst onto the Internet scene nearly a decade ago with his fan videos in which he pitted different video game characters against each other, such as Haloid (featuring a Spartan like the Master Chief from Halo and Samus Aran from Metroid fighting each other) and Dead Fantasy (featuring various characters from Dead or Alive and Final Fantasy fighting each other).  More recently, he had contributed to some of the fight scenes in the machinima series Red vs. Blue, and also created and contributed to the original animated series RWBY (where he also provided the voice of the character Lie Ren).

(Obviously, he was a master at choreographing fight scenes.)

Alright, that obviously sounds too much like your run-of-the-mill obituary, but please allow me, Seth Shirer, a.k.a. "StellarStylus" to say something of my own.

To the spirit of the late and great Monty Oum, as well as all of his family, friends, co-workers and all other forms of loved ones...

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for your loss of such a great person who was so integral to your lives... but that's not all I feel sorry for.

I'm sorry in that I wasn't able to get the chance to contact him and tell him how much I admired him and his work, and I'm sorry that I didn't take the time to do it.  Just the sheer creative talent which he possessed blew me away.

This isn't actually the first time where I just barely missed the chance to tell a great and talented person how much I loved and admired his or her work.  True, in those few other instances where it did happen and I just barely got to heap some praise onto a storyteller, it was because the person in question was an older person who was suffering from the kind of health problems which typically come with old age.  But just like everyone else, I certainly didn't expect Monty to suddenly pass away at the still-relatively-young age of 33 because of some allergic reaction which put him into a coma.

From his fan videos like Haloid and Dead Fantasy to the original series RWBY (the last of which is a favorite of yours truly), he never ceased to amaze me.  I especially like RWBY for its creative world and how all of the characters are pastiches of and homages to real-world characters from history and legend alike.  Oh, and the fight scenes, of course.

Like so many other people, I had also donated a nice chunk of change to the fundraiser which would have gone into paying his medical bills... but since that never happened, then let his family and kin make good use of the money for their own support in life.

After his sudden passing, his friends over at Rooster Teeth suggested that the best way to honor his memory would be to be creative and create something.  I would be more than happy to fulfill such a simple request; not that I'm not already a creative person working on my own thing, and not that he hasn't already been an inspiration, but I would be more than happy to go about it with his wonderful example in mind.

...And that's just about all which I want to say for now.

Monty Oum: An Inspiration for All.