Robot Claw – Page 830 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Farewell, Beloved Bootsy

October 18, 2006

Tragically, and rather unexpectedly, we had to have our beloved cat Bootsy ‘put to sleep’ this evening. He was 12 years old.

Bootsy had been sick for some time, almost certainly with kidney failure. About a month ago he grew noticeably worse, started losing weight rapidly and showed a massive increase in drinking and urination (classic symptoms). We knew he was ailing, but his demeanor was still positive and it was easy to convince ourselves ‘he was happy’ despite his condition and the stress we are sure he must have been under.

Today, reasonably suddenly, it became clear Bootsy had become incontinent. Deciding that it was time to say goodbye was difficult, to say the least. Given that it’s only been just over six months since we lost Ziggi, it is even harder to deal with.

Here’s a photo of Bootsy in happier days (when he was still quite fat).

< Bootsy Schmitz (1994-2006)

Bootsy was a very different cat than Ziggi. He was much quiter for instance, and kept to himself more often than not. But he loved affection (on his own terms), and enjoyed the simple pleasures of a cats life (such as lazing in a patch of sun). I suppose one could say Bootsy was our most cat-like cat.

We love you Bootsy, and will miss you forever…

Fond Childhood Memories

October 16, 2006

Back in 1985 Billy Ocean released the song Loverboy, and it was promoted with a music video that ripped off the cantina scene from Star Wars. As a then 13 year old I naturally thought the video was pretty great, and given that VH1 Classic played it last night on their 1980’s show I can only add that it has aged well.

The story, in a nutshell, is that the lizardy dude in the above shot wanders into a rough looking bar, spots a pretty lass, and shoots her companion to take her for himself.

The best thing is the bar itself is a blatant cantina ripoff, and many of the patrons are only an evolutionary step or two away from the denizens of the Mos Eisley cantina. Some are not so removed:

The space lizard guy himself is actually well done, with a convincing mask which is well animated. He reminds me a lot of something which I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The back half of his head is very Sea Devilish (<- Dr Who reference) but his snout... < Space Lizard Dude The girl is a blatant ripoff of the female Gelfling appearance (from Dark Crystal): < Pretty Lass And Billy Ocean himself is done up like Han Solo (shouldn't he be Lando), and grooving out as he sings on a set which strongly resembles Tattooine (notice the moisture vaporator behind him): < He wants to be your loverboy Ever since we started watching the music shows (which we still watch hours of every week) there has been a short list of videos we both were hoping to see again. Loverboy was on my list, because I remembered the video as an entertaining and not-as-bad-as-one-may-expect Star Wars ripoff. And it is. But looking at it these days, as an adult, it’s mind boggling how it was able to be released without someone jumping all over someone for copyright infringement.