FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS!

• Our band Sunspot will release a brand new EP on 3/17/2015, featuring three of the songs we wrote just for this podcast. We’re in the studio now working on it and pretty excited to finish up and get the final versions out for you to hear!
• On our way to the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festiveal, we’ll be making two stops for the first ever SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE live broadcasts! We’ll be interviewing fascinating people and then playing a live set of acoustic songs for everyone.
• 3/17/2015: We’ll be in Alton, IL to interview Luke Naliborski of Alton Hauntings , a paranormal author ( Lighter Side of Darkness (Haunted Field Guide) ) and speaker. Following our discussion, Mike and Wendy will perform some acoustic songs for everyone.
• 3/18/2015: We’ll be in Little Rock, AR to interview Linda Howell of Haunted Tours of Little Rock. She provides the “Haunted Evening Tour” of Little Rock which encompasses many of the sites in her book, Haunted Little Rock (Haunted (History Press)).
• Podcast reviews- WE MET OUR FEBRUARY GOAL! Thanks to everyone who went into iTunes, clicked the 5 stars, and made nice comments for us. In a future episode, your reviews will be, as Mike says, “autotuned” into a special song just for you.
• Welcome to the new listeners!
• Since we’re heading to Texas in a couple of weeks, Mike and Wendy take a quick detour from announcements to recall the time Sunspot visited the famous haunted tracks there.

AND NOW, THE SAD NEWS…

The world lost a great man, and one of our personal heroes, when  Leonard Nimoy passed away on Friday, February 27, 2015. With such an incredibly legacy and prolific career, Mike and Wendy had quite a bit to talk about as they reflect on the “Mr. Spock” and his legacy:

• His shared identity with Mr. Spock, as he talked about in his two autobiographies, I Am Not Spock (1975) and I Am Spock  (1995).
• The Vulcan salute was Nimoy’s idea, based on the hand formation Jewish priests use while performing blessings.
• Many characters from Star Trek, such as William Shatner , continued to use their characters in ridiculous ways following the series, but Leonard Nimoy had a presence that was less joke-like and more serious. He embraced the character of Spock and brought it into his other projects.
• Nimoy continued on as Spock in the Star Trek animated series, and then in six of the movies
• Of particular interest and inspiration to us, he hosted the show In Search Of , a pioneering program about the paranormal featuring tales of ghosts, ancient aliens, etc. In the show, Nimoy questioned the “unexplained phenomena” of the unknown, which at the time was very unique and uncommon programming for television.
• The Vulcan nerve pinch was an idea provided by Nimoy
• The Episode  Mirror Mirror  featured an evil version of Mr. Spock, who was Nimoy but with a goatee. The practice of using the same actor, but with a goatee, to represent an “evil twin” has become popular in many other shows and movies since then.
• Many people provided special tributes to Nimoy when the news broke of his passing.
• Nimoy directed the movie  Three Men and a Baby , which also has a legendary ghostly figure in one of the scenes that caused quite a stir when the movie came out on video. However, it was later found that the “ghostly child” was a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson (cue the sad trombone).
• So many of the people we know were affected by Nimoy/Spock and his multitude of creative projects, and it was clear on the day of his passing through all of the social media comments everywhere. This was the perfect example of the power that a really good artist can have on the world and human experience.

Let us know if you have any special memories or tributes for Leonard Nimoy!