REAP WHAT HE SAW

LeVar Burton's face is harvested for a random cover—again.

We first ran across this cover more than a decade ago and always meant to share it as a follow-up to the cover at this link. Have a quick look. Both covers obviously feature U.S. actor LeVar Burton in what we assume are unauthorized for-profit uses of his image.

Burton first came to wide attention on the 1977 television mini-series Roots, but may be better known for the more recent Star Trek: The Next Generation, which ran from 1987 to 1994. Roger Blake’s Black Reaper is from 1978, so the uncredited cover artist was definitely working from Burton’s Roots imagery. We didn’t read the book, so that’s all we have for you—just another oddity from the publishing world.

New English Library, Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roger Blake, LeVar Burton, cover art, literature, television

Femmes Fatales

December 4 2024

BOYDIAN ANALYSIS

Do you think about sex all the time? It's okay. That's how you're wired.

This photo shows U.S. actress Tanya Boyd, who was among the best elements of films such as Black Shampoo, Solomon King, Black Heat, and of course, Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, as well as an enhancement to television shows like Good Times, What’s Happening, and the epic mini-series Roots. She’s seen here in a shot from around 1973 that makes us remember, like every good Freudian, that sex is really at the root of everything. Mid-century crime writers understood this, which is why, while all appetites are indulged rampantly, from the craving for drink to the obsession with money, sex is nearly always the catalyst for rash action. In essence: Do this insane thing and you’ll get laid. Accumulate riches and you’ll get a Boyd of your own.

Of course, women could refuse to be impressed. In that way they’re all-powerful, but like the gods of Olympus, rife with human flaws. You’ve surely wondered, if women were able to en masse deny sex to destructive men, whether about 75% of the nonsense that goes on in the world would come to a screeching halt. It’s a trite if enticing thought, but—hah hah—it could never happen because women are voraciously sexual too. It’s a cosmic chicken-egg riddle. Around and around we go, gravitationally locked binary entities, hurtling through a deep void. Amazing, isn’t it, what a single photo of Boyd can make a brain do? Well, the sophomore philosophy discussion group is over for today. We’re out. Feel free to ponder an additional time-stopping image of her here.

Black Shampoo, Solomon King, Black Heat, Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, Good Times, What's Happening, Roots, Tanya Boyd, blaxploitation, nudity

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

February 12

1961—Soviets Launch Venus Probe

The U.S.S.R. launches the spacecraft Venera 1, equipped with scientific instruments to measure solar wind, micrometeorites, and cosmic radiation, towards planet Venus. The craft is the first modern planetary probe. Among its many achievements, it confirms the presence of solar wind in deep space, but overheats due to the failure of a sensor before its Venus mission is completed.

February 12

1994—Thieves Steal Munch Masterpiece

In Oslo, Norway, a pair of art thieves steal one of the world’s best-known paintings, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” from a gallery in the Norwegian capital. The two men take less than a minute to climb a ladder, smash through a window of the National Art Museum, and remove the painting from the wall with wire cutters. After a ransom demand the museum refuses to pay, police manage to locate the painting in May, and the two thieves, as well as two accomplices, are arrested.

February 11

1938—BBC Airs First Sci-Fi Program

BBC Television produces the first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s dark play R.U.R., aka, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The robots in the play are not robots in the modern sense of machines, but rather are biological entities that can be mistaken for humans. Nevertheless, R.U.R. featured the first known usage of the term “robot”.

February 10

1962—Powers Is Traded for Abel

Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960 while flying a U-2 high-altitude jet, is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been arrested in New York City in 1957.

February 9

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,800 stars.

February 9

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.