Friday, April 27, 2007

“Yeah, I'm sure he's saying that”

Not only is there a difference of 1218 days between my birthday and Tom Cruise's birthday, but the birthday of Katie Holmes, his new wife and co-star of the recent “Batman Begins,” is 12/18/1978.

From 3/3/1959 to 7/3/1962 is: 1218 days
From 7/3/1962 to 11/2/1965 is: 1218 days

Kate Noelle "Katie" Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her part on the show, only her second professional role, made Holmes a star. Her movie roles have ranged from art house films such as The Ice Storm to thrillers such as Abandon to blockbusters such as Batman Begins

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married on 11/18/2006. That was 359 months, 3 weeks, after 11/28/1976, the day I recognize as when I left the Jupiter moon Callisto to begin my return to Earth, which occurred on 4/14/1977.


The movie “Top Gun” premiered precisely 59.3 months after 6/7/1981. That is the date known as the Operation Opera strike by the Israeli Air Force on the nuclear reactor that Saddam Hussein was building.

Top Gun is a 1986 American film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in association with Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an article written by Ehud Yonay for California Magazine entitled "Top Guns." The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Tim Robbins, and Meg Ryan.

The film follows LT Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, a young naval aviator who aspires to be a top fighter pilot in a prestigious naval school which trains the top 1% of all Naval Aviators. Maverick gets his chance to attend the school after one pilot drops out, allowing for him and his RIO (Radar Intercept Officer, the "back seater" in the two-man F-14) LTJG Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw to train with the best.

The film opened on May 16, 1986 to good reviews, the aerial scenes being most notably praised. The film accumulated over $350 million world-wide, and broke home-video sales records.


This is a curious combination of dates, similar to what I wrote the other day about “Cast Away.” These dates for “Top Gun” reflects the love interest of “Maverick” to my real birthday and then in comparison to the birthdates for the actress that portrayed “Goose’s” wife with the birth date of Phoebe Cates. I was thinking a lot after I woke that she must have really been someone special to me.

From 7/9/1957 to 3/3/1959 is: 602 days
From 11/19/1961 to 7/16/1963 is: 604 days

Kelly McGillis (born July 9, 1957 in Newport Beach, California, USA) is an American actress, whose notable movies include Witness (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), Top Gun and The Accused.


Meg Ryan (born November 19, 1961) is an American actress who specializes in romantic comedies, but has also worked in other film genres.

Filmography

Top Gun (1986)


Phoebe Cates (born Phoebe Belle Katz on July 16, 1963 in New York City, New York) is an American film actress best known for her roles in several teen films, most notably Fast Times at Ridgemont High. At the height of her popularity, Harper's Bazaar named her as one of America's 10 Most Beautiful Women of 1984.


I find myself thinking a lot about the similarity of two scenes from the 1986 “Top Gun” and then the 2000 “Cast Away”:

Memorable quotes for
Top Gun (1986)

Viper: How ya doin'?


Maverick: I'm all right.

Viper: Goose is dead.

Maverick: I know.

Viper: You fly jets long enough, something like this happens.

Maverick: He was my R.I.O., my responsibility.

Viper: My squadron we lost 8 of 18 aircraft. 10 men. First one dies you die too, but there will be others. You can count on that. You gotta let him go. You gotta let him go.


Memorable quotes for
Cast Away (2000)

Kelly Frears: I always knew you were alive, I knew it. Everybody said that I had to let you go. I love you. You're the love of my life.


Chuck Noland: I love you too, Kelly. More than you'll ever know.


I guess that is supposed to be a reference to make me look at details associated with the director Stephen Frears. He was 59 years old at the 12/22/2000 release of “Cast Away” but I couldn’t find any other interesting connections to his birthday and the release of that movie. The name “Kelly” reminded me of my undercover first name, Kerry, as well as “Kelly” from “Top Gun,” who was “Mavericks” love interest. Following a hunch, I found it interesting to note that director Stephen Frears was 59 years, 3 weeks, 5 days, old on Phoebe Cates 7/16/2000 birthday. Since the numbers don’t precisely match up, maybe that reflects how close she and I were.

Stephen Arthur Frears (born June 20, 1941) is an Academy Award-nominated English film director.

He has since directed a number of successful films in both Britain and America, including The Hi-Lo Country (1998), High Fidelity (2000), Dirty Pretty Things (2003) and Mrs. Henderson Presents starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. In recent years he has also occasionally returned to directing for television, perhaps most notably helming The Deal, a dramatised account of the alleged deal between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to decide which of them should become leader of the Labour Party in 1994, for Channel 4 in 2003. His latest film, The Queen, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was also made for television but was given a cinematic release; it achieved immense critical acclaim, box office success and awardage. Frears himself received his second Academy Award nomination for his direction of the film and Helen Mirren won the Academy Award for Best Actress.


Dame Helen Mirren, DBE, (born on July 26, 1945) is an Academy Award-winning English stage, television and film actress. She has also won four SAG Awards and assorted BAFTAs, Golden Globes and Emmy Awards during her career.

During her career, she has portrayed three British queens in different films and television series. These include Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), and Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, in The Madness of King George (1994). Her role in The Queen gained her numerous awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, Mirren praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign as Queen



I also puzzled over the number of days between my birthday and Stephen Frears birthday in comparison to Helen Mirren’s birthday and Phoebe Cates birthday. At first I thought they were precisely the same but when I looked again, I noticed two numbers were transposed and I wondered if that was deliberate.

From 6/20/1941 to 3/3/1959 is: 6465 days
From 7/26/1945 to 7/16/1963 is: 6564 days


I wrote earlier about how that track "New Moon On Monday" makes me think it reflects the final flight to Earth's Moon with Apollo 17. Apollo 17 landed on the Moon on 12/11/1972, which was a Monday. But it also made me think of 6/7/1976. That is the day I recognize as when I landed on the Saturn moon Phoebe. I have been thinking that "New Moon On Monday" was Apollo 17 because that was a new trip to the Earth's Moon. But 6/7/1976 was a visit to a different moon, and during that mission, was the first visit I made to any moon. My first stop was at Mars, which is a planet. And then the Jupiter moon Callisto was the next new moon after Phoebe, but that wasn‘t a Monday. Those lyrics and sound effects make me think the song represents several trips and that it includes Apollo 17 and the Jupiter moon Phoebe.

The clues got even more interesting as I continued to examine the details, and I realized that "New Moon On Monday" also pointed to Apollo 8, which was the first time humans had orbited the Earth‘s Moon.

And it is all anchored to Phoebe Cates birthday. She was obviously quite special to me.

From 7/16/1963 to 6/7/1976 is: 4710 days
From 6/7/1976 to 11/21/1983 is: 2723 days
4710 - 2723 = 1987
From 7/16/1963 to 12/23/1968 is: 1987 days

Seven and the Ragged Tiger is Duran Duran's third studio album, released globally in November, 1983. It would prove to be the last studio album for the band's original lineup until 2004's Astronaut.

Released 21 November 1983
...
Track listing
...
2. "New Moon On Monday" – 4:16




Phoebe Cates (born Phoebe Belle Katz on July 16, 1963 in New York City, New York) is an American film actress best known for her roles in several teen films, most notably Fast Times at Ridgemont High. At the height of her popularity, Harper's Bazaar named her as one of America's 10 Most Beautiful Women of 1984.


Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo space program, in which Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to orbit around the Moon. It was also the first manned launch of the Saturn V rocket.
...
After launching on December 21, 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon, which they orbited for 20 hours. While in lunar orbit the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read from the book of Genesis. It was the most watched broadcast to date.


Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program. It was the first night launch and the final lunar landing mission of the Apollo program.
...
Launch: December 7, 1972
Lunar landing: December 11, 1972


December 23, 1968: Monday
December 11, 1972: Monday
June 7, 1976: Monday


DURAN DURAN LYRICS
"New Moon On Monday"

Shake up the picture the lizard mixture
With your dance on the eventide
You got me coming up with answers
All of which I deny
I said it again
Could I please rephrase it
Maybe I can catch a ride
I couldn't really put it much plainer
But I'll wait till you decide
Send me your warning siren
As if I could ever hide
Last time La Luna
[CHORUS]
I light my torch and wave it for the
New moon on Monday
And a firedance through the night
I stayed the cold day with a lonely satellite
Breaking away with the best of both worlds
A smile that you can't disguise
Every minute I keep finding
Clues that you leave behind
Save me from these reminders
As if I'd forget tonight
This time La Luna
[CHORUS]



What this also reminds me of again is a conversation I “remember” from my artificial memories of talking to Maria Coleman at her desk. She is the friend I “remember” that was the assistant to the President of the First Federal bank where I worked. I was dating Tracie, my future wife, at the time, as Maria was commenting about how I never talked about her the way I used to talk about Rachel Barnett or Bobbilynn Michelle Townsend. Something how I was crazy about those too but I didn’t seem as crazy about Tracie. I have thought about that conversation a lot over the years and how I was not going to get involved again with anyone unless I was just as crazy about her.

I am thinking that Rachel Barnett and Bobbilynn Michelle Townsend reflect my feelings for Phoebe Cates and Julia Roberts. Those fictional characters in my artificial memories were created years after my relationships with those two woman. I can still visualize so much detail with both of them. I am thinking though, that my experiences with Bobbilynn has something also to do with the comet. I “remember” the first time she came over to my apartment at Wexford. It was very cold that night. I rented the movie “RoboCop” and we were watching it on my Mitsubishi television. The heater on my apartment quit working that night and I only had one blanket, which I gave her as she sat there on the couch watching the movie. I “remember” that it was blanket that I got a long time earlier from Jim Shea, formerly of Hollywood, Florida, and there was an image of a tiger on the blanket. I have thought often of that blanket over the past few years. The last time, in my artificial memories that I “remembered” seeing it was when I was sitting in the back of my white Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo one night and the drive-in theatre near Charlotte, NC. I used to like to go there by myself and they always presented 3 first-run movies each night on the weekends. As all the vehicles I drove in my artificial memories are symbolic, I believe that Grand Cherokee represented the Space Shuttle. So anyway, later that night, as Bobbilynn was leaving my Wexford apartment, we were standing at her car, a Geo Storm, and I asked if I could kiss her and she replied by asking “I don’t know. Can you?” I have puzzled over that for a long time. These are all symbolic memories and the true meaning is very interesting to ponder. It is an exercise in philosophy or poetry in a lot of ways. You read it and you understand what you are.