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Jaquandor
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Some of my favorite Twitter followers are authors, so I've heard a LOT about this. I can't believe someone thought publishing this book was a good idea.
"Reader, I married the blackshirted swine."
The Biblical heroine Jael prepares to drive a nail into the head of the sleeping Canaanite general Sisera in this painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, Giaele e Sisara (1620), based on a story from the Book of Judges. Via Wikipedia. One of the things I like about Twitter is that from time to time...
A couple thoughts:
1. FINAL FRONTIER is not a good film, but there's a lot more in it that's good than is commonly believed, and more than that, it was ambitious. It really tried to be and say something that the previous films had not, so I am kinder with my judgment of it than most. I consider it a "noble failure" of sorts.
2. THE MOTION PICTURE is absolutely a STAR TREK movie. In fact, from a certain point of view, it's one of the few real STAR TREK movies. It's certainly the most faithful to Gene Roddenberry's notion of the future.
3. The movies had to be successful because of the TV show...AND on their own terms. It was an odd time for TREK, in the 1980s, when the movies were the only game in town and each one only got greenlit on the basis of the financial success of the one before it. But the movies kept TREK visible and relevant; I seriously doubt that TNG would ever have happened if there hadn't been a franchise of four successful films leading into it.
4. I'm also softer on JJ Abrams than you are, but not by much -- not the films, anyway. I actually don't mind Abrams's direction; there's totally room in TREK for slam-bang adventure stories, and I love the cast he's assembled. His writers, though, really irritate the hell out of me and I'm glad they're not on the next one. We'll see.
“Fascinating.”: Random thoughts on Leonard Nimoy, Mr Spock, the romance of Jim Kirk and Carol Marcus, and J.J. Abrams’ plot to ruin Star Trek
Editor's note, Monday morning, March 2: I don't really believe J.J. Abrams is plotting to ruin Star Trek. But I have issues. See the comments. “Live long and prosper, Spock.” “I shall do neither, for I have killed my captain and my friend.” ---Star Trek. Season 2, episode 1. “Amok Time.” Mr S...
I think your friend is wrong about that pass play. First of all, the formation the Patriots were in for that play (four down linemen and a single linebacker playing too deep in the end zone) would have greatly favored a power run with only a single yard needed for the TD. Second of all, even IF calling a pass is defensible -- a big 'if', given the afore-mentioned blocking scheme -- the specific play the called is not. They didn't even attempt a play-fake of any kind to freeze up defenders or sucker them in the wrong direction; at the snap that Butler guy was able to quickly see that it was a pass which let him jump the pass route. It wasn't a fluke caused by a defender being someplace unexpected; it was a coaching blunder.
And the Patriots are evil and must be destroyed. :)
The wacky movie about the Super Bowl I watched instead of watching the Super Bowl
A shot from the wackiest scene in the wacky movie I watched in place of the Super Bowl. Photo by Barry Chin, courtesy of the Boston Globe. Monday. February 2, 2015. Like the rest of you true blue Americans, I was watching the Super Bowl yesterday, paying attention to the football more than to...
WEST WING was my favorite show on teevee for the first, oh, 2.5 seasons, but as the MS storyline started winding down, I started sensing the preachiness of it all. The MS tale was clearly Aaron Sorkin telling us all how the Clinton impeachment should have been handled, and then the show got pretty boring as Sorkin lurched from one issue to dramatize to another. It was pretty obvious as he went along that he was sticking real-world issues into his show and then filing off the serial numbers to make them fit; imagine my surprise when years later he would just keep the issues the same and shove fictional characters into them for THE NEWSROOM.
I've also developed something of a love-hate relationship with Sorkin over the years since his run on TWW started petering out (anyone who says that all four seasons of his on TWW were great is delusional), and I've even started suspecting that he's a hack with some very real gifts. His ability to pace a story and time the emotional beats for maximum effect is very real, but his oft-praised dialog is deeply problematic for me. I found, watching a lot of his stuff, that the more of it I saw, the more I get this constant sense that I've "seen this movie before", as the saying goes. Entire lines of dialog repeated verbatim from one show or movie to the next. Conversational beats that never change each time he repeats them. Dramatic situations repeated as well. Jokes the make no sense given the background of the characters, or plot points that rely on an intelligent character suddenly becoming, for the moment, deeply stupid. I started suspecting that Sorkin's Emperor had no clothes during STUDIO 60, and seeing more of his work since, I find that WEST WING retroactively suffers for it.
On the show's politics, when I rewatched a lot of it some years ago, I was struck at how infrequently the liberal argument actually carries the day on the show. For a show that's so often viewed as "liberal wish-fulfillment fantasy", the conservative argument very often wins out, while the liberal one is depicted as either something "the nation's just not ready for yet" or a "In a perfect world..." kind of thing. Liberalism is rarely depicted in TWW as something real and possible, in terms of actual policy. I found that kind of annoying, and ultimately, I actually found myself enjoying the show's last two (non-Sorkin) seasons a lot more than Sorkin's own final year-and-a-half. (Season Five is a mixed bag with some terrific episodes and some dull ones.)
I've gone on long enough, so I won't rant on Sorkin's tendency to casual sexism.
The West Wing revisited
On The West Wing, Ivy-educated, smart aleck, elitist liberal Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford center right) ran the country while Donna Moss (Janel Maloney, center left) ran Josh, a relationship that helped make the show a very funny workplace comedy. “Center right” here locates Whitford in the p...
I don't know about the short movie, but I do know that I'll never buy a Keurig. Why get a fancy machine to take up counter space so it can do the same job that a $5 brew basket and a tea kettle can do?
Kill the K-cup!
Never mind last night’s post, sometimes friends send links to things you’re glad to click on. This landed in my mailbox this morning from Uncle Merlin who for some reason feels intense pressure to join what he calls the Keurig Cult. I can’t help suspecting a lot of that pressure’s coming from wi...
I love these movies, wholeheartedly. I really do. They're awesome and even if the THOR flicks weren't part of the Marvelverse, I'd love them.
And you know what? Maybe it's just my unhealthy infatuation with Kat Dennings (who will, heartbreakingly, be too old to play the lead in the TOTALLY INEVITABLE screen adaptation of my book), but I think Darcy is a terrific character. I love how the films -- both of them, now -- manage to make the crucial distinction between competence in the world she's entered and intelligence. She's goofy, and she's woefully unprepared for the type of work she's doing, but she's not stupid, by any means.
Anyway, I loved this movie to pieces.
Humans to the rescue in Thor: The Dark World
Because it’s still in the theaters and it’s fun and because it’s going to take me a couple of days to work up my review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug... While Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) recover from another family squabble, astrophysicist Jane Foster ...
That second link appears to be buggered.
There’s still no standing with Rand
Erik Loomis reports: Today, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed the Senate by a 64-34 vote. How did the greatest defender of civil liberties of all time in the Senate vote on banning discrimination in employment based upon sexual orientation or gender identity? For the answer, which p...
Interesting self-description of Libertariansm by Den Mother there. It's a nice softening of the idea, but in my experience -- and I've interacted with many, many self-described Libertarians -- they never, ever, ever admit the existence of a single thing that actually really truly does fall into any or all of those three categories (with the possible exception of national defense). It all sounds very calm and rational, until every single Libertarian argues that every single thing can be best handled by individuals or "the market". And frankly, push to shove, many Libertarians will, if pushed far enough, end up arguing that "the market" and "individualism" are SO SACRED in themselves that even IF they grant that individuals or "the market" can't do something as well as government, we shouldn't have government do them anyway.
Libertarians are, to me, about as interesting as people I know who get angry if you describe them as Republicans, insisting on their "independence", and yet when I press them on their voting behavior, they literally cannot name the last Democrat they ever voted for.
Making common cause against ourselves: Why libertarians and liberals aren’t natural allies even when they agree on something
I don’t want to hear it, any of it, from any libertarian, unless you are living in a house you built yourself out of material you paid cash out of pocket for, no credit cards from a federally insured bank, on land you bought outright, no mortgage from a federally insured bank, that’s powered, he...
We live in Syracuse from September 2002 to April 2003. The morning we moved was the morning after the Orange won the NCAA Tournament, so for about ten hours, we lived in a championship city.
I saw a lot of things I liked about Syracuse, but I was never sure that I actually LIKED it. For one thing, I was unemployed and our daughter was 3, so for all that time I had almost no adult interaction with anybody. And I never really got a feel for Syracuse as a place. My sense is that Syracuse wasn't really for us...but it didn't get much chance to be, did it?
Why I don’t remember what I remember as well as I remember remembering it
Last night, to celebrate her triumphant visit to our class, Steve Kuusisto and I took the Self-Styled Siren herself, Farran Smith Nehme, out for dinner at an excellent Thai restaurant in Armory Square called Lemon Grass that I was surprised was still there after all the time that had passed sinc...
Ahh, I was wondering if you got to see the pie video or not. It was a ton of fun, as always! Thanks! :)
New Orleans Roses In Our Future
No matter when or where, our roses are spectacular. I started with one in this vase. In no time, I had three from the same bush that grabbed me with their beauty and aroma every time I passed. Not only did I have to touch them, I had to stick my nose right down in them! Ahhhh! No roses in New ...
Wow! What a wonderful flower. I love roses!
New Orleans Roses In Our Future
No matter when or where, our roses are spectacular. I started with one in this vase. In no time, I had three from the same bush that grabbed me with their beauty and aroma every time I passed. Not only did I have to touch them, I had to stick my nose right down in them! Ahhhh! No roses in New ...
From what I'm reading, I wonder if Obama didn't just say to himself, "As long as I don't shit my pants on live teevee, this thing's not really gonna matter much." Especially since the media seemed to really be pushing itself into declaring Romney the 'winner' before the damned thing even took place. (And what the f*** is 'winning a debate', anyway? And how have we become a country where you can 'win' a debate whilst being factually incorrect all over the place, whether intentionally or not? If Romney had been arguing charmingly that the Earth is flat, and Obama had been sleepily intoning that it's actually a sphere, how can the 'style points' add up to the dumb-ass 'winning'? I'm really coming to HATE HATE HATE our narrative-driven media landscape.)
The debate over the debate debated
I didn’t watch. For one thing: baseball. For another: boring. But mainly: I knew Mitt was going to “win”. The Media was never going to let him “lose.” The only way he could have lost is if he finished up crumpled on the floor behind the podium, whimpering “Make it stop! Please, God, make it sto...
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Oct 4, 2012
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