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| Tuesday, September 27, 2005 12:59 PM |
| Black and White and Read All Over |
 by Fëanor |
- First of all, last chance for a free concert ticket, people! I'm going to the Earlimart/Posies/Deathray Davies/Oranger show tonight (here's my preview of the show on Phillyist, minus my original, strange and meaningless title; again, God bless the editor), and I have an extra ticket, and it is free, as in, costs no money at all. So if you wish the pleasure of my company and an evening of mellow indie music, let me know in comments or email. First one to contact me gets it.
The show is at 8 at the Khyber, btw.
UPDATE: The ticket has been taken.
- Last night, I got a chance to watch my tape of the series premier of "Invasion." I thought it was all right. Pretty standard creepy alien infiltration story. Not much was revealed in the first episode, but it seemed clear that the aliens either created a hurricane, or used a naturally occurring one, as cover for their landing of...things on Earth. These things have allowed them to begin taking over the local population, either by replacing them, or by controlling their minds. The show isn't particularly well done or clever or anything, but it's also not particularly bad. I wouldn't mind watching it again if I had the time. But I don't, so that's it for that.
- Another tape I got to watch last night was that of "Battlestar Galactica"'s season finale. I still don't get how it can be the finale already--how many episodes were there this season, like 5?--but that's neither here nor there. The episode itself was OMG WTF tense, amazing, horrifying, DISTURBING. After I finished watching it, I couldn't stop thinking about it; I couldn't even sleep. Of course, all the caffeine and sugar I consumed right before going to bed might also have had something to do with my sleeplessness, but "BG" definitely had a part in it, too.
I know I already wrote the word "disturbing" in all caps, but let me re-emphasize: this was a really, really disturbing episode. It was also really, really well done. (I really enjoyed SuperTarzan's review, btw.) I particularly loved all the interesting and uncomfortable little struggles over power and authority which eventually led up to Adama ordering a strike team to prepare to launch against the Pegasus (I couldn't cheer very loudly when this happened, as poppy was already abed, but I did cheer, believe you me; I think there was also fist-pumping).
Admiral Caine's arrival on the ship is like the arrival of an Emperor or a Goddess. She's preceded by all these guards and officers who carefully check out the area and then stand formally aside as she comes out. Caine gets a surprised, perhaps amused, perhaps irritated, look as she is introduced to the President of the Colonies. Then she welcomes Galactica back to the Colonial fleet. It's an interesting perspective reversal that will continue throughout the episode. Suddenly we're seeing all our characters and their environment from the outside. And we get to see a different Battlestar with a totally different atmosphere and goal from Galactica. The Galactica is a ship with a bleeding heart; it's the guardian of a fleet of civilian ships, and it's ultimately under the command of a civilian; the crew of Galactica is just trying to protect everyone until they find their way to a place of safety. But the Pegasus is a steely, brutal ship of war, and Caine is its absolute commander. Galactica and its fleet has fought for and kept its humanity; Pegasus has discarded it.
So what's going to happen? I feel like the Pegasus and the Galactica have to end up working together somehow, but I don't see how that's going to happen at this point, unless a Cylon base star just jumps right into their midst and they find it necessary to join together to fight their common enemy. But maybe they won't work together, maybe one ship will destroy the other (I'd bet that the ship the show isn't named after would be on the losing end of that deal), or maybe both ships will limp away, and the Galactica will have acquired a new enemy to watch out for. The latter possibility seems to me the most likely one, because it's brutal and will leave a gaping wound and an open plot line, and that's the way they do things at "BG."
- Via Life in the Pink, we have the wonderful news that wild attack dolphins are on the loose in the Gulf!!! Bah ha ha. Good thing I wasn't planning on going swimming down there.
- Turns out one of the special features on the Revenge of the Sith DVD will be a deleted scene in which we see Yoda arriving at Dagobah. Sweet!
- How do you follow up a brutal, bitter trilogy of films criticizing America if you're mad genius asshole filmmaker Lars von Trier? Make a comedy for only $3.5 million dollars, recording all your sound with only one microphone, of course!
Dogville was so amazing and disturbing and powerful; I really have to get a look at the final two films in the America the Beautiful trilogy. I don't know about a comedy, though.
- Hughes Promotes U.S. Image in Middle East - Hah! Yeah, good luck there, Karen. Pfft. Your boss has made your job really easy for you.
And why do you have that job again? Even though you have no prior experience? What's that? Brownie? FEMA?
- Federal Government Renews Effort to Curb Porn - Another article on this here. This isn't child pornography, btw, this is regular old adult porn, like the stuff we all find "by mistake" when searching the internet. Are you kidding me? This is what we're spending the time and talent of our law enforcement on? Which part of the "war on terror" is this, exactly?
Also, the Feds better watch out. They've been slowly chipping away at our freedoms for some time now, and most folks have just been sitting by quietly and taking it, but if they start trying to take our porn away from us, they're going to have a damn revolt on their hands.
- It looks like we've finally got the real, confirmed information (blurted out by Kirsten Dunst) on which villains are in Spider-Man 3 and who's playing them, and the news is not good. I guess I can see Thomas Haden Church as a supervillain (Sandman, to be exact), but Topher Grace?! Come on! That guy's about as evil and threatening as pudding! That this is Venom he's playing--a monstrous alien parody of Spiderman--makes it both better and worse. Worse because Venom is a particularly vicious and nasty enemy, and particularly unlike Topher Grace, but better because this most likely means Topher's cute, sad-eyed, puppy dog face will be replaced by a computer generated effect for most of his scenes.
Btw, I also want to register my displeasure and disbelief that the Cinematical writer doesn't seem to have ever even heard of Venom. Come on! I don't even like Spiderman--I think I've read maybe one Spiderman comic all the way through--and I know who Venom is.
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