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Thank you commentor RossinDetroit! — and also, of course, Mr. Whedon.
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dmsilev
I question the wisdom of a BRAINSSSSS-based appeal to the GOP base.
lamh35
I know people love the Dark Knight series of Batman movies, but can I just say that I actually the Tim Burton duo way better.
Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, Danny DeVito as Penguin, and of Michael Keaton as Batman!!!
I’m just gonna admit it, Michael Keaton is my favorite Batman. I’m split on Catwoman, but my fav TV version is Eartha Kitt and my fav movie version is of course Michealle Pfeiffer. I just watched Batman Returns and man I still sat and watched the whole thing as if I hadn’t seen it before.
Loneoak
The fact that this has not appeared on the front page yet means the devious mind behind it has to be DougJ.
DCLaw1
Speaking of Mr. Whedon, if you haven’t yet seen The Cabin in the Woods, do it.
Joel
@lamh35: I like the Burton movies, as well, although the Dark Knight is my favorite Batman. I liked Keaton better than Bale as a leading character, but Ledger was the best villain in the series by far. In ranking the movies, I go:
1) The Dark Knight
2) Batman Returns
3) Batman
etc..
I thought Batman Begins was surprisingly bad, for what it’s worth. Liam Neeson was uncompelling and they wasted a chance opportunity to get mileage out of Jared Leto.
Cassidy
@lamh35: I love those two. I don’t think Devito gets nearly enough credit.
Hawes
As someone who named his blog after zombies, since we are clear living among the mindless hordes already… I approve this message.
TaMara (BHF)
Ok, it’s probably already been discussed here today, but I just saw the ad. Romney had the nerve to release an ad with the Jeep move to China.
Mary G
Sandy looks awful from here on the West Coast. Take care of yourselves, I will be worrying about my online friends back there.
Spirula
Mr. Whedon raises a very important point. Why DOES Spam have it’s own key?! Is it a key to something else too, like a parallel universe ruled by Spam?
Think about it!
PeakVT
@TaMara (BHF): The media won’t say anything useful about it because it’s technically true. It’s completely dishonest, however.
lamh35
@Joel: don’t hate me but I’ve never seen any of the Dark Knight movies outside of snippets. So I’ll take your word for them (although having not have seen them, I have heard raves about Ledger)
So of all the pre-Dark Knight movies I’ve seen, the first two are the best thanks to Tim Burton and Michael Keaton and the stellar cast of people they used for villains.
I also honestly didn’t hate the Val Kilmer Batman either, but the best thing to come out of that movie was the “Kiss of A Rose” song which I still don’t understant what the lyrics had to to with the movie….still love it.
Speaking of which, the fact that Prince did the soundtrack for the first Batman was awesome. I still find myself humming along to that damn “vicky vaile” song.
Oh and of all the love interest, it’s a toss up between Kim Basinger as Vicky Vale and Nicole Kidman as “Chase”. I like Michelle Pfeiffer more as the Catwoman persona than as Serene Kyle, but she was great at both.
Xecky Gilchrist
That sound you heard is several thousand basement-dwelling fans bitterly discarding their Firefly DVD box sets, after a decade of claiming that Joss Whedon is obviously a staunch Libertarian.
Maude
@Mary G:
It is a huge storm. The media has been saying that and it seems people are prepared as best they can.
Thank you.
Trakker
For pure entertainment, nothing beats Conservapedia. Nothing. Be sure to visit the day after Obama cleans Zomney’s clock.
redshirt
LOL. The most awesomest political ad ever.
Then, I am a Joss devotee.
handy
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Nah, they’ll still fap to Summer Glau.
TaMara (BHF)
BTW, in between snow storms I went out and bought cream cheese and finally made the Pumpkin Cream Pie. It was a hit with all and one piece leftover for my boss’ birthday Monday.
Mnemosyne
@Xecky Gilchrist:
I think the problem here would be that Whedon talks like an actual Libertarian, not a pot-smoking Republican who claims to be a Libertarian because all of those social conservatives are so embarrassing.
(Whedon is most likely a liberal with an anarchist streak, but whatever else he may be, he is not and never has been a Republican.)
lamh35
Good Lord, Criminal Minds is one of the creepiest shows ever, not ’cause it’s scary, but because good Lord if all these stories are based on real serial killers or actual real serial killer affliction, then damn the world is a scary place.
I never want to be awoken by hotel staff telling me that I”m late for checkout and looking down at myself and find that my lower legs have been amputated from the knee down ’cause some fu*&ker wants to be Jack da freakin’ Ripper
It’s also thanks to Criminal Minds, that I never plan on stopping at an off the road “cabin in the woods motel” owned and operated by some sadist serial killer… as if I would stop at any off road place anyway as a Black female alone!!!!
And yes, I’m catching up on my DVR queue.
TaMara (BHF)
And I said it in an earlier thread – I didn’t think it was possible to love Joss Whedon more than I did. The man creates intelligent female characters who can kick anyone’s ass (though he does seem to cast actresses you could blow down with a sneeze)and his dialogue is funny and smart.
And now he gives us Zomney and Zomney apocalypse.
Ruckus
We’ve been looking for something to call mittshit. That’s mine, I like it, it explains his ass very simply but when someone comes up with something so all encompassing, I just have to go with it.
zomney.
He still doesn’t get it capitalized, I sure am not going to give zomney any respect, it’s for sure he gives me less than zero.
lamh35
@lamh35: BTW, the reason the guy cute off the dude’s leg is because he wanted to attach it to someone elses body WHO.WAS.STILL.ALIVE!!!!!!
He cut off this Black guy’s leg, then kidnapped some white guy, cut off his leg and reattached the Black guy’s leg to the white guy’s leg with sutures.!!!
ewww
gex
@TaMara (BHF): He can only break so many of our society’s rules about what women are and can be at a time.
geg6
@Joel:
Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever hated a movie as much as I hated The Dark Knight. I’d rather sit through ten showings of Batman and Robin than sit through that again. It was so bad that I won’t even catch the newest one when it hits cable. Terrible film and I was not at all impressed by Ledger. IMHO, he got the Oscar nom because he died and that’s about the only reason. That movie pissed me off so bad because I really, really dislike comics and super hero movies with the single exception of Batman. And that film turned me off Batman now. I’ll never see another summer movie again now that they ruined Batman and there are no more Harry Potter movies. :-(
I prefer the holiday Oscar season releases anyway. First up? Bond and then Lincoln.
Jeff Spender
@geg6:
I actually think it was Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent that made the movie worth seeing.
Democrat Partisan Asshole
I will and can only say this, to protect the less innocent: IRL, Joss Whedon is a pompous self-important asshole who both needs and expects his actors to fawn on him on-set and off as though he is the second coming of Jesus himself.
Sadly, this is true of most talented people, I’m finding out.
JPL
@lamh35: I probably mentioned this before but decades ago while grocery shopping in FL, I ran across Rhea and Danny. We were vacationing with my in-laws. First I whisper to mil, that’s Rhea Perlman..reply was she on Today show.. I move along and find fil.. same thing.. Find my now ex in the beer aisle and say hon, Danny Devito is shopping, hon says in a loud voice as Danny turns the corner who the hell is Danny Devito. Devito cracked up and I smiled and looked at the ex hon and said never mind.
I was grocery shopping with the only people in the world (slight exaggeration) who had never watched Cheers or one of the many movies Devito was in.
Chris
@Xecky Gilchrist:
I used to think Whedon was a libertarian. Now that I’ve seen enough Buffy (specifically the episodes with the Initiative), I’m going to take his own word and peg his work as more “anarchist.”
Plus his anti-authority spiel actually targets the security state and corporate power, two things that’re anathema to most self-described “libertarians.”
MikeJ
@Xecky Gilchrist:
I’ve *never* heard anyone say that. There’s not really a trace of glibertarian in anything he;s ever done.
JPL
@TaMara (BHF): I do a thanksgiving brunch so my son and so don’t feel obligated to have two large meals. That sounds like a great addition.
Chris
@Mnemosyne:
I should’ve read on. Yes, this exactly.
(I should add that watching Firefly as a late teenager contributed to a brief era of being libertarian in between my conservative and liberal phases, because I figured in an age of massively increasing security state, isn’t restraining government power important? That lasted about as long as it took me to figure out that the libertarian movement doesn’t actually give a shit about that and that I’d probably have better luck with simple liberals).
Chris
@geg6:
Nolan’s Batman trilogy to me is like the Matrix trilogy a decade ago; not bad, but I’ll enjoy it a lot more once all the hype’s faded.
smith
Love this – saw it earlier, was waiting for it to get front paged.
As for Joss Whedon, where is this “he’s a libertarian” coming from? I’ve always thought of him as a liberal with a strong anti-authority streak. This is a man, after all, who is on record as calling himself a “male feminist.” How many libertarians would describe themselves that way?
SFAW
@geg6:
Maybe they’ll make a movie of a Barbara Cartland or Georgette Heyer opus, that should satisfy you.
Ledger’s performance was pretty intense, sorry you don’t like stuff like that.
Chris
@smith:
The entire post-Civil War vibe of the Firefly universe, with the good guys being the ones who lost.
The “big government vs small government” vibe of the Alliance/Independent war.
Quotes like “governments are for getting in a man’s way.” “A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned.”
Some of the main characters – the Officer-Gentleman, the gun-toting redneck, the Christian preacher.
The entire plot of Serenity, about a naive, well-meaning, utopian government attempt to “make people better” backfiring into disaster (I took that as a dig at Star Trek’s idealized future humanity, actually).
If you haven’t seen Whedon’s previous work, yeah, it’s easy to see Firefly as libertarian (with the connotations that has in today’s world).
opie jeanne
I was at the little grocery store near my cabin a few minutes ago, and I heard a guy in the Starbucks talking really loud about a poll that’s been right every time in the last 8 elections, like, for 30 years. They’ve never been wrong. He went on and on to the other two guys who were listening to him, and I was waiting for my husband to catch up with me, so I walked over and asked what group or poll he was talking about, said I was curious.
He couldn’t name it but said it wasn’t a poll, and then he got reeeeally defensive; he said it was a college professor at the University of Colorado, said the guy took a lot of information at the state level (he said polls), didn’t use the national polls (I’m paraphrasing here) and he had never been wrong once. He was betting on it, supposedly, and was going to double down on his prediction because he had been right down to the last decimal point all those times before. “It was in a paper I read”.
I said that was amazing. At this point, considering that I was standing a mile from Lake Arrowhead in the fancy grocery store, I figured what he was going to say next, that this perfect prediction method said Romney was going to win but what I didn’t expect was what he said about the difference, 8 or 9 points. I must have looked a bit surprised by that huge difference, because he then started getting loud about how Obama hasn’t had a 50% lead with Gallup at any point during the past X months and no president has won without hittting that number once, yadda yadda.
(There is NO internet connection in that Starbucks, the internet is unavailable there)
I mentioned that Gallup right now had Romney up by such an incredible amount that they are an outlier, but he countered with their being the oldest poll, the most respected, etc. He said there were others and I told him that Rasmussen has a history of telling the Republicans what they want to hear until the last minute, when they correct back to the norm so that they won’t look like they’ve been wrong. He then said, but they’ve been the most accurate! and that the Left polls do the same thing. (mind was boggled at that point) I said, well sure, because they correct back to reality at the last second. I told him to watch Rasmussen, and see what they do the last two days before the election, that they will correct at the last minute.
I also suggested he check out both Wang at Princeton and Nate Silver at 538. I explained briefly how Silver reaches his conclusions, said I didn’t know too much about how Wang does it but that they were both very accurate at predicting for several elections. He asked me if I was willing to bet that Obama would win, was I that sure, and I demurred because I’m not a guy with a tiny dick problem.
All the way back to the cabin I was alternatelky fuming and laughing because I was sure it was bullshit. My poor husband. I sat down at the computer and discovered that what this guy was talking about, the Bickers and Berry model which has NEVER predicted any election at all:
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2012/10/04/updated-election-forecasting-model-still-points-romney-win-university
These two guys pulled up a lot of variables like economics, income, social issues and stuff and looked for relations between these things and which party won an election. This was done retrospectively, and son of a gun, it was right every time. Except it wasn’t. It has never predicted anything.
This is what Nate Silvers had to say about it:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/23/1123481/-Nate-Silver-Calls-B-S-on-U-of-Colorado-Election-Prediction-Model
smith
@Chris:
Thanks for the rundown. I admit I never saw Firefly (you can all flog me now) so I never got the libertarian vibe off of him. But now I see why people thought he was or is.
JPL
FYI…The New York Times will not be behind a paywall during the storm to allow easier access to the local news.
Stay safe everyone.
geg6
@SFAW:
Maybe you should go fuck yourself. Maybe if by “intense”, you mean shitty overacting, you might have a point. Ledger and that movie sucked donkey balls.
WTF do you even mean by bringing up Barbara Cartland or any stupid romance novels, you sexist piece of shit? Who even said anything about romance, jerkwad?
opie jeanne
@lamh35: Prince did not do the soundtrack for that Batman, Danny Elfman wrote the soundtrack. I think Prince wrote one song, which is why so many of my friends were annoyed that year during the Grammys.
Anne Laurie
@SFAW:
Just so you know, comparing Cartland to Heyer is like telling a comix reader, “Jim Shooter, Neil Adams, they’re all just funny-book scribblers, aren’t they?”
You don’t have to understand every genre, much less appreciate them all. But try not to be the Dismissive Jagoff Stereotype, because nobody likes that guy.
SFAW
@Anne Laurie:
OK, thanks for trying to educate me. Hopefully your attempt at smartening me up will not be fruitless. (Not that I plan to do a lot of Cartland/Heyer/Whoever comments in the future, of course, but thanks for trying.)
aimai
@Chris:
I never could stand Firefly. And I am a huge Whedon fan. I understand that a lot of people loved Firefly/Serenity but Whedon seemed to want to do a space western and got lost in a lot of trifling shtick. I always figured that when he saw what the new crew did with Battlestar Gallactica he kicked himself for wasting his time with Firefly. BSG was much more thought provoking and Whedonesque.
aimai
piratedan
@handy: your mileage may vary, but I’m a Jewel Staite fan tyvm….
aimai
@Anne Laurie:
Funny that you should have to point this out tonight. I’m reading The Grand Sophy out loud to my teenage daughters, to celebrate the night before a “no school” day because of the storm. It is a fantastically funny, witty, book.
aimai
Cassidy
@aimai: I always thought the opposite. It seemed to me that BSG turned into a “who’s going to be a Cylon this week” type of rut. That was the go to plot twist. Firefly never got time to breathe.
the Conster
7.7 earthquake hits the west coast of Canada. Frankenstorm bearing down on the east coast of the US. Can the meteor be far behind?
Roger Moore
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Are there actually people dumb enough to think that Firefly is a defense of libertarianism? Because while it shows the problems of an excessively powerful central government, it paints an even worse picture of the society outside the reach of that government.
Hob
I’ve seen at least one friend-of-a-friend on Facebook responding to this ad with “Wow, I didn’t realize he was such a right-winger”– i.e. they stopped watching after the first 10 seconds and thought he was really endorsing Romney. I’ve resisted cluing them in.
Baud
@the Conster:
Still preferable to a Romney presidency.
Omnes Omnibus
I loved this.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Chris: This is a great list of why people could plausibly believe Whedon was libertarian (if they hadn’t, as you say, seen any of his other stuff.) Thank you!
I would take issue with claiming the government is portrayed as well-meaning and naive; might seem so from seeing just Serenity, but the Blue-Handed men and such from the series make it look way more sinister. It’s also clearer in the series that the government is tangled up with the Blue Sun Corporation, which makes the govt/business split a lot more problematic.
Arclite
@geg6:
I recently re-watched TDK, and focused mostly on the performances, and Ledger’s is simply amazing. A lot of actors just play themselves on screen (e.g. Bale in the same movie) but Ledger created an utterly convincing insane but consistent character out of whole cloth. Apparently his tragic death is linked to his Joker performance, as the role affected his ability to sleep and he turned to sleeping pills and other prescription meds for help. One day he OD’d.
As for him not deserving it, his performance as the Joker is still discussed today as one of the greatest villain performances on film. Does anyone even remember the other nominated actors and their roles? They are all great actors of course, but the TDK performance is a standout.
It looks like both Bond and Lincoln are going to be great. Also looking forward to seeing Argo.
chopper
@Hob:
you should be suggesting that they forward the clip to all their right-wing friends.
Ash Can
@Hob: Why resist? Why not clue them in?
Xecky Gilchrist
@Roger Moore: Are there actually people dumb enough to think that Firefly is a defense of libertarianism?
Oh, yes. There were gobs of them around in the early days of the fan sites like Fireflyfans.net (which AFAIK still exists, though I have no idea what it’s like after about six years ago.)
Maude
@Anne Laurie:
Heyer was one heck of a writer. She is still popular.
Are you going to be okay up there with the storm AL?
James E. Powell
@aimai:
It’s an example of “all taste is taste.” I loved Firefly and Serenity. Thought it had a lot of potential. BSG started strong but got more tedious and preachy, silly preachy, as the series went on.
lamh35
@opie jeanne: Elfman did the musical score.
The Official “soundtrack” album was written by Prince.
That is what I was talking about. When I think soundtrack, I don’t include the score of th emovie.
It included one of my favorite Prince songs ever:
Prince – Scandalous
redshirt
Not enough Jossites in this thread. I’m one, so rest assured when I tell you: Joss is a super Liberal. Firefly is fiction, set in a fictional universe. Buffy saved the world, a lot. Angel is the better show, though. Best show, actually. Anyone watch it from start to end?
Joss Whedon is my master now, as he should be yours.
Cassidy
Man. I guess it must be too hard to think that Whedon was creating a complex world where even the concepts of “good” were gray areas and the “hero” had no problem shooting people in cold blood. Some people.
Arclite
@aimai:
I love them both. Two great scifi franchises. It’s so tragic Firefly only had one season, but I’ll rewatch the show every couple of years until I die anyways.
Xecky Gilchrist
@redshirt: Anyone watch it from start to end?
I did, and while I disagree that it was better than Buffy, I get that that too is a matter of taste (and I did love Angel, don’t get me wrong.)
I’m a major Joss fan, and own the T-shirt that says “Joss Whedon is my master now.”
AliceBlue
@Arclite:
Mr. AliceBlue and I saw Argo this afternoon. Gripping and very well done.
Mnemosyne
@Democrat Partisan Asshole:
Yep, that’s pretty much par for the course in any creative field. In Whedon’s defense, I will say that he is also in that (unfortunately small) group of powerful people who realizes that finding and nurturing other talented people will end up reflecting well on him, unlike, say, Chris Carter.
In film school, they talked about TV shows that were run as “teaching hospitals” or “private hospitals.” Bruce Paltrow, the showrunner of “St. Elsewhere” ran one of the most famous “teaching hospital” shows and has a really amazing list of writers to show for it (just off the top of my head, Tom Fontana, Mark Tinker, and John Masius). Judging by the number of Whedon’s writers who have gone on to run their own shows, “Buffy” and “Angel” were teaching hospitals. So he’s got that going for him.
Hob
@Roger Moore: No kidding. About a quarter of the episodes by my count involved wealthy assholes who had either set up feudal domains in the unregulated frontier so they could kick the workers around, or stayed in a bubble of luxury jacking off over their toys. Captain Reynolds talks shit about the government for obvious reasons, but he’s basically apolitical– a romanticized outlaw character of a type that was established hundreds of years before the U.S. Civil War.
Elmo
@redshirt:
I watched both Buffy and Angel on Netflix, start to end, and Buffy was far, far superior.
SFAW
@geg6:
You first, kiddo. You seem to know how it’s done, I’d want to learn from an expert.
Yeah, I feel the same way about “Citizen Kane” because I hate Hearst Newspapers and hearing about the problems of the super-rich in general. And I hated “Dr. Strangelove” because it makes fun of nuclear war, which I happen to think is serious business.
Get bent, you sanctimonious piece of shit. I picked something about as far removed from Dark Knight as I could think of. Anne Laurie has since then disabused me of my misapprehension. You don’t like it? Life sucks sometimes.
What’s next, you hated Forrest Whitaker’s performance because Idi Amin was a monster? Daniel Day-Lewis because he “overacted” in “My Left Foot”? On the other hand, Al Pacino in “Scent of a Woman” was overacting, far beyond anything Ledger did in “Dark Knight.”
So, thanks for gracing us with your insightful analysis and commentary.
lamh35
@redshirt: I loved Angel. I’m still butthurt over it’s cancellation. It’s why I refused for the longest time watching any “vampire romance” television (I finally got over it after watching True Blood, but that’s thanks to all the hotness that is the boys of True Blood).
I actually came to Buffy later in the series once Spike was added.
Man I loved Angel!
Hob
@Ash Can: Mostly because they’re friends of friends, not people I know, and I don’t like being that guy who pops up randomly to tell strangers they’re dumbasses when they’ll surely find it out soon anyway. Also, for all I know they’re just being sarcastic in such a subtle way that it’s indistinguishable from dumbassitude.
Southern Beale
OMG. Remember TN’s “family values” doctor Congress Critter Scott DesJarlais, the guy who taped himself urging his mistress to get an abortion? Now a second girlfriend has stepped forward and she says they smoked pot together and he wrote her prescriptions for pain meds.
God I love these family values Republicans!
redshirt
@Elmo: Kudos for the effort. I can see why you’d say Buffy was the better story – young girl plucked from the mall tasked with saving the world, week after week. Angel, otoh, is a tale of redemption – a vampire trying to do right. So, fate versus free will, as Angel is about making amends (changing) the world, and Buffy is only and ever about “saving” it.
MikeJ
@aimai:
It took a couple of attempts for mew to like. Finally something clicked and “aaah, I get it”.
Never did like BSG though.
Baud
@Elmo:
Loved Buffy and Angel. Buffy’s last 2-3 seasons were crap, however.
Anne Laurie
@aimai: The Grand Sophy is the Spousal Unit’s second-favorite Heyer (After Friday’s Child; he was a Wodehouse fan long before I turned him on to Heyer… which finally got him to re-read, and appreciate, Jane Austen.) My own favorites are A Civil Contract and False Colours, probly cuz I’m such a cynic.
For the record, while I’ve read, re-read & enjoyed most of Heyer’s books, I still haven’t had much luck with other historical-romance writers, including of course Barbara Cartland. And while I adored Jim Shooter’s Legion of Superheroes work when I was 14, I don’t pretend it’s held up over the ensuing 40 years — unlike Neil Adam’s. I drifted away from comix fandom many years ago, but I still have warm memories of that late 1970s/early 1980s era. Since I’m now a participant in the only nonsexual hobby genre that gets less respect than furry fandom, I try not to be casually offensive about whatever gives people pleasure!
moonbat
@opie jeanne: Prince did so write the soundtrack for the first Tim Burton Batman movie because I own it.
Matt McIrvin
@Arclite: I haven’t seen Argo, but I was disappointed to hear that they took out the coolest parts of the real-world story: that the fake movie they were pretending to produce was an adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light with production design by Jack Kirby! I want to watch that movie.
rb
@lamh35: those shows are just thigh-rubbing torture porn. Way, WAY less healthy than actual porn. I avoid that filth and recommend everyone else does too.
Hob
@Baud: Wow… I know most people didn’t like the 7th season and plenty didn’t like the 4th, but I’ve literally never seen anyone say that the 5th or 6th was crap. Can’t argue with taste but I’m surprised.
SFAW
@Anne Laurie:
So am I going to have to read some Heyer, potentially incurring slings and arrows? Shit, I hate it when you make sense like that. (No, not you in particular, of course.)
opie jeanne
@Roger Moore: Oh hell, there are people who think Terry Pratchett is a Libertarian.
Zippity
@redshirt: I just finished watching all 7 seasons of Buffy, followed by all 5 of Angel. I had never opened my seasons 4 and 5 of Angel, so I hardly remembered them. Now, I just pulled out my Firefly set.
MikeJ
@SFAW:
You don’t like hearing about the problems of the super rich but you like movies about Bruce Wayne?
Mostly movies about the problems of the super rich are the only ones worth watching. Most of the problems in movies about other people can be solved with just having more money. The problems the super rich have are the same ones the rest of us have, but they can’t be solved with money. And it’s always good to see them suffer when they realise that.
Maude
@Anne Laurie:
The Angelique series was the over the top historical romance. It is very hard to find any of the books now. They were written by a husband and wife team.
opie jeanne
@lamh35: Ah yes, I see my mistake. I had forgotten the distinction.
I liked that Prince song, but I loved the musical score more than the soundtrack.
Baud
@Hob:
I don’t recall my seasons. The season with the sister was too odd for me, but ok. I couldn’t stand the next season (second to last?) when Buffy came back from the dead and had the affair with Spike. The last season was just ok. I really like the early seasons.
var
Fake Cokie Roberts was awesome. Hat’s off to whoever did that one.
SFAW
@MikeJ:
Can’t tell if you missed the irony/sarcasm, or caught it, but went off on a rant anyway.
ETA: Yes, I realize you might be one-upping me in the sarcasm department.
Hob
@Matt McIrvin: I haven’t seen it either, but I’m neither disappointed nor surprised that they left out the Zelazny angle. As I understand it, no one involved in the plot either knew or cared about Zelazny or his book; as far as they were concerned, they were just picking up an abandoned space-opera property that was one of many failed attempts to cash in on the Star Wars craze.
Arclite
Anyone seen Cloud Atlas yet?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MITTMENTUM!
I’ll still be surprised if Obama wins Florida, but even knowing who I’m listenting to, I’m surprised we’re still hearing about Mittmentum.
Chris
@Xecky Gilchrist:
True story. I was sorry we never got a chance to see the Blue Sun plotline develop (or the rest of the series). I had the impression that the Alliance was a cyberpunk style dystopia, corporations pulling strings and all just seen from the point of view of the space cowboys rather than the urban dwellers as in most cyberpunk.
Life in the inner planets was probably a lot like Blade Runner or The Fifth Element.
geg6
@SFAW:
Look in the mirror, misogynistic sanctimonious asshole. You go straight to implying I’m a precious flower because I’m a girl and I don’t like your stupid movie and I’m the sanctimonious one? What about my post made you go the route of romance novels? I guess Bond and Abe Lincoln are just pu$$ies.
I’ve only ever pied one person here, but you just made it two. Congratulations on being in the fine company of BoB
freelancer
@Arclite:
Saw it yesterday. I dug it. It’s going to be a polarizing movie for people. You’re either going to love it or hate it.
Jeff Spender
@MikeJ:
The newer Battlestar Galactica is probably my favorite sci-fi series. I know it doesn’t work for a lot of people, but I loved it from beginning to end.
Elmo
@redshirt:
No effort. Partner had a knee replacement, so I bought a TV for the bedroom and we started at the beginning. I very quickly became obsessed, particularly with Ripper Giles. Mmmmmmmm.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: Not only that, there are neo-Confederate Firefly fans who interpret the show as a defense of the Confederacy. (To be fair, they’re probably picking up on vibes the show got from its Western antecedents.)
moonbat
@redshirt: There is a hell of a lot of ambiguity packed into “Firefly”. And as a Southern states refugee, I get the echoes of defeated rebels vibe, but you have to remember in the history of the world there were a lot more rebel movements than just the southern Confederacy. I always got a much more Scottish rebel vibe from “Firefly” and I thought that the main character’s name is “Mal” which is pointed out early on “Mal means ‘bad’ in Latin,” point out that the hero is scarred and a bit complex. As a whole the Whedon-verse is anti-authoritarian and deeply liberal no matter which series you are watching.
ETA Or what Hob said.
moonbat +2
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
I went to Amazon to see if The Grand Sophy is on Kindle — not only is it on Kindle, I apparently bought it last year and totally forgot! I may try to work it in after I finish Great Expectations (I’m slowly working my way through books everyone else read in high school but I never did for some reason).
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
I love life’s little victories.
Jeff Spender
@Chris:
That’s actually the conclusion that I came too, especially after that episode with the Blue Gloves on Ariel and the way they treated even law enforcement officers.
Dystopian seems about right. I think people get the wrong idea about Firefly specifically because they didn’t get a chance to develop it. The Blue Sun plotline, if allowed to develop, would have cleared much of that up, I suspect.
Arclite
@Matt McIrvin:
Wow, I hadn’t heard that. That WOULD have been awesome.
redshirt
@moonbat: True all that. Love it.
I also got the vibe the losers of the Firefly Civil War were us, Liberals. Diversity and tolerance were the losers of the war, and everyone who believed in such virtues. The winners were cold hearted technocrats, eager for compliance.
Fort Geek
@Ruckus: I’ve been calling him “the Shit Mitt”, after the method Apollo astronauts had to use to relieve themselves in space.
rb
@Arclite: I am dreading Lincoln’s inevitable reducing of all of the civil war era to White Men Get Very Exercised and Upset while Beautiful but Silent Black People Look on in Sorrow but with Nary a Hint of Anger. (And white women provide moral council and “buck up!” as needed.)
I expect Day Lewis to be astonishing, but I just don’t trust Spielberg with the material. The previews have done nothing to assuage my fears.
Tripod
I’ve seen him get overtly political a few times at con Q&A sessions and he’s been pretty stridently pro-union and vocal about the need to spread the wealth around.
Roger Moore
@Hob:
Only a quarter? I guess that depends on whether you’re making a distinction between the wealthy assholes who are setting themselves up as legitimate authorities and the ones who are willing to be accepted as criminals. When you count both groups together, it’s over half.
muddy
@Anne Laurie: My favorite was Devil’s Cub. “Rupert was fast lapsing into a rollicking mood” etc. So interesting as the parents had been the leads in a previous book, and then the leads in Devil’s Cub were the fat cranky grandparents in An Infamous Army. I also especially liked The Spanish Bride, which was based on diaries of the principals from the Napoleonic wars. I used to have the complete set, and was started on them in the early 70’s by a middle aged British guy my dad worked with. I picked up so many going through Heathrow, I lived overseas then. I had to downsize my book collection, and gave mine all away to someone who wanted the whole set.
There is a whole genre apparently of fake Regency novels, they misuse the slang and the well-known background characters. Heyer just owns that genre. And is so funny! The characters, esp. the oddball ones, are perfection.
Cartland has more … and … than dialog, it’s crap.
Anne Laurie
@SFAW:
Only if you’re looking for light entertainment reading, and/or have a fondness for Regency-period history. Ms. Heyer basically invented a whole genre, but even sercon historians give her props for getting the details right. If you’re a graphic novels enthusiast, I’d read some Terry Prachett first, assuming you haven’t already. But the older I get, the less proscriptive I feel about telling everyone that they must read/watch particular stories, because tastes vary and life is too damned short.
aimai
@Anne Laurie:
I love a Civil Contract. Do you know the work of Lois McMaster Bujold? Because she is a sci fi writer (of space opera!) who is a huge fan of Heyer, Sayers, and several other good people. I love her Vorkosigan Saga.
aimai
opie jeanne
@moonbat: Dear Moonbat, love your name. See my reply and apology above, at #86.
slag
@Jeff Spender:
Agreed. Whedon lives in the space in which authority (be it corporate or governmental) must always be questioned and challenged and in which the individual is most successful when working in a team toward a mission. Obviously, he values a rebel with a cause. Firefly was just one example of this. See also, Buffy, Angel, and The Avengers, to name a few. Sounds fairly liberal democrat to me.
Chris
@Jeff Spender:
I’m going to throw in Stargate SG-1, since we’re talking science fiction. Not deep or philosophical like Trek, BSG or Firefly, but still my all time favorite show. Star Wars type sci-fi meets Indiana Jones type archaeology adventure meets standard U.S. military based fiction, starring the guy from MacGyver. It’s like the show was drafted specifically with me in mind.
Exurban Mom
The big question is: why isn’t #zomney and #zomneyapocalypse trending right now on the Twitter machine?
MikeJ
@aimai: Ever listen to La Grande Sophie? I only have Et Si Cétait Moi and La place du fantôme, but I like ’em.
Xecky Gilchrist
@redshirt: I also got the vibe the losers of the Firefly Civil War were us, Liberals
Likewise. Especially considering when Firefly was showing, at the height of Rah-Rah-Bush jingo.
moonbat
@opie jeanne: Thank you! And no problem. I am a huge Prince fan so I tend to be a bit touchy on the subject. :)
DCLaw1
NERDS!
(With love.)
The prophet Nostradumbass
For all of you Firefly-lovers, the Science Channel has been heavily promoting some sort of cast/crew reunion special that they’re going to be showing in a couple of weeks after a marathon run of, I suppose, the whole series.
Arclite
@Exurban Mom: Maybe it will take off in a few hours? Looks like the vid itself has been up only for a few hours.
Roger Moore
@Hob:
I didn’t like the 6th Season that much. I thought it spent most of the season floundering around without a worthy villain. While the end was reasonably well set up, it was still way too jarring a switch. The 7th also spent a while floundering, but found its feet sooner and was pretty decent once it got there. Once they decided that yes, this really was going to be the final season, they did a very good job of pulling out the stops for a great finale.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Chris: I’m going to throw in Stargate SG-1
Oh, yeah. I thought it ran hot and cold but by God when that show was good it was really good. Personal favorite, the one where O’Neill and Teal’c got stuck in the time loop. ETA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_of_Opportunity_%28Stargate_SG-1%29
Schlemizel
Been getting updates on FB suggesting that friends “like” Willard Rmoney. When I ask them WTF they tell me they did noting to provoke these lies & still hate Willard with all their heart & soul.
Anyone else hearing or seeing this sort of madness? Is it FB or Rmoney/rAyn campaign that is pulling this shit?
opie jeanne
@moonbat: I thought Mal was short for Malcomb.
Chris
@redshirt:
@slag:
Also true.
opie jeanne
@efgoldman: And showers. Can’t take a shower if I’m home alone; there has to be someone else in the house.
chopper
@geg6:
SLAP FIGHT!!!
Baud
@Xecky Gilchrist:
That was a good one. I also like the one when the black hole left the stargate open.
Chris
@Xecky Gilchrist:
YES. Window Of Opportunity, Season 4, when the show got really good. That episode’s a favorite for many fans.
Shakespeare
OT: Just got through watching a bigbrains weatherguy chat (experts videochat weekly on meteorology).
All bad news about Sandy. Take the warning seriously, people. These guys know their stuff, and they said they had the “pit of my stomach” feeling they had before Katrina.
Yikes. Katrina in NYC.
slag
@Schlemizel: I’ve heard about this. I think it has to do with the way ads are working on Facebook. If you click on a Zomney Facebook ad (as those of us who enjoy costing campaigns money are wont to do), you could accidentally “Like” Zomney-Zyan. That said, I don’t understand Facebook, so I could be making that whole thing up.
moonbat
@opie jeanne: It is, but he goes by Mal most of the time among his crew. One of those little Whedon touches, I guess….
Arclite
Best Firefly fan song.
The artists have a whole album for sale. Talented guitar player coupled with a gifted singer.
aimai
@MikeJ:
Interesting. I am a big fan of Barbara and Marie LaForet. I get a bit of the same vibe from your Sophie.
Other incredibly funny Georgette Heyer’s are The Unknown Ajax and her murder mysteries which are quite good.
Jeff Spender
@Chris:
Stargate SG-1 is also excellent. I didn’t get the chance to watch much past season 4 before Netflix took it down, but what I did see I really liked.
Atlantis was pretty good, for my money, because I loved the characters–even though the plot was a bit…meh.
Stargate Universe was, I think, really good. I would love to have seen what they would do with it. It wasn’t the most original premise, but, again, it had really interesting characters and it involved really cool tech.
opie jeanne
@moonbat: I love him too. I’m 62 now but back in the 90s my girls gave me a cassette tape of his music for Christmas, and I was thrilled.
I have one of the tiny iPods that had all sorts of stuff loaded onto it, Mozart, Beethoven, Peter Gabriel (the So album) and Prince. Little Red Corvette got a workout but there was another song that was the reason they gave it to me, can’t remember the name but there was a lyric that cracked me up, something about coming for your daughters.
opie jeanne
@Schlemizel: I think it’s FB, but I’m only getting those pages linked to my Mormon cousins, and the idiot cousins who like him because FREEDUMB! or something.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@opie jeanne: I’ve never been on Facebook, and the thought of right-wing relations and acquaintances using it to wear on my already frazzled nerves just makes me think it was the right decision.
also, too, this:
I don’t remember FEMA’s “cash crunch”. I remember a bunch of Tea Baggers, probably including Ryan, holding Joplin MO hostage in an unprecedented show of dickishness and douchebaggery.
Yutsano
:: dons flame retardant gear ::
I liked Serenity more than Firefly.
geg6
@chopper:
Fuck it. I guess I’m just up to my neck with the fucking woman hate that is all around me and I really don’t expect to come across it much here (unless, of course, we’re talking about ABL and she’s a special case because she has two strikes: being a woman while blackety, blackety, black). I mean ‘Lil Spats is a pig but he’s also a troll, so I don’t expect much from him. But for a regular commenter to single me out with stereotypical women-only-like-romance memes because I didn’t like his stupid movie or his stupid dead actor, even when I specifically named ones that have nothing to do with romance as films I wanted to see was a step too far. And then doubled down on it. Raging asswipe, is all I can say. I feel sorry for any woman in his life because he’s a pig.
Larkspur
@redshirt: Buffy isn’t only about saving the world. She ends up changing it, and it’s an arc traced out from the beginning. How much can one young woman do? And it goes over and over, gets more and more complicated and painful, every single night the same arrangement…and then she takes the power and changes it, forever. I liked that a lot.
I liked seeing the change reflected in the final season of Angel, too, especially in the episode “Damage” – what if everyone who could be a Slayer was a Slayer? Sounds cool, but inevitably one of them is going to be insane. What happens then is that all those “little girls” show up to take her away to care for her. This is one of those messy complications that arise in the various Whedon series, and it always makes stuff interesting.
But the last season of Angel – particularly the last episode – was fantastic. Except for the Mexican wrestling ep, “The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco”: I didn’t like that one much, but it lifts right out.
Plus, I don’t care if Whedon’s amiable or not. He just has to deliver good entertainment, as far as I’m concerned.
Patricia Kayden
Never watched Firefly, but love Serenity. Bought it sight unseen based on the rave reviews on IMDB.
Good to see that Whedon is not on the dark side. But Romney still has Meat Loaf!
TaMara (BHF)
Ok, for some reason I’ve been put in timeout and my comments are in limbo. I haz a sad.
RedKitten
@TaMara (BHF): BTW,TaMara, I made those pumpkin squares as a cake for my FIL’s birthday. Topped it with the cream cheese frosting and some candied pumpkin seeds. Went over GREAT. Everybody raved about it.
Larkspur
@opie jeanne: It is (well, short for Malcolm). The Latin “mal” reference was made by River Tam, she who understands everything but comprehends nothing. What does that mean, anyway? Guess I’ll go look stuff up.
Larkspur
@Fort Geek: I’ve been thinking of him as Mittlschmerz, but it’s probably a girl thing.
Exurban Mom
@aimai: Bujold for the win. LURVE the Vorkosigan books, have read them all and hope for more.
slag
@DCLaw1: Whedon isn’t nearly as nerdy as it gets. If you want nerdy, you can start with anything from these guys: http://www.journey-quest.com/.
opie jeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ha! I just read that on FaceBook a minute ago.
I’m on it because my youngest daughter asked me to join so that she can keep in touch more easily (what’s wrong email?) while she travels the world. She’s been travelling with a Disney show for over two years (they ship her home every now and then while the show equipment gets moved), and has seen most of Western Europe including Turkey, Australia, China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and I can’t remember.. oh yeah, The Philippines.
I figured out how to turn off the annoying political comments from people with whom I disagree, and it’s all good. The Mormon cousins are sweet people, they don’t fuss at me and we get along but we also don’t see their political stuff, but the other one is a closer relative and sometimes she just emails the BS because she can’t get my attention on FB.
Chris
@Larkspur:
I still haven’t seen a lot of these shows – was “Damage” where Faith came in? I think she was my favorite character in the Buffy/Angel verse.
aimai
@Maude:
My god, I love Angelique. I have the old paperbacks. The first novels, before the husband died, were the best. I gave up the series after that. I gave them to my older daughter a few years ago and she read right through them as fast as she could. What an incredible character Angelique was–I will never forget the scene where she fights with Joffrey over the lost years when she thought he was dead and she had to fight to survive and make a place at court for her sons, got raped, and led the revolt against the king. When I was a teenager, reading those books for the first time, she was basically the only heroine who ever had a life after marriage–who was still heroic and still fighting into her forties. Every other book about a romantic lead woman ended with the marriage.
aimai
Roger Moore
@Larkspur:
And, of course, it’s also about the people and how spending time trying to save the world changes them. Buffy is willing to take the power and change it because she’s grown into her role as defender of the world and feels confident- or at least willing- to make world-changing decisions. She’s a very different person from the Slayer of the first season who spends more time lamenting her role and trying to fit in as a normal girl than she does fighting evil. Watching her make the journey from one to the other (and the other characters making their corresponding journeys) is a huge part of what makes the series memorable and worthwhile.
aimai
@geg6:
Yeah, that’s fair. That’s pretty much what I took away from his comment too. It was ugly, and stupid, and out of left field except that it was such standard asshole chauvenism.
aimai
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@aimai: Bujold is great. I think my favorites are the first two, before Miles is born. Cordelia Naismith’s a woman with SAND!
Hal
@lamh35:
I loved the first two Burton Batman’s when I was in my teens. Now I loathe and despise them. That horrific seen with Jack Nicholson in the Museum with the boom box. Jack Nicholson just inhaling the scenery. Michael Keaton’s receding hairline Bruce Wayne channeling Michael Keaton from Mr. Mom.
Oh, and one major gripe about Catwoman. She’s Catwoman because she’s an expert thief. Not because she drinks milk out of a bowl and meows.
I used to think Burton was a great director, but now I pretty much think he’s just a hack. And dammit, stop putting your damn wives in every movie you direct.
Maude
@aimai:
I loved the books. Angelique was ahead of her time for when the books were published. She stood up for herself and was smart.
I don’t know anyone who has read them and they are impossible to explain.
TooManyJens
Wow, lots of people trying to spin their taste in entertainment into personal superiority in this thread.
opie jeanne
@Larkspur: I remembered that River had said that, and in fact I thought it when I was watching the show, before she said it.
I love both the series and the subsequent movie, Serenity. I had trouble with the series at first because I had read something before I started watching it that led me to believe that Joss was sympathetic to the Confederacy (might have been projection by the reviewer?), and I had just dealt with an idiot on a genealogy site who had put up a page about how great the Confederacy was, because she felt sorry for the bad press they always got. My great great grandfather died in the Civil War of a gunshot wound received at the seige of Vicksburg (glad I caught that typo in time or it would have read seive of Vicksburg). He was 40, a farmer in the Ozarks, and had ten kids to feed, but then I read the accounts of several diaries kept by families in the area and what they said about the Confederates during and the Bush-whackers after the war was blood-curdling, so I was ready to be disturbed.
Xecky Gilchrist
@TooManyJens: lots of people trying to spin their taste in entertainment into personal superiority in this thread.
A time-honored Balloon Juice tradition, though more common in the music threads.
SFAW
@geg6:
Oh, please. You really need to develop a thicker skin. My comments mean I’m misogynistic? Yeah, right. No doubt I’m racist, too.
You might consider learning to be a little less full of yourself. Or at least attempting to comprehend the comments made before telling people to go fuck themselves, and tossing the misogyny bullshit around.
I’m filtered? Whoop-de-doo. If that came from someone I respect – Anne Laurie, aimai, even some guys (quelle horreur!) – I might reflect on things some more. But, given your whole fucking attitude (oooh! Must be a He-Man Woman-Haters Club comment!), that’s somewhat less likely.
Oh, and the “Fuck him and everybody like him” bullshit under the guise of replying to chopper was a nice touch, too. You might consider anger management courses, because you really have a tough time getting beyond your preconceptions and the over-the-top anger it engendered.
I told you why I picked Heyer/Cartland, you chose to ignore it, because it didn’t fit your narrative, then you raged some more. Quaaludes might help with that.
Corner Stone
@geg6: Maybe s/he commented on your post because you’re a dullard and an obnoxious blowhard who turns every post up to 11?
I’ve never seen such a rigidly intolerant fool such as yourself.
TaMara (BHF)
@RedKitten: That is so cool, I love hearing stuff like that. Thanks.
DavidTC
I have to wonder what the libertarians that saw Firefly and thought ‘one of us’ thought when they saw Dollhouse, which was about corporate power out of control. It’s worth pointing out that out of all the Whedon properties, and out of all the amount of times we _almost_ had an apocalypse, the only _actual_ world-ending apocalypse is in Dollhouse, caused by _corporations_ and their clients, the ultra-rich and completely immoral.
Of course, this didn’t come out of nowhere…Joss has always criticized abusive power, at _all_ levels. From patriarchal to local to corporate to societal to national.
Notice even in Avengers, which is about a _government-sponsored_ team fighting an alien invasion, he has to have some sort of conflict with an unreasonable authority.
And, OTOH, he always has people _build families_, build communities.
He actually appears to have sort of the mindset that libertarians _claim_ to have, until you actually poke them and realize what they really want is the right to not pay any taxes. Joss is what libertarians are pretending to be…except you’ll notice he calls himself a liberal and has absolutely no problem with _accountable_ government power, or power at any level…it’s the power-mad crazies in control that annoy him, and he knows damn well who the current power-mad crazies are.
Larkspur
@Chris: No, “Damage” isn’t about Faith, although Faith reappears in the final seasons of both Buffy and Angel. The girl in Damage crosses paths with Angel and Spike and the gang in Angel’s final season. It’s her only appearance in the series – her individual character isn’t the most significant issue, so I don’t want to be more spoilerish than I have already been. The story line of the episode resonates between Angel and Buffy, even though the Buffy series has concluded, and I find that resonance appealing.
jake the snake
No one has mentioned Babylon 5. The first 3 seasons are excellent. Season 4 was compromised because Straczynski thought it was going to be cancelled, so he rushed to
get all the story lines resolved. Once it was renewed for
season 5, he really did not have anywhere to go with the story. Plus, Claudia Christian leaving did not help any.
Not that I am hating on Tracy Scoggins.
Gretchen D
@TaMara (BHF): Sounds great – I’m making this.
Maude
@Xecky Gilchrist:
And the tech threads.
Xecky Gilchrist
@DavidTC: And, OTOH, he always has people build families, build communities.
That’s one of my favorite things about Whedon. I’ve always loved stories where misfits build a family out of each other.
Roger Moore
@Exurban Mom:
I love them, too, but I have mixed feelings about asking for more. The last two or three seem like they were more about pleasing fans and publishers who wanted more Vorkosigan books than they were about saying something she wanted to share. I like Bujold, but I’m happiest with any author when they’re writing for themselves. If she really wants to write another Vorkosigan book, that’s great, but if she’s really getting tired of them, I’d rather read what she’s not tired of writing, even if it isn’t as familiar.
Chris
@Chris:
Can’t believe I forgot this – all the episodes with the NID. As close to social commentary as Stargate got, but the best of the many Section 31 storylines that sci-fi shows tried to do.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Maude: And the tech threads.
Aha, I thought maybe so. I avoid them, so I haven’t seen it in action :)
Corner Stone
The Noodler is taking the Saints apart, piece by piece.
SFAW
@aimai:
Chauvinism? Jesus H. Christ. Next time I’ll use Tele-tubbies as the anti-Joker, OK? Will that make everyone less bent about it?
On the plus side, I learned more about Heyer than I probably thought I needed to know, but we’ll see how that turns out.
SiubhanDuinne
@TaMara (BHF):
Not to derail this totally into a dessert thread, but at this very minute I am enjoying the most incredible and unusual crème brûlée I’ve ever had.
At the Madison Hotel in Memphis, in case anyone is interested.
Just fantastic.
jo6pac
Were Buffy when we need her?
MikeJ
@Xecky Gilchrist: If you aren’t a Buffy-Mint Linux (cinnamon)-Red Sox fan, you’re shit.
Hahaha. You know I’m kidding because I use Mint Xfce on my xdmcp server.
Larkspur
@opie jeanne: I think that buzz arose out of the name of a character in the last episode, Objects in Space. The nasty bounty hunter is named Jubal Early, played by Richard Brooks, who is black. Jubal Early happens to be the name of a Confederate general. Nathan Fillion, a notorious Edmonton Canuckistani, is apparently a descendant of Gen. Jubal Anderson Early. I suspect the character was named that as a weird little riff for Fillion, and because, let’s face it, it’s a cool name. But because the Firefly Jubal Early was both evil and black, a few viewers examined it to death and saw in it great and disturbing signs and portents or whatever. Some people (not me, not me) get so caught up in their little fandoms.
RSA
@Matt McIrvin:
That would have been cool. I wish there were more movie adaptations of Zelazny; he was one of my favorite SF writers for a long time. This Immortal, the first Amber series, and A Night in the Lonesome October would all make for good movies or TV series.
JasonF
As those of you on the East Coast hunker down and prepare for Hurricane Sandy, it’s important to remember:
Mitt Romney thinks federal disaster relief spending is immoral.
Xecky Gilchrist
@MikeJ: You know I’m kidding because I use Mint Xfce on my xdmcp server.
Hee hee – though I must admit this subtlety escaped me. (I am a linux user but not an admin sort and don’t have a clear preference for distributions. But if I did, it’d be a million times better than anything else.)
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Mmmmm, creme brulee is probably my favorite dessert to order when out. The best I’ve ever had was at Emeril’s restaurant in NOLA pre Katrina. Just mind boggling.
I’ve made it myself a couple times since then and I will say with no modesty that I make a damn good CB with fresh fruit and a crispy crust.
slag
@SFAW:
Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity/Bill O’Reilly/John Sununu…, is that you?
cxs
@SFAW: Never compare Georgette Heyer to Barbara Cartland. That is heresy.
Chris
@jake the snake:
I’ve tried B5. Several times, once in middle school, once in high school, once after college. I just can’t get into it. Really not sure why, it should be right up my alley. It just doesn’t hold my attention.
Corner Stone
John Elway looks like a puffy fucking toad monster.
Larkspur
@Corner Stone: Don’t lick him. Just don’t.
MikeJ
@SiubhanDuinne: Not being a Memphite I don’t know if it exists any more but the proper answer for desert there is/was hot fudge pie at the North and/or South End.
Google tells me the North End is now Westy’s.
Roger Moore
@DavidTC:
I think there are a lot of people who would like to pretend that Dollhouse never happened. It has stuff in it to make just about anyone unhappy regardless of their politics. More importantly, I think it strikes a little too close to home; the science behind it is just plausible enough that people have a hard time mentally writing it off as an elaborate fantasy world.
TooManyJens
@Chris: It does start slow. It’s been a while since I watched it, but I think it was about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through Season 1 before it really started picking up.
debit
@jake the snake: I loved B5. Season one is a little rough, and the one actor is wooden to the point of splinters, but it’s worth it when the pay off comes in the following seasons. I re-watched it recently; dated CG is dated, but everything else stands the test of time.
Corner Stone
@Larkspur: “My God..it’s full of stars.”
Corner Stone
@debit: Hey!
Hoosier75
Anybody else notice that the MSM isn’t talking about the Ohio PPP poll, but only the outlier that shows it is a tie? The Village will stop at nothing, I guess, they have no shame.
Nutella
@muddy:
I remember reading somewhere that a teacher of military history at one of the service academies assigned Heyer’s An Infamous Army as class reading because it was the most accurate account available on the battle of Waterloo.
FlipYrWhig
@Xecky Gilchrist: I never got into Whedon, but you’re absolutely right about plots where a ragtag bunch forges a community and/or a family based on tolerance, respect, and sensitivity. That is the quintessential liberal fable. My all-time favorite along those lines is the first Ice Age.
Larkspur
@Roger Moore: Have I mentioned that you are really smart? I have the Dollhouse set and haven’t finished the first season. I found it more disturbing than intriguing. I think I will go back to it. Anyway, my dearest love Amy Acker is in it, and I’ll watch her in anything, even silly Lifetime movies. She was just in a Warehouse 13 episode, and was of course fabulous.
The Sailor
@debit: IIRC all the CGs on B5 were done with an Amiga, the best computer ever invented.
FlipYrWhig
@Corner Stone: His constant spitting into a cup doesn’t exactly work against that impression, does it?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Chris:
The entire post-Civil War vibe of the Firefly universe, with the good guys being the ones who lost.
The “big government vs small government” vibe of the Alliance/Independent war.
Quotes like “governments are for getting in a man’s way.” “A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned.”
Pardon me, but one key point is that this is a “post Civil War” vibe deliberately. The comments you mention could have been stated by an ex-Confederate easily, and the entire Firefly/Serenity series is told from “the losing guys” point of view. So the government is a monolithic, stifling meddling force to be evaded if if can’t be defied – and Miranda proved just how bad it was.
But… but… but… what was never clearly spelled out was what exactly did the Alliance meddle with? Given that some of the arrangements encountered on the edge smack of organised tyranny (consider the mudders and why they idolised Jayne), you might want to ask what was the alternative the Browncoats were fighting FOR when decrying the evil government they fighting AGAINST.
freelancer
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
The hell?
Xecky Gilchrist
@FlipYrWhig: My all-time favorite along those lines is the first Ice Age.
That is a lovely example of the form.
My affinity for those stories goes all the way back to my early childhood (in the early seventies) seeing things like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Yellow Submarine. Yellow Sub is not quite the same thing, but the whole “bad guys turn good” vibe is a related storyline and also a personal favorite.
Larkspur
@freelancer: copy/paste related error?
Joel
@Hal: I like classic Burton but he stopped making good movies well over 15 years ago…
debit
@Corner Stone: Hey!!
The Moar You Know
Do you people not have lives? I don’t watch this stuff, I’m too working, busy cleaning the house, taking care of the yard, fixing stuff, walking the dog or trying to figure out a survival strategy for when the Republicans commit party suicide and let the fiscal cliff cuts happen.
Where do you find the time? This is not an unserious question, I want to know as my life feels like a treadmill set at about two miles an hour faster than I can run. My last vacation was my honeymoon and I’m beginning to get the ugly feeling my next one’s going to be my funeral.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@opie jeanne:
He asked me if I was willing to bet that Obama would win, was I that sure, and I demurred because I’m not a guy with a tiny dick problem.
Dude, you should have taken the bet at, say, 50-50 odds, and then laid off slightly less than the bet on Romney at any other site offering more realistic odds with Obama the clear favourite. If Obama won, you’d get back more from him than you lost in the lay-off, and if Romney won, you’d get more from teh lay-off bet than you would have had to pay him.
Assuming he could be trusted, of course. Wingnuts lie – constantly. I wouldn’t trust any of them to sit the right way around on a toilet seat.
Narcissus
I always enjoyed the Burton/Keaton Batman flicks because of the Gotham they created (or Anton Furst, mostly) because that’s the only sort of reality someone like Batman or the Joker or Penguin can exist in.
Batman Begins and Dark Knight were not bad, but I never accepted Batman as a part of that universe, instead of just a guy in a Rubber Suit (perhaps because the Gotham of Begins and Dark Knight don’t seem as well developed).
Also the Prince soundtrack rocks. I’ve liked Prince since then. There weren’t a whole lot of other seven year olds who dug Prince.
SFAW
@cxs:
So I’ve heard. I’ll try not to make the same mistake more than two or ten times in the future.
opie jeanne
@Larkspur: Yeah, I heard about the Confederate Jubal Early and that Fillion is related to him after I watched the series. I thought the name sounded familiar and dug around a bit and found it.
Jubal Early was one of the most entertaining creations of the series, and I am seriously annoyed that the show didn’t last longer so that we could have seen more of him. You know they would have brought him back.
SFAW
@Corner Stone:
Fixed to reflect the nature of the universe more accurately. Or not.
Xecky Gilchrist
@The Moar You Know: Where do you find the time?
In the case of a lot of this stuff, I found it between 2002-2006 or so.
Larkspur
@The Moar You Know: TV is not the reason that I don’t have a yard or a big house, or a spouse or offspring, but in point of fact, I don’t have all of those obligations. I suppose that makes it easier to watch TV and read trilogies and comment on blogs. I do have a wee little life, though, and I am happy and grateful to have it. If I lived near you, I’d totally walk your dog for you, because I am not prejudiced against really busy people, and would be pleased to help out.
SFAW
@slag:
Look, I realize I’m not exactly good looking, but comparing me to a prolapsed pig rectum? That’s harsh.
piratedan
@Exurban Mom: new one out in November, main character focus is on Ivan.
Corner Stone
@SFAW: That’s only if I’m looking down.
Corner Stone
@The Moar You Know: What, exactly, are you blathering about?
4jkb4ia
This game will end when Detroit runs out of pitchers and has to go with Valverde. You heard it here first.
SFAW
@Anne Laurie:
Read a few things of Pratchett’s, find them generally hilarious. Plan to read more, probably try to work through all of Discworld. Friend of a much-younger cousin brought him to my attention years ago, finally made some time to read him, glad I did.
What’s “sercon”? (Betraying my continuing ignorance.)
I’m more of a non-fiction person these days, but I guess I’ll need to throw a Heyer or two on the stack next to my bedside table.
SFAW
@Corner Stone:
Good point.
opie jeanne
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
I wanted to have no further discourse with the man.
Generally speaking, I don’t bet. I don’t even buy a lottery ticket, and this guy was wearing a fucking jogging or rowing suit in the middle of the afternoon. He acted like he had just enough money to think he’s entitled to treat people like dirt, but there he was at the Starbucks, talking to two older guys dressed like they’d just been fishing and who didn’t entirely appreciate his loud assertion of “facts”. They were probably Republicans too, given where we were, but they were not buying the solid Romney lead nonsense, and I could see that they were a little amused by my questions.
Oh hell, I just remembered that he sneered and asked if I knew what Zogby was saying about the election. I told him I didn’t know because I don’t follow a single poll, I look at 538 so I don’t have to read them all.
The bottom line was that this guy didn’t understand what he had read at all, and he accepted their prediction because it reinforced his bias, told him what he wanted to hear. I don’t like dealing with people like that, especially if they are shouty and he is one guy who would definitely be a sore loser and probably shouty too.
Chris
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
You’re right, the fact that they’re so vague about how “they meddle” does seem to indicate there wasn’t a lot of cruel and unusual regulation for them to complain about.
You know what? I’m starting to think Firefly was exactly like post Civil War America. Corrupt, oppressive, corporate run central government, yes, but still marginally better than the feudal hellholes we see in the outermost systems. And Mals’s Independent cause was probably run at the top by the same Petty Tyrants Of The Week he was fighting in the TV show, even if he didn’t realize it or found ways to ignore or rationalize it.
You know, now I may have to rewatch the show in that light. (Oh, what a fate worse than death).
Hill Dweller
So Jeep/Chrysler released a statement shitting all over Willard’s shamelessly dishonest commercial that is running in Ohio.
How will the media try to spin it?
Hoosier75
@Hill Dweller:
It won’t matter.
The commercial will work.
It will swing the election and be to this election what the Osama bin Laden tape was to the 2004 election.
SFAW
@Hoosier75:
Good to know that you’re as much of a liar as Romney is.
SFAW
@Hoosier75:
Yeah, yeah, we know – Romney is about to win with 575 EV.
SFAW
@Hoosier75:
Projecting again, are you?
Narcissus
@Hoosier75:
Dude, your issues are showing
and it is hilarious
Roger Moore
@4jkb4ia:
Thank you Thomas Friedman.
arguingwithsignposts
Okay, why did shit-for-brains change his nym to Hoosier75?
MikeJ
Heh. Security came and sat in front of John 3:16 sign guy at the world series.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Chris: You know, now I may have to rewatch the show in that light.
That would shed some light on the surrender at Serenity Valley, wouldn’t it? Interesting.
smith
Even though I was rooting for the Giants to win, I do feel bad for the Tigers players. This series was never close and pretty much shades of 2006 except this time Tigers didn’t win a single game.
Carry on your Joss Whedon conversations (which I do find fascinating – makes me want to see Firefly).
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@The Moar You Know:
The pitiful, mimimal life I have comes from a) not cleaning the house, b) paying my son to mow the lawn and ignoring the rest of the yard, c) [and this is sad] not walking a dog after losing our 3rd German Shepherd, and d) figuring there’s no survival strategy against the armed wingnuts in my neighborhood.
I’ve got painting and varnishing to do on our “new” house addition from 2005 that still needs to be done. :-(
Hill Dweller
@Hoosier75:
I’m not so sure.
There has been some push back already. Plus, Obama has built a substantial lead in Ohio’s early voting. Romney’s bumbling campaign released a memo today trying to spin their deficit.
Nate Silver has Obama’s chances ticking up to 75% tonight.
jl
Yoohoo everybody, from SF Bay!
opie jeanne
@Hoosier75:
And you’re ok with the lie helping him win.
Hoosier75
@opie jeanne:
Didn’t Richard Nixon teach you leftist morons anything?
JGabriel
We need new thread.
SFAW
@opie jeanne:
They’re ALL OK with Romney lying to win.
Michael
Somehow I don’t think it will be banging down the doors to get in a post here on election night.
FlipYrWhig
@opie jeanne: That’s his shtick. “We always win by any means necessary, because we rule, mwahahaha, try and stop us.”
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
Well, tonight I learned the term “Upper Decker” thanks to BJ. Check it out in the Urban Dictionary. I think you can pretty much count on the TeaParty Republican Congress to sit this way on a toilet seat. Just to make everyone else’s lives a teensy bit more difficult.
SFAW
@arguingwithsignposts:
Maybe because he’s a shit-for-brains?
Chris
@Narcissus:
Sean Connery said it first on SNL Celebrity Jeopardy. Among many other hilarious things.
Roger Moore
@arguingwithsignposts:
It’s the standard process. They try to troll within the rules, but they just can’t keep their inner asshole from spewing bile and wind up being banned. The really obnoxious and/or paid trolls like this asshole create new nyms- presumably with new, throwaway email addresses- and try again.
MikeJ
Taegan says the new Romney ad is proof he’s losing.
SFAW
@Hoosier75:
Only fuzzy thinking, which you seem to practice to excess, you clueless imbecile.
arguingwithsignposts
BOOKMARK IT LIBS!
Hoosier75
@arguingwithsignposts:
Because I’m a born-and-raised Hoosier, though one raised just outside of Louisville Kentucky.
Hill Dweller
@Hoosier75: Sam Wang is just as accurate as Silver, and he has Obama winning.
opie jeanne
@Hoosier75: Is that what you teach your kids?
arguingwithsignposts
@Hoosier75: you don’t know exactly how much that explains.
JGabriel
@Hoosier75:
You realize that, even if Romney wins OH (which is increasingly unlikely), he still needs to win NC, and FL, and VA, and CO or IA or NH — the last four of which are all leaning towards President Obama.
R-Money’s odds aren’t looking too good, and getting worse with time.
.
jl
Forgot to thank RossinDetroit and Ann for posting that great clip.
With my Giants 2012 world champs gear, I will be ready to face the Zomneycopalypse, brave and pure!
opie jeanne
@FlipYrWhig: I must not have gotten the memo.
The funny thing is, I was a registered Republican until two years ago when I moved to Washington where you don’t list a party, you just register to vote and really I did get the memo about too many of them which is why I have stopped voting for anyone they put up. I look over the list, do some research, and sigh and vote for the Democrat. I keep looking for a reasonable and honest one and have been sorely disappointed for more than a few years.
There is a woman in Washington running for congress, an incumbent I think, who has made her support of gay marriage a big part of her campaign. Unusual for a Republican.
Hill Dweller
@MikeJ:
Of course he is losing. That pathetic memo they sent out today trying to spin the early voting totals was every bit as sad as the Ohio commercial.
If the media thinks Willard is losing, they’ll hit the Ohio commercial hard. They also have a new ratings bonanza with the Hurricane, which should eliminate their need to push the horse race. We should know sometime tomorrow.
The Dangerman
I guess I have to pie Hoosier Daddy, too.
Congrats Giants fans (and I hope Bryan Stowe has a big ass grin tonight).
FlipYrWhig
I’ve never really thought this character was a spoof — just a troublemaker and true believer. But that thing about the worried liberal media trying to explain away how Obama lost Indiana? There’s no way anyone can actually believe that. I call spoof-nanigans on it.
Corner Stone
I’m not really responding to anyone specific here but I thought this was genius:
First, there’s the 30 point EV spread further mitigated by the +/- admonition.
Then there’s the Irish girlfriend from Caddyshack with her infamous, “Tanks for nuttin, Danny!”
If this isn’t some kind of performance art I want to meet the person who’s putting it out there.
Corner Stone
@opie jeanne: Two years ago? What country were you living in?
opie jeanne
@Hill Dweller: The attacks will probably start on him too, once they notice him.
That article made me laugh but I’m sorry I gave the NRO the traffic.
Cantrip
The interesting thing about our pet bed-soiler, who just popped up again, is that for 6 months, he’s been forced to use the Cinderella story the whole time for Romney’s ‘victory’. Romney’s not going to turn this around in 10 days, period.
Remember him (her?) crowing about how the dvd mailing would ‘turn things around’? The one that disgusted everyone who received and attempted to watch it?
Hey, Soiler75… better make sure you put the pennies you’re making from this in the bank… you seem unable to get a satisfactory job if you’re reduced to this. But the economy will continue to improve in Obama’s second term so I suppose there’s hope. Good luck to you!
opie jeanne
@FlipYrWhig: The guy I talked to today bought it.
jl
@Hoosier75:
” Because I’m a born-and-raised Hoosier, though one raised just outside of Louisville Kentucky. ”
Somehow, that comment raises a red flag in my mind about the quality of your state by state electoral analysis.
opie jeanne
@Corner Stone: California.
I stopped voting for them in 1980, just never changed my registration. I’m one of those people who do not jump into the pool, I ease in.
lol
There are two kinds of Buffy fans and it pretty much has to do with their opinion of season 6. (Which is my favorite)
Similar breakdown with Angel’s season 4 – do you love the “turgid supernatural soap opera” or not? Though of course, there’s almost universal agreement that season 5 was the best.
Anne Laurie
@SFAW:
Serious and Constructive — normally used ironically. I keep trying to import it from sf fandom, because we internet political nerds have great need of such a word.
If you’re actually going to try a Heyer or two, best intros might be The Unknown Ajax (ex-Army lieutenant discovers he’s going to inherit a country barony he doesn’t want & his snooty relatives don’t want to share; also smugglers, revenoors & a secret passage) and Cotillion (harmless Wodehousian fribble has to rescue his greatnephew’s foster-daughter from gothic poverty and most of his variously cartoonish relatives from themselves). The Grand Sophy is another one with a mostly-male point of view, as well.
Another Halocene Human
@lamh35: It’s also thanks to Criminal Minds, that I never plan on stopping at an off the road “cabin in the woods motel” owned and operated by some sadist serial killer…
Isn’t there an episode in Greek mythology that begins this way?
Another Halocene Human
@Democrat Partisan Asshole: I will and can only say this, to protect the less innocent: IRL, Joss Whedon is a pompous self-important asshole who both needs and expects his actors to fawn on him on-set and off as though he is the second coming of Jesus himself.
Fuck it, he earned it.
Although I’m an even bigger fan of JMS. I think the man got a bad rap.
SFAW
@Anne Laurie:
OK, thanks (for the explanation and the suggestions). Can’t promise or guarantee if/when I’ll try one or more, but at least I have some guidance. (Well, OK, I’ll guarantee, the way Hooshit75 is guaranteeing Rmoney getting 623 EV.)
Thanks again.
joel hanes
@RSA:
> Zelazny
and now that we have CGI,
one could make a splendid movie from
The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth
SFAW
@Hoosier75:
Outstanding! Because Indiana is solidly red (as far as Presidential polling goes), so a Rmoney FLIP! means that Obama wins it.
You may not be the biggest fucking moron we’ve ever seen here, but I’m hard-pressed to remember one bigger.
OK, DougJ? Done trolling for tonight?
Xenos
@Another Halocene Human:
Procustes. An allegorical story where the last thing Theseus learns on the way to being king is to work with problems as they are, not as he wishes them to be. Commonly used as description of bad social science that misuses data to support a prior-existing conclusion. A bit odd to see it played up as a horror trope, but it works as a modern ‘urban legend’.
Roger Moore
@Another Halocene Human:
Theseus and Procrustes.
FlipYrWhig
@Xenos: Someone send that narrative to Matt Stoller ASAP.
gwangung
Yes, and? That’s how actors are SUPPOSED to act on set…..
Another Halocene Human
@rb: I expect Day Lewis to be astonishing, but I just don’t trust Spielberg with the material.
All I need to know. Skip.
Mnemosyne
@rb:
I dunno — Amistad had some really powerful stuff in it, like the depiction of the slavers throwing the whole human cargo overboard if they thought they were about to be caught. There was a certain amount of “white guy saves black guy” but, uh, that’s kind of exactly what happened, what with the trial and all.
I think Spielberg might at least be willing to address some of the enormous racism that was directed towards abolitionists and Lincoln (like the rumors that Lincoln himself was half-black, etc.) that haven’t been shown in films before.
Looking at some of his other historical films, Saving Private Ryan is not the hagiography of the “Greatest Generation” that some people tried to claim. So I’m at least willing to go with an open mind.
ETA: The screenwriter is Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright of “Angels in America.” I’m willing to give it a try.
ETA 2: Kushner also wrote the screenplay for Spielberg’s Munich which, again, is not exactly a simple story of good vs. evil.
karen marie
@Mnemosyne: Listen to Dickens on Recorded Books. I enjoyed reading them but listening to them was like wow!
Joel
@opie jeanne: Nate Silver pretty much destroyed Zogby’s credibility 4 years ago.
Cain
@Democrat Partisan Asshole:
I’ve met Linus Torvalds a couple of times and while he can act like an ass he’s never been a self important pompous guy. I’ve met several people in the tech community who are like that. Some who won’t even look at you unless they know you from some other guy who they feel is important.
Lame ass shit.
Cain
@MikeJ:
The only person in the cast that is a right wing guy is the guy who plays Jayne. (go figure? The asshole in the group albeit one of the funniest is the conservative guy) I doubt Nathan or any of the others are particularly right wing.
Most actors have struggled while they were becoming actors so they know what poverty is like since they’ve probably experienced it at some point. Very few started with a silver spoon in their mouths.
ruemara
@SFAW: You know, you really tore into her for not liking TDK and you simply cannot back off. You come off exactly as described, misogynistic, jerk. Let it go. You over-reacted.
Anne Laurie
@Cain:
One of the things that made Firefly so fantastic was that all of the characters were people, not cut-outs. Including Jayne, who we were shown was a big, dumb, penis-substitute-loving arsehole… who’d grown up under conditions where his idea of infinite prosperity was his own closet-sized cabin, a small share of the bounty from a ramshackle interstellar shipping business, and somewhat more than the number of weapons necessary to kill whatever his masters pointed him at. It was important that we understand that Jayne was as much a victim as River or Mal… and I’ll always regret that we never got to watch the backstory (you know Whedon had one in mind) to Jayne’s wistful questioning of Reverend Book in Serenity.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Matt McIrvin: IIRC, Whedon used the memoirs of former Confederates to get the failed-revolutionary vibe for Firefly. There were some passionate anti-neo-Confederates who hated the show for that.
Lojasmo
@opie jeanne:
Heh. I would have grabbed $200 from the cash machine and smacked it on the starbucks counter.
cmm
@Larkspur:
it means she’s a mite whimsical in the brainpan.
Jay in Oregon
@Chris:
Hah! I’m (re-)watching SG-1 currently; I just started season 6 yesterday.
It’s clear to me that although the show seems to want to take itself seriously at first, it loosens up as time goes on; the “Groundhog Day” episode and “Wormhole X-Treme” being two obvious examples.
I also liked that many of the elements of earlier episodes came back in later stories: the SG teams seem to like collecting the Goa’uld “Zat” stun pistols for use; a super-light, super-strong element discovered in one episode is referred to again and again; and a borrowed alien anti-stealth device gets broken out every time they think someone is sneaking around the base invisibly.
rachel
@Exurban Mom: @Exurban Mom:
She’s got a new one coming out in November about Ivan Vorpatril. Byerly Voruttyer asks him to look after a maiden in distress, and then things get complicated. First six chapters are here
opie jeanne
@Joel: Thanks. I went and read about Zogby after I posted that. I had forgotten about that bit of the conversation until then.
opie jeanne
@Lojasmo: I could have done that, but I only visit this area every few months. I’d have to hunt him down to get my money from him, but he was boorish and I would have been participating in his boorishness, if that makes any sense.
redshirt
@lol: Buffy Season 6 is tough. Some great stand out episodes, but some weak ones too. Better than 7 though!
Angel season 4 is the best. I love Jasmine!
Chris
@Jay in Oregon:
Yeah, that was one thing that was always missing in Star Trek. They’d invent a technology and just never use it again.
Enjoy the rewatch, I’m doing it too! Was very sad that Netflix took it down, but there’s a cable station that’s been showing two episodes every Sunday evening and I happened to catch it right at the beginning of the Anubis story arc. That’s not what you’re watching by any chance, is it?
SFAW
@ruemara:
You know, she trashed a performance that had been considered pretty damn good, both by people I know and by reasonably intelligent critics. (I happen to think it was pretty good, too.)
And her primary reason for trashing it? “That movie pissed me off so bad because I really, really dislike comics and super hero movies with the single exception of Batman.” I don’t mind people wearing their heart on their sleeve, but that was just silly. Ledger’s performance sucked because she hates comics and hated TDK, and the only reason he got the nomination was because he died? Maybe I’ve been living in the reality-based community for too long, but that’s kind of an asshole thing to say. (Of course, this is BJ, so it’s the norm, myself included.)
And now I’m a misogynist because I picked romance novels as the other end of the spectrum from Ledger’s Joker? As I said 100+ comments ago, next time I’ll use Tele-Tubbies instead.
Anne Laurie has tried to edumacate me re: Georgette Heyer, perhaps her attempt will produce results, don’t know. But the “misogynist” shit being bandied about does get tiresome, all because geg6 had a hair across her ass about my choice of Romance over Children’s TV as an example of an anti-Joker performance. And the “tore into her”? Here’s what I initially wrote, before she told me to go fuck myself:
Compared to all the other trash-talking that goes on here, that’s pretty tame stuff.
rb
@Mnemosyne: Yes, I am hoping it Lincoln will be reasonable but from the trailers I’m having my doubts. So far they’re reminding me of The Conspirator, yet another civil war movie about the trials (heh) and tribulations of white people and other white people.
There was a certain amount of “white guy saves black guy”
I get your point that they’re telling a specific story, but that’s kind of the issue. Rather than a story of a heroic slave revolt to which a (admittedly very consequential) trial is a necessary subplot, Amistad reads more as the story of a heroic trial and a hero defense attorney, to which a slave revolt is a narrative jumping off point.
It’s not that there’s no room for the white-centric trial movie; it’s that we basically only get that movie, time and again.
DavidTC
@Roger Moore:
It has stuff in it to make just about anyone unhappy regardless of their politics.
And Dollhouse has a lot of hidden stuff in it about acting. Seriously, watch it again, but while you’re watching it, remember that everyone you’re watching is _an actor directed to do what they’re doing_. It becomes strangely meta.
And it makes everyone unhappy because there are almost no heroes, and no villains. At least, not until well into it. Until then, there’s people doing their job, and the Dolls being slightly unhappy some of the time. There is _evil_ but the evil is the system, and there’s no actual way out of it.
The system, I must again point out, set up by the ultra-rich for their own pleasure. A technology that could cure all sorts of mental illness, that could revolutionize education, that could cure drug addiction, that could even help in all sorts of situations, like criminal rehabilitation (Although with a lot of slippery slopes.)…but we never get there because the ultra-rich are having too much fun programming fantasy people to fuck and fight.
It is a _very_ strange show, and the more you look at it, the _worse_ the people who set up the system look. It’s like they invented cold fusion and are using it to power their slave ship.
More importantly, I think it strikes a little too close to home; the science behind it is just plausible enough that people have a hard time mentally writing it off as an elaborate fantasy world.
The original premise of Dolls (Which required implanted hardware to do the rewriting) is pretty damn close. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the apocalypse-level issue of people rewriting minds with sound waves, though. (And kudos for the show actually figuring out how world-ending that would be.)
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@opie jeanne:
@Lojasmo: I could have done that, but I only visit this area every few months. I’d have to hunt him down to get my money from him, but he was boorish and I would have been participating in his boorishness, if that makes any sense.
Pity, because it wouldn’t have been gambling. It would have been arbitrage – you’d win either way. Bonus points if you announced to his face that you were going to lay off the bet on InTrade or something since he was too stupid to put his money where his mouth was at better odds.
But, again, wingnuts lie. If you won, he’d be screeching with some bullshit conspiracy theory about “vote rigging” and would never pay you off. Unless you got the bartender or someone to hold the cash in advance.
Dream On
Whedon? Who’s that?
redshirt
I thought the first 6-8 episodes of Dollhouse were pretty bad, and I was a full Jossian at the time I watched. Is it better on rewatch? Did I miss some ironic twist that explains the apparent bad episodes?