“Next on SciFi: At 6, Star Trek. At 7, Babylon 5. At 8, Farscape. This is SciFi.” There’s a reason I have digital cable, folks. It doesn’t get much better…
“Next on SciFi: At 6, Star Trek. At 7, Babylon 5. At 8, Farscape. This is SciFi.”
There’s a reason I have digital cable, folks. It doesn’t get much better than that.
See previous post on my head and its contents. So this was a perfect day for the host/DNS cutover from DollarHost to Averdata. This blog was down for most of…
See previous post on my head and its contents.
So this was a perfect day for the host/DNS cutover from DollarHost to Averdata. This blog was down for most of the day because I was trying to use Explorer’s FTP, which kind of masks the whole directory shuffle that Averdata does, which meant I was not creating the directories I thought I was.
Mail seems to be connecting (no errors), but I haven’t seen any come in all day, which is worrisome. If nothing comes in tonight, I’ll check with the Averdata people.
None of the other web content is up, which is okay in a way because I haven’t pointed anyone over to www.hill-kleerup.org as of yet. On the other hand, evidently all the uploads I did the other night went into the other directory, which is a tad annoying.
That and I managed to “ruin” B5 Season 4 by leaving a tape cued up between two episodes, rather than to be the beginning of the tape. Not a huge problem, except that it was the Big, Climactic Battle tape, so Doyce went straight to the happy post-war party tape, and kept waiting for the flashback …
Slosh, slosh, slosh …
Today’s Ted Rall cartoon Today’s Tom Toles cartoon Yup….
And so life begins to return to a more normal-like state. Back in the office this morning. Doug’s back in this week, too, which means I can take off one…
And so life begins to return to a more normal-like state. Back in the office this morning. Doug’s back in this week, too, which means I can take off one of my several hats. Day-to-day concerns, like calling in on the furnace, setting up eye appointments, etc., become the norm, rather than 24-hour news coverage.
Which is how it should be.
Still, folks continue to natter on about what happened, what we are doing, and where we are going. Which is good, too, since once we stop talking about it, we let the agenda be controlled by others.
I’m neither in the camp of the “The Guvviment is going to use this to take away all our rights, slaughter innocent abroad, and tattoo barcodes on our foreheads” folks, nor am I in the camp of the “Nuke ’em all until the glow and let God sort ’em out” people. I’m in the camp that’s ready to act, not sure what that action should be, but willing to entertain reasonable ideas. Which is where I suspect most folks are.
Jackie and Doyce were over last night, as we try desperately to catch up with this past season of Buffy and Angel. I would laugh at Doyce’s efforts to make this happen, if we weren’t also participating in those efforts.
Got an e-mail from Wil thanking me for mentioning his site on my blog. Which is kind of weird in a bunch of ways it shouldn’t be, and kind of neat in a bunch of ways that are too geeky to go into right now.
Well, daylight’s burning (not really, it’s cloudy out), and time’s a-wastin’ (quite true). Let’s move ’em out.
Various quick intercuts between different people in different walks of life — sitting on a couch, lying in bed, sitting at a lunch counter, sitting in an office, looking through…
Various quick intercuts between different people in different walks of life — sitting on a couch, lying in bed, sitting at a lunch counter, sitting in an office, looking through a store window, sitting at a shoe shine station — looking at something and saying the same word. “Sputnik.” “Sputnik.” “Sputnik.”
We keep cutting back to the same people, as they are more insistent. “Sputnik!” “Sputnik!” “Sputnik!”
Each time they get more frantic, more commanding, more shrill. “Sputnik!!” “Sputnik!!” “SPUTNIK!!!!”
Cut to a generic, rather tentative-looking game show contestant on the TV. “Uh … Skylab?”
“Game Show Network. You know you know.”
They’ve done this same thing with “Marsupial” (“Rodent?”) and “Botulism” (“Salmonella?”). If you’ve ever shouted at some idiot on TV who couldn’t figure out the blindingly obvious answer, you’ll love this one.
Of course, it helps if you watch the Game Show Network. Which we do, to excess. It sounds really funny. But it’s really fun.
(Actually, “The ‘Botulism’ spot earned Game Show Network a Silver Lion while ‘Sputnik’ and ‘Marsupial’ made the Cannes Lion Shortlist. Cannes Lion Awards are determined at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, which celebrates the latest in creative advertising from around the world. Over 19,000 entries were received for Cannes Lion 2001 consideration.” From NewsRe.)
I choose my words carefully. We’ve been over that before. In recent articles on the upcoming television season, one place where network shows are looking to push the envelope is…
I choose my words carefully. We’ve been over that before.
In recent articles on the upcoming television season, one place where network shows are looking to push the envelope is with language, i.e., adding more “swear words,” “cuss words,” etc. This is meant to add a more adult tone, and, of course, to win back folks who have fled to cable (where such language is more common).
One threshold proposed is to allow characters to use the term “God damn!”
Now, frankly, such language doesn’t bother me. I figure God has more important things to worry about than such gaffes. However, it does upset others. So I try to watch the occasions when I do it, but it does, on occasion, slip out. And it bothers some people very much when I do let it slip, which makes me feel bad, since I don’t go about intending to bother people, usually (and if I did it would not be that way).
So why put it onto night time television? Well, arguably, it’s real life. Some people (like me) do talk that way, on occasion or regularly. So to never have anyone talk that way is unrealistic.
Fine. I can buy that. Artistic integrity. That’s important.
So what about other sorts of invective? We’ll hear people saying “shit,” but when will we hear people called “fags” on Prime Time? Heck, when will we hear characters of color referred to as “niggers”? Sure, it bothers some people to hear those words. But there are people out there who use those terms, and other terms of racial and ethnic hatred. To pretend they don’t exist is unrealistic. Doesn’t artistic integrity demand it, when necessary?
I mean, imagine it. A Law & Order episode focusing on racial hatred. You’d expect to hear someone using various perjoritive terms for African-Americans, right? I mean, using such words is part of the story, part of showing that hatred. It’s real. Artistic integrity demands it.
I don’t expect to see it happen any time soon. Which points out to me an unfortunate double standard — that offending some people with words is more acceptible than offending some others with words.
Which doesn’t strike me as being any sort of integrity.
I don’t like to see people offended. But if we’re going to offend some people in pursuit of realism, of art, of the message we want to convey, we should be willing to offend anyone. And if not — then let’s not wrap ourselves in the cloaks of realism and art.
[It occurs to me that some people might not be able to load this page because of some of the words I’ve used above. You can guess which ones. You can also probably guess which ones would not be grounds for blocking. Interesting, isn’t it?]
One of the few things I regret in my move, several years ago, from LA to Denver, is losing the Los Angeles Times as a paper. Or, rather, being stuck…
One of the few things I regret in my move, several years ago, from LA to Denver, is losing the Los Angeles Times as a paper. Or, rather, being stuck with the local papers (the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, now quasi-joined in their mediocrity) instead of the Times.
An aspect of the papers that very much stands out in contrast is the reader letters. Granted, there are plenty of yahoos, dimbulbs, and people who see the world in sound bites in LA, too. Probably more of them. But the larger population there allows the editors of the Times to be a pit more picky-and-choosey as to what letters they print. Thus, on the whole, they are a more articulate, and, usually, more thoughtful bunch. It’s not a fair sample, to be sure, but it’s better reading.
From this morning’s letters:
“If we are to be secure … we must make them fear us more than death and more than dishonor. Our response to their attack on us must be so brutal, so violent and deadly that they will cut their own throats before daring to attack us again. And since they are obviously willing to sacrifice their own lives to kill us, we must be willing also to sacrifice the lives of their famiy, friends and neighbors.”
“Most of the world’s problems stem from religion. If you go from the Crusades to the persecution of the Jews in World War II to what’s going on in Ireland between Protestants and Catholics now and then this. The institution of the church is the root of all problems in this world.”
“It is time for an end to politically correct speech about radical Islam. The truth is that it is a cancer that feeds on violence and murder. It is totally alien to Judeo-Christian morality. The children and grandchildren of the free world are not safe until it is eradicated.”
And this gem from the other end of the political spectrum, as given by an anti-globalist activist from San Francisco to the Wall Street Journal: “We’re supercritical of [Tuesday’s] terrorists’ scorn for human life. Why couldn’t they have done what they did on a Sunday? There are always ways to make allowances for people’s lives.”
It’s the Silly Season, folks. Only problem is, too many of the Sillies have access to guns, or to Congressmen.
On the bright side, as asinine, if not infuriating, as much of the above was to me, most of the commentary, and the letters, were within the bounds of sanity. Messages of tolerance, of compassion, of determination, and of justice. Those are the voices we need to be listening to.
On another note, we went to visit Rick & Amanda’s new house yesterday afternoon, up near Longmont. As we traveled along I-25 north of the city, the continued suburban sprawl was apparent. Indeed, Rick & Amanda live in brand-new block of houses, with vacant agricultural lots (with zoning change signs festooned upon them) in all directions.
It’s a problem that has needled Colorado for decades — how to accomodate those who wish to come here, adding to our economy and diversity, while also preserving the rural and mountain character that makes this such a neat place to live.
In some ways, the dangers, threats, fear and devastation of the past week render such considerations trivial. And yet … these problems, and so many others in our society, the ones that in any relatively sane week would have been our headlines, remain. The horror of terrorism, and the difficult, complex decisions we need to make regarding it and our future, do not replace these issues on our list of Things to Do. They simply add to that list. The same way a serious illness in the family doesn’t mean the bills don’t have to be paid, the furnace doesn’t have to be replaced, or the baby doesn’t have to be fed.
Life goes on. We have to along with it, handling what it throws at us. The alternative is not really an option.
Disney’s “Jungle Ride” operators at Disneyland will no longer carry blank-firing pistols, as the “script” has been changed to no longer fire at the animatronic hippos “attacking” the boat. PETA…
Disney’s “Jungle Ride” operators at Disneyland will no longer carry blank-firing pistols, as the “script” has been changed to no longer fire at the animatronic hippos “attacking” the boat.
PETA spokeswoman, Debbie Leahy, applauded the move, telling the LA Times, “If it was a fantasy baby or fantasy toddler, I don’t think somebody would find it funny. Clearly we should not be accepting it for a hippo.”
Doubtless other Politically Correct changes to the ride (which features African headhunters, native guides, and many other threatening animals, not to mention traditionally some of the best operator dialog at the park) will soon be coming.
(via Studio Briefing)
Taxi driver recounts how he had heartburn. His passenger surprises him by asking him to try some of the Zantac he just happens to have with him. “What are you,…
Taxi driver recounts how he had heartburn. His passenger surprises him by asking him to try some of the Zantac he just happens to have with him. “What are you, a doctor?” Imagine the taxi driver’s self-deprecating wry humor as he relates how the passenger said, “Yes, I am.”
Okay, let me get this straight. We’re supposed to buy this product because a fictional taxidriver is telling an anecdote about an equally fictional encounter with someone who claimed he was a doctor?
I mean, sheesh. How many nested levels of story-telling is that? That’s supposed to convince us of the quality of this product? Could they possibly insult us any further?
As Episode 2 (Attack of the Clones) hurtles toward us, I ran across this article in About.com about where the idea of a 9-episode series came from. Interesting stuff. Of…
As Episode 2 (Attack of the Clones) hurtles toward us, I ran across this article in About.com about where the idea of a 9-episode series came from.
Interesting stuff. Of course, those of us who read the original Star Wars paperback back in ’76 knew that Lucas’ ideas were not nearly the polished products that all the fans thought they were. Nevertheless, it makes one wonder what other alternative courses the films might have gone — and where he’s planning on going in the next two.
Home, reading Newsweek over lunch. The 17 September issues, which is, of course, published a week ahead of time, so we got it earlier this week. Very pre-911, of course….
Home, reading Newsweek over lunch. The 17 September issues, which is, of course, published a week ahead of time, so we got it earlier this week.
Very pre-911, of course.
What was on the editors’ minds that week?
Does give one perspective.
Studio Foglio If you’ve never read any of Phil Foglio’s work, you should. It is funny beyond words. If you have, but haven’t recently, find out more at the linked…
If you’ve never read any of Phil Foglio’s work, you should. It is funny beyond words.
If you have, but haven’t recently, find out more at the linked site.
If you’re looking at his web site even now … what are you doing reading this?
As I wrote earlier this month, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from The Living Daylights a lot. That was the first Bond film with Timothy Dalton, I believe. Story-wise,…
As I wrote earlier this month, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from The Living Daylights a lot. That was the first Bond film with Timothy Dalton, I believe. Story-wise, it’s kind of a mish-mash of a rogue Soviet general (Jeroen Krabbe), a girl with a cello (Maryam d’Abo), an arms dealer (Joe Don Baker), and an assassin (Andreas Wisniewsky) who likes to listen to the Pretenders. Oh, and some partial nudity by Virginia Hey. Like I said, a mish-mash of plot elements that often holds together, but also frequently gets goofy.
Hey, it’s a Bond film.
At any rate, late in the movie, the action shifts. Bond has been taken captive, along with the girl (sans cello). They are all hauled off by the rogue Soviet general to … Afghanistan.
See, it’s 1987. The USSR is the bad guys, and they’ve invaded Afghanistan (again), and the brave freedom fighters, the Mujahadeen, are fighting for their land and their faith against terrible odds (horse vs. tanks). Sure, there are a few Evil Afghan Rebels who are using this as a way to move opium, but Bond helps a Good Afghan Rebel (played by Art Malik) escape from the Evil Soviets, helps launch a raid on the Soviet base, and then helps wipe out the Soviet troops that try to retaliate.
Exit into the sunset Mr. Bond and girl, having saved the freedom fighters to fight another day.
Anyone catching any irony here?
The Good Afghan Rebel, Kamran Shah, is Western educated. He’s gotten support and training from Western intelligence. And he’s fighting the Evil Soviets for his land and his faith.
Sounds a lot like a prime suspect behind the Red Tuesday terror. And, if not him, then a number of his hosts, the Taliban.
We were more than happy to give these guys props (figuratively and literally) when they were poor freedom fighters against the Soviets. The irony, as they’ve kicked the Soviets out, is that they’ve also turned on the West. Not all of them, certainly, and, in the case of the Taliban, only insofar as they’ve utterly rejected Western mores like tolerance, equality, and freedom. And maybe, tacitly or explicity, they’ve done quite a bit more. And the guys we were cheering when our money and spooks were training them to blow up Soviet soldiers may be among those who are now blowing up American civilians. And who may yet get to be blowing up American soldiers, too.
Not that the Soviets were saints. Not that their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan wasn’t brutal. Not that it was even wrong of us to be supporting the Mujahadeen.
But there’s a lesson here. At least a lesson in expectations.
The irony is choking me here. Here’s a last bit for you to start your day.
Thursday night, after the ‘Rents arrived, dinner was done, and Squiggy was off to sleep, I pulled some movies for us to watch.
Guess which one was on the stack.
The Phantom Answers Everything you wanted to know (and probably quite a bit you did not) about the upcoming Star Wars DVD. Lots of interviews, lots of cool stuff….
Everything you wanted to know (and probably quite a bit you did not) about the upcoming Star Wars DVD. Lots of interviews, lots of cool stuff.
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05452543537
I’m going to try and at least appear to be doing some work today, rather than the torrent of blogging I indulged in yesterday. Therapeutic as it was, I run…
I’m going to try and at least appear to be doing some work today, rather than the torrent of blogging I indulged in yesterday. Therapeutic as it was, I run the risk of Letting the Bastards Win if I let them keep me from performing my duties much longer.
There seems to be — and not just in the not-nearly-as-overblown-as-it-might-have-been(-just-wait) media coverage — a real sense that Things Changed yesterday. The Universe turned the page, and there’s a new chapter heading up there, giving portents of what lies ahead, could we but read type that large.
Being of an historical bent, I’d rather wait for a few weeks, months, years, before leaping to that conclusion. I think there’s something to it, but trying to assume an historical perspective while in mid-crisis is always a good way to write comedy.
Sitting around the dinner table last night, we engaged in the “Where were you?” game. That, above all, may be the deciding factor as to how this affects us.
That and, what happens today? I mean, want a really panicky populace? Pull some crap today. Let folks think it’s a real trend, vs. a (hopefully) one-off tragedy. That would damage confidence, among other things.
I hope I am not being a Cassandra here.
The other thing we “need” is a pithy name. Most events of this sort get named after the location. Unfortunately (speaking with irony here), we have too many locations. “Remember the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and some field in Pennsylvania” doesn’t do much as a rallying cry, any more than it does would if you used the same phrase in a “Where were you?” activity. And the media’s “Attack on America” theme is kind of lame, too.
“Bloody Tuesday”? “The 11th of September”? (“Remember, remember // 11 September, // of aeroplane terror and plot …”)
I leave it to the media hacks.
I was reminded, as I considered my call yesterday to rebuild the WTC, of Babylon 5 and some dialog from the pilot episode, “The Gathering.”
DELENN: “Why Babylon 5? If the prior four stations were lost or destroyed, why build another?”
SINCLAIR: “Plain old human stubbornness I guess. When something we value is destroyed, we rebuild it. If it’s destroyed again, we rebuild it again … and again and again and … again. Until it stays. That as our poet Tennison once said is the goal: to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.“
I don’t know as the WTC is as noble a symbol as B5. But it is, in some ways, a symbol which has been thrust upon us. To leave it as rubble, or to let something else take its place, would be, in some small way, an admission of defeat.
110 stories. Twice over.
Now think of the Murrah Building in OKC. Nine stories.
The mind reels.
Finally, there is this. We are what we let this make of us.
We may become fearful and isolationist. “Don’t let the bad people hurt us — withdraw from the world!” That’s been a typical, if unstated, theme in American history. Indeed, in some ways, that’s just what we’ve been doing in the early days of the Bush administration — pulling out of treaties, acting on our own, being unconcerned about what the rest of the world does. It may well be, though, that by having been attacked so publicly and bloodily, that we will break out of that typical funk — that we will realize, “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.” (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings).
Or we may rage back in the other direction. Hunt ’em all down. They were Arabs? Attack the Arabs. They were Muslim? Attack the Muslims. Their leader was holed up in Kabul? Carpet-bomb Kabul. In which case, they have, ultimately, won, by transforming the US into just what they claim it is — a killer and bully and infidel. “It is hard to fight with anger; for what it wants it buys at the price of soul.” (Heraclitus)
And we may decide that the only way to proceed is to insist on safety — no matter how it encroaches on liberty. E-mail monitoring? Censorship? Political oppression? Restrictions on freedom? Those will give at least the illusion of safety, at the cost of privacy, freedom, and the value of open debate.
If I have prayers for the future, it is not for safety, for life itself is not safe, and while I may never be blown up by a terrorist bomb, I can as easily (and more likely) be hit by a car in a parking lot. And it’s not for vengeance, though I think that, right at this moment, I’d grimly and willingly flip the switch/drop the pill/open the scaffold/give the order to fire.
No — it’s that we (and by “we” I mean the US, and those who will stand with us) act in our response to this in a fashion that we can be proud of, that can be a model for others in the future. Justice, mercy, freedom, respect, tolerance, commitment. We find the guilty and punish them, but we do so in a fashion beyond reproach, even if it’s harder, even if it’s less satisfying in some atavistic sense. And we take steps to protect ourselves, but not in a way that unduly compromises the basic freedoms that we claim we stand for.
This can be our finest hour. I pray we don’t blow it, and that we use it to show the world that we are in fact that “shining beacon of freedom” that the President spoke of last night.
Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible.
— Cadet Maxim, West Point
I have no idea if it was planned this way or not. But if you were planning it, you couldn’t have done better than to crash a plane into one…
I have no idea if it was planned this way or not.
But if you were planning it, you couldn’t have done better than to crash a plane into one of the WTC towers, wait 15-30 minutes, then, once all the media were assembled, news choppers winging past, TV crews down on street level, then, and only then, crash another frickin’ plane into the other tower, so that it can be broadcast and rebroadcast and rerebroadcast around the world.
I don’t know if I want things to have been that well planned.
The most reliable site (both in terms of what they report, as well as availability today) has been the BBC Online. They’ve already got some good analysis up there, as…
The most reliable site (both in terms of what they report, as well as availability today) has been the BBC Online. They’ve already got some good analysis up there, as well as rock-steady information.
People watch with horror as the planes crash into the WTC towers. Fire burns. Buildings collapse. Mass hysteria. Evacuations, police sirens blaring, news sites swamped, a stunned population tied to…
People watch with horror as the planes crash into the WTC towers. Fire burns. Buildings collapse. Mass hysteria. Evacuations, police sirens blaring, news sites swamped, a stunned population tied to their TV sets.
I don’t know how to say this without it sounding flip, if not grotesque, but that’s life in a comic book universe. Buildings collapse, planes crash, hundreds die (off-screen) on a regular basis. Pick up any copy of Avengers, Fantastic Four, Justice League, Green Lantern.
How do you survive in such an environment? Not just physically, but emotionally?
Y’know, this may seem odd, but comic books have never seemed as unrealistic as right this moment.
The Princess Bride This is the ultimate date flick. It’s full of romantic, girlie-girl, passionate stuff for her (or him). It’s full of swordplay and action for him (or her)….
This is the ultimate date flick.
It’s full of romantic, girlie-girl, passionate stuff for her (or him).
It’s full of swordplay and action for him (or her).
And it’s full of wit, both subtle and over-the-top, for both of them.
And only a cad would, at the end, not want to give his (or her) sweet babboo a big, long, kiss.
Heck, you can even watch it when you parents are visiting. And the new DVD just out includes some keen new features.
Rent it. Buy it. Watch it. Enjoy it.