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Mar282005

Neo-Galactica, Part 3: The Review (At Last!)

I like it.

I didn’t think I would. I even tried not to, out of loyalty to the series that I grew up with and still enjoy. But in the end (and to my surprise), I find that I actually do like the new Battlestar Galactica. It’s a good series on its own terms, and it’s also the rare example of a remake that improves on the original by taking it seriously.

That’s not to say, however, that I like it without reservation. There are aspects of it that don’t quite work for me, and, as I’ve already mentioned a couple of times, I’m not at all comfortable with the fact that this show is on track to replace the original in our collective pop-cultural memories. Nevertheless, I can’t deny that Ron Moore, the driving force behind the remake, has created something that is honestly worthy of the attention the show is receiving.

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Mar252005

R. Jason Bennion: The Movie

In addition to his personal blog, writer John Scalzi also maintains an AOL Journal called By the Way. It’s a paid gig — how would it be? — intended to promote AOL Journals and provide tips and hints for those who have one. Every week on this site, John comes up with Weekend Assignments, which are essentially the same thing as the memes that float around the LiveJournal community, just scenarios or suggestions to encourage people to think about themselves and start writing. This week’s Assignment is a fun one:

Congratulations! Hollywood is making a movie of your life, and you get to choose any actor you want to play you — yes, even if they’re dead (the things they can do with special effects!) Who do you choose and why?

 

Extra credit: Name the musician/band who will play the theme song to the movie.

Now obviously, any casting decision of this magnitude can’t be taken lightly, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time considering the matter…

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Mar242005

Hmmm… More on Deep Throat

I received an email this morning from a fellow named Rex, who is the proprietor of The Deep Throat Blog and a proponent of the theory that the infamous (yet anonymous) Watergate informant was actually Ferris Bueller’s economy teacher. Rex informed me that since I and other bloggers linked to one of his articles last month, he’s been receiving lots of interesting new clues, the latest of which is detailed in his most recent entry.

Essentially, this new piece of the puzzle connects the dates on which reporter Woodward met with Deep Throat with the dates when the McGovern Campaign was in or near Washington, D.C. (Background for those who don’t their recent history: McGovern was the Democratic candidate for president that Nixon’s people were trying to bring down by, among other things, bugging the campaign headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.) As Rex describes it, this clue fits the so-called “Bradlee Riddle,” explains why Woodward couldn’t call a meeting with DT whenever he wanted, and lends credence to the Ben Stein theory:

…in our opinion, Deep Throat must have been someone who wasn’t normally in Washington. We think Throat was someone at the Republican CRP (Committee to Re-Elect the President) who traveled around the country conducting operations against the Democrats, much like Don Segretti. This person could have been a “mole” on McGovern’s staff (and the Watergate hearings uncovered at least one named Thomas Gregory) or someone who carried out “sabotage” against the Democrats such as hiring hecklers, demonstrators, etc. Our theory is that Ben Stein worked with the CRP and met with Woodward when his travels took him to the Washington/Baltimore area.

As I explained to Rex, I’m not a serious Watergate buff. I haven’t done a lot of extensive reading or research on the matter, beyond seeing the fine movie with Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Hal Holbrook (All the President’s Men) and reading the occasional article. But I am interested in historical mysteries, and they don’t get much more mysterious than this one. The Ben Stein theory is plausible (in my opinon, at least), and Rex’s blog makes for an interesting read. Go check it out. (You’ll probably want to review his detailed explanation of the Stein theory as well.)

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Mar232005

Two Kinds of People

That blogger I recently discovered, Javier Grillo-Marxuach (who also happens to be a writer for the TV phenom Lost), cleared something up for me today:

my friend’s shrink tells him that there are two kinds of people in this world. the kind of person that goes through life, sires a bunch of kids, gets divorced tons of times, drinks like a fish and comes out the other end with nary a sign of unhappiness because they are just not prone to introspection… and those who have “an artistic temperament.”

I don’t know about you, but I think this explains a great deal…

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Mar202005

Springtime in Utah

According to the calendar, it was still winter on Saturday. I spent the afternoon crusing around with the top down on my Mustang. I was perfectly comfortable in a thin Levi’s jacket, and I got my cheeks nicely sunburned.

This morning — the first official day of spring — I woke up to three inches of snow and a blustery wind that had me reaching for the parka. Weather is like that in Utah.

I can only surmise that Mother Nature is actually a family of sisters, and my home state got assigned to the one who drinks too much Frangelico and likes to knit little scarves for weenie dogs…

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Mar172005

Neo-Galactica, Part 2: The Rant

Before I proceed with my long-promised review of the new Battlestar Galactica remake series, there’s something I want to get off my chest: I am really sick and tired of the way every article I read about the new show starts out by trashing the original series. What is it about American culture that we can’t complement one thing without denigrating something else? It’s almost like one of Newton’s laws — for every positive word spoken there must be an equal and opposite insult.
TV Guide is especially guilty of this kind of needless hostility. For example, in next week’s issue, critic Matt Roush begins his comments about the new show’s season ender by saying, “If anyone had predicted a year ago that I’d be hooked on a new version of Battlestar Galactica — that cheesily juvenile and insipid ‘Star Wars’ wannabe from the late ’70s — I’d have laughed.”

That sort of remark is all too common in the press on Neo-G, and it really pisses me off.

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Mar162005

Lileks Comments on the Episode III Trailer

[UPDATE: I wrote this entry in the wee hours last night and, upon reflection in the clear light of morning, decided it wasn’t quite right. What can I say? Sometimes it really is best to let something cool a bit before you publish it. I have therefore streamlined the whole thing to intensify the one point I think I was really trying to make. Sorry for the confusion… ]

Funny thing about James Lileks. I can wonder for months why I continue to read his self-important, reactionary and often paranoid post-9/11 drivel, and then one day he’ll just spew out something that makes all the grumpy-old-man-ishness worthwhile. Case in point: his comments today about the upcoming Revenge of the Sith…

The new SW movie trailer looks incredible — if they’d showed this to fans in 1979, I think most of them would have spontaneously dissolved. I have no doubt the dialogue will be horrible… I don’t care. If it looks like the trailer, I know I will sit in a movie theater on a Friday afternoon and quite possibly feel 18 again. This is no great accomplishment; art, you could say, should raise you up, not lull you back to the sloshing amniotic sea of the womb. But it’s a movie with rockets and robots and ray guns, and I’m a guy who grew up loving rockets and robots and ray guns. Hence I like to see the same once in a while, done well, without Bruce Dern moping around in a Jesus robe weeping about pine trees.

James just managed to eloquently sum up, in a sentence and a half, what I’ve so often spent hours trying to explain to my disillusioned friends who mock me for my continued loyalty to the Great Flanneled One: “it’s a movie with rockets and robots and ray guns, and I’m a guy who grew up loving rockets and robots and ray guns. Hence I like to see the same once in a while…”

Amen, man. I often think Lileks is totally up in the night with his opinions, but on that point, we are in absolute agreement. I’m looking forward to May because I’m hoping to feel, if only for a short time, like a wide-eyed boy of seven instead of a tired and wounded old man of 35…

[Ed. note: the crack about Bruce Dern in a Jesus robe refers to the 1972 film Silent Running, just in case you’re not up on your classics of dystopic science fiction. Lileks has a big problem with the cynicism common to all films of this era, science fictional and otherwise. Personally, I quite like the dark movies of the early ’70s. But then I don’t politicize every damn thing the way he does.]

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Mar142005

Who’s Your Most Annoying Trek Character?

Here’s some news that’s somewhat related to my previous post: TV Guide is conducting an on-line poll of the favorite (and least-favorite) Star Trek characters. The results will be announced in an April issue of the magazine, to coincide with the final episode of Enterprise and the likely end of “The Franchise.”

So how, you may ask, does this relate to the previous post? Well, for many years now Wil Wheaton has borne the burden of having played Wesley Crusher, one of the least-liked regular characters in all of Trek history. I’m not a big Wesley fan myself, but if you read Wil’s blog (or his highly entertaining memoir, Just a Geek), you’ll soon discover just how vile supposedly grown-up human beings can be. Wil has taken a lot of crap over the years because of Wesley, including death threats and fanboy wishes for his character — and by extension, himself — to get gang-raped by Klingons. Isn’t that a lovely image? Wil doesn’t find such things amusing, and I don’t blame him. After all, it’s not his fault the character was such a putz. He was just an eager-to-please teenage actor saying the clunky lines that adults were putting in his mouth. He quite rightly views the “Most Annoying Character” title as an albatross around his neck, and he’s asked all his loyal readers to please take the poll and make sure that someone — anyone! — other than Wesley/himself gets the title. I’m going to pass that request along to my readers here on Simple Tricks. Even if you don’t like Star Trek, or even if you do and you despise Wesley Crusher with the furious heat of a million white-hot suns, try to imagine what it would be like to have pimply-faced strangers telling you day after day how much they hate you because of a job you did fifteen years ago. Does it feel like a raw deal to you? Me, too. That’s why I’m asking you to go vote for some other character in that category.

(Incidentally, I don’t think it’s hypocritical for me to ask some actor to take on the burden of “Most Annoying,” in order to spare another actor’s feelings. For one thing, Wil Wheaton, by dint of having been on the second-to-oldest Trek series, has been on the receiving end longer than anyone else. He’s done his time and is ready for parole. Secondly, he was just a kid when the crap-rain started falling whereas the other actors up for the title are grown-ups and thus should be a little better equipped to handle it. Thirdly, the dislike of Wesley has been unnaturally violent within fanboy circles, and an “official” poll naming someone else would go a long way toward lancing this festering boil. And lastly, I’m just plain sick of hearing everyone excoriate this character when there are plenty of others who sucked every bit as hard as Wesley. It’s gotten boring, and it’s time to hear a new tune. The same goes for you haters of Jar-Jar Binks, too!)

If you’d like a preview of the poll questions or if you’re interested in how I voted, keep reading below the fold. Otherwise, just go forth and vote!

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Mar112005

Friends Who Don’t Know I Exist: Wil Wheaton and CSI

One of the weirder aspects of blogging is the way readers start to feel a personal connection with their favorite bloggers, even if they’ve never had any genuine contact with them. That observation may not apply in the case of this blog, since I happen to know that most of my readers are actual friends of mine from out there in the Real World. But in my experience of reading other blogs, I’ve noticed that I often start to think of their authors as friends. I’m perfectly aware of how ridiculous that sounds. I’m not a big commenter as a rule, so the bloggers I like aren’t even aware that I exist. How can I feel anything resembling friendship toward people who don’t know I exist? I don’t know, but nevertheless the sense of connection — or perhaps pseudo-connection is a more accurate term — is quite real. I find myself caring, sometimes deeply, about what happens to these strangers who happen to write about themselves on the Internet.

Take, for example, the case of Wil Wheaton.

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Mar102005

How Big a Fanboy?

How big a fanboy am I?

Big enough that I sat through an entire hour of The O.C. just so I wouldn’t miss the premiere of the new full-length Revenge of the Sith trailer.

Big enough that the hair rose up on my arms during said trailer and didn’t settle back down for a good three minutes after it was over.

Big enough that May 19th suddenly seems like an eternity away.

I’ve been fooled by trailers before. The Phantom Menace had a kick-ass trailer (“Every saga has a beginning…”); Attack of the Clones had a kick-ass trailer (“I will raise a Grand Army of the Republic…”). Both films ultimately let me down. This time… well, like I said, I’ve been fooled before. I so want the sixth and final Star Wars film to be the prequel I always dreamed of, the one that my eight-year-old imagination conjured up from the vaguest handful of ideas gleaned from a brief and fluffy magazine interview with The Great Flanneled One. I am trying to prepare myself for yet another disappointment. I am reminding myself that George Lucas isn’t the man he used to be and I am not the child I once was. I am struggling not to get carried away with enthusiasm like I did during the Dark Year, 1999. But it’s tough. I watched that trailer tonight and I found myself buying into it completely. I didn’t think one single element of it looked potentially cringe-inducing. I’m even daring to think that maybe, just maybe, Uncle George is going to redeem himself with this one.

The sight of Anakin Skywalker leading an army of clonetroopers, of Emperor Palpatine drawing a lightsaber against Jedi Master Windu, of giant starships exchanging broadsides like sea-going galleons and interior shots of explosions tearing through their gun-decks, made me pump my fist with testerone-laden glee. The glimpse of the Tantive IV‘s familiar engine-cluster arcing toward a beautiful green world and of R2 in a fighter socket and 3PO in his polished glory made me smile with fond nostalgia. And the sound of Padme’s sobs and Obi-Wan’s anguished cry, “You were the chosen one!” as his student and friend attacks him broke my heart.

(If you caught the reference to the Tantive IV, congratulations. You’re as big a fanboy as me. If you don’t know, it’s the rebel ship seen at the beginning of the original Star Wars, the one Princess Leia is “racing home” aboard. Technically, it’s the official transport of the Royal House of Alderaan.)

Going purely off this three-minute advertisement, it looks to me like this is the film George has been waiting to make all along, the true back-story that he started putting down on legal pads around 1975. Maybe Episodes I and II were weak because he had the fewest notes for them. Maybe Revenge of the Sith is the only prequel he really needed to make, the only one he really wanted to make.

Maybe I’m just a big sucker setting myself up to knocked down again, a compulsive gambler who doesn’t know better than to keep going back to the three-card-monte dealer on the corner. Maybe. We’ll see in just about two months. But I’ll tell you this much: after tonight, I’m feeling happier to call myself a Star Wars fan than I have in years.

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