Best headline of the week: FBI tries to fight zombie hordes
The article is actually about the Feds’ efforts to stop cybercriminals who hijack home computers to use in their nefarious activities (such computers are called zombies by those in the tech biz), but damn, for a second there, I was having visions of Elliot Ness in a George Romero scenario, and wouldn’t that be cool?
A couple of random factoids about my dog’s cancer treatment that I found amusing and/or interesting:
For anyone who cares, my dog Shadow had his first chemotherapy treatment this afternoon. According to my folks, he was a bit lethargic for a few hours afterwards, but otherwise has shown no sign of side effects from the drug. He’s eaten normally and drunk lots of water and became quite active towards evening, just the way he always does on a hot day.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that his treatment consists of two separate drugs, and the one he received today was the milder of the two. He’ll get the industrial-strength version on Saturday, so this weekend might be another story when it comes to side effects. But for now at least, my parents and I are all feeling much more optimistic about this process…
I mentioned Magnum, PI in the the previous entry and, as best I can recall, it aired on the same night as Simon & Simon (I think it was Thursday, Magnum first, then S&S… and yes, it frightens me that I remember that!), so why don’t we have a look at the opening for Tom Selleck’s best-known work?
I don’t know about you, but that got my heart pounding. I think this opening, along with the one from Miami Vice, are probably the best title sequences of the ’80s, brilliant pairings of exciting, memorable music with the perfect visuals.
Oddly, though, this was not Magnum‘s original opening. For roughly half of the first season, the show had completely different theme music, and a somewhat different montage of visuals beneath it. Have a look:
As I’m sure you can imagine with the news about my dog and all, I’ve been in kind of a funk the last few days. And where do I turn when I’m feeling down? Where else but to that wondrous opiate of the modern masses, television! Or, as Homer Simpson once called it, “Teacher, mother, secret lover.” So, in that spirit, let’s take a look at yet another TV title sequence that I’ve always thought was tres cool, or at the very least, entertaining:
We’ve had a lot of dogs around the Bennion Compound over the years. At one point during my childhood, there was a pack of five roaming our back yard. They’ve been German shepherds mostly, or German-shepherd mixes, as well as a couple of random mutts. All of them have possessed unique personalities, and my parents and I have loved them all while they were here and mourned them all when they died.
But none of them have generated the strong sense of attachment we collectively feel for the dog you see in that photo above. That’s Shadow, the current canine member of the Bennion clan. He’s a full-breed border collie, a breed that is reputed to be only slightly removed from wolves, genetically speaking, and among the very smartest of all dogs.
Any further comment would be redundant…
Oh, and if you can stand one more item on the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, I liked Javier’s remarks:
at this point “star wars” is a living thing – a highly complex and still-developing universe that goes well beyond a series of films. it’s also the guiding light for a great number of media professionals of my generation: while studying at usc film school, george lucas’s alma mater, i used to say that there were two kinds of film school students in my age category, those who freely admitted that they were there because of george lucas’s example, and damned liars.
…
if you’re like me, and your feelings about uncle george are deeply mixed because of the quality of the prequels, or because of how many damned times you have had to buy the movies in multiple formats, or because of lucasfilm’s extremely poor management of the original movies in their original forms, or the excessive merchandising, or because the “dark nest” trilogy of post NJO novels was kinda weak, or what have you…
…well, get over it and raise a glass [of] corellian noale – wherever you are.
some of the prequel trilogy haters have been heard to say “george lucas raped my childhood” but, i’ll tell you what, george lucas gave me my childhood. my life changed the day i saw “star wars” and for that – for the moment when i saw what was possible on the screen and said “i want to do that” – i can only be eternally grateful.
happy star wars day!
Hey, kids, hope you haven’t missed me too badly during my brief absence from the blogosphere. I’ve just returned from three days of visiting friends in Sin City. Report to follow, but in the meantime, I offer this visual commentary on the news I missed while I was driving across the Jundland Wastes, er, Nevada:
