I've been meaning to do this for a bit now; a list of the more interesting, funny, or just plain likable posts I've made (in my opinion) since getting a LiveJournal back in 2001. Maybe it's a bit conceited of me, but if you've only been reading this journal occasionally or recently, it could be helpful/interesting/amusing.

Note: This has only public posts; anything behind a friends lock has been omitted.

( The List )

I'm going to post-date this so it stays at the top of my journal page.

The SCI FI Channel Syfy paid for a special wraparound cover on this morning's amNY to promote their premiering shows and new name... or maybe just their shows, if you actually take a good look at the cover:



Not one, not two, but three instances of the old name, versus... one mention of the new name, down in the corner. Hell, the old logo is one of the most prominent things on the cover. Not exactly a show of confidence, there.

Finally purchased a new phone last week; in addition to being ridiculously cheap, capable of playing MP3s (yay custom ringtones) and capable of placing/receiving calls and texts which in the end is all I ask of the thing, it's also "green" as in environmentally-friendly, and the booklet proudly declares it carbon-neutral.

Which is great, I guess, except it came in a plastic clamshell package. Does the carbon-neutrality include the packaging, or would omitting the packaging make the phone carbon-negative?

In other news, we saw Up yesterday, and while I did not think it was better than say, Wall*E, this movie made me cry like the little bitch I am. We saw it at the Pavilion, too, which I dare say I am developing an affection for.

Last week we saw the Coraline musical. If you were lamenting about not being able to see it because the tickets sold out, don't: it was not as awesome as you would think. The songs were fine, so don't even try to make it about me hating Stephen Merritt because I don't. And the acting was fine too, though in a ploy to be "clever" they miscast the roles on purpose: Coraline was played by an older actress in her 50s (or so), who I've read is actually a very good actress with a devoted following. There was nothing wrong with her performance... or any of the performances. All the actors performed admirably. My favorites were perhaps the cat, and the actor playing the Father/Mrs. Spink.

Where I encountered problems was in the adaptation itself, and with some of the stagecraft. I perfectly understand that they are working with a limited budget and a limited amount of space, but the dialog was extremely heavy on the exposition. Sometimes the actors even would say things that were perfectly evident from the lighting—the lights would dim, then Coraline would say, "It's night."

And there were numerous points where they really skimped on the stagecraft, or just with the lighting—when Coraline was looking through the stone, she would say, "Now everything, all drab and gray where there once was color, except look! A marble, colorful and sparkling..." Why not just make the lighting gray and either use a light-up ball (from any 99 cents store) or shine one colorful beam on the ball? And why place a real snow globe high up on the stage and have Coraline pretend she was holding one, instead of putting the real snow globe in a place the actress can reach? Seriously!

Perhaps the most ridiculous moment came when the cat attacked the Other Mother; the actors stood on opposite sides of the stage, and the Other Mother exclaimed, "Claws! Claws everywhere! And now black goo is dripping down my face, dripping everywhere, black goo dripping..." Remember that part in Clue where Madeline Kahn said, "Flames, flames on the side of my face, heaving breaths..." That's exactly what this sounded like.

And then when Coraline trapped the Other Mother's Hand in the well, they had the Other Mother on the stage screaming about falling, falling, falling... in fact, there was an entire song about it. Damn confusing if you missed the bit of exposition where they mentioned that it was only her hand that fell. I don't think we ever saw anything approximating a hand at all.

I fully agree with the New York Times review of the play which compares the play to Coraline's description of the world outside the Other House, "The more I walk, the more the trees look less like trees and more like the idea of trees."

However, I did enjoy walking around the neighborhood before entering the theater, as we went to the park and sat on a bench next to the river.

It only took three years, but heehaw_tng and I finally watched the Fullmetal Alchemist movie. He bought it for my birthday, but wanted me to wait until he had watched the entire series. Well, that day arrived last week. I guess you can't blame him; the second half of the series has some truly dreadful moments and a lot of angst, and the manga is 1,000,000x better.

Now onto Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood! Ahem. This should be fun.

( Cut for extreme nerdiness. )

The movie was pretty, and it was neat to watch Edward in not-quite-Nazi Germany, but it didn't really make a whole lot of sense, and the final battle made me want to bang my head against the coffee table with its "WAAARRGGHHH beware my goo-covered ship and the scary alchemy powers that I have mastered five seconds ago!" At the end heehaw_tng and I turned to each other, said "What the shit was that?" Then we went and downloaded Fullmetal Hell.

* Bonus points if you know what I'm referencing in the post title.

Went to take The Golden Compass off the shelf and ended up re-watching Free Enterprise. I think it's one of the few movies I can watch again and again.

It's not necessarily a movie with deep, hidden meanings that you only notice with repeat viewings, but this time it did have new meaning. I haven't watched it in a few years, so this is the first viewing I've had where I am close in age to the protagonists. That might not seem like much, especially since I am not at that exact point yet—they are on the verge of turning 30, I am still 28—but I look at their lives (based on the real lives of the writers/producers/director) and they are eerily close to where I am. So I haven't necessarily screwed up. And if a lot of people are always telling them that this movie is their own life on screen, well then, we are legion.

Another interesting note: During Robert and Claire's breakup, he screams, "I hate The Next Generation! Only original! Only classic!" Apparently Mark doesn't share this hatred, since earlier in the film (though not around Robert) he quotes Star Trek: First Contact, stating, "The line must be drawn here! Here and no further!" I'm surprised I never noticed that discrepancy before. Amusingly enough, there's a deleted scene and a special thanks in the credits both featuring... Chase Masterson. I wonder how the guys feel about DS9?

Which actually leads me to something else I've been thinking about. I've heard a lot of people complain about how the new movie is "not Star Trek." And I can understand that, as I had a few of those moments too (but still enjoyed the film). But as I was browsing Memory Alpha, it came to my attention that people felt the same way about Deep Space Nine, which ended up being my favorite show and seems generally well regarded among my circle of friends. I've never had the question in my mind—"Duet" is one of my favorite episodes, and that's quintessential Trek right there—but I wonder if any of you thought DS9 was good, but not actually Trek?

(And for those curious, the episode that brought this to my attention was "In the Pale Moonlight", which is one of my favorite episodes but maybe I can see what they mean with that one? It's pretty dark.)

My phone is not dead, but it's been blinded, so I'm going to have to put it out of its misery soon. Have been contemplating getting a new phone for the past two months, had decided to wait to see if the G2 is any good but now I guess I can't. At least the website has free overnight shipping.

Should I just get a normal phone or a smartphone? Of course, I'd have to buy a data plan. Does anyone have any recommendations? (http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/)

Back from con. I didn't really want to go to this year's AnimeNEXT due to it being in the middle of nowhere, and you know, I was kind of right. It's not that the con itself was bad; in fact, the con went pretty well. It's just that it was not accessible by public transit and once we got to the center there were no sidewalks. It was a pain to walk from our hotel to the convention, which was one thing since we weren't staying at the official con hotel; but even worse was that it was a pain to walk from the exhibit center to the con hotel. The two were connected by a narrow path that was either choked with cosplayers, or flooded by the rain. I got mud all over my newish canvas sneakers last night ::sob::, but the damage turned out not as bad as I originally thought.

Before I sound like I'm just whining, the con itself was rather enjoyable. Our panels went well, though I'm thinking we should drop the Wii panel because I just can't be credible in that role anymore. I especially enjoyed our Anime/Manga Influence panel. The American Animation panel got delayed by a VA panel which in turn was delayed by Vertical Books (publishers of MW, natch), and the Adult Swim panel was in a too-small room. Overall pleased with the results, though. We even have repeat customers!

Anime Parliament was great, but 18+ Parliament was even better. They moved it at the last minute which put silence_glaive in a foul mood but things got better once I brought in The Cool Thing and the event got started. I tooled around on the whiteboard for the entire session, which apparently amused people. We had a little gathering back in the room afterwards with some folks I met at our infamous two-hour long panel from a few years ago, had a few drinks, played some Apples to Apples.

Swag: I've been more conservative with my purchases at cons lately, and that's a good thing, but I splurged a wee bit on some figures I saw at Anime Boston and dearly wanted. Little ANA flight crew figurines sculpted by Kaiyodo. Put them together when I got home, they're sitting on my desk now.

Negative things to say about the con: Middle of nowhere, hard to get to without a car, hard to get around without a car, the dealer's room seemed smaller than usual, the hallway leading to the panels was too crowded, Panels 3 & 4 were too small for some of the panels they put in them, and where the hell was the Training Center anyway?

So that's it. On to Otakon next month, and San Diego!

I spent a good chunk of this morning's commute puzzling over this headline from amNY:

Suspect's past
points to hate

I kept reading it as

Suspect's
past points
to hate

That is,

[Adjective] Suspect's
[Noun, object] past points
[Verb] to hate

Where it should be

[Noun, subject] Suspect's past
[Verb] points to
[Noun, object] hate

Now, the headline is grammatically correct, but I can't help but feel it's still a really poorly written headline.

heehaw_tng and I just watched "The Storm"/"The Eye" episodes of Stargate: Atlantis, which comprise a two-part story that is basically Die Hard... on Atlantis.

Which got me reminiscing... remember how after the original Die Hard came out, all these other action movies started coming out that copied the same formula, of a lone tough guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, who must now fend off a team of bad guys in an enclosed area? To wit:

If you didn't want to be bothered with reading my last post, here's a quick summary:

Purchased and read the newest Star Trek: New Frontier book, Treason late last month. I've enjoyed the NF books for the most part; I liked the concept of a series that incorporated more obscure elements of the Star Trek universe that would not later be contradicted by something that happened on the show. I liked the characters, I thought the setup was pretty good, and hey, it's Peter David! I always enjoy ST books by Peter David! I always enjoy anything by Peter David!

( Clicking on this link may expose one to a long and rambling tirade. Proceed with caution. )
( Or just skip straight ahead to my thoughts on the new New Frontier novel. )

Been watching old Star Trek with heehaw_tng on Netflix (among other places). YouTube actually has every single episode of TOS available for viewing; Netflix has season 1 remastered. heehaw_tng would rather watch remastered, and I haven't seen them yet, so that's what we've been going with for now. It's actually really well-done, not too obtrusive.

The remastering let them fix a few things too, like things that aren't labeled correctly because of their tendency to reuse old footage to save money. But, it may be blasphemy for me to say this, why not do dialog replacement to fix continuity errors as well? TOS is really notorious for having a lot of inconsistencies and gaffes since they hadn't figured out what things were supposed to be called yet. Minor fixes, like changing "Star Service" to "Starfleet" and "Galactic High Commissioner" to "Federation High Commissioner" (or "Angela Teller" to "Angela Martine," because we just happened to watch "Balance of Terror" and "Shore Leave" in relatively close proximity and noticed her in both).

Maybe I should be grateful that they left everything else intact; the alternate could have been something like the Star Wars Special Edition, with a skinny Jabba, Han shooting second, Luke's Wilhelm scream, and "Jedi Rocks!"

When watching shows like No Reservations or Bizarre Foods where they travel to places like the Caribbean, it's always like, "Hey, let's go out and shoot iguanas and then stuff them with this mash I made from fruit grown on a tiny uninhabited island that takes two hours to get to by motorboat, then we shall roast it on a spit for three hours while we squat on rocks in the middle of the woods smoking locally-grown tobacco."

And I think, who the fuck actually eats like that? If Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern ever showed up at my grandmother's house in PR, it would be Goya Habichuelas over Carolina Rice and maybe if you're lucky, maybe, maybe, maybe there might be some fresh-squeezed lemonade to go with that. Total prep time: 30-45 minutes.

Mind you, my grandmother's house had coconuts, passion fruit, tamarinds, quenepas, and several types of hot peppers; you could go fishing right across the [paved] street; and my uncle even used to trap crabs nearby. (She even had a lemon tree of her own, but the ants kind of overtook it so my family cut it down.) But for the most part, no one had time for this crap. Everyone's all about the arroz con pollo, and they don't kill a chicken themselves: it's supermarket all the way. The supermarket is even indoors... with refrigeration! Astonishing!

It's third-world glamour, that's what it is. Every day is bloody sacrifice and Sunday dinner!

(Of course, reality would make for a boring travel show.)

Sometimes it's worth it to watch Saturday Night Live... you know, actually LIVE. Because then you're actually surprised by things like Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Leonard Nimoy appearing on Weekend Update:



And then there's the skit that ended the season, which can't go up on Hulu for obvious legal reasons but makes me grin like an idiot:

( The endings of every single serialized show I watched this season. Why? Because I felt like it. )

1. Black holes
   
2. Horses

Okay, now that most people have gone to see the movie, can I talk about it? YES.

Saw it Thursday, then again on Saturday. Saturday was pre-planned, Thursday was spur-of-the-moment when I realized there were Thursday night screenings that were not midnight screenings. Between the rain and the fact that not a lot of people knew it opened Thursday night, the screening was pretty empty.

Overall, I liked the movie. The actors were spot-on, especially Zachary Quinto as Spock. Everyone else was enjoyable, and I even have to give props to Chris Pine as Kirk. He was fun and cocky and borderline crazy... which is pretty much what I want from Kirk (except for the shwerve). The only issue I had is that his voice was a dead ringer for Christian Slater. It was distracting.

The movie may have sacrificed action for plot... but to say I'm shocked that the writers of Transformers would do such a thing, well, that's just disingenuous. (Oh? Transformers 2? It looks stupid but I'm still going to see it.)

( Now, for the spoilers. Mostly things that bothered me. )

There's a gazillion more things I liked, and just as many things I disliked, but I guess I'm glad to have Trek back. However, I am displeased at how the new movie has become an excuse to bash on old school Trek. It wasn't all that bad... plenty of great stories were told, and I think there were still plenty of stories left to tell.

We'll see what happens next, I guess. How many movies will they make? How long will it be before J.J. Abrams gets bored and moves on to something else? Will we ever see Janice Rand???

Good ways to keep in touch with me:

Phone calls when I'm at home (if I don't talk to you I'm just going to have to talk to heehaw_tng, and none of us want that)

Bad ways to keep in touch with me:

What's that? Enough already? You're stick of all these posts about music? You want to read about something else?

Well, on Saturday I did have a lovely walk in the city, ate some banh mi and then saw Dragonball Evolution, which was just as bad as we thought, except for one surprising thing: I think it was better than Twilight. Maybe we just expected more of the vampire film, or maybe it's possible that Dragonball was at least edited and lit with some modicum of competence. In that it was lit at all.

Eh, you don't read my posts anyway. Back to music! Ha HA!

Last week I bought the debut Tinted Windows album. Tinted Windows is a supergroup whose members consist of:

Taylor Hanson

This is not a joke, even though it sounds like the setup to one. (Was tempted to make one, but I would be far from the first to make that joke.)

The punchline is that the album isn't that bad. It's strong, bubbly power pop. The kind of power pop that three of the guys excel in, and then there's James Iha. The first single "Kind of a Girl" is catchy, though in that slightly annoying way ("Whoa whoa" is actually written into the lyrics). There's another song called "Nothing to Me" that really stands out, should be their next single, and is likely to show up in romantic comedies at least.

However, there is another song that heehaw_tng hates with a burning passion ("Cha Cha") and many of the other songs are pretty unremarkable. The lyrics are unsophisticated, and sometimes they sound like other songs (one even sounds like the opening of Linkin Park's "Bleed It Out").

Supergroups are usually pretty underwhelming, but if these guys can stick it out for a second album, I'd be willing to give them another shot.

Tags: music

Started a new project: listening to every song that has 0 plays in iTunes. It's not that I've never listened to these songs; likely I've listened to them at some point before I did a scorched earth with my iTunes, deleting and re-adding every track. If you remember, iTunes used to do this annoying thing where if you added a folder that you'd already added before, it would re-add everything in the folder, even songs that were already in iTunes. This was a problem because sometimes I would get a lot of new tracks, and put them away in existing folders, and then I didn't want to be bother hunting them down. Or I would move a lot of stuff around and didn't want to have to redirect all the files. It was easier to just purge and start fresh.

Of course, there are songs I haven't listened to since I last purged two years ago. Like my Disney soundtracks, and most of Eminem. The funny thing is that I have listened to plenty of Eminem on my work computer, just not at home. But anyway, am giving some of the older stuff another look. You know, I think I actually *like* The Slim Shady LP now. I used to dislike it because I thought it was really crude, but now I find it kind of charming, and the beats and arrangements are rather good. The Marshall Mathers LP also got another listen, and it surprises me how much I like the song "Kim."

Kim? Oh, that's the song where he kills his wife. You know, where he screams, "Bleed bitch bleed!"

It's not that I advocate domestic violence, it's just that there's something entrancing about his rage in the song. EM SMASH!