Month: December 2003

Actually, this isn’t my thought. But since the subject is “inner peace,” it somehow seemed appropriate. Kath got it off a dollmaker board she’s on. Read it and may peace be with you:

“The way to achieve inner peace is to

finish all the things you’ve started. I looked around to see all the

things I started and hadn’t finished. So, today I have finished one

bottle of white wine, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of Baileys, my

Prozac, a large box of chocolates and a quart of beer. You have no idea

how good I feel. You may pass this on to those you feel are in need of

Inner Peace.”

PAD

Out in stores today. You know the drill.

If a tree falls on a bear while it sh*ts in the woods and there’s no one around to hear it, is the Pope Catholic?

PAD

I’m bringing this up separate from the Round-Up because there’s been *so* much discussion about the rebooting of “Battlestar Galactica”…a series which, by the way, at the time it was on, was often contemptuously referred to as “Cattlecar Galactica” mostly due to the presence of Pa Cartwright. So it’s been fascinating to me to watch this glow of nostalgia attached to a series that was seen by many contemporary SF fans as a quick TV endeavor to cash-in on “Star Wars” and nothing more than that.

That said, I’ve admired Richard Hatch’s devoted endeavors to almost singlehandedly keep the series alive in the intervening thirty years, and I think his stirring the fandom pot is a large reason for it still being viable enough to be a new 4 hour film on the Sci Fi Channel. At a time when no one else in Hollywood gave a dámņ about it, his interest never wavered. Which is why I was royally pìššëd øff when he was completely excluded from any involvement with the revival, because I consider Richard a friend and a good guy.

And that’s why it’s even more painful for me to admit that I kinda liked the show itself. Granted, the hormone level in the first half hour was way off the charts, and Kath and I couldn’t help but note the complete absence of any significant black characters. While everyone was running around wringing their hands about Starbuck being transformed from a square jawed white man into a square jawed white womanl, I was more struck by the recasting of Boomer from a black man into an Asian woman. Where did *that* come from? Plus I think I would have been willing to accept that the TX knock-off Cylon was a bad ášš without her showing her evilness by killing a baby in its stroller. I mean, c’mon. The Klingons showed they were badasses by torturing Starfleet officers. Doctor Doom shows he’s a bad ášš by whomping on the FF. Oooo, watch out for this bìŧçh! She’s so tough she can strangle an infant. Let’s have her kick a puppy while we’re at it (which, now that I think about it, wouldn’t be such a bad thing, especially if it’s that annoying robot puppy from the first series.)

But Edward James Olmos brings so much gravity to Adama, you’d think he was packing a white dwarf star in his pocket. The script is pretty sharp, the FX are nifty, and the rest of the actors have moments ranging from watchable to compelling (I swear, I thought the chief was going to put his fist through the X-O’s face. “Forty seconds…I just needed forty seconds…” Wow.) As opposed to too many series, you really constantly got the sense that you were out in space, with all the dangers inherent in that most unforgiving of environments.

Ðámņ, I miss John Colicos, though.

PAD

Can lactose intolerance eventually lead to lactose-related hate crimes? What if there’s something about cows that just really pìššëš you off?

PAD

I have been informed by the fine folks at Dreamwave that they are suspending publishing on the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, with issue #7 (the second half of a two-parter) being the last one to ship. Issue #8 was to have kicked off the four part “T4: The Turtlenator,” which Dreamwave has been advertising. Instead that storyline, currently being written and drawn, is being halted halfway completed with an eye towards possibly relaunching in the summer.

As fun as the series has been to produce, writing the first four issues under the constraint that they had to be based on the first four animated episodes resulted in issues that were, I think, not representative of what the series could have been. Plus, of course, one runs the risk of seeming superfluous since you’re just rehashing stories people can see animated and for free. Issue #5, starting the run of wholly original stories, was the first issue I was completely happy with, and it was very well received…but not by enough readers. Particularly when one considers that Dreamwave has to pay licensing fees and thus has to sell a lot more copies than a creator-owned title in order to turn a profit.

I suppose sales on issues 6 and 7 will help determine whether we’ll be seeing another run at the Dreamwave TMNT during the summer.

PAD

White House reps are upset since future Democratic presidential non-winner John Kerry stated in “Rolling Stone”–

”When I voted for the war, I voted for what I thought was best for the country. Did I expect Howard Dean to go off to the left and say, ‘I’m against everything?’ Sure. Did I expect George Bush to f— it up as badly as he did? I don’t think anybody did.”

They feel that–particularly because of the language–John Kerry should apologize.

And I’m flashing back to the B5 episode where John Sheridan was told he had to apologize to an alien race and he rehearsed an entire very unapologetic apology. I swear, if Kerry issues an apology along those lines–something like, “All right, I apologize: I’m sorry that George Bush f—ed it up” or “I’ll apologize for saying it as soon as George Bush apologizes for doing it”–I’ll vote for him. Not that it’ll do any good. The Democrats still won’t win the presidency in 2004. But it’d be amusing to read that comeback and watch the fallout.

PAD