lydamorehouse: (Default)
Shawn and I are in between Netflix shipments, and so we were looking around for something to watch for Friday night movie night. We remembered we still had a stack of discs of Season 4 of BSG that [livejournal.com profile] naomikritzer's friend TiVOed for us... well, what, years ago now? Anyway, we dug out our episode guide and figured out where last we'd left our intrepid heroes. We ended up watching "Guess What's Coming to Dinner", "Sine Qua Non," and "The Hub".

As you know, I'd been a pretty huge BSG fan since the re-imagined version came out (actually, to be honest, I'm old enough to be a fan of the original series too.) But I've always found the series to be kind of spotty. There were times I swore it off for good, but then, like a puppy, I'd come lopping back when the new season started: "Squirrel!" I finally gave up when Starbuck returned from the dead and started seeing visions about the way to Earth.

I never liked the new Starbuck. She's too... wounded(?) for me. I like crazy on some women, but Starbuck? Not so much.

Plus (and this was the real killer) Shawn got off it. Shawn can watch shows and movies I'm not so keen on, because I'm often off writing on a novel in the other room in the evenings. Me? It's kind of got to be a "family" event for me to sit down and watch something. I *could* watch while Mason is off at school, but that just seems like the height of decedance. I mean, what's next? Day time soaps and bon-bons? No, I need to write or something productive during daylight hours. That's just the deal.

But someone at Shawn's work is just about as far behind as she is, and they started talking about it. Even so, Shawn wasn't quite up for a new episode... until we ran out of Netflix. (part of why we've run out is that Mason has adopted the "Loony Tunes" disc. So we're only sending back two of our three alloted films... and the last two were complete duds. We should learn: films in French are baffling. Even with subtitles. Period.)

It's surprisingly easy to pick up in the middle. I'm not sure that's a compliment, though. As Shawn said at one point during the multiple betrayals and double-crosses, "Haven't we seen this already?" However, for me, it was nice to see Roslin and Adama finally admit they're into each other. How many seasons did THAT take? As Adama says, "About time."

My problem with this series can be summed up pretty simply. I'm not a plot monkey; I'm a character junkie. This is why I never game mastered any of the D&D campaigns I was involved in. This is why there are plot holes in my novels you could drive a truck through. Those details don't concern me unless they affect characters. BSG is character lite. The characters are important, but they're secondary to the plot in most episodies. But I don't really care much about the mystery of the Cylon God (although I did enjoy the scene in "The Hub" when Baltar tries to discuss God with the Centurian) or if they ever fraking get to Earth. I mean, all that stuff can be interesting, which is why I keep coming back, but what I REALLY care about is how it affects the characters. Thus, "The Hub" was my favorite of the three.

Roslin attempts to be less of a cold automaton and more human. In a drug induced haze, Baltar finally confesses to his grandest sin against humanity. Adama gives up his throne for the one he loves. Three wakes up and mocks both Cylon and human for being a bunch of back-stabbing hyopcrites.

Nice. A good turn, indeed.

Friday afternoon, I also narfed down three more graphic novels in the HIKARU NO-GO series (Hotta/Obata). I can *not* explain my attraction to this particular manga. A bunch of Japanese kids try to become professional GO players. There's a ghost and several rivalries, but, wow, talk about "plot lite." Yet I'm totally riveted. In fact, I almost ran back to the library when I finished the last one to get the next bunch. Go figure.

Speaking of the library, Mason was cute yesterday. He has this weird love/hate relationship with the R. L. Stein GOOSEBUMPS series. They're still pretty scary to him, but he loves to look at the covers, read the back copy, and see how long he can read the book before it scares the pants off him. Well, at the library they were de-accesssioning a bunch of "Goosebumps." 5 for a dollar, in fact. By chance I had one dollar bill in my wallet. Mason was giddy at the prospect of buying some from the library and taking them home. I let him do the whole transaction. The librarian, too, I think, got a kick out of how EXCITED he was. Then, with them tucked under his arm, he danced all the way home. Quite literally.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
Do you remember "The Church Lady" from SNL? I thought of her last night as I was watching the end of "Supernatural." (Any "Supernatural" fans out there?) Shawn and I used to watch the show regularly, but kind of fell out of the habit. Just by chance, we tuned in last night, and I was so EXCITED the moment Dean is face to face with the one who pulled him out of hell and identified itself as "an Angel of the Lord."

Could it be... Satan?

Shawn looked at me and shook her head sadly, and said, "Oh, honey. Don't get too excited; you know they won't go there."

Thing is, I'd be mighty happy either way. Of COURSE, I'd love it if this were actually the big bad guy, because, frankly, I could have written his dialogue right down to his baffled insistance that Dean needs more FAITH and that he (the angel) only does what God commands. But, honestly, I'd be perfectly okay if it were one of the "good guys," because he/it is certainly as scary, if not scarier, than the multitude of demons they've paraded around in that show (keeping in mind, of course, I've missed at least one entire season.) Scary angels make me happy. And of course, any time angels start talking about their "fearsome visage" it makes me smile (and he did. Seriously.)

But, in other less fannish news, I visited Mason's class today. I only stayed a couple of hours (until about 10:30 am) because they were starting to get into work where they needed to focus on individual projects, and it was pretty clear to me that I was a big distraction.

But my fears are mostly quelled. I say mostly because, admittedly, it would be difficult for anyone to live up to my extremely high standards. There *is* a lot of inistance on rule following, particularly this rather alien (to my mind anyway) idea that 5-to-6 year olds need to have "calm, quiet bodies." (Has she not read ANYTHING published in the past decade about the problems with educating boys in this country?) However, there were many, many things about the class routines that I liked. She does a rather nice greeting ritual where everyone goes around the circle shaking hands and taking turns saying "good morning, [name]," which I thought was a nice way to include every single student in a class of 28. I wasn't terribly excited to discover that Ms. D. seems to favor what I would call the "rote and busy-work" teaching methodology (a lot of copying and a LOT of repetition), it certainly has been proven to work -- though I always found it rather disengaging and boring as sin, especially if you're the type of student that catches on quickly.

But there weren't any red flags that jumped out at me watching her interaction with the class. I think her biggest fault -- which isn't anything she can control -- is that while she's perky and friendly, she doesn't seem to have a lot of natural charisma. She's very pretty and enthusiastic, but she doesn't have the ability to command attention. I found that the students crowded around me (even those that didn't know me) and seemed much more keen to follow *my* modeled behavior than Ms. D.'s. To that end, I did everything Ms. D. asked the students to do, including keeping my eyes "listening" (on her.)

So the jury is mostly still out, but I'm feeling like I have a better sense of Mason's day, at least.

In other news, I'm apparently teaching at the Loft on Wednesday nights now. I almost didn't go except for [livejournal.com profile] maggiedr's off hand comment on Wednesday's post about "see you in class tonight!" Thank god(dess), just by chance, I checked my e-mail at 6:30 pm, or, as I told the class, I'd have spent the night in my PJ's watching episodes of "The Closer" on DVD. Normally, I would chalk up my lack of preparedness on my own inner wackiness, but this time the Loft really did drop the ball. The last I'd heard about the class it was when someone from the Loft office e-mailed to tell me that the class would VERY LIKELY be cancelled because only 4 students had signed up. I was under the assumption they were going to call me/email me, if the class was a go... but I guess that's that whole line about asses and U Me.

Given that I was frantically printing up syllabuses a half hour before class, I think the first night went pretty well. As I told them, they got me at my MOST disorganized. It can only get better from here! (I hope.)

Well, since I haven't yet, I should write. I also heard from [livejournal.com profile] naomikritzer that she finally got the BSG DVDs from her sister, so I need to go collect those and catch up with this season.
lydamorehouse: (more cap)
This always happens to me. I finish a book and I go on a self-indulgence binge. I play video games, watch TV, and generally don't do anything resembling "work" for days on end. But my amazing beta reader naomikritzer already got the book back to me, so my vacation is officially over. Tonight it's back to the grindstone, alas. But, I did catch up on all my comics and BSG and managed to see a movie (in the theatre!) so I have a few things to rant/relate/comment on.

One of the things I did was go with my friend Sean M. Murphy to see "Iron Man." Holy sh*t! I have never been a big fan of Iron Man, though I knew some about him from Avengers (new and old). I've always thought he was kind of a non-personality/military industrialist Capitalist running dog, so there was no love lost for me when he became a psuedo-villian in the Civil War storyline. However, this movie made me a fan. Robert Downey, Jr. could not have been more perfectly cast, and he was surprisingly poingnant with all the "heart" metaphor stuff. Pretty deep and metaphorical for a comicbook movie. Plus, of course, Read more... ) God is great now that Marvel is in charge of its own movies.

I still need to do some contemplating before I write anything about Bendis' Secret Invasion, however. Lance at Dreamhaven very kindly pulled everything Secret Invasion related for me, so I'm completely up on the story, including the kind of dull primer on Human/Skrull/Kree relations that Bendis gave us with his revisionist history laid out in all its glory.

The reason I need to think about it is this: before we headed out to the movies, I started ranting about Secret Invastion to Sean and he pointed out that my argument might not go over well with WisCON folks because, at its heart, it is a transgender issue. It was this amazing lightbulb momment for me. As some of you may know, Bendis is doing at Marvel what BSG is doing on TV. We're discovering that some of our heroes may have been replaced decades ago by shape-changing Skrull/human clones who have been programmed to believe they are the real heroes. So, like with the Cylons, they've been living AS the heroes, until which time their sleeper trigger is activated.

My inital reaction has been one of betrayal, and I've been struggling with a way to articulate this because it's one of the same snags I have, on ocassion, with Battlestar Galatica. With BSG, however, the idea that the Cylons have been living among us in secret has been set up from the beginning. One of the things that's bugging me about Bendis' stuff is the feeling of whiplash because, while there's been some foreshadowing in recent issues, the heroes whose identity are in question have been key players in some major events (The Death of Captain America, Civil War, House of M, Avengers Disassembled, etc.)

One of the conculsions I've come to is that my sense of betrayal is complicated. It's not just that the heroes/BSG characters were living as something else the entire time, but that the people chosen by the writers of both series have picked characters whose storylines resonated with REAL political events. For instance, on BSG, three out of the four new Cylons were insurgence policy makers. The New Caprica insurgency was clearly a thinly-disgused metaphor for Iraq and our occupation of it. The storyline, clumsy as it was on occassion, forced the viewers to identify with the "other side," the nationalistic rebels trying anything to push the occupying army with superior weaponry/tech out of their homeland. Because this was about America's involvement in Iraq, I felt like those characters (Ty, Tyrol, and Sam) represented *us,* the humans of the storyline.

Similarly, in the Civil War/Death of Captain America storyline, there was a very obvious metaphor for American politics. The Superhero Registration Act smelled a bit like the Patriot Act (surrender freedom for security!) which happened after a horrific attack -- the Samford School disaster -- clearly a 9/11 proxy. The storyline, again sometimes as overt as a 2 X 4, asked readers to identify with BOTH sides of the question of freedom vs. security. The two key personalities in that fight, Captain America and Iron Man, are now potentially Skrull imposters.

My question (to myself but also now to you) is why does it bother me so much that these key players in these American political metaphors have turned out to be distinctly "not us"? Or, at the very least, not who I was originally led to believe they are?
lydamorehouse: (Default)
Again for those of you who tune in for my writing bits, I have a short rant over at Wyrdsmiths' blog about Ken Tucker's review in Entertainment Weekly of Battlestar Galatica called "Now I'm Just Cranky...".

The title says it all, although for those BSG fans out there who might be thinking "aha,,Lyda's finally blown a gasket after Starbuck returned!," I don't really take on Tucker's talking points so much as his attitude towards science fiction in general.

I actually still haven't seen the premiere episode of BSG, and for the second time in so many weeks I'm kind of lamenting the fact that we don't have cable. God/dess knows I don't need any more TV in my life, but I always feel like I'm one step behind every other fan I know. I haven't read any of the new Brian Michael Bendis' Secret War stuff over at Marvel (because, again, I don't subscribe, and... uh, okay, that's more about my own laziness and the thinness of my wallet,) and I have no idea what happened on BSG. Plus, I'm a season behind on Dexter, which is a show I've fallen absolutely in love with.

Plus, last night, I realized that I still have 40,000 words to write on a novel due at the publisher in a month and three-quarters. Okay, if I write 1,000 words a day I've got it covered in 40 days, but the problem is that I've been clocking in a rather pathetic 500 -600 words a day. Time to step on the gas.

Queer BSG

Jan. 14th, 2008 03:03 pm
lydamorehouse: (Default)
Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] naomikritzer , I'm all caught up with BSG, including the miniseries/one-off "Razor."

It's set mostly in flashback on the Pegasus before (and just after) she connects with the Galatica and our fleet. This is probably my favorite point in the series, actually. Its before New Caprica and all the insurgency stuff, which I've already ranted about here.

It is revealed that the Admiral of the Pegasus...

spoilers )
lydamorehouse: (battlestar galatica)

Cross-posted from what_the_frak....

I’m very critical of the shows I love, because, after they’ve initially wowed me and won my heart, I tend to hold them to a higher standard.  I LOVE BSG. Like, love it, love it, want to marry it and have its children LOVE it.  Crazy love.  At home, we jokingly refer to BSG as my “Battlestar Galacti-crack.”  So, of course, I’m ultra-critical. 

 

Do I think BSG is feminist?  I’m not sure.  There are a lot of women who play very vital roles in the show, but I’m not entirely satisfied by any of them, with the possible exception of Starbuck. 

 

I don’t much like Starbuck as a character, personally.  Part of my dislike, I think, comes from what I see as some inconsistencies in the way she’s written. Her maternal instincts over Casey seemed misplaced to me, especially given her willingness to stab Leoben in the throat repeatedly (which, I found much more in character than going back for Casey.)  In fact, all of seasons three’s attempt to “soften” Starbuck annoyed me.  While I’ve grown fond of Anders, I still (even with the flashback to the night spent with Apollo) can’t quite wrap my head around the idea of Starbuck going down the aisle with anyone and then playing nagging housewife.  Honestly, I can’t really grok how it was she was convinced to give up flying, which seemed to be the one thing she was good at and which kept her sane.  Military life might not have totally suited her personality, but I always read her as the Top Gun who put up with all the military regimentation as best she could just so she could have those moments in the stars.

 

All that being said, I like that she’s tough, more than a little fraked-up, unapologetic, and straight.  (Although I do wish we’d see more queerness – and more color, but that’s a post for another day.)  She gets naked a lot on the show, but it doesn’t seem gratuitous to me (although I’d willingly entertain arguments to the contrary.)  I find her bouts of teary-eyed warbling unappealing, but that’s who she’s been since the beginning.  

 

I realize I’m probably in a minority, but I’m not watching the show for Starbuck.

 

President Roslyn fascinates me and infuriates me at the same time.  I love that “we” (though technically the BSG folks are all aliens, I tend to read them as humans and, thus, representative of a future us) finally have a female president.  I also like some of the choices Roslyn has had to make, particularly the ones that seem to go against her nature, i.e. banning abortions, election fraud, etc., because they illustrate one of my favorite things about BSG, which is its full-on take on the complexity of politics.  As a feminist, I’m horrified she would ban abortion; as a fan I’m thrilled they pushed Roslyn’s character into that corner and made her come out the dark side _and_ convinced me that for these people, at this time, maybe her choice was the right one… or at least I could see how she would think it was.  

 

What frustrates me about Roslyn is much more basic.  I wish she wasn’t an elementary teacher.  It’s such a cliché role for a woman, and not a terribly progressive one, at that. 

 

Plus, they had to give her breast cancer, the woman’s disease….  I have a complicated relationship with breast cancer personally.  My partner is a carrier of the breast cancer gene and has had prophylactic mastectomies.  Her mother died of it, as did many of the women in her family.  Because of this we’re hyper-aware of how breast cancer gets treated in the media. We’ve noticed in a lot of mainstream TV and radio that if you want to show how strong and saintly a woman is, you give her breast cancer.  In Roslyn’s case it _actually_ makes her a saint, in that her medicine gives her spiritual visions, which seem to be validated in reality.  Teacher/preacher, these are acceptable power roles for women in our society, and it would be nicer, in my opinion, to just let her find her confidence in her politics instead of her woo-woo preschool teacherliness.

 

Then, there’s the whole affair she apparently had with the former sitting president…. And the one she’s courting with the military leader of the Colonial Fleet.

 

One of the things the panel at WisCON (Annalee Newitz brought it up, I believe,) got mentioned was how often people in the BSG-verse seem to have slept their way to power or who use sex as a weapon.  Her examples were Rosyln, Baltar, and Caprica-Six.

 

Caprica-Six is, for me, a somewhat troubling female character too.  She’s oversexed and underdressed.  I think she probably deserves a post all her own, however.

 

These are just my initial ramblings (and I don’t want my first post to the group to be too long), so I look forward to ensuing discussion.

 

lydamorehouse: (shark)

I finally figured out how to get my partner on board with my fish obsession... involve major furnature purchases and a chance to re-arrange.

As you know, Bob, the fish downstairs are growing too large for their tank.  So, I've been aggitating for a new, larger tank.  Shawn and I have ruminated about where to put the dang thing, and Shawn finally realized what we really needed was some new furniture.  Yesterday we bought a new tank,... and a new dresser.... and rearranged the entire living room.... and bought a rug.

It took all day, but I'm actually very pleased with our living room's new look.  The fish tank isn't set up yet, but my plan is to get the water conditioning before we leave for Indiana (the in-laws) this weekend. 

Otherwise, I've been spending my time tryig to compose my thoughts for a  BSG/feminism post for what_the_frak.  I've been spending far too much time on it, and I think I'm just going to give up trying to sound smart and just post it today, and, when I do, I'll be sure to cross-post it here as well.  

lydamorehouse: (battlestar galatica)

The Big Reveal of the final episodes of BSG still has me puzzling. Despite the fact that  naomi kritzer and I just spent an hour or so discussing BSG over lunch, I still am not sure how I feel about the ending.  I will say above-the-cut that I'm not mad, just puzzled.  I'm only a little concerned about shark jumping, and in this case much more than with the Iraq-war-in-disguise jump of the last season.  The last season cliffhanger made me mad because I felt that they missed opportunities to develop character and story arc, in this one I'm afraid they might be headed in a too-cheesy-for-me-to-stomach direction.

Okay, so I can buy 

 

 

...Really?  Did they learn nothing from the original series?

lydamorehouse: (battlestar galatica)

…which is good since I’m scheduled to moderate a panel on whether or not BSG is feminist or not for WisCON.  I’m trying really hard not to decide the answer to this question since I’m officially supposed to be on the fence, but I can’t help but pay attention as I watch these last final episodes in the season (I’m catching up via a friend’s friend’s TiVo  [thanks Naomi!]– I don’t have cable.) 

 

Anyway, I just watched “Maelstrom,” which leaves me only three until the big finale. 

 

My favorite episode, so far, is “Dirty Jobs,” which is the one in which the Chief helps the refinery workers go on strike.  I’m a sucker for union/union organizing stories, probably because I’m one of those “academic class” people who grew up in a household that sang Wobbly songs on car trips.  My grandfather worked on the factory line at Trane Company until his retirement.  My father was the first in his family to go to college (although later his older sister did, as well – she’s been the president of the Wisconsin teacher’s union for years.)  The point is, even though I’ve only ever belonged to a couple of unions in my life – the commercial food unions, ASFME, and later, the National Writers Union – I’ve always had a soft spot for union and union heroes. 

 

The moment in “Dirty Jobs” when the Chief pulls the lever to stop production on the factory ship nearly brought tears to my eyes.  Plus, I loved that, though they didn’t drag out union negotiations (like they would have in real life), there were arrests and threats and all that jack that happens when the military and unions clash. 

 

Plus, it’s science fiction.  How often does class come up in SF?  More in written SF than in media, I think.  There was one episode of Babylon 5 in which there’s some talk about unions on strike on Mars (and maybe more, but my memory fails me.)  But, this episode on BSG had a class issue under the surface (yet overtly discussed by characters.)  I suspect they’ll drop whole class deal on BSG, like they do a lot of their storylines, but I’m going to hold out hope that they continue it.  Especially since I’m still deeply distressed how WHITE they are… we briefly had a black pilot, but he seems to have gone AWOL.  (And if memory serves, there’s even a black cylon, but he was only on the episode where Starbuck is impregnated.)  And, yes, yes, there’s Dee – but, shout if you will about tokenism, but one (communications officer no less, have we EVER seen that before?) doesn’t impress me much – especially given the preponderance of brown and black faces on the “Black Market” episode.  Seems when they need an underbelly for their future society they can hire a few actors of color.

 

But, I’m back on my BSG race rant, and I really meant to praise Caesar, not bury him.

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