I’ve got some pretty nice recommendations to share.
Archives For battlestar galactica
Tory: Madam President, in my opinion, people vote their hopes, not their fears. Baltar is offering them what they want to hear, and you’re offering them a bitter reality.
Roslin: I’m offering them the truth.
Tory: They don’t want to hear the truth. They’re tired, exhausted. The idea of stopping, laying down their burdens, and starting a new life right now is what is resonating with the voters.
I’m a dork, you can’t deny it.
I’m a dork, and I’m proud of my -mostly- tidied up iTunes library.
As with my CDs, and my DVDs… a little bit of books, and mostly with computer files, I like to know where my things are. Of course, iTunes makes it way easy to keep things organized with their “copy to folder” and “keep things organized” options, but then we’ve got album covers, song names, artists names… and music can get a little messy.
Entertainment Weekly has finally put up their list of Greatest Characters online.
Excuse me as I What? – Bernie Mac over The Bride from Kill Bill, or Lisbeth Salander from Millennium Trilogy? Will Smith’s Hancock over Whilhelmina from Ugly Betty? With no traces of Wolverine? Seriously? Hancock over Wolverine? And don’t tell me it’s because Wolverine is an old character, because Tony Stark (Iron Man) made it to the list… and he’s not what we would exactly call from the “last 20 years” either.
The list is questionable… not only for the inclusions and omissions, also for placing. tsk tsk.
As much as I love Sue Sylvester (and Jane Lynch), I think she should be lower than characters like House or Dexter. Also… Rachel Green on the Top10? Over guys like Jack Bauer from 24? And Edward Cullen from Twilight over freaking Don Draper from Mad Men???? Really? Or even Miranda Priestly from Devils Wears Prada?
But gotta give it to you for at least including some of the names. You know like Starbuck. Or Stewie from Family Guy… Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Edward Scissorhands — if you didn’t count, that’s TWO Johnny Depps right there~~~ Then there’s Hannibal Lecter, The Joker, and Buffy.
But… Continue Reading…
Of course, if Mob read this blog every day, he would comment “I told you so,” and told me so he did. He pestered me about watching Galactica all 2009, and I began watching it then, but the first season took me ages to finish, due to anger issues. However, I got over them and watched the second season, the third and the fourth.
This is my Galactica advise. Watch the four seasons.
I was told to begin BS with the Miniseries, which was pretty rocking but made season 1 a bit redundant, in my opinion.
I was told to skip the first set of webisodes, and watch Razor… the Galactica film, which didn’t do anything for me. A lot of fans liked it, but it didn’t do much for me.
Finally, I was told to watch the final set of webisodes, which weren’t bad, but didn’t do much for me either.
So just watch the full four seasons, and you’d be plenty happy. At least, that’s what I think from the point of view of a non-fan-girl.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way. I had a love/hate relationship with most of the characters of the show, that’s only due to the great writers of the series who managed to turn this characters into real people with issues and mistakes. Obviously, some of those writers were also involved on writing for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Duh!
There were a lot of transformations on this storyline. On season one, it was all “yeah! The cylons are the bad guys! kill’em all!” However, once the humans (led by the idiot (though fairly elected – what does that say about the people and demoCRAZY) Baltar) settled on New Caprica, and the Cylons establish a sort of… er… forceful government, but a government nonetheless, in which they wanted both Cylons and humans to live together… I could not bring myself feel pity for the human “rebels” ~~~ more like terrorists, I say.
And that’s the thing about Battlestar… and good sci-fi, you can always relate the stuff that’s happening in there with real-world issues. And let me tell you, Battlestar had a lot of good political talks. Ethical and moral issues, and it’s never black and white, and they point it out for you “sometimes you gotta do the smart thing, over the right thing.” At least that’s how I felt during the talk with the idealistic idiot, Fat Lee Adama. A lesson the disillusioned idealist Gaeta didn’t learn on time.
Of course, there’s also the characters… or should I say the female characters? Because, let me tell you that I was annoyed at 98% of the male characters. Except for maybe Admiral Adama… LOL. The biggest turn-around for me was Colonel Tigh whose attitude I didn’t like at the beginning, but ended up one of my faves. But like I said… the guys were mostly idiots! While the girls were kinda rocking, even when they were acting crazy.
I watched District 9 yesterday, and I enjoyed it a lot. Actually, I watched Moon this past weekend as well, which was also pretty great. However, I had noticed that I had previously marked both films as “not interested“. Why? Actually, because I marked most films that way, unless I’m already interested. But this also made me think about the films I’ve watched this past year, and which ones I’ve enjoyed the most.
I’ve never followed Star Trek, but I admit I enjoyed watching the film this year.
And on a similar topic, I finally finished watching Battlestar Gallactica Season 1. LOL
But why do I seem so reluctant to watch Sci-Fi? Yes, it’s the nerd tag… I guess. I think my mother puts it best — She’s not interested in aliens, in other worlds, or UFOs — I think I’ve had the notions that Sci-Fi was just escapism, and it is in some of the films, but some of my friends (some sci-fi and comic book lovers) have taught me and made me understand that Sci-Fi can be so much more. And I do love a good drama.
But in the end, people don’t really listen.
My cousin, yes… that same one that told me Love Happens was money well spent, HATED District 9. Her brief Facebook status read something like “District 9, sucks! Badly…” and it got a bunch of comments including mine asking whether to believe her or not, considering she liked Transformers 2 (So good, she said), to which she replied “aliens!? c’mon>>>> no more comments“. LOL – The fact that she thought the idea of aliens is ridiculous should have hinted that she shouldn’t have picked District 9. Actually, she told me she didn’t wanna watch Inglourious Basterds either, to which I fainted. xD
What is good sci-fi? My friend made me sit in front of my computer screen (we haven’t seen each other since we graduated) and told me I was wrong. He told me Good Sci-Fi is Good Drama, you get social commentary in the form of metaphor and you can place those stories in the real world. Good Sci-Fi is about the characters… much more than the universe created. He is the same friend who made me watch Firefly. Yes, that same sci-fi show that my sci-fi-hating mom loved to watch.
So if you’re not sure you like sci-fi, you can give Firefly a try.
Good Sci-Fi is also not about how high-end and kick-ass your special effects are. It’s not about how many explosions you can get on screen at the same time. It’s not about how cool your props look like.
As we see on Moon, it’s almost as if this sci-fi world becomes a character piece in which the main character talks to himself and re-discovers himself in the process. About his daughter, about his wife, about his work. The miniature models are far from the high-end spectrum of regular CGI effects, yet hold this charisma or perhaps it’s nostalgia.
On District 9, what could have been an alien invasion film with explosions where people save the day turns into a film where aliens live in slums among us, as big corporate heads try to find the way to use their bio-technology weapons and think they can get away with it when one of their workers begins changing. The character sort of begins a transformation worthy of Kafka, in which he starts becoming more a “monster,” but in reality human beings are the monsters. It’s sad.
I’ve hated #4 this past weeks. That number is an unlucky number…
Anyway, this is my 4th contribution to the Japanese Cinema Blogathon, if you haven’t been reading… which I hope you have had~~~ because that’s the whole point of this blogathon, right? To promote J-Films…
Which brings me to today’s topic.
First, Your Friends~ Then the World!
How to Make People Watch Japanese Cinema
It’s all about compromise. God knows I’ve tried so hard to get my friends interested in it, because sometimes it can get boring talking to people about it just online… *sighs* I’m sure I come off as pushy, etc~ and many of them won’t budge. I even offer them films to watch for free… they only need to come over, and that’s that.
Last year I had a Foreign Film gathering (they chose the foreign theme, anyway), two of the nine films scheduled that day were Tetsuya Nakashima’s Memories of Matsuko – mainly because I’m crazy about that film, and I had just watched it a few weeks prior – and Shunji Iwai’s Hana & Alice, because Iwai-san and Yu Aoi is lurv. Sadly, no one came on time to watch Matsuko (only one friend arrived… halfway through the film), and I highly doubt they made any connection with Hana & Alice.
Needless to say, I’m setting up another film gathering, though I haven’t made them choose themes yet. I have a few lists I’ve made and they contain a couple of Japanese films. Let’s hope one of them stays this year! *crosses fingers*
Anyway… you don’t want to come off as pushy – and like I said above… it’s all about compromise.
- You have a friend who wants to make you watch something of his own?? Maybe he wants to get you into Lost, Heroes… or Battlestar Gallactica? Give in, tell him you will watch a season (or maybe a few episodes, depending on your willingness to compromise) in exchange he should watch a film or two.
This will make your friend feel like you are not pushing him to watch something, instead you’re just exchanging interests… and who knows, you might end up enjoying both those hobbies.
- When you blog about it, mix things up a little. We blog about Japanese Cinema, but in the end people who already like Japanese Cinema read your posts.
The point of this blogathon is to promote Japanese Cinema, but we are the ones dealing and discussing. I mentioned this blogathon to a friend, and she had no idea why she should care. *doh!* – combine the idols with your favorite Japanese Directors, and get them at least skimming through your posts. Make a western comparison… got something to write about vampire films? psych ward films? I mean Clive Owen has said that he wants to work with Wong Kar Wai and Ang Lee again… that means some teenage Owen fans would be at least be interested in checking out some more work by both directors.
How about a crazy collaboration between Johnny Depp and Tetsuya Nakashima? Or Juliette Binoche and Shunji Iwai?
- Make a fuzz about collaborations. No matter how good or bad you may think they are.
I made a fuzz about Tokyo! – I kind of really worship Michel Gondry’s visual style… then there was Ryo Kase, and Yu Aoi. – I’ve also been making a fuzz over New York, I Love You because it’s got Shunji Iwai’s short with Orlando Bloom. Now, I don’t like Orlando Bloom (I’ve only ever liked him as Legolas LOL), but if there are people who enjoy the short… there is a small chance that a teenage Bloom fan might check out Iwai’s past work.
- Introduced them with what they like.
My dad likes comedies… and action films, but well~ he also happens to like Asian culture, LOL’ so maybe I’m being a little unfair here. Anyway, I’ve made him watch films like Linda Linda Linda, Matsuko, Swing Girls, Tekkon, Kamikaze Girls… then one day he brought me Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. *laughs* I was surprised myself, but my dad had a newly-found interest in Japanese films (mostly the epic kind though… xD)
and to just not have FOUR bullet points here…
- … just keep pushing~
Keep bugging people. Someone will need to budge, right? LOL
It’s V-day, so my non-V-day gift to all of you it’s more YAM. Yup, 2nd issue is done.
Featuring Coraline, which opened this past Thursday here in Lima (only dubbed). We are also taking on Best Picture Nominees, and our picks that shoulda been BP. We are also talking about Duncan Sheik, Melinda Doolittle, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Lee-Hom Wang, Franz Ferdinand… and many other reviews!
Now, if you’re ready~~~ head over here to get it.
If you tend to watch a lot of TV and movies, and are good with faces and names, you begin noticing familiar faces throughout the years. It is then, by chance, that you suddenly discover that you have in fact been finding bright new talents… or hidden talents. You know their faces, you know where you’ve seen them, but you can’t quite get their names until you research, and never will it happen again.
I’ve been an avid procrastinator for the past 12 years of my life, ha! I’ve watched a lot of TV and movies (more in recent years), and I’ve found myself saying “Well, he/she looks awfully familiar. Haven’t I seen him/her somewhere before?” Yes, yes I have. And that gives me a fuzzy feeling… a fuzzy special something that makes me think I’ve got this tiny little treasure, and I saw it… sort of first.
