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So, I've been back since Sunday night, but have been battling fatigue and the soul-suckingness of work. Today, for instance, I wanted to lecture a partner on personal responsibility and treat him like the child he was acting as if he was at the same time. Those statement may seem contrary, but if you knew him it would make sense. ( But instead of focusing on the negative, let me focus on happy making things. I got to hang out with the awesome Beccatoria! )I was shocked to learn ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) beccatoria had not yet seen the 'Shatner on the Mount' video that seemed to spread like wildfire on the internet following it's endless showings at Dragon*Con. Just in case anyone else missed this soon to be classic, here it is: And speaking of Dragon*Con, THEY HAVE GUESTS ANNOUNCED! They've never announced guests this early before! Trek looks to have a large contingent in 2010 with Armin Shimerman, Rene Auberjonois, Mirina Sirtis and Jonathon Frakes already signed. I'm especially pleased to see Frakes listed because I'm hoping he'll talk about his work on Leverage. And speaking of Leverage, Dean Devlin announced on Twitter that there will be a Leverage convention in Portland March 19th-21st. I'd love to go, but I'm not sure I can fit in the travel. In TV news, I still find I don't have much to say. beccatoria and I both lamented that neither of us have a show we feel compelled to discuss at length and analyze to death since Battlestar Galactica ended. TSCC was an heir apparent, but we know how that turned out. House is, surprisingly, holding my interest thus far this season. I'm enjoying seeing the old team back together and House is both the same, yet a little bit different. If I had one problem with this weeks episode it was in the last five minutes. The writers went with an ending that lacked balls and didn't make any sense. Remember how I said I thought the Stargate: Universe premiere wasn't very good, but it didn't feel me with rage? Well, I decided to watch the second episode, which is actually part 3 of the pilot, and there was rage, people. ( Cut for spoilers and venting. )And that's probably it for my posting for the week. Tags: bsg, leverage, new york
Current Mood:  cheerful
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Work was kicking my ass earlier in the week and the one night I got home before 5:30 I found it raining in my apartment. It seems the apartment complex doesn't believe in cleaning out the gutters and I have a gap in the window frame. Having survived the weeks traumas (Oh, yeah, the TV in my bedroom also went kablooey), I'm finally settled in front of the computer trying to catch up. I have a bunch of notes scribbled down on post its and scraps of paper and I'm trying to decode what the heck I was thinking at the time. I'm pretty sure one phrase has to do with a thought I had about Season 4 of BSG and Lee, but it doesn't make much sense without being able to recall what my point was. :/ Speaking of BSG, the Caprica/The Plan panel took place at Comic Con yesterday. There may have been rage as I read tweets from attendees at the panel pop up on my computer screen. The rage was not directed at Ron Moore or David Eick, but Edward James Olmos. ( Cut for possible unpopular opinion and rant. )Torchwood: Children of Earth has now concluded it's run in the U.S. And since I began this post, there has been an announcement by BBC American that the BBC has, unsurprisingly, picked up the show for a fourth series. I shared my gut-reaction to the final two parts here, but have been thinking about the mini series a bit more since then. I have not done a 180 in my opinion, though I think if I watched it in it's entirety again, after having read the reactions of people whose analysis I respect, I might see things a bit differently. However, something occurred to me that strengthens my feelings regarding one problem I had. ( Cut for spoiler. ) And while I totally believe showrunners have the right to do whatever they wish to do with their creations, I also feel it was unnecessary for Russell Davies to throw gasoline on the fire in reaction to fan reaction to the current series. By the way, Russell, it was more than a few fans. As I may have mentioned in the past, to distract me from work at work I listen to shows on Hulu. I was ridiculously excited when Stargate: SG1 was added to the site. I only watched random episodes from the first three seasons because those seasons were...not great. Season 4 is when, if you are going to get hooked, you get hooked and are able to watch the entire season without skipping over any episodes. But as work my way through season 5 I'm wondering if something happened during the hiatus between seasons? The season premiere, 'Enemies', suffers from plot overload. (There's everything but a gold platted Goa'uld kitchen sink thrown in.) No one apparently viewed Orlin as a creepy stalker in 'Ascension'. And while I'm use to the show not dealing with the consequences of SG1's actions, there is some really dodgy morality going on and Jack, who is Colonel Sarcasm, crosses over into asshole territory on numerous occasions. I've never considered myself *in* the SG1 fandom so I'd love to know now if there was some behind the scenes drama that resulted in a wonky start to Season 5. Tags: bsg, stargate, torchwood
Current Mood:  accomplished
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The last time I updated was June 7th. This may be a record for me. I'm trying to put my finger on why I'm not posting. Is my life that boring? Well, yes, it is, but that's nothing new. There's no new Battlestar to discuss, which has always been a prominent feature of my LJ. But, I still have Caprica to watch and a podcast to listen to and some half formed meta. I do feel Twitter is partially to blame. I never thought Twitter and I would be a fit. I'm so wordy! And only 140 characters? It's inconceivable! Apparently, I'm more adaptable than I thought. I did start a post on Monday, but the topic of said post has had me on a YouTube and downloading binge since the weekend, sucking up most of my free time, and thus I haven't gotten around to finishing my thoughts. And this renewed passion of mine deals with something I haven't thought much about in twenty years and probably all of two people will care what I have to say on the subject. If anyone can guess what I'm talking about from that incredibly vague description there's a virtual cookie in it for you. (Accept for beccatoria, who is already privy to my insanity. ;) In order to dip my tow back in the meta waters, I have a few thoughts about Virtuality. frolicndetour has a great discussion going on on her LJ about my main problem with the pilot. ( Cut for spoilers. )For my fellow Farscape fans, in case you haven't heard, the rumored Farscape panel at Comic Con is a go! Ben, Claudia, Brian Henson, and Rockne will be there. I was curious as to why there might be a panel since there is currently no series and the webisodes are still in development. Well, soon after the panel announcement came news of the entire series being released on DVD! Thank you A&E Home Entertainment! Speaking of cons, Dragon Con is only 64 days away! It seems like it was just October and I was making my room reservation...which I reconfirmed yesterday. I'm already seeing posts about get togethers. I'd love to meet up with whoever I can, though logistics can be a nightmare when dealing with four host hotels and 40,000 people. I'll be arriving Thursday and leaving Monday and you should be able to find me standing in lines for Star Trek, Stargate, and BSG panels. And for those interested in how the most recent Star Trek film changed from script to screen, check out Star Trek - What You Missed Most of the cuts I agree with, but I really would have liked to see more of Nero's backstory. His missing scenes would have helped to explain a lot. Tags: bsg, dragon con 2009, farscape, tv_musings
Current Mood:  apathetic
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Yes, once again, it's been awhile since I've posted to LJ. Well, my LJ. I have been posting to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) bamber_news. And there is Twitter. And email. So, I have not been non-communicative. Basically, work frustration + some family drama has meant by the time I get home and start to relax I really don't have the energy to or feel at all motivated to post. But, I have some links I've wanted a share and my Battlestar Galactica love is renewed. It never left, but I've spoken of my frustrations with fandom and the break I took was a really good thing. Having new footage to enjoy also helps. The 4.5 deleted scenes for those that haven't seen them yet. And beccatoria recapped what was cut as well. Because she did such an awesome job, I'm not doing my own recapping this time. For the first time, I did not watch the deleted scenes and feel extremely disappointed that something wasn't included in the aired version of an episode. The majority of the cuts were minor as compared to entire scenes or subplots that have been eliminated in prior seasons. With a few exceptions, what was cut would not have added anything or changed anything we saw on screen. Many of the deleted scenes were merely longer versions of what we saw, with a few lines trimmed, likely for time. There are a few scenes I'd like to comment on. ( Cut for potential spoilers. )There's also an edited flashback scene between Lee and Kara in 'Daybreak' that I want to talk about, but I'm saving that for some Lee meta I'm working on. :) Links!For another spin on Battlestar, How Neanderthals Met a Grisly Fate: Devoured by Humans. I couldn't resist! NBC Universal has sealed a new licensing deal with Hallmark Cards that includes the use of the company's film and TV content. If you are thinking you'll be receiving Lee Adama birthday cards from me in the future, you're right. Have you heard about Bing? No, not Crosby, Microsoft's latest attempt to take on Google. I'm not a fan of the main page. Why do they think I want to see pictures taken in Europe? And I find the main/news search results not as good as Google. However, I will give it the edge in image searches. They put all results on one page that you can scroll rather through and zoom in. BBC America in HD! Comcast doesn't have it listed as coming up on the new channel lineup they just mailed out. Bastards. Hulu is set for September launch in the UK. ITV will be a content partner. I'm hoping that agreement will eventually extend to the U.S. and we'll get Law & Order: UK. Via johnaugust.com, Writer's Guild Event with 'Trek' writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Some interesting background on what did end up in Star Trek and why Nero's story ended up on the editing room floor. Now back to my Twitter conversation/mocking of the Tony Award nominees wwith writteninstars and dragonfly0303. Tags: battlestar galactica s4.5, bsg
Current Mood: amused
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I just finished Season 3 of Stargate, at work. I don't have an Ipod so, instead, I listen to shows while I'm working. I had listened to some Season 1 and Season 2 episodes, but it wasn't until Hulu debuted the third season last week that I managed to make my way through (most of) a season. Yesterday, as I realized I only had a few episodes left and was lamenting that fact, I had a flashback to how I became hooked on the series. Damn you Season 3 with your improved writing, character development, team bonding, mythology and world building! I was also was reminded how much the last Indiana Jones film ripped off the 'Crystal Skull' episode. And that the Replicators have been around longer than I recalled. And Jack used to look really good in a black tee shirt. The BSG actors can't resist the pull of SciFi/SyFy it seems. James Callis's craptastic (TV Squad's word! Though, I'll likely agree. ;) SciFi Saturday film Book of Beasts airs tomorrow night. And Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, and Mark Sheppard will all be appearing at various times on Warehouse 13.According to After Elton, the upcoming Season 4.5 and Complete Series BSG boxed sets will not include the 'Face of the Enemy' webisodes. WTF NBCU? After Elton could not get a straight answer as to why they are omitted. A reminder that ABC begins airing the final three episodes of Pushing Daisies beginning tomorrow night at 10:00 est. Having seen the episodes ;), I can confirm that the series does have closure, albeit through a post production, tacked on ending. While I feel another hour of or two would have provided a truly satisfying end to the series, I commend Bryan Fuller for tying up as many loose ends as he could as best he could. Tags: bsg, pushing daisies, stargate
Current Mood: chipper
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Life seems to be rather boring at the moment, so I shall just share some links of possible interest. Battlestar Galacticabsg_bigbang is hosting a BSG Big Bang Challenge. I had never heard of such a challenge before, but it sounds intriguing: The objective: write a piece of fiction that is at least twenty thousand words, set in the Battlestar Galactica universe. It can be any kind of plot, any (or no) pairing. Gen, het, slash, it doesn't matter. Once your piece of fiction is complete, you'll be matched with an artist or vidder who will take your story and produce art for it. The end result is what many people are looking for: longer fan fiction stories set in the BSG universe!Signups begin tomorrow. I can't commit to writing a fic, but being an artist or cheerleader is a wee bit tempting. A brave and ambitious soul has decided to right some of the wrongs of Season 4.5 and has created Battlestar Redactica, fan edited alternatives to the mutiny arc and the final episodes of the series, up to but not including the finale. I've watched some of it and it's intriguing and very ell done. And I will always support less of Bill Adama and his emo. ;) Before watching, you may want to check out comments regarding some streaming issues. Star TrekCinematical discusses how the film fails the Bechdel test. (You may like this, no_detective. ;) And the Huffington Post laments Trek's gender problem along with a mention of BSG.I have to admit, the lack of female characters, in general, didn't bother me as much as it perhaps should have. Since it's a prequel/reboot and Star Trek was such a male dominated series, I cut the film some slack. Yes, Uhura was, at times, shown to be a sex object, but that was from Kirk's POV and he's strongly depicted as a stubborn, cocky, arrogant, womanizing ass. Or is that just my take on him? ;) Also mitigating the lack of strong female characters, for me, is the lack of strong male characters. When the men succeed if the film, it's the result of luck, often dumb luck, rather than intellect. ETA. ComicMix has a really long breakdown of how the new 'Star Trek' reflects previously established continuity. The article helped clarify a few things for me. Tags: battlestar galactica s4.5, bsg, star trek
Current Mood:  chilly
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My plans to sit outside and enjoy some of the beautiful weather we are having have been thwarted by the biggest wasp or hornet - I can never tell them apart - I have ever seen. I'm not allergic to the stings, but an attack by something that size would hurt like hell. I know people have sworn never to watch anything Ron Moore is involved with ever again, but for those like me who still think BSG was mostly awesome and that the finale was not the worst thing ever, the 'Virtuality' pilot will air July 4 on FOX. Yeah, I think the airdate is a strong indication FOX is not picking it up to be a weekly series. BSG Season 4.5 Cover Art. Sam and Tigh made the cover! And I love the triangles they created. Hee. While not official, it looks as if 'Castle' will be renewed. Hulu has started to stream British series. It's slim pickings so far, by I was excited to see Stephen Fry's Kingdom on the site. Unfortunately, for me, they only have the first season up and I've seen it already. I would recommend checking out the show. I found it entertaining and it has a nice little mystery going on. I watched the, for the moment, season finale of Scrubs last night. A very, very satisfying episode and I hope Bill Lawrence decides to pull the plug or ABC opts not to renew it. The series had a creative resurgence this year, ended on a high note, and, as I mentioned to sdwolfpup, Scrubs without JD would be like The X-Files without Mulder. We all know how well that went. I still haven't watched Caprica nor have I listened to the final BSG podcast. I had to admit to myself I'm on a break from the fandom. All the negativity, some of which I understood and some of which I didn't, finally got to me. But it may have turned out to be a good thing since I feel as if I had an epiphany about the finale. However, before I commit to anything I need to do a little rewatching. And I still have three Dreamwidth accounts if anyone needs them, but I sense there are more floating around right now than there is need for. OK, I'm five minutes into Bones and thinking, "WTF is up with this season???" Tags: bsg, castle, tv_musings
Current Mood:  hungry
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Some of you may be aware that, this past weekend, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, and Mary McDonnell were in Paris to appear at a panel and accept an award for Battlestar Galactica at the Jules Verne Festival. Jamie, fluent in French, spoke in the language at the panel discussion and most of the interviews he participated in. But, lucky for people such as I who only speak English, hobbitofkobol at 3xcusemyfrench has posted the video of their interview with Jamie here at their site as well as here at Daily Motion and has provided subtitles for the French portion of the interview (before he grew tired of struggling with the words and caved in and did the rest of the interview in English ;). I'm extremely grateful for the translation because the first question is a variation on one I left on their post over at battlestar_blog when they were asking for suggestions for questions. His answers to the all the questions helped reinforce my more positive feelings about the finale. But if you hated the finale, his thoughts may make you feel a bit better about it. (Oh, he also addresses the "damn pigeon". ;) Here is a collection of videos from the panel discussion on Sunday. Mary and James answer the questions in English and I particularly enjoyed hearing their thoughts on their character arcs. James won't cut Baltar any slack. ;) Edward James Olmos and Kandyce McClure appeared at a convention this past weekend. locker_monster posted a recap of their panel here. I'm pointing out this post because one comment in particular by Eddie that intrigued me - there were some scenes left to shoot between Adama and Tigh and he was never called in to do them. I haven't listened to the podcast for Daybreak yet, has there been any mention anywhere why we didn't get some closing scenes between Adama and Tigh? I thought perhaps we'd see some in the extended cut, but I guess not. Pilot School is a great collection of pilot scripts for a lot of TV series. Included in the list is the script for the BSG mini series. It's a great resource for writers as well as fans of television. And non-BSG related and a bit of old news, I stumbled across this article about the Amazon debacle/glitch from several weeks ago. I didn't realize they were blaming some woman in France for what happened. The article also nicely sums up the problems in Amazon's use of algorithms in sales ranking. Tags: battlestar galactica s4.5, bsg
Current Mood:  tired
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Last night was BSG/Caprica night at the Paley Festival. Either Caprica wasn't discussed much or the people who were there covering the panel are choosing to focus on BSG. For those not caught up on the series, beware of spoilers in the reporting. The Futon Critic has partial recap of the panel with more to come later today. Ron made at least one comment that might upset some. I'll let you find it. The Paley folks themselves tweeted the event. So you won't have to scroll through the tweets, I copied and pasted them ( under the cut. )Details of the 'Battlestar' bonus material on the complete series DVD set. It sounds (and looks) like a repackaging of the DVD sets already released with a few additional featurettes. I'll pass (unless I upgrade to HD). I enjoyed this week's episode of Castle more than last weeks. But two things irked me. One, ABC inexplicably airing the episodes out of order. Rick is describing his ex wife to Kate who Kate met last week. It makes no sense! And, two, the makeup, hair, and costume people's inability to make Stana Kanic to look good. Week in and week out she has the bizarre eye makeup and everytime they try to glam her up she ends up with fugly hair and unflattering dresses. The dress last night was pretty, but did nothing for her. I still adore the Rick/Alexis relationship. :) Do you you love Oceans 11 and The Muppets? Than this vid is for you! Tags: battlestar galactica s4.5, bsg, castle
Current Mood: working
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I had envisioned this day as a 'Get Things Done Around the Apartment Day as BSG Plays in the Background Day'. Instead, I've paid more attention to BSG then intended, spent the day reading a lot of wonderful posts, and having an unexpected email conversation with beccatoria. When I finished responding to her last email, I clicked on my Flist and saw Ron Moore, too, had posted about today and, like many of us, wishing it was not coming. My favorite part: There will be reunions and retrospectives, special editions and extended cuts, interviews and seminars. Solace can be found.Seminars? Sign me up! :) So, today ended up not being what I intended, but as I dozed during 'Deadlock' (because if you are going to nap that's the episode in which to do it) I realized this day won't happen again and I still have enough clean clothes to get me through the weekend. ONLY TWO MORE HOURS TO GO! Tags: battlestar galactica s4.5, bsg
Current Mood: hungry
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I have a bit of a headache at the moment so I'm hoping my thoughts here make some sense. Mo Ryan has been doing a series of interviews/reviews on the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I generally read her posts, but not the comments. I'm sure people have interesting things to say, but, long ago, I opted to dedicate my time and energy to analyzing the show to death on LJ. ;) 'Blood on the Scales' engendered much discussion and, in particular, a debate as to whether Tom Zarek was the idealist he claims to be or merely a power hungry villain. Richard Hatch apparently is a fan of Mo's work because he joined in the conversation. Richard, after his initial fears for the reimagining, became a tremendous supporter of the show. I've enjoyed listening to and reading his thoughts on BSG and admire how he, as well as the rest of the cast, put so much time, thought, and effort into their roles. Not one of them just shows up, reads their lines, and walks away from their character at the end of the day. And given my confusion as to how we should read Tom Zarek now, I appreciated Richard sharing his take. However, it struck me that Richard may be a little too passionate in defending Zarek. Whereas I think the other actors are able to look at their characters from our perspective as well as their own and recognize their faults as well as strengths, Richard seems to only see Zarek as Zarek would see himself. ( Cut for discussion of Tom Zarek and 'Blood on the Scales'. )Another interesting bit of news in Mo's post is that Michael Angeli has said we'll probably see extended cuts for many of the Season 4.5 episodes when the season comes out on DVD. Woo! Tags: battlestar galactica s4.5, bsg
Current Mood:  thoughtful
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Was anyone else disappointed in last night's Chuck? Half way through I began to think I should have watched House instead. That's about the same time I gave up trying to use the 3D glasses which didn't work well and hurt my eyes. But my main problem was the actual plot. Chuck has a far fetched premise that, by and large, they've been able to make somewhat believable. But how Tyler was being used by the bad guys left me going, "Seriously???" And the B Plot seemed pointless, if occasionally funny. And I tried watching Heroes again. The episode was certainly an improvement over the last time I checked in on the series. Unfortunately, I was utterly confused as to who some of these people were and what was going on. Anyone know of a good source to catch up on the important plot points? I really don't want to watch the episodes I've missed. Via dryope, 'Life' star Sarah Shahi is pregnant. The article talks of plans the show has to accommodate her pregnancy. It may be considered spoilery to some. Over at the SciFi forum, Sighunter/Marcel, who runs Leah Cairns website, had a chance to speak to her about last week's episode and she had some interesting information about her role in the episode. ( Skip this if you you have not yet seen 'The Oath'. )I'm not linking the thread since it seems to have degraded into character bashing. :/ My state, Michigan, is opening a movie studio. Unfortunately, it's not anywhere near me, but I'm sure productions will pop up all around the state now. Carrie Fisher has started a blog. And she seems to be committed to the project. Of course, she just started it recently so we'll see if the frequent posting lasts. Highly entertaining, as her writing usually is. This is my favorite part of an entry she wrote about hosting, along with Colleen Camp and Ewan McGregor, a party for the film Milk: There were two recurring themes at this party. One of them was Star Wars, given that two of the three party hosts had appeared in three episodes each. For those of you living in the middle of the Sahara Desert without any access to media, I played Princess Leia in the first trilogy and Ewan played Obi Wan Kenobi in the second—-and though we rumbled around in our oh, so, different trilogies, we’re ultimately part of the same Intergalactic family. And if you have been living in the middle of the Sahara Desert, what drove to you this website?We've lived radically different lives and I wouldn't dare compare my writing skills to hers, but the tone and sarcasm sounded so much like me! It's odd sometimes the people you can feel a connection to. (And I mean that in a non-creepy way ;). Tags: battlestar galactica s4.5, bsg, chuck
Current Mood: working
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A few Battlestar Galactica links of note: The LA Times talks with the final Cylon. I don't know what kind of spoiler warning to put on this. The person does not give away any specific upcoming plot points, but does put the kibosh on a couple of theories I've read. ( And one thought about the article... )The TV Addict talks with Ron Moore and the final Cylon. The same warning as above. And some behind the scenes photos from 'Sometimes a Great Notion'. Why couldn't I wander onto a BSG set? As for other TV shows... I totally forgot House returned Monday night. I got home around 8:30, turned on the TV, which happened to be set to FOX, and realized I'd missed half the episode. I was upset for about two minutes, then I started watching the episode and realized I hadn't really missed anything. It hit me how the show is stuck in a rut and I just don't care anymore. I caught the premiere of Lie to Me which was OK. Yet another well made procedural on the air. I didn't check the ratings, but I wonder if it will be hurt by The Mentalist premiering first. The acting is good on both series. The production values about the same. But I'd actually give Lie to Me the edge in writing. The plots are much better conceived, imho. However, while I can definitely see myself watching the show again, if I miss it, that's fine. The problem is I've already grown to like the cast of characters on The Mentalist so why should I go out of my way to watch their copies on another show? I'm going to lump together my thoughts on the last two episodes of Leverage. ( Cut for potential spoilers. )( Burn Notice: Do No harm )Did anyone watch the second episode of Bones last night and go, "Kendra!"? I also caught a commercial for Dollhouse...and cringed at one point. I know, the FOX marketing monkeys cut the commercials, not Joss, but, still, I worry. Tags: bsg, burn notice, house, leverage
Current Mood: chipper
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indifferent
annoyed
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