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Favorite Super heroes?

Empire has a feature sharing their choice for the Civil War crossover that took place in Marvel comics over 2006 and 2007. It's weird, but back when I was a teen, there was no way I'd ever claim to be a fan of Captain America. But as an an adult, I recognize now that his character didn't represent the blind patriotism I thought it did - far from it in fact.

Here is a related story at NPR.

Now some choices from Empire's top 50

(But first note, no Superman, sorry Oliver. All powerful super heroes that aren't the least bit flawed in some way, never really interested me all that much. The funny thing is Supes used to be the template for super-heroes in comics - now he's the exception - which is making him more interesting to me now)

Karl at Tuesday, July 15, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

George Carlin wouldn't want the eulogies

But they will be unavoidable today. So all I will say is when I get home tonight from work, I'm going to have a good drink in his name.

You made us laugh. And think. At the same time.

We'll miss you George.

Not all of us, but that is as it should be, how you preferred it, and that is why you left an impression on so many.

Metafilter: George Carlin Dead at 71

Karl at Monday, June 23, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Are you going to see "Sex and the City"?

Last movie I saw? "Iron Man". It rocked. Now I admit to watching "Sex and the City" at home with Richelle and enjoying it - it was fun. But going out to the movies to see it adds all sorts of interesting dimensions. Slightly ameliorating the sense of... well interestingness of it all, will be that I will probably be going with Richelle, her best friend Renee, Richelle's sister Rose, and our Sister in law Cindy (congrats again on Mikey Cindy!). It's either that, or double baby sitting with Mike :)

Interesting article in Salon, Susie Bright doesn't like "Sex and the City" all that much, and taken from her point of view, I can't blame her:

Susie Bright was the original sexpert. The author of countless books on human sexuality, erotica and her own sexplorations, Bright was writing about sex before Carrie Bradshaw was in diapers. These days, she lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., with her partner and writes about her life, motherhood and sex at SusieBright.com. What does she think of "Sex and the City"?

"My ideas were clearly ripped off," she says. For her, it's like Iggy Pop spotting a CBGB T-shirt for sale at the mall. What "Sex and the City" did was co-opt a very real, very important movement at the time that was dedicated to female sexuality and was in no small part spearheaded by Bright. Unfortunately, "in some cases, like with 'Sex and the City,' the fantasy became bigger than the reality of women speaking about their sexuality." As "Sex and the City" returns, "everyone knows who Sarah Jessica Parker is, but Sarah Jessica Parker is not a pioneer in sex-positive feminism."

The women of "Sex and the City," asserts Bright, aren't political. "They're desperate to get married. They obsess about their marital status." And they turned the sexual revolution for women of the new millennium into a business. To make her point, Bright references a recent New Yorker essay, "The Fall of Conservatism" by George Packer, in which Pat Buchanan paraphrased social theorist Eric Hoffer: "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." Comments Bright: "'Sex and the City' is the racket part of what once was recognizable as the sexual self-emancipation of the feminist movement." For her, the commodification of the 21st century female sexual revolution hits too close to home. "I can't watch these women, you know, make asses of themselves and be so petty and small-minded about sexual possibility. I take it too personally."

Says Bright, "I feel like someone drove over me with a truck. I feel invisible. I feel -- you know what I feel like? I feel like Trotsky when Stalin airbrushed him out of all the pictures of the Russian Revolution. I feel like the revisionist version of the sexual liberation movement is so stupid and shallow. If the original idea was about self-knowledge, and being orgasmically aware, and large and in charge, and independent, and not pathetically hung up on a man's approval, then the show is a failure." But, she adds, "I take it very seriously. I'm sure the people who make the show would say, 'Lighten up. Susie Bright -- what a pain.'"

While "Sex and the City" freed up the possibilities for a new generation of Susies, the downside is that, in pop culture, sex is now but one more commodity. Bright explains, "It does a disservice in the same way that you see an ad for a Lexus with your favorite Rolling Stone song or John Lennon song. This used to be something. I've always been sad when capitalism ruins my favorite passions."

Karl at Friday, May 30, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What's the impact of time shifting on mass entertainment?

The NYTimes looks at the effects of DVRs and Web video on mass entertainment. It's not as clear cut as you think: In the Age of TiVo and Web Video, What Is Prime Time? - New York Times: "As a result of time-shifting, the biggest shows are getting bigger and some of the smaller shows are getting negatively impacted," the senior television executive said.

That's so counter intuitive. In my experience, my TV watching not only increased, but Richelle and me watch a far wider variety of shows.

Karl at Sunday, May 25, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

When did Star Trek and Star Wars Jump the Shark?

TechRepublic.com: Sci-fi rant: When did Star Trek jump the shark?:

...there was the Borg Queen, and that ruined everything.

The Borg were originally defined as genderless, faceless, nameless, all-consuming man-machine hybrids with which you could not negotiate, could not overpower, and only by sheer luck and creative individuality could you ever hope to defeat-temporarily. That is until First Contact, for which the producers needed a conventional villain for the "dumb audience," so we get Alice Krige gothed up in H.R. Giger fetish gear going all creepy-vampy on Data and retconning Locutus of Borg from a terrifying perversion of our beloved Captain Picard into a spurned cyborg concubine that Miss Borgy needed to acquire some V'ger-esque spark of humanity.

The Borg Queen single-handedly diminished the Borg from a personification of everyone's secret fear of the dehumanizing power of technology and conformity run amok into two-bit techno-zombie henchmen of everyone's un-fondly remembered codependent ex-girlfriend. (It's worth noting that in First Contact, the Borg assimilate you vampire-bite style, rather than through the slow, tortuous process seen in "The Best of Both Worlds." These are B-movie monsters now, not powerfully terrifying metaphors for identity-stripping monoculture.)

TechRepublic.com: When did Star Wars jump the shark?:

...Phantom Menace came along and, with all due disrespect to Jar Jar Binks, gave us the single worst Star Wars moment in a rapidly expanding history of awful Star Wars moments: Midi-chlorians.

Jedi, you see, aren't made, they're born. They're of the blood, nobility, maybe even a master race. If your midi-chlorian count isn't high enough, don't even bother to apply. Anakin Skywalker was basically the equivalent of a can't-miss basketball prospect from the mean streets of Tatooine who got a Jedi Academy scholarship despite being a punk. Yeah, that's going to resonate with all the athletically addled dorks who used to idolize the franchise.

Yoda wasn't awesome because he was a zen-master adept who spent centuries honing his communion with The Force, but because his little frog-pig body was jam-packed with psionic parasites. That single slap in the face to Star Wars fans was the first of many attempts by Lucas to expand and explain the mechanics of his franchise, and in the process he knocked out the foundations of what was once the coolest character concept in all of sci-fi. Thanks, George.

Fun, worthy of argument :)

Karl at Tuesday, November 27, 2007 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Star Blazers: "There are only 364 days left"

It used to be life or death to make it home in time to tune in to Star Blazers after school. It still resonates with me on some deep levels I have a hard time putting to words.

Looking back, I'm surprised it made it to the air the way it did. Certainly today, it would be far more censored than it already was. The plot had so much death. So much horror. So much pain.

So much that hinged on faith, honor, and ultimately love, overcoming fear.

Watch the following six videos in their entirety, with an open mind. Then imagine yourself as an eight year old doing so. Pretty profound for a "just a cartoon".

Star Blazers links:

20 Years Later: The Legacy of Star Blazers
Star Blazers / Yamato: Wave Motion Web Page
Star Blazers and Yamato Ultimate Resource Page
Wikipedia: Space Battleship Yamato
The Star Blazers You Didn't See
All Things Space Battleship Yamato / Star Blazers
Official Website
totse.com: Star Trek:TNG - Enterprise vs. Star Blazers Yamato (beware - lots of NSFW content here)

This post was inspired by a post at Metafilter about 80s Cartoon Intros.

Karl at Sunday, April 29, 2007 | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Bye-Bye Battlestar Galactica

BSG's season, after a terrific start, culminating in one of the greatest sci-fi space battle scenes ever has gone downhill since. Far too much X-Files-like myth twisting over character and story development finalized last night in the killing off of it's most developed, interesting character - Kara Thrace - "Starbuck".

Good bye BSG. The move to Sunday night was killing me anyways. At least now I have my time back.

Karl at Wednesday, March 7, 2007 | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Why Dave Chapelle Likes Macs

Ummm.... NSFW due to language okay?

Karl at Friday, September 1, 2006 | Comments (3) | TrackBack

I have an idea for a great Survivor - lets divide teams by religion. Muslims, versus Jews, versus Christians, versus Atheists - sounds great don't it?

Sounds ludicrous right? Not really. Because that's where Survivor is going to need to go to top the concept behind this year's series - dividing the tribes up by race. Yes you read that right. By blacks, whites, Asians, and Hispanics.

I'm a free speech absolutist. I don't believe in the suppression of it whatsoever. And I'm as un-politically correct as they come. Sam Kinison and George Carlin are my favorite comedians. South Park is one of my favorite shows. So never would I advocate banning or fining this.

The FCC is no friend to free speech.

So why be concerned or upset? I've talked to people in my line of work who don't feel the way I do. That this will be great TV. That generating any kind of discussion is good. And this last sentiment is one I always agree with.

But they don't come from where *I* come from. They don't know by what rationale my old neighbors will decide who to root for. And when "our" race's members lose - it will be talk of conspiracy and bias.

And hey, Survivor's Jeff Probst pretty much admits this in a recent interview. Watch it.

Survivor isn't a comedy. It's a competition in the hearts of its fans, and in the minds of some social scientists and economists. It's producers call the show a social experiment. Check out the ongoing conversation about Game Theory and how it applies to Survivor. So is it really surprising that this season is already being thought of as "Survivor: Race War"? No. Not at all. It's to be expected.

A dark part of me admires the marketing genius behind it. The degree to which the show's producers will go to get ratings. Sure the season will sprinkle heart warming lessons in a few episodes. And they will move to integrate the tribes within two or three shows and those that integrate the best, supposedly, will do the best. But that does nothing to change this show's exploitive starting point - segregated tribes - and it will be that, which sets the tone for the audience.

And bring in the viewers.

Are they holding a mirror to the reality of American society? Maybe.

But I can't help but feel this story joins a growing number of race and racism related stories surfacing in the news. Stories that, when coupled with rising crime and poverty figures, set us back to the early nineties - at least.

This, at a time, when real bridges must be built, and re-built, between members of different races, different religions, different classes, and different sexes, and different political parties.

Ask yourself, does this Survivor season help or hurt fight the realities that Katrina exposed? The story of Katrina is one of race, class, and indifferent government and society.

Does it help? Or does it exploit?

There is a difference. Think about it.

From my point of view, there seem to be too many damn people are busy dividing us, to sell us something.

Too damn many.

Karl at Wednesday, August 30, 2006 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wayne's World - Seriously

Finding the old Wayne's World trailer on YouTube was sublime.

Don't you think the story line - new medium enables amature to reach many, the amature gets lured by money and power the big corps offer, disillusion follows, and wisdom (well that's one of the endings) results - timely?

It both marked the end of the 80s metal subculture I grew up in, and foretold the rise in participatory media.

New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin thought the idea of "Wayne and Garth's late-night, public-access television show, the one they do from the sofa in Wayne's basement, is so good that a wily television executive (Rob Lowe) will scheme to exploit their commercial potential" strained the movie's credibility.

Heh. No foresight that one.

Karl at Wednesday, August 23, 2006 | Comments (0) | TrackBack