Electronic Cerebrectomy

And I Think to Myself

2012-01-27T19:24:00.001-06:00

Welcome to Lexapro Withdrawal

2012-01-27T17:42:00.000-06:00

I mentioned a while back that I might have to just give up Lexapro entirely because of the prohibitive cost of the medicine. It's something I just can't afford in our situation, and I frankly feel guilty devoting $118 a month of our extremely limited income to pills for my anxiety and depression.

A few weeks ago, I was finally forced to just stop taking the damn things.

I ran out, and I can't afford to refill. I applied with the makers of the drug to get on a patient assistance program, but I've yet to hear anything from either the company or my doctor's office. So I just made the decision to go off until I could get back on again, even knowing that it might bring back a lot of my old anger problems and issues. I've been on this drug for, what, 2 years? 3? I knew it wasn't going to be easy just going off of it. I tried to wean myself off, but the closest I could really come to that was to take a pill every other day instead of every day until it ran out.

Currently, I am in hell.

I've been trying to keep up a happy attitude, and for the most part I've been doing okay. But I've been getting these terrible migraine headaches, and that's really been bothering me. Every afternoon, like clockwork. I thought I was just getting sick--I felt terribly sick last week--but Becca looked up the symptoms of Lexapro withdrawal today, and there it is: migraine headaches.

And it's not just the headaches, but it's other things. I'm reading about peoples' withdrawal experiences and recognizing what's been happening to me for the last two weeks: insomnia, dizziness, nausea (which is why I thought I was sick last week), sweating (or feeling like I was sweating even when I wasn't), forgetfulness, bad mood swings, feeling freezing cold all the time, aching all over, feeling oversensitive (not just emotionally but physically), even feeling suicidal. That impending sense of doom that drove me to Lexapro in the first place has not come back. I really hope it doesn't.

And also this sort of feeling of shocks in the brain. Sometimes my body aches so much that it feels like everything inside of me is moving seconds too late. My body will turn in one direction, but somehow it's like my mind doesn't catch up right away. I can physically feel it. It's like being in two times, seconds apart, at once. It doesn't help that I just don't want to sleep. I saw someone describe these feelings as like having someone just physically reach inside of your head and give your brain three hard shakes. That's it exactly. And then these feelings in my head, like a sudden electric shock traveling very quickly from one side of my brain to the next. Just right over from ear to ear. It makes me so uneasy. Jittery. Dazed, sometimes.

And the crying. I've had a few jags of emotional crying. Full-on, hard sobbing. Thankfully these have happened when I'm home alone. And even without the crying, there are just times when my eyes hurt so damn bad. The sadness is sudden and overwhelming, just triggering without warning. From 0 to 60 immediately.

I didn't realize how much Lexapro changed me. It evened me out, yes, but there were other things. I was too even. I didn't have a lot of lows, but I didn't have a lot of highs, either. I think it may have made it harder for me to focus. I've been focusing on things a lot easier lately without my mind drifting so much. Some people say they gained weight on it; I gained a lot of weight, too, but it wasn't all the drug. It's been so hard taking it off; I wonder if it will be easier without Lexapro. I'm basically hornier now, too. Most of the medications I'm on for my blood pressure don't do your libido any favors, but I've seen where some people say Lexapro basically took it away. I feel more responsive lately.

I'm actually kind of scared right now to even consider getting back on Lexapro. I'm seeing more and more things about the side effects of SSRIs that give me pause. One of the adverse side effects I'm seeing is akathesia, which is a type of agitation that can drive people to suicide, and though I'm reluctant to just diagnose myself with something I'm just reading about online, like I said before, I'm just feeling agitated and suicidal lately. Irritable. Snapping at people I love for no reason. Involuntary movements is another side effect, which happens to me every night in bed, when my legs will just suddenly jump for no reason. Tardive dyskinesia is another, which I'm frankly terrified of after reading what that did to Brian Wilson. For the record, sexual dysfunction is on the list, too.

I've been reading that taking 5-HTP while withdrawing helps you sleep, because it increases serotonin naturally with no side effects. Advil migraine medication has helped get rid of the headaches for a few hours. People recommend staying away from caffeine, but coffee has been making me feel better, too. Coffee and a lot of water, which helps my weight loss, anyway.

Maybe I'll be able to get through the withdrawal and then just stay off the drug. I'd like to do that. I can't afford it, anyway, and it seems like if you can make it through the first month, it gets much easier. One person said they were almost normal again. I wasn't normal before, but I'm going to work to get there. I'm going to try and channel my nervous energy into exercise. Even going in the hallway and just walking up and down the stairs a few times helps me calm down. Calm down and stop snapping at people. It's unfair to people to take it out on them. I don't want to put people through that. I won't do that. I will accept their help and not be irritated.

I will do this.

Star Trek: Voyager, Season Seven

2012-01-26T11:01:00.000-06:00

And here we are, the final season of Star Trek: Voyager. It's something of a mixed bag, much like the series itself, and for a final season I think it could have been handled better. Obviously, this is just armchair quarterbacking a decade later, but these are just my reactions to the honest work of others. Or as they call it today, blogging. Let's soldier through it.

1. Unimatrix Zero, Part II (my rating: 3 out of 5)
Kind of more of the same from last season's finale.

2. Imperfection (3/5)
This episode is a really good showcase for Icheb, a character I'd like to see more of. I'm actually more interested in the next generation of characters than I am in the main cast. Someone needs to put a show together with Icheb, Naomi Wildman, Nog, and Jake Sisko, or something. Jeri Ryan is quite nice in this one. I'd really like to see her doing more now than ending up on shows like Shark.

3. Drive (1/5)
Harry and Tom enter a sub-warp race, predictable plot twists, and Tom and B'Elanna getting together, because why not pair the two most boring characters? Eh.

4. Repression (1/5)
Robert Beltran's pretty good on this completely unnecessary return to the Maquis...well, "story" obviously isn't the word I want there, is it? "Arbitrary motivation"?

5. Critical Care (3/5)
The Doctor is kidnapped again, but there are some interesting ethical discussions here.

6. Inside Man (3/5)
As much as I like seeing Reg Barclay, this episode where a Barclay hologram stolen by Ferengi is used to attempt to steal Borg nanoprobes didn't do as much for me as other appearances he's made. I'm also getting over the writers' infatuation with nanites as some sort of plot-healing magic. Dwight Schultz is great, as ever.

7. Body and Soul (4/5)
This episode is hilarious because of Jeri Ryan. I love the idea that the Doctor is forced to download his program into Seven's Borg implants, and then he's able to experience physical sensations like eating. Ryan is marvelous, and her impression of Robert Picardo's performance as the Doctor is hysterically good.

8. Nightingale (2/5)
It is nice to finally see Harry get put in a leadership position, because I still think there was much more potential for both actor and character than we ever get to see on this show. I could have done without Seven giving him heavy-handed moral lessons about leadership, though. Chakotay, maybe, but Seven rings false. I also could have done without Icheb's sudden crush on B'Elanna. Ugh, B'Elanna.

9. Flesh and Blood (4/5)
I don't think it's a home run, but I do like a lot of what happens on this feature-length episode. Here we're exploring one of the biggest themes on this show, which is what constitutes sentience and humanity, and this episode isn't afraid to really delve into the conflict. The idea that Hirogen holograms have rebelled against their masters is an intriguing one; they can have a concept of freedom and individuality, and want to escape into space to explore their own lives. They firmly put Captain Janeway in the wrong on this one, in my opinion, and I'm glad the Doctor calls her on her inability to think of the possibility that holograms could also be people. It rings a little hollow, since a) Janeway has encountered sentient photonic life in "Bride of Chaotica!" and b) she fell in love with a twee Irish stereotype hologram. I can't decide if the point gets muted or not by having Iden, the leader of the holograms, turn into such a fanatic.

10. Shattered (2/5)
More time travel. At least Chakotay has something to do in this episode, but like a lot of science fiction plots on Trek, Farscape later did it better. I am beyond caring about Seska at this point.

11. Lineage (2/5)
The story is actually handled well, but it does bother me that B'Elanna's apparent hatred of her Klingon ancestry is only ever a part of her character for the sake of plot convenience.

12. Repentance (1/5)
The wife tells me this was a really good episode, but I honestly have a hard time even remembering it. I'm looking at the description right now on Wikipedia and I barely remember it.

13. Prophecy (3/5)
You know, I was surprised by how much it made me smile to see an old Klingon D-7. I made a model of a D-7 back in junior high. I made the Enterprise, too. Always wanted to make a Romulan Warbird, but I guess that was never in the cards. Wonder if I could find one now, one from the original series. Anyway, on to this episode. Every time I see Klingons I'm surprised by how much I miss them and am glad to see them back (real Klingons, not B'Elanna Torres, who is only a Klingon when it motivates a story). Damn, Ronald D. Moore, you made me love Klingons after all. And who could replace Moore as the keeper of the culture? This episode has six credited writers. I like how these older Klingons, still enemies of the Federation, come to believe that B'Elanna's unborn child is a prophesied savior of the Klingon Empire. Good Klingons on this episode, too, and I always like to see Sherman Howard on TV.

14. The Void (4/5)
What a neat episode. I wish we could spend a whole half-season in the Void, seeing all of these new lifeforms and watching Janeway make all of these alliances. I hate how these things are always just one-off episodes and they don't build. Really neat stuff. The idea of Fantome's species communicating through specific musical sound sequences is really intriguing. And I like that Jonathan Del Arco got to play Fantome, since "Descent" was such a lame return for Hugh compared to the classic "I, Borg."

15. Workforce, Part I (1/5)
16. Workforce, Part II (1/5)
Shouldn't we be wrapping up individual plot threads by now? After the surprising vibrancy of "The Void," here we grind the season to a halt with a not-very-interesting story that's mainly a heavy-handed metaphor about workers' rights. I like the love story between Janeway and James Read (always like him), and seeing Don Most was kind of a kick.

17. Human Error (3/5)
Nice try at a personal, character-building story, although instead of just seeing Seven try human interaction on the holodeck, they have to add in the fake drama of the holo-addiction angle. And Chakotay, really? I'm sorry that we didn't get to see Seven and the Doctor together, but okay, Chakotay's not bad, he's just barely a character. The writers seemed to lose interest in him somewhere in the fourth season.

18. Q2 (5/5)
A nice final appearance from Q, though the way he's aged here makes me too aware that I was in 6th grade when TNG premiered. I like John de Lancie's son, Keegan, as Q's son. You kind of know where the story is going, but it's enjoyable getting there. I wanted to see Q2 stay human and hang out with Icheb and Naomi (wherever the hell she is) and end up in Starfleet Academy together. I had more fun imagining that show than I'm having watching Voyager.

19. Author, Author (4/5)
Another episode exploring the Doctor and any claims he has to humanity. It's irritating for almost the first half, but when they finally get to the issue of what rights the Doctor has as a creator or an artist, that's the interesting stuff. Nice ending, too. "Q2" and "Author, Author" both feel like a show that's tying up its story threads. There should have been more of this.

20. Friendship One (1/5)
More Prime Directive crap.

21. Natural Law (1/5)
Even more Prime Directive crap. Guys, the Prime Directive is not an interesting plot motivation now matter how much you think it is. And are Seven and Chakotay together now, or what's going on?

22. Homestead (5/5)
This is a beautiful way to end Neelix's story; not only does he get to be with other Talaxians, but he gets the one thing that's most been missing from his life: a family. This is one of the few episodes this season that makes me think someone was paying attention to characterization. I'm also glad Neelix's ambassadorial status is made official by the Federation. I know there are only two more episodes left, but I'd hate to think that this was the end of Neelix's affiliation with the Federation. He deserved a nice send-off, and he got it. And I even teared up when Tuvok said his goodbye. What a lovely moment. How can there be an episode this lovely and then the episodes surrounding it are just filler and burn-offs of old scripts?

23. Renaissance Man (2/5)
This belonged on a previous season. It's a good enough plot, mostly, but as the second-to-last episode it just feels like filler.

24. Endgame (3/5)
And this is how they went out... Hm. What I liked: the tense stuff between Admiral Janeway and the Borg Queen (Alice Krige again), the way Admiral Janeway uses a pathogen to defeat the Borg, Starfleet finally being able to utilize the Borg conduits, the makeup (the only old age makeup I've seen on a Star Trek series that didn't look utterly ridiculous), Neelix's cameo, Miral Paris, and Tuvok's storyline. What I didn't like: yet more goddamn time travel, the idea that the underdeveloped and new Seven/Chakotay romance is already so passionate that her death could destroy him, no Icheb or Naomi Wildman, and the ending. This episode just kind of whisks past everything, trying to do so much in one shot that the end just comes off as abrupt. The whole series just sort of stops. It feels incomplete without at least getting to see these people we've followed really come home. I'm not asking for a half-hour of saying goodbye, I just would have liked some sense of what happened to everyone when they got home. Jeez, let's see Harry reunite with his girlfriend or Reg Barclay and the Doctor shaking hands or Tuvok see his wife again or something to let us emotionally connect with the end of this journey. And what the eff happens to Icheb? Or Naomi?

I don't feel satisfied at the end of this. Like I said, it just sort of stops and then it's over. It's not like the potential wasn't there with the series, it just always feels like the writers and producers don't really care and aren't paying enough attention. Because of Rick Berman's and Paramount's resistance to serialization, there's just no build on the characters, there's no through-arc, and there's no emotional pay-off or resonance at the end. I honestly think they cared more about milking the damn franchise than about telling a story, which is a real shame, because I love Star Trek and Deep Space Nine was such a high note.

Missed opportunities abound. Oh, well.

Moving on, I guess it's time to start Enterprise.

Nicol Willamson 1938-2011

2012-01-25T12:33:00.001-06:00

Sad to discover today, via his son's official announcement, that an actor I've long admired passed away over a month ago after complications with esophageal cancer. The first movie I ever saw him in was Excalibur; one of my wife's favorites but a movie I've just never, ever liked (though I do love him as Merlin and consider him to be the only part of it worth watching the film for). Since then, I've loved him in the 1969 version of Hamlet, The Wilby Conspiracy, Robin and Marian, The Exorcist III, Spawn (another movie with badness that doesn't overtake him), The Wind in the Willows, The Hour of the Pig, as the Nome King in Return to Oz, and especially as Sherlock Holmes in The Seven Percent Solution.

I didn't even realize he hadn't appeared in a film since 1997. I actually saw Spawn in the cinema. Do you remember that Roger Ebert gave that thing 3 1/2 stars?

Anyway, I was a fan. Sorry to hear he's shuffled off this mortal coil to the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.

Film Week

2012-01-25T12:06:00.004-06:00

A review of the films I've seen this past week.

50/50 (2011)
Surprising. I wasn't sure I wanted to see it after the bro-heavy trailer, and after you lose someone to cancer you tend to be wary of movies (like, say, The Bucket List) that act like cancer is totally tolerable as long as you act crazy and selfish. I like that this movie was just about a guy with a good friend and a shitty girlfriend, trying to keep his cool and repair his relationship with his mother while pondering what could be the end of his existence. It's a very human, very emotional movie, one which doesn't make light of cancer or dying, but which takes those things very seriously without making its characters ciphers for some idiot message about life. It's about people, and it's excellent. **** stars.

CONTAGION (2011)
I think I'm done with Steven Soderbergh. He makes competent movies, well-directed and professional-looking with big casts, but so what? His movies are almost never about anything. It's more like a director just waving at the audience and saying "Hey, look what I can do." Every so often there's something really enjoyable, but not too often, and I'm not going to chase them down anymore. This movie: looks good, well-made, utterly pointless and not interested in depth or emotion. Just things happening. Meh. Soderbergh's like the Michael Bay of Oscar bait. ** stars.

THE IDES OF MARCH (2011)
I'm a sucker for two things: movies about the inside of political decision-making and things directed by George Clooney. The real star here, of course, is Ryan Gosling. As of this movie, I've officially turned a corner on the lad and can call myself a fan. I never thought, watching the execrable Young Hercules, that I would ever say that. Potentially irritating cast (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti in the same movie can go so wrong) used very well. Could've used more Jeffrey Wright, but that's true of everything. **** stars.

MY FAVORITE SPY (1951)
It can't be said enough how beautiful Hedy Lamarr was. Good Bob Hope comedy, though by this point I think the "mistaken for a spy" formula was wearing thin. *** stars.

THE GHOST BREAKERS (1940)
So it turns out that Bob Hope can make an unfunny movie without pretending he's 25 years younger than he is, which is what makes so many of his movies from the 60s so ridiculous... I'm sure you knew that, but I didn't even know I was a fan of him until, like, three years ago or summat. *1/2 stars.

PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948)
Creepy, soppy, and predictable movie about a frustrated artist falling in love with a child. Actually, it's mostly predictable (with some outrageously silly dialog); there are some surprises at the end, where some of the cheese that would've at least made the silliness understandable isn't even gone for. Come on, if you're going for cheese, go the full wheel, at least. Overwrought, but nice New York location shooting. ** stars.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945)
Starts off quite promising, then starts to dull, and finally turns into the movie that just won't end. Lots of good points, though, such as the mere existence of George Sanders. Most of the actors are quite good, but especially Angela Lansbury and Hurd Hatfield as Dorian; I think this is the only thing I've ever seen him in. A very good-looking film, too. I like the painting when it gets weird and horrid; it's by Ivan Le Lorraine Albright, but it reminds me a bit of Jack Davis. I wish this movie had been better. All the elements are there, but the pacing is so poor. **1/2 stars.

DREW PETERSON: UNTOUCHABLE (2012)
Hilarious, ridiculous, so-bad-it's-kind-of-awesome Lifetime docudrama (or their sensationalist version of what a docudrama is). Rob Lowe as jokester/wife murder (allegedly, etc) Drew Peterson is automatically hilarious, but I just had to see it in person. And Kaley Cuoco's in there, so bonus for me. Right after high school, I dated a girl who lived in the exact same neighborhood as Drew Peterson, so I was curious to see if the movie got the look of Bolingbrook right. I don't know where they filmed it, but it's a decent job; I figured it would look like Vancouver, with mountains or something. A train wreck, but a fun one to make fun of. ** stars. "I'm untouchable, bitch" will be quoted in my home for at least a year.

HARLEM NIGHTS (1989)
A very nice-looking failure. This is a very good-looking movie, but the story is just average and kind of cliched, and this is Eddie Murphy at the height of his ego directing and producing his own performance. He just goes on and on and on and on in some scenes, and Richard Pryor--who proves himself the superior comic by saying less and having more of an impact--even sometimes looks at Murphy like, "Aren't you done yet?" Pryor's very good in this, and so is Redd Foxx (as always), but Eddie Murphy's ambition here exceeds his grasp. Too bad. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. **1/2 stars.

TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL (2010)
Fantastic horror comedy about two hillbillies (Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk) who are mistaken for backwoods psychos by a bunch of college kids when one of them falls for the prettiest girl in the college group (Katrina Bowden, skinny but pretty). So the central premise is that Tucker and Dale are in a slasher flick, but don't know they're in one. One of the best horror films of the decade. **** stars.

PULP (1972)
I tried. * star.

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011)
Pure insanity. If you're the right kind of person, in a good way. I mean, yeah, it's super-stupid and intentionally-poorly-made, and tries a bit too hard, but it's Rutger Hauer, with a shotgun, in an incredibly over-the-top movie. I have to give it **** stars just for going all the way with the joke.

TRON: LEGACY (2010)
So, Jeff Bridges is still inside a computer and the computer was never turned off but it's been running for years? Damn, that's a good CPU fan. I had my Dell for, like, 7 or 8 years and the fan burned out once and the computer crashed to the point of needing to be reformatted three times. I wonder if the potential computer issues are why Jeff Bridges' creepy CGI face is so fucking creepy. Seriously, you couldn't just pull his skin back, or something? * star for Daft Punk's excellent score. It's an album I've never gotten tired of listening to, utterly divorced from this shitty movie.

SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (1991)
On the one hand, my wife made me watch this movie. On the other hand, not everyone I know has a wife who sees a cheesy action thriller from practically the 80s with Dolph Lundgren, Brandon Lee and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is going to be on cable and asks her husband to record it just in case it is, and I quote, "a trainwreck of awesome badness." So I still win. *1/2 stars for some of the silliness, and a little bit for having a wife that never, EVER wants to see anything with Julia Roberts in it.

X (2011)
Terrible Australian movie about a young hooker and a veteran call girl who team up for something or other and end up on the wrong side of something or other and blah blah predictable blah happens. I'm going to be very honest with you: I just like Viva Bianca on Spartacus and wanted to see her in something else, preferably something naked. So, mission accomplished. * star.

THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972)
Excellent black comedy about a man (Charles Grodin) who marries a girl (Jeannie Berlin) and then, on their honeymoon, discovers she's kind of awful. He falls in love with Cybill Shepard (at the height of her cuteness and desirability, before freaking Daisy Miller) and spends the rest of his honeymoon wooing her and trying to tell his wife he wants a divorce. More satirical edge than I'd expect from a Neil Simon script, honestly (even for this time period). One of the great comedies. **** stars. I've actually wanted to see this movie since I first read about it in high school, but it actually took me this long to finally track it down. Now it freaks me out that this movie is 40 years old, and only about four years older than me...

Dick Tufeld 1926-2012

2012-01-24T14:51:00.001-06:00

I was sorry to read today that Dick Tufled died at the age of 85. I used to hear his voice all the time as a kid on reruns of Lost in Space, The Fantastic Four, and Disney's Zorro. I was also very happy to hear Tufeld when he reprised Robot's voice--this time with a creation of Jim Henson's Creature Shop--in the 1998 film of Lost in Space, one of those movies I'm supposed to be too good for or something but which I've always adored (seen five times in the cinema, and the first DVD I ever bought).

Rest in peace, Mr. Tufeld. Another figure from my childhood--especially from elements borrowed from earlier childhoods--passes on.

Man, I love that Robot.

National Peanut Butter Day Is Here

2012-01-24T11:28:00.002-06:00

A la peanut butter sandwiches!

Cookie Monster Covers Tom Waits

2012-01-24T09:36:00.003-06:00

The maker of this video somehow knew exactly what I wanted to see today... Thanks for the heads-up, Phillip!

Oscar Nominations

2012-01-24T09:34:00.002-06:00

Wow, how much of a joke are the Oscar nominations this year? Apparently the theme for the Best Picture nominees was "Nice Movies That Won't Get Your Grandmother's Heart Racing Too Much." I'm not even going to go into them except to say that I'm happy The Muppets got a Best Song nomination out of this shit year. I haven't seen everything I'd like from 2011--and I've thus far only seen two of the movies nominated for Best Picture--but I'm going to go out on a limb and say there were a lot better movies this year than Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and War Horse.

I'm not even going to watch the Oscars this year. Why bother? I don't actually care about any of the races. I loved The Descendants, but where's the excitement in seeing if it wins to The Help? No thanks, Oscar. Don't care.

And just Best Sound Editing for Drive, the best movie I saw all year? Yeah, stick it in your ear, AMPAS.

Jim Henson's Alexander the Grape

2012-01-23T12:38:00.001-06:00

A reconstruction of a sadly unfinished, very charming Jim Henson cartoon. Read about the reconstruction over on Jim Henson's Red Book.

Kristen Bell Mondays

2012-01-23T12:34:00.004-06:00

Well, I said it would be back occasionally. Here's an occasion.

Kristen Bell's Body of Lies from Kristen Bell

Song of the Week: "Through the Years"

2012-01-22T14:38:00.001-06:00

Eh, why not? An anniversary only comes once. Um, yearly. Anyway, it's one of those cheesy songs I heard a lot as a kid and am totally affectionate for. Take it away, Kenny.

Sunday Hottie 364

2012-01-22T14:21:00.000-06:00

GEORGE CLOONEY

Since I use this weekly post as my reminder, I'm calling this officially my seventh anniversary. Seven years of Electronic Cerebrectomy. Weird.

Pop Quiz

2012-01-21T12:46:00.001-06:00

Star Trek: Voyager, Season Six

2012-01-20T12:37:00.002-06:00

This season was something of a return to the meh. Now that it's found a formula that works, the show has pretty much locked itself into it and decided to not really build a lot on the characters. I can't comment on Enterprise, not really having watched it yet (I saw a couple of episodes a decade ago), but Voyager is my least favorite series so far. I know I've been spoiled by Deep Space Nine, but I don't think that's really biasing my opinion here. Too often, Voyager frustrates me with the directions it steadfastly refuses to go in. What we have this season is a show that's found a groove and kind of figured, you know, why bother getting out of it?

1. Equinox, Part II (my rating: 3 out of 5)
After the great set-up of the previous episode, this one just kind of doesn't go anywhere. John Savage is good, so is Titus Welliver, but what's the point here? It just happens, and then it's over. And we take aboard new crewmembers that we never hear from or speak of again.

2. Survival Instinct (3/5)
Kind of a meandering episode for such a decent premise, that former members of the Borg Collective try to force Seven to completely sever their link. All of the stuff about how the link was severed--including Seven's earlier severing while still a drone, which she alluded to as her first moment of panic in the previous season--is interesting. And I like the outcome, how the former Borg would choose to live a few brief moments as individuals rather than survive linked to the Collective. Nice to see a Voyager episode come out on the side of autonomy.

3. Barge of the Dead (1/5)
Frustrating! I appreciate that Ronald D. Moore, during his very brief tenure on the series, wanted to explore the Klingons even more. The problem here is that B'Elanna Torres is a shitty character and a shitty Klingon, and this self-loathing conflict about being half-Klingon is only brought up when it's convenient to build an entire plot about it. I would love to explore more of Klingon mythology, and the Klingons are really good (particularly Eric Pierpont, from Alien Nation, as the legendary boatman Kortar), but this episode doesn't connect. Too bad. It's a real disappointment. Tuvok is also a badass on this one. (I decided to go to Memory Alpha and look up the notes on this episode, and Moore's original concept for this as a DS9 episode focusing on Martok and his son, and Worf meeting his father Mogh in Sto-Vo-Kor, is tremendous. Kind of like a scene from a Klingon version of The Odyssey. If only...)

4. Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy (3/5)
Interesting idea; I like the Doctor imagining himself as the Emergency Command Hologram. The Doctor's always fun. I also think the idea of the Hierarchy being able to see into perceptions is kind of interesting, even though it doesn't quite pay off. This episode is more interested in doing The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but it's cute.

5. Alice (1/5)
Tom Paris salvages an alien shuttlecraft which is, um, haunted or something by an alien presence that manifests itself as a sexy woman. Equally as silly as that episode of Happy Days where Fonzie buys a wrecked car from 1957 and it's haunted by the ghost of the girl who used to own it.

6. Riddles (4/5)
This is a nice episode in the occasionally ongoing arc between Tuvok and Neelix. It seems like an easy go-to when you have a Vulcan main character--have him in a situation where his character becomes completely different. But what the writers add that really works here is the way Tuvok, stripped of his logic and no longer holding his feelings back, becomes fast friends with Neelix, takes an interest in "frivolous" activities, and becomes reluctant to go back to his earlier state. I like the scene where Neelix convinces Tuvok to undergo the medical process to overcome the neurological damage he suffered even though he admits that he likes Tuvok better the way he is now. "This ship needs its tactical officer, and I wouldn't be a very good friend if I denied them that just so you'd be nicer to me." Sweet coda, too.

7. Dragon's Teeth (4/5)
This is the kind of episode the show should be aiming for more often; less weird space anomalies, and more using the first contact with different societies to examine our own societal ethics and mores. The dilemma over the reawakening of the Vaadwaur (a potentially interesting race we've yet to see again) and helping them rearm is something I'd like to have seen explored more reasonably, but it's still an exciting, tense episode.

8. One Small Step (1/5)
I've got to be honest with you, I don't even remember this episode.

9. The Voyager Conspiracy (1/5)
Ugh. A conspiracy aboard the Voyager would be far too interesting a direction for this show to go in, so instead we get silly conspiracy nonsense that seems to be there just to show that Seven places too much faith in her own intelligence. What?

10. Pathfinder (4/5)
I didn't really welcome the return of Barclay being accused of holo-addiction, but I did like that Barclay returned and managed to save the day. Dwight Schultz is in top form, as always, and it's kind of neat to see Deanna Troi again. I'd almost rather watch a show about the Pathfinder Project.

11. Fair Haven (1/5)
Okay, which staffer saw The Quiet Man recently? Tom Paris creates a twee Oirish village and Janeway falls in love with a hologram and cat ladies put down their knitting to recover from their sudden orgasm. Terrible.

12. Blink of an Eye (5/5)
Excellent episode; the kind of science fiction I want to see more of from this show. I want to like this show more than I do. The potential is there, it just doesn't try. It was a nice surprise, too, because when I saw the description of this episode--the Voyager finds a planet that experiences time at a much faster rate--I expected to hate it, to have a lot of maudlin sentiment, and to see more horrible old age makeup--but this episode was really special. We see the ship get stuck in the planet's faster orbit (excellent special effects, which is why it's the frontspiece on this post) during its civilization's Stone Age, and they develop all the way to space travel with Voyager constantly in its sky. Myths and legends develop around it, but the attempts of the ship to break the planet's orbit threaten to pull its tectonic plates apart. Great appearance by Daniel Dae Kim as an astronaut from the planet's surface. Just a wonderful episode.

13. Virtuoso (3/5)
Aliens who have never heard music are fascinated by the Doctor's singing. Pretty much what you'd expect. Plus Paul Williams. Paul Williams is always welcome.

14. Memorial (1/5)
This is one of those episodes that makes me wonder if Rockne S. O'Bannon was watching and taking notes. As with so many things on this show, Farscape later did it better.

15. Tsunkatse (4/5)
Predictable, but I like the Rock and I was overjoyed to see Jeffrey Combs on an episode. I wonder if "tsunkatse" is alien for "gymkata," since this is pretty much the Enter the Dragon 80s rip-off movie episode.

16. Collective (3/5)
The whole "Children of Borg" idea is kind of interesting.

17. Spirit Folk (1/5)
Back to Oireland. Cat lady episode, totally skippable. Totally a rip-off of the TNG episode "Ship in a Bottle," without the charm.

18. Ashes to Ashes (2/5)
What makes this episode is the presence of Kim Rhodes. I just love her. Here she plays a deceased crewmember who has been resurrected and adopted by an interesting race called the Kobali. Some of the ethical conflict is actually quite compelling, but you know how it's going to end just by reading this description, and it just sucks that they take the time to introduce this neat character played by a charming actress who is a potential love interest for Harry when you know that the franchise status quo dictates she'll be gone by the end of the episode. Kim Rhodes has more charm and vibrancy than any actor on this show not named Robert Picardo.

19. Child's Play (3/5)
They're starting to pay off the Children of Borg already, and Icheb is the most interesting of them. The plot twist of his parents genetically engineering him with a pathogen that will infect and kill the Borg when he's assimilated is a fascinating one.

20. Good Shepherd (1/5)
An attempt to do a "Lower Decks" episode, but I just didn't care about any of the characters.

21. Live Fast and Prosper (1/5)
The con artists impersonating Janeway and Tuvok aren't even good at being con artists.

22. Muse (1/5)
Torres blah blah blah. Eminently skippable.

23. Fury (1/5)
I'm just going to say this episode never existed. They actually go to the trouble of bringing back Kes, only to have her angry and trying to destroy Voyager, and then a lot of stupid, whiny garbage happens with time travel, and it's just absolutely shitty. First you dump Kes, now you try to ruin her. Fuck you.

24. Life Line (5/5)
A nice, relatively quiet episode where the Doctor travels to the Alpha Quadrant to help treat Dr. Zimmerman and work out his father issues. More Barclay, more Troi, and Robert Picardo acting opposite Robert Picardo. Lots of fun and a sweet ending.

25. The Haunting of Deck Twelve (4/5)
I like how this episode is played as a ghost story, but gives us some insight into a non-humanoid species, which is the kind of thing I want to see more of. Ethan Phillips is very good on this one. It's too bad we don't get as much Neelix anymore, but the same can be said of a lot of characters. Harry Kim is just fading out of my memory, and did Chakotay even do anything this season? And where is Naomi? She's barely on this season.

26. Unimatrix Zero (3/5)
This episode is sort of half-science fiction, half-cat lady. I do like seeing the Borg Queen back, and the concept of Unimatrix Zero as a place where the consciousness of drones meet as individuals is neat, but the focus on Seven's old romance is kind of dull, and the cliffhanger feels like a retread of "The Best of Both Worlds." So... kind of meh, but okay. Jeri Ryan carries it.

One more season to go. And then one more series to go.

War and Piss

2012-01-19T11:59:00.002-06:00

Alright, look... it's not cool to piss on a corpse. But I get the rage. I get where it comes from. I've never fought in a war, so I don't know how soldiers let of steam and, I guess, excess bodily fluids. But, you know, neither do a lot of people. Frankly, I find the outcry against this pretty hysterical. I mean, is it disrespectful? Yeah, it is. I assume that's the entire point.

I think the whole debate over who should apologize and what constitutes a criminal act just shows us how fucked up war is. Are we not fighting a war in a genteel and polite enough fashion?

"See those guys over there? Those mongrels hate you and hate your freedom and want to murder you. So murder the shit out of them first! But for chrissakes, don't desecrate the bodies!"

Seriously? We train these people to put themselves in the line of fire of people who we train them to think of as enemies, and then we're surprised when they don't respect those enemies? This is war, not kindergarten.

Film Week

2012-01-18T12:22:00.002-06:00

A review of the films I've seen this past week.

VISAGES D'ENFANTS (1925)
Beautifully shot film about a boy in the Alps who loses his mother and resents his stepmother. Melodramatic, but in the best way of silent films. Actually shot in the Alps, and the scenery is breathtaking. At one point, it basically becomes a character in the film. Excellent. **** stars.

SEXTING IN SUBURBIA (2012)
For Lifetime. So, you know. * star. Incredibly amusing how it thinks that bullying started with cell phones.

WALKING THE HALLS (2012)
Incredibly ridiculous Lifetime movie about high school students who become hookers. Takes the dumbest possible turns, but, I guess, it surprised me in doing so. Still, * star.

ANGELA (1995)
Rough, compelling movie about a young girl and her little sister growing up in a new home in the rural South while their mother (Anna Thomson at her most Marilyn) sort of mentally deteriorates. Rebecca Miller wrote and directed. Like I said, rough--so many visible boom microphones--but compelling. *** stars.

THE DESCENDANTS (2011)
One of the best movies of 2011. George Clooney plays a real estate developer who lives in Hawaii and whose wife is dying in a coma from a boating accident. While trying to keep his family together and working out a deal to sell his family's land, Clooney enlists the aid of his older daughter (Shailene Woodley, who it turns out is quite good when you get her away from that awful Secret Life show) in discovering the identity of the man his wife was preparing to leave him for. Thoroughly engrossing and well-written; Alexander Payne has a gift for characterization, and has once again made a compelling and emotional film. Probably my favorite of his so far, with About Schmidt a close second. **** stars.

THE HARDER THEY COME (1972)
Excellent Jamaican crime thriller about a reggae singer (Jimmy Cliff) who has to turn to marijuana dealing to make it. Violent as hell, with an incredible soundtrack. Another flick I feel like it took me way, way too long to see. A little hard getting into, but once you're there, damn. ***1/2 stars.

YOUNG ADULT (2011)
High school girl who thinks she's too good for her Midwestern hometown and wants to make sure everyone knows it grows up to write a movie about a high school girl who thinks she's too good for her Midwestern town and wants to make sure everyone knows it. Diablo Cody completely fails at introspection with this movie about an author of young adult romance books (Charlize Theron) who goes back to her hometown to try and steal her old boyfriend away from his new wife. Dripping with condescension and a total lack of self-awareness. Charlize Theron is a good actress, but there's no anchor for her here; the character's not funny or sympathetic, and fails at being some kind of satirical point about how there are certain people who never learn the lessons they need to learn. Patton Oswalt is nice, but this movie's a chore. ** stars.

MLK Day

2012-01-16T16:57:00.000-06:00

The Tonight Show, 8 February 1968, via.

Song of the Week: "Try to Remember"

2012-01-15T09:35:00.002-06:00

I just could not get this song out of my mind this morning. It's from The Fantasticks, of course, but the first time I ever heard it was on an Ed Ames album (which I have on CD now) and on a Harry Belafonte album (which I also have on CD now). This is Jerry Orbach in 1960.

Sunday Hottie 363

2012-01-15T08:56:00.001-06:00

LITA FORD

Star Trek: Voyager, Season Five

2012-01-14T23:35:00.002-06:00

It took me something like three weeks to get through the previous season of Voyager; this season took me about three days. It was like night and day; where the fourth season fell out of step and focused too much on Seven of Nine to the detriment of the other characters and the continuing momentum of the season, the fifth season got into a formula that fit the show a little better. Though I still wish the show was willing to follow in Deep Space Nine's footsteps and just serialize the damn thing so that the characters could grow, the formula here--sort of the Lost in Space method of encountering new aliens or problems every week and then just shuttling away--suits the sort of stories Voyager seems interested in telling. I think everything this show does, Farscape did better. But I do enjoy Voyager. So here we go.

1. Night (4/5)
This season starts off much stronger for not being the resolution of the cliffhanger. It's pretty bold to start off with such a dark, talky episode, but I think it really helps to re-establish the direction of the series. With this episode, we get a truly interesting space travel episode (with the ship traveling through a dark, starless expanse), an examination of ethics (an alien race dumping their toxic waste in a way that's killing an indigenous species), and some excellent character development, not only exploring Neelix's fear of the dark, but also Janeway's guilt over destroying the Caretaker's array in the pilot episode instead of using it to get home. I'm glad that was finally brought up. Also, I adore Tom's Captain Proton holonovel. And they've finally fixed Tom's hair problem (the poofy hairpieces were getting distracting).

2. Drone (4/5)
This is the kind of episode that's something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the premise is neat--Seven of Nine's nanoprobes merge with DNA from a male ensign and the Doctor's damaged holo-emitter to form One, essentially a 29th century Borg--and One is a great character. But on the other hand, every time there's a really interesting character on this show, you know you're never going to see them again and everyone's just sort of going to move on with no real effect on the overall show. But I enjoyed it.

3. Extreme Risk (1/5)
I just don't care about B'Elanna.

4. In the Flesh (3/5)
I just wish it had gone somewhere. The Species 8472 effects are neat, and I like the idea of them having something like those KGB training villages. It's an interesting exploration of post-contact paranoia, the idea that Species 8472 is trying to explore the potential threat humanity poses by training as humans. But I wish they hadn't put such a bow on it at the end. There's just not enough interesting development of them as a species, and I feel like here we're just leaving them all behind. And the ending's just a little too pat. But any excuse to see Ray Walston play Boothby, even though it's not really Boothby. I like Tucker Smallwood, too.

5. Once Upon a Time (4/5)
Now this is a perspective I've never seen before on Star Trek. I've been intrigued by the nature of the relationship between Neelix and Naomi Wildman, and here he has to care for her and attempts to distract her from her mother's disappearance while on an away mission. Where TNG was supposed to be a community in space, it never really did a good job of incorporating the perspective of children into the show. Here we get to see what it's like for someone who was born on Voyager and to whom this scout ship is home, and what her life is like while all of these other dangers are going on around them. It's also interesting to see the hard position Neelix is in, trying to figure out how much he should make Naomi aware of. Also, I love that Scarlett Pomers is playing Naomi, because I also loved her on Reba.

6. Timeless (4/5)
Some great action setpieces in this one--the shot of the Voyager under the ice, and the crash, are just great special effects. I'm getting a little weary of all the time travel on this show (again, it's becoming too routine to be believable), but this episode is well-paced and gripping. I love the older, harder, more cynical Harry Kim. And the cameo by Captain Geordi La Forge is fun. Another alternate future for the pile. And the Delta Flyer is a nifty little ship. Good idea to customize and make something new instead of just losing shuttle after shuttle. How many shuttles does the Intrepid class carry?

7. Infinite Regress (4/5)
This is a real tour-de-force for Jeri Ryan, as a number of personalities from beings she's assimilated in the past come to the fore. Not only do we get to see her acting as different character, but different races. My favorite is the Ferengi; Jeri has the walk down. That gave me a few laughs. And I love the friendship that develops and continues between Seven and Naomi Wildman. I find her friendship with Naomi--and with the Doctor--much more interesting than her troubled (and oft-ignored except when convenient to the plot) mentor-student thing with Janeway.

8. Nothing Human (3/5)
Another great character we'll only see once: the hologram of Cardassian doctor Crell Moset, played by another actor I like, David Clennon. His scenes with Robert Picardo, as Moset and the Doctor work to remove a parasite species from B'Elanna, are excitingly well-acted. Those scenes elevate what feels like a heavily padded episode to me. I wasn't the least bit interested in the moral debate this episode tries to deal in. Even if the real Crell Moset was the Dr. Mengele of the Bajoran Occupation, how does that apply to the situation of trying to save B'Elanna's life? It's not even a discussion for me. Maybe the knowledge was obtained by questionable means, but the fact is that you have it now and someone's life could be saved with it, so why is it even a debate? There's a much more interesting dilemma here regarding the sentience of the parasitic lifeform using B'Elanna to survive, and I wish the show was as interested in that as it is in B'Elanna's predictable racism.

9. Thirty Days (2/5)
Eh, Tom Paris story. That I rate it this highly is because I loved the whole setting and the Moneans. The idea of a world that's nothing but an ocean is such a neat image--the special effects on this episode are truly fantastic. Always enjoy seeing Willie Garson, too.

10. Counterpoint (5/5)
Absolutely fantastic episode, a real chess game between Janeway and Kashyk, a Devore Inspector looking for telepathic refugees being hidden by Voyager as well as a wormhole. Kashyk (played by Mark Harelik) is a very complex character, very well-acted and well-written, a perfect match for Janeway both romantically and adversarially. For her part, Kate Mulgrew practically glows in this episode; you can tell she's really enjoying having something to sink her teeth into. This is a tougher version of the Janeway from the first season that I really liked. And the series of twists at the end--my goodness, this is what the show should be aiming for every week! One of the best episodes of any Star Trek series.

11. Latent Image (3/5)
Doesn't work entirely for me, but I liked the idea of the Doctor's crisis of confidence. Good ending, too, even though we pretty much never see any effects from this on the Doctor in the future because there's no real character development.

12. Bride of Chaotica! (5/5)
Just tremendous fun. Sure, it's another killer holodeck episode, but it's a Flash Gordon killer holodeck episode. There's also an interesting premise here when it introduces the idea of photonic lifeforms who assume the holodeck characters are the actual inhabitants of Voyager. I hope whatever Trek series comes about in the future explores more of this kind of strange alien that's more than just bipeds with a skin rash on their heads. I want the Breen to really be a small fish floating in a containment suit, dammit! Anyway, love this one. Martin Rayner was a wonderful kick as Dr. Chaotica back in "Night," and it was absolutely the right choice to devote a whole episode to his villainy. Kate Mulgrew is especially hilarious in this episode. A fun break.

13. Gravity (2/5)
Slow-moving, marring a lovely, subtle romance between Tuvok and the alien Noss (Lori Petty; always like her). Her love for him, and his attempts to bury his attraction for her (partly born from loneliness; he's been away from his wife for a long, long time), are the heart of the story, but I don't know, the episode isn't quite focused enough. Beautiful ending, though.

14. Bliss (5/5)
Epic. I love this idea of these gigantic beasts in space, sending out signals that lure lifeforms to it so it can feed on starship energy. I also like that this is an episode where Seven and the Doctor (and Naomi Wildman) save the ship, since they're my three favorite characters right now. (Frankly, they can put these three in charge, keep Neelix and Tuvok, and just ditch everyone else at this point.) I also dig W. Morgan Sheppard as Qatai. One of my favorite episodes of Voyager.

15. Dark Frontier (5/5)
Voyager attempts to outdo Star Trek: First Contact, and even if they don't (no one here is the caliber of Patrick Stewart), they make one hell of a great feature-length episode. It was inevitable that Seven would be reacquired by the Borg, but I love how they play this, mixing the episode with flashbacks to Seven's youth as Annika Hansen, whose parents were studying the Borg up close, Dian Fossey-style, before they were eventually assimilated (though I'm not sure who the hell takes their children with them to study the Borg, but humans barely knew about them then... still...). So we have the pull of her human past and human future, as well as the pull between two mother figures, Captain Janeway and the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson, very good). Whatever action goes on, this is 100% the story of Seven of Nine, and so far the best exploration of her Borg past they've ever done.

16. The Disease (2/5)
Harry Kim finally gets laid. And he can't get enough, but since it's Musetta Vander, who could blame him? The idea of taking a forbidden love and physically manifesting it as an alien health hazard is pretty heavy-handed though.

17. Course: Oblivion (2/5)
Well-acted, and it would be poignant if it made any impact on the series at all. You know where it's going right away, and it's not about the real crew anyway, but their mimetic doubles, so it just feels like it's a distraction from the business of getting home. This isn't the show that can pull this one off, because there's so little forward momentum in the first place.

18. The Fight (2/5)
The idea of chaotic space is interesting, and again we get to see Ray Walston as Boothby, but the whole boxing thing is realized in kind of a silly way.

19. Think Tank (4/5)
As predictable as the plot really was, this episode really won me over with the whole concept of the Think Tank. Also, it's nice to see Jason Alexander in such a different role. I liked the beings in the Think Tank--the artificial intelligence, for example, and the big jellyfish in the tube. It's so much more interesting to see these visions of alien beings instead of just a guy with a vagina on his forehead. Also, Jason Alexander's character has a pretty distracting vagina in his forehead. I also like how, even though it's predictable that the Think Tank would want Seven of Nine as payment for their help, Janeway leaves the choice up to Seven about whether or not to leave Voyager and join them. Nice to see Janeway is respecting Seven's autonomy more this season.

20. Juggernaut (2/5)
Too much B'Elanna. And I don't find the Malon interesting. Sort of like a lesser episode of Doctor Who.

21. Someone to Watch Over Me (5/5)
Yeah, they're doing My Fair Lady, but it's cute as hell and becomes quite a touching story about the Doctor nearly finding love. I would love to see the Doctor and Seven actually get together. Scott Thompson is utterly hilarious on this episode.

22. 11:59 (3/5)
Interesting idea; this is a better sort of break episode than some other attempts, so much of it taking place in 2000 in Indiana and with Mulgrew playing one of Janeway's ancestors. The love story's sweet, even if I can't quite shake Kevin Tighe as John Locke's father on Lost.

23. Relativity (1/5)
Ugh, more time travel, more stuff about the "right" timeline and the "wrong" timeline. There's been so much screwing around with the timeline, how do they even know which one is right or wrong anymore? Also, how exactly does Captain Braxton remember his time in 1996 when that timeline was reset? Oh well, they hit the reset button by the end, so all is well, I guess. I really don't care. I'm sick of the damn time travel.

24. Warhead (4/5)
Interesting idea of a weapon of mass destruction with a consciousness, and of course it takes over the Doctor, but Robert Picardo's awesome, so it's always interesting to see him getting to be out of character. I like Harry in this one, too. So much wasted potential...

26. Equinox, Part I (5/5)
I like how they explore the idea of what directions the Voyager might have gone in, by showing us another Starfleet crew who has been in the Delta Quadrant longer and has had to do horrible things in order to try and make their way back home. John Savage is excellent as Captain Ransom of the USS Equinox (with Titus Welliver as his first officer), his ship barely holding together and his crew stretched to breaking while being pursued by a nucleogenic species they've been killing to convert to energy. The last moments of the cliffhanger are kind of dorky, but the episode is exciting and, I think, a pretty necessary look at what the alternative might have been. It's nice: after all of these seasons of trying to adhere to the Prime Directive, we can really see what the moral alternative to that is.

Even with some lesser episodes (to be expected), I liked this season much better. Now that we've come through the transition, we're back on track.

Wink Wink, Cherie

2012-01-14T20:44:00.001-06:00

Random Thoughts

2012-01-13T14:42:00.000-06:00

It's hilarious to me that the media is still trying to force us to believe that the Iowa Caucus means anything. "The people have spoken," Mittens? If you meant 5% of the 20% of all eligible voters of a single state who gave you a .0006% margin of victory over Santorum, then yeah, hey, loud and clear. I mean, sure, it's going to be Mitt who loses to Obama but, really, who cares? They're all the same idiot with different (white) faces.

I'm just so sick of people running on the fact that they hate gay people and black people and poor people and, weirdly in Newt Gingrich's case, janitors. Was he molested by a janitor as a child? He fervently fucking hates janitors.

Stop running on hate and come up with some fucking ideas. Clearly the biggest problem in this country is not gay people marrying or children learning evolution, and if you think it is, you should absolutely not be in fucking office.

:: Wait, so Paula Deen has Type 2 Diabetes? And she's been telling everyone for years that it's okay to eat the garbage she makes? And she's waiting to make the official announcement until her endorsement deal with the pharmaceutical company that makes her diabetes medication is finalized? Hey, Paula Deen: fuck you! I mean, thank you for confirming everything I've been telling my mother about you for years--as if you needed someone to tell you that anyone who says it's okay to eat a burger with a donut instead of a bun is a fucking idiot (and thank god my mom never ate that shit)--but seriously, you opportunistic asshole, fuck you!

:: Congressman who wrote SOPA is violating a copyright. Everyone's an idiot.

:: David O. Russell is a creepy fuck. Also, blaming the victim? Another dude with Entitled White Guy Syndrome.

:: I hate when someone overweight loses some weight and then makes fun of other people for being overweight. Seriously, Kelly Osbourne? Calling Christina Aguilera fat? Wow, you're a cunt. Also, why is anyone talking about anything that Kelly Osbourne says? Slow post-holiday news?

:: I was kind of sad at first to hear that Hostess filed for Chapter 11, but then I realized that I hadn't eaten a Hostess product in a long, long time. Oh, well. If they go under this time, someone else will probably make Twinkies. Or not. It's really the nostalgia factor; there goes another thing I loved as a kid. I'll live. I loved them too much as a kid, anyway.

Wow, for some reason I really want a Little Debbie Nutty Bar right now, though...

:: Austerity is killing the Greek economy. It's hurting the German economy, too. Only a liar or an idiot would argue that austerity is good for the economy. We have a lot of liars and idiots in Congress willing to force America into further disaster. I don't even understand it, anymore, but like I said last year, I've given up on this country ever making good decisions.

:: Beyonce and Jay-Z... seriously? It's a baby, not the crown jewels. Ease up on the security and maybe, you know, let other people see their newborns. The world is not just you. And rich people wonder why we hate them so damn much... It's not jealousy, trust me. It's that you think the entire world is there to serve your tacky whims.

That is literally all I need from Beyonce. Just because she has a nice ass doesn't mean I have to take her seriously as an artist, person, or, ugh, celebrity.

:: For all of the demented, stupid things going on in the Twilight series, I never even considered the stupidity of a vampire baby. It really is the cherry on top of the sundae of stupid. Either that or Jacob falling in love with said baby, that's pretty fuckin' dumb, too.

:: I finished season 5 of Voyager and loved it more than any previous season. I'll get that post up in the next couple of days. I've already started season 6 and I'm really enjoying that one, too. So, much like my beloved Deep Space Nine, season 4 was a hiccup.

:: "Homophobia: the fear that gay men will treat you the way you treat women." -- Coyote Too

:: Kim Kardashian was replaced in the Skechers ads by a very cute dog. It begins. After Kim's whole fake marriage and divorce thing, I think that family reached way, waaaaay to far. Eat the rich.

:: Groo vs. Conan is coming. For reals. I am tremendously excited.

:: No, "chink in the armor" is not a racist phrase.

:: I saw a guy who described himself as a gay Republican ranting on Tumblr yesterday about how Democrats who insisted that someone gay and Republican had sold out their civil rights interests in order to protect their investment returns were brainwashed assholes. Mice rooting for the cats.

:: Scott Walker billboard brags about job creation…directly in front of a shuttered GM factory that sent 10,000 people to the unemployment line. Also, Rick Perry tried to call on a mannequin during a Q&A. (UPDATE 4:57PM: Apparently Perry was joking, one mannequin to another.)

Squee!

:: Really we should just tax capital gains as income. Just saying. That noise about how it would cut down on investments is merely noise.

:: I will no longer be talking to Ron Paul supporters about Ron Paul. Paulites are like ultra-conservatives who believe in magic. Or they're just dumbass college kids who want marijuana legalized enough to not pay attention to the monstrous amount of racism and sexism this man spouts. I'm done with them. "Educate yourself" they always tell me. I have no choice but to assume this is meant as irony.

:: Also, someone needs to tell Herman Cain that it's past time to stop talking. No one is going to take your opinion of how a candidate's sexual activities shouldn't enter into politics seriously: you're a philanderer! We all know what you're really talking about! Jesus, did you actually think you were going to really ever be the president?

:: Another minute closer on the Doomsday Clock. Yup. I think the GOP debates deserved at least another minute closer. We're like a farce about a country that used to work.

Film Week

2012-01-11T18:32:00.000-06:00

A review of the films I've seen this past week.

BRIDESMAIDS (2011)
Not as annoying as it looks, not as good as I've heard. Harmless mostly, somewhat saved by Melissa McCarthy, who is hilarious (and deserves a vehicle of her own that's better than this), and Chris O'Dowd, who is very good. Jon Hamm has a funny cameo role, too. It comes from the Judd Apatow School of Comedies That Are 30 Minutes Too Long. Also, you know I hate Kristen Wiig, like, a lot, but I realize after watching this movie how much that pales in comparison to how fucking irritating I find Maya Rudolph. ** stars.

LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (1971)
Unwatchable. * star.

RED RIDING HOOD (2011)
Fucking terrible. * star.

ELEPHANT BOY (1937)
I don't know why, but I didn't expect Sabu to be as young as he is here. I like Sabu, though, and I love elephants, so as typically over-earnest as it is for a movie from this time period and this studio, I thought it was cute. **1/2 stars.

ARTHUR (2011)
Well, I liked it. Not a patch on the original, which is one of the greatest comedies ever made, but I found it mostly sincere rather than just a retread. I like Russell Brand, though. And I don't know who Greta Gerwig is, but I liked her in it, even if they went for a Zooey-esque puppy dog rather than the broad, quirky personality of Liza in the original. Is it necessary? No. But I think people wouldn't be so incensed over it if it weren't a remake. ***1/2 stars. Blow me if you don't like that.

PS I LOVE YOU (2007)
Surprising. Too bad the ads sold this as a silly, tired-looking romp, when it's quite a sincere movie about a young widow (Hilary Swank) who follows a series of letters left by her late husband (Gerard Butler, likable for a change) designed to ease her through her difficult transition. A nice, well-acted movie that had more depth than I was expecting, even if every actor is a noticeable five years older than their characters are supposed to me. Also, Nellie McKay is darling. Also, gratuitous naked Jeffrey Dean Morgan ass is welcome. **** stars.

DAISIES (1966)
Wonderfully bizarre Czechoslovak New Wave film about two teenage girls who engage in strange pranks, childish behavior, and little rebellions. There's really no plot, but like a lot of films from the time period, it's about its style and the state it conveys. It shows two girls caught between childhood and adulthood who live in a surrealistic whirl and butt up against a society that seemingly has little to offer them other than sexualization and creature comfort, and which they find supremely boring. **** stars.

PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND (2009)
Interesting, compelling film about a 9 year-old girl (Elle Fanning) who gets the lead role in her school's production of Alice in Wonderland. There's a lot I identified with in this movie, to a point. Phoebe clearly has a social anxiety that manifests itself as severe OCD (she broke my heart at one point when she broke down and told her teacher "I'm sorry I'm late. I have to wash my hands a certain number of times."), and then turns into Tourette syndrome. I recognized a bit of myself when she talks about always feeling on the edge of something with the urge to jump off, or the way she'll suddenly blurt out words or even defensively spit at people because she feels attacked and doesn't know how to process it. Compounding this, her unfulfilled mother (Felicity Huffman) refuses the idea that something could actually be wrong with Phoebe, unwilling to accept that it's more than just being creative or imaginative. Elle is so very good in this movie, never playing the character as cute or silly, but really giving Phoebe a depth and a sadness and moments of clarity. In the hands of a less talented child, it could have been a disaster. Hard enough to get through as it is; it's well made and ultimately rewarding, but the sense of impending tragedy is overwhelming. It reminds me of how I felt all the time--without realizing--before I got on Lexapro. ***1/2 stars.

MY LITTLE PRINCESS (2011)
A poignant drama based on the relationship between French-Romanian photographer Irina Ionesco and her young daughter Eva, directed by Eva herself. In the 1970s, Irina caused a stir when she began showing and selling erotic photos of her very underage daughter. In the film, we see how the progression of art (or perhaps a mother's amoral opportunism--the film takes a matter-of-fact approach) results in the deterioration of an already-strained mother-daughter relationship. While Hanna (Isabelle Huppert) reveals more and more of her daughter Violetta (Anamaria Vartolomei in a very brave performance), the two become more and more estranged. Though the film raises the issue of boundaries in artistic freedom, it also doesn't pretend that the situation isn't abusive; Eva Ionesco is working out feelings about her mother that are at once very complicated and very clear-cut. Beautifully made. **** stars.

Star Trek: Voyager, Season Four

2012-01-10T15:42:00.000-06:00

I'll be honest right up front: I hated this season of Voyager. Not totally. Not completely. But at some point I really lost my faith in this one and just sort of limped through it. Whatever bright spots there were didn't do much to save a season that too often alternated between middling and flat-out stupid. It took me forever to finish it. Weeks. Here are my thoughts.

1. Scorpion, Part II (my rating: 5 out of 5)
Excellent payoff to an excellent cliffhanger. The series benefits from the costumes and sets leftover from Star Trek: First Contact, making the Borg look complex and alien. Species 8472 still looks less impressive, but it's nice to see the makers of a Trek series thinking about such very alien species design. Poor Harry Kim spends the whole episode in a coma. I also like the payoff of Chakotay's brief time as part of the former Borg collective in "Unity," although I was less pleased with the tension between he and Janeway. It's like someone made a conscious decision to put some distance between them. Too bad they don't just go ahead and explore the romantic possibilities, it's pretty obvious.

2. The Gift (3/5)
Okay, I think getting rid of Kes is a mistake. Consistently one of the most interesting characters and actors of seasons 2 and 3. If they really wanted to shove a character off this show to make room for Seven of Nine, I wouldn't miss Harry Kim or Tom Paris, and I'd frankly celebrate the loss of B'Elanna Torres. What a bad idea to get rid of Jennifer Lien. I'm very disappointed by this development. And let's talk about Seven for a minute. I know her arrival on the show ruffled a lot of feathers, but that I'm used to--honestly, in my opinion, it seems like the people who most wanted to do something interesting with Star Trek went over to the superior DS9, and the people who wanted to keep plugging away at the TNG formula went over to Voyager. And I understand the realities of the ratings that dictated the casting of a prime piece of cheesecake as 34 of DD in her body-hugging corset suit. I get that. I think one of the things that happens in this season, though, is that some of the writing and especially the performance of Jeri Ryan elevate the character from the realities of her creation. I actually like Seven as a character very much. What I don't like is that the show sacrificed Kes in favor of her, or that so much of the rest of the season is basically Star Trek: Seven of Nine. (I'll add here that I've already started season five, and I like it much better than this one.)

3. Day of Honor (1/5)
I really don't need any more episodes to establish that B'Elanna is kind of a raging bitch. I've got that. This episode seems to only exist to get B'Elanna and Tom sorta kinda together. Meh. I'd rather watch Worf romance episodes. Honestly, Worf!

4. Nemesis (1/5)
Eh.

5. Revulsion (3/5)
I like how the writers explore the Doctor's humanity here by matching him with another hologram, one who has come to develop a hatred for biological life forms. The twist is predictable from the first few minutes, but Leland Orser is very good in this episode.

6. The Raven (3/5)
The inevitable Seven-flashes-back-to-her-assimilation episode. Not bad, just kind of routine. I like the smaller moments with Seven, like Neelix having to teach her how to eat.

7. Scientific Method (3/5)
Truly creepy episode with out-of-phase alien doctors performing medical experiments on an unsuspecting crew. Some fantastic horror imagery on this episode.

8. Year of Hell, Part I (3/5)
9. Year of Hell, Part II (3/5)
Some great imagery, and I give the producers a lot of credit for really going for the bleakness here, but I have a few problems with it. Besides seeing Seven plugged in to a lot of the stuff they teased last season for Kes, I also didn't like that this was basically one of those episodes of a science fiction series that just sort of goes through all of these changes and then hits the reset button via a time travel plot device and then none of it ever happened. It's like an Imaginary Story from DC's Silver Age--why am I going to invest all of these emotions in the situation if there are no consequences and nothing really has any bearing on the ongoing narrative or the characters? Also, does Kes' detailed report from her time traveling experience last season just not exist anymore? She had all of those chronoton readings they needed for this episode. Come on. Well, at least she doesn't have to marry Tom Paris. Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan are good and raw in this two-parter; did they hate each other, or what? I like alternate Janeway's final moments, too. She's formidable at her best. And I have to mention Kurtwood Smith here as Annorax. A fantastic character straight out of Jules Verne, very well-performed.

10. Random Thoughts (1/5)
B'Elanna is arrested on a world of violent telepaths because her violent thought causes violence. A ridiculous, heavy-handed comment on the media and whether it influences behavior. Kind of embarrassing in its obviousness.

11. Concerning Flight (2/5)
I quite enjoyed John Rhys-Davies and some of the imagery here, but I got lost in the story. Interesting idea of someone basically hacking into Voyager's computer and stealing their technology, but mostly it's just running around in the hills. Sorry that it's John Rhys-Davies' last time on the series as Da Vinci, but I guess there's nowhere else to go with him. It's an interesting idea that holograms can sort of make in-character decisions to no longer appear in a certain setting. I think the idea of Janeway as Seven's mentor is a little clumsy, though.

12. Mortal Coil (5/5)
Excellent episode; this is a really good exploration of faith in a science fiction setting. Here we have Neelix dying while attempting to extract proto-matter from a nebula, and then Seven using Borg nanoprobes to resurrect him. While dead for 19 hours, Neelix experiences nothing, including the Talaxian afterlife that he has so looked forward to, holding faith that he would be reunited with his long-dead sisters. So once you remove this essential component of Neelix's character--his faith--how does he recover? This episode doesn't cop out from its themes, and doesn't provide pat answers. It's an interesting discussion; there's a counterpoint in Chakotay, who encourages Neelix towards an open-minded agnosticism rather than a complete severing of an ideal that has meant so much. It doesn't come out and say it, so much, but it does allow for the idea that ideals can be separated from dogma, which is important to get at. Ethan Phillips is excellent in this episode. I love his role as Naomi Wildman's godfather, too.

13. Waking Moments (1/5)
Entirely too many episodes of Star Trek revolve around weird dreams.

14. Message in a Bottle (5/5)
I'm amazed to be saying that a Star Trek episode that features Andy Dick in a prominent role is excellent, but this episode is excellent. The Doctor is sent to an advanced Starfleet vessel in the Alpha Quadrant under Romulan control, and tries to retake the ship with the help of a Mark II EMH (played by Dick). It's a fine, tense episode, alternately gripping and hilarious. The USS Prometheus is an amazing ship, too; one of the more interesting Starfleet designs on the spin-off series. Always neat to see Judson Scott in Trek, too.

15. Hunters (3/5)
I think the Hirogen are very interesting villains. Trek really seems attracted to these hunter-warrior races, but they never quite do enough with them that's interesting. Although we really only see the Hirogen a couple of times, I like how they're explored; here we see this sort of faceless, overwhelming presence, and in the next episode we see them personalized through one major character, and finally we explore their main societal conflict in the two-parter "The Killing Game." Though I wouldn't be opposed to a future Hirogen appearance, I don't feel like they left us wanting.

16. Prey (3/5)
Tony Todd, ladies and gentlemen. I love Tony Todd, and seeing him as the sort of face of Hirogen culture is excellent. He's fantastic. That said, the whole attempted Alien rip-off with Species 8472--laced heavily with a particularly fatuous flavor of Star Trek preachiness--just doesn't do it for me. I find Janeway strongly out of character in this episode, and her whole conflict with Seven over the self-determination of 8472 doesn't quite ring in for me.

17. Retrospect (1/5)
Oh, boy. Here we go. DS9's "Sons of Mogh" is no longer the most offensive Star Trek episode to me. This one is beyond insulting. It's a gigantic narrative mistake. It's basically that Seven of Nine gets raped, but not really. They made a huge error in judgment here by couching an assault on Seven by an alien scientist in terms of a sexual assault. "I was violated," says Seven. Janeway's reaction to this is, I felt, cold and clinical. The investigation yields nothing, and then becomes an exercise in blaming-the-victim, debunking recovered memories, and apologizing to men whose reputations have been ruined by accusations of sexual assault. It's kind of horrifying, especially coming from a show with a reputation of being progressive in thought. I didn't buy this at all; the idea that Seven's freakout in sickbay is some kind of leftover from her many years as a Borg drone doesn't wash, because we've never seen this happen before (or since). It just happens to occur after she's supposedly-but-not-really had her bodily integrity violated by someone. This episode spends four-fifths of its running time wagging its finger at women, telling them that they have to be careful with their notions of assault in case someone innocent has his reputation ruined (and here the guy even dies because of Seven's apparently false accusation), and then suddenly turns into a persecution of overzealous investigators and finally a little message about how we learn from our mistakes so that we don't make the same mistakes in the future. It's the wrong episode to end on that note. This is a travesty.

18. The Killing Game, Part I (4/5)
19. The Killing Game, Part II (3/5)
Interesting premise--the crew is put inside holodeck simulations and given implants so they forget their true identities by the Hirogen, who have taken over Voyager and use the crew for hunting exercises. The first episode is really kind of epic and engaging, but like a lot of Trek two-parters, they don't really fill up the second episode and have to do a lot of padding. The World War II stuff is interesting, as is the examination of the possible degradation of the Hirogen race. It's interesting that there's so much focus on the villains and their lifestyle. Harry Kim is actually really good on this episode, as the Hirogen keep him to maintain Voyager's systems, and he and the Doctor are finally able to free the crew. Oh, and Robert Beltran looks much better with his World War II hair. They should've kept that. Ethan Phillips is hilarious on this episode once the Hirogen turn him into a Klingon; broad but funny.

20. Vis a Vis (1/5)
More eh.

21. The Omega Directive (1/5)
Mega eh. Seven of Nine had a religious experience? Eat my ass. It's like the writers just don't give a shit about this last bit of the season.

22. Unforgettable (2/5)
As typically tame Trek romances go, it's sure to please the cat ladies, but the real analysis of this episode is over at mightygodking. I agree with what Jim Smith has to say there. Oh, and props to Virginia Madsen, who is lovely on this episode.

23. Living Witness (2/5)
For a while it seems like the writers are going for some Holocaust-denial type of story here, but it's saved by a nice coda and the presence of the Doctor. Interesting idea--the Doctor's backup program activated in an alien museum 700 years in the future in order to help set the historical record straight. A lot of the earlier stuff with the museum's incorrect idea of Voyager as a warship is beyond silly. Chakotay's evil hair is absolutely hysterical.

24. Demon (1/5)
Eh all around. The idea of a sentient race based on "blood silver" (mercury?) and bio-matter is interesting, but it's all sorts of eh. Doesn't help that they've focused it so much on the always-unexciting team of Harry Kim and Tom Paris.

25. One (3/5)
Interesting premise, putting the crew in stasis while traveling through an irradiated nebula and leaving Seven and the Doctor--at this point, by far the two most interesting characters on the show--to pilot the ship to the other side. Still, it gets a bit heavy-handed in its exploration of Seven's innate humanity, by giving her all of these hallucinations, etc. I get where she would feel alone because of her severed connection to the Borg Collective, but still... I don't know, it just seems a little smug to me.

26. Hope and Fear (3/5)
I find the character Arturis interesting--and I always love to see Ray Wise--but the whole thing just kind of peters out by the end. I really hate the anger between Seven and Janeway here; Janeway can be so unconsciously imperialistic sometimes, so offended by the idea that Seven--whom they've basically forced into humanity--might not actually want to go to Earth and be part of the Federation. It's the same high-handedness she chose to put aside to accommodate Maquis crewmembers. She deals from the same stance when it comes to her rather inconsistent implementation of the Prime Directive: we want your technology in order to get home, but we don't want to give you any of ours because you might use it. Such a very (and disappointingly) American ideal--we want the benefit of your technology but we want to be secretive in our dealings. Interesting words when your EMH is walking around wearing technology from the 29th century. Too bad the USS Dauntless turns out to be a trap, because the ship itself is pretty badass. Kind of whimper to go out on, but at least this season is over.

I think this season was a hiccup; there's a change here in the focus of the show, and both the writers and the cast seem at a loss as to how to make it work. The fifth season is, so far, much more compelling and interesting than the fourth. Let's just put this season behind us and move on.