In an attempt to correct a nasty problem, today I removed about a thousand words from my story, then replaced it with almost two thousand more to bring me to a total of 11,200. Our heroine now enters the story on an oxcart rather than in an endless, vomitous spew of exposition. Every story should have an oxcart. They’re so useful.
Here comes the rain again
Some people will tell me I’m nuts, but I’m thrilled to see that it’s raining again. It’s such a relief after weeks of relentless heat.
Go rain. Woo.
Cubey’s movie reviews
“Boredom made me do it,” is my excuse for the two sci-fi DVDs that I rented last night.
Solaris (2002) – George Cloony, Natascha McElhone
If you enjoy action-packed space adventure, don’t see this movie. Solaris is suspenseful, thought-provoking, and beautifully-filmed. However, I would have enjoyed it more had I not been made to look at Cloony’s bare butt. Natascha McElhone did her usual beguiling-smile-acting, but no buttage from her. For the surprise ending where the aardvark leaps out of Cloony’s stomach, I give it seven cubicles out of ten.
Stranded (2003) – Vincent Gallo
This action-less Spanish movie about NASA astronauts on Mars reminded me why I hate watching badly-dubbed movies. The DVD had the original Spanish audio track, but didn’t have English subtitles. The acting was terrible, the dubbing was worse, and the casting choices baffled me. The woman who played the mission’s captain could barely walk in a space suit, let alone act. I give it one cubicle out of ten.
Arnold to run for governor of California
It’s the toughest decision he’s made, Schwarzenegger says, since he had a bikini wax in 1978. Yes, that’s exactly the kind of experience they need to govern California.
I suppose in all fairness, I should mention his other qualifications: he can ride a Harley, kneecap police officers with a shotgun, and remove his own eyeball with pocket knife.
His opponents should note that they can only stop him by crushing him in an industrial press or by bathing him in acid.
Or was that just a role he played?
Link: CBC News: Schwarzenegger will run for governor of California
Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny
In an article posted on Wired.com, Xeni Jardin explores the initial fan reaction to the miniseries remake of Battlestar Galactica. Fans are aghast that producers are changing some basic elements of the show. Starbuck, for example, is now a woman. Thankfully, she won’t be played by Dirk Benedict this time.
We considered seriously how space travel might happen. In outer space, objects in motion remain in motion. You can’t bank against a gravitational pull. There’s a sense of organized chaos, you have to turn your craft around and fire jets in the opposite direction to slow down — just like the old games. When we were developing the show, I ran around telling everyone, ‘Remember Asteroids! Remember Asteroids!’- David Eick, co-executive producer
This kind of approach to science fiction is long overdue. Too many science-fiction shows have completely abandoned the “science” part in favour of cheesy space-opera, like Voyager, Andromeda, and (apologies to fans) Farscape. Any attempt to portray adventure in space that respects at least a few more laws of physics than the current batch of schmaltzy TV crap is more than welcome.
(Oh, and before the Farscape fans lynch me, I really enjoy the show too — more than Star Trek even, which is quite a revelation for me. It’s a great show, but you have to admit… it hardly qualifies as science-fiction.)