Someone has probably already done this, but still.

Image stolen from the interwebs, inspiration found in The Ancestor’s Tale.

mass extinctions, biology, kanye west

Today is Blasphemy Day.

I have no original blasphemy to contribute with, because all the clever things have already been said. Here’s a few samples.

There’s plenty more, but I think more than three videos in one post would be overkill. By the way, isn’t it odd how all my favourite comedians seem to be atheists? Is it the case that I find people more funny if they agree with me, or is it the case that intelligent, clever people are more likely to be atheists? I mean, frankly, I can’t remember having heard a funny comedian admit they believe in god.

blasphemy, religion, god, atheism, comedy

I love stories that take real people and put them in impossible, outlandish situations. Basically, if you’re going to make things up, you might as well really go to town on it … but the story still needs to be populated by characters that feel, well, real. This is why I like Battlestar Galactica - and it’s why I like District 9, which I’ve just seen.

Apart from being visually stunning (albeit a tad too gory for my taste, but that’s easily overlooked) and having a heart-wrenching central theme of xenophobia, corrupt bureaucracy and greed, the movie really touched me simply because the main character Wikus is such an unlikely hero.

Yeah I know, we’ve seen that before. Since Tolkien did it everyone has to. But most Unlikely Hero-type characters are easily identified as heroes early on. I didn’t get that feeling from Wikus. In the beginning of the film he struck me as a bumbling fool at best, and a fairly unpleasant xenophobic bureaucrat at worst. A human like the rest of us, very sweet on his gorgeous wife, and generally nothing special. Then the script forces him through unimaginable circumstances to become a hero.

And that transformation took plenty of time and a lot of failures on the way. Right up until the very end he was driven by his own natural desire to solve his own problems before anyone else’s. He didn’t magically turn into a champion of good halfway through the film as is usually the case. On top of that, it’s not even clear that he IS a hero - it really depends on which perspective you choose.

So, all in all, District 9 proved to be a marvellously entertaining sci-fi flick which - unusually - actually managed to touch me deeply and get me thinking about a lot of stuff.

district 9, scifi, movies

When in a slump, it is nice to compile a list of things that make the light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s a few things I’m looking forward to:

The finale of Battlestar Galactica. With mixed emotions, of course - finale means no more. But I think it’ll be worth it.

Watchmen, the movie. I’m not one of those crazy fanatics who cry whenever there’s been a plot change when adapting a novel or graphic novel to the screen. Looking at the trailers, I doubt I’ll be disappointed.

Mass Effect 2. Because it will be awesome.

Spring. I want to know how many of our beehives survived the winter and start planning for the season’s beekeeping.

March 17. Just because.

Finally, with a hat tip to Steph at Almost Diamonds, have some nerdcore hiphop:

entertainment

Is your figure less than greek
Is your mouth a little weak
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?

Ok, so the lyrics of lovely old classics like My Funny Valentine are often rather contrived and/or make little sense. Usually I don’t pay attention to what Sinatra or Bacharach or Bublé are actually singing. But the above lines I’m honestly curious about. They seem to imply that being smart is about as desirable as having a “less than greek” figure or a weak mouth. Is this really what the author intended? Or do they mean that the sweet funny valentine, apart from being unphotographable, is also stupid?

music, lyrics, classics

Yesterday me and two of my brothers finally got around to seeing WALL-E. I know, I know, we’re hopelessly far behind. Even in Sweden, this movie’s on it’s way out from the cinemas. But we caught it just in time! So, what did I think?

I’m at a loss for words. It’s seriously one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time, and THE best film in its genre. And I don’t even know why! Was it the stunning visuals? The lack of dialogue? The almost, but not quite, unbearable cuteness of WALL-E itself?

Without being at any point obviously tragic, it was the most touching movie I’ve ever experienced. And not just at a few carefully selected emotional climaxes, but pretty much all throughout the film. The opening scene nearly made me cry. But maybe I’m just a big sop - while I was nigh chewing on my knuckles, others in the audience were loudly commenting how adorable it was. (Why is it that it’s apparently ok to keep babbling throughout a film as long as it’s marketed as a children’s movie? The children have the rather obvious excuse of being children, but why do the adults find it so damn difficult to shut their face?)

Apart from being touching, WALL-E also had a lot of humour, and a decent story. Oh, and a complete lack of evil super-villains. Apart from the rather strong hint that we ought to take better care of the earth, there was no moralising, no take-home-message apart from… y’know, that fuzzy warm feeling.

So, regardless of who you are, this movie is a must-see. Well, ok, if you’re one of those ridiculously macho people who won’t ever admit to having emotions, maybe it isn’t for you. Far be it from me to suggest that you watch it alone when no one’s watching…

wall-e

Most of the fiction I read is fantasy or scifi. (Like with tv series, I’m of the opinion that if you’re gonna make things up, you might as well make the most of it. My life already contains most of the components of drama series and soap operas, so there’s no need to watch them.) Most fantasy and scifi, like most literature really, is crap, which is why I only read books that have been recommended by someone I trust (or sometimes if they seem extremely interesting).

One of the authors recommended to me is Sheri S. Tepper, which is why I’m currently plowing through her work. I read Beauty a few years ago, an now I’ve read Grass, Raising the Stones and have just started on Sideshow. Tepper has her own style and set of topics she likes to explore, somewhere in the fuzzy grey area where pure scifi meets fantastic fantasy. One of the topics is religion, and I must admit I really enjoy considering her scenarios, as unlikely as they may seem.

For instance, consider a God that actually Works. It makes people work for them (a little), but it also makes them happy, contented and healthy, and it doesn’t remove their sense of free will. Are these people enslaved? Why is it that because the “God” is physically present and clearly a living organism, we view it differently from how we would a benevolent invisible sky-father doing the same thing?

I especially like that Tepper doesn’t tell us readers what we’re supposed to think. An amazon reviewer (which I’m not going to link to as the review spoils most of the plot) thought this was a weakness in Grass - that the author didn’t explore her own philosophical problems and left too many questions unanswered. I think it’s exactly the other way around. Her books make me think, rather than tells me what she thinks I ought to think. Perhaps this is simply my preference as someone who occasionally enjoys puzzling over philosophical conundrums. If you’re looking for pure entertainment, Tepper’s books are definitely not for you.

Another author whose work I’ve really enjoyed is Robin Hobb. At first I avoided the Farseer Trilogy, as books about an assassin written by a guy really didn’t seem very promising at all. Then I was told Hobb is actually a woman (whose name is actually Margaret), and that her books under the Hobb pseudonym are actually very good. I was not disappointed. I haven’t read her older works (written under the name of Megan Lindholm), but the three trilogies Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man are absolutely worth anyone’s time. They’re written in a European medieval fantasy setting, but the lack of elves and dwarves and “conventional” magic make for a refreshing change from the standard high/pulp fantasy.

There are obviously other authors and books I’ve enjoyed, and I’ll probably come back to this topic in the future, but that’s enough rambling about fiction for now. If you have any suggestions for books I absolutely must put on my reading list, please do tell!

On a sidenote: XKCD tells it like it is, again.

What is the point of making up words for things that already have english designations? In a fairly entertaining pulp fantasy series I’m currently re-reading, the authors saw fit to randomly introduce a term that apparently meant “fortnight”; a term used only once in the seven books and which served no purpose other than giving them an excuse to put another explanatory footnote in there. Why? Why did the authors not realise that introducing that term was absolutely unnecessary? Why didn’t the proofreaders (assuming there were any) call them out on it? I don’t get it.

fantasy, scifi, sheri s. tepper, robin hobb, xkcd

Like I warned you, this blog is going to broaden its perspective somewhat, and today I’m going to talk about tv shows. There is nothing quite like relaxing in front of the tv … well, computer (since I don’t own a tv), when you’re too tired or depressed to do anything else.

So, what kind of shows does a girl like me enjoy? Usually I tend to prefer scifi or fantasy. I have the same taste in books - I’m of the opinion that if you’re in the business of making things up, you might as well go to town on it and be creative. That said it does happen that I watch more “realistic” shows.

Here’s a few that I’ve watched this summer, as I wait for more Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and House:

Doctor Who: I had only vaguely heard of the old series and was rather wary of watching the 21st century stuff. I suppose I was worrying that the stench of cheese would suffocate me. As it turned out, I absolutely fell in love with the show. (I may even have had a dream about Ten. It wasn’t terribly exciting, he helped me find a new apartment.) I can’t quite say what it is about Doctor Who that makes the show so great and I’m sure other people have written more eloquently about it. I’ll just settle for saying that it rocks, and if you think your suspension of disbelief is good enough to get around the fact that not only is it incredibly cheesy but also riddled with holes rather like a - wait for it - cheese, you will love it. ETA: I forgot to mention one of the awesomest things ever: Richard Dawkins appeared in a Doctor Who episode. w00t!

Torchwood: Knowing there was a spinoff series of Doctor Who featuring the extremely loveable Captain Jack made it somehow easier for me to accept that there would only be four series to watch and that I’d have to wait more than a year for the next one. Unfortunately, Torchwood was a massive let-down. It’s written like a really bad, angsty fanfic that’s too morally repressed to go properly slash-y, the dialogue is abhorrently cheesy, and Jack, who used to be cheerful and outrageously flirtatious in Doctor Who, has turned into a brooding, secretive Angel-clone. He screws around, but there’s no heart in it (and besides, all you ever get to see is kissing). In the end I stopped watching after the first series (and the first episode of the second, because of the guest actor). If someone can swear that it takes a massive turn for the better later on, I may take it up again, but otherwise I think I’m just going to let it be my last-measure back-up plan for when there’s absolutely nothing good left to watch.

Tell Me You Love Me: One of those supposedly realistic shows I happen to stumble across occasionally. I’m not entirely certain what I think of this one. It was well-written and I quite liked the characters; they seemed like real people with real problems. But the way they dealt with their issues didn’t ring true to me. Perhaps that’s because I deal with my own issues so differently. Their complete failure of proper communication irked me - it’s the same in all soaps, sitcoms and drama shows. All problems seem to stem from a total collapse of communication. People more or less deliberately misunderstand each other and then refuse to talk to sort it out. Is that how normal relationships actually happen, or is it just the really fucked-up ones they show on tv because they’re more interesting than the ones where the partners actually sit down with a problem and talk it out? I suppose people who like this show either watch it because they can relate to it, or because it makes them feel morally superiour and happy about their own relationships. For me, it would be the latter, except that after ten episodes of the same floundering incompetence, I’m rather put off.

(I’ve also watched last year’s World Poker Tour, but that doesn’t really count, does it?) Now that you know what I like, feel free to give me hints as to what you think I might like that I’ve missed out on so far. Right now the only series I’m feeling curious about is The Riches, because it has Eddie Izzard in it. I love his comedy but so far his acting hasn’t been very good, so it’d be interesting to see what got this series Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominations.

doctor who, torchwood, tell me you love me