One Term Paper Down…

Two more to go.

Rambling.

So remember what I said about Tunisia? Well, it’s just amazing what you can get away with if you keep it to yourself. Rather reminds of the Eddie Izzard quote.

“Pol Pot killed one point seven million Cambodians, died under house arrest, well done there.
Stalin killed many millions, died in his bed, aged seventy-two, well done indeed.
And the reason we let them get away with it is they killed their own people.
And we're sort of fine with that.
Hitler killed people next door. Oh…stupid man.
After a couple of years we won't stand for that, will we?”

Tunisia hasn’t quite gotten to genocide, but they sure as hell don’t want anyone criticizing the current administration. Using anti-terrorism as an excuse (sound familiar?), they are throwing journalists and teen age kids with E-Zines in jail. The following report was complied by IFEX, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a conglomerate of Journalistic, Publishing and Human Rights organizations in anticipation for the UN World Summit on Information Society, a summit to discuss the public sharing of information thought media and other outlets. Tunisia, it seems, was an ironic choice:

Tunisia: Freedom of Expression Under Siege

Interestingly enough, despite the fact that Tunisia declared the official religion to be Islam in their constitution, none of the state’s repression is aimed at religion. It’s purely about political power. They’re actually quite understanding and accepting about other religions.

Just don’t run for office.

Actually, it really interesting that some countries that do have an “Official State Approved Religion” like Britain (Anglican) and France (Catholic) don’t seem to struggle with the questions of religion and state like other, younger countries do...like us. Maybe because they are culturally old and experienced enough to remember “Hey, if we take this too seriously, a lot of people just end up dead.” and we haven’t been through that…yet.

(Here is where history can be useful: By learning from the mistakes of other countries we can avoid them.)

BTW- Eddie Izzard Rules.


Dale Jr. Teleconference
Very interesting interview. I enjoy when he gets a chance to explain all the abstract comments he makes throughout the season that fans usually get out of context. And it’s nice to know things are working out for him with Pete, even though he and the team are a bit subdued in contrast to “Mr. Chatty”. Welcome to New Englanders Dale. *chuckle*

Serenity: The Firefly Movie.

"Well, my days of not taking you seriously are definitely coming to a middle..."

The writer that made “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (which I never got into myself) a cult hit that ran for umpteen-many seasons, Joss Whedon, asked Fox to let him develop his own show. They were thrilled and let him run with it. In accordance with the imagination of entertainment executives, they thought they were getting another “Buffy”, what they got was Firefly.

It wasn’t Buffy, it wasn’t even Star Trek. They didn’t know what the heck it was so they cancelled it after 14 episodes.

Stupid bastards.

Firefly is the working man’s SciFi. This isn’t about intrepid explorers in uniforms “going where no man has gone before”, this is about a bunch of truck drivers/smugglers/thieves just trying to get by around the gritty edges of a future that is not so clean and positive. No aliens, no esoteric space phenomena. Just trying to keep their ship, Serenity, fueled and food on the table.

The “World” is all human, most of the stories happening on or around the outer colonies (all of which environmentally resemble Southern California *chuckle*), after a future in which the the human culture has melded into an expression of the two strongest: American and Chinese. It is ten years after a civil war much like our own in which the colony worlds attempted to secede from “The Alliance”. (This effect is felt strongly as the Captain of the vessel was a Captain in the Colonial infantry and the second officer was his sergeant.)

As with Buffy, the real pillars of strength of this series ia A. The characters, three dimensional beings with sense of humor and secrets that even the most obnoxious you come to enjoy. B. The dialogue, very witty and probably the most quotable of any show ever. And C. The story lines that run through all the shows, the most powerful of which is River, a genius child from a wealthy family who was kidnapped and experimented on by the Alliance who is, as the Captain Mal puts it “Not quite right…”, who is on the lamb with her high strung and recovering snob brother Simon, who serves as the ships doctor in exchange for their passage.

Then there’s, Zoe, the cool, deadly, disciplined second officer who is married to the wise cracking Wash, the ships pilot, in probably the most realistic portrayal of a married couple seen in film or TV science fiction. Coziness, Arguments and all.

Kaylee, the ship’s engineer has some worldly wisdom, yet retains an air of innocence and sweetness that everyone is protective of her.

Book, who originally signed on as a passenger and stuck around, is a monk on sabbatical, yet several clues have come out that he may have held a position in Alliance military of intelligence. He knows way too much about weapons for one thing.

Jayne is...well, I’ve discussed Jayne before.

And finally Innara, who is the ship main source of steady income. Innara is a courtesan in the old sense of the word as prostitution is not only legal, but regulated by a guild which trains and looks after it’s members. She and Mal, the surly, down to earth yet humorous captain, have an attraction that was becoming problematic just as the show was drop-kicked off the air.

They were kind enough to release the series on DVD, which is the only way for some of us to see the entire thing. (And if you are unfamiliar with the series and have access to a copy, I recomend borrowing it and checking it out.) And the fan base has been pushing for either a new home on another network almost since the bad news came down, finally Whedon was able to get the funding and get the entire cast back together to make a film “Serenity” that is goign into test screenings. This from Joss…

“Thursday, May 5th at 10:00 pm, the movie (Serenity! Pay attention! Jeez.) will be playing at exactly 10 theaters in 10 cities across the country...

Seattle
Austin
Sacramento
Boston
Altanta
Chicago
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Denver
The Portland of Oregon”

So if you are a Firefly fan living in any of these cities, go check it out and show your support. And for the rest of us poor slobs, the trailer can be found at the films website here.

EDIT: O.K. Skip that, all the shows have sold out. Congrats to Joss and the Firefly crew!

So look for this one at the theatres folks!

Book: Yes, I'd forgotten you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now. Got your next heist planned?
Simon: No. But I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist.

Listening to: Keith Urban - Be Here

I have really gotten hooked on this album.