I shake my fist at you, Monday!
... although it is a marked improvement over Friday in one respect, which is that my train did not hit and kill anybody this morning!
This was a good weekend for food, though. Saturday morning, I had brunch with friends at Citizen Cake: a fried egg sandwich with bacon, avocado, a translucently thin slice of gruyere, and aioli on an impeccably fresh house-made kaiser roll that was one of the best things I've eaten recently. Then, a stop in at Miette for bergamot caramels. Later, leftover bibimbap, which is another of the best things I've eaten recently, and is destined to go into regular rotation in my house.
This weekend, I also made the startling realization that at this point, I almost never cook Western food at home anymore. Huh. That wasn't something I planned, but I like the ratio of grains and protein and vegetables in Asian dishes, and the ease of preparation, and a lot of the flavors mash hard on my comfort food button. We'll see how long it lasts.
* * * * *
Babylon 5 3.03 - "A Day in the Strife"
I like that the budget cuts on Earth--signalling, as they do, the station's lack of support from those in power--have continuing, practical repercussions: the need to do the same enormous jobs with fewer resources, like screening incoming ships, and longer hours in the medical facilities. (It's also a nice illustration of the current Earth administration's shortsighted priorities; we've already seen the Centauri attempt to use the station to smuggle forbidden weapons, and the universe is getting more chaotic by the day now.) Although somehow, Stephen manages to have the least interesting drug addiction ever. It's like the plot equivalent of that interview trick where you say that your worst flaw is perfectionism: he's so indispensible, and so dedicated, that he just has to shoot up stims.
The Centauri occupation of the Narn homeworld raises all kinds of interesting issues about the ethics of collaboration and resistance: what responsibility a rebellion might bear for the civilians who will be killed in retaliation; what price the men who resist pay, and ask their families to pay; how facilitating the occupation instead carries other, longer-term costs. Na'Far thinks he's doing the best he can for his people under the circumstances, just as most collaborators believe that they're helping, mitigating the worst, trying to chisel out breathing space with their accommodations. It's another short-sighted strategy, and a lesson in leadership; G'Kar knows the price for his rebellion, and has already wrestled with its costs privately; but he's unwilling to be the cause of fighting between the Narn, not now, when they only have each other. He needs the reassurance of his followers that they consider the potential blowback on their families inevitable, and worth it. (Which they illustrate, in typical Narn fashion, with lots of shouting and someone slicing his palm with a knife. So melodramatic!) Na'Far didn't inspire confidence because he wasn't willing to sacrifice anyone's safety--including his own--for their freedom. But G'Kar's relatively safe and isolated position on Babylon 5 has been neutralized as a contradiction to his commitment to the rebellion, because he was willing to give it up.
Londo's sacrifice of Vir is much more personal and ambiguous. On the one hand, he's getting rid of the conscience that's been nagging at him for two seasons; on the other, I believe him when he says it's for Vir's own good, to get him away from the eye of the storm; and I believe that he'll miss him, that Vir was someone he trusted, someone who knew him and still talked to him, and who told him exactly what he thought. Londo's never been willing to sacrifice anything on principle, but he's sometimes taken risks for friends--taking political risks to try to quash the legal proceedings against the family of his childhood friend, and now, sending Vir away. At the end of the episode, G'Kar had the backing of his fellow Narn, and Londo was alone.
Also, there was some kind of plot with an exploding probe.
Babylon 5 3.04 - "Passing Through Gethsemane"
Thank goodness Brad Dourif can act. There was already one previous episode that dealt with the death of personality as punishment for crimes, and I continue to think it says something interesting about human society that it's regarded as a mercy, as something more evolved than the death penalty, when they're in effect creating a new person and punishing that person for the crimes of the predecessor who shared his body. The situation with Brother Edward was a moving and vivid illustration of that problem, and of the weird limbo it leaves the families of the victims in, so it was particularly disappointing that Brother Edward faced his own test, knowing what was coming and choosing not to avoid it so that he could atone for his past, but that the show made it into such a literal parallel, crucification and all. So literal! Really, we got it without the crucifiction. Rack, whatever. Brad Dourif carried a lot in this episode. And it didn't help that the man who murdered Brother Edward, and whose mother (I think?) had in turn been murdered by Charles Dexter, was so one-dimensional and crazy-eyed.
(Although crazy eyes were something of a theme in this episode. Exhibit B: Lyta Alexander. She's another instance where the execution falls so short of the concept, because something transformative clearly happened to her on the Vorlon homeworld--physically and otherwise--and her connection to Babylon 5 on one end and Kosh on the other has to be important. But mostly I don't want her looking at me with her crazy, crazy eyes.)
But the end of the episode was neat: brother Theo putting his faith into action by forgiving the man who had murdered Brother Edward and been made into a new person, and asking Sheridan to do the same, if his talk of forgiveness is to mean anything. The characters on this show don't just talk about their religions; they practice them.
BoingBoing recently posted a Babylon 5 vacation-style promotion that it described as "odd, yet official." I can't think of any better words for it, myself. Just--wow! (Not really spoilery; mostly shots from Season 1, from what I can tell.)
* * * * *
SciFi has picked up a show called Warehouse 13, the elevator pitch for which surely must have used the words "the X-Files meets Eureka". I mention it here because the pilot was written by Rockne O'Bannon and Jane Espenson. Huh!
* * * * *
I have jury duty this week, and while I dodged a bullet by not having to report today, I have a low group number and I don't think that's going to last much longer. Which would be fine, except that somehow I'm going to have to do all the work I would be doing at work anyway. You know, in my copious spare time. SIGH.
This was a good weekend for food, though. Saturday morning, I had brunch with friends at Citizen Cake: a fried egg sandwich with bacon, avocado, a translucently thin slice of gruyere, and aioli on an impeccably fresh house-made kaiser roll that was one of the best things I've eaten recently. Then, a stop in at Miette for bergamot caramels. Later, leftover bibimbap, which is another of the best things I've eaten recently, and is destined to go into regular rotation in my house.
This weekend, I also made the startling realization that at this point, I almost never cook Western food at home anymore. Huh. That wasn't something I planned, but I like the ratio of grains and protein and vegetables in Asian dishes, and the ease of preparation, and a lot of the flavors mash hard on my comfort food button. We'll see how long it lasts.
* * * * *
Babylon 5 3.03 - "A Day in the Strife"
I like that the budget cuts on Earth--signalling, as they do, the station's lack of support from those in power--have continuing, practical repercussions: the need to do the same enormous jobs with fewer resources, like screening incoming ships, and longer hours in the medical facilities. (It's also a nice illustration of the current Earth administration's shortsighted priorities; we've already seen the Centauri attempt to use the station to smuggle forbidden weapons, and the universe is getting more chaotic by the day now.) Although somehow, Stephen manages to have the least interesting drug addiction ever. It's like the plot equivalent of that interview trick where you say that your worst flaw is perfectionism: he's so indispensible, and so dedicated, that he just has to shoot up stims.
The Centauri occupation of the Narn homeworld raises all kinds of interesting issues about the ethics of collaboration and resistance: what responsibility a rebellion might bear for the civilians who will be killed in retaliation; what price the men who resist pay, and ask their families to pay; how facilitating the occupation instead carries other, longer-term costs. Na'Far thinks he's doing the best he can for his people under the circumstances, just as most collaborators believe that they're helping, mitigating the worst, trying to chisel out breathing space with their accommodations. It's another short-sighted strategy, and a lesson in leadership; G'Kar knows the price for his rebellion, and has already wrestled with its costs privately; but he's unwilling to be the cause of fighting between the Narn, not now, when they only have each other. He needs the reassurance of his followers that they consider the potential blowback on their families inevitable, and worth it. (Which they illustrate, in typical Narn fashion, with lots of shouting and someone slicing his palm with a knife. So melodramatic!) Na'Far didn't inspire confidence because he wasn't willing to sacrifice anyone's safety--including his own--for their freedom. But G'Kar's relatively safe and isolated position on Babylon 5 has been neutralized as a contradiction to his commitment to the rebellion, because he was willing to give it up.
Londo's sacrifice of Vir is much more personal and ambiguous. On the one hand, he's getting rid of the conscience that's been nagging at him for two seasons; on the other, I believe him when he says it's for Vir's own good, to get him away from the eye of the storm; and I believe that he'll miss him, that Vir was someone he trusted, someone who knew him and still talked to him, and who told him exactly what he thought. Londo's never been willing to sacrifice anything on principle, but he's sometimes taken risks for friends--taking political risks to try to quash the legal proceedings against the family of his childhood friend, and now, sending Vir away. At the end of the episode, G'Kar had the backing of his fellow Narn, and Londo was alone.
Also, there was some kind of plot with an exploding probe.
Babylon 5 3.04 - "Passing Through Gethsemane"
Thank goodness Brad Dourif can act. There was already one previous episode that dealt with the death of personality as punishment for crimes, and I continue to think it says something interesting about human society that it's regarded as a mercy, as something more evolved than the death penalty, when they're in effect creating a new person and punishing that person for the crimes of the predecessor who shared his body. The situation with Brother Edward was a moving and vivid illustration of that problem, and of the weird limbo it leaves the families of the victims in, so it was particularly disappointing that Brother Edward faced his own test, knowing what was coming and choosing not to avoid it so that he could atone for his past, but that the show made it into such a literal parallel, crucification and all. So literal! Really, we got it without the crucifiction. Rack, whatever. Brad Dourif carried a lot in this episode. And it didn't help that the man who murdered Brother Edward, and whose mother (I think?) had in turn been murdered by Charles Dexter, was so one-dimensional and crazy-eyed.
(Although crazy eyes were something of a theme in this episode. Exhibit B: Lyta Alexander. She's another instance where the execution falls so short of the concept, because something transformative clearly happened to her on the Vorlon homeworld--physically and otherwise--and her connection to Babylon 5 on one end and Kosh on the other has to be important. But mostly I don't want her looking at me with her crazy, crazy eyes.)
But the end of the episode was neat: brother Theo putting his faith into action by forgiving the man who had murdered Brother Edward and been made into a new person, and asking Sheridan to do the same, if his talk of forgiveness is to mean anything. The characters on this show don't just talk about their religions; they practice them.
BoingBoing recently posted a Babylon 5 vacation-style promotion that it described as "odd, yet official." I can't think of any better words for it, myself. Just--wow! (Not really spoilery; mostly shots from Season 1, from what I can tell.)
* * * * *
SciFi has picked up a show called Warehouse 13, the elevator pitch for which surely must have used the words "the X-Files meets Eureka". I mention it here because the pilot was written by Rockne O'Bannon and Jane Espenson. Huh!
* * * * *
I have jury duty this week, and while I dodged a bullet by not having to report today, I have a low group number and I don't think that's going to last much longer. Which would be fine, except that somehow I'm going to have to do all the work I would be doing at work anyway. You know, in my copious spare time. SIGH.