My Ode to BSG

I have not written about Battlestar Galactica here before, but since its one of my favorite shows, last night was the series finale, and it was one of the best Fraking finales I have ever seen I figured why not.

(spoilers are to come so if you have not seen the last episode of BSG go watch it, and you should also be ashamed of yourself)

I am by no means a Sci-Fi fanboy. Until about a year ago, every time I saw that Sci-Fi logo at the bottom corner of the television I avoided it like the plague. There was a made for Sci-Fi movie named Raptor Planet, you cannot blame me. However, I kept hearing about this Battlestar Galactica show. I finally broke down and watched it after my roommate told me how great it was and he loves LOST just as much as I do, so I had to take him at his word. I watched the first episode and was left in awe. I felt right then that this was no normal sci-fi show. And it never was. The best way to describe BSG is a character drama wrapped in sci-fi wrapper. The crazy tech that existed very rarely, if ever, became a focus for the show. It was always about the characters, the remnants of the human civilization, dealing with genocide and certain extinction. BSG proves to me that I will watch anything if the writers make me feel an attachment to the characters.

Battlestar was by far one of the best written series I have ever watched. For example during this season a mutiny occurred. Our favorite characters were ousted from power by others, we mostly disliked. We pulled for for Adama and Rosolin, but really they were wrong and the mutineers were right (to a point at least). In the end when our favs won back the ship we felt bad when the Gatea, the rebel leader, was executed. Name me another show that plays with our emotions that much, and that is not even bringing the New Caprica story arc which was even more convoluted.

Writing carried the show and it was at its best during the finale. It was magnificent to watch such a complex and far reaching puzzle fit together with precision and elegance during the episode.

The Opera House visions had been coming up for years and they fit in as if they were fresh scenes.

Despite Starbuck's existence never really being explained, I totally bought it and (I know I am in a very small minority about this) I do not have any further questions about her.

Even Baltar, whom I had washed my hands with and did not want to see anymore, had a vital role and I actually wanted him there.

All this happened in the first hour. There was another hour of wrap-up and goodbyes. It was a little like the end of Return of the King with 12 different endings. But where I got tired at the end of that movie, I could not have been happier with every scene in that last hour of BSG. First let me bring up that shocker that they do in fact end up on Earth, our Earth. We were led to believe that Earth was destroyed by nuclear holocaust and I guess an "Earth" was, but they were able to find another Earth which became ours. Brilliant.

I have already heard that some critics did not buy idea of the fleet just accepting that they should leave everything behind and start again clean slate. I do not think we can really question what they felt like living through hell for 4 years as a villain their technology created was trying to exterminate them, then suddenly they were gone and a new promise land was given to them. At that point I do not know how society would react and I can role with them being afraid of it happening again.

Hearing what Tyrol had decided to do with the rest of his life made me sad, but I understand. His life as human and Cylon had led to disaster for him emotionally. It no surprise he wants to leave it behind. In fact, I cannot believe he was loyal to anything for that long.

I never thought it would happen, but I am glad that Baltar and Caprica Six ended up together. I never understood the Tigh/Caprica relationship. They technically were the ones that started all this way back on Caprica, because they were in love then. Having them deliver Hera was fitting and it brought them back together. Seeing Baltar choke up when he finally accepted his heritage on Earth was very touching.

I could keep going on but I am sure there will be a lot of other blogs just like this today. The end of BSG makes me sad. The only is one bad part of this finale, no more BSG episodes.There is one bright spot however, more BSG this Fall! Only in a 2 hr special were we get to see the Cylon Plan. Yippee! Wahoo!

One last comment: This finale was so good that it makes nervous for the finale of LOST next year. It will be hard for them to live up to this one. I would not change anything about it. But if any show can do it LOST can.

Getting LOST with Locke

Just some thoughts on last weeks LOST episode:

- First, in my book Ben is now officially a bad guy. I had been struggling with whether Ben is evil or has good intentions and just executes them in questionable ways. Ben when you strangle the only person who trusts you at least a little bit you are not a good guy.

- My theory that Locke would still be flashing off the island was completely wrong, but have the flashes stopped completely? I feel like we have been told two things: 1. that the Oceanic 6 had to come back to save the people left on the Island and 2. that Locke had to fix the Frozen Donkey Wheel that Ben pushed off its axis (assuming that is what caused the flashes). So now that Locke fixed the wheel have the flashes stopped (which would have happened 3 years ago) or do the Oceanic 6 have to do something to stop the flashes?

- Speaking of the Oceanic 6, they are all accounted for (I am assuming that Lapidus left on one of the kayaks with Sun) except for Sayid. Is there any significance to that? He probably still has the handcuffs on.

- It was so good to see Walt, but that had better not be the last time they show us him. He was so important during the first 2 seasons of the show. Now he is just a footnote. I hope we get more closer on his character because there is still quite a bit of mystery surrounding him.

- I wonder why the plane crashed on the Hydra Island? Also, I do not think that the O6 and the Ajira survivors plus Locke are in the same time. Could this have to do with the fact that the plane crashed on the other island?

- Lastly, Widmore said Ben kicked him off the island. However, that does not feel like the right timeline to me. If Widmore left the island created this empire he has and became father to Penny, he would have to be in the "real world" for close to 30 years, I would think. Ben came to the Island in the 1970's. Unless Ben kicked out Widmore when he was still a child it does not make sense. I guess that this season proves that time is not very reliable though. Widmore could have been kicked off the island and went back 20 years when he got to Tunisia, kind of like what happened to Locke.

Wall-E on the Brain

I guess it was from watching the Oscars the other night, but now I am on a big Wall-E kick (I have always been a big fan of Disney and especially Pixar movies, but this is far and above my usual obsession). I have watched the movie 3 times this week and downloaded most of the songs used in the movie. In honor of this I changed some my dock icons around, as you can see above.

- Wall-E's lunchbox is my Finder

- EVE is Adium aka AIM (its animated so it looks really cool when I sign on and such)

- Wall-E is TweetDeck

- GO-4 is Activity Monitor

- VAQ-M is AppCleaner

- M.O. is Trash (his light goes up and gets angry eyes when the trash is full and I even changed the sound effects so when I empty the Trash I hear M.O. going "whoa, whoa, whoa")

why you ask did I do this? again I will refer you to the title of my blog and there is the answer

Improving Upon The Best

I wrote a couple days ago about the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest and it got me thinking, how can the whole weekend be improved?  I enjoy the NBA All-Star event above all other sports All-Star events.  Hockey: no one cares about the sport in general, Football: the Pro Bowl is a let down after the excitement of the Super Bowl, Baseball:  is the definite number 2 (as a kid I liked the MLB game more, but inter-league play kind of ruined the mystique).    Even though the NBA is the best I want it to be even better.  

[Before I go any further I have to give credit to the Sports Guy on ESPN for the basis of my ideas.]  

First, H-O-R-S-E was great, but Simmons is right they need better contestants.  Guys who talk smack the whole time would be epic.  From videos I've seen LeBron during practice never stops running his mouth, he should be in.  Also, Steve Nash or Manu  Ginobli would add some soccer moves that could make the game really fun.  H-O-R-S-E

should be moved inside too.  It should be part of the Saturday Night Prime Time event.

Second,  I think the events are better when bigger stars are involved.  In order to entice the players to participate create King of All-Star Weekend award.  All the events during the weekend go towards the prize.  You could either include the All-Star MVP or keep it separate.  Like this year it probably would have been Kevin Durant.  He won the Rookie Challenge MVP and H-O-R-S-E.  Having this award would open the door for more competitive events.  It could be the dawn of a new All-Star Weekend era. 

They're Back!

Some thoughts on last nights episode of LOST "316".  Contains spoilers... beware

LOST caught me off guard from the first second last night.  I figured the Oceanic 6 would go back, mostly because I saw a suited Jack jumping into the lagoon in the preview (which reminds me whoever makes the "Next Wee k on LOST" promos does a great job, because they always get you interested but almost all the scenes they reveal happen in the first 5 min so they do not ruin anything).  Not only were they back but that opening scene was a blatant remake of the opening in the very first episode.  I love this show.  Moving on from that initial shock there was a lot of hints at CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia in this episode.  I have not read the books, only seen the movies so the comparisons were pretty obvious.  Charlotte has been tied to the famed author, her full name is Charlotte Staples Lewis.  It seems rather fitting that the episode after she dies the show takes a turn toward her namesake.  The Dharma station Ms. Hawking showed off was named the Lamp Post.  A Lamp Post in Narnia was a land mark that showed the cross between the real world on Narnia when the children first visited.  There was also a Prince Caspian vibe when the O6 returned.  In the book the kids return to Narnia but find it much different than they left it.  I would not have been surprised to hear Jin to repeat the lines from one of the characters from the movie "the Island is not the same as when you last here."  A lot has happened since the O6 left and most of it we do not even know yet.  I do not have the knowledge of the CS Lewis masterpieces to make anymore comparisons, but I know Doc Jensen will write more about it.

Almost more exiting than this weeks episode was the preview for next week's.  It is titled "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham."  It showed some pretty obvious Christian references.  The one that got me was Locke holding up his arms (Christ like) as Ben knelt before him, while a noose hung around Locke's neck.  Recently there has been numerous references of the Christ story:  Ben's van has an anagram for Reincarnation, the O6 had to return in 3 days, Ben talked to Jack about St. Thomas.  I guess this is another similarity to CS Lewis.. Aslan , the Lion, in the first book was portrayed as a Christ like figure just like Locke is now.

other random thoughts:

-Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse said before this episode that they switched the episodes.  Meaning this weeks episode "316" is #7 and next week's episode is #6.  Why did they do this?

-Did Ben go and try to kill Penny?  Was that why he was all beat up? Did Desmond kick his ass?

-What happened with Aaron?  I think it is something significant.

-Speaking of Aaron, Sun just left her daughter behind.  I hope Jin is upset.

-I want Walt back!  I'm thinking we might see him in the Locke story next week, but he should have come back to the Island too.

-My theory for next week is that Locke, after leaving the Island, is still traveling through time.  While traveling through time he will be influencing himself in the past.  (I'm going out on a limb and stating that Locke caused the car crash that sent his mother into the hospital while she was pregnant with him.) Maybe we will even see Matthew Abaddon.

Getting Ready for Jimmy... Really?

When I heard that Jimmy Fallon was taking the Late Night spot from Conan O'Brien, I was deflated.  I watch Conan all the time because he is hilarious and that is usually the time I am about to go to sleep.  I was hoping that Conan's replacement would someone I would want to watch, unlike Fallon.  I, like many people I know found Fallon annoying.  He was in Taxi with Queen Latifah, which you could not pay me to see, and I was  never a fan of his on SNL.  The I heard that The Roots would be his house band.  I am a big fan of The Roots so I was kind of excited.  Slowly I began blamed Fallon again for taking the group away from the studio and making new music.  Then Jimmy Fallon was a guest on Diggnation.  I almost did not watch because I thought I could not stand the man.  He was taking the place of my fav late night host, took my fav group out of the studio and now was infecting my fav Internet show.  For some reason though I left it on and kept watching.    I was surprised, his guest appearance was one of the funniest episodes I had seen of Diggnation.  Jimmy was actually funny, not annoying at all.  He was on Diggnation so he had to be at least little bit of a geek and he is a Mac fan boy.   I starting following him on Twitter (twitter.com/jimmyfallon).  After about a month, now I think he pretty cool and probably someone I would hangout with (you know if I am ever cool enough to warrant having famous friends).  And he has good taste in music, The Roots are his house band after all.  So now I am excited for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to begin.  Who would have thought?

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon starts March 2, check out latenightwithjimmyfallon.com  Jimmy posts pics and videos almost daily

Superman Lost... The Dunk Contest

Saturday night Superman engaged in an epic battle versus his one weakness: Kryptonite... and lost.  The battle took place not in Metropolis or even in a comic book, it was on the basketball court in Phoenix.  Ok, it was not really Superman it Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson in 2009 NBA All-Star Dunk Contest.  The theatrics were great (full disclosure: I am a Superman comic book fan, so combining The Man of Steel and Hoops is always a win for me) .  

First, Howard jumped into a phone booth and transformed into his alter ego Superman (which was weird because he was in there for a whole minute and did not put the cape on until after he came out, what was he doing in there?).  He made dunking on a 12 ft. hoop look like the easiest thing in the world.  Then, Nate Robinson returned from the locker room sporting an all green Knicks uniform complete with Kryptonite shoes and ball.  The little guy finished Howard off by dunking over him and in the process gave him the ultimate disrespect; the Tea bag (go play Halo if you do not understand). 

Looking back on it now though, the dunks were not impressive.  I felt that the two best dunks, skill wise, were Dwight Howard's bounce off the side of the backboard and Rudy Fernandez with the behind the backboard bounce pass from Gasol.  Strangely, they were the first dunks by both contestants.  Shouldn't the dunks get better as the contest goes on?  And Nate Robinson's signature dunk over Howard was the same thing he did two years ago; jumping over Spud Webb.  Howard probably could have won if he made the dunk on the 12 ft. hoop look harder.  It looked totally unimpressive, discounting the fact that he had jump two feet higher.   So I was impressed with the competition, but at the same time disappointed with the skill set.  

However, anticipation for next year could not be higher.  LeBron says he will finally participate.  I stay awake at night dreaming of the craziness that King James will bring.  But it will only be better if  some other big name guys will join him.  Of course Robinson comes back to defend his title, even though I don't really like him.  Howard needs to come back, because he brought back the excitement for the contest.  I think Dwayne Wade is the other guy who should participate.  And really they should expand the participants from 4 to 6.  More dunks are never a bad thing.  But the only thing we can do is wait.  The countdown has begun to what could be the best Dunk Contest of all-time, woohoo!!