Month: September 2011

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Is the space opera over when the fat alien lady sings?

MD Jackson links this IO9 piece by Charlie Jane Anders about the fact that space opera has all but disappeared from filmed entertainment these days. It’s really a shame, I think, and I hate to think its partly reflective of a general slackening of interest in space, but I think there’s something to that.

Two depressing facts became apparent the other day: 1) NASA is so desperate to get people excited about space travel, they were willing to consider collaborating on the horror mockumentary Apollo 18. 2) The fall 2011 season is the first time there’s been no TV show, on any network, featuring people on spaceships, since probably the mid-1980s.
What’s happened to us? We haven’t just lost our space shuttle program, we’ve lost our zest for space adventure altogether, at least in TV and movies. How can we get our love for space opera back?

How do we get it back? I have no idea, unfortunately. This is because I’m just not sure where the love of space opera initially came from. Space opera was a staple in science fiction well before rocket launches became commonplace, but did space opera as a serious going concern in mass entertainment really exist much before Star Trek or Star Wars? I’m not sure they did. I’m just glad that space opera continues to be big in SF books.

I suspect a number of factors, not the least of which is our fairly lame space program right now. But manned space travel isn’t going to stop, and if private outfits like the SpaceShipX people or that crazy Virgin guy who likes to spend huge amounts of money on stuff (like spaceships) make headway, I think we may see a resurgence of interest. I remember that line in Apollo 13: “You guys have made going to the Moon about as exciting as a trip to Pittsburgh.”

Now, I actually like Pittsburgh and taking trips there, but that’s beside the point. One big reason that the space program hasn’t done much for firing imaginations over the last batch of years is that the ships haven’t been going anyplace new. The spaceships keep going to Low Earth Orbit, and the pictures they send back all look the same. The planet’s always the same size, the astronauts floating in zero-grav look the same, it’s all the same. Anything new is coming from the robots. Which is fine…it’s great, actually…but every time a robot goes someplace new and sends back gigabytes upon gigabytes of fascinating information, it can’t help but psychologically pose the question, “Why do we need spaceships at all?”

And without any real reason for people to be there, there’s no real reason to tell stories about them, is there?

Another part of the problem is that imaginative storytelling in filmed entertainment seems to be the exclusive province of Fantasy these days, which again is fine, but for every fantasy flick that gets made and becomes a hit, that’s a SF movie that’s not getting made. Even the resurgence of interest in Star Wars, over the course of the Prequel trilogy, wasn’t enough to lead to a Space Opera rebirth in film, because (a) reaction to the Prequels was mixed and (b) folks are starting to see Star Wars as mainly fantasy, anyway.

It seems to me that there is also the Hollywood “copycat” syndrome to blame for all of this. Starting in the late 1990s, the Harry Potter books exploded onto the scene, which then, in 2001, showed up as successful movies. At the same time, The Lord of the Rings arrived onscreen, and the success of both these high quality franchises really primed the fantasy pump. At the same time, the superhero movie became big doings, with Spiderman finally reaching the big screen and Batman returning. I think a part of space opera’s fade in Hollywood is partly just because some other stuff came along.

Will space opera come back in a big way? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t think it’ll ever be gone forever, though, from filmed entertainment. And there’s a big bright side here, as well: we know that Hollywood is increasingly unwilling to come up with ideas of its own. Well, when they do want to tackle space opera again, they will find a lot of space opera books waiting to be optioned and turned into movies. What will goose Hollywood into getting back in the space opera mood, however? That, unfortunately, is something I’m not sure of. It might take a space opera equivalent of Harry Potter to do it. Therefore, someone needs to write that. I wonder who might be crazy enough to give that mission a whirl….

Anyway, I don’t have any major answers here…but the article is interesting. Check it out, those of you with any passing interest in SF in general or space opera in particular.

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“No fate but what we make”

I hadn’t watched Terminator 2: Judgment Day in quite a long time, so I picked it up from the library and gave it a whirl. I’ve only seen the first two Terminator flicks, but I’ve long counted them among my favorite sci-fi action thrillers, and watching T2 again does nothing to make me think otherwise. This is, simply, a very finely made film.

I discovered a “Special Edition” on the DVD, which I assumed included extra footage. I’m always a sucker for those kinds of things, so that’s the version I watched. The additional footage is, altogether, under ten minutes of total screentime. None of it is really essential, but for the most part, the new footage does add some texture and character moments to the movie.

Here are some random thoughts on Terminator 2:

::  I’ve always wished that the film’s publicity campaign had not been so overt about Robert Patrick’s T-1000 being the main villain. I remember zero effort being made during the film’s original release to conceal this, which is a shame, because the film is clearly constructed to keep you guessing during the first half hour or so. We know that two individuals have been sent back in time, one to kill John Connor and another to protect him. Having seen the original, we’d naturally expect that the one that looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger is the one trying to kill John, so it would come as a surprise when, in the mall scene where the two meet, it turns out that the Schwarzenegger Terminator is actually here to protect John this time.

No such luck, though; the publicity campaign had the T-1000 as the bad guy and the Terminator as the good guy this time out. Oh well.

::  Additional scenes that work well include a reveal that Sarah Connor has been having her “nuclear holocaust” dream repeatedly, at the asylum. We see the dream, right up to the blast, and Connor tells the psychiatrist that the dream is the same every night. This implies that later on in the film, when we see the nuclear holocaust itself, it’s also the first time that Sarah Connor is seeing it. Pretty powerful. (This is still one of the most effective “nuclear destruction” sequences ever filmed.)

::  There’s another scene where John and Sarah remove the brain chip from the Terminator, and Sarah goes to smash it with a mallet, but John stops her, saying, “If I’m growing up to be a great military leader, then maybe you should listen to my ideas once in a while”. The extended bits flesh out the troubled relationship John has had with his mother.

::  That said, there’s a goofy scene that has John trying to teach the Terminator to smile. This probably should have remained in someone’s archives.

::  T2 originally had a more upbeat ending, with Sarah Connor sitting on a park bench in Washington while John went off to Congress, or something like that. I’m glad that the special edition doesn’t restore that ending, choosing instead to keep the ambiguous and haunting final scene of Sarah’s narration over the footage of a highway at night speeding by.

::  I’m of mixed mind on Brad Fidel’s music. On the one hand, the main theme is pretty iconic and mechanical-sounding. And the growling motif that we hear every time the T-1000 shows up is great stuff. But a lot of the underscore, especially in the action sequences, is just adequate.

::  Boy, is Dr. Dyson’s family in for a rough time, huh? Their husband and father is dead, and he’s involved in a plot to destroy Cyberdyne Systems. Ouch.

::  T2 is a great example of why pacing and length are not always dependent qualities. T2 is not a short movie — it’s around two-and-a-half hours — but it is so well paced and so well constructed that there really aren’t any spots where it feels as though it’s lagging. James Cameron really is one of the best at keeping things going, even over a fairly long haul.

I guess the next thing to do would be to watch Terminator 3, but…I don’t know. Anybody seen it? Is it worth the time?

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Still testing….

Wow, I’m having to do a lot of testing in Blogger’s new interface. Yeesh.

(BTW, for those using the new interface, adding links is easier if you just type your link text into the post, and then highlight that text and click the “Link” button above. The interface will automatically copy the highlighted text into the Link creation dialog box.)

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Cool air arrives, HUZZAH!!!


Basking in the Autumn!, originally uploaded by Jaquandor.

August was typically wonderful, as August usually is; it’s by far my favorite of the summer months, being packed with our favorite summer activities and also generally less hot and less humid than July. But even so, I am always grateful when September finally rolls round, because that’s when things usually start cooling off a bit more.

Of course, this particular September started off with some abnormally hot weather, but that’s OK, since it was a matter of time before it broke, and break it did with today’s high temperatures only in the 60s. Which means, after several months in shorts, overalls weather has returned! Let there be dancing in the streets and wearing of the bibs!!

(Yeah, I’m odd. Bite me.)

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Answers, the fifth!



No, I haven’t forgotten about Ask Me Anything! August 2011. In fact, I’m going to give some more answers now!


::  A reader e-mails: When you were high school, did you ever play a prank on anyone. Or Streak?


Well, as for the latter…no. God, no. No no a thousand times no. I mean, really — nobody wants to see that, right?


As for pranks in general, not a whole lot. I attempted here and there, but what was weird is that a lot of times people would prank me, but when I turned around and pranked them, you’d think I had thrown tomato sauce on the Pope’s robes or something. Sometimes these same kids who loved to prank me would rat me out to teachers if I pranked them, which got kind of old. It was odd…so in general, my pranking never really went beyond hiding people’s stuff when they weren’t looking. Lame, I know, but I wasn’t all that great at this kind of thing. A dull answer, I know!


Glenn asks: Once upon a time America chose to do great things, such as go to the moon. Today we live in a country that has chosen to give up the ability to send people into space. Do you believe that you will see a human on another celestial body in your lifetime? If so, where will that human come from?


I honestly don’t know what I think about the human future anymore. Most times I can get myself optimistic, because we usually end up progressing almost despite ourselves, don’t we? Who knows what’s going to happen in the future to make life better. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself in my darker moments — which have been coming more frequently of late — when I become almost convinced that my country’s priorities and values are forever dooming us to decline.


I still believe that humanity will go to the planets, and maybe even one day to the stars. Will it be Americans? I increasingly doubt it. I’m suspecting China or India will lead the way, and that the US will be the Portugal of space exploration.


Martine asks: What is the meaning of life?


Wow. Now there’s a tough question. Do I give it a smart-alecky answer, or do I try to give a genuine answer? Or maybe some combination of each?


Ultimately, I think that life is inherently meaningless, except for whatever meaning we create for it ourselves, out of our values, our principles, the things we choose to do and the things we choose to leave to be done by others. We create meaning by the things we care about, the pursuits we follow. Meaning is a human creation, a human notion…and I don’t think that devalues the notion of life having meaning at all.


The problem with this is, of course, that there is an awful disparity amongst our species, in the varying degrees of power individuals have to bring meaning to their lives. For many, ‘meaning’ basically boils down to little more than survivalism, and I find that deeply saddening. I am also disturbed that for many in positions of power, their concept of meaning depends heavily on assuming that the lives of many others are, for all intents and purposes, meaningless.


So I think that we create the meaning in our lives, but I also think that we are not all-powerful when it comes to creating the meaning in our lives. If that makes sense. I’m not sure that it does.


OK, more answers to come!


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Sentential Links #259

Linkage:

::  My first reaction was, What, are they nuts?

::  The evidence, as far as the limitations of the experiment go (that’s important, see below), do not show any effect of cosmic rays on global warming, and say nothing at all about the effect humans are having on the environment.

::  So, on what would have been Billy Preston’s 65th birthday, I’m making a pitch for him to make it into the rock hall as a session musician.

::  Disclaimer: If you don’t shave your face or head, this post may not interest you. (Obviously, I have no practical interest in shaving cream, but it’s interesting to hear about the concerns of those who do, so….)

::  Also, why were her armpits shaved? I realize I am obsessed with body hair, I have mentioned it before (if you’re a tiresome TMI-type, then consider yourself warned). In the midst of end-of-the-world survival, you … what … take the time to scrape your pits with the rusty edge of a garbage can? You have razors on board? Clearly I was not even focusing on the plot, so obsessed was I with her necklace and perfectly smooth armpits in the middle of an apocalyptic universe. (Heh…this particular movie had an awful lot of potential, story-wise, that went completely wasted for many reasons…and I, of course, didn’t notice the shaved-armpit thing. And just like that, I have two shaving-related links in Sentential Links. That must be a first…but I’m not going back to make sure.)

::  Governor Cuomo’s first year in office has been marked by pragmatic success and (except for same-sex marriage legalization) low-drama victories: an on-time budget that left taxes unraised, slashed government workforce, slow balanced approach to hydrofracking and generally competent governance that has left Republicans and Democrats mostly satisfied. The aftermath of Hurricane Irene will test his emergency operation chops, but the flood waters in the North Country and Hudson Valley will eventually recede and he’ll be stronger for it.

::  Of course, ignoring trolls is not always easy, specifically because trolls are angling to get attention in the worst possible way. They want you to engage, and what they do is so obnoxious that you want to engage, if only to mock them. But mocking a troll doesn’t do anything; they can’t be shamed and all they want is a response so they keep doing what they do. Attention is oxygen to the troll. You suffocate them by ignoring them. (Thoughts on how to deal with trolls. I average, maybe, one troll a year here, but you never know….)

More next week!

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Sunday Burst of Weird and Awesome!

Oddities and Awesome abound!!!

::  What a great picture:

(via)

::  The tomato fight to end all tomato fights. This is an annual event in Spain, apparently. Looks kind of gross to me…but then, if it was a pie fight, I’d be booking air fare tomorrow. I prefer my tomatoes on pizza, pasta, sandwiches or salads.

::  Earth and the Moon, as imaged by the Juno spacecraft, from Jupiter:

Via. Why is this important and amazing? No one has said it better than Carl Sagan:

More next week!

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Beatles Song of the Week: “Ob La Di, Ob La Da”

Here’s a song that I found enjoyable enough, just a harmless piece of bubble-gum pop music with a nicely infectious beat and the type of easy chorus you can sing under-your-breath to get yourself through the day. And the song certainly is that, but as it’s my current Beatles Song I’m Obsessing Over, let’s talk a little bit about “Ob La Di, Ob La Da”.

One thing I’m quickly learning about the Beatles is that they just don’t do a whole lot of standard openings to their songs. This one starts with a piano riff that sounds like a rag-time fanfare before settling downward into the actual key and rhythm of the song. I find that the effect almost makes it seem like what we’re hearing is the very end of one song that segues directly into this one. The song uses a lot of different influences (reggae-tinged lyrics and melody combined with a honky-tonk piano), and a lot of external sounds are employed to make the studio recording sound like a raucous live performance.

The lyrics are…well, they’re just happy. I can’t describe it any other way: “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” just drips happiness. It’s not ridiculously sappy happiness, either — it’s just the nice happiness of two people who meet and fall in love and run their barrow in the marketplace while the other sings at night in the band. I can think of few songs that are more devoid of cynicism than this one. I read somewhere that Lennon, Harrison, and Starr all hated this song because it was too light — a puff piece, really — but I think that McCartney was really onto something here, and that the song makes a small statement about finding happiness in the small moments of everyday life.

Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace
Molly is the singer in a band
Desmond say to Molly, girl I like you face
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da,
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on

Desmond take a trolley to the jewelers store
Buys a twenty carat golden ring, (rin-ring)
Takes it back to Molly waiting at the door
And as he gives it to her she begins to sing (sin-sing)

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on

Yeah, In a couple of years they
have built a home sweet home
With a couple of kids running in the yard
of Desmond and Molly Jones

Happy ever after in the market place
Desmond lets the children lend a hand
Molly stays at home and does her pretty face
And in the evening she’s a singer with the band

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on

Happy ever after in the market place
Molly lets the children lend a hand
Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face
And in the evening she’s a singer with the band

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Life goes on, bra
La la how the life goes on
And if you want some fun
take Ob-la-di-bla-da

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Something for Thursday

On my walks of late, I’ve been working my way slowly through the Complete Recordings of Howard Shore’s magnificent scores to The Lord of the Rings. I continue to be amazed at the musical edifice Shore created for these films. Here is one of the finest musical moments: “The Battle of the Pelennor Fields”, specifically the music for the arrival of Rohan and their charge into battle.

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