So today Julia Gilliard (deputy leader for the Australian Labor Party) came out with a doozy.
“I'd be concerned if the business community got itself into the political fray"
You mean that it is ok for the Unions (who dictate Labor's IR policy) to get involved, but that it is not ok for business, who employ the very people who you hope will vote for you.
Honestly what a ridiculous position to take, the ALP have come out and announced a list IR Policy changes which set IR relations in Australia back 20 or more years, and she expects business not to say anything.
Julia... I will have some of what you are smoking
Well as prompted by the comment
here are my thoughts
There is no question in my mind that Firefly is the finest example of Sci Fi TV ever. Period. End of Argument.
Everything about the TV series was brilliant, the acting, the writing, the premise, the plot lines and the story were all brilliantly executed. Joss and his team excelled only to be cut tragically and criminally short by executives at Fox.
That said Serenity the film was extremely disappointing. It was obvious that concessions had to be were made to make the feature film. Story lines altered, characters modified, plot line thin at best. The film felt rushed (in terms of story line) and was thus compromised. I think Joss is a story teller of immense talent, but was restricted with the background of Firefly and couldn't get his vision across as he wanted on the big screen.
If Serenity has been originally planned as a trilogy then things might have been different. But it wasn't.
However it does have one thing. A religious following left over from the days of Firefly, Browncoats are everywhere and they love Joss, they love Firefly and they have no choice but to love Serenity. They are also one of the largest fan groups on the internet.
If George Lucas had done his job properly and not butchered episodes I-III then I'm sure Star Wars would have an equally strong presence of its fans on the net, however most Star Wars fans are over 30 and not as passionate about the movie they love as they once might have been. Sure they might love it... but well it's time is done. There are no Star Wars Conferences, the actors (Hamil, Ford, Fisher) don't go around talking to fans, signing photos, doing conferences as the cast and crew from Firefly still do.
So when the poll was announced there was a call to arms for all browncoats (and the occasional purple belly) to get out and vote for Serenity as the best all time sci fi movie. Which is complete bollocks!! Clearly with all the records Star Wars broke, the technology used in production etc Star Wars is the better movie. Sure it is Space Melodrama and watching it now, it looks tired and dated. The clichés are rife... but it was the first blockbuster, and rejuvenated the sci fi genre. Without Star Wars there would be no Star Trek (movies), Battlestar Galactica (versions 1 and 2) and Firefly/Serenity and 100 other films and TV shows. This film clearly has had a huge impact on entertainment across all mediums. Regardless of its flaws it remains a milestone in cinematic history.
The browncoats have an agenda, a contemporary fan base and sits fresh in peoples minds, combined with a
*I have to go to school now.. will come back and tidy this up later - typos, references etc...
The reason it lacks Sci Fi components is that it isn't Sci Fi - WTF???
The link takes you to Wired magazine article on sci-fi.
The following post contains BSG SPOILERS - You have been warned.
Let me say straight from the top... I hate Battlestar Galactica (BSG) but I have watched every episode so far and will continue to do so.
Why should you care that I hate it? If you are a normal person I guess you shouldn't it care, however if you have a passion for sci-fi then you should really care.
And you should care because it is NOT science fiction, it is a space soap opera. Before season 3 I wouldn't have made such a comment... but season 3 was woeful from the start. There was one good episode but that is about it.
With all the hidden agendas that the humans have I find myself supporting the cylons... these guys don't deserve to live. I would cheer the episode that comes in and wipes out the remains of the human colonies.
Let me start with character I loath the most. I will get to the Sci Fi criticism in a bit.
Starbuck
I can live with the fact that Starbuck is nothing like the original rogue scoundrel (aka Han Solo) that he was in the original series. Hell the fact that he is even a she doesn't bother me. What bothers me is how flawed and inconsistent this character is, her general loathing of everybody around her, even her husband has given me nothing but a general loathing for her.
I cheered when we thought she died on new caprica.. (ok I never thought she had... but it was great that she went down). But I really cheered when she blew up on the gas giant, after all how could anyone survive an implosion of a gas giant. (I'd guess that the writers might have bought her back... and they have as some kind of guardian angle or at least a guardian tour guide. I can't wait for them to explain her resurrection - with her ship no less).
Col Tigh
Well there was nothing wrong here until the final episode... and he turns out to be one of the secret 5. What the fuck is that all about? (notice I used fuck and not frek - I will get to language in a bit).
A man who is a life long friend of Adama, who fought in the Cylon Wars turns out to be a cylon!! Now unless there was a group of human scientists doing secret work on a secret batch of cylons who were skin jobs then I can see no way for Col Tigh to be a cylon. Of course the writers will explain how... and I will watch to see how they pull this out of the bag...
There are a whole lot of other things that irk me... the Chief's kid would be another cylon human breed... so Hera loses her importance, except for the fact that everybody knows she is half cylon. Then there is the Chief-Boomer relationship two cylons were getting it on from day 1, and neither knew what the other was, or what they themselves were?
The whole show smacks of inconsistencies, one off episodes contradicting events from before and character development and plot showing no respect to the story line.
Language
What the fuck is with frek! Oh they wanted to use a word that sounded like fuck but couldn't because of TV sensibilities. OK I will give you that...
Then what the hell is an "inch" doing in the show - a civilisation emerged away from ours only to end up using a word to describe a measurement exactly like the empirical standard (that most of the world ceased using years ago), but they created their own english equivalent of fuck?
The show is rife with references to not just earth, but to American English and terminology.
Why don't they just put it on an American aircraft carrier and be done with it.
Sci Fi
And now comes the part that pisses me off the most. There is no sci fi in this show with the following exceptions
- intergalactic travel with FTL capabilities
- cylons
- energy weapons (not everything has to be energy based.. but please projectile weapons of the magnitude in use in BSG are so late earth 20th century)
- humans could build cylons, robots capable of self awareness and rebellion. The other thing these cylons have is sensory capability (at least vision and audio). But we can't give Tigh a new eye? I'd settle for a Jordie La Forge implant, hell I would even settle for him declining the operation saying he doesn't want any robot tech implanted in him, but to lack this medical technology and be able to build cylons (and Im talking about the metal robots not the skin jobs) lacks creditability.
- continuing with medicine... cancer... a race of humans have developed space flight, built cylons, gone faster than the speed of light and cancer still kills them? really?
But in summary the show is full of characters I loath, language which makes me think the Galactica is in the Persian Gulf launching FA 18's, and enough sci fiction to impress Leonardo Da Vinci...
So why then do I watch it???... thankfully I have a break to enjoy some real Sci Fi... Dr Who or my DVD collection of Firefly... hell I might even break out Star Wars.
I really hope that season 4 brings back some the passion and fury that season 1 had.
addendum
My recommendation for fixing it... get the writers from Deadwood... these guys know how to write scripts... put them in a room with Star Trek writers...
then we are going to get a well written consistent drama with some sci fi.
But oh so fun
Comic Relief.. or just ludicrous?
Check out the cameos.. a fairly impressive list....
Who's going to be in the Final Four?
Australia
New Zealand
India &
West Indies
Well I have found this fantastic software called TextExpander
And I think that it is gold.
type in a few characters and it auto completes in whatever application you are using. Word, Pages, Firefox, Safari, Mail or coding apps...
It can get pretty clever too...
inserting images, inserting code etc...
have a look and try it out.
Then if you like it.. here is a 20% discount (courtesy of MacTalk Australia)
