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November 2006 Archives

27 The Hours Books & comics
Cunningham's elegant, circuitous sentences place you simultaneously deep within the subjective life of the characters and also objectively outside them. I'm intensely jealous.

26 Supergirl: Power Books & comics
Maybe if I was still a teenager ....

25 Battlestar Galactica 3.08 - "Hero" Films & TV
I hate Baltar.

24 Lost 3.06 - "I Do" Films & TV
Take my love, take my hand ...

23 Battlestar Galactica 3.07 - "A Measure of Salvation" Films & TV
Roslin's decision was understandable but her smile after making it - though not without self-awareness - was chilling. Damn she's come a long way.

22 Lost 3.05 - "The Cost of Living" Films & TV
Shit. Certainly didn't expect that.

21 Pahrump, Nevada, sticks it to Sorkin and the US Constitution World affairs
In an ironic turn you wouldn't believe if it happened on TV, Pahrump has just confirmed every redneck, narrow-minded stereotype that Sorkin tried to repudiate only days ago in "Nevada Day".

21 Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip 1.09 - "The Option Period" Films & TV
Product placements this episode: Nokia (twice). Adidas. Universal Pictures. Apple (thrice, twice via iPod brand). Gibson Guitars (thrice). Final Draft. Sony (twice). Samsung (twice).

20 Torchwood 1.03 - "Ghost Machine" Films & TV
"Ghost Machine" didn't feel the need to show off its "mature viewers" tag. But it did demonstrate that, so far, Torchwood is pretty standard SF fare.

19 Torchwood 1.02 - "Day One" Films & TV
Torchwood is Angel to Doctor Who's Buffy.

18 Battlestar Galactica 3.06 - "Torn" Films & TV
We learn more about the specifics of Cylon physiology in this episode than we've done in two and a bit years.

17 Combating spam Site
Installed two plugins to manage the increasing amount of spam this blog has been attracting: Comment Challenge and AutoBan. But Movable Type really needs trackback whitelists.

17 Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall Books & comics
Get it for the same reason you get Playboy: for the pictures.

16 Torchwood 1.01 - "Everything Changes" Films & TV
A decent - though not outstanding - episode which served its purpose: establish the major characters and tone of the show.

15 Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip 1.07 & 1.08 - "Nevada Day" Films & TV
Not as funny or as touching or as tightly written as "The Wrap Party", and not really successfully fleshed out to 90 minutes, but still very entertaining.

14 Doctor Strange - The Oath #2 Books & comics
The banter and down-to-earth dialogue continues with one literally-laugh-out-loud variation on the doctor's venerable oath, "By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth!"

13 The War of the Worlds (1953) Films & TV
One of the interesting things about this The War of the Worlds is the implicit faith the film places in science.

12 X-Men: The Last Stand Films & TV
Overall, The Last Stand is a mixed success. It worked well for what it was - a popcorn movie, but it could have been much more.

11 Run Silent, Run Deep Films & TV
Wise wasn't particularly effective in staging the action sequences or ratcheting up the tension. But that's of little consequence: the strength of the film lies elsewhere.

10 Hedwig and the Angry Inch OCR Theatre & music
"The Origin of Love" goes down in my book as one of the great rock songs of the past few decades, approaching the evocative heights of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

09 Superman: the Movie OST Theatre & music
In a word: definitive.

08 The Omen (2006) Films & TV
Entirely perfunctory.

07 Somewhere in Time OST Theatre & music
John Barry has written perhaps the most romantic soundtrack ever.

06 Kronos Quartet - Released & Unreleased 1985-1995 Theatre & music
Eclectic mix of modern classical and other pieces by this string quartet so well known even I've heard of them.

05 Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse Films & TV
The torturous shooting of of Apocalypse Now has become legendary - scheduled at six weeks but taking nine months (about the same length as principal photography for all three Lord of the Rings movies), running millions of dollars over budget...

04 The Making of Star Wars for Radio Creative
The Making of Star Wars for Radio: A Fable for the Mind's Eye is a half-hour radio documentary on the adaptation of the original Star Wars movie to radio

03 Oxygene - Jean Michel Jarre Theatre & music
Even the best known tracks, the ethereally moody "Oxygene (Part II)" and the ethereally jaunty "Oxygene (Part IV)" don't feel anachronistic.

02 Lost 3.04 - "Every Man For Himself" Films & TV
While the idea of "the only way of getting the respect of a con man is to con him" is a good one, the con itself - and some of the resulting character beats - was near on laughable.

01 NaNoWriMo 1/11/06 Creative
Am going to give NaNoWriMo another go this year.

01 Children of Men Films & TV
One of - perhaps the - best science fiction movies of recent years.