It Frikkin' Snowed Here Last Night

Seriously. It was snowing. It didn't stick, but it was building up on the fence and on the cars.

Even if it does freeze in Austin, it's usually in January (but there was one Christmas around 1998 where Jamie and I thought we were getting frozen in and weren't going home). It was kind of pretty, watching the fluffy flakes come down, and Lucy seemed to like it.

I do hope we get one good freeze in January with ice. I always like those days. Nothing to do but hang out, stay warm, read and check the weather.

In the News

So how about this Governor of Illinois guy? Now THAT is a political scandal. In some ways, I'm kind of impressed. He seems like a villain right out of a schlocky movie.

What's disheartening is that Blagojevich is just the guy they caught.

At work, I said something about "Geez, and this is the big fish. What level of Government do you work at before the corruption stops? PTA?"
And then my co-worker told me about his kids' PTA president who stole $500 out of the treasury.

Sigh.

I don't even really know what to say, other than "Now this is a scandal!" It makes other folks' attempts to cook up a scandal with a call-girl, secret lover, what have you... seem like small potatoes. Now selling a Senate seat... Man...

End of Year Lists

This weekend I petitioned Leaguers to send in their very own "End of Year" lists. We've had a pretty good response thus far.

I invite you to go over to Jason's list of 10 Things They Wanted Us to Like in 2008 That Ended Up Being Lame. Plus, our irrational debate about a minor issue here in Austin's telecomm industry.

The League's own McSteans also piped up today with her very own Top 10 of 2008 list entitled "The Awesome of 2008". You should stop by.

Michael also chimed in, by the way.

Top Three Do-Dahs for Christmas

1: Kindle
An electronic book AND always connected to Wikepidea? Sign me the %@#^ up.

2: Itouch Apps
That much fun for .99cents a pop is seriously addictive. I'm asking for an itunes gift card for just that purpose.

3: The Wii and all its Wiiness.
Because it's so much fun it should be criminal. How could I still be playing Final Fantasty more than two decades after numero uno? Because Nintendo brings the thunder, that's why.

Year End List - Movies and TV

My Favorite Movies I Saw in 2008

1) Iron Man
I'm not sure it's all ages fun. I'll leave that to the parents to decide, but I don't think there's any denying how great Robert Downey Jr. was as Tony Stark, how great the armor and effects were, or the level of summer-fun that director John Favreau squeezed into the movie.

2) I liked "Incredible Hulk"
Maybe not the brightest movie ever made, but it brought the story of the Hulk to the big screen with a certain, imaginative panache. Ed Norton was a likable Bruce Banner, and the final effects on the Hulk were really pretty good.

3) Dark Knight
I've already talked at length about Dark Knight, but it set a new standard for action movies and comic adaptations. And for this DC Comics fan, it was particularly gratifying to see something that was so close to the spirit of the Batman comics after so many years of bad adaptations under WB's belt.

4) Step-Brothers
Dumb comedies never make these lists, but I laughed myself sick at this movie (as I tend to do at about 2/3rds of Will Ferrell's comedies). It's no masterpiece, but I liked it.

5) Wall-E
I tend to go for Pixar's work, and I found Wall-E to be a triumph even by Pixar standards. I'm not sure I loved it as much as I loved Ratatouille, but... just a deeply gratifying movie.

Movie that wasted my time: Wanted
This movie didn't just complete ignore the source material, it just wasn't a very good movie. Unlikeable characters engaged in a plot that seemed like it was cooked up by someone in a blindfold mixing up words from fridge magnet poetry... If I knew it wasn't going to get any better after the first 30 minutes, I probably would have walked out.


Television

1) The Middleman
I think JimD, Jason, Jamie and I were the only folks who watched ABC Family's bizarre little show about a straight arrow fighter of bizarre threats to the world and his cynical sidekick. But for a low-budget show, it was big on ideas and very well written and cast. I will actually pick up the series/ season 1 on DVD.

2) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Season 4 didn't have quite the same zing as Season 3, but this FX Network show still delivered. It's in no way an all ages show, and it may not fit your brand of humor (how badly didn't you want to see Danny Devito's posterior through a hospital gown?). But the characters are well drawn and the show is, if nothing else, not afraid to take risks. Plus: Kaitlin Olson is one of the funniest women on TV

3) 30 Rock
Speaking of hilarious women on TV, Tina Fey continues to be, maybe, the funniest person on television, rivaled only by the rest of her cast on 30 Rock (I have special love for Alec Baldwin on the show).

4) Mythbusters
It's not just the explosions that are fun. I really enjoy watching these guys, who you sorta wish were your friends, engage in problem solving for problems nobody else would bother to work out. Whether shooting arrows as a "ninja" (martial arts master) or blowing up pianos, it's always a good time.

5) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
I'm not one who goes in for hour-long dramas, but I'm hooked on Terminator, and not just for the one-two punch of Summer Glau and Lena Headey. Robots, a gripping storyline, and tying into one of my favorite film franchises... I'm a fan.

6) Ghosthunters
I cannot explain why I love this show, but I do.

7) A Colbert Christmas
I always enjoy The Daily Show and Colbert Report, but I particularly enjoyed the hour-long special of A Colbert Christmas on Comedy Central. If you stumble across it on cable, I highly recommend it.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

A Colbert Christmas: Preview - Jon Stewart

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

8) American Experience
More of a clearinghouse for documentaries on PBS than a particular show, the documentary program covers both grand and horrific moments in American history. It might not have the immediacy of "Independent Lens", but it does put history into context in a way that I'm not sure even the programming on the History Channel manages. Always beautifully produced, it's well wortha dding to your DVR.

9) John Adams
An HBO mini-series, this show followed the life of America's first Vice President and Second President from the earliest rumblings of revolution in the colonies to Adams's death on the 4th of July. Add in another great performance from Paul Giamatti as Adams and what may be Laura Linney's finest performance, and its a good renter.

10) History Detectives
This PBS show is the natural spin-off of Antiques Roadshow. People contact the show with heirlooms they know very little about, and a team of researchers uncovers whether the item is authentic, the true story behind the item if its not authentic, but most importantly relates the story of the part of history where the item might be from. This can be anything from old firearms to paintings, to photographs... It's a great show, and often oddly moving as the owners of the objects learn the history that's touching them through the items.

Re-Telling Superman's Origin

click the image for a full-sized version

This Spring DC comics will release a series retelling the origin of Superman. It is the 3rd effort in the past 23 years, but will establish a post Infinite Crisis baseline of the Man of Steel. I think you'll enjoy it.

Round-Up of Interesting Information and a Plea for Donations

New Jim Parsons Interview at USA Today

Check it out, Jim P. who plays Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory" got a high profile interview at USA Today. There is no accompanying pie chart.

Hopefully Jim has not entered the twilight zone for actors where they have so convincingly embodied a character mostly unlike themselves that the audience is somewhat disappointed to learn that Jim is playing a character and not himself. (See: George Reeves as Superman, Michael Richards as Kramer, etc...) But, really, would anyone want to put up with Sheldon for more than 22 minutes per week?

Price of success, I guess. Hopefully Jim is enjoying the fruits of his labors. I'm still enjoying the show.


Give Some Dough to the Salvation Army and Help Out Your Fellow Humans

I am $5.00 from my personal goal set for raising money for Salvation Army. I am, however, $160 dollars from what I had hoped would be a team goal.

Tis the Season of Giving, Leaguers. Sure, I know times are tough, but that's all the more reason to share if you can.

The website is easy to use, the donation is probably tax deductible, and anything you give will genuinely help other people out in a time when so many people are in need. I know you gave $3.00 to the guy ringing the bell at the mall, and that's super. If you can afford to give more, we'd certainly appreciate it. We're going to be leaning on each other a lot more in the next few years.

So join League of Melbotis in giving. Click here, and then click "donate to my kettle". Anything from $0.25 to $250 would be welcome.

I've heard some people find the site a bit wonky. If you need help, let me know.

New Years Party

A gentle reminder that December 31st at 8:45ish, we're kicking off our annual Holiday Party as a New Year's party (Melbotis's 2008 New Year Hullabalunacy!).

Click here for details and to RSVP.


And to Keep You in the Yuletide Spirit



Also: SLOTHS

Only moderately safe for work

DITMTLOD Special: Robot Ladies of Interest Part 2

So... looks like we got derailed with the whole Matrix discussion last week. That's all right. It's probably an important movie in a lot of ways, and the discussion it engenders is probably a sign of the movie being better than I give it credit for.

But we're not here to talk about the Matrix today. We're here to puzzle over that oddest of topics: The Robot Ladies of Interest

Alice Krig as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact

I'm sort of on the fence with this one. ST; First Contact isn't one of my favorite movies, and I think Krig's character was more interesting as a special effect than as an actual character. But if you were a fan of the Trek series, her character added a new dimension to both The Borg and Data.



Technically, Borg aren't really robots. They're organic beings being piloted by robotic intelligence in a hive mind. I figure there's enough intersection on the mental Venn-Diagram that it's okay to cover our friends, The Borg.

But, really, if we want to talk Borg, we want to talk Seven of Nine.

Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine on Star Trek, Voyager

ST: Voyager was struggling in the ratings on the fledgling UPN network (now defunct). The show was a bit dull, from some perspectives (mine), as its primary conceit was leaving behind the very rich environment of the Star Trek corner of the galaxy. This was problematic. Star Trek: The Next Generation was the best rated syndicated show in history, and UPN executives had expected their new show to carry their network until other shows caught on.

Producers seemed to have decided that the primary reason the show wasn't doing well was that the show was missing a certain element.


Three guesses what they thought the show was missing prior to Ryan's arrival.

I can't talk too much about Voyager, Ryan, Seven of Nine, etc... I didn't watch the show and saw the move to drop in a character in a shiny, skin tight suit as suspect at best (no, seriously). But Ryan's arrival on the show did, in fact, boost ratings. So say what you want about Sci-Fi audiences, I guess. They're an easy enough read.

Battlestar Galactica Reboot

In college I became nostalgic for a show I remember watching as a very young kid, Battlestar Galactica. For its time, and certainly for 1970's TV, it was a pretty awesome show. However, by 1997, when I watched it again... not so much.

After decades of attempted reboots, about five years ago someone finally re-did BSG and added what the original had been sorely lacking: really attractive Cylons.

Enter: Tricia Helfer as "Six". A robot seductress who tricks a top earth scientist into helping the Cylons wipe out the outerspace colonies.


an understandable error

Well, apparently that wasn't enough.

The show went on to introduce several models of humanoid Cylons, including Grace Park as Sharon, and Lucy Lawless as D'Anna.


If this is the doom that awaits me by steely, robot hearts... I am okay with that.

BSG is a surprisingly smart show, and unlike your average syndicated sci-fi program, there's a point to the Cylons' human appearance. I came in to the show too late to keep up, but what I have seen, I've really liked.

Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell

Yes, she's animated, but Motoko Kusanagi is a terrific character in a phenomenal movie. Just don't ask me what the hell's up with the ending.

It's a dark future in Japan (is there any other kind?) and the Japanese military/ police force has created a cyborg unit to keep up with the level of crime their having to deal with.

I saw this one on my own in the theater one night in college at The Dobie. It's a hell of a movie, visually, if the story is a bit muddy. I guess they've turned it into a whole franchise, but I haven't kept up.

The manga and anime of Ghost in the Shell would go on to be highly influential to the genre. It's tough to point to specific examples in American film where they've managed to evoke the same design, exploration of AI, etc... If anything, I'd say Blade Runner had a huge impact on the look, tone and issues of this movie.

Here's some music video that used Ghost in the Shell animation. Beware, non-sexual nudity is included.





Terminator 3 and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

I'm, like, legally obligated to mention Terminator 3, because it did star a woman as the base form for one of the shape-shifting sort of Terminators you saw in T2. But I really didn't like T3, so I don't want to talk about it (can you tell I was a little disappointed?).


I don't care

The lady Terminator was played by... you know what? It doesn't matter. She's gone on to be in a bunch of really goofy and forgettable stuff I hope you haven't seen. The producers felt T3 was so irrelevant that they used a neat narrative trick in the pilot of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to render T3 completely irrelevant.

Speaking of T:tSCC, remember 90's band Garbage? No? Well, you guys missed out. They had some good tunes. Anyway, their singer, Shirley Manson, has hung up her mic and moved on to play Catherine Weaver, a cyborg who has taken the place of a millionaire industrialist in order to further the evil, robot agenda.


Only happy when it rains...

The Sarah Connor Chronicles demonstrates the richness of the Terminator franchise once its been divorced from the star wattage of Governor Arnie. Look, I love Arnie as much as the next child of the 80's, but if he was attached to the franchise, the promise of time travel + robots just wasn't going to be fully achieved.

And now, we have Shirley Manson creeping me out.

PLUS, we have Summer Glau as Cameron Phillips/ Baum, a Terminator unit reprogrammed by future John Connor to go back in time and protect modern-day John Connor. Glau might be recognized from her work in Whedon's Firefly series where she played "River Tam". She was also in a spectacularly bad Sci-Fi original movie "Mammoth".


Wouldn't be Terminator without a steely stare and a messed up face

The show is using the long format of a weekly series to look into the actual character of a Terminator as it continues to learn as it lives among humans. The cast is very good, even the younger players.

Plus, the show features lots of robot fights. Nigh weekly. And, also, Glau is foxy.

That's it for this post.

If you guys have any robots I might have missed, pipe up. We'll do a Leaguer special!

Call for End of the Year Lists

I actually do like End of the Year Lists.

Part of why I like end of the year lists is that it gives the writer time to really realize what stuck with them. It's not just the immediate enjoyment or dislike of whatever's in the list, its been a few months, and maybe the writer has had an opportunity to put things into perspective, or realize "hey, maybe that was a good idea at first blush, but now... I dunno."

Take a song you hear and like when you're out, or you hear it in a movie or on TV, and you decide "that song is awesome!" and maybe that song is good, but maybe it just really, really worked in a particular movie.

Anyhow, the point is, it isn't marketing hype or initial reviews that determine what's going to endure. It's time. And I sort of think the year end reviews and lists are the first step toward figuring out what might stand a chance at being remembered.

I often use End of Year lists for non-DC or Marvel comics as a bit of a shopping list. By then, we're past the buzz and people are maybe pushing something they believe in rather than something they happened to like.

So, I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there:

Send me your End of the Year Lists

I will publish them as they come in.

Here are the rules.

1) Keep it clean. Sure, I'd love to work blue here at The League, but my mother-in-law reads this blog and I have to continue to make a good impression.

2) Try to use a good number, like The Top 5 or 10 movies of the year.

3) It's not enough just to send a list. We need a sentence or three on why.

4) Send as many lists as you like!

5) It can be on pretty much any topic. Media is usually a pretty popular topic, but whatever...

That's it. Send 'em in.

We'll get back to that Robot Thing On Monday

I noticed that Carla and Simon both hit my post from Pre-Turkey Day about Robots and Robot Toys. Carla pointed out that Fisher-Price, maker of beloved children's toys, has introduced "Spike" into the mix of robotic toys. Apparently a large robotic dinosaur with some sort of remote control. What struck me as really odd about Spike wasn't just his size for kids, but that he's part of the Imaginext playline of toys. Each of those toys is about 2 - 3 inches high. Which makes me wonder if Spike is supposed to be in scale with those, in which case, I have a whole new respect for Spike at 10x the height of helpless and delicious characters of the Imaginext line. All I'm saying is that Spike + Imaginext toys = awesome dino-laden destruction.

Simon, on the other hand, accused me (in good fun) of cribbing from The Matrix.

Others often find this surprising, but I'm not a fan of the Matrix movies. I saw the first one and didn't like it, so I didn't bother seeing parts 2 and 3. Even on cable, all I've seen is a car chase from one of them that seemed to go on a really long time and which reminded me that I felt the Wachowski's might be all flash and no substance.

What's amazing to me is how many people who hear I didn't like part 1, so I didn't go see part 2 or 3 address the issue this way (a) well, you should really see them, (b) no, they're not as good as the first one, and (c) they get kind of dopey.

It's never been a strong sales pitch.

I've also never seen most movies people think I should see, but most people won't watch "This Gun For Hire" or "The Killing" with me, so they can stick it in their ear.

I'm going to go read my new "Superman vs. Brainiac" collection. You're on your own.