Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Username:	Password:
Forgot your password?	Remember Me

Amazon discount on New "Who" Seasons today
I couldn't resist. Since Amazon.com is running a today-only sale on any Dr. Who season with Chris Eccleston or David Tennant, I actually bought myself something from my own wishlist: Season One with Christopher Eccleston.

Even at 59% off suggested retail, it's still not cheap, but the price feels just a little bit closer to 'reasonable' -- close enough to finally get me to pry open my wallet and purchase the one season that neither SyFy nor BBC America ever seem to re-run in its entirety.

Fic rec -- BTVS/Narnia (Prince Caspian) crossover
FaithUnbreakable has just posted the 17th and final chapter of her BtVS/Prince Caspian crossover fic To the Ground over on Twisting the Hellmouth, and I highly recommend it.

The story is not without proof-reading errors, by any means, but for such an interesting, challenging, and ultimately -- from my perspective, at least -- successful meeting of the theologies of C. S. Lewis' Narnia books and the Buffyverse, I'm more than willing to tolerate the occasional misspellings and grammar errors.

Check it out, if you've ever wondered what Buffy might say to a god who actually deserved trust, even under the most trying of conditions.

"The Damned United" (darned good movie!)
Just a quick note to say that I finally got to see "The Damned United" yesterday afternoon, starring Michael Sheen (sporting a few more pounds than when he was playing 'Lucian the Luscious Lycan' in the "Underworld" prequel back in January of this year, but still cute as a button, bless him!) as football/soccer manager Brian Clough.

"And RevD saw that it was good."

Honestly, I've never voluntarily watched any soccer, except in the context of a key movie moment (in "Bend It Like Beckham", for example) and I'd never heard of Brian Clough before I saw Michael Sheen promoting the film on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" a couple of months ago, but you don't actually NEED to know anything about the game or the history of these teams and personalities: the film gives you everything you need in order to get the HUMAN drama of it all, right there on the screen. ( no spoilers )

See this film if you get the chance, even if -- like me -- you've never heard of most of these people and don't actually follow the sport at all. All you need to know is it's a film about complicated, interesting, very entertaining characters, well-played by highly talented actors.

"Flirterers!"
This is my new favorite word, 'cause the high point of tonight's Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode was definitely Green Arrow's indignant denunciation of Batman and a certain female criminal as "Flirterers!"

Had to take this one three times, as well
First time through this quiz gave me "Doomsday", and the second time through the result was "Lex Luthor" (both times commenting -- in one way or another -- on my pathetic need for love and acceptance, which I simply don't know how to healthily act on). No one could expect me to take THAT, could they?

So, third time's the charm, once again, it seems, in order to finally get the respect my astounding intellect deserves! ( What SMALLVILLE Villain Are You? )

Had to take the quiz three times to get this answer, but . . .
The first time it tried to give me Bill Compton from "True Blood" (not bad, but doesn't do a thing for me, romantically), and the second time it tried to sell me Edward from "Twilight" (which I still haven't seen or read, but a pretty, pouty, faux teenager is so very much not my style).

I may've had to lie through my teeth on a couple of the questions (it was pretty obvious after a while which questions were the key ones), but I finally got an answer I could live with. I would've settled for Mick from "Moonlight", if necessary -- though I still think Josef would be more fun -- or Henry from "Blood Ties", if that was even an option, but I confess that this IS my hands-down favorite vampire character, which should surprise absolutely no-one.( Who is Your Vampire Soulmate? )

"Where the Wild Things Are" -- 'being a family is hard'
Just a quick note to say that I saw Where the Wild Things Are with a friend last night, and I can see why the critics are raving about it . . . though it was even more difficult to watch than I'd expected, simply because even the scenes on the island with the giant Jim Henson creatures were so REALISTIC (in terms of recognizable emotions and motivations and complications and pain). ( slight spoilers )

Winnicott and Kohut and Melanie Klein would have a FIELD DAY with the biting/eating/devouring images and language, alone!

Definitely worth a look, but not an EASY movie to watch.

"The Boys Are Back" -- Clive Owen's cute enough to get away with it
Just a quick note about the movie I saw last Sunday afternoon, The Boys Are Back:

On the plus side, ( Read more... )

On the negative side, ( spoilers )

( spoilers, and perhaps reading too much into similarities with my own father )

Finally, a new "Batman" cartoon worth singing about!
It's been so long since I could actually watch a cartoon on Saturday morning and thoroughly enjoy it -- not have my intelligence insulted, or be filled with an overwhelming desire to reach for the 'fast-forward' button on the remote.

But this morning the cartoon series Batman: the Brave and the Bold (which rarely occupies my full attention, and occasionally seems too lame even for watching while eating my Saturday morning oatmeal) finally justified its continued existence on my DVR timer list with a really clever, well-done rip-off of the BtVS episode "Once More, With Feeling": Mayhem of the Music Meister.

Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of the musical super-villain (hmm, wonder if anybody ELSE ever thought of doing that first?) is superb, singing his heart out and putting the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional' ( Read more... )

What a nice surprise to wake up to! I'd advise anyone who enjoys musicals and/or animated super heroes from the DC universe to check it out in re-runs, if you didn't catch it on the Cartoon Network this time around.

More on "Stargate: Lost in Space"
Upon further consideration, maybe what bugged me the most about the SGU premiere last Friday was ( flashbacks are a privilege, not a right )

Unimpressed with "Stargate: Lost in Space"
I have to say, if it hadn't been for Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, and Michael Shanks being mentioned as guest stars in the opening credits, I might have deleted the premiere of "Stargate Universe" from my DVR without watching, since the bits that I did happen to see while taping were extremely underwhelming.

Maybe it'll improve in later episodes, but ( Read more... )

There were SOME new characters whom I didn't immediately hate, but none so far that I really feel compelled to know more about. If I watch next week, it'll probably be in hopes of either more cameos from "real" Stargate characters like O'Neill, Carter, Walter, and even Dr. Lee, OR some marked improvement in the tone and likability of the new series.

Happy Birthday, Miss Murchison!
And may the coming year bring you energy, joy, and a little less craziness at work!

"Lord, Save Us From Your Followers" movie review (reprise)
Just in case anyone missed it first time around, here's a revised version of my very positive review of the documentary "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers", now playing in limited release:( Read more... )

I Survived "Thunderdome"

"Six women enter! Four women leave!"

I just found out this afternoon that I will NOT have my job eliminated at this time. Yay for keeping my health insurance . . . at least until the next round of lay-offs!

Of course, they're going to wait until Monday to tell us how our remaining jobs will be reorganized and restructured to pick up the slack from the two people who've gone.

I could end up transferred to a different floor (away from the co-workers I know and like, and the windows we enjoy here on the top floor), or assigned to tasks that have not the slightest interest for me.

But them's the breaks.

A ray of light in the midst of dark times at work
No news yet on whether I'll be one of the 'lucky ones' to get to keep my low-paying job (with health insurance!) -- in case I forgot to mention it earlier, the company has decided to eliminate two out of six positions at my level, and to do it 'fairly' by making all six of us jump through an apparently endless number of hoops, in order to justify our continued underemployment through test-taking, essay-writing, interviews, etc..

( more on my employer's version of Thunderdome )

So much for my paranoia (justified, or not).

However, I saw a great free preview of a movie this afternoon (thanks to my job -- the invitation was forwarded to my unit, since we work in religious publishing, and I was feeling grumpy enough to RSVP and be willing to work extra hours tomorrow in order to do something different today), the documentary Lord, Save Us From Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love dividing America? -- a thought-provoking, CIVIL, and ultimately mutually loving and respectful discussion of faith and values among people who believe in various religions and people who call themselves agnostics or atheists.

To some extent, it's focused mainly on helping Evangelical Christians (the group with which the film's creator and presenter identifies) understand how others may see them (the 'Body of Christ' which has become "Frankenjesus", rampaging around the countryside and stomping on the villagers) and remember that acting like Christ (healing the sick, helping the poor, etc.) and loving people through charitable ACTIONS is far more important than raucous, mean-spirited arguments over 'culture wars' -- a lot of WORDS whose only purpose seems to be to say 'we're right, and you're wrong, so there!'

Any movie made by an intelligent, honest, and very witty Evangelical which lifts up Tony Campolo, Jon Stewart, and Bono as 'prophets' of a more honest and constructive dialogue comes as a delightful and inspiring surprise . . . to me, at least. If you can keep a dry eye -- whatever your beliefs -- while watching the 'confessional' scenes towards the end, then you should probably consult an eye doctor soon, 'cause that can't be healthy.

( Read more... )"The Conversation Starts Now" is a good tag-line for this documentary, which opens in theaters 9/25/09 (it'll only be playing on one screen here in my city for the first week, at least, so anyone who wants to see it may have to look for it).

Cute Star Trek 2009 analysis by a Star Wars fan
This blog review of the recent Star Trek movie was posted back in May, but I've only just seen it, thanks to a friend who forwarded the link and recommended a quick scroll to the bottom to check out the Star Wars (original trilogy only, please!) to Star Trek (2009 reboot) parallels, even if I didn't want to read the whole thing.

( a few caveats about the earlier part of this blogger's ST vs. SW comparisons )

But, as my friend had suggested, I did find this bit of the blogger's analysis of the movie fairly amusing:

. . . The characters, the relationships, the technology: It’s pure Star Trek.

But the story?

Come on! Does any of this sound familiar?

A farm boy who likes to zoom around on a sort of landspeeder stops and gazes up wistfully at a starship.

That farm boy is encouraged by a veteran warrior, who tells him about how great his father was.

The bad guys blow up planets. We watch this happen in an excruciating scene, where a hero must cope with the death of his home and the people he loves. After the destruction of one world, we know that the climactic scenes will involve the attempted destruction of another.

The cocky hero is chasing the same girl as the more principled hero. And the audience is rather surprised by who she ends up with at the end.

The secondary hero must learn to break his code and “have faith.”

The climactic sequence involves a ship blasting itself free from the destructive power of an explosive calamity.

It all ends with an award ceremony.

This is Star Wars territory, folks.

As in The Empire Strikes Back, when the hero crash-lands on a remote planet, he steps out of the spacecraft and who is the first person he meets? Why, it just happens to be the wisest mentor he could hope to discover! It’s an ancient and legendary figure with funny ears who will guide him on the path to wisdom! Familiar, this is! Convenient, this is!...

Not really, IMO, but if -- as this blogger suggests -- Star Trek 2009 finally provides a common meeting ground for heretofore 'warring' camps of extreme SW and ST fans, allowing them to co-exist peacefully for at least 2 hours and have something civil to talk about afterward, then who am I to complain?

"Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg!" (excellent) and "Extract" (good)
[Note: I saw and thoroughly enjoyed the well-made, engrossing, and sometimes uncomfortably thought-provoking "District 9" two weeks ago, but forgot to review it here. If you've somehow not heard of this film, I strongly urge you to go see it.]

I saw the new comedy film "Extract" last night with a friend (since she's been laid off and I may be laid off in a few days, we only saw an evening show because she has 'cool mom' points with the assistant manager of a local multiplex, who was her son's best friend in high school and now gives her free movie tickets when he's on duty), and I laughed ALOT.

Ben Affleck as the spacey bartender with unfailingly bad advice for Jason Bateman's character was perhaps my favorite bit, and I kept expecting complications that the (in the end, relatively simple) script didn't deliver, but it was a fun evening at the movies.

I wouldn't have paid full price for it, but if I'd spent $7 on a matinee ticket I wouldn't have felt ripped-off.

Then, today after lunch I went to see "Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg!" by myself, since I remembered hearing a little something about Gertrude Berg and her role in early television in some Bravo special or something, a year or two ago (just enough to make me realize that this is someone who should be alot better known than she is today), and reading the NY Times review made me even more eager to see this documentary.

In case (like me, for most of my life) you've never heard of Gertrude Berg, she's the radio and television pioneer who won the first Emmy for best actress for her role as Mollie Goldberg in the TV show ("The Goldebergs") which she created, wrote, and produced, as well as starred in (based on the radio show she'd created in 1929 and which was continuously on the air until 1945), and who pretty much created the TV sit-com, as well as winning a Tony for a later Broadway role, fighting the blacklist during the McCarthy era, etc.. For several years, Gertrude Berg was routinely listed as the second-most-admired woman in America (close behind Eleanor Roosevelt).

This documentary (produced with a lot of love, as well as a lot of talent and skill) is more than deserving of every glowing review.

It's a WONDERFUL film about a now little-known woman who wrote over 12,000 scripts for her own radio and television shows in her lifetime, and did a lot to expand the definition of the American family and provide a counter-voice to the antisemitic broadcasts of Father Coughlin and others.

See it if you get the chance!( slight spoilers possible )

My SyFy Catechism (shorter version) and 'Perfect Creature'

Question: What is the chief end of the SyFy Channel?

Answer: The SyFy Channel's chief end seems to be to show some great shows, a lot more so-so programs, too many things that have nothing to do with science fiction, and a heckuva lot of truly sucky movies-of-the-week.

Question: When does a SyFy movie not suck?

Answer: A movie shown on the SyFy Channel may fail to suck when it was not made by or for that channel.

Question: What movie on SyFy didn't suck this week?

Answer: "Perfect Creature" entirely failed to suck on Sunday night.

Here endeth my irreverence (for now).

But seriously, if you didn't catch "Perfect Creature" (2006 vampire movie starring Dougray Scott and Saffron Burrows, made in New Zealand) on the SyFy channel two nights ago or haven't already seen the DVD released a couple of years before that, then you might want to seriously consider searching for it on cable, Netflix, Amazon, or your local video rental place. It's definitely worth a viewing . . . or two or three.

Yes, there were certain aspects of the history and culture of the alternate reality earth in which it was set which I wish had been more fully explored or developed. And yes, the ending did leave me wanting a sequel (though not an unsatisfactory ending, by any means).

However, any minor quibbles I might have are greatly outweighed by my sheer delight in encountering a vampire movie with such an intriguing and original take on the mythos. Plus, there's Dougray Scott, who takes his vampire character from remote-but-revered religious icon to passionate defender of humanity over the course of the movie without missing a step.

( some spoilers for 'Perfect Creature' and 2001 film 'The Breed' )

I admit, the film's intriguing spin on the symbolic importance of blood in the Hebrew Bible and especially in the Christian New Testament and religious practices is what really lifted "Perfect Creature" out of the realm of mere, "Ooh, cute vampire in a murder mystery! Well, that was nice while it lasted . . ." and into the land of, "Hmmm, cute vampire cardinal investigating a murder mystery that could undermine the faith of millions of believers! Let's see that again!" for me.

Definitely worth a look-see . . . especially if you're eager for something decent to wash the bitter taste of some recent SyFy Channel made-for-TV, CGI-monster-of-the-week suck-fest (in the not-fun meaning of 'suck-fest,' I need hardly add) out of your brain.

"Ponyo" -- go see it!
Just a quick review to say that I saw the latest English dub of a Hayao Miyazaki animated film yesterday, "Ponyo" (or Gake no Ue no Ponyo in its original form), and it was delightful entertainment which also invited the viewer to actually think at times. In case I'm making it sound like it's too cerebral for young children to like, let me say that there were lots of little kids in the screening I attended, and they seemed to enjoy it just fine, without necessarily worrying about any of the larger themes or ideas that would attract adult interest.

"Ponyo" won't replace "My Neighbor Totoro" or "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" in my affections anytime soon, but I did find it more enjoyable than two of Miyazaki's more recent works ("Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle"), both of which were quite good but seemed intentionally aimed at a somewhat older age group than this re-telling of "The Little Mermaid" story with Kindergarteners in the lead roles . . . though still with the underlying melding of theology and ecology that I've come to expect and value from Miyazaki.

( slight risk of spoilers )

But upon further reflection, I don't think there were scenes cut out for English-language consumption (yes, I was a bit burned by having my first exposure to Miyazaki be "Warriors of the Wind", which deleted huge chunks of the original "Nausicaa", and that experience has probably made me a teeny bit paranoid). Rather, I think the darker elements and possibilities were hinted at (as with the mother's illness and the children's fear that she might die in "Totoro") but presented in a form that younger children would be able to tolerate (going close to the edge of horrible possibilities, including the loss of a parent, but then pulling back before the strain on younger viewers becomes too much).

( definite spoiler alert: mother imagery in 'Ponyo' )

Furthermore, this is the first Miyazaki movie that I can remember in which mothers play a prominent, active (and mostly positive) role throughout the movie, rather than being deceased or ill and/or absent, or even self-absorbed and flighty like the heroine's mother in "Howl's Moving Castle". As a student of psychology, theology, and popular culture, I find the active, powerful, and mainly positive engagement of the mother figures in "Ponyo" to be a REALLY encouraging development.

update on the eye sitch . . .
This is how bad my memory has been lately: I found the doctor of ophthalmology whom I'd seen this Spring (and whose name I couldn't find anywhere in my memory or paper records) by looking up the address of my dentist (whose office was down the hall in the same office building), and then googling for an eye doctor with the same address, which turned up P------ & D------- as a match. When I called their clinic, they said that Dr. D------- was out today, but that Dr. S----- could see me a.s.a.p., and so I drove across town to try to keep a 10:15 AM appointment with her.( Read more... )

( eye tests )

Everything checked out normal (well, normal for me), with no signs of cataracts or detached retinas, or anything else. Only thing left would be to get an MRI to check for something funky going on neurologically that doesn't show up in the office tests.

She left it that she'd call me back next week to see how I'm doing, but I'm to call sooner if it gets noticeably worse, in which case she'll set me up with a neurologist for an MRI. If it's just a case of my brain allowing some of the color or brightness connections (my terms, not hers) to my right eye to fall dormant because I've been using my left eye most of the time lately, then maybe it'll get better if I make a conscious effort to use my right eye more.

At least, we've ruled out just about everything except a brain tumor, so far! That's comforting, . . . right?