Yeah, they could have transmitted the information to Mr. Universe, but after thinking about it a bit, I'm glad they did it the way they did. After all, what's the alternative? They can't transmit the info since that would wreck the plot, so they would have been forced to come up with some lame reason why it couldn't be done. Super duper encryption, maybe, or universal jamming technology by the Alliance.
Hell, why bother? Probably better to just leave the little plot hole hanging and blast into hyperspace.
On the other hand, I watched every episode of Buffy and loved it, and watched Firefly and hated it. And I hate westerns. So does this mean I should just give Serenity a miss?
I hated Buffy, and especially hated Whedon's style of awkwardly forced "snappy dialogue" (stale and obvious straight line, snarky quip which deflates tension, stale and obvious straight line, awfully similar-sounding quip which deflates tension, etc.). It's the second one that's especially keeping me away; people who like Whedon projects almost always specifically cite the dialogue as a selling point, which to my mind is a bit like saying you went to Mexico to pick up the tapeworm.
I'm going to solidify my reputation as someone who goes off-topic with this comment, but I wanted to let you all know that I saw Proof yesterday, and it wasn't bad.
The preview trailers were for Thumbsucker and The Squid and the Whale, both of which looked good. The S& the W was about a divorcing faux liberal professor. There's a great line where the guy's kid wants to hang out with someone, and the father says, "You don't want to hang out with X; he's a philistine." And the kid says, "What's a philistine?" To which the father answers, "Someone who doesn't like books or interesting films." And the kid says, "Sure I do, I'm a philistine."
That is why I don't like Whedon; everyone I know loves his dialogue and I think it clunks like a three-legged goat. They are people who imagine that Beasts and Superbeasts is a Rob Zombie album.
Also, Neil Gaiman is not deep and profound.
Man, that felt cathartic.
Toads and winna, I'm with you on the Whedon dialogue hating. But in this movie, the quips were, for the most part, either actually funny, or just faded into the background, because there was so much compelling action. (The western-speak was annoying, but not so much.)
Maynard, I guess it depends on why you hated Firefly.
As for the plot hole, it didn't really bother me; just noting it.
I like Whedon's dialogue; it sometimes clunks, but it's got a nifty rhythm. I think what makes it seem good, though, is largely the really awful TV dialogue out there.
I wondered why they didn't just beam the message, too, but at least they didn't try to explain it carefully with a lot of emphasis on their communications antenna being damaged or some such. Plus it's more fun to speculate (I bet the reavers would have got them if they beamed out the message!)
I, too, saw Proof and it wasn't bad. But I didn't see anyone I knew in the background.
I was thinking about going to see Proof today, but then I realized that I pretty much never get to see movies, and now I feel all this pressure to pick the right one.
I was thinking about going to see A History of Violence today, but so far no one whose company I've solicited has replied.
I've only gone to see a movie by myself a few times. One of those times was Y Tu Mamá Tambien, and there were only 5-10 people in the theatre, and I felt like a perv.
It's not just that I don't want to go by myself (something I've done plenty of times), as it is that the people I asked I particularly want to spend time with.
I haven't read any of Gaiman's novels but Sandman is a piece of crap. Dreadful.
And Buffy's no good either.
I haven't read any of Gaiman's novels but Sandman is a piece of crap. Dreadful.
I kind of feel that it's a shame to not be able to enjoy the stories in Sandman. I'd suggest it might help to get the annotations (available online), but, if you absolutely didn't enjoy it, probably not worth the bother. I don't think Gaiman is enjoyable because he is deep and profound (as winna implied above, though that may not have been her intention); he just spins some wicked tales. That said, Sandman is my favorite of his works, and I can't particularly recommend either Neverwhere or American Gods.
Being one of the only girls in E-school, I ended up with more comic books than I ever expected (as "I think you'd like this graphic novel" is kind of the geek boy mating dance) and I never really cared for any of them but Sandman. It's one of those things like Lost or Harry Potter, where the first few installments are OK but later on you realize they contained small premonitions of things that happen later and are even more impressed. I had the same feeling when reading Sandman that I later had when reading the Harry Potter books -- the author definitely had the entire arc of the series planned out before writing Book 1. Also, I have to love Sandman because a large part of it centers around one of my favorite stories, the Orpheus myth. I didn't really care for American Gods, though. Cryptonomicon was much better.
Engineering? Economics? Ergodics?
Orpheus in engineering school. (Or Eurydice.)
Discuss.
"I think you'd like this graphic novel" is kind of the geek boy mating dance
Yeah, and the little arm-flap and leg-shake which coincides with the recommending of a graphic novel really is a bitch to get down.
Yes, after I posted it, I realized it should have been "mating call". Still, I stand by the general principle. And it wasn't a slam -- geek boys are great, as long as they can avoid "nice guy" self-pity.
Cryptonomicon was much better.
Also, written by a different Nei/al.
Yep. Sorry, didn't mean to imply they were written by the same author. I tend to consider the 2 Nei/als together because they both work in a "not quite sci-fi/not quite historical fiction" genre. It's probably an unfair comparison but it's an association that always comes to my mind.
21: You mean the e-boys didn't actually do the mating dance for you? You missed out. Did you at least get to see the post-coital geek-boy booy dance? That one's nearly as hard.
It's always around here that the thread starts getting creepy.
I'll just assume that "booy" should be "booby". But that raises the question, why would the booby dance be post-coital? Boobies can precede coitus.
NB: 24 is not necessarily asking Becks whether she became intimate with any E geeks. She could have simply been around to see the dance which resulted from others actions. Indeed, as many are shy of showing off the booty dance to their partners, this is more often the case.
geek boys are great, as long as they can avoid "nice guy" self-pity.
Amen.
why would the booby dance be post-coital? Boobies can precede coitus.
In my experience, doing the booby dance precludes coitus.
I didn't see Proof, or any other movie (I was paralyzed by the pressure), but I did eat some damned fine Persian food. ogged, I commend your people.
Reza's. I know you keep saying all kinds of shit about Noon o Kebab, but damnit, Reza's is really close to my house.
Oh my, the lamb with rosemary with a bit of lemon squeezed on it...
Hey, Reza's is fine. He's from our hometown, back in the homeland, and we used to go to his restaurant when he first opened, and my mom and aunt would taste the food and give him tips on the recipes.
Still, Noon o Kabab is better.
(But honestly, I'm just being a snob. Iranian food isn't so complex; good is good.)
Well, if I ended up going out that way (Albany Park-wise), I probably would end up going to City Noor anyway rather than Noon O Kabab, because I hear that they serve felafel made the proper way, with fava beans and not goddamned chickpeas.
Not that I have anything against chickpeas. Chick peas? Dunno.
I've never been to City Noor, but good felafel sounds good. I don't think I've ever had it made with fava beans.
It has a far more potent flavor. Chick pea felafel is sort of... bland. Also, for whoever cares, it should be served in patties rather than ball-like structures.
There's a pretty good Iranian place in Irvine. I've only been there once, though. The mother of an incredibly hot Persian (as she said) girl with whom I went to high school did the interior design, IIRC.
Good Iranian food is thick on the ground in Southern California.
Ro/za Mans/ouri, I believe was her name.
The mother of an incredibly hot Persian (as she said) girl with whom I went to high school did the interior design, IIRC.
OK, is this sentence structure unnecessarily complicated or is it that my synapses fuse when I read "incredibly hot"?
Also: Only boring tv series worth watching for the hot female lead:
Smallville.
I'm on a roll here.
You and I have very different ideas about rolls then.
Anybody been watching Rome? The wife of the centurion, the one who had a child with her brother-in-law--that woman is ridiculously hott.
"I've watched my fair share of Buffy, and even seen an episode of Firefly, and never liked either, but Serenity is really good."
This doesn't actually make much sense. What's the difference between, say, Firefly and Serenity?
Serenity is faster-paced, has less distinctively Whedonesque dialogue, and ends after two hours, without the Ex trying to get me to watch another.