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08 April 2009 @ 11:41 pm
The One That Just Had To Go Without A Clever Title  
I trust you all remember Brokeback Babylon?

Last FedCon, almost a year ago, it was played before Peter Jurasik (Londo that is, I've been told there are people who only know the characters' names *g*) got on stage for his panel. Which made him comment on it. Thanks to Starstuff I now can give you (and me, for that matter) the exact quote instead of my somewhat incoherent summary:

"There are many, many reasons why I wish Andreas Katsulas was alive, but that is one of them. He would love that, that’s so funny. I’ve seen that before, it’s great, isn’t it? Brokeback Babylon. I wish he was here."

Now, just so you know, I dig any and all feedback I'm getting. The audience you get is one of the things that are so great about the internet. Also, applause (not to mention laughter) from a live audience is quite nice, too. But feedback like that from someone I made something about? And not just anyone, but Jurasik? Saying that Katsulas, of all people, would have liked it? Doesn't get better than that.

Thanks again to trulla and robse (and whoever else may have been there without me knowing) for screaming in time to stop Marc from forgetting about it!


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27 January 2009 @ 01:30 am
BSG (6): Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2  
I just finished rewatching Galactica's first season. Which is awesome, even more so than I remembered. Granted it is not as planned out as B5, but the characters are just amazing. And that cliffhanger still is one of the best I've ever seen. And don't even get me started on the score...

Also, if the last thing you've seen before that was what's out of S4 yet, especially 4x12, especially that final scene - the whole thing tends to veer off a bit to the funny side of things every now and then, inspite of all the tension. Yes, I do appreciate irony :)

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19 December 2008 @ 05:45 pm
RIP (6): Majel Barrett  


February 23, 1932 - December 18, 2008


From what little I've heard and read about her she must have been pretty amazing. I didn't even know she was sick and was still hoping to meet her at a convention once. Since Lady Morella has already been covered, I'll quote Lwaxana Troi, one of my favorite recurring characters on ST:

"Every one of us has a thousand different kinds of... of little people inside of us. And some of them want to get out and be wild, and some want to be sad or happy or inventive or... or even just go dancing. That's why we all have so many different urges at different times. And all those different little people inside of us... we must never be afraid to take them with us, wherever we go."
- ST:TNG, Cost of Living


God, I do hate that category...


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06 June 2008 @ 12:14 pm
QuotesЯUs (6) & Portable Magic (6): JMS and The Golden Compass  
I finally got around to reading the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy. I had been rather disappointed by the movie, but liked the book a lot better. (Thanks to Starstuff btw for showing me how to link to the stylish themed instance of an entry rather than the dull white page I've linked to until now.)

I managed to connect the dots a little too quickly for my liking near the end, figuring everything out before Lyra did even though I didn't actually know anything she didn't. Ah, the curse of being overly intelligent. Not to mention modest ;)

I'm quite puzzled at why TPTB decided to leave out the last part of the book when making the movie though. Yes, the movie would have gotten longer (Yes, even longer than 113 minutes, imagine that!), but didn't they see how much better of a cliffhanger the book's ending is? And how the frak can anyone miss that? I just have to quote JMS on that one, even though he of course was raving scholarly discussing a different, though similarly astounding decision:

"I mean, there’s actually a kind of awe that sets in when you begin to really understand the extent of the stupidity involved...the same kind of stunned, silent reverence that comes when you finally see the Mona Lisa up close, or the first time you hear Ode to Joy performed by a live orchestra. The sheer majestic perfection of it sends you to your knees with the realization that this is not just common stupidity, it’s a Mount Everest rising into the clouds...a level of stupidity so monumental that it actually acquires horizontal perspective, like a train disappearing into the distance."

JMS, Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Volume 3

There, can't possibly put it any better than that. As a matter of fact, the two issues are rather closely related: JMS is rejoicing over "the decision by PTEN [the network that originally aired B5] to delay the final episodes of each season until the start of the subsequent season." There goes the cliffhanger...

Anyway, I actually meant to give a quote from the book itself and we're getting to it. You might or might not have read my little comment-almost-turned-essay explaining why I was reading the Bible. I'm sorry if you don't know German and give this short version of what I said as an offering of peace: religion has influenced human history, art and whatever for thousands of years, so you can't hope to understand all of these without knowing anything about religion. Or, and this is where we finally get to the point, dear readers:

Lyra: "[B]ut it en't true, is it? Not true like chemistry or engineering, not that kind of true? There wasn't really an Adam and Eve?

[...]

Lord Asriel: "[T]hink of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it."

Beautiful!
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13 May 2008 @ 07:44 pm
Eureka (6): It's a date  
Just in case you've never seen it - it's just a B5 trailer for SciFi channel, but it sure is different. If you look close enough, you might even be able to figure out why I like it ;)

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08 May 2008 @ 11:29 am
It's here! It's here, it's here, it's here! Yeehaw!!!  
*does the happy dance*

Volume 15, the bonus volume, of the Babylon 5 Scriptbooks has finally arrived. Oh, and v14 too, but that kinda pales a little in comparison. V15 has an awful lot of content that would make every fan be delirious with joy, but to me the one and unbeatable treat is the original 5 year arc. The one where Sinclair got to stay for the whole show. The one that is a lot more different from the show we got to see than I'd have thought. Not sure, which one I'd have preferred given a choice, but wow, that also would have been something!

Now excuse me, I gotta go read that infamous Londo-G'Kar-Gagscript...
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17 January 2008 @ 11:45 am
Presidents Galore  
Yes! Woohoo!! Yeehaw!!!

In addition to Boxleitner, Mary McDonnell has been announced for this year's FedCon. This is frakking awesome :D


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24 December 2007 @ 02:48 pm
Merry Christmas... happy Hanukkah... whatever...  
Well, read the subject and consider yourself addressed if there's anything at all you are or would like to be celebrating at this time of the year.

If I ever decide on really starting a category ranting on dubbing, we'll meet that quote again.

For now, I present my favorite cartoon concerning the topic:




Translation:

"I've invented a machine to remove commerce from christmas." - "Let's build  a whole lot of them and sell them for lots of money."
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11 October 2007 @ 04:57 pm
Vid: Brokeback Babylon  
I came across the Brokeback Mountain spoof trailers when reading Wikipedia's article on Internet phenomena. I seem to remember a whole list, too, but apparently it's gone. Just go do some googling or head for YouTube right away - there are lots of them. Be it Back to the Future, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Star Trek - you name it. If it has fans, it more than likely has one or more of these parodies, too.

So, naturally, I looked for one doing B5. There was none. Now there is:



Why? - I think I've covered that already. If you want something done right, do it yourself.

Do I have a favorite part? - Lots. I was giggling quite frequently during vidding.

Any new challenges in vidding? - Lots. This is the first time I've used not only pictures but dialog. Imagine having thought of a perfect scene to use, just to find it ruined by music setting in... I also took my first tiny steps using After Effects to animate the text. Couldn't get it to fade in from the right though, I'm still peeved by this. Last and pretty much least, I had to cut the music, too.


That's the last of my vids so far. I'm not about to run out of ideas, I'll be running out of hands first...


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03 October 2007 @ 10:42 am
All's well that ends well  
Once upon a time I was a big Star Trek fan. So big in fact that I started going to conventions. At my second convention I got to see Leonard Nimoy, Gates McFadden, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jeri Ryan and John de Lancie.

Oh, and this guy from that other show. Bruce Boxleitner. They had announced him as "the captain". Didn't look anything like Sinclair though. Strange show. He told stories about scenes where someone was sitting on a bench watching the sun come up. (It was in 1999, so Sleeping in Light was brand new.) People kept pestering him for autographs and when he or the organizers finally relented, I was just happy about most of the convention area being a lot less crowded for hours.

Fast forward about 5.5 years. Some JMS guy is announced for FedCon. Waitaminit, I don't know how the hell to pronounce his name, but I do know he's important. He's supposed to be the man of B5, that show I still haven't gotten around to watching even though it's been on my list for ages (= 5.5 years...). I can not, in the most negative sense of not, go to that convention without having seen the show. I still have about 6 months, so that should be doable.

It took me about 2 months and I loved every minute of it. JMS didn't come, but I had a new favorite show.

And I started remembering lots of names. Jerry Doyle, Claudia Christian, Robin Atkin Downes, Richard Biggs, Marjorie Monaghan, Walter Koenig and the aforementioned Mr. Boxleitner. I had seen them all, I just hadn't known what a great show they represented. Some cursing ensued.

People who call themselves friends started teasing me with their autographs of a certain actress bearing a cunning resemblance to Ivanova. More cursing. I got to see her again 1.5 years ago.

And now, after having read all of this, you can begin to imagine just how thrilled I am by the announcement that Bruce Boxleitner is going to be at next year's FedCon.

What's even better - I know exactly what video I'm going to do for Sheridan.

Expect some serious cursing should he cancel...
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02 October 2007 @ 10:12 am
Vid: Ode to White Star  



Why? - Done for FedCon XVI. I've liked the theme ever since I first heard it, which incidentally also was at FedCon announcing someone's (Ted Raimi, Alexandra Tydings? - not sure) appearance. I've also always liked the White Star, a fact cleverly disguised by the jab at the end ;)

Do I have a favorite part? - Yes, the part where Delenn's White Star overtakes the Drakh mother ship and blocks the jumpgate. IMO its turning fits the music perfectly which was entirely and absolutely intentional and not in any way accidental.

Any new challenges in vidding? - After struggling a little with the instrumental part of the Wisest Men going for something without any lyrics seemed challenging enough. However, finding the scenes was the most difficult part by far. I'm good at remembering people, quotes and stuff like that, but I suck at remembering SFX scenes. Thanks to the Lurker for their detailed synopses and to my Firefox for STRG+F. The editing itself went very smoothly and quickly.
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24 September 2007 @ 12:44 am
Vid: The wisest men of the world  
OK, here's number two. The lyrics are in German and not exactly irrelevant, so I subtitled the thing:



Why? - I also did this for FedCon XV. The song is actually the first one that made me feel like it was perfect for a B5 vid. I am a big fan of irony and there were so many possibilities.

Do I have a favorite part? - Many. "Our darkness is illuminated by them", "sometimes they make themselves unpopular" and Vir's waving at the end are definitely among them. I also like Sheridan's outburst near the end, because, really, angry Sheridan is a sight to behold.

Any new challenges in vidding? - The subtitles, but that wasn't too hard. I also had to struggle a bit with the instrumental part as I usually like to really go with the lyrics.

If you know what you're looking for, this is also where you can best see that at some point between my original product and what you can see on Youtube the cuts get messed up just a tiny bit. When an Earth destroyer (I think, that's what it is...) rams the other, the music doesn't quite hit the right spot. Same goes for Sheridan's swearing in. I'm not sure anyone else even notices, but it bugs me to no end... If anyone can help me with this, please do.
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21 September 2007 @ 10:47 am
Vid: Ivanova - Everything  
Now, there's a way of posting without writing much - I'll start posting my vids, one by one. You may of course just go to my channel on Youtube to watch all of them, but be aware that ACROB, the Association for Continuous Reading Of Blogs, does consider this to be cheating.

I'll go in order of creation, so that brings us to Ivanova first:



Why? - It was done for FedCon XV in 2006 because of Claudia Christian being there. She is hilarious.

How did I come up with the song? - Well, listen to the lyrics and you'll know. This is Ivanova.

Do I have a favorite part? - I am very fond of "what I resist persists..." because it took me forever to come up with it, but worked out very well, I believe. But really, I like the whole thing. I mean, we're talking Ivanova here. Can't go wrong with her.

Any new challenges in vidding? - It was my first, so everything.
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