Friday – 17 July 2009
It’s kind of odd to be at work on a Friday. Well, not entirely odd, as I do it every other Friday, but this is the first Friday that I’ve worked in a month, thanks to harmonic convergence the way that my 9/80 Fridays and the Fourth of July worked out. Fortunately, it’s most coworkers’ 9/80 day off, so it should be rather quiet around here.

Reeling by on Celluloid
I chatted with MarknTyme this morning about the Cool World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale. I was looking for an icon to represent that scale in the same way that I use the red LEGO brick for thigns that I like. Both he and had suggested using Mega Blox, since they are a LEGO knock0ff. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a picture of a single Mega Blox (Blok?), so that became a moot point. MarknTyme then suggested a Lawn Dart. That seemed to fit better – “Aiming for the target… but just missing the mark.” So, I give you the official icon for the CW/LKG Scale: The Lawn Dart.

We also hammered out a few other points about the scale:

  • The standard, as put by MarknTyme, is: “…the worst movie I paid full price to see.”
  • It’s a “mirror” of the normal scale, with Cool World as the -10 and Long Kiss Goodnight at -1
  • The worse a movie is, the more darts it gets.
  • Regardless of whether some other movie rates a -10, Cool World will retain it’s spot as the “name” at the bottom end of the scale.  It’s tradition, after all.
  • Allowances can/will be made to add rented movies to the scale. (I’m looking at you, The Spirit…)

And, with that out of the way…

Last night, Logan came over for dinner. While eating, we watched Krull, a movie that I’d never seen before, but that SaraRules and Logan watched – fairly often, I took it – while growing up. It was a bit dated, in terms of special effects and it didn’t have the greatest acting or dialogue, but it was still amusing and entertaining. Even more of a shock to me – no, lj user=”applevenus” , not a shocker – was to discover that the lead actor, Kenneth Marshall, later went on to portray  Lt. Cmdr. Michael Eddington, an antagonist of Capt. Benjamin Sisko, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Also in the movie were a younger Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane. While this was a “fun” movie, it wasn’t a “great” movie.  Thus, it gets the dubious honor of being the first movie to get darts from the CW/LKG Scale:

After Krull, we watched The Day the Earth Stood Still. No, not the Keanu “Whoa… I know alien invasions” Reeves version; we watched the 1951 classic version. It was definitely a movie of its era: Full of Cold War suspicion and platitudes about the power – and danger – of using atomic energy. It was also amusing to note the way the military “protected” the general public from the enigmatic visitor, as well: Klaatu’s spaceship landed in President’s Park, in Washington, D.C. The public, after the Army established a cordon around the ship, stood right behind the firing line. Let’s look at why this is funny to me:

  • Spaceship in the park. (Okay, this one isn’t funny by itself, but bear with me.)
  • Army forms a circle around the spaceship. (Now we’re getting somewhere…)
    • All weapons (small arms and heavy artillery) are pointed towards the center of the circle
  • The general public was standing – between 25 and 50 feet – around the perimeter of the circle.

Apparently, no one was worried about ricochets or “collateral damage.” *shrug*

All-in-all, I can see why this movie is considered a staple of “classic science fiction.” It was a good movie and kept me both entertained and engaged.

Stray Toasters

  • Yep. I’m a Legion fan. And, a freely-acknowledged overgrown kid. Need proof? I just ordered this.
  • 40 Years after Apollo 11: What’s our next step?
  • DC Comics’ summer event, Blackest Night, kicked off on Wednesday. If it maintains the pace set by its first issue, this is going to be very good.
  • In a related note, a couple of months ago, asked me why I’m such a big Green Lantern fan and how I came to be one. It took me a few moments to formulate a fully-realized answer, but I came up with one:

    I had read comics with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) in them as a kid and I also remembered watching him in various incarnations of Super Friends on Saturday mornings. His power: He had a ring that could create anything that he could imagine. He had the ultimate answer in “wish fulfillment,” almost literally in the palm of his hand. Years later, I bought issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, because I liked the character and the space-faring adventures.

    Fast forward to 2001… Cartoon Network brought the Justice League back to the screen in animated form. The show focused on DC’s seven “big guns”: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern. This time, however, they didn’t use Hal Jordan; they went with another Earth-based Lantern, John Stewart. As Bruce Timm put it:

    He’s the most controversial character so far from what we’ve been gathering on the Internet. When the show’s lineup was first announced, there were a lot of people saying, “Why aren’t they using Hal Jordan? No, it’s got to be Guy Gardner. No, it’s got to be Kyle Rayner.” Obviously, we picked the wrong one, but the reason we did choose John Stewart are various—I think they’re all valid. Right off the bat, I’ll just say it: you know we did need ethnic diversity in the Justice League. We felt that the show is going to be seen worldwide and I think having a member of the Justice League who is not just “Mr. White Bread” is a good thing.Another reason why we chose him: literally, out of all the Green Lanterns we could have chosen, we all kind of liked the John Stewart character from the comics, especially the Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams version. When they first introduced him he was like the angry young black guy…you know, in 1969 and 1970. Even though that’s not really relevant today—like the whole Black Power movement and everything—we still wanted to keep that kind of edge and attitude with him.

    And so, just in banging around ideas of what to do with him, going back to the original idea of the Green Lantern Corps—where they’re basically Lensmen [the pulp characters created by E.E. “Doc” Smith]—they’re space cops, they’re space marines. We’re like, “Okay, he’s a military guy.” And then somebody said, “Louis Gossett Jr.—An Officer and a Gentlemen.” I said, “Yeah,” and I went, “Wait a minute—Samuel L. Jackson,” and everyone went, “Yeah!” So that’s kind of who he is. He’s a real rugged, no-nonsense, barking orders kind of Green Lantern—and we love him to pieces. We love him so much [that] he’s like in almost every episode. I predict that you guys are going to love him too.

    And he was right. I did… and still do. It was great to not only have a Green Lantern on the team, but to have one who was Black brought something else to the table: A role model, of sorts, for kids (and at least one or two adults I know). It was good to see someone of color portrayed on-screen with a positive influence and not just “guy on the street” or “thug of the week.” That – and the way that the character was developed in both the animated series and in comics – only helps to cement John Stewart as a favorite character of mine.

  • Fighting Racism Is a Family Tradition
  • sent me a link to Web Site Story:

  • The Harmony Sweepstakes: A Cappella Singers Go Mouth-O A Mouth-O
  • Neil Gaiman, Taking a Look Back at Batman
  • Will it go round in circles?
    Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
  • From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: NYPD is spending $1 million in typewriters
  • US Videogame Sales Have Biggest Drop in 9 Years

Namaste.