television
oracknows | April 17, 2006I can relate to this one...
And, yes, between the hours of 9 PM and 10 PM EDST, don't bother me. I'll be...occupied.
But before I settle down, I can't resist posting this special Easter 24 banner:
oracknows | March 23, 2006This just in:
Doctor Who has been nominated for three prestigious Hugo Awards this year, according to an announcement made yesterday by the award's administrators and the 64th World Science Fiction Convention, L.A. Con IV. Taking three of seven slots in the "Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form" category are the Doctor Who episodes Dalek written by Robert Shearman, Father's Day written by Paul Cornell, and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, written by Steven Moffat. The three are running against an episode of the new "Battlestar Galactica" series, the Pixar animated short "Jack Jack Attack…
oracknows | March 20, 2006Those of us who are fans of 24 have noted that there seems to be a higher body count this year. True, 24 has always had a high body count, but this year seems different. Here's a convenient summary of the major characters killed thus far, and the season's only slightly more than half over.
oracknows | March 19, 2006As many have pointed out, Isaac Hayes, who happens to be a Scientologist, quit his role as Chef on South Park last week, unhappy that the show had produced an episode that made fun of Scientology. Apparently, it's OK with him if South Park makes fun of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but say anything derogatory about his religion, and Hayes is suddenly not so open-minded.
Now, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have released this statement through their lawyer in response to Comedy Central's recent pulling of a repeat showing of the episode in question in response to pressure by Tom Cruise on…
oracknows | March 12, 2006I have mixed feelings about the season finale of Battlestar Galactica, which aired Friday night. Overall, the second season has been a lot less consistent than the first. Some episodes (Downloaded, for example) were as good or better than anything in the first season, while a couple (Black Market, for example) bordered on being downright stinkers. Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II contained elements of both the best and the worst of the second season.
At the very least, this episode confirms that Battlestar Galactica is surely one of the most exhiliratingly and infuriatingly adventurous shows on…
oracknows | March 6, 2006Holy crap! They killed off...
{Spoiler below the fold--if you're in a time zone west of Eastern Standard, haven't yet seen the episode because of the time difference, and don't want to know what happens at the end of the episode, don't read below the fold. You've been warned!}
... Edgar at the end of tonight's episode of 24 by nerve gas!
I'm bummed. As annoying as he could be at times, I kind of liked his rather whiny, pudgy character.
It's a rather nifty cliffhanger ending, though, with nerve gas released into CTU headquarters and the core staff trapped in the situation room.
And we're only…
oracknows | February 27, 2006
After the last blog carnival I mentioned, here's one I can really get behind.
Regulars around here know that I'm a 24 junkie. I have to get my fix of Jack Bauer's adventures (including his uncanny ability to get to almost anywhere in southern California within 20 minutes, regardless of traffic conditions) every Monday night, and, if for some reason I can't (out of town at a meeting, the fairly uncommon call for emergency surgery, whatever), I have to ask my long-suffering wife tape it for me. The coming of my former favorite guilty pleasure, The Apprentice, to Monday nights just means that I…
oracknows | February 26, 2006I've always kind of liked Spongebob Squarepants, although I had always wondered about his relationship with Patrick Star. Here's evidence that my suspicions may have been correct.
oracknows | February 25, 2006You can't make stuff like this up. You really can't.
Did you know that Tom and Jerry are in reality a clever secret nefarious plot by the Jews?
That's what Professor Hassan Bolkhari, who teaches philosophy of art at Tabatabaei and Al-Zahra Universities in Iran and is a member of the Film Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, asserts (if you understand the language, feel free to check out the original video here):
There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults - Tom and Jerry.
[...]
Some say that this…
oracknows | February 18, 2006This will be my last post on this subject, but I thought it might be of interest to show that Andreas faced his impending death due to lung cancer with dignity and class. Indeed, one could say that he faced it much the same way G'Kar would have, if he existed. A couple of days ago, J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, posted this message to his mailing list:
Just over a year ago, Andreas Katsulas--who loved smoking with a passion that cannot be described--was diagnosed with lung cancer, which by then had already spread to other areas. He quit smoking at once and went on a…
oracknows | February 16, 2006Since the death of Andreas Katsulas, I've been thinking just how many great lines he had as G'Kar in the series and how well he delivered them. Here, culled from the web, is but a sampling of some of them. Some are very serious; some are humorous, but all are quintessential G'Kar. I can't think of a better tribute:
G'Quon wrote, "There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of…
oracknows | February 15, 2006
Sad news on the Babylon 5 front.
Andreas Katsulas died on February 13 of lung cancer at the age of 59. Besides playing the One-Armed Man in the movie The Fugitive and making frequent appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Katsulas was best known for playing the Narn Ambassador G'Kar on what was, in my opinion, one of the best SF television shows of all time, Babylon 5.
G'Kar was my second favorite character on the show after his nemesis, Londo Mollari. Whereas Londo's character arc saw him starting out as a decadent and buffoonish oaf and then becoming a very dark and cunning…