Fondy and I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by going out for Singaporean food yesterday. We exercised perfect timing in arriving downtown about twenty minutes after the St. Patrick’s Parade festivities had broken up, allowing us to find some terrific parking right around the corner from Prima Taste. For Sunday lunch, we had excellent Hainanese chicken. It’s a dish I usually avoid because the many versions I’ve tried in the past ranged from tasteless to unremarkable, but Prima Taste’s version is very tender and flavorful. We tried the prawn laksa. The spicy coconut-based curry broth was tasty and satisfying, lending the prawn and tofu puffs a bold richness, but I wasn’t a fan of the noodles. We also had an order of the garlic sautéed water spinach which turned out to be one of the best versions of this hollow-root veggie I’ve ever eaten (“Ten on ten!”was Fondy’s assessment).
After lunch, we swung by Chapters and, as is usually the case, I didn’t leave emptyhanded. Pictured are my four purchases: what looks to be a fairly comprehensive collection of the works of the great Harlan Ellison, a collection of short stories by Ursula K. LeGuin, Heinlein’s Time for the Stars (did I mention how much I liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?), and an interesting-looking little book – Mr. Thundermug by Cornelius Medvei – whose protagonist is a talking baboon. Not pictured but also purchased: China Mieville’s The Scar. Meanwhile, I’m halfway through World War Z and am finding it a difficult book to put down. The fact that it details the events of the zombie war after the fact does mute some of the tension, but the wholly believable description of society’s dissolution and the individual experiences amid the chaos make for a terrifyingly enjoyable read.
By the way, we watched our very first director’s cut late last week. Rob Cooper did a terrific job on Doppelganger. Some wonderfully way-out sequences in this one as well as some effectively creepy scenes as well, not to mention the full-contact extreme Shep whumpage in this one. This one is a lot of fun and, believe me, you cannot wait to see it! But, alas, you’ll have to.
An extra special thanks today to Lorr54 for sending some premium, hard-to-find, Scharffen Berger special editions. As per your request, we will be switching Zelenka’s background from Czech to Indonesian. Thanks again.
Speaking of Zelenka, David Nykel wanted a new uniform so he got one. Check it out. Styling, no?
Questions…
Peter writes: “Can you drop any hints with regards to the mid-season 2 parter? It seems to me that most of these 2 parters have something attacking/taking Atlantis (except Lost Boys/Hive). Will this be similar?”
Answer: No hints but I will say that it will be very different from previous mid-season two-parters.
Anonymous #1 writes: “What segment of 200 did you write?”
Answer: I wrote the zombie sequence, Invisible O’Neill, and the Farscape take-off.
Anonymous #2 writes: “I strongly believe that Brad, Rob, Paul and yourself did a superb job on SG1 and SGA regarding the art of story telling and suspence, and special effects removing the ships and all related stuff will be like castrating the last male of an endagered specie.”
Answer: Well, one of the problems with the introduction of the ships (and the beaming technology in particular) is that it sometimes takes away from the human element (the team). That said, we simply have to find ways around relying on our ships to save the day because, at this point, we have no intention of “castrating the last male of an endangered species” (although we may kick it in the nuts a couple of times).
Thor94 writes: “ 1)You say that in first movie, SG1 will go in ori’s galaxy. Will we see space-battle with earth ship(oddyssey,F302) and ori mothership and especially ori-hunter?
2)Will we see the asgard weapons acquired in “Unending” in SGA season4 to fight the wraith. 3) Will we find real ally with advanced technology (…) beause there are ever 3 season and all people with advanced science was enemy(assurans,wraith,olesian) or destructed(ancient,people of “the ark”)?”
Answers: 1) Now that you mention it, you may see a space battle or two. 2) Wait and see. 3) Yup. Check out Travelers.
Kirsten writes: “…six hours from Bellingham to Vancouver?! I really hope they weren’t driving in the left lane, or I’d be tailgating their ass.”
Answer: I suppose it depends on the back-up at border. The few times I’ve gone to Bellingham (to take our pugs to visit their eye specialist), it’s taken me anymore from one and half to three hours. Six hours? Well, maybe they rode their bikes.
Mikey writes: “Are we gonna see the surviving Satedans in Season 4?”
Answer: Chances are good.
Anonymous #3 writes: “The cello music in Unending was awesome and heart-breaking. Could you please tell us who played it (the filming of it was referenced in an article in the Stargate magazine) and what was the name of the composition?”
Answer: This one is a question for Brad Wright as he wrote the piece in question.
Arctic Goddess writes: “ What other series will Beau Bridges be on that you know about? Are you serious about the thought of a character becoming psychotic?”
Answer: Beau’s new series is “Two Families”. And as for the psychotic character episode – when do I kid?
John Manzione writes: “My wife suggested that it might be a good idea to let everyone involved in the shows know that they have fans out there that consider what they do to be something really special. Something sublime that we love to experience together. Where might we send such a letter?”
Answer: No need to send a letter. I’ll direct them to this blog entry.
Zabadoo writes: “What’s your favorite SG-1 season finale post-season 4? What’s your least favorite?”
Answer: Favorite is a tie between Moebius II and Camelot. Least favorite: Revelations (the only non-cliffhanger finale).
Anonymous #4 writes: “Granted, the cancellation of SG-1 was announced early in the season, but apart from the plots of the two movies, what else was planned for season 11?”
Answer: The movies were planned after the cancellation. We hadn’t even begun thinking about season 11 when we received word of the show’s cancellation.
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