- Carl runs us through the upcoming shuttle sequence. “Okay, um, first, you have the shuttle…”
- “and…uh…it’s going like this…”
- “…and then this comes around this way but that keeps going that way…”
- “…eventually ending in something that looks like this.”
- “And…that’s all I got. Yep. That’s it.”
- “Please, stop that.”
This is a warning to you trusting individuals out there. If somebody calls you claming to be a representative of a sprinkler service and asks you to pull the fire alarm to “reset” the system, question him to make sure he is who he claims to be. And, if he is, then go ahead and follow his instructions to shatter windows, shut down power, and break off a sprinkler head. You know, I’ve always wondered what kind of a moron would fall for those spam emails. Well, know I know…http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0609092prank3.html
After lunch today, we sat down and watched the director’s cut of Time. Hoowee! What a ride! Great script, great direction, and great performances all around make this one of the stand-out episodes of what has thus far been an overwhelmingly solid first season line-up. A special shout-out to David Blue (who wasn’t on set when I swung by this afternoon to congratulate the actors on a job well done) for a performance at turns humorous, commanding, and touching. And, of course, an extra-special congrats to Robert C. Cooper who wrote, directed, and produced the episode. Tonight, we celebrated Hungarian style…with schnitzel platters for everyone (“Everyone” being Robert, Carl, Lawren, and myself).
So every once in a while, I like to check out my blog stats and, specifically, the search terms that led those unwary first-timers to this blog. Usually, it’s names like “Joseph Mallozzi” or “Amanda Tapping”, or titles like “Stargate: Universe”, but occasionally it’ll be a term so bizarre or foreign to this blog that it leaves me scratching my head wondering: 1) How the hell did this search term lead back to my blog? and 2) What the hell were these people tracking down “kilted hamsters” for? A few of my favorites from the past week:
“Chocolate party” (seven searches)
“Komodo dragon clip art” (four searches)
“Gene Simmons” (three searches)
“Scooby Doo” (two searches)
“creepy house” (two searches)
“Ottawa vulcan seat” (two searches)
“lion cupcake violet crumble” (one search)
“is it safe to give a whole carrot to a 9” (one search)
“Montreal map prostitutes” (one search)
“NJ 2009 alternatives to serving jail time” (one search)
“Barney the dinosaur cursing on tv” (one search)
Hope everyone found what they were looking for.
Some Elric discussion:
Iamza writes: “Is some of Elric’s perceived evil because he does not have a typical Melnibonean outlook on life?”
Answer: He certainly comes across as noble, even likable, in contrast to his fellow Melniboneans. In all fairness however, we never get to know any of his fellow countrymen.
Iamza also writes: “I mean, a lot of things that people consider evil are things they don’t fully understand.”
Answer: True. I love the fact that, on the surface, Elric’s actions may seem cruel and self-serving, yet this outward appearance is deceiving (adding to his notoriety). It’s interesting to note that he appears to take no pleasure in his actions. Even his acts of revenge come across as painful exercises, duties to be completed.
Thornyrose writes: “ What parts of the book gave me a sense of the Melinbonean’s inhumaness. Hmm. I think the impression really sets in later in this book, when Moorcock is giving a description of Elric’s cousin, and describes his beauty as inhuman.”
Answer: How interesting then that Elric, the albino denied the beauty of his Melniboneans turns out to be the most human of them all.
DasNdanger writes: “ I found it interesting, too, that Elric finished him off at the urging of Moonglum. Still, I can’t decide if he put the man out of his misery because of Moonglum, or simply because he become bored with it all.”
Answer: Given the pain and suffering he’d endured as a result of Jagreen Lern’s actions, I suspect Elric very much enjoyed meting out his punishment. Eventually, he may have grown tired, but I doubt he’d have been bored.
DasNdanger also writes: “Though he agonized over Cymoril’s death and his role in destroying his culture…it only served to further convinced me that Elric was more the sentimentalist than the conscience-pricked man. That’s not to say that he felt no guilt or remorse over what he had done…he certainly did. But over what? The wanton destruction of his own culture, or his failure to come off victorious?”
Answer: I don’t know. I really feel as though the responsibility he bore for the deaths of his friends and loved ones helped solidify his dark, brooding persona and, over time, transform him from a cold-blooded killer to a fairly sympathetic anti-hero.
DasNdanger also writes: “Oddly enough, I did not see his sacrifice as ‘tragic’. It was…beautiful. What a contrast to the brutal torture Elric could mete out, or the demons he could conjure up, or the souls he could so ravenously take at the tip of his sword. Here was the one soul that was not his to steal, the one soul that was neither evil nor suffering, but one to be given willingly, in all pureness of motive.”
Answer: Except that when he is at death’s door and giving up his soul, Moonglum’s reaction is far from noble or beautiful. It’s a horrible, frightening, and painful experience, and that’s what makes it tragic.
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