Transporter Malfunction (2)

And if you laugh at this juxtaposition, you’re a terrible, terrible person.

As some of you have a strange interest in your host’s viewing habits, a brief update seems in order. We finished the first series, from 1978, of James Burke’s Connections, which was fun. before realising how sharply the quality drops for later series, which are much less coherent and rather glib. We re-watched HBO’s Rome because… well, Polly Walker’s Atia is a model for us all. We’re also re-watching The Expanse, which starts out unremarkably and has two mediocre lead actors, but gets much better as the scale of the, er, situation unfolds – and it has one of the more interesting MacGuffins in recent memory.
As usual, recommendations are welcome.

Free shit matters.

And this is worthy of fist bumps and posting a video?
Exulting in predation and degeneracy. It’s a triumph, apparently.

I enjoyed the Expanse, once it got going.
Yes, the first few episodes aren’t particularly gripping – it’s mostly world-building, which pays off later; but once the MacGuffin is introduced, things pick up and the story accelerates and widens in scope, and by season two it’s noticeably better paced, with more at stake – and more so in season three.
Is Rome worth a go then?
I’ve watched it three times. And I’m not even sorry.

Mrs. Oik and I enjoyed The Vast Of Night, and we are currently engrossed in The Wire, half way through season 2 for the third time.
One wonders whether The Wire would make it past script development these days; it’s unrelenting in its depiction of the nastiness of the (mainly black) drug culture, and doesn’t hold back when it comes to the (mixed race) police being tough, either. There is the heartbreaking fate of Wallace in season 1, for instance, or the beating inflicted upon Bodie by the cops when he pushes one of their number during a raid. The most striking aspect of that scene is how the gay character Kima Greggs pushes to the front- one’s natural reaction is to think “OK, the brave/fearless/whatever LGBTQ will step in to hold back the racist white cops”, but instead Kima joins in with the arse-kicking most enthusiastically, whilst screaming “You hit a PO-lice?” at the hapless Bodie. The Wire, apart from being superb drama, serves to demonstrate just how deeply embedded the tropes and conventions of film and TV are.

and the actor who plays Avasarala is always great; marvellous voice.
Yes, Shohreh Aghdashloo and her tailoring are worth the price of admission, I think.

Holden and Naomi are mainly eye candy.
Yes, regarding Pouty What’s-his-face and his acting, the nicest thing you can say is, “good legs, nice arse.”
Which, tragically, will only get you so far.

Crikey. She-Kirk is kinda hot.
I’m guessing that first thing this morning you had no idea you’d soon be typing those words.

Today’s word is equality.

Today’s word is equality.
Top comment: They are beginning to treat blackness like it’s a disability.
Actually they have been for a while, but maybe – MAYBE – some affected people are starting to notice.

Indoctrinating 10 year olds.
Damaged people with distorted world-views are more likely to find appealing what the left sells than not. Therefore the left has an interest in manufacturing damaged minds.
If you want to keep an organization of cluster-B personalities fed, anxiety farming is the most secure method.

Today’s word is equality.
I read that a professor at a prominent American university has been suspended for refusing to make such a concession to black students. Sorry, I don’t remember where or remember a link.

I don’t remember where or remember a link.
William Jacobson?

I don’t remember where or remember a link.
Gordon Klein
And he was following University policy as directed by his supervisor.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qVtMY7KjQgEJ:https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/status/1272640664468144137+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Feel the compassion!

Feel the compassion!
The inside of his head must make a loud, continual buzzing noise.

Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth. Although it’s tough to track down all the episodes.
[Hoists Jolly Roger, adjusts eyepatch] I prefer the term ‘gentleman of fortune’.
I was really enjoying The Expanse at first because I think there’s a lot to be said for a hard SF setting without warp drive, BEMs and ray guns – until, well, er. You know. Spoilers.
Let’s see, TV recommendations. My usual list is a bit long in the tooth now:
Justified
The Americans
Banshee
Burn Notice is good for the first two seasons, but then suffers from getting more seasons than they had ideas to fill.
Cobra Kai is surprisingly watchable, since they’ve taken the “Daniel-san is actually the villain of The Karate Kid” joke and run with it.
I’m enjoying Knightfall, which is about as accurate as Vikings but is entertaining.
Churchill’s Secret Agents – a reality show about the SEO training program – is a cracking good watch.
For a CW-esque kind of show, MTV’s Teen Wolf does a surprisingly good job of building its own unique lore. It’s a slightly less grim Vampire Diaries.
I’ve been avoiding most new TV because I’m just weary of the covert and overt proselytizing.

Indoctrinating 10 year olds.
If there is a silver-lining to the Wuhan Bat Lab Cooties lockdown and shutting down schools is that parents have been right there to listen to the lessons their kids are getting via online platforms. Before, unless the kids came home and actually shared what they were learning, parents may have had suspicions but now, there it is, on their own computer screens.
AND parents are learning that homeschooling may have been difficult but not impossible. Many parents are not going to return their kids to school when they do open.

[ Fetches rickety, two-legged stool. ]

What put you off? Everyone else, look away now.
I too am curious: most of the praise I’ve seen has been from people whose opinions I do not trust due to them being far-left ideologues likely to praise or condemn based said ideology. (Did I ever mention the sf writer whose “list” of fine writers turned out almost all leftists and gay leftists with a few token lesbian leftists?)

All Daniel’s Fault.
Oh.
I’ll get me coat.
…did you have to use the smelly lighter fluid?
What put you off?
I’m a big fan of the industrial future as depicted in movies like Alien, Outland and Planetes, where the focus is more on the social and technological changes that have evolved as humans moved out into near space. The Expanse started out like that, with clever little details like the Belter neck tattoos being stylized versions of the scar early Belters got from wearing poorly fitted helmets for hours or days at a time.
And then wormholes and aliens and rayguns.

And then wormholes and aliens and rayguns.
Heh. I’m not sure that’s entirely fair. I haven’t seen any aliens or rayguns yet. The politics and grime and so forth are still there, just in a much wider setting. And as alien technology – or whatever it is – goes, it’s quite ambiguous and capable of surprising. Ditto where it came from, and why. Its creators are unknown, unseen, possibly extinct. What I’ve enjoyed – more than the politics and grime, and certainly more than the irritating Belter patois – is the sense of escalation – most obvious in seasons two and three – where the scale of the story grows quite dramatically, with huge asteroids… doing impossible things, or large chunks of Venus… doing impossible things. The open-endedness of the proto-molecule, the MacGuffin, is a large part of the appeal, at least for me.

the uneven quality of the show.
Yes, that – uneven. It doesn’t quite cohere. No episode ever hits a ‘9’. Bits of it are great and genuinely surprising – the, er, relocations and transformations of very large things, for instance. And other bits are dull and hackneyed – Holden and Naomi being obvious weak points.

You think you’ve seen everything? Ooooh, no. Now you’ve seen everything.
The world has gone completely batshit insane.

The world has gone completely batshit insane.
Nah. The world has gone totally stuck indoors at computers.
Those unable to keep themselves entertained, or unable to keep working, or don’t have to stay working, have gone totally buggered bored.
Now, for those who are both, particularly such as showbiz types that can’t get work these days, and have to figure out how to keep getting work under such rather shifting circumstances, the question comes up of what to do that will get one rather enhanced visibility so as to keep the “career” going, where playing a role is just playing a role, really now, no one is going to take any of this seriously now . . . . . .
From that point of view, it’s a sort of a futility show variety, live audition workshop, job to be hired for to be decided later, as long one is visibly still available now . . . .

Gordon Klein And he was following University policy as directed by his supervisor.
Thank you, Steve.

A familiar mental pattern:

When they’re burning your house or business, it’s mostly-peaceful protest. But when the vandalism comes to her house it’s domestic terrorism.

You’d think reciprocal principles would be a bare minimum. But apparently not.

Bosch is very good. Except for season six
When I read that, I think oooh, 6 seasons? A lot of catching up. I fear the internet might have permanently damaged my attention span.
Steve E mentioned Altered Carbon. Speaking as a fan of the books, it’s utter bollocks. They dick about with the plot and situation in a pointless fashion in S1, which stores up problems for the largely nonsensical S2. It has also become stupidly PCified. It’s so ‘diverse’ almost everyone is black, including characters who were already non-white to begin with. In S2 the male lead becomes increasingly toothless and weak. It also falls into the superhero bollocks movie trap of thinking that endless chop socky nonsense is a substitute for action and drama.
They’ve also run out of original material to butcher so I’m not going to bother with S3.

Re the above I wonder if Chelsea Handler would be quite so understanding about his views on transgenderism as she apparently is about his anti-semitism. Too bad that no-one will ever ask her.

The Mandalorian – even though I’m not a Star Wars fan
Yes, I’ve enjoyed the first season. I don’t think it’s spectacular, just good fun. Almost whimsical. And likewise, I’m not a Star Wars enthusiast, but it works as a kind of spaghetti western about, er, parenting, sort of.

Pedro Pascal, also in Narcos, makes an excellent Man With No Name. And Baby Yoda is incredibly cute.
It’s a fun pairing. I’m not sure how many seasons they can string it out for, but at the moment I’m entertained. I tend to think that the less Star Wars it is, or at least the more removed it is from recent films – and the less dialogue there is – the more I like it.

Oh.
I finally got around to noticing Transporter Malfunction (2)

Here’s Transporter Malfunction Prime.

…the less Star Wars it is, or at least the more removed it is from recent films – and the less dialogue there is – the more I like it.
The lack of cod mysticism and the laconic main character are a big plus.

I have been watching SS-GB, mostly because I find the premise fascinating.
Not seen that one. I need to write a list.

Two headlines from this morning:
AUSTRIA: MAN FINED FOR FARTING ‘WITH FULL INTENT’ AT POLICE (New York Times)
WHAT THE WIND BLEW AWAY (Washington Examiner)
They just struck me as funny. Don’t go making a conspiracy theory about them!

A Mighty Wind.

say goodbye to Aunt Jemima
Curious they make no mention of what is to replace the outdated stereotype of a black woman making good from impoverished beginnings.
Sista Jamaila chucking a Molotov cocktail into a burning police car?
Cousin Jamal running from a recently looted Target proudly clutching his favourite breakfast syrup?
Inquiring minds want to know.

a kind of spaghetti western about, er, parenting, sort of.
I’m hoping they don’t make it ‘more Star Wars’ as it goes on.
For me, Favreau and Filoni have made the most Star Wars-y Star Wars in decades. They understand that Star Wars is just a fusion of the movies Lucas watched as a kid at the local theater in the 1960’s – so WWII movies, cowboy movies, Flash Gordon, and because Lucas was a film student in the 1970’s, Kurosawa.
The Mandalorian is The Man with No Name crossed with Lone Wolf and Cub. Flash Gordon comes in with the set dressing and visuals. There are a few stumbles – the more they introduce the Force the more it jars with the very grounded tone, and they can’t resist injecting Star Wars fan jokes about stormtroopers.

For me, Favreau and Filoni have made the most Star Wars-y Star Wars in decades.
Heh. Well, again, the less it resembles the woke trashfire of recent offerings, the better, I should think.

Curious they make no mention of what is to replace the outdated stereotype
Given these cretins’ commie LARPing perhaps they’ll ape the Soviets and demand it be labelled just “Syrup” like in the good ol’ USSR.
Haha just kidding! Like the Reds had access to outrageous luxuries like viscous sugar and things to put it on for breakfast. Tovarishch, please.

Agggggghhhhhhh !
Needed to be said.

This one is right out of Central Casting.
They’re all being terribly radical in exactly the same way. Practically predestined.

Nothing to see here, just Peter Hitchens standing tall against an angry, slogan-chanting mob:
At what point does this become straight forward harrassment?
Always led by a woman; have you noticed? The same ones who bullied some poor girl who didn’t have the right makings for the club in high school.
The UK needs a good dose of second amendment rights

angry, slogan-chanting mob:
“Sharna pax an get the pole”

The Chernobyl mini-series was quite well done. Took a few liberties, but the technical exposition was as well done as any documentary.

War: A Commentary by Gwynne Dyer,seven episodes.

say goodbye to Aunt Jemima
How long will it be before The Left starts bleating about the lack of BAME faces on food packaging?
Can someone please find The Left something useful to do?

Tomorrow’s Ephemera has been compiled and should materialise just after midnight
So, no transporter malfunction?

So, no transporter malfunction?
The night is young.