Friday Ephemera
Unforeseen consequences. || My money’s on the little guy. || He made his own. || New neighbours detected || Forming spheres. || Fun with sand, some rubbing. || Electro-pop. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus) || Today’s word is suboptimal. || She’s an educator, you know. || Modernity is a hell of a thing. || See also. || Screams stopping abruptly, a thread. || Reverse your videos. Or pretty much any video. || “Very disturbed people.” || Branding, baby. || Being woke, she is of course enraged. || Eye-catching, yes, but a bugger to dust. || A collection of found paper aeroplanes. (h/t, Things) || Today’s other words are lubricant and pen torch. || A love like no other. || Clouds. || And finally, some behavioural correction.
What, exactly, would constitute a non traditional prostate exam?
Well you might think a cystoscopy would be enough without the finger. The doctor didn’t even buy me a drink.
It’ll be interesting to see how they handle Foundation later this year.
If by ‘they’ you mean Harveywood then
They.
Will.
F*ck
It
Up
“Today in racism? Plowing your neighbor’s driveway. For free.”
Wait… she’s serious, isn’t she? I mean, we’ve all grown used to “beyond parody” by now, but it genuinely took me a few paragraphs to realise that this isn’t a wind-up.
At least… I think it isn’t. I’m still not sure. Geez. Trying to figure Our Betters out is exhausting.
“Mass Effects 1-3 come immediately to mind.”
Oh, Mass Effect. So much promise squandered. It could have been the Great Videogame Space Opera – the universe of the first game was rich and interesting, with some genuinely alien species – and they turned it into “Hero saves humanity (and yeah, some aliens, but whatever), and dies in the process because Serious”.
They.
Will.
F*ck
It
Up
“Needs more titties.”
“Needs more explosions.”
“Let’s have the hero fight a giant electric penguin.”
Well, Salvor Hardin saves the Foundation – twice – by doing as little as possible. (After overthrowing a government of enlightened scientists.) And Hober Mallow saves the Foundation by doing as little as possible while also being a ruthless capitalist.
So, yeah… I can’t really imagine 2021 Hollywood not f*cking it up.
So much promise squandered.
I’m okay with it. Granted, I didn’t partake until long after 3 was released, and so never experienced the release version. Also, being of a somewhat combative nature, I got the Shepherd-lives-albeit-under-a-pile-of-rubble ending the first time through.
Could have done without storyteller grandpa riding in the caboose, however.
storyteller grandpa riding in the caboose
We’re not talking about Steve E’s exam anymore, right?
Plowing your neighbor’s driveway.
I think that one deserves a post of its own.
Thanks.
Well, Salvor Hardin saves the Foundation – twice – by doing as little as possible… So, yeah… I can’t really imagine 2021 Hollywood not f*cking it up.
I seem to recall Asimov himself saying that he didn’t think those stories were well suited to TV/film, for that very reason: not enough action, the characters spend so much time talking, etc. Take that with a grain of salt, though, as it’s been maybe 35-40 years and I may be confusing Asimov with something someone else said.
I think that one deserves a post of its own.
Oh good: a post without prostate exams.
We’re not talking about Steve E’s exam anymore, right?
I really don’t know what you guys are griping about, it is not like he is a millennial and TiK Tocking it, or has an Only Fans for it.
They.
Will.
F*ck
It
Up
To be fair to Hollywood producers, they do have some justification in their decisions: I run into lots of fans who think a sci-fi movie is improved by gratuitous nudity/skimpy costumes/etc. and the presence of such increases their interest in watching. Bad dialogue, wooden characters, and unbelievable plots, on the other hand, are things they don’t notice (unless, in the case of one class of nerd, the plot flaws have to do with technology.) And then there is the fans’ taste in paperback cover art…
and the presence of such increases their interest in watching
I know of a Helen Mirran quote along the lines of the only justification for nudity in a movie is box office. And she should know.
the only justification for nudity in a movie is box office
I vaguely recall arguments in the 60’s-70’s that nudity and sex were essential to fully portray individuals and their relationships: Without seeing a couple fully naked and copulating you could not understand the nuances of their love–and without seeing a woman’s ladyparts you could not truly understand her personality. It’s a pity I never saved these quotes to document just how dishonest much of the public rhetoric really was.
It’s a pity I never saved these quotes to document just how dishonest much of the public rhetoric really was
One of the things that made me both laugh out loud and start taking Banshee seriously is that being a Cinemax production, it has a ton of nudity and sex scenes – but they aren’t gratuitous. The sex scenes actually convey important information about the characters involved and their relationships.
It reminds me a bit of the stories of SoCal directors, cinematographers and lighting designers who can’t get work in a crowded market and end up shooting porn to pay the bills, and then go overboard with the production values because dammit, they have to have something in a portfolio.
I run into lots of fans who think a sci-fi movie is improved by […]
For a brief period in my callow youth I was involved in the Canadian media production industry, and most people, fan or not, have no idea what’s involved behind the camera in the production of their favourite genre shows. The Stargate SG-1 episode Wormhole X-treme! is both the cast and crew poking fun at themselves and something of a cinematic “lighten up, Francis” to the show’s increasingly rabid fanbase.
When Angel was cancelled there was a fan letter writing campaign, and the producer actually responded with an open letter to the fanbase explaining that it was a matter of numbers: the total number of people who had seen more than even a half-second of any Angel episode, perhaps while channel-surfing, was an infinitesimal fraction of the number of people who had seen every single episode of Seinfeld and bought the entire series on DVD.
I no longer know if it holds true with streaming and YouTube and all that, but the rubric used to be that TV was watched by women, movies were watched by men, and production/writing was tuned accordingly. What women want is relationship drama, and so most TV adaptations skew that way.