BSG

After a long war between humans and human created robots, the Cylons, an armistice is declared. The Cylons are banished to a distant planet and a remote space station is set up to keep up diplomatic relations between the Cylons and humans. This is where the BSG miniseries begins. It had been forty years since the Cylons and humans had any contact; however, on this day the Cylons do make an appearance on the remote space station. The lone human on the space station is very surprised by the Cylon appearance on the space station and even more surprised when he sees that they now look like humans. The Cylons, however, do not stay long. They soon destroy the ship beginning another war against the humans. The war begins by the Cylons dropping dozens of nuclear bombs on all of the major human cities. Caught completely off guard by the attack, the humans try and fight back, but the Cylons seem to have the ability to turn off human computers at will. However, the ship Battlestar Galactica is not affected by the Cylons computer virus and does rather well against the Cylons in a space fire fight.

I have never seen any of the BSG series, but from the miniseries it seems like a pretty good show. The plot behind it is really intriguing, and makes me wonder how the rest of the series goes. BSG has what seems like to me to be a kind of recurring theme among many science fiction movies and series today that humans create something to make their lives easier and it turns against them and almost destroys them. This theme is also shown in the Terminator movies where human created robots attempt to take over earth. I find this theme to be interesting for some reason. The prospect of something like this actually happening in future seems very plausible to me considering how our technology is exponentially progressing, and maybe humans should take note as to what is shown in these movies to prevent something like this from happening.

A Dream

A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

In visions of the dark night

I have dreamed of joy departed;

But a waking dream of life and light

Hath left me broken- hearted.

Ah! What is not a dream by day

To him whose eyes are cast

On things around him, with a ray

Turning back upon the past?

That holy dream, that holy dream,

While all the world were chiding,

Hath cheered me as a lovely beam

A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro’ storm and night,

So trembled from afar-

What could there be more purely bright

In Truth’s day- star?

Poe wrote this piece in his youth, and he experienced a lot of turmoil in his young life, due to the death of his mother from tuberculosis. In this poem Poe starts by describing a dream that appears to be a nightmare, which breaks his heart. In the second stanza; however he begins to show that his nightmare follows him through the day as well as through the night. In the third stanza Poe explains that a lonely spirit makes him happier and helps him though his nightmare, because his life became a bad dream after the death of his mother, the lonely spirit could be the mother he lost. The final stanza describes Poe waking up from his bad dream, and an underlying meaning to this stanza could be that the thought of his mother could be his sun, or his truth’s day star that brings him away from the pain of his hard life.

Normal Again

In the Buffy episode “Normal Again” Buffy gets stung by what she thinks is a demon causing her to think she is in a mental hospital. For me, having only seen two episodes of Buffy this was a very interesting twist, and one that makes the series more understandable. When Buffy is in the mental hospital she learns that her parents are there and the doctor is attempting to heal her of a severe case of skitsofrenia. After Buffy returns to her “normal” slayer life she starts to doubt her surroundings thinking that they are all just things her mind has made up. These doubts start to increase and Buffy decides she wants to try and return to her real life in the mental hospital and get better. To do this she starts to try and get rid of her friends, but in the end decides to return to her life as a slayer.

For me this episode was very intriguing because of the fact that Buffy most likely is a skitsofrenic girl in a mental hospital that has created this intricate world where she is in control. This logic really makes sense because everyone knows there is really no such thing as vampires, monsters, and demons. Also, I can now see why this episode of Buffy is one of the more talked about of the series because it answers a lot of questions but at the same time creates more questions.

House

House is pretty much the only tv series I consistently watch. It was first broadcast in November 2004 and is now in its 6^th season. House stars Hugh Laurie as Dr. Greg House and Lisa Edelstein as Dr. Lisa Cuddy. House takes place at Princeton‑Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey where Dr. House takes patients who seem to have incurable diseases or ones that he finds interesting. Finding out what is wrong with each patient turns into sort of a puzzle as new symptoms arise as the episode goes on. The episodes become increasingly complex as each of the doctors is usually undergoing personal issues throughout the treatment of the patient that usually carry on into the next episodes.

I personally only recently started watching House and now I rarely miss an episode. I know that a lot of people don’t really like it because of how it can be kind of repetitive in that a person gets sick, almost dies, and House cures him at the last minute. However, I don’t find them to be very repetitive and they are always entertaining for me.

Common Place

I think my commonplace paper is going to be about how human nature is shown through in Firefly episodes by decisions characters make, and how in general the characters interact. There are a lot of good messages in the episodes that people today could learn from. So I plan to break some of those down and relate them to current events.

Toes

I am a pretty big fan of country music, although I know many people are not. So I chose one of my favorites “Toes” by the Zac Brown Band. This song is not really the typical country song in that it doesn’t really have the heavy country accent and just has a different feel in general. The song describes someone getting ready to go on vacation to Mexico and leaving the boring confines of a city. Once in Mexico he describes relaxing and having a good time having his toes in the water, ass in the sand, and a cold beer in his hand. Once in Mexico he describes his days there as “Four days flew by like a drunk Friday night as the summer drew to an end”. Once arriving home he attempts to enjoy his home as much as Mexico by replicating what he did there saying “I'm just gunna prop up by the lake I've got my ass in a lawn chair Toes in the clay Not a worry in the world a PBR on the way Life is good today. Life is good today.”

If you haven’t listened to this song I suggest you look it up on youtube or some other way and check it out because it is a great song.

Is It Art?

Is It Art? Is an article by Gary Moeller where he discusses the Buffy the Vampire episode “Hush”. In this article, Moeller compares how this episode relates to other videos considered art. Moeller first compares how “Hush” and The Yellow Submarine showing how the two are similar because in each instance the sound is taken away from a town. Next, the article discusses how The Gentleman’s minions are similar to the monkeys in The Wizard of Oz saying “The monkeys were so incredibly creepy; some aspects of their creepiness relate directly to the Gentlemen’s minions.” This articles ends by debating whether or not “Hush” should be considered art. Moeller says yes “Yes (since, revealed through art, we do need to know all, even the most frightening), then “Hush” passes this test, at least in terms of intent.”