Cylon Whisperer
A couple of random pop culture notes, for your personal edification. First is that I picked up the new Jenny Lewis album this past week--she's the voice behind Rilo Kiley, a band that I can listen to over and over. Lewis's solo effort is reminiscent of RK's More Adventurous in specific places, but I'm going to have to listen some more before I can say any more than that. Right now, it's on auto rotation, so I'll be listening every day, but only in chunks.
Oh, and I should mention that this CD reminded me, yet again, why I don't like ordering CDs from places like Amazon. The disc arrived, and inside the case, which was of course packed without any padding whatsoever, all of the little plastic thingies that hold a CD in place inside the case had snapped off. It was packed so tightly that they didn't drift around or scratch the disc (which would have truly pissed me off), but still. It's not that tough to design packaging that might truly protect a disc, is it?
Second, as I've discussed here before, Battlestar Galactica is the best sci-fi show on television right now, and last night's ep did not disappoint in that regard. One of the best characters has been Gaius, who's both a genius and the single most responsible person for the near-annihilation of the human race. Gaius also happens to routinely hallucinate in the form of his Cylon lover--it's unclear whether this is psychological or some sort of direct Cylon plot. Anyhow, last night's episode occurred mostly deep in the heart of Cylon country, and believe me when I say that it made this whole plot point exponentially more interesting.
Without spoiling too much, I'll simply say that most shows don't bother to think through the implications of events for the "villains"--our "heroes" are allowed to struggle, change, and/or triumph, but typically the enemies are part of the backdrop against which those things happen. Not so with BSG.
Great, great episode of a great, great show. Watch it. Now.
Comments
Thanks to your earlier post about BSG, I picked up the mini-series and loved it. I don't pay much attention to TV SF because it's so hit and miss, but I wish I'd been watching this from the start. My local video stores don't carry the series itself, but I'll start looking elsewhere around town come summer and hopefully catch up for next fall.
Posted by: John | February 25, 2006 7:23 PM
Next 2 weeks are the season finale, so you'll have a chance to catch up a little. As sad as I am that there are only 2 more new eps left, I'm actually happy that I won't miss a new one during spring break or CCCC.
Oh, and I think the whole show's available on iTunes--I watched the 1st season and part of the 2nd on my laptop...
Posted by: collin | February 25, 2006 7:29 PM
I really like what I've heard from the new Jenny Lewis CD. Definitely reminiscent of Rilo Kiley, but that's certainly not a bad thing.
Posted by: Chuck | February 25, 2006 9:21 PM
I'm glad you posted about the Jenny Lewis CD since I've been considering buying it. I love RIlo Kiley. Does her solo CD mark the end of RK? I hope not.
Posted by: Devon | February 26, 2006 1:34 PM
Watched "Downloaded" today via iTunes. My word, that was some good television.
Posted by: Kenneth Rufo | February 26, 2006 8:10 PM
Finished Disc 1 of Season One. Next up is the miniseries (it's all about the backstory, baby).
I'm just starting to accept Ellen DeGeneres as Starbuck.
Otherwise, I'm starting to dig on this redo of the series.
Especially liked having the original Apollo as the political prisoner.
Posted by: DocMara | February 27, 2006 3:19 PM
Yeah, it seemed a little stunty initially, making Starbuck a woman, but I've gotten used to it.
It's still a toss-up for me, though, as to whether Katee Sackhoff is prettier than Dirk Benedict or not...
And as you'll eventually see, Hatch has stuck with the series. I remember the original tease for the first episode he appeared in, and they made it seem like a 1-shot kind of thing. But they've stuck with his character, and it looks like there's more on the immediate horizon...
Posted by: collin | February 27, 2006 3:53 PM
Did you know Jenny Lewis was in the movie The Wizard, which starred Fred Savage and Nintendo? It was the wonderous debut of SMB 3 and took place in The Biggest Little City in the World. If only they'd release it on DVD, it would be in my Netflix queue faster than you could say Gyromite.
Posted by: J. | February 27, 2006 4:00 PM
you still buy CDs? interesting. i got the Jenny Lewis recetnly as well. i'm a big fan and find it quite enjoyable. in fact, i have tickets to see her at irving plaza here in nyc on 3/18, but may have to go to indiana to see my mom. hmmmmm.
Posted by: douglas | February 27, 2006 4:01 PM