Category: Women

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Sarah Conner Chronicles fans can be strange and creepy

I admit that in some rare cases I can lose rationality when trying to be a fan of whatever I am a fan of. Be it football, a film, TV show, or music, I can sometimes seem stupid. That’s what I faced when reading the official show blog of one of my current favs – Terminator – The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Reading some of the comments from the past few episodes left me gob smacked and I hope if I ever act that way, that someone slap me upside the head. Some fans are strange and creepy.

In case you don’t know Terminator – The Sarah Conner Chronicles (aka TTSCC) is part of the Terminator movie franchise started by James Cameron with his movie Terminator in 1984. Basically humans build a defense computer called Skynet that becomes self aware and attempts to destroy humanity. It sends a Terminator (a human like cyborg) back in time to kill the mother of the leader of the human resistance. Her name is Sarah Conner. The Terminator was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What I liked about the story was the future war and John Conner. The films showed a bit of that war and glimpes of John Conner. The TV show follows Sarah and John roughly in the time period between the 2nd and 3rd film although in the first episode they threw in a time shift to 2008, so it is on its own time line.

There are two other supporting characters. One is Cameron – a reprogrammed female Terminator sent back to protect the teen aged John Conner. The other was Derrick Reese – brother of Kyle, John’s father.

Since the story is so layered and complex I sometimes check out the show’s official website. I read the producers notes and on occasion read the blog for each episode.

Although sometimes the comments from other fans bother me.

There are different views of the show and that is okay.

You have some who want more action and less talking. There are some who want more talking and less action. There are some fans who complain about logical holes in the plot – like how did one of the Terminators make it through the time displacement without being covered with living tissue.

Then some of the fans either tick me off or creep me out.

The actress who plays Cameron – Summer Glau – has her own fan base from her previous role in the TV show Firefly and those fan think that TTSCC should focus more on Cameron. They complain if she isn’t doing anything in scenes or doesn’t have a chance to beat someone up. They seem to forget it is called The Sarah Conner Chronicles so it should focus on Sarah and John with Cameron being a supporting character.

The creepy fans are the ones who crave a relationship between John Conner and Cameron. They think the human and robot should hook up. They also complain when John and Cameron aren’t in the scene. One fan even asked when they would be kissing. Ewwwww…..

I like the show and hope it gets a 3rd season but I have to remind myself not to visit the fan site too often.

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Weekend Ear Candy: Cell Block Tango from “Chicago”

I love musicals. As a kid in school I participated in them when I could. I couldn’t sing or dance but to be around them during productions was fun. The only professional musical I’ve seen in person was “Phantom of the Opera” in Toronto 10 years ago. My favorites are “Guys and Dolls” and “Chicago”.

I liked “Chicago” because of the 1920’s vibe and and the music was great.

For this weekend’s ear candy selection I picked the song “Cell Block Tango” from the movie version. It blew me away when I saw it on the big screen.

“Cell Block Tango” from the musical Chicago

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Witch Mountain one of my favs, hope the new one is good too

During my childhood, one activity we could afford on a regular basis was going to the movies. On March 13th, Disney comes out with “Race to Witch Mountain (2009)”, which is a retelling of “Escape from Witch Mountain (1975)”. “Escape” was and still is one of my favorite films from the 1970’s.

In Findlay we had the Jerry Lewis Theater (later called Twin Palace), Cinema World, and during the summers we had two drive-ins – the Millstream and the Findlay Drive-In (I think that was the name. It was located across from where the present Liberty Benton High School is now). When I was even younger we had the old State Theater downtown where I saw “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)” and “Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)”.

“Escape from Witch Mountain” starts out with the haunting theme music and the superimposed images of the twins Tony and Tia running from dogs and it doesn’t let up. Donald Pleasence was one of the bad guys. The special effects look dated today but for little kids before Star Wars came out they were wild.

Tia was played by Kim Richards and I still have a crush on her to this day. Kim was the smart girl next door who had a decent career before she decided to leave acting to raise a family. She recently returned and one big role was playing Christina Ricci’s mom in Black Snake Moan (2006). Kim has a cameo in the new Witch Mountain film. She has been compared to another Disney product – Lindsay Lohan (in a good talent way). Little known fact is Kim is Paris Hilton’s aunt.

Tony was played by Ike Eisenmann. Like Kim, Ike showed up in all kinds of movies and TV shows in the 1970’s. He moved into voice acting for animated films. He also has a cameo in the new film.

Disney started remaking their old live action films. “Herbie the Love Bug” was fun if a bit off and reading the press on the new Witch Mountain film had me worried. I’ve seen the trailer and seeing they aren’t just redoing the old film makes me feel better. I also learned that the source book by Alexander Key was much darker and more hard core sci-fi which also helps. The original was pretty sugary since it was Disney and the director of the current movie said Disney had no problem with a darker retelling.

If [Director Andy] Fickman has his way, the film will be accessible, but bold. “We want this to be a movie that anybody can go and see and have a great time,” he says. “But I wanted to feel edgy, too. It’s dark and creepy. I went back and read the original Alexander Key book, Escape to Witch Mountain, and it’s a very heavy sci-fi novel. It’s all about questioning authority, hiding in plain sight, and you don’t know who to trust. I loved it. I respect what they did in ’75 at Disney — they had a coat rack attacking people — here we just wanted to make it more intense.”

When asked for a film that he’d compare Witch Mountain’s tone to, he surprised us with the 1982 Eddie Murphy flick 48 Hrs. “The humor in 48 Hrs. came from a very natural place, but the movie itself was a very dark in tone adventure. And that’s sort of where we land. It’s also very inspired by ’70s action movies. The camera angles, the zooms — the way the action was shot.”

Set Visit: Race to Witch Mountain – Part One

But my heart will still be with the 1975 version. Here is a clip of the first 6 minutes of the film:

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Octo-mom being selfish and careless

Modern medicine amazes me sometimes. Diseases once thought deadly have been tamed. Pills are available to treat all kinds of ailments that use to shorten how long we live. One also needs to be amazed at all the work done around genetics. But sometimes just because science can do something doesn’t mean it should. Just like the development of nuclear weapons, using science to have children you can’t support on your own is stupid. Nadya Suleman, who delivered only the second living set of octuplets ever born, made the wrong choice to have more children especially because she had no job and six children already at home. That’s what bothers me.

I think that if a woman wants to have a child and the only way to do it is by insemination then that is her choice to make, but she also has to consider, just like when conceiving children through intercourse, some serious questions.

Can I properly support children – do I have a job, one that pays enough and provides enough insurance for health care. Or am I in a relationship where that support can come from my partner or adds to my support.

Do I have enough home support – do I have enough time and stability to provide emotional support and love to my children. If I am married is my marriage supportive enough to maintain a stable household.

Is this right thing to do at this time.

When I heard that Nadya Suleman had no job and six other children at home, I lost all respect for her. She made the wrong choices. Children just don’t need a loving mother. They need good health care, food on the table, clothes on their backs, and a stable home. When the only parent has no solid foundation for any of that then the children can suffer.

I know there are women who want a child and aren’t able to have them for one reason or another. More power to them if they use medical science to conceive or if they adopt. Most people I know who have gone this route are proud parents and the children well taken care of.

And don’t think I have these concerns about women. I also think the questions apply to men. I once knew a guy who thought his manliness was confirmed based on the number of women he got pregnant. When I heard that I wished he could be castrated. But that is just me.

People like Nadya Suleman give parenthood a bad name.

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