Game of Thrones

HBO’s adaptation of this sprawling novel was right up my alley and immediately deemed unmissable.  I’m not familiar with the books, but for a fervid lover of The Lord of the Rings saga it seemed like I’d really enjoy it.

Needless to say, Game of Thrones is spectacular.  Grandiose sets, great costumes, excellent scripts, very good acting.  What more could I ask for?

The show covers so much ground, it would be impossible to write a simple synopsis so I’ll just quote Tfilm78 and Cajunman who posted this to IMDb:

Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Political and sexual intrigue is pervasive. The dominant families are the Houses Stark, Lannister, and Baratheon. Robert Baratheon, King of Westeros, asks his old friend Eddard, Lord Stark, to serve as Hand of the King, or highest official. Secretly warned that the previous Hand was assassinated, Eddard accepts in order to investigate further. Meanwhile the Queen's family, the Lannisters, may be hatching a plot to take power. Across the sea, the last members of the previous and deposed ruling family, the Targaryens, are also scheming to regain the throne. The friction between these clans, and with the remaining great Houses Greyjoy, Tully, Arryn, and Tyrell, leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest North. Amidst the war and political confusion, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night's Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.

As you can see, there is enough going on there to make one’s head spin and raise concerns about confusing plotlines or rushed development, but this show is in capable hands.  I was looking forward to each episode and can’t wait for season two now.

The Bottom Line: I really liked the first season of this show and can’t think of praises too big for it.  If you like the fantasy genre, don’t miss it!

Grade: 10

Treme

Finally caught up with season two of Treme and happy to report that it’s indeed a keeper.

I was really looking forward to its return after almost a year of waiting to find out what would happen to all these characters trying to make a living in a post-Katrina New Orleans.

The many storylines grow thicker and deeper and the actors all seem to have firmly taken root within the world of their characters.  Like in the first season, there are going to be both tears and laughters, happiness and despair, all splashed with a generous helping of gorgeous jazz music.

We are treated to another Mardi Gras parade (I wonder if this is gonna become routine for the show, but it’s so great I don’t know if I even want to criticize it) and this time to Jazz Fest as well.

New York City is also featured, since now 2 main characters live primarily there, but it’s New Orleans and its daily life that still have the lion’s share, as it should be.  The crime rate skyrockets and it really doesn’t seem like the city will be able to come back from the brink of destruction since one wonders how people can live in a place where you can pretty much be the victim of a violent crime at any point of the day or night.

But there are so many bright spots too, like school kids learning how to play an instrument in the school band, or a musician discovering songwriting, or another one helping a guy not to make the same mistakes he did out of the goodness of his heart.

The Bottom Line: Treme is a very good show that, like The Wire before it, familiarizes us with a bunch of regular people and their daily lives, while at the same time analyzing the corruption within the police and city hall, and the scheming of criminals both big and small.  Watch it.

Grade: 8

A Quote By

Justin Timberlake, musician, producer, actor, about the recent marriage equality decision in New York state:

"I was stoked. I mean, I was stoked that that happened. I think it's just ... we're people and we're different, all of us. And we should be using our differences to bring ourselves closer together. You know? Not be afraid of something that we don't know. Like Mila said, and you know, I have a lot of guy friends who are gay. Two of my best friends are a couple, and my conversation with them is, like, it's unfortunate that things take a while to progress like this, but it was a great, great victory for equality. I’m proud that New York has balls to stand up for what’s right."

SHAME!

Just read on Towleroad that Italy’s Parliament voted down an anti-homophobia bill:

Activists are calling on the European Union for help after Italy's Parliament rejected a bill protecting LGBT people from hate crimes and discrimination, by a vote of 293 to 250.

Italy already bans discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, ethnicity and nationality but campaigners say rising numbers of homophobic and transphobic attacks means LGBT people need more protection.

“This Parliament has betrayed justice and civility and has decided to support the violent,” said Paolo Patane, head of gay rights association Arcigay. He called on the EU “to help us face this extremely dangerous rise in homophobia, xenophobia and racism that the Italian Parliament has decided to legitimise.”

Because homophobia is so helpful isn’t it?

Assholes.

The Banner: # 1 & 2

I love taking pictures (and people usually tell me I’m a good photographer), but I’m sort of a purist when it comes to photography, meaning that touching up a picture to make it perfect for me isn’t the same as actually taking the perfect picture, if you know what I mean.

Legendary photographers like Ansel Adams, Herb Ritts, or Robert Mapplethorpe (and I’m not comparing myself to those Gods mind you) didn’t have Photoshop to ‘fix’ their shots.  Sure, they played with light and filters and who knows how many other techniques, but once they took the shot, that was it.  Not much could be done during or after the film had been developed.  Nowadays, software like Photoshop allows you to edit and format a picture so much, the final product might have very little in common with the original shot.

On the other hand, I’ve always wanted to learn to use Photoshop, precisely for how it allows you to manipulate images, but I always felt intimidated by the sheer size of its options and settings.

Hence, taking a page from Andy Towle, who runs the website Towleroad, I’ve decided to occasionally refresh the look of my blog by uploading a new banner.  The banner will always display the blog’s name “BlogElution – The Blog Evolution,” but the background image will always change.

I’m planning to always use a picture I’ve taken myself and then have some fun with it in Photoshop.  Once the banner is ready, I’ll upload it and give a quick explanation of what I did to the original to obtain the final image.

I looked for the original image I had used when I created the first banner but since I cannot find it, I’m assuming it was just a sunset I had downloaded off the Internet:


For the second banner, given the season, I wanted something very summery and since I love taking pictures of flowers and I love sunflowers, what screams summer louder than sunflowers?

For my first foray into picture editing I didn’t want to go overboard, so I simply cropped the original image and squeezed it vertically.

This picture was taken with my first ever point and shoot digital camera, a Canon PowerShot S400 (that worked great till it finally died), on September 16, 2004 in Stratford, CT.  In fact, that was one of the sunflowers I had planted that year in our backyard, right in front of our lovely little porch.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Guillermo del Toro’s follow up to his successful Hellboy manages to actually greatly improve on the predecessor.  Thanks to what was likely a bigger budget, Hellboy II: The Golden Army delivers a fun, engaging adventure that doesn’t disappoint.

Synopsis: given the environmental devastation inflicted on the planet by men, an elf prince decides to break a truce between elves and humans that his father had put in place many years before.  He then wants to use the unstoppable Golden Army to wipe out the human race.  Hellboy and his friends are all that stands between Prince Nuada and our genocide.

Ron Perlman once again does a great job as Hellboy.  Unfortunately, Doug Jones’ Abe Sapien has a less prominent role (he was my favorite in the original) while Selma Blair’s Liz, now much less insecure, comes across as charming and tough.  Her powers also come in handy and are applied effectively.

The great Jeffrey Tambor is all but pushed to the margin, allowing the entrance of a new character, Johann Krauss, who is likeable and quite funny.  Luke Goss and Anna Walton, who play Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala respectively, are a great pair as well both for their performances and their characters.

Hellboy II also features an organic script that cleverly and smoothly navigates us through different landscapes, confrontations, and plot twists.  Furthermore, the visual effects and makeup are spectacular and the most wonderful thing for me are all the different creatures and locations del Toro brings to life that are so original and integral to the story (like the Elemental, the Troll Market, the Golden Army hideaway, or even just the door to access it).

The Bottom Line: whether you saw the first Hellboy or not, you should definitely check out Hellboy II.  It’s an engaging, visually stunning, action packed movie that should please just about anybody.

Grade: 8

See Ya DADT!

Last Friday President Obama and the Pentagon certified the repeal of the discriminatory statute known as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  In 60 days the repeal will become law.

Obama’s statement:

Today, we have taken the final major step toward ending the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that undermines our military readiness and violates American principles of fairness and equality.  In accordance with the legislation that I signed into law last December, I have certified and notified Congress that the requirements for repeal have been met.  ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end, once and for all, in 60 days—on September 20, 2011.

As Commander in Chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness.  Today’s action follows extensive training of our military personnel and certification by Secretary Panetta and Admiral Mullen that our military is ready for repeal.  As of September 20th, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country.  Our military will no longer be deprived of the talents and skills of patriotic Americans just because they happen to be gay or lesbian.

About time.

More at Towleroad.

Frio

Ricky Martin’s latest single, which Danny loves to sing (he actually loves several of the songs on Ricky’s latest album, Musica, Alma, Sexo):

We Love You Shuttle!!

A modern day love letter put together by Nature Video:

In Memoriam

Amy Winehouse (1983 – 2011)

I cannot say I was surprised when Ray told me Amy Winehouse had died this past Saturday.  She had been abusing drugs and alcohol for a while and had been in and out of rehab several times, without ever being able to fully wean herself away from those addictive substances.

According to Wikipedia:

Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British female to win five Grammys,including three of the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

[…]

Winehouse was credited as an influence in the rise in popularity of female musicians and soul music, and also for revitalising British music. Winehouse's distinctive style made her a muse for fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld. Winehouse's problems with drug and alcohol abuse, and her self-destructive behaviours were regular tabloid news from 2007 until her death.

While not a big fan, I liked her voice and style and will certainly miss her.

Eclipse

The third chapter of the Twilight saga, Eclipse is actually the best so far.  I would attribute that to the level of intimacy, comfort, and confidence that has taken root among the top billing stars.

Granted, Kristen Stewart still could not act even if her life depended on it, and maybe I’ve just gotten used to it by now.  Taylor Lautner once again spends so much time half naked (and this is NOT me complaining...), they actually joke about it in the movie (Edward sarcastically asking Bella if Jacob even owns a shirt).  Meanwhile Robert Pattinson, who at first showed the most promise, seems to have grown weary of the whole enterprise, displaying the same facial expression over and over.  And in spite of all that, this is still the best of the 3, so you can imagine how pathetic the other two are.

Synopsis: Jason is still trying to pry Bella away from Edward’s fangs, but their love is so much stronger than whatever Bella feels for Jacob.  With the date of her turning fast approaching, Bella also needs to decide whether she really wants that or not.  Meanwhile, someone’s killing a lot of people and the Cullens recognize the telltale signs of a new vampire army being created, which will attract the attention of the Volturi if they don’t take care of it first, further endangering Bella.

The quality of the screenplay isn’t that much better than the two predecessors’, but at least this time there’s so much happening that the story moves along.  The visual effects and makeup do get better (although I’ll never be able to take seriously the sparkly vampire skin in the sun -- vampires are creatures of the night and that’s a cardinal rule of their mythology, sorry), but the oversized werewolves, to which they’re now committed, still look ridiculous and cartoony.

The Bottom Line: Eclipse might be the best of the bunch to date, but that doesn’t mean that it’s good.  In fact, unless you’re a fervent fan of the saga, I’d advise you to keep your distance from this barely watchable episode as well.  The extra action and added storylines hardly make up for the overall weak backstory.

Grade: 5

Touch down

From The New York Times’ Breaking News Alert:

The Shuttle Ends Its Final Voyage and an Era in Space

The last space shuttle flight rolled to a stop at 5:58 a.m. on Thursday, closing an era of the nation’s space program.

It was the 19th night landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to end the 135th space shuttle mission. For Atlantis, the final tally of its 26-year career: 33 missions, accumulating just short of 126 million miles during 307 days in space.

A permanent marker will be placed on the runway to mark the final resting spot of the space shuttle program.

Sad but unavoidable I guess.

New Moon

As I mentioned at the end of my review of the first chapter of the Twilight saga, in spite of its low quality I resolved to check out the following movies in the series because of the enormous success they’ve enjoyed and to see if it was justified.

After watching chapter two, New Moon, the answer is still, unarguably, no.

Synopsis: with Edward and his clan gone, Bella spends her time pining for him and tempting fate in order to possibly force his return.  Meanwhile, her childhood friend Jacob is all grown up and courting her attention now that he sees an opening.  Victoria, whose boyfriend Edward killed at the end of Twilight when he tried to kill Bella, is back though, seeking revenge on Bella herself.  Jacob and his pack of wolves might now be Bella’s only defense against her.

The worst thing about New Moon, once again, is the screenplay.  I really wonder how the books are written, because if they’re as bad as these scripts, I can’t understand how they managed to sell so much around the world.

Take this: Bella has just, quite absurdly, punched one of Jacob’s friends in the face.  He promptly turns into a werewolf, threatening Bella (judging from their short temper and apparent inability to keep from shifting, the real mystery is how they managed to maintain their identity a secret for so long).  Jacob immediately comes to her aid, turning into a wolf as well.  Now that Bella has seen who they really are, one of the guys of the pack states, “The wolf is out of the bag.”

I’m sorry, that’s so pathetic, it’s not even funny.  After I heard that line I figured that it must be straight out of the book, because no screenwriter worth his name would ever write a line so cheap.

The biggest problems I have with this movie are that very little actually happens and that the director tried to give the movie some heft and pathos by slowing everything down, but that simply made the movie longer, not better.  At one point I actually sped the playback up to 1.5, where the audio still plays but is usually not very clear, and yet I could understand everything Jacob was saying.  The higher speed made him sound about normal.  That’s not good.

The Volturi are introduced as a way to bring Edward and Bella back together, but aside from that scene and a couple pursuits of Victoria, the whole production comes down to a guy wanting a girl who wants another guy who left her.  Bo-ring.
Not even the plentiful beefcake provided by Taylor Lautner and his friends are enough to make you care.

Robert Pattinson, the only glimmer of hope from Twilight, only really shows up in the second half of the movie and with little to do.  Taylor Lautner’s talent is barely appreciable since he clearly was only hired for his abs, and Kristen Stewart’s acting is once again pretty lame.  I can’t believe I recently read she commands $20 million per movie already and that the three of them will each make $25 million for the next two installments, plus a share of the final gross (total over $40 million each)!!

The Bottom Line: New Moon introduces the werewolves (who by the way look ridiculously big to be taken seriously) in an attempt to keep the action going, but neither them nor Bella’s in-limbo love life are good enough to make us care.  This is worse than Twilight.

Grade: 3

Swingby Earth

The following incredible view is brought to you courtesy of NASA’s Messenger space probe:

The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.

Comprising 358 frames taken over 24 hours, the movie follows Earth through one complete rotation. The spacecraft was 40,761 miles (65,598 kilometers) above South America when the camera started rolling on Aug. 2. It was 270,847 miles (435,885 kilometers) away from Earth - farther than the Moon's orbit - when it snapped the last image on Aug. 3.

From Towleroad.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

That title might sound like something I made up, but it’s a real thing in the world:

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".

Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.

Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.

[…]

After receiving his application the Austrian authorities had required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.

The idea came into Mr Alm's noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point.

A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted, US-based faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.

The group's website states that "the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma".

In response to pressure for American schools to teach the theory known as intelligent design, which some Christians favour as an alternative to natural selection, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote to the Kansas School Board asking for the pastafarian version of intelligent design to be taught to schoolchildren.

In the same spirit, Mr Alm's pastafarian-style application for a driving licence was a response to the Austrian recognition of confessional headgear in official photographs.

Well, I salute Mr. Alm’s attempt to draw attention to the seriously problematic (and fraked up) fact that many US citizens honestly believe (or rather, have been brainwashed into believing) that evolution is just another “side of the story” and that creationism (the real moniker of intelligent design) could really be how we got here.

Huge sea monster

Another animal post, but much less cute:

It is said to be "the most fearsome predator that ever lived," according to a BBC News report. It is a pliosaur, or "sea monster," and now its 2.4 meter-long skull has been unearthed and presented to the public.

[…]

It is possible that the discovered creature may be a new species, or possibly even genus. Scientists estimate that the predator could have measured up to 18 meters from tip to tail. It is unclear whether this would make it the world's biggest sea monster, given that pieces of potentially larger specimens have been found across the world.

BBC News reports:

    Looking somewhat like a crocodile on steroids, it is now easy to see the power of this "biting machine": pliosaurs, which lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods were the top predators of the oceans.

    On show now are its eye sockets, perched upon the top of its head, revealing how it would have fixed its stare on any passing prey; the openings that held its it immensely powerful jaw muscles, allowing it to crunch down on anything that crossed its path; and the huge holes, running all the way down its snout, that contained its giant, razor-sharp teeth to help finish the meal off.

According to The Guardian, palaeontologist Richard Forrest was surprised by the discovery because pliosaur skulls are often found crushed flat. This one, on the other hand, is undistorted. And terrifying. "It could have taken a human in one gulp; in fact, something like a T-Rex would have been breakfast for a beast like this."

Scary indeed.

Goodnight fish

This picture is too cute:

This photograph was taken by Rick Sheremeta, who tells us about the shot.

On a recent photo trip to Alaska’s McNeil River, I spent four days observing and photographing Brown Bears. The bears routine became pretty obvious – they’d fish for a while until their bellies were full, then they’d wander off into the grass for a little nap. This ole gal never quite got that far – after snaring this salmon, she wandered into a shallow pool at the side of the river, cradled the fish under her arm, and promptly nodded off. It was really comical to see her just sitting there sound asleep.

Don’t skimp on shut-eye time!

That’s the advice if you don’t want to gain weight:

Want to avoid weight gain? Maybe some more sleep would help.

People who got very little sleep ate more but didn't burn any extra calories, according to a U.S. study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that adds to evidence supporting a link between sleep deprivation and weight gain.

"If you're trying to control your weight, it would be helpful not to be sleep-deprived," said Marie-Pierre St-Onge of the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, who led the study.

Although the most recent study, like other that have gone before, doesn't prove that sleeplessness causes people to pack on the extra weight, they do show that sleep should be a priority, experts said.

[…]

One is that sleep "seems to play a role in how your body manages the hormones that control how hungry you are, when you're hungry (and) what kinds of foods you're hungry for," said Michael Grandner, who studies sleep and sleep disorders at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Another explanation is that when people are tired, they may be less good at making healthy eating decisions.

[…]

Grandner added that it's possible the link goes both ways, and that eating too much of certain kinds of foods can disrupt a person's sleep schedule, or that somebody with a stressful job may sleep too little and also eat too much as a result.

Too little sleep has also been tied to a host of other health problems, including heart disease and diabetes, which have their own associations with weight, complicating the picture even further, he added.

The findings do show that "sleep should be a priority," he said.

I’ll try to go to bed earlier tonight.

Right after my bedtime snack

In trouble for the long run

So the economy isn’t getting much better, and certainly not fast enough, and this article should clarify why for all of those who still don’t get it:

But there is no mystery. What other result would you expect from the financial ruin of the once-great American middle class?

And make no mistake, the middle class has been ruined: Its wealth has been decimated, its income isn't even keeping pace with inflation, and its faith in the American economy has been shattered. Once, the middle class grew richer each year, grew more comfortable, enjoyed a higher living standard. It was real progress in material terms.

But that progress has been halted and even reversed. In some respects, the middle class has made no progress in a generation, or two.

This isn't just a sad story about a few losers. The prosperity of the middle class has been the chief engine of growth in the economy for a century or more. But now our mass market is no longer growing. How could it? The middle class doesn't have any money.

There are a hundred different ways of looking at the economy, and a million different statistics. But if you wanted to focus on just one number that explains why the economy can't really recover, this is the one: $7.38 trillion.

That's the amount of wealth that's been lost from the bursting of housing bubble, according to the Federal Reserve's comprehensive Flow of Funds report. It's how much homeowners lost when housing prices plunged 30% nationwide. The loss for these homeowners was much greater than 30%, however, because they were heavily leveraged.

[…]

The slow growth in the economy is no mystery: Most families don't have any extra money to spend. It will take a long time for the middle class to rebuild its wealth, especially if we don't find some work.

The crazy thing is that our leaders aren't even talking about this crisis. With the upper classes prospering and global markets booming, they don't need the U.S. middle class any more. The market is up, profits are soaring, and the corporate jet is fueled and ready for takeoff.

And if the middle class can't buy bread? Let them eat cake.

A must read for sure.

I just sincerely hope it’ll get better enough for Obama to win a second term.  We cannot let him lose.  No matter what he hasn’t been able to accomplish in his first term, a Republican would reverse all the good progress we’ve made under Obama.

“It’s Madonna!” “Who!?”

Some lighthearted drag fun:

Teaching youth about LGBT history

Governor Brown of California yesterday signed into law SB48, the FAIR Education Act, also known as the LGBT History bill, which will mandate inclusion of LGBT accomplishments in school books across the state.

Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, explains why this bill is so important:

Caitlin Ryan's research at the Family Acceptance Project has shown that when LGBT youth are met with silence about their identity on the part of parents and other adults, that silence is as damaging to them as many forms of rejection and abuse. The flipside is that when parents and other adults affirmatively acknowledge and support LGBT youth, that acknowledgement has a tremendously positive impact on their long term health and well being. The erasure of LGBT people and issues from schools is not just a neutral omission--it is actively harmful and damaging to LGBT youth, who interpret that silence to mean they are not valued, included, or welcomed. Correcting that omission will directly protect their health and well being. That will not only be a huge benefit to our community, but to the whole society, which has been deprived of the contributions of the many LGBT people whose lives have been shortened and diminished by depression, suicide, substance abuse, and HIV infection because of their experiences as children and youth.

This is about breaking a very damaging cycle of silence and stigma. In that respect, this bill is every bit as important as efforts to end discrimination in marriage. It will change the way our society thinks about LGBT people, and help ensure that for the first time, we will have a generation of LGBT youth who are growing up seeing themselves reflected and included in public institutions.

Needless to say, I’m very glad the Governor signed this bill into law over the vocal opposition of our bigoted enemies.

The Edge of (Happiness) Glory

This video made me cry many happy tears:

Dedicated to my lovely Ray.

Fat Mississippi

Looks like the obesity epidemic is getting worse:

The number of obese U.S. adults rose in 16 states in the last year, helping to push obesity rates in a dozen states above 30 percent, according to a report released on Thursday.

By that measure, Mississippi is the fattest state in the union with an adult obesity rate of 34.4 percent. Colorado is the least obese -- with a rate of 19.8 percent -- and the only state with an adult obesity rate below 20 percent, according to "F as in Fat," an annual report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

While the number of states showing significant year-over-year increases in obesity has been slowing, no state chalked up an actual decline. Even Colorado does not win high marks -- its score means one in five state residents is at higher risk for conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

"Today, the state with the lowest adult obesity rate would have had the highest rate in 1995," said Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health.

Four years ago, only one U.S. state had an adult obesity rate above 30 percent, according to the report, which defines adult obesity as a having a body mass index -- a weight-to-height ratio -- of 30 or more.

Over the last two decades, people in the United States have been eating less nutritious food and more of it. At the same time, activity levels have fallen, Levi said.

More here.

A Dallas reboot?

Sign me up!!

TNT announced that they are producing a reboot of one of the most iconic TV shows of all time, Dallas, and the preview trailer looks intriguing and totally worthy of the brand:

Can’t wait!!

Raging storm

One of the most mesmerizing images I’ve ever seen, from Saturn:

The latest offering from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, the images chronicle the life of the largest and most intense storm ever seen on the ringed planet. First detected in December 2010, the storm has developed from a small spot into a raging storm covering an area about 4 billion square kilometres, or eight times the surface of the Earth, in Saturn's northern hemisphere.

Birth of a nation

This past Saturday, July 9th, 2011, South Sudan became the newest nation in the world after declaring its independence from Sudan after years of infighting and civil war.

Unfortunately, in spite of the oil riches it shares with Sudan, the new nation starts out at the bottom in terms of economic development, being one of the poorest nations in the world.

Camelot

Starz’s Camelot takes us back around 1,500 years to a time in the history of Britain that supposedly saw the beginning of the legend of King Arthur.

Apparently, it’s not clear whether King Arthur really existed or if his stories are just literary inventions and folklore that simply kept growing and expanding through the centuries.

Synopsis: In his newest small screen incarnation, Arthur goes from a carefree, unknown, and unaware-of-his-true-identity young lad to the new King when his father, King Uther Pendragon, is murdered by his daughter, Morgan, in an attempt to grab the crown.  Morgan, like everyone else except for the sorcerer Merlin, didn’t even know about Arthur’s existence, so jealousy and scheming to reclaim what she considers hers ensue.

The sprawling cast, and plentiful beefcake, ensure that the many storylines will keep things interesting.  The writing is fairly good, as is the acting.  The production values are quite good too, although you know that you’re not watching a show on HBO, if you get my drift.

Overall, Camelot’s first season doesn’t disappoint and I’ll definitely check out season 2 to see how the rivalry between the half brother and sister develops.  Too bad Philip Winchester won’t be back in season 2...

Grade – Season 1: 7

The last trip

About an hour ago, after 30 glorious years, NASA’s Shuttle program came to an end with the final launch of the Shuttle Atlantis for its last mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

After it lands (hopefully safely) in a few days, Atlantis will join the remaining Shuttle orbiters (Endeavour, Discovery and the atmospheric test orbiter Enterprise –– which never went into space) on display for future generations.

The end of an era.

Nurse Jackie

Here’s another show I decided to start watching based solely on the titular star, Edie Falco, whose stint on HBO’s The Sopranos left me spellbound.

When it first started I told myself, here is an excellent actress who’s about to star in a new comedy show about a nurse who’s addicted to pain medication.  How can I not watch it?!!

Three seasons later, the show has turned into an early summer guilty pleasure with a great  cast that’s a delight to watch (my favorite characters are Jackie, Dr. O’Hara, Zoey, and Gloria Akalitus) and scripts that crackle with humor and depth.

An unexpected cliffhanger in the closing scene made my jaw drop and capped season 3, which ended last week, so now it’ll be a year before we get to see any new episodes, but the show is worth the wait.

Grade – Season 3: 8

United States of Tara

Because the star of United States of Tara was going to be the very talented Toni Collette, whose work I appreciated ever since her first starring role in Muriel’s Wedding, there was no way I would miss it.

As expected, the series was exceptionally elevated by Collette’s chameleon-like turns as Tara, Alice, Buck, T, Gimme, Shoshana Schoenbaum, Chicken, and Bryce Craine.

Tara is a married mother of two with a split personality disorder that makes her unexpectedly and unavoidably shift into one of her alters.  Oftentimes, with disastrous results.

The show, created by Oscar winner Diablo Cody and produced by Steven Spielberg, was perfectly written and always felt fresh.  That’s why I was totally surprised and saddened to see that season 3 would be its last.

Aside from Collette’s many characters and her perfectly cast family (it’s always nice to see the handsome John Corbett, and the total acceptance the family has of the son’s homosexuality is heartwarming), many other great characters came and went.

Overall, the show was great and I was sad to see it end.  If you never watched it, make sure to catch it on DVD.  You won’t be disappointed!

Grade – Seasons 1-3: 9

Sade live in concert

This past Sunday I dragged Ray to see one of my favorite singers ever, Sade, whom I’ve followed for at least 25 years.

I had longed for the date to arrive ever since I bought the tickets, and therefore my expectations were pretty high.  Well, she met and surpassed them in spades.

John Legend was the opening act, and he did a very good job.  He has a powerful voice and opened with his cover of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep, which practically brought the house down.  I didn’t really know him before, but he’s a very good singer, and very handsome too.

Once he was done, they cleared the entire stage off, which seemed very unusual.  Where’s Sade’s equipment I wondered.  Then, her act began and I understood.  The staging was, apropos, totally minimalist.  There were 4 square moving platforms that housed part of the musicians.  The other 3 were standing in front of the squares.  Sade, who came up from a stair opening directly onto the stage, moved around but mostly stayed front and center.

The set list spanned her entire career, ensuring to please every fan in the enthusiastic audience.  The band was fantastic, with great solos from several of the musicians, some of whom have worked with Sade for decades.

My greatest fear, especially after having seen Mariah Carey live, was that Sade’s smooth, soft vocals would be inexorably drowned by the loud sounds now common in live shows.  Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, proving that loud isn’t always better or necessary and that good sound mixing is possible even when singing live.  Her voice was spectacular at any and every tone she sang.  Not only that, I was actually surprised to hear how powerful and wide her range is!!

Another impressive element was the use of digital lighting that enhanced the minimalist stage throughout the show.  Lights were precisely timed with the music and either hit the bottom of the moving platforms or the back of the stage.  Videos were also projected on the background with several of the songs, adding a music-video feel that made the experience that much better.

One other cool and simple effect was achieved with the use of a sheer veil that enveloped the entire stage and onto which more lights and images were projected.  Even without any light effects though, the veil had the benefit of creating a mystical mood, perfectly accompanying the songs.

One of the most spellbinding moments came when Sade sang the beautiful and sad Pearls by herself with the image of a huge warm sun for background.

This was one of the best concerts I ever attended and showed me how less is more when pure, raw talent is involved.  I’ve enjoyed spectacular concerts by Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Bette Midler who all make wide use of props or backup dancers on stage.  This time, all that was on display was really the music and the voice of the artists, and it was amazing.

Sade and her musicians seemed to have a great time too, creating an almost intimate feeling even though there were thousands of people present.

Seeing Sade live was a truly unforgettable experience and I hope I’ll be able to see her again someday.

The evolution of marriage

An excellent comic from Joe Heller that perfectly sums up the ridiculousness of the arguments against same-sex marriage:

A step forward for Rhode Island

This past Saturday, Rhode Island became the 5th state in the nation to offer its gay and lesbians citizens the right to marry enter into a civil union.

The state actually looked like a done deal to add to the marriage column after the departure of its homophobe former governor and the election of pro-gay, Independent Lincoln Chafee.  But then the hateful bigots we know so well derailed that legislation and the civil union bill was adopted instead as the best compromise available:

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee today signed his state's recently passed civil unions legislation into law.

Though the governor said that civil unions are still insufficient when compared to full marriage rights, the new law "brings tangible rights and benefits to thousands of Rhode Islanders."

He continued, "[the law] provides a foundation from which we will continue to fight for full marriage equality.”

With Chafee's signature, Rhode Island becomes the fifth state in the nation to support civil unions.

While I see this bill as a good first step in the right direction, not everyone’s happy, and gay advocates vowed to keep on fighting until we have full marriage equality in the Ocean State:

Civil unions may now be the law in Rhode Island, but groups on both sides of the gay marriage debate plan to press on in their fight in the General Assembly and on the campaign trail.

Marriage Equality Rhode Island is already planning to push gay marriage legislation in next year’s legislative session, according to Ray Sullivan, the group’s campaign director. Sullivan said MERI will also work to elect candidates who support same-sex marriage in next year’s General Assembly races.

“If they (lawmakers who opposed gay marriage) thought we would quietly go away, nothing could be further from the truth,’’ Sullivan told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The fight for marriage goes on.’’

[…]

Civil unions were pitched as a political compromise after legislation that would have authorized gay marriage stalled.

Many gay marriage supporters criticized civil unions as discriminatory. In particular, MERI opposed language in the new law that allows religious hospitals, cemeteries and schools to refuse to recognize the rights granted through civil unions. Sullivan said his group will urge lawmakers to repeal the religious exemption.

[…]

Groups on the other side of the debate aren’t going away either. The National Organization for Marriage-Rhode Island will urge lawmakers next year to specifically outlaw gay marriage by defining it legally as being between a man and a woman, according to executive director Chris Plante.

I think this is cause for cautious celebration. We all know that civil unions are not the same thing as marriage, and gays and lesbians in New Jersey experienced and documented those differences all too well, but hopefully there won’t be too many instances of discrimination.

And hopefully we’ll have same-sex marriage in Rhode Island soon enough.

Frozen

A cool new remix of one of my favorite songs of Madonna’s.

Madonna - Frozen (Monsieur Adi Remix) by arjanwrites