Saturday, December 31, 2011

Why the 1976 Bionic Woman Series was Better Than the 2007 Series


Adapted from an e-mail sent to a friend. Here's why I think the old Bionic Woman series was better than the old in every way:
  • Lindsay Wagner (1976) played her role convincingly; Michelle Ryan (2007) was very stilted in her delivery (she was much better in a Doctor Who special two years later so I'm not dismissed her entire acting career, just her performance in this series)
  • Wagner wore little to no makeup, which made her seem genuine; Ryan had a lot on, which I think actually further distanced her from the audience (I'm not making any guesses as to who made these decisions, just noting the overall effect)
  • Some people the camera just seems to fall in love with, and there is something intangible that happens; Wagner as Jaime the camera loved, Ryan as Jaime the camera shrugged (again, though, the camera seemed to like her Doctor Who character a lot more)
  • The 1976 dialogue, while not perfect and certainly of its time, seemed to resemble human speech patterns; 2007 had characters self-consciously talking in some sort of speech that was supposed to be cool, like an extreme version of Buffy-speak
  • The 1976 series had great sounds effects, very machine-like while I honestly can't recall the 2007 sound effects
  • The 1976 bionic parts used metal and wiring, very easy to visualize, especially since you could see Jaime's face at the same time; the 2007 series used nanotechnology which, while perhaps truer to modern day technology wasn't quite as easy to visualize and lacked the visceral quality of it being very clear that Jaime is missing a few of her original limbs (that is, where the camera shows the bionics, you can't see Jaime's face at the same time because the nanotech is microscopic)
  • Due to licensing rules, the 1976 series could use elements from Martin Caidan's novel Cyborg, while the 2009 series could not, thus losing Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman, or Ruby Wells, all critical parts of Jaime's mythos

Friday, December 30, 2011

The 15 Longest Running DC Comics Titles September 2011 by Issue Number

In September 2011 DC restarted most of their titles to #1.  This resulted in some odd quirks as to what their longest running titles were then if you go my issue number. Some of these have themselves since been cancellation or had their cancellation announced. Mad, while still ongoing, wasn't published that particular month or else it would have been #1:


1. Hellblazer: #283
2. Looney Tunes: #202
3. Fables: #109
4. DMZ: #69
5. Cartoon Network Action Pack: #64
6. Scalped: #53
7. Tiny Titans: #44
7. Northlanders: #44
9. House of Mystery: #41
10. The Unwritten: #29
11. Sweet Tooth: #25
12. iZombie: #17
13. American Vampire: #19
14. Scooby-Doo, Where are You?: #13
15. The All New Batman: Brave and the Bold: #11

Going by issue numbers, the latter had the distinction of being the longest running Batman title, with Tiny Titans at the time the longest running team title.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

A Llama in the Lobby


In December 2006 I was heading to work for the provincial government. I ran to the Belmont Building, where my work place was and turned the corner into the building… whereupon I found myself making eye contact with a llama as part of a Christmas display. I don’t mean a model llama; I was looking at a real llama standing in for the Three Wise Men’s camels.  My mind immediately switched into the headspace it gets into when I really need to figure things out logically: Am I in fact looking at a llama? Yes, that does appear to be the case. Do I have my camera with me? Yes. Good. I took some photos and headed to work, now in a very strange headspace.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Another Quick Kitty Tail, er Tale


I was walking with a friend to her place last week. We heard a meow behind us a few times. We turned around and heard a ringing bell as the cat came over to us.  I petted the cat a bit and we kept walking but the cat started following, staying particularly close to my friend. So then she also petted the cat. After that I gave the cat a pet one more time and we started walking again. This time, satisfied that we had both given the cat its needed love and attention, it let us continue on our way.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A Quick Kitty Christmas Anecdote


Last week I bought a friend’s cat a couple of Christmas presents. One was a set of three balls with bells inside, the other was a ball with a feather on one end and a rope on the other. The former intrigued the cat but the other really got its attention. My friend removed the packaging and the cat started having a grand old time playing with his new toy.

In the other room the TV was playing a commercial.  In the commercial someone belched.  Upon hearing the belch the cat stopped and looked up as if to think “What was that all about?" and then he resumed playing with his new toy.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas 2011


Here’s how I spent this Christmas:
·         Took photos of the downtown area around sunrise
·         Talked to my dad on Skype
·         Talked to a friend on the phone
·         More photos of downtown
·         Unwrapped presents
·         Photos not just of downtown but heading north to Hillside and back; got caught in the pouring rain near the end
·         Met up with a friend who only had a short time to meet
·         Cashier at Burger King cut into short time to meet by messing up the order thus requiring lots of time to be spent cancelling the order and putting in the new one
·         Walked with friend to Christmas tree display at the Empress; really packed
·         Went through photos for uploading to Flickr
·         More downtown photos
·         Planned trip to Vancouver for Tuesday or Wednesday; Translink website stalled quite a bit
·         Went to McDonald’s for dinner; their sign said they closed at 6 so arrived at 5:48; they were already closed; passed on Burger King due to the earlier service issues
·         Went to Dynasty Restaurant in Chinatown instead; there was a bit of a line to get in but an acquaintance offered to share his table, which speeded things up a bit.
·         Went home and found my last TransLink searches were still running uncompleted; finished travel planning
·         Did a bit more photo work
·         Watched The Losers on blu-ray