There are so many branches to the Star Trek universe: novelizations, movies, re-boot film series, animated series, magazines, television series, toys, games, etc. that even the most dedicated fan, Trekkie or Trekker might have trouble keeping up. ...
Star Trek's popularity and influence was not limited to the United States. The show may have been cancelled in 1969, but the next year in England, before the series had even premiered on British television, a series of comic strips appeared in weekly television magazines. Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics, Vol. 2is the second in a series of three volumes collecting and reprinting these comics. These compilations may offer the first time these comics may been seen and read in the U.S. The British Star Trek comics ran for five years, longer than the original show.
Fans will recognize all of their favorite characters, at least by appearance. The artists, mostly uncredited, do a good job of capturing the likeness of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, et al. While readers might blanch at seeing Kirk wear a red shirt in the first group of comics in this volume, halfway through the first captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise appears in his familiar gold shirt. Slightly more off-putting is hearing Mr. Spock frequently refer to Kirk as "Skipper" and utter such exclamations as "What the blazes?" throughout the strips. Not the cool and analytical Vulcan science officer we know and love. ...
I have been enjoying following bird of the galaxy's flickr feed, which highlights some great stills and behind-the-scenes images from the original Star Trek series.
The kid and I attended the Florida Supercon this weekend and had a blast. We saw some famous folks, some amazingly creative cosplay, and lots and lots of stuff that celebrates the larger and larger world that is all things geek these days. While everyone expects science fiction, anime, and fantasy to be represented by all things manga and Star Wars and Star Trek and Game of Thrones, I had to admit to being surprised to also see emissaries from such worlds as Spongebob Squarepants and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But that was great for the kid, who got an autograph and got to pose with the voice of Squidward himself, Rodger Bumpass.
The kid with Squidward (aka Rodger Bumpass)
I have to admit that although I love Miyazaki, and am aware of anime like Sailor Moon and of course Pokemon, I was at a loss by some of the references displayed by young cosplay-ers. But I did love these creations, whoever they were supposed to be.
One of the draws to get me to go initially was Jason Momoa, who played Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones. We just caught the tail-end of his Q&A, but he seemed very engaging; having a great time with the audience. But the highlight for me certainly had to be the photo-op with Star Trek star Nichelle Nichols. What a great lady.
Jason Momoa favored sitting on the edge of the stage to relate to his fans
Nichelle Nichols favored us all with the Vulcan salute
Before we headed for home I gave the kid a quick tour of South Beach and its great Deco-style architecture. Miami Beach was pretty torn up — lots of construction going on — but being a city gal at heart, I really enjoyed being in a little bit of a bigger pond for a while. We will definitely be back soon, when we can spend a bit more time hanging out there. All in all, a great, fun day.
I have been feeling that I feel things too greatly lately, and it reminded me of a post I wrote back in 2011, "The Empath." A lot has changed around here and in the world since then, but a lot is also very much the same. That's life. My mom was still living at home then, but many of the issues that we were dealing with, of loss and communication, are still very much in my mind, even with her now full-time in a nursing home. I miss her now, as I was missing her then. I am still trying to find the bright side, always.
I'm not the least bit sorry to see the back end of 2010. It has to be one of the most stressful years in recent memory, and that's saying a lot. It certainly didn't have the fun feel I was looking for this time last year.
Watching my cousin Ann slip away from ovarian cancer, week by week, sometimes day by day, last year wasn't easy. But I wouldn't trade a second of it. Not even my knowing the outcome the moment her lips said back in July as she stroked a lump on her neck, "I think it's back." But having to spend half the year watching her die and the other half without her sucks beyond all measure.
Cousins, identical cousins—the Kid and Cousin Ann out on the town
Empaths are highly sensitive. This is the term commonly used in describing one's abilities (sensitivity) to another's emotions and feelings. Empaths have a deep sense of knowing that accompanies empathy and are often compassionate, considerate, and understanding of others.
Experiencing the incremental mental slippage of my mom hasn't been a picnic, either. 2010 was the year when we finally said dementia out loud, when I knew it was time to step in and take charge, and ensure we have good times together while we can. It's hard to feel the frustration emanate from my mom as she struggles to find a word or a name. I suffer along with her if I can't find the context, the little series of cues and clues that will help me decipher something she is trying to tell me. Sometimes it seems we work so hard to interpret something that turns out to be the height of mundanity—"We need to buy artichokes" is the result of her prodding me with "That thing that I told you, the little ones, that we had, you know, we talked about earlier." Life is a puzzle that I am always trying to solve. Taking the car keys and other symbols of independence away from a parent is not exactly a recipe for congenial living, but somehow we are, at least for the moment, navigating this thorny path as gracefully as possible.
Empathy is genetic, inherent in our DNA, and passed from generation to generation. ... Empaths often possess the ability to sense others on many different levels. From their position in observing what another is saying, feeling and thinking, they come to understand another. They can become very proficient at reading another personís body language ...
Ironic that I may have inherited traits from my mom that might help me better understand her.
I can't help but draw parallels between what happened and is happening to two very important women in my life. Is that all we can do, watch people we love disappear? Am I someone who sees these signs of slippage happening before others do? I'll never forget watching the classic Star Trek episode The Empath as a kid and really connecting with the girl who took on everybody else's pain. I can't compare what my cousin went through or what my mom goes through daily to my own level of pain, but I do feel that I have suffered, in my own way, alongside them.
I feel shaken and shaky about the world we live in, too. 2010 was a year with plenty of things to worry about outside of my immediate family. No one needs me to recap the horrible disasters of earthquakes, cholera, and oil spills to feel some of the pain that the most directly involved have experienced. As wonderful as it is for me now to take walk on the beach, when a dead fish washes up at my feet I am immediately pulled across the state to the Gulf and wonder how people are coping, and if this sea creature is an inheritance of that catastrophe.
One will often find empaths enjoying the outdoors, beaches, walking, etc. Empaths may find themselves continually drawn to nature as a form of release. It is the opportune place to recapture their senses and gain a sense of peace in the hectic lives they may live.
I'm so very discouraged by the erosion of goodwill towards our president and how harmful that can be to this country. I was on the National Mall for the inauguration and it was such a wonderful hopeful day ... I don't care what party you belong to, the petty back-biting and political angling is disgusting. One of the major upsides to our leaving the Capital Beltway this year is not having to hear the partisan bickering as loud and as often—being on the spot just made me feel that much more powerless, with all of the bad behavior happening just a few blocks away.
I have so much on my plate these days it is hard to get worked up over any major political issues. I am just trying to keep all our heads above water and give my daughter and mother the best life that I can. If I ruled the world I would decree that 2011 should be the year of political television silence. No talking-heads shows, nasty-ass ads or stupid campaign commercials posing as reality shows. I know it could never happen, but it's my dream.
So, that was the half-empty glass, now for the half-full. With all the pain and loss the past year, I have to say I have also gained so much. Watching my daughter confidently navigate first grade, a brand-new school, town and friends, and read independently in just the past six months is amazing to me. And thankfully, I feel the excitement that she feels, the newness, and even a little bit of the fear as she experiences it. I am catching glimpses of the woman she is going to be. It's incredible.
The girl loves a buffet
Working part-time and from home has also helped open up a whole new vista for me. At first I felt trapped and isolated. I actually felt like I was out in the internets, adrift, needing to find some way to navigate. I am used to working with a large group of people, with lots of social interaction. Maybe facebook and twitter entering my life in the past few years helped pave the way—after a few weeks I got comfortable and found that I still felt connected to most of my co-workers, even working from quite a distance. Yes, there was no longer so much face-to-face—the office isn't skype-comfortable—but I no longer felt disconnected. Phones and emails kept us in each other's loop. On the home front, if my mom felt that we had invaded her life and her space when we first arrived, we quickly established a routine and rhythm that allowed me to work during the day and her to read or pursue her own interests while the kid was at school.
Empaths are often poets in motion. They are the born writers, singers, and artists with a high degree of creativity and imagination. They are known for many talents as their interests are varied ... They often have interests in many cultures and view them with a broad-minded perspective. They are mother, father, child, friend, nurse, caregiver, teacher, doctor, sales people ... to psychic, clairvoyant, healer, etc.
Feeling connected to my art, my creative side, is very important to my health and sanity. Having just a tiny bit more time to myself (2011 be warned—I'm working on increasing that, too) allowed me to spend more time on my blog and writing. I've been able to focus more on the pop culture topics that interest me (books, film and television), while giving them my own particular feminist/feminine spin. I'm branching out a bit into more venues and can now call myself a professional blogger—and I'm proud of that.
Cary Grant in the trailer for North by Northwest, by Alfred Hitchcock, 1959, Wikipedia.
I know that 2011 will have its ups and downs, particularly focused on my mom's decline and our efforts to slow it down as much as possible. My goal is to give her the best life that I can—and for all of us to share as much of what's joyful as possible. There's tons of things that we can enjoy together, from a meal out to watching my daughter dance around and be silly, to watching a movie together. I feel the lack deeply that she and I can no longer share my ideas—the things that I write about and what they mean to me—to converse, share simple observations about the world.
I may not be able to discuss with her my interpretation of a film and my new spin on what I think it might mean. But instead of feeling bad and focusing on the fact that we are no longer what we once were, I can work with what we are. She may not remember the movie North By Northwest—either the title of the film or the fact that it's by Hitchcock. This is more than a little hard for me to take when she is half of the reason I'm such a film buff. She may no longer be able to come up with the names of the stars—Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau—but she does remember them and that she once knew their names. She knows that she likes Cary Grant and that she's always thought (and still thinks) he was very attactive. She enjoys "rediscovering" the movie and sharing it with her daughter and granddaughter. It's a life of things without labels for her. We're experiencing the thingness of things.
My hope for 2011? That we will continue to experience new and old things together. That I will continue to feel what's going on with folks in the way that I do, but maybe not take it too much to heart, or like that Star Trek maiden, lose myself in others' issues. Feeling deeply is a good thing. There's actually a definition for feeling deeply:
Here are the listeners of life. Empaths are often problem solvers, thinkers, and studiers of many things. As far as empaths are concerned, where a problem is, so too is the answer. They often will search until they find one—if only for peace of mind.
Yep, that's me. And I can already see the telltale signs that my daughter is an empath too. We are set up to connect, to feel others, to suss them out. These skills will be invaluable in my future attempts at interpreting my mom's wishes and conversations. As hard as it can be to feel what others are going through sometimes, imagine how differently we might all behave if we really thought about the other guy, even felt what they felt, once in a while. I'm happy that I'm an empath.
Quotes from About Empathy and Empaths, by Christel Broederlow Copyright (c) 2002,About.com
Warning: spoilers abound, for those of you who haven't already guessed, viewed, or Googled Benedict Cumberbatch's true identity in the film.
J.J. Abrams's second entry in his rebooted Star Trek franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness, warped into theaters last week and did pretty well — over $164 million worldwide earned at the box office so far. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and the rest of the gang were back, but there's no denying that what made Star Trek even more fun and fascinating this time around was the arch-villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Abrams & Co. are undoubtedly big fans of the original series and its subsequent films, as there were many shout-outs to fans peppered throughout the film.
Cumberbatch made a swell villain, and the film-mmakers definitely wanted to tweak the fans by revealing him to be ... Khan, but ... by making him Khan they have really messed with what had come before, both in the original series episode, "Space Seed," and the film, Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan with Ricardo Montalban playing the Indian Sikh super-warrior Khan Noonien Singh. It is undeniable that as gorgeous and kick-ass as Cumberbatch may look on the widescreen, he is quite the pale fellow. Khan's ethnicity and the series' historic nod to Genghis Khan went right out the window. Reportedly Benicio Del Toro was originally slated for the role, but Cumberbatch was great, one of the best things about the movie.
A super-man who can take out an entire army of Klingons? Yes, please!
Spock and Kirk work on their relationship
Uhura is not only fluent in Klingon, but can save her man at the end of the day
Having Kirk go into a radiation tube so that Zachary Quinto could yell, "KHAN!!!" after his friend had seemingly died, and then go after him for revenge was a nice switch. A cameo from original Spock Leonard Nimoy was also fun, although it smacked of not only deus ex machina, but that wacky LOST sideways universe, which is not necessarily a good thing.
Dr. Carol Marcus, (of Genesis project fame) played by Alice Eve, made an appearance, mostly so that we could see her in her underwear. Oddly, bra and panty design doesn't seem to have changed or improved much in the future. How a British-accented lassie could be the daughter of the very American Admiral Marcus, played by Peter Weller is anybody's guess.
There were definitely some great set-pieces:
The opening sequence on the planet Nibiru, was visually stunning and exciting, as Spock tried to save a primitive civilisation from an about-to-erupt volcano, while Kirk as usual, broke every rule in the book to save him from being blown up with the volcano.
The banter between Kirk and Spock, Kirk and Scotty (a very funny Simon Pegg), Spock and Uhura, Kirk and Khan — all great stuff. The relationships, as always, are the heart of these movies. The CGI pyrotechnics are just window dressing.
Kirk and Khan teaming up (temporarily) and hurtling through space together, to save the Enterprise and its crew was a great sequence.
The overall experience of watching the film was a fun one, but Star Trek Into Darkness was one of the noisiest damn movies ever. So many things exploding in space, with tons of gray metal junk flying all over the place. Whatever happened to no one being able to hear you scream in space? There will undoubtedly be a sequel, although which aspect of the Star Trek legacy the filmmakers will choose to plunder next time around remains uncertain. The fate of Khan and his companions wasn't left ambiguous enough to really register as clever, or a twist in storytelling. I wouldn't mind at all seeing Cumberbatch again, but is that really a story that needs to be (re) told?
Thanks to holiday gifts and the local library, we've been having a bit of a sci-fi marathon lately. My brother gifted us with the second season of Star Trek (the one with the tribbles), and my daughter has been enjoying Captain Kirk's unparalleled talent: talking computers out of destroying the universe (I am NOMAD!), as well as his amazing fighting skills (always that one little streak of blood at the side of his mouth after he takes a punch).
At the same time we started watching Star Trek I found the first season DVD of Farscape at the library and decided it would be fun to watch that again, too. I was a huge fan of the show first-run (at least the first two seasons—I started to lose track of it when the SciFi channel started messing with the schedule and the show added an annoying red-headed character), and was curious to see if it would hold up. It did. It's just as sassy, silly and scientific as I remember it. I planned at first to watch it after the kid went to bed, but being the holidays she was staying up later, and she actually stayed awake and got into the pilot episode so much she asked to see some more. So we have been having a fun mash-up of some great television science fiction.
It's no surprise that the two shows have many similarities. Ben Browder's John Crichton was clearly and consciously modeled on James Tiberius Kirk, in fact, Farscape may well be the meta-Star Trek. It is full of pop-culture references and sly jokes upon itself. Crichton makes many pop culture references in the series, including worrying that Buffy the Vampire Slayer might be dead by the time he gets back to Earth and writes "Hi there!" on a nuclear bomb.
Farscape also takes the human-thrown-into-the-barrel-of-aliens much farther than Star Trek did with its Klingons and Romulans by making its Enterprise, the ship, Moya, a living being. Farscape also has the added attraction of having main characters designed by The Jim Henson's Co., which supposedly will be producing some additional webisodes with all of the characters. I've been a huge fan of Brian Henson since he played the Storyteller's Dog in The Storyteller, a great series also featuring Henson Co.'s human/creature collaborations. Farscape's characters of Rigel, the selfish deposed king and Pilot, the ship's pilot are very real and inspire as much involvement and emotion as their human costars.
Farscape can go full-steam with humor, but still keep its science where Star Trek could only occasionally do humor. A sign of the times. Star Trek was blazing the trail and had to be a bit more serious in its approach, whereas Farscape could do multiple riffs on Star Trek and just about anything else it could think of. There's much to love in both shows, and I think our mash-up is helping point out some of the best parts of both universes. Here are some of our favorite pairings:
"Assignment: Earth" is a great Star Trek episode, which almost spawned a spin-off featuring hipster alien Gary Seven, whose job is to save the universe (I think) is almost prevented by guest star Teri Garr and Kirk and Spock. This matched well with Farscape's "I, E.T." where Crichton and Co. have to visit a planet (similar to all of those Star Trek episodes where Kirk & Co go to an earth-like planet and have to make friends to get help with something they need, for the ship or an ill comrade, etc.) to find a special substance that will heal Moya.
In "Exodus from Genesis" space bugs invade Moya and create duplicates of the crew, which was a nice counterpoint to the classic Star Trek Mirror, Mirror episode where Kirk, Uhura and Chekhov are beamed to an alternate universe where everything is different and evil and Spock has sexy sideburns and a goatee.
Crichton gets zapped in "Back and Back and Back to the Future" and starts experiencing potential glimpses of the future - all involving the deaths of himself and his shipmates, unless he can find a way to change the current course of events. This paired nicely with "I, Mudd," which wasn't exactly about multiple time warps, but the multiple androids were funny and fun and just as potentially lethal until super-Kirk figured out how to bust up their main computer link.
When watching a series that has been off the air for quite some time it always makes me wonder—where are these actors now? We all know about the main Star Trek cast, some of who have passed on, some who turn up in the reboot and some who are all over the place. But what about all those Aussie actors and transplanted American leading man from Farscape? A little searching on imdb reveals that Ben Browder is starring in a web series, Naught for Hire.
With so many of us hooking up our laptops to our televisions and watching old favorites on Hulu and similar sites, this seems like just another way to keep working. Claudia Black who played Aeryn Sun seems to be busy with voice work since having her second child. Virginia Hey has apparently stopped acting and relocated to the US, where she is launching a business based on her long interest in natural therapies. Maybe inspired by the deleterious effects all that blue make-up she had to wear as Zhaan had on her skin and kidneys.
If you can't find the DVDs, Farscape is available on Amazon and iTunes. And Brian Henson still promises more webisodes. So there are many more mash-up possibilities in our future. And then there are the action figures ...
I'm not the least bit sorry to see the back end of 2010. It has to be one of the most stressful years in recent memory, and that's saying a lot. It certainly didn't have the fun feel I was looking for this time last year.
Watching my cousin Ann slip away from ovarian cancer, week by week, sometimes day by day, last year wasn't easy. But I wouldn't trade a second of it. Not even my knowing the outcome the moment her lips said back in July as she stroked a lump on her neck, "I think it's back." But having to spend half the year watching her die and the other half without her sucks beyond all measure.
Cousins, identical cousins—the Kid and Cousin Ann out on the town
Empaths are highly sensitive. This is the term commonly used in describing one's abilities (sensitivity) to another's emotions and feelings. Empaths have a deep sense of knowing that accompanies empathy and are often compassionate, considerate, and understanding of others.
Experiencing the incremental mental slippage of my mom hasn't been a picnic, either. 2010 was the year when we finally said dementia out loud, when I knew it was time to step in and take charge, and ensure we have good times together while we can. It's hard to feel the frustration emanate from my mom as she struggles to find a word or a name. I suffer along with her if I can't find the context, the little series of cues and clues that will help me decipher something she is trying to tell me. Sometimes it seems we work so hard to interpret something that turns out to be the height of mundanity—"We need to buy artichokes" is the result of her prodding me with "That thing that I told you, the little ones, that we had, you know, we talked about earlier." Life is a puzzle that I am always trying to solve. Taking the car keys and other symbols of independence away from a parent is not exactly a recipe for congenial living, but somehow we are, at least for the moment, navigating this thorny path as gracefully as possible.
Empathy is genetic, inherent in our DNA, and passed from generation to generation. ... Empaths often possess the ability to sense others on many different levels. From their position in observing what another is saying, feeling and thinking, they come to understand another. They can become very proficient at reading another personís body language ...
Ironic that I may have inherited traits from my mom that might help me better understand her.
I can't help but draw parallels between what happened and is happening to two very important women in my life. Is that all we can do, watch people we love disappear? Am I someone who sees these signs of slippage happening before others do? I'll never forget watching the classic Star Trek episode The Empath as a kid and really connecting with the girl who took on everybody else's pain. I can't compare what my cousin went through or what my mom goes through daily to my own level of pain, but I do feel that I have suffered, in my own way, alongside them.
I feel shaken and shaky about the world we live in, too. 2010 was a year with plenty of things to worry about outside of my immediate family. No one needs me to recap the horrible disasters of earthquakes, cholera, and oil spills to feel some of the pain that the most directly involved have experienced. As wonderful as it is for me now to take walk on the beach, when a dead fish washes up at my feet I am immediately pulled across the state to the Gulf and wonder how people are coping, and if this sea creature is an inheritance of that catastrophe.
One will often find empaths enjoying the outdoors, beaches, walking, etc. Empaths may find themselves continually drawn to nature as a form of release. It is the opportune place to recapture their senses and gain a sense of peace in the hectic lives they may live.
I'm so very discouraged by the erosion of goodwill towards our president and how harmful that can be to this country. I was on the National Mall for the inauguration and it was such a wonderful hopeful day ... I don't care what party you belong to, the petty back-biting and political angling is disgusting. One of the major upsides to our leaving the Capital Beltway this year is not having to hear the partisan bickering as loud and as often—being on the spot just made me feel that much more powerless, with all of the bad behavior happening just a few blocks away.
I have so much on my plate these days it is hard to get worked up over any major political issues. I am just trying to keep all our heads above water and give my daughter and mother the best life that I can. If I ruled the world I would decree that 2011 should be the year of political television silence. No talking-heads shows, nasty-ass ads or stupid campaign commercials posing as reality shows. I know it could never happen, but it's my dream.
So, that was the half-empty glass, now for the half-full. With all the pain and loss the past year, I have to say I have also gained so much. Watching my daughter confidently navigate first grade, a brand-new school, town and friends, and read independently in just the past six months is amazing to me. And thankfully, I feel the excitement that she feels, the newness, and even a little bit of the fear as she experiences it. I am catching glimpses of the woman she is going to be. It's incredible.
The girl loves a buffet
Working part-time and from home has also helped open up a whole new vista for me. At first I felt trapped and isolated. I actually felt like I was out in the internets, adrift, needing to find some way to navigate. I am used to working with a large group of people, with lots of social interaction. Maybe facebook and twitter entering my life in the past few years helped pave the way—after a few weeks I got comfortable and found that I still felt connected to most of my co-workers, even working from quite a distance. Yes, there was no longer so much face-to-face—the office isn't skype-comfortable—but I no longer felt disconnected. Phones and emails kept us in each other's loop. On the home front, if my mom felt that we had invaded her life and her space when we first arrived, we quickly established a routine and rhythm that allowed me to work during the day and her to read or pursue her own interests while the kid was at school.
Empaths are often poets in motion. They are the born writers, singers, and artists with a high degree of creativity and imagination. They are known for many talents as their interests are varied ... They often have interests in many cultures and view them with a broad-minded perspective. They are mother, father, child, friend, nurse, caregiver, teacher, doctor, sales people ... to psychic, clairvoyant, healer, etc.
Feeling connected to my art, my creative side, is very important to my health and sanity. Having just a tiny bit more time to myself (2011 be warned—I'm working on increasing that, too) allowed me to spend more time on my blog and writing. I've been able to focus more on the pop culture topics that interest me (books, film and television), while giving them my own particular feminist/feminine spin. I'm branching out a bit into more venues and can now call myself a professional blogger—and I'm proud of that.
Cary Grant in the trailer for North by Northwest, by Alfred Hitchcock, 1959, Wikipedia.
I know that 2011 will have its ups and downs, particularly focused on my mom's decline and our efforts to slow it down as much as possible. My goal is to give her the best life that I can—and for all of us to share as much of what's joyful as possible. There's tons of things that we can enjoy together, from a meal out to watching my daughter dance around and be silly, to watching a movie together. I feel the lack deeply that she and I can no longer share my ideas—the things that I write about and what they mean to me—to converse, share simple observations about the world.
I may not be able to discuss with her my interpretation of a film and my new spin on what I think it might mean. But instead of feeling bad and focusing on the fact that we are no longer what we once were, I can work with what we are. She may not remember the movie North By Northwest—either the title of the film or the fact that it's by Hitchcock. This is more than a little hard for me to take when she is half of the reason I'm such a film buff. She may no longer be able to come up with the names of the stars—Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau—but she does remember them and that she once knew their names. She knows that she likes Cary Grant and that she's always thought (and still thinks) he was very attactive. She enjoys "rediscovering" the movie and sharing it with her daughter and granddaughter. It's a life of things without labels for her. We're experiencing the thingness of things.
My hope for 2011? That we will continue to experience new and old things together. That I will continue to feel what's going on with folks in the way that I do, but maybe not take it too much to heart, or like that Star Trek maiden, lose myself in others' issues. Feeling deeply is a good thing. There's actually a definition for feeling deeply:
Here are the listeners of life. Empaths are often problem solvers, thinkers, and studiers of many things. As far as empaths are concerned, where a problem is, so too is the answer. They often will search until they find one—if only for peace of mind.
Yep, that's me. And I can already see the telltale signs that my daughter is an empath too. We are set up to connect, to feel others, to suss them out. These skills will be invaluable in my future attempts at interpreting my mom's wishes and conversations. As hard as it can be to feel what others are going through sometimes, imagine how differently we might all behave if we really thought about the other guy, even felt what they felt, once in a while. I'm happy that I'm an empath.
Quotes from About Empathy and Empaths, by Christel Broederlow Copyright (c) 2002, About.com
I don't consider myself a raging feminist, whatever that means. Or an enraged one. I like guy-centered films and great heroes as much as I like to see a gal-central flick. But I recently watched two movies on dvd that came out last year and was perturbed at how their treatment of women became a detracting subplot for me. One, I'm sure, the filmmakers never intended.
Take Nine. Please. I did enjoy seeing the parade of female stars strut their stuff in one musical number after another, trying their damnedest to make the film work. But that's all they were allowed to do. The music, for the most part, was unmemorable. Kate Hudson snagged the only song that was the least bit catchy, partly because it played again over the closing credits. Although I expect that was a cart before the horse situation—I'm sure someone realized it was the only song that worked and might keep people in their seats long enough to watch most of the credits.
The film is twice-removed, and it shows. Based on a musical which was based on one of the greatest movies ever, 8 1/2, by Federico Fellini, it has a built-in hard act to follow, and it's just not up to the challenge. Daniel Day-Lewis tries hard to capture an Italian accent and get inside the existential head of its movie-director hero, Guido. But that's just the problem. He is an interior actor. He doesn't have the effortless charm required to be believable as the man almost nine muses (actually seven) are obsessed with, much less headline a musical. Oh for a Raul Julia. Or Antonio Banderas. Or Hugh Jackman. Day-Lewis is sabotaged by the whole attitude of the film, which is anguished and depressing, miles away from the insouciant existential paradox enlivened by Marcello Mastroianni.
But where the film really did me in was with the portrayal of the women. Misogynist doesn't even start to describe how annoying it was to see Penélope Cruz, never more likable or gorgeous, be suicidal and talk herself down, as she only lived for this boring man, "I'll be here, with my legs open." No irony, or anger like the mistress from 8 1/2. Nicole Kidman was also reduced by her dialogue, which suggested that her great movie star has been pining away for this man for years. Why? The film can't tell us. And the list goes on: Marion Cotillard as the shabbily-treated wife. Judy Dench as a long-suffering factotum. All inexplicably, hopelessly, devoted to Guido. The final insult was when all the women are reduced to the background, part of Guido's psyche, as the great director finally gets his shit together to make his movie. Meh.
The other film I watched wasn't as glaringly offensive, but it still was a major disappointment, especially to this sci-fi fan. The J.J. Abrams Star Trek dropped the ball too many times for me to think it was a success. It had a great opening sequence and a great ending one. It made me think of the LOSTpilot, one of the best television openers I've seen. Is that what Abrams excels at? Starting things off? Because a lot of the middle of the movie had my mind wandering far, far, away. Zach Quinto's Spock was brilliant and I loved Zoe Saldana's Uhura, but here's where the movie ticked me off—Saldana is on the cover of the DVD case and on the movie poster, but in the movie she is relegated to that all-too-familiar role—stuck back at the ranch, worrying about her man. It was a nice twist that it was Spock and not Kirk, but that wasn't enough to make up for the fact that no woman in the movie had a significant role. No offense to John Cho's Sulu, but why couldn't Uhura have been the one to go with Kirk on the parachute rescue mission. That would have solved the problem completely as far as feminist concerns.
But the movie also let me down in other ways. For one, Kirk was an ass. Why? The opening sequence establishes his father was someone truly special, and his character is deftly drawn—I actually got choked up at his inevitable demise. But the next scene with the bratty young James Tiberius and scene after scene after that show Kirk to just be a jerk. He may be right about the Romulans, blah, blah, blah, but who cares. I wanted to maroon him on an ice planet and get him out of this movie, too.
It was great to see Leonard Nimoy, but the science in this science-fiction didn't make sense. Oops. An unrecognizable Eric Bana and his whole bad-guy subplot was frankly, a huge bore. The original Star Trek may look cheesy to modern eyes with its styrofoam boulders and the fight every episode which resulted in the inevitable trickle of blood down one side of William Shatner's mouth, but it also had ideas. There really weren't any in this movie. It had lots of things blowing up, and things happening too quickly to really determine visually what they were. It had lots of emotion—funnily enough, the strongest coming from Spock. He and Uhura should get a spin-off, because I can take or leave the rest of the gang (although Chekhov was pretty cool.) But it all reminded me of playing "Star Trek" when I was a kid. "I'll be Spock!" "I'll be Uhura!" Yes, I was that kid.
Having Captain Pike as a character was a missed opportunity as well. Why not really reboot and update the classic Menagerie episode? Or just stick with the young Starfleet cadets and let us get to know them, even like them? I'm afraid Starship Troopers did that better and that's a horribly cheesy movie. But cheesy good fun.
Maybe that's what both of these movies suffer from, besides the lack of good female roles. Not a lot of fun. They take themselves way too seriously.
This is how I felt last night when my daughter was crying hysterically about her shirt getting wet (?!) and me trying to get her to stop, shut up, calm down, anything but the horrible noise she was making. This was also after two other earlier in the day brat-moments: 1. our not getting cookies at Safeway (we picked them out, but they were never rung up, so no cookies in the bag when we got home) and 2. having to take a bath instead of a shower.
Sigh. I just need to walk away in these sorts of situations and not let myself get caught up in her five year-old over/emotion/reaction...but it ain't easy...and even when I KNOW this, it's not always easy to DO this.
I'm not proud of feeling this way, but sometimes it's a KKKHHHAAANNN moment...
, a great series also featuring Henson Co.'s human/creature collaborations. Farscape's characters of Rigel, the selfish deposed king and Pilot, the ship's pilot are very real and inspire as much involvement and emotion as their human costars.
" where Crichton and Co. have to visit a planet (similar to all of those Star Trek episodes where Kirk & Co go to an earth-like planet and have to make friends to get help with something they need, for the ship or an ill comrade, etc.) to find a special substance that will heal Moya.
" space bugs invade Moya and create duplicates of the crew, which was a nice counterpoint to the classic Star Trek 
" and starts experiencing potential glimpses of the future - all involving the deaths of himself and his shipmates, unless he can find a way to change the current course of events. This paired nicely with "
