The Not-So-Great Martian War

 Thanks, BBC America. You have robbed this American of two hours which I shall never see again.





The Great Martian War is a BBC alternate history "documentary" in the style of The History Channel. I saw an advert at the con when I was watching Aliens in my room. I was agog, a-twitter, even, though not a-Tumblr: no ball pit. I prepared to set aside the requisite time Saturday night to wallow in the benison of Auntie Beeb's bounty.

I was instead treated to "We can do H.G.Wells better than Wells, because Doctor Who and Sherlock.".

Before WW1, there is the Martian War, with flea-like giant tripods we dubbed "Herons", smaller tripods with extensible tentacles called "Spiders", and scavenger pillbug-types called "Lice". Oh, England, you and your clever nomenclature!




(Heron with attendant Spider)


WW1 newsreel footage is composited with CG Martian war machines to good effect; the downside is that they utilise a very limited number of SFX shots, and reuse them (often), and flip them, and otherwise cry "We wish we had had a bigger budget!". Interspersed throughout are interviews with survivors from the war, as well as descendants. They did their documentary homework well, with the emotional appeal of men and women who had lived through an interplanetary horror to tell the tale. But pathos cannot carry the day, and in the end, and with the Revelation of the Martians, the tale ends, not with a bang, but a yawn.

The only thing missing to complete the thing was this:



So, if you have two hours spare that you do not mind wasting to bring you that much closer to your demise, then by all means, enjoy this cold oatmeal-fest. Otherwise, play whist, or mumblety-peg, or better, re-read Wells' War of the Worlds. I have the edition illustrated by Edward Gorey!



SCARY!

Godzilla WHO?

Printed 'til 4AM...watched fun stuff whilst doing so.

GORGO!

Wonderful "Godzilla? WHO's that??" Brit monster flick, DVD-ed by VCI. Even has a decent mini-documentary. William Sylvester, before he met The Monolith in "2001" is a salvage guy who, with his partner, dredges up a prehistoric sea monster, and takes it to London to show off at the Circus. Kong escapes, and climbs the Empire Sta....sorry.

Why do these guys wind up thinking "this is the ONLY one of these around!"?

London gets trashed when Momma shows up.

Interesting ear-candy: the mellow-as-a-band-saw voice of Ed Bishop is heard aboard the RAF recon plane, and over the wireless. MGM contract player, went on to fly a spaceship in "2001", and a bureaucracy in 'UFO".

An Irish fishing community gets stomped into a puddle, with nary a Tokyo Tower in sight. Momma is looking for her baby. Single mom-hood was worse in the '50s. She follows his scent to London-town, which replays the horrors of the blitz. Momma has no respect for historical monuments, and Martian tripods London Bridge, which falls down, Westminster, Big Ben, and the Houses of Par-lee-a-ment. (guess the reference!!). Urban-renewal-fu abounds as apartments and The Tube are prepared for parking lots.

Excellent film all-round, with nary a romance in sight.

Refreshing as a Junior Mint!

Why I do not trust political arguments employing Scripture....

It would not be unkind to say that the view of this particular picture's authors is left of centre, the same alignment that utterly dismisses Levitical teaching on homosexuality, as well as other sexual misconduct. Sauce for the goose, Mr. Saavik.

That's right! It is certainly fine to cherry-pick verses that agree with your opinion or point-of-view, but Heaven forbid that you pay heed to what gives you political dyspepsia.

I do not care whether the point of view is right or left, or north-by-northwest. Neither Moses nor Jesus Christ are political figures, and to drag them and their specially-picked sayings into the mire of political foolishness is a debasement most foul.

The Word of God exists to show us of our need of redemption and change, and to show God's gracious provision of a redeemer. Perhaps if that were examined, rather than trying to rope the Almighty into supporting our partisan bickering, then maybe a redeemed people agreeing with God's POV might be able to help straighten out this old world.

Some being more equal than others....

Mike, a friend, fellow con dealer, and self-proclaimed "Most Boring Gay Guy in the World" had this experience this past week:
 

I was just at the bank and as I was walking out a woman (20s) was walking towards me so I was going to hold the door open for her. When she noticed my gesture she snapped "no, I'm a feminist and you're just trying to look at my butt" so I looked at her and pushed the door all the way closed. She then asked me what I was doing. I responded "making everything equal. Open your own damn door" she then told me I was rude. I told her no, I'm equal.

The Dread Dormomoo and I were unsure of what promoted the more hilarity, the idea of Mike checking Chickie-poo out, or her uppance coming when he asserted equality. She clearly wanted her low-fat, artificially-sweetened cake, and to eat it too.  Riatsila and the D.D. pointed out a few minutes ago that unless she has been Fighting the Patriarchy by opening doors for men, opening the car door for a man, and giving up her seat so that a man might sit, she is claiming "equality" without effort; wearing the label without the labor. Rather reminds me of bumper-sticker religious folks, whose claim to the title is adhesive-backed, but backed by little else. (Granted, this strawman brought to you by Facebook and the Freedom From Religion group.) It's like a term I learned this week..."Slacktivism", that concern for the Plight of Others Less Fortunate that overwhelms one, forcing the sharing of Facebook posts to raise Awareness.

Remember the critical mass of FB posts that brought enough pressure to bear on Boku Haram to release those Nigerian schoolgirls? Nope, neither do I. Awareness-raising does one thing...it puts something in your noddle. That is all. Like talk radio, when you share the post / listen and call in to a show, you feel like you have Done Something. Actually you have done nothing at all.

Chickie-baby. Oh, mercy. Her noddle is likely full of Simone de Beauvoir, Womyns Studies, and Down with The Patriarchy. No room left for The Niceties like being polite, or accepting a gracious (or even perfunctory!) gesture with grace. She is as much an Entitled Person as any welfare king or queen might feel themselves to be, entitled to be treated as her (invisible) convictions dictate.

Invisible? Well, as long as people are going to be checking her out, perhaps a bumper sticker on her person might spell it out more clearly for the rest of us. No use letting others be ignorant of what is important to you.