Star Trek and Star Wars, a comparison

I watched Star Trek last week and gaping plot holes aside, a few similarities to Star Wars (the originals) jumped out at me. I think it’s quite amusing that Abrams chose to follow the somewhat stereotypical format, but the movie is entertaining, so we’ll leave it at that.

Common points:

• A young blond boy drives really, really fast.
• The main bad guy suffers the loss of his young, pregnant wife and subsequently goes off into the rails of crazy.
• Some old wise dude blames himself for all the death and destruction that happens.
• A Very Important Planet is Destroyed.
• The hero does not get the girl, his second-in-command/best friend (sorta) does.
• The hero also did not know his father, and goes on to follow his footsteps.
• There is a wrinkly green alien who looks like a reincarnated tennis ball.
• The really weird uniforms/costumes. (Though Zoe Saldana rocks those boots.)

And just for fun:

• How many times does Kirk get choked by angry people intent on ending him? Also, he spends most of the action scenes dangling off some sort of cliff/sheer edge.
• You will never be able to convince me that Iowa has a giant chasm running through the middle of the state. (Trust me, I’ve lived there. It’s all plains and cornfields.)
• You will also never be able to convince me that Kirk managed to climb up an icy cliff without his gloves on. (Or for that matter, his coat.) I don’t care if he had acclimatization training in the Antarctic, that’s just not possible without frostbite.
• By normal Hollywood standards, the hero would be dating the girl, super good at kicking ass, struggling to accept himself and thus Kirk is actually not the hero. Spock is.
• Eomer is McCoy. I will never get past that. (McCoy: Space is death and disease wrapped in darkness and silence. Kirk: Hate to break it to ya, but Starfleet operates in space.)
• Uhura is good at what she does, has Spock completely whipped and isn’t defined by her relationships with the men around her. Plus, WOC. *fist pump*
• SULU IS AWESOME.

Okay, done now.

How did you like the movie?

Amazon Fail

… or why someone over at Amazon.com has utterly lost their mind. (Or never had one to begin with, we are not sure.)

In short: Amazon.com has seen fit to remove books from its ranking system, including but not limited to books on LGBT sex, feminism and just sex in general. This means that when you hit enter on your keyboard, these books will not show up. Apparently E.M. Forster has been removed. (WHUT?)

Interestingly, ‘books’ like Playboy, heterosexual erotica/romance and some other graphical stuff that sound barely physically possible are still showing up in searches.

Call to boycott Amazon, because I don’t even have words for how ridiculously censorious this is. (Lady Chatterley’s Lover outlawed but not Mein Kampf?)

So anyway, the ladies over at Smartbitches have come up with a Google-bomb campaign: Amazon rank ftw, everyone! (The more people linking to this, the higher the likelihood that google searches will yield this result, thus exposing the rectal-haberdashery habits of Amazon.com.)

You can also see people reacting on Twitter with the tag ‘#amazonfail’.

That’s it for now, though I am totally expecting the internet go ’splodey. Needless to say, I will be watching from orbit.

Sources: here, here and here.

(I really should look into getting an outrage tag.)

I’ll Change My Name When You Change Yours

Betty Brown, prominent Republican lawmaker from beautiful Texas, says this:

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey] Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

(Emphasis mine.)

Betty Brown has so far resisted all calls for apology.

My reaction:

OH HELL NO.

When I registered for elementary in small-town America, my principal kept nudging me to go for a more ‘American’ first name. (It didn’t work.) My mom’s boss actually assigned her a name, and then printed out the nametag without consulting her, so she couldn’t really insist on changing back without a fuss. (She quit after a few months.)

And let’s not go into the intentionally and sometimes sneeringly mangled name pronunciation. (Oh, schoolyards. How I love thee.)

I have not, cannot, and will not whitewash myself to make a bunch of lazy white asshats more self-satisfied. I will not give them more cause than the smallness of their own minds to sneer at us and say, “See? Those yellowfaces are only trying to ape us.”

Learning Chinese is hard. Learning common courtesy to your fellow human beings may also be hard, but it is absolutely necessary. Regardless of what language you and I speak, should you not at least respect the sanctity of my name?

Source: Texan Lawmaker thinks Asians should Americanize their names to make others’ lives easier

Criminal Minds in a Superficial Nutshell

Criminal Minds. Oh god. Possibly the best TV show out there, or at least it is trying, with the Plot Continuity, Character and Thematic Arcs, Meaningful Debates on the Nature of Good and Evil, Great Acting by Main Cast and Guest Stars, and Metatextual References Like You Would Not Believe.

Also? The cast is bloody gorgeous.

2 examples:

(Obviously I’m biased in favour of the guys, but the girls are equally stunning. Really.)

There are 4 seasons, totaling 84 episodes (and more, as there are still at least 5 more left to the fourth season, and season 5 has been confirmed).

Oh man. I have no sense of self-preservation. Seriously, someone should just lock me in a room with my textbooks or I will never learn which limb of the loop of Henle is responsible for water resorption.

With the number of episodes and the complex, layered nature of the show, I opted for a more tongue-in-cheek look at the average episode of Criminal Minds.

Thoughts on BBF Finale

Written as watched. Spoilers, wouldn’t you know.

Episode 25, finale

- You can totally tell there’s about 7 layers of makeup on everyone just so their eyebags don’t show.
- Lol. Yumi’s bento fails at being cute. Nori bowtie hair indeed.
- I love how angry Jihoo is during the first half of the entire ep.
- Jandi, you eejit. What if he didn’t remember? Were you going to just let yourself drown??? (Outside of a hospital, CPR works only about 7% of the time.) I would run around breaking things at your stupidity, but this is Hanadan, so allowances must be made.

Return of Iljimae OST

This OST is one of the prettiest I’ve heard in a long time. Enjoy!

Download via [Megaupload] or [Mediafire].

Track listing:

01 나는 일지매 (Rock Ver.) – H2O
02 자장가 – 한대수
03 남자는 똑같다 – 박정은
04 내가 꿈꾸는 그 곳 – 윤진서
05 마지막 영웅 – 신민철 (T.Max)
06 너의 노래 – B.T.
07 그리움 – 배해선
08 기다림 (Children Ver.) – 한국 아카데미 소년소녀 합창단
09 남자이니까 – MBO
10 밤의 날개 – 김영진 (H2O)
11 파랑새 – Various Artists
12 그리움 – H2O
13 기다림 – 예인
14 나는 일지매 (Classic Ver.) – H2O feat. B.T.
15 너의 노래 (Inst.)

Hollywood is Racist… but you knew that.

I think I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

These both depict the main characters from the popular TV show Avatar – one from the original cartoon, and one from the feature film due to be released in 2010.

[Insert Asian outrage.]

If this gets to you, here’s a link to the petition protesting the Avatar casting.

Thank you.

Boys Before Flowers F4 Special Album

No, it doesn’t have the highly anticipated acoustic version of 내 머리가 나빠서 (Because I’m stupid) by Kim Hyun Joong, but it does include the other extra tracks that didn’t fit onto the second OST.

Download via [Mediafire] or [Megaupload]

Track listing:

01 행복이란 – 김현중 (Kim Hyun Joong)
02 가슴이 어떻게 됐나봐 – A&T
03 나쁜 마음을 먹게해 (Ballad Ver.) – T-MAX
04 나쁜 마음을 먹게해 (Dance Ver.) – T-MAX

Okay, now they’re just milking the cash cow for all it’s worth. If you cup your ear and listen really hard, you can probably hear the sound of music/ad execs screaming, ‘It’s ending in 2 weeks! Must cram all possible merchandise now!!’

/snark

Boys Before Flowers OST Part 2

IT’S OUT!!! I’m particularly looking forward to the Jisun song, but yay!

Download via [Mediafire] or [Megaupload].

Track listing:

01. Say Yes – T-Max
02. With Ur My Love (With J) – T-Max
03. 아쉬운 마음인걸 – A’st1
04. 애인만들기 – SS501
05. 어떡하죠 – 지선 (Jisun)
06. Love Is Fire – Kara
07. Love U – HowL
08. 사랑같은 거 – Brand New Day
09. 눈물이 난다 – 이상곤 (Lee Sang Gon)
10. Cellogic (Cello By 김영민)
11. 다가가다 (Violin By 동요)
12. 낯선 해
13. 사랑을 위하여.

Enjoy, my loves.

NBC To Air Merlin in June

I come bearing good news! BBC’s hit show about, well, its titular character, has been bumped up from a winter broadcast to this summer. Barring any freakish accidents or scheduling snafus, Merlin (which I’ve blogged about rather extensively) is due to start airing on the 21st of June, at 8pm (or 7pm central time).

FINALLY!

Brb, bunny hopping around the room in joy.

Source: NBC.