07 (original) (raw)

Greetings, gay geeklings!

Right off the bat, a zippy reminder that our next meeting is on Tuesday, October 16th, at 7:30 p.m. at the Center on Halsted (next week!). Mark your calendars, my flying monkeys!

Steven, Tim, and I plan to bombard you yet again with a geeky trivia quiz (fewer questions about Trek and horror movies, since it's becoming clear that the group just doesn't swing that way). We've also planned to view a nifty episode of "Futurama" called "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (courtesy of Triple G member Raven). We'll discuss some possible group movie outings for October and November (personally, I'm intrigued by "30 Days of Night" and "Beowulf"). Halloween is just around the corner, so we'll definitely talk about spooky things to do around and about Chicago for the holiday. And finally, we'll select a book for discussion in our November meeting. Come on down and join us, won't you?

(don't MAKE me come get you)

Okay, so here's some geeky stuff culled from the past week. First, a film review:

"In the Shadow of the Moon" – I caught this award-winning documentary last weekend at the beautiful and ornate Music Box movie palace, which has the most goddamned noisy and uncomfortable theater seats in this whole fraking city (when you sit on them, you can practically hear them whining "oil can, oil can").

It is perhaps entirely appropriate to view a creaky, feel-good, family film about the surviving Apollo astronauts in this venue. The documentary's focus is on retracing the lunar-landings through a series of talking-head interviews with a bunch of congenial old codgers. There are small bits of cool archival footage thrown in here and there, but the bulk of the film is each astronaut describing his experiences in his own words. I suppose that there are worse ways to spend one's time, but this movie just left me cold (in the face of heart-warming entertainment, I'm apparently heartless). Perhaps I just wanted more hard science (your average Discovery Channel program on the same subject would certainly have more). But that's not what this film is about. It's a very human take on this particular moment in our space program.

That's fine, but (and I DO feel terrible writing this) it would've been nice if somebody else were telling the story.

Undeniably these guys are American heroes. They're extremely brave and courageous men, but they're not scientists, they're not engineers, and they're certainly not poets. They're army pilots. Their descriptions of landing on the moon ("It felt weird!") are heart-breakingly simple (perhaps heavily-influenced by the sheaves of pre-written copy they've undoubtedly had to recite by rote in interviews over the years).

You can't help but feel great affection for these fellas, though. There's a brief but funny coda over the end credits, in which each of the astronauts addresses conspiracy theories that all six of the lunar landings were staged. They're all very good-humored about it. Finally, there are several intriguing (and frustrating) loose ends. The reclusive Neil Armstrong is the only surviving astronaut who declines to be interviewed, and, as the film progressed, he quickly became the one that I wanted to hear from the most (surrender your secrets to me, Neil!).

There's also no mention of why interest in the moon dried up so quickly after the Cold War (I suppose that we had beaten the Ruskies, and that was all we really needed to do), or of what direction the space program took afterwards. Well, it ultimately seems to be more my failing than the film's that I wasn't engaged. I just wanted it to be something else. Not the film's fault, really. I blame my seat. Seriously.

On to a quick smattering of television reviews:

HEROES – An unbelievably weak and anti-climatic season opener was followed by a significantly better second episode. I keep reminding myself that this show didn't really grab me at the beginning of last season either, so there's certainly still hope that things will continue to pick up. Hiro's and Peter's current storylines seem like such faits accomplis that I just want them over and done with. Get them both back to the regular storyline! Claire cutting off her little toe gave me the willies. Ouch, but cool! Claire's dad and the Haitian reunited? Awesome! And, holy COW, does Peter look smoking hot all tied up! Loving it. Oh, and I was getting freaked out that Peter and Nathan's mom was going to get murdered, and we still haven't learned what her power is (apparently it's not a defensive skill). Finally, I'm eager to see what Nicky/Jessica is up to next episode. Yatta!

PUSHING DAISIES – There's a beautiful moment at the beginning of both "Dead Like Me" and "Wonderfalls" in which a short fable establishes the theme and tone of those series. The same creators have essentially extended the snarky tenor and dreamy visuals of those short intro sequences into an entire series for "Pushing Daisies," a sweet fairy tale for adults. I love all of their previous works (which were unjustly cancelled before their time), I already love this show, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one. Please, please, please let if find audience, Krom, Odin, Bob, Geebus? Hear my prayer! It's pitch-perfect from beginning to end, like a candy-colored, magical version of "Ugly Betty." Great ensemble acting, and Lee Pace is just so sweetly innocent and gorgeous. The bee's knees.

BIONIC WOMAN – Unexpected. I'm thrilled with the triple BSG cameo overload in the pilot episode (the Chief, Baltar's defense attorney, and Starbuck!). Katie Sackhoff in particular seems to be having a lot of fun as the first bionic woman (the crazy cybernetic equivalent of a plastic-surgery junkie). It's also great to see Miguel Ferrer, who I loved as Agent Albert on "Twin Peaks" (though, why isn't he playing Oscar Goldman?). Friends have expressed worry that the show already appears to be slipping into very familiar "Alias" territory, but I never watched that particular program, so I have no frame of reference. Love the special effects and the fight choreography. Not so sure about our new Jamie Sommers, though. Bartender instead of a school teacher? Feh. Gimme till episode six. Till then, she's the muscle.

REAPER & JOURNEYMAN – Can any of you gay geeklings tell me whether either of these two new shows are worth watching? I either keep falling asleep during the opening credits, or find myself getting interrupted as they're starting. I've seen bits of "Reaper," and I'm so happy that Twin Peaks' alum Ray Wise is playing Satan. Fire walk with me!

Final words: I've been continuously updating our myspace photo section to reflect a broad scope of geeky interests, but I know that there are some big gaping holes in there. Now that it's a little bit tidier, please check it out and give me some feedback. What favorites of yours have I overlooked? What unrecognized collectables are you hoarding so assiduously in your basement? What cult television shows do you insist on watching every evening on your dusty old Betamax? Does the inclusion of "Small Wonder" bewilder and infuriate you beyond reason (it should, y'know)? Gimme a holler.

Until next week.

Thundercats, HO