Posted by barb on Aug 5, 2003 in
Books by Candace Bushnell
Bushnell also wrote Sex and the City — the inspiration for the HBO series. While I haven’t read the book, I have seen the series, and I was expecting something more along those lines. I suppose this was somewhat along those lines — the stories were about 4 blondes who were stuck-up and self-centered…the kind of women I would never find among my friends. However, I find that I have some sympathy for the characters in Sex and the City. The blondes in 4 Blondes are not at all sympathetic — they are pathetic, and pathetic of their own making.
Posted by barb on Aug 3, 2003 in
Books The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War
by Robert B. Edgerton
The Amazons of Dahomey were the elite army of the Aftrican republic of Dahomey from early 1700s (?) to nearly 1900 when the French took over Dahomey. They fought more fiercely than the men to protect their king and his interests. They were women.
Edgerton explores the origins of these Amazons, their rise and their fall. They represent an enigma in World warfare history, since war has almost exclusively been the realm of men. While women have gone to fight in wars in other cultures and societies, never before or since have they formed the elite army of a society.
Unfortunately, I rediscovered that scholars are generally not great writers with this book. Edgerton bounces around with is subject and repeats points and even anecdotes frequently, making the book a slog. Perhaps the most interesting chapter was the last one where he explores the history of women in warfare across the globe throughout history — though this certainly could have been a book all its own.
Posted by barb on Aug 3, 2003 in
Movies 0.5/5 stars
Yikes. Talk about your nonsensical movies.
I’m not saying that I didn’t understand the main story, but it jumped around so much that it was hard to follow. Several times I turned to Andrew with a questioning look only to hear him respond, “I don’t know what’s going on either.”
Posted by barb on Aug 2, 2003 in
Books by Carl Sagan
Excellent book! I’ve wanted to read this book since they started filming the movie version in Socorro (where I was living at the time) — that was at least seven years ago. I’m glad I finally got around to it!
In the novel, the Very Large Array radio interferometer in New Mexico has been expanded to over 100 telescopes and works much of the time searching for signals from extraterrestrial beings. Project Argus is lead by Ellie Arroway, a strong female scientist who has had to prove herself in a male-dominated field. One day in the late 1980s, Argus is successful — it detects a signal from Vega that is definitely not natural. In fact, once deciphered, the message is seen to contain instructions to build a machine. No one quite knows what the machine will do. In fact, construction of the machine requires whole new industries that Earth engineers had never conceived.
Two of the best things about this novel are Ellie Arroway and the President of the United States, who is female. Sagan has created two strong female characters who are sympathetic, not complete bitches (though Ellie boarders on it), and great role models. It’s just too bad that the movie version had to use Clinton rather than portraying a female president.
Highly recommended.
Posted by barb on Aug 1, 2003 in
Books We’ll see how long the embargo lasts, because I love buying books.
Here’s the deal I made with myself: No new books until I’ve read at least 20 books on my to-read shelves. I’ve already had to make an addendum to this agreement, since I’ll be visiting Minnesota at the end of the month. The significance of that is that my favorite book store, Uncle Hugo’s , is in Minnesota. It’s a locally owned bookstore that carries new and used science fiction, fantasy and horror. (There is a sister bookstore in the same building, Uncle Edgar’s, that carries mysteries.) I want to do my part to keep Uncle Hugo’s in business, so I’ve decided that I can buy any number of books while I’m there. However, that number of books will then be added on to the 20-book mandate. Sigh.
Posted by barb on Jul 30, 2003 in
TV I was a big fan of Battlestar Galactica when I was growing up. As a girl, I had a huge crush on Starbuck, and an only slightly smaller crush on Apollo. I would imagine myself getting caught up in some mess with the Cylons, and subsequently getting saved by Starbuck.
About two years ago, I heard about Richard Hatch‘s (Apollo) vision for a new BG series where we completely ignore the existence of Galactica 1980 (if only that could be scrubbed from the brains of all who saw…). Instead, the series would pick up with the Galactica 25 years later, still searching for Earth with its rag-tag fugitive fleet. There is now a new generation who have grown up in space, and an old generation that is perhaps wearying of the journey. The idea sounded compelling.
Unfortunately, SciFi is not doing this version of BG. Instead, they are doing a complete remake of the original series. They’ll be pulling some of the story lines from the original series and updating the show for a new generation of audience.
Now, I will watch the new show. I’m trying not to predispose myself to hating it, but I have several concerns. Perhaps the biggest concern is that when David Eick (executive producer of the new series) was asked why they decided to make Starbuck a woman, he responded with, “In truth, there was less agonizing over this decision than you might imagine.” That answer tells me that the new producers are not in touch with fans of the original show. Starbuck was a womanizing scoundrel and every girl I knew had a huge crush on him. He was probably the favorite character among my friends (and brothers). To make such a huge change in a favorite character should take a bit of thought (and perhaps shouldn’t have even occurred to them in the first place). It would be like someone re-making the original Star Trek series and turning the Dr. McCoy or Spock characters into women. You just can’t do that.
There were other answers that Eick gave on the SciFi BG “Ask David” page that put me off because it clearly showed that most of the people involved in this remake were not just not fans of the original series, but indeed had not even watched the series. While I realize that their goal is to make a new, updated version of the show, one might think they would be a bit more sensitive to the existing fans.
Posted by barb on Jul 27, 2003 in
Movies 4/5 stars
Actually, I saw this when it first hit the theaters. We rented it so that Andrew could see it before we see Terminator 3. Though, one wonders what’s left…
Posted by barb on Jul 27, 2003 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
This is a different sort of love story. I mainly watched this for James Spader, but it was actually a pretty good movie. Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a masochist who cuts herself when life gets painful. She becomes E. Edward Grey’s (Spader) secretary. Their relationship begins to turn into that of a top/bottom (read: domination). As with any love story, there are complications. Spader and Gyllenhall both give excellent performances, and the topic of domination is treated with complete respect. (However, many of the plot summaries I’ve seen are simply calling Grey a “demanding lover” or an “angry lawyer” — these reviewers don’t understand domination at all.)
Posted by barb on Jul 26, 2003 in
Movies 1.5/5 stars
This really had the potential to be a good movie, but it wasn’t. For the most part I liked the actors, the sets, and the art direction. The main problem was that at several points it felt like about 20 pages of the script were skipped. Much of the background was missing, and the plot jumped without smooth transitions between the main plot points.
Posted by barb on Jul 24, 2003 in
Movies 4/5 stars
I’d actually seen this one already, but remembered that I quite enjoyed it. Andrew had it in the house because he’d heard the commentary was entertaining. I let him watch it alone, since I can’t stand having someone talking through a movie (unless it’s me :-).
I might want to consider purchasing this one…