The Twilight Report

death and life, together

2006-05-02T21:25:00

The deaths of Optimus Prime and Spock were tramatic events in my childhood. Both of these characters have a kind of Stan Bush "Touch"/"Dare!" spirit though, so it wasn't long before they returned and things were right again^[1]. Today was one of those days where I felt I had that spirit. It was a good day.

[1] Op, in particular has been killed and reborn more times that I can remember, and proves the old addage: you can't geet a good autobot down.

Presidential Assassinations and Ender's Game

2005-07-23T02:50:00

I just noticed that Wolfgang Petersen directed both In the Line of Fire and Air Force One. That means he's directed at least two movies about people who want to kill the president [1].

I was looking at Petersen's Wikipedia entry and apparently he is to direct a feature film adaptation of Ender's Game. I'm not sure how I feel about that. The only Petersen movie that I have really liked was the classic Das Boot. None of his Hollywood blockbusters have impressed me much. His direction of John Malkovich's psychopath in In the Line of Fire seems mechanical and faux-psychopathic rather that genuinely creepy (and his direction of Harrison "Mr. President" Ford in Air Fore One is best remembered (by me at least) by him saying "Get Off My Plane" in the manner of Sparkplug Witwicky to his son: "When next we meet, we are enemies!").

On the other hand, the only Orson Scott Card book that I really liked was Ender's Game. The first set of sequels of that series which feature Ender are interesting, but nothing to write home about. The second series, which features his lieutenant Bean, has degenerated into poorly conceived and written war stories about young brat military commanders, and is made up of much pseudo-intellectual banalities. Maybe it is appropriate that someone who only directed one really good movie direct movie adaptation of the one good book written by a science fiction author.

[1] Dear secret service. Please note that I am talking about fictional assassin and presidents. Thank you.

Sharkitcons and Seagulls

2005-03-13T23:58:00

Last night I was chatting with Amber on AIM, and we were talking about her roommate with whom she apparently gets along smashingly. This is a truly foreign concept for me. (roommates) (and The City)

Never Surrender

2005-01-27T03:23:00

Of course, in the very next panel Prime is surrendering to Scorponok, and in New Jersey of all undesirable locations. In all fairness though, there are 4 million years between those two panels. But I always enjoyed the line "You will bind my wound with it soldier."

I am sure that I would make Richard sick with all this upbeat crap, if he were around.