The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Mike Ragogna: OMG! No More BSG!
- Aaron Greenspan: The Person I Knew On Flight 3407
- Presented By:
- Chris Kelly: 25 Random Things About Me, Meg Whitman
| Mike Ragogna: OMG! No More BSG! | Top |
| Alright, Battlestar Galactica , I can't take it anymore. So what if you are the best-executed, brightest star of all of televised sci-fi, and smarter than practically every show on television including Heroes , Lost , and 24 . I can't deal with another sleepless "OMG, Adama's dead!" night, nor an "is Starbuck a cylon?" thought popping up in the middle of a job interview. And why I would feel compelled to share this particular obsession/neurosis with all my new Facebook friends in my latest "...is preparing himself for yet another traumatizing episode of BSG " message to the masses is all your fault, you frakkin', addictive space opera you! Still, I really am going to miss you after your last episodes air. I'm not alone in already experiencing that low hum of anxiety due to your scheduled suicide--your choice, not ours. Your departure will leave a huge frakkin' void since no current sci-fi series, nor one on the horizon, seems like it will compare with your quality and engage an adult audience on the same respectful, intelligent level that you did. Your advertisers saw your terrific ratings that spanned across the board--your demo being virtually every demo--so they hawked everything from Viagra to gaming and condoms to candy bars during your time slot; those ratings were due partly to the Sci-Fi Channel's smartly treating you like its golden child, not emaciating your following by constantly changing your air time (did someone say, " Fascape "?). Your ratings, word-of-mouth and water-cooler credibility, plus commitment to seamless continuity all will ensure that--unless you really screw up the last episodes--in the "timeless" category, you eventually might outshine Star Trek , Star Wars , Stargate this and that, and whatever other star comes along. There are very few series' in the age of Tivos and DVRs that make people race home to catch a show's original broadcast episodes, and you were one of them. One owns a BSG DVD season set more for a further scouring of your minutiae than to catch missed episodes--the reason why many buy TV DVD sets. With only a few episodes left (anyone seen my razor blades?), if one is gifted with a Battlestar Galactica season set right now, after viewing the miniseries/pilot plus an episode or four more, he or she probably will become addicted, simultaneously hating and loving the gifter for hooking them up while wishing that he or she had been into the series from the beginning. (Been there, still not hearing the end of that.) Then again, there is a bit more Galactica one could pass his or her way, such as the unforgettable original series and the regrettable Galactica 80 , whose late-seventies kitsch was updated by tons of cool. But wait a sec...what if you, oh current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica , were SO brilliant that you found a way to connect your ultimate fate and storyline directly to Glen Larson's old be-caped bunch? Could there be clues that possibly support this far-fetched theory?? ( Warning: Massive spoilers are ahead if not caught up with the February 13 episode. ) No, seriously, stop reading if you're not caught up. Are you not reading yet? Okay... In last Friday the 13th's episode, both the unlucky and resurrected Ellen (recently revealed as the fifth cylon and creator of the human-looking variety), plus the always unfortunate Sam gave up tons of time-bending info as well as the potential reveal of yet another cylon, a number seven model, the artistic "Daniel," who was modified by the sadistic John (remember that name, we're coming back to it in a bit). Starbuck was artistic, no? Remember those nebulae drawings?? Now, what about that quick recap clip in the beginning of the episode that showed some old cylon base and fighter ships that looked more relevant to the seventies series than anything revealed in the telemovie Razor . If old-version cylons from the original series caught up with that fleet, the one that made it to and was circling Earth (as revealed in Galactica 80 ), that might have resulted in a nuclear war. Is it possible the first Starbuck, from the old series, joined the fray, and was killed--remember, he "mated" with an angel and was stranded on a planet in Galactica 80 , so his arrival could have been delayed. Maybe the crashed ship and carcass the female Starbuck found actually was part of the old Starbuck's fate. Here's a good one...could the female Starbuck be the child of the original Starbuck and the angel? Oh yeah, speaking of Galactica 80 (most prefer not to), wasn't there an experimental human-looking model introduced in that series? Might he have been one of Ellen's early experiments?? Then there was the "angels" plot line from the old series that still needs resolution. Is it possible that when Ellen created "John," her first successful, human-looking cylon, that she named him in tribute to "John," the angel from the first series? Wait, there's more evidence to support that the angel plot line is being revisited: Remember when Apollo was resurrected in the first series, or when he and that period's Starbuck and their ships glowed a pure white a couple of times, such as whenever they were on the angel ship or when they were sent by that race on a mission to prevent nuclear war on Terra? In the current series, when the female Starbuck came back from the "dead" (the explosion Apollo saw), didn't she and her ship return to the Galactica in perfect condition, more perfect than before, perhaps with help from said angles? In the old show, weren't Apollo, Starbuck and Sheeba given the coordinates to earth by the angels? In the current one, didn't Starbuck's ship reveal the coordinates?? Every time the angel ship appeared, there was a "sound" that knocked the viper pilots unconscious, can that be matched-up with the "song" the final four of five on the Galactica heard when they were activated? Did the angels activate them? Finally, if it took the final five cylons thousands of years to get back to the original colonies, and if events supposedly keep repeating (as cylons often remind some poor, ignorant human), is that even more evidence that we might be seeing two distinct but similar histories being connected? Wouldn't it be brilliant, beyond Bob Newhart waking up with Emily from his first television show brilliance, to link the two series together this way, resulting in the best and coolest continuity ever (all apologies Dr. Who and Star Trek fans)? Hey, just for the record, I'm not buying any of this "everyone's a cylon" crap that would reduce the series to nothing more than a really good Twilight Zone episode. " To Serve Man is a cookbook"! Yikes!! With only five episodes left (plus a telemovie) and a new "fifty years earlier" series in the works ( Caprica ), this is one of the last times one can conjecture geekishly on what series overseers Ron Moore & Co. have in mind for BSG 's sendoff. But it was a fantastic run, squeezing out every last ounce of quality that one could from the scripts, actors and everything that made it to the screen. I only know of two people who have jumped ship on BSG --my fifteen-year-old nephew and one of my closest friends who champions intelligent sci-fi shows. My nephew ditched it because he didn't have cable, and too much time lapsed between the seasons of purchasable DVDs that I would send him (I think that was a major marketing mistake by the powers that be). But my buddy's loyalty to the show faded after its complex "one year later" plot line; he felt like it jumped the shark. He's got a point because, for some, the non-linear approach pissed-off quite a few fans though a majority called it genius. One Tree Hill and Lost both employed the concept flawlessly, but BSG used it to screw with our minds first, and it was as disorienting as it was clever. And now that BSG has to cram eons of history into this last handful of remaining episodes, if the creative team does it right, then the Galactica will go out in a blaze of glory which, in this case, might be literal. And with a series this phenomenal ending, what in or out of this world does the Sci-Fi Channel do to replace it? I've got one last, nagging question that I promise my Facebook friends I won't torture them with: What the heck ever happened to Boxey from the show's miniseries/pilot? Hold on. "Boxey"..."boxed"...hmm...maybe this has more to do with St. Elsewhere 's ending than Bob Newhart's... | |
| Aaron Greenspan: The Person I Knew On Flight 3407 | Top |
| Over the past year I've frequently written about the daily challenges of existing in corporate America. The business world can oftentimes be a frustrating place, with the unyielding need for profit pressuring posh executives, middle managers and low-level workers alike into positions they do not necessarily relish. Customer service in particular has been an unintended victim of the past decade's economic volatility, with many companies outsourcing call centers to Asia, or just giving up on the idea completely. Up until today, I had written off Baker and Taylor, Inc. as one of those companies that had completely given up. While many people use Baker and Taylor's services, few outside of the publishing industry know that B&T (as it is often called) even exists, for it is one of those murky middlemen that hides in America's vast supply chain, routing books to and from publishers, libraries, and retail bookstores such as Borders and Barnes and Noble. Sadly, while most librarians will tell you that they love Baker and Taylor (for they are its customers, and the customer is always right), most publishers will tell you that they hate it. B&T has not been paying its bills for the past month and a half. My company, unfortunately, became the latest in a long line of publishers to take issue with B&T shortly after establishing my distribution contract with them. Among other transgressions in the past twelve months, B&T pulled sly accounting tricks to avoid paying bills (such as making books repeatedly "disappear," only to re-appear when questioned about them, FedEx signature proof in hand), shipped returned books in Indiana back to California when copies were already on order in neighboring Illinois, damaged books with boxcutters and then billed my company for the trouble, and lied in its initial agreement about the type of inventory information B&T would provide. When I contacted the company time and again to rectify these and other problems, more often than not, my complaining fell upon deaf ears (or worse yet, hostile ones). I was not the first small publisher to be outraged by their flagrantly illegal and fraudulent practices, I would not be the last, and they knew it. The one ray of sunshine in the dark landscape was a woman named Jean Srnecz. I spoke to Ms. Srnecz on the telephone in mid-September of 2008, and though she was stern about her company's policies, she was also fair, promptly refunding the $295.00 application fee that accompanied the erroneous contract I had signed. Her willingness to cooperate and listen took me completely by surprise after doing battle with so many other similarly empowered executives for months. After I cashed my refund check, the battles did continue on other fronts (and they still do), and we all moved on with our lives. That is, until the twelfth of February. Ms. Srnecz was on Continental Flight 3407, and based on the reports that have emerged since, it was only a matter of twenty-six seconds between the time she was almost in Buffalo, New York, and the time she lost her life in the terrible crash that night. In an upside-down world full of corruption, greed, malice, stupidity and fear, Jean Srnecz was helpful, smart and fair. My experience working with her suggests that the glowingly positive statements issued about her in light of her untimely death are all true. She was a good person, a good person in a time when it has been most difficult to be good, and I am sorry that I will not be able to work with her anymore. For even though her employer as a whole may have given up on doing business the right way, Ms. Srnecz never did. Aaron Greenspan is the author of Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era . | |
| Presented By: | Top |
| Chris Kelly: 25 Random Things About Me, Meg Whitman | Top |
| 1) I'm running for governor of California. 2) I have a billion dollars. 3) I'm 58 years old. I've been a proud member of the Republican Party for two years. 4) My campaign website is called Megwhitman.com. Its background is the color of money. 5) I have an MBA from Harvard, just like George W. Bush. What could go wrong? 6) I'm running for governor because I strongly believe that California should be friendlier to business and, uh, I guess that's about it. 7) Did I mention the billion dollars? 8) People say I use too much business jargon when I frame strategy fundamentals trend paradigm. 9) I have two beautiful sons and their names are Prioritize and Skill Set. 10) Last week, the LA Times asked me my position on school vouchers and my answer was "I don't know how to answer that question." 11) Last week, the LA Times asked me if schools should report the children of illegal immigrants. My answer was "I want to think about that a little bit." 12) Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle asked me my position on offshore drilling and my answer was "That is an issue I would like to study further." 13) Wait, someone just handed me a card. I do have a position on an issue besides statewide business-friendliness. I also want to cut taxes and spend more money on education. 14) Which won't be easy, since 55% of the state general fund budget is spent on education. 15) I've just been handed another card. 16) "This is an issue I would like to study further." 17) I believe gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children. 18) I supported Proposition 8 because I don't believe gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry. 19) And I think their bastard children deserve a wonderful education that I'll pay for by cutting taxes. 20) On second thought, this is an issue that I would like to study further. 21) When the San Francisco Chronicle asked me about my plans to reduce the size of government I said, "I can't be that specific on it." 22) I believe we "have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of the environment" but I don't believe we should be raising emissions standards on automobiles or "doing things that damage the car companies." 23) The American Lung Association rates Los Angeles the worst city in America for year-round particle pollution. 3rd worst is Bakersfield. 5th worst is Visalia. 8th is Fresno. 9th is Hanford. 24) A few years ago, when I was running eBay, I was asked about our expansion into China: Q: Can you give us your thoughts on doing business in China given the civil rights issues there? A: We do not have the issue that many of the portals have doing business in China because in China, we are not serving news, we're not serving really anything that has to do with commentary. My position on civil rights in China isn't even "I'd like to study it further." It's "Who gives a shit." 25) California's unemployment rate is 9.3%. There's gotta be someone else who wants this job. | |
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