Embracing the inner geek, part 1

Posted on April 30, 2005

For a long time now, I have considered myself a geek. Back in ancient times (the 1980′s), this might have been cause for derision, but in more recent times (probably starting in the mid-90′s) being a geek isn’t so bad. There is a certain cache to being a geek. Now there are geeks in positions of power and/or wealth – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, etc.

It’s hard to define what a geek is, because some people might only be geeky in certain areas. Still, there are a few things that can help identify a person’s geekiness. Many geeks are technological aficionados. Most of them will probably have a computer, but some may focus their technological fantasies on gaming systems, audio/video equipment, and so on. Another thing to help identify a person’s geekiness is their affection for the Geek Canon.

The Geek Canon is probably best described as the movies, books, music, and other media that geeks find engaging. Granted, not all geeks will follow every part of the canon, but if you meet someone who professes to be a fan of these media, chances are they are pretty geeky. While it’s hard to nail down exactly what is part of the canon, some examples might include: Monty Python, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clark, Ray Bradbury, anime, Blade Runner, Terminator, Alien, Matrix, William Gibson, Orson Scott Card, Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, and many, many others. There is unlikely to be a definitive list as they are all open to debate.

This year is shaping up to be a good one for geeks. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy opened this week, and in three more weeks Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith will open. I just got back from seeing Hitchhiker’s and figured I’d give my geeky opinion.

IIRC, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy started out on the BBC as a radio show, which was made into a series of books, which was made into a TV series, which was made into a game, which was finally made into a movie. The story varies a bit depending on the media, so ther are parts of the radio show that aren’t in the books, parts of the books that aren’t in the TV show, and so on. I’ve read the books, and watched some of the TV show, and played the game a few times. I never listened to the radio show, though I imagine it’s on CD by now. However, when I heard they were making it into a movie, I felt some trepidation about it. In general, movies made from books or TV shows tend to be pretty bad, though this isn’t always the case. I just figured I would wait until the reviews came out and go from there. One review I saw pretty much summed it up with one sentence – “Not as good as hoped, but not as bad as feared.” With that in mind, I went and saw the movie.

Spoilers below – If you want the story spolied for you, read on

The first thing I should note is I didn’t realize it was supposed to be a kid’s movie until I started watching the previews, which were almost all oriented towards kids. That aside, I kept my mind open, since I figured there would be references that kids wouldn’t understand.

The opening credits sequence is a bit of a dissapointment. It starts out by showing a dolphin show, and goes on to explain that the Earth was going to be destroyed. I think they could have created more tension in the story by not explaining that right off the bat. After this sequence, it moves to show Arthur Dent in his house, his laying down in front of the bulldozer about to destroy his house, Ford Prefect coming to fetch him to the pub, the Earth being destroyed, and so on. Straight from the book. Overall, the movie follows the book fairly well. However, there are a few departures.

The character Hamma Kavula, portrayed by John Malkovich, is new to the story, as is the point-of-view gun, which he seeks. While John Malkovich is a very good actor, this role is pretty much a throw-away. He really only serves the script to introduce the point-of-view gun, and while the gun is good for a few laughs, it is pretty pointless in the end.

Another departure is the ‘love interest’ between Trillian and Arthur. From the book, I gathered Arthur fancied Trillian, but it was most definitely not a love story. I think in the movie they played it up too much, because it seemed trite.

Pros: ++ They did a pretty good job with the Vogons, especially the one reading the poetry. I think it was a suit made out of rubber, rather than a CG character (or they had very, very good CG effects) and he seemed to have a better range of expression that I thought possible. I have a hunch they were cretaed by the team that created the Spitting Image characters in the 80′s. ++ The humor (or humour) is subtle and silly, like in the book. ++ The CG effects were pretty good overall, especially Magrathea and the Guide. The Guide had superb vector-esque animations (inspired by iPod ads, no doubt) to go with the humourous explanations voiced by Stephen Fry.

Cons: — The actors all seem well-suited to their roles, however that isn’t to say they were well-acted. I’m not faulting the actors, but I think it was more a function of the directing and the writing that the roles didn’t seem fully developed. — As I said above, the character of Hamma Kavula could have been eliminated. — The ‘love interest’ should have played up more or played down more, but the way it appeared in the movie wasn’t compelling. — The opening credits gave away too much. — As with most books made into movies, there are time issues. It’s seldom possible to incorporate a whole book into a feature movie and still do justice to the story. Stuff gets left out. I think if they had more time, they might have been able to make the picture work better, but who knows.

References: ** There were references to Star Wars and Star Trek. ** The original Marvin the Paranoid Android from the TV show has a cameo appearance. ** There are references from the other versions of the story that make minor appearances here such as the babelfish and the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster ** At the end of the movie they make refernce to “The Resturant at the End of the Universe”, which I suppose might be alluding to a possible sequel. ** With the Infinite Improbability Drive in The Heart of Gold, the ship truns into different things while it is traveling. At the very end, before the closing credits, it turns into Douglas Adams, the creator of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. The film is also dedicated to him.

Overall: I guess I could give it 3 on a scale of five. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It wasn’t mediocre either. It just wasn’t fulfilling. Strangely, I think I might have enjoyed it better on a TV screen. I don’t know why this is, it’s just something I feel.

Olaamigoquepasa

Posted on April 27, 2005

My brother has joined the realm of blogging with his new site at olaamigoquepasa.blogspot.com. He only has two entries so far, but we all have to start somewhere.

Congrats on the new site, Ed…and welcome to the Dark Side ;-)

Yet another Haiku

Posted on April 23, 2005

Shopping at Borders
Books, Music, and DVD’s
An empty wallet.

Borders is probably my favorite store. However, if I go there too often, I deplete my funds.

Idleness

Posted on April 12, 2005

There hasn’t been much to blog about lately, but for lack of anything else to do this evening…

I spoke with my mother and brother in Colorado on Sunday. My brother went to visit her over the weekend and got stranded by the blizzard they had. I guess most of the highways and roads were closed. They said the snow was really wet and the wind was pretty fierce. At the time, I thought it was funny because we had temps in the upper 70′s over the weekend. Of course now the temps have dropped and it has been raining most of the day. Oh well.

I signed up for my summer classes today. I’m still slightly apprehensive about the Literary Masterpieces class, but I figure it will be good for me and if worse comes to worst, I can either suck it up or drop the class. I’ll probably have a better idea when the books arrive at the bookstore later in the month. The upside (or downside) is I don’t know how many ‘Masterpieces’ they can cram into an eight week summer course. I also signed up for the ‘Intro to Creative Writing’ class, which should be fun.

Pontifex Maximus

Posted on April 6, 2005

After I noticed I was blogging a lot about dead people, I tried to cut it out for a little while. I wouldn’t call it a macabre topic. It’s more a lack of anything else to blog about. That said, I still feel like I should add my .02 ¢ here.

I haven’t cried about the Pope’s passing, nor will I. It’s not because I’m mean or anything. I feel he led a good life, even an honorable one. I feel his tasks were mostly done, he did what he needed to do, and the Lord called him home. I was baptized a Roman Catholic, and while some might consider me a lapsed Catholic, I don’t bother with the distinction. I disagree with the Church on some things, so I don’t consider myself Catholic anymore (probably more of a pagan/deist/animist, if anything). However, I feel he left a worthy and commendable legacy.

Pontifex Maximus is Latin for “Greatest bridge-builder” and is usually translated as “Supreme Pontiff”. I think the term Pontifex Maximus fits him well, as he was a very good at building bridges. He was unlike many other Popes. He didn’t have a Papal Coronation, and never wore the Papal Tiara. He forgave someone his would-be assassin. He knelt in prayer with the Archbishop of Canterbury – head of the Church of England. He was the first Pope to visit a Mosque. He was the first to officially visit the Synagogue of Rome. He prayed at the Western Wall – a holy site in Judaism. He was the first Pope to visit Greece in neary 1300 years. He met with the Dalai Lama. He reached out to Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians of other denominations, and people of all races and creeds. He strove to promote peace. He belived that we would be better off as humanity if we talked to each other and tried to understand each other, rather than fight each other.

Am I sad he’s gone. Yes, to an extent. I lament the fact that his message sometimes fell on deaf ears (including my own). Yet, I rejoice that we were blessed to have him while we did. Amen.

Random thought for the day

Posted on April 4, 2005

This thought came about for two reasons. First is the passing of the Pope, and the other is a FaxDaily I saw today (It’s a weird combo, I know). In the FaxDaily, they had a quiz about various groupings; a pride of lions, a murder of crows, a flock of seagulls (that was actually one of their examples ;-). While it wasn’t one of the examples or one of the quiz questions, I began to wonder if a group of cardinals (the bird) is called a college. You know… a college of cardinals.

If that doesn’t qualify as a weird thought, I don’t know what does.

“Hey, that’s catchy.”

Posted on April 3, 2005

I’ve just been browsing the Wikipedia article for The Beatles, and now I’ve got “Rocky Raccoon” running around in my head. I haven’t heard the song in years, but that doesn’t stop it from playing in my head.

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