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Revisiting an old friend

So, we're sitting here watching the second half of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries while we wait for our baby daughter to have her second feeding. Everyone tells you you should sleep while the baby sleeps. Yeah, we get that, we really do, but we also have to have a little down time.

Anyway, the point is, I'm missing this show so very much. It's three more months until the second half of the second season begins. I think I'm the only person in Charlottesville who actually watches this show. Well, there is the wife-to-be, but she doesn't really count.

Something about this show captivates me. It is the smartest show on television today, in terms of what it's trying to achieve. So many words have been written about this show's ability to twist the viewer's expectations. I'm hesitant to write about it, because I don't want to ruin a second of it for anyone who missed it the first time. But, this show gets in your head because it feels so real. All of the situations are simply metaphors for that which is going on all around us.

I'll likely write about the show again when it feels fresh, when there are new episodes. Watching the miniseries after following the show through one and a half seasons is like watching a history lesson. As I watch the dead bodies spread all across the floor of the Galactica, it reminds me of the fact that we are in this very odd war, at a time when it looks like the world is set to end at any minute. Hurricanes keep getting bigger. People turn on each other every day. And tragedy can strike us at any minute.

I've started this blog because I want to have a place where I can explore what's going on around me. As I said in the introductory post, I'm not going to be political, I'm not going to talk about elected officials, and I'm not going to talk policy. This is where I kick back at the end of the night, and force myself to write something down about what happened. I've turned away from journaling in the last year, as I prepared for the birth of a new child. I could write volumes about how words can get you in trouble.

But I don't want to do that this time. This time, I'm going to talk about what I see in other pieces of pop culture. The season premiere of South Park is on now, and I have to say, we're living in an age of amazing satire. Did it offend people? It's all about hysteria and panicking, satirizing events of the recent past. It's funny, but I don't know if it actually says anything. Does comedy have to say anything? Does drama? What does it mean to "say"? I have art critic friends who I don't understand, because it seems they're looking at the world through only one eyes. I posit we're flies, with composite eyes, and to really see the world, we need to come up with new ways to focus on all of the complexities that shape our existence.

I'm going to end to write a lot of text. There won't be many pictures. There will be links to music files that don't make much sense to many people except for me. But yes, I'll write a lot of text, and no, much of it won't make sense. But hey, this is free, man!

Comments

I read this post when it was new, and I thought "Sean, there is no way that I will ever see Battlestar Galactica". Because I knew a little bit about the original series and its quality issues. That and I don't own a television. The other night, my parents got the miniseries from Netflix and I happened to see most of it.

Riveting.

I can't wait to see the rest. I regret not trusting your judgement and immediately running out and seeing the series.
Sean Tubbs said…
Almost seven years later, and I post to say that I regret saying that my wife-to-be doesn't count.

Of course she did. What I meant is that she watched because I got her into the show and I discounted that.

But she very much counts. It's so strange to read this and imagine how I was on that day not knowing about everything that would come next.

I can imagine though that she read that and she took it a different way. For that, I apologize. I also note that in this blog I comment about words can be dangerous. Oh, yes, they can.

So odd to be a writer so fearful of using the tools you have. Self-neutering in the preservation of the self.
Sean Tubbs said…
Almost seven years later, and I post to say that I regret saying that my wife-to-be doesn't count.

Of course she did. What I meant is that she watched because I got her into the show and I discounted that.

But she very much counts. It's so strange to read this and imagine how I was on that day not knowing about everything that would come next.

I can imagine though that she read that and she took it a different way. For that, I apologize. I also note that in this blog I comment about words can be dangerous. Oh, yes, they can.

So odd to be a writer so fearful of using the tools you have. Self-neutering in the preservation of the self.

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