Category: Journal

To boldly blog where some fans have gone before.

Matthew Eilar1 Comment

Ok, let’s get two things out of the way:

1. I have never seen any of the original Star Trek episodes, any of the spinoff shows, nor read any of the novelizations.

2. I enjoyed myself immensely and had a great time watching the movie.

I thought that I should mention my lack of Star Trek knowledge both to reassure people that are not fans that it is still accessible even though you are the only person not laughing in the theater when iconic catchphrases are repeated, and to let die hard fans… well, I don’t really know that I have anything for fans except to say that I went to the movie with a couple of them and they had a lot of fun.

This reboot(ish) movie follows James Tiberius Kirk through the process of gaining his command of the USS Enterprise. It’s actually surprising, considering its origin story ambitions, how little time it goes through chronologically. There are scenes that occour before and during his Starfleet Academy years, but the bulk of the movie follows one (admittedly very long) day (or as much of a day as you get in deep space on a starship). On this day we meet the cast of characters that become the crew of the Enterprise (all of them out of their red shirts by the conclusion), we are introduced to and see the genesis of Kirk’s friendship with Spock, and Spock and Kirk get revenge on the person/ship that destroys their home planet and kills their father (respectively). Not bad for a day at the office.  Continue reading “To boldly blog where some fans have gone before.” →

Site Redesign

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

Because I can, and I was getting a little irritated about the narrowness and lack of border of the last theme. Also, it’s default text color was grey, which is straight-up stupid. So, here’s the new look. Maybe sometime in the future I can move off of the free WordPress hosting and themes, but this will do for the time being.

On another note, I am about to have way more free time, so if there are any requests floating around in the heads of the four people that read this, comment here.

Some Bullshit

Matthew Eilar1 Comment

Now, I’m as nostalgic for old crappy shit as anybody else, but this article from the Telegraph that breathlessly reports on the coming resurgence of cassette tapes is among the top ten most wrong things that have ever been egregiously false. The article charges that: “Demand for blank audio cassettes has soared as music fans return to the analogue sound of the C60 and C90 tape for listening to tracks, nostalgi[c] for the richer sound of cassette tapes.” Obviously whoever wrote that has never listened to a cassette tape. Analogue ≠ Crappy. Then there is some more bullshit about people looking for high quality blank tapes, and an interview with the editor of Hi-Fi World magazine. If you follow the link, the magazine looks a little bullshit, and I cannot imagine someone who considers himself an expert on high quality audio to go near a cassette tape. Finally, it wraps up with some saccharine, nostalgia bullshit about how mixtapes were the best! and that iPods suck. They might, but not for those reasons, and certainly not compared to cassettes. That’s some bullshit.

Dispatches from a comic book binge

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There are 6 days of class left in the school year, and it is pretty safe to say that I have checked out at this point. I guess that this had to come at some point. The sad fact is that I have been so busy taking this semester week by week that I never realized how close to the end I was. Now that I realize this, I can’t think about anything else. On another (possibly related) note, I have been spending ungodly amounts of time in the Comic Book Reading Room (MILL). I have recently finished three titanic titles, giants in their field. I figured that I would write this in the style of a New Yorker film review, in light of Anthony Lane’s thinly veiled contempt for the form.

Continue reading “Dispatches from a comic book binge” →