Culture – Page 97 – Jimmy Akin

Well, This Isn’t A Total Surprise

FROM SCI-FI WIRE:

SG-1 Ends Run; Atlantis Back

SCI FI Channel confirmed that it will not renew its record-breaking original series Stargate SG-1 for another season, but will pick up its spinoff series Stargate Atlantis for a fourth year. SG-1 aired its 200th episode on Aug. 18, and the SF series is the longest-running SF show on American television.

SCI FI issued the following statement on Aug. 21: "SCI FI Channel is proud to be the network that brought Stargate SG-1 to its record-breaking 10th season. Ten seasons and 215 episodes is an astounding, Guinness World Record-setting accomplishment. Stargate is a worldwide phenomenon. Having achieved so much over the course of the past 10 years, SCI FI believes that the time is right to make this season their last on the channel. SCI FI is honored to have been part of the Stargate legacy for five years, and we look forward to continuing to explore the Stargate universe with our partners at MGM through a new season of Stargate Atlantis."

Stargate SG-1, developed for television by executive producers Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate. SG-1, which originally starred Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge, began on Showtime, then moved to SCI FI after five seasons. The current cast includes Tapping, Shanks and Judge and newcomers Ben Browder, Claudia Black and Beau Bridges. It airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT [SOURCE].

CHT to the reader who e-mailed.

I’m sorry to see SG1 go, but it’s quality hasn’t been as high the last few years. I’m impressed with how well they did after Richard Dean Anderson MacGuyvered his way out of the program. The introduction this season of Vala (sp?) as a regular character was a breath of fresh air, but SG1 hasn’t been able to motivate me to tune in each week for some time (couldn’t compete with square dancing), so I’ve been catching reruns and plan on watching the last couple of seasons complete on DVD.

I’m glad that they’re keeping Atlantis around, though I don’t think that show has ever equalled SG1 when the latter was at its peak. The writing has always seemed muted, somehow, though I love the character Rodney MacKay (sp?). Perhaps with SG1 off the air, Atlantis will take off and grow the way DS9 did once TNG and B5 were off the air. The departure of the latter two shows gave DS9 the ability to cut loose and spread its wings without cramping other series, and perhaps with the whole Stargate universe to itself now, Atlantis will be able to tell stories without having to worry about stepping on SG1’s toes.

I’d be interested to see what the ratings have been for SG1 vs. Atlantis. I suspect that SG1’s are higher, but this wasn’t purely a ratings-based situation. The SG1 writers have been having a hard time making do, between franchise aging and the departure of major cast members. It does make creative sense to end the series before its scraping the bottom of the barrel (which I personally don’t think it’s at; I can imagine sci-fi a LOT worse than the current season of SG1).

There’s also something that the above press-release doesn’t mention:

This is a repositioning of where the network is putting its money. A cable network only has so much money to devote to developing new proramming, and there are only so many serieses that Sci-Fi can produce at a given time. So a major reason SG1 is being put out to pasture is to make way for a new series: Caprica. The Battlestar Galactica franchise has been so successful (it WAS able to get me to tune in weekly last season) that the network is wanting more in that mold. So what we’re watching is a pirouette between the two franchises, with the young, dynamic Galactica series taking the lead over the still-watchable but somewhat-worn-around-the-edges Stargate franchise.

It would be impolitic to say such things in a press release announcing the end of SG1, though.

Wouldn’t sit well with Stargate fans to say "We can’t produce an extra new series each week, so SG1 is going away to allow us to do Caprica."

That wasn’t the only reason for the decision, of course. The ones mentioned above were, too, and ratings decline certainly was as well. But Caprica’s arrival no doubt played a role.

In The Mail

Back in November 2004 there was a lot of talk about the division of the U.S. into clear zones of "red" and "blue" states leading to secession. The talk was tongue-in-cheek, of course, but it was occurring in significantly different social circles.

We talked about that on the blog here, here, and here.

The last of those is a link to a post I did about some folks at the SF (Speculative Fiction) Readers Forum who were talking about the idea of blue state secession–who also linked our discussion here on the blog–and darn if they didn’t go and do something about it.

Mind you, they didn’t start a secessionist movement (as far as I know), but being speculative fiction enthusiasts, they went and wrote a book of short stories exploring the possibility.

Since we’d linked them before, the editor sent me a review copy, and I just got it in the mail.

I’ll let y’all know what I think once I’ve had a chance to read a few of the stories. I’m guessing that they’ll tend to have a more bluestate perspective on things in the main, but that won’t (or shouldn’t) prevent them from being well-written, interesting stories. (If it does, I’ll let y’all know.)

In the meantime,

CHECK
IT OUT.

On Mary, Kolbe and Suffering for Your Art

I was in good spirits Monday, as I drove to the local community college. I had received word a few weeks before that I would be teaching some classes there in the fall, and was on my way to sign my employment contract. The job seemed ideal. It would provide me with a solid, steady income, yet leave me a good deal of free time to work at my fine art projects, especially the religious and liturgical art that I hoped to pursue.

It had been a grindingly long year, as my art income had been spotty, and this new job promised to ease things considerably. I had applied for several positions, and tried to drum up as much freelance business as I could, but we had slowly and continually lost ground. Maybe now I wouldn’t have to worry about stopping at Sonic occasionally to buy the kids a milk shake. We could buy a few clothes, perhaps even replace my old Dodge Neon next year.

While driving, I tuned in to the local Catholic radio station. It was the feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe, and I listened as the hosts and guests discussed Kolbe’s spirituality. Standing out in my mind was Kolbe’s understanding that any apostolate goes through three stages; preparation, the apostolate itself, and then the suffering that makes the apostolate fruitful. I considered that my new focus on liturgical art could be understood as an apostolate, and I looked back on how God might have prepered me for it, how I felt that He called me to it, and how we had even suffered financially, somewhat. I quickly decided that, though it had been a rough several months, I really couldn’t call it suffering… not in the big scheme of things… especially in comparison to the suffering of saints like Maximilian Kolbe. Nonetheless, I was happy and relieved to have my new teaching position.

Tomorrow would be the Feast of the Assumption, and we (me, my wife Martha, and kids) would attend the vigil mass at our parish that night. It would be a great opportunity to offer thanks for my new job. It also happened to be the day that I finished, and officially signed, my first real liturgical art piece, an Immaculate Heart image, in the classical realist style that I have happily, even gratefully, settled into over the last few years. I had prayed for some time about this new direction in my art and had decided to paint the Immaculate Heart as a way of expressing my new devotion to the Blessed Mother, as well as to ask her blessing on all my artwork, especially any religious pieces. Finishing the piece just as we would be celebrating Mary’s assumption was very gratifying and meant a great deal to me.

Overall, it was a day of milestones. Everything seemed steeped in significance.

I arrived early to sign my contract, and so decided to drop in and visit for a minute with the head of the art department. She had someone in her office, but looked up and greeted me, introducing me to her guest, another art instructor. Then she said "Did you get my message?".

"No", I replied. My cell phone had been in need of a charge.

"Oh… well, I’m sorry…" she began, "but I’m afraid we had to take away your classes." She went on to explain that class enrollment had not been as heavy as they had anticipated, and that one teacher they thought would be gone had indeed decided to stay. My classes were needed for the full-time faculty already on board. She was apologetic. She had never had to do this before. Things just didn’t work out. She had tried to call me that morning to let me know that I did not need to come out to sign my contract.

I don’t mind telling you that I was numb. It was something like having the wind knocked out of me. I said some things about how it was okay, and to keep me in mind if something opened up. I said thanks, I think.

At mass that night, I was comforted by the readings, and was reminded that my trust is in God, and not in any created thing. Had I put too much stock in this job, and lost my focus on Christ? If my priorities had been straight, would I have been so deeply stunned and disappointed? It wasn’t really a time to look for easy answers, though, more a time to lay everything before Christ and to trust in his providence. A time, also, to petition the Blessed Virgin and ask for her prayers.

So now the painting above takes on, for me, even more significance. I had thought for some weeks that in this new venture into liturgical art, I would be working with a net – so to speak. I am now, once again, working without a net.

And so comes the shameless plug. The photo above is a rather poor digital camera snapshot of my Immacualte Heart oil painting. The original is 18 x 24 inches, and is on wood panel. The model is a lovely lady from my parish, who condescended to pose for me. I have high quality prints of the original available in a variety of sizes which are appropriate for individuals or churches. The original is also for sale. If you like, you can find out more on MY WEBSITE.

I am also anxious (and this is the whole point, I guess) to execute more custom fine art pieces for churches that are in need of liturgical or devotional artwork. I will be happy to consider murals, as well. I pray that this piece is only the beginning of a fruitful career providing very high quality artwork that will be truly edifying to Catholic worship and devotion, both public and private. My art is informed by very traditional sensibilities, but is executed in a way that I hope is powerful and fresh.

I covet your prayers. If you have read this far… God bless you!

In The Mail

I’m reading Tim Powers’ new novel, Three Days to Never.

This is his first new novel in five years, the previous one being Declare (2001), so its release is an occasion among Tim Powers fans.

Whereas Declare was heavily Catholic themed, this one is more Jewish-themed and involves a secret history spy story involving time travel and ghosts and dybbuks.

So far, I’m enjoying it very much. Powersis his usual, hyperinventive self, and I’ll offer my comments after I’ve had a chance to finish it.

In the meantime, you can

READ A REVIEW OF IT BY JOHN SHIRLEY.

Here’s a taste:

Tim Powers is his own genre. There are a few other novelists who write urban fantasy — de Lint and Gaiman, perhaps one or two others who attempt to bind physics and metaphysics, the spy novel with the novel of the fantastic, but none who move us with such proficiency, such deceptive ease from the gritty to the transcendent; who so excel at making us feel we too, if we follow directions, can travel effortlessly from three dimensions, to four, to five.

Currently there are two editions of the book in print. One, an ordinary hardback

IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.

There is also a special edition (pictured above) that has cool illustrations and that comes with a chapbook of sonnets written by one of the characters in the novel.

IT’S AVAILABLE HERE.

Enjoy!

New B5 In 07

Babylon 5 creator Joe Michael Straczynski (JMS) has been hinting of late that there would be a new Babylon 5 project announced during his appearance at the San Diego Comicon (the world’s largest comic book convention, which they have here every year).

I didn’t go to the Comicon (there are so many people there that, to quote Charleton Heston, "It’s a madhouse! A madhouse!"), but I did Google his appearance this weekend to see what was being reported about it online.

Here’s what I found:

–JMS sold a movie to Ron Howard. It’s a thriller/mystery movie set in the ˜20s in Los Angeles. They want to get it into production as fast as possible and JMS is flying up there on the 3rd to meet with Ron Howard and those guys to go over the script and make sure everything is where it needs to be. It’s going to be a big budget film. Ron Howard is a nice guy. The first time JMS had a phone conference with him about the script, JMS called him Mr. Howard and the reply was "You hired my dad on Babylon 5, you can call me whatever you want." Possibly it could be in production by the first part of next year.

–JMS was up in Toronto recently and they did a 12 episode radio drama series for the CBC called the Adventures of Apocalypse Al. It’s kind of a film noir style comedy drama science fiction supernatural series a la Men In Black or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s in little 5 minute chunks and it’s fall-down funny.

–A pilot for Touchstone has started for a dramatic prime time network series called BORROWED LIVES. It was actually sold last year but it was too late to go into development but now they’re actually in the script stage.

–[JMS’s comic book] RISING STARS is in development with Sam Raimi’s production company for a series.

–[JMS’s comic book] MIDNIGHT NATION is being bid on by two different studios for a movie.

–He pitched [his graphic novel] DREAM POLICE to a major studio, they want to do a motion picture and they’re negotiating now for JMS to write it.

–And there’s something else: WB came to him as they do periodically wanting to do something with B5. They asked if he wanted to do a feature film but JMS declined mainly because he can’t yet picture structuring a B5 movie "as long as Andreas and Rick insist on staying dead." Maybe in a year or two he’ll be able to but right now he can’t do something big. What JMS suggested was a bunch of short films ‘little mini-movies, an anthology show set in the Babylon 5 universe. They said, "Okay." There’s a network already interested in carrying them but they’re also planned for direct to DVD. This will be "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales", a lot of small stories that never made it into the series that he’s rediscovered notes for. And JMS wants no interference, complete creative support "in writing". They said, "Okay." And JMS wants to direct them. They said, "Okay." The first will be three individual stories about three of the main characters (to be determined). The plan is to shoot in September, post-production Oct.-Dec. and they’ll probably come out the second quarter of 2007 [SOURCE].

How he’s going to fit this in amid all the other projects he’s got going on, I’m not sure, but I’ll be interested to see what they come up with.

Incidentally, JMS himself adds a few more details over at JMSNews:

[W]e’re looking at 3 half-hour
episodes/stories for the first DVD, with additional features and the
like in the other half hour. Each story will be worked around a given
established character, the specifics of which are still TBD contingent
upon availabilities and other issues.

We have a budget, we’re greenlit, we’re going.

As for what prompted the interest now at WB…it’s only recently that
they’ve finally run through all 5 seasons, which for many years now has
been a constant source of revenue, and I think they would love to have
something to continue to with. The recent news re: Changeling [that’s the name of the script he sold to Ron Howard] probably
didn’t hurt, but the deal was actually being negotiated long before
there *was* a feature film deal with Imagine. As I recall, we
finalized the deal right around the time that the Imagine news was
announced.

It was a rather extraordinary 24 hours.

I held off saying anything until I was cleared by WB to announce it as
a go project. Ultimately, whether we shoot in Vancouver or elsewhere
will be a function of the deal that gets made locally [SOURCE].

I was surprised at how little coverage there is on the Net so far, but a kindly reader also sent me a link to the coverage of the new B5 project on Ain’t It Cool News and–as commonly happens with AICN–they schmutz up the report with unnecessary offensive language and need to have their collective mouthes washed out with soap (make that lye soap, for good measure).

Weeeeelllllllll. . . . Isn’t That “Special”

EXCERPTS:

Meet Kathleen McGowan, novelist and self-proclaimed descendant of a union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. McGowan, who says she is from the "sacred bloodline" Brown made famous in his mega-selling novel [The Da Vinci Code].

[A]mong believers are her powerful literary agent and the editors at New York publisher Simon & Schuster, who are throwing their weight behind her autobiographical religious thriller The Expected One, out July 25, with a sizable first printing of 250,000 copies.

"Everyone’s going to think I’m on The Da Vinci Code bandwagon, but I’m not," says McGowan, who began working on her book in 1989. The Da Vinci Code was published in 2003.

McGowan originally self-published her novel last year and it sold only 2,500 copies.

Simon & Schuster is spending $275,000 to promote The Expected One and is sending the author on a cross-country tour beginning Aug. 3 in Los Angeles.

Trish Todd, editor in chief at Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster . . . says she has no problem believing McGowan’s claim that she descends from a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "Yes, I believe her. Her passion and her mission are so strong, how can she not be?"

The Expected One is the story of Maureen Paschal, a woman who begins to have visions of Mary Magdalene, discovers she is a descendant of Mary and Jesus and undergoes a dramatic search for a gospel written by Mary that is hidden in southwestern France. In a parallel plot, McGowan tells what she says is the actual story of the marriage and children of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

The title of the book, she explains, is taken from an ancient prophecy that tells of a woman chosen by divine providence to bring the real story of Mary Magdalene’s life to the world.

McGowan calls this a novel but says it mirrors her own life. Maureen’s visions, she says, are "verbatim" accounts of her own visions of Mary Magdalene. "Maureen is a fictional character," she says, "but there is a lot of me in Maureen. I know it will be hard for people to accept this, but it’s true."

Though McGowan says she is descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene, she won’t say whether she, like the fictional Maureen, is "The Expected One."

"I’m not grandiose about this, and it concerns me a lot that I could be portrayed that way," McGowan says. "I don’t want it to appear that I’m standing up and saying I’m the expected one. That’s a dangerous, ego-driven kind of thing."

So far, McGowan is offering only her word about her lineage and only hints at her proof. In addition to the visions, she says, she has discovered that her family is related to an ancient French lineage that traces its roots to Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s descendants. Legend holds that Mary Magdalene settled in France after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. "That’s all I’m prepared to say right now," McGowan says. Some members of her family, she explains, want her to respect their privacy and not discuss it.

Despite the lack of hard evidence, McGowan’s supporters include her literary agent Larry Kirshbaum, who left his position as CEO of Time Warner Books in December to start his own literary agency. McGowan was one of his first clients and he helped her get a seven-figure, three-book deal with Simon & Schuster. (Her next two books pick up where The Expected One leaves off.)

And USA Today has proven itself perfectly willing to prostitute itself in order to promote this trash, giving the subject voluminous amounts of space meant to promote the book, including an excerpt of the novel itself.

GET THE STORY.

AND THE EXCERPT.

AND A REVIEW.

Here we go again, folks!

Incidentally, McGowan gets further into her novel than Dan Brown did before she makes a literary blunder. The very first word of the first sentence of The Da Vinci Code was a dud. McGowan made it through at least six words before her first sentence started to go off the tracks.

OH, AND HERE ARE KATHLEEN MCGOWAN’S REVIEWS OF OTHERS FOLKS’ BOOKS ON AMAZON. INTERESTING READING MATERIAL SHE’S INTO.

AND HERE’S HER HOMEPAGE.

Kudos To Mr. Siegel

Why?

Because he walked out of a disgusting Kevin Smith film in protest.

EXCERPTS:

DON’T joke about women, donkeys and bestiality if you expect Joel Siegel to watch your movie. That’s what director Kevin Smith found out when the pun-loving "Good Morning America" film critic stormed out of a press screening of Smith’s "Clerks II," which opens Friday – an act that’s sparked a vicious war of words between the two.

"Time to go!" roared Siegel to his fellow critics. "First movie I’ve walked out of in 30 [bleeping] years!" His tirade came 40 minutes into the long-awaited Weinstein Company sequel to Smith’s 1994 cult classic about two foul-mouthed Long Island convenience store clerks who razz customers and goof off.

GET THE STORY (WARNING: Disgusting subject matter clinically discussed.)

Shame on Kevin Smith, too, for his disgraceful and BLEEP-filled response to Mr. Siegel.

And for making such disgusting trash to begin with.

YEE-HAW!!!

Just got these in the mail, and I can’t wait to watch them (though at the moment I’m still making my way through the new Doctor Who season that was just released).

For those of you who missed it, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was a 1993 TV series that blended two of my favorite things . . . the Old West and science-fiction. Two great things that go great together (sometimes . . . like this time . . . or Firefly).

(It also blended in some of my other favorite things, like humor and action and romance and whiskers on kittens and brown paper packages tied up with string . . . well, maybe not the last couple.)

I didn’t see the series when it was on the air (because Fox’s advertisements for it make it look a lot more salacious than it actually is), but I discovered it in reruns on TNT and really enjoyed it.

Unlike many of the series on the air back then, it had a definite story arc spanning the entire season (I just love big story arcs) with significant character evolution a surprises as the story evolves. In fact, the main character, Brisco County Jr. (played by Bruce Campbell) starts the series as an ex-Harvard law professor turned bounty hunter to being the agent of 19th century robber barons who want him to track down the gang that killed his father to being a secret agent for the government.

Along the way we run across mysterious orbs from the future that give people superpowers (or kill them), evil robots, neurotic outlaws, a 19th century version of Elvis, Comet the Wonder Horse, and a bunch of anachronistic humor (before Hercules and Xena made it popular)–all of it fitting into a single, overarching Wild West saga.

And then there’s the show’s great theme music, which just makes you feel like it’s a warm, hopeful new day on the range, where anything can happen . . . and will.

Unfortunately, Fox aired the show in the Friday Night Death Slot and it didn’t get picked up for a second season.

Fortunately, the show’s creators did a rousing two-part season finale that tied up all the outstanding plot threads, so it works well as a season-long miniseries.

It took Warner Brothers FOREVER (13 years!) to release it on DVD, but now that it’s out you can

GET THE ADVENTURE!

The Immortal Johnny Cash

There have been a lot of sightings lately of the recently-deceased Johnny Cash. No, he hasn’t been backing-up Elvis at Memphis honky-tonks. His music has been selling like hotcakes.

"In life, Johnny Cash was merely a legend. In death, he is proving immortal.

"Almost three years after he died at the age of 71 after a decade of poor health, the country outlaw is the most popular artist in the United States, currently at No. 1 on the pop and country charts with an album of new material.

"The album, ‘American V: A Hundred Highways,’ recorded in Cash’s final months as he looked forward to reuniting with his late wife, June Carter Cash, sold 88,000 copies in the week ended July 9. It’s his first chart-topper since 1969’s live prison album ‘Johnny Cash at San Quentin.’"

GET THE STORY.

I suppose most of the Cash fans these days hopped on the bandwagon with the success of the bio-flick Walk the Line. Having grown up in a family of country-music lovers, I liked Johnny Cash before it was cool to like Johnny Cash. Some of my favorites are A Boy Named Sue, Ring of Fire, and One Piece at a Time.

[JIMMY ADDS: Those are three of my favorites, along with Folsom Prison Blues.]

The only thing that ever really annoyed me about Cash was not Cash himself but the idealization by many people of his marriage to June Carter Cash … a relationship that began when at least one of them was married to someone else. I forget the full details of their "love story" but my repulsion at the popular idealization of adultery is one of the reasons I skipped Walk the Line when it was in theaters. (To be perfectly clear, I’m not saying anything here about Johnny and June Carter Cash. My disgust is with those who seemed to think their marriage one of the Greatest Love Stories of All Time.)

As a side note, reporters can be a real hoot sometimes:

"Almost three years after he [Cash] died at the age of 71 after a decade of poor health…"

Wow, whoever heard of dying after a bout with "poor health"? And here I thought that only the healthy died.

In The Mail

I’m now working my way through

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON OF THE NEW DOCTOR WHO SHOW.

For those who are keeping score, this is the first and only season to feature the ninth incarnation of the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston).

I’ve seen some of the episodes in the series, though I also missed a bunch because they conflicted with square dancing, and I’d be too tired to stay up to watch the repeats on Sci-Fi.

Like most Americans (or at least, most Americans who know about Doctor Who), I was introduced to the character when he was being played by Tom Baker (the fourth doctor) and the show was running on PBS stations across the country.

I have to say that, in the main, I like what I’ve seen of this series, though there are things I don’t.

I like the fact that there is an overall story arc to the series and the fact that they try to deal with the impact of time travel on the ordinary life of the Doctor’s main companion (Rose Tyler). Her mom and her boyfriend and her deceased father are significant characters in the series, and it’s nice to see what the effects would be on those close to a person if that person suddenly started jaunting about time.

I also like Eccleston’s portrayal of the doctor. He has a kind of enthusiastic optimism that he uses to hide an inner crushing grief, and the way that these two play off of each other is interesting.

Interestingly, Eccleston (who is a native of Lancashire) is one of the few doctors allowed to speak with a non-BBC accent, leading to one of my favorite lines in the episodes I’ve seen. When Rose has explained to a 21st century woman that the Doctor is an extraterrestrial, the woman asks, "Then why does your friend talk like he’s from the North?" to which Rose replies, "Lots of planets have a North!"

Still, if you’re a dyed-in-the-woolen-scarf Tom Bakerite, you might want to check out the other, recently-released complete Doctor Who season with its own season-spanning storyline,

THE COMPLETE KEY TO TIME SERIES.