Battlestar Galactica – An Ending

Finally got the chance to finish watching Battlestar Galactica the last week or so, including the two-hour finale last night.  I was almost dreading the viewing, for several reasons.  First off, the initial several episodes of the final season were very bleak and in some respects tough to watch.  I was worried Eick and Moore may have lost the plot and were spiraling towards infamy.  Second,  BSG has been the best show on for several years and even if some elements had begun to feel played out as they entered the 4th season, I was sad for it to end.  Finally, I was worried about the actual ending.

TV shows have had some pretty terrible endings.  Consider X-Files or The Sopranos. You also have shows that simply don’t have endings, they have one last episode that ain’t much different, except it’s worse because the show has lost its momentum and creativity, which is why it’s been canceled or pulled in the first place.  Or they become these awful maudlin exercises with the cast taking their final tearful bow.  Occasionally you have endings that are satisfying and memorable.  MASH of course, and Seinfeld, and Family Ties (I always get choked up when I think about Michael J. Fox finally making it back to 1985 in time to take that truck down to the lake…)

BSG set the bar pretty high.  You always knew, by the way they structured the episodes, followed a pretty tight narrative line, and frontloaded certain characters with an array of portents, destinies, and thematic signposts, that Moore and Eick had an ending in mind.  With all the great press and awards the show has received (though ridiculously, no Emmys for anything other than special effects), with frakkin’ Whoopi leading a retrospective on BSG at the United Nations, you might have some concerns they’ve started taking themselves too seriously.  Always a problem in the entertainment industry.  And yet the writer in me can appreciate total commitment and immersion into the story.

So what’s the Beemsville take on Battlestar Galactica’s ending?  Read on after the bump.  Massive spoiler alert, naturally.

Pentagram: Illini Hoops Off-Season

At last week’s Illini Basketball Postseason Banquet, Chester Frazier took home most of the awards, including team MVP.  We’ve said it before and we’ll say it one last time:  Bruce Weber deserves a lot of credit for milking 24 wins and a second-place Big 10 finish out of this team.  The Illini had some glaring holes and were built around Frazier and jump-shooting.  Not bagging on Chester here; I love the way he ran the team this year, but he’s essentially a role-player.  And as far as the jump-shooting, if the last two weekends of the tournament reemphasized anything it’s that you must have driving threats to compliment your jump shooters if you want to reach the highest levels.

Sounds like Chester will be around next year as a graduate assistant.  This is good news as everyone could use a little of what he has.  Will some of it rub off?  Illinois fans will recall what happens when your hardest working toughest player is also one of your best athletes.  See Battle, Kenny and Powell, Roger…  Yeah, there was a lot of talent on both those teams as well, but also some truly tough-minded guys, led by Flight #33 and the Rev.

The most important off-season development has already ocurred:  Jerrance Howard is staying put.  After overtures from both Kentucky and Memphis, Jerrance will meet with AD Ronnie the G about a raise.  Open up the checkbook Guenther; J-Ho is on the rise.

And now, your Illini Hoops Off-Season Pentagram…

Zac’s New Art-blog

Fellow Kung-Fu Master and Beemsville ally, Zac A. has begun a new blog chronicling his art.  Click here for the goodness evilness.

For those who don’t know, Zac is a professional freelancer, mostly doing colors for comic books.  He’s done some work for the big boys as well as some  independent books.  The blog has some recent samples of his evil powers.  Zac will flat school your ass in Illustrator.  He also does his own pencils, a lot of cool sketches, and is working on a concept for a web comic.  

One aspect of Zac’s work I’ve always enjoyed is his warped sense of humor, which often comes out in his sketches and other artwork.  So check him out.

Now if I could only get him to do a custom header for Beemsville…

Books: The Skinner

…by Neal Asher

The Skinner is well-crafted intelligent adventure sci-fi.  It’s the second of Neal Asher’s books I’ve read, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.  It builds upon premises set forth in his first book, Gridlinked, which posits an intergalactic future with warp gates known as ‘Runcibles’, a vast confederation of humans called the Polity (which happens to be run by superintelligent AIs), and plenty of rogue cyborgs, weird alien races, and deadly planetary vistas thrown in for good measure.

Asher’s universe also imagines humanity as nearly immortal in a basic sense.  That is to say, through physical enhancement – cybernetic, genetic, memory transplant, etc. – the humans of these books can live is as long as they like.  Theoretically.  Assuming, of course, they don’t meet a particularly nasty and violent end, they can afford the upgrades, and they don’t become bored and choose death (either consciously or subconsciously).  This theme of immortality/longevity plays strongly throughout The Skinner. And in the brutal Darwinian ecosystem of the Planet Spatterjay, it provides a nice counterpoint.

Take, for example,  one of the main characters: the reification, Sable Keech.  Keech is a walking corpse, his body a mash-up of robotic parts and dead-but-constantly-replenished flesh.  His mind consists of half an organic brain and a computer with memory and personality uploads.  Not the most popular or socially acceptable version of immortality, but effective.  And Keech has a mission: find and kill the villains who not only killed him 700 years earlier, but were also responsible for war crimes rivaling those of  Hitler or Pol Pot.

Y’know, Truckin’

I don’t need an ex NFL player with and oddly shaped head to tell me about real truckin’.  In the Midwest, we know truckin’.  You do truckin’ when you have to haul stuff.  And you need a truck for that.

The official Beemsville truck for truckin’ is a 98 Mazda.  And don’t give me no crap about buying American; it’s made in the same damned factory by the same workers as a Ford Ranger.  It is a Ford Ranger in all but name.

Sparty, J-Ho, Jereme

With the NCAA basketball championship game set to tip off in less than two hours, you’ve probably had your fill of the ‘Michigan State’s performance in Detroit could mean so much to the beleaguered state of MI’ storyline.  Me, I could care less about that aspect of the game; wouldn’t matter to me if Michigan were the wealthiest most carefree state in the union – I’d still be pulling for Sparty tonight.  Why you ask?

Something about the two uncalled charges on Sean May in the first half back in 2005 continues to make me a little ill when I see powder blue.  I’m kind of like that Cop in the F*#$ing Nike commercials.  I’ll be bitter about that game for all time.

Pentagram: USA v. El Sal, T&T

The latest round of World Cup qualifying for Team USA yielded a 2-2 tie in El Salvador and a 3-0 win against Trinidad and Tobago in Nashville.  That’s four points in two games, good for the lead atop CONCACAF qualifying.  All according to Bob Bradley’s strategy and the mantra for making the World Cup since the 90s: win at home, tie on the road.

So, everything’s cool, right?  Could be a lot worse.  Like, to pick a totally random example, say, Mexico (coach fired, foundering in 4th place).  Or perennial World Cup qualifier/underachiever, Portugal (in third in their group and in real trouble).  Or usual World Cup participants like the Czech Republic, Sweden,  and Turkey (all in danger).

After all, the kid just scored a hat-trick – the youngest American to achieve such a feat.  Jozy Altidore, step right up…

And DaMarcus Beasley just turned in the first effective performance by an American playing left back in many-a-game.  No one’s suspended for the next match in Costa Rica (currently in second).  Veterans like Frankie Hejduk and Pablo Mastroeni continue to step up, while youngsters like Jozy and Jose Torres continue to show promise.  Let’s be frank: we’re going to qualify.  But that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of room for improvement.  Five points to your Pentagram…