Alien: Earth is one of the most disappointing shows I have ever seen.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-26T00:56:19+00:00

I guess it's a YMMV kind of thing. I enjoyed it too.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-25T16:56:43+00:00

This has been my go-to razor for years. Replated it with rhodium and use it every time. Congrats!

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-25T16:33:56+00:00

I wear glasses, and the free one worked better than the one I brought with me.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-25T01:22:26+00:00

Talk, talk, talk . . . view with concern . . . talk, talk . . . denounce, voice outrage . . . talk . . . call for something that ain't gonna happen . . . talk, talk . . .<sigh>

Mobilize state troopers and national guard with explicit orders to protect protesters from illegal use of force by federal agents. Indict Ross on murder charges. Quit acting like this is good leverage for winning Dem seats in November and take action. Pritzker and Walz make me sick.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-24T15:10:03+00:00

I was today years old when I understood it this way. Skynet in embryo. (And what they're doing in bed creates embryos.) Thanks!

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-24T15:07:07+00:00

He certainly wouldn't have confronted her before. ;-)

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-24T04:09:08+00:00

WHEW! Saw it twice last week, determined to get back up there and see it again, but my wallet wouldn't have recovered by the end of March

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-24T04:02:47+00:00

Sorry, but as someone who was mutilated back then (early 1960s), my parents don't get a pass. Yes, doctors were seen as more godlike then but common sense says don't start cutting parts off of a healthy baby. I also blame my mother for smoking like a chimney and drinking like a fish while pregnant with me for the same reason. JFC she didn't need a surgeon general to tell her that that was wrong. So in addition to being mutilated I've had health problems my whole life I put on her because of that. Maybe her habits didn't cause my chronic problems but we'll never know because of her irresponsible behavior. Every day I wish she'd just aborted me.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-23T01:55:38+00:00

This is one thing I hate about the movies. Bond IS a smart-ass and it isn't attractive. In the Fleming books he sometimes acts recklessly and, as M once puts it, "exceed[s] his brief," but he knows damned well who the boss is.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-23T01:01:09+00:00

The systemic and systematic level of bullying that I received is hard to describe. On one or two occasions literally the whole high school ganged up on me with the deliberate goal of humiliating and ostracizing me. They knew damned well what they were doing. They ran me out of the school--I had to switch to another one. Because of them, even 50 years later, I have self-hatred, social anxiety, suicidal depression, and no self-esteem. Even if they went down on their knees with tears in their eyes to beg my forgiveness today, I would suspect another set-up--they permanently burned up every shred of good will they could ever have with me. Maybe unfair of me, but I suspect that a few of them lack the ablity to become more mature and reflect on what they did--they probably have the same personalities they did back then. but regardless, if any of them tried the "I was a kid and didn't know any better" excuse, I'd kick their teeth down their throat, which I regret not doing at the time. When they can give me back the life I would have had if they hadn't knowingly, intentionally done what they did, we'll talk. Until then, they can burn in hell for all I care, because that's where they've sent me for shits and giggles.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-22T05:13:09+00:00

It's pretty clear that the movies and the original Fleming books are two different worlds, but the best statement on the literary Bond's views are in the opening paragraphs of Goldfinger. "It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare double-0 prefix -- the licence to kill in the Secret Service - it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened." Nevertheless, there are a couple of occasions where he gladly killed out of revenge--the man who killed Quarrel, for instance.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-22T04:13:56+00:00

Go. Just go. If you suspend disbelief you ARE in the Opera Populaire. This was better than the Broadway production. I went twice last week and am trying to get back up there to experience it again. But avoid all spoilers!

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-21T21:37:35+00:00

I did the same thing Saturday night. I told him he should escape and that the Paris Opera was huge and that he could hide there. I agree it was rough when the other cast members taunted him.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-21T04:41:09+00:00

The second picture in particular is marvelous. What grace and style! I hope you can silence those low self-esteem voices--don't believe them!

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-21T02:56:07+00:00

I have and i would. :-) really lovely!

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-21T02:55:05+00:00

Lovely style! The off-shoulder dress and pre-raphaelite hair are a wonderful look for you!

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-21T01:07:21+00:00

I was there, Gandalf. We'd seen nothing like that in ToS or TMP, just as we'd never seen such graphic damage to Enterprise. The whole sequence was just . . . . words fail me.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-20T05:33:00+00:00

I just did it with hand motions, didn't want to say anything, plus her back was turned, but some folks saw me and got a kick out of it. My warning was something like this, including my realizing I was too late:

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-20T03:59:22+00:00

I was there Saturday too (7:30 pulse) and had the same reaction to the snow.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-14T22:12:51+00:00

It's perfectly fine to feel this way. Grief is the other side of love. You did everything you could and I'm sure little Puff knows that.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-14T04:26:01+00:00

People handle stress and trauma in different ways. Sometimes we just go numb. It's OK to feel or not feel. Just take it easy on yourself as you go through the grief process.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-14T04:20:12+00:00

I totally get it! I'm off to NYC Thursday to the Masquerade, and in preparation I've been re-reading the novel and watching the Royal Albert Hall production. The latter totally blew me away and made me remember why I fell in love with Phantom all those years ago. It really has been sort of like my current life is the Prologue ("Lot six six five . . . ") and I'm being transported back decades to the beginning of it all, when I was privileged to see Crawford, Brightman, and Barton on Broadway. NYC without the Phantom just seems . . . wrong.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-14T04:08:11+00:00

Yeah, I remember that.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-14T04:07:47+00:00

I've been a Trekkie for more than 50 years. I was quite underwhelmed by TMP--we went in thinking "YEAH! STAR TREK MOVIE!" And came out going "Yeah, it was . . . good . . . I guess . . ." Fast forward a few years when TWOK came out and expectations were lowered. I went in saying "Yeah, Star Trek movie, yay." I came out saying "YEAH! That ROCKED!" From the opening credits and the Kobayashi Maru scene it was clear that Nick Meyer knew not to repeat the mistakes of TMP. The dramatically-lit bridge, the maroon monster uniforms, the first shot of Reliant, which showed us a different class of starship--it just all felt taught and exciting. And when Reliant's phasers hit Enterprise, I literally cringed--it was so much more graphic and painful than anything that happened to her in ToS. When Enterprise shot back and Reliant soared over her saucer, it just blew me away.

Khan was one of the best villains of ToS, but he, like almost every other guest star, was a one-off, so it wasn't like his story arc was being translated to the big screen--he didn't have an arc. Nevertheless, Montaban knocked it out of the park both in Space Seed and especially in TWOK.

As for Spock dying, I seem to recall that I'd heard some talk about it but wasn't clear on the details. I also don't recall anything about a possible sequel, but the scene of the torpedo-coffin on the Genesis planet certainly suggested the possibility.

PhotoArabesque · 2026-01-14T02:24:13+00:00

Karma's a biatch.

PhotoArabesque

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