He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment.
He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made.
The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head.
Truly, "what goes around, comes around."
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Star Trek review: Spectre of the Gun
Star Trek: The Original Series. Season 3.
"Spectre of the Gun" *
Additional title as of 1999, "The Episode the Wachowski Brothers watched and got the idea for The Matrix"
Captain Kirk, the original "Space Cowboy" (a title later awarded to Han Solo), finds himself in a foggy recreation of an Old West shootout with Wyatt Earp.
After royally pissing off an alien brain surrounded by fog, the brain transports the 5 to a low-budget recreation of the Old West. Spock determines that the alien reached into the ancestral recesses of Kirk's brain to find a suitable execution place. This spectral realm now contains the bare essentials necessary to bring about their deaths. (clever way to explain your budget constraints) Kirk tries to negotiate peace, Scotty takes to drinking Bourbon, Bones and Spock try to make a knock-out-grenade, and Chekov has a short romance with a local girl.
Each of these goes sour. The gas-bomb fails to render anyone unconscious and Kirk fails to make peace, (I mean, really, what can he expect? He's arguing with cowboys here, not sissy pajama wearing aliens). Chekov gets shot, and everything looks the worst.
Spock determines that the blue-brain aliens have created this spectral existence in the minds of the crew. Physical reality does not exist here, they are only given reality by the mind. "Chekov is dead because he believed the bullets killed him? If we do not believe that the bullets are real, then they can't kill us?" (insert long speech that was later copied and pasted into the Matrix).
Armed with this epiphany alone, the crew goes up against Wyatt Earp and his gang.
The bullets zip right through the Enterprise crew, and Kirk continues to beat the crap out of Wyatt Earp. Seeing how Kirk outsmarted them, the aliens decide to give Kirk another chance and release the crew.
With this as a foundation, it's clear that a film like the Matrix would develop sooner or later. The Matrix. Star Trek. Both starring good looking but terrible actors, featuring terrible sequels, horrible social commentary, and some philosophy 101. I bet this episode was a childhood favorite of the Wachowski bro's. Each dreamed of making a ridiculous film full of flying bullets and kung fu where the hero never got hurt. My question is: Why do bullets still hurt people in The Matrix? If gravity isn't real, if physics can be bent, if punches that can take out a wall don't kill... why can't bullets be "unreal" just as they were in this Star Trek episode?
Spock asks Kirk if he ever "wanted" to kill Wyatt Earp. Kirk explains that he wanted to, but he did not give into his desires. He said that humanity got past the violence of the old west because we "overcame our instinct for violence". With films like The Matrix increasing their violent content, I think humanity isn't overcoming too many instincts.
In conclusion: Hey, with a great flying dropkick like this, The Matrix is an obvious grandchild of "Spectre of the Gun".
"Spectre of the Gun" *
Additional title as of 1999, "The Episode the Wachowski Brothers watched and got the idea for The Matrix"
Captain Kirk, the original "Space Cowboy" (a title later awarded to Han Solo), finds himself in a foggy recreation of an Old West shootout with Wyatt Earp.
After royally pissing off an alien brain surrounded by fog, the brain transports the 5 to a low-budget recreation of the Old West. Spock determines that the alien reached into the ancestral recesses of Kirk's brain to find a suitable execution place. This spectral realm now contains the bare essentials necessary to bring about their deaths. (clever way to explain your budget constraints) Kirk tries to negotiate peace, Scotty takes to drinking Bourbon, Bones and Spock try to make a knock-out-grenade, and Chekov has a short romance with a local girl.
Each of these goes sour. The gas-bomb fails to render anyone unconscious and Kirk fails to make peace, (I mean, really, what can he expect? He's arguing with cowboys here, not sissy pajama wearing aliens). Chekov gets shot, and everything looks the worst.
Spock determines that the blue-brain aliens have created this spectral existence in the minds of the crew. Physical reality does not exist here, they are only given reality by the mind. "Chekov is dead because he believed the bullets killed him? If we do not believe that the bullets are real, then they can't kill us?" (insert long speech that was later copied and pasted into the Matrix).
Armed with this epiphany alone, the crew goes up against Wyatt Earp and his gang.
The bullets zip right through the Enterprise crew, and Kirk continues to beat the crap out of Wyatt Earp. Seeing how Kirk outsmarted them, the aliens decide to give Kirk another chance and release the crew.
With this as a foundation, it's clear that a film like the Matrix would develop sooner or later. The Matrix. Star Trek. Both starring good looking but terrible actors, featuring terrible sequels, horrible social commentary, and some philosophy 101. I bet this episode was a childhood favorite of the Wachowski bro's. Each dreamed of making a ridiculous film full of flying bullets and kung fu where the hero never got hurt. My question is: Why do bullets still hurt people in The Matrix? If gravity isn't real, if physics can be bent, if punches that can take out a wall don't kill... why can't bullets be "unreal" just as they were in this Star Trek episode?
Spock asks Kirk if he ever "wanted" to kill Wyatt Earp. Kirk explains that he wanted to, but he did not give into his desires. He said that humanity got past the violence of the old west because we "overcame our instinct for violence". With films like The Matrix increasing their violent content, I think humanity isn't overcoming too many instincts.
In conclusion: Hey, with a great flying dropkick like this, The Matrix is an obvious grandchild of "Spectre of the Gun".
Star Trek review: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
Star Trek: The Original Series. Season 3,
"For the World is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky"
Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise once again combat narrow minded religious traditions and moral relativism. An asteroid on a collision course with a populated world turns out to be an ancient starship, engineered to function as a transit world. Apparently their ancestors created a sort of "Ark" to carry their people on a 10,001 year journey to a new planet. It's current inhabitants have no idea that their "planet" is in fact a hollow asteroid, preferring to cling to an ancient and strict religious tradition. This religion apparently forces them to always wear pajamas and have "obedience chips" implanted in their skulls. Their leader, a big robot called The Oracle, keeps the Pajama People obedient by promising a grand future in the new world.
Kirk, Bones, and Spock are attacked by the Pajama people. A well choreographed fight ensues, and the battle really picks up when Kirk punts off this guys hat.
-note the flying hat-
After their capture, the three are greeted by an old creepy guy passing out drugs. The creepy old dude tells a story of how he climbed a mountain and saw his planet was really an asteroid. Apparently the "The Oracle" is listening in, and starts zapping the old guy through his implant. Unable to say much, he exhales: "For the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky."
Just after this, a rare phenomenon occurs: the Queen of the Pajama people gets the hots for Bones instead of Kirk. Kirk doesn't seem too upset about it, and quickly decides he'd rather run around with Spock looking for an escape. Bones decides that being hit on by a girl wearing half a shirt isn't so bad, and decides to stick around and marry The Pajama Queen.
-note the awesome hair style-
Bones learns that the Pajama People have a Bible, containing the secrets of their creators. However, "The Oracle" will kill anyone who reads it. Determined to save the planet/asteroid/starship, Bones risks all to get the sacred text. The Oracle gets mad and turns the temple into a giant toaster oven.
-Spock examines the Pajama Bible for clues. In toaster oven.-
The Oracle tries to convince the Pajama Queen that she must reject Kirk's truth, and only believe in the Oracle's truth. She responds "is not all truth, truth?" Spock, who knows archaic languages better than Indiana Jones, deciphers the text and shuts down The Oracle. The original trajectory of the asteroid ship is discovered, and a new course is laid in.
Some comments are made about rejecting a religion of oppression for one of freedom, and everyone having unlimited access to holy scriptures.
Connections to the Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, Heaven, and The Pope are never named specifically, but lie underneath the plots surface. The Oracle is clearly "the Pope", punishing anyone who opposes him. It seems Star Trek's critique here is not of religion, per se, but of patriarchal figures hiding the truth from their followers.
"For the World is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky"
Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise once again combat narrow minded religious traditions and moral relativism. An asteroid on a collision course with a populated world turns out to be an ancient starship, engineered to function as a transit world. Apparently their ancestors created a sort of "Ark" to carry their people on a 10,001 year journey to a new planet. It's current inhabitants have no idea that their "planet" is in fact a hollow asteroid, preferring to cling to an ancient and strict religious tradition. This religion apparently forces them to always wear pajamas and have "obedience chips" implanted in their skulls. Their leader, a big robot called The Oracle, keeps the Pajama People obedient by promising a grand future in the new world.
Kirk, Bones, and Spock are attacked by the Pajama people. A well choreographed fight ensues, and the battle really picks up when Kirk punts off this guys hat.
-note the flying hat-
After their capture, the three are greeted by an old creepy guy passing out drugs. The creepy old dude tells a story of how he climbed a mountain and saw his planet was really an asteroid. Apparently the "The Oracle" is listening in, and starts zapping the old guy through his implant. Unable to say much, he exhales: "For the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky."
Just after this, a rare phenomenon occurs: the Queen of the Pajama people gets the hots for Bones instead of Kirk. Kirk doesn't seem too upset about it, and quickly decides he'd rather run around with Spock looking for an escape. Bones decides that being hit on by a girl wearing half a shirt isn't so bad, and decides to stick around and marry The Pajama Queen.
-note the awesome hair style-
Bones learns that the Pajama People have a Bible, containing the secrets of their creators. However, "The Oracle" will kill anyone who reads it. Determined to save the planet/asteroid/starship, Bones risks all to get the sacred text. The Oracle gets mad and turns the temple into a giant toaster oven.
-Spock examines the Pajama Bible for clues. In toaster oven.-
The Oracle tries to convince the Pajama Queen that she must reject Kirk's truth, and only believe in the Oracle's truth. She responds "is not all truth, truth?" Spock, who knows archaic languages better than Indiana Jones, deciphers the text and shuts down The Oracle. The original trajectory of the asteroid ship is discovered, and a new course is laid in.
Some comments are made about rejecting a religion of oppression for one of freedom, and everyone having unlimited access to holy scriptures.
Connections to the Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, Heaven, and The Pope are never named specifically, but lie underneath the plots surface. The Oracle is clearly "the Pope", punishing anyone who opposes him. It seems Star Trek's critique here is not of religion, per se, but of patriarchal figures hiding the truth from their followers.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Notable Star Trek episodes
Season 2
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
The Deadly Years
The Trouble with Tribbles
A Piece of the Action
The Gamesters of Triskelion
A Private Little War
Patterns of Force
Bread and Circuses
Season 3
The Enterprise Incident
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There No Truth In Beauty?
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
The Deadly Years
The Trouble with Tribbles
A Piece of the Action
The Gamesters of Triskelion
A Private Little War
Patterns of Force
Bread and Circuses
Season 3
The Enterprise Incident
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There No Truth In Beauty?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
My First Sermon
August 2nd, 2009
I apologize about the random "popping" here and there... the microphone was a little sensitive first service. I don't have the second service recording, which was a little better.
I hope it stays on the website, I don't know how long it'll be up. Thanks for listening, and enjoy.
I apologize about the random "popping" here and there... the microphone was a little sensitive first service. I don't have the second service recording, which was a little better.
I hope it stays on the website, I don't know how long it'll be up. Thanks for listening, and enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)