Funny blunder in Buffy, episode “What’s My Line” (2:9-10). Drusilla’s ritual needs to be at new moon; but as the sun is setting, she says, “The moon is rising.” (The new moon rises and sets with the sun.) [Later: In the same episode, Spike says “full moon”. So maybe I misheard elsewhen. Later still: I did not mishear; others have commented on the discrepancy.]

In the next episode, “Ted” (2:11), we see a blackboard in Jenny Calendar’s classroom – covered with snippets of BASIC code. Perhaps her brief possession by the demon Eyghon left its mark.

In “Bad Eggs” (2:12): Why does Sunnydale High have a room full of axes and hoes? Admittedly my school was small and didn’t have a lot of common hi-skool features (e.g. football), but I think I’d have learned by now if mining equipment were such a feature. — Also I’m fairly sure the word bezoar is misused.

So I’m continuing to watch Buffy, beginning season two. Got a partial answer to one of my previous questions at the end of episode “School Hard” when two authority figures said:

“What do you suggest? The truth?”
“Gangs on PCP it is, then.”

The killing of the Anointed (in the same ep) was rather out of the blue, but in retrospect he wasn’t much use as a character.

Another neat thing about Netflix is that it encourages me to make a list of all those movies that I “always meant to see someday”.

My list has 240 entries so far, of which 163 are series: 44 discs of Twilight Zone, 30 of The Avengers, 11 of Blind Ichi and so on.

Oct 04: My list now has over eight hundred entries without counting series separately.

Thanks to Netflix I’ve just seen the first episode of Firefly and found it good. Even my housemate (“You’re making me watch American television?”) was won over.

It doesn’t hurt at all that one of the cast has the same charming smile as someone with whom I had a couple of close encounters in 1984, hubba hubba.

Does anyone read this who can tell me whether the Chinese phrases sprinkled in the dialogue (the hegemonic Alliance is bilingual, English/Chinese) make sense? Later: Russell says some bits yes, some no, improving over time.

Monday I saw The Return of the King with family. I was a bit surprised that Allegra the vegan was the biggest fan in the bunch, since all that photogenic carnage tended to crowd out the plot somewhat. — Most annoying change? Absence of the palantír of Minas Anor.

Wednesday Dad and I went to the Tech Museum of Innovation and found it dull. We’re spoiled by the Exploratorium, where nearly every exhibit invites visitors to shape some effect with their own hands, not by pushing a button to start a simulation.

Saturday we saw The Triplets of Belleville, a surreal cartoon. Someone has been kidnapping bicyclists who drop out of the Tour de France; the grandmother of one such traces him to Belleville, the big city, where she encounters the Triplets (who must be related to Morticia Addams) and joins their novelty musical act. — I was dismayed when the film’s first line of dialogue was in English; but there is only one more line. — In a prologue introducing the Triplets, we see a stage below which is inscribed the tensor equation of General Relativity (according to one of the physics professors in our party).

I just happened to read this exchange written six years ago:

That’s six foot six; Galadriel is man high, which is one of the problems with casting her if there were ever to be a movie.

Since the movie doesn’t contain any Earth-modern artifacts, much less a meterstick, you could just scale all the people down 10% or so. You still have to find a man-high woman to play Galadriel, but this is easier if it means six feet even.

Sure, and then you have to find people to play three foot even hobbits.
Life action would take serious computer scaling work, I think.

At least three kinds of trick were used; if you haven’t seen the ‘making of’ disc with FotR, it’s quite interesting.

I don’t happen to agree that tTT (even extended) is the best movie ever, but wholeheartedly endorse the remainder of John Holbo’s remarks:

The extra two discs with the behind-the-scenes stuff are fantastic as well. All these geeks. They had the best. jobs. ever.

I was particularly struck by something that didn’t strike me. In Jurassic Park I was awestruck to see a stampede of struthiosaurs, but I didn’t even think to notice anything special about the Warg attack. The passing of nine years has raised our standards, obviously, but was I also distracted by the more dramatic context?

I was amused at how often I heard “this model was never meant to be seen in close-up” or “that sound-effect was never meant to go into the final.”

And where are those hundreds of swords now?

The only thing missing is disc five, containing nothing but two hours of Jackie Chan-style physical comedy outtakes. Uruks running into elves and falling down laughing. Elves knocking elves off the parapet. Aragorn poking Legolas in the eye. Saruman slipping and doing a face-plant in his palantir. Eowyn and Wormtongue flubbing their lines and doing a can-can. That stuff. As Sam would say, the ones you remember. The ones that meant something. You know they’ve got hours of the stuff. Why not show it?