"Our Seats Suck" .................................................................................. - IMAX Staff Introducing Star Trek

(Photo courtesy innersource.com)

So, my friend Josh and I came out of the closet to each other in the line to see Star Trek at the IMAX at Universal Studios last weekend. Yes, we admitted to each other that we were both, indeed, closet Trekkies.

We spent a solid 45 minutes in line discussing the aesthetics of the 1960s Star Trek series, vs. the 1970s animated series, vs. the decidedly Clinton-era sensibilities and aesthetics of the 1990s Next Generation, all the while nursing our anticipation of getting reacquainted with NCC-1701 (that is, the USS Enterprise for non-Trekkies) face-to-face on a megalopolis-sized IMAX screen (hopefully one that would wrap around the periphery of the theater, as we both believe we have experienced and some--but not all--IMAX venues in our lifetimes.

Now, however, I'm not sure I have actually seen an IMAX theater with a wrap-around IMAX screen (feel free to comment and educate me if you know the answer). Josh says he definitely has in Boston, in seats that recline. But, I'm wondering if it was actually a planeterium showing a film in IMAX that he actually saw. But I digress...

Once inside the theater, we were a little disappointed that the screen was indeed not at all curved. Instead it seemed almost bluntly flat, and somehow only sort of gigantic. The fact that the bottom sixth or so of the screen was obscured by the heads of the people in the rows ahead of us made the "sort-of" qualifier worse. We knew that either the film itself would be marginally obscured by those heads, or that the only sort-of gigantic screen would not be utilized by the projector anyway. The latter turned out to be the case.

The worst came, however, when a staff member announced that the sold-out crowd should leave toute suite to accomodate the midnight showing, followed by an acknowledgment that the theater's seating was uncomfortable. It went something like this:

"...as you leave, please take your trash with you; ushers will greet you at the exits with plastic trash bags. Also, we have been hearing that our seats are not as comfortable as we would like. The good news is we just got approval for a funding request to buy new seats, so be sure to come back again later this summer when we will have comfortable seating. Now, enjoy Star Trek!"

I guess the bad news didn't need mentioning. But I'll mention it anyway: The only thing missing from the seating "devices" at Universal's IMAX Theater, for now anyway, is the buckets of water, the rags for stuffing down moviegoers throats, and Dick Cheney to oversee the torture of sitting still in a hard-surfaced, straight-back plastic chair for two and a half hours.

Still, the movie was so good, in this humble out-of-the-closet trekkie's opinion, that it was worth it in the end.

Hubble Space Telescope Changed Everything; Watch Online, Last Mission to Keep 'er Goin'

Watch a live, six-hour (or at least parts of it) webcast of STS-125, Monday, May 11, at 12:30 p.m. PDT at spaceflightnow.org, hosted by Robert Crippen, former space shuttle astronaut, who will give viewers truly unprecedented access and a virtual presence of nearly every aspect of a shuttle launch and spacewalk.

The mission is to further improve the Hubble Space Telescope, and refit it to survive another four to five years. The web event is unique for a couple of reasons. First, Crippen, who has performed many extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks, will give special insight into this, the last shuttle mission scheduled to work on the space telescope. Second, the show will offer full-length, live coverage of the entire operation, which involves hundreds of people on the ground, during an uninterrupted continuum, with no edits or censoring for national security reasons. Presumably, NASA will have hidden away all the really cool stuff that nobody else has. (LOL).


What's so important about Hubble, anyway?

The big answer you will usually hear is that Hubble has helped us understand where we come from by looking back in time through space, getting us closer and closer to the Big Bang. However, I honestly think the big thing that people really care about is closer than that. I think Hubble's big story has been the finding of planets, and with it, finding that it is more likely now than ever before that we may one day meet E.T.


Before the Hubble Space Telescope Launched with it's bad case of astigmatism (a mirror had been ground with an imperfection a fraction of the diameter of a human hair), there was no evidence that planets existed outside our Solar System.

In fact, there were credible astronomers who said it may be likely that our star system was an aberration--unique and alone--in having a system of regularly orbiting planets. Without planets outside our Solar System, forget about life elsewhere.

However, since the advent of Hubble, and the addition of its corrective lens (yes, it's a giant contact lens), astronomers have discovered nearly conclusive evidence of thousands of planets around hundreds of stars in our galaxy, intimating the likelihood of billions of similar results possible throughout the universe.
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As a refresher, a star system--such as the Solar System (Sol being the name of our star, which we call the sun), is a system of planets or other bodies orbiting a star or group of stars. It turns out that many if not most systems are binary star systems, or systems with two suns at their centers.

But, I digress.

A galaxy is a gigantic conglomeration of billions of stars, planets, and innumerable other bodies, such as the Milky Way Galaxy, in which our planet and Solar Sytem live. The Universe is, of course, everything in the cosmos (cosmos is the everything of everything), in which billions of galaxies and untold trillions of stars reside. I know; it makes me fell dinky too.

First Gay Supreme Court Justice?

Will Prof. Kathleen Sullivan (pictured, center; photo courtesy Georgetown Law School), who teaches law at Stanford University be the first openly gay nominee for the highest court in the land? Politico.com is reporting a push by some prominent gay and lesbian advocacy groups are pushing for the president to make up for his failure to appoint any (openly) gay men or women to his cabinet by doing so to the bench of the United States Supreme Court.

If he does, it may be the most controversial thing the new president has done to date. There is a potential corollary to Bill Clinton's effort to end discrimination of gays and lesbians in the military at a time that was later deemed too early, and in a manner that was too visible. The end result was one of history's worst "compromises:" the policy known as (and still in effect) Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell.

However, there is no way to time a Supreme Court opening and no way to fill a vacancy on the high court in a discrete manner. It will be interesting to how Obama acts. If he makes a bold move, such as nominating Prof. Sullivan, who is a lesbian, or fellow Stanford law professor, Pam Karlan, who is also a gay woman, it will put this president down in the history books for one more first...and why not; it's beginning to feel like the 21st Century has finally arrived.

Newspaper Warns Fellow Journalists: Our Lives are in Danger

Downed Pakastani Reporter, Musa Khan Khel,
Slain by Taliban in Late Feb.

Pakistan was once a beacon of hope for democracy in the Muslim world, and perhaps it still is. Until very recently, it was also a country with a solidly free press. Even under military dictator Pervez Musharraf, the media enjoyed surprising freedom. And perhaps it still does, but only among journalists who possess great courage, and willingness to give their lives for the story.
The wanton neglect of foreign policy toward Pakistan by the U.S. during most of the post-9/11 era has yielded just the rotten fruit of which thoughtful diplomats, such as Former Sectys. of State Madeline Albright and Warren Christopher have warned: a failing nuclear-armed state, which threatens to be overtaken by none other than the Taliban.

The Bush administration's so-called Pakistan policy was a one-dimensional, one-dictator relationship. As Vice President Joe Biden said when he has still a senator, serving on the Foreign Relations Committee, "We don't have a Pakistan policy; we have a Musharraf policy."

Musharraf is no longer the self-appointed president/despot, but the current government, while apparently more law-abiding (although probably only nominally so) has been mostly impotent to stop the Taliban from taking over entire regions of the country. True to form, as soon as they're in, women are thrown into bondage, and journalists are killed--or at least stifled.

Here's the latest warning--not so much a story, but a direct message to any reporters trying to tell the truth in Pakistan--from Pakistan's English-language daily newspaper, The International
News:

Warning to journalists

Saturday, May 02, 2009 The Taliban have made it clear they have every intention on clamping down on the right to express opinions – or even merely to report facts. They have warned that certain journalists were promoting western ‘propaganda’, and that if they did not refrain from doing so those publishing ‘lies’ would be tried in Qazi courts in areas controlled by the Taliban. This threat is not a hollow one. Journalists in Swat and elsewhere have complained on constant harassment and intimidation by the Taliban. Some, like Musa Khan Khel, who was shot dead in Swat in February, have apparently paid with their lives for their attempt to simply perform their duties and tell the truth as it unfolded before them. We still do not know who killed the TV reporter, and this failure to apprehend his murders or those of others who died before him surely puts others too at risk. The Taliban, quite evidently, want to crush all freedom to voice opinions critical of them. They have made this quite clear. To do so they are willing to resort to the crudest of tactics, the worse threats possible. They must not succeed. The fact that so few are willing to speak out openly against them – in parliament, on TV talk shows, in the Urdu-language press – shows they may be winning the battle to control minds and thoughts. Citizens and authorities must act together to prevent this, for such a victory could be even more potent than any gained on the ground where territory is fought over between the militants and our armed forces.

H U N G : HBOs New Envelope Pusher Films at my Job

Imagine my astonishment when I walked into my office today and found that, for some very odd reason, the newspaper I work for--The San Fernando Valley Business Journal--had gone through an overnight name change to become the Detroit Metropolitan Business Journal. That's what the letters spelled out on the gray partition that greets me every day as I approach the office from the mezzanine-level lobby.

I almost didn't notice when I swung open the glass door, but the words "San Fernando Valley" had been replaced by "Detroit Metropolitan." Quite economically, the "Business Journal" part was unchanged.

In most places in America, I might have rubbed my eyes and wondered if was being punked. "Okay, where's the camera; where's Ashton...oh wait; I'm not famous," I might have said to myself. "Then I'd have defaulted to the other possibility: "I must have fallen through a cosmic wormhole into an alternate reality: Detroit (funny, I'm a business reporter here too)."

However this being L.A., I instantly realized the extra-busy lobby I had walked right through, without really noticing how extra busy it was, had probably been artificially populated with, well, extras.

Indeed, it turned out our building had been scouted as a location for a new HBO series that will run this summer. It's called HUNG, I learned. And, it's about a guy whose personal and professional lives are in the toilet, when an old high school gal pal helps him decide to use his one big asset to make new opportunities. No really.

And, it's called HUNG.

Oh yeah, I already siad that. Here's a link to HBO's website for the new show, which is still in production. It stars Anne Heche, of whom I think I got a little glimpse (and caught on the video above, so please click play), as well as Thomas Jane, playing the lead role, of Ray Decker.

This should make coming into the office more interesting for a few weeks, if not a little inconvenient. But, this is the home of show business, and I, like most Angelenos, am happy to support the industry and stem the tide of runaway production, even if I have to wait until I hear the word "CUT!" before I can cross somebody's set to go home for the day.

Michelle Bachman: The Once and Future Dunce

Michele explains it all.

You've got to feel sorry for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota): All the pieces are there for her to be a sort of ready-for-prime-time, mainstream version of the ghastly Ann Coulter.

Congresswoman Bachmann doesn't frighten little children--so far as we know. She's extremely telegenic (with the TV on mute). She's an elected official, whereas Coulter is just a shock-schlock "author" who's usually peddling a book at the same time she's damning everyone from Democratic presidential candidates for their "French manicures" to the wives of 9/11 victims for supposedly exploiting their "exquisite grief."

Yes, Coulter knows how to pick her victims to make her look savage and screechy. But when Michele Bachmann tries to pull a Coulter, she just looks oafish and petty.

Take for instance her recent interview on a conservative video-news website. She sounds logical in presenting her partisan case until she starts talking about energy and the swine flu crisis. That's when the congresswoman completely melts down, yet again rolling out the aging anti-science of the last eight years, which denies the significance of human activity on global warming .

Then she bends reality, actually saying that, somehow, by not agreeing to the tougher emissions standards of the Kyoto Treaty, the U.S. has lowered its carbon emissions during the past year. Worse, she goes on to credit our nation's recent prosperity (huh?) for lower emissions.

I'm no expert, but if there were an economy-based reason for lower emissions in the U.S., maybe it's that industrial production has diminished during the Great Recession. In fact, an Apr. 9 USA Today article confirms that a slower economy has helped cut some emissions worldwide.

"...and it's because of our prosperity," Bachmann explains to the interviewer. "Prosperity has enabled our country to have cleaner factories, cleaner coal plants. When you have prosperity and you can have the new and the latest technology, then you have the best chance of being able to have a cleaner environment, and that's really a good direction to go."

Okay, so because business is so great (ahem) kindly utility companies decided to install expensive clean-air technology? WRONG! Can you say regulation Rep. Bachmann?

But the Ann Coulter-light comparison comes in when Michele Bachman is asked about swine flu. I need not spoil the fun. See how she twirls the issue like an unpracticed majorette (do we still call them that?) fumbling her baton at the phalanx of a high school marching band. Click on the image above for a link to the interview.

To be Liberal and Proud in America

There's a new freedom in America. Self-identifying liberals are feeling, well, liberated. We see in the national discourse a revival of the once-proud nomenclature of liberal, liberality, and liberalism. What is amazing to me is how quickly it has happened. Not long ago, a handful of months back, in fact, to call someone liberal was to poison the political well of opinion about that person's views. If that person was a politician, fuh-geta-boudit. Their career was over if you could make the tag stick. And so it was for almost two decades.

Echos of JFK's nomination acceptance speech to the Liberal Party in New York in 1960 have seemed quaint--until lately. Consider Kennedy's words then:

"...if by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.'"

Although many liberals made their way through what were the dark times for their breed by swapping the L-word for the P-word (progressive), some are now reclaiming the mantle of Roosevelt.

The Internet is the battering ram with which American liberalism has made its surprise, sudden comeback.

Today, Paul Krugman's (pictured above) New York Times blog http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/ called "Conscience of a Liberal," seems to be earning the title the author lays claim to. At the same time, Ariana Huffington's Huffington Post is the clearing house of new liberal media. Then there's the person who has made the most of the Internet's potential in a single victory: Barak Obama.

We'll see how long this lasts. As baby boomers age and, pardon my crassness, begin to die off, the likelihood of a continuity of this trend becomes greater. While that generation had its moment of being liberal-ish, they have clearly become more conservative on many, if not most, issues. Their younger siblings, Generation X and their children, the Millennials, are far more progressive. Scratch that. We're far more LIBERAL!

My Car Accident (VIDEO): The Damage

So, instead of the update on UBOC (still to come, next week). How about a little video update of my crash on the southbound off-ramp of the the 405 at Santa Monica Blvd? I was exiting the freeway and, as you will hear and see, stopping the car required an application of Newton's Laws in the crudest of fashion. Note: If you're expecting to see video of the crash, sorry. It's just vid. of my car after it was towed home, but it's still pretty gnarly from my point of view.
(CLICK THE PLAY > BUTTON BELOW)

My Auto Accident Means UBOC Update w/be Delayed

(Not my car pictured; I'm too exhausted to take one as the tow truck just brought me home).

Sorry to say, I think my car is totaled. I'll follow up on the Union Bank Story (see below) Friday.

Equal Rights for Midwestern Couples, but not on the West Coast

Apropos of the passage of Prop 8 last year, the Golden State, the People's Republic of California, as right-wingers like to call this bastion of progressiveness, now has the distinction of having a proud bigot as our representative in the Miss USA Pageant (yes, grown-up beauty pageants still exist).

Blonde "lovely" Carrie Prejean believes God was testing her faith by having judges ask for her opinion on gay marriage. The hubris of Ms. Prejean (maybe when gets out of pre-jean status and grows up to be a full-fledged "jean" she'll have a little more tolerance for others) was revealed in an interview with Fox News Channel:

"It did cost me my crown," the beauty queen said. Your crown? Unless there's something about beauty pageants that escapes me (and I'm sure there is), it's not your crown unless you win.

Prejean continued. "I was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything."

There's something Shakespearean about the fact that some California couples have to go to places such as Iowa and Vermont to legally marry the ones they love. Welcome to the new Golden State: Oklafornia.