BSG! BSG!

Wow! Just watched the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica (BSG). It may very well be one of the best sci-fi shows ever, and it certainly ranks up there as one of the best current series on the air! I won't go into the plot, but the characterizations are top-notch. I love that in this episode we got to see a different, almost sympathetic side to the Cylons, the adversaries in the series. Excellent, excellent, excellent television! In my mind the only shows currently worth watching on a regular basis are BSG, Lost, South Park, the Simpsons, Scrubs, Mythbusters, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and maybe Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Tired and a little lonely

Wow! It's been a busy and stressful week at work--lots of little fires to put out, lots of politics, and just a sheer amount of stuff to get done! I'm wiped out when I get home, where I'm thankful it's quiet. I can just relax and recharge my batteries

Still, it can be too quiet. Lately there are moments when I really wish I had someone to share my life with--or even just a good friend or two to go have a beer with. Thankfully, I have received phone calls from a few very good friends who are, quite frankly, too far away for my preference. And there are a few people I miss who aren't that far away but are just too busy I guess.

I just haven't met "my kind of people" (and I use that phrase only because I don't have any better way to capture what I mean) here in Sioux Falls yet--not that anyone's been particularly unfriendly to me or anything--and not that I'm particularly snobbish (at least I don't think I am...maybe a little shy, but not snobbish). I just haven't met many people here that I can say I feel particularly close to, which is too bad, because I could really use a few close friends around me right now. I miss the people I called friends back in my "old life" in Crookston.

"The W.A.N.D."

New favorite song of the moment: "The W.A.N.D." by the Flaming Lips from their forthcoming album At War with the Mystics. Man, this song has a catchy fuzz guitar hook! Makes me eager to hear the new album, out sometime in April.
Very cool! Kind of a bizarre lovechild song if Black Sabbath and YES created a baby raised by Kool and the Gang?!?! (Okay, maybe not quite.)

Check out the Flaming Lips' website

Live and let live -or- I won't tolerate intolerance

Two things happened to catch my eye simulaneously this evening.. I was re-reading the newspaper while I had the TV on in the background. Just as I was scanning through an article about recent legislation signed by the governor of South Dakota that limits/prohibits protesting at funerals (the radical "Christian" God Hates Fags Church has been protesting at local servicemen's funerals because those servicemen died for America, which has the ungodly gall to allow homosexuals to live and, dare I say it, be treated almost like equals), I caught a moment of that stellar reality series "Wife Swap" where the two mismatched/swapped couples were experiencing their own levels of intolerance. One redneck husband was offended that his newly swapped wife asked him to take down the confederate flag in his yard, while his swapped wife was telling her equally mismatched new husband that the rule was that an American flag had to be put up in his yard. These two swapped couples, both from the South, were truly two ends of the spectrum: liberal, free-spirited, PETA vegetarians vs. flag-waving, gun-toting man-of-the-house conservatives.

What do these two seemingly unrelated things have in common? Tolerance, or, perhaps, the lack thereof. What happened to the semi-golden rule of LIVE and LET LIVE? Why has this contry become so incredibly polarized on every issue? (I thought 'king W., Our Leader, was a "uniter, not a divider"!?!) While I'm not a fan of the "Wife Swap" show, at least it requires the participants to walk 10 days in someone else's shoes. And, in the end, both families learned a little something and made a few changes. Imagine that an experience outside of one's own little world would open the mind!

That's maybe why I went back to reading the article about protests at funerals, shaking my head a little. I've recently read somewhere that the right to free speech essentially boils down to the right to offend. If we have strong opinions on something (government, god/God, abortion, same-sex marriage, stem cell research, red vs. blue, the earth is round) and we talk about them, we will, no doubt, offend someone. I have to agree that freedom of speech is essentially freedom to offend. And it does offend me that someone would picket a funeral with a sign that reads "God Hates Fags" and chant about how the deceased is going to go to hell for defending a country that allows "fags". And even though I have to grit my teeth and bear their opionions because I believe in free speech, it still riles me that this would happen at a serviceman's funeral or at a funeral for someone who may have been homosexual. What purpose does it serve but to bring more pain to the family that is already grieving? Funerals are not political hotbeds.

We all need to constantly learn and re-learn to live and let live, be tolerant and be tolerated. That's why America has been great. Tying it into one more current event, I worry about the riots by Muslims in Denmark over the publication of cartoons that depict their holy prophet Muhammed--apparently any representation of their prophet makes even moderate Muslims go ga-ga!--and the reaction of the Danish press and the media of most other Western counties backing off. This is where the freedom of the press begins to erode. What next, will the media back away from the tough questions for our president when it comes to his Christian background? Oh, wait, they already have backed off of the tough questions on every issue.

It's come down to the age-old battle of fundamentalism vs. freedom; unquestioned dogma vs. free-thinking inquirey; "God said" vs. what science shows us; theocracy vs. democracy. I hope we don't go back to the Dark Ages where everything was stifled because those in power would not allow dissent (blashphemy). How far are we away from reinstating the Spanish Inquisition?

Two final thoughts: 1) Watch more South Park - they offend EVERYBODY EQUALLY! 2) I hope that each and every one of those religious fundamentalists have to face a situation where a daugter comes to them pregnant and unmarried and/or a son reveals he's gay and/or one of their children has died fighting for this country. It may help them open their minds and wipe those scales from their eyes... Sigh...

I was never much good at goodbyes...

This past Sunday, my dad, Walter Francis Svec, passed away. He was going on 84 years old and had Parkinson's Disease, but the last time I saw him--about a week before--he was pretty lucid and asked me how work was going. I told him, "Busy, but good," and shortly after I said "See you next time." I was surprised to get the call on Sunday from my sister that Dad had drifted off at breakfast--calmly, just as if he had gone to sleep.

It's weird to think he's not here, physically, anymore. I cried a little over the next few days, mostly because my mom and sisters and brother were crying. But still, I didn't have a big crying moment. It's not because I didn't love him, I did. Then, when the coffin was lowered into the ground, I felt it: a wave of sadness, and I just let it out for a little while. I was sad for all of us, but deep down I knew Dad was at peace. Lately, his quality of life had been diminishing dramatically each day due to the Parkinson's. He was lucid, but often couldn't respond or couldn't respond quickly.

I'm thankful for having a good man like him as my father. He was a typical old-school, stoic farmer--a man of few words--but he was a very kind, gentle, loving man and he did everything for his family. I love you, Dad, and I'll miss you.

Rediscovering late 1960s/early 1970s movies

I've been on a bit of a movie kick lately, and, oddly enough, I've been gravitating to movies of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Actors like Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland and Alan Arkin are the stars I'm watching. Just watched "Little Murders" (1971), a sort of bizarro comedy/satire with one of the most interesting wedding ceremonies ever captured on film. I've also picked up "Catch 22" (1970) and am looking for "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (1968), but I don't believe that's been released on DVD. These films are filled with satire (ALWAYS a good thing) and are sometimes a little dark, but that's okay with me. On deck for this afternoon: "Catch 22".

Not quite fitting into the early 1970s category, I also want to see Bill Murray in "The Razor's Edge" (1984). I remember seeing it back then, but being 18 years old at the time, I am sure I didn't really understand it. Here's the plot summary: Larry Darrell returns from the battlefields of World War I to America a different person. His fiance resigns herself to a delay in wedding plans when Larry heads off to Paris. There he finds he prefers a simpler existence and begins to read. One book inspires him to visit India and on to Nepal where he finds spiritual help from a lama. On returning to Paris he finds Isabel and some old friends. Everyone has changed.