Battlestar Galactica Exhibit II

As I said in my previous post on the Battlestar Galactica Exhibit at the Seattle Science Fiction Museum, here are more pictures I snapped of actual props used in the series. 

What’s this approaching you out of a starfield? 

It’s a Cylon Raider—their equivalent of a jet fighter.  You can see part of its right wing sweeping upward.  Like the previous exhibits, this is life-size, several feet across.  

Here’s a different close-up.  (It’s unavoidable to include the scaffolding and the lit rope-line in this shot.)  Sometimes during the exhibit, they turn on the moving red dot that resembles an eye, complete with vibrating sound effect.  Kind of eerie.  

Below is a model of the Battlestar Galactica itself.  It’s true they often used CGI for the Galactica, but they also had this mock-up. 

A close up shows the name Galactica on the starboard flight pod.  Note the incredible level of detail. 

Another picture as it heads away from us. 

I’ll let you decide if this was a life-size model.  

I’ll have another post sometime in the future with contrasting views of the feminine in Galactica.  

Delusion of Grandeur

I managed to fool myself, using the interactive nature of the internet.  Earlier today I was doing a little research and googled “Battlestar Galactica.”  I was astounded by the result.  

Me?  I’m the top search result?  The photo from my recent blog entry on my visit to the Seattle Science Fiction Museum?  I try again, and there I am—on top. 

I e-mail several friends, telling them to search those words on Google, and they’ll see me.  Next, I’ll e-mail my writing contacts, and tell them of this . . . this . . . 

Wait.  This can’t be right.  Of all the millions of people who search for those words, why would they look at my image the most? 

Taking a bite of humble pie, I use a different sign-on.  Nothing.  I’m nowhere in sight. 

Of course.  I use Google Chrome as my Web browser.  I have my blog linked to my Google sign-on.  When I search in Google for something, it detects who I am, then obediently brings up results relevant to me.  Including
 . . . me. 

I e-mail my friends about the false alarm.  I’m back to being your humble blogger. 

But it’s not over.  On Monday I’ll post more pics from the Battlestar Galactica Exhibit.  This is like Linus at the end of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Just wait’ll next time.  

Waiting on Wednesday: Alien Diplomacy

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme on the Breaking the Spine blog.  We each give a pre-publication description of an upcoming book we’re looking forward to reading. 

Mine is Alien Diplomacy by Gini Koch. 

  

This will be the fourth in her suburban fantasy/science fiction series.  By this point, the female protagonist is married and has a baby.  I’m curious on how Gini Koch will portray a woman who is a wife, mother, and action figure. 

Why does she have an alien for a husband?  Many agents and editors are looking for something fresh, beyond the vampires and werewolves.  

Battlestar Galactica Exhibit I

Your humble blogger

The Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle also contains a Science Fiction Museum.  Currently, they have the Battlestar Galactica Exhibit, including actual props from the series. 

Below is the Viper that Starbuck used.  Imagine it coming right at you. 

A different view shows the mannequin beside it modeling a Viper pilot’s uniform.  Yes, this Viper model is life-size, and the actors could climb into the cockpit. 

A close-up of the same view.  Notice the realism—not only the mechanical parts inside with a service cover off, but the burnt scarring on the hull.  The gun is attached to the wing, between the open service cover and the mannequin. 

Below is Lee Adama’s Viper.  Again, it’s life-size.  Notice the scarring on it, the stenciled words to remind the pilot not to step on the wing while climbing in, and his call sign of Apollo by the cockpit.  Pretty cool, huh? 

I’ll show more photos on some future posts.  This was a fun trip to a museum.  

Formatting Your Manuscript

Vickie Motter, an agent who gives generous advice on her blog, has a page on what’s cutting edge in manuscript formatting.  It turns out that most agents and editors will read your manuscript on their portable devices.  So what, you ask?  For one thing, those devices don’t recognize the Tab key.  Your paragraphs will look like they have no indentations. 

How do you fix this and other details?  Look at her blog.  

Best Movies of 2011

Best Movie:  Source Code

Source Code is science fiction on a human scale, the likes of which we haven’t had since Gattaca.  Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, a man who has to go back in time to discover who bombed a train.  He wants to find a way to go off mission to save a woman he meets on the train, but he has to deal with his own internal struggle before he can do either.  Read my full review of this fusion of science fiction and romance. 

Honorable Mention:  Battle: Los Angeles 

  

Battle: Los Angeles is entirely from the point of view of Marines who have to fight off an alien invasion.  They experience the fog of war as they endure vicious urban street fighting to rescue civilians whom they’ve never met and with whom they have no personal connection.  To read more about this movie that authentically shows the Marine culture seamlessly blended with alien special effects, look at my full review. 

Special Category—Best African-American actress goes to Charlize Theron, for her role in Young Adult (see my review).  If you’re puzzled about her being an African-American, look up her bio.  

Worst Movies of 2011

Happy St. Stephen’s Day

This is a positive blog.  If you’re an aspiring writer who wants an agent or editor to notice you, don’t flame people online.  But so long as I do it in an amusing way,  I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about the two worst movies I saw in 2011.

Melancholia

1. Kirsten Dunst plays a depressed person.

2. She appears topless a couple times for no particular reason. 

3. She feels better when she finds out the world is about to end.

Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon

Basically, there are three elements to the movie:

1. One part total crass ignorance about space.  (For instance, Pink Floyd might have referred to the dark side of the moon as a figure of speech, but the people who made the movie acted like it was a physical reality.)

2. One part Victoria’s Secrets ad.  The model (she’s not really an actress) Rosie Huntington-Whiteley said in an interview that she asked the director Michael Bay that wasn’t it odd she appears in high heels throughout the movie.  She says he replied that naw, it was okay.  

3. And to be fair, one part cool special effects.

That’s it for those two.  Hopefully my next post will be on the best movies of 2011.

"Happy Feet Two" Stomps on "Young Adult"

If you want more cheery fare than my review of the movie Young Adult, Brooke Busse on her blog reviews the movie Happy Feet Two.  

Happy Feet Two isn't really my speed, but it had almost twice the gross in its opening weekend than Young Adult.  So between these reviews you might find a movie that suits you.  

Teaser Tuesday Again

Teaser Tuesdays is a meme hosted by the Should Be Reading blog.  We’re to grab a novel we’re currently reading, open to a random page, then paste two random sentences.  (Unless they contain spoilers, since that would be too random.) 

I’m currently going over The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells since I’m doing a mashup, and you can read excerpts from it here and here.  But now for two sentences by H.G. in the original: 

“I crawled out almost immediately, and crouched, my feet still in the water, under a clump of furze. The horse lay motionless (his neck was broken, poor brute!) and by the lightning flashes I saw the black bulk of the overturned dog cart and the silhouette of the wheel still spinning slowly.” 

Sorry, horse lovers, but I’ll include the death of the horse from the original.  Just remember that it’s the mean old Martians who cause it.  And reputedly, The War of the Worlds was the first book to coin the term “Martian” for an inhabitant of Mars.