{ split subject }

• 11:16 uh, just as I was about to get up off the couch, dbp turned on the shower. guess I'll be watching the BSG premiere in my jammies! #
• 11:17 so I swear there were reports of the whole upfronts panel on scifi.com -- now all I can find is the red carpet. where can I get the video?? #
• 11:27 not sure what to do with my hands. #
• 12:56 FRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK #
• 13:00 I (and all of girlslash) may very well not survive the magnificence. I'm going to go DIE now. #
• 13:05 dbp says I have just been touched by the Real. WHERE IS MY PADDED ROOM?!? #
• 14:22 it is as I feared: I have two projects underway based on this ep. one is a vidlet. the other is Tory cracktasticness. holler to collaborate. #
• 14:52 attempting to consume food. I made myself this toast w/ cashew butter this morning, but have been too overexcited to eat it. #
• 16:05 obsessively previewing vintage films in the remarkable Prelinger Archive: archive.org/details/prelinger #
• 18:00 I've gotten through C in the list of categories. Now I have to take a break to see VIVA, a deep breath, a sedative. #
• 19:15 ok, I'm not going to have a meltdown, I'm going to make it through this. I'm setting aside the pieces until Monday. #
• 19:18 if I don't finish my dissertation, battlestar galactica is to blame! #
• 22:06 ok, that film was actually insanely fantastic. or maybe just fantastically insane! dbp and I are now passing notes during q&a (not fanta ... #
• 00:00 have collected Lynne, Ho-Hos, wine in preparation for the midnight screening. !!! #
• 00:01 and I can't really be on the internet till sunday night, guys. IT'S TORTURE. SQUEE HARD. I AM SO THERE IN SPIRIT. #
• 02:16 Lynne's brilliant pick, by soap logic, for the final Cylon SPECULATION ONLY: Zak Adama. #

Automatically shipped from Twitter by LoudTwitter.

eta: I'm trying REALLY HARD to talk myself out of making these vidlets, you guys (at least until hiatus). the project is way too ambitious. but I'm still selecting sountracks, so if anybody wants about 30 seconds (or more) of vintage audio per ep to experiment with, let me know!

commentary on Battlestar Galactica season 3 by cyborganize & friends, in 46 ~10 minute parts (reposted from youtube)

saturday we had a party at ljconscript's fabulous house to watch "Crossroads" (both parts) and celebrate various things. it was mostly just our core viewing group: _plasticity_, laliu, Draco, Spot, Pinocchio, and a few briefer cameos. ( spoileriffic )

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In possibly the most embarrassingly geeky vlog ever filmed, the final five are revealed! Plus, That Guy (Bruce Davison) and Laura/Tory, the Adamas' Emolympics, and the rest of the bisexual clusterfrak of d00m.

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If you've ever wanted to see me lick frosting off a naked Barbie doll, now's your chance! In between we manage some critical commentary on the self-reflexive portrayal of obsolete media (vintage radio) at the moment when television itself is threatened with obsolescence. Plus discussion of Laura's visionary lesbian-Cylon co-parenting and the final fi... four.

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Final five: the million dollar question. Then, lawyers, Gaius Marx vs. Gaius Jesus, and shaving scenes.

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as seen on YouTube! my Hybrid cake (alone and with its inimitable craftswomen):
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eta: more pictures

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is there any interest in me re-releasing the complete vlog over the hiatus as a proper podcast with syndication? split into 10-minute segments as it is it would last close to 6 months if I posted two per week. I'd probably use blip.tv unless someone has another platform request/suggestion. eta: morebsg_vlog (imeem), tuesdays and fridays starting may 1.

[spoiler cut removed] all this time I've been casting Roslin and Starbuck as prophet and disciple respectively, when all this time it was the other way round.

eta: the best theory (thanks jarrow) -- the more I think about it, the more Starbuck as a (final five) cylon or even as hybrid is much too obvious an answer for them to go with.

j. asked me, what's my favorite thing I've ever written? after pondering this for several days I've concluded it's a question I can't answer. but meanwhile I've been rereading a lot of my fic and otherwise. there's a gratifying moment when the stories become unknown and surprising again.

I LOVE SEELIX AND I LOVE ANNE COFELL SAUNDERS!!!
(do you think the fact that she changed her name from Anne Cofell means she got married to a man? because I really want her to be a dyke!)

that is all.

seriously, see how they should let women write this show ALL THE TIME?!? (though I am indifferent to Jane Espenson, based on Kat's ep.)

(as you may have noticed, we've fallen off the wagon on the "Battlestarz!" vlogging, and I'm not sure when/if we'll be picking it up again. my apologies.)

We liked it! (Girl)slash goggles (Gaius/GAYta!), applause for EJO's directing, the problematics of marriage, etc.

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The question on everyone's mind is: who's the cylon?? Plus Gaius: torture and redemption. And Roslin pwnz as always.

we return in scaled-back form with Battlestar Gaylactica! none of the people who usually rein me in were back in town to join us, so stand back...



SPOILERS for the ep, obviously. xposted to bsg_femslash, since it's just that unapologetically gay.
[those of you catching this right after I post, you'll need to give this a little while to finish processing before you can watch it]

and in case you need a review to give this insanity some context, here's a repost of Read Less, More BSG [3.2]: Girlslash Goggles -- A public service tutorial: how to make characters have gay sex (in your mind) [this week I forgot the goggles, oh noes!]

I had a dream that I met Lucy Lawless. I got to tell her all about how much I love Three and the show as a whole, while we walked together arm-in-arm -- thank you unconscious, for the perfect closure dream. Last week we went round and round about the status of the current head!Three: vlogstars believed that the Three in the movie theater on Caprica at the end of Final Cut was the same copy as fleet!D'anna, who had somehow escaped with her documentary footage. this explanation certainly simplifies the whole situation, since then it's a single D'anna all along -- except there's a whole deleted subplot from Downloaded where fleet!D'anna plots with Gina, which suggests, as I've always believed, that fleet!D'anna stayed until (we'd assume) she was outed with the triumphant return of Anders & co. in LDYB. so it's a different Three, then, that we meet in Downloaded (the one who Caprica kills with a rock), and presumably this same Three that we've been seeing most of this season (apparently they forgave each other). so I was a little perplexed that ( tiny spoiler ) I think the writers are just as confused as we are.

(11.1) Returning to the theme of TV/internet convergence, both in terms of TPTB's promotional materials and our own vlogging experiences. SPOILER SAFETY: I mistakenly thought a certain major event was going to happen tonight, but in fact it's To Be Continued. Skip from 0:35-0:38 to avoid the mention of the character's name, or just start watching after that if you're especially sensitive.



Scraggles, Civilized Viewing and its Discontents

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(11.2) Your behind the scenes glimpse into the vlog: visit the studio, and enjoy various outtakes. Plus, the beginning of our ep reactions -- where I defend Kara/Lee, of all things.



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(11.3) That's how to make a frakking TV show! SPOILER SAFETY: You'll get some warning for this one, but FYI you should skip from 6:45-7:00 to avoid it.



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(11.4) In this very special segment, we talk with the stuffed toys about their experiences of internet video stardom.



This is the last edition of Read Less, More BSG in its current incarnation. We'll return in January as Battlestarz, with post-ep puppetry only.

eta: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Yet again, the post-ep has nothing to do with the pre-show. I'm rapidly becoming convinced that BSG's a comedy...

(10.1) Welcome to Earth, little green alien (aka mandysbitch)! We shall introduce you to our culture with the question of whether technicity (displacing visible racial difference onto invisible, technological Cylon/human difference) makes BSG's political commentary less effective. Also, a post-colonial analysis of the show.



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(10.2) A critique of the show's "soft militarism," the relationship of war and seriality, and why political conservatives love Battlestar Galactica. Plus, another convert: we introduce our new friend Hippo to the wonders of the Girlslash Goggles!



references (the conservative debate, selections):
Right Wing Nation, The Fruits of Humanities Nutballs (premiere ep reaction)
Jonah Goldberg, Tales from New Iraqica
Brad Reed, Battlestar Galacticons

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(10.3) Highly entertaining episode (properly entitled ( spoiler )) which we should have many intelligent things to say about, and yet somehow we only managed to goof off. This week, on a very special Battlestar: ( spoiler ); measuring my cumulative Lack of Gay exposure over 2.5 seasons; (animated!) drawings of the (lesbian) faces we see in our visions; Adama + Tigh = giggly schoolgirl OTP; and of course, searching for who we are.



( screencaps of my illustrations, which might be considered spoilery if they were at all decipherable )

Part 2 of 2 on race and technicity. This was the worst possible episode for this topic -- but at least I get to TALK about the cylons this week!

I feel that I owe lj-land more explanation of my deep rage and loathing than I managed to articulate last night for the vlog. it's not that I mind the dippy soap opera that is Starbuck's Creek in small doses, and this ep certainly offered narratively important backstory. but basically it's a perfect example of how, no matter how much power and autonomy fans have to read and reappropriate texts queerly, there will always be a hierarchy of meanings, wherein some are more legitimate than others. if you're lucky enough to have invested in one of the two most heteronormative pairings, you're rewarded with a whole episode just for you, whereas the rest of us have to take our crumbs of subtext where we can get them. I don't object to Lee/Kara as a ship -- often I enjoy it, and I do think its heteronormative bent is moderated by its genderqueerness -- but I do object to devoting a whole episode to indulging their emo angst. I do object vehemently to Adama/Roslin -- perhaps unfairly, since in this case it's just as much Roslin in the masculine and Adama in the feminine roles, but I just can't get beyond the oppressiveness of the mom+dad framework -- but nonetheless I equally object to the fact that young, pretty people can have adulterous sex while the old people can only have chaste snuggling (it's not like it would have been any less shippy if they'd hooked up, so why not just go there?). which is to say, my problem is not with the events of the episode itself (though I do expect better from BSG, even in Starbuck's Creek mode, than that unremitting cheesiness), but rather with the way I know they're taken up within fandom. which is not ultimately about fandom itself, but about the way it's permeated by the larger social context of marginalization. I'll point out that all of this would have been much less offensive to me if women had talked to each other AT ALL so far this season (with the minor exception of one or two Roslin/Tory and Three/Six scenes). it would be easier for me not to begrudge the rest of you your fun if the show had been offering ME any place to play recently.

ugh, I understand that this is an absurd injustice to whine about (although I DO think it's reasonable to wish that BSG were better -- or, you know, existent -- on queer representation). I understand that Starbuck's Creek is a part of the show, it's just that I find it truer to form when SC is diluted by the other (better) shows (The Roslin Wing and Cylon Runner). and yes, the hotness of Roslin and Starbuck is totally ruined for me when Adama and Apollo are in the frame.

eta: more...

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(9.1) Moving from race in our cultural terms to "technicity" in the world of Battlestar Galactica: the Cylons, with a special focus on Sharon.



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(9.2) Cylon identity, Cylon SEX, and the Cylon plan, in further discussion of Hero. A jumble of various comments and disclaimers.



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(9.3) Boxing: machine vs. vulnerable bodies, masculinity vs. femininity, human vs. cylon projection, sublimation. "This proves that we can theorywank anything, even Starbuck's Creek." [exactly 10 minutes in a single take!]



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(9.4) OK, now the real reactions to Unfinished Business (the PROM episode): "I have nothing to say, except that that was my worst nightmare." But at least my friends will mock it with me.




references:
Grace Park on AOTS
Diane Werts, Fast Chat Grace Park

Part 1 of 2 on race and technicity. I had to timeshift BSG Nite because I was out of town, and this also meant a more limited cast of characters. but of course we still had plenty to talk about!

(8.1) After my race in BSG immersion last spring, I have SO much to say on the topic. We're just getting warmed up, here. Starting out with mystical blackness. (And we totally did forget some ambiguously brownish people! Maya and Tory etc.)



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(8.2) Essentialist vs. constructionist (pomo, "queer") models of race, and the tensions between them. Elements of mise-en-scene that give representation itself a racial character. Discussion of Gaeta and D'anna specifically.



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(8.3) And finally, Simon! (Don't worry, Sharon is getting her own vlogisode next week.) Followed by our reading of the portrayal of Bulldog, which is vastly problematic from a racial perspective. Plus, D'anna sees the light.



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(8.4) Here we veer totally off topic. But -- sexy ladies! Threesomes and why Roslin pwns. The politics is telegraphing a bit to vlogisode 10, but I can't resist.

Scraggles was unable to attend this week -- sorry everyone! and it remains virtually impossible to upload to YouTube on a saturday.

(7.1) Starbuck gets a haircut so she can be gay again! My brief introduction about Cylons and difference, followed by our discussion of Starbuck's Creek in "Torn."



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(7.2) Crash course in Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto. Then, Evil!Roslin, genocide, and the human/cylon binary.



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(7.3) Parental discretion advised: the erotics of torture. Pain, disembodiment, information.



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(7.4) The human network: cyberutopianism, a cisco commercial, bonus features, and our community of battlestars.



references:
welcome to the human network (the Cisco commercial)
Cyborg Manifesto, by Donna Haraway

next week, vlog on tour: Boston!

1. GIP!! this icon is for sharing. and it reminds me that I'm in desperate need of a Roslin/Tory icon -- but this would probably involve an elaborate process beginning with capping the scene from LDYB where she whispers in Roslin's ear. so if anyone is willing to hook me up and save me all that work, please let me know!

2. one of my favorite vlogisodes so far, IMNSHO -- but due to some jostling the audio on the post-ep got out of synch. I extracted it and tried to readjust, but this was the best I could do. actually I think it's sort of fabulous, because I seem ventriloquized like one of the puppets when I'm talking.

3. in the course of trying to adjust the audio, I figured out how to make the videos 50% louder! I don't know if you were having trouble hearing them, but I was. bear with me; I'm new at this.

4. Scraggles suggested Roslin/Hybrid girlslash! or one of the regular cylons would work too, I suppose. is somebody going to run with this, or do I have to write it myself??

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(6.1) More of last week's post-ep discussion (Collaborators), about different ways of negotiating trauma and justice, the reference to South Africa's truth and reconciliation commission, and the problems of memory and forgetting.



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(6.2) Theoretical background on THE archive (Derrida and Foucault), and our theories of the cylons (and perhaps even religion) AS archive.



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(6.3) It's hard to even write a description without spoilers, because this episode turned out SO perfectly for our ongoing theme. Post-ep commentary, including cylon psychology, religion as archive, and information made flesh.



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(6.4) Battlestar Galactica is a virus! Greetings from the 13th colony. And the rest of the complex linkages between desire/bodily pleasure, technology/data, and and theology.



coming next week: further commentary on... Starbuck's Creek! (the human "virus")

for anyone who reads this blog on the mirror site or via RSS, there was an error in last week's vlog that blocked it from the feed. vlogisode 5 is HERE.

I have a problem shutting up, in general (I have given up trying to make these commentaries shorter than, you know, the actual episode), but apparently this problem is particularly acute when faced with Laura Roslin. (and yet again, YouTube hates me -- it's almost impossible to get this stuff uploaded.)

(5.1) Laura Roslin among the pantheon of my TV girlfriends. In honor of my mom visiting, let's discuss the way the position of symbolic mother has been imposed on Roslin, and all the problems with that.



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(5.2) Continuing with jennyo's three faces of Roslin, followed by my three Roslins: zealous Roslin, selfless Roslin, and evil Roslin.



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(5.3) Inquiring minds want to know: what are the three Roslins like in bed?!? Plus: I'm so much happier in space! Mostly because I like the lighting.



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(5.4) Black vs. white (outfits). Does Laura Roslin have integrity? And other post-ep miscellany.



I really am determined not to degenerate into total excess by going OVER my self-imposed 40-minute limit. so there will be more of tonight's fascinating meta-commentary next week as a prequel.

references:
jennyo, Three Faces of Roslin
Hanh Nguyen (Zap2it), The Schoolteacher and the President

eta: xposted @ chamalla_dreams

Mary McDonnell in the latest SciFi video interview, when asked what she thinks of Shatner's comment that fans need to get a life: "I don't think you need to go get a life. Your life is here with me, don't worry."

Well, here's MY life with Mary Laura...

(4.1) Further commentary on Occupation/Precipice, upon rewatching it. I wanted to tie up these loose ends for myself (honestly it's very skippable).



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(4.2) On Exodus, Hera and BSG's queer families. With our initial response to Exodus 2 at the end.



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(4.3) Roslin! Tory! Gaeta! Starbuck! D'anna! RIP those who need to be RIPed! Post-ep discussion galore.



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(4.4) Finally, the theory. Academic wankery on reproduction in BSG, via Judith Halberstam.

This week, ALL GAY ALL THE TIME. Next week, we will be returning to your (more or less) regularly scheduled programming. Late because YouTube was being a bitch.

(3.1) I discuss the problem of queer invisibility on BSG in this very special episode of the vlog.



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(3.2) A public service tutorial: how to make characters have gay sex (in your mind).



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(3.3) Mortal love and lesbian cylons. Honestly, when I'm wearing the Girlslash Goggles, it's hard for anyone else to get a word in edgewise.



references:
notpiecebypiece, Femslash
m_butterfly, comment on Community, Identity, and Femslash
Hanh Nguyen (Zap2it), The Tease: Battlestar Galactica

plus it comes with a visual aid in the form of flashfic! Preoccupation, by me and others.

if you are bored and/or insane enough to ignore this vlog, could you do me a huge favor and pimp it out?

as an aside, we have apparently completely lost the ability to listen to Adama's cheesy moving pronouncements without ROFLOLing. and as a total non sequitur, I just realized that Alex on Grey's reminds me SO MUCH of Starbuck! o_0

yeah, I went a little overboard -- I couldn't help myself! I promise it won't be like this every week. (also, I meant to not edit this tonight, since I'm getting up at 7am, but I have no willpower!)

(2.1) Tonight's theme: Occupation! I give the backstory on my reactions to season 2, and discuss the science fiction approach to social commentary.



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(2.2) Continuing with the theme of occupation: BSG takes on Iraq -- pros and cons. Plus, girlslash pairings and predictions.



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(2.3) Post-show! Wherein you get what you really want, dear viewers: a puppet play.



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(2.4) Yet more post-ep discussion and analysis -- the stuffed animals just can't contain themselves!



references:
Blogcritics.org, In Defense of the Best Show on Television
Newsweek (web), Going 'Galactic'
galacticanews links to tons more articles

(1) P is for Proselytizing



TPTB want us to "spread the word," so I'm giving it a try. Fan-driven marketing, The Story So Far recap special, and BSG Initiation Nite.

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(1.5) W is for Webisodes



Outtakes (filmed on two different nights, because such is the magic of vlog)! Wherein I offer my read on the webisodes and gush about Starbuck/Roslin.

references:
beccatoria, Battlestar Galactica: the Resistance
marenfic, Come With Me

VoicePost 1489K 7:12

(no transcription available)